The Full Experience: NASA, Marshall, and Arkansas Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse By Celine Smith More than 100,000 people from across the world gathered April 8 in Russellville, Arkansas, to witness an astronomical syzygy – the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth – creating a solar eclipse with totality lasting 4 minutes and 12 seconds. […]
The PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission has delivered its first operational data back to researchers, a feat made possible in part by innovative, data-storing technology from NASA’s Near Space Network, which introduced two key enhancements for PACE and other upcoming science missions. As a satellite orbits in space, its systems generate critical data […]
Riding in the back seat of a car can be boring. Riding in the back of a NASA aircraft is exhilarating, especially for photographers capturing NASA’s story. Jim Ross, photo lead at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, was awarded first place for an image he took while flying upside down in a […]
NASA Engineer Cindy Fuentes Rosal waves goodbye to a Black Brant IX sounding rocket launching from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The rocket was part of a series of three launches for the Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission to study the disturbances in the electrified region of Earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The rockets launched before, during, and after peak local... Читать дальше...
NASA announced the winners on Wednesday of the third annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the power of radioisotopes for space exploration. The competition asked students to learn about NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), “nuclear batteries” the agency uses to explore some of the most extreme […]
In anticipation of Earth Day, NASA invites media to a briefing at the agency’s headquarters on Friday, April 19, at 11 a.m. EDT. The event will share updates on NASA’s climate science and early data from the agency’s ocean-watching PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission, as well as reveal upcoming Earth airborne missions. The […]
Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, floods, and tornados can dramatically change the surface of Earth to the point where alterations are visible in space. Changes driven by human actions and interventions, such as mining and deforestation, are also visible in satellite imagery. For over 50 years, NASA’s Landsat satellites have recorded our planet’s changing surface. […]
NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts. In May 2023, scientists discovered that NICER had developed a “light leak.” Unwanted sunlight was entering the instrument […]
Engineers at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, have combined all 10 mirrors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Preliminary tests show the newly aligned optics, collectively called the IOA (Imaging Optics Assembly), will direct light into Roman’s science instruments extremely precisely. This will yield crisp images of space once the observatory launches. “This […]
This composite image shows the dazzling phases of the total solar eclipse, seen above the Flight Research Building at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on April 8, 2024. Glenn was the only NASA center in the eclipse path of totality, plunging into darkness for nearly four minutes as the face of the Sun was […]
The final downlink shift by the Ingenuity team was a time to reflect on a highly successful mission — and to prepare the first aircraft on another world for its new role. Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in […]
Deep space exploration requires a paradigm shift in astronaut medical support toward Earth-independent medical operations. Currently, astronauts rely on real-time communication with ground-based medical providers. However, as the distance from Earth increases, so do communication delays and disruptions. Deep space exploration crews will need to autonomously detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent medical conditions. One potential […]
Spaceflight Atrophy Studied with Machine Learning Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria Found on ISS Mutating to Become Functionally Distinct On-demand Nutrient Production System for Long-duration Missions A Clinical Decision Support System for Earth-independent Medical Operations in Space
On-demand nutrient production system for long-duration missions When astronauts embark on long space missions, they’ll need to grow their own food because pre-packaged meals from Earth lose their nutritional value over time. The BioNutrients project at Ames Research Center’s Space Biosciences Division has solved this problem by using genetic engineering to create microbially-based food that can […]
Background: Even intense exercise by astronauts cannot compensate for muscle atrophy caused by microgravity. Atrophy occurs, in part, by way of an underlying mechanism that regulates calcium uptake. Recent research has shown exposure to spaceflight alters the uptake of calcium in muscles. However, the molecular mechanisms that drive these changes are not well studied. Researchers […]
In a new scientific paper funded by an Ames Space Biology grant, Principal Investigator Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory strains of the bacterial species Enterobacter bugandensis isolated from the International Space Station (ISS) were studied. Thirteen strains of E. bugandensis, a bacterium notorious for being multi-drug resistant, were isolated from the ISS. […]
After investigating the high-standing bedrock at the Bunsen Peak workspace deep within the Margin Unit, the unique nature and composition of this rock was deemed worthy for collection of Perseverance’s 24th rock core sample, Comet Geyser! Bunsen Peak is named after a prominent peak in Yellowstone National, Park, Wyoming, USA, and the namesake for Comet […]
NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments. “Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next […]
BioNutrients-3 Kefir Growth Experiment Completed During Analog Astronaut Mission From March 4 to 9 at the Hawaiian Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) located on Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island, NASA Ames Scientist Katie Fisher participated as Mission Commander for the 6-day lunar analog. During the mission, she collaborated with the Synthetic Biology […]
NASA will host two media opportunities on Thursday, April 25, in preparation for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. The mission is targeting launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni […]