Clipmarks | Nasa Clips

New Spacecraft to Explore Interstellar Boundary

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:21:17 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

New Spacecraft to Explore Interstellar Boundary

NASA's IBEX craft is heading out this month to map the edges of the solar system

By Laurie J. Schmidt Posted 10.09.2008 at 5:36 pm 0 Comments

The "termination shock" sounds like the stuff science fiction movies are made of. In reality, it marks the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. The invisible "shock" forms as our sun's solar winds begin to encounter the gases and magnetic fields of outer space, which slows the winds down abruptly.

On October 19, NASA will launch the first spacecraft designed to image and map the interactions that take place in this boundary zone. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, will be propelled from the Kwajalein Atoll into a high-altitude orbit that will eventually take it about 200,000 miles from Earth, where it will capture images of processes taking place in the termination shock and beyond.

Tags: space

50 Consumer Technologies Developed by NASA in the Last 50 Years

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:34:58 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Obviously I couldn't clip them all. Check out the original post!

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Health and Medicine

Robotics Offer Newfound Surgical Capabilities

In-Line Filtration Improves Hygiene and Reduces Expense

LED Device Illuminates New Path to Healing

Transportation

Lithium Battery Power Delivers Electric Vehicles to Market

Advanced Control System Increases Helicopter Safety

Public Safety

Space Suit Technologies Protect Deep-Sea Divers

Fiber Optic Sensing Monitors Strain and Reduces Costs

Polymer Fabric Protects Firefighters, Military, and Civilians

Advanced X-Ray Sources Ensure Safe Environments

Consumer, Home and Recreation

Space Age Swimsuit Reduces Drag, Breaks Records

Immersive Photography Renders 360° Views

Outboard Motor Maximizes Power and Dependability

Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Battery Technology Stores Clean Energy

Computer Technology

Water-Based Coating Simplifies Circuit Board Manufacturing

Wireless Sensor Network Handles Image Data

Integrated Circuit Chip Improves Network Efficiency

Industrial Productivity

NASA Design Strengthens Welds

NASA Chief Thanks Obama for Helping With Soyuz Waiver

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:21:40 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Mike Griffin credited Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for spurring Congress to action on legislation allowing the U.S. space agency to buy the Russian Soyuz flights its needs to send astronauts to the international space station beyond 2011.

"I am deeply grateful to you, personally, for your leadership in supporting the difficult, but important, decision to extend NASA's waiver to the Iran, Syria, North Korea Non-proliferation Act to allow the U.S. purchase of Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011," Griffin said in an Oct. 2 letter to Obama. "This authority will allow the United States to continue transporting our astronauts to the international space station (ISS), honoring America's commitment to provide transportation for crewmembers from Europe, Canada, and Japan and to ensure that 'lifeboats' are available at ISS in case of emergencies.

The availability of this critical service from our Russian partners is vital

to the United States

Tags: public relations

COSMIC WONDERS: HOW STARS ARE BORN

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:19:15 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Most beautiful, beyond imagination and description.

Clip Source: cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

NASA's "Great Observatories" have teamed up with other telescopes on Earth and in space to produce glorious pictures showing how stars are born.

Here's a quick guide to the latest fireworks displays from NASA's three Great Observatories: Hubble, Spitzer and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory:

"NGC 346 is an astronomical zoo," Dimitrios Gouliermis of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy explained in today's image advisory. "When we combined data from various wavelengths, we were able to tease apart what's going in in different parts of the cloud."

Hidden star clusters
Scientists combined infrared observations from Spitzer with X-ray observations from Chandra to figure out how stars were being born inside clouds of dust so thick that you can't see them in visible light.

A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the "Cosmic
Eye." The yellow source in the middle is the
foreground lensing galaxy, while the blue ring is the
lensed image of the background star-forming galaxy.

ANCIENT MAN ON THE MOON?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:01:02 GMT

clipped by: ATLANTIUM
clipper's remarks: Are Scientists discovering ancient ruins on the Moon?

Clip Source: atlantium.blogspot.com

ANCIENT MAN ON THE MOON?

