Hasta La Gadget!

A couple of weeks ago, NASA announced that it would be conducting a live Google+ Hangout from the International Space Station today starting at 10:30 am ET. Of course, the space agency is sticking to their promise and have officially started the Hangout, which means you can watch live as astronauts answer all your hankering questions.

Astronauts Kevin Ford, Tom Marshburn, and Chris Hadfield are answering questions from now until approximately 11:30 am ET. The team is answering both pre-recorded questions sent in via YouTube, as well as live questions from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and of course Google+. We’ve embedded the live stream below for your viewing pleasure.

The deadline for submitting video questions has already passed, but you can still submit live questions via social media sites using the #askAstro hashtag, but don’t be upset if the astronauts don’t end up getting to your question — we’re sure they have thousands of other questions to pick from.

Overall, it should be an interesting talk with the astronauts, who will mostly discuss what it’s like in space, and what it’s like to feel weightless in zero gravity. Of course, if you follow soon-to-be ISS commander Chris Hadfield on Twitter, he usually provides sneak peeks inside the ISS every once in a while.

NASA’s ISS Google+ Hangout is live right now is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Scientists and researchers all around the world are constantly looking at our universe and trying to learn new details about our solar system and what’s going on beyond our solar system in the universe. Recently researchers from MIT published the results of an experiment that demonstrates that Mercury may have had an ocean of magma on its surface. The experiment demonstrated that Mercury could have had its lava ocean approximately 4,000,000,000 years ago.

During the study, the scientists looked at data gathered by the NASA Messenger probe concerning the composition of Mercury’s surface. During the study, the scientists were interested to find that the surface of Mercury is composed of two massively different rock compositions. The scientists began an investigation to determine what geological process could’ve made the surface be comprised of two such fundamentally different types of rock.

The researchers then use the data from Messenger to reconstruct two different types of rock found on Mercury and then subjected those rocks to different temperatures and pressures allowing them to simulate processes the could’ve occurred on the surface of Mercury. The scientists say that after their experiments they determined that the only process that could have occurred on the surface of Mercury that would’ve caused such radically different types of rock would have been if the planet once had an ocean of magma on its surface.

Timothy Grove, a geologist from MIT, said that the process would’ve occurred billions of years ago because Mercury’s crust is “probably more than 4 billion years old.” Scientists estimate that the magma ocean on the surface of Mercury would’ve existed during the first 10 million years after Mercury’s formation. While using a geological experiment to explain a finding on the surface of the planet is not unheard of, it is rather uncommon in the astronomy world.

[via Forbes]

Mercury once boasted an ocean of boiling hot magma says researchers is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NASA’s Kepler telescope is permanently on the lookout for celestial objects of interest, and its latest discovery is a small one. A small planet, to be exact — in fact, the smallest its encountered during its search. Kepler-37b is a tad larger than our heavenly dance partner, the Moon, and whizzes round a star much like our Sun, with two larger planets in its system for company. NASA’s issuing back pats all round, as finding Kepler-37b has highlighted “the precision of the Kepler instrument” (although admittedly, the star’s behavior was favorable), and suggests there are many more humble worlds of similar size awaiting our detection. It’s unlikely any aliens call Kepler-37b home: it’s thought to be rocky, with no atmosphere, and hugs its sun in a 13-day orbit cycle, meaning surface temperature is terribly high. Still, an achievement for Kepler, no doubt, but what we really want it to find is a planet home to beings who can explain the plot-line of Prometheus. We’re still a little confused.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: The Verge

Source: NASA

There are certain things you’d expect to encounter on a visit to NASA’s Swamp Works research facility. Walking into the former Apollo testing facility, you’ll almost certainly catch glimpses of martian rovers, soil samples and an assortment of scientific testing devices. But in spite of Arduino’s near ubiquity these days, we’ll admit that we were a bit taken aback when the familiar blue microcontroller made an appearance on a lab desk during our conversation with NASA “lighting guy,” Dr. Eirik Holbert. It seems that NASA, like pretty much everyone else, is experimenting with the hacker-friendly component.

The board was hooked up to a lighting fixture Holbert is working on as part of NASA’s upcoming deep space habitat concept generator. It’s an attempt to bring some sunlit consistency to space exploration, simulating Earth-like lighting patterns to help keep the crew alert and get them ready for sleep in the evenings. So, where does NASA turn when it’s looking to conserve weight and save some taxpayer money in the process? Toward the Arduino Uno, naturally. Holbert assembled a number of off-the-shelf products, including the aforementioned microcontroller and shields from Sparkfun to make a fixture for under $500.

Asked whether we might be seeing an Arduino setup like this on an upcoming mission, Dr. Holbert told us, “I’m all about interchangeability. If they can make something space compatible, I’d be all for it.”

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NASA has announced that it briefly lost contact with the International Space Station on Tuesday. The ISS was out of contact with ground controllers after some sort of computer problem blocked communications. NASA says that the computer issue lasted just under three hours.

The ISS commander said that the space station and crew was fine during the communications blackout. The communications problem stemmed from a software update that flight controllers in Houston were uploading to the space station’s flight computers. During the upload, the space stations data relay system broke down.

NASA says that the primary computer designed control critical station functions defaulted to a backup computer but the space station was unable to communicate. The space station has to be able to communicate with the NASA Tracking and Data Relay satellites to communicate with ground controllers. NASA reports that flight controllers in Houston were able to communicate with the ISS as the space station flew over Russian ground control stations.

Ground controllers told the ISS crew at the time to connect to a backup computer and begin restoring communications. Apparently, all functions onboard the ISS are normal at this time. There are currently six astronauts aboard the space station including two Americans, three Russians, and a Canadian.

[via The Hindu Business Online]

NASA lost communication with the ISS due to computer problems is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.