NASA

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A computer generated image of objects in Earth orbit that are currently being tracked. Credits: NASA ODPO NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy & Strategy is soliciting research and analysis related to the social, economic and policy aspects of space sustainability. This topic area is further refined into two separate elements: orbital space sustainability and lunar surface sustainability. OTPS will provide up to $300K (orbital) and $200K (lunar surface) for between 1-3 proposals in each element. Key questions are featured below. Orbital Space Sustainability: Economic, Social and Policy Research and Analyses Proposals should be responsive to one of the following questions: What are current policy, regulatory or legal gaps to improve space sustainability in various orbital regimes (LEO, MEO, GEO, Cislunar, and/or Lunar) and what specific measures should be taken to address them? Proposers may address one or several orbital regimes. Considering various scenarios for the space environment in the 2040 timeframe, what policies, regulations or other support are forecasted to be needed? Research should take into consideration that potential policies for space sustainability may be incentivized or rendered unnecessary by advancements in technological capabilities and differing assumptions about the future operational environment; therefore, the research should assess the robustness of various policy proposals under realistic assumptions. What are the costs to spacecraft operators from interacting with debris in GEO and Cislunar space? What are the benefits of potential risk-reducing actions? How effective are various policy tools and mechanisms (for example, performance bonds, incentives to improve PMD compliance/fees for bad behavior, global minimum tax, and environmental liability insurance)? How might such interventions impact the business of satellite owners and operators or government owners and operators? Lunar Surface Sustainability: Economic, Social and Policy Research and Analyses The sustainable development of the lunar surface acknowledges that current operations may impact our ability to conduct future operations (indeed current operations may also impact other current operations. Whether we seek to protect critical areas for scientific investigation (e.g., Permanently Shadowed Regions), preserve lunar heritage areas (e.g., Apollo sites) or incorporate other technical, economic, or cultural considerations may all factor into our mission planning, policy and potential regulatory approaches. Analyses may help disentangle and characterize the goals of sustainability, develop frameworks for evaluating the sustainability of operations, or compare and contrast the different definitions of sustainability. Proposals should consider both human and robotic missions. All proposals must be submitted to one of the ROSES calls (F.21 or F.17) by May 17, 2024. Proposers can submit different proposals to each element. However, duplicate proposals submitted to both elements will only be considered for a single element (NASA will make most appropriate determination). To submit proposals, visit: Orbital Sustainability https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary!init.do?solId={63F3CFBC-9BC2-7518-9DD5-D1B4887109E5}&path=open Lunar Surface Sustainability https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary!init.do?solId={48D6B21B-0171-D79D-E111-BCDFCC02E0F0}&path=open Share Details Last Updated Feb 15, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related TermsGeneral View the full article

Feb. 15, 2024 RELEASE: J24-003 NASA Selects Texas A&M as First Approved Exploration Park Facility NASA and the Texas A&M University System announced an agreement Thursday, Feb. 15, to lease underutilized land in Exploration Park, a 240-acre development at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The A&M System will develop a facility to enable human spaceflight research and development that enables the commercial space economy. The lease agreement will allow the A&M System and others to use NASA Johnson land to create facilities for a collaborative development environment that increases commercial access and enhances the United States’ commercial competitiveness in the space and aerospace industries. NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp, and Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III announced the new collaboration at the AIAA-hosted Ascend Texas (ASCENDxTexas) Conference at South Shore Harbour Conference Center. “For more than 60 years, NASA Johnson has been the hub of human sI have paceflight,” Wyche said. “Exploration Park will be the next spoke in the larger wheel of a robust and durable space economy that will benefit not only exploration of the Moon, Mars and the asteroids, but all of humanity as the benefits of space exploration research roll home to Earth.” As the home of Mission Control Center for the agency’s human space missions, astronaut training, human health and space medicine, and leadership of premiere human spaceflight programs and missions, NASA Johnson leads the way for human space exploration. Leveraging this unique role and location, Exploration Park will play a key role in helping the human spaceflight community attain U.S. goals for the commercialization and development of a robust space economy by creating an infrastructure that fosters a multi-use environment where academic researchers, aerospace companies and entrepreneurs can collaborate with NASA and solve space exploration’s greatest challenges. “The Texas A&M University System has a long history of supporting space-related research, and Texas A&M University has been a space grant university since 1989,” Sharp said. “This new agreement and planned facility will allow us to build on our space tradition and help us to be a major part of the commercial space economy.” NASA issued an announcement for proposals for use of the undeveloped and underutilized land near Saturn Lane on June 9, 2023, and has just completed negotiations with the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents to formalize the lease agreement. The parcel is outside of Johnson’s controlled access area and adjacent to its main campus. NASA will lease the land to the A&M System for an initial period of 20 years, with two additional 20-year options, for a potential total of 60 years. “For the last 35 years, Texas A&M University has honored its space-grant mission by becoming a powerhouse in human and robotic space