Skip to main content

Home/ SciByte/ Group items tagged NASA

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mars Base

Long-lived NASA Rover Begins Probing Interior of Mars | NASA & Mars Rover Opportunity |... - 0 views

www.space.com/pportunity-winter-science.html

scibyte30 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • rover is allowing scientists to begin investigating the mysterious interior of the Red Planet
  • beaming radio signals home to Earth
  • analyzing these signals, researchers hope to get "a handle on the structure of the interior of the planet
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • distribution of mass, and perhaps how large the core might be
  • the rover won't sleep
  • , it will investigate the rocks at Greeley Haven, take panoramic photos of its surroundings
  • most important — send radio signals back to Earth.
  • mission team will track those signals
  • using Opportunity's motion relative to Earth as a proxy for the rotation of Mars
  • Scientists should thus be able to get very precise measurements of the planet's spin.
  • learning how Mars' spin axis has changed, or precessed, since NASA's Viking mission made similar measurements back in the mid-1970s
  • Knowing the precession rate should allow scientists to get a much better handle on the Red Planet's interior structure
  • keen to study Mars' nutation, which is a smaller-period variation in the planet's rotation. Such information might help reveal whether the Red Planet's core is solid or liquid
  • mission team will be tracking Opportunity's radio signals almost daily. After three to six months, researchers expect to have enough data to start getting an in-depth picture of the Martian interior
Mars Base

NASA's Kepler Mission Finds Three Smallest Exoplanets - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...news.cfm

scibyte29 exoplanet small

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • January 11, 2012
  • Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Finding one as small as Mars is amazing, and hints that there may be a bounty of rocky planets all around us."
  • Red dwarfs are the most common kind of star in our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery of three rocky planets around one red dwarf suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similar rocky planets.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • In December 2011, scientists announced
  • : a planet 2.4 times the size of Earth
  • Later in the month
  • team announced the discovery of the first Earth-size planets
Mars Base

NASA Honors Fallen Astronauts in Solemn Ceremony | Apollo 1, Space Shuttle Challenger &... - 0 views

www.space.com/-ceremony-space-tragedies.html

scibyte31

shared by Mars Base on 27 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 27 Jan 12
     
    Gus" Grisson
Mars Base

NASA - Multimedia - Video Gallery - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...index.html

scibyte22

shared by Mars Base on 18 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • NASA astronaut Dan Burbank delivers a special Thanksgiving message from the International Space Station
Mars Base

New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...asa-missions-mars-hostile.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 19 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Two new NASA missions
  • will try to discover what transformed Mars
  • There are signs that in the distant past, billions of years ago, Mars was a much more inviting place. Martian terrain is carved with channels that resemble dry riverbeds
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission features Curiosity, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet
  • The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, scheduled to launch in late 2013, will orbit Mars and is devoted to understanding the Red Planet's upper atmosphere
  • help determine what caused the Martian atmosphere—and water— to be lost to space, making the climate increasingly inhospitable for life.
Mars Base

How Can You See a Satellite View of Your House? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ree-satellite-view-of-my-house

scibyte59 GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 14 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • there are more than 8,000 satellites currently orbiting the Earth
  • The vast majority
  • are relaying data to and from the Earth
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • If you want to
  • see a satellite image of the entire planet, there are
  • weather satellites
  • NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) release images of an entire hemisphere of planet Earth every 3 hours
  • you can see major weather patterns affecting parts of the Earth. But you really can’t see any specific spot on Earth with any detail
  • these satellite views is that they’re live.
  • The weather systems
  • are happening on the planet right now
  • If you don’t want a live view
  • check out
  • images produced by NASA. Here’s a composite photograph that shows the Earth’s Western Hemisphere, and here’s a view of the Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere.
  • There were also some amazing new satellite images of the Earth released from the European Space Agency’s 3rd generation Meteosat spacecraft
  • zoom in, and see some pictures of houses from space
  • Google Maps and the other internet mapping services are really just customers for the satellite services that actually take these photographs from space
  • There are a few major services on the market, including GeoEye
  • DigitalGlobe and Spot Image.
  • Each company has a fleet of Earth observation satellites, with a capability of resolving features on the surface of the Earth as small as about 45 cm (18 inches). In other words, an object 45 centimeters across would appear as a single pixel in their photographs
  • GeoEye – 5 satellites: IKONOS, OrbView-2, OrbView-3, GeoEye-1, GeoEye-2 (in 2013).
  • DigitalGlobe – 4 satellites: Early Bird 1, Quickbird, WorldView-1, Worldview-2
  • Spot Image – 2 satellites: Spot 4, Spot 5
  • Each of these services allow customers to purchase satellite imagery directly
  • the prices are
  • hundreds or even thousands of dollars for satellite imagery
  • typically can’t buy directly from the satellite company itself
  • All of the free satellite images you’re accessing were captured by various spacecraft over the last couple of years
  • . A live satellite view of your house, is still a few years off.
  • you can access a live broadcast from NASA’s International Space Station. About 40% of the time, if you follow this link you can see a live view of Earth from the space station.
  • Another service called Urthecast will be attaching a high definition camera to the International Space Station in 2013 to broadcast a live view of Earth from space.
Mars Base

