NASA Hack Space

NASA Ames Makes Payloads Out of Phones and Toys

2010-07-30T22:30:26Z

Cheaper, Better Satellites Made From Cellphones and Toys, Wired "Instead of investing in their own computer research and development, engineers at the NASA Ames Research Center are looking to cellphones and off-the-shelf toys to power the future of low-cost satellite technology. The smartphone in your pocket has about 120 times more computing power than the average satellite, which has the equivalent of a 1984-era computer inside. "You can go to Walmart and buy toys that work better than satellites did 20 years ago," said NASA physicist Chris Boshuizen. "And your cellphone is really a $500 robot in your pocket that can't get around. A lot of the real innovation now happens in entertainment and cellphone technology, and NASA should be going forward with their stuff."

TubeSat

2010-07-30T02:58:17Z

Extreme Hobbyists Put Satellites Into Orbit With $8,000 Kits, Wired "The hexadecagon-shaped personal satellite, called TubeSat, weighs about 1.65 pounds and is a little larger than a rectangular Kleenex box. TubeSats will be placed in self-decaying orbits 192 miles above the earth's surface. Once deployed, they can put out enough power to be picked up on the ground by a hand-held amateur radio receiver. After operating for a few months, TubeSat will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. "It is a pico satellite that can be a very low-cost space-based platform for experimentation or equipment testing," says Randa Milliron, CEO and founder of Interorbital Systems. About 20 kits have been sold and 14 more are in the process of being handed over to customers, says Milliron."

Video: NexusOne Smartphone/Arduino SmallSat Launch Video

2010-07-29T01:52:18Z

Video from a Google NexusOne smartphone with specially programmed Android apps, installed aboard James Dougherty's Intimidator-5 on a CTI N4100 load. Launch from Black Rock Playa on 24-July-2010 thanks to Maverick Civilian Space Foundation.

NASA Opens Online Voting For Next Desert RATS Exploration Site

2010-07-27T21:17:46Z

NASA is inviting the public to choose an area in northern Arizona where explorers will conduct part of the annual Desert Research and Technology Studies, known as Desert RATS. "Desert RATS is an annual test where NASA takes equipment and crews into the field to simulate future planetary exploration missions," said Joe Kosmo, Desert RATS manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We want the public to be a part of this." From July 27 through Aug. 8, space enthusiasts can vote where to send the Desert RATS team, which includes engineers, scientists and astronauts. To cast your vote, visit: http://desertrats2010.arc.nasa.gov The website features interactive panoramic images of lava, rocks and desert for the public to choose as the most interesting destination to explore. The location that receives the most votes will be announced Aug. 16. Astronauts will visit that site to perform field geology and collect rock samples.]]> http://www.nasa.gov/desertrats For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

Conrad Foundation & ManSat Join Forces

2010-07-27T18:07:03Z

Conrad Foundation & ManSat Limited Expand the Spirit and Innovation Awards program on International Stage "Officials with The Conrad Foundation today announced ManSat Limited, a global commercial space corporation headquartered on the Isle of Man , has joined with the Conrad Foundation to expand the 2010-2011 Spirit of Innovation Awards program on the international stage. ManSat will sponsor a national competition on the Isle of Man from which one finalist team will participate in the annual awards competition, which gives high school students the opportunity to design, develop and commercialize innovative products that help solve challenges of the 21st century."

Clyde Space to Build UK's First CubeSat

2010-07-27T17:46:25Z

Dr David Williams, Chief executive (Acting) of the UK Space Agency, added, "A CubeSat programme will allow us to fast-track and test some of the UK's new and cutting-edge space technology and perform unique science at a relatively low cost. These satellites may be smaller than your home computer, but, with the payloads that our skilled scientists will add to them, they are sure to make up in innovation what they lack in size." Craig Clark, CEO of Clyde Space, said, "The launch of the Cubesat Challenge programme is a tremendous opportunity for us. As with all space related business, the best way to market space products is through their successful demonstration in orbit. By providing the Cubesat platform, we will benefit immensely from the opportunity and so it is vital to the growth of Clyde Space as a leading CubeSat company. I feel also that this programme is vital for the UK's commercial exploitation and export of CubeSat technology in this rapidly growing market." EADS Astrium, Europe's largest space company, is also a key supporter of the CubeSat concept. Over the past three years Astrium has led the definition of a national CubeSat programme with numerous partners from academia and industry. "CubeSats provide a 'playground for innovation' by enabling us to test new technology that simply could not be tried on major risk-adverse missions. The concept also ensures that we can develop the next generation of space professionals, both in engineering and science, by giving them the ideal skill set to succeed in the industry", stated Dr Ronan Wall, Space Systems Engineer, Astrium. The small size, low complexity and largely off-the-shelf nature of Cubesats make them both inexpensive and allow them to be launched on a rapid timescale, enabling a high number of launches, more science and more applications. A number of current CubeSat missions, operated by other countries, are targeted at science applications and especially at studies that can be carried out at low-Earth orbits such as space weather studies, atmospheric science, energetic particle studies and spacecraft damage studies. Examples include NASA's Firefly mission which is studying the relationship between lightning and mysterious bright flashes of gamma radiation in the upper atmosphere of our planet. The low-Earth orbit of CubeSats is also ideal for disaster monitoring and Earth sciences, as the lower a satellite orbits, the less time it takes to complete a revolution of the Earth. Constellations of Earth-monitoring CubeSats could be set up far more cheaply than regular satellite constellations and could be used for all kinds of applications, including bush-fire early warning, live maps and Tsunami warning. Craig Clark Clyde Space Limited The Helix Building, West of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0SP U.K. t: +44 (0) 141 946 4440 e: craig.clark@clyde-space.com w: www.clyde-space.com

