Open up your mind and say, ahh...

How much do you know about the NASA space program, Earthling?

NASA has launched a multi-player Facebook game to test just that. Space Race Blastoff poses a series of surprisingly tough questions — for example, who launched the first liquid-fueled rocket? — that cover a range of space-related topics including history, technology and science. There’s even a pop culture category.

Users play the game by choosing an avatar then answering a series of 10 multiple-choice questions. They can compete with other players or just play solo. Players can also earn additional points if they are able to correctly answer bonus questions following the initial 10-question round.

NASA released the game through Facebook to leverage the social network’s massive audience and make the game something players could enjoy with friends.

“Space Race Blastoff opens NASA’s history and research to a wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media,” David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications, said in a press release. “Space experts and novices will learn new things about how exploration continues to impact our world.”

Space Race Blastoff is NASA’s first multi-player online game, but the agency has a history of adeptly using social media to connect with the public. In September, NASA announced plans to invite 150 of its Twitter followers to a “tweetup” event at a live spacecraft launch. A number of astronauts have active Twitter accounts as well; Ron Garan, or Astro_Ron, even has more than 88,000 followers.

Will you play Space Race Blastoff? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.

The race to replace the space shuttle continues as Boeing is wrapping up wind tunnel testing on its crew transportation vehicle. The aerospace giant is building the CST-100, a capsule that will be launched atop an Atlas V rocket with room for up to seven astronauts. Boeing is one of several private companies vying for NASA contracts to transport cargo and passengers to the International Space Station as well as other future missions for the space agency and private companies.

Boeing has been testing a model of the CST-100 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California since the middle of September. The 12 inch diameter aluminum wind tunnel model is about 1/14 scale and is heavily instrumented to provide detailed data for engineers during the high speed wind tunnel testing.

The model is being positioned in several different attitudes to simulate the aerodynamics that could be experienced during an aborted landing according to Boeing. The engineers want to ensure the design is structurally sound and the vehicle can be controlled during various phases of flight.

The real CST-100 capsule is expected to be tested with the Atlas V rocket beginning in 2015.

Boeing is one of several companies chosen by NASA for the commercial crew development program. Space Exploration continues work on its Dragon capsule which is expected to perform an unmanned docking with the ISS early next year. Blue Origin which recently suffered a setback when a launch ended with the loss of a spacecraft in an explosion, and Sierra Nevada Corporation are the other companies working on the CCDev program.

More photos after the jump.

The 12×14 inch aluminum wind tunnel model of Boeing’s CST-100.

Model of CST-100 mounted inside the wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Boeing’s CST-100 space vehicle.

Images: Boeing

NASA has released its “Eyes on the Solar System” 3D environment, a free web browser-based application that lets you navigate a 3D version of the solar system. The app uses video game technology to let you control your point of view from anywhere in our solar system, speeding up time so you can see the motion of the planets, their satellites and NASA spacecraft.

We tried the Eyes on the Solar System app (download here), which first requires a download of the Unity Web Player for Mac and PC. Once you’ve done that, you can fly around beautifully produced models of all the planets, asteroids and the Sun. Or you can enter custom modules created by NASA that highlight missions such as Juno, the recently launched probe that’s currently on a five-year mission to Jupiter.

According to NASA:

“This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real time,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “It demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to share our science with everyone.”

You can even keep tabs on the current locations of NASA spacecraft, with the help of NASA’s actual mission data. Don’t forget to click the Full Screen button for the full effect. Fantastic stuff.

Get the app here.

One of the best parts of summer is sitting outside on a warm night, glass of wine in hand (or bar of dark chocolate, whatever your pleasure), good company by your side and nothing but brilliant sparkly stars above you. If you’ve ever had the good fortune of spotting a shooting star, you’ve witnessed an amazing display of light and cosmic energy.

You always hear people talking about the relative insignificance of the human race in the grand scheme of the universe. That feeling is never more reinforced than when you start to explore astronomy and what really lies beyond our galaxy.

Whether you’re a stargazer who can only point out the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, or whether you much prefer calling it Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the following 10 mobile apps can help you in your stargazing pursuits.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sololos