New Technology

An extremely deep Chandra X–ray Observatory image of a glowing region near the center of our galaxy has resolved a long-standing galactic mystery. New data indicates that this gleaming area is caused by hundreds of point like X-ray source suggesting that the glow along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy is created by millions of such sources.

In a nondescript room on a Canadian Air Force Base, an international team of fire trackers, weather forecasters and various atmospheric scientists puzzle over computer models, satellite tracks and flight charts. Their goal is to find the best fire targets and tailor the flight path of NASA’s airborne laboratories to track and investigate the properties of smoke plumes.

The researchers are part of the summer deployment of NASA’s Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites, or ARCTAS, mission. The mission is just five days into its summer study of the smoke plumes from northern latitude forest fires, and already the choreographed effort between modelers and experimenters is producing a wealth of new data.

Hi guys.Happy to meet you with this interesting post.Hope you like it.Aqua is a major international Earth Science satellite mission centered at NASA. Launched on May 4, 2002, the satellite has six different Earth-observing instruments on board and is named for the large amount of information being obtained about water in the Earth system from its stream of approximately 89 Gigabytes of data a day. The water variables being measured include almost all elements of the water cycle and involve water in its liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Additional variables being measured include radiative energy fluxes, aerosols, vegetation cover on the land, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans, and air, land, and water temperatures.

NASA Satellite Captures First View of 'Night-Shining Clouds'

A NASA satellite has captured the first occurrence this summer of mysterious shiny polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth’s surface.
The first observations of these "night-shining" clouds by a satellite named "AIM" which means Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, occurred above 70 degrees north latitude on May 25. People on the ground began seeing the clouds on June 6 over Northern Europe. AIM is the first satellite mission dedicated to the study of these unusual clouds.

These mystifying clouds are called Polar Mesospheric Clouds, or PMCs, when they are viewed from space and referred to as "night-shining" clouds or Noctilucent Clouds, when viewed by observers on Earth. The clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the mesosphere during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season which began in mid-May and extends through the end of August and are being seen by AIM’s instruments more frequently as the season progresses. They are also seen in the high latitudes during the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere.

Very little is known about how these clouds form over the poles, why they are being seen more frequently and at lower latitudes than ever before, or why they have been growing brighter. AIM will observe two complete cloud seasons over both poles, documenting an entire life cycle of the shiny clouds for the first time.

"It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed."

AIM is providing scientists with information about how many of these clouds there are around the world and how different they are including the sizes and shapes of the tiny particles that make them up. Scientists believe that the shining clouds form at high latitudes early in the season and then move to lower latitudes as time progresses. The AIM science team is studying this new data to understand why these clouds form and vary, and if they may be related to global change.

Once the summer season ends in the Northern Hemisphere around mid- to late August, the Southern Hemisphere spring season starts about three months later in the period around mid- to late November. AIM will then be watching for shining clouds in the Southern Hemisphere from November through mid-March when that season ends.

AIM and is managed at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md and the AIM Project Data Center is located at Hampton University.

The International Space Station is able to host three additional space dwellers thanks to the combined efforts of NASA's STS-119 astronauts and the Expedition 18 crew.

At 7:43 p.m. EDT on March 15, 2009, space shuttle Discovery lifted off into a cloudless twilight sky over NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Secured in Discovery's payload bay was the S6 truss, a final set of U.S. solar arrays and a distillation assembly to get the station’s water recycling system up to full operation.

Veteran astronaut Lee Archambault commanded the crew of seven, which included Pilot Tony Antonelli, Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold, John Phillips and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Although technical issues delayed liftoff for more than a month, the March 15 launch countdown proceeded smoothly. After reaching orbit, the crew members removed their orange flight suits and began the first of many tasks.

The shuttle's orbiter boom sensor system was used to examine the spacecraft's thermal protection system. Data from the heat shield inspection was transmitted to Earth where technicians combed the images for any debris damage that could have occurred during launch.

