Researchers studied effects of lighting interventions, stress and fatigue monitoring on crew performance. The 105-Day Mars Mission aimed to improve work performance in a realistic setting.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final testing before its anticipated November launch. The mission aims to study the sun in unprecedented detail and its effects on Earth, collecting 1.5 terabytes of data daily.
Researchers believe that Galileo's notebooks from 1613 may reveal evidence of his discovery of a new planet, which is now known as Neptune. The planet was observed by Galileo as a faint star near Jupiter and moved relative to an actual nearby star.
Researchers found water ice on Mars with temperatures similar to those on Earth, suggesting past liquid water and potential life. The Phoenix mission revealed subsurface ice and weather patterns comparable to those on our planet.
The Phoenix Mars Mission provided new details about Mars' water history, including patterns in the ground near the landing site and surprising findings of perchlorate. Researchers discovered ice at varying depths and observed daily weather changes, revealing clues to Martian soil chemistry.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has entered lunar orbit, marking a crucial milestone for the mission, which aims to compile high-resolution maps of the lunar surface and survey it at various spectral wavelengths.
The MMS mission will investigate magnetic reconnection, a fundamental process that impacts technologies like communications and power grids. The four observatories will be deployed in a pyramid configuration to study the phenomenon near the boundary between Earth's magnetosphere and solar wind.
A new study by Imperial College London aims to use a technology initially developed for the ExoMars mission to process unconventional energy resources. The technique involves using surfactants to liberate organic matter from rock, potentially unlocking an enormous impact on the UK and global economy.
Freedman, Kennicutt, and Mould's work resolves decades-long debate on the Hubble constant, revealing the universe is 14 billion years old. This finding enables scientists to estimate the density of the universe and understand its fate.
Magnetic blast waves can pinpoint and predict the location where space storms dissipate energy, which is equivalent to 50 gigawatts of power or 10 large power stations. The eye of the storm is located in space beyond low-Earth orbits, providing advance warning of arrival.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite captured rainfall totals of over 900 mm in southern Luzon due to Tropical Storm Kujira and around 150 mm in northern Luzon from Typhoon Chan-hom. The TRMM-based Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis system provides near-real-time data for monitoring global Tropics.
The CU-Boulder instrument, part of NASA's Hubble Servicing mission, will probe the universe's evolution from its perch on the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists aim to reconstruct the physical conditions and evolution of the early universe by gathering information from ultraviolet light.
The NRL's SoloHI instrument will provide revolutionary measurements to pinpoint solar storms, offering a pristine view of the solar wind plasma. The Solar Orbiter mission aims to understand how the sun varies and its impact on planetary systems.
Florida Institute of Technology professors Ming Zhang and Hamid Rassoul receive a $411,000 NASA grant to investigate the physics of particle transport in the distant heliosphere. The IBEX spacecraft mission will observe particles from beyond Pluto's orbit, providing insights into cosmic rays and future human space travel.
Researchers led by William Krabill are flying over Greenland to measure ice sheet and glacier thickness, using a combination of laser and radar instruments. The mission aims to update measurements from the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and provide critical data on the future behavior of the Greenland ice sheet.
The Solar Orbiter mission will explore the Sun's plasma properties and composition using the SPICE instrument, advancing our knowledge of the Sun's dynamics. The data will help understand the effects on Earth and the solar system.
The GOCE satellite will study global ocean currents, ocean topography, and the structure of the Earth's crust with unprecedented precision. The satellite's high-resolution gravity mapping will enhance our understanding of climate change.
The new medical center will be a 289-bed facility featuring a children's hospital with urgent/emergency care, a women's hospital for cancer care, and adult cancer patients' hospital. The project is expected to create over 1,000 jobs during peak construction and boost local employment.
Kepler will observe a broad region of the summer-time sky using a photometer to measure the brightness of stars. The mission aims to determine the number of Earth-like planets in the galaxy by watching for tiny flickers in starlight that could indicate a planet passing in front.
The IBEX spacecraft is mapping the outer solar system using ENA imaging, creating global maps of interactions between the solar wind and interstellar medium. Researchers will study this region to address challenges facing manned exploration, including galactic cosmic ray radiation.
