For 340 days, astronaut Scott Kelly lived in the International Space Station, while his identical twin brother Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut, lived a regular life on Earth. Both collected physiological and cognitive data about themselves, hoping to find out what space would do to a human’s body.
As a co-investigator of InSight’s science team, Banfield monitors weather data like Mars’ wind and temperature through the use of seismometers and other instruments attached to the spacecraft.
Natalie Batalha, a former project scientist for NASA’s Kepler Mission who made into the list of 2017 Time’s 100 most influential people, will lead the audience on a journey to the stars in an upcoming lecture.
Linda Mikula recently discovered a “lost” recording of a lecture by Carl Sagan titled “The Age of Exploration.” The lecture was released on what would have been the former professor’s 84th birthday.
Principal investigator of the Mars rover missions, Prof. Steven Squyres ’78 is “now teaching adults, college students, who cannot remember a time when there wasn’t a rover on Mars.” The rover, Opportunity, who has been on Mars for 14 years became unresponsive in June following a massive dust storm on the planet.
Christa Glazier ’01 was honored with the Cornell New York State Hometown Alumni Award. The current vice president of communications and marketing at CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity sent her awarded donation to InterFaiths Works’ Center for New Americans.
There’s something about outer space that naturally captures our imagination. From little kids dreaming about becoming astronauts, to full grown adults gazing up at the majesty of the stars, the final frontier timelessly inspires us all. Despite this seemingly natural fascination, few could ever hope to get there because of the exorbitant costs often associated with space flight missions. However, with the advent of 3D printing and work from Space Systems Design Studio – the research lab of Prof. Mason Peck, mechanical and aerospace engineering – this reality is sure to change in the near future. This past March, NASA selected 11 research groups from across the country to partake in their CubeSat launch initiative, which was a project designed to encourage the development of “CubeSats,” or “nano-satellites.” According to NASA, a typical CubeSat unit measures 4×4 inches, and weighs roughly three pounds.