Actor Harrison Ford was on location at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., last Nov 2013 to film a segment of Showtime's "Years of Living Dangerously" documentary on climate change. Ford toured the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility where he met with scientists Rama Nemani of Ames and Matthew Hansen of the University of Maryland, College Park, to learn more about how NASA satellite data and research are used around the world to better understand and protect Earth environments.
Watch: NASA to Launch Carbon Observatory (3:59 min June 2014)
NASA is about to launch a satellite dedicated to the study of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) will quantify global CO2 sources and sinks, and help researchers predict the future of climate change.
Watch "One Year To Pluto" (3:22 minutes July 2014)
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is only a year away from Pluto. Researchers are buzzing with anticipation as NASA prepares to encounter a new world for the first time in decades.
"Black Hole"
Watch "Future of Human Space Exploration" (10:52 minutes July 2014)
"Now that the Space Shuttle era is over, NASA is writing the next chapters in human Spaceflight with its commercial and international partners. It is advancing research and technology on the International Space Station, opening low-Earth orbit to US industry, and pushing the frontiers of deep space even farther ... all the way to Mars."
Watch "Space-Time Vortex Around Earth" (2:48 minutes 2011)
NASA has announced the results of an epic physics experiment which confirms the reality of a space-time vortex around our planet.
"Low-Density Supersonic Disk, Saucer-Shaped Test Vehicle " June 2014
NASA held a news conference from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii on June 2 about the upcoming test of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project. During the test, a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle will be flown into near-space. LDSD could lead to inflatable spacecraft systems capable of safely landing heavier and larger payloads than ever before on planets with atmospheres.
"Saturn's Hexagon"
Watch "Project IceBridge: The Daily Routine" (3:27 minutes April 2014)
This video shows what the IceBridge team does on a day-to-day basis in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, the base of operations for the mission's April 2014 flights. IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of Earth's polar ice. Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- launched in 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.
Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Don Pettit" (3:18 min May 2014)
Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Peggy Whitson" (3:25 min May 2014)
Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Rick Mastracchio" (3:30 min May 2014)
Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Danny Olivas" (4 min May 2014)
"European Space Agency's "Rosetta" mission camera reveals Comet 67P"
Watch: "Mars Investment" (3:13 min June 2014)
Addressing today's technological challenges for the future of human and robotic exploration of Mars.
Watch "NASA's Human Path to Mars" (2hrs 29minutes April 2014)
Aired on NASA Television from NASA headquarters, featured Administrator Charles Bolden and other agency leadership showcasing NASA's human exploration path to Mars. NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s.
"Rover on Mars"
Watch "Next Generation Life Support (NGLS)" (3:20 min June 2014)
The Next Generation Life Support project develops next-generation life support technologies needed for humans to live and work productively in space.
Next Generation Supercomputers (capability)
Read "HECC Supercomputing RESOURCES AT-A-GLANCE"
If everyone in the world did one calculation per second for eight hours a day, it would take about 1,057 days to complete what Pleiades Super Computer can calculate in one minute.
Read "HECC High-End Computing Capability Project"
Read HECC Facts & Highlights
Watch Slideshow: HECC Monthly Reports June 2014
Advanced Supercomputing Division
Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL)
The NAS facility hosts the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a collaborative effort among NASA, Google, and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to explore the potential for quantum computers to tackle optimization problems that are difficult or impossible for traditional supercomputers to handle.
The team’s focus ties in with the timely emergence of two technologies:
1) High-resolution space-based instruments (such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Hinode and IRIS) and ground-based instruments, which together produce vast amounts of data from detailed solar observations
2) Petaflop-scale parallel computers that enable realistic modelling of solar conditions. Through the combined power of these technologies, the HMS team is working to advance astrophysical knowledge and to improve our understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with solar activity.
