A hidden population of exotic neutron stars

A hidden population …

Magnetars — the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation — are some of the most extreme objects known in the universe. A major campaign using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites…

A hidden population …
Griffith Observatory: Astronomy for the Public

Griffith Observatory…

Griffith Observatory is a Los Angeles-based facility that bills itself as the most-visited observatory in the world.

While many professional facilities are solely used by astronomers, Griffith has free public telescopes that are open each evening that the observatory and skies…

Griffith Observatory…
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Archive for Nasa News – Page 2

How 3D Printers Could Reinvent NASA Space Food

By alkaon on May 25, 2013 No Comments




Astronaut Food


Arrival of fresh food and supplies delivered on the International Space Station.
CREDIT: NASA


A NASA-funded project that aims to transform a 3D printer into a space kitchen could one day reinvent how astronauts eat in the final frontier.

NASA officials confirmed this week that the space agency awarded $125,000 to the Austin, Texas-based company Systems and Materials Research Consultancy (SMRC) to study how to make nutritious and efficient space food with a 3D-printer during long space missions. The project made headlines this week largely because of the first item on the menu: a 3D-printed space pizza.

Future astronauts on deep-space mission will face a host of health and sustenance challenges. A roundtrip from Earth to Mars, for instance, could last several years and require thousands of meals for an astronaut crew. [10 Amazing 3D-Printed Objects]

“The current food system wouldn’t meet the nutritional needs and five-year shelf life required for a mission to Mars or other long duration missions,” NASA officials said in a statement. “Because refrigeration and freezing require significant spacecraft resources, current NASA provisions consist solely of individually prepackaged shelf stable foods, processed with technologies that degrade the micronutrients in the foods.”

NASA officials said SMRC will explore whether a 3D-printed food system will be able to provide nutrient stability and a wide variety of foods from shelf stable ingredients, while minimizing waste and saving time for space crews.

Engineers at SMRC are apparently envisioning a system that can “print” dishes using layers of food powders that will have a shelf life of three decades.

“The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form,” Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at SMRC, told Quartz, which first reported the project. “We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”

Contractor already printed chocolate and now is working on a prototype to print a pizza, according to Quartz. NASA later issued a statement about the Small Business Innovation Research phase I contract that was given to SMRC.

This initial six-month project could lead to a phase II study, but NASA officials said the technology is still years away from being tested on an actual flight.

Besides printing celestial pizza, 3D printing could have other uses in space. Also called additive manufacturing, the technology could allow astronauts to make replacement parts for spacecraft or even extraterrestrial habitats, like a lunar base.

“NASA recognizes in-space and additive manufacturing offers the potential for new mission opportunities, whether ‘printing’ food, tools or entire spacecraft,” space agency officials said. “Additive manufacturing offers opportunities to get the best fit, form and delivery systems of materials for deep space travel.”

In a separate project, NASA is planning to launch a 3D printer to the International Space Station to test space manufacturing technology for long-duration missions. That project stems from a partnership between the company Made in Space and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Called the 3D Printing Zero G Experiment, the test flight will send a Made in Space 3D printer to the space station in 2014 to demonstrate the feasibility of using the technology to construct spare parts and tools from raw materials on a deep-space mission.

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Article source: http://www.space.com/21308-3d-printing-nasa-space-food.html

Categories : Nasa News

NASA details plan to capture passing asteroid and drag it into Moon’s orbit

By alkaon on May 25, 2013 No Comments

While no one has yet figured out how to catch a shooting star, NASA has set its sights on lassoing an asteroid so as to one day save the Earth from destruction.

Charles Bolden, the director of the U.S. space agency, visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. on Thursday and commented on NASA’s ambitious plan to intercept, redirect and explore an asteroid.

“This is the first chance humanity has to demonstrate with an asteroid of this size that we can move its orbit,” Bolden told the Los Angeles Times. “It will be tens of years before we can say we can protect the Earth from an impact. It won’t happen in my lifetime as administrator, but this is the first step.”

RELATED: NASA’S KEPLER TELESCOPE MALFUNCTIONS AGAIN, THREATENING SPACE MISSION

While saving the world from a potential asteroid collision is, in itself, a worthy goal, Bolden said that another motivation behind the mission will be to further develop the technology to one day send humans to Mars.

