Car care tips for safety

For those who care their cars focus on the following car care tips to ensure safety:

• For every 3,000 miles check your oil levels.
• Check the brakes frequently.
• Frequent check up of all hoses and belts is necessary.
• Regularly check the car batteries
• Frequently monitor your engines and radiator systems.
• Check out the tires frequently.

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Astrium is having the tendency to land on the Moon’s South Pole

There is a study that fully tells about the landing in Moon’s landing on South Pole the study of Moon’s South Pole is in-situ lunar research. It is mainly tells about the European Space Agency.

For this the dual stage space craft is used for to transfer the module theory it’s the baseline to identify everything.

There are two stages of spacecrafts they are transfer module and lunar Lander module helps to make spacecraft to rotate the orbit or swing near to the moon the distance between the spacecraft and moon is 10 kilometers away from the spacecraft surface.

Sunita Williams to land space again and going to do triathlon

This message came from Houston that Sunita Williams land space and this time she going to do triathlon like running, biking, swimming with some of the athletes like Nautica Malibu in the weekend.

Doctors checked Sunita Williams’s body condition by giving running, biking, and swimming and qualified for going space again. For NASA there are so many doctors they will check all astronauts to space by checking their body condition Williams told thanks to the neurosurgeon sanjay gupta and so many doctors.

Sunita Williams said thanks to everybody that who supports her in some of the movements it makes Sunita Williams makes proud and makes her happier. Once she reached space she made all California fans happier.

To train Sunita Williams 33 crews of professionals trained her and divided strength training machines in 3 ways they are running machine, biking, swimming everything in some given time 240 miles that is equal to 386 km. she maintained her weight also fit. Totally her body condition is good.

She finished her swimming, running and biking in 18 minutes, running she takes 4 miles and totally she takes 48 minutes and 33 seconds to complete everything.
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Curiosity Rover - Check out amazing snaps

Curiosity Rover under Check

Curiosity Rover - At Work

Curiosity Rover

Curiosity Rover

Next Mars Rovers

Stopping and Stretching

Hello, my name is Saina Ghandchi. I am a member of engineering, operations team and this is your Curiosity Rover update.

Couple of days ago, we performed some atmospheric measurements with our instrument, SAM. Scientists are going through the data at this point and I’m very excited because since Viking mission, we haven’t had any instruments on Mars than can tell what is the composition of the Martian atmosphere.

We also received these color beautiful HiRise images. They show clearly the back shell, the site where the descent stage crashed. And also, very cool, you can clearly see the rover tracks in these images.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/curiosity20120906.html

Navigator Technology Takes GPS to a New High

GPS navigational devices are as ubiquitous as cell phones, freely used by commercial and government users alike to determine location, time, and velocity. These tools, however, are only as good as the signals they receive. Now, NASA engineers have found a way to improve the reception of those signals.

GPS, which stands for the Global Positioning System, is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS originally was intended for military uses, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS systems now are available to users worldwide who need accurate positioning, navigation, and timing services.

Thanks to a team of engineers from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., spacecraft operating in weak-signal areas — such as geosynchronous orbits where communications and weather satellites typically operate — will be able to acquire and track the weak GPS signals to determine their locations, much like motorists who use GPS to determine where they are. For their work developing the Navigator GPS receiver, the Goddard team was nominated for the coveted NASA "Invention of the Year" award, a prize reserved for NASA employees who have secured patents for their inventions. An announcement is expected shortly.

Although millions of people rely on GPS receivers today for terrestrial applications, onboard GPS navigation for spaceflight operations has been much more challenging — particularly for spacecraft operating above the GPS constellation, which is about 20,200 kilometers (12,727 miles) above Earth in an area normally referred to as high-Earth orbit. That is because existing GPS receivers could not adequately pick up the GPS signal, which is transmitted toward Earth, not away from it. As a result, spacecraft above the constellation could not reliably use GPS for tracking and navigational purposes, forcing them to use more expensive ground-tracking assets.

Seeing an opportunity to help lower mission costs, the Navigator team, led by Goddard engineer Luke Winternitz, used Research and Development (R&D) funding to develop algorithms and hardware for a prototype spacecraft GPS receiver that would allow spacecraft to acquire and track weak GPS signals at an altitude of 100,000 km (62,137 miles) — well above the GPS constellation, roughly one quarter of the distance to the moon.

