Tag Archives: Space Travel

Technology: “A Bridge Above – 20 Years Of The International Space Station” (NASA Video)

“What if we built a bridge, between and above all nations, to jointly discover the galaxy’s great unknowns?” Join us this fall as we prepare to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the the International Space Station. As a global endeavor, 240 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory, which has hosted more than 2,800 research investigations from scientists in over 100 nations.

The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. The ISS program is a multi-national collaborative project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. It is an international collaborative effort between multiple countries.

Top New Science Podcast: UAE’s New Mars Mission, ‘Enhanced Weathering’ & Mexico’s Deep Caverns

Nature PodcastOn this week’s podcast, an ambitious Mars mission from a young space agency, and how crumbling up rocks could help fight climate change. 

In this episode:

00:46 Mars hopes

In a few weeks the UAE’s first mission to Mars is due to launch. We speak to the mission leads to learn about the aims of the project, and how they developed the mission in under six years. News Feature: How a small Arab nation built a Mars mission from scratch in six yearsNews Feature: Countdown to Mars: three daring missions take aim at the red planet

09:53 Research Highlights

Pluto appears to be losing its atmosphere, and solving the mystery of a pitch-black prehistoric mine. Research Highlight: Goodbye, Pluto’s atmosphereResearch Highlight: Why ancient people pushed deep into Mexico’s pitch-black caverns

12:12 Climate rocks

Researchers have assessed whether Enhanced Weathering – a technique to pull carbon dioxide out of the air – has the potential to help battle climate change. Research Article: Beerling et al.

18:41 Briefing Chat

We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we talk about an outbreak of flesh-eating bacteria in Australia, and how flatworms can regrow their nervous systems. The Atlantic: Australia Has a Flesh-Eating-Bacteria ProblemThe New York Times: A Worm’s Hidden Map for Growing New Eyes

New Astronomy Books: “Expanding Universe – The Hubble Space Telescope”

With investigations into everything from black holes to exoplanets, the Hubble Telescope has changed not only the face of astronomy but also our very sense of being in the universe. On the 30th anniversary of its launch into low-earth orbit, this updated edition of Expanding Universe presents 30 brand new images, unveiling more hidden gems from the Hubble’s archives.

Expanding Universe - The Hubble Space Telescope - Taschen June 2020

Ultra-high resolution and taken with almost no background light, these pictures have answered some of the most compelling questions of time and space while also revealing new mysteries, like the strange “dark energy” that sees the universe expanding at an ever-accelerating rate.

The collection is accompanied by an essay from photography critic Owen Edwards and an interview with Zoltan Levay, who explains how the pictures are composed. Veteran Hubble astronauts Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and John Mace Grunsfeld also offer their insights on Hubble’s legacy and future space exploration.

The contributors

Charles F. Bolden, Jr., Major General, USMC (Ret.), is a former Administrator of NASA, where he oversaw the completion of the International Space Station. He spent 14 years as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, and commanded and piloted the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-31, which launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

Owen Edwards has written about photography for more than 30 years for numerous publications including American PhotographerNew York Times Magazine, and Smithsonian.

John Mace Grunsfeld, PhD, is an astrophysicist and a NASA astronaut. He has flown five times on the Space Shuttle, including three Hubble servicing missions. He has served as the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, the NASA Chief Scientist, and as the Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Zoltan Levay is a retired principle science visuals developer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where he worked with astronomers and communicators worldwide to publicize science results from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

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Space Exploration: NASA Goddard “Modernizing For The Future” (Video)

“We are modernizing Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and its six sites for the future. A comprehensive Facilities Master Plan is an essential element in developing a blueprint for the future of our Center. Goddard recognizes the importance of fostering a work environment that is enjoyable, rewarding and aligned with meeting the challenges of tomorrow. The Master Plan will develop the infrastructure to support our business goals and missions, inform future investment decisions and respond to the growth and diversity of our mission and customer requirements. Its content will be informed by site visits, stakeholder interviews and workshops at all campuses, starting at the Greenbelt campus. This will be followed by similar efforts at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas, White Sands Complex in New Mexico, Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in West Virginia.Goddard’s master plan process is scheduled to continue through 2021.

Website: https://www.nasa.gov/goddard

50th Anniversary Of Apollo 11: “The Moon Miracle” By Thom Gibbs Is A Spectacular Chronology

From a Telegraph.co.uk online article by Thom Gibbs:

The Moon Miracle by Thom Gibbs The Telegraph Chronology 2The first question is often ‘why haven’t we been back?’ Fifty years since humans stepped onto the surface of a foreign planetary body there has not been another event to rival it. Not in space, nor back here on Earth.
There have been enormous leaps forward. The Large Hadron Collider, the internet, the fidget spinner, but there is no match for the romance of our first moonshot. It is quite possibly the only achievement of our time which will be remembered centuries from now.
The audacity and aesthetics of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins’s journey still resonate. Their mission was so perilous that Richard Nixon had a speech drafted in the event the astronauts did not come home. “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace,” it read. “These brave men… know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”
The Moon Miracle by Thom Gibbs The Telegraph Chronology

Apollo 11 Tributes: “Landing On Airwaves” Recounts Media Impact Of 1969 Lunar Landing (Video)

Directed: Jonathan Napolitano
Produced: Brian Bolster, Jonathan Napolitano, Kayleigh Napolitano
Executive Producer: Matthew A. Stewart
Associate Producers: Elizabeth J. Davis, Chris Harder, Vinnoth Krishnan, Mo Scarpelli
Edited: Jonathan Napolitano
Title Animation: Maggie Noble
Music: Cemeteries

Landing On Airwaves Apollo 11 Landing on Moon 1969 Short Film

On July 20, 1969, an estimated 530 million people from around the world watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on television.

Website: https://www.jonathan-napolitano.com/

Future Travel: NASA Seeking To Land People On Moon By 2024 (Podcast)

From Nature.com podcast on July 10, 2019:

Nature PodcastNick Howe catches up with planetary science reporter, Alex Witze. They discuss the latest US plans to land people on the moon by 2024, the history of the Apollo missions, and what’s next for the lunar exploration.