Feed Info - New & Noteworthy

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene is an open-access, nonprofit journal, founded by BioOne and five collaborating academic institutions: Dartmouth, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington.

Elementa publishes original research reporting on new knowledge of the Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological systems; interactions between human and natural systems; and steps that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to global change. The journal is organized into six knowledge domains--atmospheric science, earth and environmental science, ecology, ocean science, sustainable engineering, and sustainability transitions. Elementa is now accepting submissions.

Submit your name and a message, in the form of a haiku poem, to be sent into Mars orbit on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. The top three most popular haikus, decided by a public vote, will be sent to Mars onboard the MAVEN spacecraft and will be prominently displayed on the MAVEN website. The deadline is July 1. MAVEN is scheduled to launch this November.

Submit your name and message and see the contest rules online.

On Monday, May 13, NASA will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Skylab, America’s first space station, with a televised roundtable discussion featuring Skylab astronauts, a current astronaut, and agency managers planning future space missions. The discussion, open to NASA employees and the public, will begin at 2:30 p.m. EDT in the James Webb Auditorium of NASA Headquarters at 300 E St. SW in Washington. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Participants will include:

See it live on NASA TV.

The Lunar and Planetary Institutes invites all inquisitive adults to attend Black Holes Inside and Out, a presentation by Dr. Andrew Hamilton on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 7:30pm. Dr. Hamilton is a professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

This presentation is the last of this season's Cosmic Explorations Speakers Series called “A User’s Guide to the Universe: You Live Here. Here’s What You Need to Know.”

The American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics (AIAA) Houston chapter is holding their Annual Technical Symposium on Friday, May 17 at the Gilruth Center, NASA/Johnson Space Center. This all-day conference will cover a variety of topics including space exploration, space commercialization, astrodynamics, robotics, human space policy, and space history.

The cost to attend the conference is $15. Registration is open to all--AIAA membership and JSC badging is not required--and walk-ins are welcome. Find out more at the 2013 Annual Technical Symposium webpage.

Asteroid Mappers launched with the goal of helping scientists develop a statistical foundation for understanding the age of planetary surfaces. Check out the Vesta Edition. Vesta is a unique body because of its size and history--the craters and surfaces aren’t very well behaved, so new challenges already exist. Asteroid Mappers will push the boundaries of existing citizen science to find out just how good the public can get at higher level mapping tasks.

Count craters, discover boulder fields, mark unique features. Finish analyzing an image and send your work off to contribute to NASA's Dawn mission science. Register, take the online tutorial, and start mapping!

Since its launch in 1997, the Space Day educational initiative, which takes place on the first Friday of each May, has evolved into a massive grassroots effort dedicated to the extraordinary achievements, benefits and opportunities in the exploration and use of space. The ultimate goal is to promote math, science, technology and engineering education by nurturing young peoples' enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe and inspiring them to continue the stellar work of today's space explorers.

Celebrate Space Day and check out the events, games and resources online at the Space Day website.

Lab Out Loud is a podcast and blog that discusses science news and science education with leading scientists, researchers, science writers and other important figures in the field. The podcast, hosted by science teachers Dale Basler and Brian Bartel, covers a variety of topics in science and science education--the latest episode is Episode 95, Helping Students Imagine Mars.

Support for Lab Out Loud is provided by the National Science Teachers Association.

The public can fly along with NASA's Voyager spacecraft as the twin probes head towards interstellar space, the space between stars. NASA's Eyes on the Solar System program, a Web-based, video-game-like tool to journey with NASA's spacecraft through the solar system, has added a Voyager module that takes viewers along for a ride with Voyager 1 as it explores the outer limits of the heliosphere. Time has been sped up to show one day per second. Rolls and other maneuvers are incorporated into the program, based on actual spacecraft navigation data. The charged particle data are also shown.

Join the conversation with Brian Day and learn more about the next NASA mission to the Moon, LADEE. New discoveries find the Moon a far more exciting place than we previously thought. This August, NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) — part of the new generation of robotic lunar explorers) — will launch from Wallops Flight Facility, and orbit the Moon! This mission will be the FIRST launch of the new Minotaur V rocket and will provide us with a greater understanding of the structure of the very thin lunar atmosphere and dust within it. LADEE will also provide opportunities for you to get involved through citizen science and observations during the mission. Come with questions and be prepared to learn how YOU can get involved!

The MyMoon webcast will be held on Tuesday, May 21, at 8 pm EDT.

The Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP), NASA's longest-running K-12 education project, is offering free webinars open to all educators. There is no software to download and no special equipment is required to interact. Just go to the meeting room URL and use your name to sign in as a guest. Certificates of completion are available to participants. All webinars are hosted at https://meeting.psu.edu/neon.

Upcoming AESP webinars will feature the following topics: Space Faring, the Kepler Mission, Robotics, Engineering Design, Rockets, the Solar System, Mars, and the Sun.