An amazing flock of Scientist from around the world are engaged in a new and potentially terrifying form of Satellite archeology. Many of these Satellite sleuths are equipped with PHD's and even worse Masters degrees. Nonetheless they soldier on looking for relics of ancient civilizations not on the Earth but on the Moon and now MARS. In all fairness the photos and storylines proffered by these dedicated surveyors can be riveting. Hours are spent looking at film footage and photos taken by a fleet of NASA space probes, landers and manned missions. High quality images are downloaded from NASA websites and reviewed by sharp eyed believers who are constantly battling with a troop of NASA airbrush artists bent on removing any and all evidence. What are they looking for exactly? Solid photographic evidence of ancient ruins on the Moon and Mars.

Tags: atlantium, roc hatfield, moon base, moon mining, john lear, richard hoagland, vimanas

Mercury as Revealed by MESSENGER

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:54:49 GMT

clipped by: Jorjor
clipper's remarks: Once again, the Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us current events from way out there to let us know there's more going on than the petty events on our puny planet.

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: The planet Mercury has been known since history has been recorded, but parts of the Solar System's innermost planet have never been seen like this before. Two days ago the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft buzzed past Mercury for the second time and imaged terrain mapped previously only by comparatively crude radar. The above image was recorded as MESSENGER looked back 90 minutes after passing, from an altitude of about 27,000 kilometers. Visible in the above image, among many other newly imaged features, are unusually long rays that appear to run like meridians of longitude out from a young crater near the northern limb. MESSENGER is scheduled to fly past Mercury once more before firing its thrusters to enter orbit in 2011.

Tags: astronomy, mercury, nasa, messenger, space, planet

New picture of planet Mercury

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:25:02 GMT

clipped by: michaelw
clipper's remarks: Image caption: The first of MESSENGER's ultra-high-res images of previously-unseen areas of the surface of Mercury. Taken January 14, on the upper right is the faint outline of the giant Caloris impact basin, including its western portions - never before seen by spacecraft. Caloris is one of the largest, youngest basins in the solar system

Clip Source: image01.ctvdigital.com

Tags: mercury, messenger, nasa

NASA astronauts answer questions from space via YouTube

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:41:01 GMT

clipped by: pcmkrfn

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

[Video]

India is going to the moon

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:53:52 GMT

clipped by: Nathan_7870

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will launch a locally built rocket for the country's first unmanned mission to the moon on October 22, the head of the project said on Tuesday. "If at all there is any delay, it will be because of the weather, otherwise I don't foresee any technical difficulties," M. Annadurai told Reuters.

The launch, earlier scheduled for April but delayed due to technical difficulties, has been given a window between Oct 20 and Oct 28 for takeoff from a southern India town.

Six countries, including the United States, are directly involved in the project, which will cost an estimated 3.86 billion rupees ($80.8 million).

India plans to send an astronaut into space by 2014 and a manned mission to moon by 2020. As part of preparations for that, it launched four satellites on a single rocket for the first time in January 2007, including one that was brought back to earth.

Tags: india, moon, spaceship, nasa

Layers of Red Cliffs on Mars (Photo)

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:22:07 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Beautiful photo

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: How did these layers of red cliffs form on Mars? No one is sure. The northern ice cap on Mars is nearly divided into two by a huge division named Chasma Boreale. No similar formation occurs on Earth. Pictured above, several dusty layers leading into this deep chasm are visible. Cliff faces, mostly facing left but still partly visible from above, appear dramatically red. The light areas are likely water ice. The above image spans about one kilometer near the north of Mars, and the elevation drop from right to left is over a kilometer. One hypothesis relates the formation of Chasma Boreale to underlying volcanic activity.

Tags: photos, nasa, mars

CLIMATE CHANGE STOPPABLE?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:38:57 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: The chances for stopping or slowing down climatic changes seem to be less and less.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Global Warming: Beyond the Tipping Point

The world's most outspoken climatologist argues that today's carbon dioxide levels are already dangerously too high. What can we do if he is right?