exploration,” Welsh said. “This agreement enables us to leverage faculty expertise, establish strategic partnerships and develop resources to foster new discoveries, technological innovations and a future workforce that will benefit Texas and the nation. We are grateful to NASA, the Board of Regents and the State of Texas for their vision and support of Texas A&M’s work in space exploration.” In the coming years, NASA and its academic, commercial, and international partners will see the completion of the International Space Station Program, the commercial development of low Earth orbit, and the first human Artemis campaign missions establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon in preparation for human missions to Mars. Johnson already is leading the commercialization of space with the commercial cargo and crew programs and private astronaut missions to the space station. The center also is supporting the development of commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, and lunar-capable commercial spacesuits and lunar landers that will be provided as services to both NASA and the private sector to accelerate human access to space. Through the development of Exploration Park, the center will broaden the scope of the human spaceflight community that is tackling the many difficult challenges ahead. -end- Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov View the full article

The New Shepard crew capsule descends under parachutes during its launch Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.Photo Credit: Blue Origin Researchers are studying data from a recent suborbital flight test to better understand lunar regolith, or Moon dust, and its potentially damaging effects as NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the lunar surface under the Artemis campaign. The experiment, developed jointly by NASA and the University of Central Florida, sheds light on how these abrasive dust grains interact with astronauts, their spacesuits, and other equipment on the Moon. The Electrostatic Regolith Interaction Experiment (ERIE) was one of 14 NASA-supported payloads launched on Dec. 19 aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard uncrewed rocket from Launch Site One in West Texas. During the flight test, ERIE collected data to help researchers at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida study tribocharging, or friction-induced charges, in microgravity. The Moon is highly charged by phenomena such as solar wind and ultraviolet light from the Sun. Under those conditions, regolith grains are attracted to lunar explorers and their equipment – think of it as similar to the static created by rubbing a balloon on a person’s head. Enough regolith can cause instruments to overheat or not function as intended. “For example, if you get dust on an astronaut suit and bring it back into the habitat, that dust could unstick and fly around the cabin,” said Krystal Acosta, a researcher for NASA’s triboelectric sensor board component inside the ERIE payload. “One of the major problems is that there’s no way to electrically ground anything on the Moon. So even a lander, rover, or really any object on the Moon will have polarity to it. There’s no good solution to the dust charging problem right now.” A Kennedy team designed and built the triboelectric sensor board inside the ERIE payload, which reached an altitude of 351,248 feet aboard New Shepard. In the microgravity phase of this flight, dust grains simulating regolith particles brushed up against eight insulators within ERIE, creating a tribocharge. The electrometer measured the negative and positive charge of the simulated regolith as it traveled through an electric field applied during microgravity. “We want to know what causes the dust to charge, how it moves around, and where it ultimately settles. The dust has rough edges that can scratch surfaces and block thermal radiators,” said Jay Phillips, lead of Electrostatics Environments and Spacecraft Charging at NASA Kennedy. University of Central Florida (UCF) and NASA physicists who worked on the ERIE payload pose with Blue Origin booster after launch Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. From left to right, Addie Dove, UCF PI for ERIE, Krystal Acosta, NASA researcher, and Jay Phillips, NASA researcher. The ERIE payload spent approximately three minutes in microgravity during the New Shepard capsule’s suborbital flight, which lasted about 10 minutes before landing safely back on Earth in the Texas desert. A camera recorded the interactions, and Philips and his team are reviewing the data. The results will inform applications for future missions destined for the lunar surface. For example, by using triboelectric sensors on a rover’s wheels, astronauts can measure the positive and negative charges between the vehicle and regolith on the lunar surface. The end goal is to develop technologies that will help keep it from sticking to and damaging astronaut suits and electronics during missions. The flight was supported by the Flight Opportunities program, part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which rapidly demonstrates space technologies with industry flight providers. View the full article

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:05 a.m. EST on Feb. 15, 2024. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines’ first lunar mission will carry NASA science and commercial payloads to the Moon to study plume-surface interactions, space weather/lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies, and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies. A suite of NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations is on the way to our nearest celestial neighbor for the benefit of humanity. Through this flight to the Moon, they will provide insights into the lunar surface environment and test technologies for future landers and Artemis astronauts. At 1:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At approximately 1:53 a.m., the lander deployed from the Falcon 9 second stage. Teams confirmed it made communications contact with the company’s mission operations center in Houston. The spacecraft is stable and receiving solar power. These deliveries are part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, which includes new solar system science to better understand planetary processes and evolution, search for evidence of water and other resources, and support long-term human exploration. “NASA scientific instruments are on their way to the Moon – a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These daring Moon deliveries will not only conduct new science at the Moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much to learn through CLPS flights that will help us shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.” While enroute to the Moon, NASA instruments will measure the quantity of cryogenic engine fuel as it is used, and during descent toward the lunar surface, they will collect data on plume-surface interactions and test precision landing technologies. Once on the Moon, NASA instruments will focus on investigating space weather/lunar surface interactions and radio astronomy. The Nova-C lander also will carry retroreflectors contributing to a network of location markers on the Moon for communication and navigation for future autonomous navigation technologies. NASA science aboard the lander includes: Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator: A small, CubeSat-sized experiment that will demonstrate autonomous navigation that could be used by future landers, surface infrastructure, and astronauts, digitally confirming their positions on the Moon relative to other spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers on the move. Laser Retroreflector Array: A collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The array is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come. Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing: A Lidar-based (Light Detection and Ranging) guidance system for descent and landing. This instrument operates on the same principles of radar but uses pulses from a laser emitted through three optical telescopes. It will measure speed, direction, and altitude with high precision during descent and touchdown. Radio Frequency Mass Gauge: A technology demonstration that measures the amount of propellant in spacecraft tanks in a low-gravity space environment. Using sensor technology, the gauge will measure the amount of cryogenic propellant in Nova-C’s fuel and oxidizer tanks, providing data that could help predict fuel usage on future missions. Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath: The instrument will observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine how natural and human-generated activity near the surface interacts with and could interfere with science conducted there. Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies: A suite of four tiny cameras to capture imagery showing how the Moon’s surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft’s engine plume during and after descent. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C-class lunar lander, named Odysseus, is scheduled to land on the Moon’s South Pole region near the lunar feature known as Malapert A on Thursday, Feb. 22. This relatively flat and safe region is within the otherwise heavily cratered southern highlands on the side of the Moon visible from Earth. Landing near Malapert A will also help mission planners understand how to communicate and send data back to Earth from a location where Earth is low on the lunar horizon. The NASA science aboard will spend approximately seven days gathering valuable scientific data about Earth’s nearest neighbor, helping pave the way for the first woman and first person of color to explore the Moon under Artemis. Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at: https://www.nasa.gov/clps -end- Karen Fox / Alise Fisher Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 / 202-358-2546 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov Nilufar Ramji Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov Antonia Jaramillo Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-501-8425 antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 15, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsMissionsArtemisCommercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) View the full article

4 Min Read Spot the King of Planets: Observe Jupiter NASA’s Juno spacecraft Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt/Sean Doran Jupiter is our solar system’s undisputed king of the planets! Jupiter is bright and easy to spot from our vantage point on Earth, helped by its massive size and banded, reflective cloud tops. Jupiter even possesses moons the size of planets: Ganymede, its largest, is bigger than the planet Mercury. What’s more, you can easily observe Jupiter and its moons with a modest instrument, just like Galileo did over 400 years ago. Jupiter’s position as our solar system’s largest planet is truly earned; you could fit 11 Earths along Jupiter’s diameter, and in case you were looking to fill up Jupiter with some Earth-size marbles, you would need over 1300 Earths to fill it up – and that would still not be quite enough! However, despite its awesome size, Jupiter’s true rule over the outer solar system comes from its enormous mass. If you took all the planets in our solar system and put them together, they would still only be half as massive as Jupiter all by itself. Jupiter’s mighty mass has shaped the orbits of countless comets and asteroids. Its gravity can fling these tiny objects towards our inner solar system and also draw them into itself, as famously observed in 1994 when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, drawn towards Jupiter in previous orbits, smashed into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Its multiple fragments slammed into Jupiter’s cloud tops with such violence that the fireballs and dark impact spots were not only seen by NASA’s orbiting Galileo probe, but also observers back on Earth! Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is close to the size of Earth. Credit: NASA Jupiter is easy to observe at night with our unaided eyes, as well-documented by the ancient astronomers who carefully recorded its slow movements from night to night. It can be one of the brightest objects in our nighttime skies, bested only by the Moon, Venus, and occasionally Mars, when the red planet is at opposition. That’s impressive for a planet that, at its closest to Earth, is still over 365 million miles (587 million km) away. It’s even more impressive that the giant world remains very bright to Earthbound observers at its furthest distance: 600 million miles (968 million km)! While the King of Planets has a coterie of 95 known moons, only the four large moons that Galileo originally observed in 1610 – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Calisto – can be easily observed by Earth-based observers with very modest equipment. These are called, appropriately enough, the Galilean moons. Most telescopes will show the moons as faint star-like objects neatly lined up close to bright Jupiter. Most binoculars will show at least one or two moons orbiting the planet. Small telescopes will show all four of the Galilean moons if they are all visible, but sometimes they can pass behind or in front of Jupiter, or even each other. Telescopes will also show details like Jupiter’s cloud bands and, if powerful enough, large storms like its famous Great Red Spot, and the shadows of the Galilean moons passing between the Sun and Jupiter. Sketching the positions of Jupiter’s moons during the course of an evening – and night to night – can be a rewarding project! You can download an activity guide from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at bit.ly/drawjupitermoons NASA’s Juno mission currently orbits Jupiter, one of just nine spacecraft to have visited this awesome world. Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016 to begin its initial mission to study this giant world’s mysterious interior. The years have proven Juno’s mission a success, with data from the probe revolutionizing our understanding of this gassy world’s guts. Juno’s mission has since been extended to include the study of its large moons, and since 2021 the plucky probe, increasingly battered by Jupiter’s powerful radiation belts, has made close flybys of the icy moons Ganymede and Europa, along with volcanic Io. In Fall 2024 NASA will launch the Europa Clipper mission to study this world and its potential to host life inside its deep subsurface oceans in much more detail. Visit https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/ to learn about the latest discoveries from Juno and NASA’s missions involving Jupiter! Originally posted by Dave Prosper: February 2023 Last Updated by Kat Troche: February 2024 View the full article

21 Min Read The Marshall Star for February 14, 2024 Marshall Chief Scientist Provides Valuable Insight into NASA Moonquake Study By Jonathan Deal The Moon holds clues to the evolution of Earth, the planets, and the Sun, and a new NASA-funded study is helping scientists better understand some of the mysteries beneath the surface of our nearest cosmic neighbor. The co-author of that study is chief scientist of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Renee Weber, who is also a member of NASA’s Artemis Science Team – a broad group of scientists from around the agency working to commence a new era of deep space science and exploration. As a lunar seismologist and lunar geophysicist, Weber provides expertise to the Artemis Science Team, including knowledge of the types of seismic events that can occur on the Moon, to better understand its internal geology and surface environment. The epicenter of one of the strongest moonquakes recorded by the Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment was in the lunar south polar region. However, the exact location of the epicenter could not be accurately determined. A cloud of possible locations (magenta dots and light blue polygon) of the strong shallow moonquake using a relocation algorithm specifically adapted for very sparse seismic networks are distributed near the pole. Blue boxes show locations of proposed Artemis III landing regions. Lobate thrust fault scarps are shown by small red lines. The cloud of epicenter locations encompasses a number of lobate scarps and many of the Artemis III landing regions.NASA/LROC/ASU/Smithsonian Institution The latest study revealed that the Moon is still geologically active and presents evidence that tectonic faults, generated as the Moon’s interior gradually cools and shrinks, are found near some of the areas NASA identified as candidate landing regions for Artemis III – the first Artemis mission planned to have a crewed lunar landing. “This study looked at tectonic faults and steep slopes in the lunar South polar region and found that some areas are susceptible to seismic shaking and regolith landslides,” Weber said. “Once the faults were mapped, we calculated the sizes of potential moonquakes that could be generated to create a map of seismic hazard in the vicinity of tectonic faults and steep slopes.” The study discovered that relatively small, young thrust faults, called lobate scarps, are widely distributed in the lunar crust. The scarps form where contractional forces break the crust and push, or thrust, rock on one side of the fault up and over rock on the other side. The contraction is caused by cooling of the Moon’s still-hot interior and tidal forces exerted by Earth, resulting in global shrinking. The scarps were identified in images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera onboard NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter). The formation of the faults is accompanied by seismic activity in the form of shallow-depth moonquakes. Such shallow moonquakes were recorded by the Apollo Passive Seismic Network, a series of seismometers deployed by the Apollo astronauts, and could potentially also be recorded by a new seismic instrument scheduled to launch next year aboard an upcoming CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) flight. That instrument – the Farside Seismic Suite – will return the agency’s first seismic data from the far side of the Moon, helping scientists to understand the region’s tectonic activity. The data may also reveal how often the lunar far side is impacted by small meteorites and determine if the seismicity is different on the far side of the Moon from what was measured during Apollo on the lunar near side. “To better understand the seismic hazard posed to future human activities on the Moon, we need new seismic data, not just at the South Pole, but globally,” Weber said. “Missions like the upcoming Farside Seismic Suite, as well as future potential missions like the Lunar Geophysical Network concept, will expand upon measurements made during Apollo and add to our knowledge of global seismicity.” Renee Weber is chief scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA As NASA develops long-term infrastructure on the lunar surface, Weber’s research will provide invaluable insight for the Artemis Science Team that will be refining mission architectures that preserve flexibility for science and operations at a variety of landing sites and will apply new scientific knowledge, such as continued research on seismic measurements, gathered along the way. “Being able to go back to the Moon, gather more data, and pick up more samples will help us improve our understanding of the