Oregon Zoo
Hanging out with Kali on Bat Appreciation Day! ... See MoreSee Less
Video
9GAG
Today is International Bat Appreciation Day 🦇
By nightgliders | TW ... See MoreSee Less
Video
This shared from #LauraKerber (JPL) on another page post. Thought some of you might find it interesing: "Hey pals, I thought you all might be interested in this-- Jay Dickson, from the Murray Lab at Caltech (murray-lab.caltech.edu/CTX/) has been making a seamless CTX mosaic of the entire planet Mars, and recently he got ESRI to host a beta version of it so that you can stream the entire thing (all 8 trillion pixels) instantly on the web, in ArcGIS, or in QGIS. Have a look at it: www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html…
Or go to the Murray Lab Link and "Access the Data".
Then zoom all the way from orbit into your favorite place on Mars, and prepare for your MIND to be BLOWN." ... See MoreSee Less
Wow. Mars for Teens. Wow, And right away I wonder about lava caves in China..... ... See MoreSee Less
This video explains potential evidence for a history of extreme volcanic activity on Mars: ... See MoreSee Less
I just learned about this last night from #jaymelosh at #breakthrough. Very exciting! They’ve done some prelim work at #lavabeds, scanning caves there. ... See MoreSee Less
We know some of the folks involved in this project. They should test at Lava Beds (with permission, of course!)! ... See MoreSee Less
NBC News MACH
It’s yet another reminder that, although Homo sapiens is now the only surviving member of our branch of the evolutionary tree, we’ve had company for most of our existence. #Israeltothemoon landing tomorrow at 12:30 pm PST. Super psyched - another landing in the Sea of Tranquility!
Here's a wee bit about the landing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYd5vRjsfQE
#Beresheet ("in the beginning", in Hebrew) is one of several ways to spell this with our roman alphabet. :)Discover how Beresheet plans to land on the moon ... See MoreSee Less
Video
The New York Times - Science
At last, we can see the unseeable. A black hole. Astronomers on Wednesday morning unveiled the very first image ever captured of a black hole, the supermassive abyss at the heart of a distant galaxy called M87. “We’ve exposed a part of our universe we’ve never seen before,” said Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at Harvard University who directed the effort to capture the image. Beautiful night sky at Lava Beds National Monument, June 2018. (Photo credit - Brian Anschel) ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
I am wondering about the australian fruit bats...
UNILAD
Bats are literally just sky puppies 😍😍 ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Cool stuff happens in Southern California too! Here’s some beautiful footage of the wildflower superblooms in Walker Canyon: ... See MoreSee Less
Lava tubes are a type of glassy igneous rock - basalt, the most abundant rock material on the surface of our planet! ... See MoreSee Less
What Gems Are Found in Igneous Rock?
geologyin.com
How Gemstones are Formed? Igneous rocks are formed and created by magmatic processes in the earth. To form very large crystals of rare minerals, Liquid magmatic phase, Pegmatite phase, Pneumatolytic phase, Hydrothermal phase Monthly shows about NASA Science & Missions - Episode 2 ("Going Interstellar" - about the Voyager) airs today, and you can watch the first episode on YouTube.
Whenever I read about a NASA "Voyager" I can't help but think of V-ger from the first Star Trek movie! ... See MoreSee Less
NASA Science Live
nasa.gov
NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind. This is a low visitation cave.....but my how magical. ... See MoreSee Less
Counting Caves
npca.org
Mammoth Cave National Park may boast the world’s longest cave system, but one national park site includes hundreds more caves within its boundaries. Learn about the site with the most known caves in the National Park System. A composite volcano, cinder cone and shield volcano met at a party. They had a blast!
Here at Lava Beds we are nestled in the Cascade Range, which stretches from California to British Columbia. Though no composite volcano is within our boundary, we can see excellent views of two composite volcanoes on a clear day, Mount Shasta in California and Mount McLoughlin in Oregon. Composite volcanoes are typically more conical in shape, and are also known as statovolcanoes. They sometimes can loose their top, creating a bowl-shape known as a caldera.
