NASA

NASA/Loral O’Hara In this image from Jan. 12, 2024, NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (left) and Loral O’Hara pose with a copy of “First Woman”, NASA’s first graphic novel, inside the International Space Station’s cupola. The interactive graphic novel chronicles the adventures of fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to explore the Moon. Through Callie’s journey, “First Woman” features real-life technologies developed by NASA to enable future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Moghbeli and O’Hara were interviewed by the graphic novel’s writers, and their experiences helped develop Callie’s character. O’Hara, a former Girl Scout, launched to the space station on Sept. 15, 2023, for a six-month stay. She and her fellow Expedition 70 crew members study an array of microgravity phenomena to benefit humans living on and off the Earth. Moghbeli launched to the International Space Station as Commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission on Aug. 26, 2023. She returned to Earth with the rest of Crew-7 on March 12, 2024. Download, read, and interact with issues 1 and 2 of “First Woman.” Image Credit: NASA/Loral O’Hara View the full article

Technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays built for NASA’s Europa Clipper in preparation for inspection and cleaning as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. On March 6, technicians working inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida unfolded and fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Each solar array measures 46.5 feet in length. For the operation, the team suspended the solar array on a gravity offload support system that helps support the weight of the solar array while it’s here on Earth. Up next, technicians will begin inspecting and cleaning as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. Planned to arrive at Jupiter in April 2030, the mission will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which shows strong evidence beneath its icy crust of a global ocean over twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans. The spacecraft will ship to Florida later this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Southern California in preparation for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky View the full article

10 Min Read Zero-Boil-Off Tank Experiments to Enable Long-Duration Space Exploration Figure 1. The Gateway space station—humanity’s first space station around the Moon—will be capable of being refueled in space. Credits: NASA Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel. NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the Moon and plans future missions to Mars. But while your car’s fuel is gasoline, which can be safely and indefinitely stored as a liquid in the car’s gas tank, spacecraft fuels are volatile cryogenic liquid propellants that must be maintained at extremely low temperatures and guarded from environmental heat leaks into the spacecraft’s propellant tank. And while there is already an established network of commercial gas stations in place to make refueling your car a cinch, there are no cryogenic refueling stations or depots at the Moon or on the way to Mars. Furthermore, storing volatile propellant for a long time and transferring it from an in-space depot tank to a spacecraft’s fuel tank under microgravity conditions will not be easy since the underlying microgravity fluid physics affecting such operations is not well understood. Even with today’s technology, preserving cryogenic fuels in space beyond several days is not possible and tank-to-tank fuel transfer has never been previously performed or tested in space. Heat conducted through support structures or from the radiative space environment can penetrate even the formidable Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) systems of in-space propellant tanks, leading to boil-off or vaporization of the propellant and causing tank self-pressurization. The current practice is to guard against over-pressurizing the tank and endangering its structural integrity by venting the boil-off vapor into space. Onboard propellants are also used to cool down the hot transfer lines and the walls of an empty spacecraft tank before a fuel transfer and filling operation can take place. Thus, precious fuel is continuously wasted during both storage and transfer operations, rendering long-duration expeditions—especially a human Mars mission—infeasible using current passive propellant tank pressure control methods. Zero-Boil-Off (ZBO) or Reduced Boil-Off (RBO) technologies provide an innovative and effective means to replace the current passive tank pressure control design. This method relies on a complex combination of active, gravity-dependent mixing and energy removal processes that allow maintenance of safe tank pressure with zero or significantly reduced fuel loss. Zero Boil-off Storage and Transfer: A Transformative Space Technology At the heart of the ZBO pressure control system are two proposed active mixing and cooling mechanisms to counter tank self-pressurization. The first is based on intermittent, forced, subcooled jet mixing of the propellantand involves complex, dynamic, gravity-dependent interaction between the jet and the ullage (vapor volume) to control the condensation and evaporation phase change at the liquid-vapor interface. The second mechanism uses subcooled droplet injection via a spraybar in the ullage to control tank pressure and temperature. While the latter option is promising and gaining prominence, it is more complex and has never been tested in microgravity where the phase change and transport behavior of droplet populations can be very different and nonintuitive compared to those on Earth. Although the dynamic ZBO approach is technologically complex, it promises an impressive advantage over the currently used passive methods. An assessment of one nuclear propulsion concept for Mars transport estimated that the passive boil-off losses for a large liquid hydrogen tank carrying 38 tons of fuel for a three-year mission to Mars would be approximately 16 tons/year. The proposed ZBO system would provide a 42% saving of propellant mass per year. These numbers also imply that with a passive system, all the fuel carried for a three-year Mars mission would be lost to boil-off, rendering such a mission infeasible without resorting to the transformative ZBO technology. The ZBO approach provides a promising method, but before such a complex technological and operational transformation can be fully developed, implemented, and demonstrated in space, important and decisive scientific questions that impact its engineering implementation and microgravity performance must be clarified and resolved. The Zero-Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) Microgravity Science Experiments The Zero Boil-off Tank (ZBOT) Experiments are being undertaken to form a scientific foundation for the development of the transformative ZBO propellant preservation method. Following the recommendation of a ZBOT science review panel comprised of members from aerospace industries, academia, and NASA, it was decided to perform the proposed investigation as a series of three small-scale science experiments to be conducted onboard the International Space Station. The three experiments outlined below build upon each other to address key science questions related to ZBO cryogenic fluid management of propellants in space. Figure 3. Astronaut Joseph M. Acaba installing ZBOT Hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The ZBOT-1 Experiment: Self-Pressurization & Jet Mixing The first experiment in the series was carried out on the station in the 2017-2018 timeframe. Figure 3 shows the ZBOT-1 hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) unit of the station. The main focus of this experiment was to investigate the self-pressurization and boiling that occurs in a sealed tank due to local and global heating, and the feasibility of tank pressure control via subcooled axial jet mixing. In this experiment, the complicated interaction of the jet flow with the ullage (vapor volume) in microgravity was carefully studied. Microgravity jet mixing data was also collected across a wide range of scaled flow and heat transfer parameters to characterize the time constants for tank pressure reduction, and the thresholds for geyser (liquid fountain) formation, including its stability, and penetration depth through the ullage volume. Along with very accurate pressure and local temperature sensor measurements, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was performed to obtain whole-field flow velocity measurements to validate a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. Figure 4. Validation of ZBOT CFD Model Predictions for fluid flow and deformation of a spherical ullage in microgravity by a subcooled liquid jet mixing against ZBOT experimental results: (a) Model prediction of ullage position and deformation and flow vortex structures during subcooled jet mixing; (b) PIV image capture of flow vortex structures during jet mixing; (c) Ullage deformation captured by white light imaging; and (d) CFD model depiction of temperature contours during subcooled jet mixing. (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018) Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University Some of the interesting findings of the ZBOT-1experiment are as follows: Provided the first tank self-pressurization rate data in microgravity under controlled conditions that can be used for estimating the tank insulation requirements. Results also showed that classical self-pressurization is quite fragile in microgravity and nucleate boiling can occur at hotspots on the tank wall even at moderate heat fluxes that do not induce boiling on Earth. Proved that ZBO pressure control is feasible and effective in microgravity using subcooled jet mixing, but also demonstrated that microgravity ullage-jet interaction does not follow the expected classical regime patterns (see Figure 4). Enabled observation of unexpected cavitation during subcooled jet mixing, leading to massive phase change at both sides of the screened Liquid Acquisition Device (LAD) (see Figure 5). If this type of phase change occurs in a propellant tank, it can lead to vapor ingestion through the LAD and disruption of liquid flow in the transfer line, potentially leading to engine failure. Developed a state-of-the-art two-phase CFD model validated by over 30 microgravity case studies (an example of which is shown in Figure 4). ZBOT CFD models are currently used as an effective tool for propellant tank scaleup design by several aerospace companies participating in the NASA tipping point opportunity and the NASA Human Landing System (HLS) program. Figure 5. White light image captures of the intact single hemispherical ullage in ZBOT tank before depressurization by the subcooled jet (left) and after subcooled jet mixing pressure collapse that led to massive phase change bubble generation due to cavitation at the LAD (right). (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018). Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University The ZBOT-NC Experiment: Non-Condensable Gas Effects Non-condensable gases (NCGs) are used as pressurants to extract liquid for engine operations and tank-to-tank transfer. The second experiment, ZBOT-NC will investigate the effect of NCGs on the sealed tank self-pressurization and on pressure control by axial jet mixing. Two inert gases with quite different molecular sizes, Xenon, and Neon, will be used as the non-condensable pressurants. To achieve pressure control or reduction, vapor molecules must reach the liquid-vapor interface that is being cooled by the mixing jet and then cross the interface to the liquid side to condense. This study will focus on how in microgravity the non-condensable gases can slow down or resist the transport of vapor molecules to the liquid-vapor interface (transport resistance) and will clarify to what extent they may form a barrier at the interface and impede the passage of the vapor molecules across the interface to the liquid side (kinetic resistance). By affecting the interface conditions, the NCGs can also change the flow and thermal structures in the liquid. ZBOT-NC will use both local temperature sensor data and uniquely developed Quantum Dot Thermometry (QDT) diagnostics to collect nonintrusive whole-field temperature measurements to assess the effect of the non-condensable gases during both self-pressurization heating and jet mixing/cooling of the tank under weightlessness conditions. This experiment is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in early 2025, and more than 300 different microgravity tests are planned. Results from these tests will also enable the ZBOT CFD model to be further developed and validated to include the non-condensable gas effects with physical and numerical fidelity. The ZBOT-DP Experiment: Droplet Phase Change Effects ZBO active pressure control can also be accomplished via injection of subcooled liquid droplets through an axial spray-bar directly into the ullage or vapor volume. This mechanism is very promising, but its performance has not yet been tested in microgravity. Evaporation of droplets consumes heat that is supplied by the hot vapor surrounding the droplets and produces vapor that is at a much lower saturation temperature. As a result, both the temperature and the pressure of the ullage vapor volume are reduced. Droplet injection can also be used to cool down the hot walls of an empty propellant tank before a tank-to-tank transfer or filling operation. Furthermore, droplets can be created during the propellant sloshing caused by acceleration of the spacecraft, and these droplets then undergo phase change and heat transfer. This heat transfer can cause a pressure collapse that may lead to cavitation or a massive liquid-to-vapor phase change. The behavior of droplet populations in microgravity will be drastically different compared to that on Earth. The ZBOT-DP experiment will investigate the disintegration, coalescence (droplets merging together), phase change, and transport and trajectory characteristics of droplet populations and their effects on the tank pressure in microgravity. Particular attention will also be devoted to the interaction of the droplets with a heated tank wall, which can lead to flash evaporation subject to complications caused by the Liedenfrost effect (when liquid droplets propel away from a heated surface and thus cannot cool the tank wall). These complicated phenomena have not been scientifically examined in microgravity and must be resolved to assess the feasibility and performance of droplet injection as a pressure and temperature control mechanism in microgravity. Back to Planet Earth This NASA-sponsored fundamental research is now helping commercial providers of future landing systems for human explorers. Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin, participants in NASA’s Human Landing Systems program, are using data from the ZBOT experiments to inform future spacecraft designs. Cryogenic fluid management and use of hydrogen as a fuel are not limited to space applications. Clean green energy provided by hydrogen may one day fuel airplanes, ships, and trucks on Earth, yielding enormous climate and economic benefits. By forming the scientific foundation of ZBO cryogenic fluid management for space exploration, the ZBOT science experiments and CFD model development will also help to reap the benefits of hydrogen as a fuel here on Earth. PROJECT LEAD Dr. Mohammad Kassemi (Dept Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University) SPONSORING ORGANIZATION Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division, NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Share Details Last Updated Mar 12, 2024 Related Terms Biological & Physical Sciences Science-enabling Technology Technology Highlights Explore More 5 min read The CUTE Mission: Innovative Design Enables Observations of Extreme Exoplanets from a Small Package Article 2 weeks ago 2 min read Do NASA Science LIVE on February 21! What’s it mean to be cool? Article 4 weeks ago 3 min read International Space Station Welcomes Trio of Experiments Focused on Enhancing Life Beyond Earth Article 1 month ago View the full article

