NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon …

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[image-50]An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.

Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

Scientists have made ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite to make global, space-based carbon observations. But the simulation the product of a new computer model that is among the highest-resolution ever created is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide actually moves through the atmosphere.

While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, its fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale, said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe.

The carbon dioxide visualization was produced by a computer model called GEOS-5, created by scientists at NASA Goddards Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. In particular, the visualization is part of a simulation called a Nature Run. The Nature Run ingests real data on atmospheric conditions and the emission of greenhouse gases and both natural and man-made particulates. The model is then is left to run on its own and simulate the natural behavior of the Earths atmosphere. This Nature Run simulates May 2005 to June 2007.

While Goddard scientists have been tweaking a beta version of the Nature Run internally for several years, they are now releasing this updated, improved version to the scientific community for the first time. Scientists are presenting a first look at the Nature Run and the carbon dioxide visualization at the SC14 supercomputing conference this week in New Orleans.

Were very excited to share this revolutionary dataset with the modeling and data assimilation community, Putman said, and we hope the comprehensiveness of this product and its ground-breaking resolution will provide a platform for research and discovery throughout the Earth science community.

In the spring of 2014, for the first time in modern history, atmospheric carbon dioxide the key driver of global warming exceeded 400 parts per million across most of the northern hemisphere. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations were about 270 parts per million. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continue to increase, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

Despite carbon dioxides significance, much remains unknown about the pathways it takes from emission source to the atmosphere or carbon reservoirs such as oceans and forests. Combined with satellite observations such as those from NASAs recently launched OCO-2, computer models will help scientists better understand the processes that drive carbon dioxide concentrations.

The Nature Run also simulates winds, clouds, water vapor and airborne particles such as dust, black carbon, sea salt and emissions from industry and volcanoes.

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NASA set to launch Orion spacecraft, paving way for human Mars visit

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NASA is preparing for the maiden launch this week of its new Orion spacecraft, which could help jump-start America's return to human exploration of space, including a journey to Mars.

This unmanned mission is relatively simple, less than five hours long and headed to no place particularly interesting.

Yet the flight's success and what NASA can learn from it are critical to the agency's dreams to send astronauts deep into space.

NASA plans to launch Orion from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The plan is for Orion to orbit Earth twice, swinging out to a point 3,600 miles high, then splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

It plans a second test launch in 2018 that would send up another unoccupied Orion, this time around the moon and back.

The first manned mission, expected in 2021, probably would also go around the moon and back. Later in the 2020s, NASA intends to send Orion and astronauts to an asteroid. By the late 2030s, it wants to send them to Mars.

NASA hopes to develop annual missions for Orion in between, but is leaving those plans undetermined, for "space destinations we cannot yet imagine," said Orion Flight Director Mike Sarafin.

That uncertainty puts the future of the program up in the air. If Orion struggles with delays, cost overruns and a lack of clear goals, as did its predecessor project, called Constellation, it could derail. In 2010, President Obama canceled Constellation, after NASA had spent $13 billion and five years on it.

The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated NASA would spend $19 billion to $22 billion on the Orion program through the first manned mission in 2021. The GAO said there was no way to estimate what would be needed beyond that.

Supporters in Congress express confidence in the space agency's agenda. "NASA knows exactly what it wants to do with this program," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who chairs the Senate subcommittee on science and space. "This is the beginning of the trip to Mars."

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NASA set to launch Orion spacecraft, paving way for human Mars visit

NASA to launch Muppet paraphernalia into space

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Captain Kirk, Iron Man, Sesame Street's Slimey the Worm, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex are set to lift off to space later this week on the first test flight of Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft.

This eclectic 'crew' flying aboard NASA's unmanned Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) areamong the souvenirs and mementos packedfor the four-hour, two-orbit mission. The Orion capsule with its cargo of sensors, instruments, and memorabilia is scheduled to launch Thursday (Dec. 4) at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT) on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The mementos, which include a Star Trek action figure, a Marvel challenge coin, a Muppet, a dinosaur fossil, and an Apollo lunar spacesuit part, were collected for the flight by Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for Orion and the company responsible for the EFT-1 mission. [NASA's Orion Spacecraft Test Flight: Full Coverage]

The toys and artifacts packed aboard the Orion continue a long tradition dating back to the early days of U.S. human spaceflight, when astronauts carried small trinkets for their families, friends, and organizations that helped make their mission possible.

The Orion isNASA's first crewed space capsulesince the Apollo command module. It is designed to take astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. The EFT-1 mission will test systems that are critical to future human missions to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

During the flight, the Orion will fly 15 times farther out than the International Space Station before plummeting back to Earth to test its heat shield at speeds nearing what it would experience if it was returning from the moon. After re-entry, the Orion will deploy parachutes and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be recovered by the Navy. [How NASA's 1st Orion Test Flight Works in Pictures]

To raise public awareness about EFT-1, Lockheed worked with the Entertainment Industries Council (EIC) to recruit items from science fiction-related celebrities to fly onboard Orion.

"A noted space enthusiast, William Shatner is thrilled to send Kirk back to space and support Orion, while inspiring future generations about space travel," EIC vice president Skylar Jackson told collectSPACE.

Shatner provided his "Captain Kirk in Environmental Suit" collector's edition action figure to symbolize his iconic role on "Star Trek."

Director Jon Favreau offered an "Iron Man" challenge coin to represent engineering, technology and flight.

