Sea level data from a satellite launched by NASA and European partners shows that a swell of warm water hundreds of miles wide has arrived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, a sign that El Niño will likely emerge later in the year. Because water expands as it warms, a rise […]
NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to ensure continued accountability and strong value for U.S. taxpayers. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has managed the laboratory since its inception in […]
NASA scientists have developed an artificial intelligence tool to take on a longstanding challenge in ocean waters. In a study recently published in AGU Earth and Space Science, researchers reported the tool was able to fuse data from multiple satellites and detect harmful algal blooms that occurred in western Florida and Southern California. Severe blooms […]
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed its close approach of Mars on May 15, coming within 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) of the planet’s surface. This flyby used a gravity assist from Mars to provide a critical boost in speed and to adjust the spacecraft’s orbital plane without using any onboard propellant, sending it on its way toward […]
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover recently took a self-portrait against a sweeping backdrop of ancient Martian terrain at a location the science team calls “Lac de Charmes.” Assembled from 61 individual images, the selfie shows Perseverance training its mast on a rocky outcrop on which it had just made a circular abrasion patch, with the western […]
NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing project aims to dramatically improve the computing power of spacecraft. Missions need processors that can withstand the harsh space environment, so they use chips developed years ago that are hardy and reliable. But upgraded chips are needed to enable the development of autonomous spacecraft, accelerate the rate of scientific discovery […]
Listen to this audio excerpt from Kathleen Harmon, the Artemis II Mission Interface Manager for NASA’s Deep Space Network: Captivated by Apollo launches on her television as a child, Kathleen Harmon now plays a key role in NASA’s Artemis program. Harmon serves as the Artemis II mission interface manager for NASA’s Deep Space Network, an […]
For decades, NASA has advanced on-board spacecraft computer processors that coordinate and execute the functions needed to support mission success. Space computing originated in the 1960s with the Apollo Guidance Computers, which were pivotal for guidance, navigation, and control computations during NASA’s first Moon missions. For decades, radiation-hardened processors have been the backbone of the […]
Through NASA, a university-designed small spacecraft is paving the way to studying particles, known as neutrinos, that move through the universe at near-light speeds. The Solar Neutrino Astro-Particle PhYsics CubeSat, known as SNAPPY, launched at 12 a.m. PDT on Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space […]
One of the most powerful radar systems ever launched into space has mapped the ground moving beneath one of fastest subsiding capitals in the world: Mexico City. The findings show how quickly and reliably the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite can track real-time changes across Earth’s surface from orbit, unhindered by clouds or vegetation […]