“My ultimate goal as a human being is to get us to Mars,” Bolden told the Times.

President Obama included the asteroid capture mission as part of his 2014 NASA budget request, and allocated $100 million to do so by the year 2025. Still, finding the right asteroid may prove elusive.

RELATED: ASTRONAUTS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STAGE EMERGENCY SPACEWALK

NASA will need a space rock that is between 20 and 30 feet, and is traveling no faster than 1.5 miles per second if it hopes to successfully envelop it in what looks like a giant corrugated plunger.

Instead of venturing out deep into the solar system to find the perfect asteroid, NASA now plans to wait for a suitable candidate to wander close to Earth. Once bagged, the agency will drag the captured asteroid into the moon’s orbit, where astronauts will attempt to land on the rock’s surface and conduct experiments.

“When astronauts don their spacesuits and venture out for a spacewalk on the surface of an asteroid, how they move and take samples of it will be based on years of knowledge built by NASA scientists and engineers who have assembled and operated the International Space Station, evaluated exploration mission concepts, sent scientific spacecraft to characterize near-Earth objects and performed ground-based analog missions,” NASA says on its website.

Still, some scientists wonder whether spending $100 million on the asteroid mission makes sense if the ultimate goal is to land on Mars.

“To me, the connection between the asteroid retrieval mission, which involves proximity operations with a rock that would fit comfortably in this hearing room, I see no obvious connection between that and any of the technologies and capabilities required for Martian exploration,” Steve Squyers, a planetary scientist at Cornell University, told the House Subcommittee on Space on Tuesday.

DKnowles@nydailynews.com 

Article source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nasa-details-plan-capture-asteroid-article-1.1354132

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Google, NASA take a ‘quantum leap’ with new computer

By alkaon on May 25, 2013 No Comments

The standard computer works with a series of basic units called bits that can be either 1s or 0s: They signify on and off, yes and no. It is binary code, and until now it has been the basic language of computing.

Technology is, of course, always accelerating onward, but since the birth of computing, the underlying binary code language has been standard to the majority of machines. This may be about to change. Ready to make yet-unknown leaps into the future of technology, quantum computing, a benefactor of decades of quantum theory research, has arrived. As compared to standard computing, where bits must either be a 0 or a 1, in quantum computing, the basic units of data, called qubits, can be either 1, 0, or anywhere in between in what is called in quantum mechanics a superposition. Moreover, the value of a qubit can change when grouped with other qubits, or when observed by scientists. (Click here for a more thorough explanation of a qubit.) The potential is almost endless, but for now scientists are still mostly contemplating uses for this new way of computing.

When business becomes involved, theory has a way of becoming reality: Corporations are beginning to buy quantum machines. Yesterday, NASA and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced they were co-purchasing a quantum computer, from a little-known Canadian company called D-Wave.

The 12-year-old firm based near Vancouver, BC, has received venture funds from Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Jeff Bezos, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and In-Q-Tel (an investment firm with ties to the CIA), and is the first to offer quantum computers for commercial use, with a price tag of about $15 million. D-Wave sold its first machine to global aerospace and security company Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) about two years ago, and the company recently announced it would be upgrading the technology from experimental to commercial use.

Not only are the machines expensive, but so is their upkeep: D-Wave’s computer employs a pulse fridge that uses Helium-3 to maintain a steady state of .02 degrees above absolute zero. If not kept super chilled, the molecules that the computer manipulates would move around too chaotically to be properly analyzed.

Now, Google and NASA have followed suit: Among the many realistic and imaginative ideas the company has for its new technology, Google wants to improve search, especially for images, but also hopes to make leaps and bounds in improving machine learning and artificial intelligence. NASA intends to use the machine to optimize its search for planets, especially Earth-like ones, outside of our solar system.

Additionally, Google and NASA will split their quantum computer contract with the Universities Space Research Association. Universities will claim 20% of the computer’s use, with research teams competing to work their proposal on the machine, which will be located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, exactly 2.5 miles away from Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. The computer is expected to go online in the third quarter of 2013.

