NASA
Career Exploration: Using Ingenuity and Innovation to Create ‘Memory Metals’
Othmane Benafan is a NASA engineer whose work is literally reshaping how we use aerospace materials — he creates metals that can shape shift. Benafan, a materials research engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, creates metals called shape memory alloys that are custom-made to solve some of the most pressing challenges of space exploration and aviation.
“A shape memory alloy starts off just like any other metal, except it has this wonderful property: it can remember shapes,” Benafan says. “You can bend it, you can deform it out of shape, and once you heat it, it returns to its shape.”
An alloy is a metal that’s created by combining two or more metallic elements. Shape memory alloys are functional metals. Unlike structural metals, which are fixed metal shapes used for construction or holding heavy objects, functional metals are valued for unique properties that enable them to carry out specific actions.
NASA often needs materials with special capabilities for use in aircraft and spacecraft components, spacesuits, and hardware designed for low-Earth orbit, the Moon, or Mars. But sometimes, the ideal material doesn’t exist. That’s where engineers like Benafan come in.
“We have requirements, and we come up with new materials to fulfill that function,” he said. The whole process begins with pen and paper, theories, and research to determine exactly what properties are needed and how those properties might be created. Then he and his teammates are ready to start making a new metal.
“It’s like a cooking show,” Benafan says. “We collect all the ingredients — in my case, the metals would be elements from the periodic table, like nickel, titanium, gold, copper, etc. — and we mix them together in quantities that satisfy the formula we came up with. And then we cook it.”
Othmane Benafan, a materials research engineer, develops a shape memory alloy in a laboratory at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.These elemental ingredients are melted in a container called a crucible, then poured into the required shape, such as a cylinder, plate, or tube. From there, it’s subjected to temperatures and pressures that shape and train the metal to change the way its atoms are arranged every time it’s heated or cooled.
Shape memory alloys created by Benafan and his colleagues have already proven useful in several applications. For example, the Shape Memory Alloy Reconfigurable Technology Vortex Generator (SMART VG) being tested on Boeing aircraft uses the torque generated by a heat-induced twisting motion to raise and lower a small, narrow piece of hardware installed on aircraft wings, resulting in reduced drag during cruise conditions. In space, the 2018 Advanced eLectrical Bus (ALBus) CubeSat technology demonstration mission included the use of a shape memory alloy to deploy the small satellite’s solar arrays and antennas. And Glenn’s Shape Memory Alloy Rock Splitters technology benefits mining and geothermal applications on Earth by breaking apart rocks without harming the surrounding environment. The shape memory alloy device is wrapped in a heater and inserted into a predrilled hole in the rock, and when the heater is activated, the alloy expands, creating intense pressure that drives the rock apart.
Benafan’s fascination with shape memory alloys started after he immigrated to the United States from Morocco at age 19. He began attending night classes at the Valencia Community College (now Valencia College), then went on to graduate from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. A professor did a demonstration on shape memory alloys and that changed Benafan’s life forever. Now, Benafan enjoys helping others understand related topics.
“Outside of work, one of the things I like to do most is make technology approachable to someone who may be interested but may not be experienced with it just yet. I do a lot of community outreach through camps or lectures in schools,” he said.
He believes a mentality of curiosity and a willingness to fail and learn are essential for aspiring engineers and encourages others to pursue their ideas and keep trying.
“You know, we grow up with that mindset of falling and standing up and trying again, and that same thing applies here,” Benafan said. “The idea is to be a problem solver. What are you trying to contribute? What problem do you want to solve to help humanity, to help Earth?”
To learn more about the wide variety of exciting and unexpected jobs at NASA, check out the Surprisingly STEM video series. Explore More 3 min read NASA Engineers Simulate Lunar Lighting for Artemis III Moon Landing Article 8 hours ago 3 min read NASA Announces Winners of 2025 Student Launch Competition Article 1 day ago 2 min read NASA Seeks Commercial Feedback on Space Communication Solutions Article 1 day agoNASA Welcomes Community, Astronauts to Marshall’s 65th Anniversary Celebration July 19
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center invites the community to help celebrate the center’s 65th anniversary during a free public event noon to 5 p.m. CDT Saturday, July 19, at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASAMarshall, along with its partners and collaborators, will fill the amphitheater with space exhibits, music, food vendors, and hands-on activities for all ages. The summer celebration will mark 65 years of innovation and exploration, not only for Marshall, but for Huntsville and other North Alabama communities.
“Our success has been enabled by the continuous support we receive from Huntsville and the North Alabama communities, and this is an opportunity to thank community members and share some of our exciting mission activities,” Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, said.
Some NASA astronauts from Expedition 72 who recently returned from missions aboard the International Space Station will participate in the celebratory event. The Expedition 72 crew dedicated more than 1,000 combined hours to scientific research and technology demonstrations aboard the space station and crew members in attendance will share their experiences in space.
The official portrait of the International Space Station’s Expedition 72 crew. At the top (from left) are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin, NASA astronaut and space station Commander Suni Williams, and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore. In the middle row are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. In the bottom row are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Nick Hague. Some NASA astronauts from Expedition 72 will participate in Marshall Space Flight Center’s 65th anniversary celebration during a free public event noon to 5 p.m. CDT Saturday, July 19, at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama.NASA/Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz“Every day, our Marshall team works to advance human spaceflight and discovery, such as working with our astronauts on the International Space Station.” Pelfrey said. “We are honored Expedition 72 crew members will join us to help commemorate our 65-year celebration.”
