Now that the final space shuttle has landed, many thousands involved
with it have lost their jobs, and budget cuts loom, I thought it would
be interesting to have a look at the other projects NASA has been
working on recently, and what will be keeping the agency busy in the
coming years. There has been a flurry of discoveries and firsts just
this year alone, as scientists have discovered a fourth moon around
Pluto, and a spacecraft has entered orbit around the asteroid Vesta for
the first time. Earlier this month the spacecraft Juno launched toward
Jupiter, while workers prepared the next Mars rover, Curiosity, for
launch by the end of this year. All of this on top of supporting
existing missions to the sun, Mercury, Earth, Mars, Saturn and more.
Collected here is just a small recent sampling of NASA's far-reaching
projects and missions. [33 photos]
Rising from fire and smoke, NASA's Juno planetary probe, enclosed in
its payload fairing, launches atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V
rocket. Leaving from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station in Florida, on August 5, 2011, the spacecraft will embark on a
five-year journey to Jupiter. The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit
Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins,
structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence
of a solid planetary core. (NASA/Scott Andrews)
This animated sequence from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA
imager shows the evaporation of a sun-grazing comet as it disintegrated
over about a 15-minute period on July 6, 2011. These observations made
in extreme ultraviolet light show the comet's material interact with the
corona of the Sun. The angle of the comet's orbit brought it across the
front half of the Sun. It's not immediately obvious, but if you watch
the movie closely, you'll see a line of light appear in the right just
off the edge of the Sun and move across to the left. Given the intense
heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely. The
comet was probably a member of the Kreutz sun-grazer family. (NASA/SDO) # 
The terminator of Mercury, shown here in color, is the line between
light and dark, or day and night, seen here in an image from NASA's
MESSENGER spacecraft taken on June 7, 2011. On Mercury, three days are
equivalent to two years, or in other words, the planet spins around its
axis three times for every two orbits around the Sun. The first Mercury
year of the MESSENGER mission ended on Monday, June 13, 2011.
(NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie
Institution of Washington) #
A color image of Mercury's surface, seen by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft
on June 26, 2011. Highlighted in this image are Basho, the dark-haloed
crater at the top right of this scene, Kalidasa crater, the bright
crater near the center, along with Tolstoj basin on the left, in
beautiful color. Many different types of surface materials are found in
this region, including crater rays, low reflectance material (LRM), and
smooth plains within Tolstoj. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) #
This astronaut photograph taken on June 11, 2011 highlights the
nighttime appearance of the southern Italian Peninsula. The toe and heel
of Italy's "boot" are clearly defined by the lights of large cities
such as Naples, Bari, and Brindisi, as well as numerous smaller cities
and towns. The bordering Adriatic, Tyrrhenian, and Ionian Seas appear as
dark regions to the east, west, and south. The city lights of Palermo
and Catania, Sicily, are also visible. The International Space Station
(ISS) was located over an area of Romania, close to the capital city of
Bucharest (approximately 945 kilometers to the northeast) at the time
this image was taken. Part of a solar panel array on a docked Russian
spacecraft is visible in the foreground. (NASA/JSC) #
This unprecedented view of the space shuttle Atlantis, streaking
through the Earth's atmosphere above clouds and city lights, on its way
home, was photographed by the Expedition 28 crew of the International
Space Station on July 21, 2011. Airglow over Earth can be seen in the
background. (NASA/JSC) #
Testing continues on the next generation of manned spacecraft. This is
the third water landing test of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle
(MPCV), conducted at the Hydro Impact Basin located at NASA Langley
Research Center in August of 2011. This scenario represented the
worst-case scenario for landing. The prediction had a 50% chance of the
test article becoming inverted. The Orion Project Team collects valuable
data regarding Crew Module stability. (NASA/Sean Smith) #
Nearly two months after ash and steam began spewing from a fissure in
Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle Volcanic Complex, the volcano continued
erupting. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1
(EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image on July 31, 2011. A
pale ash plume rises above erupting fissures, then fans out toward the
north and east. The plume casts a shadow over the lava flow along the
western (left) edge of the image. To the south of the plume, areas that
have not been coated with lava sport instead a dendritic pattern of
white snow and brown ash. (NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, EO-1 team) #
Technicians at Astrotech's payload processing facility in Titusville,
Florida, watch vigilantly as NASA's Juno spacecraft is tested for center
of gravity, weighing and balancing on the rotation stand on June 16,
2011. Juno launched aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from
Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5. (NASA/Kim Shiflett) #
NASA's Juno planetary probe, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V-551
launch vehicle, races past the clouds over Space Launch Complex 41 at
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to begin its five-year
journey to Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft will make a five-year,
400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter, orbit the planet, investigate its
origin and evolution with eight instruments to probe its internal
structure and gravity field, measure water and ammonia in its
atmosphere, map its powerful magnetic field and observe its intense
auroras. (NASA/Scott Andrews) #
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, named Curiosity, viewed on May
26, 2011, in Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The rover was shipped to NASA's
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 22, 2011. The mission is
scheduled to launch between November 25 and December 18, 2011, and land
the rover Curiosity on Mars in August 2012. Researchers will use tools
on Curiosity to study whether the landing region has had environmental
conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and for preserving
clues about whether life existed. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) #
In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover (upper
left, folded), is being prepared to be moved to a rotation fixture for
testing. The spacecraft's backshell (right), will carry the parachute
and several components used during later stages of entry, descent and
landing. The backshell and the heat shield (previous image) combine to
make a protective aeroshell for the rover. The module in the center is
the Sky Crane, which will hold the rover inside the aeroshell, then,
when it's very close to the Martian surface, it will fire its rockets,
hovering, and slowly lower the rover to the ground. (NASA/Jim Grossmann) #
The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), one of three cameras to fly on
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, launching in late 2011. MAHLI is
a 2-megapixel RGB color CCD camera with a focusable macro lens mounted
on an instrument-bearing turret on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm,
with 8 GB non-volatile flash memory plus 128 MB volatile storage, and an
ability to acquire 720p, ~7 Hz high-definition video. MAHLI's main job
is to acquire color close-up images of rocks and surface materials in
Curiosity's landing area. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems) #
NASA has selected Gale crater as the landing site for the Mars Science
Laboratory mission. The mission's rover will be placed on the ground in a
northern portion of the crater in August 2012. This view of Gale is a
mosaic of observations made by the Thermal Emission Imaging System
camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. Gale crater is 96 miles (154
kilometers) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3
miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The ellipse superimposed on
this image indicates the intended landing area. The portion of the
crater within the landing area has an alluvial fan likely formed by
water-carried sediments. The lower layers of the nearby mountain --
within driving distance for Curiosity -- contain minerals indicating a
wet history. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU) #
On March 3, 2011, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama, began the first phase of integrated system tests on
a new robotic lander prototype at Redstone Test Center's propulsion
test facility on the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, also in Huntsville.
