Tag: NASA
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NASA joins forces with DARPA on effort to demonstrate nuclear rocket for Mars trips
An artist’s conception shows a nuclear-powered demonstration rocket in space. (DARPA Illustration) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has taken on NASA as a partner for a project aimed at demonstrating a nuclear-powered rocket that could someday send astronauts to Mars. DARPA had already been working with commercial partners — including Blue Origin, the space…
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InSight’s importance: Seismic measurements, new terrain highlight ground-breaking mission
NASA’s InSight lander, formally known as the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport mission, wrapped a four-year scientific expedition on Mars in December 2022 after the lander succumbed to low power levels. Throughout its mission, InSight studied Mars extensively, collecting a plethora of ground-breaking science on the planet’s interior and exterior geologic…
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Webb peers at young star’s dusty disk, discovers an exoplanet, and uncovers star formation
At the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on Jan. 11, three teams presented research that utilized the capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The first team used Webb to observe the dusty disk surrounding a young red dwarf star, the second to discover an exoplanet, and the third used the telescope’s…
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Dragonfly mission heads toward PDR, element fabrication from Lockheed Martin set to begin
Dragonfly, NASA’s unique robotic exploration mission using a rotorcraft to fly a science laboratory around the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, is continuing to march through its preliminary design steps. Rotor design and testing for the craft as well as Preliminary Design Reviews (PDRs) from Lockheed Martin on the subsystem portions of their contracted elements…
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InSight Principal Investigator talks Mars lander’s final days
On Dec. 21, 2022, NASA announced that its InSight lander mission on Mars had ended after efforts to regain contact with the spacecraft failed. InSight did not respond to communications beginning on Dec. 18, 2022. The end of the mission capped an intrepid science mission that lasted just over four years, which was two years…
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NASA’s Webb Space Telescope scores big at America’s premier astronomy meeting
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this infrared view of NGC 346, a dynamic star cluster that lies within a nebula 200,000 light-years away. Science credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA). Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Nolan Habel (USRA), Laura Lenkić (USRA), Laurie E. U.…
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NASA provides funding for way-out space proposals, including a flying boat for Titan
Artwork shows a probe flying through the skies of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. (Image via Quinn Morley) NASA says it’ll distribute up to $2.45 million to 14 teams in support of experimental projects that would be right at home in the pages of a science-fiction novel — including a plan to send a flying…
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From Artemis to Webb, take a look back — and a look ahead — at the year’s top trends in aerospace
An image of the galaxy NGC 7469 in the midst of star formation serves as this season’s “holiday card” from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (ESA / Webb, NASA & CSA / L. Armus, A.S. Evans) A few years from now, we just might look back at 2022 as Year One for a new age…
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New spacecraft, new firsts, new hardware – International Space Station wraps up a busy and historic 2022
2022 has marked another busy chapter for the International Space Station (ISS). Along with its constant plethora of scientific and engineering experiments, the Station saw the first docking of Starliner, the all-private Axiom-1 mission, and new hardware installed to increase the lifespan of humanity’s collaborative space laboratory. The year onboard the Station began during Expedition…
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US spacewalk to install fourth iROSA completed after debris avoidance maneuver
Two NASA astronauts conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Dec. 22, to install a fourth new iROSA (ISS Roll-Out Solar Array). The Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) follows a previous one on Dec. 2 that installed the third iROSA. The second EVA of the pair was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21, but…