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NASA to Provide Coverage as Dragon Departs Station with Science
NASA and its international partners are set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Sunday, April 28 weather permitting.
The agency will provide coverage of undocking and departure beginning at 12:45 p.m. EDT on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Dragon will undock from the station’s zenith port of the Harmony module at 1:05 p.m. and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station after receiving a command from ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.
The spacecraft arrived at the station March 23 and delivered more than 6,000 pounds of research investigations, crew supplies, and station hardware after it launched March 21 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida. NASA will not broadcast the splashdown, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.
Dragon will carry back to Earth more than 4,100 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments designed to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment. Splashing down off the coast of Florida enables quick transportation of the experiments to NASA’s Space Systems Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, allowing researchers to collect data with minimal sample exposure to Earth’s gravity.
Scientific hardware and samples returning to Earth include Flawless Space Fibers-1, which produced more than seven miles of optical fiber aboard the space station. The investigation tests new hardware and processes for producing high-quality optical fibers in space and drew more than half a mile of fiber in one day, surpassing the previous record of 82 feet for the longest fiber manufactured in space.
Other studies include GEARS (Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space), which surveys the space station for antibiotic-resistant organisms. Genetic analysis could show how these bacteria adapt to space, providing knowledge that informs measures designed to protect astronauts on future long-duration missions.
Also returning on Dragon is MISSE-18 (Materials International Space Station Experiment-18-NASA), which analyzes how exposure to space affects the performance and durability of specific materials and components. MISSE-18 includes coatings, quantum dots, a lunar regolith simulant composite, and other materials. The samples returning home were exposed to the harsh environment of space for six months.
Additionally, samples from Immune Cell Activation will return to Earth for analysis. The ESA (European Space Agency) sponsored experiment seeks to understand whether microgravity influences the incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles into immune and melanoma cells. In this experiment, immune cells were modified with nano-vectors that are intended to carry therapeutic agents specifically to their target cells. Results could help develop novel therapeutics targeting central nervous system diseases and skin cancers such as melanoma.
These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through NASA’s Artemis campaign.
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Learn more about the International Space Station at:
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Josh Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Site-Wide Environmental Assessment for Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Pictured at sunset is Marshall Space Flight Center’s Propulsion R&D Lab, Building 4205.NASA/Charles BeasonThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has prepared a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) that analyzes the environmental impacts of implementing continuing and future mission support activities at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama.
The EA evaluated the potential environmental effects associated with air quality; climate change and greenhouse gases; land use; water resources; biological resources; geology and soils; noise; traffic and transportation; socioeconomics; children’s environmental health and safety; environmental justice and equity; hazardous materials and wastes, solid waste, and pollution prevention; public and occupational health and safety; utilities and infrastructure; cultural resources; and airspace. The EA found that the Proposed Action would not result in, or contribute to, significant impacts to any of these resources.
Public comments will be accepted through March 4, 2024 and can be submitted to msfc-environmental@mail.nasa.gov or the mailing address below. Copies of the Draft EA are available at the following library locations: Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (915 Monroe Street SW, Huntsville, AL) and the Madison Public Library (142 Plaza Boulevard, Madison, AL). The EA will also be posted on the NASA NEPA Public Reviews webpage (https://nasa.gov/news-release/site-wide-environmental-assessment-for-marshall-space-flight-center-alabama/).
To request additional information or submit written comments, please contact:
Hannah McCarty
Marshall Space Flight Center
Building 4249/Mail Code AS10
Huntsville, AL 35812
Downloads Draft Site-Wide Environmental Assessment for Marshall Space Flight CenterFeb 1, 2024
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Final Site-Wide Environmental Assessment for Marshall Space Flight CenterApr 26, 2024
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Share Details Last Updated Apr 26, 2024 EditorMSFC Environmental Engineering and Occupational Health OfficeContactHannah McCartyLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms Explore More 6 min read NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles Article 2 days ago 29 min read The Marshall Star for April 24, 2024 Article 2 days ago 4 min read NASA’s Chandra Releases Doubleheader of Blockbuster Hits Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
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Read More Share Details Last Updated Apr 26, 2024 EditorMSFC Environmental Engineering and Occupational Health OfficeContactHannah McCartyLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related TermsNASA-Led Study Provides New Global Accounting of Earth’s Rivers
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Colorado River supplies water to more than 40 million people as it snakes through seven U.S. states, including the part of southeastern Utah seen in this photo snapped by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The Colorado basin was identified in a NASA-led study as a region experiencing intense human water use.NASAThe novel approach to estimating river water storage and discharge also identifies regions marked by ‘fingerprints’ of intense water use.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures have fluctuated over time — crucial information for understanding the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies. The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use, including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in southern Africa.
For the study, which was recently published in Nature Geoscience, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used a novel methodology that combines stream-gauge measurements with computer models of about 3 million river segments around the world.
A NASA-led study combined stream-gauge measurements with computer models of 3 million river segments to create a global picture of how much water Earth’s rivers hold. It estimated that the Amazon basin contains about 38% of the world’s river water, the most of any hydrological region evaluated. NASAThe scientists estimate that the total volume of water in Earth’s rivers on average from 1980 to 2009 was 539 cubic miles (2,246 cubic kilometers). That’s equivalent to half of Lake Michigan’s water and about 0.006% of all fresh water, which itself is 2.5% of the global volume. Despite their small proportion of all the planet’s water, rivers have been vital to humans since the earliest civilizations.
Although researchers have made numerous estimates over the years of how much water flows from rivers into the ocean, estimates of the volume of water rivers collectively hold — known as storage — have been few and more uncertain, said JPL’s Cédric David, a co-author of the study.
He likened the situation to spending from a checking account without knowing the balance. “We don’t know how much water is in the account, and population growth and climate change are further complicating matters,” David said. “There are many things we can do to manage how we’re using it and make sure there is enough water for everyone, but the first question is: How much water is there? That’s fundamental to everything else.”
The NASA-led study estimated flow through 3 million river segments, identifying locations around the world marked by intense human water use, including parts of the Colorado, Amazon, Orange, and Murray-Darling river basins, shown as gray here. NASAEstimates in the paper could eventually be compared with data from the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite to improve measurements of human impacts on Earth’s water cycle. Launched in December 2022, SWOT is mapping the elevation of water around the globe, and changes in river height offer a way to quantify storage and discharge.
‘Fingerprints’ of Water UseThe study identified the Amazon basin as the region with the most river storage, holding about 204 cubic miles (850 cubic kilometers) of water — roughly 38% of the global estimate. The same basin also discharges the most water to the ocean: 1,629 cubic miles (6,789 cubic kilometers) per year. That’s 18% of the global discharge to the ocean, which averaged 8,975 cubic miles (37,411 cubic kilometers) per year from 1980 to 2009.
Although it’s not possible for a river to have negative discharge — the study’s approach doesn’t allow for upstream flow — for the sake of accounting, it is possible for less water to come out of some river segments than went in. That’s what the researchers found for parts of the Colorado, Amazon, and Orange river basins, as well as the Murray-Darling basin in southeastern Australia. These negative flows mostly indicate intense human water use.
“These are locations where we’re seeing fingerprints of water management,” said lead author Elyssa Collins, who conducted the analysis as a JPL intern and doctoral student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
A New Way to Quantify RiversFor decades, most estimates of Earth’s total river water were refinements of a 1974 United Nations figure, and no study has illustrated how the amount has varied with time. Better estimates have been hard to come by, David said, due to a lack of observations of the world’s rivers, particularly those far from human populations.
Another issue has been that there are many more stream gauges monitoring the levels and flow of large rivers than there are of small ones. There’s also broad uncertainty in estimates of land runoff — the rainwater and snowmelt that flow into rivers.
The new study started from the premise that runoff flowing into and through a river system should roughly equal the amount that gauges measure downstream. Where the researchers found inconsistencies between simulated runoff from three land surface models and gauge measurements taken from approximately 1,000 locations, they used the gauge measurements to correct the simulated runoff numbers.
Then they modeled the runoff through rivers on a high-resolution global map developed using land-elevation data and imagery from space, including from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This approach yielded discharge rates, which were used to estimate average and monthly storage for individual rivers and the planet’s rivers in total.
Using a consistent methodology enables comparisons in flow and human drawdown between different regions.
“That way we can see where in the world the most amount of river water is stored, or where the most amount of water is being emptied into oceans from rivers,” said Collins, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
News Media ContactsAndrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
2024-051
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Hubble Spots a Magnificent Barred Galaxy
The magnificent central bar of NGC 2217 (also known as AM 0619-271) shines bright in the constellation of Canis Major (The Greater Dog), in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Roughly 65 million light-years from Earth, this barred spiral galaxy is a similar size to our Milky Way at 100,000 light-years across. Many stars are concentrated in its central region forming the luminous bar, surrounded by a set of tightly wound spiral arms.
The central bar in these types of galaxies plays an important role in their evolution, helping to funnel gas from the disk into the middle of the galaxy. The transported gas and dust are then either formed into new stars or fed to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Weighing from a few hundred to over a billion times the mass of our Sun, supermassive black holes are present in almost all large galaxies.