In a statement on the deal, Google said, “We hope it helps researchers construct more efficient, effective models for everything from speech recognition, to Web search, to protein folding.” From improving its search functionality to literally investigating (and perhaps replicating) the way that cells function, Google’s approach to the quantum computer seems wide and varied.

But one man at Google definitely has a specific vision. As Greg Satell at Forbes wrote, “In many ways, the Google-NASA partnership represents a new Manhattan Project, but instead of the aim being a nuclear explosion, the goal is to simulate the human brain, a feat that Google’s Director of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, believes will be completed before the end of the next decade.”

Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading experts on artificial intelligence, and with his position at Google, he has a great deal of freedom to direct the company’s $6.7 billion research and development budget towards A.I., and towards calculations and problem-solving that only a machine as sophisticated as a quantum computer could handle. Kurzweil is the author of seven books, including The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity Is Near, in which he addresses, among other elements of artificial intelligence, an event called “the singularity.”

“The singularity” is the term for the theoretical emergence of technological superintelligence, when computer intelligence and human intelligence reach equilibrium and become inseparable. Moreover, many believe computer superintelligence would quickly and handily surpass human intelligence. The scientists and theorists who believe the singularity is coming, Kurzweil being prominent among them, project the event happening within a general range of 2030 to 2070.

There is a lot to be read about the singularity, about quantum computing, and about quantum mechanics for that matter, but for the purposes of this story, the takeaway is this: Google has given an important job with a great deal of responsibility to a man who believes 100% that, within less than a century, machines will have intelligence equal to or greater than that of the most intelligent human being. Kurzweil will have direct access to the Ames Research Center quantum computer, as well as Google’s deep pockets, in order to explore and develop artificial intelligence.

Lockheed Martin, Google, and NASA are dipping their toes into this untested new technology, so which industries will be next? As D-Wave has received funding from Goldman Sachs and Jeff Bezos, it’s possible banking and online retail will see a quantum leap sometime soon. Though this remains to be seen, it is safe to say that a wide array of companies are paying attention to Google and NASA’s joint-venture.

This story originally appeared on Minyanville.

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Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/05/24/google-nasa-computer/2358423/

Categories : Nasa News

NASA Adrift in Interplanetary Space

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

Since the first Apollo landing in 1969, NASA has been looking, unsuccessfully, for an overarching goal to match this spectacular achievement: landing men on the Moon.  The International Space Station (ISS) has not turned out to be what it was advertised.  It has made no breakthrough scientific contributions; it has not explored the solar system further; and it has not excited a great amount of public interest since it was set up.  In retrospect, many would refer to it as a white elephant.  Its annual maintenance costs are a drain on the NASA budget.  Even worse, its supply has to be contracted out — to Russia.  The trouble is: ISS had no well-defined goal.

Yes, there have been plenty of proposals.  During the first Bush administration, NASA thought it had a clear go-ahead and proposed a manned Mars mission, in addition to putting a manned base on the Moon (to do what?).  But once the price tag was revealed, around 400 billion dollars (which was then real money), the NASA plan was DOA (dead on arrival).

Since then there have been proposals to establish a permanent colony on the Moon — again without any clear justification.  Many have compared it to the ISS and labeled it another white elephant.  In fact, it would add little to our knowledge of the Moon, and probably would not even create much public excitement: “Been there, done that” — to much of the public, just a repeat of the Apollo mission.

Such a Moon colony has been labeled as an important ‘step towards the human exploration of Mars’; but this claim was never justified in any detail.  Many would describe it as a detour, or as a blind alley.  Even worse, it would consume so much of the NASA budget as to make any other space project infeasible.

More recently, we’ve heard proposals such as landing on the far side of the Moon, to set up radio telescopes in a noise-free environment.  There might be some justification for this, but it is an expensive undertaking without commensurate returns. 

Similarly, we’ve heard of human missions to asteroids, as worthwhile goals.  But there are likely to be as many kinds of asteroids as there are meteorites.  And these can be studied more easily in samples taken from the dusty shelves of museums around the world.