'Pac-Man Sun': NASA Probe Sees Solar Eclipse in Space | Lunar & Solar Eclipses | NASA &... - 0 views

www.space.com/-eclipse-nasa-pac-man-sun.html

scibyte35 sun

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • stunning footage of Tuesday's (Feb. 21)
  • partial eclipse that was visible only from space
  • @NASA_SDO
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • During its travels, the moon briefly blocked sunspot AR1422, an active region that is blasting strong ultraviolet emissions into space
  • This caused a dip in the EVE [extreme ultraviolet] output and may allow scientists to calibrate the energy emitted by the active region
  • next partial solar eclipse visible from Earth will occur May 20. Skywatchers in much of Asia, the Pacific and western North America will be able to see it
  • total solar eclipse will take place Nov. 13, but it will be visible only from parts of northern Australia and the South Pacific
  • skywatchers in much of Australia, New Zealand and southern South America will be able to see a partial eclipse on that day.
Mars Base

NASA - Astronaut's Home Away from Home - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...crew_quarters.html

scibyte35 FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 24 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • take care of the astronauts 24/7 in the Astronaut Crew Quarters during preflight training and leading up to all shuttle launches
  • they work in shifts, with additional staff called in as needed to help cook and clean.
  • The crew is extremely busy when they come in," Hooper said. "We could not function without all of the group's efforts to take care of the astronauts."
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Those who work in the crew quarters include cooks, attendants, flight data file personnel, flight nurses and other astronauts supporting the crew.
  • Inside an area that dates back to the Apollo Program are facilities that have been upgraded throughout the years, including a kitchen, staff conference room, crew conference room, workout room, lounge, laundry room, computer room, suit-up room, dining room, medical facility, staff office and prime crew sleeping quarters.
  • access to crew quarters is limited to the staff and astronaut support personnel leading up to each launch
  • certified food handlers
  • team's typical day begins at 6 a.m. They get the kitchen going for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Laundry and inventory are completed. Maintenance trouble calls are tended to, and sleeping quarters and the beach house are cleaned
  • The staff operates under NASA Johnson Space Center's Health Stabilization Program. Twice yearly, the staff undergoes a physical exam and trains regularly on health issues and crew quarters procedures
Mars Base

Mars-Bound NASA Rover Carries Coin for Camera Checkup - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - 0 views

www.jpl.nasa.gov/...news.cfm

scibyte33

shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 09 Feb 12
     
    instruments. The spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to a landing site inside Mars' Gale Crater in August to begin a two-year investigation of whether that area has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. The "hand lens" in MAHLI's name refers to field geologists' practice of carrying a hand lens for close inspection of rocks they find. When shooting photos in the field, geologists use various calibration methods. "When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. "If it is a whole cliff face, she'll ask a person to stand in the shot. If it is a view from a meter or so away, she might use a rock hammer. If it is a close-up, as the MAHLI can take, she might pull something small out of her pocket. Like a penny."
Mars Base

10 Amazing Things NASA's Huge Mars Rover Can Do | NASA, Mars Science Laboratory & Curio... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-rover-curiosity-science.html

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Mast Camera (MastCam)
  • capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape, which scientists will study and laypeople will gawk at
  • Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
  • ...43 more annotations...
  • will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
  • instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair
  • MAHLI sits on the end of Curiosity's five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm
  • Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
  • small camera located on Curiosity's main body, will record video of the rover's descent to the Martian surface
  • will click on a mile or two above the ground, as soon as Curiosity jettisons its heat shield. The instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down. The footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity's Red Planet rovings, and it should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site, the 100-mile-wide
  • Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
  • makes up about half of the rover's science payload.
  • a suite of three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
  • will search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
  • look for other elements associated with life on Earth, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen
  • The rover's robotic arm will drop samples into SAM via an inlet on the rover's exterior
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
  • CheMin will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
  • will help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
  • CheMin has an inlet on Curiosity's exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover's robotic arm
  • will shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals' crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
  • Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
  • This instrument will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits
  • help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
  • The laser sits on Curiosity's mast, along with a camera and a small telescope
  • Three spectrographs sit in the rover's body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics
  • spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • sits at the end of Curiosity's arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
  • APXS will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei. This barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays. Scientists will be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays
  • Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
  • located near the back of Curiosity's main body, will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface
  • The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back. Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice
  • should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m).
  • Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
  • instrument will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
  • designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars
  • will allow scientists to determine just how much radiation an astronaut would be exposed to on Mars
  • Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
  • partway up Curiosity's mast, is a Martian weather station
  • measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation.
  • integrated into daily and seasonal reports
  • MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
  • MEDLI isn't one of Curiosity's 10 instruments
  • will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
  • will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft's trajectory, performed
  • data to improve designs for future Mars-bound spacecraft
Mars Base

