For more information about the future of crewed spaceflight, check out the NEW Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour!  Peek into advanced NASA labs and see the spaceships of tomorrow!   Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!

Today through Thursday (Dec 13th -15th) guests on the NEW NASA Tram Tour will be able to witness next generation spacecraft testing in progress!  The Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle is undergoing a three day “shakedown” as astronaut Mike Gernhardt and Planetary Geologist Brent Garry camp out inside.   The virtual asteroid mission can bee seen by the public on the NEW NASA Tour!  Learn more here.

(Via NASA PAO)

NASA’s Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team will conduct its 2012 events in two phases. The first phase is further separated into two, three-day parts, conducted at Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Building 9.

NASA’s Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team will conduct its 2012 events in two phases. The first phase is further separated into two, three-day parts, conducted at Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Building 9.

Phase 1 will take place Dec. 13-15, 2011, and Jan. 18-20, 2012. This phase will focus on determining functionality and habitability of the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV). The MMSEV has a flexible architecture, allowing it to rove on a planetary surface atop a wheeled chassis, or fly in space using advanced in-space propulsion systems.

For three days and two nights during the Dec. and Jan. simulations, the two-person crews will eat, sleep, and exercise in the MMSEV cabin, housed in JSC Building 9. Throughout the day, they will trade responsibilities as EVA (extravehicular activity) and IV (intra-vehicular) crewmembers. During the EVAs, the crews will egress the vehicle through the suitports, then perform a variety of simulations that future crews could potentially conduct on a mission to a near-Earth asteroid.

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Astrologically speaking, Asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass extremely close to the Earth today at about 5:28 CST.  Should we run for cover? Nah.  Although YU55 is close astrologically, it is still pretty far-out.  At 201,000 miles, the closest it is estimated to pass, it would take you nearly three months to drive nonstop in a straight line out to meet it.  And that is if you were driving at 100 miles per hour!

The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid began at Goldstone at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Nov. 4 with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna and lasted about two hours, with an additional four hours of tracking planned each day from Nov. 6 - 10. Credit: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this isn’t our first rendezvous with YU55:

The asteroid will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon’s orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028.

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Unfortunately, we won’t even be able to see it with the naked eye.  In fact, it will take some pretty powerful telescopes to even see it as it goes by – which NASA Fully intends to do!  This asteroid gives us a terrific opportunity to learn more about the nature of these cosmological marvels and perhaps give us some insight to the early development of Earth!

It will also provide amazing data that could someday be used to send humans out to an asteroid.  Does that sound even further out that Asteroid 2005 YU55?  Believe it or not, NASA is developing and testing the vehicles of tomorrow right now!  Everyday our guests have the opportunity to see history in the making on the NASA Tram tour.

Check out this fascinating glimpse at how such a mission might be carried out:

For more information about the future of Crewed Spaceflight and where it might take us, check out the NEW Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour!  Peek into advanced NASA labs and see the spaceships of tomorrow!   Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!

NASA’s GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission may pull back the curtain on the Moon’s mysterious “far side.”  Catch the launch of GRAIL on September 9^th, 2011 at 8:12am CST – Live feed available on NASA TV.

If a paper published recently in the journal Nature* is right, two moons once graced our night skies. The proposition has not been proven, but has drawn widespread attention.

“It’s an intriguing idea,” says David Smith, GRAIL’s deputy principal investigator at MIT. “And it would be a way to explain one of the great perplexities of the Earth-Moon system – the Moon’s strangely asymmetrical nature.  Its near and far sides are substantially different.”

The Moon’s near side, facing us, is dominated by vast smooth ‘seas’ of ancient hardened lava. In contrast, the far side is marked by mountainous highlands. Researchers have long struggled to account for the differences, and the “two moon” theory introduced by Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz is the latest attempt.

Scientists agree that when a Mars-sized object crashed into our planet about 4 billion years ago, the resulting debris cloud coalesced to form the Moon. Jutzi and Asphaug posit that the debris cloud actually formed two moons. A second, smaller chunk of debris landed in just the right orbit to lead or follow the bigger Moon around Earth.

“Normally, such moons accrete into a single body shortly after formation,” explains Smith. “But the new theory proposes that the second moon ended up at one of the Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system.”

Lagrange points are a bit like gravitational fly traps. They can hold an object for a long time–but not necessarily forever. The second moon eventually worked its way out and collided with its bigger sister. The collision occurred at such a low velocity that the impact did not form a crater. Instead, the smaller moon ‘went splat,’ forming the contemporary far side highlands.

In short, the lunar highlands are the lost moon’s remains

Read the Full article at science.nasa.gov

For more information about our cosmic neighbor’s composition, visit the Starship Gallery at Space Center Houston.  Home to the world’s largest collection of Moon rocks on public display, including a 1.5 billion year old lunar touchstone!  Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!

Visiting the Apollo 17 capsule at Space Center Houston was about as close as anyone could get to Man’s final voyage to the Moon – until now!  Thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we are now able to explore the last landing site in spectacular detail!

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. Images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface.

At the Apollo 17 site, the tracks laid down by the lunar rover are clearly visible, along with the last foot trails left on the moon. The images also show where the astronauts placed some of the scientific instruments that provided the first insight into the moon’s environment and interior.

“We can retrace the astronauts’ steps with greater clarity to see where they took lunar samples,” said Noah Petro, a lunar geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who is a member of the LRO project science team.

All three images show distinct trails left in the moon’s thin soil when the astronauts exited the lunar modules and explored on foot. In the Apollo 17 image, the foot trails, including the last path made on the moon by humans, are easily distinguished from the dual tracks left by the lunar rover, which remains parked east of the lander.

Courtesy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

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The Apollo 17 crew capsule America is part of the vast display of spacecraft and artifacts on display at Space Center Houston.  Located in the Starship Gallery, the last crewed vehicle to fly to the Moon is displayed against a life size diorama of the lunar landscape.  Starship Gallery is included with regular admission to Space Center Houston. Save $5 off admission when you purchase your tickets online.  For hours and directions visit our Guest Information page.