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A boat lies anchored off the coast of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands. Global positioning system (GPS) signals to boats – and all GPS receivers -- in this region can be disrupted by over a half a mile when there is turbulence in a layer of charged particles in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. A NASA sounding rocket will launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in spring 2013 to study what causes these disturbances.
Credit: NASA
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A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will launch from an atoll in the Pacific this spring. The mission will help scientists better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere that can negatively affect satellite communication and global positioning signals.
The mission, called EVEX, for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment, will launch into a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. Called the ionosphere, this layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves – such as those sent down to the ground by global positioning system (GPS) satellites or, indeed, any satellite communicating with Earth – travel. The ionosphere begins about 60 miles above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere. Governed by Earth’s magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.
EVEX will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere above the South Pacific. This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous evenings, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more. The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed. Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.
The launch window for EVEX is from April 27 to May 10. The team will decide when to fly based on conditions in the ionosphere on any given night.
Read more at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/news/evex.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold photographed a massive storm in the Pacific Ocean during a flyover from the International Space Station. Arnold shared images on social media on Aug. 22, 2018, and wrote, "#HurricaneLane in the early morning hours near #Hawaii. The crew of the @Space_Station sends much aloha to everyone there." via NASA August 22, 2018
NASA engineers closed a summer of successful hot fire testing Aug. 30 for flight controllers on RS-25 engines that will help power the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket being built to carry astronauts to deep-space destinations, including Mars. via NASA go.nasa.gov/2gtj4bZ
The U.S. is committed to exploring space and supporting STEM education to inspire future leaders. From December 14-16, NASA's Astronaut Office Chief, Joseph M. Acaba, made an inspiring historic visit to Dhaka, sparking enthusiasm for space robotics and STEM among young minds. From interactive sessions with students to meaningful discussions with NASA Space App Challenge contestants, he inspired a new generation of space pioneers, paving the way for future collaborations between the U.S. and Bangladesh in advancing global science and technology. [Photo by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS)]
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover can be seen at the "Pahrump Hills" area of Gale Crater in this view from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Pahrump Hills is an outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp. The region contains sedimentary rocks that scientists believe formed in the presence of water. The location of the rover, with its shadow extending toward the upper right, is indicated with an inscribed rectangle. Figure A is an unannotated version of the image. North is toward the top. The view covers an area about 360 yards (330 meters) across. HiRISE made the observation on Dec. 13, 2014. At that time, Curiosity was near a feature called "Whale Rock." A map showing the rover's path for the weeks leading up to that date is at ift.tt/1DeDac2 . The inset map at ift.tt/16owOdk labels the location of Whale Rock and other features in the Pahrump Hills area. The bright features in the landscape are sedimentary rock and the dark areas are sand. The HiRISE team plans to periodically image Curiosity, as well as NASA's other active Mars rover, Opportunity, as the vehicles continue to explore Mars. This image is an excerpt from HiRISE observation ESP_039280_1755. Other image products from this observation are available at ift.tt/16owPha . The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona via NASA ift.tt/1BUWhDB
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is pictured inside of the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft while conducting routine spacesuit checks. The Expedition 49 trio of Rubins, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin are scheduled to undock their Soyuz on Saturday, Oct. 29, and land at 11:59 p.m. EDT. via NASA ift.tt/2fnNzOH
Taking part in the Safari 2000 project in Pietersburg, South Africa
SAFARI 2000 – Pietersberg, 2000
The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) project was an international science initiative to study the linkages between land and atmosphere processes conducted from 1999-2001 in the southern African region. In addition, SAFARI 2000 examined the relationship of biogenic, pyrogenic, and anthropogenic emissions and the consequences of their deposition to the functioning of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa.
During September 2000 NASA flew an ER-2 out of Polokwane, also known as Pietersburg. The ER2 carried a number of imaging instruments and was accompanied by low level in situ measurements conducted from a University of Washington C-580. Flying took place over South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. The project was supported and supplied by a USAF C-141 and K -135 from March AFB. The single seater ER-2 flew across the Atlantic from Recife Brazil.
daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dataset_lister.pl?p=18
All Photos: Courtesy of Frank Eckardt
Taking part in the Safari 2000 project in Pietersburg, South Africa
SAFARI 2000 – Pietersberg, 2000
The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) project was an international science initiative to study the linkages between land and atmosphere processes conducted from 1999-2001 in the southern African region. In addition, SAFARI 2000 examined the relationship of biogenic, pyrogenic, and anthropogenic emissions and the consequences of their deposition to the functioning of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa.