As the crew prepared the orbiter docking system for rendezvous with the station, spacesuits were inspected for the mission's three spacewalks. Archambault deftly guided the spacecraft through a "backflip" maneuver, allowing the station’s Expedition 18 Commander Michael Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus to take photos of Discovery's heat shield.

Once docked with the station, the hatches opened between the two spacecraft. After a hearty greeting from the station crew, Wakata officially replaced Magnus as flight engineer aboard the orbital scientific complex.

Then, preparations for the first spacewalk went into high gear. Phillips and Magnus used the station's robotic Canadarm2 to grapple the 31,000-pound, 45-foot-long S6 truss segment carefully out of the shuttle's payload bay and over to the shuttle's robotic arm operated by Antonelli and Acaba.

Swanson and Arnold were first to set foot out in space to install the final segment of the station's backbone and solar arrays. Their task was completed successfully in about 6 1/2 hours.

With the unfurling of two, one acre-sized "wings," the orbiting outpost now is able to draw on 120 kilowatts of usable electricity and its capacity to perform science experiments has doubled.

After the successful deployment of the new solar arrays, Fincke and Magnus replaced a failed distillation unit on the complex's urine processor and water purification recycling system.

The newly activated system was put through its paces and 15 pounds of reclaimed drinking water was collected and returned to Earth aboard Discovery. It will be analyzed before station crew members are given the go-ahead to drink the recycled water.

The second spacewalk performed by Swanson and Acaba took about 6 1/2-hours. The space outing was dedicated to preparing a work site for new batteries that will be delivered on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission, and installation of a Global Positioning System antenna on Japan's Kibo laboratory. This was Acaba's first venture into the expanse of space.

The third and final spacewalk of the STS-119 mission had Acaba and Arnold relocating one of two crew equipment carts from one side of the mobile transporter to the other. This move provides clearance for assembly tasks on shuttle Endeavour's upcoming STS-127 mission including attachment of the Japanese Exposed Facility onto its science laboratory.

On the final day at the outpost, the shuttle and station crews gathered in the Harmony module for a long distance phone call from President Barack Obama. The president, school children and congressional members quizzed the 10 crew members about their mission and what life is like in space. Later, the crew members turned their attention to last-minute checklist items.

With the complex mission behind them, it was time to say farewell to the Expedition 18 crew members. After 129 days aboard the station, Magnus boarded Discovery for a ride home.

After undocking, the astronauts performed one last inspection of Discovery's thermal protection system and began their journey back to Earth.

The first landing opportunity at Kennedy was waved off because of high wind. With one more spin around the planet, the wind lessened and mission control gave Discovery the "go" for deorbit burn. The shuttle glided to a perfect landing at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 3:14 p.m. EDT on March 28, successfully completing NASA's 13-day, STS-119 mission.

The crew members returned to Kennedy's crew quarters for a family reunion and medical checkup. The next day, the crew flew back to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where they were honored with a homecoming celebration at nearby Ellington Field.

With the International Space Station "powered-up," the stage is set for future assembly tasks, scientific experiments and NASA's upcoming space shuttle missions.

STS-125: Mission to Service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.

During the 11-day mission's five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014.

In addition to the originally scheduled work, Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready.

This weekend, technicians at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A will finish stowing the Orbiter Boom Sensor System in space shuttle Atlantis. In addition, they'll repair minor damage to a radiator faceplate on Atlantis' left payload bay door. The damage occurred last week when a wrench socket hit the radiator during payload installation.

Launch countdown preparations began at Kennedy on Friday following Thursday's executive-level Flight Readiness Review that cleared the way for a May 11 liftoff for the mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The panel determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight. Launch is set for 2:01 p.m. EDT.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-125 astronauts completed medical checkups Friday prior to entering the standard prelaunch quarantine Monday. They are set to arrive for launch at Kennedy next Friday.