Archiv: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)


21.10.2023 - 21:45 [ CNN ]

Psyche mission launches as NASA’s first trip to a metal world

(October 13, 2023)

To accomplish the rest of the mission, the van-size spacecraft will rely on its new solar electric propulsion system, powered by Hall-effect thrusters, Oh said. The thrusters will utilize the spacecraft’s large solar arrays and “use electricity to ionize xenon gas and accelerate those charged ions through an electric field to very, very high speeds,” Oh said. (…)

Also along for the ride is the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, or DSOC. Occurring during the first two years of the journey to Psyche, it will be NASA’s most distant experiment of high-bandwidth laser communications, testing the sending and receiving of data to and from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser.

21.10.2023 - 21:13 [ Massachusetts Institute of Technology ]

ILLUMA-T

NASA wants to update its existing radio communications system on the International Space Station (ISS) with optical communication technology. Optical communication systems, which use laser beams to transmit information through space, promise the ability to transmit data between a spacecraft and Earth at a much higher rate than radio-frequency systems. Our researchers are designing ILLUMA-T*, a laser terminal that will provide an optical communications link from the ISS to NASA‘s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration satellite, which, in turn, will use optical communications to relay the data from the ISS link to a ground terminal at a rate 10 to 100 times faster than current radio frequency communications systems.

21.10.2023 - 20:51 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA’s Laser Communications Relay: A Year of Experimentation

(Jun 28, 2023)

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) uses infrared light, or invisible lasers, to transmit and receive signals rather than radio wave systems conventionally used on spacecraft. Infrared light’s tight wavelengths allow space missions to pack significantly more data – 10 to 100 times more – into a single transmission. More data means more discoveries.

Now, at the halfway point in its experimentation phase, LCRD has shown laser communications’ significant advantages over traditional radio wave systems.

11.09.2023 - 22:43 [ AviationNewsPortal / Youtube ]

NASA Aircraft Crash Test 1984 – Inside a Plane

(04.07.2012)

On December 1st, 1984, a remote controlled 4 engined transport jet took off from Edwards AFB, CA and crashed into a barren patch of nearby desert. This Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint R&D program by the FAA and NASA

27.08.2023 - 03:15 [ CNN ]

SpaceX, NASA launch four astronauts from four countries

The crew is riding aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance capsule on the mission, dubbed Crew-7. The spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:27 a.m. ET Saturday.

The four astronauts on the mission include NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, who is serving as mission commander; Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen representing the European Space Agency; Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA; and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos.

14.06.2023 - 13:12 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Pioneer 10

Firsts:

– First spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar space
– First spacecraft to fly beyond Mars
– First spacecraft to fly through the main asteroid belt
– First spacecraft to fly past Jupiter
– Crossed the orbit of Neptune to become the first human-made object to go beyond Neptune
– First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power

Key Dates:

March 2, 1972: Launch

July 15, 1972: Spacecraft entered the asteroid belt

Dec. 4, 1973: Pioneer 10’s closest approach to Jupiter

Feb. 1976: Pioneer crossed Saturn’s orbit

June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune

March 31, 1997: Routine contact with spacecraft terminated

Jan. 23, 2003: Pioneer 10‘s last signal is received on Earth

14.06.2023 - 13:08 [ NASA New Horizons / Twitter ]

#OTD in 2019, @NASA‘s #NewHorizons flew by Arrokoth, the farthest object ever explored by spacecraft. Arrokoth is about about 50 AU, or 4 billion miles from the Sun. New Horizons is ~56 AU from Earth and will join Voyagers 1 & 2 in interstellar space in the 2040s.

24.04.2023 - 12:17 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Magnetic Portals Connect Earth to the Sun

Oct. 30, 2008: During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn‘t believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page.

„It‘s called a flux transfer event or ‚FTE,'“ says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. „Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn‘t exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible.“

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.

24.04.2023 - 10:51 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Sun‘s protective ‚bubble‘ is shrinking

(18.10.2008)

New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago. (…)

„Around 90 per cent of the galactic cosmic radiation is deflected by our heliosphere, so the boundary protects us from this harsh galactic environment.“

The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that emanate a more than a million miles an hour from the sun, meet the intergalactic gas that fills the gaps in space between solar systems.

