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Mars Science Laboratory with …
title Mars Science Laboratory with Arm Extended, Artist's Concept
Description NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life, is in development for a launch opportunity in 2009. This picture is an artist's concept portraying what the advanced rover would look like in Martian terrain, from a side aft angle. The arm extending from the front of the rover is designed both to position some of the rover's instruments onto selected rocks or soil targets and also to collect samples for analysis by other instruments. Near the base of the arm is a sample preparation and handling system designed to grind samples, such as rock cores or small pebbles, and distribute the material to analytical instruments. The mast, rising to about 2.1 meters (6.9 feet) above ground level, supports two remote-sensing instruments: the Mast Camera for stereo color viewing of surrounding terrain and material collected by the arm, and the ChemCam for analyzing the types of atoms in material that laser pulses have vaporized from rocks or soil targets up to about 9 meters (30 feet) away. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Science Laboratory with …
PIA08553
Title Mars Science Laboratory with Arm Extended, Artist's Concept
Original Caption Released with Image NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life, is in development for a launch opportunity in 2009. This picture is an artist's concept portraying what the advanced rover would look like in Martian terrain, from a side aft angle. The arm extending from the front of the rover is designed both to position some of the rover's instruments onto selected rocks or soil targets and also to collect samples for analysis by other instruments. Near the base of the arm is a sample preparation and handling system designed to grind samples, such as rock cores or small pebbles, and distribute the material to analytical instruments. The mast, rising to about 2.1 meters (6.9 feet) above ground level, supports two remote-sensing instruments: the Mast Camera for stereo color viewing of surrounding terrain and material collected by the arm, and the ChemCam for analyzing the types of atoms in material that laser pulses have vaporized from rocks or soil targets up to about 9 meters (30 feet) away.
Shutterbugs Shoot "Scarecrow
PIA10015
Title Shutterbugs Shoot "Scarecrow
Original Caption Released with Image Onlookers watch as Scarecrow, a mobility-testing model for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, easily conquers boulders in the Mars Yard testing area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Mars Science Laboratory rover is in development for launch in 2009. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Scientific Sunset
title Scientific Sunset
description Sunset on Mars catches NASA's proposed Mars Science Laboratory in the foreground in this artist's concept. The mission is under development for launch in 2009 and a precision landing on Mars in 2010. Once on the ground, the Mars Science Laboratory would analyze dozens of samples scooped up from the soil and cored from rocks as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover. It would investigate the past or present ability of Mars to support life. NASA is considering nuclear energy for powering the rover to give it a long operating lifespan. *Image Credit*: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Kodak Mirror Assembly Tested …
Name of Image Kodak Mirror Assembly Tested at Marshall Space Flight Center
Date of Image 2003-04-09
Full Description The Eastman-Kodak mirror assembly is being tested for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project at the X-Ray Calibration Facility at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In this photo, an MSFC employee is inspecting one of many segments of the mirror assembly for flaws. MSFC is supporting Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in developing the JWST by taking numerous measurements to predict its future performance. The tests are conducted in a vacuum chamber cooled to approximate the super cold temperatures found in space. During its 27 years of operation, the facility has performed testing in support of a wide array of projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Solar A, Chandra technology development, Chandra High Resolution Mirror Assembly and science instruments, Constellation X-Ray Mission, and Solar X-Ray Imager, currently operating on a Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite. The JWST is NASA's next generation space telescope, a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, named in honor of NASA's second administrator, James E. Webb. It is scheduled for launch in 2010 aboard an expendable launch vehicle. It will take about 3 months for the spacecraft to reach its destination, an orbit of 940,000 miles in space.
Solar Sail
Title Solar Sail
Explanation Nearly 400 years ago astronomer Johannes Kepler [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990606.html ] observed comet tails blown by a solar breeze [ http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wsolwind.html ] and suggested that vessels might likewise navigate through space using appropriately fashioned sails [ http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ prop08apr99_1.htm ]. It is now widely recognized that sunlight does indeed produce a force which moves comet tails [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000413.html ] and a large, reflective sail [ http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/photos/2000/ photos00-150.htm ] could be a practical means of propelling a spacecraft [ http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/index2.html ]. In fact, the illustration above represents one concept explored by NASA [ http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/ 2000/00-150.html ] centers to develop an interstellar probe pushed along by sunlight [ http://www.ec-lille.fr/~u3p/bd/bda.html ] reflected from an ultrathin sail. Nearly half a kilometer wide, the delicate solar sail [ http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~diedrich/solarsails/ ] would be unfurled in space. Continuous pressure from sunlight would ultimately accelerate the craft to speeds about five times higher than possible with conventional rockets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990717.html ] -- without requiring any fuel! If launched in 2010 such a probe could overtake Voyager 1 [ http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/voyager.html ], the most distant [ http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/flteam/weekly-rpts/ current.html#RTLT ] spacecraft bound for interstellar space, in 2018 going as far in eight years as the Voyager will have journeyed in 41 years.
