March 24, 2011
 A three percent scale model of a blended wing body aircraft design
recently was tested in NASA Langley's 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel. During
the testing, engineers sought to clarify results from a previous test of
the X-48C prototype in the Langley Full Scale Tunnel. The blended wing
body is
a hybrid shape that resembles a flying wing, but also incorporates
features from conventional transport aircraft. This combination offers
several advantages over conventional tube-and wing airframes. The BWB
airframe merges efficient high-lift wings with a wide airfoil-shaped
body, allowing the entire aircraft to generate lift and minimize drag.
This shape helps to increase fuel economy and creates larger payload
(cargo or passenger) areas in the center body portion of the aircraft.
NASA and
its industry partners have been investigating the blended wing aircraft
concept for potential use as a future air transport for both civilian
and military applications. Image Credit: NASA Langley/Sean Smith
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
March 24, 2011
 Chasma Boreale, a long, flat-floored valley, cuts deep into Mars' north
polar icecap. Its walls rise about 4,600 feet, or 1,400 meters, above
the floor. Where the edge of the ice cap has retreated, sheets of sand
are emerging that accumulated during earlier ice-free climatic cycles.
Winds blowing off the ice have pushed loose sand into dunes and driven
them down-canyon in a westward direction. This scene combines images
taken during the period from December 2002 to February 2005 by the
... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
March 24, 2011
 These images show the effects of the tsunami on Japan's coastline.
The image on the left was taken on Sept. 5, 2010; the image on the right
was taken on March 12, 2011, one day after an earthquake and resulting
tsunami struck the island nation. Image Credit:
German Aerospace Center (DLR)/Rapid Eye
Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
October 1, 2010
 The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to
altitudes above 60,000 feet -- twice as high as a commercial airliner
-- and as far as 11,000 nautical miles -- half the circumference of
Earth. Operators pre-program a flight path, and then the plane flies
itself for as long as 30
hours, staying in contact through satellite and line-of-site
communications to the ground control station at NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Center in California's Mojave Desert. Image Credit: NASA/Ton... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
October 1, 2010
 In preparation for its last planned mission to the International Space
Station, shuttle Discovery was lowered onto its external fuel tank and
solid rocket boosters in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lift and mate operation
began
Sept. 9 and wrapped up early Sept. 10. On Sept. 21, 2010, Discovery
completed its last planned trip to the launch pad at 1:49 a.m., leaving
the Vehicle Assembly Building at about 7:23 p.m. on the slow, 3.4-mil... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
October 1, 2010
 In the cold vacuum of space, radiation from massive stars carves away
at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures.
These pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space
Telescope, are located in the Carina Nebula. Violent stellar winds and
powerful
radiation from massive stars sculpt the surrounding nebula. This image
of dust pillars in the Carina Nebula is a composite of 2005
observations taken of the region in hydrogen light (light emitted by
hydrogen a... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
September 23, 2010
 Located about 5,000 light years from Earth, this composite image shows
the Rosette star formation region. Data from the Chandra X-ray
Observatory are colored red and outlined by a white line. The X-rays
reveal hundreds of young stars in the central cluster and fainter
clusters on either
side. Optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey and the Kitt Peak
National Observatory (purple, orange, green and blue) show large areas
of gas and dust, including giant pillars that remain behind after
inten... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
September 23, 2010
 Giant planet GJ 436b in the constellation Leo is missing something--and
that something is swamp gas. To the surprise of astronomers who have
been studying the Neptune-sized planet using NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope, GJ 436b has very little methane--an ingredient common to
many
planets in our own solar system. This artist's concept shows the
unusual, methane-free world partially eclipsed by its star. Models of
planetary atmospheres indicate that any world with the common mix of
hydrogen, car... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
September 23, 2010
 NASA's Desert RATS, or Research and Technology Studies, team made
its 13th trip to the desert for another round of analog testing. The
Desert RATS tests offer a chance for a NASA-led team of engineers,
astronauts and scientists to conduct technology development research in
the
Arizona desert. The location offers a good stand-in for destinations
for future planetary exploration missions. This year's tests take place
Aug. 31-Sept. 15. This image is a night-time shot of the rover and
habitat uni... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
September 15, 2010
 As if surrounded by a celestial halo, space shuttle Discovery made its
way towards the expansive confines of NASA Kennedy Space Center's
Vehicle Assembly Building following a move from its processing hangar
on Sept. 9, 2010. A metal sling will be carefully connected to the
spacecraft and then
operators will hoist it from transfer aisle to the high reaches of the
52-story building before lowering it into place beside the external
fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters. Crews then will conne... Continue reading...
Posted by Prateek Tripathi.
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