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Flight hardware for NASA’s Orbital Syngas Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, is in view inside the Applied Physics Lab in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21, 2022. OSCAR began as an Early Career Initiative project at the spaceport that studies technology to convert trash and human waste into useful gasses such as methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. By processing small pieces of trash in a high-temperature reactor, OSCAR is advancing new and innovative technology for managing waste in space. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Podcast Episode 118: Center Innovation Fund and Early Career Initiative

October 4, 2023 // by INSIGHT Staff

NASA SpaceTech’s Michael LaPointe and John Nelson discuss the Center Innovation Fund and Early Career Initiative.

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In this multi-temporal illumination map of the lunar South Pole, Shackleton crater is in the center, surrounded by larger craters and rugged terrain. The map was created with images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Photo Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

The Moon’s Rugged, Intriguing South Pole

August 25, 2023 // by Kevin Wilcox

First landing marks the start of concentrated exploration.

In the early 1930s, astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky studied the Coma Cluster—shown here in an image obtained by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory—and discovered a puzzling inconsistency that led him to theorize the presence of dark matter. Photo Credit: NASA

Missions Focus on Dark Matter, Dark Energy

July 21, 2023 // by Kevin Wilcox

New telescopes designed to address pressing mysteries in astrophysics.

A high-resolution free-air gravity map based on GRAIL data, overlaid on terrain based on LRO altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) data. The view is south-up, with the south pole near the horizon in the upper left and the crescent Earth in the distance. The terminator crosses the eastern rim of the Schrödinger basin. Gravity is painted onto the areas that are in or near the night side. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits. Credit: NASA

Podcast Episode 112: TechLeap Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge

July 12, 2023 // by INSIGHT Staff

NASA TechLeap Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge Manager Greg Peters discusses the lunar landing challenge.

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An image of Raven Zero Pressure Balloon being inflated.The Exo-Atmospheric Aerobrake was tested during the August 2019 flight campaign. Photo Credit: NASA

Podcast Episode 111: Flight Opportunities

June 28, 2023 // by INSIGHT Staff

NASA Flight Opportunities Program Manager Danielle McCulloch discusses rapid demonstration of technologies and capabilities for NASA missions and commercial spaceflight.

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The rare sight of a Wolf-Rayet star captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in unprecedented detail. Massive stars race through their lifecycles, and only some of them go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova. Photo Credit: NASA

Webb’s First Year of Impressive Science

June 23, 2023 // by Kevin Wilcox

Space telescope reveals key details of early galaxies, exoplanets.

$More than 5,000 exoplanets have been identified, representing only a small fraction of total number and displaying the great diversity in the universe. Illustration Credit: Artist’s illustration/NASA/JPL-Caltech$

Worlds Around Small Star Come into Focus

June 20, 2023 // by Kevin Wilcox

Technology builds understanding of Crater constellation.