NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System: TDRS-K Video

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration ambitions, the TDRS constellation fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands.

Now into it's fourth operational decade, the TDRS legacy continues to be communications excellence.

The addition of the third generation of spacecraft will replenish the constellation and ensure that the critical lifeline of space-to-ground communication support will be available for many years to come.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: NASA TDRS-K Video

ESA News Update: Flying in Zero- Gravity - Video

If you fly a plane in the right way at the right speed, you can be weightless for a few seconds. By throwing the aircraft into an orbit-like path within Earth's atmosphere, you can enter the wonderful world of weightlessness.

It is one of the best ways to simulate the environment of space, and a valuable experimental tool for scientists with a special interest in microgravity.

If they want to find out how the brain works, study the natural posture of humans in space, or how water boils in a weightless environment, this is the way to do it. Take a journey into a free-floating world of the parabola in this edition of Space.

NASA ISS Update - Dec. 20, 2012

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity: First Sample Collection - Video

Rover Curiosity carries 10 instruments to help it determine whether its Gale Crater landing site has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. But CheMin and another instrument on the 1-ton rover's body, known as Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), are the rover's core scientific gear.

SAM is a chemistry laboratory that can identify organic compounds — the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it. The instrument has been sniffing the Martian air already, but it has yet to analyze its first soil sample. That should change in a week or so, Grotzinger said, after further cleaning of the rover's sampling system.

Curiosity continues to be in good health, researchers said. After the six-wheeled robot finishes testing out its scooping and sampling systems at Rocknest, mission scientists will begin searching for a spot to break out the rover's rock-boring drill. The first drill activity will be a complicated affair that could take month or so all up, Grotzinger said.

Curiosity is currently checking out deposits near a site called "Glenelg," where three interesting types of Martian terrain come together. But its ultimate destination is the base of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) mountain rising from Gale Crater's center.

Mount Sharp's foothills show signs of long-ago exposure to liquid water. Curiosity could be ready to start rolling toward the mountain's interesting deposits — which lie about 6 miles (10 km) away — in a couple of months.

"I would hope we'd be on our way by the end of the year," Grotzinger said.

ESA Hubble: Elusive Giant Dark Matter Filament in MACS J0717 - 3D Video

This enormous image shows Hubble’s view of massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.

The large field of view is a combination of 18 separate Hubble images.

The location of the dark matter is revealed in a map of the mass in the cluster and surrounding region, shown here in blue.

The filament visibly extends out and to the left of the cluster core.

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, Harald Ebeling (University of Hawaii at Manoa) & Jean-Paul Kneib (LAM)

Astronomers have taken their first 3D look at a gigantic filament of dark matter, an invisible cosmic structure that can only be detected by its gravitational effects it has on its surroundings.

The universe is thought to be structured like a tangled web, with long strings of mostly dark matter intersecting at giant galaxy clusters.

Since dark matter cannot be seen directly, these filaments are difficult to observe. But using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have managed to probe one of the elusive cosmic strands in 3D.

The researchers sought out a 60 million light-year strand of dark matter around the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717. The galaxy cluster is one of the largest yet seen and is about 5.4 billion light-years from Earth.

"From our earlier work on MACS J0717, we knew that this cluster is actively growing, and thus a prime target for a detailed study of the cosmic web," study researcher Harald Ebeling, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said in a statement Tuesday (Oct. 16).

 [Hubble's Dark Matter Strand View in 3D (Video)]

Boeing CST-100 Mock-Up Undergoes Airbag Stabilisation Test - Video

The Boeing Company's mock-up CST-100 spacecraft was put through water landing development tests Oct. 1-5, 2012, at Bigelow Aerospace's headquarters outside of Las Vegas.

Engineers with Bigelow have dropped the capsule-shaped spacecraft into an outdoor pool from a crane more than four times to assess whether the airbags will stabilize the capsule during landings as planned.

The tests are part of Boeing's ongoing work supporting its funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) during the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) development phase.

