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Interview with OCEANOS Instructor María Fernanda Barbarena-Arias
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) María Fernanda Barbarena-Arias (left), an associate professor of biology and instructor for the OCEANOS internship, stands on the sand of Playa Melones, Culebra Island, during the field work section of the internship.NASA ARC/Milan Loiacono What is your name and your role with OCEANOS?
My name is María Fernanda Barbarena-Arias. I am an associate professor of biology at the American University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus. I am also a co-PI in the OCEANOS project, and an instructor and mentor for the students during the internship.
What is the importance of a program like OCEANOS, especially in Puerto Rico?I think it makes a difference for the students because it gives them the opportunity to learn and to become familiar with ocean science, and with coastal and marine natural resources. In particular with OCEANOS one of the great [elements] is that usually marine science is offered in the upper system, which is the public university in Puerto Rico, and OCEANOS is engaging a private university where usually students who cannot enter the public system can begin studying. They have those kind of opportunities, because of OCEANOS.
What are some ways you’ve seen the students grow over the course of the internship?The growth and changes that I’ve seen in students is mostly gaining confidence in the water. I think it’s great! Their first time they are apprehensive, and then as time passes and they engage more into their projects they seem much more familiar with swimming. The students also become more familiar and more confident on their projects. The first time they try to collect data they ask a lot of questions, and then by the third day they already know what to do. They are really empowered and I love that.
What is something you hope the students take with them after this program?I hope that the students learn and become voices to help spread the word about natural sciences: we can study it and work in marine science. Usually in Puerto Rico, natural sciences are seen like a first step when you’re going to be focused in medical science or human health-related disciplines, and so that’s in some ways the tradition; it’s what the public knows. I hope this experience helped the students to spread the word that other kinds of careers are an alternative. I also hope it made them aware that we live in a vulnerable island and that we need to take action to become conscious, and to take action to be ready and to protect our natural resources.
How did you become involved in marine science, and eventually OCEANOS?I actually come from Colombia. I did a bachelors degree in biology there and a minor in entomology, because at that point in my life I wanted to work in agriculture and to do pest control. But then I took a class on insect ecology, and I had to do a project and that’s when I discovered that my passion is ecology. So I applied to the University of Puerto Rico and I came here and did my master’s and my bachelor’s in tropical biology, but actually related to forests. But in the meantime I got married to a Puerto Rican guy, so I decided to stay here.
Three years later I was able to land a permanent position as a faculty in a private university, and I realized that I didn’t like the way we usually teach science in the classroom. So I began taking trainings and looking for opportunities to mentor students and to teach students in non-traditional settings. I got involved in many projects and I have a strong collaboration with University of Maryland, and we have had these kinds of projects/training/research opportunities for students outside the classroom for many years. And that I why I think one PI called me and invited me to OCEANOS, and here I am.
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Interview with OCEANOS Instructor Samuel Suleiman
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Samuel Suleiman, an instructor for the OCEANOS internship, teaches students about sargassum and shore ecology on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, during the fieldwork section of the project. Suleiman is also the Executive Director of Sociedad Ambiente Marino: a Puerto Rican NGO that works in conservation and coral reef restoration.NASA ARC/Milan Loiacono What is your name and your role with OCEANOS?
My name is Samuel Suleiman and I am the Executive Director of Sociedad Ambiente Marino: an NGO in Puerto Rico that has been working for the last 25 years to conserve our coastline and our reefs. During the OCEANOS internship, I am one of the Co-PIs (a co-instructor) for the project, and I’m in charge of the marine ecosystem in Culebra Island.
What is the importance of a program like OCEANOS, especially in Puerto Rico?The OCEANOS internship is pretty important for those students that don’t have the opportunity to go directly to our natural resources. Puerto Rico is an archipiélago – an island surrounded with other small islands – and most of the population that we have on the island doesn’t appreciate or understand or protect our resources, because they haven’t had the opportunity to learn about it. OCEANOS provide this experience for these kids and also allows them to grow in different areas; not just in the in the lectures and the information and the marine science data, but also about working together as collaborators.