The plane of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen by ESA’s Gaia space mission. It contains more than a billion stars, along with darker, dusty regions Gaia couldn’t see through. With its greater sensitivity and longer wavelength coverage, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s galactic plane survey will peer through more of the dust and reveal far more stars.Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy’s stars than all previous observations combined. “There’s a really broad range of science we can explore with this type of survey, from star formation and evolution to dust in between stars and the dynamics of the heart of the galaxy,” said Catherine Zucker, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who co-authored a white paper describing some of the benefits of such an observing program. Scientists have studied our solar system’s neighborhood pretty well, but much of the galaxy remains shrouded from view. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will peer through thick bands of dust to reveal parts of our galaxy we’ve never been able to explore before, thanks to a newly selected galactic plane survey. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center A galactic plane survey was the top-ranked submission following a 2021 call for Roman survey ideas. Now, the scientific community will work together to design the observational program ahead of Roman’s launch by May 2027. “There will be lots of trade-offs since scientists will have to choose between, for example, how much area to cover and how completely to map it in all the different possible filters,” said paper co-author Robert Benjamin, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. While the details of the survey remain to be determined, scientists say if it covered about 1,000 square degrees – a region of sky as large as 5,000 full moons – it could reveal well over 100 billion cosmic objects (mainly stars). “That would be pretty close to a complete census of all the stars in our galaxy, and it would only take around a month,” said Roberta Paladini, a senior research scientist at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, and the white paper’s lead author. “It would take decades to observe such a large patch of the sky with the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes. Roman will be a survey machine!” Milky Way Anatomy Observatories with smaller views of space have provided exquisite images of other galaxies, revealing complex structures. But studying our own galaxy’s anatomy is surprisingly difficult. The plane of the Milky Way covers such a large area on the sky that studying it in detail can take a very long time. Astronomers also must peer through thick dust that obscures distant starlight. While we’ve studied our solar system’s neighborhood well, Zucker says, “we have basically no idea what the other half of that Milky Way looks like beyond the galactic center.” Observatories like NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope have conducted shallower surveys of the galactic plane and revealed some star-forming regions on the far side of the galaxy. But it couldn’t resolve fine details like Roman will do. “Spitzer set up the questions that Roman will be able to solve,” Benjamin said. Roman’s combination of a large field of view, crisp resolution, and the ability to peer through dust make it the ideal instrument to study the Milky Way. And seeing stars in different wavelengths of light – optical and infrared – will help astronomers learn things such as the stars’ temperatures. That one piece of information unlocks much more data, from the star’s evolutionary stage and composition to its luminosity and size. “We can do very detailed studies of things like star formation and the structure of our own galaxy in a way that we can’t do for any other galaxy,” Paladini said. This image shows two views of the same spiral galaxy, called IC 5332, as seen by two NASA observatories – the James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at the top left and the Hubble Space Telescope’s at the bottom right. The views are mainly so different due to the wavelengths of light they each showcase. Hubble’s visible and ultraviolet observation features dark regions where dust absorbs those types of light. Webb sees longer wavelengths and detects that dust glowing in infrared. But neither could conduct an efficient survey of our Milky Way galaxy because it covers so much sky area; since IC 5332 is around 30 million light-years away, it appears as a small spot. It would take Hubble or Webb decades to survey the Milky Way, but NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could do it in less than a month. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), Rupali Chandar (UToledo), PHANGS Team Roman will offer new insights about the structure of the central region known as the bulge, the “bar” that stretches across it, and the spiral arms that extend from it. “We’ll basically rewrite the 3D picture of the far side of the galaxy,” Zucker said. Roman’s sharp vision will help astronomers see individual stars even in stellar nurseries on the far side of the galaxy. That will help Roman generate a huge new catalog of stars since it will be able to map 10 times farther than previous precision mapping by ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Gaia space mission. Gaia mapped over 1 billion stars in 3D largely within about 10,000 light-years. Roman could map up to 100 billion stars 100,000 light-years away or more (stretching out to the most distant edge of our galaxy and beyond). The Galactic Plane Survey is Roman’s first announced general astrophysics survey – one of several observation programs Roman will do in addition to its three core community surveys and Coronagraph technology demonstration. At least 25% of Roman’s five-year primary mission will be allocated to general astrophysics surveys in order to pursue science that can’t be done with only the mission’s core community survey data. Astronomers from all over the world will have the opportunity to use Roman and propose cutting-edge research, enabling the astronomical community to utilize the full potential of Roman’s capabilities to conduct extraordinary science. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California. Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio By Ashley Balzer NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Media contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. claire.andreoli@nasa.gov 301-286-1940 Explore More 6 min read How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Chronicle the Active Cosmos Article 4 months ago 6 min read Why NASA’s Roman Mission Will Study Milky Way’s Flickering Lights Article 5 months ago 8 min read NASA’s Roman Mission Will Test Competing Cosmic Acceleration Theories Article 2 years ago Share Details Last Updated Mar 12, 2024 Related TermsNancy Grace Roman Space TelescopeGalaxiesGalaxies, Stars, & Black HolesGoddard Space Flight CenterHubble Space TelescopeJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST)MissionsSpitzer Space TelescopeStarsThe Milky WayThe Universe View the full article

The software discipline has broad involvement across each of the NASA Mission Directorates. Some recent discipline focus and development areas are highlighted below, along with a look at the Software Technical Discipline Team’s (TDT) approach to evolving discipline best practices toward the future. Understanding Automation Risk Software creates automation. Reliance on that automation is increasing the amount of software in NASA programs. This year, the software team examined historical software incidents in aerospace to characterize how, why, and where software or automation is mostly likely to fail. The goal is to better engineer software to minimize the risk of errors, improve software processes, and better architect software for resilience to errors (or improve fault-tolerance should errors occur). Some key findings shown in the above charts, indicate that software more often does the wrong thing rather than just crash. Rebooting was found to be ineffective when software behaves erroneously. Unexpected behavior was mostly attributed to the code or logic itself, and about half of those instances were the result of missing software—software not present due to unanticipated situations or missing requirements. This may indicate that even fully tested software is exposed to this significant class of error. Data misconfiguration was a sizeable factor that continues to grow with the advent of more modern data-driven systems. A final subjective category assessed was “unknown unknowns”—things that could not have been reasonably anticipated. These accounted for 19% of software incidents studied. The software team is using and sharing these findings to improve best practices. More emphasis is being placed on the importance of complete requirements, off-nominal test campaigns, and “test as you fly” using real hardware in the loop. When designing systems for fault tolerance, more consideration should be given to detecting and correcting for erroneous behavior versus just checking for a crash. Less confidence should be placed on rebooting as an effective recovery strategy. Backup strategies for automations should be employed for critical applications—considering the historic prevalence of absent software and unknown unknowns. More information can be found in NASA/TP-20230012154, Software Error Incident Categorizations in Aerospace. Employing AI and Machine Learning Techniques The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques has allowed NASA to examine data in new ways that were not previously possible. While NASA has been employing autonomy since its inception, AI/ML techniques provide teams the ability to expand the use of autonomy outside of previous bounds. The Agency has been working on AI ethics frameworks and examining standards, procedures, and practices, taking security implications into account. While AI/ML generally uses nondeterministic statistical algorithms that currently limit its use in safety-critical flight applications, it is used by NASA in more than 400 AI/ML projects aiding research and science. The Agency also uses AI/ML Communities of Practice for sharing knowledge across the centers. The TDT surveyed AI/ML work across the Agency and summarized it for trends and lessons. Common usages of AI/ML include image recognition and identification. NASA Earth science missions use AI/ML to identify marine debris, measure cloud thickness, and identify wildfire smoke (examples are shown in the satellite images below). This reduces the workload on personnel. There are many applications of AI/ML being used to predict atmospheric physics. One example is hurricane track and intensity prediction. Another example is predicting planetary boundary layer thickness and comparing it against measurements, and those predictions are being fused with live data to improve the performance over previous boundary layer models. Examples of how NASA uses AI/ML. Satellite images of clouds with estimation of cloud thickness (left) and wildfire detection (right). NASA-HDBK-2203, NASA Software Engineering and Assurance Handbook (https://swehb.nasa.gov) The Code Analysis Pipeline: Static Analysis Tool for IV&V and Software Quality Improvement The Code Analysis Pipeline (CAP) is an open-source tool architecture that supports software development and assurance activities, improving overall software quality. The Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program is using CAP to support software assurance on the Human Landing System, Gateway, Exploration Ground Systems, Orion, and Roman. CAP supports the configuration and automated execution of multiple static code analysis tools to identify potential code defects, generate code metrics that indicate potential areas of quality concern (e.g., cyclomatic complexity), and execute any other tool that analyzes or processes source code. The TDT is focused on integrating Modified Condition/Decision Coverage analysis support for coverage testing. Results from tools are consolidated into a central database and presented in context through a user interface that supports review, query, reporting, and analysis of results as the code matures. The tool architecture is based on an industry standard DevOps approach for continuous building of source code and running of tools. CAP integrates with GitHub for source code control, uses Jenkins to support automation of analysis builds, and leverages Docker to create standard and custom build environments that support unique mission needs and use cases. Improving Software Process & Sharing Best Practices The TDT has captured the best practice knowledge from across the centers in NPR 7150.2, NASA Software Engineering Requirements, and NASA-HDBK-2203, NASA Software Engineering and Assurance Handbook (https://swehb.nasa.gov.) Two APPEL training classes have been developed and shared with several organizations to give them the foundations in the NPR and software engineering management. The TDT established several subteams to help programs/projects as they tackle software architecture, project management, requirements, cybersecurity, testing and verification, and programmable logic controllers. Many of these teams have developed guidance and best practices, which are documented in NASA-HDBK-2203 and on the NASA Engineering Network. NPR 7150.2 and the handbook outline best practices over the full lifecycle for all NASA software. This includes requirements development, architecture, design, implementation, and verification. Also covered, and equally important, are the supporting activities/functions that improve quality, including software assurance, safety configuration management, reuse, and software acquisition. Rationale and guidance for the requirements are addressed in the handbook that is internally and externally accessible and regularly updated as new information, tools, and techniques are found and used. The Software TDT deputies train software engineers, systems engineers, chief engineers, and project managers on the NPR requirements and their role in ensuring these requirements are implemented across NASA centers. Additionally, the TDT deputies train software technical leads on many of the advanced management aspects of a software engineering effort, including planning, cost estimating, negotiating, and handling change management. View the full article

Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, left, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov are returning after nearly six-months in space as part of Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 completed the agency’s seventh commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday after splashing down safely in a Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The international crew of four spent 199 days in orbit. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, returned to Earth splashing down at 5:47 a.m. EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “After more than six months aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 has safely returned home,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This international crew showed that space unites us all. It’s clear that we can do more – we can learn more – when we work together. The science experiments conducted during their time in space will help prepare for NASA’s bold missions at the Moon, Mars, and beyond, all while benefitting humanity here on Earth.” The Crew-7 mission lifted off at 3:27 a.m. Aug. 26, 2023, on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About 30 hours later, Dragon docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port. Crew-7 undocked at 11:20 a.m. Monday, March 11, to begin the trip home. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov traveled 84,434,094 miles during their mission, spent 197 days aboard the space station, and completed 3,184 orbits around Earth. The Crew-7 mission was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov. Mogensen has logged 209 days in space over his two flights, and Furukawa has logged 366 days in space over his two flights. Throughout their mission, the Crew-7 members contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. Moghbeli conducted one spacewalk, joined by NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, replacing one of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the port solar alpha rotary joint, which allows the arrays to track the Sun and generate electricity to power the station. The crew contributed to hundreds of experiments and technology demonstrations, including the first study of human response to different spaceflight durations, and an experiment growing food on the space station. This was the third flight of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance. It also previously supported the Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions. The spacecraft will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s refurbishing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where teams will inspect the Dragon, analyze data on its performance, and process it for its next flight. The Crew-7 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 launch, which docked to the station March 5, beginning another science expedition. The goal of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit. This already is providing additional research time and has increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew program at: https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew -end- Joshua Finch Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov Steve Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-867-2468 steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov Leah Cheshier Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov View the full article

By Andrew Chaikin, Independent Space Historian and member of the NESC Human Factors Technical Discipline Team I recently watched NESC Deputy Director Mike Kirsch stand before a roomful of engineers at the Langley Research Center and tell them that with every passing day, NASA breaks a record: the longest stretch without a major accident in the nation’s human spaceflight program since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. NASA’s challenge, he told them, was to make sure the record keeps being broken. Mike’s sobering message set the perfect tone for my presentation of “Principles of Success in Spaceflight,” the class I created with Victoria Kohl on the human behavior elements of success and failure in spaceflight projects. With the NESC’s support, I have given it at every NASA center, and it’s always a rewarding experience. You can’t spend the day with a group of NASA engineers and not experience their keen intelligence, passion, and commitment to excellence. As I lead them through case studies of the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, the Challenger accident in 1986, and Columbia, I tell them that no matter how good we are at the “rocket science,” we invite failure if we don’t pay attention to the attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions we bring to the work—in short, our mindset. Before the Apollo fire, there was a widespread belief that because Mercury and Gemini had used pure oxygen with no fires, there wouldn’t be any in Apollo. And the Apollo spacecraft program manager missed opportunities to prevent the accident due to his belief that the fire hazard created by combining pure oxygen with exposed wiring and flammable materials was not a “real” problem, one that warranted slowing the train barreling down the tracks to meet John F. Kennedy’s end-of-the-decade deadline for a lunar landing. When I talk about the Challenger accident, I caution that it’s essential to pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves. NASA had promised itself and Congress that the Shuttle would make spaceflight routine and affordable, a goal that required unrealistically high flight rates. Mounting schedule pressure in the lead-up to Challenger skewed decision makers’ perceptions of the SRB field joint anomalies that had occurred intermittently on previous launches and were not well understood. In the Columbia discussion, I recount the shocking swiftness with which NASA lost the lessons of Challenger and paved the way for another accident with renewed schedule pressure and a belief that external tank foam shedding was “not a safety of flight issue.” Accidents jolt us into new awareness, but Columbia is a painful reminder that awareness has a shelf life. What will it take to keep breaking the record that Mike spoke about? I believe we must talk to each other regularly about the behaviors that either invite success or lead us down the slippery slope to failure. Are we in the grip of what I call the “reality distortion field,” created by cost, schedule, and/or political pressure, that clouds our perceptions of risk? Are we unconsciously indulging in hard-wired “us vs. them” tribal behaviors that cut us off from the diverse “spotlights of awareness” we must have to navigate the unforgiving demands of human spaceflight? Are we telling ourselves a story that, under clear-eyed scrutiny, doesn’t hold up? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves again and again. The answers are critical. A section of the fuselage recovered from Space Shuttle Challenger, left, and the flight deck windows recovered from Space Shuttle Columbia at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. View the full article

Operational modal analysis (OMA) techniques have been used to identify the modal characteristics of the Artemis I launch vehicle during the Dynamic Rollout Test (DRT) and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) configuration prior to launch. Forces induced during rollout and on the launch pad are not directly measurable, thus necessitating a unique approach. NASA is developing the SLS to support lunar and deep space exploration. SLS is integrated inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on the mobile launcher (ML), which supports the integrated SLS launch vehicle during transport to the pad through lift-off. The ML also provides the fuel, power, and data umbilicals running to the SLS and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), as well as crew access to the MPCV crew module. The ML weighs ~10.6 million pounds and is over 380 feet tall. In the spring of 2022, the SLS was transported on the ML from the VAB to Launch Pad 39B (Figure 1) using the NASA crawler transporter (CT) to make this 4.2 mile trek, which takes ~8 hours. The CT alone weighs ~6.3 million pounds. Figure 1. Artemis I Rollout to Launch Pad 39B. Although the rollout environment produces relatively small launch vehicle structural loads in comparison to launch and ascent loads for most structures, the induced loads are fully representative of all loading across the entire vehicle, which is not feasible to replicate using localized shakers as was done in the Integrated Modal Test. As mentioned, forces induced during rollout and on the launch pad are not directly measurable, and OMA techniques were used to identify the modal characteristics of Artemis I in the DRT and WDR configurations. WDR, which typically includes vehicle fueling and other operations to demonstrate launch readiness, included several days of on-pad operations. Data collected for the WDR configuration, with partially filled core fuel tanks and without the CT under the ML, provided engineers another model configuration to check (Figure 2). Figure 2. Artemis I at Launch Pad 39B. Acquisition and processing the data from over 300 accelerometers located on Artemis I, ML, and CT was accomplished by a cross-program team of engineers and technicians from across the Agency, including from SLS, Exploration Ground Systems, and the NESC. Using analytical techniques developed from previous rollout tests combined with new data-processing methodologies, the team processed data from preselected CT speed increments during rollout and on-pad during WDR. By making the necessary modifications to the integrated models to match both the DRT and WDR configurations, the team was able to use those results to help make sense of what was being seen in the test data. This proved to be required for OMA testing on this structure, given the type of complex excitation that was being observed. For information, contact Dexter Johnson dexter.johnson@nasa.gov and Teresa Kinney teresa.l.kinney@nasa.gov. View the full article

Interview with NESC Director, Tim Wilson NESC Director, Tim Wilson Upon reaching its 20th year of operations at NASA in 2023, the NESC is busier than it has ever been. With a portfolio of more than 160 in-progress requests from Agency programs, NESC Director Tim Wilson spends much of his day prioritizing, allocating funds from the organization’s fixed budget to NASA’s most pressing issues. Of late, the NESC has focused on priority-one requests—projects in the flight phase—such as the Artemis missions and those of NASA’s commercial partners, while lower priority requests like discipline-advancing activities have been placed on hold until the next fiscal year. For Mr. Wilson, each day is a new shuffle of requests, funding, and resources. When he joined the newly formed NESC in 2003, Mr. Wilson could not have predicted the impact the organization would have on Agency operations. “To be honest, I didn’t really think we’d still be here,” he said. “The NESC was an experiment.” Initiated by the results of the Columbia accident investigation, the idea behind it was that NASA programs would benefit from expert, unbiased perspectives on its tough engineering problems. The vision for the organization was straightforward, but the execution was far more challenging than Mr. Wilson expected. “When we started those first assessments with the CALIPSO satellite and Shuttle, we had to elbow our way to the table to be accepted. We were new, and no one knew who we were or what we were doing. Back then, programs were worried that we might slow them down or cause problems.” Though Agency leadership had given them the green light, it was up to Mr. Wilson and the NESC’s early members to prove they deserved a seat at those tables. “You have to produce some results before folks respect you,” he said. It was hard won, but with each assessment, the NESC gained that respect by bringing ideas and solutions programs could use. Two decades in, Mr. Wilson is happy to say the NESC is now invited to the table. “That’s part of why demand has grown as much as it has. Our team is respected, and we’re asked to participate. We’ve gone from being an unknown to an organization they reach out to as a trusted partner: someone who can help them be successful, bring expertise or resources they don’t have, or sometimes just bring another perspective to break a logjam and help them get things done. That’s the shift I have seen over the years. It’s been really encouraging to see it.” The NESC portfolio of work also has shifted from the early, hectic pace of Shuttle assessments where quick, real-time solutions were needed. In the years following the Shuttle’s retirement, the NESC had the luxury of time to invest in longer-term projects like the design and construction of a composite crew module that would be leveraged in the development of Orion and commercial spacecraft. Today, the pace has ramped up again as Artemis, Dragon, and Starliner head to the Moon and ISS. “These are real-time activities where you have to engage immediately and be able to add value out of the chute. You don’t have time to come up to speed on the system,” Mr. Wilson said. “We learned with Shuttle that it was important to move quickly and be pre-positioned to help.” Over the years the NESC has cultivated good relationships with programs—keeping people plugged in to their day-to-day activities so that when problems arose, they could engage right away. “The lesson we learned is you need people doing routine work for those programs all along so that they understand the subsystems and hardware and they’re ready to engage when there’s a real-time problem.” It’s been a balancing act to keep close ties yet remain independent, but Mr. Wilson said the NESC has found an equilibrium. Independent yet parallel modeling and simulation (M&S) is a good example of finding that balance, he said. “We build our own M&S tools in parallel with the programs’ tools to give them a second set of eyes to a problem.” Since 2012, for example, NESC-built M&S trajectory tools have help mitigate risks for Artemis missions’ ascent to orbit, and entry, descent, and landing simulations for CCP provider vehicles. With capped budgets, the NESC must adjust its scope continually to keep up with the increasing tempo of space exploration. For now, that means focusing on what is most critical and has the highest payback. “We’ll continue to focus on the heavy hitters, the programs that are flying and have a critical immediate need. There are a lot of those, and the pace is ramping up.” As for the future, Mr. Wilson said, “I have not seen very many Agency initiatives persist the way the NESC has, so I’m thrilled that we have met the needs that we were placed here to meet and that we continue to deliver value, because I think that’s what has kept us rolling and growing over all of this time.” View the full article

