NASA – Virtual Orbit

27Sep

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NASA

Mars-Saturn, Jupiter-Venus Conjunctions Happening This Month! – NASA Blogs

Skywatchers, you have the opportunity to see not just one, but two planetary conjunctions during the month of April 2022! A conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together in Earth’s night sky. Conjunctions have no profound astronomical significance, but they are nice to view. In our Solar System, conjunctions occur frequently between planets because the planets orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane – the ecliptic plane – and thus trace similar paths across our sky. The first planetary meet up occurs on the mornings of April 4 and 5 before sunrise and includes Mars and Saturn, with Saturn being the brightest. These two planets will come together, appearing as almost a single point of light. Howeve...

NASA — Why Do X-Ray Mirrors Look So Unusual?

24Sep

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NASA

NASA — Why Do X-Ray Mirrors Look So Unusual?

ALTDoes the object in this image look like a mirror? Maybe not, but that’s exactly what it is! To be more precise, it’s a set of mirrors that will be used on an X-ray telescope. But why does it look nothing like the mirrors you’re familiar with? To answer that, let’s first take a step back. Let’s talk telescopes.How does a telescope work?The basic function of a telescope is to gather and focus light to amplify the light’s source. Astronomers have used telescopes for centuries, and there are a few different designs. Today, most telescopes use curved mirrors that magnify and focus light from distant objects onto your eye, a camera, or some other instrument. The mirrors can be made from a variety of materials, including glass or metal.ALTSpace telescopes like the James Webb and Hubble Space T...

Arkisys’ first flight to demonstrate universal interface adapter

21Sep

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NASA

Arkisys’ first flight to demonstrate universal interface adapter

PARIS — Arkisys, a Southern California startup developing robotic infrastructure for on-orbit commerce, announced plans Sept. 21 for a spaceflight demonstration of a key technology. In 2023, Arkisys plans to launch Applique, a universal interface adapter designed to connect any spacecraft payload, using a variety of common interface standards and protocols. Funding for the mission comes from the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, which awarded Arkisys $17.5 million in other transaction authority in 2020 for a series of projects. “It’s a system-on-a-chip design, which allows us to connect any external payload to the inner workings of our port,” Dan Lopez, Arkisys chief strategy officer, told SpaceNews. “You can connect a robotic arm, multispectral camera, synthetic aperture rad...

18Sep

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NASA

Member Spotlight: Mallik Putcha

Space might be the final frontier, but Mallik Putcha is using his life here on Earth to help the next generation of engineers, innovators, and problem solvers explore the beyond. To maximize the impact of his efforts, Putcha relies on his Patron-level membership benefits, to help take his passion for space to a whole new level. Putcha first visited Space Center Houston in 1992 following the initial opening of the museum along with his wife, Dr. Lakshmi Putcha, former Chief of Pharmacokinetics, NASA Life Sciences Division (now deceased). As a NASA contractor engineer, he took a personal interest in the space industry, especially how NASA portrayed the space race to the public. “Space is there and as human beings, we always want to explore,” Putcha says. He recognized that Space C...

Loud fireball spotted over southern Mississippi mostly heard, hardly seen – NASA Blogs

15Sep

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NASA

Loud fireball spotted over southern Mississippi mostly heard, hardly seen – NASA Blogs

A fiery meteor streaked across the morning skies in southern Mississippi yesterday on April 27, 2022. More than 30 eyewitnesses in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing a bright fireball at 8:03 a.m. CDT. The sighting was soon followed by numerous reports of loud booms heard in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and surrounding counties. GLM image from the GOES 16 satellite. Credits: NOAA Approximately 22,000 miles out in space, NOAA’s Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLM) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 16 and 17 detected several bright flashes associated with the fragmentation’s of this bolide, or exceptionally bright meteor, which was first spotted 54 miles above the Mississippi River near the Mississippi town of Alcorn. “...