What are some ways you’ve seen the students grow over the course of the internship?They have become more confident in the water compared to where we started, and they have start collaborating amongst themselves in their different research groups. They have also been changing their minds and attitudes, [which is] what we need for a better Puerto Rico and a better world.
How did you get into science?I started in science because I wanted to be a pediatrician when I was a kid. I started in the Natural Science College at the University of Puerto Rico, then I changed to education in science. And I try to mix together my experience from the past: I almost drowned when I was five years old. Instead of paralyzing myself with fear of the water, I tried to explore, and I have been exploring since then; since I was five years old. Every time that I have the opportunity, I learn something new from the ocean.
What is something that has been rewarding about working with these students?I think that we have to create a new kind of people that protect our resources. People that are willing to take what is needed to make a better world, and a better Puerto Rico.
What is something you hope the students take with them after this program?I hope they feel a sense of belonging with the ocean, our coastline, our beaches, our resources, our reefs, our marine ecosystems. And I hope they can be ambassadors of these places.
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Interview with OCEANOS Instructor Roy Armstrong
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Roy Armstrong, an instructor for the OCEANOS internship and marine sciences professor, pilots a small boat around the cays off the coast of La Parguera, Puerto Rico. NASA ARC/Milan Loiacono What is your name and your role with OCEANOS?
My name is Ray Armstrong and I am a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico. I came to be involved in OCEANOS because my ex-student and good friend Juan Torres-Perez, who works at NASA Ames Research Center, came up with this idea of having an internship for Hispanic students in Puerto Rico in the areas of remote sensing and oceanography, as a way of motivating Hispanic students to pursue careers in technology and oceanography.
What is the importance of a program like OCEANOS, especially in Puerto Rico?Puerto Rico is an island and surrounded by ocean, and yet there is a lack of interest in marine sciences and oceanography compared to other disciplines. So we think that we need to promote the study and also conservation of our marine resources, and to use high technology – such as remote sensing – to study and monitor our oceans and deal with things like water quality and the status of coral reefs, mangroves communities and so forth.
What is something that has been rewarding about working with these students?Mostly the enthusiasm of the students when they go in the water or they look at mangroves for the first time, and learn more about their importance for fisheries and the coastline and so forth. Also sharing some of our stories and experiences in marine sciences, and listening to the students at the end of the program say that because of this experience they would like to pursue careers in marine sciences.
What has been a challenge of the program?Well, one thing is the logistics, because it involves going out in boats in the ocean and there’s a limit of how many students can be in one place or in the water for safety reasons. So that that sets a limitation on the number of students for different activities.
This year we started a virtual component where we are also teaching a cohort of students and teachers on the use of NASA remote sensing technology in a virtual way and they also participate in some of the projects that the in-person students developed for this project.
How did you get into science?Oh, for me it was simple. I was in love with the ocean since I was a little kid. I had the opportunity of participating in what is called the ‘sea semester’ at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, also Boston University where I graduated, and that was a big difference. I immediately realized that that’s what I wanted to do the rest of my life.
As someone born and raised in Puerto Rico, what are some of the environmental changes you’ve noticed in and around Puerto Rico?I was born in Ponce, which is the second largest city in Puerto Rico. I moved to Parguera to study marine sciences at the Department of Marine Sciences in 1976. So basically I have lived here all my life, as a student but also as a professor: this year is my 28th year as a professor of marine sciences.
There were a lot of changes initially from hurricanes. In the late 1970s a couple of hurricanes destroyed huge areas of very shallow coral reef zones. After that there was a bloom of coral diseases. Through the years that has increased, decimating a lot of the coral populations in this area and in many other areas of the Caribbean and the world. More recently, in the last 5-10 years, more people in boats are coming to this area to a marine reserve, which put constant pressure on the ecosystem. When you have too many boats in one place, too many people in the water, and so forth, we don’t give the ecosystem a time to recover.
