When it comes to sheer ingenuity, you can’t beat the geniuses at NASA. After all, these are the people that put the Curiosity Rover on Mars, men on the moon and improvised a way to adapt Apollo 13′s square carbon dioxide scrubber cartridges to fit the Lunar Module’s round cartridges using nothing but the scant materials on board. Their latest feat is just as impressive – for the past week, astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide have been unable to install a new main bus switching unit (MBSU) on the International Space Station due to stuck bolts. However a brainstorming session at NASA’s Johnson Space Center yielded a solution, and it involved the use of a common household item – a toothbrush!

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Post tags: "solar energy", astronauts, curiosity rover, household items, international space station, MSBU, nasa, recycling, Solar Power

On Sunday, America watched with bated breath as the Curiosity Rover successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. For two years, the highly advanced, nuclear-powered rover will explore the surface of the Red Planet, allowing us to view live images of its surface for the first time in human history. The sophisticated Rover is so interesting, a few enterprising geeks at BattleBricks decided to immortalize it in miniature LEGO form.

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Post tags: curiosity rover, Doug Moran, kennedy space center, lego, mars, nasa, space exploration, Will Gorman

Heading off on a long journey to Mars on Saturday is NASA’s new Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory which, once it lands on the Red Planet, will be powered by nuclear energy. Unlike previous Mars rovers — the Spirit and the Opportunity — which were powered by the sun and couldn’t work in dark crevasses, on the wrong side of mountains or at night, the Curiosity will power through all of those times and spaces like a champ. Slated to have a 23-month stay, the Curiosity’s engine could theoretically last a few decades.

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Post tags: "solar energy", curiosity rover, curiosity science laboratory, exploring mars, mars colony, mars curiosity, mars exploration, mars robot, mars rover, mars science laboratory, nasa, nuclear energy, nuclear powered laboratory, nuclear powered robot, nuclear powered rover, science experiments on mars, space exploration, space travel, the space program, traveling to mars, trip to mars