The Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center ( FFRDC ) owned by NASA and operated as a division of Caltech through a contract between NASA and Caltech.

The largest federal agencies contributing to research are NASA, National Science Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy.

In recent decades, NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS.

NASA research has shown that aeroponically grown plants have an 80 % increase in dry weight biomass ( essential minerals ) compared to hydroponically grown plants.

NASA, ESA and other space agencies have been engaging in research into these topics for several years, and have accumulated a number of theoretical approaches.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in Pasadena, California.

JPL is a federally funded research and development center ( FFRDC ) managed and operated by Caltech under a contract from NASA.

The federal government was the largest source of sponsored research, with the Department of Health and Human Services granting $ 255. 9 million, Department of Defense $ 97. 5 million, Department of Energy $ 65. 8 million, National Science Foundation $ 61. 4 million, and NASA $ 27. 4 million.

Early planning and research were carried out by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA ), but the program was officially conducted by its successor organization, NASA.

It was originally detailed in a research paper by NASA engineers Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990, and later expanded upon in Zubrin's 1996 book The Case for Mars.

Recent research has been cited by NASA hypothesizing that a large number of Oort cloud objects are the product of an exchange of materials between the Sun and its sibling stars as they formed and drifted apart, and it is suggested that many-possibly the majority-of Oort cloud objects were not formed in close proximity to the Sun.

NASA research facility in Ny-Ålesund

In 1978, the NASA SETI program was heavily criticized by Senator William Proxmire, and funding for SETI research was removed from the NASA budget by Congress in 1981, however, funding was restored in 1982, after Carl Sagan talked with Proxmire and convinced him of the program's value.

However, public reaction to the Sputnik crisis led to the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency ( renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA in 1972 ), NASA, and an increase in U. S. government spending on scientific research and education.

* In response to NASA research confirming 2010 tied for the warmest year on record, James Hanson, Chief Climate Scientist and Director, Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, stated: " if the warming trend continues, as is expected, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the 2010 record will not stand for long.

NASA has flown other VTOL craft such as the Bell XV-15 research craft ( 1977 ), as have the Soviet Navy and Luftwaffe.

Grissom was one of the eight pilots of the NASA paraglider research vehicle.

Research at Moscow Aviation Institute, RKK Energiya, National Aerospace University, Kharkiv Aviation Institute University of Stuttgart, ISAS, Centrospazio, Alta S. p. A., Osaka University, University of Southern California, Princeton University's Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab ( EPPDyL ) ( where MPD thruster research has continued uninterrupted since 1967 ), and NASA centers ( Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Glenn Research Center ), has resolved many problems related to the performance, stability and lifetime of MPD thrusters.

In addition, LLNL conducts work-for-others research and development for various Defense Department sponsors, other federal agencies, including NASA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ), National Institutes of Health, and Environmental Protection Agency, a number of California State agencies, and private industry.

It also found itself popular among the academic world for research and analysis of audio, and for more clandestine operations, such as speech analysis and manipulation by the intelligence services, submarine sonar and sound analysis by the Navy, flight simulators for Boeing, and even by NASA as the core of the digital camera system on board the Galileo Probe sent to study and photograph Jupiter and its moons.

* Space Shuttle-News and features about NASA research, aimed at the general public.

* Cosmology 101-from the NASA WMAP group

Before joining NASA as a member of the first group of scientist-astronauts in June 1965, he worked at the U. S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center at Flagstaff, Arizona, developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews.

On August 30, 2007, a group of JPL employees filed suit in federal court against NASA, Caltech, and the Department of Commerce, claiming their Constitutional rights were being violated by new, overly invasive background investigations.

In the early 1980s a group of researchers interested in the history of Iram used NASA remote sensing satellites, ground penetrating radar, Landsat program data and images taken from the Space Shuttle Challenger as well as SPOT data to identify old camel train routes and points where they converged.

Within an already elite group, White was considered to be a high-flier by the management of NASA.

In mid-1962, Chaffee was accepted in the initial pool of 1, 800 applicants for the third group of NASA astronauts.

In 2002 a Japanese group propelled a tiny aluminium airplane by using a laser to vaporize a water droplet clinging to it, and in 2003 NASA researchers flew an 11 ounce ( 312 g ) model airplane with a propeller powered with solar panels illuminated by a laser.

The NASA / MSFC Human Outer Planets Exploration ( HOPE ) group has investigated a manned MTF propulsion spacecraft capable of delivering a 163 933-kilogram payload to Jupiter's moon Callisto using 106-165 metric tons of propellant ( hydrogen plus either D-T or D-He3 fusion fuel ) in 249 – 330 days.

The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

In April 1959, despite the fact that Glenn had not earned the required college degree, he was assigned to NASA as one of the original group of seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury.

Following a gruelling series of physical and psychological tests, NASA selected Shepard to be one of the original group of seven Mercury astronauts. Shepard in the Freedom 7 capsule before launch

Borman was selected by NASA for the second NASA astronaut group in 1962, and was chosen as the Command Pilot for Gemini 7.

A small group of former NRL and NASA workers had been in communication, and a number of government agencies were asked to commemorate the event.

Acton is currently a Research Professor of Physics in the Solar Physics Group at Montana State University, where he oversees the solar physics group, which carries on an active research program under NASA support.

In 1963, Anders was selected by NASA in the third group of astronauts.

Collins still rates the second group of nine as the best group of astronauts ever selected by NASA.

* Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962

During this period, Conrad was invited to take part in the selection process for the first group of astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) ( the " Mercury Seven ").

Thereafter, when NASA announced its search for a second group of astronauts, the Mercury Alan Shepard, who knew Conrad from their time as naval aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to reapply.

Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17, 1962.

This modern version is constructed ( and regularly updated ) by the solar group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Diagram constructed ( and regularly updated ) by the solar group at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.