The anniversary event will also include remarks from Pelfrey, other special presentations, and fun for the whole family.
Learn more about this free community event at:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall65
Lance D. Davis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-640-9065
lance.d.davis@nasa.gov
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From Space to Soil: How NASA Sees ForestsNASA uses satellite lidar technology to study Earth’s forests, key carbon sinks. The GEDI mission maps forest height and biomass from the International Space Station, while ICESat-2 fills polar data gaps. Together, they enable a first-of-its-kind global biomass map, guiding smarter forest conservation and carbon tracking.
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NASA Engineers Simulate Lunar Lighting for Artemis III Moon Landing
Better understanding the lunar lighting environment will help NASA prepare astronauts for the harsh environment Artemis III Moonwalkers will experience on their mission. NASA’s Artemis III mission will build on earlier test flights and add new capabilities with the human landing system and advanced spacesuits to send the first astronauts to explore the lunar South Pole and prepare humanity to go to Mars.
Using high-intensity lighting and low-fidelity mock-ups of a lunar lander, lunar surface, and lunar rocks, NASA engineers are simulating the Moon’s environment at the Flat Floor Facility to study and experience the extreme lighting condition. The facility is located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA engineers inside the Flat Floor Facility at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, mimic lander inspection and assessment tasks future Artemis astronauts may do during Artemis III. Lights are positioned at a low angle to replicate the strong shadows that are cast across the lunar South Pole. NASA/Charles Beason“The goal is really to understand how shadows will affect lander visual inspection and assessment efforts throughout a future crewed mission,” said Emma Jaynes, test engineer at the facility. “Because the Flat Floor Facility is similar to an inverted air hockey table, NASA and our industry partners can rearrange large, heavy structures with ease – and inspect the shadows’ effects from multiple angles, helping to ensure mission success and astronaut safety for Artemis III.”
Data and analysis from testing at NASA are improving models Artemis astronauts will use in preparation for lander and surface operations on the Moon during Artemis III. The testing also is helping cross-agency teams evaluate various tools astronauts may use.
The 86-foot-long by 44-foot-wide facility at NASA is one of the largest, flattest, and most stable air-bearing floors in the world, allowing objects to move across the floor without friction on a cushion of air.
Test teams use large, 12-kilowatt and 6-kilowatt lights to replicate the low-angle, high contrast conditions of the lunar South Pole. Large swaths of fabric are placed on top of the epoxy floor to imitate the reflective properties of lunar regolith. All the mock-ups are placed on air bearings, allowing engineers to easily move and situate structures on the floor.
The Flat Floor Facility is an air-bearing floor, providing full-scale simulation capabilities for lunar surface systems by simulating zero gravity in two dimensions. Wearing low-fidelity materials, test engineers can understand how the extreme lighting of the Moon’s South Pole could affect surface operations during Artemis III. NASA/Charles Beason“The Sun is at a permanent low angle at the South Pole of the Moon, meaning astronauts will experience high contrasts between the lit and shadowed regions,” Jaynes said. “The color white can become blinding in direct sunlight, while the shadows behind a rock could stretch for feet and ones behind a lander could extend for miles.”
The laboratory is large enough for people to walk around and experience this phenomenon with the naked eye, adding insight to what NASA calls ‘human in-the-loop testing.
NASA is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship Human Landing System to safely send Artemis astronauts to the Moon’s surface and back to lunar orbit for Artemis III.
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
For more information about Artemis missions, visit:
News Media ContactCorinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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Gateway Lunar Space StationBuilt with international and industry partners, Gateway will be humanity’s first space station around the Moon. It will support a…
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Training for the Moo(n)
A curious cow watches as NASA astronauts Andre Douglas and Kate Rubins perform a simulated moonwalk in the San Francisco Volcanic Field in Northern Arizona on May 14, 2024, in preparation for NASA’s historic Artemis III Moon landing mission. Flight controllers and scientists guided activities during the week-long simulation from mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Tests like this are critical for NASA’s Artemis science teams because they provide an opportunity to test integration with mission control. In the Science Evaluation Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, lunar scientists, geologists, and experts in image analysis and sample science direct and evaluate lunar surface science and geologic observations. They assess and adapt moonwalk traverses, communicating any feedback or changes with the science officer on the flight control team. The science officer conveys those messages to the Capcom officer, who then shares insights and recommendations with the crew during missions.
Learn why training like this is critical to mission success.
Image credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
NASA, German Aerospace Center to Expand Artemis Campaign Cooperation
While attending the Paris Air Show June 16, NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro signed an agreement with DLR (German Aerospace Center, or Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) to continue a partnership in space medicine research. This renewed collaboration builds on previous radiation mitigation efforts for human spaceflight. As NASA advances the Trump-Vance Administration’s goals for exploration on the Moon and Mars, minimizing exposure to space radiation is one of the key areas the agency is working to protect crew on long duration missions.
With this agreement, DLR will leverage its human spaceflight expertise and provide new radiation sensors aboard the Orion spacecraft during NASA’s Artemis II mission, building on previous work in this area during the Artemis I mission. Scheduled for launch no later than April 2026, Artemis II will mark the first test flight with crew under Artemis.
