NASA recently released its 2009 edition of Spinoff , an annual publication that chronicles successfully commercialized NASA technology. It’s easy to get lost in the magazine or its Web counterpart. The 2009 issue features 49 “spinoffs” in the areas of health and medicine; public safety; consumer, home, and recreation; environmental and agricultural resources; and more. I enjoyed many of them, but my favorites are the life rafts that use water to prevent...

The International Space Station may not inspire everyone with awe, but it has kept humanity consistently in space at all times for just over 9 years. NASA photo I inadvertently let an anniversary slip by a few weeks ago. It wasn’t a major one (I’m not sleeping on the couch), but it was nifty enough that I wish I could have celebrated appropriately. I refer, of course, to the ninth anniversary of the last day every human being was on Earth. On October...

This isn’t going to happen in 2012! Baseless theories, like a proposed planetary alignment on the scale of this photo illustration, have led many to fear the year 2012 needlessly. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (NASA) photo Rejoice, for the end is nigh. Not of the actual world, of course, but of 2012 ’s marketing campaign. As you are no doubt aware, Roland Emmerich’s end-of-the-world epic, 2012 , opened this weekend. As in Emmerich’s previous movies...

Next week (November 16–20), NASA’s Digital Learning Network will host a series of videoconferences with NASA employees who had a special connection with Apollo 11 to let students hear firsthand accounts from people who made the lunar landing possible. The 1-hour programs will be held each day at 1 p.m. EST from a different NASA location and will be webcast to the public . The schedule will run as follows: Monday: (from NASA’s Langley Research Center...

NASA’s done a good job getting us into space, but should it work harder on convincing people why that’s a good idea? NASA photo Chances are you’ll recognize the phrase, “To boldly go,” as part of the monologue introducing each episode of Star Trek . I’ve heard it called the most famous split infinitive in the English language, and whatever a person’s science knowledge or familiarity with Star Trek , they’ll usually recognize “To boldly go — where...

In this artist’s illustration, an orbiter works together with blimps and rovers to explore an unfamiliar landscape. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory photo Wolfgang Fink has a dream straight out of science fiction: Instead of sending a paltry robot or two to distant planets, scientists should send multiple expendable robots. Robots that can talk to one another and adapt to unexpected events. Robots that can think. Creepy as that might sound to some,...

Three days ago, Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds wrote his first in what will be a series of blogs about meteorites and meteorite collecting . While we talked with Mike about that first piece, we learned that he was going to attend the Ares I-X launch . In this entry, he shares what it was like to witness Wednesday’s successful test flight. Mike also took photos of the event, and we'll post those with this entry soon. Ares I-X lifted off from...

Stewart David Nozette, later arrested by the FBI for attempted espionage, worked on the LRO’s Mini-RF hardware. NASA Phot o We here at Astronomy magazine try to stay out of politics as much as we can because, after all, astronomy can be plenty controversial on its own — Pluto , anyone?. But sometimes, we just can’t help it. Take, for instance, the case of Stewart David Nozette (pictured at right), the former NASA scientist who was arrested October...

STS-125 astronauts Mike Massimino (lower left) and Mike Good (right, on arm) rehearse Hubble Space Telescope repairs in NASA’s NBL in this IMAX footage from Hubble 3D . NASA photo Toni Myers is my kind of big-time Hollywood director. She’s worked on such famous space-themed IMAX movies as Space Station 3D , Destiny in Space , and 1985’s The Dream is Alive . I remember seeing Dream is Alive when I was just a kid, and it played no small role in my fascination...

Special guest blog from Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe President Barack Obama and his family joined 150 school children, dozens of amateur astronomers, professional scientists, and education and public outreach professionals Wednesday night during the Star Party at the White House. And how cool was this? “Cool” doesn’t even come close. I was lucky to be a part of the exciting events running one of the planetarium domes set up on the South Lawn...