The good news: Nasa will still be able to travel to the International Space Station, bringing to it vital supplies and very possibly chocolate cookies. The bad news—I guess you can call this bad news—is that Nasa will only be able to do so hitching a ride on board Russian spacecraft. Budgets are a tricky business. → Read More
Few things are quite as exciting as a good old fashioned feud between distinguished scientists. You’ll recall that a scientist, Nasa’s Richard Hoover, published an article last week in The Journal of Cosmology that claimed to have discovered a form of extraterrestrial bacteria on a meteorite. Life, in other words. But hold on! In the days that have since passed a number of scientists have come out agains the claim, saying that the original article was flawed, and, in essence, there’s nothing to see here; move along. What gives? → Read More
The Space Shuttle Discovery is currently en route to Kennedy Space Center’s three-mile runway and expected to land for the last time at 11:57 am EST. Click through for the live feed provided by Ustream. There’s just one more shuttle flight planned so you may want to spend a few minutes watching this historic event. Update: Touchdown! USA! USA! USA! Gallery of the highlights after the jump. → Read More
NASA has a hard time getting funding these days, and this incident doesn’t look like it will help the cause. A nine-story rocket, named Glory, carrying an Earth-observation satellite failed to reach orbit and fell back to earth. → Read More
Where will you be tomorrow morning at 0437 GMT? If you’re a Nasa engineer odds are you’ll be glued to your many monitors, keeping a watchful on your Stardust spaceshipas it approaches the Tempel 1 comet. The Nasa spaceship will be approaching the comet in part in order to take a look at the impact crater created by a previous spaceship’s probe back in 2005. → Read More
Fun fact: This is the first complete image of our life-giving friend in the sky. Like, first ever in the history of mankind. NASA’s STEREO mission — Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory — installed two nearly identical satellites on either side of the sun making the 3D eyecandy possible. The goal here is to track sunspots, solar storms and the like on the other side of the sun. This was previously not possible but important to space missions and space weather forecasting. Don’t get it? The video after the jump should explain it. → Read More
NASA is putting a cap on the long-running Space Shuttle program with STS-135, the final flight by Space Shuttle Atlantis, just recently announced to be taking place on June 28th. There are no more missions planned after this, and the 30-year old shuttle program will finally give way to its successor. This will presumably the Constellation Program, aimed at creating unified architecture for orbital, lunar, and potential Mars missions.
The actual status of the mission is somewhat obscure, since the money isn’t really there. But when it’s all funny money anyway, they can probably fire off one last bottle rocket on credit and figure out the payment plan later. → Read More
Astronaut Pro Tip: Shave your head before entering zero gravity environments. You’ll feel like Captain Picard (because you’re on a spaceship) combined with the nearly mind-over-body control of Professor Xavier. Plus, you won’t look like a fool on the annual Christmas card. → Read More
One of the authors of the scientific paper that described an arsenic-using microbe has asked everyone to calm down for a moment, and said that everything will be cleared up in the days ahead. Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the scientist whose paper (co-written with several others) genuinely ignited America’s interest in science for a day or two (a gigantic achievement in and of itself) had come under fire from a number of scientists, most prominently one at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who claimed that the study was a load of bunk, and that we’ve all been had. It didn’t help that Wolfe-Simon and her partners refused to talk to the media (as if some cable news anchor can convey whats’ going on here in a 15-second sound bite), which contributed to the backlash. → Read More
Living in Silicon Valley, one gets used to meeting people who are optimistic and who talk about changing the world. But as I lamented in this piece about the Valley’s obsession with Facebook and Twitter apps, most of its entrepreneurs either think too small or are focused on the wrong things. So, even though I am enthusiastic about its ability to take risks and innovate, I’ve been skeptical about whether Silicon Valley can really think big enough to solve global problems.
That was until I visited Singularity University, located on NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, this week.
To say that I was blown away with what I learned and saw in just a few hours would be an understatement. I left Singularity’s campus with the same excitement that I used to feel as a child about how engineering and science will, one day, save the world. The experience recalled childhood fantasies of technologies that connect the human brain to a central computer to share knowledge; bionic organs that give people superhuman strength; and nano-organisms that monitor and repair the body and cure disease. And I was reminded of my childhood fears of cyborgs becoming smarter than humans and taking over the world. All the great stuff from sci-fi movies. → Read More
Good news for Nasa, which could probably use some right now. On December 15 its Odyssey Orbiter will become the single longest serving Mars surface spacecraft in history. (Unless there’s some sort of Protean ship on there we’re not aware of yet!) Once December 15 hits Odyssey will have served its 3,340th day up there, surpassing the previous record holder, the Mars Global Surveyor. → Read More
Space X: great success! Yes, the Dragon spacecraft successfully made its orbits around good ol’ Planet Earth and has safely crashed into the Pacific Ocean. It marks the first time a commercial spacecraft has done so. → Read More
Oh, Nasa. If only you could invent a time machine and go back to when you actually had a budget. The agency’s claim last week that it had found a new type of life in a lake in California is now under fire from all sides. Encirclement! One Slate article quotes several skeptical scientists who question the veracity of Nasa’s claims. One even said perhaps the most damming thing one scientist can say to another: your paper should not be published. What gives? → Read More
We’re one step closer to the commercializing of space flight. (We wouldn’t have to rely on such commercialization if Nasa could get more than 75 cents per year in funding, but that’s another story altogether.) Space X’s lifter’s engine ran successfully at the weekend, which means that the capsule, named Dragon, can be launched tomorrow from Cape Canaveral. Elon Musk: literally building rockets in his spare time. → Read More
Yes~! Nasa has revealed that it did, in fact, find a microbe (GFAJ-1, to be exact) in Mono Lake, in California, that’s able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus. Nasa just comes right out and says it: “The definition of life has just expanded. As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it.” → Read More
There’s several big announcements coming up later today. The biggest is probably the World Cup bids, and the tension is evident. (More on that later.) Then we’ve got UFC‘s Chael Sonnen appearing before the California State Athletic Commission to explain his elevated testosterone levels during his fight with Anderson Silva back in August. Last, Nasa. Yes, somehow Nasa has rubbed two nickels together and has very possibly found something truly exciting—a new form of life! Gather ’round, put down your copy of Angry Birds, and let’s sing a song. → Read More
Wait a minute, Nasa, developing something great? Did we wake up in the 1960s, back when Nasa actually had a budget to, you know, do things? Either way, this is great news. So, Nasa plans to develop a new type of hypersonic jet that would reduce the flight time from New York to Sydney, which currently takes 21 hours, to two-and-a-half hours. Two-and-a-half! You can’t even drive from New York to Boston that quickly. Do a little math, that means you’d be able to fly from New York to Los Angeles, which takes around five hours today, in seven-tenths of an hour. Or, around 42 minutes. That would be quite insane. → Read More
Well this stinks. Space Shuttle Discovery is in the closing stages of preparation for its final flight ever. After that I guess American astronauts will have to hitchhike their way into orbit, which is pretty lame, I think you’ll agree. The launch is scheduled for November 1. → Read More
Ready to kill your lunch break? Head over to the brand new NASA section on Flickr Commons where you’ll find 180 historic photographs. These pics range from pre-NASA days, to Goddard’s works, to NASA prototypes, and enough liftoff pics to fill a History Channel special. The best part you’ve probably never seen most of these as they’re right from NASA’s collection and thankfully each pic has a detailed description and a bunch of relivant info. Man I love the Internet. The one above is The Langely Aerodrome, “‘The Langley Aerodrome, brainchild of a group led by Samuel Langley. Shortly after this photo was taken, the December 8, 1903, manned tests of the Aerodrome ended abruptly in failure, as it fell into the Potomac River’. Photograph published in Winds of Change, 75th Anniversary NASA publication, page 6.” → Read More
The $24 billion solar panel market could use a good dusting. The benefits of solar energy are well-known, but what’s rarely mentioned is its nemesis: dust. Even a little bit—one-seventh of an ounce per square yard—can weaken a panel’s power conversion by 40%.
To tackle the problem, scientists looked to Mars, where similar technology was developed for space missions to the planet. NASA, along with Boston University, originally developed the self-cleaning technology for its Mars missions, to battle the planet’s red dust. Some of the rovers and other vehicles are solar-powered, and the self-cleaning coating on their solar panels helps them explore more effectively. → Read More