NASA Technical Memorandums (TM), NASA Technical Publications (TP), and NASA Contractor Reports (CR) NASA/TP-20220015152 Optimization Approach for Wind Tunnel Fan Blade Strain Gage Correlation with Test Fixture Unknowns. NASA/TM-20220015363 Technology Maturation Report for Dam- age Arresting Composites under the Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project. NASA/TM-20220017053 Unique Science from the Moon in the Artemis Era NASA/TM-20220018183 Recommendations on Use of Commercial- Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Guidance for all Mission Risk Classifications – Phase II NASA/CR-20230002635 Assessment of Coated Particle Fuels for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems; A Report for the NESC Nuclear Power & Propulsion Technical Discipline Team NASA/TM-20230004147 Ceramic Capacitor Grain Size Analysis Using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) NASA/TM-20230004154 Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Crew Module (CM) Side Hatch Dynamic Analysis NASA/TP-20230005922 Best Practices for the Design, Development, and Operation of Robust and Reliable Space Vehicle Guidance, Navigation, and Control Systems NASA/TM-20230006220 Metallurgical Factors that Govern ST Properties in Commercial 2219-T87 Thick Plate NASA/TP-20230006226 Evaluation of Through-thickness Microtextural Characteristics in 2219-T87 Thick Plate NASA/TM-20230006507 Flight Mechanics Analysis Tools Interoperability and Component Sharing NASA/TM-20230006648 Verification of Testing Standard for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Partial Pressure in Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Suits NASA/TM-20230007658 ISS Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) Optical Sensor: Phase 1-Feasibility NASA/CR-20230010099 NASCAP Surface Charging Tool Development; Nascap-2k Additional Examples NASA/TM-20230010624 Self Reacting-Friction Stir Weld (SR-FSW) Anomalies NASA/TM-20230010640 Space-Shielding Radiation Dosage Code Evaluation; Phase 1: SHIELDOSE-2 Radiation-Assessment Code NASA/TM-20230010680 Shock Prediction Advancement: Transient Finite Energy (TFE) Shock Predictor NASA/TM-20230011306 NASA Exploration Systems Maintainability Standards for Artemis and Beyond NASA/CR-20230012105 A Compilation of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel Research (2015–2021) NASA/TP-20230012154 Software Error Incident Categorizations in Aerospace NASA/TM-20230013348 Unconservatism of Linear-Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM)Analysis Post Autofrettage NASA/TM-20230013386 Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) Data Processing Algorithm Development and Analysis Assessment Technical Papers, Conference Proceedings, and Technical Presentations Avionics Chen, Y.: Statistical Interpretation of Life Test – Comparison between MIL and JEDEC requirements. 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Hodson, R., Chen, Y., and Douglas, S.: Recommendations on Use of COTS Parts for NASA Missions. 2023 Space Computing Conference (SCC) Closed Session, El Segundo, CA, July 21, 2023. Powell, W.: SpaceVPX Interoperability Study Briefing. SOSA Architecture Meeting, November 1, 2022. Powell, W. and Hodson, R.: Advancing SpaceVPX Interoperability – Embedded Tech Trends, Chandler, AZ, January 23, 2023. Powell, W.: NASA’s Vision for Spaceflight Avionics. 2023 Space Computing Conference (SCC) Closed Session, El Segundo, CA, July 21, 2023. Rutishauser, D.; Prothro, J.; and Fail, J.: A System to Provide Deterministic Flight Software Operation and Maximize Multicore Processing Performance: The Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) Datapath. IEEE Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology – IEEE Space Computing Conference, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, July 18-21, 2023. Some, R.; Collier, P.; Hodson, R.; and Powell W.: SpaceVPX Interoperability. 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Gardner, B.; Parrinello, A.; and Musser, C.: An Isogrid Panel Model for SEA. Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle Dynamic Environments Workshop, El Segundo, CA, June 27-29, 2023. Griggs, L.; Allgood, J.; Swatzell, S.; Moseley, J.; Oliver, N.; and Decker, A.: Space Launch System Artemis 1 Ascent Loads Reconstruction. Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle (SCLV) Dynamic Environments Workshop, El Segundo, CA, June 27-29, 2023. Hahn, S.; Lunetta, N.; Weathers, J.; Zuo, K.; and Decker, A.: Space Launch System Artemis 1 Rollout Loads Monitoring and Reconstruction. Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle (SCLV) Dynamic Environments Workshop, El Segundo, CA, June 27-29, 2023. Kennedy, M. and Blough, J.: Shocksat Testing and Analysis Results. Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle Dynamic Environments Workshop, El Segundo, CA, June 27-29, 2023. Kolaini, A.; Kinney, T.; and Johnson, D.: Guidance on Shock Qualification and Acceptance Test Requirements. 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Dawkins, E.C.M.; Stober, G.; Janches, D.; Carrillo-Sánchez, J.D.; Lieberman, R.S.; Jacobi, C.; Moffat-Griffin, T.; Mitchell, N.J.; Cobbett, N.; Batista, P.P.; Andrioli, V.F.; Buriti, R.A.; Murphy, D.J.; Kero, J.; Gulbrandsen, N.; Tsutsumi, M.; Kozlovsky, A.; Kim, J.H.; Lee, C.; and Lester, M.: Solar Cycle and Long-term Trends in the Observed Peak of the Meteor Altitude Distributions by Meteor Radars. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2022GL101953. https://doi. org/10.1029/2022GL101953, 2023. Debchoudhury, S.; Lin, D.; Coffey, V.N.; Barjatya, A.; Minow, J.I.; and Parker, L.N.: Plasma Irregularities Observed by ISS FPMU: Multi- instrument Case-study and Modeling Results. Abstract SA52A-24, AGU Fall Meeting 2022, December 12-16, 2022, Chicago, IL. Debchoudhury, S.; Karan, D.; Barjatya, A.; Coffey, V.N.; and Minow, J.I.: Multi-layer Observations of Plasma Blobs and Bubbles using ICON, GOLD, and ISS FPMU. 2023 Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Workshop, June 25-30, 2023, San Diego, CA. de Groh, K.; Stanton, J.S.; Minow, J.I.; Kimoto, Y.; Lord, E.M.; and Lao, Y.Y.: Space Materials Center [White paper]. Space Materials Workshop, July 24-28, 2023, virtual. Janches, D.; Bruzonne, J.S.; Weryk, R.J.; Hormaechea, J.L.; and Brunini, C.: Radar Observations of the Arid Meteor Shower Outburst from Comet 15P/Finlay. Planetary Science Journal, 4, 165, 2023, https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ace82a. Levine, J.S.: The Impact of Lunar Dust and Mars Dust on Human Exploration: Summary of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Workshop. Lunar Science Innovation Consortium Dust Mitigation Focus Group Meeting, January 19, 2023, virtual. Mertens, C.J.; Gronoff, G.; Zheng, Y.; Buhler, J.; Willis, E.M.; Petrenko, M.; Phoenix, D.; Jun, I.; and Minow, J.I.: NAIRAS Model Updates and Improvements to the Prediction of the Ionizing Radiation Environment from the Earth’s Surface to Geospace. Abstract SM35C-1769, AGU Fall Meeting 2022, December 12-16, 2022, Chicago, IL. Mertens, C.J.; Gronoff, G.; Phoenix, D.; Paul, S.N.; Mehta, P.M.; Zheng, Y.; and Nunez, M.: NAIRAS Model Nowcasting and Forecasting of the Aviation Radiation Environment. 20th Conference on Space Weather, American Meteorological Society, 103rd Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2023, Denver, CO. Mertens, C.J.; Gronoff, G.; Zheng, Y.; Buhler, J.; Willis, E.M.; Petrenko, M.; Phoenix, D.; Jun, I.; and Minow, J.: NAIRAS Model Updates and Improvements to the Prediction of Ionizing Radiation from Earth’s Surface to Cislunar Environment. NOAA Space Weather Workshop, April 17-21, 2023, Boulder, CO. 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Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127, e2022JA030373. https://doi. org/10.1029/2022JA030373 2022. Parker, L.N.; Jun, I.; and Minow, J.I.: Introduction to the Virtual Collection on the Applied Space Environments Conference 2021. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 374-374, doi/ abs/10.2514/1.A35728, 2023. Schonberg, W. and Squire, M: Predicting High-speed Particle Impact Damage in Spacecraft Thermal Protection Systems. Journal of Space Safety Engineering. Accepted for publication. Schonberg, W. and Squire, M.: Toward a More Generalized Ballistic Limit Equation for Multi-Shock Shield. Acta Astronautica. Accepted for publication. Stober, G.; Weryk, R.; Janches, D.; Dawkins, E.C.M.; Günzkofer, F.; Hormaechea, J.L.; and Pokhotelov, D.: Polarization Dependency of Transverse Scattering and Collisional Coupling to the Ambient Atmosphere from Meteor Trails – Theory and Observations. Planetary and Space Science, 105768, ISSN 0032-0633, https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pss.2023.105768, 2023. Thomsen, D.L.; Jordan, T.M.; Milic, L.; and Girard, W.: Decreasing Proton Single Event Effects in CubeSats with Shielding. 2023 Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium and Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, May 15-19, 2023, La Jolla, CA. Valinia, A.; and Minow, J.: Required Space Weather Reconnaissance in the Artemis Era. 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 13-17, 2023, The Woodlands, TX. Zheng, Y.; Jun, I.; Tu, W.; Sprits, Y.; Kim, W.; Miyoshi, Y.; Meier, M.; and Minow, J.: Overview, Progress and Next Steps for Our Understanding of the Near-Earth Space Radiation and Plasma Environment: Science and Applications. 28th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly, July 8-18, 2023, Berlin, Germany. Structures Arndt, C. and TerMaath, S.: Characterization of the Damage Tolerance of Composite Overlays through Subspace Evaluation. ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, June 6-9, 2023. Babuska, P.; Tai, W.; Goyal, V.; and Rodriguez, A.: Novel Test and Analysis Methodology for the Assessment of Joint under Re-entry Environment. AIAA Scitech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 23-27, 2023. Bo, D.; Hwangbo, H.; Sharma, V.; Arndt, C.; and TerMaath, S.: A Randomized Subspace-based Approach for Dimensionality Reduction and Important Variable Selection. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 24: 1-3010.48550/arxiv.2106.01584, 2023. Bo, D.; Hwangbo, H.; and TerMaath, S.: Subspace Selection for High- Dimensional Experiments of Material Development Process. Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) Annual Conference and Expo, New Orleans, LA, May 20-23, 2023. Brust, F. W.; Punch, E.; Twombly, E.; and Wallace, J: Estimation Scheme for Weld Residual Stress Effect on Crack Opening Displacements. ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, Paper PVP2023-107396, Atlanta, GA, July 2023. Cardona, A.; Jegley, D.; and Lovejoy, A.: Manufacturing Trials of Integrally Stiffened Panels for Flight Applications. AIAA-2023-0781, SciTech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 2023. Cline, J.; Dorsey, J.; Kang, D.; Doggett, W.; and Allen, D.: Ideas For Infusing In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing Concepts into Nuclear Electric Propulsion Architectures. Joint Army-Navy-NASA- Air Force (JANNAF) 12th Spacecraft Propulsion Joint Subcommittee Meeting, Huntsville, AL, December 2022. Doggett, W.; Heppler, J.; Mahlin, M.; Pappa, R.; Teter, J.; Song, K.; White, B.; Wong, I.; and Mikulas, M.: Towers: Critical Initial Infrastructure for the Moon. AIAA-2023-0383, SciTech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 2023. Fleishel, R.; Ferrell, W.; and TerMaath, S.: Fatigue-Damage Initiation at Process Introduced Internal Defects in Electron-Beam-Melted Ti- 6Al-4V. 2023. Metals 13:2, 350. Special Issue: Deformation, Fracture and Microstructure of Metallic Materials, https://doi.org/10.3390/ met13020350. Fleishel, R. and TerMaath, S.: Modeling fatigue overload behavior in microstructurally short cracks: connecting initiation and long crack behavior. ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, June 6-9, 2023. Goyal, V.; Tuck-Lee, J.; Babuska, P.; and Zeitunian, E.: Lessons Learned in the Buckling Assessments of Space Structures. AIAA Scitech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 23-27, 2023. Goyal, V.; Sagrillo, C.; Fannon, J.; Forth, S.; and Kezirian, M.: Space Systems Technical Guide for Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels. AIAA Scitech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 23-27, 2023. Hart, D.; Balsara, Martinez, and TerMaath, S.: Multi-Scale Multi- Physics Bondline Strength Prediction Research. NATO Science & Technology Organization, Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT-361) Research Workshop on Certification of Bonded Repair on Composite Aircraft Structures, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct 18-20, 2022. Kaleel, I., Ricks, T.M., Gustafson, P.A., Pineda, E.J., Bednarcyk, B.A., and Arnold, S.M. (2023) “Massively Multiscale Modeling using NASA Multiscale Analysis Tool through Partitioned Task-Parallel Approach” 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum, 23-27 January 2023, National Harbor, MD. Lin, L.: Correlation Study of SWOT Payload Acoustic Prediction and Test. AIAA SciTech, January 2023. Ma, X. and TerMaath, S.: Microstructural Analysis of Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking in 5xxx Series Aluminum Reinforced with a Composite Patch. 2023. Advances in the Analysis and Design of Marine Structures. Ringsberg & Guedes Soares (Eds), CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-032-50636-4. Pak, C.: Linear and Geometrically Nonlinear Structural Shape Sensing from Strain Data. AIAA Journal, Vol. 61, No. 2, 2023, pp. 907-922. Pak, C.: Finite Element Model Tuning Using Analytical Sensitivity Values. Journal of Aircraft, Articles in Advance (Vol. 60, No. 2 or 3), 2023. Panda, J.; Nguyen, M.P.; Keil. D.R.; and Hamm, K.R.: A Microphone Phased Array for Launch Acoustics Application. AIAA SciTech Conference, National Harbor, MD, (2023), AIAA Paper 2023-0790. Qu, X.; Shimizu, L.; Rome J.; Nordendale, N.; and Goyal, V.: Reliability- based Damage Tolerance Analysis for Additive Manufacturing Part. NAFEMS World Congress 2023, Tampa, FL, May 2023. Ricks, T. M.; Pineda, E. J.; Bednarcyk, B. A.; McCorkle, L. S.; Miller, S. G.; Murthy, P. L.; and Segal, K. N.: Multiscale Progressive Failure Analysis of 3D Woven Composites. 2022, Polymers, 14(20), 4340. Rome, J. and Goyal, V.: Moving Towards a Print Then Use Framework for Additive Manufacturing. ASME SSDM 2023, June 2023, SSDM2023-111806, Accepted. Rudd, M.T.; Eberlein, D.J.; Waters, W.A.; Gardner, N.W.; Schultz, M.R.; and Bisagni, C.: Analysis and Validation of a Scaled, Launch- Vehicle-Like Composite Cylinder under Axial Compression. Composite Structures, Volume 304, Part 1, January 2023. Rudd, M.T.; Schultz, M.R.; Gardner, N.W.; and Bisagni, C.: Test and Analysis of a Composite Conical-Cylindrical Shell. AIAA SciTech 2023 Forum, AIAA paper no. AIAA 2023-1525, National Harbor, MD, January 2023. Soltz, B.; Goyal, V.; Rome, J.; and Qu, X.: Structural Requirements, Process Simulation, and Residual Stress Characterization for Additively Manufactured Spaceflight Parts. AIAA 2023-2078, https:// doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-2078, AIAA Scitech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 23-27, 2023. Soltz, B.; Sivess, A.; Hickman, M.; Ghazari, A. and Shimizu, L.: Static Load Testing and Analysis Recommendations For Space Vehicles. OTR 2023-00653, 33rd Aerospace Testing Seminar, The Aerospace Corporation, May 16, 2023. Song, K.; Mikulas, M.; Mahlin, M.; and Cassady, J.: Sizing and Design Tool for Tall Lunar Tower. AIAA-2023-0382, SciTech 2023, National Harbor, MD, January 2023. Hammel, J.: Utilizing 3D-DIC on the Mars 2020 Rover Wheel Assembly: Test-Analysis Correlation. IEEE, March 2023. Song, K.; Stark, A.; Amundsen, R.; Mikulas, M.; Mahlin, M.; and Cassady, J.: Sizing, Buckling, and Thermal-Structural Analysis of Tall Lunar Tower. 2023 AIAA ASCEND, Las Vegas, NV, October 2023. TerMaath, S.: Multi-scale Computational Structural Mechanics. Turing- Oden Workshop on Data Science and Machine Learning. Alan Turing Institute, London, January 25-27, 2023. TerMaath, S.; Crusenberry, C.; and Arndt, C.: Reduced Order Modeling of Progressive Failure in Composite/Metal Structure. 6th International Conference on Protective Structures, Auburn University, May 14-17, 2023. TerMaath, S.: Probabilistic multi-scale characterization and prediction of bimaterial bondline structural reliability. Canadian National Research Council, Ottawa, June 1, 2023. TerMaath, S.; Ingling, B.; Noland, J.; and Hart, D.: Evaluation of low-velocity impact damage in metal/composite layered structure. 8th International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE). Milano, Italy, July 2-6, 2023. Twombly, E.; Hill, L.; Wilkowski, G.; Brust, B.; Lin, B.; and Tregoning, R.: Evaluation of the Inherent LBB Behavior of Small-Diameter Class 1 and 2 Nuclear Piping Systems. ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, Paper PVP2023-107685, Atlanta, GA, July 2023. Ytuarte, E.; Ragheb, H.; Sobey, A.; and TerMaath, S.: Peridynamics with stochastic bond strengths for determination of final failure in composite laminates. ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, June 6-9, 2023.2022, Park City, UT. Systems Engineering Driscoll, A. and Vining, G.: Debunking Stress Rupture Theories Using Weibull Regression Plots. Fall Technical Conference, October 12-14, 2022, Park City, UT Driscoll, A.: Advances in Stress Rupture Modeling: A Case Study for Predicting COPV Reliability. Joint Statistical Meetings, August 5-10, 2023, Toronto, Canada. Huang, Z. C.: Toward Closed Form Formulas for System Reliability and Confidence Quantification. 2023 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), January 23-26, 2023, DOI: 10.1109/RAMS51473.2023.10088214. Parker, P. and Wilson, S.: Motivating Statistical Research for NASA Applications. Joint Statistical Meetings, August 5-10, 2023, Toronto, Canada. Thermal Control and Protection Rickman, S.: Re-Architecting the NASA Wire Derating Approach, Phase II, Wire and Wire Bundle Ampacity Testing and Analysis. Aerospace Electrical Interconnect Symposium, October 2022, Houston, TX. Rickman, S.: Space Mission Thermal Control and Protection Challenges – Past, Present, and Future. The Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm), June 2023, Orlando, FL. Rickman, S.: Introduction to Orbits. Rice/Envision Aerospace and Aviation Academy, June 2023, Houston, TX. Rickman, S.: Development and Application of a Novel Calorimetry Technique for the Study of Lithium-Ion Cell Thermal Runaway., International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), July 2023, Calgary, Canada. Rickman, S.: Introduction to On-Orbit Thermal Environments. Thermal and Fluids Analysis Workshop (TFAWS), August 2023, College Park, MD. Shafirovich, E. and Rickman, S.: A Warm Garage for a Lunar Rover, Commercial Lunar Payload Services. Survive the Night Technology Workshop, December 2022, Cleveland, OH. View the full article

