nasa posts

Filed under: Multimedia, Odds and ends, Blogging, Macbook Pro, MacBook

Space geeks love MacBook Pros

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 27th, 2009

Like a lot of my fellow space geeks, I was watching the live feed from Spaceflight Now this morning for the launch of the Ares 1-X test vehicle. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed, but I was happy to see that the three guys doing the coverage this morning were all using MacBook Pros.

The MacBook Pros were all being used to do blogging and tweeting during the launch coverage, as well as to receive updates from NASA.

The coverage was being provided by former CNN talking head and well-known aviation enthusiast Miles O'Brien (center), veteran TV reporter David Waters (at left), and Astronaut Leroy Chiao (at right). While the weather didn't cooperate for the launch this morning, that gives TUAW readers another chance tomorrow morning to watch and listen to the launch, and to admire all that gleaming aluminum in the morning sun -- that's the MacBook Pros, not the Ares 1-X.

Tags: ares 1-X, Ares1-x, launch, NASA, spaceflight now, SpaceflightNow

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

Failure is not an option: the official NASA iPhone app is here

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Oct 24th, 2009

There are a lot of space geeks out there. You know the type; they wake up in the early hours of the morning to watch launch coverage or live feeds from the International Space Station, they follow NASA astronauts on Twitter, and they're married to people in the space biz. Oh, wait -- that's me!

Yeah, I'm a bona-fide space geek and proud of it, so I was thrilled to hear that the official NASA iPhone app [iTunes Link] is now available free of charge. The app was created by the New Media Team at NASA Ames Research Center, and for their first app it's surprisingly robust, bug-free and full of features.

The front screen of the app provides a window into current and future NASA missions. Along the bottom of the display are buttons for missions, images, videos, and updates. The updates are fairly current -- there were 11 posts about various Earth and space missions today alone -- and often include links to videos.

I found that the app worked best when I was downloading the videos over Wi-Fi, so be sure to keep that in mind if you're trying to get watch a launch video while on 3G service. Check out the gallery below for screenshots from the app.

Gallery: NASA iPhone App

Mission news for International Space Station

Tags: app store, AppStore, iphone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, nasa, software, space

Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends

iPods rock the Space Shuttle

by Alberto Escarlate (RSS feed) on Mar 15th, 2008

Update 11/16/2008: Welcome Digg visitors. While there may be iPods on the current STS-126 mission, these photos & the blog post are actually from the March 2008 mission.

Eagle-eyed reader Walker was perusing hi-res photos of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (which is circling the planet at this moment, docked to the International Space Station in low-earth orbit) when he spotted an iPod through the crew cabin window. It's a massively cool find and we thought you'd like to know it's not the first time an iPod has braved the 3G hurtle into space.

When the unmanned Jules Verne spacecraft launched earlier this month for its historic docking with the ISS, it took along several commemorative items, including an iPod containing a special list of songs chosen by the winner of a 2007 contest.

STS crew member Leland Melvin went to the ISS last month aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, and he took along an iPod pre-loaded with his favorite Christina McBride album and a few songs he'd composed on the piano.

For Charlie Hobaugh's flight last year, he let his kids load his iPod for him. (Wow, that's trusting -- he could have spent the 13-day mission listening to Alvin & the Chipmunks).

Getting an iPod into space isn't easy. The lithium batteries have to be replaced with specially certified alkaline batteries. Once docked, crew members can't bring them on board the Space Station, however, since they haven't been certified as safe in that environment.

Your iPod may never make it to outer space, but if you want to protect it on your daily land-based EVAs, why not wrap it in a piece of history? Get a case from everQuest Design that's made from a piece of the Soyuz parachute. From one space geek to another, I ask you: how cool is that?

Thanks Walker!

Gallery: iPod Endeavour

Tags: endeavour, i'm a space cadet, ipod, nasa, space shuttle, tweet-this

Filed under: Software

Mars24

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Mar 31st, 2006

If you like Mars, Nasa has the application for you. Mars24 tracks the time of day for numerous locations on Mars (those are Martian days, by the way).

It is free, and interesting. Isn't that what we all want in our software?

[Via PopSciBlog]

Tags: Mars, nasa

Tip of the Day

Reply in the Mail.app with a specific quote.
Select the text you want quoted and then hit the reply button.
Only your selected text will copied to the reply email.

Learn More

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Featured Galleries

TUAW bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	51	4
2	Dave Caolo	35	1
3	Mike Schramm	33	0
4	Mel Martin	29	0
5	TJ Luoma	24	31
6	Michael Rose	18	18
7	Joachim Bean	17	2
8	Erica Sadun	16	2
9	Victor Agreda, Jr.	15	7
10	Josh Carr	13	24
11	Sang Tang	12	1
12	Ken Ray	11	2
13	David Winograd	11	17
14	Brett Terpstra	9	8
15	Megan Lavey	7	9
16	Tim Wasson	5	1
17	Aron Trimble	4	3
18	Kent Pribbernow	4	0
19	John Burke	4	3
20	Chris Ullrich	4	1

More Apple Analysis

AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)