"The R&D investment allowed us to develop the weak-signal Navigator GPS receiver and bring it to fruition," Winternitz says. "Proof of the value of this investment lies in the explosion of flight opportunities and commercialization ventures that have followed."

Since its development, the technology has secured flight opportunities on several new missions. Navigator will serve as the primary navigation sensor on NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM), which will study global rain and snowfall when it launches in 2013.

It is considered the enabling navigation technology for another Goddard-managed project, the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission. The mission is made up of four identically instrumented spacecraft that will fly in formation in a very high-altitude Earth orbit, while measuring the 3-D structure and dynamics of Earth’s protective magnetosphere. The mission will rely on the Navigator GPS receiver’s improved sensitivity to help the satellites maintain their precise orbital position.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. is planning to use a Navigator engineering test unit in its "Plug-and-Play" spacecraft, an experimental satellite that can be developed and launched within days because it uses components that hook together in a manner similar to how a computer adds drives or printers via a Universal Serial Bus interface.

The Navigator team also has delivered an engineering test unit to the next-generation weather satellite called GOES-R, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to launch in 2015. The contractor developing the spacecraft may use Navigator's signal-processing design in the spacecraft’s GPS receiver.

Broad Reach Engineering, an aerospace engineering firm that operates offices in Colorado and Arizona, meanwhile, is pursuing a commercial license for the Navigator signal-processing technology. It plans to use the technology to build a GPS unit for a U.S. government program currently under development. The company also plans to use Navigator to develop other products that could be used in potential commercial satellite programs or scientific missions, says Dan Smith, a Broad Reach project manager.

And if those successes weren't enough, Navigator proved its mettle during a first-of-its-kind experiment carried out during STS-125, the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission last year. While astronauts rendezvoused with and grappled the telescope, the experiment used radar measurements of GPS signals that were reflected off the Hubble to provide range estimates during docking and undocking, proving a key relative navigation sensing technology that could potentially be used in a robotic rendezvous with the Hubble in the future.

"No question. The Navigator team has experienced an incredible level of success," says John Carl Adams, an assistant chief of technology for Goddard’s Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate’s mission engineering and systems analysis division. "I attribute their accomplishment to technical know-how, but also to a healthy entrepreneurial spirit. These guys saw a need and developed a solution, which is now driving down mission costs for civilian and military space programs and extending the range of spacecraft GPS sensing to geosynchronous orbits and beyond."

More Advances Planned

The team is now looking to further improve the technology.

Winternitz and his team are developing the next-generation Navigator receiver — one that can acquire the GPS signal even if the spacecraft carrying the receiver is located at lunar distances. Such a capability would reduce mission operational costs because ground controllers could track spacecraft via GPS rather than with expensive ground stations.

"We expect that the evolution of Navigator’s capabilities will open up a host of new applications and funding sources, including exploration and high-altitude science missions," Winternitz says. "Navigator’s selling points will continue to be that it can offer better navigation performance in weak-signal and highly dynamic environments."

Cassini Spots Tiny Celestial satellite, Starts to Point Orbit

NASA's Cassini spacecraft created its nearest strategy to Saturn's little celestial satellite Methone as aspect of a velocity that will take it on a near flyby of another of Saturn's moons, Powerhouse. The Powerhouse flyby will put the spacecraft in an orbit around Saturn that is prepared, or straight, comparative to the aircraft of the globe's equator. The flyby of Methone took position on May 20 at a range of about 1,200 kilometers (1,900 kilometers). It was Cassini's nearest flyby of the 2-mile-wide (3-kilometer-wide) celestial satellite. The best previous Cassini pictures were taken on May 8, 2005, at a range of about 140,000 kilometers (225,000 kilometers), and they hardly settled this item.

Also on May 20, Cassini acquired pictures of Tethys, a bigger Saturnian celestial satellite that is 660 kilometers (1,062 kilometers) across. The spacecraft went by Tethys at a range of about 34,000 kilometers (54,000 kilometers).