28.10.2022 - 15:35 [ Schenectady Gazette / Google.com ]

Methane, Ammonia on Mars? Mariner 7 Sees Hint of Life

(8.August 1969)

Pimentel´s evidence was from an infrared spectrometer, designed to detect elements by measuring their radiation.

28.10.2022 - 15:33 [ BusinessInsider.com ]

NASA images show a meteor crashed into Mars, triggered a big quake, and kicked up surprise water ice

A meteor crashed into Mars on Christmas Eve 2021, and shook the planet so much that NASA‘s InSight lander recorded the rumblings.

Scientists didn‘t know where the quake came from until NASA‘s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a spacecraft circling the red planet, captured images of the new impact crater. NASA revealed the discovery on Thursday.

14.11.2021 - 11:19 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Solar Activity Forecast for the Next Decade

(12.06.2019)

The results show that the next Solar Cycle will start in 2020 and reach a maximum in 2025.Cycle 25 is expected to be even weaker than the current solar cycle.

According to this forecast, upcoming solar activity will be the weakest in the last 200 years.

25.10.2021 - 18:59 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Studying the Edge of the Sun’s Magnetic Bubble

(Oct 19, 2021)

The space radiation that comes at us from other stars is called galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). Active areas in the galaxy – like supernovae, black holes, and neutron stars – can strip the electrons from atoms and accelerate the nuclei to almost the speed of light, producing GCR.

On Earth, we have three layers of protection from space radiation. The first is the heliosphere, which helps block GCR from reaching the major planets in the solar system. Additionally, Earth’s magnetic field produces a shield called the magnetosphere, which keeps GCR out away from Earth and low-orbiting satellites like the International Space Station. Finally, the gases of Earth’s atmosphere absorb radiation.

25.10.2021 - 18:48 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

With NASA Data, Researchers Find Standing Waves at Edge of Earth’s Magnetic Bubble

(Oct.6, 2021)

The latest work considers the waves that form across the entire surface of the magnetosphere, using a combination of models and observations from NASA’s THEMIS mission, Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms.

The researchers found when solar wind pulses strike, the waves that form not only race back and forth between Earth’s magnetic poles and the front of the magnetosphere, but also travel against the solar wind. Archer likened these two kinds of movement to crossing a river: A boat can go from one riverbank to the other (traveling towards the poles) and upstream (against the solar wind). At the front of the magnetosphere, these waves appear to stand still.

25.10.2021 - 18:37 [ Electroverse.net ]

NASA caught “adjusting” Global Temperature Graph — AGAIN

(July 20, 2021)

In what Dr Higgs calls yet another manipulation of the data, in early 2021, NASA discreetly lowered the 2016 global average temperature –previously the highest on record– to make the year 2020 seem like the hottest.

NASA play these ‘games of adjustment’ all the time, and each and every time, without fail, their tweaks support the man-made global warming narrative.

Below are copies of NASA’s 1880-2020 global temperature chart ‘before & after’ their most recent “adjustment”:

11.09.2021 - 17:29 [ AviationNewsPortal / Youtube ]

NASA Aircraft Crash Test 1984 – Inside a Plane

(04.07.2012)

On December 1st, 1984, a remote controlled 4 engined transport jet took off from Edwards AFB, CA and crashed into a barren patch of nearby desert. This Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint R&D program by the FAA and NASA

11.09.2021 - 17:26 [ The Federal File / Youtube ]

Controlled Impact Demonstration 1984 NASA FAA CID Test Video

Published on Mar 17, 2017
This short NASA film describes the Controlled Impact Demonstration test, where NASA tested anti-misting safety measures on a remote controlled Boeing-720 aircraft. The anti-misting devices were supposed to make the use of aircraft fuel safer for passengers aboard commercial aircraft, but the FAA abandoned the project after this test.

24.07.2021 - 17:23 [ ORF.at ]

Mission zu Jupitermond: NASA beauftragt SpaceX

Die Europa-Clipper-Mission soll den eisigen Jupitermond 40 bis 50 Mal in nächster Nähe passieren und dabei prüfen, ob die Bedingungen dort für Leben geeignet sein könnten. Dafür soll die Rakete Kameras und Spektrometer für die Erstellung hochauflösender Bilder und Karten der Oberfläche und der Atmosphäre mitführen.