It is interesting to contemplate the military aspects of space but hard to think of any beyond Earth orbit.  Yet I well remember that during the early days of the space race with Russia, there were Pentagon proposals to “occupy” the Moon.  Why? Because it is military doctrine to occupy the high ground.  And why high ground?  Well, whenever we see the Moon, it’s “up there,” the generals replied.  I spent much time explaining that the Moon is not an ideal place from which to launch nuclear missiles.

Among the more imaginative proposals has been the occupation of libration points, places where opposing gravitational forces of celestial bodies balance to zero.  These have been suggested as places for storing anything — from propellants to pieces of asteroids. There may even be international competition for libration points.  But since there are several, it should be a simple matter to divide them up between the major space-faring nations.  Another great project for the United Nations and for the State Department!

The latest proposal is to capture a small asteroid and bring it to a libration point, where it would remain more or less stationary — so it can be studied at leisure.  Again, it is being sold as a step towards Mars — probably an idea thought up by some armchair astronaut in the White House.  The project really does not make any sense.  The selected asteroid would be some 5-10 meters in size, a little larger than the Ahnighito (Cape York) meteorite in the New York Museum of Natural History.  But there are plenty of meteorites that can be studied at leisure by scientists; no need to go out and get another one.  They come here all the time — unannounced and sometimes very destructively.  We should really be more concerned with deflecting incoming asteroids before they hit the Earth and cause widespread damage.

Writing in Science magazine (10 May 2013), well-respected planetary writer Richard Kerr reports that the community of asteroid scientists is not enchanted by such a project.  But they seem to be willing to go along if that’s all that’s out there for NASA. 

There may be a way to finesse the issue, however.  Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.  Some believe that they are asteroids, captured by Mars billions of years ago.  [I plead guilty for having advanced such a possibility in 1968 but I certainly no longer believe it.]  So let’s just label the Martian moons as asteroids; it’s for a good cause.

[Full disclosure: I should also mention that about 40 years ago I proposed capturing Phobos, in order to exploit its possible mineral resources.  Not a brilliant idea, but TIME magazine liked it.  In my defense: I needed a topic for a popular talk; also, I wanted to prove a Russian astrophysicist wrong; he had advanced the idea that Phobos was hollow and had been constructed by Martians!]

All these attempted justifications for projects as “stepping stones” to Mars lead us to the obvious question: why not go directly to Mars?  If done properly, the initial steps are well within present capabilities and current budgets.  The scientific returns from studying another planet like Mars would be immense: its climate history and current meteorology; its composition, both surface and interior; the fate of past atmospheres, oceans and its planetary magnetism.  A major question for decades has been the origin of the Martian moons: how did they become associated with the planet — and have there been other moons that have by now disappeared?

But the holy grail of Martian exploration has always been the development of life in the past, the discovery of paleo-life.  The key question will be to learn whether life developed in ways similar to Earth or whether our planet is unique.  No such life is likely to exist on the Moon, nor on asteroids, and certainly not at libration points. 

Mars presents our only realistic opportunity to discover facts that not only advance science but also impact on philosophy and even theology.

S. Fred Singer is professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and director of the Science Environmental Policy Project.  His specialty is atmospheric and space physics.   An expert in remote sensing and satellites, he served as the founding director of the US Weather Satellite Service.  An active member of the Meteoritical Society, he pioneered the widely used  cosmic-ray method of dating meteorites.  For recent writings see http://www.americanthinker.com/s_fred_singer/ and also Google Scholar.

Article source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/nasa_adrift_in_interplanetary_space.html

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NASA Administrator Visits JPL, Talks Asteroids

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

Images

John Brophy, an electric propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., explains to NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden (right) the development of a sophisticated solar-electric propulsion engine that could be used on the Asteroid Initiative. The Initiative proposes using a robotic spacecraft to capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. Brophy and Bolden are speaking in front of a vacuum chamber where the engines, which uses solar energy to accelerate xenon ions for propulsion, are tested on May 23, 2013. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroid belt. This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Article source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-173

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Private spaceflight study aims for the moon while NASA goes deep

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

NASA

Pit stop, the moon! Lunar extraction of minerals and ice are envisioned as near-term objectives for space mining advocates

By Mike Wall
Space.com

Human exploration of deep space is looking more and more like a tag-team affair, with NASA jetting off to asteroids and Mars while the private sector sets up shop on the moon.

