nasa

Moon-Bombing a Success, Confirms Lunar Water Deposits

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:59:45 -0500

Dude, remember that time we launched bombs at the moon? That was awesome.

The Next Space Race: Elevator Rides Into Orbit

Kit Eaton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:08:35 -0500

Remember how the Ansari X-Prize resulted in the nascent commercial space trip business, with Virgin Galactic in the lead? Now there's a similar push to innovate space technology, but of a different sort: Space elevators, making the ride into orbit amazingly cheap and easy.

NASA Declares Successful Ares Launch 'Friggin' Fantastic!'

Clay Dillow — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:51:35 -0400

NASA Rides the Moon-Bomb Wave and Releases an iPhone App

Chris Dannen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:57:26 -0400

We were all pretty tired of NASA and its endless shuttle missions--until, of course, it bombed the moon. Now the agency is capitalizing on that good PR with a new iPhone app, perhaps hoping that some more public interest will help it limp into more funding.

NASA's 'Moon Bombing' A Smashing Success

Clay Dillow — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:14:40 -0400

This morning, around 7:31 EST, NASA's "moon bombing" went off without a hitch as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite captured footage of its Centaur counterpart impacting a crater on the moon's south pole at 5,600 miles per hour. The impact displaced about 350 metric tons of lunar terrain, leaving a new crater about 65 feet wide and 13 feet deep.

Tomorrow NASA Bombs the Moon

Kit Eaton — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:04:58 -0400

Update: NASA's 'Moon Bombing' A Smashing Success

NASA's always trying to push the envelope, and tomorrow the space agency's got a really big push: It's going to bomb the Moon. Seriously, and it's all in the name of science, the search for water, and space exploration.

Design Challenge of the Day: What Should Quarantine Look Like?

Michael Cannell — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:59:14 -0400

Four years ago Paola Antonelli curated a collection of emergency shelters, gas masks, and security bollards for a MoMA exhibition called "Safe: Design Takes On Risk." The show demonstrated how thoroughly 9/11 had galvanized the design field. Since then, our collective fear has shifted from terrorism to biology: Our nightmares now center on ebola, swine flu, and pandemic panic. So long Bin Laden. Hello hot zone.

Astronauts Get Augmented Reality Headsets

Chris Dannen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:13:37 -0400

Dutch AR developer Layar announced a 3D API today--but this AR headset dwarfs their Android app. The Wearable Augmented Reality (or WEAR) headset was developed for astronauts to view schematics and specifications while working on the International Space Station (ISS).

The 31st International Electric Propulsion Conference

Clay Dillow — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:00:45 -0400

NASA recently leveled with the Obama administration: without a lot more funding, we're not going back to the moon. It's straight to Mars for the United States, and that's not going to be a cheap trip either. With that news in mind, the more than 300 attendees to the 31st biannual International Electric Propulsion Conference will put their heads together on the future of electric propulsion technologies. Electric propulsion, though packing a high specific impulse, is constrained by limits on the amount of electrical power we can feasibly carry into space.

First Images From Revamped Hubble Space Telescope

Kit Eaton — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:51:31 -0400

The Hubble Space Telescope has always been an amazing machine, but it was recently made even more amazing with some repairs and optical upgrades in daring spacewalks. The first pics are out now, and they're stunning.

NASA's Too Broke to Reach the Moon, What's Next for the Constellation Program?

Kit Eaton — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:12:53 -0400

NASA's ambitious Constellation human space exploration program has been under an Obama-steered spotlight to see how it's going. That investigation has come to a stunning conclusion: NASA can't get to the moon if things stay as they are.

Helping a Billion People in 10 Years: Singularity U's First Graduating Class

Kit Eaton — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:45:29 -0400

How would you tackle the problem of helping a billion people in ten years? That was the question posed to Singularity University's first graduating class, who formed four teams to tackle it. Their visions have just been unveiled, and are pretty interesting.

12.21.2012: How to cope with Apocalypse

VJ Misra — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:04:04 -0400

December 21, 2012 has been prophesized by the ancient cyclical Mayan calendar as the apocalypse...the end of the world. Our search engine trigger-happy fingers will definitely lead to a quick web search of "2012" and it will most definitely yield more than 300,000 results for doomsday.

According to the Mayan calendar, doomsday will be on December 21, 2012. Catastrophe or apocalypse is what waits us on this day. Is it true? How can we tell certainly? Unfortunately, NASA has predicted a sharp increase in sun spots for the year 2012.

