Author: NeRD

NASA, Collaborators Announce a New Student Lunar Autonomy Challenge! 

NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This video shows NASA’s IPEx Excavator in a digital simulation environment. Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Space is hard, but it’s not all hardware.   The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills. Working entirely in virtual simulations of the Moon’s surface, teams will develop an autonomous agent using software that can accomplish pre-defined tasks without help from humans. These agents will be used to navigate…

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Record-breaking ancient spinning galaxy challenges cosmic evolution theories

NeRD

The most distant and thus earliest rotating disk galaxy ever spotted has surprised astronomers and could challenge our theories of galactic evolution. Not only does it seemingly exist too early in the cosmos to be strongly spinning, the galaxy also shows hints of spiral arms similar to highly evolved “modern” galaxies like our own Milky Way. The galaxy, designated REBELS-25, is seen as it was just 700 million years after the Big Bang, at a time when astronomers expect galaxies to have been small and messy. Living up to its…

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Tissue Chips Accurately Model Organs in Space

NeRD

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir conducts cardiac research using tissue chip platforms in the Life Sciences Glovebox aboard space station in March of 2022. NASA The International Space Station offers a unique microgravity environment where cells outside the human body behave similarly to how they do inside the human body. Tissue chips are small devices containing living cells that mimic complex functions of specific human tissues and organs. Researchers can run experiments using tissue chips aboard space station to understand disease progression and provide faster and safer alternatives for preparing medicine…

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Station Science Top News: Oct. 4, 2024

NeRD

Engineered heart tissues in space showed impairments that led to increased arrhythmias and loss of muscle strength, changes similar to cardiac aging. This finding suggests that the engineered tissues, essentially an automated heart-on-a-chip platform, can be used to study cardiac issues in space and aging-related cardiovascular disease on Earth. Microgravity exposure is known to cause changes in cardiovascular function similar to those seen with aging on Earth. Engineered Heart Tissues assessed these changes using 3D cultured cardiac muscle tissue. The 3D cultures, grown with special scaffolds and derived from human cells, are better at…

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Can Rocket Lab come to NASA’s rescue with new Mars sample-return plan?

NeRD

NASA’s troubled Mars sample-return program may have a new lifeline, in the form of a proposal from private space company Rocket Lab to help save the mission. When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021, the plan was to follow up with a mission in the early 2030s that would retrieve the canisters containing samples of Martian dirt, rocks and atmosphere collected by the rover, and bring them to Earth for detailed study. The hope is that the samples will be able to tell researchers about conditions on Mars…

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Dragon’s-eye view: Astronaut captures amazing shots of Hurricane Milton from space (photos)

NeRD

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has given us dramatic, Dragon’s-eye views of Hurricane Milton churning its way toward landfall. Dominick posted a timelapse video on X (formerly Twitter) today, showing Hurricane Milton through the window of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, which is docked to the International Space Station (ISS). Endeavour is flying SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission for NASA; in early March, the capsule carried Dominick to the orbiting lab along with fellow NASA astronauts Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Alexander Grebenkin of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. Zoomed-in view of…

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NASA’s Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian

NeRD

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Sant Director, Kirk Johnson, preview the Earth Information Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. The exhibit includes a video wall displaying Earth science data visualizations and videos, an interpretive panel showing Earth’s connected systems, information on our changing world, and an overview of how NASA and the Smithsonian study our home planet.

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Connected Learning Ecosystems: Educators Learning and Growing Together

NeRD

Learn Home Connected Learning Ecosystems:… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science   3 min read Connected Learning Ecosystems: Educators Learning and Growing Together On August 19-20, 53 educators from a diverse set of learning contexts (libraries, K-12 classrooms, 4-H afterschool clubs, outdoor education centers, and more) gathered in Orono, Maine for the Learning Ecosystems Northeast (LENE) biannual Connect, Reflect, & Plan Connected Learning Ecosystems (CLEs) Gathering. These gatherings are meant to foster meaningful connections and collaborations and shared knowledge…

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NASA Project Manager Honors Mother’s Impact

NeRD

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA project manager Patricia Ortiz stands in front of the X-1E research aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA Lee esta historia en Español aquí. Patricia Ortiz is proud to be a first-generation Salvadoran American. Her mother, born and raised in El Salvador, came to the United States for a better opportunity despite not knowing anyone or the English language. As a project manager for Space Projects and Partnerships at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center…

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