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Astronaut Suni Williams Prepares for Crew Flight Test
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronaut Suni Williams gives a thumbs up during a mission dress rehearsal on Friday, April 26, 2024, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998 and has been aboard the International Space Station twice. She is set to return to the space station for a third time, traveling aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as pilot. NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore will also be aboard as commander. Starliner is scheduled to liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:34 p.m. ET Monday, May 6. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is one of the final flight tests for Starliner on its road to certification.
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New NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the Brink
5 min read
New NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the BrinkEver wonder what happens when you fall into a black hole? Now, thanks to a new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, viewers can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return.
In this visualization of a flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. Produced on a NASA supercomputer, the simulation tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a monster black hole much like the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellView the plunge in 360 video on YouTube
“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”
The visualizations are available in multiple forms. Explainer videos act as sightseeing guides, illuminating the bizarre effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Versions rendered as 360-degree videos let viewers look all around during the trip, while others play as flat all-sky maps.
To create the visualizations, Schnittman teamed up with fellow Goddard scientist Brian Powell and used the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The project generated about 10 terabytes of data — equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress — and took about 5 days running on just 0.3% of Discover’s 129,000 processors. The same feat would take more than a decade on a typical laptop.
The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
“If you have the choice, you want to fall into a supermassive black hole,” Schnittman explained. “Stellar-mass black holes, which contain up to about 30 solar masses, possess much smaller event horizons and stronger tidal forces, which can rip apart approaching objects before they get to the horizon.”
This occurs because the gravitational pull on the end of an object nearer the black hole is much stronger than that on the other end. Infalling objects stretch out like noodles, a process astrophysicists call spaghettification.
The simulated black hole’s event horizon spans about 16 million miles (25 million kilometers), or about 17% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds it and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene.
Tour an alternative visualization that tracks a camera as it approaches, falls toward, briefly orbits, and escapes a supermassive black hole. This immersive 360-degree version allows viewers to look around during the flight. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellView the flyby explainer on YouTube
As the camera approaches the black hole, reaching speeds ever closer to that of light itself, the glow from the accretion disk and background stars becomes amplified in much the same way as the sound of an oncoming racecar rises in pitch. Their light appears brighter and whiter when looking into the direction of travel.
The movies begin with the camera located nearly 400 million miles (640 million kilometers) away, with the black hole quickly filling the view. Along the way, the black hole’s disk, photon rings, and the night sky become increasingly distorted — and even form multiple images as their light traverses the increasingly warped space-time.
In real time, the camera takes about 3 hours to fall to the event horizon, executing almost two complete 30-minute orbits along the way. But to anyone observing from afar, it would never quite get there. As space-time becomes ever more distorted closer to the horizon, the image of the camera would slow and then seem to freeze just shy of it. This is why astronomers originally referred to black holes as “frozen stars.”
At the event horizon, even space-time itself flows inward at the speed of light, the cosmic speed limit. Once inside it, both the camera and the space-time in which it’s moving rush toward the black hole’s center — a one-dimensional point called a singularity, where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.
“Once the camera crosses the horizon, its destruction by spaghettification is just 12.8 seconds away,” Schnittman said. From there, it’s only 79,500 miles (128,000 kilometers) to the singularity. This final leg of the voyage is over in the blink of an eye.
In the alternative scenario, the camera orbits close to the event horizon but it never crosses over and escapes to safety. If an astronaut flew a spacecraft on this 6-hour round trip while her colleagues on a mothership remained far from the black hole, she’d return 36 minutes younger than her colleagues. That’s because time passes more slowly near a strong gravitational source and when moving near the speed of light.
“This situation can be even more extreme,” Schnittman noted. “If the black hole were rapidly rotating, like the one shown in the 2014 movie ‘Interstellar,’ she would return many years younger than her shipmates.”
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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A Different Perspective – Remembering James Dean, Founder of the NASA Art Program
In March 1962, NASA Administrator James Webb addressed a two-paragraph memorandum to NASA Public Affairs Director Hiden T. Cox about the possibility of bringing in artists to highlight the agency’s achievements in a new way. In it, he wrote, “We should consider in a deliberate way just what NASA should do in the field of fine arts to commemorate the … historic events” of America’s initial steps into space.
Shortly thereafter, NASA employee and artist James Dean was tasked with implementing NASA’s brand-new art program. Working alongside National Art Gallery Curator of Painting H. Lester Cooke, he created a framework to give artists unparalleled access to NASA missions at every step along the way, such as suit-up, launch and landing activities, and meetings with scientists and astronauts.
“It’s amazing just how good a sketch pad is at getting you into places,” Dean said in a 2008 oral history interview. “People shy away from cameras, but sketch pads, pencils, paints, you know … a lot of doors got opened that you could never open by making an official request.”
Walt Owen, “Apollo 15 NASA Artist at Work, VAB,” 1971, watercolor on paper. The painting depicts an artist seated on the ground inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Walt Owen / Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space MuseumThe NASA Art Program selected an initial group of eight artists – Peter Hurd, George Weymouth, Paul Calle, Robert McCall, Robert Shore, Lamar Dodd, John McCoy, and Mitchell Jamieson – in May 1963 to capture their interpretations of the final flight of the Mercury program, Faith 7. Seven of these men spent their time exploring Cape Canaveral and covering prelaunch activities; Jamieson covered splashdown and landing by being assigned to one of the recovery ships.
Though the grants and honorariums associated with being a NASA Art Program participant were always nominal – $800 in the 1960s and up to $3,000 in the early 2000s – many other well-known artists continued to work with the program through the decades that followed, including Norman Rockwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Annie Leibowitz, and Chakaia Booker.
