Even in outer space…the beat goes on! The heart beat that is. But how best to monitor its condition on lengthy space treks, say to Mars? An engineering team of students has designed a new stethoscope for NASA to deliver accurate heart- and body-sounds to medics who are trying to appraise astronauts’ health on long [...]

This set of images from cameras on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter documents the appearance of a new cluster of impact craters on Mars. The orbiter has imaged at least 248 fresh craters, or crater clusters, on Mars.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Univ. of Arizona The two upper images are from the orbiter’s Context Camera (CTX). Researchers investigated the [...]

Spacewalker – My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer by Jerry Ross with John Norberg; Purdue University Press, $29.95; 2013. As a former astronaut, Jerry Ross has written a personal account of his childhood in rural Indiana, then taking a career path that eventually led him into Earth orbit – not [...]

New Mexico’s Spaceport America got a boost in readying itself to handle commercial space operations – such as suborbital flights of passengers via Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo launch system. Following unanimous passage by the state’s legislature, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed legislation April 2 to expand existing liability protections for spaceflight operators to spaceflight manufacturers [...]

Apollo 11 and Lunar Rover: Owners Workshop Manuals from Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, UK. Haynes Publishing has issued a number of space-related manuals – and these are cram packed with great photos, good writing, and insightful history. Apollo 11 1969 (including Saturn V, CM-107, SM-107, LM5) was written by Christopher Riley and Phil Dolling. They have [...]