Cassini's encounter with Powerhouse, Saturn's biggest celestial satellite, on May 22, is the first of a series of flybys that will put the spacecraft into an prepared orbit. At nearest strategy, Cassini will fly within about 593 kilometers (955 kilometers) of the exterior of the obscure Powerhouse. The flyby will position Cassini's direction around Saturn by about 16 levels out of the tropical aircraft, which is the same aircraft in which Saturn's jewelry and most of its moons live.

Cassini's built in thrusters don't have the capability to position the spacecraft into orbits so prepared. But objective developers have organized trajectories that take benefits of the gravitational power applied by Powerhouse to increase Cassini into prepared orbits. Over the next few several weeks, Cassini will use several flybys of Powerhouse to modify the position of its trend, developing one on top of the other until Cassini is revolving about Saturn at around 62 levels comparative to the tropical aircraft in 2013. Cassini hasn't traveled in orbits this prepared since 2008, when it orbited at an position of 74 levels.

This set of prepared orbits is predicted to offer amazing opinions of the jewelry and posts of Saturn. Further research of Saturn's other moons will have to delay until around 2015, when Cassini profits to an tropical orbit.

"Getting Cassini into these prepared orbits is going to need the same stage of routing precision that the group has provided in previous times, because each of these Powerhouse flybys has to remain right on the cash," said John Mitchell, Cassini system administrator at NASA's Jet Space Clinical, Pasadena, Calif. "However, with nearly eight decades of encounter to depend on, there's no question about their capability to take this off."

Cassini found Methone and two other little moons, Pallene and Anthe, between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus between 2004 and 2007. The three little moons, known as the Alkyonides group, are included in Saturn's E band, and their materials are applied by ice contaminants via the water jets of water ice, water steam and natural substances via the southern region complete place of Enceladus.

The Cassini-Huygens objective is a supportive venture of NASA, the Western Area Organization and the French language Area Organization. JPL controls the objective for the company's Technological innovation Mission Directorate in Florida. The Florida Institution of Technological innovation in Pasadena controls JPL for NASA.

For more information visit  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20120521.html

Sunspot Has Produced M-Class Flares, But No CMEs

Due to current issues on the SOHO spacecraft, the LASCO instrument was not taking data during this event. This instrument is used to develop the near real-time coronal mass ejections alerts. The STEREO beacon data is now coming online and indicates a possible small coronal mass ejection. A preliminary indication of its direction indicates a low likelihood of any geomagnetic storms at Earth.

A particularly large and complex sunspot appeared over the left limb of the sun on Saturday, May 5, beginning its two-week trek across the face of the star in conjunction with the sun's rotation. The sunspot, dubbed Active Region 1476, has so far produced seven M-class flares and numerous C-class flares, including two M-class flares on May 9, 2012 that peaked at 8:32 EDT and 10:08 EDT. These flares were all short-lived and there were no associated coronal mass ejections, so we do not expect any geomagnetic storms at Earth.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News050912-Mflares.html

NASA Image Gallery Highlights Earth’s Changing Face

In celebration of this year's Earth Day on April 22, NASA's Webby Award-winning Global Climate Change website, http://climate.nasa.gov , has unveiled a new version of its popular image gallery, "State of Flux." The gallery, which can be found at http://climate.nasa.gov/sof , presents stunning images, mostly from space, of our ever-changing planet, chronicling changes taking place over time periods ranging from days to centuries.

Each image pair in the continuously updated gallery highlights before-and-after impacts of change, including the destruction wrought by extreme events such as wildfires and floods, the retreat of glaciers caused by climate change, and the expanding footprint of urban areas due to population growth.

The redesigned gallery, which currently features more than 160 comparison views, is now organized and sortable by categories, including ice, human impact, water, land cover and extreme events. A selection of some of the Global Climate Change website team’s favorite images is highlighted in a new "Top Picks" category.

Another new feature is a map view, which places each image into its geographical context. Guests can zoom in to specific locations on the map, or select by region, and see where particular changes are taking place around the globe. They can also share links to each image set and download high-resolution versions of the images.

