Nasa
9 articles-
The Psychological Challenges of Just Getting to Mars
Life outside Earth has its own Hobbesian description: isolated, confined, and extreme—or I.C.E. “Space is the quintessential ICE environment,” according to a new paper, published in American Psychologist. Space includes inhospitable planets like Mars, whose arresting vistas, canyons, and mountains beckon. But only humans sealed inside cumbersome suits, trained to weather such nerve-racking circumstances, can […] -
Why Cassini Is Ending Its Life with a Kamikaze Plunge
This Friday, NASA’s Cassini probe will run out of fuel and take pictures as it plummets at 75,000 miles per hour through Saturn’s atmosphere. It won’t be crashing—the heat from friction will make Cassini immolate in the sky. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Cassini has had a good […] -
The Rituals That Ward Off Bad Luck Aren’t Arbitrary
Bodily experiences inform the way we think. -
This Used To Be the Future
A look inside NASA’s Ames Research Center. -
Can “New Horizons” Bring a Crowdsourced Message From Earth to Aliens?
Now that New Horizons has completed its flyby of Pluto, the spacecraft is on a long journey to become the fifth manmade object to leave the solar system. It does so carrying some curious human artifacts: a Florida state quarter, an American flag, and one ounce of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto […]
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A Visual History of Humanity’s Exploration of Pluto
Before I could string full sentences together, I used to wander outside past my bedtime. I would push open the sliding glass door and immediately look up, searching for stars sprinkled beyond the silhouetted trees. At the time, I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what I was seeing. Instead, each beacon of light represented a […]
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99 Problems, and a Wild Gecko Space Orgy Is Just One
By the time of this launch of the space shuttle Discovery in 2009, NASA knew well the dangers of lightning to spacecraft. At the launch of Apollo 12, in 1969, they were in the dark.NASA Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . On July 19, Russia launched a satellite designed […]
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Can You Identify These Cities From Their Light Signatures?
The light that a city emits is like its glowing fingerprint. From the orderly grid of Manhattan, to the sprawling, snaking streets of Milan, to the bright contrast of Kuwait’s ring-roads, each city leaves its own pattern of tiny glowing dots. See if you can ID these cities based on the way they shine. Nautilus […]
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19th-Century Code Helps 21st-Century Mars Rover Find Its Way
Back in the 1840s, Morse code was a ground-breaking approach for sending messages over a hot, new communications medium called the electrical telegraph. Earlier this year, the last telegram ever was sent, yet Morse code is not entirely out of a job. NASA’s cutting-edge Curiosity Mars rover, built by JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), uses this […]