Space Shuttle Atlantis to New Home Ready to Roll Photo Credit: NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis Starts Its Early-Morning Trek Photo Credit: NASA Atlantis Rolls to Final Home Photo Credit: NASA Watching the Space Shuttle Go By Space shuttle workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, watch as the space shuttle Atlantis is transported on a 10-mile journey to the Kennedy Visitor Complex Photo Credit: NASA Ariel View of Space Shuttle Atlantis Rolls to Its New Home Photo Credit: NASA Saying Goodbye Space shuttle team members carry a “We Made History Atlantis” banner as the spacecraft moves out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its 10-mile trip to the Kennedy Visitor Complex where it will be put on public display. Photo Credit: NASA Atlantis Rolls to Final Home: Underside View Photo Credit: NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis’s New Home Ariel view of the Kennedy Space Center visitor complexPhoto Credit: NASA A Long Journey Photo Credit: NASA Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/02/shuttle-atlantis-new-home/
Any high school-aged coders with a love for space and NASA out there? Read on. Zero Robotics, a robotics programming competition set up through MIT, is entering its fourth year — and there’s still a day left to register. Here’s how it works: Students can sign up in teams for free on the website. Over the course of the semester, they compete head-to-head with other teams in writing programs — sort of situational, scenario-based challenges. Gradually, the challenges get more difficult. Then, after several phases, finalists are selected to compete in running code for the International Space Station (ISS) — which is broadcast live by an astronaut on board the ISS. Since 2009, the competition has allowed participants to compete in a series of coding challenges through an online platform. “There’s a whole ranking system that tells them how well they’re doing as they’re going through it,” said Jake Katz, co-founder of the competition and research assistant in the Space Stations laboratory at MIT. “And throughout the course of the season, the game gets slightly more complex. They start out in two dimensions and then they will soon, around Oct. 5, be going into 3-D competition — then we add some additional challenges towards the end.” The original kick off for this year’s competition was on Sept. 8. But, Katz said, there’s still a day left to register. “There have been people participating so far, and are already off and running with it, but it’s still possible to join in and make a submission for the first phase,” he said. “We have 75 teams so far, and that’s just from the U.S.” There are an additional 43 teams from 19 other countries, he said. The competition is sponsored by NASA, DARPA, TopCoder, Aurora Flight Sciences, CASIS and MIT. TopCoder, a programming company, designed the platform the games are played on. “In 2009, when we started, we had just two teams competing against each other,” Katz said. “Just two years later, we had about 100 teams from all over sign up.” Check out the promotional video below: What kind of code would you write to run on board the ISS? Let us know in the comments. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/26/zero-robotics-mit/
Curiosity, NASA’s most advanced planetary rover, will land on Mars at 1:31 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6. And if you’re in New York City, you can watch it happen live in Times Square. NASA TV will broadcast the landing on the Toshiba Vision screen starting at 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 5 and ending at 4:00 a.m. the next morning. Programming will come directly from Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “In the city that never sleeps, the historic Times Square will be the place for New Yorkers to participate in this historic landing,” said NASA Science Mission Directorate’s John Grunsfeld. “When you think of all the big news events in history, you think of Times Square, and I can think of no better venue to celebrate this news-making event on Mars.” In order to properly hear the broadcast, viewers will have to tune in to online radio station Third Rock Radio. If you’re not in the New York metro area, you’ll still be able to follow the event. The landing will be live streamed on the NASA homepage and on the TuneIn app. So, make sure your devices are fully charged and ready for noises that are literally out of this world. Image courtesy of Flickr, alanosaur “I am No Man” Doesn’t Cut It: The Story of Eowyn Why All Those Sexist Complaints About The New Ghostbusters Movie Are Garbage Study Says Binge-Watching Is For Lonely & Depressed People & Those Who Lack Self-Control The Pirate Bay Has Returned To the Land Of the Living After Two Months This article originally published at Geekosystem here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/01/nasa-curiosity-times-square/
There is life on Mars — and it’s out for revenge against some nasty pigs! Angry Birds creators Rovio announced a new chapter to Angry Birds Space will come out Thursday. The update is titled “Red Planet”, and will send players to the fields of Mars for more bird-on-pig rivalry. NASA helped Rovio create the trailer by giving them footage taken by the Mars Rover Curiosity from the planet’s surface. In addition, the additional levels will include NASA vehicles as part of the architecture. “Rovio is teaching huge new audiences about NASA’s missions to Mars thanks to this collaboration,” said David Weaver, associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It’s a great way to introduce both kids and adults to the wonders of the planet in a fun and entertaining way.” It’s not the first partnership between the two. When Angry Birds Space debuted in March, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit demonstrated the physics behind Angry Birds — while in space. “We’re huge NASA fans, and we were all cheering the Mars Curiosity rover as it touched down,” said Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer of Rovio Entertainment. “So, working together on the Mars update was a perfect fit.” Players can download the updates for the iOS [iTunes link] and Android [Google Play link] versions right now. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/23/angry-birds-mars/
On Thursday, Mars’s Gale Crater was treated to a fantastic sight: a partial solar eclipse. An eclipse very similar to the kind we’re used to seeing from here on Earth, but with the sun blocked, in this case, by a different moon: Phobos, one of the two moons that orbit Mars. Fortunately for us, Curiosity was there to take a picture of Phobos’s transit. Also fortunately for us, as well, Curiosity took precautions to protect its vision as the transit took place. (As NBC’s Alan Boyle put it: “You wouldn’t want Curiosity to blow out its camera on Mars.”) So, to capture the image above, the rover’s Mastcam used a neutral density filter that protected Curiosity’s imaging system in the same way that can be seen from some point on Mars pretty much every day. And it will be only be a year before a transit can be seen again from the Gale Crater. But the relative commonality of the Martian eclipse doesn’t compromise its splendor. And Curiosity isn’t the first rover to capture that view. Below, via Bad Astronomy, is amazing video sent back by Opportunity in November 2010: the sun, eclipsed by one of Mars’s meandering moons. In Defense of Waze, Which Doesn’t Put Police in Danger Introducing the Supertweet Beware the Drone Laws The App Economy Is Now ‘Bigger Than Hollywood’ This article originally published at The Atlantic here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/17/mars-solar-eclipse/
NASA‘s Chris Cassidy wanted to give fellow astronaut Luca Parmitano a warm welcome to the International Space Station last week, but a bottle of wine or a nice casserole wouldn’t cut it. Cassidy buzzed his head to match Parmitano’s signature clean-shaven look. (Hey, imitation is the best form of flattery.) However, even the most menial of tasks take on a whole new level in zero gravity. Cassidy couldn’t just pick up a standard razor — hair would be floating around the ISS for weeks. Instead, he used an electric hair trimmer and a vacuum. “I don’t think I’ve looked like this since Plebe Summer!” joked Cassidy, who has a reputation as a notorious prankster. When he arrived on board the ISS in March, he donned an over-the-top fake mustache for Commander Chris Hadfield. The fun didn’t stop with the video above. Once the nerds at Mission Control back on Earth heard about the space haircut, they jumped in on the joke with this “Wanted” poster in search of the missing hair. Images courtesy of NASA Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/06/04/nasa-astronaut-shaves-head/
