Tag: High School Students

NASA Now: X-48B Research Aircraft and Green Technology


NASA Now logoNASA is researching ways to incorporate “green technology” into new airplane designs. One new design uses a blended wing body, which has the potential to enable cleaner, quieter and higher performance in air transportation. This unique aircraft is called the X-48B and is being tested right now at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

 

What is the future for this type of technology? Could the design be used in the near future for commercial air flight? Watch this episode to learn more about green technology, test flights and the future.


Link to this NASA Now episode (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)


Link to other NASA Now events (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)


Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.



NASA Now: EPOXI Flyby Spacecraft: Close Encounters of the Comet Kind

NASA Now program logoIn this installment of NASA Now, you’ll meet spacecraft pilot and engineer Steven Wissler, who talks about the challenges of flying a spacecraft remotely from Earth and the excitement of being part of a team that discovers something new about comets.
 
The program focus is on the EPOXI flyby spacecraft. EPOXI is a recycling of the Deep Impact spacecraft, whose probe intentionally collided with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, revealing, for the first time, the inner material of a comet. Deep Impact returned to an Earth orbit where it was reprogrammed to rendezvous with a second comet, Hartley 2. After reprogramming, the spacecraft received a gravity assist from Earth and began its second life, dubbed EPOXI. The spacecraft incorporated the same trio of instruments used during the Deep Impact mission: two telescopes with digital imagers to record the encounter, and an infrared spectrometer.



Link to this NASA Now episode (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)


Link to other NASA Now events (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)