“It wasn’t money they were after,” Dean noted. “They were interested in the experience and being invited back into where history was being made. I mean, artists have been with explorers … [since] the early days of exploration in this country.”
James Browning Wyeth, “Support,” 1965, watercolor on paper. The painting depicts the Gemini IV launch from the viewpoint of a neighboring gantry to the Gemini Launch Complex 19.James Browning Wyeth / Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space MuseumDean also recognized the importance of having a diverse range of artists present, even if they were all ostensibly there to capture the same historical event. “When you have six artists sitting together painting the same thing,” he explained, “each painting is different. And that’s because … they’re seeing all the same thing, but the image goes through their imagination too and all their experience.”
While there were some initial concerns about the NASA engineers and scientists accepting the artists as a new, prolonged presence in their midst, Dean found that once they “let the artist in and see what they were doing, they really hit it off because the engineers and the scientists and the artists really use a lot of imagination. So they were really connecting on a certain level.” He also observed a unique symbiosis occurring between artist and worker: “When an artist … turns your workplace into a work of art, you know, it validates everything you’ve been doing. It is a real motivating factor to see something like that.”
Artist James Dean, using a makeshift easel for support, prepares a preliminary study of the space shuttle Columbia on the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on June 27, 1982, as the spacecraft is prepared for its fourth flight (STS-4).NASADean served as the director of the NASA Art Program from 1962 to 1974, before leaving to become the first art curator for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from 1974 until his retirement in 1980. He passed away in Washington on March 22, 2024, at the age of 92. But his legacy lives on in the NASA Art Program collection, which currently has some 3,000 works divided between the National Air and Space Museum and NASA. Today, the program is focused on STEM outreach initiatives to inspire youth through creative activity.
To learn more, check out selected works from the NASA Art Program on the NASA History Flickr page and the National Air and Space Museum page.
Tech Today: NASA’s Ion Thruster Knowhow Keeps Satellites Flying
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This Hall-effect thruster, shown being tested at Glenn Research Center, turns electricity and inert gas into force that could propel a spacecraft. Orbion Space Technology was founded to bring the high efficiency of these thrusters to small commercial satellites, and the company sought the center’s help to make that a reality.Credit: NASAIn low Earth orbit, satellites face a constant challenge – a tiny amount of atmospheric drag that, over time, causes them to slow down and decay their orbit. To combat this, spacecraft rely on in-space thrusters to adjust positioning and boost orbits. However, most of these thrusters use heavy, expensive chemical propellants. This is where the game-changing ion thrusters come in, offering a more efficient and cost-effective solution for satellite operations.
Orbion Space Technology, based in Houghton, Michigan, was established in 2016. Recognizing a market need, the company set out to find innovative ways to either extend the lifespan of satellites in orbit or increase their payload capacity. This ambitious goal necessitated the development of a thruster that could operate efficiently with minimal fuel consumption, leading to the creation of the company’s Aurora thruster.
Hall-effect thrusters, an advanced ion propulsion technology, use electricity rather than chemical reactions to propel spacecraft. Orbion’s founders saw the technology grow from an experimental concept to being regularly used on missions across the solar system. Still, the company had to turn to the experts to make these thrusters viable for satellite operators.
Orbion’s Aurora thrusters are small and efficient yet powerful enough to maintain the orbits of small satellites for several years.Credit: Orbion Space Technology Inc.NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland leads the development of ion thrusters for the agency, designing and evaluating thrusters for missions like Dawn and DART and the agency’s Gateway lunar space station. Orbion entered into a Data Usage Agreement with NASA Glenn to receive detailed information from the development of these engines and a non-exclusive evaluation license. One of the reasons Orbion turned to NASA was its advancements in materials research for ion thrusters and the Glenn-developed cathode heater, which improves electrical efficiency and operating life.
This work resulted in Orbion’s Aurora thrusters being just as capable as those that NASA builds for its deep space science and exploration missions. Orbion has since sold several Aurora thrusters to government and private sector companies, including a recent contract with a large commercial satellite operator for its new constellation of Earth-observing spacecraft.
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Sols 4175-4177: Don’t Blink We’re Taking a Picture
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Sols 4175-4177: Don’t Blink We’re Taking a Picture This image shows our previous workspace block and rover wheel tracks from Sol 4171 taken by the Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. NASA/JPL-CaltechEarth planning date: Friday, May 3, 2024
Curiosity loves to drive so it’s pretty rare we stay at a location longer than one planning cycle without the intention of drilling. But since we found ourselves at this unique and beautiful rubbly ridge with dark-toned clasts all around, the science team decided to skip driving last plan and stay through most of the weekend in favor of more contact science. My job this week was operating the Mastcams, and we decided to take full advantage of this opportunity! Why not take an afternoon 360-degree panorama while we’re here? It’s understandably hard to argue against a full panorama, so we went for it and planned 331 Mastcam Left images that should cover most of the terrain around us (including a custom arm pose to get the ridge in better view). Since our left filter wheel got stuck last fall, occluding over half of our lens, we’ve had to subframe our images quite a bit to avoid any filter wheel hardware showing up and thus — our Mastcam Left frame size covers less than half what it use to. It’s extremely lucky we’re still able to use the camera at all, and we’re very happy to keep planning 360 panos after all these years even if it takes about 2.5x more images to acquire.