Cinder cones are the most basic type of volcano. Gas-charged lava explodes violently into the air, and then falls back to the ground as cinders. Examples of cinder cones in the park are Schonchin Butte, Hippo Butte and Cinder Butte.
And shield volcanoes, like our very own Medicine Lake, are broad and sloping. Though not known for their heights, they are the largest type of volcano. They're built slowly from highly fluid lava flows. Thanks to all these volcanoes and other awesome features (like over 800 lava tube caves) it's always a party at Lava Beds!
NPS photo by Ranger Aimee of Mount Shasta, Cinder Butte (as well as a couple other cinder cones), and a portion of the Medicine Lake shield volcano as seen from the top of Schonchin Butte on 3/16/2019. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Anyone been here?The Eyes Of God. Prohodna Cave, Bulgaria. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Check out some recent publications on lava terrain related work in the journal Astrobiology concerning The BASALT Research Program: Designing and Developing Mission Elements in Support of Human Scientific Exploration of Mars! ... See MoreSee Less
Check out this article about Chris Patterson's experience at Lava Beds National Monument last summer! He participated in the BRAILLE field deployment as an ambassador from the ATiLT team. ATiLT stands for Astrobiology Training in Lava Tubes which is a program led by Rich Léveillé and funded by the Canadian Space Agency. ... See MoreSee Less
AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD EXPERIENCE
mcgill.ca
Although he hasn’t travelled into space – yet – Christopher Patterson has experienced some of the conditions that astronauts are likely to encounter on a mission to Mars. This link is such a tease! The USGS astrobiology website needs some updating (as does BRAILLE's site, so this is an observation rather than a criticism). Here's an image of a skylight on Mars -- but where there? What's the context?! There's also a quote by USGS Planetary Geology Glen Cushing - one of the first to use ML to identify putative martian caves using orbital data. Very cool - and we want to know more!
astrogeology.usgs.gov/geology/planetary-caves ... See MoreSee Less
Planetary Caves | USGS Astrogeology Science Center
astrogeology.usgs.gov
USGS Astrogeology Science Center works with NASA and space-science communities to integrate planetary maps, geology, and remote sensing for Mars, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, Asteroids, Titan, Io, and more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYo9Whssla8LittleDog robot built by Boston Dynamics, programmed by the CLMC Lab at the University of Southern California ( www-clmc.usc.edu/ ). ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Comments about #LavaTubes as safe havens on Mars:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3crw903HU0The biggest thinkers from around the world discuss how to find and build shelter on Mars. ➡ Subscribe: bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe ➡ Watch all clips of MAR... ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Now is the time when we assess the #NASA_BRAILLE Field Campaign - what worked well, what could be done to make the next campaign even better. Discussions today with another NASA colleague about field deployment schedule for 2019....because our rover, #CaveR, also works in the Atacama desert in Chile!
Meanwhile, we're waiting for Season 2 of National Geographic's series, MARS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMkZtgJxmvUThe hardest thing about living on Mars... is us. Mars returns November 12 on National Geographic. ➡ Subscribe: bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe About National G... ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Last evening of our 2018 Field Campaign, looking N to Oregon from the door of my tent. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Last official day of 2018 BRAILLE Field Campaign and we are in the Research Center doing paperwork - binning & photographing samples, logging data to the G Drive, prepping target images for the final foot scientist Ground Truth evaluation with ATP. Our numbers have dwindled and it seems empty here with only 6 of us now. Blue skies outside and we can see to Oregon. Beautiful afternoon. It's Taco Tuesday for us, and we're rolling! ... See MoreSee Less
Missing the rest of the NASA BRAILLE remote science team... ❤️ Our second field campaign is coming to a close soon, and we had a great time interacting with the public! More awaits next year so be on the lookout for future updates about the project! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
We had a successful #NASABRAILLEMEDIADAY last Friday! Over 200 people came to learn about our project, including representatives @heraldandnews and @ktvlnews10! Hope that those attended had a blast, and of course big thanks for all the hard work our rover team put into greeting attendees and answering all their questions. 😊 ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Thank you Barbara and Wendy (The sweetest Park Rangers at Lava Beds) for all you’ve done for our BRAILLE team. ❤️ ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Come drop by NASA’s BRAILLE Project Media Day tomorrow to see CaveR in action and explore some amazing caves at Lava Beds! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Sim 1 Day 1!
