Monday, December 23

Tag: nasa

NASA confirms its space trash pierced Florida man’s roof
16Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

NASA confirms its space trash pierced Florida man’s roof

On March 8, a piece of space debris plunged through a roof in Naples, FL, ripped through two floors and (fortunately) missed the son of homeowner Alejandro Otero. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed the results of its analysis of the incident. As suspected, it’s a piece of equipment dumped from the International Space Station (ISS) three years ago.NASA’s investigation of the object at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral confirmed it was a piece of the EP-9 support equipment used to mount batteries onto a cargo pallet, which the ISS’ robotic arm dropped on March 11, 2021. The haul, made up of discarded nickel-hydrogen batteries, was expected to orbit Earth between two to four years (it split the difference, lasting almost exactly three) “before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere,” as NASA p...
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Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit
13Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit

The Victus Haze mission is more complicated than Victus Nox, involving two prime contractors, two spacecraft, and two rocket launches from different spaceports, all timed to occur with short timelines "to keep the demonstration as realistic as possible," a Space Force spokesperson told Ars."This demonstration will ultimately prepare the United States Space Force to provide future forces to combatant commands to conduct rapid operations in response to adversary on-orbit aggression," Space Systems Command said in a statement.Faith in Commercial Space"This is a really significant operational demonstration that is really pushing the envelope on technology and demonstrates a lot of faith in the US industrial base," Rogers said."Fundamentally, this is about characterizing an unknown capability ...
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The Best Total Solar Eclipse Photos (2024)
8Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

The Best Total Solar Eclipse Photos (2024)

The arrival of the total solar eclipse in the US has brought with it an impressive array of photographs as well. If you weren't able to find a spot to view the eclipse in person—or if it was stuck behind uncooperative clouds—you can at least get a sense of its grandeur through these photographs taken at different points along its journey.The path of totality began in Mexico on Monday morning, working its way up through Texas by early afternoon. By 4:40 pm ET, it will have left the US entirely and headed into Canada. If you're in or near its path, make sure to put on approved sunglasses—or make your own pinhole—to view it for yourself. And if you happen to have pets or live near wildlife, NASA could use a hand figuring out how animals respond to the eclipse.Otherwise, enjoy these incredibl...
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How to watch and record the total eclipse on Monday
8Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

How to watch and record the total eclipse on Monday

Weather Update, April 7, 4:00 AM ET: The weather forecast in the story below still largely holds, but things are more unsettled in the southern US, with forecasts now calling for thunderstorms from Dallas up to Indianapolis. So, keep that potential danger in mind (and keep an eye on forecasts) when making eclipse plans.Elsewhere, the best chance of good viewing along the path of totality is still in northeastern parts of the US (Buffalo, NY, Burlington, VT), along with southeast Canada (Niagara Falls and Montreal), according to Accuweather. In the Midwest (Cleveland), there's a higher chance of rain than before (58 percent), but no storms currently predicted.Original story continues belowOn April 8, a solar eclipse will darken the skies. This is a rare astronomical event: The last North A...
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One of these concept lunar vehicles could join NASA’s Artemis V astronauts on the moon
8Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

One of these concept lunar vehicles could join NASA’s Artemis V astronauts on the moon

Three companies are vying for the opportunity to send their own lunar vehicle to the moon to support NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. The this week that it’s chosen Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab to develop their lunar terrain vehicles (LTV) in a feasibility study over the next year. After that, only one is expected to be selected for a demonstration mission, in which the vehicle will be completed and sent to the moon for performance and safety tests. NASA is planning to use the LTV starting with the Artemis V crew that’s projected to launch in early 2030.The LTV that eventually heads to the moon’s south pole needs to function as both a crewed and uncrewed vehicle, serving sometimes as a mode of transportation for astronauts and other times as a remotely operated...
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How Will the Solar Eclipse Affect Animals? NASA Needs Your Help to Find Out
6Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

How Will the Solar Eclipse Affect Animals? NASA Needs Your Help to Find Out

In other anecdotes, onlookers have reported birds that stop singing, crickets that stopped chirping, or bees that return to their hive, reduce their foraging, or suspend their flight during total darkness. But there are also studies that deny that some of these behaviors occur or can be attributed to the eclipse.Therefore, NASA scientists plan not only to systematize observations but also to document what people hear and see under the shadow of the moon.“The Great North American Eclipse”NASA has created the Eclipse Soundscapes citizen science project to collect the experiences of volunteers. It was inspired by a study conducted nearly 100 years ago by William M. Wheeler and a team of collaborators. At that time, the Boston Natural History Society invited citizens, park rangers, and natura...
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The moon could get its own time zone. Here’s why.
6Apr By adminNo Comments
Money

The moon could get its own time zone. Here’s why.

NASA to decide the moon's time zone NASA to decide the moon's time zone 00:24 The moon could soon get its own time zone. The White House is directing NASA to work with other government agencies to develop a lunar-based time system called Coordinated Lunar Time, abbreviated as LTC. The Biden administration has given the space agency until the end of 2026 to hammer out the new system.According to a Tuesday memo from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, the goal is t...
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The White House tells NASA to create a new time zone for the Moon
3Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

The White House tells NASA to create a new time zone for the Moon

On Tuesday, The White House published a policy memo directing NASA to create a new time standard for the Moon by 2026. Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) will establish an official time reference to help guide future lunar missions. It arrives as a 21st-century space race emerges between (at least) the US, China, Japan, India and Russia.The memo directs NASA to work with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, and Transportation to plan a strategy to put LTC into practice by December 31, 2026. International cooperation will also play a role, especially with signees of the Artemis Accords. Established in 2020, they’re a set of common principles between a growing list of (currently) 37 countries that govern space exploration and operating principles. China and Russia are not part of that gro...
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Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars. Is that profitable?
13Dec By adminNo Comments
Technology

Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars. Is that profitable?

Austin, TX CNN Business  —  Elon Musk has spent nearly two decades rallying SpaceX fans around his goal of colonizing Mars, something world governments aren’t currently attempting — in part because of the unfathomable price tag such a mission will entail. Musk, the company’s CEO and chief engineer, refers to his interplanetary ambitions more like a sci-fi protagonist with a moral calling than an entrepreneur with a disruptive business plan. “If there’s something terrible that happens on Earth, either made by humans or natural, we want to have, like, life insurance for life as a whole,” Musk said during a virtual Mars conference on Aug. 31. “Then, there’s the kind of excitement and adventure.” ...
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NASA’s Kathy Sullivan and advances in orbital personal hygiene
8Oct By adminNo Comments
Technology

NASA’s Kathy Sullivan and advances in orbital personal hygiene

For the first couple decades of its existence, NASA was the epitome of an Old Boys Club; its astronaut ranks pulled exclusively from the Armed Services' test pilot programs which, at that time, were exclusively staffed by men. Glass ceilings weren't the only things broken when Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Margaret "Rhea" Seddon and Shannon Lucid were admitted to the program in 1978 — numerous spaceflight systems had to be reassessed to accommodate a more diverse workforce. In The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, journalist Loren Grush chronicles the numerous trials and challenges these women faced — from institutional sexism to enduring survival training to navigating the personal pressures that the public life of an astronaut entails — i...
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