This image was colorized with data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS).
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Identification of Noise Sources During Launch Using Phased Array Microphone Systems
Identification of Noise Sources During Launch Using Phased Array Microphone Systems
Every part of a launch vehicle, launch pad, and ground operation equipment is subjected to the high acoustic load generated during lift-off [1]. Therefore, many extreme measures are taken to try to suppress this acoustic environment by damping with a water deluge system and diverting engine plumes away from the vehicle via flame trenches. Even single decibel reductions of the acoustic levels can translate into a sizable reduction of acoustic loadings, certification needs, operational costs, and even vehicle weight. Therefore, lowering the acoustic level via various mitigation schemes is an important aspect of a launch pad design.
In 2011 and 2012, the NESC sponsored research into the effectiveness of a microphone phased array (MPA) to identify noise sources and tested the array during an Antares launch from the Wallops Flight Facility [2]. This simple prototype array was able to identify impingement-related noise sources during the launch.
Today, building on this previous work, a new open-space truss MPA architecture is in development and test for use during the Artemis II launch. This truss structure consists of an aluminum tubular frame holding 70 microphones mounted in optimized positions over a dome-shaped surface (Figure 1). The center canister structure holds visible and infrared cameras as well as the amplifier electronics that transfer and relay microphone signals out to data cables that send information to the ground-mounted data acquisition system. The collected data are postprocessed using a functional-orthogonal beamforming routine that minimizes the effects of side lobes and reflections on the acoustic signal [3]. This produces a much cleaner image of primary noise impingement sources emanating from the vehicle and launch pad structures.
Figure 1. Overall view of the MPA, cable bundle, and data acquisition cabinet.The NESC activity is performing verification and validation tests to determine the MPA’s environmental survivability and validate the beamforming capability. This is being done using a phased testing approach. Phase 1 testing performed at ARC elevated the MPA (Figure 2) and used horns and speakers of known intensity to ensure its ability to identify and separate noise sources (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Setup for the outdoor test using a train horn and a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) speaker. The MPA was raised to test heights by a Telehandler. Figure 3. Comparison between different beamform schemes at a fixed f=1338 Hz with array center 100 ft. horizontal and 10 ft. above LRAD speaker.In phase 2, the system was subjected to an actual engine noise environment during a static fire test at SSC. The MPA viewed the A-1 engine test stand during an RS-25 engine test from 460 feet, a similar distance from KSC Pad 39B to the lightning tower, where the MPA will be mounted for Artemis II (Figure 4). Results successfully identified and pinpointed the transient engine acoustic sources during the test (Figure 5).
Figure 4. Scaffold system used to mount MPA and location of the array with respect to the SSC A-1 test stand. Right Image Credit: Google Maps Noise sources identified at the indicated third-octave center frequencies using functional-orthogonal beamform.The final test occurred during the NG-19 Antares launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in July 2023. The MPA tracked the plume and acoustic environment during the launch, showing transition from initial engine thrust to the overpressure environment flowing from the flame trench as the vehicle lifted off (Figure 6). The array was able to collect meaningful data while mounted outside, under acoustic conditions similar to those expected during the Artemis II launch and also subjected to heat, humidity, salt air, and extreme weather.
Figure 6. Time evolution of noise source generation during the NG-19 launch. The acoustic intensity of the redirected flow from the flame trench opening evolves to become a much stronger noise source, while acoustics from the plume are effectively mitigated by the sound suppression on the launch pad surface.Next, the MPA will be deployed at KSC for the Artemis II launch to measure the acoustic impingement and identify critical noise sources during that event. The data collected will help further refine and optimize the sound suppression systems for Artemis III and future launches.
References:
- Eldred, K. M. & Jones, G. W., Jr., “Acoustic load generated by the propulsion system,” NASA SP-8072, 1971.
- Panda, J., Mosher, R. N. & Porter, B. J., “Noise Source Identification During Rocket Engine Test Firings and a Rocket Launch,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 51, No. 4, July-Aug 2014. DOI: 10.2514/1.A32863
- Dougherty, R.P., “Functional Beamforming for Aeroacoustic Source Distributions,” 20th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, 10.2514/6.2014-3066, 2014.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Jayanta Panda jayanta.panda-1@nasa.gov
Kenneth R. Hamm, Jr. kenneth.r.hamm@nasa.gov
Joel W. Sills joel.w.sills@nasa.gov
NASA Grant Brings Students at Underserved Institutions to the Stars
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Julia Chavez examines an experiment within an oxygen-free chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in March. Chavez is one of several students from California State University, Los Angeles who are interning at JPL’s Origins and Habitability Lab.NASA/JPL-Caltech Cathy Trejo (right) shows off a tube filled with pebbles designed to mimic Martian regolith. During experiments, fluid is flushed through the tube many times, giving JPL astrobiology interns like Trejo and Julia Chaves (left) the chance to study how chemicals may have interacted with water on Mars billions of years ago.NASA/JPL-CaltechAt the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, interns from Cal State LA are learning key skills studying the origins of life.
What does wastewater management in Los Angeles have to do with the search for life on Mars? Eduardo Martinez certainly didn’t make the connection when he was pursuing a master’s in civil engineering. Not at first. Then his professor pointed him toward an internship opportunity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for astrobiology, the study of life’s origins and the possibility of life beyond Earth.
That professor, Arezoo Khodayari of California State University, Los Angeles, helped Martinez understand the chemistry common to both fields. Soon, Martinez saw that just as phosphorous, nitrogen, and other chemicals in wastewater can fuel algal blooms in the ocean, they can potentially provide energy for microbial life on other planets.
Interns working in JPL’s Origins and Habitability Lab grow fingerlike mineral structures like the one shown here to simulate oceans on early Earth — and possibly other planets. By studying how these structures form in the lab, scientists hope to learn more about potential life-creating chemical reactions. NASA/JPL-Caltech“Once I got a taste of planetary science, I knew I needed more,” said Martinez, who did the internship while finishing his degree at Cal State LA, where more than 70% of students are Latino and few have historically participated in NASA research. “If not for JPL, I would have stopped with my master’s.” Now he’s pursuing a doctorate in geosciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The inspiration that connects both fields lies at the core of a new NASA grant. Khodayari and Laurie Barge, who runs JPL’s Origins and Habitability Laboratory, have received funding for up to six paid JPL internships over two years. The intent is to help develop the next generation of space-minded scientists from the students at Cal State LA.
The grant — one of 11 recently awarded to emerging research universities by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Bridge Program — helps underrepresented students learn more about astrobiology and perform NASA-sponsored research.
“As a large employer in Southern California, we have a duty to invest in our local communities,” Barge said of JPL’s role in the effort. “It makes NASA and its science more accessible to everyone.”
JPL’s Laurie Barge (far right) and California State University, Los Angeles’ Arezoo Khodayari (second from left) have collaborated for 10 years to bring interns to Barge’s astrobiology lab. JPL’s Jessica Weber (second from right) is also an astrobiologist in the lab; Julia Chavez (far left) and Cathy Trejo (center) are interns.NASA/JPL-Caltech Building CommunityBarge and Khodayari have been informally collaborating for 10 years, designing experiments to try to answer questions in their respective fields. Of the four Cal State LA interns Barge has hosted so far, two — including Martinez — have been lead authors on published research papers.
“It is a great accomplishment to publish in a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal, especially as the first author,” Khodayari said. “It’s inspiring to see students from Cal State LA, which is primarily a teaching institution, provided research opportunities that result in these kinds of journal publications.”
She notes that many of her students work multiple jobs, so a paid internship means they can focus entirely on their studies without sacrificing essential income. And, Khodayari added, “they get exposure to a field far from their reality.”
Tools and SkillsIn Barge’s lab, dark, fingerlike mineral structures grow in beakers of cloudy liquid meant to simulate oceans on early Earth — and possibly on other planets. By studying how these structures form in the lab, scientists like Barge hope to learn more about the potential life-creating chemical reactions that take place around similar structures, called chimneys, that develop on the ocean floor around hydrothermal vents.
“We learned so much in Laurie’s lab,” said Erika Flores, Barge’s first Cal State LA intern. “Not only are you working independently on your own projects, you’re collaborating with other interns and even other divisions at JPL.”
The middle of five children, Flores was the first in her family to graduate from high school. She initially attended University of California, Berkeley but felt isolated. After returning home, she earned her bachelor’s degree and began studying with Khodayari at Cal State LA.
Although she decided not to become a planetary scientist – “I considered it, but I didn’t want to spend another five years on a Ph.D.; I was ready to get a job” – Flores credits the JPL internship with helping her overcome a case of impostor syndrome. Equipped with a master’s that she completed during her internship, she now works for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, overseeing 13 pumping plants that route wastewater to treatment plants.
Interplanetary ConnectionsLike Flores, current Cal State LA intern Cathy Trejo wants to improve the world through clean water. She’s studying to be an environmental engineer, with a focus beyond wastewater.