While NASA has no plans to return humans to the lunar surface anytime soon, private industry is eyeing  Earth’s nearest neighbor intently, said Robert Bigelow, the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace.

“The brass ring for us is having a lunar base — as a company and in conjunction with other companies, and even other, possibly, foreign entities as well,” Bigelow said during a teleconference with reporters Thursday. “That is an appetite and a desire that we’ve had for a long, long time.” [3-D-Printing a Future Moon Base (Gallery)]

Two months ago, NASA tapped Bigelow Aerospace to sound out the private sector’s interest and intent in going beyond low-Earth orbit, in an attempt to help map out possible public-private partnerships in deep space.

The Space Act agreement set out a two-phase study approach. Bigelow delivered a draft report of the Phase 1 findings Thursday to NASA human exploration chief Bill Gerstenmaier, who also participated in the teleconference.

Bigelow Aerospace

Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow (left) discusses layout plans of the company’s lunar base with Eric Haakonstad, one of Bigelow Aerospace’s lead engineers.

Bigelow Aerospace makes expandable habitat modules designed to house astronauts in space or on the surface of the moon and other bodies. The company has long been an advocate of setting up manned lunar bases, and Bigelow said other firms see the appeal of commercial lunar operations as well.

Golden Spike, for example, aims to begin launching two-person missions to the lunar surface and back by 2020. And several different firms, such as Shackleton Energy Co. and Moon Express, plan to mine the moon’s resources.

NASA had been planning on sending astronauts back to the moon until 2010, when President Barack Obama directed the space agency to work instead toward getting to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

Gerstenmaier said NASA welcomes private industry’s interest in the moon, viewing it as a complement to the agency’s plans in deeper space.

“NASA and the government, we focus on maybe deep space, we focus on asteroids. The private sector picks up the lunar activity, and then we’ll combine and share with them to see what makes sense,” Gerstenmaier said.

“Transportation to the same region is common between us,” he added. “Other aspects — life-support — are common between us. We can do lots of co-development between these that actually share what the private sector needs and what the government needs.”

Cosmic Log: To the moon? Private exploration studied

Bigelow said he talked to about 20 private companies during the course of the study, including major players such as SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp.

“You would recognize most of the names,” he said.

Gerstenmaier said NASA would release the Phase 1 report to the public after the agency receives the final draft. The Phase 2 portion of the study, meanwhile, is slated to last four months.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/23/18453370-private-spaceflight-study-aims-for-the-moon-while-nasa-goes-deep?lite

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NASA-Funded 3D Food Printer: Could It End World Hunger?

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments
148717396
Dennis K. Johnson / Getty Images

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we were introduced to food replicators: devices capable of fiddling with reality at the subatomic level to reproduce everything edible, from steaks to snacks to steaming cups of tea. In reality, such fanciful devices — based on the show’s equally far-fetched transporter technology — probably couldn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean something like 3D food printing might not (eventually) get the job done just as effectively.

(MORE: Why Argentine Steaks Are Getting Harder to Find)

We may need food-printing technology relatively soon. Several multibillion-dollar mission-to-Mars projects are in the works, including Mars One, to which some 78,000 people recently applied. The estimated arrival date of the first colonists on that mission is 2023, barely a decade from now. Imagine having to plan that menu; the trip alone could take seven months, after which you’re essentially stuck on the planet indefinitely, subsisting on what you brought along or supplies fired planet-to-planet like some sort of deep-space feeding tube.

We may have the beginnings of an answer to the question soon: NASA just threw a $125,000, six-month grant at a project by Anjan Contractor, a mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation in Austin to develop a working prototype of his proposed universal food synthesizer.

“Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life,” Contractor told Quartz. “The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”

But step back from all the sexy space mission talk and you realize there may be a much more vital application for the technology right here on Earth: placing 3D food printers in households, allowing a world population that’s on its way to an estimated nine billion people by 2040 to synthesize healthy meals from powder-filled cartridges with — since they’ve been leeched of moisture, sort of like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream — incredible shelf lives. Quartz notes that “since a powder is a powder,” so long as we’re including the right proportions of variables like carbs, proteins and sugars, we could shift our input source from animals over, say, to insects.

Okay, that all sounds a little boring — the sort of thing that impels writers to scribble elegiac speculative fiction stories in which people reminisce about what it tasted like to eat real food forever ago. But then we haven’t mentioned Contractor’s “pizza printer” yet, a variant of the technology that’s particularly suited to 3D printing, each layer extruded discretely, from dough to tomato to protein topping(s). Probably not a threat to Dominos, but glass half-full, right?

As for ending world hunger, the questions would still essentially be economic ones: How affordable would sophisticated food printing technology be? How would you get one into every household? How much would these base materials cost to harvest and manufacture? What would prices for them translate to at the grocery store? All central concerns, but with NASA’s help, it sounds like Contractor’s about to take the first step toward helping us answer them.

MORE: Massachusetts Boy Wins ‘Geography Bee’

Article source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/24/nasa-funded-3d-food-printer-could-it-end-world-hunger/

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Alice Eve Believes In Aliens: ‘Star Trek’ Actress Suspects NASA Is Hiding …

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

Alice Eve knows aliens, or at least she does in her movies. The British actress has dealt with the topic of extra-terrestrial life quite a bit, as she’s appeared in both “Star Trek Into Darkness” and “Men In Black 3,” which is fitting since she believes we’re not alone.

During a recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the 31-year-old spoke of a Skype chat she took part in alongside “Star Trek” director J.J. Abrams and co-stars Chris Pine and John Cho, as well as the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The actress told Kimmel it was a fascinating experience, but she isn’t convinced that NASA has been honest with the public about the existence of alien life.

“That was definitely the coolest thing we’ve done. I mean, we’ve shared the movie with countries around the world, but we got to Skype … with the guy in a space station. And he was turning around in the air when we were talking to him and when he would talk, he would suddenly let go of his mic and it would just stay there. It was a very weird experience,” she told Kimmel.

Though Eve enjoyed the Skype chat, she said she grew suspicious after Abrams said he once spoke to an astronaut who claimed to have seen forms or shapes that made him believe in alien life. She said she was irked by the seemingly canned answers given when Abrams asked if the space station astronauts had ever seen alien life.

“And the response that the guys at the NASA base gave us was so rehearsed and so clear that they had seen [aliens],” she told Kimmel, before joking that she was going to “get abducted” for saying that.

Of course, Eve isn’t the only star to believe in aliens. During a panel discussion for “Oblivion” in Moscow this past April, Tom Cruise also admitted he doubts we’re the only lifeforms out there.

“I don’t think you can actually count it out,” he said of the question of whether life on other planets exists. “It might be a little arrogant to think we were the only ones in all the galaxies throughout the universe — but I’ve never met one!”

Also on HuffPost:

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    Liv Tyler enjoyed some ice cream at the MAGNUM Cannes Lounge in Cannes, France on May 17.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Dianna Agron and a female friend were seen out and about in SoHo, New York City on May 17.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Isla Fisher attended the Opening Ceremony and premiere of “The Great Gatsby” during the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 15 in Cannes, France.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Emma Stone stepped out in New York City on May 15 looking adorable as always.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Baz Luhrmann posed together at “The Great Gatsby” photocall at the 66th Cannes Film Festival on May 15.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    A very pregnant Penelope Cruz and her brother Eduardo visited their sister Monica at the hospital after she gave birth to a baby girl on May 14 in Madrid, Spain.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Zoe Saldana looked incredible at the “Star Trek Into Darkness” premiere held at The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., on May 14.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Nicole Kidman arrived at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes, France to attend a photocall of the Jury on the eve of the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Katie Holmes was spotted on the set of “Mania Days” in New York City on May 14.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Emma Watson arrived on a flight at the Nice Airport on May 14 to attend the upcoming 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival in France.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Lea Michele attended the FOX 2013 Programming Presentation Post-Party at Wollman Rink Central Park in New York City on May 13.

