24 Hrs Until Mars Landing - Have Some Rovers

The above photo, courtesy of UniverseToday.com, shows all three generations of NASA Martian Rovers. The tiniest is Sojourner (1997), followed by the twins Spirit and Opportunity (2004), and finally Curiosity is the largest on the left. As you can see, they've been getting larger with age! This is mostly to hold increasingly complex laboratory and support systems needed to properly analyze the Martian surface.

At 1:24am EST on Monday morning, Curiosity will enter the Martian atmosphere and attempt to land. All of our fingers are crossed!

NASA Landsat 40th Anniversary Photos

On July 23rd, I traveled to DC to attend a NASA event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Landsat program. The Landsat satellites provide valuable images of the planet for analysis of forests, natural disasters, etc. I joined other NASA twitter followers via the #NASASocial program at the Newseum (Washington, DC) and Goddard Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD).

Check out my coverage of the event below. Follow me on Twitter at @ShareefJackson or search the hashtags #NASASocial and #Landsat for tweets from other attendees.

Curiosity and Shatner - A Perfect Combination

The Mars Curiosity Rover is still on track to land on the surface of Mars this weekend.  Who's a better person to add to the lore than Captain Kirk?  Check out William Shatner's narration of the 7 minutes of terror video that I blogged about earlier. The video describes  the harrowing 7 minute period when the Rover drops from Mars orbit and attempts to land on the surface.

Two Tablets Is Not As Insane As You May Think

I've been an iPad user from the beginning, but I'm always wary about remaining tied to one brand. I'm always look for new technology out there that gives the best bang for your buck. Because of that, I'm the proud owner of the new Google Nexus 7 tablet. Now, you may ask, what the hell do you need two tablets for? It turns out that if your work involves constantly flipping between different windows to refer to pieces of information, two tablets may make more sense than you may expect.

During a recent visit at a coffee shop, I needed to test some computer programs that I'm working on. Normally I would use a heavy programming book for reference, but I used my iPad, shown on the left, to display the eBook. I connected my keyboard to the Nexus 7 tablet and began typing away.  It worked very well and it was much easier to navigate than a laptop, since I had one device dedicated to reading and the other strictly for typing.

This can definitely be done with a laptop, but you don't have the benefit of two screens that can each be dedicated to a task. And you get the obvious benefits of dealing with touch and the speed of a mobile system that the tablet provides.

This is just one of the interesting intersection points between the Nexus 7 and iPad tablets - I'll have a longer post coming soon that delves into this more.

RIP Sally Ride: Another Hero Lost

Sally Ride passed away today of pancreatic cancer. As the first American woman in space, as well as the youngest (32) and gay, her impact on history is undeniable. Amongst all of the writing on her life today, my favorite comes from PBS:

Sally Ride saw space as a tool for inspiring young people. She's a hard core scientist, she's an astrophysicist, she's a person who really was the real deal when it came to space science, and yet she never for a moment neglected or overlooked that this was a tool for inspiring a new generation. She wrote books aimed at that clientele, aimed at boys and girls, but primarily girls.

She saw space as a way to keep kids engaged in these subjects. She saw space as part of the overall well-being of our country. To her, bringing humans to space was in some ways a means to an end, in a way that it provided a means for young people to be engaged.

Check out a great video and tweets celebrating her life.

Reactions to the death of Sally Ride

Sally Ride passed away today of pancreatic cancer. As the first woman in space, as well as the youngest (32) and gay, her impact on history is undeniable.

Storified by Shareef Jackson · Mon, Jul 23 2012 21:36:12

First Female U.S. Astronaut, Sally Ride, Comes Out In Obituary http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astronaut-sally-ride-comes-out via @BuzzFeedShareef Jackson

RT @CNET Sally Ride: Farewell to an American original (photos) http://cnet.co/LJLcAF #NASASocial #SpaceTweeps #NASATweetupA Geek Mom (Shannon)

Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space, dies at 61 | http://ti.me/NQvdxKTIME.com

NASA statement on passing of Sally Ride: "In a space agency filled with trailblazers, Sally K. Ride was a pioneer of a different sort."CBS News

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space and a champion of women in science. Generations of Americans have lost a heroine today.D Wasserman Schultz

Dear cancer: FU for taking another remarkable person. #SallyRide was 32 when she went to space & died at 61. Imagine if she had more time.Linda Seid Frembes

I remember Sally Ride's thumbs up & smile as she strolled to climb into her rocket. Her smile said, "Hear me roar." RIPScott Simon

NASA: Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, has died http://lsnlw.com/t/3268100685/Shareef Jackson

As the first woman in space, Sally Ride's life was marked by breaking barriers with courage and class. An inspiration for all #RIP #LegendNancy Pelosi

Rest in peace former astronaut #SallyRide.The first woman in space was truly an inspiration to all...Mary Benton