But she was excited to see the parallels between Earth-bound science and planetary science during her internship. Learning to use mass spectrometers has even inspired her. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has a mass spectrometer, the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, that measures the composition of different gases.
“Understanding the instruments we use on Mars has helped me better understand how we study chemistry here on Earth,” Trejo said.
She is fascinated that cumbersome lab instruments can be miniaturized to be taken to other planets, and that scientists are beginning to miniaturize similar instruments that could identify pollutants at Superfund sites.
Barge isn’t giving up hope that Trejo will stick with planetary science, but she’s just happy to help a budding scientist develop. “I hope these student research opportunities offer an appreciation for planetary exploration and how our work at NASA relates to important questions in other fields,” she said.
News Media ContactsAndrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202 358-2546
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
2024-050
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Trajectory Reverse Engineering
A strategy for transferring spacecraft trajectories between flight mechanics tools, called Trajectory Reverse Engineering (TRE), has been developed[1]. This innovative technique has been designed to be generic, enabling its application between any pair of tools, and to be resilient to the differences found in the dynamical and numerical models unique to each tool. The TRE technique was developed as part of the NESC study, Flight Mechanics Analysis Tools Interoperability and Component Sharing, to develop interfaces to support interoperability between several of NASA’s institutional flight mechanics tools.
The development of space missions involves multiple design tools, requiring the transfer of trajectories between them—a task that demands a large amount of trajectory data such as frames, states, state and time parametrizations, and dynamical and numerical models. This is a tedious and time-consuming task that is not always effective, particularly on complex dynamics where small variations in the models can cause trajectories to diverge in the reconstruction process.
The TRE strategy is a trajectory-sharing process that is agnostic to the models used and performed through a common object: the spacecraft and planet kernels (SPK), developed at JPL Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility. The use of this common object aims to lay the groundwork for a global flight mechanics tool interoperability system (Figure 1).
Figure 1. A) Interoperability between flight mechanics tools using standardized trajectory structures. B) Traditional specific tool-to-tool interface design.An SPK file serves as a container object, representing a trajectory as a 6D invariant structure in phase-space, agnostic to gravitational environments, fidelity models, or numerical representation of the system. A judicious kernel scan is used to recover the trajectory in any new tool, with the minimum (or no) information from the generating source. Impulsive maneuvers can be extracted in the form of velocity discontinuities, finite burns can be detected as variations on the energy of the system, and natural bodies conforming the trajectory universe can be directly read from the kernel.
States or control points are found at predetermined time intervals or strategic points along the trajectory (e.g., periapsis, apoapsis, flybys closest approach), which are then used to reconstruct the trajectory timeline. The trajectory can be propagated forward in time using the selected set of control points. Due to the discrepancy between tool models, small or large discontinuities might appear between the integrated legs, which can be smoothed by the implementation of a multiple-shooting algorithm (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Multiple-shooting algorithm, utilizing strategic control points and a forward-backward propagation scheme.The TRE strategy was successfully implemented for Monte and Copernicus in the form of Python scripts (examples of reconstructed trajectories from SPK for each of these tools are shown in Figure 3). Through an optional user input file, a user can configure their specific problem. User-defined constraints are also possible, but their implementation would depend on the specific tool. The benefits of this effort include cost reduction through the sharing of capabilities, acceleration of the turnaround process involving various analysis tools at different stages of mission development, improved design solutions through multi-tool mission designs, and a reduction in development redundancy.
Reference:
- Restrepo, R. L., “Trajectory Reverse Engineering: A General Strategy for Transferring Trajectories Between Flight Mechanics Tools” AAS 23-312, January 2023.
For information, contact Heather Koehler heather.koehler@nasa.gov and Ricardo L. Restrepo ricardo.l.restrepo@jpl.nasa.gov.
NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue
2 min read
NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue The Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) in May 2009, during the fifth and final servicing of the orbiting observatory.NASANASA is working to resume science operations of the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode April 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health.
The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings. The gyros measure the telescope’s turn rates and are part of the system that determines which direction the telescope is pointed. While in safe mode, science operations are suspended, and the telescope waits for new directions from the ground.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings. The team is currently working to identify potential solutions. If necessary, the spacecraft can be re-configured to operate with only one gyro, with the other remaining gyro placed in reserve . The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing fluctuations. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, but could continue to make science observations with only one gyro if required.
NASA anticipates Hubble will continue making groundbreaking discoveries, working with other observatories, such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, throughout this decade and possibly into the next.
Launched in 1990, Hubble has been observing the universe for more than three decades and recently celebrated its 34th anniversary. Read more about some of Hubble’s greatest scientific discoveries and visit nasa.gov/hubble for updates.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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NASA’s Commercial Partners Deliver Cargo, Crew for Station Science
NASA partners with commercial companies to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation of cargo and crew members to and from the International Space Station. A platform for long-duration research in microgravity, the station has operated continuously for more than 23 years, its crew members conducting a broad range of technology demonstrations and thousands of experiments in many scientific fields.
Human TransportationNASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides systems capable of carrying astronauts to low Earth orbit and the space station through industry partners who design, build, test, and operate these systems. Crew members providing hands-on operation of scientific research is one of the unique advantages of the orbiting laboratory. Human operators monitor events on Earth in real time, swap out experiment samples, observe results firsthand, assess when conditions are favorable for data collection, and troubleshoot and otherwise manage and maintain scientific activities. Crew members also pack experiment samples to return to the ground for detailed analysis.
NASA commercial partner Boeing is launching NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on a Crew Flight Test of its Starliner spacecraft in May 2024. The spacecraft launches to the space station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This mission paves the way for NASA to certify the Starliner spacecraft for long-duration rotation missions to the space station.
Crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in the Boeing Starliner simulator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA/Robert MarkowitzSpaceX, another commercial partner, conducted an uncrewed Demo-1 flight in March 2019, and in May 2020, the Demo-2 flight carried NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the space station. The first operational mission, Crew-1, launched in November 2020. Since then, SpaceX has regularly sent crews to the orbiting laboratory for scientific missions. The Dragon spacecraft launches on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crew-1 launches to the International Space Station in a Dragon spacecraft on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020.NASA/Joel KowskyNASA’s commercial crew flights have significantly increased the amount of crew time available for research and expanded the potential for commercial use of the orbiting laboratory. More crew members mean more time for scientific research and technology demonstrations, and ultimately, more scientific results. To date, results generated by space station research range from improvements in the development of pharmaceuticals to better disaster response, improved materials manufacturing, advances in robotics, bioprinting human tissue, and more.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur works with experiment samples with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.NASABy enabling regular rotation of crew members, commercial crew flights also contribute to research on how long-duration missions affect human health, helping to prepare for exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.
Cargo ResupplyThrough NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, partners SpaceX and Northrop Grumman fly cargo to the space station on rockets and spacecraft the companies developed.
Northrop Grumman transports scientific investigations and cargo on its Cygnus spacecraft. The company’s first resupply mission launched in 2013 and it had reached 20 missions by January 2024. When a Cygnus departs from the space station, it disposes of several thousand pounds of waste that burn up during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus approaches the International Space Station as they orbit above the south Pacific Ocean.NASADeparting Cygnus spacecraft also provide safe platforms to perform research that could create hazards if conducted on the space station, such as the Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments (Saffire). This eight-year series of investigations studied flame growth and material flammability in space. The experiments were ignited in the cargo vehicles after their departure from the station and before re-entry to Earth, avoiding potential risk to the space station and its crew.
SpaceX launched its first Dragon cargo mission in October 2012 and by March 2024, had sent 30 commercial resupply services missions to the space station. Dragon is a reusable spacecraft that also returns samples from scientific investigations conducted on the space station. Beginning in 2021, these return flights started splashing down near Kennedy rather than in the Pacific Ocean. This capability allows scientists quick access to samples to make additional observations and analyses before the effects of gravity fully kick back in. Many researchers also conduct more in-depth analysis later in their home labs.
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A SpaceX Dragon splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. Credit: NASANASA also is working with Sierra Space to develop the Dream Chaser spacecraft to transport cargo to and from the space station. The reusable, winged spacecraft is designed to use commercial runways and its cargo is subject to reduced gravitational forces on the return flight. Sierra Space conducted an autonomous atmospheric test flight in 2017.
These commercial partnerships build a strong American commercial space industry, as NASA focuses on developing the next generation of rockets and spacecraft for deep space missions and to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
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NASA’s ORCA, AirHARP Projects Paved Way for PACE to Reach Space
It took the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission just 13 minutes to reach low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in February 2024. It took a network of scientists at NASA and research institutions around the world more than 20 years to carefully craft and test the novel instruments that allow PACE to study the ocean and atmosphere with unprecedented clarity.
In the early 2000s, a team of scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, prototyped the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA) instrument, which ultimately became PACE’s primary research tool: the Ocean Color instrument (OCI). Then, in the 2010s, a team from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), worked with NASA to prototype the Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP), a shoebox-sized instrument that will collect groundbreaking measurements of atmospheric aerosols.