During September 2000 NASA flew an ER-2 out of Polokwane, also known as Pietersburg. The ER2 carried a number of imaging instruments and was accompanied by low level in situ measurements conducted from a University of Washington C-580. Flying took place over South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. The project was supported and supplied by a USAF C-141 and K -135 from March AFB. The single seater ER-2 flew across the Atlantic from Recife Brazil.
daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dataset_lister.pl?p=18
All Photos: Courtesy of Frank Eckardt
Lt. Governor Miller Tours the NASA Goddard Campus by Patrick Siebert at 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771
NASA’s first completed Orion crew module sits atop its service module at the Neal Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew and service module will be transferred together on Wednesday to another facility for fueling, before moving again for the installation of the launch abort system. At that point, the spacecraft will be complete and ready to stack on top of the Delta IV Heavy rocket that will carry it into space on its first flight in December. For that flight, Exploration Flight Test-1, Orion will travel 3,600 miles above the Earth – farther than any spacecraft built to carry people has traveled in more than 40 years – and return home at speeds of 20,000 miles per hour, while enduring temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Image Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak via NASA ift.tt/1CJrrBE
The Rosetta Mission lander is safely on a comet. One of Philae's feet appears at the bottom left of this spectacular image of the surface of C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Still a happy lander, Philae bounced twice before settling and returning images from the surface, traveling a kilometer or so after initially touching at the targeted site Agilkia. A surface panorama suggests that the lander has come to rest tilted and near a shadowing wall, with its solar panels getting less illumination that hoped. Philae's science instruments are working as planned and data is being relayed during communications windows, when the Rosetta spacecraft is above the lander's new horizon. via NASA ift.tt/1BlG3cf
From where do these neutrinos come? The IceCube Neutrino Observatory near the South Pole of the Earth has begun to detect nearly invisible particles of very high energy. Although these rarely-interacting neutrinos pass through much of the Earth just before being detected, where they started remains a mystery. Pictured here is IceCube's Antarctic lab accompanied by a cartoon depicting long strands of detectors frozen into the crystal clear ice below. Candidate origins for these cosmic neutrinos include the violent surroundings of supermassive black holes at the centers of distant galaxies, and tremendous stellar explosions culminating in supernovas and gamma ray bursts far across the universe. As IceCube detects increasingly more high energy neutrinos, correlations with known objects may resolve this cosmic conundrum -- or we may never know. via NASA ift.tt/1KZafJn
Why is this galaxy so thin? Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866, pictured above, but are not seen edge-on from our vantage point. One galaxy that is situated edge-on is our own Milky Way Galaxy. Classified as a lenticular galaxy, NGC 5866 has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark and red, while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue underlying hue. The blue disk of young stars can be seen extending past the dust in the extremely thin galactic plane, while the bulge in the disk center appears tinged more orange from the older and redder stars that likely exist there. Although similar in mass to our Milky Way Galaxy, light takes about 60,000 years to cross NGC 5866, about 30 percent less than light takes to cross our own Galaxy. In general, many disk galaxies are very thin because the gas that formed them collided with itself as it rotated about the gravitational center. Galaxy NGC 5866 lies about 50 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Dragon (Draco). via NASA ift.tt/1LR5053
This guy would do a patrol every time a major step was taken in the preparation process. That's a gunner hanging out the side. Kinda freaky the first time you notice it.
Taking part in the Safari 2000 project in Pietersburg, South Africa
SAFARI 2000 – Pietersberg, 2000
The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) project was an international science initiative to study the linkages between land and atmosphere processes conducted from 1999-2001 in the southern African region. In addition, SAFARI 2000 examined the relationship of biogenic, pyrogenic, and anthropogenic emissions and the consequences of their deposition to the functioning of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa.
During September 2000 NASA flew an ER-2 out of Polokwane, also known as Pietersburg. The ER2 carried a number of imaging instruments and was accompanied by low level in situ measurements conducted from a University of Washington C-580. Flying took place over South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. The project was supported and supplied by a USAF C-141 and K -135 from March AFB. The single seater ER-2 flew across the Atlantic from Recife Brazil.
daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dataset_lister.pl?p=18
All Photos: Courtesy of Frank Eckardt
Astronaut Stephanie Wilson visits Austin Community College on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, as part of NASA’s Destination Station tour, which provides guests the opportunity to explore the history of space exploration and learn about NASA’s work to provide technological advances to improve life on Earth.
Lt. Governor Miller Tours the NASA Goddard Campus by Patrick Siebert at 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Honestly, I have no idea what this is. I was busy boggling while it was being described. Something to do with the Ares rocket, maybe? But it's freaking huge.
Images from NASA Tweetup for STS-129 Atlantis Shuttle Launch.
Taking part in the Safari 2000 project in Pietersburg, South Africa
SAFARI 2000 – Pietersberg, 2000
The Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) project was an international science initiative to study the linkages between land and atmosphere processes conducted from 1999-2001 in the southern African region. In addition, SAFARI 2000 examined the relationship of biogenic, pyrogenic, and anthropogenic emissions and the consequences of their deposition to the functioning of the biogeophysical and biogeochemical systems of southern Africa.
During September 2000 NASA flew an ER-2 out of Polokwane, also known as Pietersburg. The ER2 carried a number of imaging instruments and was accompanied by low level in situ measurements conducted from a University of Washington C-580. Flying took place over South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia. The project was supported and supplied by a USAF C-141 and K -135 from March AFB. The single seater ER-2 flew across the Atlantic from Recife Brazil.
daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dataset_lister.pl?p=18
All Photos: Courtesy of Frank Eckardt
The U.S. is committed to exploring space and supporting STEM education to inspire future leaders. From December 14-16, NASA's Astronaut Office Chief, Joseph M. Acaba, made an inspiring historic visit to Dhaka, sparking enthusiasm for space robotics and STEM among young minds. From interactive sessions with students to meaningful discussions with NASA Space App Challenge contestants, he inspired a new generation of space pioneers, paving the way for future collaborations between the U.S. and Bangladesh in advancing global science and technology. [Photo by U.S. Embassy Dhaka]