The very last Space Shuttle flight will take place on February 26, 2011. After that, American astronauts will have to bum rides with the Russians if they want to visit the International Space Station. Shame. → Read More
You’re looking at the possible future of space flight. It’s known as the Supersonic Green Machine, and the rationale behind it is was to create a spacecraft that minimizes the effect of sonic booms. The craft, designed by Lockheed Martin for Nasa, incorporates what amounts to a spoiler. The “inverted V” should improved airflow over the craft, thereby lessening that destructive boom. → Read More
First off, let me say that neatorama.com could be my favorite URL ever. Moving on… A Massachusetts high school science teacher recently put his three best students on a special assignment. They were told to imagine a world where some sort of spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth, and that it was up to them to figure out how they would record the event while onboard a separate aircraft. As you… → Read More
We, and by “we” I mean all life on Planet Earth, owe our very existence to the Sun. It’s nothing more than a typical star, really, but without it, this planet would be as barren as the day is long. (CG: Your home for old-timey phrases.) With that in mind, here’s what could become a pretty important story as we move forward. NASA now believes that, for much of the modern era, the Sun has been, for… → Read More
The Voyager 2 transmission hiccup appears to have been identified. The problem? “A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1,” said JPL’s Veronia McGregor. As I’ve said countless times to end users complaining about “computer problems”: computers are all ones and zeroes inside, and who can tell what will happen when a one unexpectedly becomes a zero, or vice versa? Kudos to… → Read More
Isn’t she beautiful? The 25-year old Space Shuttle Atlantis is ready for her last mission. She has made the journey into space 31 times and this will hopefully be her last. After returning from delivering a mini research station to the Internation Space Station, she will be kept in a state of readiness in case there is an accident aboard the ISS. It’s a big day for NASA geeks. → Read More
Our Gadgets of Days Gone By series is over, and it focused pretty much on consumer goods that made our lives more entertaining or more bearable. But there’s an awful lot of technology from decades past still in use today. Take for example the Voyager spacecraft from NASA. Launched more than 30 years ago, Voyager 2 completed its primary mission in 1989 but has continued to provide invaluable… → Read More
While we have our own ideas about what should constitute a slow motion film, I guess this one from NASA is okay. I mean, if you like explosions and enormous hulks of metal rising into the air, and flames.
Okay, okay, it’s totally freaking awesome. → Read More
It was 20 years ago today that NASA (working in conjunction with the European Space Agency) launched the Hubble Space Telescope into the heavens—well, a low Earth orbit, at least. I recall some of the buzz back then along the lines of “What a giant waste of money!” Once they fixed that mirror, it was smooth sailing. → Read More
In what seems to me a rather unexpected partnership, it looks like one of the USA’s most endangered car companies is teaming up with one of the USA’s most underfunded programs to create… I know not what. Chrysler is hoping to get some tips on battery technology and composite materials from the space program, and I’m guessing NASA will take what it can get when it comes to partnerships, as long… → Read More
Look at it. Isn’t it beautiful? NASA says there are more than 10 million stars in that cluster, most of which are older than than our Sun. Just makes you think doesn’t it? → Read More
Look at that pic. Take a real good look. Got an idea? Well, you’re probably wrong. → Read More
Where do you live? Columbus? Miami? Paris? Lisbon? Cool, good for you. And I bet you have a nice view of your city’s park or monument, too. That’s fine, but your view doesn’t even compare to this. It’s a photo from the shiny, new observation deck of the International Space Station. That’s the Sahara Desert down there. → Read More
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extensive HD video tour of International Space Station. You better enjoy the ISS while you can. There’s a good chance it’s going to crash into Planet Earth within the next couple of years because of budget issues unless the ESA can save it. → Read More
This image is proof that opening up space travel to private industry will speed up colonization and tourism. Apparently there’s already flights on the moon. That or a plane just so happened to get in the frame of a 500mm telephoto lens. [via reddit] → Read More
Well, son, I know you wanted to go to the moon and all, but it looks like that’s just not going to happen. In the meantime, I guess you’ll just have to be satisfied with a sojourn on the International Space Station. It seems that Bush’s moon initiative kind of fell through, and Obama and his advisors have decided not to throw good money after bad. Instead, they’re putting $6bn into extending the… → Read More
Astronauts aboard the ISS received a special software upgrade earlier this week, according to a NASA statement released moments ago: personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the “ultimate wireless connection”.