Neither PACE’s OCI nor HARP2 — a nearly exact copy of the HARP prototype — would exist were it not for NASA’s early investments in novel technologies for Earth observation through competitive grants distributed by the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO). Over the last 25 years, ESTO has managed the development of more than 1,100 new technologies for gathering science measurements.
“All of this investment in the tech development early on basically made it much, much easier for us to build the observatory into what it is today,” said Jeremy Werdell, an oceanographer at NASA Goddard and project scientist for PACE.
Charles “Chuck” McClain, who led the ORCA research team until his retirement in 2013, said NASA’s commitment to technology development is a cornerstone of PACE’s success. “Without ESTO, it wouldn’t have happened. It was a long and winding road, getting to where we are today.”
Left to right: Gerhard Meister, Bryan Monosmith, and Chuck McClain are shown here at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 2015 with the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA) prototype that led to the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) aboard NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.NASA/Bill HrybykIt was ORCA that first demonstrated a telescope rotating at a speed of six revolutions per second could synchronize perfectly with an array of charge-coupled devices — microchips that transform telescopic projections into digital images. This innovation made it possible for OCI to observe hyperspectral shades of ocean color previously unobtainable using space-based sensors.
But what made ORCA especially appealing to PACE was its pedigree of thorough testing. “One really important consideration was technology readiness,” said Gerhard Meister, who took over ORCA after McClain retired and serves as OCI instrument scientist. Compared to other ocean radiometer designs that were considered for PACE, “we had this instrument that was ready, and we had shown that it would work.”
Technology readiness also made HARP an appealing solution to PACE’s polarimeter challenge. Mission engineers needed an instrument powerful enough to ensure PACE’s ocean color measurements weren’t jeopardized by atmospheric interference, but compact enough to fly on the PACE observatory platform.
By the time Vanderlei Martins, an atmospheric scientist at UMBC, first spoke to Werdell about incorporating a version of HARP into PACE in 2016, he had proven the technology with AirHARP, an airplane-mounted version of HARP, and was using an ESTO award to prepare HARP CubeSat for space.
HARP2 relies on the same optical system developed through AirHARP and HARP CubeSat. A wide-angle lens observes Earth’s surface from up to 60 different viewing angles with a spatial resolution of 1.62 miles (2.6kilometers) per pixel, all without any moving parts. This gives researchers a global view of aerosols from a tiny instrument that consumes very little energy.
HARP2, short for Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter 2, undergoes calibration testing prior to launch aboard PACE.NASA/Denny HenryWere it not for NASA’s early support of AirHARP and HARP CubeSat, said Martins, “I don’t think we would have HARP2 today.” He added: “We achieved every single goal, every single element, and that was because ESTO stayed with us.”
That support continues making a difference to researchers like Jessie Turner, an oceanographer at the University of Connecticut who will use PACE to study algal blooms and water clarity in the Chesapeake Bay.
“For my application that I’m building for early adopters of PACE data, I actually think that polarimeters are going to be really useful because that’s something we haven’t fully done before for the ocean,” Turner said. “Polarimetric data can actually help us see what kind of particles are in the water.”
Without the early development and test-drives of the instruments from McClain’s and Martins’ teams, PACE as we know it wouldn’t exist.
“It all kind of fell in place in a timely manner that allowed us to mature the instruments, along with the science, just in time for PACE,” said McClain.
To explore current opportunities to collaborate with NASA on new technologies for studying Earth, visit ESTO’s open solicitations page here.
By Gage Taylor
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA Finds New Homes for Artemis Generation of ‘Moon Trees’ Across US
After careful review of hundreds of applications, NASA has selected organizations from across the country to receive ‘Moon Tree’ seedlings that flew around the Moon on the agency’s Artemis I mission in 2022, to plant in their communities. Notifications to selected institutions will be made in phases, with the first beginning this spring, followed by notifications in fall 2024, spring 2025, and fall 2025.
NASA chose institutions based on criteria that evaluated their suitability to care for the various tree species and their ability to maximize educational opportunities around the life and growth of the tree in their communities.
“A new era of Moon trees will one day stand tall in communities across America,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA is bringing the spirit of exploration back down to Earth because space belongs to everyone. The Artemis Generation will carry forth these seedlings that will be fertile ground for creativity, inspiration, and discovery for years to come.”
To commemorate the Artemis I Moon Trees, Artemis II NASA astronaut Christina Koch visited her home state of North Carolina and participated in a tree dedication ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on April 24. She will be honored by her alma mater White Oak High School, one of many Moon Tree recipients, on Thursday. Since returning to Earth, the tree seeds have been germinating under the care of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Forest Service, as NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Generation STEM project and the agency’s Office of Strategic Infrastructure’s Logistics Management division worked to identify their new homes.
“Together, NASA and the Forest Service will deliver a piece of science history to communities across our nation,” said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. “Through this partnership, future explorers, scientists, and environmentalists will have the opportunity to nurture and be inspired by these Artemis artifacts in the community where they live, work, and learn.”
The Artemis I Moon Trees, rooted in the legacy of the original Moon Trees flown by NASA astronaut Stuart Roosa during Apollo 14, journeyed 270,000 miles from Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft. A diverse array of tree species, including sycamores, sweetgums, Douglas firs, loblolly pines, and giant sequoias, were flown around the surface of the Moon. The first batch of seedlings will ship to almost 50 institutions across 48 contiguous U.S. states.
“What an incredible journey these future Moon Trees have already been on, and we’re excited for them to begin the final journey to permanent homes on campuses and institutions across the country,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. “We hope these trees will stand for centuries to come for the public’s enjoyment, inspiring future generations of scientists and land stewards.”
Moon Tree recipients will be invited to share their efforts to engage with the public and K-12 learners at quarterly virtual gatherings beginning in summer 2024. Information on educational resources and activities available to educators to share the story and science of Moon Trees with their students can be found online.
Next Gen STEM is a project within NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, which develops unique resources and experiences to spark student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, and build a skilled and diverse next generation workforce.
For the latest NASA STEM events, activities, and news, visit:
-end-
Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4637
gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov
NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 8, 2022. DSOC’s gold-capped flight laser transceiver can be seen, near center, attached to the spacecraft. NASA/Ben SmegelskyNASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering data to Earth.
Riding aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration continues to break records. While the asteroid-bound spacecraft doesn’t rely on optical communications to send data, the new technology has proven that it’s up to the task. After interfacing with the Psyche’s radio frequency transmitter, the laser communications demo sent a copy of engineering data from over 140 million miles (226 million kilometers) away, 1½ times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
This achievement provides a glimpse into how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling higher-data-rate communications of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.
“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data during a pass on April 8,” said Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system.”
This visualization shows the Psyche spacecraft’s position on April 8 when the DSOC flight laser transceiver transmitted data at a rate of 25 Mbps over 140 million miles to a downlink station on Earth. NASA/JPL-Caltech See an interactive version of Psyche in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar SystemThe laser communications technology in this demo is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times faster than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today.
After launching on Oct. 13, 2023, the spacecraft remains healthy and stable as it journeys to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to visit the asteroid Psyche.
Surpassing ExpectationsNASA’s optical communications demonstration has shown that it can transmit test data at a maximum rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps) from the flight laser transceiver’s near-infrared downlink laser — a bit rate comparable to broadband internet download speeds.
That was achieved on Dec. 11, 2023, when the experiment beamed a 15-second ultra-high-definition video to Earth from 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The video, along with other test data, including digital versions of Arizona State University’s Psyche Inspired artwork, had been loaded onto the flight laser transceiver before Psyche launched last year.
Now that the spacecraft is more than seven times farther away, the rate at which it can send and receive data is reduced, as expected. During the April 8 test, the spacecraft transmitted test data at a maximum rate of 25 Mbps, which far surpasses the project’s goal of proving at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance.
The project team also commanded the transceiver to transmit Psyche-generated data optically. While Psyche was transmitting data over its radio frequency channel to NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), the optical communications system simultaneously transmitted a portion of the same data to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California — the tech demo’s primary downlink ground station.
“After receiving the data from the DSN and Palomar, we verified the optically downlinked data at JPL,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “It was a small amount of data downlinked over a short time frame, but the fact we’re doing this now has surpassed all of our expectations.”
Fun With LasersAfter Psyche launched, the optical communications demo was initially used to downlink pre-loaded data, including the Taters the cat video. Since then, the project has proven that the transceiver can receive data from the high-power uplink laser at JPL’s Table Mountain facility, near Wrightwood, California. Data can even be sent to the transceiver and then downlinked back to Earth on the same night, as the project proved in a recent “turnaround experiment.”
This experiment relayed test data — as well as digital pet photographs — to Psyche and back again, a round trip of up to 280 million miles (450 million kilometers). It also downlinked large amounts of the tech demo’s own engineering data to study the characteristics of the optical communications link.
