NASA will host the inaugural Small Business Symposium and Awards Ceremony Nov. 17-18 in Washington at the Hilton Washington, 1919 Connecticut Ave., NW. Participation in this symposium is open to industry, academia and domestic small businesses. The deadline to register for the symposium is Nov. 3.The Business Opportunities Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and NASA's Office of Small Business Programs at NASA Headquarters in Washington are hosting the event.Attendees...

The Cassini-Huygens team sends "best witches" for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween. Cassini's first four years at Saturn have bedazzled with stunning images and exciting results. With the start of the Equinox mission, the team promises to scare up many more treats as they continue studying the eerie glow of Saturn's rings, the spine-tingling thunder on the planet, the hair-raising jets on Enceladus, and the murky brew on Titan. A full view of their ghostly Saturn can be seen athttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=3293Closer...

NASA'S Phoenix Mars Lander entered safe mode late yesterday in response to a low-power fault brought on by deteriorating weather conditions. While engineers anticipated that a fault could occur due to the diminishing power supply, the lander also unexpectedly switched to the "B" side of its redundant electronics and shut down one of its two batteries. During safe mode, the lander stops non-critical activities and awaits further instructions from the mission team. Within hours of receiving information...

NASA Television will provide a high definition feed of the documentary "50 Years of Exploration: The Golden Anniversary of NASA" on Thursday, Oct. 30, at 1 and 8 p.m. EDT.Hosted by Neil Armstrong, the 90-minute documentary features film and video highlights of the agency's first half-century, as well as the insights and perspectives of astronauts, scientists, engineers and others whose contributions have helped shepherd America's space program.Among the interviewees are former NASA astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, Apollo Flight Director Gene...

NASA will host a media teleconference at 5 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 30, to discuss the status of the upcoming shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The fifth and final "house call" by astronauts to the telescope originally was planned for Oct. 10 but was postponed due to an onboard computer anomaly.The briefing participants are:- Jon Morse, director of the Astrophysics Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington- Preston Burch, Hubble Space Telescope manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight...

A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field.The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, spacecraft flew by Mercury shortly after 4:40 a.m. EDT, on Oct. 6. It completed a critical...

The amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007, bringing to an end approximately a decade in which atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas were essentially stable. The new study is based on data from a worldwide NASA-funded measurement network.Methane levels in the atmosphere have more than tripled since pre-industrial times, accounting for around one-fifth of the human contribution to greenhouse gas-driven global warming. Until recently, the leveling off of methane levels had suggested that the rate of its emission from Earth's...

NASA's newest lunar rover prototype has now gone farther than it ever has before.A collection of engineers, astronauts and geologists have spent the past week testing out the Small Pressurized Rover in the 11th annual Desert RATS – or Research and Technology Studies -- field tests. Two teams of one astronaut and one geologist each have been driving the rover through the Arizona desert, trying it out in two different configurations.One configuration leaves the crew members free to get on and off...

In a race against time and the elements, engineers with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission hope to extend the lander's survival by gradually shutting down some of its instruments and heaters, starting today.Originally scheduled to last 90 days, Phoenix has completed a fifth month of exploration in the Martian arctic. As expected, with the Martian northern hemisphere shifting from summer to fall, the lander is generating less power due to shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight reaching its...

New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicate that the nearest planetary system to our own has two asteroid belts. Our own solar system has just one.The star at the center of the nearby system, called Epsilon Eridani, is a younger, slightly cooler and fainter version of the sun. Previously, astronomers had uncovered evidence for two possible planets in the system, and for a broad, outer ring of icy comets similar to our own Kuiper Belt.Now, Spitzer has discovered that the system...

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life.Researchers examining data from the orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars have found evidence of hydrated silica, commonly known as opal. The hydrated,...

Space Science News is the study of everything above and beyond the surface of the Earth, from Earth's atmosphere to the very edges of the universe. Space Science News Technology refers to the technology in Space Science satellites and ground systems used by Space Science scientists to study the universe (looking up) and the earth (looking down), or to deliver services to users on the ground. The vast majority of Space Science satellites are launched into space to provide services to people on Earth.Space Science Satellite is an object which has...