What is the importance of a program like OCEANOS, particularly in Puerto Rico?We have seen that many professionals leave the island, in all disciplines. But if we can get younger people to be interested in what we do in the marine sciences in general. they will lhopefully ike to stay in Puerto Rico and work here and also make a difference in protecting our coastal ecosystems.
What is something that you hope the students take with them when they leave?Even now, when the program is still going you can hear them say that the bonds they have established with fellow students and also with mentors and professors is very important. Some have also completely shifted their interest in other disciplines to marine science, or technology in general. And I’m very happy to hear that, because I think we’re having an effect on the on the people that come and the students that participate in this internship.
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Interview with OCEANOS PI Juan Torres-Pérez
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) OCEANOS PI Juan Torres-Pérez, a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, holds two pieces of cyanobacteria in the waters of Playa Melones, Culebra Island (Puerto Rico) during the 2024 OCEANOS internship. The cyanobacteria overgrowth is likely caused by an on-land source of pollution leeching into the waters.NASA ARC/Milan Loiacono What is your name and your role with OCEANOS?
My name is Juan Torres-Pérez. I am a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in the Earth Sciences division, biospheric sciences branch. I am the PI of OCEANOS, which stands for Ocean Community Engagement and Awareness with NASA Observations and Science for Hispanic/Latino students.
What is the importance of a program like OCEANOS, particularly in Puerto Rico?When you look at the statistics in the in the US, the Hispanic/Latino community is one of the largest minorities across the continental US and jurisdictions like Puerto Rico. But in the geo sciences, the percentage of Hispanic and Latinos is very, very small, including in Puerto Rico. So that’s where we wanted to propose a project like OCEANOS: to engage Hispanic/Latino students in Puerto Rico in geosciences. Specifically, engaging students in oceanography and the use of remote sensing and NASA data to study coastal marine ecosystems.
What are some of the activities that the students do as part of the program?For example here in Culebra, students study the coral reefs and their different components. What was the condition of the corals per se? The different coral species and their status. They’re also doing beach profiles, to measure whether the beaches have shrunk over time.
One of the other things that they’re doing is measuring water quality in a few different sites in Culebra [Island] and also in la Parguera on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico, so they can compare the water quality in the east of Puerto Rico against the Southwest.
What is something that has been rewarding about working with these students?Something rewarding is just to see their faces. Last year when they finished the program and this year as they go through the different experiences, you see how they’re learning. You see how they become engaged and how they participate in the in all the different activities. Most of the evenings, event late at night they’re still working on the data and they want to continue working with the data. So that tells you that this is something that they really enjoy and that they want to do for the future.
What growth or change do you see in the students over the course of the internship?For one example, we’ve had students here that on the very first day told us that they didn’t swim, and we brought them to the water in the first week. We gave them some pointers, we talked to them about safety in the water, and taught them some techniques. And now, less than three weeks later they’re diving; they’re literally diving in the water collecting data and doing everything that we tell them to do. So that for us is a win-win situation.
What has been a challenge of the program?A challenge for us is more on the on the logistics of bringing in so many students, particularly to the to the southwest coast and also to Culebra Island. These are both big tourism sites in Puerto Rico, which makes it tough for logistics like finding a place for them to stay. In the case of Culebra, we have to buy the ferry tickets to bring them to the island, the transportation and all of that. But at the end of the day it’s so rewarding that it’s definitely worth it.
What is something that you hope the students take with them when they leave?We want the students to become agents of change. That means that they can pass on to their communities, their families, all their relatives, and their schools all the knowledge that they gain through this whole month, and eventually get others enthusiastic about not only engaging in activities like this, but also in preserving the ocean. We have some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the Caribbean here, and they’ve been suffering from a lot of different climate-related and anthropogenic activities. If we get them to tell others that we need to preserve this [marine ecosystem], and then they follow the same steps, that’s the long-term goal for us.
