NASA

NASA blasts iTunes with free podcasts

Layer 8 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:07:27 -0500

NASA today said it would pump up the volume on its latest space exploration technology by dumping a pile of free podcasts on Apple's immensely popular iTunes site.

Read more

NASA exploring 8 new space expeditions

Layer 8 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:47:51 -0500

NASA is trying to decide between eight space exploration missions that include further exploring Venus and comet composition as well landing on an asteroid or examining the space around Jupiter.

Read more

NASA takes deep space Internet for a run

Layer 8 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:12:09 -0500

NASA today said it had successfully tested its deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Specifically the space agency used its Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN technology to send dozens of space images to and from a NASA's Epoxi spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth.

Read more

Tiny satellite to study big lightning

Layer 8 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:53:27 -0500

Researchers are using a satellite the size of a loaf of bread to study a high-altitude lightning-like phenomena that may go a long way toward improving scientific understanding of radiation belts, solar flares, cosmic shocks, and other planets, as well as dust devils and dust storms on Mars.

Read more

Military-style flying car venture geared for take off

Layer 8 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:25:35 -0500

One week those daring DARPA know-it-alls want a submersible airplane, the next, a car that can fly. That's right, taking another page from the James Bond wannabe files, DARPA this week said they are looking to develop what it called a personal air vehicle that could transport 2 to 4 personnel either by driving on roads or flying. The agency said such a craft would be ideal for military scouting and personnel transport missions.

Read more

Portable force field could protect future spaceships

Layer 8 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:13:27 -0500

Force field protection of spacecraft or battleships and aircraft is the stuff of Star Trek and science fiction motion pictures. Usually.

Read more

Zeppelin flights lift off in California

Layer 8 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:26:59 -0500

Air service of the huge floating Zeppelin variety is now available to the public, in California at least. Airship ventures today launched airship passenger services over Silicone Valley for prices ranging from $495 to $975 for one to two hour flights respectively. The entire airship can be rented out for special occasions for up to 12 people at prices up to $6,100.

Read more

Emergency satellite system set for signal change; saves 6,000th US victim

Layer 8 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:29:37 -0400

The first responder satellite system is being geared up to change frequencies as it celebrates its 6,000^th rescue operation.

Read more

US puts $30 million toward 10X increase in power for venerable aircraft engines

Layer 8 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:04:01 -0400

While most of the military and some of the commercial aviation research has focused on building ever-faster, more advanced jet engines, little attention has been paid to developing the venerable turbine power plant. But that's about to change, at least a little. The Air Force today awarded a $30 mil

Read more

Lunar spacecraft compete for $2 million NASA prize

Layer 8 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:12:51 -0400

Nine rocket-powered vehicles will compete for NASA's $2 million, 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Oct. 24-25.

The goal is to accelerate development of commercial Lunar Landers capable of bringing payloads or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. NASA of course would expect to use some of the technology developed at the Challenge.

Read more

Calling all star gazers

Layer 8 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:30:50 -0400

If you like to stare off into space, next week you can do it with purpose. The National Science Foundation-funded Great World Wide Star Count takes place between Oct. 20 to Nov.3 and organizers want as many people as possible to go outside in the dark, look up, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online.

Read more

The project, in its second year, is handled by the Windows to the Universe project at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colo., in conjunction with planetariums and scientific societies across the world. Participants can download an Activity Guide to participate.

Christmas comes early for NASA heat shield nerds

Layer 8 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:36:24 -0400

NASA researchers looking to develop the next generation of heat shields are using a treasure trove of recently rediscovered Apollo-era armor to build high-temperature protection for future space flights.

Read more

NASA researchers said they recently uncrated heat shields used on Apollo missions that were being stored in the Smithsonian Institution's National

Petite, square satellites to rule outer space

Layer 8 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:51:06 -0400

Small, inexpensive cube-shaped satellites could be all the space rage if researchers have their way. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant to SRI International to tackle the first mission of the tiny flying quadrangles known as CubeSats.

CubeSats are tiny satellites with dimensions of 10×10×10 centimeters, weighing a little less than 3lbs, and typically using commercial off-the-shelf electronics components, the NSF said.

Developed through joint efforts from the California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University, CubeSats are expected to offer a cost-effective way of supporting space weather and atmospheric research, the NSF said.

According to the NSF: "Recent advances in sensor and spacecraft technologies make it feasible to obtain key measurements from low-cost, small satellite missions. Space-based measurements from small satellites also have great potential to advance discovery and understanding in other areas of atmospheric sciences."

Read more

Ex-Microsoft exec signs up for second trip to outer space

Layer 8 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:25:17 -0400

Ex-Microsoft software developer, astronaut and lets not forget, millionaire, Charles Simonyi, signed up today to take his second flight into space courtesy of private space explorations company, Space Adventures.

Simonyi, who help develop Microsoft Word and Excel, will train with the Soyuz TMA-14 crew in preparation for a spring mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Simonyi last flew into space in 2007, a trip that reportedly cost him $25 million. No prices were disclosed about this flight. Dennis Tito was the world's first privately funded spaceflight participant in 2001.

Earlier this year Google co-founder Sergei Brin put down $5 million toward a flight to the international space station in 2011 also courtesy of Space Adventures.

Space Adventures last year opened for the first time the opportunity to train as a private space explorer alongside one of its orbital spaceflight candidates, and among professional astronauts. The astronaut will be trained as a back-up to fly with famed game developer and son of former NASA astronaut, Richard Garriott, currently set to fly to the ISS this month. Computer game developer Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures, which brokered the flight with Russia's Federal Space Agency.

Speaking about why people want to even take part on space travel, an FAA executive this summer said such adventures were akin to scaling Mount Everest.

Read more

NASA unleashes rubber ducks to battle global warming

Layer 8 — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:57:25 -0400

It's about as low-tech as you can get from one of the most high-tech organizations. NASA, this week said it let out an army of rubber ducks - 90 to be precise - to help it better understand the movement of one of the world's fastest moving blocks of ice, Greenland's Jakobshavn glacier.

The ducks have a lot of pressure on them no doubt. The ice warriors and a small football-sized probe that includes a GPS and some scientific instruments were dumped into a hole on the glacier and have as their mission to discover what exactly is going on inside Jakobshavn. Specifically scientists are trying to see how water flows in and around the glacier during the summertime when glaciers speed up, a phenomenon not completely understood by scientists.

But the key feature of the ducks is about as low-tech as you can get: they have a little label on them stating "science experiment" and "reward" in three languages, and carry an email address. The idea is that folks will email NASA if they find the rubber quackers they can tell NASA where the duck ended up, thus establishing some sense of water flow.

The probe of course would reveal more. According to a Reuters report the device would signal its position via GPS. Its pressure and temperature sensors would supply information. And an accelerometer -- which records how much things speed up or slow down -- could point to waterfalls or cascades, features that would make the probe, and the water, go faster, the report said.

Read more

NASA/US Air Force team to develop aircraft that really scream

Layer 8 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:53:47 -0400

NASA and the Air Force today said they would be offering up to $35 million to help fund research that could ultimately develop aircraft that can fly at over five-times the speed of sound or faster. Such hypersonic aircraft face myriad trajectory control, propulsion and heat-related issues akin to what a spacecraft would endure, experts say.

The joint announcement said: "Hypersonic aerodynamics research is critical to the Air Force's interest in long-range and space operations. The size and weight of a hypersonic vehicle, and thus its flight trajectory and required propulsion system, are largely determined by aerothermodynamic considerations. Research areas of interest emphasize the characterization, prediction and control of high-speed fluid dynamic phenomena including boundary layer transition, shock/boundary layer, and shock/shock interactions, and other phenomena associated with airframe-propulsion integration. High-temperature gas kinetics, aerothermodynamics and interactions between the hypersonic flow and thermal protection system materials are of particular interest."

Read more

NASA bangs, freezes next generation space telescope into shape

Layer 8 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:27:31 -0400

If you had a multimillion dollar, extremely sensitive instrument that you needed to move the last thing you'd do is subject it to temperatures of -266 degrees Celsius and put it on a rocket that promises to shake it to pieces. But that's exactly what NASA is doing with the James Webb space telescope as they bang it around in tests that will make sure the device makes it onto space likely by 2013.

NASA this week said in fact that model components of the James Webb telescope have passed a rigorous series of bolt breaking, environmentally challenging tests that will let engineers begin building parts of the actual instrument.

According to NASA the Webb telescope will be the most sensitive infrared space telescope ever built. It is designed to see the farthest galaxies in the universe and the light of the first stars; study young planetary systems; and look for conditions suitable for life on planets around other stars.

The telescope will feature a large mirror, a little over 21-feet in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open only once the telescope is in outer space, NASA said. The system will reside in an orbit about 1 million miles from the Earth.

Read more

NASA program to incite interest in finding extraterrestrial life

Layer 8 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:19:44 -0400

While NASA recently has been focused on finding any traces of life on Mars, today it announced a program to encourage research beyond our solar system.

Read more

NASA looking for a little help to build out of this world network

Layer 8 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:35:15 -0400

NASA wants help designing the outer space network it will use to back up future trips to the moon and perhaps beyond.

The space agency this week issued a broad Request for Information or RFI to solicit ideas from private companies and researchers interested in potentially providing communications and navigation services that would support the development of exploration, scientific and commercial capabilities on the moon over the next 25 years.

Read more

NASA spends $25M for two unmanned aircraft to explore the earth

Layer 8 — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:36:14 -0400

NASA said this week it is snapping up two Global Hawk unmanned aircraft for use in high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions and is paying Northrop Grumman $25 million to support the program over the next five years.

Read more