"Seeing our planet from space gives us a global view that we can't get elsewhere," said Amber Jenkins, editor of the Global Climate Change website, who established the gallery in 2009. "It underscores how fragile and interconnected our planet is, and how it is constantly changing. With this new version of the gallery, we want people to be better able to immerse themselves in the images, and gain that sense of perspective."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20120419.html

Paydirt at 8-Year-Old Mars Rover's 'New Landing Site'

A report in the May 4 edition of the journal Science details discoveries Opportunity made in its first four months at the rim of Endeavour Crater, including key findings reported at a geophysics conference in late 2011.

Opportunity completed its original three-month mission on Mars eight years ago. It reached Endeavour last summer, three years after the rover's science team chose Endeavour as a long-term destination. This crater is about 4 billion years old and 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter.

The impact that excavated the crater left a jumble of fused-together rock fragments around the rim. In a chunk brought to the surface by a later, much smaller impact into the rim, Opportunity found evidence that the original impact released heated, underground water that deposited zinc in that rock. Later after the impact, cool water flowed through cracks in the ground near the edge of the crater and deposited veins of the mineral gypsum.

"These bright mineral veins are different from anything seen previously on Mars, and they tell a clear story of water flowing through cracks in the rocks," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. He is the principal investigator for Opportunity and lead author of the new report by 27 researchers. "From landing until just before reaching the Endeavour rim, Opportunity was driving over sandstone made of sulfate grains that had been deposited by water and later blown around by the wind. These gypsum veins tell us about water that flowed through the rocks at this exact spot. It's the strongest evidence for water that we've ever seen with Opportunity."

For the past four months, the solar-powered rover has been working at one outcrop on the Endeavour rim, called Greeley Haven. Reduced daylight during the Martian winter, and accumulated dust on the rover's solar array, have kept energy too low for driving. "The days are now growing longer, and the sun is moving higher in the sky at Endeavour Crater. We expect Opportunity to resume driving in the next two months and continue exploring other parts of the crater's rim," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Researchers hope to get Opportunity to one of the deposits of clay minerals that have been detected in Endeavour's rim by observations from orbit. These minerals could be evidence of a non-acidic wet phase of the region's environmental history.

"Exploring Endeavour Crater is like having a new landing site," said JPL's Timothy Parker, a co-author of the new report. "That's not just because of the difference in the geology here compared to what we saw during most of the first eight years, but also because there's a whole vista before us inviting much more exploration."

Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped communicating in 2010.

NASA launched the next-generation Mars rover, car-size Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, on Nov. 26 for arrival at Mars' Gale Crater in August 2012.

For more information http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20120503.html

'Beautiful Earth' Combines Live Music, American Indian Perspectives with NASA Science and Technology

Composer Kenji Williams couples awe-inspiring NASA satellite imagery with innovative violin and electronic melodies in his "Bella Gaia" program. The Visitor Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., hosted a live performance of Bella Gaia on April 19 as part of a NASA educational program called "Beautiful Earth."

Beautiful Earth combines Williams's Bella Gaia show with interactive talks by scientists and American Indian educators, and hands-on workshops for students. Williams's performance of Bella Gaia (which translates to "Beautiful Earth)" provides an emotional element to the science education program.

"I would love for people to feel a real and personal connection with the science of the living Earth," Williams said. "Without this emotional connection, stewardship of our resources will be difficult to develop in any long-lasting way. A 'culture of ecology’ is what is needed to create pervasive change, and this is what I would like audiences to feel with their minds and hearts."

NASA's Beautiful Earth showcases Earth's systems and highlights many NASA missions studying Earth. The show on April 19 focused on the water cycle and featured video of American Indians from the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes undertaking a "water walk," a sacred ceremony that celebrates the connections between water and life. The production also included imagery of forest fires in the Amazon and time-lapses of Arctic ice.

Williams created Bella Gaia to inspire people and give them a glimpse into the rare vantage point that astronauts have when they are in space.

"I was inspired by a meeting and conversation with NASA astronaut Mike Fincke several years ago," Williams said. "He told me of his profound transformation the first time he saw the Earth from space, from the International Space Station. I was so inspired by his story that it got me thinking, 'How could I bring this transformative experienced that astronauts commonly have, to those of us who can't go to space?'"

This "transformative experience," which author Frank White called the Overview Effect, represents a change in how some returning astronauts conceptualize Earth, one that overshadows manmade boundaries by a sudden awareness that Earth operates as a borderless, interconnected whole.