07.05.2021 - 11:20 [ voanews.com ]

China Points Toward Asteroid Defense System, Comet Mission

(April 24, 2021)

The European Space Agency last year signed a deal worth 129 million euros ($156 million) to build a spacecraft for a joint project with NASA examining how to deflect an asteroid heading for Earth.

07.05.2021 - 11:13 [ Businessinsider.com ]

In a NASA simulation of an asteroid impact, scientists concluded they couldn‘t stop a space rock from decimating Europe

(01.05.2021)

The experts fell short. The group determined that none of Earth‘s existing technologies could stop the asteroid from striking given the six-month time frame of the simulation. In this alternate reality, the asteroid crashed into eastern Europe.

21.02.2021 - 15:02 [ Thomas Zurbuchen / Twitter ]

Since the @NASAPersevere landing, we’ve been prioritizing two types of data: first-of-its-kind footage from the rover’s entry, descent & landing. And, health & safety data for the rover & its subsystems. We’ll release more images & video on Monday in a news briefing at 2pm ET.

21.02.2021 - 03:32 [ NASA.gov ]

NASA Missions Make Unprecedented Map of Sun’s Magnetic Field

They’ll have a chance to take that step forward soon: A re-flight of the mission was just greenlit by NASA. Though the launch date isn’t yet set, the team plans to use the same instrument but with a new technique to measure a much broader swath of the Sun.

“Instead of just measuring the magnetic fields along the very narrow strip, we want to scan it across the target and make a two-dimensional map,” McKenzie said.

21.02.2021 - 03:27 [ NASA.gov ]

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Reports In

f Ingenuity succeeds in taking off and hovering during its first flight, over 90% of the project’s goals will have been achieved. If the rotorcraft lands successfully and remains operable, up to four more flights could be attempted, each one building on the success of the last.

“We are in uncharted territory, but this team is used to that,” said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL.

20.02.2021 - 11:33 [ Schenectady Gazette / Google.com ]

Methane, Ammonia on Mars? Mariner 7 Sees Hint of Life

(8.August 1969)

Pimentel´s evidence was from an infrared spectrometer, designed to detect elements by measuring their radiation.

20.02.2021 - 11:30 [ Space,com ]

NASA‘s Mars rover Perseverance landing: Everything you need to know

)18.02.2021)

Once the pristine Mars material is on the ground, scientists in labs around the world can scrutinize it using far more powerful and precise equipment than a single rover can carry to the Red Planet.

20.02.2021 - 11:27 [ NASA.gov ]

Touchdown! NASA‘s Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Red Planet

(18.02.2021)

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

29.11.2020 - 21:25 [ NASA ]

Japan launches joint military, scientific optical data relay satellite

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan plans launched an H-IIA rocket on Sunday, 29 November to deploy a top secret communications satellite to support the country’s reconnaissance and scientific programs.

15.11.2020 - 16:58 [ France24 ]

SpaceX astronauts prepare for lift-off in first ‘operational’ flight to ISS

Three Americans — Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker — and Japan‘s Soichi Noguchi will blast off at 7:27 pm Sunday (0027 GMT Monday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

26.10.2020 - 18:22 [ CNN ]

The moon may contain more water than previously believed, including on its sunlit surface

The research is based on data gathered by NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in orbit around the moon since June 2009, as well as the agency‘s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy airborne telescope, called SOFIA. The latter is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter telescope.

14.10.2020 - 13:40 [ U.S.News ]

Russian-US Crew Launches on Fast Track to the Space Station

For the first time, they tried a two-orbit approach and docked with the space station in just a little over three hours after lift-off. Previously it took twice as long for crews to reach the station.

15.09.2020 - 21:04 [ NASA ]

NASA, NOAA to Discuss Solar Cycle Prediction During Media Teleconference

Tuesday, 9/15/2020

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will discuss predictions for the upcoming solar cycle during a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 15. Tracking the solar cycle is a key part of better understanding the Sun and mitigating its impacts on human technology and infrastructure.

During the teleconference, experts on the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel will discuss recent updates in solar cycle progress, and the forecast for the upcoming cycle, Solar Cycle 25.

15.09.2020 - 13:26 [ EOS.org ]

The Thermosphere Responds to a Weaker Than Normal Solar Cycle

(05.04.2019)

The cooling near solar minimum is natural and specific to the thermosphere. The cooling thermosphere does not affect the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth’s surface where people live. The temperatures we experience on the ground do not get colder because of this solar cycle. NASA and other climate researchers continue to see a warming trend in the troposphere. These two effects are ongoing but unrelated.

Nitric oxide and carbon dioxide play important roles in cooling the thermosphere.

11.09.2020 - 13:17 [ The Federal File / Youtube ]

Controlled Impact Demonstration 1984 NASA FAA CID Test Video

Published on Mar 17, 2017
This short NASA film describes the Controlled Impact Demonstration test, where NASA tested anti-misting safety measures on a remote controlled Boeing-720 aircraft. The anti-misting devices were supposed to make the use of aircraft fuel safer for passengers aboard commercial aircraft, but the FAA abandoned the project after this test.

11.09.2020 - 13:12 [ AviationNewsPortal / Youtube ]

NASA Aircraft Crash Test 1984 – Inside a Plane

(04.07.2012)

On December 1st, 1984, a remote controlled 4 engined transport jet took off from Edwards AFB, CA and crashed into a barren patch of nearby desert. This Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint R&D program by the FAA and NASA

24.08.2020 - 11:38 [ NASA Asteroid Watch ]

Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approx. 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth! It currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet’s atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size.

24.08.2020 - 11:35 [ ScienceAlert.com ]

Here‘s The Real Truth About That ‚Election Day‘ Asteroid on Its Way to Earth

2018VP1 is not a surprise to scientists. As its name suggests, it was discovered back in 2018 while it was around 450,000 kilometres (280,000 miles) away from Earth.

It‘s got a two-year orbital period, and it‘s currently on its way back around again towards us.

05.07.2020 - 15:11 [ Spaceflight Now ]

Top secret NRO payload installed on Minotaur rocket for launch from Virginia

Crews working on Virginia’s Eastern Shore this week raised a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office — the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency — atop a solid-fueled Minotaur 4 rocket for liftoff July 15 on the first Minotaur launch in nearly three years.

20.06.2020 - 01:48 [ Reuters ]

Boeing names new Space Station chief in latest change affecting program

Boeing’s senior vice president of space and launch, Jim Chilton, told employees in an email Friday that Mulholland’s new role will “reflect the continuing evolution of the International Space Station,” whose 20-year anniversary of housing humans in low-Earth orbit comes later this year.

30.05.2020 - 15:45 [ NBC / Youtube ]

Live: SpaceX, NASA Launch U.S. Astronauts To International Space Station | NBC News

Watch live coverage as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and NASA make a second attempt at liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule with two U.S. astronauts. This is the first mission of its kind to the International Space Station in nearly a decade.

26.05.2020 - 01:23 [ ABC ]

NASA astronauts go back to the future with capsule launch

This fresh take on a vintage look will be on full display Wednesday when SpaceX plans to launch NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station — a first for a private company.

20.05.2020 - 03:13 [ NASA ]

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 Astronauts to Arrive at Kennedy on Wednesday

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are set to arrive at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, one week before the pair’s scheduled launch to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission.

20.05.2020 - 03:07 [ NASA ]

Crew Dragon Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Complex for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2

18.5.2020 This will be the first launch of American astronauts on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station since the final flight of the space shuttle in 2011.

20.05.2020 - 01:52 [ Ars Technica ]

NASA’s human spaceflight chief just resigned, and the timing couldn’t be worse

The timing of Doug Loverro‘s departure is terrible, with NASA‘s first launch of humans in nearly nine years due to occur in just eight days.

The space agency offered a bland statement regarding Loverro‘s resignation as Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) at NASA.

02.04.2020 - 18:16 [ Xinhuanet ]

NASA selects new mission to study giant solar particle storms

The new mission, called the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE), will help understand how the solar system works to protect astronauts traveling in space by providing better information on how the Sun‘s radiation affects the space environment, said the release.

12.02.2020 - 02:31 [ TASS ]

NASA to keep using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft in 2021 fiscal year — budget proposal

NASA will keep using Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to deliver its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021 fiscal year that starts on October 1, NASA said it its 2021 budget request summary, published on Monday.