Now for the reason we stayed: a full evening of contact science on the first sol! APXS and MAHLI are planning to investigate a light-toned, layered but somehow still crunchy, rock named “Liberty Cap” and another similar rock named “Wilma Lake.” Liberty Cap imaging will also include a different type of MAHLI stereo where the turret rotates instead of moves laterally, called “rotational” stereo (or: “Herkenhoff” stereo after Ken Herkenhoff, a long-time MAHLI Co-Investigator among many other titles). Without any APXS support, MAHLI will also take a look at a pointy, dark-toned target named “Lookout Peak.” I sit right next to the MAHLI operations team and was trying my best to keep up with all they have going on today.
On the second sol, we drive! To be honest, there’s a ton more we planned today (including mid-drive and post-drive Mastcam imaging!) but this blog could go on and on with how packed this plan is. It’s always a little nerve-wracking sending a plan like this up to Mars before checking out for the weekend, but I’ll try my best and come back fresh for more Mastcam imaging on Monday.
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems
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NASA Invites Media to Attend Louisiana Space Day 2024
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, is one of the world’s largest manufacturing plants, with 43 acres under one roof and a port with deep-water access, permitting transportation of large space systems and hardware NASANASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, several aerospace companies, and GNO Inc. will host Louisiana Space Day 2024 at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, May 8.
Media are invited to attend and should contact Craig Betbeze at craig.c.betbeze@nasa.gov or 504-419-5333 by 2 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, May 7.
Area middle-school, high-school, and college students will participate in STEM activities, chat with NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, and hear from NASA leadership during an Artemis Generation panel discussion. The event also will include a reading of a Space Day resolution by Louisiana legislators with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director Joseph Pelfrey, NASA Michoud Director Hansel Gill, and astronaut Cassada, highlighting Louisiana’s contributions to space exploration.
NASA Michoud, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue Origin, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA STEM, partners for Stennis and Michoud, and selected Louisiana school robotics teams are among the exhibitors for Space Day 2024. GNO Inc. coordinated efforts with local schools to bring middle and high-school school students to participate.
Media opportunities for the day include:
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – STEM activities
Location: Capitol Rotunda
10 a.m. – Chat with NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, NASA Marshall Center Director Joseph Pelfrey, NASA Michoud Assembly Director Hansel Gill, and high school students
Location: Louisiana State Library
TBD – Resolution readings on the House and Senate Floors
11 a.m. – Artemis Generation Panel with college students. Panel participants are Chrystal Morgan, Boeing, as moderator, NASA Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey, and NASA Michoud Assembly Director Hansel Gill.
Location: Louisiana State Capitol
TBD – Louisiana Space Day 2024 Resolution reading by Louisiana Legislators with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director Joseph Pelfrey and NASA Michoud Assembly Director Hansel Gill.
About the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility
For more than half a century, NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has been “America’s Rocket Factory,” the nation’s premiere site for manufacturing and assembly of large-scale space structures and systems. Michoud is a NASA-owned facility, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
To learn more about programs and activities at NASA Michoud, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/michoud-assembly-facility/
Craig Betbeze
Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans
504-419-5333
craig.c.betbeze@nasa.gov
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Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole
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Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4951, located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth.Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951.
Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It’s classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which means that it’s an extremely energetic type of galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, Seyfert galaxies are unique from other sorts of AGNs because the galaxy itself can still be clearly seen – different types of AGNs are so bright that it’s nearly impossible to observe the actual galaxy that they reside within.
AGNs like NGC 4951 are powered by supermassive black holes. As matter whirls into the black hole, it generates radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, making the AGN shine brightly.
Hubble helped prove that supermassive black holes exist at the core of almost every galaxy in our universe. Before the telescope launched into low-Earth orbit in 1990, astronomers only theorized about their existence. The mission verified their existence by observing the undeniable effects of black holes, like jets of material ejecting from black holes and disks of gas and dust revolving around those black holes at very high speeds.
These observations of NGC 4951 were taken to provide valuable data for astronomers studying how galaxies evolve, with a particular focus on the star formation process. Hubble gathered this information, which is being combined with observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to support a JWST Treasury program. Treasury programs collect observations that focus on the potential to solve multiple scientific problems with a single, coherent dataset and enable a variety of compelling scientific investigations.
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Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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ARMD Solicitations
7 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Illustration showing multiple future air transportation options NASA researchers are studying or working to enable.NASAThis ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page.
University Leadership Initiative
Key date: May 29, 2024
Commercial Supersonic Technology
Key date: May 31, 2024
University Student Research Challenge
June 20, 2024
Advanced Air Mobility
Key date: Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations is using this request for information to identify technologies that address current challenges facing the wildland firefighting community. NASA is seeking information on data collection, airborne connectivity and communications solutions, unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, aircraft operations and autonomy, and more. This will support development of a partnership strategy for future collaborative demonstrations.
Interested parties were requested to respond to this notice with an information package no later than 4 pm ET, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies.
View the full RFI Announcement here.
Advanced Air Mobility MissionGENERAL ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY
ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
This request for information (RFI) is being used to gather market research for NASA to make informed decisions regarding potential partnership strategies and future research to enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). NASA is seeking information from public, private, and academic organizations to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding AAM research and development.
This particular RFI is just one avenue of multiple planned opportunities for formal feedback on or participation in NASA’s AAM Mission-related efforts to develop these requirements and help enable AAM.
The current respond by date for this RFI is Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST.
View the full RFI announcement here.
NASA Research Opportunities in AeronauticsNASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process to solicit proposals for foundational research in areas where ARMD seeks to enhance its core capabilities.
Competition for NRA awards is open to both academia and industry.
The current open solicitation for ARMD Research Opportunities is ROA-2023 and ROA-2024.
Here is some general information to know about the NRA process.
- NRA solicitations are released by NASA Headquarters through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES).
- All NRA technical work is defined and managed by project teams within these four programs: Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, and Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program.