“We’ve learned a great deal about how far we can push the system when we do have clear skies, although storms have interrupted operations at both Table Mountain and Palomar on occasion,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. (Whereas radio frequency communications can operate in most weather conditions, optical communications require relatively clear skies to transmit high-bandwidth data.)
JPL recently led an experiment to combine Palomar, the experimental radio frequency-optical antenna at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California, and a detector at Table Mountain to receive the same signal in concert. “Arraying” multiple ground stations to mimic one large receiver can help boost the deep space signal. This strategy can also be useful if one ground station is forced offline due to weather conditions; other stations can still receive the signal.
More About the MissionManaged by JPL, this demonstration is the latest in a series of optical communication experiments funded by the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) program under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. Development of the flight laser transceiver is supported by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, L3 Harris, CACI, First Mode, and Controlled Dynamics Inc., and Fibertek, Coherent, and Dotfast support the ground systems. Some of the technology was developed through NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis from Palo Alto, California.
For more information about the laser communications demo, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/dsoc
5 Things to Know About NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications NASA’s DSOC Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser The NASA DSOC Cat Video Explained News Media ContactsIan J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2024-049
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Navigating the Moon with Art
An artist uses an airbrush to recreate the lunar surface on one of the four models comprising the LOLA, or Lunar Orbit and Landing Approach, simulator in this November 12, 1964, photo. Project LOLA was a simulator built at Langley to study problems related to landing on the lunar surface.
In “Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center From Sputnik to Apollo,” James Hansen wrote: “This simulator was designed to provide a pilot with a detailed visual encounter with the lunar surface; the machine consisted primarily of a cockpit, a closed-circuit TV system, and four large murals or scale models representing portions of the lunar surface as seen from various altitudes. The pilot in the cockpit moved along a track past these murals which would accustom him to the visual cues for controlling a spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon. Unfortunately, such a simulation–although great fun and quite aesthetic–was not helpful because flight in lunar orbit posed no special problems other than the rendezvous with the LEM, which the device did not simulate. Not long after the end of Apollo, the expensive machine was dismantled.”
Image Credit: NASA
Johnson Unveils Modern Four Nine Team Conference Center
On April 10, 2024, Johnson Space Center celebrated the opening of the Four Nine Team conference center housed in building 419. The event marked the unveiling of a dynamic hub for Johnson employees, whether for team brainstorms, meetings with offsite companies, or remote work for those not typically onsite.
During the open house, selected vendors showcased furniture that blended modern aesthetics with the building’s historical significance, highlighting NASA’s vision for the future of work.
“The vendors really went above and beyond to bring our workplace to life,” said Leah Galindo, lead project manager of collaborative worksites at Johnson. “We are extremely grateful for their contributions and for creating a space that inspires people to come to work every day.”
The design center features acoustic panels in rooms and hallways to minimize distractions and maintain privacy. The amenities include TVs, projectors, and 360-degree video conferencing devices, with most rooms equipped to support various meeting needs. Employees can also choose to store their personal belongings in a locker during lunch breaks or when visiting other buildings.
David Brownhill, Johnson’s furniture group lead and NASA’s first official interior decorator, commented, “The redesigned space is a testament to the innovative spirit of NASA. The collaborative concept shows that the center has changed, and so has the way we work.”
Washington State High Schooler Wins 2024 NASA Student Art Contest
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)A 12th grade artist with a passion for NASA and space took home the top prize for the 2024 NASA Student Art Contest, a nationwide competition hosted by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Esther Lee, of Washington State, was selected as the grand prize winner for her submission “Beyond Imagination,” which depicts a young girl and her dog in a cardboard box exploring the universe. Lee said she was inspired by memories of her adventurous childhood.
“Beyond Imagination,” 2024 NASA Student Art Contest grand prize winnerNASA / Esther Lee“The underlying inspiration from this piece actually originates from childhood memories. As a kid, I used to sit down in cardboard moving boxes and shuffle along the carpet or wood floors, pretending that I was a pirate or adventurer on a ship exploring the vast unknowns,” Lee said. “Ultimately, I wanted my piece to capture that same childlike innocence and joy from all those years ago.”
Lee’s piece stood out among a crowded and creative field. This year’s theme, “Connecting the Dots”, encouraged K-12 students to explore innovative ideas about the intersection of science, technology, and art.
“The milky ways party” by Ziyo Cui, 1st Place Kindergarten DivisionNASA / Ziyo CuiArt contest coordinator, Kristina Cors, said this year’s contest, which brought in more than 2000 entries, was one of the best. “The art contest received a record number of entries this year and the quality of the art was absolutely incredible. From the impressive skills of our winners to the joyful imagination of our youngest entries, each piece represented an excitement for exploration and creativity,” remarked Cors.
“We’re going back” by Hannah Kim, 1st Place 8th Grade DivisionNASA/ Hannah KimLee’s victory is a product of years of continued efforts and inspirations, as well as a personal interest in NASA’s missions and space science. “I’ve been drawing on and off since elementary school. As I had more time during the pandemic, I had the opportunity to explore digital art more seriously. NASA and space have always been a huge inspiration for me,” she said.
Esther Lee holding her grand prize-winning artwork, “Beyond Imagination”.NASA / Esther LeeUsing the software Procreate on her iPad, Esther took her interpretation of the prompt “Connect the Dots” skyward by imagining a connection between dreams and reality. She said “Beyond Imagination” emerged from a personal philosophy. “As a child, your dreams could take you far beyond your ordinary world. Equipped with just a cardboard box, paper hat, and plushies, you could travel all the way up to space and beyond. Your future is only restricted by your imagination.”
To view this year’s contest submissions, click here.
Share Details Last Updated Apr 25, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 1 min read NASA Glenn Joins Big Hoopla STEM Challenge Article 2 days ago 1 min read NASA Mentors, Students Rock FIRST Buckeye Regional Article 2 days ago 1 min read Cleveland School Students Learn About STEM Careers Article 2 days agoSols 4166-4167: A Garden Full of Rocks
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Sols 4166-4167: A Garden Full of Rocks This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4164 (2024-04-23 16:43:09 UTC).NASA/JPL-CaltechEarth planning date: Wednesday April 24, 2024
Here on Earth (in Toronto, specifically), it’s a very typical April which can’t quite make up its mind about whether or not it wants to be spring. On Mars (in Gale Crater), we’re well into spring, and Curiosity is enjoying the (relatively) warmer weather. As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, I find myself with lots of energy, itching to get outside and play in my garden. Curiosity seems to feel similar – we’ve been flush with power recently, and today’s touch-and-go plan is no exception. This means lots of opportunity for Curiosity to play in its own kind of garden – albeit one a bit less green than my own.
The first sol of the plan starts with contact science on ‘Twin Peaks,’ which is a small, darker block on top of a lighter block (which you can see the edge of in the image above). This is followed by a two hour long science block packed full of ChemCam and Mastcam observations. ChemCam is starting up close with LIBS on ‘Gilber Lake’ (in the centre of the image above) followed by two long distance mosaics of our long-time companions, the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge and Kukenan. Mastcam has its own mosaic of Pinnacle Ridge and then turns its sights to two closer blocks – ‘Hawk’s Head Notch’ and ‘Cleaver Notch.’ We’re then back for more contact science – this time with MAHLI – before driving on towards Pinnacle Ridge. It’s a geology-heavy sol, but the atmosphere and environment science theme group (ENV) will sneak in to take a tau measurement at the end of the sol to keep an eye on the changing atmospheric dust.
As is often the case in these kinds of plans, the second sol is a bit more sedate, but Curiosity will still manage to squeeze in nearly an hour and a half of science. Most of this is given over to environmental monitoring. Because we don’t need to be in a certain location to check out dust and clouds, we can let the geology and minerology science theme group (GEO) have their fun before the drive and save our observations for the ‘untargeted’ portion of the plan. On the dusty side of things, we have another tau as well as a line of sight scan towards the crater rim. A long dust devil movie will look out for dust lifting in the middle distance, and a deck monitoring observation will check out how dust grains on the rover’s deck might have moved. We’re also looking north above the horizon for clouds. GEO isn’t entirely left out of this sol though – they’ll wrap up the plan with a ChemCam AEGIS observation.
Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
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The Marshall Star for April 24, 2024
NASA announced the winners of the 30th Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) April 22, with Parish Episcopal School, from Dallas, winning first place in the high school division, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville,capturing the college/university title.