This personal Web access, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and gives astronauts the ability to browse… → Read More
If you just so happen to be in the market for a second hand space craft, NASA has a deal for you, pal. The Space Shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour are currently for sale with a price tag of $28.2 m each. Just think, you could park one of these bad boys in your trailer park and relieve its glory days. It’s probably best that you take the shuttle to a qualified space ship mechanic before you… → Read More
Believe it or not, the current plan for the International Space Station is to abandon it in 2015 and let it crash into the atmosphere in 2016. Sad, right? But the ESA wants to keep it flying for a few more years to allow more scientist access to the zero-gravity labs. → Read More
Look at the photo above. Doesn’t it look like rolling hills adorned with patches of trees? Well, it’s not. That’s a picture of Mars taken by the HiRISE, the most powerful camera sent to another planet, and the tree looking things are really just illusions. NASA says that they are just trails of debris left over from ice melt landslides and we can probably believe the agency. → Read More
Someone call Bruce Willis. Russia announced Wednesday that they are considering launching a spacecraft with the intention of altering its possibly earth-crushing trajectory to a less threatening one. → Read More
So, big problem with flying in a helicopter: if you crash, you’re screwed. It’s not like a jet, where you can eject (for obvious reasons), and it’s not like helicopters are designed with a crumple zone. For this reason, NASA has been testing a possible solution that utilizes an airbag-type system. → Read More
Well, well. It looks like the Moon bombing went well as NASA just released a whole lot of data supporting the initial findings that there’s water on the Moon. Read NASA’s take and view a whole lot of line graphs I don’t understand at NASA.gov. Next up, moonQuest DSV. → Read More
Ready to lose 20 minutes of your day? → Read More
Just a few minutes ago at 7:13:19 AM EDT, NASA crashed a probe into the Moon at 5,600 MPH with the hope of finding water. BOOM!
NASA broadcasted the entire thing live on its TV station and online, but if you missed our previous post and just learned about the event, you probably didn’t catch it. However, the NASA geeks are currently analyzing the LCROSS data and will hopefully announces their… → Read More
Be sure to set your alarm clock for around 6am this Friday, for at 6:15am NASA will, in the immortal words of Matt Drudge, “bomb the moon.” No, we’re not talking about some dumb Hollywood (redundancy alert!) scenario, but the most exciting part of the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) program: the lunar impact. → Read More
For only $22,500 you can own the robotic hand shown in the video above. That’s nothing for a piece of NASA history. This impressive early prototype demands an important place within robotics history as the first motorized dexterous robotic hand. It represents one of the early steps towards making robots more anthropomorphic. The Omni-Hand was designed and built in the early 1990s by robot… → Read More
Apparently you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to help NASA. The space agency just posted a request for suggestions for future prize contests on their website, and anyone may submit an idea. → Read More
That was quick. NASA just released some data last week recorded by the LRO that indicated water might be present and suddenly an Indian probe actually found some. India’s first Moon probe , Chandrayaan-1, is equipped with sensors to detect the electromagnetic signature of water. Furthermore, these sensors cannot penetrate very deep and the data indicates that the water is actually on ore… → Read More
East Coasters, did you see any weird clouds Saturday night? Some people did as the event caused reports and calls from Boston all the way down the coast to Florida. But you have nothing to fear, the aliens from Independence Day didn’t make them, NASA did. → Read More
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