In this Beautiful Earth program, Williams played violin over electronic music against a multimedia backdrop of NASA scientific visualizations and views of Earth from space. Interactive talks featured several speakers, including astronomer Jim Rock, of the Native American Dakota tribe, and Thorsten Markus, chief of Goddard's Cryospheric Sciences Lab.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/beautiful-earth.html

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NASA Celebrates Earth Day 2012 in the Washington Area

NASA is taking part in the celebration of Earth Day's 42nd anniversary on the National Mall in Washington from April 20 through April 22. The agency's involvement includes three consecutive days of activities and exhibits open to the public. Additional activities are scheduled at nearby NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The "NASA Village" on the National Mall will contain activities and exhibits in three tents that highlight the use of NASA science and technology to advance knowledge and awareness of our home planet. The area is located one block west of 12th Street and the Smithsonian Metro station entrance.

The Earth and Activities tents will host exhibits and hands-on demonstrations throughout the weekend. Activities include the Weather Versus Climate game, a "Go Green" environment challenge, and Earth Science Pursuit. The Green Theater will feature large satellite images and presentations by NASA scientists and others.

On Earth Day, April 22, a performance stage hosted by the Earth Day Network will feature presentations by NASA along with a wide variety of entertainment.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/ed-2012-dc.html

NASA's WISE Mission Sees Skies Ablaze With Blazars

Astronomers are actively hunting a class of supermassive black holes throughout the universe called blazars thanks to data collected by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The mission has revealed more than 200 blazars and has the potential to find thousands more.

Blazars are among the most energetic objects in the universe. They consist of supermassive black holes actively "feeding," or pulling matter onto them, at the cores of giant galaxies. As the matter is dragged toward the supermassive hole, some of the energy is released in the form of jets traveling at nearly the speed of light. Blazars are unique because their jets are pointed directly at us.

"Blazars are extremely rare because it's not too often that a supermassive black hole's jet happens to point towards Earth," said Francesco Massaro of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology near Palo Alto, Calif., and principal investigator of the research, published in a series of papers in the Astrophysical Journal. "We came up with a crazy idea to use WISE's infrared observations, which are typically associated with lower-energy phenomena, to spot high-energy blazars, and it worked better than we hoped."

The findings ultimately will help researchers understand the extreme physics behind super-fast jets and the evolution of supermassive black holes in the early universe.

WISE surveyed the entire celestial sky in infrared light in 2010, creating a catalog of hundreds of millions of objects of all types. Its first batch of data was released to the larger astronomy community in April 2011 and the full-sky data were released last month.

Massaro and his team used the first batch of data, covering more than one-half the sky, to test their idea that WISE could identify blazars. Astronomers often use infrared data to look for the weak heat signatures of cooler objects. Blazars are not cool; they are scorching hot and glow with the highest-energy type of light, called gamma rays. However, they also give off a specific infrared signature when particles in their jets are accelerated to almost the speed of light.

One of the reasons the team wants to find new blazars is to help identify mysterious spots in the sky sizzling with high-energy gamma rays, many of which are suspected to be blazars. NASA's Fermi mission has identified hundreds of these spots, but other telescopes are needed to narrow in on the source of the gamma rays.

Sifting through the early WISE catalog, the astronomers looked for the infrared signatures of blazars at the locations of more than 300 gamma-ray sources that remain mysterious. The researchers were able to show that a little more than half of the sources are most likely blazars.

"This is a significant step toward unveiling the mystery of the many bright gamma-ray sources that are still of unknown origin," said Raffaele D'Abrusco, a co-author of the papers from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "WISE's infrared vision is actually helping us understand what's happening in the gamma-ray sky."

The team also used WISE images to identify more than 50 additional blazar candidates and observed more than 1,000 previously discovered blazars. According to Massaro, the new technique, when applied directly to WISE's full-sky catalog, has the potential to uncover thousands more.

"We had no idea when we were building WISE that it would turn out to yield a blazar gold mine," said Peter Eisenhardt, WISE project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is not associated with the new studies. "That's the beauty of an all-sky survey. You can explore the nature of just about any phenomenon in the universe."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20120412.html

Sector 33 Puts You in the Control Tower

Angry birds in space may be OK, but angry pilots in the sky are another thing altogether.