- NRA awards originate from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, Ames Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.
- Competition for NRA awards is full and open.
- Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, and nonprofits.
- Any updates or amendments to an NRA is posted on the appropriate NSPIRES web pages as noted in the Amendments detailed below.
- ARMD sends notifications of NRA updates through the NSPIRES email system. In order to receive these email notifications, you must be a Registered User of NSPIRES. However, note that NASA is not responsible for inadvertently failing to provide notification of a future NRA. Parties are responsible for regularly checking the NSPIRES website for updated NRAs.
Amendment 1
UPDATED MAY 3, 2024
Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2024 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site at https://nspires.nasaprs.com.
The announcement solicits proposals from accredited U.S. institutions for research training grants to begin the academic year. This NOFO is designed to support independently conceived research projects by highly qualified graduate students, in disciplines needed to help advance NASA’s mission, thus affording these students the opportunity to directly contribute to advancements in STEM-related areas of study. AAVP Fellowship Opportunities are focused on innovation and the generation of measurable research results that contribute to NASA’s current and future science and technology goals.
Research proposals are sought to address key challenges provided in Elements of Appendix A.8.
Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required.
A budget breakdown for each proposal is required, detailing the allocation of the award funds by year. The budget document may adhere to any format or template provided by the applicant’s institution.
Proposals were due by April 30, 2024, at 5 PM ET.
Amendment 2
UPDATED APRIL 5, 2024
University Leadership Initiative (ULI) provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges in aeronautics, defining multi-disciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact.
Research proposals are sought in six ULI topic areas in Appendix D.4.
Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1)
Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2)
Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)
Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4)
Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5)
Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6)
This NRA will utilize a two-step proposal submission and evaluation process. The initial step is a short mandatory Step-A proposal due May 29, 2024. Those offerors submitting the most highly rated Step-A proposals will be invited to submit a Step-B proposal. All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. An Applicant’s Workshop was held on Thursday April 3, 2024; 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET (https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/applicants-workshops/workshop8)
Amendment 3
NEW APRIL 5, 2024
Commercial Supersonic Technology seeks proposals for a fuel injector design concept and fabrication for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center.
The proposal for the fuel injector design aims to establish current state-of-the-art in low NOx supersonic cruise while meeting reasonable landing take-off NOx emissions. The technology application timeline is targeted for a supersonic aircraft with entry into service in the 2035+ timeframe.
These efforts are in alignment with activities in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as outlined in the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan, specifically Strategic Thrust 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft.
Proposals due by May 31, 2024 at 5 pm EDT.
ROA-2023 NRA AmendmentsAmendment 5
UPDATED MAY 3, 2024
Amendment 5 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2023 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site.
University Student Research Challenge (solicitation NNH23ZEA001N-USRC) seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics. USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign. The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding campaign acts as a teaching accelerator – requiring students to act like entrepreneurs and raise awareness about their research among the public.
The solicitation goal can be accomplished through project ideas such as advancing the design, developing technology or capabilities in support of aviation, by demonstrating a novel concept, or enabling advancement of aeronautics-related technologies.
Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required for this solicitation. Three-page proposals for the next USRC cycle are due June 20, 2024.
The USRC Cycle 4 Q&A/Info Session and Proposal Workshop will be held on Monday, May 6, 2024 at 2pm ET. Please join us on TEAMS using the Meeting Link below, or call in via +1 256-715-9946,,176038745# Phone Conference ID: 176 038 745#
Amendment 4 (Expired)
(Full text here)
Amendment 3 (Expired)
(Full text here)
Amendment 2 (Expired)
(Full text here)
Amendment 1 (Expired)
(Full text here)
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Share Details Last Updated May 03, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsFormer NASA Center Director, Scientist to Receive Presidential Medals
President Joe Biden will present Dr. Ellen Ochoa, former center director and astronaut at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Dr. Jane Rigby, senior project scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, each with the Presidential Medal of Freedom Friday in a ceremony at the White House in Washington.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor award, and these two NASA recipients are among the 19 awardees announced May 3. Ochoa is recognized for her leadership at NASA Johnson and as the first Hispanic woman in space, and Rigby is recognized for her work on leading NASA’s transformational space telescope.
“I am proud Ellen and Jane are recognized for their incredible roles in NASA missions, for sharing the power of science with humanity, and inspiring the Artemis Generation to look to the stars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Among her many accomplishments as a veteran astronaut and leader, Ellen served as the second female director of Johnson, flew in space four times, and logged nearly 1,000 hours in orbit. Jane is one of the many wizards at NASA who work every day to make the impossible, possible. The James Webb Space Telescope represents the very best of scientific discovery that will continue to unfold the secrets of our universe. We appreciate Ellen and Jane for their service to NASA, and our country.”
Dr. Ellen Ochoa
Credit: The White HouseOchoa retired from NASA in 2018 after more than 30 years with the agency. In addition to being an astronaut, she served a variety of positions over the years, including the 11th director of NASA Johnson, Johnson deputy center director, and director of Flight Crew Operations.
She joined the agency in 1988 as a research engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, and moved to NASA Johnson in 1990 when she was selected as an astronaut. Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on the nine-day STS-56 mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. She flew in space four times, including STS-66, STS-96 and STS-110.
Born in California, Ochoa earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from San Diego State University and a master’s degree and doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. As a research engineer at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center, Ochoa investigated optical systems for performing information processing. She is a co-inventor on three patents and author of several technical papers.
“Wow, what an unexpected and amazing honor! I’m so grateful for all my amazing NASA colleagues who shared my career journey with me,” said Ochoa upon hearing the news of her Presidential Medal of Freedom award.
