Tags: NASA

Orion’s Return: What Re-entry Means for the Industry of Spaceflight

On December 5, 2014 after a one-day weather delay, NASA launched Orion from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While this test flight was unmanned, Orion is built to hold a crew of 2- 6 individuals. It’s no secret that NASA plans to send humans to an asteroid and to Mars using Orion.

Discovery Sparks Interest—NASA’s Mission to Mars Gets Its Own New Show

Often in the media, it’s what’s new and fresh that brings in the ratings. But what about looking for something potentially millions of years old? What if it wasn’t on this planet even? Peak your interest yet? Well, if so, you may just be in luck, because after decades of researching and scoping out the fourth planet from our sun, Mars, NASA has announced today that it has collaborated with the Discovery Channel to show a never-before-seen view of the Red Planet. And it airs tonight, Dec. 18!

Curiosity Rover Gets Its Own Special—Discovery Channel Tonight

Earlier this week, NASA announced that its Mars Curiosity Rover may have found some essential building blocks of life, and now they’re saying that viewers on Earth will have a chance to watch the discovery process for themselves. Premiering tonight, Dec. 18, the Discovery Channel will chronicle the Curiosity Rover’s long trek across the Red Planet fourth from our sun, giving viewers here on Earth a never-before-seen perspective from the surface of Mars.

Organics on Mars—Could Life Be Sustained on Red Planet?

While there are many requisite features for a planet to be host to forms of life, even as simple as archaea species, the most important known feature is the existence of organic molecules from which they can be created. And though there are still many questions left unanswered about our red neighbor on the galactic block, Mars, researchers from NASA say that the Curiosity Rover Mission has successfully identified methane and other organics which may give their teams a better insight into the possible watery past of our solar system’s famed “Red Planet”.

Could Water Have Changed the Face of Mars, or Is the Habitability Question too Much to Bare?

While some parts of the nation are fighting Winter storms of snow and sleet, eyes this week are o water of the liquid variety. And more specifically, researchers and reporters are looking towards the molecule’s importance in developing life, as well as its origins story too. News this week of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission, revealed a recently published study reporting that the sustenance of our Earth and of all life, water, may in fact have not originated on comets from the Kuiper Belt as once believed. And what’s more, now that researchers have debunked false origin stories of the miracle molecule, they’re now beginning to question whether water alone can make a planet habitable for life, or if there are other mitigating conditions as well.

Saturn’s Titan Was Likely Sculpted by Rogue Winds Gusting on the Moon

While researchers have long known of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and its sandy surface, new research presented this week in two separate studies published in the journal Nature reveals that the 300 foot sand dunes on the moon’s surface may have originated from very different circumstances than those on Earth. Titan, which is much like the Earth, is one of the most intriguing moons our solar system has come to offer. But while it is the only other celestial body that has standing reservoirs of liquid on its surface and fields of dunes like those of the Sahara desert, astronomers are now finding that the events leading to Titan’s surface are far unlike what happened here on Earth.

NASA Finds Mars Craters May Have Once Been Seasonal Lakes

Ever imagine that the red planet’s surface may once have had a different appearance? Well while researchers at NASA have had rovers scoping out Mars’ surface for years, new information received from NASA’s Curiosity Rover suggests that the planet’s craters may once have served a different purpose, and that the arid red planet may once have had long-lasting above ground lakes. Though new evidence challenges the popular theory that water on the planet only existed in the liquid form underground in aquifers, evidence of above ground lakes would undoubtedly mean that the planet was much more likely to sustain life some time ago.

Next Stop for Curiosity Rover? Lava Mound May Hold Answers to Ancient Martian Lava Flows

While NASA’s Curiosity Rover revealed a possible location for reoccurring lakes on the surface of the red planet last week, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is finding even larger discoveries from its vantage point in the sky. Capturing new images with its HiRISE camera, one of six onboard instruments used by the orbiter, Reconnaissance has found evidence of one of the largest lava mounds found to date. And while it looks like a crispy pie pulled right from the oven, researchers say that the 1.2-mile wide circle of Martian crust is composed of iron-rich metamorphic rock, created thousands of years ago in a series of lava flows.

Dwindling Ice in Antarctica Spurs Questions Over Climate Change and The Point of No Return

As impending threats of “climate change” and “ecological disaster” have loomed over international affairs this year, to the point that even the United Nations spearheaded a campaign and led a summit to discuss future changes that may amend for some of humanity’s grave mistakes, new research published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters looks to a place much colder than our metropolises for evidence of a rapidly shifting climate.

Turkey Day In Space—ISS Astronauts Float Through Thanksgiving

Despite having an international crew, and orbiting in a laboratory 260 miles above the surface of the Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are celebrating today’s turkey day with a few of their zero-g versions of traditional Thanksgiving classics—and they’re even sharing what their thankful for with the rest of the world.

New Astronauts Bring Taste of Italy to ISS—ISSpresso An Instant Hit

Late Sunday morning, Nov. 23, three new replacements for Expedition 42 boarded the International Space Station, bringing the orbiting space lab’s population back to full strength. But, aside from bringing some fresh blood to the research conducted on the orbiting spacecraft, and new perspectives for how life in space should be conducted on the space station, the three new astronauts brought a bit of home back with them. And it’s Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s 44-pound carry-on that has the International Space Station salivating at the taste of Italy she brought aboard.

International Space Station Crewmembers Arrive, and Some Start With Tweets

Rounding out the crew of six, who have been short-staffed since the return of three members earlier this summer, three new replacements for Expedition 42 aboard the International Space Station arrived late Sunday, Nov. 23, bringing the orbiting space lab’s population back to full strength.

Comet Siding Spring Captured by ISRO’s Mars Orbiter

In a week when all eyes are set to space, and all questions in the social sphere revolve around the topic of comets, India’s Space Agency ISRO doesn’t want to be counted out of the mix. And while they may not be putting a lander on a speeding comet, or orbiting one like Europe’s space agency (the ESA), ISRO was able to catch its own glimpse of one last month and has taken to the web with a new view of a cosmic passerby.

Siding Springs Comet Came in Close For a Martian Meteor Shower

Earlier last month, on Oct. 19, researchers from the world’s top space agencies were able to catch a glimpse at one of the rarest sights in space. Coming from the outer Oort Cloud, at the very edge of our solar system, young comet Siding Spring passed by Mars rather closely on its first orbit around the sun; giving Mars orbiters a show and quite a scare. But as it turns out new data collected from NASA’s satellites on the night of the event show that the best view may have in fact been from the red planet itself.

‘G2’ Gas Ball Survives Black Hole, and Researchers Say They Now Know Why

For years, astronomers have pondered the origins and the contents of the mysterious G2 object floating in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Drifting towards the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, the passing cloud was thought to be composed entirely of hydrogen gas, giving it the nickname “G2”. But earlier this past summer researchers found that G2 had come in close contact with the black hole, and it survived—leading them on a new theory as to what the mysterious object could be.

Antares Rocket Launches on East Coast Tonight: Viewing and Live Stream Info

The launch of the Antares rocket carrying supplies and scientific equipment to the International Space Station was rescheduled from Monday evening to Tuesday evening due to a wayward sailboat entered the restricted zone underneath the rocket's flight path. The launch is now scheduled to 6:22 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.
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