Project: Make a paper Mars helicopter
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, launching in July 2020, will carry the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift …
New weekly educational series focuses on comets and asteroids
Ice and Stone 2020 is a new weekly series of educational material focusing on some of the small bodies of the solar system – comets and asteroids. The Earthrise Institute, a non-profit educational organization founded by Comet Hale-Bopp co-discoverer Alan Hale, is partnering with RocketSTEM and the La Cumbres Observatory to release the material for FREE online …
Canada working with U.S. to inspire a future generation of astronauts
The United States and Canada are joining forces to encourage a new generation of astronauts. The two countries have cooperated on space exploration since soon after NASA, the U.S. space agency, was founded in 1958. Canada sends astronauts on NASA space missions, and it supplies technology for the International Space Station, among other space efforts. …
International Space Station’s 20 years of transformation
The largest and most complex international construction project in space began on the steppes of Kazakhstan 20 years ago today. Atop its Proton rocket, on Nov. 20, 1998, the Zarya Functional Cargo Block thundered off its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to serve as a temporary control module for the nascent International Space Station. …
Remembering Gene Cernan
Gene Cernan passed away in Houston, Texas, on January 16, 2017. He was the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave his bootprints on the surface of the Moon. Cernan flew to space three times as a member of the Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 missions. According to a …
Remembering John Glenn
John Glenn passed away in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8, 2016. He was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven – the first ever group of astronauts NASA picked in 1958. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth. He also served as a U.S. senator for 25 years. In 1998, he flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery …