Space

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is helping NASA develop a high-resolution 3D camera for the next Mars rover, Curiosity, due to launch in 2011.

The director of "Avatar" and other sci-fi flicks believes the public will better understand the mission if the rover has 3D imaging capabilities, according to a CBS News report.

Budget overruns had forced NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to rethink plans to mount a 3D cam on Curiosity, but Cameron apparently convinced NASA administrator Charles Bolden that wasn't a good idea.

Cameron is working with San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems to build the … Read more

Just as the Obama administration ditches NASA plans to return to the moon, a group in Japan is vowing to send humanoid robots there by 2015. Call it a giant leap for droidkind.

The Space Oriented Higashiosaka Leading Association (SOHLA), a satellite-manufacturing consortium in the Osaka area, has vowed to put bipedal humanoid bots on the moon in the next five years, according to a Jiji Press report. SOHLA is now developing a prototype astro-bot called "Maido-kun" that it hopes will follow in the steps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (minus the "Dancing with the Stars" part). … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--If you're a materials scientist at NASA's Glenn Research Center, or an engineer at the Johnson or Marshall Space Centers studying Space Shuttle flow-control valves, or any one of countless others in the agency needing a supercomputer, there's really just one place to go.

That place is the advanced supercomputing facility at the Ames Research Center here, the home of Pleiades, NASA's flagship computer, a monster of a machine that, with a current rating of 973 teraflops--or 973 trillion floating point operations per second--is today ranked the sixth-most powerful supercomputer on Earth.

The … Read more

I know many of you cannot wait for the day when we encounter little green people over a beer, or perhaps even turn into them.

However, one of the world's most celebrated scientific brains, Stephen Hawking, wonders whether aliens and humans really can co-exist.

According to the Times of London, Hawking has made a new documentary, "Stephen Hawking's Universe," for the Discovery Channel, which is scheduled to be broadcast in May. In this film, which took three years to make, Hawking offers his view of what really might be out there.

He doesn't paint an … Read more

With the launch Thursday of the X-37B spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket, the U.S. Air Force is taking a page from NASA's space shuttle program.

Looking somewhat like a traditional shuttle but at roughly one-quarter the size, the unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle took off for its maiden space voyage from Cape Canaveral in Florida and reached a low earth orbit late in the day. The X-37B is intended to serve as a platform for experiments and to offer insights on transporting satellite sensors and other equipment to and from space.

"If these technologies on the … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The shuttle Discovery, delayed a day by cloudy Florida weather, glided to a pinpoint landing here on Tuesday morning to close out an extended space station assembly mission.

"We're glad the International Space Station is stocked up again," Commander Alan Poindexter told mission control after the 9:08 a.m. EDT landing.

The 131st shuttle mission covered 238 complete orbits and 6.2 million miles since blastoff on April 5 for a mission duration of 15 days.

Already running a day late because of low clouds here Monday, the astronauts were aiming for … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The Discovery astronauts bid their station counterparts farewell early Saturday, sharing a final round of hugs and handshakes before moving back aboard the shuttle and undocking from the lab complex. Separation occurred at 8:52 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed 220 miles above Papua New Guinea.

"Houston and station, Discovery, physical separation," shuttle commander Alan Poindexter radioed as the docking systems disengaged.

"Discovery, departing," Expedition 23 flight engineer Soichi Noguchi called out, ringing the ship's bell in the lab's Harmony module.

"Dex, you and your crew … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--President Barack Obama flew to the Kennedy Space Center Thursday to sell his new space policy, a radical change of course for NASA that would cancel the Constellation moon program and shift manned launches to private industry while NASA studies options for future deep space exploration.

For the first time, the president laid out a rough timeline for expeditions beyond low-Earth orbit and even the moon, calling for manned missions to nearby asteroids by the mid-2020s, flights to orbit Mars by the mid-2030s, and manned landings shortly after.

"The bottom line is, nobody is more … Read more

A new robot developed by General Motors and NASA for the International Space Station uses the same tools and performs many of the same tasks as human astronauts. Although the robot is far from cylindrical, it is named R2, short for Robonaut 2.

The 300-pound R2 won't be taking any steps of its own, as it consists of a torso, arms, and head--no legs. GM joined in the project to develop technology for next-generation assembly-line robots.

R2 will be heading for the ISS this September, catching a ride on the space shuttle Discovery. It will work inside, in the … Read more