Gearing Up for Mars 2020 Rover

Critical ground support equipment needed to prepare NASA’s Mars 2020 rover for its journey to the Red Planet has arrived at a payload processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rover is being manufactured at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and, once complete, will be sent to Kennedy for assembly, prelaunch processing and checkouts.

NASA Scientists Confirm Water Vapor on Europa

Forty years ago, a Voyager spacecraft snapped the first closeup images of Europa, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. These revealed brownish cracks slicing the moon’s icy surface, which give Europa the look of a veiny eyeball. Missions to the outer solar system in the decades since have amassed enough additional information about Europa to make it a high-priority target of investigation in NASA’s search for life.

What makes this moon so alluring is the possibility that it may possess all of the ingredients necessary for life. Scientists have evidence that one of these ingredients, liquid water, is present under the icy surface and may sometimes erupt into space in huge geysers. But no one has been able to confirm the presence of water in these plumes by directly measuring the water molecule itself

STEM subjects in schools are becoming increasingly important

From John Bigelow…I recently had the pleasure of spending some time in the United States with a host of amazing people from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Over the course of two weeks, I was able to meet with staff from both the Space Centre and the Manned Flight Centre in Houston as well as the Jet Propulsion Labs in Pasadena, California. The goal of these meetings was to conduct a range of interviews focused on why STEM subjects in schools are becoming increasingly important, especially in the face of the changing needs of tomorrow’s workforce and the way new technologies are shaping our future.

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Where In World Is the ISS? Three Ways To Locate Humanity’s Only Space Outpost

When China’s Tiangong-1 burned up last year, it left the International Space Station (ISS) as humanity’s sole outpost in space. Today six astronauts live aboard the ISS, performing spacewalks and science experiments, filming scenes for an upcoming virtual-reality series, and unloading cargo deliveries from capsules like Northrop’s Cygnus and SpaceX’s Dragon. These brave astronauts orbit the Earth 15 times daily at 17,000mph, passing over your head 5–8 times each day. It’s fun to try to spot the ISS at night, and you can take photos of it streaking across the dark sky.

NASA Inspiring NT Students to Reach for the Stars

Aspiring astronauts, aerospace engineers and astrophysicists have been given a life-changing experience with the visit of NASA Science Engineers to Territory schools.

Taminmin College students were today given the opportunity to learn from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers at the school’s new $12.7 million Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Centre.