News Articles
Solar System, ISS
Nov 22, 2021
Since its inception, the International Space Station has been powered by large, heavy, and complex solar panels. But, as expected, these panels have slowly degraded over time.
As a part of an experiment, the station’s robotic arm unfurled the first ROSA – Roll Out Solar Array – in 2017,... Read More
ISS
Nov 19, 2018
While 3D printers are technology that many people are familiar with, there’s one 250 miles above us on the International Space Station (ISS) that’s unlike anything currently found on Earth. It’s known as the Refabricator, a hybrid 3D printer that can recycle its hard, polymer plastic numerous times... Read More
Earth, ISS
Oct 5, 2018
Did you ever notice how the air can seem cooler when you enter a forest? Humans aren’t the only living things that sweat to cool off. When trees and plants “sweat,” they cool themselves andcan cool the surrounding air.Through a process called transpiration,water and nutrients are taken up by plant... Read More
ISS
Oct 2, 2018
In August 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced NASA’s plan to send “one of America’s finest—a teacher” to space aboard space shuttle Challenger. Of 11,000 aspirants for the adventure, 37-year-old high school teacher Christa McAuliffe from Concord, New Hampshire, was chosen. As the first teacher... Read More
ISS
Sep 26, 2018
Most people picture a glovebox as the small space on the passenger side of your car. But if you’re an astronaut floating 250 miles up, you might picture a large glass enclosure that allows you to conduct experiments that could change how we live both on and off Earth.
Earth, Sun, ISS
Aug 16, 2018
The Sun. It inspires songs, warms us, and grows our food. Life on land and in the oceans, the daily weather, and long-term climate patterns happen primarily because of energy we receive from our closest star. Even tiny variations in that energy can affect the workings of our planet’s atmosphere.... Read More
ISS
Jul 16, 2018
Large and powerful telescopes have delivered stunning images of our Galaxy and the universe. A little closer to home, my colleagues have taken some equally stunning photographs of our own planet from the International Space Station.
ISS
May 16, 2018
NASA researchers are creating a spot colder than the vacuum of space inside the International Space Station.
In 2018, a new atomic refrigerator will blast off for the space station. It’s called the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), and it can refrigerate matter to one ten billionth of a degree above... Read More
ISS
Apr 3, 2018
When NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren blasted off from Kazakhstan in July of 2015 for his first expedition aboard the International Space Station, he had some lofty expectations:
“I was eager to see Earth from space,” he says.
“And I couldn’t wait to float in microgravity,” he recalls.
And … he... Read More
ISS
Mar 13, 2018
If you wanted to reduce the amount of pollution humans produce, where might you look?
Here? Yep.
Here? Sure.
Here? Wait, what?
That’s exactly where scientists and researchers are looking: about 250 miles above Earth, on the International Space Station (ISS). Here, astronauts are working on a... Read More
ISS
Dec 4, 2017
Every now and then when the sun sets, a bright light appears on the western horizon. Gliding silently overhead, it is the biggest spacecraft ever built by humankind, the International Space Station (ISS), carrying a precious cargo of astronauts around Earth.
But the ISS is more than just a... Read More
ISS
Oct 10, 2017
In 2015, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen was onboard the International Space Station (ISS), photographing the tops of thunderstorms from Earth orbit. And he saw something very interesting indeed.
Blue jets.
Universe, ISS
Aug 11, 2017
A new experiment set for an Aug. 14 launch to the International Space Station will provide an unprecedented look at a rain of particles from deep space, called cosmic rays, that constantly showers our planet.
Universe, ISS
Aug 11, 2017
Hold out your hand for 10 seconds. A dozen electrons and muons just zipped unfelt through your palm. The ghostly particles are what scientists call "secondary cosmic rays" -- subatomic debris from collisions between molecules high in Earth's atmosphere and high-energy cosmic rays from outer space... Read More
ISS
Jun 19, 2017
Roman Statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Humans attempting someday to make Mars their home may well share the sentiments expressed by the orator from ancient Rome. As for the library – books can now be stored digitally. But how... Read More