Mars Telecommunications Orbi …
PIA07500
Title Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, Artist's Concept
Original Caption Released with Image This illustration depicts a concept for NASA's Mars Telecommunications Orbiter in flight around Mars. The orbiter is in development to be the first spacecraft with a primary function of providing communication links while orbiting a foreign planet. The project's plans call for launch in September 2009, arrival at Mars in August 2010 and a mission of six to 10 years while in orbit. Mars Telecommunication Orbiter would serve as the Mars hub for an interplanetery Internet, greatly increasing the information payoff from other future Mars missions. The mission is designed to orbit Mars more than 10 times farther from the planet than orbiters dedicated primarily to science. The high-orbit design minimizes the time that Mars itself blocks the orbiter from communicating with Earth and maximizes the time that the orbiter is above the horizon -- thus capable of communications relay -- for rovers and stationary landers on Mars' surface.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - …
Description KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- After a ceremony to commemorate the transition of the historic Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay for use by the Constellation Program, representatives from NASA, Lockheed Martin, Space Florida and the state of Florida look at the banner, unfurled by Kennedy Space Center Director Bill Parsons (center), spotlighting the Orion crew exploration vehicle that will be assembled in the O&C. From left are Russell Romanella, director of the International Space Station/Payload Processing Directorate at Kennedy Space Center, Thad Altman, representative of the State of Florida, Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin program manager, Parsons, Steve Koller, executive director of Space Florida (turned away), and Skip Hatfield, Orion Project manager. Originally built to process space vehicles in the Apollo era, the O&C Building will serve as the final assembly facility for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Orion, America's human spaceflight vehicle of the future, will be capable of transporting four crewmembers for lunar missions and later will support crew transfers for Mars missions. Each Orion spacecraft also may be used to support up to six crewmembers to the International Space Station after the space shuttle is retired in 2010. Design, development and construction of Orion's components will be performed by Lockheed Martin for NASA at facilities throughout the country. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Release Date 01/30/2007
Floods in Albania
Title Floods in Albania
Description The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite detected signs of flooding in Albania on December 4, 2005, top image. Muddy water, clouded with sediment from storm run-off, colors the coastal waters of the Adriatic Sea a brilliant blue. On land, swollen rivers form a faint web of pale blue where only green vegetation existed on November 13, 2005, lower image. According to news reports, the floods were caused by heavy rains on December 2. Clouds, blue and white in these false-color images, still covered much of the country on December 4. The large images provided above have a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, MODIS maximum resolution. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/fas/?Europe_3_03/2005338 ] of the region in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Ham
Title Ham
Full Description Ham, the first chimpanzee ever to ride into space is shown off by his animal trainer at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Date 1/31/1961
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Sam the Monkey After His Rid …
Title Sam the Monkey After His Ride in the Little Joe 2 Spacecraft
Full Description Sam, the Rhesus monkey, after his ride in the Little Joe-2 (LJ-2) spacecraft. A U.S. Navy destroyer safely recovered Sam after he experienced three minutes of weightlessness during the flight. Animals were often used during test flights for Project Mercury to help determine the effects of spaceflight and weightlessness on humans. LJ-2 was one in a series of flights that led up to the human orbital flights of NASA's Project Mercury program. The Little Joe rocket booster was developed as a cheaper, smaller, and more functional alternative to the Redstone rockets. Little Joe could be produced at one-fifth the cost of Redstone rockets and still have enough power to carry a capsule payload. Seven unmanned Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia from August 1959 to April 1961.
Date 12/04/1959
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Monkey Baker in bio-pack
Name of Image Monkey Baker in bio-pack
Date of Image 1959-05-01
Full Description A squirrel monkey, Baker, in bio-pack couch being readied for Jupiter (AM-18 flight). Jupiter, AM-18 mission, also carried an American-born rhesus monkey, Able into suborbit. The flight was successful and both monkeys were recovered in good condition. AM-18 was launched on May 28, 1959.
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