NESC Honor Awards are given each year to NASA employees, industry representatives, and other stakeholders for their efforts and achievements in engineering, leadership, teamwork, and communication. These awards formally recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the NESC mission, demonstrate engineering and technical excellence, and foster an open environment. 2022 Honorees from left to right: (Front Row) Tim Wilson (NESC Director); Yuan Chen (LaRC), Elspeth Peterson (KSC), Grace Belancik (ARC), Jing Pei (LaRC), Mark Vande Hei (NESC Chief Astronaut); (Second row) James Walker (MSFC), Carlton Faller (JSC), Jason Vaughn (MSFC), Shane Cravens (Syncom Space Services, SSC), Shawn Brechbill (MSFC), Kevin Dickens (GRC); (Third row) Christopher Johnston (LaRC). NESC Director’s Award Honors individuals for defending a technical position that conflicts with a program or organization’s initial or prevailing engineering perspectives and for taking personal initiative to foster clear and open communication and resolve controversial issues. DANIEL L. DIETRICH – In recognition of the development and advocacy of the technical rationale to assess the safety and effectiveness of breathing systems for pilots of tactical aircraft. NESC Leadership Award Honors individuals for sustained leadership excellence demonstrated by establishing a vision, developing and managing a plan, and building consensus to proactively resolve conflicts and achieve results. YUAN CHEN – In recognition of outstanding leadership in the electrical, electronic, electromechanical parts’ community and the development of recommendations on the use of commercial parts in NASA missions. NIKOLAUS GRAVENSTEIN – In recognition of outstanding technical leadership in support of Verification of Testing Standard for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Partial Pressure in Extravehicular Activity Suits. ELSPETH M. PETERSEN – In recognition of outstanding leadership to the Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator Assessment Team in negotiating creative solutions and facility challenges. PATRICK A. SIMPKINS – In recognition of outstanding technical leadership in support of numerous NESC assessments to reduce risk to NASA’s most critical human and robotic spaceflight programs. NESC Engineering Excellence Award Honors individuals for making significant engineering contributions, developing innovative approaches, and ensuring appropriate levels of engineering rigor are applied to the resolution of technical issues in support of the NESC mission. KEVIN W. DICKENS – In recognition of engineering excellence and sustained commitment to the NESC Propulsion Technical Discipline Team and NASA missions. View the full article

