Here’s an article about the Space Project album mentioned here earlier: The Sounds of Space, in Indie Music – Science Friday
And here are two of the songs on the album:
Category Archives: Space participation
NASA declares winners in annual Moonbuggy races held in Huntsville
NASA held its latest NASA Rover Challenge in Huntsville, Alabama on Friday and Saturday:
NASA today declared the winners of the first NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge, held April 11-12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. Student racers from the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology in Reno, Nev., claimed first place in the high school division; the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao Team 2 won the top prize in the college division.
First place, college race: University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, Team 2.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton
They raced to victory against 70 high school, college and university teams from 19 states, Puerto Rico, Germany, India, Mexico and Russia. All told, more than 500 students — drivers, engineers and mechanics, plus team advisers and “cheering sections” — took part in the competition.
The winning teams posted the fastest vehicle assembly and race times in their divisions, with the fewest on-course penalties. The team from the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology finished the half-mile course in 3 minutes, 37 seconds. The University of Puerto Rico at Humacao Team 2 finished in 4 minutes, 9 seconds. In addition to the winning trophy, first-place teams received a cash prize of $3,000, courtesy of The Boeing Co. of Huntsville.
First place, high school race: Academy of Arts, Careers & Tech, Reno, Nev.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton
Finishing in second place in the high school division was Team 2 from the Vocational High School Teodoro Aguilar Mora in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. In third place was the International Space Education Institute team from Moscow, Russia. Southern Illinois University Carbondale Team 2 won second place in the college division and Team 1 from the school finished in third place. (For a complete list of additional awards for design, most improved and spirit, see below.)
Organized by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and building on two decades of competitive student innovation in the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race (held in the “Rocket City” from 1994-2013), the new event challenges students to design, build and race lightweight, human-powered roving vehicles, solving technical problems along the way just like NASA engineers must do.
Those NASA engineers are paying attention: Students’ most innovative vehicle and hardware designs could help inform NASA’s own development of rovers and other space transportation systems for future exploration missions across the solar system.
Video streaming by Ustream
One of several videos from the event.
Just as importantly, the experience is designed to provide the future workforce to realize those new missions, inspiring students to pursue careers in the technical “STEM” fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — so crucial to the agency’s endeavors.
The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge is sponsored by the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and organized by the Marshall Center’s Academic Affairs Office. Major corporate sponsors for the race are The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Aerojet Rocketdyne, Jacobs Engineering ESSSA Group, and Northrop Grumman Corp., all with operations in Huntsville.
Full replays of the race will be available in coming days on the Marshall Center’s official UStream site, where Marshall Center media personnel and television crews provided continuous, streaming coverage of the event: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc
For more information about the race, visit: www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge
Race enthusiasts are encouraged to follow the annual event via social media channels: www.facebook.com/roverchallenge and www.twitter.com/roverchallenge
For information about other NASA education programs, visit: http://education.nasa.gov
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Continue to list of award winners.
Contests: Name Cassini’s final phase + The 2014 Mars Society poster winner
The Planetary Society opens a new contest to provide a cool name for the orbital gymnastics the Cassini spacecraft will do in the final phase of its mission at Saturn : Help name the last phase of the Cassini mission! – The Planetary Society
The name “proximal orbits” is a Vulcan-sounding phrase, all logic and science. But getting this science is going to take navigational bravery of which Captain Kirk would be proud. To help the public understand just how cool this part of the mission is going to be, the Cassini team is asking the public to learn about Cassini’s final phase and then weigh in on a name for the final phase that has more punch to it. You can either cast a vote for one of the team’s suggestions, or write in your own.
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Meanwhile, the Mars Society selects a winner of its poster contest:
Winner of 2014 Mars Society Poster Contest Announced
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Mars Society Poster Contest is Scott Porter, a Ph.D. student studying architecture at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Each participant (12 in total) in this year’s competition was required to submit a poster design that best represented the theme – ‘Blazing the Path to Mars’ – for the 17th Annual International Mars Society Convention, to be held August 7-10 in League City, Texas (just outside Houston).
In addition, the Mars Society would like to express its appreciation to the second and third place winners – Jamie Polancic and Miguel Cooper (respectively). The organization would also like to recognize two additional artists for honorable mention – Katarina Eriksson Marka and Joseph Sweeney.
To view the winning poster as a PDF document, please click here.
OSIRIS-REx to return sample of asteroid Bennu
The OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission has gotten the green flag to begin building the hardware in preparation for launch in the fall of 2016. It will reach the asteroid Bennu in 2016 and return a sample from its surface in 2023.
You can send your name to the asteroid by participating in the Messages to Bennu! project at The Planetary Society.
Here is a press release from NASA about OSIRS-REx project:
Construction to Begin on NASA Spacecraft
Set to Visit Asteroid in 2018
This is an artist’s concept of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft
preparing to take a sample from asteroid Bennu.
preparing to take a sample from asteroid Bennu.
Image Credit: NASA/Goddard
NASA’s team that will conduct the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid has been given the go-ahead to begin building the spacecraft, flight instruments and ground system, and launch support facilities.
This determination was made Wednesday after a successful Mission Critical Design Review (CDR) for NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). The CDR was held at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colo., April 1-9. An independent review board, comprised of experts from NASA and several external organizations, met to review the system design.
“This is the final step for a NASA mission to go from paper to product,” said Gordon Johnston, OSIRIS-REx program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. “This confirms that the final design is ready to start the build-up towards launch.”
OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2016, rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023. The spacecraft carries five instruments that will remotely evaluate the surface of Bennu. After more than a year of asteroid reconnaissance, the spacecraft will collect samples of at least 2 ounces (60 grams) and return them to Earth for scientists to study.
“Successfully passing mission CDR is a major accomplishment, but the hard part is still in front of us — building, integrating and testing the flight system in support of a tight planetary launch window,” said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Key mission objectives focus on finding answers to basic questions about the composition of the very early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made life possible on Earth. The mission will also aid NASA’s asteroid initiative and support the agency’s efforts to understand the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects and characterize those suitable for future asteroid exploration missions. The initiative brings together the best of NASA’s science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve President Obama’s goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.
“The OSIRIS-REx team has consistently demonstrated its ability to present a comprehensive mission design that meets all requirements within the resources provided by NASA,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator from the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Mission CDR was no exception. This is a great team. I know we will build a flight and ground system that is up to the challenges of this ambitious mission.”
In January, NASA invited people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard the spacecraft. After submitting their name, participants are able to download and print a certificate documenting their participation in the OSIRIS-REx mission. The campaign is open until September 30, 2014.
Goddard Space Flight Center will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in the agency’s New Frontiers Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona leads OSIRIS-REx and provides the camera system and science processing and operations center.
For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex and http://asteroidmission.org
To participate in “Messages to Bennu,” go to: http://planetary.org/bennu
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Here’s a NASA video giving a lighthearted overview of the OSIRIS-REx sample mission:
33rd Int. Space Development Conference – May 14-18, 2014 – Los Angeles, CA
Time to sign up for the National Space Society‘s their annual space extravaganza – ISDC 2014: A Space Renaissance — May 14-18, 2014 — Los Angeles, California –
