Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The January 2016 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer can be […]
Though blizzards and cold snaps may have made you forget the news from last week, 2015 was the warmest year in NASA’s global temperature record, which dates back to 1880. During a January 2016 press conference (see the slides here), Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, explained that 2015 was 0.87 degrees C (1.57°F) above the 1951-80 […]
Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Zero Robotics Competition: Kelly and Kornienko set up the SPHERES hardware and executed the SPHERES Zero Robotics tests with participation from students on the ground. The SPHERES Zero Robotics investigation establishes an opportunity for high school students to design research for the ISS. As part of a …
The Expedition 46 crew brought out a pair of tiny satellites today so students can compete for the best algorithm in an ongoing competition. The crew also checked spacesuits, transferred cargo and worked on lab maintenance. One-Year Crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko set up a pair of bowling ball-sized satellites in Japan’s Kibo …
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will conduct the first ever NASA Reddit Ask Me Anything from space to help everyone understand what it means to spend a year in space. A year is a long time to live without fresh air, gravity and human contact from loved ones. While science is at the core of Kelly’s …
Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) Setup Part 2: Kelly attempted the final setup for the ELF facility. He was only able to connect one of four Quick Disconnects (QDs) due to accessibility. Ground teams are reviewing downlinked imagery to determine the next steps to complete connection of the MTL and Gaseous Nitrogen (GN2) supply and return …
Three Expedition 46 astronauts continued more eye checks today to study how living in space affects vision. Their cosmonaut counterparts prepared for a spacewalk, met for an inventory conference and worked on Russian science experiments. Commander Scott Kelly joined British astronaut Tim Peake today for ultrasound scans on their eyes. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra also …
Ocular Health: Kopra and Peake performed their Flight Day 30 Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to measure retinal thickness, and this afternoon conducted fundoscopy measurements to obtain images of the retinal surface. By systematically gathering physiological data to characterize the risk of microgravity-induced visual impairment/intracranial pressure in ISS crewmembers, the Ocular Health experiment will give a …
The graphic below illustrates the five planets as they are visible, with the naked eye, from Huntsville, Alabama. It shows their positions in the sky around 6:30 AM during the week of January 18 and continuing for the next few days. Mercury will be close to the Sun, over in the East, and Jupiter will …
The Expedition 46 crew of two U.S. astronauts, one British astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts practiced their emergency response skills today in conjunction with the Mission Control Centers in Houston and Moscow. The station residents also continued more human research to improve crew health while moving along with preparations for a Feb. 3 spacewalk. The …