The new short film 'Return to the Moon' showcases NASA's legacy of lunar exploration using data from the Apollo and LRO missions. The film features a six-foot sphere displaying stunning imagery, allowing viewers to witness the moon's surface and understand the rationale for returning to it.
A team of CU-Boulder students and professionals will operate the Kepler spacecraft from launch, monitoring onboard systems and uploading commands twice a week. The mission aims to identify small, rocky planets in habitable zones, fueling growing excitement among space scientists.
Astrophysicist Neil Gehrels receives the Henry Draper Medal for his groundbreaking work on gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. His leadership of NASA's Swift Mission has significantly advanced astronomers' understanding of these phenomena.
A team from the University of Iowa launched two NASA rockets that flew through an auroral curtain, collecting data on the structural subtleties of the aurora. The ACES mission will provide insight into current models of aurora structure and help refine them.
Researchers are sending worms to the International Space Station to study muscle atrophy in zero gravity. The goal is to understand why astronauts experience dramatic muscle loss and potentially develop new treatments for muscle wasting diseases.
The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded a $6 million grant from NASA to build the Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX), a high-tech lunar dust detector. The instrument will provide new information on lunar dust interactions with the moon's atmosphere and solar wind, as well as astronaut safety issues.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is hosting medical mission trips in Central and South America to provide reconstructive surgery to children born with cleft lip and palate. The trips aim to not only repair the physical condition but also restore their lives by educating local physicians.
The Hubble Space Telescope is set to undergo its fifth and final service mission, which will provide the telescope with a future as bright as its past despite being nearly 18 years into troubled beginnings. The repairs will upgrade instruments, replace gyroscopes and heat shields, and add new capabilities for deeper observations.
Researchers found that the DE3 tide can propagate above 100km and exhibits a 2-year cycle oscillation. The tidal signal was analyzed using TIMED mission data, revealing two dominant Hough modes with annual unimodal distribution.
University of Idaho engineers have developed unique new technology that will be used in NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission and Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. The technology includes advanced data compression and channel coder algorithms, increasing science data return and protecting data fidelity.
The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) successfully completed a comprehensive Mission Operations Readiness Review, assessing its operational readiness and progress to launch. The review determined that NPP's overall operations readiness is sound, with strengths and weaknesses identified but no major issues found.
SHIMMER successfully observed Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) during the northern season of 2008, measuring diurnal variation with a single peak per day. The observation is unique among satellites that have studied PMCs and has important implications for inferring long-term trends from historical space-based observations.
BioServe is launching two educational experiments involving butterflies and spiders on a space shuttle mission in November. The experiments will compare the life cycles of butterflies and spiders in space to those on Earth, with over 100 K-12 students from Colorado participating.
CSIRO research scientist Dr John Bunton is to receive a NASA Space Act Board Award for his work on a novel 'beamformer' capable of providing a live video link from Mars. His design involves dividing video signal data into narrow channels and summing the data from all 400 antennas to reconstruct a broadband signal.
The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and capture images of processes taking place at the farthest reaches of the solar system. The spacecraft will provide scientists with a new understanding of the global interaction between our sun and the galaxy.
The NASA Glory mission aims to measure airborne particles more accurately from space, shedding light on the aerosol effect on climate change. Participants can send their names on a microchip that becomes part of the spacecraft, with a deadline for submission set for Nov. 1, 2008.
A RAND Corporation study found that U.S. Army units can gain tactical and strategic advantages by better managing environmental issues during deployments, which can influence local support for the mission and overall success. The study recommends giving more weight to environmental considerations in planning and operations.
Boston University's John T. Clarke leads an engineering and astronomy team on NASA's MAVEN mission to study Martian atmosphere changes. The team aims to solve the mystery of Mars' lost atmosphere, exploring possibilities of water's escape or freezing into the planet's crust.
CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has been selected by NASA to lead the $485 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission. The MAVEN spacecraft will study Mars' upper atmosphere, solar wind, and ionosphere to determine its past climate and potential life.
An international team of engineers is developing mission-critical control software for future European robotic space missions. The project aims to improve the reliability of control systems required for autonomous rendezvous of satellites.
The GLAST Mission Operations Center (MOC) at NASA Goddard is responsible for several aspects of the GLAST mission, including command planning and monitoring the Large Area Telescope's health and safety. The observatory is commanded from MOC and is receiving high-quality data, enabling optimal science return.