These tests will aid in the design and development of a new generation
of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing science
and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless
bodies, including near-Earth asteroids. (NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham) #
NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James
Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) primary mirror segments are prepped to
begin final cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama. In July, 2011, the House Appropriations
subcommittee that oversees NASA proposed a 2012 spending bill that would
terminate the JWST program as part of wider-reaching cutbacks. As
budget talks continue, the future of the $6.5 billion heir to the Hubble
Space Telescope remains uncertain, but the prospects appear bleak for
it's planned 2018 launch. (NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham) #
On June 10, 2011 NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft
captured this dramatic sunrise view of Tycho crater on the Moon. The
summit of the central peak is 2 km (6562 ft) above the crater floor, and
the crater floor is about 4700 m (15,420 ft) below the rim. (NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University) #
This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence
of salty liquid water active on Mars. These images come from
observations of Newton crater by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter. In time, the series spans from early spring of
one Mars year to mid-summer of the following year. The features that
extend down the slope during warm seasons are called recurring slope
lineae. They are narrow (one-half to five yards or meters wide),
relatively dark markings on steep (25 to 40 degree) slopes at several
southern hemisphere locations. They appear and lengthen in the southern
spring and summer from 48 degrees to 32 degrees south latitudes favoring
equator-facing slopes. These times and places have peak surface
temperatures from about 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit to 80 degree
above zero Fahrenheit (about 250 to 300 Kelvin). Liquid brines near the
surface might explain this activity, but the exact mechanism and source
of the water are not understood. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona) #
A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater, seen by NASA's Mars
Exploration Rover Opportunity on the 2,678th Martian day, or sol, of the
rover's work on Mars -- August 6, 2011. This crater, with a diameter of
about 24 miles (22 km), is more than 25 times wider than any that
Opportunity has previously approached during 90 months on Mars.
Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity
since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. The
ground in the foreground is covered with iron-rich spherules, nicknamed
"blueberries," which Opportunity has observed frequently since the first
days after landing. They are about 0.2 inch (5 millimeters) or more in
diameter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU) #
Windblown Mars. On Earth these wind-derived features are called
'blowouts', where the force of the wind has carved out a crescent shaped
depression in soft, uncemented material like glacial loess. The
features on Mars are much larger than the ones on Earth. Image taken in
March of 2011, by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS)
instrument on board NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. (NASA/JPL/Arizona State University) #
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta
with its framing camera on July 18, 2011. Dawn entered orbit around
Vesta on July 15, and will spend a year orbiting the body. The image was
taken from a distance of about 6,500 miles (10,500 kilometers) away
from Vesta. The smallest detail visible is about 1.2 miles (2.0 km). (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA) #
NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the asteroid Vesta with
its framing camera on July 24, 2011. It was taken from a distance of
about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers). After a year of orbiting Vesta,
the next stop on Dawn's itinerary will be an encounter with the dwarf
planet Ceres. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA) #
A new moon for Pluto. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope
discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny,
new satellite -- temporarily designated P4 -- was uncovered in a Hubble
survey searching for rings around the dwarf planet. The new moon is the
smallest discovered around Pluto. It has an estimated diameter of 8 to
21 miles (13 to 34 km). By comparison, Charon, Pluto's largest moon, is
746 miles (1,200 km) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in
the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 km). P4 has now
become a new target for NASA's New Horizons mission, a spacecraft en
route to Pluto right now, scheduled to fly through the Pluto system in
2015. (NASA) #
Cassini snapped this image of Saturn's moon Helene while completing the
spacecraft's second-closest encounter of the moon on June 18, 2011.
This flyby yielded some of the highest resolution images of the moon to
date. Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Helene (33
kilometers, 21 miles across). The view was obtained at a distance of
approximately 7,000 kilometers (4,000 miles) from Helene. Image scale is
42 meters (137 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) #
Saturn's rings interrupt this view of the planet's largest moon, Titan.
Dark albedo features on Titan (5150 kilometers, 3200 miles across) and
the moon's north polar hood are visible here. This view looks toward the
southern, unilluminated side of the rings from just below the ringplane
and toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan. North on Titan is up. The
image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May
12, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.3
million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Titan, and the scale is 14
kilometers (9 miles) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) #
The huge storm churning through the atmosphere in Saturn's northern
hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this
true-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured
on Feb. 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and
the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the
planet. Some of the clouds moved south and got caught up in a current
that flows to the east (to the right) relative to the storm head. This
tail, which appears as slightly blue clouds south and west (left) of the
storm head, can be seen encountering the storm head in this view. This
storm is the largest, most intense storm observed on Saturn by NASA's
Voyager or Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) #
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