NASA in January released an educational game called Sector 33 in which the goal is to keep imaginary pilots and their airliners happy by remaining a safe distance in the sky from each other using math and problem-solving skills.

In the game, available free of charge for Apple iPhone and iPad devices, the player acts as an air traffic controller by guiding airplanes through a sector of airspace spanning Nevada and California.

The player can adjust the planes' path and speed to safely reach certain spots in the sky in the fastest time possible, while at the same time keeping the planes a specific distance from each other.

So far the app has been a big hit with the online community, earning a top rating of five stars with more than 60 percent of those offering customer reviews.

"Users of Sector 33 are telling us that they love the app, it's fun yet educational, and makes gamers think on their feet as they try to solve the various air traffic control problems built into the game," said Gregory Condon, manager of NASA's Smart Skies Education Project based at the Ames Research Center in California.

Sector 33 is based on Smart Skies Line Up With Math, an educational software title developed under the direction of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and distributed in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/sector33.html

Tackling the Global Water Challenge

In a speech on March 22, 2012, marking World Water Day, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a new partnership to improve water security. The U.S. Water Partnership is a public-private partnership that seeks to mobilize U.S.-based knowledge, expertise and resources to improve water security around the world, particularly in those countries most in need.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver joined Secretary Clinton and representatives of other U.S. government and private sector entities for the World Water Day event at the U.S. Department of State in Washington as the partnership was announced.

As one of the new members of the Partnership, NASA brings a variety of expertise, ingenuity and resources to the challenge.

In response to widespread famines in Africa in the 1980s, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) created an early warning system to provide timely information about drought and famine conditions. The system has since evolved into a worldwide Famine Early Warning System Network that uses data from NASA and others to classify food insecurity levels and alert authorities to predicted crises. NASA's data on long-term changes in rainfall, vegetation, reservoir height and other climate factors enhance USAID's ability to accurately predict food shortages and disseminate these findings to a broad audience around the world.

In April 2011, NASA and USAID signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their joint efforts to overcome international development challenges such as food security, climate change, and energy and environmental management. The agreement formalized ongoing agency collaborations that use Earth science data to address developmental challenges, and to assist in disaster mitigation and humanitarian responses.

Another NASA-USAID partnership, SERVIR, is bringing Earth observation information to local decision makers in targeted areas of the world to address threats related to climate change, biodiversity, and extreme events such as flooding, forest fires, and storms. SERVIR, which comes from the Spanish word meaning "to serve," features web-based access to satellite imagery, decision-support tools and interactive visualization capabilities to put previously inaccessible information into the hands of scientists, environmental managers, and decision-makers.

Regional SERVIR hubs are located at the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean in Panama, the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development based in Kenya, and the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal. SERVIR was developed by researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA’s Earth observation research capabilities in space are also contributing new knowledge to tackle the global water challenge. In 2009, researchers using data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite showed that groundwater in northern India had been disappearing. The research, lead by Matt Rodell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., showed that the water was being consumed primarily to irrigate cropland faster than the aquifers were being replenished by natural processes.

Data on the depletion of groundwater around the world using GRACE observations is also contributing to public awareness of the global water challenge. Starting today, World Water Day, graphic displays of changes in global groundwater supply appear on a huge electronic billboard in New York City’s Time Square.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/world_water_day_2012.html

NASA Quiet Sonic Boom Research Effort Ends With a Whisper

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently completed NASA’s latest quiet sonic boom research study at Edwards Air Force Base.

The Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and Response, or WSPR, project gathered data from a select group of more than 100 volunteer Edwards Air Force Base residents on their individual attitudes toward sonic booms produced by aircraft in supersonic flight over Edwards.

NASA and industry are studying technology that will reduce the noise and annoyance associated with sonic booms to the point where aircraft flying over populated areas at supersonic speeds do not disturb the peace, and aviation and governmental authorities may consider lifting prohibitions. But before the current restrictions on supersonic flight over land can be changed, much research is needed to understand how individuals and communities react to low-noise sonic booms.

