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NASA announced the winners on Wednesday of the third annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the power of radioisotopes for space exploration. The competition asked students to learn about NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), “nuclear batteries” the agency uses to explore some of the most extreme […]

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In anticipation of Earth Day, NASA invites media to a briefing at the agency’s headquarters on Friday, April 19, at 11 a.m. EDT. The event will share updates on NASA’s climate science and early data from the agency’s ocean-watching PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission, as well as reveal upcoming Earth airborne missions. The […]

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NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts. In May 2023, scientists discovered that NICER had developed a “light leak.” Unwanted sunlight was entering the instrument […]

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Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, floods, and tornados can dramatically change the surface of Earth to the point where alterations are visible in space. Changes driven by human actions and interventions, such as mining and deforestation, are also visible in satellite imagery. For over 50 years, NASA’s Landsat satellites have recorded our planet’s changing surface. […]

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Engineers at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, have combined all 10 mirrors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Preliminary tests show the newly aligned optics, collectively called the IOA (Imaging Optics Assembly), will direct light into Roman’s science instruments extremely precisely. This will yield crisp images of space once the observatory launches. “This […]

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This composite image shows the dazzling phases of the total solar eclipse, seen above the Flight Research Building at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on April 8, 2024. Glenn was the only NASA center in the eclipse path of totality, plunging into darkness for nearly four minutes as the face of the Sun was […]

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The final downlink shift by the Ingenuity team was a time to reflect on a highly successful mission — and to prepare the first aircraft on another world for its new role. Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in […]

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Deep space exploration requires a paradigm shift in astronaut medical support toward Earth-independent medical operations. Currently, astronauts rely on real-time communication with ground-based medical providers. However, as the distance from Earth increases, so do communication delays and disruptions. Deep space exploration crews will need to autonomously detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent medical conditions. One potential […]

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Background: Even intense exercise by astronauts cannot compensate for muscle atrophy caused by microgravity. Atrophy occurs, in part, by way of an underlying mechanism that regulates calcium uptake. Recent research has shown exposure to spaceflight alters the uptake of calcium in muscles. However, the molecular mechanisms that drive these changes are not well studied. Researchers […]

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On-demand nutrient production system for long-duration missions When astronauts embark on long space missions, they’ll need to grow their own food because pre-packaged meals from Earth lose their nutritional value over time. The BioNutrients project at Ames Research Center’s Space Biosciences Division has solved this problem by using genetic engineering to create microbially-based food that can […]