NASA said the moon Europa, one of the planet Jupiter’s many moons, is a very likely place to look for evidence of life. They were not talking about just any type of life, but life we would be familiar with on Earth. This does seem like a very bold statement, could it be they know something we do not? Photos have been taken of the moon over a period of years and a remastered view was created and in that view there are blue areas on the moon. NASA tells us the blue represents pure water ice. NASA thinks the moon may have the three things necessary for life, at least what they think is necessary, water, an energy source and organic compounds. As tantalizing as this is, we have nothing planed in the near future which is going there. The European Space Agency is said to be planning a trip there, but the earliest that would be is 2022. The name of the unmanned probe is JUICE. NASA said it also has plans, Β but there is no firm date announced except it might be in the mid-2020s.

Google has just agreed to lease the Moffett Field airfield in California for sixty years for a hefty $1.2 billion dollars. A Google subsidiary called Planetary Ventures LLC is going to invest over $200 million in the airfield to improve it. Google is now involving itself in many different areas besides its core business of search engines. Some of them have to do with robotics, space exploration and aviation, just to mention a few. It seems they have gotten to the point where they needed an airfield of their own and this should fit the bill. The airfield has a historic site on it called Hanger One and the company has said it is looking forward to restoring it. Google had announced a few months ago it was acquiring a satellite company named Skybox Imaging Inc. They did this to improve their mapping services and this could have something to do with the fact they are developing smart robots that will fly around the International Space Station. It is believed these robots will eventually take over some of the duties which are now performed by astronauts and they will be controlled with custom built smartphones.

I think many of us who follow what is happening in space know NASA is building the Orion space capsule to be used for flights into space and especially into space past the moon, such as travel to Mars. NASA has just made a deal with the European Space Agency to have them supply a module for the Orion. It will provide propulsion, electricity, heat and anything else needed to make the flight possible. It is said NASA was impressed by the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle known as the ATV, Β because it worked flawlessly when it made five trips to the space station. While its performance has been impressive it has been a one way trip for the ATVs. They are programmed to burn up in space after they leave the International Space Station, so I for one would have felt better if they had shown they could be two way vehicles.

There has been a lot of talk lately about UFOs being seen near the sun. One of NASA’s sun observing satellites is the STEREO Behind, the second of the STEREO satellites. The other is STEREO Ahead. NASA states the communications with STEREO Behind, were interrupted on October 1, 2014 and as of the writing of this article has still not been restored. NASA says the software has indicated an anomaly in the guidance and control system, but they are still evaluating this. A major problem is the satellite is behind the sun and NASA needs to protect the antenna from overheating. They also want to try and put the satellite into safe mode so interference from the sun would not interfere with communications. NASA carried out all these tests successfully on STEREO Ahead, so they know they work. NASA was able to reset STEREO Behind but then lost the radio signal.

NASA is getting ready to launch another probe to Mars, but this one will be different than the ones sent before. It is called InSight which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. That is quite a mouthful isn’t it? NASA feels by using geophysical instruments they will be able to see deep beneath the surface of the Red Planet and understand better how it was formed and will also be able to check its temperature, so to speak. They want to know how vital and dynamic the planet is. The idea of this probe is investigation into how the planets formed, so I would have to think a probe of this type will also be sent to other planets in the future.

NASA is very excited by the fact they will be sending a twin of a retired astronaut to the International Space Station for one year. The reason for this excitement is the fact a twin is almost an exact copy when it comes to DNA. They hope when the astronaut returns from the space station they can measure his bodily functions and DNA against that of his twin brother to determine what effects the long stint in space had on him. Tests will be conducted on the brothers before the flight to check for differences which can be noted before the flight. It is realized this is not a perfect test since only two people are involved and it is also realized the food on the station will be space food which the brother on earth will not be eating.

NASA scientists were monitoring an enormous and strangely behaving sunspot today (21 November 2014). Now you know when this article was written. The sunspot was seen a month ago and was the largest seen in 24 years. It could be as much as fifteen times bigger than the earth. A NASA scientist said, "In this case, the region is of interest because it's been odd.” "People kept an eye on it because at any time it could have produced a flare and the other types of space weather, but the whole time it didn't." A sunspot is a tight bundle of strong magnetic fields which are slightly cooler than the surrounding area.

The George C. Marshall Institute has stated that NASA is no longer a reliable partner in space due to the fact of so many budget cuts and mentioned the fact this is happening just when so many new space powers are emerging.Β  It did go on to say we are happy about the peaceful exploration of space and have been promoting it, but it does give us reasons to be concerned with security.

NASA is developing a new space telescope. If you are wondering how powerful it will be, think about the Hubble Telescope and multiply its power by one hundred times. That’s right one hundred times more powerful. The name of the new telescope will be the Webb Space Telescope

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