The annual engineering competition – one of NASA’s longest standing challenges – held its concluding event April 19 and April 20, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The complete list of 2024 award winners is provided below:
Students from Universidad Católica Boliviana prepare to traverse the course at the 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.Credits: NASA/Taylor GoodwinHigh School Division
- First Place: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas
- Second Place: Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, Reno, Nevada
- Third Place: Escambia High School, Pensacola, Florida
College/University Division
- First Place: University of Alabama in Huntsville
- Second Place: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Third Place: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
Ingenuity Award
- University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida
Phoenix Award
- High School Division: East Central High School, Moss Point, Mississippi
- College/University Division: North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota
Task Challenge Award
- High School Division: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado
- College/University Division: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota
Project Review Award
- High School Division: Parish Episcopal School, Dallas
- College/University Division: University of Alabama in Huntsville
Featherweight Award
- Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Safety Award
- High School Division: NPS International School, Singapore
- College/University Division: Instituto Especializado de Estudios Superiores Loyola, San Cristobal, Dominican Republic
Crash and Burn Award
- KIET Group of Institutions, Delhi-NCR, India
Jeff Norris and Joe Sexton Memorial Pit Crew Award
- High School Division: Erie High School, Erie, Colorado
- College/University Division: Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
Team Spirit Award
- Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Most Improved Performance Award
- High School Division: Jesco von Puttkamer School, Leipzig, Germany
- College/University Division: Universidad Católica Boliviana – San Pablo, La Paz, Bolivia
Social Media Award
- High School Division: Bledsoe County High School, Pikeville, Tennessee
- College/University Division: Universidad de Piura, Peru
STEM Engagement Award
- High School Division: Princess Margaret Secondary School, Surrey, British Columbia
- College/University Division: Trine University, Angola, Indiana
Artemis Educator Award
- Sadif Safarov from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Rookie of the Year
- Kanakia International School, Mumbai, India
More than 600 students with 72 teams from around the world participated as HERC celebrated its 30th anniversary as a NASA competition. Participating teams represented 42 colleges and universities and 30 high schools from 24 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 13 other nations from around the world. Teams were awarded points based on navigating a half-mile obstacle course, conducting mission-specific task challenges, and completing multiple safety and design reviews with NASA engineers.
“This student design challenge encourages the next generation of scientists and engineers to engage in the design process by providing innovative concepts and unique perspectives,” said Vemitra Alexander, HERC activity lead for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. “While celebrating the 30th anniversary of the challenge, HERC also continues NASA’s legacy of providing valuable experiences to students who may be responsible for planning future space missions including crewed missions to other worlds.”
HERC is one of NASA’s eight Artemis Student Challenges reflecting the goals of the Artemis program, which seeks to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon while establishing a long-term presence for science and exploration. NASA uses such challenges to encourage students to pursue degrees and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
HERC is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall. Since its inception in 1994, more than 15,000 students have participated in HERC – with many former students now working at NASA, or within the aerospace industry. Watch a video recap of the competition.
Watch a video recap of the competition.
Take 5 with Julie Clift EdstromBy Wayne Smith
From helping coordinate NASA speaking requests for the total solar eclipse to supporting Student Launch and the Human Exploration Rover Challenge, April has been a busy month for Julie Clift Edstrom. But those activities have also served as a powerful reminder of why she loves her role at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Julie Clift Edstrom is an education specialist supporting Next Gen STEM and Space Grant in NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where she leads the Artemis Student Challenges.NASAEdstrom is an education specialist supporting Next Gen STEM and Space Grant in NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at Marshall, where she leads the Artemis Student Challenges for middle school, high school, and college students. NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement uses challenges and competitions to further the agency’s goal of encouraging students to pursue degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. There are eight Artemis Student Challenges, which include BIG Idea, Lunabotics, First Nations Launch, SUITS, Micro-g NExT, App Development Challenge, Human Exploration Rover Challenge, and Student Launch.
Edstrom managed the Student Launch competition for 10 years and points to that experience as the proudest of her career, particularly the awards ceremony for the 2015 event Marshall hosted at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
“I remember it vividly and it still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it,” said Edstrom, who is from Huntsville. “It was my final year of managing the activity, all the awards had been given, and it was my task to provide closing remarks. As I stood at the podium looking at approximately a thousand people, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the impact this activity had made on so many lives. These students, educators, and mentors had traveled from all over the U.S., had worked so hard, and accomplished so much, and here I stood with the privilege of being able to lead such an activity. How grateful I am to have had that opportunity!”
She also leads a new platform, NASA Engages, an online tool to connect agency experts to community engagements such as the April 8 total solar eclipse event in Russellville, Arkansas. The NASA Engages tool is composed of agency civil servants and contractors who share NASA missions and content at educational, professional, civic, and other public venues.
Question: What excites you most about the future of human space exploration, or your NASA work, and your team’s role in it?
Edstrom: Our job in the Office of STEM Engagement is directly tied to the future of human space exploration through leading the next generation into our workforce. I can’t tell you the number of students I’ve worked with who are “wow’d” by NASA, have participated in one of our challenges, and/or that I’ve hired through the Pathways program who are now working among us and making a daily impact on space exploration. It’s fun to watch their growth and journey.
Question: Who or what drives/motivates you?
Edstrom: There’s certainly a theme here, but it is easy to forget when we are sitting at a computer or participating in meetings. I’ve supported NASA for 21 years thus far, seven as a contractor and 14 as a co-op turned civil servant. My role has been primarily in the areas of education and human resources. The people I serve drives my motivation. Whether it’s helping someone set up their profile in NASA Engages, talking to students about opportunities, or conducting classroom demonstrations, my goal is and has always been to help others achieve their desires. In my newest position, I’ve been able to watch the NASA Engages tool reach close to 19,000 people in less than four months, many of them students.
Edstrom displays her rocket at the Student Launch competition in 2006, where she earned a Level 1 certification. “Leading Student Launch, I wanted to learn what the student teams were doing as part of the challenge,” she said. “My rocket was nowhere near as sophisticated as theirs, but at least I got the basics.”Photo courtesy of Julie Clift EdstromQuestion: Who or what inspired you to pursue an education/career that led you to NASA and Marshall?
Edstrom: I ask this question of our NASA experts in NASA Engages and I always share my story as well. When I was infifth grade, I despised those timed multiplication quizzes where you needed to answer 100 questions in one minute. I was horrible at it and remember making a 30 on one test. In sixth grade, Mrs. Kathleen Williams changed that path for me. Later in high school, my art teacher, Mrs. Melissa Hughey, suggested I become a teacher. Therefore, I was a fifth grade math teacher for six years before coming to NASA and am proud to say at least one of my former students works at Marshall.
Question: What advice do you have for employees early in their NASA career or those in new leadership roles?
Edstrom: The biggest piece of advice is to build and maintain relationships. Secondly, stay curious and eager to learn, broaden your skills whenever possible, and find ways to give of your time even when it’s not required. Finally, try to make someone’s day a little better. It could be simple eye contact and a smile.
Question: What do you enjoy doing with your time while away from work?
Edstrom: I absolutely love seeing the world. Most of the time, I see it from a cruise ship! I also just got married for the first time three years ago, so spending time with my family is definitely important to me.
Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
Student Launch Challenge Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’NASA’s 2024 Student Launch challenge brought students from colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools, and informal education groups to launch amateur rockets and payloads April 13 near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The challenge is featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online.
Student Launch provides relevant, cost-effective research and development of rocket propulsion systems and reflects the goals of NASA’s Artemis campaign, which seeks to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
Winners of the student launch will be announced June 7 during a virtual awards ceremony once all teams’ flight data has been verified.
Marshall’s Office of STEM Engagement hosts Student Launch to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM through real-world experiences. Student Launch is a part of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges – a variety of activities exposing students to the knowledge and technology required to achieve the goals of the Artemis missions.
View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page.
Marshall Research Scientist Enables Large-Scale Open ScienceBy Jessica Barnett
Most people use tools at work, whether it’s a hammer, a pencil, or a computer. Very few seek a doctorate degree in creating new tools for the job.
Using that degree to make it easier for people around the world to access and use the vast amounts of data gathered by NASA? Well, that might just be unheard of if you didn’t know someone like Rahul Ramachandran, a senior research scientist in the Earth Science branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Rahul Ramachandran is a senior research scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA“My undergrad was in mechanical engineering. I wanted to do industrial engineering, so I came to the U.S. for that, but I didn’t like the field that much,” Ramachandran explained. “It was by chance somebody suggested meteorology.”
That led him to learn about atmospheric science as well, but it was the 1990s and the technology of the time was very limiting. So, Ramachandran set out to learn more about computers and how to better analyze data.
“The limitations effectively prompted me to get a degree in computer science,” he said. “I now had science, engineering, and computer science in my background. Then, over the years, I got more and more interested in the tools and capabilities that can help not only manage data but also how you extract knowledge from these large datasets.”
Fast forward to today, and Ramachandran is an award-winning scientist helping to ensure the vast amounts of data collected by NASA are accessible and searchable for scientists around the world.
“I never would have thought that I could ever get a job working at an agency like NASA,” he said. “You get to work with some of the smartest people in the world, and you get to work on really hard problems. I think that’s what makes it so intellectually stimulating.”
Over the course of his career, he has worked on many different projects focused on scientific data management, designed frameworks for large scale scientific analysis, and developed machine learning applications. Recently, he worked with team members at IBM Research to create a geospatial AI foundation model that could turn NASA satellite data into maps of natural disasters or other environmental changes. He also established the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) at NASA, which supports NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program by collaborating with other agencies and partners to boost the scientific benefits of data collected by NASA’s missions and experiments.
