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    Pluto Flyby: Through the Eyes of an Early Career Scientist

    Today’s post is from Marcus Piquette, a third-year graduate student in the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Marcus is a part of the Particle and Plasmas Theme Team working on the Student Dust Counter aboard New Horizons. Hello, I’m a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado in Boulder; …

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    ISS Daily Summary Report – 01/28/16

    Story Time from Space:  Peake read “Science on the Space Station” from the book Max Goes to the Space Station,” discussed the subject on camera and demonstrated the scientific principles involved.  Kelly obtained pictures of Peake while he was reading the book with the Cupola in the background.  The video recording will be downlinked to …

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    Day of Remembrance as Spacewalk Preps and Cygnus Work Move On

    Astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra

    Today, NASA remembers the sacrifice of the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Columbia and Challenger. Mission Control Center in Houston and the crew aboard the International Space Station observed a moment of silence and Commander Scott Kelly sent down a few words memorializing the lost astronauts. The six residents aboard the space station …

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    ISS Daily Summary Report – 01/27/16

    Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken (BASS-M):  Yesterday Kopra completed reconfiguration of the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Facility and started setup of hardware for BASS-M.  Today he completed the BASS-M setup.  During the setup, there was an issue with the data from the power/video unit.  He was able perform troubleshooting and recover the data, …

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    Student Satellites Prepped for Deployment from Japanese Lab

    Astronaut Scott Kelly and Tim Peake

    The six Expedition 46 crew members today prepared for the deployment of a pair of nanosatellites, loaded trash in the Cygnus cargo craft and reviewed timelines and procedures for a Feb. 3 spacewalk. The International Space Station will also raise its orbit ahead of March’s crew swap and cargo delivery activities. Commander Scott Kelly and …

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    ISS Daily Summary Report – 01/26/16

    Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken (BASS-M) Preparation:  In preparation for BASS-M operations this week, Kopra reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Facility and installed Smoke Point In Co-flow Experiment (SPICE) hardware into the MSG work volume.  He will perform the BASS-M ignitor test tomorrow, prior to BASS-M sample testing.  The BASS-M investigation tests …

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    Station to Boost Orbit Ahead of March Crew Swap

    The Green and Red Hues of an Aurora

    The International Space Station will raise its orbit Wednesday afternoon before a pair of crews swap places and a cargo ship arrives in March. One-year crew members Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos are set to return home March 1 along with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov. Then, Expedition 47 will begin and …

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    January Puzzler

    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 […]

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    Four Graphics (and a Book) that Help Explain Climate Change

    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 […]

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    ISS Daily Summary Report – 01/25/16

    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 …

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