CNN samples new NASA space food: 'Yuck'
By Chad Myers, CNN
Editor's note: CNN's Chad Myers walked us through a little NASA space food taste test on CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin. But as you'll see below, for Chad, it didn't quite go as expected. The space agency has enlisted a team of tasters to choose food astronauts would eat during possible missions to Mars. Although Myers is NOT tasting in an official capacity, he nonetheless sacrificed his taste buds for the good of mankind.
When I was told we were having a space food tasting today, my first thought was, "Awesome! I get to use my best Bill Murray "Caddyshack" voice and say ‘It’s not so bad.'"
Well, as you'll see in the video, after the first taste it was clear that being an astronaut may be cool, but it’s not suitable for a foodie.
“It’s not so bad” would not come out and, in fact, nothing would come out.
It wasn’t a gag reflex but simply a mouth full of baby powdered chicken.
Did you ever sneak a spoonful of unsweetened baking powder chocolate when you were a kid and your mom wasn’t looking? Yuck.
I quickly grabbed the “lemonade” to give my voice some moisture but it was “space lemonade." Really - trust me no lemons were harmed in the making of that lemonade.
After about five seconds I grabbed my composure and went for the scrambled eggs.
They looked like yellow Dippin’ Dots really. Dippin’ dots are considered space food right? My 7 year old loves dippin’ dots - nope - egg-flavored pop rocks. [COUGH!]
Now I’m thinking, “Wow that pork looks really so juicy.” And I dig in. Wait, this must be the chicken.
”It’s not so bad”
Another swig of space lemonade - and suddenly I hear a CNN producer's voice through my earpiece say, “30 seconds left."
Alright we are almost home.
I can talk for 30 seconds and not have to try the “curry sauce with vegetables."
Never before has the TV term “wrap” - telling me to finish up - sounded so good in my ear.
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NASA, NOAA team up for satellite to increase tornado warning times
After this week's massive storm system, which spawned tornadoes that killed 12 people, you might appreciate this: NASA and NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) have teamed up to launch a new GOES weather monitoring satellite: the GOES-R series, which will help warn people about severe weather sooner.
GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. As they orbit Earth, the satellites monitor atmospheric conditions. They're basically fixed in place over a single spot on the planet, with a wide-angle view, collecting data around the clock. This lets meteorologists identify triggers for severe weather like hurricanes, flash floods, hailstorms and tornadoes.
GOES-R series satellites will be loaded with state-of-the-art instrumentation, and the launch of the first is expected in 2015, according to a NASA news release. The satellite will be able to better monitor conditions that are often precursors to tornadoes, like changes in lightning. And with the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), NASA and NOAA will be able to monitor and map lightning in real time across the Western Hemisphere.
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Spitzer Telescope Finds Hidden Jet
"NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image of a baby star sprouting two identical jets (green lines emanating from fuzzy star). The jet on the right had been seen before in visible-light views, but the jet at left - the identical twin to the first jet - could only be seen in detail with Spitzer's infrared detectors. The left jet was hidden behind a dark cloud, which Spitzer can see through.
The twin jets, in a system called Herbig-Haro 34, are made of identical knots of gas and dust, ejected one after another from the area around the star. By studying the spacing of these knots, and knowing the speed of the jets from previous studies, astronomers were able to determine that the jet to the right of the star punches its material out 4.5 years later than the counter-jet.
The new data also reveal that the area from which the jets originate is contained within a sphere around the star, with a radius of 3 astronomical units. An astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun. Previous studies estimated that the maximum size of this jet-making zone was 10 times larger.
The wispy material is gas and dust. Arc-shaped bow shocks can be seen at the ends of the twin jets. The shocks consist of compressed material in front of the jets.
The Herbig-Haro 34 jets are located at approximately 1,400 light-years away in the Orion constellation."
Source: NASA
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