This Week @ NASA, August 9, 2013

So what can a planetary rover do with a year on Mars?

All NASA's Curiosity rover did was beam back over 190 gigabits of data, more than 36-thousand images and zap 75-thousand-plus laser shots at science targets … and oh by the way, it also completed the mission's main science goal by finding evidence that life was possible on Mars in the past.

The agency celebrated the one year anniversary of Curiosity's landing on Mars with live events from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- featuring rover team members.

ONE YEAR ON MARS! – HQ/JPL #1YearOnMars

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Astronaut Michael Foale Leaves NASA After 26-Year Career

NASA astronaut Michael Foale has retired, ending a 26-year space agency career that included 375 days in space during six space shuttle missions and extended stays aboard two space stations.

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Robotics Workstation in the International Space Station’s Cupola

At the robotics workstation in the International Space Station's Cupola, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Expedition 36 flight engineer, participates in onboard training activity in preparation for the grapple and berthing of the Japanese "Kounotori" H2 Transfer Vehicle-4 (HTV-4) set for August 9, 2013. 

Nyberg and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy will use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to reach out and capture the vehicle for its installation on the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node. 

Image Credit: NASA

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First morning at Concordia

After three months of continuous night, morning will break on Saturday at the Concordia research station in Antarctica.

Daylight is not far away

Concordia in the dark

It's dark and cold outside!

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Week in Images

What are the parts of the Soyuz Rocket? What are the stages into orbit? What is the launch sequence? Watch and find out. This video has been produced from an actual lesson delivered to the ESA astronaut class of 2009 (also known as the #Shenanigans09) during their ESA Basic Training in 2009-2010.

A very young star, RNO 91, is being born in the guts of the dark cloud LDN 43, 520 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The newborn star is hidden in this image, revealed only by light reflected onto the plumes of the dark cloud. A dusty, icy disc surrounding it may host planet embryos.

This image is based on data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A version of this image was entered into the

CAVES staff under a ray of light coming from the ceiling of a cave, which appears very infrequently throughout the year.

The ESA CAVES team is preparing for CAVES 2013 by doing a 'dry run' at the training site. Procedures, tasks, equipment and locations are checked in preparation for the real thing: sending six astronauts underground in September.

CAVES, an abbreviation of Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, prepares astronauts to work safely and effectively and solve problems as a multicultural team while exploring uncharted areas using space procedures.

Photograph taken by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano from on board the International Space Station showing a rising crescent Moon seen through rare noctilucent clouds. Luca is part of the six-strong Expedition 36 crew currently resident on the ISS. More about his six-month Volare Mission:

The Envisat satellite found that the dormant Mount Longonot in Kenya rose by 9 cm from 2004 to 2006. Tectonic activity such as the movement of magma underground may have caused this deformation of the surface above.

Our week through the lens:

05-09 August 2013

Shaken and stirred: inside a rocket’s fuel tank at liftoff

If rocket launch stages were transparent, this is what would be visible at the moment of launch.

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Did you know...

How often do astronauts wash their clothes in space?

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Finds Source of Magellanic Stream

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy.