Langley Research Center (NASA)
Featured Topics in Government Research Laboratories: Armes Laboratory (DOE) | Ames Research Center (NASA) | Glenn Research Center (NASA) | Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (DOE) | Air Force Research Laboratory (DOD) | all topics
Filter by: News | Articles | New to Market | Tools & Technology | Videos | Podcasts | Journal Articles | White Papers
22 hours ago | News
The 35-kilometer lunar trek by the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 still holds the record for distance by a robotic rover on a celestial body. Using his own lunar atlas and NASA images, Phil Stooke, a researcher in Canada, has found the rover and its tracks. Recent images and data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the location.
Feb 24 | News
Suddenly, and for the first time in a long time, America’s space agency finds itself without a mission plan. Filling the void are a mix of old and new ideas, including the revived goal of an electric propulsion engine (they still lack thrust), and the possibility of making the next manned landing on a near-Earth asteroid (no gravity).
Feb 3 | News
Workers at NASA and Northrop Grumman had to invent the techniques, materials, and mechanisms needed to build the James Webb Space Telescope’s complex sunshield system. The tennis court-sized solar deflector relies on five layers of Kapton, each as thin as a human hair.
Feb 2 | RDBlog
Monday was probably a bittersweet day for NASA. Told that it would no longer be following President Bush’s lunar comeback effort or even launching its own astronauts into space, the agency must now look to contractors for their escape velocity needs.
Feb 1 | News
Someday soon, the national space agency might no longer be responsible for putting astronauts into space. This idea of private space has been debated for years, but now the Obama administration is expected to push billions of dollars toward this goal in a budget to be proposed today.
Jan 29 | News
The Constellation Program, once called “Apollo on steroids”, is on President Obama’s chopping block. A new budget that is to be proposed next week for the space agency will give it an additional $5.9 billion over five years, but this money is not for moon landings. Instead, it will extend the life of ISS and advance the exploration philosophy of the “flexible path”.
Jan 26 | News
Digging into a rock named Marquette Island perched on a rippled Martian plain, the rover Opportunity is helping scientist examine a geological curiosity that differs from any other mineral yet found. It may have originated from deep under the planet’s crust, and could tell us more about the Red Planet’s formation.
Jan 21 | News
The HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been building maps of Mars surface since 2006, taking 13,000 observations in all. But Mars’ surface is still not entirely explored by the satellite, and NASA is now fielding suggestions for image target locations with an online tool. The camera can show details as small as a desk.
Jan 12 | News
Though not designed to survive the temperature extremes and ice loads of Martian winter, there is a small chance, says NASA, that the Mars Lander that operated for five months in the Martian arctic during 2008 may be able to operate during the approaching summer.
Jan 6 | News
The quest to discover whether Mars ever hosted an environment friendly to microscopic forms of life has just gotten a shot in the arm. The addition of an molecular analysis experiment tailored to do exactly that has been added to the Mars Science Lab mission that will land on the red planet in 2012.