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The structural and thermal model of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter in the Large Space Simulator at ESA’s Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, ready for a dry run in preparation for thermal-balance testing.
International Collaboration on BepiColombo

By Elsa Montagnon   BepiColombo is a collaborative mission to Mercury between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) due to launch in August 2015.

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HMA’s fire-suppression technology is ideal for a host of firefighting applications, including combating wildfires in areas unreachable by standard fire trucks. Here, HMA’s L3 (light, lean, and lethal) vehicle demonstrates these capabilities.
Space-Propulsion Technology Helps Suppress Fires Faster

By Bo Schwerin   Much deserved attention is given to the feats of innovation that allow humans to live in space and robotic explorers to beam never-before-seen images back to Earth.

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A highly collaborative IBM team built the computer that won Jeopardy!
Building the Watson Team

By David Ferrucci   On January 14, 2011, I was in the audience at IBM’s Watson Research Lab in Yorktown, New York, along with company executives, major clients, and my project team when our Watson computer soundly defeated two human champions in the third round of their Jeopardy! competition.

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The Aquarius instrument is integrated to the service platform at INVAP (Bariloche) just before its shipment to Brazil for environmental testing.
An Argentine Partnership with NASA

By Matthew Kohut   When the Aquarius mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in June 2011, few Americans outside the Earth-science and space communities probably knew that the satellite itself came from Argentina.

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This global map shows temperature anomalies for July 4–11, 2010, compared with temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. CLARREO’s ability to measure trends over a decade or more could help scientists know whether climate change will be less or more severe than expected as much as two decades earlier than current data allow.
CLARREO: Bringing Disciplines Together

By David Young   CLARREO, the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, is an Earth-science satellite mission in pre-Phase A (conceptual study) that is being designed to capture critical climate-change data much more precisely than has been possible with existing instruments.

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Moscow appears at the center of this nighttime image photographed by the Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of approximately 240 miles on March 28, 2012. A solar array panel for the space station is on the left side of the frame. The view is to the north-northwest from a nadir of approximately 49.4 degrees north latitude and 42.1 degrees east longitude, about 100 miles west-northwest of Volgograd. The Aurora Borealis, airglow and daybreak frame the horizon.
Message from the Director: Hidden Risks

April 30, 2012 Vol. 5, Issue 4   The risks associated with space exploration are not purely technical.

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Academy Brief: Risk Management II

April 30, 2012 Vol. 5, Issue 4   A new course demonstrates a different mindset about managing risk at NASA.

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Panelists speak on the topic of line and project management at the 2012 Goddard Spring Masters Forum. (From right to left) Mansoor Ahmed, associate director for Astrophysics Projects Division, Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, head of the Systems Engineering Services and Advanced Concepts Branch, James O’Donnell, head of the Attitude Control Systems Engineering Branch, and Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).
Goddard Spring Masters Forum

April 30, 2012 Vol. 5, Issue 4   Goddard practitioners and leaders reflected on successes, failures, and the challenges of working on complex projects.

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Bryan Fafaul, Glory Project Manager from Goddard Space Flight Center, talks about the launch of the GLORY mission during a news conference at NASA Headquarters, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011, in Washington.
Balancing Risks for Glory

April 30, 2012 Vol. 5, Issue 4   The Glory mishap provides a lesson about balancing risks to make the best decision possible.

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