space

Always wanted to work for NASA? Well, here's your chance! Our favorite galaxy-faring adventurers at NASA are inviting developers, scientists, and other problem solvers like you to participate in the second annual International Space Apps Challenge, which begins on April 20 at 75 locations around the world.

The goal? To harness the power of thinking brains across the globe to improve life on Earth and in space. NASA has posted over 50 different challenges requiring software, hardware, data visualization, or citizen science solutions. From an app that fosters connections between the Mars rover and earthlings to a conceptual model of what the Kennedy Space Center should look like in 2040, the prompts cover every aspect of NASA's diverse set of initiatives.

My Virtual Mentor was one project that caught our eye. NASA GIRLS (Giving Initiative and Relevance to Learning Science) is a digital platform that puts middle school girls in touch with engineers, astronauts, scientists, and technologists from NASA. The challenge includes developing a mobile version of the website and a mobile app that focuses on mentor-mentee resources.

The website doesn't explicitly detail rewards for winners per se ("there are prizes offered for great solutions," according to the about page), but we can guarantee the glory of having successfully created something for NASA. Read more about the Space Apps Challenge from astronaut Ron Garan, who did an insightful Reddit AMA about the global event. Even if you're not participating, tell us what space challenges you think need solving!

Breaking news straight from SXSW: there's a space camp for adults! We stopped by the Space Camp booth at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX to find out where we can sign up.

Have you been testing out your photography skills and snapped a shot you want to share? Submit your pics to our Cool Capture group or to Instagram with the #CoolCapture hashtag, and your pic might be featured on the POPSUGAR Tech homepage. And don't forget to follow @popsugartech on Instagram for more behind-the-scenes snaps from SXSW!

Should building a LEGO International Space Station (ISS) in space be a dream of yours (and why wouldn't it be?), you'll first need to find your way outside the Earth's atmosphere. Lucky for flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa, he is part of ISS Expedition 2829.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut recreated a LEGO version of the International Space Station while in the actual International Space Station (so meta) and uploaded a video to show us Earth-bound humans how it's done.

Satoshi emptied all 162 LEGO pieces in a contained plastic bag (because, you know, things fly around in zero gravity) and assembled the entire structure by hand. It took him over two hours to complete, before then releasing the mini ISS into "orbit."

As Satoshi explains in the video, the International Space Station was the result of a collaboration between the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and Russia and built piece by piece, much like "how you put together LEGO bricks on Earth." Aww.

Get your own LEGO International Space Station set ($165), and watch the astronaut build the entire spacecraft in miniature after the break.

Despite the jarring news of a meteor crossing through the Earth's atmosphere and its resulting sonic boom causing damage in western Siberia this morning, the other asteroid passing by Earth, 2012 DA14, will not be making the same planetary appearance. Thought to be about 150 feet in diameter and weigh about 130,000 metric tons, this asteroid won't come any closer than 17,200 miles of our planet's surface today.

Though it's the closest-ever predicted Earth approach for an object this size, NASA scientists assure the public it will not see an event like what happened in Russia today. Which is a good thing, because as Neil deGrasse Tyson not so delicately put it on Twitter, "The day Asteroid #2012DA14 hits Earth it will likely explode in our atmosphere, with 1000x the power of Hiroshima atomic bomb." Well, that's sobering.

Watch asteroid 2012 DA14 fly by Earth in the live NASA stream at 11 a.m. PST.

Live video for mobile from Ustream

Earlier today, a meteorite was sent flying into the Earth's atmosphere and its debris shattered over central Russia. The sonic boom caused by the space rock was forceful enough to shatter windows and damage buildings, injuring hundreds of people.

NASA is expecting an asteroid flyby of DA14 today but has issued a statement that DA14 is completely unrelated to the Russian meteorite.

Read on for everything you need to know about the Russian meteorite.

We have lift off: NASA's newest Earth-imaging satellite, Landsat 8, launched today at 10:02 a.m. PST. The Landsat mission, which began in 1970, has captured some of the most unique images of the Earth from outer space. Watch a live stream below, or on the NASA website, of the satellite's ascent to space, replays of the launch, and commentary from mission control.

Landsat 8, also known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), will be sent to space aboard the Atlas-V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft was codeveloped by NASA and the US Geological Survey to continue collecting data and monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space.

The Landsat mission's historic 40-year run has provided the longest continuous global data collection of the Earth's surface to date. Follow status updates for the Atlas V rocket, the LDCM satellite, and the operations on the ground with @NASA_LSP on Twitter, run by the NASA Launch Services Program from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Streaming video by Ustream

In 1966, Colonel Jerry Carr was one of 19 astronauts selected by NASA to train for human spaceflight — and this is his story. In the TedEd lesson animated by Sharon Graham, Jerry looks back at his career with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, during which he spent over 2,000 hours in space, orbiting the Earth over 1,000 times.

The commander of the final Skylab space station mission discusses sleeping on the floor of Lunar module number six, the desert, water, and jungle survival training of his early days, and watching Apollo 12 get struck by lightning.

Watch this animated short of Jerry Carr's illustrious space sailing career, then take a quiz about the life of astronauts and learn even more NASA trivia at TedEd.

If the Curiosity Rover and the iPhone 5 went head to head, who would win? Today at the MacWorld/iWorld Expo, Ben Cichy, James Kurlen, and David Oh of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory got under the hood of both robot and device, and showed how the nearly two ton Martian stacks up against the .25-pound iPhone 5.

So, how does Apple's latest and greatest smartphone fare against the NASA rover currently transmitting HD images and video from the surface of Mars? The iPhone 5 bests Curiosity in terms of processor, memory, storage, and (low) cost. But the rover indisputably takes the cake in terms of temperature range and accessories (laser auto-win). Plus, it's a little more mind-blowing to know a computer not even as powerful as many people's phones is currently hard at work on another planet.

In truth, NASA and Apple aren't competing at all. In fact, most of the software code that landed the Curiosity Rover was written on Macs. And, just in case you forgot how amazing that landing was, here's a little reminder.

Stay tuned for even more updates from Macworld by following us @geeksugar on Twitter and Instagram and, of course, the GeekSugar homepage!