Dawn O'Mara Sitting On The Edge Of The Front Cockpit Of A De Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth Biplane, Circa

Take a Virtual Tour of NASA

Welcome to NASA! Today, we’re taking you behind-the-scenes for a virtual tour looking at our cutting-edge work and humanity’s destiny in deep space!

Starting at 1:30 p.m., we will host a series of Facebook Live events from each of our 10 field centers across the country. Take a look at where we’ll be taking you…

Glenn Research Center 1:30 p.m. EDT

Our Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH will host a tour of its Electric Propulsion Lab. This lab is where we test solar propulsion technologies that are critical to powering spacecraft for our deep-space missions. The Electric Propulsion Laboratory houses two huge vacuum chambers that simulate the space environment.

Marshall Space Flight Center 1:50 p.m. EDT

Our Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL will host a tour from a Marshall test stand where structural loads testing is performed on parts of our Space Launch System rocket. Once built, this will be the world’s most powerful rocket and will launch humans farther into space than ever before.

Stennis Space Center 2:10 p.m. EDT

Our Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, MS will take viewers on a tour of their test stands to learn about rocket engine testing from their Test Control Center.

Armstrong Flight Research Center 2:30 p.m. EDT 

Our Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA will host a tour from their aircraft hangar and Simulator Lab where viewers can learn about our X-Planes program. What’s an X-Plane? They are a variety of flight demonstration vehicles that are used to test advanced technologies and revolutionary designs.

Johnson Space Center 2:50 p.m. EDT

Our Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX will take viewers on a virtual exploration trip through the mockups of the International Space Station and inside our deep-space exploration vehicle, the Orion spacecraft!

Ames Research Center 3:10 p.m. EDT

Our Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will bring viewers into its Arc Jet Facility, a plasma wind tunnel used to simulate the extreme heat of spacecraft atmospheric entry.

Kennedy Space Center 3:30 p.m. EDT

Our Kennedy Space Center in Florida will bring viewers inside the Vehicle Assembly Building to learn about how we’re preparing for the first launch of America’s next big rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Langley Research Center 3:50 p.m. EDT

Our Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia will bring viewers inside its 14-by-22-foot wind tunnel, where aerodynamic projects are tested.

Goddard Space Flight Center 4:10 p.m. EDT

Our Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD will discuss the upcoming United States total solar eclipse and host its tour from the Space Weather Lab, a large multi-screen room where data from the sun is analyzed and studied.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4:30 p.m. EDT

Our Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA will bring viewers to the Spacecraft Assembly Facility to learn about robotic exploration of the solar system.

So, make sure to join us for all or part of our virtual tour today, starting at 1:30 p.m. EDT! Discover more about the work we’re doing at NASA and be sure to ask your questions in the comment section of each Facebook Live event! 

Additional details and viewing information available HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Nikola Tesla Won 8 Nobel Prizes For His Work And Discoveries. No He Didn’t. These People Did Instead.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Physics, 1901: Wilhelm Roentgan was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of X-Rays on November 8, 1895. Not many know this but Tesla was working with X-Rays prior to Roentgen in 1892, but used the term “radiant matter” instead. He conducted numerous experiments and some of the first imaging, which he called “shadowgraphs,” using these unknown rays in his laboratory before its destruction by fire on March 13, 1895. Tesla was also the first to warn the scientific world on the harms of these rays if not used properly.

Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel, Physics/Chemistry, 1903/1911: The three shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery and work on radioactivity in 1898. Madame Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of radium and polonium, also in 1898. Tesla discovered radioactivity in experiments with X-Rays in 1896, and published many articles on the subject in scientific periodicals prior to the three.

