NASA

NASA gets a new set of moon wheels

dianeb — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:29:39 -0600

Every year, NASA's Desert RATS spend two weeks in the Arizona desert conducting tests in anticipation of future lunar exploration. This year, two crew members lived for more than 300 hours inside NASA's new moon vehicle, the Lunar Electric Rover. --by Nikki Staab

LROC checks out old Apollo landing sites

dianeb — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:36:26 -0600

Scientists have new pictures of the old Apollo landing sites, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that put humans on the moon. --by Nicole Staab

Never get lost on Mars again!

dianeb — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:08:43 -0600

Want to suggest places on Mars for ASU's THEMIS camera to photograph? Want to see the very latest infrared images being beamed back from the Red Planet? Now you can, through two new features of Google Earth 5.0. (image courtesy of NASA) --by Robert Burnham

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launches today

dianeb — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:08:56 -0600

ASU professor Mark Robinson is sending his work to the moon this afternoon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

THEMIS monitors Martian dust storm

dianeb — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:52:13 -0600

Scientists at ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility are using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to monitor a new dust storm that has erupted on the Red Planet. --by Robert Burnham

Energizing elemental evolution

pkrecker — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:38:08 -0700

Cuatro Cienegas, in Mexico's Chihuahuan desert, might hold the key to secrets about microbial evolution, the Cambrian Explosion, speciation, extraterrestrial life, and just about everything else. That key is phosphorus. --by Margaret Coulombe

Mercury a seething hotbed of volcanoes

pkrecker — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:30:48 -0700

Scientists studying NASA's MESSENGER data have imaged parts of Mercury never seen before. They have found that volcanos played a large role in shaping the planet's surface, and that Mercury's rocks are unusually iron deficient. --by Robert Burnham

Life, interrupted

pkrecker — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:34:11 -0700

Why did the earliest life on Earth--mostly bacteria--remain virtually unchanged for a billion years? --by Diane Boudreau

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ASU Mars instrument gets new lease on life

pkrecker — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:38:37 -0600

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has a new orbit around the Red Planet. The change, part of a two-year extension for the mission, will give an ASU-operated instrument greater sensitivity for mapping Martian minerals. --by Robert Burnham
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Get a whiff of this: Oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere

pkrecker — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:21:01 -0600

An international research team has discovered traces of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere about 50 million years before expected. The results came as a surprise to the scientific community. --by Diane Boudreau
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