After reflecting on the more than 1,200 assessments completed by the NESC over the last 20 years, Director Tim Wilson selected these assessments as his top three. They were selected because they would likely have the greatest and most lasting impact on human life and the furtherance of the NESC mission. He shared why their effects were so far-reaching. 2013-2019 Assessing Risks of Frangible Joint Designs At the request of the Commercial Crew Program, the NESC took on an empirical test program of frangible joints to provide confidence in their use for human spaceflight. “Many programs use these joints, so understanding the margins and what drives their designs has helped us keep flight crews safe and make missions successful,” said Mr. Wilson. The joints provide a debris-free separation of launch vehicle stages and payload fairings. To determine the effects various design parameters and environmental factors have on jointseparation capability, the NESC conducted more than 140 tests on a variety of designs and generated more than 100 million lines of data that were used to anchor models, develop design sensitivities, and make reliability estimates. Their comprehensive work was foundational to later assessments for the Space Launch System, Orion, and Launch Services Programs. The NESC also started the FJ Working Group, which serves as the Agency’s technical community of practice. It ensures programs understand the risks associated with their use and is proactive in ensuring NASA is implementing safe and reliable FJ technologies. 2018-2021 Pilot Breathing Assessment When the U.S. Navy was experiencing an increase in pilot physiological episodes across their F/A-18 fleet that was leading to mission aborts, “No one really understood what was going on or why,” said Mr. Wilson. “It was a difficult problem, and our NESC team was able to come up with compelling answers.” Over the NESC’s three-year study, its Pilot Breathing Assessment (PBA) team designed novel instrumentation to measure pilot physiological states and interactions with aircraft life support systems. NASA test pilots flew instrumented NASA F/A-18 and F-15 aircraft through pre-specified flight profiles while wearing specialized breathing equipment augmented with an advanced sensor system. Aligned data streams identified pilot/aircraft interactions with the potential for negative cognitive and physiological impact. After more than 100 scripted flights and 250 million data points, the PBA team determined that breathing pressures and airflows were often mismatched, increasing a pilot’s efforts to maintain sufficient ventilation. The PBA team’s work has benefited the field of aviation and the advancement of human system integration in modern aircraft and has direct application for NASA vehicles such as the T-38, F-15, X-59, and the ISS. 2020-2023 Unconservatism of LEFM Analysis Post Autofrettage The NESC has invested significant time and resources to understanding the complex behavior of composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV), which are used extensively in space-flight. Most recently, an NESC team found there was a lack of conservatism in the damage tolerance analyses conducted on COPV liners using linear-elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM), particularly in understanding the influence of autofrettage (AF). During AF, a COPV is subjected to high pressures to compress the inner surfaces, making them less susceptible to operational stresses later. In verifying damage tolerance life, the team found that separating the AF cycle from subsequent elastic cycles in LEFM analysis led to unconservative life predictions. Cracks remained open during compressive cycles after AF and allowed for a larger stress range to contribute to crack growth in each subsequent elastic cycle. The team provided corrections to NASGRO (programs that analyze fracture and fatigue crack growth) to make predictions less unconservative. “I’m convinced that someday crew will fly, come home, disembark, and never know that it was the improvements to those analytical tools made by this NESC team that kept them safe. I think it’s going to have wide-ranging impact.” View the full article

NASA NASA has selected Bastion Technologies Inc. of Houston to provide support services in four broad technical areas including environmental, institutional operational safety, occupational health, aeronautics and space systems, and ground support equipment mission assurance. The Environmental, Safety, Health, and Mission Assurance contract is cost-plus-fixed-fee with indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task orders with a maximum value of approximately $125.4 million. The performance period is from May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2029. Services will be provided at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland and Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Services also will be provided at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington and may be required at other NASA facilities, once approved, and placed on the contract. Major subcontractors for Bastion Technologies Inc. include Leidos Inc. of Reston, Virginia, and Herndon Solutions Group of Henderson, Nevada. For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov -end- Rob Margetta Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0918 robert.j.margetta@nasa.gov Brian Newbacher Glenn Research Center, Cleveland 216-433-5644 brian.t.newbacher@nasa.gov View the full article

The Value of NASA (2024 State of NASA Highlights)

5 min read Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Moon’s Moment in the Sun Artist’s representation of a total solar eclipse, with a new moon in the foreground and the Sun’s corona visible in the background. Download the Poster NASA/Vi Nguyen On April 8, 2024, much of North America will experience a solar eclipse: a cosmic alignment of Sun, Moon, and Earth, in that order. The Moon’s shadow path will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, cross the United States from Texas to Maine, and exit North America via Newfoundland, Canada, continuing into the Atlantic Ocean. Learn how to safely observe the 2024 Solar Eclipse It’s All About Perspective Solar eclipses on Earth are a convenient coincidence. The Sun’s diameter is about 400 times larger than the Moon’s, and the Sun is almost 400 times farther away from us than the Moon is. This combination makes the Sun and Moon appear nearly the same size in our sky, setting up a spectacular show when they align. Try experimenting with apparent size for yourself by holding up a small item, like your thumb, and moving it closer and farther away to block different-sized objects from your view. The Moon’s distance from Earth varies, though only slightly. The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle, and it is not quite centered on our planet. At its closest, the Moon is about twenty-eight Earth diameters away; at its farthest, about thirty-two. As a result, the Moon’s apparent size changes over time, and eclipses are not all alike. A total solar eclipse is only possible when the Moon is closer to Earth than average. When the Moon is farther away, its apparent size is smaller than the Sun’s, so it does not completely block the Sun’s bright disk. In this configuration, when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, a “ring of fire” remains visible – that’s an annular solar eclipse. An Orbital Dance Video tutorial describing the 2024 total solar eclipse and explaining the Moon’s role in creating it. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Ever wonder why solar eclipses don’t happen more often? Earth, Moon, and Sun don’t line up perfectly every month because the Moon’s orbit is tilted by about 5 degrees compared to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Most of the time, the Moon’s shadow misses our planet. When all three celestial bodies do align, views of the eclipse depend not just on our position in the solar system, but also on our location on Earth. The Moon’s shadow has two parts, the umbra and the penumbra. Observers in the umbra (or “path of totality”) will experience a total solar eclipse. For those in the penumbra, the eclipse will be partial. 2024 Total Solar Eclipse shadow path map, built using datasets from several NASA missions. For more information, visit NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio If you are planning to observe the eclipse, you’ve probably consulted a shadow path map like this one. But how do we know exactly where and when the Moon will cast its shadow? Eclipse prediction depends, first and foremost, on understanding the positions and movements of the Moon, Sun, and Earth. Modern maps build on a long human history of eclipse forecasting. And since 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been mapping the Moon in unprecedented detail. LRO’s lunar topography data enables us to make more accurate eclipse predictions than ever before. Moonshadow: The Making of a Map The Moon is a rugged world of peaks, craters, basins, and valleys. Since the lunar horizon is bumpy and jagged, the shadow it casts is not quite round. Knowing the precise shape of the Moon helps us understand exactly where its shadow will darken Earth’s surface. Of course, our own planet is not perfectly round, either. Today’s eclipse maps account not only for the lunar landscape, but also for the contours of Earth’s mountain ranges, lowlands, and other features. Uneven lunar terrain partially blocks the Sun in this composite image of a partial solar eclipse, showing the Moon (visualization based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data) passing between Earth and the Sun (as imaged from space by the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft on October 7, 2010). NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Bursts of Light: Baily’s Beads and the Diamond Ring Effect Casual observers don’t usually notice that the Moon’s silhouette is rough around the edges. At a distance of 239,000 miles (that’s the average gap between Earth and the Moon), our nearest neighbor in space looks round – even mountains appear too small for the human eye to distinguish. But, for two brief moments during a solar eclipse, craggy lunar terrain commands the spotlight. On the brink of totality, as the Moon moves into full Sun-blocking position, the Sun’s edge doesn’t go dark all at once. Last rays of sunlight peek through valleys on the lunar horizon. These isolated areas of intense brightness can resemble a string of glowing beads or a single dramatic burst of light like the gem on a ring. The same phenomena, sometimes called Baily’s Beads and the Diamond Ring Effect, can also occur as the Moon edges out of totality (or annularity). Since we know the shape and position of the Moon so well, we can predict where the first and last bits of sunlight will appear. Baily’s Beads as seen during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA Eclipse Science and You NASA scientists take full advantage of the unusual atmospheric and environmental conditions the Moon’s passing shadow creates, and you can too. Here are just a few places to start. Join a community eclipse science project like Eclipse Soundscapes or GLOBE Eclipse. A solar eclipse is a rare opportunity to directly observe a new moon. Document your experience and kick off a month of Moon observations with our special edition Moon Observation Journal. Learn more about lunar and solar eclipses. Connect with observers around the world and keep celebrating the Moon’s place in science and culture on the next International Observe the Moon Night, Sept. 14, 2024. Science Advisor: Ernie Wright, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center About the Author Caela Barry Share Details Last Updated Mar 11, 2024 Editor Molly Wasser Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms 2024 Solar Eclipse Earth’s Moon Eclipses Solar Eclipses Uncategorized Explore More 2 min read NASA Launches Snap It! Computer Game to Learn About Eclipses Article 3 days ago 4 min read NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission: 10 years, 10 stories Article 1 week ago 2 min read Eclipse Ambassadors off the Path: Reaching Underrepresented Audiences Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA NASA Eclipse Science Moon Phases International Observe the Moon Night Supermoons View the full article

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. NASA/Cory Huston “The rollout of the President’s 2025 budget offers the opportunity to highlight some of the exciting happenings that are helping launch humanity’s future at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Every dollar spent on the agency goes toward U.S. prosperity and improving life on Earth. In the state of Florida, more than 27,000 jobs can be attributed to work performed here. “Kennedy is proud to support the administration’s goals and priorities for NASA, including the Artemis campaign, an American presence in low Earth orbit, and the development of new space technologies. Through Artemis, NASA is returning to the Moon with its sights set on Mars. At Kennedy, we are updating the ground systems and processing the hardware to take us there. The Artemis II launch in 2025 will be the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface. “Kennedy also continues launching the science missions that study Earth and our solar system, as well as sending crews and cargo to the International Space Station. Research on the orbiting laboratory ranges from DNA studies to 3D printing, helping us solve problems here on Earth while serving as a proving ground for capabilities we will need during long-duration human space exploration. “Other innovative work at Kennedy in physics, dust mitigation, and space gardening will lead to the technologies humans will need to live and work in space – including the ability to maintain a commercial supply chain in deep space. “Along the way, NASA is helping grow the domestic market. Kennedy has led the way in developing relationships that are so instrumental to our nation’s future in space. Through more than 90 commercial partners and nearly 250 partnership agreements, our spaceport provides continuous access to space using the same creativity and innovation that have become the hallmark of our agency. Additionally, NASA programs at Kennedy create expanded opportunities for new and current launch providers and payload processors. “We do all of this thanks to our diverse and talented workforce. Our employees are second to none, and they are the reason that Kennedy has ranked among the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for five years in a row. I hope you will join me in celebrating these accomplishments and looking forward to another exciting year of exploration, innovation, and inspiration at the world’s preeminent spaceport.” Read NASA Administrator Bill Nelson’s statement on the FY2025 budget request here. Images of Janet Petro are available from NASA’s image library in vertical and horizontal formats. For more information about Kennedy Space Center, visit: www.nasa.gov/kennedy -end- Patti Bielling Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-501-7575 patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov View the full article

