This Week @NASA.

Space to Ground.

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

Mickes Space Flowers.

These Zinnia seeds flew to the edge of space  30 km above Earth’s surface aboard an helium balloon on Feb. 17, 2016. The seeds were exposed to comic ray doses more than 100x Earth normal, temperatures as low as -63C, and air pressures only 0.3% of sea level. Zinnias also have  been grown on the International Space Station.

 

July 31

36 paintings.

This Week @NASA.

Space to Ground.

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

35 paintings.

SciShow Space.The First-Ever Moon Landing.

Mickes Space supports Project SKYLAUNCH. Be a backer on Kickstarter.

Project: SKYLAUNCH - A Balloon Assisted Rocket Launch to Send the Valiant 1 Probe on a Deep Space Exploration Mission.

Welcome to project SkyLaunch! Become part of the journey and adventure today!
With your support, we will launch from Dartmoor, Devon in the UK in May 2018. The SkyLaunch platform and balloon will lift the Valiant rocket to 150,000 feet. There will be approximately 1-3% air at this height meaning there will be no, or very little drag on the Valiant rocket as its' velocity increases dramatically, escaping into the vacuum of space. After the launch, the Valiant One probe's final orbital escape velocity from Earth will be 32-41,000 miles per hour! A representative from the Guinness Book of records will attend the launch.
The Valiant 1 probe will then begin its' mission into Outer Space, starting with video and images of Earth and Space that have never been seen before. As well as scientific data including temperature, altitude, velocity and position. Valiant 1 will have four hi-tech miniature camera's connected to each side of the probe, with widescreen (non fisheye lenses) which will take live video and photographs of Earth and Outer-Space until the probe is out of range for video and will send back compressed jpeg photographs in time segments. Valiant 1 will have the latest miniature transmission technology in combination with an adjustable transmission dish at the base of the probe.
Valiant 1 will be on a parabolic trajectory towards Mars, which it will reach by the end of July 2018. Valiant 1 will 'swing-by' Mars, while capturing images and transmitting them back to Earth. This is not just a sightseeing tour however, as Valiant 1 will use Mars' orbit as a gravitational assist, boosting Valiant 1's velocity and pushing Valiant 1 into deeper space.
All Valiant 1's video and image transmissions will be posted and uploaded to SkyLaunch's Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts (in bio section).
Valiant 1 will also transmit peace and hello messages in morse code as well as information about Earth and its location.
To mark this historic occasion the first reward we are offering is the FREE SkyLaunch game! Also, as a contributor you will receive an invitation to the launch with your 10 second message and hair added to the probe. Plus a hand held, colour 3D printed model of the SkyLaunch Platform/Friendship 1 rocket and t-shirts, hats, mugs, badges etc.
The Valiant 1 rocket will be powered by lightweight oxidised solid fuel engines. The Valiant 1 probe is solar powered (thin film), with new high tech graphene continuous life power storage. We are currently in communication with a European company who create and supply miniature, long storage graphene batteries.

Link to Kickstarter campaign 

Hubble Makes First Measurements of Earth-Sized Exoplanet Atmospheres.

On May 4th, 2016, the Hubble Space Telescope made the first spectroscopic measurements of two of the three known Earth-sized exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system just 40 light-years away.

Music credit: "Feels Good" by Louise Dowd and Stephen William Cornish, Atmosphere Music Ltd, Killer Tracks Production Music.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Katrina Jackson

SciShow Space. Knitting to the Moon!

The software running Apollo’s guidance computers was literally woven by hand by "little old ladies."

Hosted by: Hank Green

OSIRIS REx: Countdown to Launch. 50 days.

Jenny On Console: Episode 18 - First Integrated ISS Sim!

Viking 40th Anniversary.

July 20, 1976, 7 years to the day after the Apollo 11 moon landing, the first successful landing on Mars by NASA's Viking spacecraft took place. The ambitious Viking missions continue to evoke pride and enthusiasm for future space exploration.

NASA's Viking 1 and 2 missions to Mars, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander, became the first space probes to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface; characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface; and conduct on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet.

Viking provided the first measurements of the atmosphere and surface of Mars. These measurements are still being analyzed and interpreted. The data suggested early Mars was very different from the present day planet. Viking performed the first successful entry, descent and landing on Mars. Derivations of a Viking-style thermal protection system and parachute have been used on many U.S. Mars lander missions since.

34 paintings.

Mickes Space supports Project SKYLAUNCH. Be a backer on Kickstarter.

Project: SKYLAUNCH - A Balloon Assisted Rocket Launch to Send the Valiant 1 Probe on a Deep Space Exploration Mission.