“In keeping with the historic agreements NASA has made with international partners as a part of Artemis, I am pleased to sign a new NASA-DLR joint agreement today, to enable radiation research aboard Artemis II,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro. “The German Aerospace Center has been a valuable partner in Artemis, having previously worked with NASA to test technology critical to our understanding of radiation on humans aboard an Orion spacecraft on Artemis I and providing a CubeSat as part of Artemis II. Following a productive meeting between President Trump and German Chancellor Merz earlier this month, I am excited to build upon our great partnership with Germany.”
During the Artemis II mission’s planned 10-day journey around the Moon and back, four of DLR’s newly developed M-42 extended (M-42 EXT) radiation detectors will be on board, contributing vital data to support astronaut safety. This next-generation device represents a new phase of research as NASA and DLR continue working together to safeguard human health in space.
Under the leadership of President Trump, America’s Artemis campaign has reignited NASA’s ambition, sparking international cooperation and cutting-edge innovation. The continued partnership with DLR and the deployment of their advanced M-42 EXT radiation detectors aboard Artemis II exemplifies how the Trump-Vance Administration is leading a Golden Era of Exploration and Innovation that puts American astronauts on the path to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“To develop effective protective measures against the impact of space radiation on the human body, comprehensive and coherent radiation measurements in open space are essential,” says Anke Pagels-Kerp, divisional board member for space at DLR. “At the end of 2022, Artemis I carried 12,000 passive and 16 active detectors inside the Helga and Zohar mannequins, which flew aboard the Orion spacecraft as part of DLR’s MARE project. These provided a valuable dataset – the first continuous radiation measurements ever recorded beyond low Earth orbit. We are now excited to take the next step together with NASA and send our upgraded radiation detectors around the Moon on the Artemis II mission.”
Through the Artemis campaign, the agency will establish a long-term presence on the Moon for scientific exploration with our commercial and international partners, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
For more information about Artemis, visit:
-end-
Bethany Stevens / Rachel Kraft
Headquarters
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gv / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
NASA, German Aerospace Center to Expand Artemis Campaign Cooperation
While attending the Paris Air Show June 16, NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro signed an agreement with DLR (German Aerospace Center, or Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) to continue a partnership in space medicine research. This renewed collaboration builds on previous radiation mitigation efforts for human spaceflight. As NASA advances the Trump-Vance Administration’s goals for exploration on the Moon and Mars, minimizing exposure to space radiation is one of the key areas the agency is working to protect crew on long duration missions.
With this agreement, DLR will leverage its human spaceflight expertise and provide new radiation sensors aboard the Orion spacecraft during NASA’s Artemis II mission, building on previous work in this area during the Artemis I mission. Scheduled for launch no later than April 2026, Artemis II will mark the first test flight with crew under Artemis.
“In keeping with the historic agreements NASA has made with international partners as a part of Artemis, I am pleased to sign a new NASA-DLR joint agreement today, to enable radiation research aboard Artemis II,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro. “The German Aerospace Center has been a valuable partner in Artemis, having previously worked with NASA to test technology critical to our understanding of radiation on humans aboard an Orion spacecraft on Artemis I and providing a CubeSat as part of Artemis II. Following a productive meeting between President Trump and German Chancellor Merz earlier this month, I am excited to build upon our great partnership with Germany.”
During the Artemis II mission’s planned 10-day journey around the Moon and back, four of DLR’s newly developed M-42 extended (M-42 EXT) radiation detectors will be on board, contributing vital data to support astronaut safety. This next-generation device represents a new phase of research as NASA and DLR continue working together to safeguard human health in space.
Under the leadership of President Trump, America’s Artemis campaign has reignited NASA’s ambition, sparking international cooperation and cutting-edge innovation. The continued partnership with DLR and the deployment of their advanced M-42 EXT radiation detectors aboard Artemis II exemplifies how the Trump-Vance Administration is leading a Golden Era of Exploration and Innovation that puts American astronauts on the path to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“To develop effective protective measures against the impact of space radiation on the human body, comprehensive and coherent radiation measurements in open space are essential,” says Anke Pagels-Kerp, divisional board member for space at DLR. “At the end of 2022, Artemis I carried 12,000 passive and 16 active detectors inside the Helga and Zohar mannequins, which flew aboard the Orion spacecraft as part of DLR’s MARE project. These provided a valuable dataset – the first continuous radiation measurements ever recorded beyond low Earth orbit. We are now excited to take the next step together with NASA and send our upgraded radiation detectors around the Moon on the Artemis II mission.”
Through the Artemis campaign, the agency will establish a long-term presence on the Moon for scientific exploration with our commercial and international partners, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
For more information about Artemis, visit:
-end-
Bethany Stevens / Rachel Kraft
Headquarters
202-358-1600
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gv / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
A New Hybrid System Could Enable Spacecraft Attitude Control Systems to Perform Scientific Measurements
A NASA-sponsored team is creating a new approach to measure magnetic fields by developing a new system that can both take scientific measurements and provide spacecraft attitude control functions. This new system is small, lightweight, and can be accommodated onboard the spacecraft, eliminating the need for the boom structure that is typically required to measure Earth’s magnetic field, thus allowing smaller, lower-cost spacecraft to take these measurements. In fact, this new system could not only enable small spacecraft to measure the magnetic field, it could replace the standard attitude control systems in future spacecraft that orbit Earth, allowing them to provide the important global measurements that enable us to understand how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from dangerous solar particles.