The National Space Club presented NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission team with its Astronautics Engineer Award last night in Huntsville, Ala. Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., accepted the award on behalf of the team at the Space Club's 20th Annual Dr. Wernher von Braun Memorial Dinner.The nonprofit National Space Club established the Astronautics Engineer Award in 1991. It is given to scientists and engineers in the United States who...

Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko of the 17th International Space Station crew landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:37 p.m. EDT Thursday after more than six months days in space.All three people aboard the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft were reported to be in good condition after their re-entry and landing.A Russian recovery team and NASA personnel reached the landing site by helicopter shortly after the Soyuz touched down. They helped the crew members into reclining chairs...

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has begun environmental testing in a thermal vacuum that simulates the harsh rigors of space.The spacecraft, built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has been lifted into a four-story thermal vacuum chamber there for a test that will last approximately five weeks. Once sealed in the chamber, the satellite will undergo a series of tests that simulate the space environment it will encounter when it orbits the moon.During the tests,...

New research indicates a powerful greenhouse gas is at least four times more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated. The research, based on data from a NASA-funded measurement network, examined nitrogen trifluoride, which is thousands of times more effective at warming the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide.Using new analytical techniques, Ray Weiss of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., led a team of researchers in making the first atmospheric measurements of nitrogen trifluoride. The amount...

The People’s Republic of China has joined the WorldWideScience Alliance – the multilateral governance structure for the global science gateway, WorldWideScience.org. WorldWideScience.org is intended to accelerate international scientific progress by serving as a single, sophisticated point of access for diverse scientific resources and expertise from nations around the world. The addition of China is a notable milestone, as it is a major global contributor to scientific knowledge. Read the ...

A researcher supported by the U.S. Department of Energy has been named co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Dr. Yoichiro Nambu of the United States half of the prize "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics." Dr. Makoto Kobayashi and Dr. Tohihide Maskawa received a quarter of the 2008 prize "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three quarks...

Join the discussion! A new social networking feature, Document Discussion, has been added to the DOE Information Bridge to provide a forum for moderated, substantive commentary on important DOE research and development. Users may perform a search at the Information Bridge site and then begin a discussion or add to a discussion about any of the documents in the results list returned. Authors of the documents will be notified so that they may view and contribute to the discussion. The Information...

NASA and the Challenger Center for Space Education have partnered to engage students in ongoing activities for one of NASA's concepts for astronaut housing on the moon through a contest to name a habitat in Antarctica. NASA currently is conducting a test of a lightweight, durable, inflatable habitat on the cold, harsh landscape of the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station.The Challenger Center is organizing and conducting the "Name that Habitat" competition for students in kindergarten through twelfth grades from Oct 21 to Nov. 20, 2008....

Media are invited to observe tests of NASA equipment and rover concepts that will demonstrate how astronauts might prospect for lunar resources and make their own oxygen for survival on the moon. The tests will take place Thursday, Nov. 13, starting at 9 a.m. HST outside Hilo, Hawaii.NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization project focuses on developing methods for astronauts to take advantage of lunar resources at landing sites on the moon. During two weeks of field tests, NASA will demonstrate prototype systems that could enable a sustainable and...

NASA will provide an update to reporters on the current efforts to restore Hubble Space Telescope science observations during a media teleconference on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m. EDT.The briefing participants are:- Jon Morse, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington- Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble Systems Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.To participate in the conference, reporters in the U.S. should call 1-888-469-0494 and use the pass...

The Space Shuttle Program's two-day Flight Readiness Review, or FRR, for Endeavour's STS-126 mission will wrap up Wednesday.From this week's FRR discussions, decisions about preparedness for launch will be taken to the agency-level Flight Readiness Review that will be held Oct. 30-31 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.At that time the launch date will be set and shuttle processing will continue toward the projected liftoff date.A news conference broadcast on NASA TV will follow the FRR to...

The ocean has helped slow global warming by absorbing much of the excess heat and heat-trapping carbon dioxide that has been going into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.All that extra carbon dioxide, however, has been a bitter pill for the ocean to swallow. It's changing the chemistry of seawater, making it more acidic and otherwise inhospitable, threatening many important marine organisms. Scientists call ocean acidification "the other carbon dioxide problem." They warn...