From How Space Stations Work:

On May 14, 1973, NASA launched its first space station — Skylab 1 — into orbit. During the launch, the station was damaged. A critical meteoroid shield and one of the station’s two main solar panels were ripped off and the other solar panel was not fully stretched out. That meant that Skylab had little electrical power and the internal temperature rose to 126 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).

The first crew, Skylab2, was launched 10 days later to fix the ailing station. The crew consisted of Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin. The Skylab 2 astronauts stretched out the remaining solar panel and set up an umbrella-like sunshade to cool the station. With the station repaired, the astronauts spent 28 days in space conducting scientific and biomedical research.

Modified from the third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket, Skylab had the following parts:

• Orbital workshop - living and working quarters for the crew
• Airlock module - allowed access to the outside of the station
• Multiple docking adapter - allowed more than one Apollo spacecraft to dock to the station at once (However, there were never any overlapping crews in the station.)
• Apollo telescope mount - contained telescopes for observing the sun, stars and Earth (Keep in mind that the Hubble Space Telescope had not been built yet.)
• Apollo spacecraft - command and service module for transporting the crew to and from the Earth’s surface

Skylab was manned by two additional crews. Skylab 3 consisted of Commander Alan Bean and astronauts Jack Lousma and Owen Garriot. They spent 59 days in space. The final crew, Skylab 4, consisted of Commander Gerald Carr and astronauts William Pogue and Edward Gibson. This crew spent 84 days in orbit, conducted experiments and photographed comet Kohoutek.

Skylab was never meant to be a permanent home in space, but rather a workshop where the United States could test the effects of long-duration space flights (that is, greater than the two weeks required to go to the moon) on the human body. When the flight of the third crew was finished, Skylab was abandoned. Skylab remained aloft until intense solar flare activity caused its orbit to decay sooner than expected. Skylab re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned over Australia in 1979.

Learn more about Skylab over at NASA’s mission hub. Image credit: NASA.

thenewenlightenmentage:

NASA’s Spitzer Puts Planets in a Petri Dish

Our galaxy is teeming with a wild variety of planets. In addition to our solar system’s eight near-and-dear planets, there are more than 800 so-called exoplanets known to circle stars beyond our sun. One of the first “species” of exoplanets to be discovered is the hot Jupiters, also known as roasters. These are gas giants like Jupiters, but they orbit closely to their stars, blistering under the heat.

Thanks to NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers are beginning to dissect this exotic class of planets, revealing raging winds and other aspects of their turbulent nature. A twist to come out of the recent research is the planets’ wide range of climates. Some are covered with a haze, while others are clear. Their temperature profiles, chemistries and densities differ as well.

Continue Reading

(via stufftoblowyourmind)

mothernaturenetwork:

U.S. won’t head up new manned moon landings

NASA’s focus is on human missions to asteroids and to Mars

(via itsfullofstars)

todaysdocument:

The Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off on its maiden voyage, 30 years ago on April 4, 1983.

Space Transportation System Number 6, Orbiter Challenger, lifts off from Pad 39A carrying astronauts Paul J. Weitz, Koral J. Bobko, Donald H. Peterson and Dr. Story Musgrave, 04/04/1983

Why are the auroras seasonal?

Although there are some ideas as to why auroras make their strongest showing in the time surrounding the fall and spring equinoxes (roughly Sept. 23 and March 21), no one knows the full reason why geomagnetic storms spike during that period. Geomagnetism doesn’t follow a seasonal pattern, nor does solar activity (although it does have that 11-year sunspot cycle), so it doesn’t seem to make any sense. But scientists have a few ideas, thanks to sources like NASA’s THEMIS mission, short for Timed History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms.

Some of the seasonality seems to point to geometry. The Earth’s magnetic field points north, and there are times when the sun’s wide-ranging magnetic field (called the interplanetary magnetic field, or IMF) points south. That allows for some serious alignment; Earth’s magnetic field line can point directly into the solar wind. The sun’s own north-south magnetic field line is called B_z (bee-sub-zee). When B_z points south, the IMF aligns with Earth’s magnetic field and diminishes it, so it’s easier for the solar wind to rush in and for its energy to get into our inner magnetosphere [sources: NASA, NASA]. B_z vacillates between north and south, but in the spring and fall it can take big swings south. What we get is a deluge of disco lights in the sky.

A couple other possibilities…

We’re posting this on 3/20/13, the spring equinox here in the northern hemisphere. Happy first day of spring and/or fall!

space-tart:

Illustrated Misconception: NASA is already over-funded, and will not be affected by the recent budget cuts.

In a 1997 poll, people were found to estimate NASA’s share of the federal budget was around 20%. “Had this been true,” Launius writes, “NASA’s budget in 1997 would have been $328 billion.” In actuality  NASA receives less than one percent of the Federal budget each year- a budget that has been diminishing since the early 1990s. [Launius 174, “Public Opinion Polls and Perceptions of US Human Spaceflight”]

For those of you who want to continue NASA’s progress- you’re not alone! Popular television host and “Big Think” speaker, Bill Nye, has this to say on the matter: “If the Earth gets hit by an asteroid, it’s game over. It’s control-alt-delete for civilization.” The benefits of improving the budget for NASA don’t just end at defense, but to improve current technology, including noninvasive medical technology.

Anonymous nay-sayers to the idea of stopping the 2013 budget cuts to NASA funding say ”Perhaps NASA needs to sharpen its priorities, and drop the whiz bang stuff. “Because its there” is not a sufficient justification for a bunch of new toys.” (sfbaywalk, Washington Post) However, if you enjoy satellite television, artificial limbs, MRI and CAT scans, breast cancer screenings, heating protection materials used by firefighters, freeze-dried food, solar energy, water filters, smoke detectors, or even memory foam mattresses then you have NASA to thank for these devices, and the lists goes on and on and on…

[Visit here to learn more about “Penny 4 NASA”]

(via the-science-llama)