What's up
for December (JPL)
From JPL
email 11/28/2012:
Starry fireworks end the year with a bang and
the Geminid meteor shower is usually one of the best of the year.
Though the shower's peak is brief, on the night of December 13 and
14, up to 120 meteors per hour are predicted, if you live in an area
with dark skies.
Link
to Video
NARCON
comes to Santa Clara
In
2013 NARCON, the National Association of Rocketry's conference is
coming to the West Coast and will be held in Santa Clara California
February 22 - 24, 2013. There will be speakers on model rocketry as
well as tours of rocketry related sites in the area.
Link to NARCON web
site
The Great
Moonbuggy Race
Registration
is now open for "The 20th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race"
to be held April 25 - 27, 2013 in Huntsville, Alabama,
at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. High School students are
required to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering
problems that are similar to problems faced by the original
Moonbuggy team.
Link
to web site
Link
to video
C3PO is
alive and well at NASA
Well
maybe not the C3PO you are thinking of - this is NASA's Commercial
Crew and Cargo Program. The program is "investing financial
and technical resources to stimulate efforts within the private
sector to develop and demonstrate safe, reliable, and cost-effective
space transportation capabilities." Take a look on the web
pages to see all of the activity - there is a lot!
Link
to web page
Commercial
Crew Program Video
Commercial
Space Transportation
NASA's
Phonesat program
Imagine
sending your cell phone to space in a satellite to collect
data. "NASA's PhoneSat mission will demonstrate use of small
satellites for space commerce, educational activities and
citizen-exploration are well within the reach of ordinary
Americans...NASA's PhoneSat 1.0 satellite has a basic mission goal
-- to function in space for a short period of time, sending back
digital imagery of Earth and space via its camera, while also
sending back information about the satellite's health. NASA
engineers kept the total cost of the components to build each of the
three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project to $3,500 by
using only commercial-off-the-shelf hardware..."
Link
to article
NASA
Open Government Plan - Phonesat
Link
to video
Link
to launch video
Link
to cubesat.org
Link
to Rocket Mavericks
Curiosity
and Mars Science Laboratory
Curiosity
Providing New Weather and Radiation Data About Mars
From: ChemCam
on Mars Web Site 11/15/2012
Observations of wind patterns and
natural radiation patterns on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover are
helping scientists better understand the environment on the Red
Planet's surface..
Link
to Article
Curiosity
News Conference Update Dec 3 '12
Rumors
have been circulating regarding a "big history-making discovery" by
Curiosity - but in an upcoming press conference, NASA will put those
rumors to rest. "Rumors and speculation that there are major
new findings from the mission at this early stage are incorrect. The
news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's
full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy
soil."
Link
to article
International
Space Station
From:
Space.com November 18, 2012
The ISS team from Expendition 33
returned to earth November 18. "A Russian Soyuz Space Capsule made a
rare nighttime landing in the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan early
Monday, returning three astronauts to Earth after a four month
voyage to the International Space Station
Link
to Space.com story
NASA's
Sunita Williams gives a great tour of the ISS
Link
to NASA Expedition 33 web pages
Expedtion 34 began
November 18, 2012 and will end March 15 2013. This next expedition
aboard the International Space Station will study bone mineral loss
during long space flights, radiation from the sun, and much
more.
Link
to Expedition 32/33/34 Press Kit
Link
to Expedition 34 Mission Summary
Thanksgiving
on board ISS with Expedition 34
Link
to NASA Expedition 34 web pages
Johnson
Space Center Highlights
The year
has seen many highlights at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston in
the realm of human spaceflight exploration, international and
commercial partnerships, and research and technology
development.
Link
to video
Boeing
X-48 Blended Wing Aircraft
From the
NASA Fact Sheet:
The X-48 is a "remotely operated aircraft with a
Hybrid or Blended Wing Body concept, a cross between a conventional
aircraft and a flying wing design..." The program's goal is to learn
more about the low-speed flight control characteristics of the
concept when applied to large transport or cargo aircraft"
Link
to fact sheet
Link
to flight video