The High-Resolution Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (SXS) will investigate dark matter, galaxy formation, and explore the nature of matter in extreme environments. NASA's Explorer Program Mission of Opportunity has awarded $44 million for the instrument and operations.
The University of Colorado at Boulder returned nearly $3 million in cost savings to NASA for the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite mission. The SORCE mission, launched in 2003, was controlled from CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and provided critical measurements of solar variation.
A team of scientists is living and working at 60 feet below the sea surface for an eight-day mission to investigate ways to improve coral reef restoration. They are transplanting corals into shallow and deep sites to study how different species respond to stressors.
The Phoenix Mars Mission will investigate the Martian environment, searching for signs of climate cycles and microbial life. The spacecraft will collect soil and ice samples and analyze them to understand the Red Planet's history.
A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins University used data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft and multiple telescopes to observe the high winds in Jupiter's Little Red Spot. The winds have increased substantially over previous storms, with maximum speeds reaching 384 miles per hour, surpassing Category 5 storm thresholds.
The OSTM/Jason 2 satellite will monitor global sea-level rise and study ocean circulation and its links to Earth's climate. The mission aims to improve weather and climate forecasts, providing better seasonal predictions and near-real-time data on ocean conditions.
Researchers mapped large arc-shaped depressions on Jupiter's moon Europa, indicating a shift of 80° in its rotational axis. The findings suggest the presence of an internal liquid ocean, which could support life, and provide independent evidence for this possibility.
The Solar Probe mission will study the streams of charged particles emitted by the sun, exploring the processes that heat its corona and produce solar wind. The spacecraft will zip past the sun at speeds up to 125 miles per second, gathering data on magnetic fields, energy flow, and energetic particle formation.
The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will study the gamma-ray sky in unprecedented detail, revealing extreme astrophysical processes like pulsars and supermassive black holes. The mission aims to comprehend the origin and distribution of dark matter.
Researchers from the University of Maryland and Max-Planck Institute found that Jupiter's outermost ring is extended beyond Thebe's orbit due to dust particles' electric charges interacting with the planet's magnetic field. This phenomenon affects any planet's rings, shedding light on planetary formation.
Scientists from the University of New Hampshire and University of Maine are heading to Denali National Park on an ice core expedition to gather climate records from glaciers in the Alaska wilderness. The mission aims to provide a comprehensive picture of regional climate variability in the Arctic, spanning 2,000 years.
A NASA satellite mission led by MIT Professor Dara Entekhabi will provide global soil moisture data, essential for accurate weather forecasts and understanding the global carbon cycle. The Soil Moisture Active-Passive mission (SMAP) aims to create a new perspective on how water, energy, and carbon cycles work together.
Three postdoctoral researchers have been chosen to support innovative research on the Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) mission. The program aims to stimulate new ideas and approaches to enhance the scientific return of GLAST, surveying the high-energy sky with unprecedented sensitivity.
A new discovery at Jupiter could help protect Earth-orbiting satellites by understanding how electrons are accelerated within the planet's magnetic field. The research found that very low frequency radio waves can accelerate electrons up to high energies inside Jupiter's magnetic field, similar to the way they do on Earth.
Researchers at the University of Maryland are applying a new approach, Science 2.0, which integrates hypothesis-based inquiry with social science methods to study human use of computers and digital networks. This method aims to improve applications in homeland security, medical care, and the environment.
The Pope has expressed support for scientific theories such as evolution and climate change, with the Vatican sponsoring a conference on climate change in 2006. However, he has not altered the church's opposition to using condoms to prevent HIV transmission or supporting abortion rights. In contrast, some progressive Catholics and cler...
BepiColombo, a joint ESA-JAXA mission, will make the most comprehensive study of Mercury ever, revealing its composition, magnetosphere, and origin. The mission consists of two spacecraft: MPO and MMO, carrying instruments to study the planet's surface and internal structure.
Brown students and faculty will analyze data from MESSENGER spacecraft, exploring Mercury's surface composition, geological history, and magnetic field
The Hubble servicing mission, scheduled for August 2008, aims to equip the telescope with new instruments, including the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and Wide Field Camera 3. These upgrades will enhance Hubble's capabilities to explore the universe, studying dark matter, dark energy, and planetary atmospheres.