NASA Announces Three New Centennial Challenges and Seeks Partners to Manage Each Challenge

2010-07-21T23:52:56Z

NASA has announced three new Centennial Challenges with an overall prize purse of $5 million. NASA's Centennial Challenges are prize competitions for technological achievements by independent teams who work without government funding.]]> http://www.nasa.gov/challenges. If you have questions about the Centennial Challenges, please e-mail your inquiries to Andrew Petro at andrew.j.petro@nasa.gov.

Titan Washing

2010-07-17T00:24:42Z

Keith Cowing using a power washer to get 40 years of dirt off of a Titan 1 ICBM located next to Building 596 at NASA Ames Research Center on 16 July 2010.

NASA Selects Student Experiments For International Space Station

2010-07-13T19:12:13Z

NASA has selected nine experiments, designed by students at seven schools, for astronauts to perform on the International Space Station this summer. NASA selected the proposals from among 132 received for the new Kids in Micro-g! Program. This is the pilot year for the program, a student experiment design challenge geared toward grades five through eight. Its purpose is to give students a hands-on opportunity to design experiments or simple demonstrations for testing both in the classroom and in the station's microgravity environment. The winners were chosen by a team of representatives from NASA's 10 field centers.]]>

National Winner and NASA Glenn Research Center Regional Winner
Brownell Middle, Grosse Point Farms, Mich.

National Runner-up and NASA Kennedy Space Center Regional Winner
Vaughan Elementary, Powder Springs, Ga.

NASA Ames Research Center Regional Winner
Hamlin School, San Francisco

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Regional Winners (tie)
East Hartford-Glastonbury Magnet, East Hartford, Conn.
Carl Sandburg Middle, Old Bridge, N.J.

NASA Kennedy Space Center Regional Winner
Windy Ridge Elementary, Orlando, Fla.

NASA Langley Research Center Regional Winner
Virginia Academy, Ashburn, Va.

The experiments will study the effect of weightlessness on various subjects such as humans and liquids and other materials, as well as what the environment reveals about the laws of physics. The experiments are expected to have observably different results in microgravity than when performed in the classroom. The apparatus for the experiments was constructed using the same materials as a tool kit previously provided to astronauts on the space station. The materials in the tool kit are commonly found in the classroom and used for science demonstrations. The proposed experiments or demonstrations are required to take no more than 30 minutes to set up, run and take down. This fall, the program will ask for proposals for 2011. To see a list of this year's selected Kids in Micro-g! experiments, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/452456main_Kids_In_Micro_g_Final_Results.pdf For more information about NASA educational programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA Announces Three New Centennial Challenges

2010-07-13T14:23:57Z

NASA announced three new Centennial Challenges Tuesday, with an overall prize purse of $5 million. NASA's Centennial Challenges are prize competitions for technological achievements by independent teams who work without government funding. "NASA sponsors prize competitions because the agency believes student teams, private companies of all sizes and citizen-inventors can provide creative solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation," said Bobby Braun, the agency's chief technologist. "Prize competitions are a proven way to foster technological competitiveness, new industries and innovation across America."]]> http://www.nasa.gov/challenges For more information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oct

Hacked Cameras Ride Balloon To The Edge of Space

2010-06-26T18:48:56Z

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

The Pacific Star Project recently launched a balloon with several digital cameras bought on eBay that were controlled by a hacked script and packaged inside a homemade insulated payload container. The cameras made it to an altitude of 24 miles where they took some amazing photos.

