Here are some little-spread things from NASA from the last couple years that are way cool:
The Completed Stardust-NExT Mission:
“After traveling 3.5 billion miles, the Stardust spacecraft made history by capturing images of asteroid Annefrank, collecting samples of comet Wild 2 and successfully returning them to Earth…”
REALLY? That is Way Cool!
A new rover, Curiosity, will be going to Mars:
“The rover for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, named Curiosity, is about 3 meters (10 feet) long, not counting the additional length that the rover’s arm can be extended forward. … Aside from the setting and its placement on ground support equipment, the rover appears much as it will after landing on Mars in August 2012. … Launch is scheduled for the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, 2011.”
Very Cool :)
And by far the COOLEST:
NASA’s Gravity Probe B Confirms Two Einstein Space-Time Theories
05.04.11
“The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates.
GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth. If gravity did not affect space and time, GP-B’s gyroscopes would point in the same direction forever while in orbit. But in confirmation of Einstein’s theories, the gyroscopes experienced measurable, minute changes in the direction of their spin, while Earth’s gravity pulled at them.”