Topic: International Space Station

NASA reports International Space Station Flame Experiment produces strange results

June 19, 2013 |

Washington, D.C. – Fire, it is often said, is mankind’s oldest chemistry experiment.

For thousands of years, people have been mixing the oxygen-rich air of Earth with an almost endless variety of fuels to produce hot luminous flame.

There’s an arc of learning about combustion that stretches from the earliest campfires of primitive humans to the most advanced automobiles racing down the superhighways of the 21st century.

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NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission data from Voyage to Mars to aid future Deep Space Expeditions

June 4, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission radiation measurements taken as it delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs to design systems to protect human explorers from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions in the future.

Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft.

Cruise Vehicles (Artist Concept) – This set of artist’s concepts shows NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory cruise capsule and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is being built now at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and will one day send astronauts to Mars. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

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NASA reports International Space Station Scientists study Glow in the Dark Plants

May 7, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – The world is changing.  As greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, global temperatures are on the rise. Sea levels inch upward as polar ice retreats. Crops are growing in new places.

The world is changing.  The question is, can life change with it?

A batch of genetically engineered plants orbiting Earth on board the International Space Station (ISS) may have something to say about this.

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NASA reports International Space Station may have detected signs of Dark Matter

April 16, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – In science fiction, finding antimatter on board your spaceship is not good news. Usually, it means you’re moments away from an explosion.

In real life, though, finding antimatter could lead to a Nobel Prize.

On April 3rd, researchers led by Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting of MIT announced that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle detector operating onboard the International Space Station since 2011, has counted more than 400,000 positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons.  There’s no danger of an explosion, but the discovery is sending shock waves through the scientific community.

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NASA answers the question, “Is There an Atmosphere on the Moon?”

April 15, 2013 |

Written by Brian Day
NASA’s Ames Research Center

Moffett Field, CA – Until recently, most everyone accepted the conventional wisdom that the moon has virtually no atmosphere.

Just as the discovery of water on the moon transformed our textbook knowledge of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, recent studies confirm that our moon does indeed have an atmosphere consisting of some unusual gases, including sodium and potassium, which are not found in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars or Venus.

It’s an infinitesimal amount of air when compared to Earth’s atmosphere.

The Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) deployment during the Apollo 17 mission. (Image credit: NASA)

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NASA plans to capture an Asteroid robotically and bring it back to a safe Lunar Orbit for Exploration

April 11, 2013 |

Written by DC Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Washington, D.C. – The following are statements from the associate administrators of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, Science Mission Directorate and Space Technology Mission Directorate on the administration’s budget request for the 2014 fiscal year.

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NASA to study Neutron stars for groundbreaking Space Navigation Technology

April 8, 2013 |

Written by Lori Keesey
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Neutron stars have been called the zombies of the cosmos. They shine even though they’re technically dead, occasionally feeding on neighboring stars if they venture too close.

Interestingly, these unusual objects, born when a massive star extinguishes its fuel and collapses under its own gravity, also may help future space travelers navigate to Mars and other distant destinations.

This artist’s rendition shows the NICER/SEXTANT payload that NASA recently selected as its next Explorer Mission of Opportunity. The 56-telescope payload will fly on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

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NASA’s SAGE III to monitor the Earth’s fragile Ozone Layer

March 30, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – Ozone stinks. People who breathe it gag as their lungs burn. The EPA classifies ground-level ozone as air pollution.

Yet without it, life on Earth would be impossible.

A fragile layer of ozone 25 km above Earth’s surface is all that stands between us and some of the harshest UV rays from the sun. The ozone molecule O3 blocks radiation which would otherwise burn skin and cause cancer.

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NASA to send ISS-RapidScat instrument to International Space Station to measure Ocean Winds

February 3, 2013 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – In a clever reuse of hardware originally built to test parts of NASA’s QuikScat satellite, the agency will launch the ISS-RapidScat instrument to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction.

The ISS-RapidScat instrument will help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring, and understanding of how ocean-atmosphere interactions influence Earth’s climate.

Artist’s rendering of NASA’s ISS-RapidScat instrument (inset), which will launch to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring. It will be installed on the end of the station’s Columbus laboratory. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

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NASA uses rubber chicken “Camilla” to break the ice with School Children

November 11, 2012 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – NASA has found a cure for a common phobia–the fear of asking “stupid” questions.

It’s not a pill. No therapy is required. The cure is a rubber chicken.

That’s right, school kids and even their teachers can find themselves tongue-tied when they come face to face with an astronaut or astrophysicist. This interferes with NASA’s mission to reach out, inspire, and educate. “But nobody’s afraid to talk to a rubber chicken,” says Romeo Durscher of Stanford University, executive secretary for a fowl NASA ambassador named “Camilla” who’s taking classrooms by storm.

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