Climatologist James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies warns that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels above 350 parts per million—lower than current readings—may trigger catastrophic rises in sea level.
FRED CONRAD New York Times/Redux Pictures (Hansen)

James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been circulating a preprint of a journal paper saying that the outcome is likely to turn out worse than most people think.

emperature rise of three degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.5 degrees—enough to trigger serious impacts on human life from rising sea level, widespread drought, changes in weather patterns, and the like.

.” The situation, he says, “is much more sensitive than we had implicitly been assuming.”

SPACE PROGRAM AT TURNING POINT

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:31:34 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: AMONG THE GEO-POLITICAL Difficulties with Russia, America is looking very depended and at a cross road. Where do we go now?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

One Way Up: U.S. Space Plan Relies on Russia

STAR CITY, Russia — This place was once no place, a secret military base northeast of Moscow that did not show up on maps. The Soviet Union trained its astronauts here to fight on the highest battlefield of the cold war: space.

Yet these days, Star City is the place for America’s hard-won orbital partnership with Russia, where astronauts train to fly aboard Soyuz spacecraft. And in two years Star City will be the only place to send astronauts from any nation to the International Space Station.

The gap is coming: from 2010, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shuts down the space shuttle program, to 2015, when the next generation of American spacecraft is scheduled to arrive, NASA expects to have no human flight capacity and will depend on Russia to get to the $100 billion station, buying seats on Soyuz craft as space tourists do.

As NASA celebrates its 50th anniversary this month

NASA will be more reliant on Russia

NASA spacecraft to visit Mercury again

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:48:51 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I suppose now they have more of an idea where to look

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A US space probe is poised to glide past Mercury to photograph the solar system's smallest planet, in the second of three planned passes, says NASA.

The NASA spacecraft MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) will pass the innermost planet at an altitude of 201 kilometres with its camera expected to take more than 1200 images of the cratered surface.

Mercury is the closest of all the planets to the Sun, and because of the high-risks of its proximity - the Sun's enormous gravitational pull, and massively high levels of radiation - it is one of the most mysterious bodies in the solar system, even though it is relatively close to Earth.

"The results from MESSENGER's first fly-by of Mercury resolved debates that are more than 30 years old," says Sean Solomon, the mission's principal investigator from the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

"This second encounter will uncover even more information about the planet."

SpaceX, Falcon 9, NASA, Humans and the Moon?

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:29:34 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Next for SpaceX: Falcon 9, NASA, Humans and the Moon?

With a successful Falcon 1 launch under their belt, SpaceX has set its sights on hauling cargo for NASA with the larger Falcon 9 rocket, transporting crews to the International Space Station in its Dragon capsule, and landing on the Moon with a modified Falcon 1 rocket.

The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to be shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida late this year to prep for its NASA cargo flights. Falcon 9 has nine Merlin rocket engines to Falcon 1's one, and is capable of taking cargo, and eventually crew, to and from the International Space Station. The maiden voyage of the Falcon 9 is scheduled for the first quarter of 2009 from the larger launch pad SpaceX is currently refurbishing at the Cape. (Map of SpaceX's Kwajalein and Cape launch sites are shown below.)

Galaxies found to be flowing together

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 02:44:48 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "He said another interesting idea proposed since the cosmic flow was detected is that instead of a gravitational pull by something beyond the observable universe, the galaxies are being pushed by an absence of mass in the local universe."

Clip Source: www.starbulletin.com

Hundreds of galaxy clusters are flowing toward the same spot in the sky beyond the observable universe, a University of Hawaii astronomer and NASA team members have discovered.

The clusters, each with hundreds of millions of stars, are moving at more than 1 million mph toward the constellations Centaurus and Vela, said Harald Ebeling, co-author of a paper on the baffling finding in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"It's pretty bizarre," he said in an interview.

Ebeling said the "main culprit" behind the phenomenon seems to be the Shapley Concentration, a giant supercluster made up of about 25 galactic clusters about 700 million light-years away which pulls everything toward it.

But once the clusters reach the Shapley supercluster, he said, they do not subside or reverse -- they defy current cosmic theories and keep on going.

Tags: space