NASA - NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...msl20120927.html

scibyte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind
  • sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow
  • can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars
  • transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of
  • finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crat
  • Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate
  • rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim
  • channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan.
  • abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.
  • discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link," with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's mast camera during the first 40 days after landing
  • observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, touched down
  • Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed
  • gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded
  • shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind
  • team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits
  • stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.
  • slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination
  • sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life
Mars Base

Send Your Names to an Asteroid, NASA Says - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...d-on-osiris-rex-spacecraft.htm

scibyte116 Asteroid

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • NASA invited the public to submit their names that will be engraved on a microchip aboard a spacecraft that will head to the 1,760-foot-wide asteroid.
  • The spacecraft will be sent to the asteroid where it will collect about two ounces of surface material and return with it to Earth in a sample-return capsule in 2023
  • submit their names online before September 30 at 'Message to Bennu.'
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • your name not just stays up there for 500 days but will remain in space even after the spacecraft returns the capsule to Earth.
  • Those who have submitted their names can download and print a certificate documenting their participation in the OSIRIS-REx mission
  • Participants who have registered their names and who 'follow' or 'like' the asteroid mission on Facebook and Twitter will get notifications on the status of their name in space from the time it is launched and until the samples are returned to Earth in 2013.
  • The aim of the OSIRIS-Rex mission is to address the basic questions on the composition of the early solar system.
  • Once the samples return to the Earth, the spacecraft will be placed into a long term solar orbit around the sun, along with the microchip on which the names are engraved.
Mars Base

Hobbled Kepler Space Telescope Now On The Hunt For A New Mission - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-on-the-hunt-for-a-new-mission

Kepler scibyte101

shared by Mars Base on 07 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • NASA cannot recover the two failed reaction wheels that stopped Kepler from doing its primary science mission
  • the spacecraft, which is already working years past when its prime mission ceased in 2010, is still in great shape otherwise
  • could be anything from searching for asteroids to a technique called microlensing, which could show Jupiter-sized planets around other stars with the spacecraft’s more limited pointed ability
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • NASA is now considering other science missions
  • the health of the spacecraft, but it is so far listed as good (except for the two damaged reaction wheels).
  • There are limiting factors
  • radiation can degrade components over time, and a stray micrometeorid could (as a small chance) cause damage on the spacecraft
  • a state where the spacecraft uses as little fuel as possible
  • point rest state right now
  • will extend the fuel “budget” for years
  • unable to say just how many years yet
  • Another concern is NASA’s limited budget
  • Kepler has, so far, detected more than 2,700 candidate exoplanets orbiting distant stars, including many Earth-size planets that are within their star’s habitable zone, where water could exist in liquid form
  • NASA made several attempts to resurrect the wheels
  • follow-up spacecraft planned: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which is expected to start around 2017 or 2018. It will look for alien planets in the brightest and closest stars in the entire sky, in locations that are (in relative terms) close to Earth.
Mars Base

Doubly Historic Day for Private Space: Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...tation-next-gen-falcon-9-soars

scibyte105 PrivateSpaceTravel Cygnus SpacecraftUpdae

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Sept. 29
  • Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS)
  • a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to an elliptical earth orbit
  • Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX
  • docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch
  • The Cygnus spacecraft
  • Hatches to Cygnus
  • opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks
  • second commercial partner’s demonstration mission reaches the ISS
  • Cygnus delivers about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
  • deployed Canada’s 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.
Mars Base

NASA May Put Tiny Greenhouse on Mars in 2021 | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/se-rover-plant-experiment.html

scibyte131 ViewerFeedback MarsPlantExperiment

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 14 - No Cached
  • Researchers have proposed putting a plant-growth experiment on NASA's next Mars rover
  • scheduled to launch in mid-2020 and land on the Red Planet in early 2021.
  • known as the Mars Plant Experiment (MPX),
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • could help lay the foundation for the colonization of Mars,
  • its designers say
  • The MPX team
  • isn't suggesting that the 2020 Mars rover should
  • digging a hole with its robotic arm and planting seeds in the Red Planet's dirt.
  • the experiment would be entirely self-contained, eliminating the chance that Earth life could escape and perhaps get a foothold on Mars.
  • MPX would employ a clear "CubeSat" box
  • which would be affixed to the exterior of the 2020 rover
  • This box would hold Earth air and about 200 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant that's commonly used in scientific research
  • The seeds would receive water when the rover touched down on Mars, and would then be allowed to grow for two weeks or so.
  • MPX would provide an organism-level test
  • how Earth life deals with the Red Planet's relatively high radiation levels and low gravity, which is about 40 percent as strong as that of Earth,
  • "It also would be the first multicellular organism to grow, live and die on another planet
« First ‹ Previous 61 - 80 of 488 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page