Desert Survival Training by NASA on The Commons on Flickr.
looking more like Zen training
(Aug. 13, 1964) Astronaut John Young, Frank Borman and Neil Armstrong with Deke Slayton are shown during desert survival training, Reno, Nevada STEAD AFB, Reno, NV
Color Mosaic of Olympus Mons on Mars by NASA on The Commons on Flickr.
Color mosaic of Olympus Mons volcano on Mars from the Viking 1 Orbiter. The mosaic was created using images from orbit 735 taken 22 June 1978.
Olympus Mons is about 600 km in diameter and the summit caldera is 24 km above the surrounding plains. The complex aureole terrain is visible at the top of the frame. North is up. (Viking 1 Orbiter MH20N133-735A)
Forty years ago today, Apollo 17 astronauts took the photograph of Earth known as “The Blue Marble.” The photograph was the first clear image of the Earth, because the sun was at the astronauts’ back, and so the planet appears lit up and you can distinctly see blue, white, brown, and green. You can also see a cyclone forming over the Indian Ocean. The photo became a symbol of the environmental movement of the 1970s. The crew of Apollo 17 was about 28,000 miles away from Earth when they took the Blue Marble photo. It was the last time that astronauts, not robots, were on a lunar mission — since then, no humans have gotten far enough away from Earth to take a photo like it.
Interesting NASA aerial photo (that probably looks retouched to most people) of Garden City, Kansas has a semi-arid steppe climate with hot, dry summers and cold, dry winters.
Center-pivot irrigation systems created the circular patterns near Garden City, seen here from Landsat 7 in September 2000.
The red circles indicate irrigated crops of healthy vegetation, and the light-colored circles denote harvested crops.
The 19th-century Santa Fe Trail through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico, passed through Garden City.
from NASA’s free EARTH AS ART eBook
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/earth_art_detail.html
In 1960, the United States put its first Earth-observing environmental satellite into orbit around the planet. Over the decades, these satellites have provided invaluable information, and the vantage point of space has provided new perspectives on Earth. This book celebrates Earth’s aesthetic beauty in the patterns, shapes, colors, and textures of the land, oceans, ice, and atmosphere. The book features 75 stunning images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1, and Aqua satellites. Sensors on these satellites can measure light outside of the visible range, so the images show more than what is visible to the naked eye. The images are intended for viewing enjoyment rather than scientific interpretation. The beauty of Earth is clear, and the artistry ranges from the surreal to the sublime. 
Alluvial Fan - China
A vast alluvial fan unfolds across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s Xinjiang Province. The fan is about 60 kilometers long and 55 kilometers wide at its broadest point. The left side is the active part of the fan. Water flowing down from the mountains in the many small streams appears blue in this 2002 image from the Terra satellite. Vegetation appears red and can be seen in the upper left corner of the image. Farmers take advantage of water at the foot of the fan to irrigate small fields. The “lumpy” terrain at the top of the image is composed
of sand dunes at the edge of the Taklimakan, one of the largest sandy deserts on Earth. Shifting sand dunes, some reaching as high as 200 meters, cover more than 80 percent of the desert floor.
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/earth_art_detail.html
› Download: PDF
› Download the Accompanying iPad App
Tonight starting at 11p ET/8p PT, join live NASA TV coverage of the landing of Mars Curiosity rover. Watch at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
On June 18, 1983, a young physicist from California took her seat aboard the space shuttle and launched into history. On that date, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7. In this image, Ride monitors control panels from the pilot’s chair on the flight deck.
Image Credit: NASA
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows Venus (top left) as it nears the disk of the sun on June 5, 2012. Venus’s 2012 transit was the last such event until 2117. Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA
Seeing the Aurora Borealis is on my bucket list…
Aurora Borealis Over the Midwest
In this image taken on Jan. 25, 2012, the Aurora Borealis steals the scene in this nighttime photograph shot from the International Space Station as the orbital outpost flew over the Midwest. The spacecraft was above south central Nebraska when the photo was taken. The image, taken at an oblique angle, looks north to northeast.
Image Credit: NASA
Though it is on Mars, Valles Marineris, a huge canyon system 5,000 km, or about 3,106 miles, long, looks like something outside the airplane window flying to Vegas.
I guess we could build casinos there one day too. Why not - they don’t have water either.
(via the Viking 1 spacecraft)
A quintet of Saturn’s moons come together in the Cassini spacecraft’s field of view for this portrait.
Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) is on the far left. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring near the middle of the image. Brightly reflective Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles across) appears above the center of the image. Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), is bisected by the right edge of the image. The smaller moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) can be seen beyond Rhea also on the right side of the image.
This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane. Rhea is closest to Cassini here. The rings are beyond Rhea and Mimas. Enceladus is beyond the rings. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 29, 2011. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (684,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Enceladus.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
A Tale of Three Galaxies - - Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679, is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (to the far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation.
Two of the three galaxies are forming new stars at a high rate. This is evident in the bright blue knots of star formation that are strung along the arms of the galaxy on the right and along the small galaxy on the left.
The largest component is located in the middle of the three. It appears as a spiral galaxy, which may be barred. The entire system resides at about 400 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was used to image Arp 274 in April 2009. Blue, visible and infrared filters were combined with a filter that isolates hydrogen emission. The colors in this image reflect the intrinsic color of the different stellar populations that make up the galaxies. Yellowish older stars can be seen in the central bulge of each galaxy. A bright central cluster of stars pinpoint each nucleus. Younger blue stars trace the spiral arms, along with pinkish nebulae that are illuminated by new star formation. Interstellar dust is silhouetted against the starry population. A pair of foreground stars inside our own Milky Way are at far right.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
