Mapex

Archive for September, 2010

NASA on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded a sole source contract for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo.

The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to altitudes above 60,000 feet — twice as high as a commercial airliner — and as far as 11,000 nautical miles — half the circumference of Earth. Operators pre-program a flight path, and then the plane flies itself for as long as 30 hours, staying in contact through satellite and line-of-site communications to the ground control station at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California’s Mojave Desert. Image Credit: NASA/Tony Landis

The International Space Station partner agencies met Tuesday, Sept. 21, by videoconference to discuss continuation of space station operations into the next decade and its use as a research laboratory.

What does a scientist do to visualise a space journey? Build a model, of course. A model of Europe’s Rosetta comet-chaser made out of LEGO® blocks started out in this small way and has grown into a high-fidelity Rosetta Lander Education Kit.

In preparation for its last planned mission to the International Space Station, shuttle Discovery was lowered onto its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lift and mate operation began Sept. 9 and wrapped up early Sept. 10. On Sept. 21, 2010, Discovery completed its last planned trip to the launch pad at 1:49 a.m., leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building at about 7:23 p.m. on the slow, 3.4-mile crawl to the pad. Discovery, the oldest of NASA’s three active orbiters, first launched Aug. 30, 1984, on STS-41D and is being readied for the STS-133 mission to station. Liftoff is targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT. Image Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Snow melt in the Colorado River basin is occurring earlier, reducing runoff and the amount of crucial water available downstream.

NASA has selected IAP World Services Inc. in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to provide facilities maintenance services at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

ESA PR 2010-21 The International Astronautical Congress will open in Prague on 27 September. Joining the world’s major space players, ESA will participate with experts in a rich and varied programme.

Whether you are a professional athlete or just enjoy physical exercise, instant data on your performance can improve your training. With help from ESA, a Spanish firm has developed a smart ‘e-shirt’ to measure and transmit key body information during exercise.

In the cold vacuum of space, radiation from massive stars carves away at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures. These pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, are located in the Carina Nebula. Violent stellar winds and powerful radiation from massive stars sculpt the surrounding nebula. This image of dust pillars in the Carina Nebula is a composite of 2005 observations taken of the region in hydrogen light (light emitted by hydrogen atoms) along with 2010 observations taken in oxygen light (light emitted by oxygen atoms), both times with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The immense Carina Nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Project (STScI/AURA)