Moon and answer our fundamental questions – how did it form? How did it evolve? Where are the resources? More seismic measurements like the ones conducted during Apollo could help us better characterize seismicity in the lunar South Pole region,” Weber said. The study does not impact the Artemis III landing region selection process, according to Weber, because estimating how often a specific region experiences a moonquake is difficult to do accurately, and like earthquakes, scientists can’t predict moonquakes. Additionally, for a shorter duration mission like Artemis III, the likelihood of experiencing hazards due to seismic shaking is much lower. As NASA develops long-term infrastructure, the agency will identify potential regions for where different elements can be established closer to the dates of future Artemis missions. In this site selection process, some of the factors for consideration could be geographic characteristics such as proximity to tectonic features and terrain, making Weber’s research all the more valuable. Deal is a public affairs officer with Marshall’s Office of Communications. › Back to Top Solar Sail Technology Passes Crucial Deployment Test By Wayne Smith In his youth, NASA technologist Les Johnson was riveted by the 1974 novel “The Mote in God’s Eye,” by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, in which an alien spacecraft propelled by solar sails visits humanity. Today, Johnson and a NASA team are preparing to test a similar technology. NASA continues to unfurl plans for solar sail technology as a promising method of deep space transportation. The agency cleared a key technology milestone in January with the successful deployment of one of four identical solar sail quadrants. The deployment was showcased Jan. 30 at Redwire Corp.’s new facility in Longmont, Colorado. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center leads the solar sail team, comprised of prime contractor Redwire, which developed the deployment mechanisms and the nearly 100-foot-long booms, and subcontractor NeXolve, of Huntsville, which provided the sail membrane. In addition to leading the project, Marshall developed the algorithms needed to control and navigate with the sail when it flies in space. NASA and industry partners used two 100-foot lightweight composite booms to unfurl the 4,300-square-foot sail quadrant for the first time Oct. 13, 2022, at Marshall Space Flight Center, making it the largest solar sail quadrant ever deployed at the time. On Jan. 30, 2024, NASA cleared a key technology milestone at Redwire’s new facility in Longmont, Colorado, with the successful deployment of one of four identical solar sail quadrants.NASA The sail is a propulsion system powered by sunlight reflecting from the sail, much like a sailboat reflects the wind. While just one quarter of the sail was unfurled in the deployment at Redwire, the complete sail will measure 17,780 square feet when fully deployed, with the thickness less than a human hair at 2 and a half microns. The sail is made of a polymer material coated with aluminum. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate recently funded the solar sail technology to reach a new technology readiness level, or TRL 6, which means it’s ready for proposals to be flown on science missions. “This was a major last step on the ground before it’s ready to be proposed for space missions,” Johnson, who has been involved with sail technology at Marshall for about 25 years, said. “What’s next is for scientists to propose the use of solar sails in their missions. We’ve met our goal and demonstrated that we’re ready to be flown.” A solar sail traveling through deep space provides many potential benefits to missions using the technology because it doesn’t require any fuel, allowing very high propulsive performance with very little mass. This in-space propulsion system is well suited for low-mass missions in novel orbits. “Once you get away from Earth’s gravity and into space, what is important is efficiency and enough thrust to travel from one position to another,” Johnson said. Some of the missions of interest using solar sail technology include studying space weather and its effects on the Earth, or for advanced studies of the north and south poles of the Sun. The latter has been limited because the propulsion needed to get a spacecraft into a polar orbit around the Sun is very high and simply not feasible using most of the propulsion systems available today. Solar sail propulsion is also possible for enhancing future missions to Venus or Mercury, given their closeness to the Sun and the enhanced thrust a solar sail would achieve in the more intense sunlight there. Moreover, it’s the ultimate green propulsion system, Johnson said – as long as the Sun is shining, the sail will have propulsion. Where the sunlight is less, he envisions a future where lasers could be used to accelerate the solar sails to high speeds, pushing them outside the solar system and beyond, perhaps even to another star. “In the future, we might place big lasers in space that shine their beams on the sails as they depart the solar system, accelerating them to higher and higher speeds, until eventually they are going fast enough to reach another star in a reasonable amount of time.” Learn more about solar sails and other NASA advanced space technology. Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top NASA Sets Coverage for SpaceX, Intuitive Machines First Moon Mission As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, SpaceX is targeting no earlier than 12:05 a.m. CST on Feb. 15 for a Falcon 9 launch of Intuitive Machines’ first lunar lander to the Moon’s surface. Liftoff will be from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The launch of the mission was postponed Feb. 13 due to off-nominal methane temperatures prior to stepping into methane load. The Nova-C lunar lander is encapsulated within the fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.SpaceX Live launch coverage will air on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. NASA TV launch coverage begins at 11:20 p.m. Coverage is subject to change based on real-time operational activities. Follow the Artemis blog for updates. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander is expected to land on the Moon on Feb. 22. Among the items on its lander, the IM-1 mission will carry NASA science and technology instruments focusing on plume-surface interactions, space weather/lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies, and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies. Demonstrating autonomous navigation, the Lunar Node-1 experiment, or LN-1, is a radio beacon designed to support precise geolocation and navigation observations for landers, surface infrastructure, and astronauts, digitally confirming their positions on the Moon relative to other craft, ground stations, or rovers on the move. LN-1 was developed, built, and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. › Back to Top Telescopes Show the Milky Way’s Black Hole is Ready for a Kick An artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A*). As reported in a press release, this result found that Sgr A* is spinning so quickly that it is warping spacetime – that is, time and the three dimensions of space – so that it can look more like a football. These results were made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, or VLA. A team of researchers applied a new method that uses X-ray and radio data to determine how quickly Sgr A* is spinning based on how material is flowing towards and away from the black hole. They found Sgr A* is spinning with an angular velocity that is about 60% of the maximum possible value, and with an angular momentum of about 90% of the maximum possible value. This artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A*). This result found that Sgr A* is spinning so quickly that it is warping spacetime – that is, time and the three dimensions of space – so that it can look more like a football.NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Black holes have two fundamental properties: their mass (how much they weigh) and their spin (how quickly they rotate). Determining either of these two values tells scientists a great deal about any black hole and how it behaves. In the past, astronomers made several other estimates of Sgr A*’s rotation speed using different techniques, with results ranging from Sgr A* not spinning at all to it spinning at almost the maximum rate. The new study suggests that Sgr A* is, in fact, spinning very rapidly, which causes the spacetime around it to be squashed down. The illustration shows a cross-section of Sgr A* and material swirling around it in a disk. The black sphere in the center represents the so-called event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like a football. The faster the spin the flatter the football. The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around Sgr A*. This material inevitably plunges towards the black hole and crosses the event horizon once it falls inside the football shape. The area inside the football shape but outside the event horizon is therefore depicted as a cavity. The blue blobs show jets firing away from the poles of the spinning black hole. Looking down on the black hole from the top, along the barrel of the jet, spacetime is a circular shape. Chandra X-ray image of Sagittarius A* and the surrounding region.NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin/Y.Bai, et al. A black hole’s spin can act as an important source of energy. Spinning supermassive black holes produce collimated outflows such as jets when their spin energy is extracted, which requires that there is at least some matter in the vicinity of the black hole. Because of limited fuel around Sgr A*, this black hole has been relatively quiet in recent millennia with relatively weak jets. This work, however, shows that this could change if the amount of material in the vicinity of Sgr A* increases. To determine the spin of Sgr A*, the authors used an empirically based technique referred to as the “outflow method” that details the relationship between the spin of the black hole and its mass, the properties of the matter near the black hole, and the outflow properties. The collimated outflow produces the radio waves, while the disk of gas surrounding the black hole is responsible for the X-ray emission. Using this method, the researchers combined data from Chandra and the VLA with an independent estimate of the black hole’s mass from other telescopes to constrain the black hole’s spin. The paper describing these results led by Ruth Daly (Penn State University) is published in the January 2024 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and appears online. The other authors are Biny Sebastian (University of Manitoba, Canada), Megan Donahue (Michigan State University), Christopher O’Dea (University of Manitoba), Daryl Haggard (McGill University) and Anan Lu (McGill University). NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. › Back to Top NASA Expedition 71 Astronauts to Conduct Research Aboard Space Station Studies of neurological organoids, plant growth, and shifts in body fluids are among the scientific investigations that NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson will help support aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 71. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission is targeting launch to the space station later this month. A flag for Crew-8 will be raised Feb. 26 outside the HOSC (Huntsville Operation Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The HOSC is a multi-mission facility that provides engineering and mission operations support for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Space Launch System rocket, Artemis lunar science missions, and science conducted on the space station. Brain organoid cells from the previous investigation Cosmic Brain Organoids are made of cells from people with Parkinson’s Disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. The sixth space station organoid investigation funded by the National Stem Cell Foundation, HBOND, includes for the first time Alzheimer’s iPSCs and testing of the effects of drugs in development to treat neuroinflammation.New York Stem Cell Research Institute The Payload Operations Integration Center within HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Here are details on some of the work scheduled during this upcoming expedition aboard the microgravity laboratory: Modeling Neuroinflammation HBOND (Human Brain Organoid Models for Neurodegenerative Disease & Drug Discovery) studies the mechanisms behind neuroinflammation, a common feature of neurodegenerative disorders. Researchers create organoids using patient-derived iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) from patients who have Parkinson’s disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. The sixth space station organoid investigation funded by the National Stem Cell Foundation, HBOND includes for the first time Alzheimer’s iPSCs and