WSPR's primary purpose is to develop data collection methods and test protocols for future public perception studies in communities that do not usually experience sonic booms. The base's unique flight-test airspace puts Edwards residents in a position to experience loud booms regularly, so their reactions to low-noise booms will be a valuable guide for future work in sonic boom perception and response.

"Understanding the study participants' responses to sonic booms is very important to NASA," said Larry Cliatt, Dryden’s principal investigator for the research effort. “We’re pleased with their participation.”

Participants used a standard questionnaire to provide information every time they heard any sonic boom while at home. In keeping with the "there's an app for that" age, some participants responded using smart phones with apps supplied by the WSPR project. Other study participants used a web-based application, and some used paper forms.

For the supersonic flight portion of the research that occurred between Nov. 4 and Nov. 18, NASA F/A-18 aircraft flew specific flight profiles to generate booms, while NASA researchers monitored the flights, noting precise times and actual boom intensities recorded by ground instruments installed in the Edwards' base housing areas. Dryden conducted 22 flights during the test period, yielding 82 quiet sonic booms and five of normal intensity. The softest WSPR project boom was recorded at .08 pounds per square foot (psf) overpressure, while the loudest registered well within the normal range at 1.4 psf.

NASA Dryden takes great care to ensure that loud sonic booms do not impact residential communities, using preflight weather balloons and sonic boom analysis before every sonic boom research flight.

Dryden's partners in the WSPR effort include NASA’s Langley Research Center, Wyle Laboratories, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Fidell Associates Inc., Pennsylvania State University and Tetra Tech. The cooperation of Edwards Air Force Base personnel was crucial to the study’s success.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/Features/WSPR_research_complete.html

How Communication Influences SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one process that influences the position of a website in the search engines and the ideas we use to get it done is kept fresh with necessary updation. Every single SEO strategy is just a part but, when you try concentration on one and let go others, it means that you are missing the bigger picture.

We keep stressing on a few factors like quality content or latent semantic indexing for getting a website optimized properly and the ultimate aim behind it is to communicate well with the visitors or the potential customers. When you have a website with quality expert grade content and related products that interests the visitors, it means that you website is all set to be ranked pretty well.

Communication is one simple idea that is being followed by us for ages but, we still have problems in making effective communication. The main problem lies in encoding an idea or a message in a format that is easily understood by the other person.

As internet acts as the most influential intermediate between people these days we are in a position to use it as a platform to efficiently communicate to prospective customers. We know that search engines are not our intended receivers but we are supposed to satisfy this intermediary so that our message can reach the target. Search engines are frequently being rationalized so that they become more capable of decoding the meaning of our web pages and at the same time decode the search queries of the users so that they can play their role effectively by giving appropriate search results.

Here, our job as a communicator is to make sure that we keep our web pages easy for Search Engines to understand as well as user friendly. If we are capable of sending the right format of message that is clear-cut for the search Engines to grab, it means that you have done your job. Sounds easy, right? Anyway, hope you don’t miss to deal with the final part of this communication problem… Search Engines are not our final receivers and you will have to put necessary efforts to make people click on to your page, and make business with you.

Now, what is the use of being in the first few ranks and don’t communicate well with your visitors? You don’t get what you want- The business! When you are successful with the first part, you are half way there. Only when your website is presentable and looks like it has got stuff in it, you are through with the final part.  Your job as a webmaster is to provide enough support content about your product or process so that your customers feel it’s worth buying from you when there are thousands of providers out there. When you want business, you will have to build confidence in your customers about what you sell.

Getting feedbacks and keeping in touch will help you a lot in building your business whilst pulling it to the next level. When you get a sale it means you are successful about communicating with one person but, what about the others who had visited your page and had not made business with you.  This ring a bell saying that your way of communication has a few hitches and the best way to prevail over this is to follow the feedback method.

When you feel that your website is well equipped with what customers need and the one thing that you are missing is an effective communication with the search engines, you should get it done by the professionals. Search Engine Genie (SEG) is one qualified professional firm that you can rely for expert Search Engine optimization, promotion, marketing and ranking solutions.

Ready to Launch! A New Website Sharing Space Station Benefits For Humanity

When the International Space Station was first imagined, the idea was to create an unprecedented research platform to support microgravity investigations for the benefit of all humankind. That goal is now a reality, and researchers have not waited for completion to begin working on studies to build on our knowledge of science and technology in space. Because of this, we can already see some amazing breakthroughs.