NASA/Joel Kowsky The Moon passes in front of the Sun in this Aug. 21, 2017, image taken at the point of the maximum partial eclipse. This photo was taken near Banner, Wyoming, where a partial eclipse was visible. However, a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina saw a total solar eclipse. On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. See the path of the eclipse and how to safely watch it. If you’re not in the path of the eclipse, watch with NASA from anywhere in the world. We will provide live broadcast coverage on April 8 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT (1700 to 2000 UTC). Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky View the full article

NASA The Biden-Harris Administration Monday released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which includes funding to invest in America and the American people and will allow NASA to continue advancing our understanding of Earth and space while inspiring the world through discovery. “As history has proven, as the present has shown, and as the future will continue to demonstrate, an investment in NASA is an investment in America for the benefit of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “President Biden’s budget will fund our nation’s abilities and leadership for the future of space exploration, scientific discovery, cutting-edge technology, climate data, the next generation of aeronautics, and inspiring our future leaders – the Artemis Generation.” The budget allows NASA to launch the Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, research Earth’s changing climate, grow commercial markets to serve America’s interests in space, and inspire the Artemis Generation of science, technology, engineering, and math professionals. “This budget shows NASA’s value in contributing to the global leadership of the United States,” said Nelson. “Every dollar supports our ability to continue exploring new cosmic shores and making the impossible possible, all while creating competitive and good-paying jobs in all 50 states.” At NASA, the budget request would: Invest in the U.S.-led Artemis campaign of lunar exploration: The budget includes $7.8 billion for the Artemis campaign, which will bring astronauts – including the first woman, first person of color, and first international astronaut –to the lunar surface starting this decade as part of a long-term journey of science and exploration. Enhance climate science and information: The budget invests $2.4 billion in the Earth science program for missions and activities that advance Earth systems science and increase accessibility to information to mitigate natural hazards, support climate action, and manage natural resources. Advance U.S. space industry technology development: The budget provides $1.2 billion for NASA’s space technology portfolio to foster innovative technology research and development to meet the needs of NASA, support the expanding U.S. space industry, which is creating a growing number of good jobs, and keep America ahead of competitors at the forefront of space innovation. Support highly efficient and greener commercial airliners: The budget invests $966 million in NASA’s aeronautics program, which will develop hybrid-electric jet engines, lightweight aircraft structures, and a major new flight demonstrator to pave the way for new commercial airliners that would be cheaper to operate and produce less pollution. Continue the transition to commercial space stations: The budget funds continued operation of the International Space Station, a vehicle to safely de-orbit the space station after it is retired in 2030, and the commercial space stations that NASA will use as soon as they become available. Increase STEM opportunities at minority-serving institutions: The budget provides $46 million to the Minority University Research and Education Project, to increase competitive awards to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tribal colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions, and recruit and retain underrepresented and underserved students in STEM fields. Following historic progress made since the President took office – with nearly 15 million jobs created and inflation down two-thirds – the budget protects and builds on this progress by lowering costs for working families and reducing the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. For more information on NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/budget -end- Faith McKie / Abbey Donaldson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 11, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsBudget & Annual ReportsNASA Headquarters View the full article

Summary In responding to Milestone 4.2 of the Digital Government Strategy, NASA heeded the Advisory Group’s encouragement to “build upon existing structures and processes as much as possible.” To locate the gaps in existing governance structures, NASA’s Digital Strategy response team identified all necessary decisions concerning digital services, using the three layers pointed out in the Digital Strategy-information, platform, presentation-as a guide. This decision matrix illustrated gaps in governance that need to be addressed in order for NASA’s Digital Services to align with the Digital Government Strategy. Going forward, these gaps will be addressed by the NASA Digital Services Governance Framework. This newly established framework, in conjunction with established Agency policy and procedural requirements, encompasses the requirements for overseeing the development and delivery of enterprise digital services. It proposes a new implementation body, the Digital Services Board, reporting to the established Mission Support Council, which will serve as the policymaking body. NASA expects to charter the Digital Services Board in early 2013. In all other ways, the framework relies on existing governance and organizational responsibilities. In the Digital Services Governance Recommendations, the discussion of an ideal digital services governance structure is set around six essential elements. The first three elements (Clearly Defined Scope of Authority, Core Principles to Guide Action, and Established Roles and Responsibilities) are addressed in this document. The next three (Stakeholder Input and Participation, Consistent Communications, and Performance Metrics) will be addressed in NASA’s follow-up in January 2013, along with reporting on performance and customer satisfaction measuring tools. Addressing the Elements Element A: Clearly Defined Scope of Authority The world is connected more now than ever before, and there is an exponential growth in the number of services available online. In carrying out our missions, NASA offers a number of services both to internal customers and to the public in the form of information delivery, transactional applications, and other mechanisms across a variety of platforms. At NASA, the governance of the Digital Strategy is shared among several key stakeholder groups, most prominently the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Office of Communications (OCOMM). These stakeholders realize the value and potential of embracing digital services to lower costs, increase citizen participation, and make it easier to collaborate and share information. With this distribution of ownership, the question of accountability and leadership becomes critical. The proposed Digital Services Board (DSB) will represent all stakeholders within NASA and carry the authority, responsibility, and resources to gather, prioritize, and direct the implementation of Agency-wide requirements. Element B: Core Principles to Guide Action NASA is dedicated to a number of principles by which we guide our delivery of digital services. The Agency’s primary customers are the American public. This presents a broad service concept that can be segmented into different audiences with needs for different digital services: information for the general public, educational materials for teachers and students, procurement opportunities for businesses, and research efforts for the scientific and engineering communities. Any of these individual audiences may be best served by different elements of NASA. Each aspect of our mission is dedicated to providing the maximum value and benefit to citizens, and every NASA employee and contractor is responsible for ensuring the success of that mission. The American public deserves nothing less than excellence in the digital services NASA offers both to the public and to its own operations. As such, the Agency is focused on creating a Digital Strategy that, much like our work in space, is bold, innovative, and lasting. We believe that the Digital Strategy is as much an exercise in quantitative measurements as it is a qualitative exercise in future-based policymaking. Thus, we have developed the following core principals that guide us: Every NASA service ought be created with a focus on its intended audience, which will lead to better user experience, expandability, and efficiency. Within the bounds of existing policies, NASA employees should be able to securely and seamlessly access and share information regardless of their location or preferred device. Digital Services should further NASA’s vision and purpose, including to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof”. Element C: Established Roles and Responsibilities Overall responsibilities of organizations with Digital Services roles can be found in NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 1000.3, “The NASA Organization.” The foundational layer of security, including roles and responsibilities, is governed under NASA Policy Directive (NPD) 2810.1, “NASA Information Security Policy,” and NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 2810.1, “Security of Information Technology.” Privacy is governed under NPD 1382.17, “NASA Privacy Policy,” and NPR 1382.1, “NASA Privacy Procedures.” The information layer is largely governed by the NASA Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters, with supporting offices at each of the NASA Centers ensuring appropriate dissemination of information, correctness of information, style, and NASA branding protection. Provisioning and governing the platform layer is largely the responsibility of the NASA Chief Information Officer, with support from the Service Executive for Web Services, the Web Services Board, the Enterprise Change Advisory Board, and Center Chief Information Officers at each of the NASA Centers. Currently, governance of the presentation layer falls under existing policies for style, privacy, records management, etc., while leaving the NASA Centers, mission directorates, and mission support offices the flexibility and authority to present content in the most effective manner in consideration of the data or information, targeted audience, and means of access (mobile devices, machine to machine interfaces, etc.). NASA Digital Services Governance Framework: Target State In reviewing current governance of digital services, NASA identified the gaps that the new governance framework will address. Existing governance structures are built with a clearly defined scope of authority, core principles, and established roles and responsibilities; going forward, gaps in governance will be addressed with these elements, as well as stakeholder input and participation, consistent communications, and performance metrics. Gap Proposed Process No group charged with working across NASA to develop Agency-wide requirements for digital services. The Mission Support Council will use input and recommendations from the proposed Digital Services Board to develop Agency-wide requirements for digital services and provide guidelines for their implementation. No cross-Agency group charged with policy development, implementation, and enforcement. The Mission Support Council will be the policymaking body for Digital Services, holding the Digital Services Board responsible for implementation and allocating resources for implementations. No repeatable process for the creation of new websites, the introduction of new free services to the Agency, taking successful pilot projects into Agency-wide operation, or spreading best practices across the agency. Based on policies established by the Mission Support Council, the Digital Services Board will work with stakeholders to develop and implement these processes. Last Updated: Aug. 7, 2017 Editor: Jason Duley View the full article

