Tag: NASA
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Mars orbiter shows why ‘The Martian’ movie trek would be even riskier
A picture from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the area of Acidalia Planitia where the fictional Ares 3 mission landed in “The Martian.” (Credit: NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona) Marooned astronaut Mark Watney takes a harrowing trek from Mars’ Acidalia Planitia to Schiaparelli Crater in “The Martian,”…
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Former astronaut: NASA ‘certainly not dead, but they are lost at the moment’
Former astronaut Ed Lu (right) at the 2015 GeekWire Summit. Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who logged more than 206 days in space over his career, said there are a lot of interesting things going on in space exploration right now — they’re just not coming from the organization you would expect. “It [NASA] is…
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Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver chats with Alan Boyle on stage during the 2015 GeekWire Summit. If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want to discover a blue planet around an alien sun, there’s a good chance it could happen within five…
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Destination Phobos: ‘Humans Orbiting Mars’ report goes public
An artist’s conception shows as astronaut’s-eye view of Mars from Phobos, one of its moons. (Credit: Planetary Society) The nonprofit Planetary Society has laid out a detailed blueprint for sending astronauts to the Martian moon Phobos in 2033 and then touching down on Mars itself beginning in 2039. The blueprint released Tuesday is based on a “Humans…
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NASA veteran Lori Garver on space: The ‘endless’ frontier for commercial ventures
During her stint as NASA’s deputy administrator, Lori Garver visited Seattle’s Museum of Flight in 2011 for a NASA Future Forum. (Credit: Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight) Former NASA official Lori Garver’s resume is filled with highlights from politics and government service – going back to John Glenn’s presidential campaign – but when it comes to…
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Mars mystery solved? Dark streaks linked to salty water trails
These dark streaks, shown flowing downhill in a false-color image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. (Credit: NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona) For years, scientists have puzzled over dark streaks that appear and disappear on the surface of Mars – and now they’re confident enough…
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NASA study: Flying air taxis could be as cheap as an Uber ride, and faster
An artist’s conception shows a vertical-takeoff craft rising from an urban helipad, using a distributed electric propulsion system. (Credit: Joby Aviation via YouTube) Taking a ride on a flying air taxi could become as cheap as taking an Uber ride, and get you where you’re going in a third of the time, according to a NASA concept…
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Interview: Seattle girls launch a balloon spacecraft to the edge of space, and NASA takes note
Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung at GeekWire this week. Our guests on the GeekWire radio show this week are Rebecca Yeung, 10, and Kimberly Yeung, 8 — two sisters from Seattle who built a spacecraft out of wood, broken arrow shafts and a high-altitude balloon, sending it to the edge of space this past weekend. Their project — and…
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Dwarf planet Ceres’ puzzling ‘pyramid’ mountain gets close-up from NASA’s Dawn probe
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft spotted this tall, conical mountain on Ceres from a distance of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The mountain, located in the southern hemisphere, stands 4 miles (6 kilometers) high. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA) NASA’s mission to that other dwarf planet, Ceres, has delivered a fresh…
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Pluto, we have a problem: Some geographical names may not fly on official maps
The heart-shaped area that’s prominent in this New Horizons picture of Pluto is known as Tombaugh Regio. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) Some of the best-known names on Pluto — ranging from the Sputnik plains to the Hillary and Norgay mountains and the dark Cthulhu Regio — may never appear on the International Astronomical Union’s maps,…