Photo of the aurora (taken in Alaska) showing small scale features that are often present. Credit: NASA/Sebastian Saarloos
Solar storms drive space weather that threatens our many assets in space and can also disrupt Earth’s upper atmosphere impacting our communications and power grids. Thankfully, the Earth’s magnetic field protects us and funnels much of that energy into the north and south poles creating aurorae. The aurorae are a beautiful display of the electromagnetic energy and currents that flow throughout the Earth’s space environment. They often have small-scale magnetic features that affect the total energy flowing through the system. Observing these small features requires multiple simultaneous observations over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, which can be accomplished by constellations of small spacecraft.
To enable such constellations, NASA is developing an innovative hybrid magnetometer that makes both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) magnetic measurements and is embedded in the spacecraft’s attitude determination and control system (ADCS)—the system that enables the satellite to know and control where it is pointing. High-performance, low SWAP+C (low-size, weight and power + cost) instruments are required, as is the ability to manufacture and test large numbers of these instruments within a typical flight build schedule. Future commercial or scientific satellites could use these small, lightweight embedded hybrid magnetometers to take the types of measurements that will expand our understanding of space weather and how Earth’s magnetic field responds to solar storms
It is typically not possible to take research-quality DC and AC magnetic measurements using sensors within an ADCS since the ADCS is inside the spacecraft and near contaminating sources of magnetic noise such as magnetic torque rods—the electromagnets that generate a magnetic field and push against the Earth’s magnetic field to control the orientation of a spacecraft. Previous missions that have flown both DC and AC magnetometers placed them on long booms pointing in opposite directions from the satellite to keep the sensors as far from the spacecraft and each other as possible. In addition, the typical magnetometer used by an ADCS to measure the orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the geomagnetic field does not sample fast enough to measure the high-frequency signals needed to make magnetic field observations.
A NASA-sponsored team at the University of Michigan is developing a new hybrid magnetometer and attitude determination and control system (HyMag-ADCS) that is a low-SWAP single package that can be integrated into a spacecraft without booms. HyMag-ADCS consists of a three-axis search coil AC magnetometer and a three-axis Quad-Mag DC magnetometer. The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer uses machine learning to enable boomless DC magnetometery, and the hybrid search-coil AC magnetometer includes attitude determination torque rods to enable the single 1U volume (103 cm) system to perform ADCS functions as well as collect science measurements.
The magnetic torque rod and search coil sensor (left) and the Quad-Mag magnetometer prototype (right). Credit: Mark MoldwinThe HyMag-ADCS team is incorporating the following technologies into the system to ensure success.
Quad-Mag Hardware: The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer consists of four magneto-inductive magnetometers and a space-qualified micro-controller mounted on a single CubeSat form factor (10 x 10 cm) printed circuit board. These two types of devices are commercially available. Combining multiple sensors on a single board increases the instrument’s sensitivity by a factor of two compared to using a single sensor. In addition, the distributed sensors enable noise identification on small satellites, providing the science-grade magnetometer sensing that is key for both magnetic field measurements and attitude determination. The same type of magnetometer is part of the NASA Artemis Lunar Gateway Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES) Noisy Environment Magnetometer in a Small Integrated System (NEMISIS) magnetometer scheduled for launch in early 2027.
Dual-use Electromagnetic Rods: The HyMag-ADCS team is using search coil electronics and torque rod electronics that were developed for other efforts in a new way. Use of these two electronics systems enables the electromagnetic rods in the HyMag-ADCS system to be used in two different ways—as torque rods for attitude determination and as search coils to make scientific measurements. The search coil electronics were designed for ground-based measurements to observe ultra-low frequency signals up to a few kHz that are generated by magnetic beacons for indoor localization. The torque rod electronics were designed for use on CubeSats and have flown on several University of Michigan CubeSats (e.g., CubeSat-investigating Atmospheric Density Response to Extreme driving [CADRE]). The HyMag-ADCS concept is to use the torque rod electronics as needed for attitude control and use the search coil electronics the rest of the time to make scientific AC magnetic field measurements.
Machine Learning Algorithms for Spacecraft Noise Identification: Applying machine learning to these distributed sensors will autonomously remove noise generated by the spacecraft. The team is developing a powerful Unsupervised Blind Source Separation (UBSS) algorithm and a new method called Wavelet Adaptive Interference Cancellation for Underdetermined Platforms (WAIC-UP) to perform this task, and this method has already been demonstrated in simulation and the lab.
The HyMag-ADCS system is early in its development stage, and a complete engineering design unit is under development. The project is being completed primarily with undergraduate and graduate students, providing hands-on experiential training for upcoming scientists and engineers.
Early career electrical engineer Julio Vata and PhD student Jhanene Heying-Melendrez with art student resident Ana Trujillo Garcia in the magnetometer lab testing prototypes. Credit: Mark MoldwinFor additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort .
Project Lead: Prof. Mark Moldwin, University of Michigan
Sponsoring Organization: NASA Heliophysics Division’s Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (H-TIDeS) program.
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A New Hybrid System Could Enable Spacecraft Attitude Control Systems to Perform Scientific Measurements
A NASA-sponsored team is creating a new approach to measure magnetic fields by developing a new system that can both take scientific measurements and provide spacecraft attitude control functions. This new system is small, lightweight, and can be accommodated onboard the spacecraft, eliminating the need for the boom structure that is typically required to measure Earth’s magnetic field, thus allowing smaller, lower-cost spacecraft to take these measurements. In fact, this new system could not only enable small spacecraft to measure the magnetic field, it could replace the standard attitude control systems in future spacecraft that orbit Earth, allowing them to provide the important global measurements that enable us to understand how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from dangerous solar particles.
