Lorenzo Garca Garca

Sergi Gonzlez Salv

Index
What is NASA?

Creation

History

NASA's objectives

Organization Structure

Some current NASA missions

NASA's Future

Videos

What is NASA?
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) is the United States
government agency that is responsible for the
civilian space program as well as for aeronautics
and aerospace research.

Creation
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) in 1958 (56 years ago), partially in response
to the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial
satellite the previous year. NASA was created with a
distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation
encouraging peaceful applications in space science.
The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed
on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's
predecessor, the National Advisory Commitee for
Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became
operational on October 1, 1958.

History
The Congress and the President of the United States created
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
on October 1, 1958. NASA's birth was directly related to the
pressures of national defense. After World War II, the United
States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, a
broad contest over the ideologies and allegiances of the
nonaligned nations. During this period, space exploration
emerged as a major area of contest and became known as
the space race. A major step forward came when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a plan to orbit a scientific
satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY)
for the period, July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958, a
cooperative effort to gather scientific data about the Earth.

The Soviet Union quickly followed suit, announcing plans to

orbit its own satellite. A full-scale crisis resulted on October 4,
1957 when the Soviets launched Sputnik 1, More
immediately, the United States launched its first Earth satellite
on January 31, 1958, Explorer 1. The U.S. also began a
series of scientific missions to the Moon and planets in the
latter 1950s and early 1960s. NASA began operations on
October 1, 1958, absorbing into itself the earlier National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics intact: its 8,000
employees, an annual budget of $100 million, three major
research laboratories-Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion
Laboratory-and two smaller test facilities.

NASA's objectives
NASA science is focused on better understanding
Earth through the Earth Observing System,
advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the
Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research
Program, exploring bodies throughout the Solar
System with advanced robotic missions such as New
Horizons, and researching astrophysics topics, such
as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories
and associated programs. NASA shares data with
various national and international organizations such
as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite or
the ESA (European Space Agency)

Organization Structure
Administrator: Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

Some current NASA missions

Curiosity rover Mars Science Laboratory

(MSL)

International Space Station (ISS)

Chandra X-ray Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope

Cassini Saturn orbiter

Kepler mission

New Horizons Pluto flyby

Curiosity rover Mars Science

Laboratory (MSL)
As established by the Mars Exploration Program,
the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to
help to determine whether Mars could ever have
supported life, as well as determining the role of
water, and to study the climate and geology of
Mars. The mission also helps preparing for human
exploration.

To contribute to these goals, MSL has eight main scientific

objectives:
Biological
1.Determine the nature and inventory of
organic carbon compounds
2.Investigate the chemical building blocks of life (carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur)
3.Identify features that may represent the effects of biological
processes (biosignatures)
Geological and geochemical
4.Investigate the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical
composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological
materials
5.Interpret the processes that have formed and
modified rocks and soils

Planetary process
6. Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year)
Martian atmospheric evolution processes
7. Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water
and carbon dioxide
Surface radiation
8. Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation,
including galactic and cosmic radiation, solar proton events
and secondary neutrons. As part of its exploration, it also
measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the
spacecraft as it traveled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation
measurements as it explores the surface of Mars. This data
would be important for a future manned mission.

The International Space Station

(ISS)
The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a
habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. It is a modular
structure whose first component was launched in 1998. Now the
largest artificial body in orbit, it can often be seen with the naked
eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external
trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have
been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian
Proton and Soyuz rockets.
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research
laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology,
human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.
The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and
equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a space telescope
launched on July 23, 1999 specially designed to detect
X-ray emission from very hot regions of the Universe
such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter
around black holes. Because X-rays are absorbed by
Earth's atmosphere, Chandra must orbit above it, up to
an altitude of 139,000 km (86,500 mi) in space.
Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter
than any previous X-ray telescope, enabled by the high
angular resolution of its mirrors. It has been described as
being as revolutionary to astronomy as Galileo's first
telescope.

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope
that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and
remains in operation. With a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror,
Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near
ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. The
telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Hubble has recorded some of the most detailed visiblelight images ever, allowing a deep view into space and
time. Many Hubble observations have led to
breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as accurately
determining the rate of expansion of the universe.

Cassini Saturn orbiter

CassiniHuygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent
to the planet Saturn. It has studied the planet and
its many natural satellites since arriving there in
2004, also observing Jupiter and the heliosphere,
and testing the theory of relativity. It includes a
Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander
for the moon Titan called Huygens, which entered
and landed on Titan in 2005.

Cassini has seven primary objectives:

1. Determine the three-dimensional structure and
dynamic behavior of the rings of Saturn:
2.Determine the composition of the satellite surfaces
and the geological history of each object
3.Determine the nature and origin of the dark material
on Iapetus's leading hemisphere
4.Measure the three-dimensional structure and
dynamic behavior of the magnetosphere
5.Study the dynamic behavior of Saturn's atmosphere
at cloud level
6.Study the time variability of Titan's clouds and
hazes
7.Characterize Titan's surface on a regional scale

NASA's Future

NASA is designing and building the capabilities to send humans

to explore beyond Earth orbit, including the development of the
Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket, working
toward a goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid in the
coming decade and then to Mars by the 2030s.
NASA is researching ways to design and build aircraft that are
safer, more fuel-efficient, quieter, capable of flying at supersonic
speeds and environmentally responsible.
NASA is developing the technologies to enable human and
robotic exploration within our solar system and beyond. These
range from advanced solar electric propulsion and large-scale
solar sails to new green propellants and composite cryogenic
storage tanks for refueling depots in orbit.

Videos
1: NASA's Space Shuttles video
2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6U-xbzgTH0

Thanks for your attention!