Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired. 

Showing 41 - 50 of 142

February 02, 2021 Alluvial Fans and Deltas: Windows into the Late Climate History of Mars Story

A new global inventory of landforms created by water on Mars confirms they are more common than previously reported. Many of these landforms formed late in Mars’ history, which tells us that the timeframe that Mars may have been habitable for life lasted longer than we previously thought.

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January 14, 2021 Mercury, The Not So Shrunken Planet Story | Research Highlights

Based on my research, which include image composites of two flyby views of Mercury from the MESSENGER spacecraft, I conclude that Mercury has not cooled and shrunken as much as previously thought.

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December 15, 2020 AirSpace Presents
Voyages to Mars: Dreaming
Story | Voyages to Mars

Interplanetary road trips take a WHILE. So for this episode of Voyages to Mars, while we cruise onward towards the Red Planet, we’re listening to some poetry that pays tribute to long duration space travel.

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December 14, 2020 The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter Story

This month, gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are coming together in the sky for a once-in-a-lifetime event called a great conjunction. It will peak on December 21, 2020.

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November 17, 2020 AirSpace Presents
Voyages to Mars: Sending Humans
Story | Voyages to Mars

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, published a few years before the world’s first satellite was even launched (!), remains one of the most influential stories of human settlement on Mars ever published.

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October 20, 2020 AirSpace Presents
Voyages to Mars: Robots
Story | Voyages to Mars

Humans aren't yet able to go to Mars ourselves, so we’re reliant on the help of rovers and landers to be our eyes and ears on the surface - our mechanical “boots on the ground.” This episode is our ode to ROBOTS!

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October 15, 2020 Geologic Maps: Where Science Meets Art Story

Geologic maps are used to locate natural resources, such as water or oil, or the best place to hunt for fossils, but they can also be eye catching works of art.

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September 23, 2020 A Mars Rover Lands in Virginia Story | Air and Space Photos

A new Mars rover has landed at the Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Surface System Test-Bed (SSTB) is nearly identical to the MER twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity that landed on Mars in 2004. What makes the SSTB different, however, is that it was designed for use on Earth.

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September 15, 2020 AirSpace Presents
Voyages to Mars: Crossing Lunar Orbit
Story | Voyages to Mars

Leaving Earth on your way to Mars, the first pit stop you might make is the Moon’s orbit. In this episode, we follow three Mars-bound space travelers from Mark Wicks’ novel, To Mars via the Moon.

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August 27, 2020 AirSpace Season 3|Ep.4
The Greatest Discovery
Story | AirSpace Podcast

If you had $500 MILLION dollars to spend going anywhere in the solar system (rocket not included), where would YOU go? That’s exactly what NASA asks scientists in its Discovery Program. 

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