During her career, Ochoa also received NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award for senior executives in the federal government. She has received many other awards and is especially honored to have seven schools named for her.
Ochoa also is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and formerly chaired both the National Science Board and the Nomination Evaluation Committee for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Dr. Jane Rigby
Credit: The White HouseRigby, who was born and raised in Delaware, is honored with the Medal of Freedom for her role in the success of NASA’s Webb mission – the largest, most powerful space telescope launched on Dec. 25, 2021 – as well as her longtime support of diversity and inclusion in science.
She is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She provides scientific leadership for Webb, which has made pioneering discoveries about the secrets of our universe and inspired the world in its first two years of science operations. Rigby worked on the development of Webb for many years, and subsequently led the characterization of Webb’s science performance, which now is exceeding expectations, and frequently shares the progress of Webb science with the public.
“Webb has become a symbol not only of technical excellence and scientific discovery, but also of how much humanity can accomplish when we all work together,” Rigby said. “I’m so proud and grateful to lead the amazing Webb team.”
Rigby is an active researcher, developing new techniques to better understand how galaxies evolve over time and form stars. She has published 160 peer-reviewed publications and has been recognized with awards such as NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the Fred Kavli Prize Plenary Lecture from the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and the 2022 LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year from Out to Innovate.
“Thousands of people around the world came together to build Webb,” said Rigby. “The engineers who built and deployed Webb were critical to Webb’s success, and now thousands of scientists around the world are using Webb to make discovery after discovery.” To represent those contributions, in addition to inviting her family to the Medal of Freedom ceremony, Rigby invited her colleague Mike Menzel, Webb lead mission systems engineer at NASA Goddard, and Dr. Kelsey Johnson, president of the American Astronomical Society.
Rigby also serves as a trustee of the AAS and was a founding member of the AAS Committee for Sexual-Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy. She holds a doctorate in Astronomy from the University of Arizona, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Physics, as well as another in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Penn State University.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Learn more about NASA’s missions at:
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A Moonlit Trio
The Moon (left), Saturn, and Jupiter (lower right; Saturn is above and to the left of Jupiter) were seen in the sky above the Washington Memorial on Dec. 17, 2020. At the time, Saturn and Jupiter were nearing each other in the sky, culminating in a “great conjunction” on Dec. 21, where they appeared a tenth of a degree apart.
Great conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn happen every 20 years, making the planets appear to be close to one another. This closeness occurs because Jupiter orbits the Sun every 12 years, while Saturn’s orbit takes 30 years, causing Jupiter to catch up to Saturn every couple of decades as viewed from Earth.
The last great conjunction was even more special: Jupiter and Saturn had not appeared that close in the sky to each other since 1623.
For skywatching tips, visit What’s Up.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays
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Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. SunThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. This swirling collection of new and old stars is located in the constellation Virgo, in the Virgo galaxy cluster, 100 million light-years from Earth. Although IC 776 is a dwarf galaxy, it’s also classified as a SAB-type or ‘weakly barred’ spiral. This highly detailed Hubble view demonstrates that complexity. IC 776 has a ragged, disturbed disc that appears to spiral around the core with arcs of star-forming regions.
The image is from an observation program dedicated to the study of dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster that is searching for the visible light emissions from sources of X-rays in these galaxies. X-rays are often emitted by accretion discs, where material that is drawn into a compact object by gravity crashes together and forms a hot, glowing disc. The compact object can be a white dwarf or neutron star in a binary pair that is stealing material from its companion star, or it can be the supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy devouring material around it. Dwarf galaxies like IC 776, traveling through the Virgo cluster, experience pressure from intergalactic gas that is similar to the pressure you feel from air hitting your face when you ride a bicycle. This intergalactic gas pressure can both stimulate star formation and feed the central black hole in a galaxy. As more material swirls down toward the black hole, it creates an energetic accretion disc, hot enough to emit X-rays.
While Hubble is not able to see X-rays, it can coordinate with X-ray telescopes such as NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, revealing the sources of this radiation in high resolution using visible light. Dwarf galaxies are very important to our understanding of cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. As with many areas of astronomy, the ability to examine these galaxies across the electromagnetic spectrum is critical to their study.
Text Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
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2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Prediction vs. Reality
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2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Prediction vs. Reality Image Before/AfterBefore a total solar eclipse crossed North America on April 8, 2024, scientists at Predictive Science Inc. of San Diego aimed to foresee what the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, would look like during totality.
The predictions help researchers understand the accuracy of their models of the Sun’s corona, which extends along its magnetic field. A solar eclipse offers a rare opportunity to view the entire corona from Earth, guiding research into how its energy can cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can disrupt technology on Earth and in space.
The researchers used the Aitken, Electra, and Pleiades supercomputers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility, located at the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. With near-real-time data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and ESA’s (the European Space Agency) and NASA’s Solar Orbiter, they created a dynamic model of the corona. The team’s model accurately predicted several details, including long streamers in the upper and lower left side of the image, but the streamers’ locations are slightly misaligned when compared with real images. This is likely because some new activity on the far side of the Sun, which affected the appearance of the corona, wasn’t yet seen and couldn’t be incorporated in the model. Once it was, the model more closely matched observational photos of the corona.
Recognizing that the corona is inherently complex and difficult to predict during solar maximum, Cooper Downs, a research scientist at Predictive Science, said, “We’re really thrilled with this simulation. It really has a lot of scientific consequences that I think we’ll be exploring for a long time.”
By Rachel Lense, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md;
with Tara Friesen, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.