BRAILLE is currently undergoing its first mission simulation at Lava Beds!
The scope: BRAILLE's remote science team is analyzing the features that CaveR saw through its first scouting transverse inside a lava cave.
In progress: Sim scientists Eldar, J.R., and Ted must choose up to 5 features of astrobiological interest. They will create a science plan for our rover team to go back and complete! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
What a good-looking team.
It’s only been a few days and we miss our foot scientists already! We hope they enjoyed their time in lava caves as much as we enjoyed their company.
BRAILLE ❤️:
Saugata Datta from Kansas State University
Brittany Kruger fom Desert Research Institute
Matt Selensky from Northwestern University
Evan Lewis from Arizona State University
Photo credits: Maggie Osburn, BRAILLE Co-I, Professor at Northwestern! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
CaveR set up and ready for our mission sim!
Photo credits: Yuanhao Duke @dukelioncat ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
CaveR is set up and ready to go at Lava Beds!
PC: @dukelioncat ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Not a farewell, just a “See you later!” to our foot scientists.
Tonight, we welcome our robotics team! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
After crawling through the tightest of entrances, sacrificing clothes and (some) skin, the BRAILLE team collected some neat samples from Cave 460 yesterday night!
Do you notice the long, stick-like and threaded piece? Those are called soda straws (makes sense, right?!) They grow from cave ceilings and contain water that leaves its hallow tube after being broken off.
The other piece is basalt, forming on the floor surface right under water drips. We’re curious about this relationship! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Do you see a starry night sky or biofilm on cave wall under UV light? ;) ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Here are some highlights yesterday (#Day3!) inside and out of Cave 460:
Hard-working BRAILLE team members in electric blue coveralls
millipedes
milky droplets
lava drips
and golden biofilm galore! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Inside Valentine Cave, basking in the shimmer of sunlight ☀️ ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
A time lapse of our drive through Lava Beds and Tule Lake.
The sky is smokey but that isn’t enough to stop the our team! 💪 ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Things have been ramping up very quickly with NASA's BRAILLE project! Here's a photo of our great team. Love it!
Currently, our foot scientists are up with us this week to collect samples inside various caves at Lava Beds. Then next week, we'll have our sim scientists and the robotics team coming up to the field!
More updates soon! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Daniel Milshteyn, a recent graduate from UCSC with a bachelors in Bioengineering, has been working on becoming familiar with various ATP luminometers. He’ll be one of NASA BRAILLE’s foot scientists during our time in the field. As a foot scientist, Daniel will be analyzing cave surfaces and estimate microbial abundance based on the amount of ATP present.
Leading up to our deployment, Daniel has been testing different surfaces and substances with his ATP luminometers. These photos show him using an ATP swab made specifically to analyze water. The luminometer shown is Hygiena EnSURE.
Thankfully, Daniel’s results from the tap water taken NASA’s bathroom sinks show...
Normal water quality levels! Phew!