6 min read NASA’s Webb, Hubble Telescopes Affirm Universe’s Expansion Rate, Puzzle Persists When you are trying to solve one of the biggest conundrums in cosmology, you should triple check your homework. The puzzle, called the “Hubble Tension,” is that the current rate of the expansion of the universe is faster than what astronomers expect it to be, based on the universe’s initial conditions and our present understanding of the universe’s evolution. Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes consistently find a number that does not match predictions based on observations from ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Planck mission. Does resolving this discrepancy require new physics? Or is it a result of measurement errors between the two different methods used to determine the rate of expansion of space? This image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth, combines data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the farthest galaxy in which Hubble has identified Cepheid variable stars. These are important milepost markers for measuring the expansion rate of the universe. The distance calculated from Cepheids has been cross-correlated with a type Ia supernova in the galaxy. Type Ia supernovae are so bright they are used to measure cosmic distances far beyond the range of the Cepheids, extending measurements of the universe’s expansion rate deeper into space. Download this Image Hubble has been measuring the current rate of the universe’s expansion for 30 years, and astronomers want to eliminate any lingering doubt about its accuracy. Now, Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have tag-teamed to produce definitive measurements, furthering the case that something else – not measurement errors – is influencing the expansion rate. “With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” said Adam Riess, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Riess holds a Nobel Prize for co-discovering the fact that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, due to a mysterious phenomenon now called “dark energy.” As a crosscheck, an initial Webb observation in 2023 confirmed that Hubble measurements of the expanding universe were accurate. However, hoping to relieve the Hubble Tension, some scientists speculated that unseen errors in the measurement may grow and become visible as we look deeper into the universe. In particular, stellar crowding could affect brightness measurements of more distant stars in a systematic way. The SH0ES (Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy) team, led by Riess, obtained additional observations with Webb of objects that are critical cosmic milepost markers, known as Cepheid variable stars, which now can be correlated with the Hubble data. “We’ve now spanned the whole range of what Hubble observed, and we can rule out a measurement error as the cause of the Hubble Tension with very high confidence,” Riess said. The team’s first few Webb observations in 2023 were successful in showing Hubble was on the right track in firmly establishing the fidelity of the first rungs of the so-called cosmic distance ladder. Astronomers use various methods to measure relative distances in the universe, depending upon the object being observed. Collectively these techniques are known as the cosmic distance ladder – each rung or measurement technique relies upon the previous step for calibration. But some astronomers suggested that, moving outward along the “second rung,” the cosmic distance ladder might get shaky if the Cepheid measurements become less accurate with distance. Such inaccuracies could occur because the light of a Cepheid could blend with that of an adjacent star – an effect that could become more pronounced with distance as stars crowd together and become harder to distinguish from one another. The observational challenge is that past Hubble images of these more distant Cepheid variables look more huddled and overlapping with neighboring stars at ever farther distances between us and their host galaxies, requiring careful accounting for this effect. Intervening dust further complicates the certainty of the measurements in visible light. Webb slices though the dust and naturally isolates the Cepheids from neighboring stars because its vision is sharper than Hubble’s at infrared wavelengths. At the center of these side-by-side images is a special class of star used as a milepost marker for measuring the universe’s rate of expansion – a Cepheid variable star. The two images are very pixelated because they are a very zoomed-in view of a distant galaxy. Each of the pixels represents one or more stars. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope is significantly sharper at near-infrared wavelengths than Hubble (which is primarily a visible-ultraviolet light telescope). By reducing the clutter with Webb’s crisper vision, the Cepheid stands out more clearly, eliminating any potential confusion. Webb was used to look at a sample of Cepheids and confirmed the accuracy of the previous Hubble observations that are fundamental to precisely measuring the universe’s expansion rate and age. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam G. Riess (JHU, STScI) Download this Image “Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. We find that the Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb farther along the cosmic distance ladder,” said Riess. The new Webb observations include five host galaxies of eight Type Ia supernovae containing a total of 1,000 Cepheids, and reach out to the farthest galaxy where Cepheids have been well measured – NGC 5468 – at a distance of 130 million light-years. “This spans the full range where we made measurements with Hubble. So, we’ve gone to the end of the second rung of the cosmic distance ladder,” said co-author Gagandeep Anand of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which operates the Webb and Hubble telescopes for NASA. Hubble and Webb’s further confirmation of the Hubble Tension sets up other observatories to possibly settle the mystery. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will do wide celestial surveys to study the influence of dark energy, the mysterious energy that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. ESA’s Euclid observatory, with NASA contributions, is pursuing a similar task. At present it’s as though the distance ladder observed by Hubble and Webb has firmly set an anchor point on one shoreline of a river, and the afterglow of the big bang observed by Planck’s measurement from the beginning of the universe is set firmly on the other side. How the universe’s expansion was changing in the billions of years between these two endpoints has yet to be directly observed. “We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day,” said Riess. These finding were published in the February 6, 2024 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. Goddard also conducts mission operations with Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations for NASA. The 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 the Canadian Space Agency. More Webb News: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/ More Hubble News: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/hubble-news/ More Webb Images: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/ More Hubble Images: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/hubble-images/ Webb Mission Page: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/ Hubble Mission Page: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/ Learn More Hubble Reaches New Milestone in Mystery of Universe’s Expansion Rate Mystery of the Universe’s Expansion Rate Widens With New Hubble Data NASA’s Hubble Extends Stellar Tape Measure 10 Times Farther Into Space Discovering the Runaway Universe Media Contacts: Claire Andreoli – claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Ray Villard, Christine Pulliam Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Share Details Last Updated Mar 11, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Missions Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… Galaxies Stories NASA Astrophysics View the full article

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Re-entry and Splashdown

4 Min Read Peering Into the Tendrils of NGC 604 with NASA’s Webb Star-forming region NGC 604. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The formation of stars and the chaotic environments they inhabit is one of the most well-studied, but also mystery-shrouded, areas of cosmic investigation. The intricacies of these processes are now being unveiled like never before by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Two new images from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) showcase star-forming region NGC 604, located in the Triangulum galaxy (M33), 2.73 million light-years away from Earth. In these images, cavernous bubbles and stretched-out filaments of gas etch a more detailed and complete tapestry of star birth than seen in the past. Sheltered among NGC 604’s dusty envelopes of gas are more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives. These types of stars are B-types and O-types, the latter of which can be more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun. It’s quite rare to find this concentration of them in the nearby universe. In fact, there’s no similar region within our own Milky Way galaxy. This concentration of massive stars, combined with its relatively close distance, means NGC 604 gives astronomers an opportunity to study these objects at a fascinating time early in their life. Image: NIRCam View NGC 604 This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) of star-forming region NGC 604 shows how stellar winds from bright, hot, young stars carve out cavities in surrounding gas and dust. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI In Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam image, the most noticeable features are tendrils and clumps of emission that appear bright red, extending out from areas that look like clearings, or large bubbles in the nebula. Stellar winds from the brightest and hottest young stars have carved out these cavities, while ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas. This ionized hydrogen appears as a white and blue ghostly glow. The bright orange-colored streaks in the Webb near-infrared image signify the presence of carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. This material plays an important role in the interstellar medium and the formation of stars and planets, but its origin is a mystery. As you travel farther from the immediate clearings of dust, the deeper red signifies molecular hydrogen. This cooler gas is a prime environment for star formation. Webb’s exquisite resolution also provides insights into features that previously appeared unrelated to the main cloud. For example, in Webb’s image, there are two bright, young stars carving out holes in dust above the central nebula, connected through diffuse red gas. In visible-light imaging from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, these appeared as separate splotches. Image: MIRI View NGC 604 This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) of star-forming region NGC 604 shows how large clouds of cooler gas and dust glow in mid-infrared wavelengths. This region is home to more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Webb’s view in mid-infrared wavelengths also illustrates a new perspective into the diverse and dynamic activity of this region. In the MIRI view of NGC 604, there are noticeably fewer stars. This is because hot stars emit much less light at these wavelengths, while the larger clouds of cooler gas and dust glow. Some of the stars seen in this image, belonging to the surrounding galaxy, are red supergiants – stars that are cool but very large, hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun. Additionally, some of the background galaxies that appeared in the NIRCam image also fade. In the MIRI image, the blue tendrils of material signify the presence of PAHs. NGC 604 is estimated to be around 3.5 million years old. The cloud of glowing gases extends to some 1,300 light-years across. Video: Explore the Images Explore Webb’s images of NGC 604 with Dr Jane Rigby (Webb Senior Project Scientist). Credit: NASA The 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 the Canadian Space Agency. Downloads Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window. Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Media Contacts Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. Related Information Hubble’s view of NGC 604 Hubble’s view of NGC 604 host galaxy Triangulum (M33) Star Lifecycle More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/ More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/ Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/ Related For Kids What is a galaxy? What is a Nebula? What is the Webb Telescope? SpacePlace for Kids En Español Ciencia de la NASA NASA en español Space Place para niños Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… Stars Stars Stories Universe Share Details Last Updated Mar 09, 2024 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms Astrophysics Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Missions Nebulae Science & Research Star-forming Nebulae The Universe View the full article

A New Crew Launches to the Space Station on This Week @NASA – March 8, 2024

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 poses for a photo before their mission to the International Space Station. From left to right: Mission Specialist Konstantin Borisov, Pilot Andreas Mogensen, Commander Jasmin Moghbeli, and Mission Specialist Satoshi Furukawa.Credits: SpaceX NASA will provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-7 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with a change-of-command ceremony at 11:55 a.m. EDT on Sunday, March 10. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are preparing to wrap up their nearly six-month science mission, and bring home time-sensitive research to Earth. Pending weather conditions off the coast of Florida, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the space station at 11:05 a.m. Monday, March 11, to begin the journey home, with NASA coverage beginning at 10:45 a.m. NASA and SpaceX are targeting as early as 5:35 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, for splashdown off the Florida coast. The return and related activities will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations): Sunday, March 10 11:55 a.m.: Crew-7 farewell remarks and change of command ceremony aboard the space station Monday, March 11 9 a.m.: Hatch closure coverage begins 9:15 a.m.: Hatch closing 10:45 a.m.: Undocking coverage begins 11:05 a.m.: Undocking Following conclusion of Dragon departure from station, NASA coverage will continue with audio only, with full coverage resuming ahead of the deorbit burn and splashdown. Tuesday, March 12 4:30 a.m.: Coverage begins as the spacecraft leaves low Earth orbit, completes re-entry, and prepares for splashdown 5:35 a.m.: Splashdown 7 a.m.: Return to Earth media teleconference call with the following participants: Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Jeff Arend, manager for systems engineering and integration, NASA’s International Space Station Office SpaceX representative Eric Van Der Wal, Houston office team leader, ESA Hiroshi Sasaki, vice president for human space flight and space exploration, JAXA Media may ask questions via phone. For the dial-in number and passcode, media should contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 6 a.m. Tuesday, March 11, at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. See full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the mission at: https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew -end- Joshua Finch Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov Steve Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-867-2468 steven.p.sieceloff@nasa.gov Leah Cheshier Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Mar 08, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsInternational Space Station (ISS)Commercial CrewCommercial SpaceHumans in SpaceSpace Operations Mission Directorate View the full article

Using the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds at NASA’s Ames Research Center, a team created this simulated lunar environment to study lighting conditions experienced at the unexplored poles of the Moon. NASA/Uland Wong The challenges of working on the surface of the Moon are at the center of a facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds help scientists and engineers – from NASA and industry alike – study how well science instruments, robots, and people might be able to safely work, manipulate, navigate, and traverse the tough lunar terrain. On March 7, three visitors from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg – Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Minister of the Economy Lex Delles, and Ambassador to the United States Nicole Bintner – learned more about the work happening here. During the visit, lunar rock and crater features crafted from lunar soil, or regolith, simulant were lit by harsh, low-angle illumination to simulate sunlight conditions at the Moon’s poles. Members of the VIPER mission (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) discussed their work testing optical sensors at the lab for NASA’s water-hunting Moon rover. Engineering versions of VIPER’s hazard-avoidance cameras and lighting system, tested in the facility, were also on display. The lab is managed by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). Acting Deputy Center Director David Korsmeyer, left, Ames Center Director Eugene Tu, Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg Minister of Economy Lex Delles, and Ambassador Nicole Bintner, right, meet at Ames on March 7, 2024.NASA/Brandon Torres The Regolith Testbeds enable research applicable to places beyond our Moon as well, including Mercury, asteroids, and regolith-covered moons like Mars’ Phobos. Luxembourg was one of the first nations to sign the Artemis Accords and has taken steps to enable commercial space exploration. At Ames, the visitors learned about the center’s support of NASA’s Artemis exploration goals, including with VIPER, agency supercomputing resources, and the development of advanced tools for lunar operations. View the full article