Earth Science in Action
We don’t just study climate. We act on it.
NASA collects data to show how our climate is changing from both natural causes and human activities, from documenting impacts on ice sheets, sea level, and Arctic sea ice to monitoring vegetation health and freshwater movement. We are putting decades of research, technology, and innovation to work to improve people's lives on our home planet.
NASA Announces Winners of Inaugural Human Lander Challenge
NASA’s 2024 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) Forum brought 12 university teams from across the United States to Huntsville, Alabama, near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, to showcase their innovative concepts for addressing the complex issue of managing lunar dust.…
NASA Opportunities Fuel Growth and Entrepreneurship for Bronco Space Club Students
NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of…
NASA Selects 5 Proposals to Conduct Research Using Openly Available Data in the Physical Sciences Informatics System
NASA’s Physical Sciences Research Program has selected five ground-based proposals in response to the Physical Science Informatics System call for proposals. These proposals are in the research areas of biophysics, combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science. The five investigators…
NASA@ My Library and Partners Engage Millions in Eclipse Training and Preparation
The Space Science Institute, with funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provided unprecedented training, support, and supplies to 15,000 libraries in the U.S. and territories in support of public engagement during the 2023…
An Eclipse Megamovie Megastar
Nazmus “Naz” Nasir is a software engineer by day, and an astrophotographer by night….and sometimes by day as well! This April, Naz participated in NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie 2024 project, photographing the total solar eclipse. He posted online a spectacular video composed of stabilized and…
NASA Shares Two New Moon to Mars Architecture White Papers
NASA has released two white papers associated with the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture efforts. The papers, one on lunar mobility drivers and needs, and one on lunar surface cargo, detail NASA’s latest thinking on specific areas of its lunar…
Hubble Examines an Active Galaxy Near the Lion’s Heart
It might appear featureless and unexciting at first glance, but NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of this elliptical galaxy — known as Messier 105 — show that the stars near the galaxy’s center are moving very rapidly. Astronomers have concluded…
Sols 4226-4228: A Powerful Balancing Act
Earth planning date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024 As documented in a previous blog last week, we continue to juggle power constraints as we focus on analyzing our newest drilled sample on Mars: “Mammoth Lakes 2.” Today, the star of the…
Interesting Rock Textures Galore at Bright Angel
Upon the rover’s arrival at Bright Angel – where Perseverance encountered unusual popcorn-like textures – it was so exciting to see all the interesting features in the rocks of this interval! In particular, these rocks contain an abundance of veins…
Station Nation: Meet Katie Burlingame, ETHOS Flight Controller and Instructor in the Flight Operations Directorate
Katie Burlingame is an ETHOS (Environmental and Thermal Operating Systems) flight controller and instructor in the Flight Operations Directorate supporting the International Space Station. Burlingame trains astronauts and flight controllers on the International Space Station’s environmental control systems, internal thermal…
NASA Prepares for Air Taxi Passenger Comfort Studies
A new custom virtual reality flight simulator built by NASA researchers will allow them to explore how passengers experience air taxi rides and collect data that will help designers create new aircraft with passenger comfort in mind. Wayne Ringelberg, a…
NASA Kennedy Team Recognized During White House Sustainability Awards
A team of seven NASA Kennedy employees was recognized by the White House for charging ahead with the expansion of the agency’s sustainable electric vehicle (EV) fleet at Kennedy Space Center. They did so at minimal cost to taxpayers while…
Langley Celebrates Pride Month: Derek Bramble
Derek Bramble has served in a variety of mission and program support roles over his 14-year career at NASA Langley. He currently serves as an HR Business Partner in LaRC’s Human Capital Office, where he works closely with a number…
Mapping the Red Planet with the Power of Open Science
Mars rovers can only make exciting new discoveries thanks to human scientists making careful decisions about their next stop. The Mars 2020 mission is aimed at exploring the geology of Jezero Crater and seeking signs of ancient microbial life on…
NASA Parachute Sensor Testing Could Make EPIC Mars Landings
Landing rovers and helicopters on Mars is a challenge. It’s an even bigger challenge when you don’t have enough information about how the parachutes are enduring strain during the descent to the surface. Researchers at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center…
NASA Celebrates 10 Years of Human Spaceflight’s NExT Pioneers
Experienced spacewalkers, university students, flight controllers, and NASA team members at all stages of their career recently came together at Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) for an anniversary celebration that looked to the future as much as the…
Liftoff! Redesigned NASA Ames Visitor Center Engages Kids, Families
The San Francisco Bay Area has a new and interactive way to learn more about the innovative work of NASA’s Ames Research Center. A newly redesigned NASA Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California, reopened…
NASA’s Mars Odyssey Captures Huge Volcano, Nears 100,000 Orbits
The 23-year-old orbiter is taking images that offer horizon-wide views of the Red Planet similar to what astronauts aboard the International Space Station see over Earth. NASA’s longest-lived Mars robot is about to mark a new milestone on June 30:…
NASA eClips Engages Families at 2024 STEM Community Day
On Saturday, June 1, 2024, thousands of community members attended the Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) Community Day hosted by Christopher Newport University in partnership with Newport News Public Schools in Virginia. The event showcased many different facets of…
Alphabet Soup: NASA’s GOLD Finds Surprising C, X Shapes in Atmosphere
Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup? NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has revealed unexpected C- and X-shaped formations in an electrified layer of gas high above our heads called the ionosphere. While…