Twenty Finalists Named in "MoonBots" Educational Contest

2010-06-25T20:59:34Z

The X PRIZE Foundation, the world leader in incentive prizes to drive innovation, and LEGO Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children, has announced the twenty finalists for MoonBots, a global educational contest. Using LEGO bricks and MINDSTORMS components, the challenge requires teams of students to create simulated lunar rovers similar to those competing for Google Lunar X PRIZE, a competition that will award $30 million to privately funded teams that explore the surface of the Moon with innovative robots. More than two hundred teams from sixteen nations registered for MoonBots and completed the requirements of the first phase of the competition, which required both in-depth research about lunar exploration as well as the use of Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software to mock up a lunar robot.]]> www.moonbots.org. ABOUT THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE: The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that challenges and inspires engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org. ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION: The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured the world's attention when the Burt Rutan-led team, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation, with the support of its partner, BT Global Services, is creating prizes in Space and Ocean Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as a leader in fostering innovation through competition. For more information, please visit www.xprize.org. ABOUT THE LEGO GROUP: The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932, and today, the group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 5,600 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries. For more information, please visit www.lego.com. ABOUT LEGO MINDSTORMS: In 1998, The LEGO Group spearheaded the consumer robotics category with the launch of the LEGO(R) MINDSTORMS(R) Robotics Invention System, that introduced children to the world of robotics, and offered the ability to create their own intelligent, interactive, autonomous LEGO robots. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics toolkits allow children of all ages to design, build, and program their own robots using LEGO building elements, customized hardware, and an easy-to-use icon-based graphical programming language. For more information, please visit mindstorms.lego.com. ABOUT WIRED / CONDE NAST: Wired.com is your essential daily guide to what's next, delivering the most original and complete take you'll find anywhere on innovation's impact on technology, science, business and culture. Wired.com's award-winning news reporting, unique commentary, authoritative reviews and practical hands-on tutorials make it the go-to site for thoughtful and comprehensive coverage of innovation's impact on all aspects of our lives. Join 14 million of the smartest readers on the planet. Wired.com is part of the Conde Nast Digital Business Group, comprised of Wired.com, Arstechnica.com, Newyorker.com, Golfdigest.com and Reddit.com. ABOUT NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS National Instruments is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 10 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. For more information, please visit www.ni.com.

NASA Challenges College Students To Design Inflatable Space Habitats

2010-06-24T19:03:51Z

NASA is challenging college students to design concepts for inflatable habitat lofts for the next generation of space explorers. The winning concepts may be applied to the exploration habitats of the future. The X-Hab Academic Innovation Competition is a university-level challenge designed to encourage further studies in spaceflight-related engineering and architecture disciplines. This design competition requires undergraduate students to explore NASA's work to develop space habitats, while also helping the agency gather new and innovative ideas to complement its current research and development. ]]> http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab For more information about NASA's Exploration efforts, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration For more information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oct Related Stories - NASA/NSF/ILC Dover Inflatable Habitat Blog - January 2008 - Using a Planetary Analog To Test a Prototype Inflated Habitat for NASA - NASA and Challenger Center Announce Name of Antarctic Habitat

Seventh Graders Find a Cave on Mars

2010-06-18T18:03:25Z

NASA: California middle school students using the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have found lava tubes with one pit that appears to be a skylight to a cave. The students in science teacher Dennis Mitchell's class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., were examining Martian lava tubes as their project in the Mars Student Imaging Program offered by NASA and Arizona State University. Students in this program develop a geological question, then target a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image that helps answer the question. Mars Odyssey has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2001, returning data and images of the Martian surface and providing relay communications service for the twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. See full story

Sponsors Sought For NASA's Centennial Challenges Competitions

2010-06-15T00:59:09Z

NASA is seeking private and corporate sponsors for the Centennial Challenges, a program of incentive prizes designed for the "citizen inventor" that generates creative solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. NASA is looking for companies, organizations or individuals interested in sponsoring the non-profit allied organizations that manage the prize competitions. Since 2005, NASA has conducted 19 competitions in six challenge areas and awarded $4.5 million to 13 different teams. Each of the challenges is managed by non-profit organizations in partnership with NASA. NASA provides prize purses for the challenges but not the funds to conduct the competitions. A group of allied organizations conducts and manages the competitions, typically raising additional funds through partnerships with private and corporate sponsors. Potential sponsors can be for-profit companies and corporations, universities and other non-profit or educational organizations, professional or public organizations, and individuals. Those interested in discussing sponsorship opportunities should respond to a Request for Information at: http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/synopsis.cgi?acqid=141911 Allied organizations generally seek sponsorships of all monetary sizes and in-kind contributions while providing public recognition to competition sponsors. Arrangements for competition sponsorships will be negotiated directly between the allied organizations and the sponsors and may include naming rights for significant contributors. Centennial Challenge events typically include public audiences and are televised or broadcast over the Internet via streaming video. The competitions provide high-visibility opportunities for public outreach and education. There are three on-going Centennial Challenges, with several new challenges expected to be announced this year. For additional information on the program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/challenges