Tag: NASA
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Science journal gives New Horizons mission to Pluto its day in the sun
NASA’s New Horizons probe captured this backlit image of Pluto as it flew past the dwarf planet on July 14. Scattered sunlight reveals numerous haze layers within Pluto’s thin atmosphere, while the surprisingly diverse surface landscape indicates ongoing geological activity. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The first peer-reviewed scientific paper about the New Horizons probe’s…
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New Horizons’ Pluto pictures reveal a weird blue glow – and water ice!
A picture from NASA’s New Horizons probe reveals the blue color of Pluto’s atmospheric haze, as seen in a backlit view. Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI The latest pictures from NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto reveal for the first time that the backlit dwarf planet is surrounded by a beautiful blue glow –…
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Mars orbiter shows why ‘The Martian’ movie trek would be even riskier
A picture from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the area of Acidalia Planitia where the fictional Ares 3 mission landed in “The Martian.” (Credit: NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona) Marooned astronaut Mark Watney takes a harrowing trek from Mars’ Acidalia Planitia to Schiaparelli Crater in “The Martian,”…
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Former astronaut: NASA ‘certainly not dead, but they are lost at the moment’
Former astronaut Ed Lu (right) at the 2015 GeekWire Summit. Former NASA astronaut Ed Lu, who logged more than 206 days in space over his career, said there are a lot of interesting things going on in space exploration right now — they’re just not coming from the organization you would expect. “It [NASA] is…
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Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space
Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver chats with Alan Boyle on stage during the 2015 GeekWire Summit. If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want to discover a blue planet around an alien sun, there’s a good chance it could happen within five…
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Destination Phobos: ‘Humans Orbiting Mars’ report goes public
An artist’s conception shows as astronaut’s-eye view of Mars from Phobos, one of its moons. (Credit: Planetary Society) The nonprofit Planetary Society has laid out a detailed blueprint for sending astronauts to the Martian moon Phobos in 2033 and then touching down on Mars itself beginning in 2039. The blueprint released Tuesday is based on a “Humans…
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NASA veteran Lori Garver on space: The ‘endless’ frontier for commercial ventures
During her stint as NASA’s deputy administrator, Lori Garver visited Seattle’s Museum of Flight in 2011 for a NASA Future Forum. (Credit: Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight) Former NASA official Lori Garver’s resume is filled with highlights from politics and government service – going back to John Glenn’s presidential campaign – but when it comes to…
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Mars mystery solved? Dark streaks linked to salty water trails
These dark streaks, shown flowing downhill in a false-color image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. (Credit: NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona) For years, scientists have puzzled over dark streaks that appear and disappear on the surface of Mars – and now they’re confident enough…
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NASA study: Flying air taxis could be as cheap as an Uber ride, and faster
An artist’s conception shows a vertical-takeoff craft rising from an urban helipad, using a distributed electric propulsion system. (Credit: Joby Aviation via YouTube) Taking a ride on a flying air taxi could become as cheap as taking an Uber ride, and get you where you’re going in a third of the time, according to a NASA concept…
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Interview: Seattle girls launch a balloon spacecraft to the edge of space, and NASA takes note
Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung at GeekWire this week. Our guests on the GeekWire radio show this week are Rebecca Yeung, 10, and Kimberly Yeung, 8 — two sisters from Seattle who built a spacecraft out of wood, broken arrow shafts and a high-altitude balloon, sending it to the edge of space this past weekend. Their project — and…