Ramachandran received the 2023 Greg Leptoukh Lecture award for his accomplishments, an honor he attributes in large part to the many collaborators and mentors he’s had over the years.
During his presentation, Ramachandran spoke about the ways in which artificial intelligence can help NASA continue to adapt and support open science.
“We’ve seen what people can do with ChatGPT, which is built on a language foundation model, but there are AI foundation models for science that can be adapted into analyzing scientific data so we can augment what we are doing now in a much more efficient manner,” he said. “It requires a bit of a change in people’s mindset. How do we rethink our processes? How do we rethink a strategy for managing data? How will people search and analyze data information differently? All those things have to be thought of with a different perspective now.”
Such work will have benefits not only for NASA but for those who use the data collected by the agency. Ramachandran said he recently got an email from someone in Africa who was able to use NASA’s data and the geospatial AI foundation model for detecting locust breeding grounds on the continent.
“NASA has produced valuable science data that we make available to the community to use,” Ramachandran said. “I think the future would be that we not only provide the data, but we also provide these AI models that allow the science community to use the data effectively, whether it’s doing basic research or building applications like the locust breeding ground prediction.”
As that future nears, Ramachandran and his team will be ready to help others in the science community find the data they need to learn and build the tools they’ll use for years to come.
Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
PMPO Team Members Discuss NASA Science Missions at Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture ExpoTeam Members from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Planetary Mission Program Office (PMPO) participated in a panel discussion April 13 at the Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
Members of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Planetary Mission Program Office participate in a panel April 13 at the Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. NASA/Daniel HortonApproximately 150 people attended the panel, which featured PMPO team members talking about the different missions they manage at NASA.
“I was really encouraged by the turnout and the enthusiasm of the crowd,” said Brian Mulac, deputy manager of the Planetary Missions Program Office. “They asked some great questions and it was a good opportunity to highlight some of our exciting missions to the community.”
From left, Scott Bellamy, Brad Zavodsky, Solveig Irvine, and Brian Mulac pose for a selfie after speaking during a NASA science panel at the Huntsville Comic & Pop Culture Expo on April 13. The group discussed the upcoming science missions managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office. NASA/Solveig IrvineMission Manager Solveig Irvine agreed. “I loved being able to share the excitement of sample return with the local community,” Irvine said. “Living and working in Huntsville we all feel a special bond with our local science community, and being able to sit and talk with the local audience about our missions was an amazing experience.”
Mission Success is in Our Hands: Matthew PruittBy Wayne Smith
Mission Success is in Our Hands is a safety initiative collaboration between NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Jacobs. As part of the initiative, eight Marshall team members are featured in testimonial banners placed around the center. This is the sixth in a Marshall Star series profiling team members featured in the testimonial banners. The Mission Success team also awards the Golden Eagle Award on a quarterly basis to Marshall and contractor personnel who are nominated by their peers or management. Candidates for this award have made significant, identifiable contributions that exceed normal job expectations to advance flight safety and mission assurance. Nominations are open now to team members on Inside Marshall.
Matthew Pruitt is the schedule functional lead for NASA’s Human Landing System Program. NASA/Charles BeasonMatthew Pruitt is the schedule functional lead for the Human Landing System (HLS) Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. His key responsibilities include leading the HLS Schedule team in weaving together many schedule threads from contractor and government teams into one cogent story and communicating that story within HLS, to peer programs, and to the Moon to Mars enterprise.
Pruitt has worked at Marshall for 15 years, including three years as a co-op student. He’s also been a test engineer for life support systems, manufacturing engineer for the Marshall machine shop, design engineer, and most recently lead systems engineer for the Near Earth Asteroid Scout mission.
A native of Huntsville, Pruitt earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn University.
Question: How does your work support the safety and success of NASA and Marshall missions?
Pruitt: My team’s work supports mission safety and success by making sure the hundreds of different efforts required to place crew safely back on the Moon work in concert, both within HLS and between us and the other programs of the Artemis campaign. The clearest example of this is our safety reviews: in partnership with HLS Safety and Mission Assurance, we help ensure that our data product readiness supports our safety review schedules, ultimately leading to a certified vehicle.
Question: Our initiative campaign is “Mission Success is in Our Hands.” What does that mean to you?
Pruitt: To me, “Mission Success is in Our Hands” means that each of us at NASA has our own role to play in ensuring the agency accomplishes its mission. Our commitment and diligence as a workforce are what power our achievements – and many hands make light work!
Question: Do you have a story or personal experience you can share that might help others understand the significance of mission assurance or flight safety? What did you learn from it?
Pruitt: During Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout’s integrated spacecraft environmental testing, our team needed to transport the spacecraft from our assembly facility to one of the test labs. To shorten setup time at the test lab, we modified our procedure to allow installation of a cable on the spacecraft prior to transport, rather than after arrival at the test lab. While this change was reviewed by the appropriate parties, our documentation ultimately proved insufficient to catch a risk to the spacecraft from transporting it in this way. A component on the spacecraft was damaged as a result, and the project lost over a month devising and implementing software updates to circumvent the damage.
The event and its aftermath taught me two things. First, it reinforced for me the importance of our test review process. In several instances earlier in my career, I found myself reflecting on the tedium of test reviews – but the value of ensuring everyone on the team has the complete picture of what is being done during a test cannot be overstated. You never know whose insights might save the project time or cost in preventing a mishap.
Second, it taught me that with a determined, collaborative team, anything is possible. We conceived a new method of operating the spacecraft, captured the changes in a software update, tested and deployed the update, replanned the subsequent environmental test to accommodate the new operating method, and executed the test, all in the span of two months. It was a herculean effort, shouldered by a team that believed in the mission and wanted it to succeed.
Question: How can we work together better to achieve mission success?
Pruitt: Mission success is best achieved with a healthy team; astonishing things can be accomplished by even a small group of people, if the right practices are in place. I’ve found the most important are to respect your fellow teammates, value their contributions, and listen to what they have to say. While those practices must start with team leadership, all members have a share in creating and sustaining the right team environment.
Question: Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
Pruitt: I traveled with my family to see the April 8 total solar eclipse in Russellville, Arkansas, and that experience reminded me anew of why NASA is so important. Our agency has the fundamental role of bringing the wonder and beauty of the cosmos to the public. Seeing that firsthand deepened my resolve to help deliver on all of NASA’s inspiring goals, from returning crew to the Moon, or returning samples from Mars, to deepening our understanding of our universe. I couldn’t be prouder to work at this agency.
Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
AI for Earth: How NASA’s Artificial Intelligence and Open Science Efforts Combat Climate ChangeAs extreme weather events increase around the world due to climate change, the need for further research into our warming planet has increased as well. For NASA, climate research involves not only conducting studies of these events, but also empowering outside researchers to do the same. The artificial intelligence (AI) efforts spearheaded by the agency offer a powerful tool to accomplish these goals.
In 2023, NASA teamed up with IBM Research to create an AI geospatial foundation model. Trained on vast amounts of NASA’s widely used Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 data, the model provides a base for a variety of AI-powered studies to tackle environmental challenges. In keeping with open science principles, the foundation model is freely available for anyone to access.
Lights brighten the night sky in this image of Europe, including Poland, taken from the International Space Station.NASAFoundation models serve as a baseline from which scientists can develop a diverse set of applications, enabling powerful and efficient solutions. “Foundation models only know what things are represented in the data,” explained Manil Maskey, the data science lead at NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer. “It’s like a Swiss Army Knife – it can be used for multiple different things.”
Once a foundation model is created, it can be trained on a small amount of data to perform a specific task. To date, the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concept Team (IMPACT) along with collaborators have demonstrated the geospatial foundation model’s capabilities by fine-tuning it to detect burn scars, to delineate flood water, and to classify crop and other land use categories.
Maskey is the senior research scientist and project manager for the IMPACT project in the Earth Science branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Because of the computational resources required to create the initial foundation model, a partnership was necessary for success. In this case, NASA brought the data and scientific knowledge, while IBM brought the computing power and AI algorithm optimization expertise. The team’s shared commitment to making their research accessible through open science principles ensures that their model can be useful to as many researchers as possible.
“To build a foundation model at scale, we realized early on that it’s not feasible for one institution to build it,” Maskey said. “Everything we have done on our foundation models has been open to the public, all the way from pre-training data, code, best practices, model weights, fine-tuning training data, and publications. There’s transparency, so researchers can trace why certain things were used in terms of data or model architecture.”
Rectangular ponds for shrimp farming line the coast of northern Peru in this image captured on March 14, 2024, by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9. NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren DauphinFollowing on from the success of their geospatial foundation model, NASA and IBM Research are continuing their partnership to create a new, similar model for weather and climate studies. They are collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), NVIDIA, and several universities to bring this model to life.
This time, the main dataset will be the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), a huge collection of atmospheric reanalysis data that spans from 1980 to the present day. Like the geospatial foundation model, the weather and climate model is being developed with an open science approach, and will be available to the public in the near future.
