NASA
The Olympics weren’t the only big events for America this week. In fact, it’s been a pretty huge week overall. The Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars early August 6th, to the delight of just about everyone. The Curiosity, one of NASA’s most advanced rovers is a moving laboratory on rocket boosters, equipped with cameras and ready to explore the surface of Mars. It’s a marvel of technology and it makes space exploration that much more real for everyday people. It means immediate feedback and learning about the planet. It’s as close as we can get, for now, to actually being there.
Beautiful time lapse videos are almost a dime a dozen now that cameras are quickly catching up to the skill and patience of photographers.That’s great news for star gazers like us, who could go through hundreds of those and still be filled with wonder. NASA themselves, of course, can’t help to get in on the action. They’ve delivered some of the most stunning footage of space we’ve ever seen, and rightly so.
This week, however, NASA has topped even themselves. Footage taken from the International Space Station is usually enough to create a healthy dose of awe. Knate Myers, an extremely talented photographer from Albuquerque, took things to the next level with his time lapse compilation of footage from the International Space Station. The shots were processed in Photoshop and the noise was removed to produce crystal clear motion. The video Myers put together doesn’t just show us the light of the stars, but the light here on Earth.
Cinco de Mayo wasn’t just about drinks and dancing. If the sky was clear, you could get a glimpse at a bigger and brighter moon. It’s called the Supermoon, and it is the closest our moon gets to the Earth during the year. Not only is it the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, but it’s bathed in a glow that makes it all the brighter. Gazing at the Supermoon was a great way to end a great night, but not everyone got to see it. A lot of the east coast was covered in clouds and rainy. A lot of the east coast was also drunk.
The mean streets of Manhattan were a little less busy today, as many stepped outside and looked toward the sky. Early this afternoon a little piece of history headed New York’s way from D.C. on the back of a 747 plane. The Space Shuttle Enterprise, chauffeured by a NASA jet, was sighted all around the city as it took the scenic route to its final destination. The shuttle will have a home aboard the USS Intrepid ship, in the Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Well it looks like there will only be two remaining space shuttle missions, so if you are not an astronaut by now, you probably wont get onto these flights!
No worry, since through the Nasa Face in Space program, "NASA wants to put a picture of you on one of the two remaining space shuttle missions and launch it into orbit."
Apparently entry into space is as simple as uploading your image/name and it will be flown on one of the last two shuttle missions. After your image has "flown", you can "print your Flight Certificate - a commemorative certificate signed by the Mission Commander. You can also check on mission status, view mission photographs, link to various NASA educational resources and follow the commander and crew on Twitter or Facebook."
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