NASA to Break Ground on Super-Green "Sustainability Base"

Cliff Kuang — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:20:53 -0400

NASA might not get to Mars or the Moon anytime soon, but back here on the mothership, it's busying itself with a new building, dubbed Sustainability Base, designed by AECOM and William McDonough + Partners. It aims to bring about a new standard for ultra-efficient, "smart" buildings and become the greenest building in the federal government--part of

NASA's Green Flight Challenge: The Ultimate Flying Car Competition

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:15:32 -0400

Instead of waiting for the inevitable aircraft X Prize, engineers can bring their sustainable plane ideas to NASA and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation's Green Flight Challenge.

How to Build Your Own Spaceship

Fast Company Calendar — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:00:02 -0400

When Piers Bizony was 10, his father asked him to keep a scrapbook of space travel. Four decades later, the science writer, still hooked, created this DIY manual for rocket jockeys. Though the book's structure is a weak conceit, it does provide a framework for Bizony's fascinating detours into spaceship mechanics and design -- including a frighteningly graphic pit stop to explain onboard lavatories.

How You Can Land on the Moon Today, July 20 2009

Kit Eaton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:06:56 -0400

It's forty years since Neil Armstrong sundered humankind's history in two: The era before the Moon landings, and after. Here are a couple ways for you to get involved in Lunar fever online today.

40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Clay Dillow — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:19:33 -0400

Forty years to the day after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin made their giant leap for mankind, that first moon landing stands as a monument to human innovation. Of course, hoax theories still abound: one claims Stanley Kubrick filmed Apollo 11 and 12 while working on 2001: A Space Odyssey, while another insists 382 kilograms of moon rocks collected by Apollo missions were actually gathered from Antarctica. But other claims are more empirical.

Detailed Pics Of Apollo Landing Sites: NASA 1, Conspiracy Theorists 0

Kit Eaton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:06:12 -0400

Another Apollo celebration event just hit, and boy it's a biggy: NASA released in-orbit photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that show the Apollo landing sites on the Moon, complete with amazing detail.

Restored Apollo 11 Moonwalk Video Looks Good--Could Be Better [Updated]

Kit Eaton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:40:21 -0400

NASA's getting into the swing of celebrating 40 years since Armstrong and Aldrin strolled on the Moon, and the latest party piece is some restored TV footage of those famous moments. It's all very nice, but we must do better next time.

NASA's been busy on the project for a little while, working with Lowry Digital--experts in digital image processing--to tackle the video tapes of the incredibly historic first moonwalk on July 20, 1969. The job is a big one, and obviously needs to be done with maximum care and attention, so it's not due to be finished until the fall.

How to Dress Like an Astronaut

Mary-Louise Price — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:45:05 -0400

While Americans sat in the glow of their TV sets only dreaming of going where no man has gone before, on July 16, 1969, they watched Michael Collins, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong take to the skies. Enjoy an intergalactic blast from the past in honor of the 40th anniversary of man's first moon-walk. Spacesuits: Within the Collections of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum provides an in-depth look into the development of the garb outfitting the crews leading up to the lunar missions and thereafter.

Will NASA Reinvent Its Lunar Rocket Program?

Kit Eaton — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:21:58 -0400

NASA's ambitious design to return humans to the lunar surface has been controversial right from the get-go. It calls for ditching the Space Shuttle entirely and abandoning nearly all of its technology except for the solid rocket boosters and fuel tank. These elements are to be uprated to become core components of the new Ares I crew launch vehicle and massive Ares V cargo rocket.

50th Anniversary of Space-Monkey Success

Fast Company Calendar — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:52:19 -0400

Fifty years ago, two girls, Able and Baker, went to space. After their brief spaceflight on May 28, 1959, the two pioneers were hailed as heroes and made the cover of LIFE, which lauded them as America's Space Travelers. Able, a seven-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a one-pound squirrel monkey, paved the way for the modern astronaut--they were the first primates to survive the trip to space as well as the landing.

The Tools You Need to Fix the Hubble Telescope

Cliff Kuang — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:31:44 -0400

Today, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis spacewalked to the Hubble Telescope and kitted it with a new camera. Should everything go right--and so far, the mission has been a success--the Hubble should be good until 2014, and it'll be even more powerful than ever before.

NASA Coaxes Biofuel From Bags of Sewage

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:53:34 -0400

There are lots of creative ways to produce biofuel from algae, but NASA's takes the cake. The space agency is growing biofuel in plastic bags of sewage floating in the sea. The Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) bags are based on technology used to recycle astronauts' wastewater. The bags allow freshwater to exit and also keep saltwater out.