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This artist’s concept shows the sky crane maneuver during the descent of the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface.
The Sky Crane Solution

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.

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This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007
On the Cover (ASK 47)

This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007, produced using model output from the joint Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory project: Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II, or ECCO2. ECCO2 uses the MIT general circulation model to synthesize satellite […]

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In This Issue by Don Cohen
In This Issue (ASK 47)

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.

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From the Academy Director: Projects Built Around People and Networks

By Ed Hoffman   What is the most likely culprit in failures to meet grand societal challenges? How do we understand and address the increasing complexity of missions? To rephrase those questions in more general terms: What poses the greatest risk to projects?

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The Knowledge Notebook by Laurence Prusak
The Knowledge Notebook: The Real Value of Knowledge

By Laurence Prusak   The question I most often hear when I speak to people about how to work with knowledge is some variation of “How can we measure the value of knowledge activities or projects?

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ASK Interactive
ASK Interactive (ASK 47)

  NASA in the News The nation’s space exploration program took a critical step forward after a successful technical review of the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before.

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The NASA Viz app shares scientific stories through images, animations, articles, and more.
Scientific Visualization: Where Art Meets Science and Technology

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.

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