The straight-forwardly named Cinder Lake, just a short car ride north by northeast from downtown Flagstaff, is what NASA describes as a "lunar analogue": a simulated offworld landscape used to test key pieces of gear and equipment, including hand tools, scientific instruments, and wheeled rovers.(via Jason Kottke)
This self-portrait documents the state of the rover and allows mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear ... The mosaic shows the rover at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale Crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. A portion of Mount Sharp appears on the right side. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. When the rover returns the full-resolution MAHLI frames of the scene, the team plans to generate a more detailed portrait of Curiosity in its Martian neighborhood.
Anyone Else Think This Looks Like the Cookie Monster? Ok, so maybe it's just me. But the superposition of younger craters on older craters (in this case two smaller craters upon the rim of an older crater) can result in landforms that appear to resemble more familiar shapes to human eyes. More generally, the Law of Superposition allows scientists to determine which surface features pre- and postdate others, leading to a better understanding of the geological history of different regions of Mercury's surface.(via Peter Glaser)
It's not every day that a space shuttle lands at LAX. Although this was a first for the major Los Angeles airport hub, it was a last for the space shuttle Endeavour, as it completed its tour of California skies and landed, albeit atop a 747, for the last time ... Pictured above, the piggybacking shuttle was snapped on approach last week to LAX as it crossed above and beyond a major Los Angeles street. Now retired, the space shuttles are all museum pieces, with the above shuttle scheduled to be towed along the streets of LA to the California Science Center.
Every frame in this video is a photograph taken from the International Space Station. All credit goes to the crews on board the ISS. I removed noise and edited some shots in photoshop. Compiled and arranged in Sony Vegas.
An Pfingsten 1983 besuchte eine NASA-Delegation Köln/Bonn mit dem Space Shuttle „Enterprise“. Mehr als 300.000 Besucher beobachteten die Landung bzw. besichtigten die Raumfähre, die auf den Rücken einer Boeing 747 montiert war. Die Landebahn des Flughafens Köln/Bonn gehörte seitdem zu den weltweit rund 60 Notlandeplätzen des wiederverwendbaren Shuttles. Diese benötigten solche Notlandebahnen für außerplanmäßige Landungen.(via Nerdcore)
"My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure."(via Boing Boing)
From Dirty Harry to Andy Warhol, guns continue to fascinate. From Guns N' Roses to guns and butter, they're potent metaphors in today's pop culture. And what's a gun without a bullet? Taking a cue from the cultural zeitgeist, I began thinking about "The Big Bang" after seeing a sales display of bullet-proof plexiglas that had projectiles embedded in it. The plexiglas captured the fragmentation of the bullets and provided a visual record of the energy released on impact. As I began to explore this concept further, I also was intrigued by the psychological tension created between the jewel-like beauty and the inherent destructiveness of the fragmented projectiles. Many of the images resemble exploding galaxies, and visions of intergalactic bling sublimate the horror of bullets meeting muscle and bone. In fact, Susan Sontag described the camera as "a sublimation of the gun" -- load, aim and shoot. My interest in the project grew out of the pervasiveness of guns as cultural symbols and America's long-held affection for guns as part of the country's heritage. This seems particularly relevant in Texas where it's estimated that there are 51 million firearms -- two guns for every man, woman and child in the state. Professionals in law enforcement at the Public Safety Institute at Houston Community College fired the shots into the plexiglas used in the series. The photographic images were made in the studio -- well after the gunshots were fired.
My Lego tribute to the end of the space shuttle era. Proving that although retired, this machine can still fly, albeit in toy form. The launch took place from central Germany and reached a max altitude of 35000m. A 1600g meteo balloon filled with helium was used alongside a GoPro Hero, Spot GPS and of course Lego Space Shuttle model 3367. The launch took place on the 31st of December 2011, the equipment was recovered via GPS tracking 240 km S-E from a remote area. I wish to thank Steve Sammartino for the opportunity to do this project and the german airtraffic control for the understanding.
