Stellary Starry Universe

New data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft, reveal that conditions at the edge of our solar system may be much more dynamic than previously thought.

NASA's daring plan to visit the sun took a giant leap forward today with the selection of five key science investigations for the Solar Probe+ spacecraft.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered two Saturn-sized planets transiting the same sun-like star. The same system might contain a third world–a hot "super-Earth" one and a half times the size of Earth–but this is not yet confirmed. Researchers announced the results today at a NASA press conference.

Making the stuff of science fiction into reality, NASA engineers are testing solar sails–a unique propulsion technology that one day could enable deep space missions. Much like the wind pushing a sailboat through water, solar sails rely on sunlight to propel vehicles through space.

The sail captures constantly streaming solar particles, called photons, with giant sails built from a lightweight material. Over time, the buildup of these particles provides enough thrust for a small spacecraft to travel in space.

This image is of a four-quadrant solar sail system, measuring 66 feet on each side that is being tested in the world’s largest vacuum chamber at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. Image Credit: NASA

Spacecraft attempting to land on an unfamiliar surface need to perform a maneuver called “deep throttling” — a step that allows the vehicle to precisely throttle down to perform a smooth, controlled landing. NASA and industry partners have demonstrated this type of engine control capability to help design a more reliable and robust descent engine that could be used to land space exploration vehicles on the moon, an asteroid or another planet.

The Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine, also known as CECE, recently completed the fourth and final series of hot-fire tests on a 15,000-pound thrust class cryogenic technology demonstrator rocket engine, increasing the throttling capability by 35 percent over previous tests.

This test series demonstrated this engine could go from a thrust range of 104 percent power down to 5.9 percent. This equates to an unprecedented 17.6:1 deep-throttling capability, which means this cryogenic engine can quickly throttle up and down. Image Credit: NASA