Researchers Develop ‘Founding Document’ on Synthetic Cell Development
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Synthetic cell development could lead researchers to new developments in food and medical sciences and a better understanding of the origins of life on Earth.NIH/Rhoda BaerCells are the fundamental units of life, forming the variety of all living things on Earth as individual cells and multi-cellular organisms. To better understand how cells perform the essential functions of life, scientists have begun developing synthetic cells – non-living bits of cellular biochemistry wrapped in a membrane that mimic specific biological processes.
The development of synthetic cells could one day hold the answers to developing new ways to fight disease, supporting long-duration human spaceflight, and better understanding the origins of life on Earth.
In a paper published recently in ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers outline the potential opportunities that synthetic cell development could unlock and what challenges lie ahead in this groundbreaking research. They also present a roadmap to inspire and guide innovation in this intriguing field.
“The potential for this field is incredible,” said Lynn Rothschild, the lead author of the paper and an astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “It’s a privilege to have led this group in forming what we envision will be a founding document, a resource that will spur this field on.”
Synthetic cell development could have wide ranging benefits to humanity. Analyzing the intricacies that go in to building a cell could guide researchers to better understand how cells first evolved or open the door to creating new forms of life more capable of withstanding harsh environments like radiation or freezing temperatures.
These innovations could also lead to advancements in food and medical sciences – creating efficiencies in food production, detecting contaminants in manufacturing, or developing novel cellular functions that act as new therapies for chronic diseases and even synthetic organ transplantation.
Building synthetic cells could also answer some of NASA’s biggest questions about the possibility of life beyond Earth.
“The challenge of creating synthetic cells informs whether we’re alone in the universe,” said Rothschild. “We’re starting to develop the skills to not just create synthetic analogs of life as it may have happened on Earth but to consider pathways to life that could form on other planets.”
As research continues on synthetic cell development, Rothschild sees opportunities where it could expand our understanding of the complexities of natural life.
“Life is an amazing thing. We use the capabilities of cells all the time – we build houses with wood, we use leather in our shoes, we breathe oxygen. Life has amazing precision, and if you can harness it, it’s unbelievable what we could accomplish.”
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Share Details Last Updated May 03, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 2 min read Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-RaysThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. This swirling collection…
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Hi-C Rocket Experiment Achieves Never-Before-Seen Look at Solar Flares
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, launches aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket April 17 at Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska. NASABy Jessica Barnett
After months of preparation and years since its last flight, the upgraded High Resolution Coronal Imager Flare mission – Hi-C Flare, for short – took to the skies for a never-before-seen view of a solar flare.
The low-noise cameras – built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama – are part of a suite of state-of-the-art instruments on board the Black Brant IX sounding rocket that launched April 17 from Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Using the new technology, investigators hoped to study the extreme energies involved with solar flares. The Hi-C Flare experiment mission was led by Marshall.
“This is a pioneering campaign,” said Sabrina Savage, principal investigator at Marshall for Hi-C Flare. “Launching sounding rockets to observe the Sun to test new technologies optimized for flare observations has not even been an option until now.”
It was the third iteration of the Hi-C instrument to take flight, but its first flight with ride along instruments, including the COOL-AID (Coronal OverLapagram – Ancillary Imaging Diagnostics), CAPRI-SUN (high-CAdence low-energy Passband x-Ray detector with Integrated full-SUN field of view), and SSAXI (Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager). Following a month of payload integration and testing in White Sands, New Mexico, investigators completed final launch site integration at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska.
Each morning of the two-week launch campaign window, the team spent about five hours preparing the experiment for launch, followed by up to four hours of monitoring solar data for a flare that registers as C5-class or higher with duration longer than the rocket flight. The launch finally occurred on the penultimate day of the campaign window.
“The Sun was unusually quiet throughout the campaign despite numerous active regions,” said Savage. “Both teams were getting nervous that we would not launch, but we finally got a nice long-duration M-class flare right before the window closed.”
The Hi-C Flare mission launched at 2:14 p.m. AKDT, just one minute after the FOXSI-4 (Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager) mission led by the University of Minnesota. Once in air, sensors on the Hi-C Flare rocket pointed cameras toward the Sun and stabilized instrumentation. Then, a shutter door opened to allow the cameras to gather about five minutes of data before the door closed and the rocket fell back to Earth.
From left, Austin Bumbalough, Ken Kobayashi, Harlan Haight, Sabrina Savage, William Hogue, Jim Cecil, and Adam Kobelski, members of the Hi-C Flare team, gather after the payload was recovered and brought to Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Hi-C Flare, equipped with Hi-C 3, COOL-AID, CAPRI-SUN, and SSAXI, launched into a solar flare as part of the first-ever solar flare sounding rocket campaign. NASAThe rocket landed in the Alaskan tundra, where it remained until conditions were safe enough for the team to retrieve it and begin processing the collected data.
“For launches into the tundra, we have to wait a few days for the instrument to get back to us and then to be dried out enough to turn on,” said Savage. “It was an anxious few days, but the data are beautiful and were worth the wait.”
Investigators weren’t just testing new technology, either. They also used a new algorithm to predict the behavior of a solar flare, allowing them to launch the rocket at the ideal time.
“To catch a flare in action is really hard, because you can’t predict them,” said Genevieve Vigil, technical and camera lead for Hi-C 3 and COOL-AID at Marshall. “We had to wait around for a solar flare to start going, then launch as it’s happening. No one has tried to do that before.”
Fortunately, their method was a success.
“We are still processing the data from all four instruments, but the data from Hi-C 3 and COOL-AID already look fantastic,” said Savage.
“The COOL-AID data is the first spectrally pure image in a hot spectral line that we know of,” said Amy Winebarger, project scientist at Marshall for Hi-C Flare.
