Search results for "nasa"

One of the busiest work stations on the International Space Station got a major upgrade recently, and it already has saved dozens of hours on a variety of experiments for crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory.The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) is a sealed and enclosed work area installed in the U.S. Destiny lab on the space station, and is about the size of a 70-gallon fish tank.

Nearly 50 years after British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell discovered the existence of rapidly spinning neutron stars, NASA will launch the world’s first mission devoted to studying these unusual objects. The agency also will use the same platform to carry out the world’s first demonstration of X-ray navigation in space.

Scientists have found compelling evidence for a stratosphere on an enormous planet outside our solar system. The planet's stratosphere-a layer of atmosphere where temperature increases with higher altitudes-is hot enough to boil iron. WASP-121b, located approximately 900 light years from Earth, is a gas giant exoplanet commonly referred to as a "hot Jupiter."

In each life a little rain must fall, but in space, one of the biggest risks to astronauts’ health is radiation 'rain'. NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) is simulating space radiation on Earth following upgrades to the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. These upgrades help researchers on Earth learn more about the effects of ionising space radiation, to hel...

The Medtronic Micra is the smallest pacemaker currently available. It’s so small that it’s delivered via a catheter and attached to the endocardium of the heart, where its internal battery paces the heart for years. It’s certainly an incredible piece of technology, but a high school student had a wild idea of testing whether such a fine piece of electronics can withstand a flight into space.

NASA hopes to send a manned mission to Mars in the mid-2030s. On a planet where temperatures can fall to -125ºC generating energy presents a key challenge and new techniques are about to be tested. The best equipment needs the people to use it, so resilience experiments are also under way.To tackle the challenge of energy generation, NASA will test two-meter high reactors, developed as part of the ‘Kilopower’ project, in the Neva...

NASA has moved forward with a plan to develop a refrigerator-sized spacecraft capable of deflecting asteroids and preventing them from colliding with Earth.The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is being designed and would be built and managed by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. NASA approved a move from concept development to the preliminary design phase on June 23.

Burned Area Emergency Response teams— they may be one of most important parts of wildfires that you've probably never heard of. As the last flames of a raging wildfire are being contained, these BAER crews begin safeguarding lives, property, and natural resources threatened by additional perils that fires create."Wildfire reduces or removes vegetation and ground cover protecting forest soils," said Mary Ellen Miller, a research engineer fro...

As NASA's Parker Solar Probe spacecraft begins its first historic encounter with the sun's corona in late 2018-flying closer to our star than any other mission in history- a revolutionary cooling system will keep its solar arrays at peak performance, even in extremely hostile conditions.

It takes a year for the Earth to revolve around the Sun, and without that Sun there would be no Earth or us.The Sun plays a vital role in our existence and yet we know so little about it, until now. In 2018 ESA is sending a Solar Orbiter into space which will be equipped with a thick heat shield.