What you see here is some of the best footage shot from the front and back mounted cameras on one of the P-3B aircraft that runs NASA’s IceBridge missions. These vistas are from the spring mission over Greenland and the Arctic, but NASA’s going back for more this fall.
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It’s had a good run, but it seems like NASA’s Kepler telescope is down for the count — the space agency says it has stopped repair efforts. The 0.95 meter diameter space telescope launched four years ago, tasked with seeking out Earth-sized planets suitable for habitation. All was going well until the rig’s gyroscopic reaction wheels began to fail, robbing it of the precision aim needed to continue its task. After months of testing, NASA has concluded that it won’t be able to restore the telescope to full working order.
That doesn’t mean the mission is at an end, however — NASA still has to sort troves of previously collected data, thumbing through over 3,500 exoplanet candidates to add to the 135 celestial bodies Kepler has already identified. The hardware may one day see a second life too, as engineers attempt to assess what can be done with the remaining two reaction wheels and the telescope’s attitude control thrusters. Without significant (and now abandoned) repair efforts, Kepler will never be precise enough to continue its primary mission, but NASA is hopeful it will eventually find a new purpose.
Filed under: Misc
SpaceX‘s Grasshopper test rig for the Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle has stepped up its game, with Elon Musk’s private space company demonstrating that the rocket can now not only take off and land in a straight line, but track sideways as part of the maneuver. A vital talent if Grasshopper is to land safely […]
The Cold War was a crazy time. With the space race happening on one front and an arms race happening on another, the United States was constantly looking for ways to gain an advantage over the Soviets and were limited only by our creativity. And boy did we get creative.
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In June 2014, astronauts whizzing by high above us in the International Space Station may be able to print a highly detailed plastic Yoda head or, barring that, important parts that they may need while in orbit.
NASA has already designed and built their own additive manufacturing printer that has a build envelope of about a square foot. The video above shows just how they will use the printer and how they tested it in mircogravity. The printer will contain ready-made plans for common parts and they can also receive models from Earth if they need something special.
They will run the printer to make parts that “break or get lost” (where things can get lost of a space station is a different, far creepier matter) and they will be able to build various items in space to support experiments. In short, NASA now has the replication power of a 12th-grade classroom at a highly science-focused high school, which is pretty badass.
NASA recently announced that it plans to take a 3D printer into space in 2014
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Two North California sisters, inspired by a documentary, decided to make a Mars Rover by themselves with help from their dad Robert Beatty. Now, 13-year-old Camille Beatty’s and 11-year-old Genevieve’s remote-controlled replica of the Mars Spirit rover is being exhibited at the New York Hall of Science. Great job kids.
These two sisters have been tinkering with remote-controlled toys for awhile. They are a real dynamic duo and have made around 15 robots. They know what they are doing. Visitors of the exhibit can drive the rover on a simulated Martian surface and search for light-emitting rocks using the rover’s infrared camera, sonar sensors, thermal array sensor and other cool gizmos.
The point behind the project was to get kids interested in science. Well, this is one that will get both kids and adults interested in science.
[Beatty Robotics via Damn Geeky]
NASA has been testing 3D printing in space, and this is an interesting development because this could eventually lead to having the space agency “print” a number of replacement parts. Clearly, when you are in the space station, getting parts shipped to you is more than problematic since a launch to space can cost half a billion dollars. (more…)
NASA 3D-Printing Gets Closer To “Star Trek Replication” original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Watching the animation above, it’s hard not to get goosebumps when the the clock hits 2012 and the whole United States goes red. That’s what it looks like from space when the Earth is parched.
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No matter how wry your sense of humor or how pessimistic your outlook, you have to give into your human capacity for awe at some point. And it might as well be now because this photo is amazing. The spiral galaxy, M74, consists of about 100 billion stars and is 32 million light-years away if you’re headed toward Pisces. And I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we wish we were.
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