Program Contact: Candrea Thomas, 321-867-2468 HQ Contact: Trent Perrotto, 202-358-0321

ESA Cassini Huygens: Titan Descent Movie (2005.01.14) - YouTube

This movie was built thanks to the data collected by ESA's Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on 14 January 2005, during the 147-minutes plunge through Titan's thick orange-brown atmosphere to a soft sandy riverbed.

In 4 minutes 40 seconds, the movie shows what the probe 'saw' within the few hours of the descent and the eventual landing.

At first the Huygens camera just saw haze over the distant surface. The haze started to clear only at about 60 kilometers altitude, making it possible to resolve surface features as large as 100 meters.

Only after landing could the probe's camera resolve little grains of sand millions and millions times smaller than Titan. The movie provides a glimpse on such a huge change of scale.

Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Source: jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08118

ESA Galileo: In Orbit Validation Phase - Video

Coming Up Short Handed: Open, Low tech Prothetics - Video

The Coming Up Short Handed project hopes to develop open source prosthetics, enabling access for those who can’t afford commercial products.

US-based Ivan Owen originally developed a working mechanical hand to be used as part of a costume, but when he uploaded a video of the device onto Youtube he was contacted by South African Richard Van As, who saw how the home-made prosthesis could be beneficial to both himself and others with mobility problems.

The two formed the current project, which aims to use basic techniques to create low-cost mechanical aids as an alternative to expensive professionally-designed options, as well as provide instructions on how others can build them themselves. The first design is a mechanical finger, demonstrated in the video.

Coming Up Short Handed isn’t the only project of its kind – the Open Prosthetics Wiki is also doing similar work in this field. Both projects could help victims of disease, war or accidents – especially in poorer countries – to regain full use of their body.

Website: www.comingupshorthanded.com
Contact: comingupshorthanded@gmail.com

RBSP Launch - Multiple camera angles - YouTube

Video from several different cameras of the Aug. 30 4:05 a.m. EDT launch of NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

NASA Shuttle Endeavour Takes Off and Bids Farewell To Edwards Airport - Video

The retired Space Shuttle took off from the Air Force base for the last time, starting the last leg of its 3 day whirlwind tour of the United States.

It will land in Los Angeles after flying by several California landmarks.

Credit: NASA

Tornado of Fire in Australian Outback! - Video

THERE'S something mean and magical about Australia's Outback. An Alice Springs filmmaker captured both when a whirlwind of fire erupted before his eyes.

Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station, about 80km from Ularu, last week when confronted by a fiery phenomenon.

He had just finished his tour of the station when workers encountered difficulties with a grader. So he went to help them.

A small fire was burning in nearby bushland, so Mr Tangey decided to start filming. He caught the sight of his life.

A twister touched down on the spot fire, fanning it into a furious tower of flame. "It sounded like a jet fighter going by, yet there wasn't a breath of wind where we were," he told the Northern Territory News.

"You would have paid $1000 a head if you knew it was about to happen." The column of fire danced about the landscape for about 40 minutes, he said, as he and the station workers stood transfixed.

There was talk of making a quick getaway, Mr Tangey said. But everyone was too hypnotised to feel scared - and he continued furiously filming.

"The bizarre thing was that it rarely moved," he said. "These things just stood there because there was no wind to move them ... but it was flickering incredibly fast."

 Darwin weather forecaster David Matthews said small twisters were common in isolated areas. But the fiery vortex was highly unusual.

 "The flames would have assisted by trying to suck in air and that could have helped generate those circular winds," Mr Matthews said.

