nasa

NASA’s latest Earth Observing System satellite—Aqua—is dedicated to advancing our understanding of Earth’s water cycle. Launched on May 4, 2002, Aqua has successfully completed its checkout period and is fully operational. Using multiple instruments, Aqua data and images are crucial toward improving our knowledge of global climate change. The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is one of six on board the Aqua satellite. CERES detects the amount of outgoing heat and reflected sunlight leaving the planet. A detailed understanding of how clouds affect the energy balance is essential for better climate change predictions. These Aqua images show CERES measurements over the United States from June 22, 2002. Clear ocean regions, shown in dark blue on the left image, reflect the least amount of sunlight back to space. Clear land areas, shown in lighter blue, reflect more solar energy. Clouds and snow-covered surfaces, shown in white and green, reflect the greatest a...

NASA is looking a little long in the tooth compared to the European Space Agency. Monday, NASA will launch a long-awaited repair mission to install improved instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope, originally launched in 1990. Thursday, the Europeans will launch two much more advanced telescopes (right) that can see photons in a much wider infrared wavelength than the optical light that Hubble sees. The Europeans’ one-up-manship comes as the White House announced a major review of NASA operations, to be completed by August, that threatens serious changes in the way NASA does business. Norman Augustine, the head of the review panel, announced as much Thursday, CBS News’ William Harwood reported. I think one of the chronic problems NASA’s encountered over the years has been that it usually had more programs than it had money. That can be dangerous when you’re doing something as difficult as NASA does. So as we go through this evaluation, if we were to find there were reasons th...

While the Senate Judiciary Committee grills Judge Sonia Sotomayor over her speeches if not her decisions, the full Senate confirmed President Obama’s choice to head NASA, former astronaut Frank Bolden, The Register reports. In accepting, he called for a renewed commitment to “technological leadership”: Today, we have to choose. Either we can invest in building on our hard-earned world technological leadership or we can abandon this commitment, ceding it to other nations who are working diligently to push the frontiers of space.” If we choose to lead, we must build on our investment in the International Space Station, accelerate development of our next generation launch systems to enable expansion of human exploration, enhance NASA’s capability to study Earth’s environment, lead space science to new achievements, continue cutting-edge aeronautics research, support the innovation of American entrepreneurs, and inspire a rising generation of boys and girls to seek careers in scien...

Space websites around the world are abuzz with speculation about what NASA's latest Mars probe may have found. The excitement has been triggered by a report in the journal Aviation Week that the space agency alerted the White House to "major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the 'potential for life' ". Jon Clarke, a geologist with Mars Society Australia, a group dedicated to Martian exploration, said the report had triggered a frenzy of interest. "Chat groups are all speculating about what it is," Dr Clarke said. "We have had emails flying backwards and forwards. Something is certainly in the breeze." The magazine reports that the discovery was made by a Phoenix experiment package called the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyser, or MECA, which is designed to mix Martian soil with water brought from Earth. In June NASA revealed the instrument had found Martian soil was not toxic, as had been thought, and could be used t...

Today is one of the rare times that I post a photo that I did not take. This incredible capture of our planet is in response to the comment PSpotter left on yesterday's entry. Have a great weekend. ____________ NASA's latest hi-res image of Earth. Download more of this at: visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=2429 This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Ima...

Jul 27, 2009 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Randy Zwirn is chief executive officer of Siemens Energy Inc., the Orlando-based Americas headquarters for German-based Siemens AG's power-generation business. Zwirn spoke with Sentinel staff writer Kevin Spear. <SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4335.TradingMarkets/B3742436.14;abr=!ie;sz=300x250;click0=http://oascentral.tradingmarkets.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.tradingmarkets.com/L22/412373146/Middle1/Trademkt/LightSpeed07-0909-300x250/300x250LightSpeed07-0909-startup072209.html/646649772b5570756d55774142502f79?;ord=412373146?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://oascentral.tradingmarkets.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.tradingmarkets.com/L22/412373146/Middle1/Trademkt/LightSpeed07-0909-300x250/300x250LightSpeed07-0...

July 28th, 2009 by Chris Bergin With NASA authorization language already being drawn up behind the scenes by Congress, Augustine Commission ISS/Shuttle subgroup lead Dr Sally Ride – along with several key NASA and United Space Alliance (USA) managers – have embarked on a major push to extend the shuttle program, linking the move with the allowance for the International Space Station (ISS) to operate until 2020. Shuttle Extension: Efforts to extend the shuttle program past 2010 have been ongoing for over a year, with the main concern relating to the ever-growing gap between the last flight of the shuttle and the first operation flight of Orion via Ares I. Currently, the shuttle is set to be retired in the middle of 2010, although due to the natural stretch in the shuttle manifest, the remaining seven flights are threatening to push the current schedule into 2011. See Also Downstream Shuttle Missions L2 Shuttle Extension Section) L2 Ar...

In a word - oil in the form of huge potential reserves with Chinese companies involved in discovering them. Washington's genocide claim is a hoax. Yet it's trumpeted by the media and foolhardy celebrities used as props for the charade. By 2007, China was getting up to 30% of its oil from Africa prompting its "extraordinary series of diplomatic initiatives that left Washington furious" and determined to respond. Beijing offers African countries "no-strings-attached dollar credits" compared to exploitive IMF and World Bank terms. It paid off with important oil deals with Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan's Darfur region. China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) is now Sudan's largest foreign investor, around $15 billion in the past decade, and it co-owns a refinery near Khartoum. It also built an oil pipeline from southern Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea from where tankers ship it to China. With its need for oil growing at around 30% a year, China...

CHEYENNE -- This fall, 12 schools in Laramie County School District 1 will have new principals, assistants or associate principals. Royce Backman replaces Mike Hamel as associate principal at Johnson Junior High. Hamel is the principal of Cheyenne's new South High. Backman has been an assistant principal at Johnson Junior High for seven years. His new salary is $91,802. He was assistant principal Rawlins Middle and taught K-12 music in Cokeville. He earned his bachelor's degree in music education from Utah State University and a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Wyoming. He and his wife, LaDonna, have two sons and two daughters. Don Brantz is the new principal at Arp Elementary. He replaces Janet Materi, who retired and will be the new principal at St. Mary's Catholic School this fall. Brantz's new salary is $99,373. He worked at Carey Junior High for 17 years. He was a full-time assistant principal for five years and two years par...