Kim Lichtenberg spends her days sampling Martian soil and rocks
RocketSTEM spoke with Dr. Kimberly Lichtenberg, a scientist and engineer who works on NASA’s Mars rover missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., in conjunction with our “Women in Aerospace” series. We spoke about her career at NASA, role models, education and how she became interested in space exploration. Indeed she’s been in …
The Spitzer Space Telescope: 10 years of viewing the Universe’s dark side
More than ten years have now passed since NASA’s fourth “Great Observatory” – the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRFT) – was boosted into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., atop a Delta II rocket. It was intended to complement is three older siblings, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and …
How engineers revamped Spitzer to probe exoplanets
Passing its 10th anniversary, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has evolved into a premier observatory for an endeavor not envisioned in its original design: the study of worlds around other stars, called exoplanets. While the engineers and scientists who built Spitzer did not have this goal in mind, their visionary work made this unexpected capability possible. …
Spitzer: Not a politician; Not a carbonated beverage
Most blog readers are no doubt familiar with the world of space telescopes. But have you ever gone to your friends and asked them what comes to mind when they hear the word “Spitzer?” Chances are, they will ask if you are referring to a certain politician… Or maybe a carbonated beverage. Now is the …
David Hearn takes outreach to new level with Kissimmee Park Observatory
Public outreach is an oft used and abused term nowadays, but I find it the wrong label for astronomy. In Astronomy we are reaching out for the stars! What is really meant in this context is knowledge sharing and encouraging people to raise their eyes to the stars. I found it somewhat depressing that a …
Team Unicorn: Intergalactic force of awesome
By all accounts, Team Unicorn should not exist. Like the fabled unicorns of ancient mythology, geek girls are also supposed to be the stuff of myth and legend, whispered about in reverent tones at Comic Con, but only ever seen fleetingly out of the corner of one’s eye. And yet, these magical beasts are very …