Registratevi per l'ESA App Camp

Registratevi per l'ESA App Camp

NASA - Curiosity Self-Portrait, Wide View

NASA - Curiosity Self-Portrait, Wide View

ScienceCast: Record-Setting Asteroid Flyby

NASA SAYS VIABILITY OF SATELLITE-SERVICING TECHNOLOGY PROVEN BY RRM

FROM: NASA
NASA'S Refueling Demonstration Proves Viability Of Satellite-Servicing Technologies

WASHINGTON -- NASA has demonstrated robotic fluid transfer in space, an objective that will help inform the development of robotic technology to refuel satellites. The first-of-its-kind demonstration was performed during the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) aboard the International Space Station.

"This achievement is a major step forward in servicing satellites," said Frank Cepollina, associate director of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "RRM gives NASA and the emerging commercial satellite servicing industry the confidence to robotically refuel, repair and maintain satellites in both near and distant orbits -- well beyond the reach of where humans can go today."

A joint effort with the Canadian Space Agency, RRM uses the International Space Station as test bed for the research and development of robotic satellite-servicing capabilities. During six days of activity last month, controllers on the ground at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston used the space station's remotely operated Dextre, a robotic space handyman, to cut wires, remove and stow caps and perform tasks necessary to refuel satellites not designed to be refueled.

The cutting-edge technologies that RRM is demonstrating could extend the lives of many of the hundreds of satellites currently in geosynchronous Earth orbit. These are satellites that deliver essential services such as weather reports, cell phone communications, television broadcasts, government communications and air traffic management.

RRM tasks scheduled to be performed later this year include thermal blanket cutting and fastener and electronic termination cap removals. NASA anticipates RRM technologies may help boost the commercial satellite-servicing industry in the future. Such servicing capabilities could greatly expand options for government and commercial fleet operators

THE ROBOTIC REFUELING MISSION

FROM: NASA
RRM: Mission to the Future Delivers

In a series of extraordinary tests, NASA demonstrated an evolution in technologies for servicing satellites in space. Called the Robotic Refueling Mission, they tried out technologies and techniques for repairing and refueling satellites.

ISS WEEKLY UPDATE FOR FEBRUARY 8, 2013

FROM:  NASA
ISS Update: Weekly Recap for Feb. 8, 2013

Fremder Besucher am Nachthimmel - Asteroid auf dichtem Erdvorbeiflug

Fremder Besucher am Nachthimmel - Asteroid auf dichtem Erdvorbeiflug

Parte Mission-X: prepara il tuo corpo ed i tuoi tweet

Parte Mission-X: prepara il tuo corpo ed i tuoi tweet

Construire une base lunaire en impression 3D

Construire une base lunaire en impression 3D

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

ROBOTIC REFUELING MISSION DEMO

FROM: NASA

Robotic Refueling Mission Demo
Robots present certain advantages when working in the harsh environment of space. They're not susceptible to hunger, to sleepiness, or catastrophic injury for starters. They're also capable of highly precise, yet highly tedious tasks-- tasks that might otherwise consume huge resources and attention from already busy astronauts and ground controllers. In an important demonstration of new technical methodologies, NASA engineers will try to simulate the transfer of fuel from one vehicle to another, in space, with nothing but robots doing the physical work. Called the Robotic Refueling Mission, it's a major step on the road to developing a robust suite of essential robotic capabilities in space.

Credit-NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA VIDEO: STUDYING SMART FLUIDS IN SPACE

FROM: NASA

 ISS Update: Studying Smart Fluids in Space
Dr. Eric Furst from the University of Delaware joins NASA Public Affairs Officer Kelly Humphries in the Mission Control Center in Houston via telephone to discuss the InSpace-3 experiment taking place aboard the International Space Station

THE DEAD STAR

FROM: NASA
Sizzling Remains of a Dead Star
This new view of the historical supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located 11,000 light-years away, was taken by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Blue indicates the highest energy X-ray light, where NuSTAR has made the first resolved image ever of this source. Red and green show the lower end of NuSTAR's energy range, which overlaps with NASA's high-resolution Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Light from the stellar explosion that created Cassiopeia A is thought to have reached Earth about 300 years ago, after traveling 11,000 years to get here. While the star is long dead, its remains are still bursting with action. The outer blue ring is where the shock wave from the supernova blast is slamming into surrounding material, whipping particles up to within a fraction of a percent of the speed of light. NuSTAR observations should help solve the riddle of how these particles are accelerated to such high energies

X-ray light with energies between 10 and 20 kiloelectron volts are blue; X-rays of 8 to 10 kiloelectron volts are green; and X-rays of 4.5 to 5.5 kiloelectron volts are red.

The starry background picture is from the Digitized Sky Survey.


Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS

 

TDRS-K LAUNCH CLOSE-UP

FROM: NASA

Close-up Views of TDRS-K Launch

See multiple views of the Atlas V launch of the TDRS-K spacecraft

Quando os planetas se comportam como cometas

Quando os planetas se comportam como cometas