The Hi-C experiment is led by Marshall Space Flight Center in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Launch support is provided at Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska by NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, which is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency.
Jonathan Deal
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Galaxy Evolution Explorer Searches for Light
This Dec. 21, 2002, artist’s concept of NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer imagines what the space telescope would look like during its mission. Launched April 28, 2003, it studied the shape, brightness, size and distance of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. By observing ultraviolet wavelengths, the telescope measured the history of star formation in the universe.
This space telescope allowed astronomers to uncover mysteries about the early universe and how it evolved, as well as better characterize phenomena like black holes and dark matter. The mission was extended three times over a period of 10 years before it was decommissioned in June 2013.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sols 4173-4174: Reflections
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Sols 4173-4174: Reflections This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4171 (2024-04-30 19:41:16 UTC). NASA/JPL-CaltechEarth planning date: Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Today’s planning was a little out of the ordinary. Not in terms of the plan itself, Curiosity’s team built an exciting plan utilizing much of its science toolkit. Today’s plan was unusual rather due to my role as APXS PUDL Reverse Shadow (PUDL = Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead). While I normally staff the APXS PUDL role, the person on-shift responsible for APXS downlink assessment and uplink planning, operating as a “Reverse Shadow” meant I took a backseat to another APXS team member who was completing the final phases of their training for the role. They handled their duties with great aplomb, leaving me to reflect on my first few shifts in the same role.
As I’m typing this, given how long it has been since that time, I can’t shake the comedy of narrating this section of the blog in the distinct and rapid-paced tone of 1940s or 1950s radio and TV. It was around a month after landing, September 10th 2012, to be specific. I was on shift for the first time as APXS PUDL and was not expecting much in the way of workload given the notional plan. Curiosity, on the other hand, had a different idea. As event logs of the sol prior were received, the intended plan was scrapped and there was an opportunity to propose an activity. My mentor at the time encouraged my input. We were conducting operations at JPL then and walked down the hall to present our request to other members of the team before the sol’s uplink planning meetings officially kicked off (I am correcting myself here as I originally typed “days” instead of “sols” but Mars time meant shifts at this time occurred throughout the night in California). The proposal was accepted, and the proposed activity ultimately went according to plan. I can remember driving back to my hotel as the sun was coming up. It was then that it hit me: I had just influenced something that happened on another planet. It was a very surreal experience. What I didn’t realize then, however, was how important these data acquired on my first shift as lead APXS PUDL would be, given they now serve as a baseline from which we assess APXS performance vs. temperature over time.
Today’s APXS PUDL had a more typical experience. There are two APXS targets in the plan: “Emerald Peak” and “Franklin Lakes.” These targets are both on the same block (the rectangular one just slightly left and above the middle of this blog’s image), with Emerald Peak targeting the visibly altered rim near the lower portion of the block and Franklin Lakes more centrally located. MAHLI will acquire images of both of these targets, including a three-position rotational stereo set on Emerald Peak. A number of other targets were captured by ChemCam and/or Mastcam, including “Grizzly Falls,” “Liberty Cap,” “Pavilion Dome,” “Triple Divide Peak,” and “Haystack Peak.” As Curiosity is not driving in this plan, ChemCam and Mastcam are also used for targeted observations on the second sol, focusing primarily on “The Minarets” and “Pinnacle Ridge,” alongside long-distance observations of “Kukenan.” DAN observations as well as a number of environmental monitoring activities by REMS, Navcam, and Mastcam round out the two-sol plan.
Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University
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NASA Is Helping Protect Tigers, Jaguars, and Elephants. Here’s How.
Wildlife Conservation Society / Dale Miquelle
As human populations grow, habitat loss threatens many creatures. Mapping wildlife habitat using satellites is a rapidly expanding area of ecology, and NASA satellites play a crucial role in these efforts. Tigers, jaguars, and elephants are a few of the vulnerable animals whose habitats NASA is helping track from space.
“Satellites observe vast areas of Earth’s surface on daily to weekly schedules,” said Keith Gaddis, ecological conservation program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “That helps scientists monitor habitats that would be logistically challenging and time-consuming to survey from the ground — crucial for animals like tigers that roam large territories.”
Here’s how NASA and its partners help protect three of Earth’s most iconic species:
Trouble (and Hope) for TigersTigers have lost at least 93% of their historical range, which once spanned Eurasia. Roughly 3,700 to 5,500 wild tigers remain, up from an estimated low of 3,200 in 2010.
In a recent study, researchers reviewed over 500 studies that contained data on tigers and their habitat across Asia. The team found that the area where the big cats are known to live declined 11%, from about 396,000 square miles in 2001 to about 352,000 square miles in 2020.
Led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and funded by NASA’s Ecological Conservation program, the team developed a tool that uses Google Earth Engine and NASA Earth observations to monitor changes in tiger habitat. The goal: aid conservation efforts in near-real time, using data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagers, and Landsat satellites.
The researchers mapped large stretches of “empty forests” without recent tiger presence. Because these areas were suitable habitat and are still big enough to support tigers, they are potential landscapes for restoration, assuming there is enough food. If tigers could reach those areas, either through natural dispersal or active reintroduction, it could “increase the land base for tigers by 50%,” the scientists reported.
“There’s still a lot more room for tigers in the world than even tiger experts thought,” said lead author Eric Sanderson, formerly a senior conservation ecologist at WCS and now vice president of urban conservation at the New York Botanical Garden. “We were only able to figure that out because we brought together all of this data from NASA and integrated it with information from the field.”
