NASA Has an Instagram Site!

Hey, I was just reading Kim Komando's site for some quick news and found this neat link.

Seems NASA has started an Instagram account and is letting the general public have access. 

I have taken a quick look and there are some really nice photos over there.  I would have to admit they seem to be as good as any you would find on any of NASA's own sites, but if Instagram is your thing or if it is easier just to go to the Instagram site, then you are golden here. 


Check it out - HERE

Curiosity Takes Great Photo of Self

I know, the rover Curiosity has proven its ability to take a picture with itself as the subject, but up until recently those photo has all the charm of a Chilton Auto Repair Manual.  I know, NASA needed to see how the rover fared during the trip and various other shots.  But when when the operators get the chance, they prove that they can  do some really great work.

This photo shows us, in part, just how big the machine is.  Each of those wheels is over half a meter or 1.6 feet.  Plus we can see all the workings as well as the tread material!   Looking back at the mountains between the bogey wheels makes me feel like I am there!

You can see the ultra high rez photos at Space do Com here

Some things are just funny!

From the warped sense of humor that is Xnewsman

All a matter of perspective and frame of reference, I believe.

The Flags Remain!

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured the shadowed side of the flag planted at the Apollo 16 site.

Each of the six Apollo missions to the Moon's surface left a patriotic reminder of the mission - The Stars & Stripes, stiffened by flexible metal strips, standing proudly on the landing site.

In a conversation with a listener, he recalls that Armstrong reported that he observed the Apollo 11's flag being blown over by the blast from Eagle's LAM as it lifted off.

This started some speculation that persisted to today, wondering if Armstrong indeed saw their flag topple and furthermore what fate did the other 5 flags come too.

Well according to my friend and backed up with an article from the NY Daily News, sent in by Xnewsman,

The most recent photos taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera show that all 5 flags do indeed still stand — except the one placed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin July 20, 1969.

As you can see in this amazing photo: Not only is the decent module clearly visible but the shadow of the flag, this one from the Apollo 16 & 17 missions.  Of course if you look closely you can see the LRV or "rover".

Now I can not add any validity to this statement, but it was mentioned that further pictures from the cameras aboard the LRV show some of the other discarded   hardware, not confined to just the PLISS backpacks.  I can not imagine why they would discard helmets, gloves and boots considering that these would almost be safety related items, however it WAS mentioned that these items were also jettisoned.  Someone want to correct me on this statement?!

Oh and before I forget, the complete article is linked to this article's title.
Also check out nasa.gov and the WIKI on the LRO here

Inside the LHC with LightBox

Oh wow, you HAVE to take a look at this!!!! Courtney sent me in a link for a Lightbox tour of the Large Hadron Collider! You can pan 360 up and down and zoom in to see I swear individual bolts and read signs! Wonderful! highlight the code below, or click the article title

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/07/12/interactive-panorama-step-inside-the-large-hadron-collider/?hpt=hp_c2#end

Space Shuttle launch, shot by a camera phone

Now this is what I call a great amateur photo! Here we have a shuttle launch captured by a cell phone of all things. Whats better though is that the camera wasn't on a plane but much much higher - in the equipment pod of a helium weather balloon!

Here is the info from the IO9 article:

• Quest for Stars, a non-profit educational organization co-sponsored by Challenger Center for Space Science Education has launched weather-balloon-hoisted cameras into space before, but this time around, the group of students and educators wanted to capture the actual Shuttle launch from space. So they put together Robonaut-1..... and sent it up 100,000 feet.

As you can see, they were spectacularly successful!

Check out the complete IO9 article here

Beautiful shot of Halley's Comet nucleus

The blog "The Daily Galaxy" posted this stunning picture from the ESA's Giotto spacecraft of the nucleus of Halley's Comet when it made a flyby in 1986.

For those of you that had a chance to see this year's Orionid meteor shower, you should know that those bright little bits are in fact the material from comet Halley from it's last pass through the Solar System. It's next appearance comes in 2061 as it makes it's 75 year round trip of Sol.

I can't help but be awed by the scope. Here we are steaming a round our local star which is speeding hellbent through our own local neighborhood and all this grandeur is pulled along for the ride! I know a lot of the mystique comes from being hardly smarter than a bag of hammers, but who can not squeeze out an "oh wow!" during the shower, knowing that we are plowing through the leavings from the creation of the solar system.

Anyone feeling small?

NASA restoring 40 year old tapes containing Luna Images

Shaun Saunders sends in an article from Computerworld that for me at least demonstrates the need to constantly backup and migrate data to hardware that can easily access said data.

The project is called "Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project" at stake is deteriorating data. This data could show Earth's risk of an asteroid strike or shed light on global warming.

What the aging tapes contain are pictures taken by the Lunar Orbiter probes launched in the mid 60s with the primary mission of finding suitable landing areas for the upcoming Apollo project. What will be gained initially will be a comparison of the Moon's surface 45 years ago and today with pictures from the recently launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The original images were scanned, transmitted, reconstructed and then photographed again leading to image degradation with each step (think of copying a copy several times over) The researchers hope to go straight to the source, the original tapes from the probes, and build 1800 undistorted pictures.

Though, thankfully, the huge 2 inch wide tapes were still available, but the machines used to record them, Ampex FR-900 reel-to-reel units, weighing half a ton and resembling refrigerators, that were formerly used by the U.S. Air Force to record radar data but have not been manufactured since 1975 and it seemed that once the old ones were taken out of action, they were ummm dumped in the ocean. Luckily 4 of the antique machines were found and two decades later and 250,000 dollars in custom parts, 2 machines were restored. Luck prevailed again when the tapes proved still readable. Lots of work still remain in processing and editing. But as you can see by pictures above....well worth it. The grainy picture is what we first saw and the actual picture.

Computer World article

Life on Mars? Amazing photos from Nasa probe reveal mystery figure on Red Planet

I thought someone was hoaxing me but Shaun came up with another post from Daily Mail online

It seems that the Martian rover Spirit caught a rather unusual formation in one of the photos that it sent back to Earth. Initial inspections revealed nothing unusual, but closer examination by amateur astronomers has thrown up this intriguing picture. Yes, this one does the infamous Mars Face one way better. The picture as you can see seems to depict a humanoid outline that appears to be point at something out of frame. Of course it should be pointed out that without reference points, it is impossible to scale the figure. Another site listing the graphic has the size of the "man" at around four inches or slightly over 10 cm. And I thought Martians would be tall and thin!

Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post

China says moon pictures not faked from NASA

Wow, you got to love this! As most of you know, China launched its first lunar probe, the Chang'e 1, in October. After a sucessful launch, the Chinese space agency released a photo featuring a patch of grey moon surface with the requisite amount of craters.....or so it would seem. Astute Chinese internet users soon cried foul though. It seems the photo that was released is almost a carbon copy of a photo released by NASA years ago! What makes this even weirder is that the Chinese photo has what appears to be photoshopped craters added in. (no I am not making this up! LOL)

The Chinese scientist insist that the photo is genuine and that the reason that the photos are alike is that the probe's camera was pointed in the same area on the Moon. As for the extra crater well, China says that The American photo was not of significant resolution to resolve the smaller structures.

Click here for the complete article

photo Reuters

Cassini Delivers Up-Close Images of Saturn Moon

NASA's Cassini probe performed its closest pass to Saturn's odd little Iapetus moon on September 10th , and the first, unprocessed pictures have begun showing up online.

There are many more stunning pictures online, click the article title or this link for more of the story and more pics!

Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post