NASA
Hurricane Earl… from space
What does a hurricane look like from orbit? This:
[Click for Corioliciousness.]
Pretty cool. Hurricane Earl was photographed by an astronaut aboard the space station on August 30. Earl is a massive hurricane barraging the east coast of the US. But from this oblique angle the storm bands blur together, giving the massive storm a smooth, almost serene look. Underneath it, I imagine, the situation looks much different.
Funny how, from space, so many things lose their immediacy, their violent nature, and become beautiful.
NASA Flies First Drone Over Hurricane
Hurricane Earl is waning as it moves northward up the east coast of the United States. Some of the first researchers to notice the weakening had front row seats, watching the eye of the hurricane via drone flights.
In addition to the usual cadre of satellites, NASA is using a small fleet of unmanned aircraft into, over and around the hurricane as it tracks north from the Caribbean. While flying into a hurricane is nothing new, Earl is the first hurricane that NASA has observed using their unmanned Global Hawk observation aircraft (pictured above).
Tether Maneuvers Spacecraft Without Fuel
The technology pushes against Earth's magnetic field for propulsion.
Exotic New Mars Images From Orbiting Telephoto Studio
NPR: Keeping Trapped Chilean Miners Sane (Featuring Discovery News)
In response to the article "Can NASA Help Trapped Chilean Miners?", Discovery News space producer Ian O'Neill was asked to appear as a guest on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" program.
NASA & ATK Turn Sand to Glass With DM-2 Test
The deserts of Promontory, Utah came alive with fire as NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) tested the Development Motor-2 (DM-2). The five-segment, first-stage of the Ares rocket was activated at 9:27 a.m. MDT on Aug. 31. The still morning air surrendered its silence to the sound of unleashed technological thunder. The surrounding countryside was bathed in the colors of flame as a huge plume of hot exhaust and smoke shot out the back of the solid motor. However, ATK was racking up another successful test – to a system with a future in doubt.(...)
Read the rest of NASA & ATK Turn Sand to Glass With DM-2 Test (831 words)
A Traffic Cop for Satellites
Satellite crashes may be rare, but when they happen, the impact can be long-lasting.
Can NASA Help Trapped Chilean Miners?
As NASA helps with the rescue effort, the psychological strain the Chilean miners are under may have more parallels with combat soldiers than astronauts.
NASA funds suborbital cruisers
William Pomerantz / X Prize Foundation
Armadillo Aerospace's Super-Mod craft rises into the sky during a 2009 flight that earned it a $500,000 share of the prize money in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
NASA says it's awarding about $475,000 to two of the pioneers of the suborbital spaceship business — Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace and California-based Masten Space Systems — for test flights that will approach the edge of outer space.
NASA Funds Experimental “Near Space” Vehicles
Armadillo Aerospace's SuperMod vehicle. Credit: William Pomerantz, Google Lunar X PRIZE