What are some of the environmental changes you’ve noticed in and around Puerto Rico?One example is that nowadays there are several invasive species that have been affecting the coral reefs for at least the past couple decades and some of them even more recently. For instance, the introduction of the lionfish in the Caribbean has devastated some of the most important fish populations, such as groupers and snappers, which affects the whole food web. There are also a number of invasive seagrass species and also some other invertebrates that are literally colonizing all the areas that used to be covered by corals and the local seagrass species, and that disrupts the whole ecosystem.
Many of them are a consequence of human introduction. Most of these species are actually from the Pacific, and come in or on ships as they go through the Panama canal and eventually they get into the Caribbean. Some of the larvae and such are in there, and then they find a new place to stay and reproduce.
Some other species are probably related to climate change: the increase in surface temperatures the changes in currents and such. This is something that’s still being studied by a lot of scientists in the Caribbean and also in the in the Atlantic.
Do you see any climate change-related effects in Puerto Rico?In particular one of the biggest changes that we have seen in terms of climate change and its impact on coral reefs is the increasing surface temperatures. We are literally going through a global coral bleaching event. That has been happening in the last in the last few years and that has affected many of the coral species in the Caribbean and many other parts in the world. Once the coral gets bleached it becomes weakened, and eventually a lot of these colonies die. Once they die they get covered by filamentous algae, and there’s no way back from there. That affects the whole ecosystem, including fisheries and others. Also, some of the coral diseases may also be triggered by these changes related to climate.
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How Webb Stays in Focus
One of the most difficult challenges when assembling a telescope is aligning it to optical precision. If you don’t do it correctly, all your images will be fuzzy. This is particularly challenging when you assemble your telescope in space, as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) demonstrates.
Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST doesn’t have a single primary mirror. To fit in the launch rocket, it had to be folded, then assembled after launch. For this reason and others, JWST’s primary reflector is a set of 18 hexagonal mirror segments. Each segment is only 1.3-meters wide, but when aligned properly, they act effectively as a single 6.5-meter mirror. It’s an effective way to build a larger space telescope, but it means the mirror assembly has to be focused in space.
To achieve this, each mirror segment has a set of actuators that can shift the segment along six axes of alignment. They are focused using a wavefront phase technique. Since light behaves as a wave, when two beams of light overlap, the waves create an interference pattern. When the mirrors are aligned properly, the waves of light from each mirror segment also align, creating a sharp focus.
The primary mirrors of Hubble and JWST compared. Credit: Wikipedia user BobarinoFor JWST, its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is equipped with a wavefront camera. To align the mirrors, the JWST team points NIRCam at a star, then intentionally moves the mirrors out of alignment. This gives the star a blurred diffraction look. The team then positions the mirrors to focus the star, which brings them into alignment.
This was done to align the mirrors soon after JWST was launched. But due to vibrations and shifts in temperature, the mirror segments slowly drift out of alignment. Not by much, but enough that they need to be realigned occasionally. To keep things proper, the team typically does a wavefront error check every other day. There is also a small camera aimed at the mirror assembly, so the team can take a “selfie” to monitor the condition of the mirrors.
The JWST was designed to maintain a wavefront error of 150 nanometers, but the team has been able to maintain a 65 nanometer error. It’s an astonishingly tight alignment for a space telescope, which allows JWST to capture astounding images of the most distant galaxies in the observable universe.
You can learn more about this technique on the NASA Blog.
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A Trash Compactor is Going to the Space Station
Astronauts on the International Space Station generate their share of garbage, filling up cargo ships that then deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. Now Sierra Space has won a contract to build a trash compactor for the space station. The device will compact space trash by 75% in volume and allow water and other gases to be extracted for reclamation. The resulting garbage blocks are easily stored and could even be used as radiation shielding on long missions.
Called the Trash Compaction and Processing System (TCPS), plans are to test it aboard the International Space Station in late 2026.
Sierra Space said this technology could be critical for the success of future space exploration — such as long-duration crewed missions to the Moon and Mars — to handle waste management, stowage, and water reclamation.
“Long-term space travel requires the efficient use of every ounce of material and every piece of equipment. Every decision made on a spacecraft can have far-reaching consequences, and waste management becomes a matter of survival and mission integrity in the vacuum of space,” said Sierra Space CEO, Tom Vice, in a press release. “We’re addressing this challenge through technological innovation and commitment to sustainability in every facet of space operations. Efficient, sustainable, and innovative waste disposal is essential for the success of crewed space exploration.”
A sample trash tile, compressed to less than one-eighth of the original trash volume, was produced by the Heat Melt Compactor. Credit: NASA.NASA said that currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), common trash such as food packaging, clothing, and wipes are separated into wet and dry trash bags; these bags are stored temporarily before being packed into a spent resupply vehicle, such as the Russian Progress ship or Northrup Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle. When full, these ships undock and burn up during atmospheric re-entry, taking all the trash with it.
However, for missions further out into space trash will have to be managed and disposed of by other methods, such as jettisoning the trash into space – which doesn’t sound like a very eco-friendly idea. Additionally, wet trash contains components that may not be storable for long periods between jettisoning events without endangering the crew.
Plus, there’s currently no way for any water to be reclaimed from the “wet” waste. The TCPS should be able to recover nearly all the water from the trash for future use.
TCPS is a stand-alone system and only requires access to power, data, and air-cooling interfaces. It is being designed as simple to use.
Sierra Space said the device includes an innovative Catalytic Oxidizer (CatOx) “that processes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other gaseous byproducts to maintain a safe and sterile environment in space habitats.” Heat and pressure compacts astronaut trash into solid square tiles that compress to less than one-eighth of the original trash volume. The tiles are easy to store, safe to handle, and have the added — and potentially very important — benefit of providing additional radiation protection.
Sierra Space was originally awarded a contract in 2023, and in January 2024 they completed the initial design and review phase, which was presented to NASA for review. Sierra Space is now finalizing the fabrication, integration, and checkout of the TCPS Ground Unit, which will be used for ground testing in ongoing system evaluations. Based on the success of their design, Sierra Space was now awarded a new contract to build a Flight Unit that will be launched and tested in orbit aboard the space station.
NASA said that once tested on the ISS, the TCPS can be used for exploration missions wherever common spacecraft trash is generated and needs to be managed.
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Using Light Echoes to Find Black Holes
The most amazing thing about light is that it takes time to travel through space. Because of that one simple fact, when we look up at the Universe we see not a snapshot but a history. The photons we capture with our telescopes tell us about their journey. This is particularly true when gravity comes into play, since gravity bends and distorts the path of light. In a recent study, a team shows us how we might use this fact to better study black holes.
Near a black hole, our intuition about the behavior of light breaks down. For example, if we imagine a flash of light in empty space, we understand that the light from that flash expands outward in all directions, like the ripples on a pond. If we observe that flash from far away, we know the light has traveled in a straight line to reach us. This is not true near a black hole.
The gravity of a black hole is so intense that light never travels in a straight line. If there is a flash near a black hole, some of the light will travel directly to us, but some of the light will travel away from us, only to be gravitationally swept around the backside of the black hole to head in our direction. Some light will make a full loop around the black hole before reaching is. Or two loops, or three. With each path, the light travels a different distance to reach us, and therefore reaches us at a different time. Rather than observing a single flash, we wound see echoes of the flash for each journey.
In principle, since each echo is from a different path, the timing of these echoes would allow us to map the region around a black hole more clearly. The echoes would tell us not just the black hole’s mass and rotation; they would also allow us to test the limits of general relativity. The only problem is that with current observations, the echoes wash together in the data. We can’t distinguish different echoes.
This is where this new study comes in. The team propose observing a black hole with two telescopes, one on Earth and one in space. Each telescope would have a slightly different view of the black hole. Through long baseline interferometry the two sets of data could be correlated to distinguish the echoes. In their work the team ran tens of thousands of simulations of light echoes from a supermassive black hole similar to the one in the M87 galaxy. They demonstrated that interferometry could be used to find correlated light echoes.
It would be a challenge to build such an interferometer, but it would be well within our engineering capabilities. Perhaps in the future, we will be able to observe echoes of light to explore black holes and some of the deepest mysteries of gravity.
Reference: Wong, George N., et al. “Measuring Black Hole Light Echoes with Very Long Baseline Interferometry.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 975.2 (2024): L40.
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Launching Mass From the Moon Helped by Lunar Gravity Anomalies
Placing a mass driver on the Moon has long been a dream of space exploration enthusiasts. It would open up so many possibilities for the exploration of our solar system and the possibility of actually living in space. Gerard O’Neill, in his work on the gigantic cylinders that now bear his name, mentioned using a lunar mass driver as the source of the material to build them. So far, we have yet to see such an engineering wonder in the real world, but as more research is done on the topic, more and more feasible paths seem to be opening up to its potential implementation.
One recent contribution to that effort is a study by Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and Aurora Propulsion Technologies, a maker of space-based propulsion systems. He details how we can use quirks of lunar gravity to use a mass driver to send passive loads to lunar orbit, where they can then be picked up with active, high-efficiency systems and sent elsewhere in the solar system for processing.
Anomalies in the Moon’s gravitational field have been known for some time. Typically, mission planners view them as a nuisance to be avoided, as they can cause satellite orbits to degrade more quickly than expected by nice, simple models. However, according to Dr. Janhunen, they could also be a help rather than a hindrance.
Mass drivers have been popular in science fiction for some time.Credit – Isaac Arthur YouTube Channel
Typical models of using lunar mass drivers focus on active or passive payloads sent into lunar orbit. Active payloads require some onboard propulsion system to get them to where they are going. Therefore, these payloads require more active technology and some form of propellant, which diminishes the total amount available for use elsewhere in the solar system.
On the other hand, passive payloads will typically end up in one of two scenarios. Either they make one lunar orbit in about one day and then deorbit back to the lunar surface, or they end up in a highly randomized orbit and essentially end up as lunar space junk. Neither of those solutions would be sustainable for significant mass movement off the lunar surface.
Dr. Janhunen may have found a solution, though. He studied the known lunar gravitational anomalies found by GRAIL. This satellite mapped the Moon’s gravity in great detail and found several places on the lunar surface where a mass driver could potentially launch a passive payload into an orbit that would last up to nine days. These places are along the sides of mountains, and three of them are on the side of the lunar surface facing Earth. Importantly, all of them have their gravitational quirks.
The Artemis missions might be our best chance in the coming decades to build a mass driver on the Moon – Fraser discusses their details here.More time in orbit would mean more time for an active tug to grab hold of the passive lunar payload and take it to a processing station, such as a space station at the L5 point between Earth and the Moon. This active tug could be reusable, have a highly efficient electrical propulsion system developed and built on Earth, and only need to be launched once.
All that would be required for the system to work would be a mass driver that could accelerate a payload up to a lunar orbital velocity of about 1.7 km/s. That is well within our capabilities to build with existing technologies, but it would require a massive engineering effort far beyond anything we have built-in space so far. However, every study that shows a potential increased benefit or lowered cost to eventually exploiting the resources of our nearest neighbor to expand our reach into the solar system takes us one step closer to making that a reality.
Learn More:
P Janhunen – Launching mass from the Moon helped by lunar gravity anomalies
UT – Moonbase by 2022 For $10 Billion, Says NASA
UT – NASA Wants to Move Heavy Cargo on the Moon
NSS – L5 News: Mass Driver Update
Lead Image:
DALL-E illustration of a lunar electromagnetic launcher
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