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NASA to launch Muppet paraphernalia into space

NASA set to launch critical Orion test flight

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A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying NASA's first Orion deep space exploration craft is poised for launch Thursday on an unmanned test flight. The heavy-lift rocket will boost the Orion capsule to an altitude of 3,600 miles, setting up a high-speed re-entry and splashdown west of Baja California. NASA

NASA is gearing up for a milestone unmanned test flight Thursday, the first launch of the agency's Orion deep space exploration spacecraft intended to one day carry astronauts on missions beyond low-Earth orbit to the vicinity of the moon, one or more nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 heavy-lift booster from launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for 7:05 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Thursday, the opening of a two-hour 39-minute window. Forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of favorable weather.

The $370 million mission "is absolutely the biggest thing that this agency's going to do this year," said William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. "This is really our first step in our journey to Mars."

While that might seem a stretch considering no one expects astronauts to visit the red planet before the 2030s, Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin's Orion program manager, said the new spacecraft represents a major milestone in NASA's post-shuttle evolution and its plans to fly astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo moon landings.

"There's always a danger of over hype, but we have now built a spacecraft that is human rated for the first time in 42 years," he said in an interview with CBS News. "And so from that standpoint, I think it's really significant.

"Granted, it's a stepping stone in the early cadence, it takes longer than most of us would want, but (it gets) people to think about the fact that you have to design a different spacecraft to go out beyond the space station than what we have been doing in low-Earth orbit for so long. So that's where I think it is, maybe, worthy of the hype."

The Orion capsule during final assembly at the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA

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Is NASA's Orion Launch a Step Toward Manned Mars Mission?

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Thursday's flight of NASA's Orion capsule will mark the first in-space test of the first vehicle that's designed to carry humans beyond Earth orbit since Project Apollo and the first step on a long road that could lead to putting astronauts on Mars. But the steps between now and then are definitely up in the air.

"The mission per se is great," Scott Pace, the director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said of Orion's Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1. "But the policy rationale for what one would do with these things is still up for debate."

The $370 million EFT-1 mission is due to send an uncrewed Orion on a 4.5-hour, two-orbit test run that zooms out to 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) and back. The craft will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket.

A crucial phase of the test comes when Orion screams back through the atmosphere, slowing down from almost 20,000 mph (32,000 kilometers per hour) to a mere 17 mph (27 kph) when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California for recovery. About 1,000 sensors that have been built into the craft will monitor how well Orion's heat shield and other systems perform.

All those readings will be factored into the preparations for even more ambitious trips over the coming decades. The next Orion test known as Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1 is currently set for late 2017 or 2018. It will send a robotic capsule that's more fully fitted out on a trip around the moon and back.

That trip will be powered by NASA's Space Launch System, which is currently under development but is destined to become the world's most powerful rocket.

In 2021, astronauts are due to get on board for Orion's first crewed spaceflight, designated as Expedition Mission 2, or EM-2. And this is where the mission plan gets hazier.

Last year, officials suggested that EM-2 could carry astronauts to a rendezvous with an asteroid which would have been relocated to a stable spot in the vicinity of the moon by a robotic tug launched years before. Such a mission would follow through on the Obama administration's plan to have astronauts visit a near-Earth asteroid by 2025.

However, NASASpaceflight.com reported last week that mission managers thought it would be unrealistic to do the asteroid rendezvous during Orion's first crewed test flight in 2021, and that 2024 or 2025 would be a more workable timetable. That would translate to Orion's EM-3 or EM-4 mission.

When asked about that schedule, NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft said it was too early to be specific.

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Is NASA's Orion Launch a Step Toward Manned Mars Mission?

The Functional Materials & Nanotechnology Characterization Center- University of Sao Paulo State – Video

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The Functional Materials Nanotechnology Characterization Center- University of Sao Paulo State
The Functional Materials and Nanotechnology Characterization Center at the Chemistry Institute of the University of Sao Paulo State (Unesp) aims to develop h...

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University leads others in nanoscale engineering research

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Texas Tech is leading the way in nanoscale research engineering. Researchers titled the McKenna Group have recently developed a method for indicating the surface properties of certain materials at temperatures on the smallest of scales, nanoscale.

Leading the team of researchers was Greg McKenna, a professor of chemical engineering and the John R. Bradford Endowed Chair in Engineering.

Knowing the properties of materials at particular temperatures is important to engineers and in engineering, he said.

If an engineer does not take the properties at different temperatures into account it can lead to major disasters in the work field. An example often used for this is the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, in which case the rubber O-ring failed, leading to the death of seven astronauts.

As technology advances machines get smaller and knowing characteristics of the technologies can make a huge engineering difference, he said.

The problem is known properties of a material can drastically change at the nanoscale, McKenna said.

The nanoscale, he said, is about 1/1,000 of the diameter of a humans hair follicle.

The nanoscale is a funny range of sizes where materials have properties that are not what we expect, even at a step up at the microscale, he said. We are developing methods to characterize surface properties and relate them to nanoscale behavior using a nanoindenter and other nano-mechanical measurement methods.

McKenna and his group have looked at many polymers and explosive materials to see exactly how surface properties varied on the nanoscale, he said, and how the surface impacts the properties on the scale.

Nanoindentation allows researchers such as McKenna to investigate how materials spring back when pushed and how the materials flows, McKenna said.

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University leads others in nanoscale engineering research

Medicine Ball Exercise Tutorial – Throw Faster, Farther and Injury Free – Video

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Medicine Ball Exercise Tutorial - Throw Faster, Farther and Injury Free
Medicine Ball Exercises can be a great for learning how to throw faster, farther and prevent injury. In this video we use a medicine ball on a rope to help you master your throwing biomechanics!...

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Medicine Ball Exercise Tutorial - Throw Faster, Farther and Injury Free - Video