Joseph John Thomson, Physics, 1906: Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the electron in 1897. Tesla originally called electrons “matter not further decomposable” in his experiments with radiant energy in 1896, but his finding of the electron goes back to when he and Thomson had a back and forth debate in 1891 about experiments with alternating currents of high frequency. Tesla claimed that his experiments proved the existence of charged particles, or “small charged balls.” Thomson denied Tesla’s claim of verifying these particles with his vacuum tubes until witnessing Tesla’s experiments and demonstrations given in a lecture before the Institute of Electrical Engineers at London in 1892. Thomson then adapted to Tesla’s methods and was able to create equipment which allowed him to produce the required high frequencies to investigate and establish his electron discovery. 

Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun, Physics, 1909: Both shared the Nobel Prize for their work and development of radio. Marconi is known for proving radio transmission by sending a radio signal in Italy in 1895, but it is a fact that he used Tesla’s work to establish his discovery. Tesla invented the “Tesla Coil” in 1891, which radio relies on, and the inventor proved radio transmission in lectures given throughout 1893, sending electromagnetic waves to light wireless lamps. Tesla filed his own basic radio patent applications in 1897, and were granted in 1900. Marconi’s first patent application in the U.S. was filed on November 10, 1900, but was turned down. Marconi’s revised applications over the next three years were repeatedly rejected because of the priority of Tesla and other inventors. After Tesla’s death in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court made Marconi’s patents invalid and recognized Tesla as the true inventor of radio.

Charles Glover Barkla, Physics, 1917: Barkla was awarded the prize for his work with Rontgen radiation and the characteristics of these X-rays and their secondary elements and effects. He was educated by J. J. Thomson. Again, Tesla worked with and explained these radiations in full detail throughout the late 1890s, showing that the source of X-rays was the site of first impact of electrons within the bulbs. He even investigated reflected X-rays and their characteristics such as Barkla.

Albert Einstein, Physics, 1921: Einstein was awarded the prize for his theoretical theories which are still praised today, and also his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect (I have many other post that show Tesla’s fair arguments against Einstein’s theories so I will only dwell on the photoelectric effect). Einstein first postulated that light has a nature of both waves and particles in 1905. This lead to the development of “photons,” or photo electrons, which gave light a wave-particle duality. Now it must be noted that Nikola Tesla wasn’t just a theoretical physicist like Einstein, but was an experimental physicist as well. In 1896, Nikola Tesla was the first to promulgate that energy had both particle-like and wavelike properties in experiments with radiant energy. He set up targets to shoot his cathode rays at which upon reflection, projected particles, or vibrations of extremely high frequencies. Instead of taking the particle-wave duality route, he proposed that they were indeed vibrations, or basically sound waves in the ether. Nikola Tesla preceded Einstein by 4 years on the photoelectric effect publishing a patent titled “Apparatus of the Utilization of Radiant Energy.” filed in 1901, based off his experiments with radiant energy. He had a far better understanding on the matter than Einstein had, because he actually developed experimentations to prove his theories.

James Chadwick, Physics, 1935: Awarded the prize for his discovery of the neutron in 1932. Tesla’s discovery of neutrons goes back to his work with cosmic rays, again in 1896, which are mentioned in the next bit. He investigated and discovered that cosmic rays shower down on us 24/7, and that they are small particles which carry so small a charge that we are justified in calling them neutrons. He measured some neutrons from distance stars, like Antares, which traveled at velocities exceeding that of light. Tesla succeeded in developing a motive device that operated off these cosmic rays.

Victor Franz Hess, Physics, 1936: Hess won the Prize for his discovery of the cosmic rays in 1919. Tesla predated him 23 years publishing a treatise in an electrical review on cosmic rays in 1896. Tesla’s knowledge on the matter surpasses even today’s understanding of cosmic rays.