So just what has the space station yielded to humankind? You can discover the benefits for yourself, thanks to another international collaborative effort. Working together, the station partners launched the International Space Station Benefits for Humanity website on March 1. This site enables readers to look at the global progress resulting from the knowledge and technologies of the orbiting laboratory.

Camille Alleyne, International Space Station assistant program scientist with NASA, explains the goals behind this new effort. "The website is a great resource for the general public and other stakeholders," Alleyne said. "It communicates the value of the International Space Station as a unique scientific and educational platform that enables discoveries that benefit all humanity."

The site will be featured on all of the partner agency websites, in both English and the applicable native languages. This includes the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA; the European Space Agency, or ESA; the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA; the Russian Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos; and NASA. The stories contributed were the work of writers from around the world, representing each of the agencies whose collaboration took the station from conception to reality.

"Working with the partners on this initiative was truly an extraordinary experience," Alleyne said. "This effort is a continued demonstration of the unprecedented achievement in international cooperation, which is one of the great values of the International Space Station."

Prompted by the International Space Station Multilateral Control Board, the site will feature stories that raise awareness to the station benefits already making a difference in our world. These accounts will be updated as additional accomplishments come to light and vary in topic from education to technology to telemedicine advancements.

"Users will find stories about station research that benefits humankind in the areas of human health, Earth observations and global education," Alleyne said. "Vaccine development research, station-generated images that assist in disaster relief and farming and educational projects that inspire future scientists, engineers and space explorers are some examples of research benefits. The resulting knowledge of these benefits will be extended to more countries and people for the betterment of humanity. They will be used to improve the quality of people's lives globally."

The site focuses primarily on findings that are making their way into general use here on Earth. For instance, doctors are already operating with space station robotics technology when they employ the neuroArm to perform delicate surgical procedures. There are also products with the potential for worldwide impact that are on the horizon, such as vaccines to inoculate against salmonella and even advanced delivery methods of microencapsulation for cancer treatments. These are just some of the developments derived from the work done aboard the space station highlighted as part of this humanitarian website.

As many efforts provide valuable conceptual and scientific data, however, researchers will continue to build upon the ever-growing body of space and microgravity knowledge. For results from specific investigations performed on the space station, readers can also visit NASA’s International Space Station Program Science Results Web page.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/humanities_website.html

Space Station Team takes on 'EPIC' occasion

Expedition 30 Flight Engineer Don Pettit, operational in singing group with the International Space Station team in Houston’s Mission Control Center, inspects hardware as he install a set of Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC) processor cards in one of seven primary computers aboard. Anyone who has ever been concerned in a computer improve knows that they can be complex, and that you have to take your time, be cautious, and go step-by-step if you want to be winning.

That’s precisely what the journey 30 crew and International Space Station team in Mission Control are responsibility as they fit a set of Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC) computer cards in the seven main computers on the station.

EPIC is the shorthand name the team is using to explain this improve of the main processor cards. The seven computers, which are officially called Multiplexer/Demultiplexers, are second-hand for Guidance, Navigation, & Control; Command and Control; and Payload, or experiment, control. The innovative cards have faster processors, more memory, and an Ethernet connection for data output. Astronauts use laptop computers to control station systems from side to side these main computer.

Europe's automatic move Vehicle is incorporated on Ariane 5

The third European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for open by Arianespace was installing atop its Ariane 5 at the Spaceport, mark one of the final steps in arrangements for a March 9 liftoff on a service mission to the International Space Station.

Named after Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi, the ATV will take dry cargo (including food, clothing, experiments and spare parts), along with water, gas and propellant for delivery to the crewed orbital ability.

This latest ATV flight in support of International Space Station operations will utilize an Ariane 5 ES version of Arianespace's heavy-lift workhorse, underscoring the launcher's suppleness in meeting a full range of mission requirements. The launch of ATV Edoardo Amaldi follows Arianespace missions with Europe's first two Automated Transfer Vehicles, perform in February 2011 and March 2008 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

An industry consortium led by Astrium produces the ATVs in a program manage by the European Space Agency.