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NASA is developing a “do-it-all” spacesuit that can traverse the moon, the planet Mars, or an asteroid. It seems as if the astronauts are trying to hit three birds with one stone with this next generation spacesuit. It’s called the  Z-1 prototype spacesuit, and yes, it’s designed for versatility. Whether it’s exploring alien surfaces or floating in space outside a space station, the Z-1 prototype can reportedly outlast the radiation in deep space. So, let’s take a closer look into the spacesuit.

First, it has a port that connects to a spacecraft for extravehicular activity and more air when used in low to zero atmosphere. Next are the materials used for the heavily engineered inner suit, which is built from a layer of urethane-coated nylon and polyester layer. And since the Z-1 prototype is built for versatility, it is outfitted with bearings on the hips, waist, upper legs, and ankles for mobility. “It’s like you’re trying to go on vacation, but you don’t know if you’re going to Antarctica, Miami, or Buckingham Palace,” Johnson Space Center spacesuit engineer, Amy Ross said. “We’re building a lot of tools for the toolbox. Right now we’re asked to be very flexible.”

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Waldo Canyon Fire scar viewed from space, Robotic garden could provide food and oxygen in Mars,

NASA is currently testing a prototype Z-1 spacesuit that looks more like a horrible, quasi-futuristic Ghostbusters and trash bag mash-up than an awesome suit that’s meant to be worn in Space. Why does it look like this? Because NASA has no idea where—Mars, an asteroid, the Moon—it’s headed next. More »

NASA has shown just what it can do with the short window of science allowed by its “sounding” or sensor-equipped suborbital rockets — having taken the sharpest pictures ever of the sun’s corona. A 460-pound telescope called the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was lofted for about 10 minutes into space, ample time for its mirrors to capture over 150 images of the solar fringe at 16-megapixels each, before parachuting back to earth. The scope shot exclusively in a sun-friendly high ultraviolet range and used innovative new optics consisting of an array of mirrors, allowing it to resolve the sun down to 135 miles. That bested the previous champ, NASA’s own Solar Dynamics Observatory, with almost five times the magnification. For maximum effect, the space agency took advantage of an unusually high amount of solar activity to focus on a large, active sunspot. To see the results in glorious multihued HD, check the video after the break.

Continue reading Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video)

Filed under: Science

Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Whether you’ve got your head in the clouds, or your feet firmly locked on terra firma (or is that terrorist firma?) the last seven days in Alt have something for you. We look at a massive aircraft, that could revolutionize air travel as we know it, as well as look back at a real-world project that heralded a significant shift even further up in the sky. There’s the NASA logo that never came to be, and lastly, for those less fond of heights, we hear how a US government department is heading in the other direction — albeit culturally — all in the fight against terror. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science, Internet

Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The International Space Station is set to get a new camera that will be tasked with observing Earth on ISS orbits. The camera system is called ISERV and will launch aboard the Japanese HTV-3 transfer vehicle this week. Once the camera reaches the ISS, it will be installed to allow researchers on the ground to control and acquire images of specific areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies.

ISERV Pathfinder is an imaging instrument that was designed and built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The spacecraft the camera is aboard will launch today at 10:06 PM from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The name ISERV stands for International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System.

The camera system will be installed in the Window Observational Research Facility inside the ISS Destiny laboratory. The camera is a modified commercial telescope driven by custom software that we use the Earth facing side window aboard Destiny to shoot pictures of the Earth’s surface and transmit the data to scientists on the ground. It appears that the camera portion is a standard DSLR camera from the photo.

New Earth observation camera called ISERV headed to ISS is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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