If this isn’t proof enough that Nikola Tesla got shit on, then I will add that Tesla definitely should have won the Nobel Prize for being the first person to invent the commutatorless alternating current induction motor (a huge part of the electrical power system we still use today), for his inventions and work with light bulbs, radar, for his invention of remote control, and most importantly for demonstrating the transmission of electrical energy/power without wires. Ahead of his time is an understatement.

charles babbage: father of the computer (1970)

Have you ever wondered just how detergents are able to get grease and oil off a surface? This simple example demonstrates one method. In the top image, a drop of oil sits attached to a solid surface; both are immersed in water. An eyedropper injects a surfactant chemical near the oil drop. This lowers the surface tension of the surrounding water and allows the mixture to better wet the solid. That eats away at the oil drop’s contact with the surface. It takes awhile – the middle animation is drastically sped up – but the oil droplet maintains less and less contact with the surface as the surfactant works. Eventually, in the bottom image, most of the oil drop detaches from the surface and floats away.   (Image credits: C. Kalelkar and A. Sahni, source)

Iranian newspaper clip, 1968 which reads: “A quarter of Iran’s Nuclear Energy scientists are women.” The picture shows five female Iranian PhDs posing in front of Tehran’s research reactor.

The Eiffel Tower under construction for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, Paris

     Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, offers the unique sight of a complete Mercury spacecraft. Many of these spacecraft are available for viewing all over the United States, but this one is special because it did not fly.

     During the course of a Mercury flight, several parts of the spacecraft are jettisoned and not recovered, including the retro package. This piece of equipment is visible here in my photos as the striped metal object strapped to the bottom of the heat shield. This small cluster of solid rocket motors was responsible for the safe return of the astronaut from space, making just enough thrust to change the shape of the orbit so that it would meet the atmosphere and use aerobraking for a ballistic reentry.

     If this package had not fired properly, the astronaut would be faced with the dire situation of being stuck in orbit. Fortunately, this never happened in real life, but it was captured in the fanciful novel “Marooned” by Martin Cardin, in which a NASA astronaut was stranded on orbit after his retro rockets failed. When the book was released in 1964, it was so influential that it actually changed procedures for Mercury’s follow on program Project Gemini, adding more redundancy to the spacecraft’s reentry flight profile.

     Alan Shepard, the first American in space and later Apollo 14 moonwalker, didn’t fail to notice that there was a leftover spacecraft at the end of the Mercury program. He lobbied for a second Mercury flight in this ship, speaking personally to both NASA Administrator James Webb and President John Kennedy about this flight. He told them his idea of an “open ended” mission in which they would keep him in orbit indefinitely until there was a malfunction or consumables began to run out. Webb stated (and Kennedy agreed) that it was more important to shelve the Mercury spacecraft in order to jump start the more capable Gemini Program. Thus, we now have this whole Mercury on display for future generations to appreciate.

Technical drawings of an F4U Corsair

A page of Willem ’s Gravesande’s 1720 book Physices Elementa Mathematica with Jan van Musschenbroek’s magic lantern, an early type of image projector,  projecting a monster. The depicted lantern is one of the oldest known to be preserved and is in the collection of Museum Boerhaave, Leiden.

“Imagine the earth to be a bag of rubber filled with water, a small quantity of which is periodically forced in and out of the same by means of a reciprocating pump, as illustrated. If the strokes of the latter are effected in intervals of more than one hour and forty-eight minutes, sufficient for the transmission of the impulse thru the whole mass, the entire bag will expand and contract and corresponding movements will be imparted to pressure gauges or movable pistons with the same intensity, irrespective of distance. By working the pump faster, shorter waves will be produced which, on reaching the opposite end of the bag, may be reflected and give rise to stationary nodes and loops, but in any case, the fluid being incompressible, its enclosure perfectly elastic, and the frequency of oscillations not very high, the energy will be economically transmitted and very little power consumed so long as no work is done in the receivers. This is a crude but correct representation of my wireless system in which, however, I resort to various refinements. Thus, for instance, the pump is made part of a resonant system of great inertia, enormously magnifying the force of the imprest impulses. The receiving devices are similarly conditioned and in this manner the amount of energy collected in them vastly increased.“

–Nikola Tesla

“Famous Scientific Illusions.” Electrical Experimenter, February, 1919.