Photo of the aurora (taken in Alaska) showing small scale features that are often present. Credit: NASA/Sebastian Saarloos
Solar storms drive space weather that threatens our many assets in space and can also disrupt Earth’s upper atmosphere impacting our communications and power grids. Thankfully, the Earth’s magnetic field protects us and funnels much of that energy into the north and south poles creating aurorae. The aurorae are a beautiful display of the electromagnetic energy and currents that flow throughout the Earth’s space environment. They often have small-scale magnetic features that affect the total energy flowing through the system. Observing these small features requires multiple simultaneous observations over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, which can be accomplished by constellations of small spacecraft.
To enable such constellations, NASA is developing an innovative hybrid magnetometer that makes both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) magnetic measurements and is embedded in the spacecraft’s attitude determination and control system (ADCS)—the system that enables the satellite to know and control where it is pointing. High-performance, low SWAP+C (low-size, weight and power + cost) instruments are required, as is the ability to manufacture and test large numbers of these instruments within a typical flight build schedule. Future commercial or scientific satellites could use these small, lightweight embedded hybrid magnetometers to take the types of measurements that will expand our understanding of space weather and how Earth’s magnetic field responds to solar storms
It is typically not possible to take research-quality DC and AC magnetic measurements using sensors within an ADCS since the ADCS is inside the spacecraft and near contaminating sources of magnetic noise such as magnetic torque rods—the electromagnets that generate a magnetic field and push against the Earth’s magnetic field to control the orientation of a spacecraft. Previous missions that have flown both DC and AC magnetometers placed them on long booms pointing in opposite directions from the satellite to keep the sensors as far from the spacecraft and each other as possible. In addition, the typical magnetometer used by an ADCS to measure the orientation of the spacecraft with respect to the geomagnetic field does not sample fast enough to measure the high-frequency signals needed to make magnetic field observations.
A NASA-sponsored team at the University of Michigan is developing a new hybrid magnetometer and attitude determination and control system (HyMag-ADCS) that is a low-SWAP single package that can be integrated into a spacecraft without booms. HyMag-ADCS consists of a three-axis search coil AC magnetometer and a three-axis Quad-Mag DC magnetometer. The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer uses machine learning to enable boomless DC magnetometery, and the hybrid search-coil AC magnetometer includes attitude determination torque rods to enable the single 1U volume (103 cm) system to perform ADCS functions as well as collect science measurements.
The magnetic torque rod and search coil sensor (left) and the Quad-Mag magnetometer prototype (right). Credit: Mark MoldwinThe HyMag-ADCS team is incorporating the following technologies into the system to ensure success.
Quad-Mag Hardware: The Quad-Mag DC magnetometer consists of four magneto-inductive magnetometers and a space-qualified micro-controller mounted on a single CubeSat form factor (10 x 10 cm) printed circuit board. These two types of devices are commercially available. Combining multiple sensors on a single board increases the instrument’s sensitivity by a factor of two compared to using a single sensor. In addition, the distributed sensors enable noise identification on small satellites, providing the science-grade magnetometer sensing that is key for both magnetic field measurements and attitude determination. The same type of magnetometer is part of the NASA Artemis Lunar Gateway Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES) Noisy Environment Magnetometer in a Small Integrated System (NEMISIS) magnetometer scheduled for launch in early 2027.
Dual-use Electromagnetic Rods: The HyMag-ADCS team is using search coil electronics and torque rod electronics that were developed for other efforts in a new way. Use of these two electronics systems enables the electromagnetic rods in the HyMag-ADCS system to be used in two different ways—as torque rods for attitude determination and as search coils to make scientific measurements. The search coil electronics were designed for ground-based measurements to observe ultra-low frequency signals up to a few kHz that are generated by magnetic beacons for indoor localization. The torque rod electronics were designed for use on CubeSats and have flown on several University of Michigan CubeSats (e.g., CubeSat-investigating Atmospheric Density Response to Extreme driving [CADRE]). The HyMag-ADCS concept is to use the torque rod electronics as needed for attitude control and use the search coil electronics the rest of the time to make scientific AC magnetic field measurements.
Machine Learning Algorithms for Spacecraft Noise Identification: Applying machine learning to these distributed sensors will autonomously remove noise generated by the spacecraft. The team is developing a powerful Unsupervised Blind Source Separation (UBSS) algorithm and a new method called Wavelet Adaptive Interference Cancellation for Underdetermined Platforms (WAIC-UP) to perform this task, and this method has already been demonstrated in simulation and the lab.
The HyMag-ADCS system is early in its development stage, and a complete engineering design unit is under development. The project is being completed primarily with undergraduate and graduate students, providing hands-on experiential training for upcoming scientists and engineers.
Early career electrical engineer Julio Vata and PhD student Jhanene Heying-Melendrez with art student resident Ana Trujillo Garcia in the magnetometer lab testing prototypes. Credit: Mark MoldwinFor additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort .
Project Lead: Prof. Mark Moldwin, University of Michigan
Sponsoring Organization: NASA Heliophysics Division’s Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (H-TIDeS) program.