Where the Jaguars AreJaguars once roamed from the U.S. Southwest to Argentina. But in the past century, they have lost about 50% of their range, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Like tigers, jaguars must contend with poaching and the loss of food sources. Wild jaguars number between 64,000 and 173,000 individuals, and IUCN classifies them as near-threatened.
In Gran Chaco, South America’s second largest woodland, jaguars and other animals live in an especially threatened ecosystem. The dry lowland forest stretches from northern Argentina into Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, and has experienced severe deforestation.
Image Before/AfterJaguars in Argentina’s Chaco may number in the hundreds. Using data on land use and infrastructure, plus Earth observations from MODIS and Landsat, NASA-funded researchers mapped priority conservation areas for jaguars and other important animals. About 36% of the priority areas in Argentina’s Chaco are currently “low-protection” zones, where deforestation is allowed.
“Managers and conservationists could use the new spatial information to see where current forest zoning is protecting key animals, and where it may need re-evaluation,” said lead author Sebastian Martinuzzi of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Elephants Seek Out Forest HavensAfrican savanna elephants now occupy an estimated 15% of their historical range, and their numbers have declined. One study surveyed about 90% of the elephants’ range and estimated that their numbers dropped by 144,000 elephants from 2007 to 2014, leaving approximately 352,000 individuals. In 2021, the IUCN updated the elephants’ status to endangered.
A recent study used NASA satellite-derived vegetation indices and other data to study elephants in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, and in nearby semi-protected and unprotected zones. Researchers found that, especially in the unprotected areas, the elephants preferred dense canopy forest, particularly along streams, and avoided open areas like grasslands, especially when more people are present. Human development, such as tourism lodges, is often built in such forests.
Prioritizing elephants’ access to forests in unprotected areas should be of utmost importance for land managers, the researchers said. Because the elephants avoided grasslands, some of those areas could be used for development or livestock — balancing need for economic development and elephant habitat.
The IUCN likewise classifies Asian elephants as endangered. In southern Bhutan, crop depredation and wildlife approaching human settlements is escalating conflicts between people and elephants. In 2020–2021, Bhutanese scholars studying in the United States were selected to participate in the NASA Capacity Building Program’s DEVELOP program. Partnering with the Bhutan Foundation, Bhutan Tiger Center, and Bhutan Ecological Society, the teams used NASA Earth observations, elephant occurrence data, and other information to model current habitat suitability and map wildlife pathways between habitats, aiding strategies that reduce the risk of conflict.
By Emily DeMarco
NASA’s Earth Science Division, Headquarters
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NASA Partner Zooniverse Receives White House Open Science Award
Zooniverse
Congrats to NASA partner Zooniverse for being named winners in the White House’s Year of Open Science Recognition Challenge!
The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) designated 2023 as the year of Open Science, and invited innovators to submit stories of how they’ve advanced equitable open science. OSTP and its federal partners selected five challenge project submissions as “Champions of Open Science” including Zooniverse.
Since 2007, Zooniverse has become the largest online open data platform for people-powered research, engaging more than 2.7 million people. NASA Citizen Science projects hosted on the Zooniverse platform include Cloudspotting on Mars, Dark Energy Explorers, Floating Forests, Are We Alone In the Universe?, Disk Detective, Solar Active Region Spotter, Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, Active Asteroids, Daily Minor Planet, Solar Jet Hunter, Jovian Vortex Hunter, Redshift Wrangler, Burst Chaser and Planet Hunters TESS.
“With Zooniverse we have classified more galaxies than we ever thought possible!” said Lindsay House, scientist on the Dark Energy Explorers project. “Zooniverse participants have been vital in helping us map the universe.”
Find out more, and join the fun at Zooniverse.org!
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NASA Technology Grants to Advance Moon to Mars Space Exploration
NASA has awarded nearly $1.5 million to academic, non-profit, and business organizations to advance state-of-the-art technology that will play a key role in the agency’s return to the Moon under Artemis, as well as future missions to Mars.
Twenty-four projects from 21 organizations have been awarded under NASA’s Dual-Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notices, or CANs. The awardees also will receive assistance from propulsion, space transportation, and science experts at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“The Dual-Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notice enables NASA to collaboratively work with U.S. industry and academia to develop needed technologies,” said Daniel O’Neil, manager, NASA Marshall’s Technology Development Dual-Use CAN Program. “Products from these cooperative agreements support the closure of identified technology gaps and enable the development of components and systems for NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture.”
These innovative projects include ways to use lunar regolith for construction on the Moon’s surface, using smartphone video guidance sensors to fly robots on the International Space Station, identifying new battery materials, and improving a neutrino particle detector.
The following is a complete list of awardees:
- Auburn University in Alabama
- Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida
- Florida International University in Miami
- Fronius USA in Portage, Indiana
- Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories in Tullahoma, Tennessee
- Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge
- Morgan State University in Baltimore
- Nanoracks (Voyager Space) in Houston
- Northwestern University in Chicago
- Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana
- Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio
- Tethon 3D in Omaha, Nebraska
- University of Alabama in Huntsville
- University of California in Irvine
- University of Florida in Gainesville
- University of Illinois in Chicago
- University of North Texas in Denton
- University of Tennessee in Knoxville
- University of Tennessee Space Institute
- Victory Solutions in Huntsville, Alabama
- Wichita State University in Kansas
The Florida Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and the University of Alabama were awarded funding for two projects each.
Funding was available for organizations focused on supporting entrepreneurial research and innovation ideas that could advance the commercial space sector and benefit future NASA missions.
Applications are now open for the 2024 solicitation cycle.
To learn more about NASA’s missions, visit:
-end-
Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
James.j.russell@nasa.gov
Ramon Osorio
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov
