By Don Cohen For all these missions, entering and descending through the Martian atmosphere and putting an undamaged lander on the surface (the mission phase known as EDL, for entry, descent, and landing) has been technically demanding.
Don Cohen, Managing Editor In his “From the Academy Director” column, Ed Hoffman argues that political and social skills are essential to carrying out ambitious projects.
By Helen-Nicole Kostis and Don Cohen At the start of the video, we see a bright sliver of Earth against a background of the star-speckled blackness of space.
By Don Cohen Lisa May is the program executive for MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). In her spare time, she acts as the female voice of NASA’s ScienceCasts. Don Cohen spoke with her at NASA Headquarters.
Don Cohen, Managing Editor In his “From the Academy Director” column, Ed Hoffman says, “Knowledge is the coin of the realm at NASA,” and discusses the challenges of identifying, capturing, and sharing the wealth of valuable knowledge the agency possesses.
Don Cohen, Managing Editor In their frank analysis of the failure of the Wide-field Infrared Explorers primary mission (“WIRE: Learning from Failure”), Bryan Fafaul and Kerry Ellis explain that this project based on “insight, not oversight” didn’t have enough of either.
By Don Cohen Currently a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jeffrey Hoffman flew on five shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut, including the first Hubble repair mission. He also served as NASA’s European representative for four years. Don Cohen spoke with him at his […]
Don Cohen, Managing Editor One of NASA’s stated goals is to “expand scientific understanding of the earth and the universe in which we live.”
By Don Cohen As a NASA astronaut, Steven Smith has flown on four shuttle missions and taken seven spacewalks to carry out Hubble telescope repairs and install the S-Zero Truss in the International Space Station (ISS).