Covering all aspects of Earth science would take several foundation models trained on different types of datasets. However, Maskey believes those future models might someday be combined into one comprehensive model, leading to a “digital twin” of the Earth that would provide unparalleled analysis and predictions for all kinds of climate and environmental events.
Whatever innovations the future holds, NASA and IBM’s geospatial and climate foundation models will enable leaps in Earth science like never before. Though powerful AI tools will enhance researchers’ work, the team’s dedication to open science supercharges the possibilities for discovery by allowing anyone to put those tools into practice and pave the way for groundbreaking research to help better care for the planet.
Read more about open science at NASA.
Work Underway on Large Cargo Landers for NASA’s Artemis Moon MissionsUnder NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency and its partners will send large pieces of equipment to the lunar surface to enable long-term scientific exploration of the Moon for the benefit of all. NASA’s human landing system providers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, are beginning development of lunar landers for large cargo deliveries to support these needs.
Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from NASA’s providers SpaceX, left, and Blue Origin, right. Both industry teams have been given authority to begin design work to provide large cargo landers capable of delivering up to 15 metric tons of cargo, such as a pressurized rover, to the Moon’s surface.SpaceX and Blue OriginNASA has contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin to provide landing systems to take astronauts to the Moon’s surface from lunar orbit, beginning with Artemis III. The agency has asked the two companies to develop cargo versions of their human lunar landers as an option under their existing contracts. These cargo variants are expected to land approximately 26,000 – 33,000 pounds of payload on the lunar surface and be in service no earlier than the Artemis VII mission.
“It’s essential that NASA has the capability to land not just astronauts, but large pieces of equipment, such as pressurized rovers, on the Moon for maximum return on science and exploration activities,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, Human Landing System Program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Beginning this work now allows SpaceX and Blue Origin to leverage their respective human lander designs to provide cargo variants that NASA will need in the future.”
NASA expects the cargo versions of the companies’ landers to be modified versions of the human landing systems currently being developed for Artemis III, IV, and V. Modifications will include adjustments for payload interfaces and deployment mechanisms, and the cargo variants will not have human life support systems.
This initial work allows the companies to proceed with development for their cargo landers through a preliminary design review, the step that establishes the basis for proceeding with detailed design. SpaceX is conducting its work under the NextSTEP Appendix H contract, and Blue Origin is conducting its work under NextSTEP Appendix P. NASA officially exercised the options under those contracts in November 2023 to begin work on the large cargo landers.
With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human missions to the Red Planet. Artemis requires the best of international space agencies, private industry, and academia to establish the infrastructure for long-term scientific research and exploration. NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits and rovers, and Gateway lunar space station are the agency’s foundation for human exploration deep space.
Juno Gives Aerial Views of Mountain, Lava Lake on IoScientists on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have transformed data collected during two recent flybys of Io into animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon’s most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava. Other recent science results from the solar-powered spacecraft include updates on Jupiter’s polar cyclones and water abundance.
The new findings were announced April 16 by Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton during a news conference at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna.
The JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno captured this view of Jupiter’s moon Io – with the first-ever image of its south polar region during the spacecraft’s 60th flyby of Jupiter on April 9. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas ThomopoulosImage credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas Thomopoulos (CC BY).Juno made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 930 miles of the surface, obtaining the first close-up images of the moon’s northern latitudes.
“Io is simply littered with volcanoes, and we caught a few of them in action,” said Bolton. “We also got some great close-ups and other data on a 200-kilometer-long (127-mile-long) lava lake called Loki Patera. There is amazing detail showing these crazy islands embedded in the middle of a potentially magma lake rimmed with hot lava. The specular reflection our instruments recorded of the lake suggests parts of Io’s surface are as smooth as glass, reminiscent of volcanically created obsidian glass on Earth.”
Maps generated with data collected by Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument reveal Io not only has a surface that is relatively smooth compared to Jupiter’s other Galilean moons, but also has poles that are colder than middle latitudes.
During Juno’s extended mission, the spacecraft flies closer to the north pole of Jupiter with each pass. This changing orientation allows the MWR instrument to improve its resolution of Jupiter’s northern polar cyclones. The data allows multiwavelength comparisons of the poles, revealing that not all polar cyclones are created equal.
“Perhaps most striking example of this disparity can be found with the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole,” said Steve Levin, Juno’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It is clearly visible in both infrared and visible light images, but its microwave signature is nowhere near as strong as other nearby storms. This tells us that its subsurface structure must be very different from these other cyclones. The MWR team continues to collect more and better microwave data with every orbit, so we anticipate developing a more detailed 3D map of these intriguing polar storms.”
One of the mission’s primary science goals is to collect data that could help scientists better understand Jupiter’s water abundance. To do this, the Juno science team isn’t hunting for liquid water. Instead, they are looking to quantify the presence of oxygen and hydrogen molecules (the molecules that make up water) in Jupiter’s atmosphere. An accurate estimate is critical to piecing together the puzzle of our solar system’s formation.
Created using data collected by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno during flybys in December 2023 and February 2024, this animation is an artist’s concept of a feature on the Jovian moon Io that the mission science team nicknamed Steeple Mountain. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSSJupiter was likely the first planet to form, and it contains most of the gas and dust that wasn’t incorporated into the Sun. Water abundance also has important implications for the gas giant’s meteorology (including how wind currents flow on Jupiter) and internal structure.
In 1995, NASA’s Galileo probe provided an early dataset on Jupiter’s water abundance during the spacecraft’s 57-minute descent into the Jovian atmosphere. But the data created more questions than answers, indicating the gas giant’s atmosphere was unexpectedly hot and – contrary to what computer models had indicated – bereft of water.
“The probe did amazing science, but its data was so far afield from our models of Jupiter’s water abundance that we considered whether the location it sampled could be an outlier. But before Juno, we couldn’t confirm,” said Bolton. “Now, with recent results made with MWR data, we have nailed down that the water abundance near Jupiter’s equator is roughly three to four times the solar abundance when compared to hydrogen. This definitively demonstrates that the Galileo probe’s entry site was an anomalously dry, desert-like region.”
The results support the belief that the during formation of our solar system, water-ice material may have been the source of the heavy element enrichment (chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium that were accreted by Jupiter) during the gas giant’s formation and/or evolution. The formation of Jupiter remains puzzling, because Juno results on the core of the gas giant suggest a very low water abundance – a mystery that scientists are still trying to sort out.
Data during the remainder of Juno’s extended mission may help, both by enabling scientists to compare Jupiter’s water abundance near the polar regions to the equatorial region and by shedding additional light on the structure of the planet’s dilute core.
During Juno’s most recent flyby of Io, on April 9, the spacecraft came within about 10,250 miles of the moon’s surface. It will execute its 61st flyby of Jupiter on May 12.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
NASA’s Planet-Hunting Satellite Temporarily on Pause
3 min read
NASA’s Planet-Hunting Satellite Temporarily on PauseDuring a routine activity April 23, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) entered safe mode, temporarily suspending science operations. The satellite scans the sky searching for planets beyond our solar system.
The team is working to restore the satellite to science operations while investigating the underlying cause. NASA also continues investigating the cause of a separate safe mode event that took place earlier this month, including whether the two events are connected. The spacecraft itself remains stable.
The TESS mission is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Launched in 2018, TESS recently celebrated its sixth anniversary in orbit. Visit nasa.gov/tess for updates.
Media contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has returned to work after science observations were suspended on April 8, when the spacecraft entered into safe mode. All instruments are powered on and, following the successful download of previously collected science data stored in the mission’s recorder, are now making new science observations.
Analysis of what triggered the satellite to enter safe mode is ongoing.
The TESS mission is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Launched in 2018, TESS has been scanning almost the entire sky looking for planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets. The TESS mission has also uncovered other cosmic phenomena, including star-shredding black holes and stellar oscillations. Read more about TESS discoveries at nasa.gov/tess.
Media contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) entered into safe mode April 8, temporarily interrupting science observations. The team is investigating the root cause of the safe mode, which occurred during scheduled engineering activities. The satellite itself remains in good health.
The team will continue investigating the issue and is in the process of returning TESS to science observations in the coming days.
The TESS mission is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Launched in 2018, TESS has been scanning almost the entire sky looking for planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets. The TESS mission has also uncovered other cosmic phenomena, including star-shredding black holes and stellar oscillations. Read more about TESS discoveries at nasa.gov/tess.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
(301) 286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScITracking Spring Flooding
Ural River levels peak in this April 13, 2024, enhanced color image from Landsat 9; here, vegetation appears red, while water is blue-green. After heavy rain and rapid snowmelt, rivers in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan swelled, flooding homes and displacing thousands of people.
Landsat 9, the latest satellite in the Landsat series, contributes a critical component to the international strategy for monitoring the health and state of the Earth, allowing more frequent observations. Data from Landsat 9 can be used to inform decisions in key areas like urban expansion, coral reef degradation, and natural disasters.
Image Credit: NASA/Michala Garrison, USGS