  • Celebrity News: May 2013

    Angelina Jolie revealed that a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/angelina-jolie-double-mastectomy_n_3271514.html?utm_hp_ref=celebrity” target=”_blank”she had a double mastectomy/a after discovering she carried a cancer gene on May 14.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Owl City’s Adam Young took a snack break while helping launch the new OREO cookie “Wonderfilled” campaign in NYC on May 14.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Alyson Hannigan was spotted leaving the AOL office after visiting The Huffington Post in New York City on May 13.

  • Celebrity News: May 2013

    Angie Everhart a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/angie-everhart-cancer-diagnosis_n_3267500.html” target=”_blank”confirmed that she’s been diagnosed/a with thyroid cancer.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Selma Blair was seen enjoying her Mother’s Day with her son, Arthur Bleick at the beach in Malibu, Calif., on May 12.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux took a stroll after shopping at Barney’s and dining at Fred’s Restraunt in New York City on May 12.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Sienna Miller attended the Arqiva British Academy Television Awards at the Royal Festival Hall on May 12 in London.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Reese Witherspoon flaunted her legs in short shorts while watching her son’s football game in Brentwood, Calif., on May 11.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Selena Gomez was spotted spending some time at the pool in Miami, Fla., on May 11.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Halle Berry flaunted her baby bump at the 20th Annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk For Women held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 11.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Liv Tyler took a walk with a male friend around West Village in New York City on May 10.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Stephen Amell hosted the F*ck Cancer event on May 9 at Bootsy Bellows in Los Angeles, Calif.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Pregnant actress Jenna Dewan headed out of her home in London on May 9.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Kerry Washington stopped by “Extra” at The Grove in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 8.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Bradley Cooper went incognito as he headed to the set of “American Hustle” on May 8 in Boston.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Ryan Reynolds was spotted walking his dog Baxter while sporting the new Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity Wristband in Bedford, NY on May 7.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Olivia Wilde was spotted rocking Carrera shades at Carrera Ignition Night in New York City on May 7.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart held hands while leaving their hotel in New York City on May 7. Check out J.Lo’s tight leather pants!

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Blake Lively rocked thigh-high boots and a little black dress for a photo shoot in New York CIty on May 7.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Jennifer Lawrence and Sarah Jessica Parker share a laugh while attending the “PUNK: Chaos To Couture” Costume Institute Gala at the MET Museum in New York City on May 6.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Beyonce looked amazing at the “PUNK: Chaos To Couture” Costume Institute Gala at the MET Museum in New York City on May 6.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Kristen Stewart wowed in a jumpsuit at the “PUNK: Chaos To Couture” Costume Institute Gala at the MET Museum in New York City on May 6.

  • Celebrity Photos: May 2013

    Nina Dobrev dazzled at the “PUNK: Chaos To Couture” Costume Institute Gala at the MET Museum in New York City on May 6.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/alice-eve-aliens_n_3326166.html

Categories : Nasa News

Va. students build disorientation chair for NASA

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) — Brandon Hogan smiled broadly on Thursday as he sat in a chair at NASA’s Langley Research Center that spun around and around, intentionally making himself dizzy.

But the high school senior in blue jeans and a green T-shirt wasn’t goofing off on a facility tour: He was testing out a chair that will be used by astronauts and he helped build.

“It feels like a roller coaster,” Hogan said after getting out of the slowly-spinning chair he helped weld together. “Now that it’s all done and you can sit it in, you’re like ‘Wow, it’s done. We built that.’ It’s a good feeling.”

Hogan is one of 16 high school students from the area who helped design and build what’s called a Barany Chair — which teaches pilots what it is like to be disoriented — under a program that was new to Langley this school year.

Called High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware, or HUNCH for short, the idea is to get high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to build real-world hardware for NASA. The program originated at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston about a decade ago and also has a presence at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Nationwide, the program involves 108 high schools. Other products that students have developed for NASA related to the International Space Station include cargo transfer bags, mid-deck lockers and glove box mock-ups. Many of the participating schools are in Rocky Mountain and Gulf Coast states, but Langley officials say they anticipate taking the lead for getting more schools on the East Coast involved with the program.

“The Barany Chair is just the beginning,” said Roger Hathaway, Langley’s director of education. “We look forward to working on other projects for years to come.”

Even though President Barack Obama’s budget proposal calls for slashing NASA’s education spending by $45 million — nearly one-third of its education budget — Hathaway said the HUNCH program should have a strong future because it is funded out of the International Space Station program.

Tammy Cottee, who works with the HUNCH program at Langley as part of the engineering directorate, said next year’s student project hasn’t been decided yet. But she said one possibility is having students run the HUNCH website, which is currently done by NASA staff in Texas. Another possibility is having students build a mockup of the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory, which could take several years.

In a few weeks, the Barany Chair will be shipped to Johnson Space Center’s Human Test and Space Medicine Division. There, it will be used to teach astronauts and pilots about the effects of spatial disorientation and how abrupt head movements affect them during flight. Astronauts must undergo a refresher course in the chairs every four years. Among other things, the training chair helps prevent pilots from getting airsick and astronauts adjust to being in space.

“Public enemy No. 1, really, for pilots is spatial disorientation: their inner ear,” said Kyle Ellis, an aerospace research engineer at Langley. “So the best way, actually, to get them to trust their instruments is to get them not to trust themselves. So that’s really what this chair does.”

The chairs are used by pilots all over the world and high speeds aren’t necessary to achieve the desired effect. A bystander hand-spins the person in the chair at speeds much slower than an amusement park ride. But whoever sits in one and rests their head on a bar surrounding the chair as it spins becomes dizzy and loses their bearings as they lift their heads and raise their arms.

When Hogan and other NASA staff used the chair for the first time after completing it Thursday, it worked perfectly. Although he’s wrapped up his internship at Langley, Hogan said he hopes to return one day.

“It was a great experience,” Hogan said. “I took a lot from it. I want to go to school, do something with engineering and hopefully get a job here one day. Basically, take engineering and welding as far as I can go.”

___

Online: http://www.nasahunch.com/

___

Brock Vergakis can be reached at www.twitter.com/BrockVergakis

Article source: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Va-students-build-disorientation-chair-for-NASA-4543228.php

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Categories : Nasa News
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8th person pleads in $30M NASA contract fraud

By alkaon on May 24, 2013 No Comments

ALEXANDRIA, Va. —
An eighth person pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in a $30 million fraud and bribery scheme that duped NASA into awarding contracts to companies that falsely claimed eligibility for preferences granted to minority-owned businesses.

Michael Dunkel, 59, of Merritt Island, Fla., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to fraud for illegally receiving more than $4.4 million in government payments. Dunkel falsely claimed he was an employee of an Arlington-based company that received contract preferences through a Small Business Administration program.

In reality, Dunkel simply paid a kickback to the Arlington company so it would pass the work through to him.

As it turned out, the Arlington company, Security Assistance Corp., was not even eligible for the SBA preferences anyway. The company’s figurehead CEO, Dawn Hamilton, pleaded guilty in March to $30 million in contract fraud, admitting that she was awarded NASA security contracts under the SBA program even though her company was truly controlled by another man, Keith Hedman, who was not eligible for the SBA preferences that are granted to small, disadvantaged businesses.

Both Hamilton and Hedman have already pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Court records show the scheme ran from 2005, when Dunkel was introduced to Hedman, through 2012, when federal agents raided the companies’ offices.

Previous guilty pleas include a former Homeland Security regional director, Derek Matthews of Harwood, Md., who took $12,500 in bribes in exchange for inside information to help the companies controlled by Hedman.

The SBA program, known as the 8 (a) program, has been under scrutiny in recent years. Audits by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’ investigative arm, found 14 firms that received $325 million in contracts through fraud or abuse of the system.

Regarding the cluster of cases being prosecuted in Alexandria, the SBA says it last month took action to bar the companies and individuals involved from gaining any future contracts, though the companies could become eligible again if they show they have severed ties with the wrongdoers and implemented reforms.

As for broader concerns about fraud in the 8(a) program, SBA spokeswoman Emily Cain said the agency has no tolerance for fraud and has initiated more enforcement actions in the last four years than occurred in the prior 10 years before that.

Article source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/23/3413128/8th-person-pleads-in-30m-nasa.html

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Categories : Nasa News
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NASA Image of the day

The Engine Burns Blue

 
This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt. This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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