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A Researcher’s Guide to: Microgravity Materials Research
June 2025 Edition
Most materials are formed from a partially or totally fluid sample, and the transport of heat and mass from the fluid into the solid during solidification inherently influences the formation of the material and its resultant properties. The ISS provides a long-duration microgravity environment for conducting experiments that enables researchers to examine the effects of heat and mass transport on materials processes in the near-absence of gravity-driven forces. The microgravity environment greatly reduces buoyancy-driven convection, hydrostatic pressure, and sedimentation. It can also be advantageous for designing experiments with reduced container interactions. The reduction in these gravity-related sources of heat and mass transport may be taken advantage of to determine how material processes and microstructure formation are affected by gravity-driven and gravity independent sources of heat and mass transfer.
Materials science experiments on the ISS have yielded broad and significant scientific advancements, including contributing to the development of improved mathematical models for predicting material properties during processing on Earth and enabling a better understanding of microstructure formation during solidification towards controlling the material properties of various alloys.
This researcher’s guide provides information on the acceleration environment of the space station and describes facilities available for materials research. Examples of previous microgravity materials research and descriptions of planned research are also provided.
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A Researcher’s Guide to: Microgravity Materials Research
June 2025 Edition
Most materials are formed from a partially or totally fluid sample, and the transport of heat and mass from the fluid into the solid during solidification inherently influences the formation of the material and its resultant properties. The ISS provides a long-duration microgravity environment for conducting experiments that enables researchers to examine the effects of heat and mass transport on materials processes in the near-absence of gravity-driven forces. The microgravity environment greatly reduces buoyancy-driven convection, hydrostatic pressure, and sedimentation. It can also be advantageous for designing experiments with reduced container interactions. The reduction in these gravity-related sources of heat and mass transport may be taken advantage of to determine how material processes and microstructure formation are affected by gravity-driven and gravity independent sources of heat and mass transfer.
Materials science experiments on the ISS have yielded broad and significant scientific advancements, including contributing to the development of improved mathematical models for predicting material properties during processing on Earth and enabling a better understanding of microstructure formation during solidification towards controlling the material properties of various alloys.
This researcher’s guide provides information on the acceleration environment of the space station and describes facilities available for materials research. Examples of previous microgravity materials research and descriptions of planned research are also provided.
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NASA’s Lunar Rescue System Challenge Supports Astronaut Safety
by Dary Felix Garcia
NASA is preparing to make history by sending humans to the Moon’s South Pole. There, astronauts will conduct moonwalks for exploration, science experiments, and prepare humanity for the journey to Mars. Missions of this scale require extensive planning, especially when accounting for emergency scenarios such as a crew member becoming incapacitated.
To address this critical risk, the South Pole Safety Challenge invited the public to develop a compact, effective device capable of safely rescuing astronauts during emergency situations on the Moon’s surface. Given the harsh and unpredictable conditions of the lunar South Pole, the rescue system must be lightweight, easy to use, and able to transport an incapacitated crew member weighing approximately 755 lbs. (343 kg), representing the crew member and their suit, without the help of the lunar rover. It must also be capable of covering up to 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) across slopes as steep as 20 degrees.
“The initiative saved the government an estimated $1,000,000 and more than three years of work had the solutions been produced using in-house existing resources,” said Ryon Stewart, acting Program Manager of NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. “The effort demonstrated how crowdsourcing provides NASA with a wide diversity of innovative ideas and skills.”
The global challenge received 385 unique ideas from 61 countries. Five standout solutions received a share of the $45,000 prize purse. Each of the selected solutions demonstrated creativity, practicality, and direct relevance to NASA’s needs for future Moon missions.
- First Place: VERTEX by Hugo Shelley – A self-deploying four-wheeled motorized stretcher that converts from a compact cylinder into a frame that securely encases an immobilized crew member for transport up to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
- Second Place: MoonWheel by Chamara Mahesh – A foldable manual trolley designed for challenging terrain and rapid deployment by an individual astronaut.
- Third Place: Portable Foldable Compact Emergency Stretcher by Sbarellati team – A foldable stretcher compatible with NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity spacesuit.
- Third Place: Advanced Surface Transport for Rescue (ASTRA) by Pierre-Alexandre Aubé – A collapsible three-wheeled device with a 1.2 mile (2 kilometer) range.
- Third Place: Getting Rick to Roll! by InventorParents – A rapidly deployable, tool-free design suited for functionality in low gravity settings.
NASA is identifying how to integrate some features of the winning ideas into current and future mission designs. Most intriguing are the collapsible concepts of many of the designs that would save crucial mass and volume. Additionally, the submissions offered innovative wheel designs to enhance current concepts. NASA expects to incorporate some features into planning for surface operations of the Moon.
HeroX hosted the challenge on behalf of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, managed the challenge. The program supports global public competitions and crowdsourcing as tools to advance NASA research and development and other mission needs.
Find more opportunities at https://www.nasa.gov/get-involved/
NASA’s Lunar Rescue System Challenge Supports Astronaut Safety
by Dary Felix Garcia
NASA is preparing to make history by sending humans to the Moon’s South Pole. There, astronauts will conduct moonwalks for exploration, science experiments, and prepare humanity for the journey to Mars. Missions of this scale require extensive planning, especially when accounting for emergency scenarios such as a crew member becoming incapacitated.
To address this critical risk, the South Pole Safety Challenge invited the public to develop a compact, effective device capable of safely rescuing astronauts during emergency situations on the Moon’s surface. Given the harsh and unpredictable conditions of the lunar South Pole, the rescue system must be lightweight, easy to use, and able to transport an incapacitated crew member weighing approximately 755 lbs. (343 kg), representing the crew member and their suit, without the help of the lunar rover. It must also be capable of covering up to 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) across slopes as steep as 20 degrees.
