Tag Archives: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the Pacific Ocean is “locked” between La Niña and El Niño in a neutral state — making weather more erratic and difficult to predict over the long term, than when either of the Niña/Niño extremes are in effect 0

Citation Alan Buis, Pacific Locked in ‘La Nada’ Limbo, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – California Institute of Technology (06 February 2013) How JPL recognized this neutral point Briefly: From its vantage point 1336 kilometers (830 miles) above the Earth, the US/European Jason-1 and OSTM/Jason-2 ocean altimeter satellites measure the height of the ocean surface directly [...]

Curiosity’s Mars landing will certainly remain a significant memory of my a life (insofar as I can avoid dementia) — and I saw the first satellite go up on 04 October 1957 0

If you want to expose your children to something that might inspire them into science and engineering, watch NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab coverage of the Curiosity landing NASA Lands Car-sized Rover on Martian Surface, NASA (05 August 2012) For me, this kind of achievement will never get stale.  That’s why I stayed up to watch [...]

An excellent abstract — explaining the previously mysterious slowing of the 1970s’ Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft 0

Citation Slava G. Turyshev, Viktor T. Toth, Gary Kinsella, Siu-Chun Lee, Shing M. Lok, and Jordan Ellis, Support for the Thermal Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly, Physical Review Letters 108(24): 241101 (15 June 2012) Clear and complete In its entirety: We investigate the possibility that the anomalous acceleration of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft [...]

NASA-funded study of Antarctica ice flow results in “game changer” map — a tool with a future 0

NASA map excites researchers The Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported today that: NASA-funded researchers have created the first complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica. The map, which shows glaciers flowing thousands of miles from the continent’s deep interior to its coast, will be critical for tracking future sea-level increases from [...]

Voyagers I and II, now transmitting from the solar system’s heliosheath, are still outward bound 1

Voyager I and II’s 33-year plus (and still counting) journey — a triumph of engineering and scientific thinking Getting in obviously right in science and engineering is not easy, when what’s out there is unknown.  The scientists and engineers who worked on NASA’s Voyager I and II exploratory space probes did an admirable job of [...]