The retired Space Shuttle Endeavour Last Controversial Voyage - Video

Los Angeles to Remove 400 Trees for Space... The retired Space Shuttle Endeavour is gearing up for its final trip to Los Angeles’ California Science Center. Much like Explorer, which made a long, slow trek through Houston streets with all the street lights removed to make room for its passage before being immediately replaced behind it, Endeavour is facing a challenging drive from the Los Angeles airport to its destination. The shuttle is approximately five stories tall, precluding it from passing under overpasses – thereby eliminating a highway route. The plan is to take Endeavour down a scenic route of residential streets. The only problem: many of those streets are tree-lined. The region is in the process of cutting down 400 trees to make room for the shuttle’s passage. While officials have embraced the opportunity to host Endeavour and are planning to plant twice as many saplings to make up for the downed trees, some residents are not at all happy with the plan. “It’s unacceptable to cut down oxygen-giving species just to let something pass by,” Johnnie Raines, a board member of the west area neighbourhood council, reported. “I would love to see the shuttle housed here but I don’t think we should lose trees that are 40, 60 years old.” The California Science Center reports that its foundation has donated more than $1.5 million for greening improvements in the affected areas and routes were chosen to correspond with areas that were already looking to remove trees of invasive species or incompatible with traffic and air quality plans. Endeavour is scheduled to parade through southern Los Angeles on October 12-13, its 24m wingspan sweeping through treeless streets on its final 19 km voyage.

SDO Image: Solar Activity in a new region - Helioviewer

There may be a new active region in town soon! An as of yet unnumbered region rotating almost into view released a series of small to moderate flares including a high C-class and an M1.3 solar flare. 

Credit: SDO, NOAA/GOES, helioviewer.org

The M flare produced a brief radio blackout. Once the region is more on the disk we will have to see if it produces any interesting events.

There is a nice sized filament sitting to the West of the region. The current activity is not considered high or of any concern. Just a region to keep an eye on.

Recent Solar flare recorded today.

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Plummets to the Martian Surface - Video

Watching this amazing high-definition video of Curiosity’s hair-raising landing on Mars will make you clutch at your armrest. Compiled from the probe’s MARDI descent camera, it is the and gives you a chance to experience what it’s like to ride along with the rover down to the Martian surface.

The video starts with Curiosity’s heat shield being jettisoned from its landing stage body — comprised of the rover tucked up beneath a UFO-like platform.

The rover hovers for a while under its parachute, wobbling back and forth as it takes in the spectacular view of craters and the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, its eventual target.

Vertigo kicks in as the rover dives lower and the engines kick in for Curiosity’s powered descent sequence.

Though they can’t be seen in the video, the rover gets lowered down on 25-foot-long cables for its “sky crane” maneuver near the end.

Just before hitting the Martian soil, the engines kick up a huge amount of dust and pebbles, which obscures the ground and may be responsible for damaging one of Curiosity’s wind sensors.

The soft landing went off with pitch-perfect precision and was a big victory for NASA engineers.

This video was compiled by visual effects editor Daniel Luke Fitch from the high resolution images that the rover has beamed back.

All but a few frames from the descent video have come back at this point, with low-res thumbnails filling in for the missing ones in the video.

The images have been enhanced with noise reduction, color balance, and sharpening “to make it look as good as it could,” said Fitch.

What's Inside Mars? NASA's InSight Mission Will Probe Deeper - YouTube

Launching in 2016 and based on the successful Phoenix lander, NASA's next Mars mission will look for clues to the formation of the red planet and its rocky siblings. Why, for example, does Mars exhibit little or no plate tectonics?

Nasa Mars Rover Curiosity: Update video

Video streaming by Ustream

Nasa Mars Rover Curiosity's Heat Shield, Meet Mars - YouTube

This sequence of images shows the heat shield from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory hitting the ground on Mars and raising a cloud of dust.

The images were taken by the Mars Descent Imager on the mission's Curiosity rover while the rover was still suspended on a parachute, after the spacecraft had jettisoned the heat shield.

A dark spot, the shadow of the heat shield, enters the scene from lower left, moving toward the center. The bright heat shield itself is also apparent just before the shadow and hardware meet in the impact on the surface.

The area of ground visible in the images is about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) across. The frames shown here are cropped portions of full-frame images from the Mars Descent Imager.

The sequence includes 25 frames, repeated in five run-throughs for this presentation. The action is full speed in the first, fourth and fifth run-throughs. It is one-half and one-eighth speeds in the second and third run-throughs.

Nasa Voyager 1 & 2 Breaks through Heliosphere - Video

This video drops in on mission control for NASA's Voyager spacecraft as Voyager 1 sends back data from the far reaches of our solar system.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech › Voyager's mission site

Innovative Airbag Protection for Cyclists

“Hövding Invisible Bicycle Helmet”