testing of the effects of drugs in development to treat neuroinflammation. Results could help improve diagnostics, provide insights into the effects of aging, accelerate drug discovery, and identify therapeutic targets for patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. The organoid models also could provide a way to anticipate how extended spaceflight affects the brain and support development of countermeasures. Protecting Plants from Spaceflight Stressors Plants can serve as a source of food and provide other life-support services on long-term missions to the Moon and Mars. The Study on Plant Responses Against the Stresses of Microgravity and High Ultraviolet Radiation in Space (Plant UV-B) examines how stress from microgravity, UV radiation, and the combination of the two affect plants at the molecular, cellular, and whole organism levels. Results could increase understanding of plant growth in space and support improvements in plant cultivation technologies for future missions. This image shows the Plant Experiment Unit (PEU) hardware for the Plant UV-B investigation.NASA Reversing Fluid Shifts Weightlessness causes fluids in the body to move toward the head, which can cause changes in eye structure and vision known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) along with other health problems. Mitigating Headward Fluid Shifts with Veno-constrictive Thigh Cuffs During Spaceflight (Thigh Cuff) examines whether thigh pressure cuffs could provide a simple way to counter this shift in body fluids and help protect astronauts from SANS and other issues on future missions to the Moon and Mars. Thigh cuffs also could help treat or prevent problems for patients on Earth who have conditions that cause fluid accumulation in the head, such as long-term bedrest and diseases. Incredible Edible Algae Arthrospira-C (Art-C), an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency) analyzes how the cyanobacterium Limnospira responds to spaceflight conditions and whether it produces the same quantity and quality of oxygen and biomass in space as on Earth. These microalgae, also known as Spirulina, could be used to remove carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts, which can become toxic in an enclosed spacecraft, and to produce oxygen and fresh food as part of life support systems on future missions. Correct predictions of oxygen and biomass yields are crucial for design of life support systems using bioprocesses. Spirulina also has been shown to have radioprotective properties and eating it could help protect space travelers from cosmic radiation, as well as conserve healthy tissue in patients undergoing radiation treatment on Earth. Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above. › Back to Top NASA Awards Inaugural Grants to Support Emerging Research Institutions NASA has awarded $3.7 million to 11 teams to support new collaborations between the agency and United States institutions not historically part of the agency’s research enterprise. These are the first awards given through a new program from the agency’s SMD (Science Mission Directorate) to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the science and engineering communities, as well as NASA’s workforce. “As the agency continues to build relationships with under-resourced institutions through initiatives like the bridge program, we are intentionally increasing equitable access to NASA for the best and brightest talents in our nation,” said Shahra Lambert, NASA senior advisor for engagement. “These partnerships will help NASA develop a diverse and capable workforce to further our understanding of the cosmos.” NASA’s SMD Bridge Program provides seed funding for research projects that will build strong foundations for long-lasting relationships with the agency. The projects offer hands-on training and mentorship for students, as well as new research opportunities for faculty, to help science and engineering students transition into graduate schools, employment by NASA, or science, technology, engineering, and math careers generally. The teams are led by faculty at institutions that represent new collaborations for NASA. These include Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions, and primarily undergraduate institutions. The research projects connect these institutions to seven NASA centers, including the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and could benefit more than 100 students. “We applaud this inaugural cohort of grant recipients for their innovative research projects, which will make important connections between students, faculty, and NASA,” said Michael New, Science Mission Directorate deputy associate administrator for research at NASA Headquarters. “These awards are a first and important step for the SMD Bridge Program in supporting long-term relationships toward creating a more diverse and robust STEM workforce.” There is an additional opportunity to apply for seed funding through the SMD Bridge Program. Applications are open until March 29. The following projects were selected as the first cohort to receive seed funding: Additive Manufacturing of Electronics for NASA Applications This project, a collaboration between Florida A&M University and Marshall and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will explore technology solutions through additive manufacturing approaches to manufacture strain and gas sensors. Diversifying Student Pipelines in STEM: Environmental Pollution Reduction Inspired by Planetary Science This project, a collaboration that brings California State University, Los Angeles, together with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, draws from the field of planetary science to address environmental pollution. FireSage: SJSU-NASA ARC Bridge Seed Program FireSage is a collaboration between San Jose State University’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center and the Earth Science Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center. It engages students in a computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning research project and training activities in wildfire science. Hampton University STEM Experience with NASA Langley Research Center Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar This collaboration between Hampton University and NASA’s Langley Research Center offers a foundation in the advancement of planetary boundary layer studies with Lidar remote sensing. Development of Antireflection Coatings for Future NASA Missions This project is a collaboration between Delaware