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about ATP luminometers, check out this article Daniel wrote for the BRAILLE website:
www.NASA-BRAILLE.org/atp-luminometer/! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
These are unusual textures on the roof of one of the caves, colonized by a yellow-orange biofilm. The more you look in the caves, the more you see. This feature is rather obvious, of course! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Fantastic!! ... See MoreSee Less
Our Astrobiology science team - with expertise in microbiology, hard-rock mineralogy, aqueous & organic & stable isotope geochemistry, soil science, mapping (etc. etc.!) - will be working in several caves that are inaccessible to CaveR. Here's #DuaneMoser, happy camper, who schlepped a ladder about 25 min across the undulating lava terrain to help us all enter one of the caves. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
How cool is this! Quenched dripping basatic lava colonized by several colors of microbial clusters. Secondary minerals - which look both associated with and independent of their biological neighbors. Water moisture visible on some of the lava surfaces and tiny water beads resting on some of the white structures. This was taken with my iphone so it isn't very high res, but it gives you an idea of features we'll be looking at.... ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Here's a design by #EmmaTam, illustrating the science strategy of BRAILLE. Our remote scientists will be identifying targets for astrobiology science interrogation, along transects of the lava cave wall, with the cameras and spectrometers on the CaveR rover payload. Love it! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Here's our BRAILLE project logo, designed by #EmmaTam. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
We can never get enough of CaveR. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
One of our favorite shots from yesterday’s ORT! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
BRAILLE completed Day 1 of Operational Readiness Testing (ORT) yesterday! This means we have less than three weeks before our field deployment—we’re psyched!
We attached a useful infographic that shows how our mission simulation will work:
In Valentine Cave, we have the rover team and our foot scientists. Our sim scientists are located remotely at the Science Operations Center.
CaveR will go through a scouting traverse in the caves, and remote scientists will receive and process the data collected by CaveR. Sim scientists can request further commands for CaveR; for example, requesting to go back to a specific location and gather additional data! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
CaveR hard at work day and night. ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Would you live in a lava tube-space city? Lava tubes have been detected on Mars and the moon, and could serve as a shelter against rough surface conditions! ... See MoreSee Less
Our #CaveR #rover is getting ready for the ORT (operations readiness test) next month! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Our next featured member is Antoine. He’s always carries such positive energy and we love having him on our team! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
We're here to start answering some big questions: What is BRAILLE? Why is the work our team doing important and relevant to many science and engineering fields?
Some of our team members tried to summarize BRAILLE in a sentence--check out what they had to say! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
Our first featured member of our NASA BRAILLE team is Arno, our CaveR Rover Engineering Lead! Arno is also a part of the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at NASA Ames. He makes sure that every component on the rover is integrated and works properly--an extremely important task leading up to field deployment! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
NASA BRAILLE Team on Twitter
twitter.com
“Our Co-Investigators and student operations deputies are meeting to discuss the use of xGDS (Exploration Ground Data Systems) before our field deployment. More details to come! #xGDS #lavatubecaves #meetings #science #engineering #software” Hashem Al-Ghaili
How To Turn Mars Into A Green Paradise ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Our NASA BRAILLE interns Rison and Cindy spent some time today exploring Ames on their bikes! They got a chance to take a good look at Hangar One! ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
La Cueva de Los Verdes lava tube system in Lazarote, Spain, mapped by the ESA Caves-Pangea team: Wowowowow!
www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/03/Volcanic_wormhole ... See MoreSee Less
Volcanic wormhole
esa.int
The organic and intricate features of a volcanic cave come alive in great detail in this three-dimensional image of La Cueva de Los Verdes in Lanzarote, Spain. Some of the most innovative scanning technologies have produced the largest 3D scan of a lava tube on Earth.Lava tubes are planet… Wow.
Finansforbundet
What do these kids understand that your boss doesn’t?
The Finance Sector Union of Norway ... See MoreSee Less
Video
Pallid bats help make beer.
That’s right, pallid bats feed on a type of beetle that eat and diminish hop crops. The same hops used to make beer. Therefore more pallid bats = more beer.
[Photo by; BLM / Dani Ortiz. A pallid bat eating a grasshopper.] ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