Welcome to project SkyLaunch! Become part of the journey and adventure today!
With your support, we will launch from Dartmoor, Devon in the UK in May 2018. The SkyLaunch platform and balloon will lift the Valiant rocket to 150,000 feet. There will be approximately 1-3% air at this height meaning there will be no, or very little drag on the Valiant rocket as its' velocity increases dramatically, escaping into the vacuum of space. After the launch, the Valiant One probe's final orbital escape velocity from Earth will be 32-41,000 miles per hour! A representative from the Guinness Book of records will attend the launch.
The Valiant 1 probe will then begin its' mission into Outer Space, starting with video and images of Earth and Space that have never been seen before. As well as scientific data including temperature, altitude, velocity and position. Valiant 1 will have four hi-tech miniature camera's connected to each side of the probe, with widescreen (non fisheye lenses) which will take live video and photographs of Earth and Outer-Space until the probe is out of range for video and will send back compressed jpeg photographs in time segments. Valiant 1 will have the latest miniature transmission technology in combination with an adjustable transmission dish at the base of the probe.
Valiant 1 will be on a parabolic trajectory towards Mars, which it will reach by the end of July 2018. Valiant 1 will 'swing-by' Mars, while capturing images and transmitting them back to Earth. This is not just a sightseeing tour however, as Valiant 1 will use Mars' orbit as a gravitational assist, boosting Valiant 1's velocity and pushing Valiant 1 into deeper space.
All Valiant 1's video and image transmissions will be posted and uploaded to SkyLaunch's Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts (in bio section).
Valiant 1 will also transmit peace and hello messages in morse code as well as information about Earth and its location.
To mark this historic occasion the first reward we are offering is the FREE SkyLaunch game! Also, as a contributor you will receive an invitation to the launch with your 10 second message and hair added to the probe. Plus a hand held, colour 3D printed model of the SkyLaunch Platform/Friendship 1 rocket and t-shirts, hats, mugs, badges etc.
The Valiant 1 rocket will be powered by lightweight oxidised solid fuel engines. The Valiant 1 probe is solar powered (thin film), with new high tech graphene continuous life power storage. We are currently in communication with a European company who create and supply miniature, long storage graphene batteries.

Link to Kickstarter campaign 

The Planetary Post - Testing LightSail 2.

Post-Launch Status of SpaceX Resupply Mission to the ISS.

A post-launch news conference was held July 18 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, following the launch of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon launched atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory in support of the station’s Expedition 48 and 49 crews.

SpaceX Launches Resupply Mission to the ISS.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on the company's Falcon 9 rocket on July 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the Expedition 48 and 49 crew aboard the International Space Station. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon reached its preliminary orbit, deployed its solar arrays and began a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to begin its two-day journey to the station.

The Benefits of Space Station Research.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and newly arrived Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA discussed their research and activities on the orbital laboratory in a pair of in-flight interviews July 14 with WXOW-TV in La Crosse, Wisconsin and Reuters. Williams, a Wisconsin native who has been in orbit since March, is scheduled to return to Earth in early September, while Rubins just arrived on the complex July 9. The two crew members are planning a spacewalk in August to install the first International Docking Adapter that will accommodate the arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the future.

Space-to-Ground.

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

Learn more about the OSIRIS REx mission.

OSIRIS-REx seeks answers to the questions that are central to the human experience: Where did we come from? What is our destiny? Asteroids, the leftover debris from the solar system formation process, can answer these questions and teach us about the history of the sun and planets.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose regolith may record the earliest history of our solar system. Bennu may contain the molecular precursors to the origin of life and the Earth’s oceans. Bennu is also one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, as it has a relatively high probability of impacting the Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx will determine Bennu’s physical and chemical properties, which will be critical to know in the event of an impact mitigation mission. Finally, asteroids like Bennu contain natural resources such as water, organics, and precious metals. In the future, these asteroids may one day fuel the exploration of the solar system by robotic and manned spacecraft.

MISSION OBJECTIVES

OSIRIS-REx’s key science objectives include:

• Return and analyze a sample of Bennu’s surface
• Map the asteroid
• Document the sample site
• Measure the orbit deviation caused by non-gravitational forces (the Yarkovsky effect)
• Compare observations at the asteroid to ground-based observations

 Learn more

33 paintings.

D-News. What Will Rockets Look Like In The Future?

Bruce McCandless.Met this legendary man in Stockholm in 2015. We had a fantastic 20 minute conversation.

Amy Shira Teitel. Why You Should Be Really Excited That Juno is at Jupiter.l

Expedition 48 49 Crew Welcomed to the Space Station.

A few hours after docking to the International Space Station on July 9, Expedition 48-49 Soyuz Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency floated through the spacecraft’s hatch and were greeted by station Commander Jeff Williams of NASA, and Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos. Rubins, Ivanishin and Onishi are scheduled to spend about four months on the station contributing to more than 250 experiments in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.

This Week @NASA.

Space-to-Ground.

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

A moment with Kate Rubins.

SciShow Space.

Expedition 48-49 launches to the ISS.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched on the Russian Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft at 7:36 a.m. Baikonur time, July 7 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station and the start of a four-month mission.

NASA JPL Live. Juno and Jupiter news.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/5808990

Congratulations to NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin and the rest of the team who made this moment in history possible!