“The initiative saved the government an estimated $1,000,000 and more than three years of work had the solutions been produced using in-house existing resources,” said Ryon Stewart, acting Program Manager of NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. “The effort demonstrated how crowdsourcing provides NASA with a wide diversity of innovative ideas and skills.”
The global challenge received 385 unique ideas from 61 countries. Five standout solutions received a share of the $45,000 prize purse. Each of the selected solutions demonstrated creativity, practicality, and direct relevance to NASA’s needs for future Moon missions.
The global challenge received 385 unique ideas from 61 countries. Five standout solutions received a share of the $45,000 prize purse. Each of the selected solutions demonstrated creativity, practicality, and direct relevance to NASA’s needs for future Moon missions.
- First Place: VERTEX by Hugo Shelley – A self-deploying four-wheeled motorized stretcher that converts from a compact cylinder into a frame that securely encases an immobilized crew member for transport up to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
- Second Place: MoonWheel by Chamara Mahesh – A foldable manual trolley designed for challenging terrain and rapid deployment by an individual astronaut.
- Third Place: Portable Foldable Compact Emergency Stretcher by Sbarellati team – A foldable stretcher compatible with NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Activity spacesuit.
- Third Place: Advanced Surface Transport for Rescue (ASTRA) by Pierre-Alexandre Aubé – A collapsible three-wheeled device with a 1.2 mile (2 kilometer) range.
- Third Place: Getting Rick to Roll! by InventorParents – A rapidly deployable, tool-free design suited for functionality in low gravity settings.
NASA is identifying how to integrate some features of the winning ideas into current and future mission designs. Most intriguing are the collapsible concepts of many of the designs that would save crucial mass and volume. Additionally, the submissions offered innovative wheel designs to enhance current concepts. NASA expects to incorporate some features into planning for surface operations of the Moon.
HeroX hosted the challenge on behalf of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, managed the challenge. The program supports global public competitions and crowdsourcing as tools to advance NASA research and development and other mission needs.
Find more opportunities at https://www.nasa.gov/get-involved/
Driven by a Dream: Farah Al Fulfulee’s Quest to Reach the Stars
Farah Al Fulfulee was just four years old when she started climbing onto the roof of her family’s house in Iraq to gaze at the stars.
“It scared me how vast and quiet the sky was, but it made me very curious. I grew a deep passion for the stars and constellations and what they might represent,” she said.
Her father noticed her interest and began bringing home books and magazines about space. Al Fulfulee first read about NASA in those pages and was fascinated by the agency’s mission to explore the cosmos for the benefit of all humanity.
“Right then I knew I had to be an astronaut! I must go to space myself and get a closer look,” she said. “I knew I must find a way to go and work for NASA and fulfill my dream, working with other people like me who had a passion to explore the universe.”
Farah Al Fulfulee poses outside the Sonny Carter Training Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAs a girl growing up in the Middle East, Al Fulfulee had few opportunities to pursue this dream, but she refused to give up. Her dedication to schoolwork and excellence in science and math earned her a spot at the University of Baghdad College of Engineering. She completed a degree in electronic and communication engineering — similar to American electrical and computer engineering programs — and graduated as one of the top 10 students in her class. “We had a graduation party where you dress up as what you want to be in the future,” she recalled. “I wore a spacesuit.”
Farah Al Fulfulee celebrates her graduation from the University of Baghdad while wearing a spacesuit costume. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAl Fulfulee was ready to launch her career, but Iraq did not have a developed space industry and finding work as a female engineer was a challenge. She accepted a project engineer position with a prominent Iraqi engineering firm in the information technology sector and spent four years working for the company in Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan, but she was disappointed to discover that her role involved very little engineering. “I was the only female on the team,” she said. “It was not common for a woman to work in the field or with customers, so I was always left behind to do office work. The job was not fulfilling.”
Still determined to join NASA, Al Fulfulee kept looking for her chance to come to the United States and finally found one in 2016, when she moved to Oklahoma to be near her sister. A new challenge soon rose: Without a degree from an American school or previous work experience in the United States, engineering opportunities were hard to come by. Al Fulfulee spent the next six years working in quality assurance for a human resources software company while she completed a MicroMasters program in software verification and management from the University of Maryland and honed her English and leadership skills.
Her big break came in 2022, when she landed a job with Boeing Defense, Space, and Security as a software quality engineer. “I was so excited,” she said. “I knew I was much closer to my dream since Boeing worked in the space industry and I would be able to apply internally to work on a space program.”
Farah Al Fulfulee participates in a NASA study that evaluated and compared the use of virtual reality and physical mockups to assess space vehicle and systems designs. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeLess than one year later, Al Fulfulee became a system design and analysis engineer for the International Space Station Program and joined the Station Management and Control Team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. She helps develop requirements, monitors performance, and validates testing for electrical systems and software supporting space station payloads. She also designs hardware, software, and interface specifications for those systems. Al Fulfulee has served as the team’s point of contact, delivering verification assessment and data assessment reports for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 and Crew-10 missions, as well as the upcoming Axiom Mission 4 flight. She is currently working to support testing and verification for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11.
“I could not be happier,” she declared.
She is also not stopping. “I won’t quit until I wear the blue suit.”
