When you ask most people where they think that you can find pyramids the typical answer will be, of course, in Egypt; or if they are particularly knowledgeable they might also mention the the Ican ruins. What the majority won’t mention is Japan but that is where scientists have discovered an incredible underwater complex that includes a terraced pyramid.

Referred to as the Yonaguni Monument it is a complex that features a large network of buildings that include castles, monuments, and a stadium to boot. The complex is connected together by an elaborate system of what appears to be roadways and waterways.

Dr. Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologists from the University of Ryukyus, has been exploring and mapping the complex for over 18 years and believes it was submerged by one of the world’s largest recorded tsunamis back in 1771 which had an estimated height of over 131 feet.

In 2007 Kimura presented his findings, along with a computer generated model, to a scientific conference in Japan and also believes that there are 10 submerged structures hiding under the waves with another five similar structures off the main island of Okinawa. It is suggested that the ruins cover a huge area of 48,400 square feet and date back at least 5,000 years.

Not all scientists have jumped on the bandwagon with some suggesting that the vast underwater ‘structures’ are nothing more than the effects of eons of ocean action on natural structures.

via Epoch Times

The incredible underwater pyramid in Japan you don’t know about [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

NASA might have been told to leave the near-earth stuff to the Russians and private companies but that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t have its orders to explore beyond our moon, so while the shuttle has been mothballed and the Soyuz takes up the transport duties NASA has unveiled its next-gen rocket.

The new Space Launch System, as it is being called, is another part of the larger Deep Space Transportation System that will be used as the launch vehicle for the six-man Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle capsule. It will use the same kind of fuel as NASA’s old V rockets which will make it more powerful as well as more expensive, allowing for few builds and launches per year.

It will also be able to lug far heavier payloads into space than the shuttle fleet was able to, or any current NASA rocket for that matter. The shuttles could take 27 tons at most, and NASA’s beefiest unmanned rockets top out at 25. The SLS will carry up to 110 tons of cargo to start, with the aim of taking a payload of more than 150 tons in the future. That would put it in the running with SpaceX’sFalcon Heavy for king of the rockets, which it looks like NASA’s SLS would win.

NASA hopes to have the SLS ready for test flights in six years, with the aim of ultimately sending amanned mission to Mars by the 2030s. Along the way, NASA officials — speaking anonymously to the New York Times — said that this road map would include the first unmanned tests by 2017, the first crew flight in 2021, sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, and finally circling Mars and putting boots on the red planet by the 2030s.

via DVICE

Given the current political climate and any real lack of will when it comes to a viable space program I’m not expecting much out of this program from NASA; but we can dream can’t we.

A ‘monster rocket’ to take man beyond the moon is unveiled by NASA [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hubble Images: Dawn's Target - Asteroid Vesta

While I personally lament the closing of the space shuttle program I revel in the fact that there are still some really cool things that NASA is doing when it comes to space exploration.

For those of you that may have forgotten back in 2007 a spacecraft was launched with the intent to intercept and orbit our solar system’s second largest asteroid.

Well it’s been four years and a lot of space miles but NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is about to reach its objective called Vesta, some 117 million miles from earth.

“It has taken nearly four years to get to this point,” said Dawn project manager Robert Mase of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release. “Our latest tests and check-outs show that Dawn is right on target and performing normally.”

Dawn navigated toward the asteroid belt, a space rock-rich zone between the solar system’s inner and outer planets, using gravitational energy from Mars and by firing its ion-powered thrusters. Its arrival at Vesta is expected at 1:00am EDT on July 16.

It will take 10 minutes and 30 seconds—the time it takes light from Vesta to reach Earth—for engineers to know if the operation succeeded.

Once in orbit, Dawn will hover about 9,900 miles above the asteroid’s surface for a year and use two different cameras, a gamma-ray detector and a neutron detector, to study the object. Next July, Dawn’s ion thrusters will fire up and slowly propel the spacecraft toward the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the Asteroid Belt.

via Ars Technica

The space shuttle may be dead but space exploration isn’t is a post from: The Inquisitr

NASA’s previous Mars Rover exceeded all expectations, living and discovering long past the time that they were expected to. The Opportunity rover landed on Mars in 2004 and kept exploring until 2011 until it finally quit sending back data to NASA.

So the hope is high that the next rover mission to Mars will be just as long and fruitful with the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory, as the rover is being called, is equipped with 10 science instruments is expected to spend a minimum of two years exploring areas of Mars that have not been seen as of yet.

To get everyone a little excited NASA has put together an fantastic 11 minute animated video that follows the Curiosity from launch to exploration on Mars.

via io9

NASA’s awesome animation of the next Mars Rover in action is a post from: The Inquisitr

Originally posted to reddit I found this excellent video via Geeks are Sexy and it might not be an official NASA commercial but damn, it should be. Take the three minutes needed and enjoy.

We humans are capable of greatness [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Space the next frontier; or the frontier that you and I can help explore today courtesy of a new site I found out about earlier today called Spacehack.org. As Ariel Waldman called it today in her announcement about it it is a directory of ways to participate in space exploration, interact plus connect with the space community as well as encourage citizen science.

When you hit the main page of  the site you are presented with a listing of available projects that you can discuss with others or find ways to become involved in. Currently listed are:

• Radio Jove
• SETI@home
• Stardust@home
• Dawn Clickworkers
• NASA World Wind
• My NASA Data
• Elevator:2010
• Astronaut Glove Challenge
• PlanetQuest Collaboratory
• Google Lunar X Prize
• Vision Workbench
• Great World Star Count
• Galaxy Zoo
• ISS EarthKAM
• HiRISE Clickworkers

As well you can also submit projects that you know of that aren’t already listed. So if you are feeling like you need to feed your inner astronomer this is definitely a site you should visit and subscribe to.

Crowdsourcing space exploration is a post from: The Inquisitr