Farah Al Fulfulee tending to her backyard garden.Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAl Fulfulee has been an enthusiastic volunteer for various NASA studies, including the Exploration Atmosphere Studies that tested spacewalk safety protocols in an analog environment. She is pursuing a master’s degree in Space Operations Engineering from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She is an avid gardener and learning how to grow produce indoors as a volunteer experimental botanist with the Backyard Produce Project, noting that such knowledge might come in handy on Mars.
She is also helping to inspire the next generation. Earlier this year, Al Fulfulee was a guest speaker at the Women in Tech & Business Summit in Iraq – an event designed to encourage Iraqi women to pursue technology careers. “I was the only person representing women in space,” she said. “It was a really moving experience.” Al Fulfulee provided practical advice on breaking barriers in aerospace and shared her story with the crowd.
“I know my path is long and across the continents,” she said, “but I am enjoying my journey.”
Explore More 5 min read Johnson’s Jason Foster Recognized for New Technology Reporting Record Article 2 days ago 4 min read NASA, DoD Practice Abort Scenarios Ahead of Artemis II Moon Mission Article 4 days ago 4 min read Welcome Home, Expedition 72 Crew! Article 6 days agoDriven by a Dream: Farah Al Fulfulee’s Quest to Reach the Stars
Farah Al Fulfulee was just four years old when she started climbing onto the roof of her family’s house in Iraq to gaze at the stars.
“It scared me how vast and quiet the sky was, but it made me very curious. I grew a deep passion for the stars and constellations and what they might represent,” she said.
Her father noticed her interest and began bringing home books and magazines about space. Al Fulfulee first read about NASA in those pages and was fascinated by the agency’s mission to explore the cosmos for the benefit of all humanity.
“Right then I knew I had to be an astronaut! I must go to space myself and get a closer look,” she said. “I knew I must find a way to go and work for NASA and fulfill my dream, working with other people like me who had a passion to explore the universe.”
Farah Al Fulfulee poses outside the Sonny Carter Training Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAs a girl growing up in the Middle East, Al Fulfulee had few opportunities to pursue this dream, but she refused to give up. Her dedication to schoolwork and excellence in science and math earned her a spot at the University of Baghdad College of Engineering. She completed a degree in electronic and communication engineering — similar to American electrical and computer engineering programs — and graduated as one of the top 10 students in her class. “We had a graduation party where you dress up as what you want to be in the future,” she recalled. “I wore a spacesuit.”
Farah Al Fulfulee celebrates her graduation from the University of Baghdad while wearing a spacesuit costume. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAl Fulfulee was ready to launch her career, but Iraq did not have a developed space industry and finding work as a female engineer was a challenge. She accepted a project engineer position with a prominent Iraqi engineering firm in the information technology sector and spent four years working for the company in Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan, but she was disappointed to discover that her role involved very little engineering. “I was the only female on the team,” she said. “It was not common for a woman to work in the field or with customers, so I was always left behind to do office work. The job was not fulfilling.”
Still determined to join NASA, Al Fulfulee kept looking for her chance to come to the United States and finally found one in 2016, when she moved to Oklahoma to be near her sister. A new challenge soon rose: Without a degree from an American school or previous work experience in the United States, engineering opportunities were hard to come by. Al Fulfulee spent the next six years working in quality assurance for a human resources software company while she completed a MicroMasters program in software verification and management from the University of Maryland and honed her English and leadership skills.
Her big break came in 2022, when she landed a job with Boeing Defense, Space, and Security as a software quality engineer. “I was so excited,” she said. “I knew I was much closer to my dream since Boeing worked in the space industry and I would be able to apply internally to work on a space program.”
Farah Al Fulfulee participates in a NASA study that evaluated and compared the use of virtual reality and physical mockups to assess space vehicle and systems designs. Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeLess than one year later, Al Fulfulee became a system design and analysis engineer for the International Space Station Program and joined the Station Management and Control Team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. She helps develop requirements, monitors performance, and validates testing for electrical systems and software supporting space station payloads. She also designs hardware, software, and interface specifications for those systems. Al Fulfulee has served as the team’s point of contact, delivering verification assessment and data assessment reports for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 and Crew-10 missions, as well as the upcoming Axiom Mission 4 flight. She is currently working to support testing and verification for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11.
“I could not be happier,” she declared.
She is also not stopping. “I won’t quit until I wear the blue suit.”
Farah Al Fulfulee tending to her backyard garden.Image courtesy of Farah Al FulfuleeAl Fulfulee has been an enthusiastic volunteer for various NASA studies, including the Exploration Atmosphere Studies that tested spacewalk safety protocols in an analog environment. She is pursuing a master’s degree in Space Operations Engineering from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She is an avid gardener and learning how to grow produce indoors as a volunteer experimental botanist with the Backyard Produce Project, noting that such knowledge might come in handy on Mars.
She is also helping to inspire the next generation. Earlier this year, Al Fulfulee was a guest speaker at the Women in Tech & Business Summit in Iraq – an event designed to encourage Iraqi women to pursue technology careers. “I was the only person representing women in space,” she said. “It was a really moving experience.” Al Fulfulee provided practical advice on breaking barriers in aerospace and shared her story with the crowd.
“I know my path is long and across the continents,” she said, “but I am enjoying my journey.”
Explore More 5 min read Johnson’s Jason Foster Recognized for New Technology Reporting Record Article 1 day ago 4 min read NASA, DoD Practice Abort Scenarios Ahead of Artemis II Moon Mission Article 4 days ago 4 min read Welcome Home, Expedition 72 Crew! Article 6 days ago