State University and Goddard, working with transparent, electrically conductive films to design and produce an environmentally durable anti-reflection coating for guidance, navigation, and control Lidar. CUBES: Capacity Building Using CubeSats for Earth Science This collaboration between Tuskegee University, the Laboratory for Atmospheric Science and Physics at University of Colorado, and Ames uses CubeSats to provide faculty and students with experience designing and executing science mission flight projects. Space Materials and Microbiome Research: A Bridge to Future JSC Workforce In this project, the University of Houston-Clear Lake collaborates with NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The project’s Composite Materials track will develop a protective nanocomposite shield for spacecraft materials, while the Microbiome track will create a comprehensive library of draft bacterial genomes. The HALOQUEST: Halobacterium Astrobiological Laboratory for Observing and Questioning Extraterrestrial Signatures and Traits Project This collaboration between California State University, Northridge, and JPL will study Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1 grown under simulated stressful environmental conditions, which could help understand possibilities for life on other planets. Observations of Ice-Water and Isotopes Using Mid-Infrared Laser Heterodyne Radiometer LIDAR In collaboration with Goddard, Delaware State University will develop Earth science, planetary exploration, and sensing technologies, including a lunar rover payload with instruments to simultaneously detect and correlate water isotopes with other trace gas species. Application of Remote Sensing for Predicting Mosquito-Borne Disease Outbreaks This project is a collaboration between Southern Nazarene University and JPL to identify areas at risk for mosquito-borne disease outbreaks using remote sensing data. Building a Diverse, Sustainable, and Robust Undergraduate-to-Graduate STEM Network through Inter-Institutional, Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations in Complex Fluids/Soft Matter This project is a collaboration between Colorado Mesa University and NASA’s Glenn Research Center to strengthen and grow a research, education, and training network centered around problems in complex fluids and soft matter, with initial emphasis on heat transfer and multiphase flows. › Back to Top Juno, Lucy Missions Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’ Two missions that are part of programs managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate are featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft recently completed the second and largest planned main engine burn of its 12-year mission. These burns, combined with the mission’s second Earth gravity assist maneuver targeted for December 2024, will help Lucy transition from its current orbit around the Sun to a new orbit that will carry it beyond the orbit of Jupiter and into the realm of the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. Marshall manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. On Feb. 3, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a second close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io. Like Juno’s previous flyby of Io in late December 2023, this second pass took Juno about 930 miles above Io’s surface. The twin flybys were designed to gain new insight into how the moon’s volcanic engine works and investigate whether a global magma ocean exists under the moon’s rocky, mountainous surface. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at Marshall for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page. › Back to Top View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A sample of fabric burns inside an uncrewed Cygnus cargo craft during a previous Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment investigation, Saffire-IV.Credit: NASA NASA recently concluded the final mission of its Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, or Saffire, putting a blazing end to an eight-year series of investigations that provided insights into fire’s behavior in space. The final experiment, Saffire-VI, launched to the International Space Station in August 2023 and concluded its mission on Jan. 9, when the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft it was flying on safely burned up during planned re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Dr. David Urban, principal investigator, and Dr. Gary Ruff, project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, have led the Saffire project from Northeast Ohio since its initial spark in 2016. Throughout the experiment series, researchers gathered data NASA will use to enhance mission safety and inform future spacecraft and spacesuit designs. “How big a fire does it take for things to get bad for a crew?” Urban said. “This kind of work is done for every other inhabited structure here on Earth – buildings, planes, trains, automobiles, mines, submarines, ships – but we hadn’t done this research for spacecraft until Saffire.” Like previous Saffire experiments, Saffire-VI took place inside a unit on an uninhabited Cygnus spacecraft that had already departed from the space station, ensuring the safety of the orbiting laboratory and a more representative flight environment. However, this final iteration of the experiment was unique because of the higher oxygen concentration and lower pressure generated in the test unit to simulate the conditions within crewed spacecraft. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video NASA ignited the final set of space fire experiments for Saffire-VI inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft at the end of the NG-19 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Saffire, or Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, was a series of six investigations that provided insights into how fires grow and spread in space. This research is especially important as it will inform future spacecraft designs bound for the Moon and Mars. Video credit: NASA During the 19 Saffire-VI experiment runs, the NASA team and counterparts at Northrop Grumman made various adjustments to air conditions. They then ignited a flame on materials such as plexiglass, cotton, Nomex, and Solid Inflammability Boundary at Low-Speed fabrics. A bead-lined wire inside the unit ignited the materials. “The Saffire flow unit is a wind tunnel. We’re pushing air through it,” Ruff said. “Once test conditions are set, we run electrical current through a thin wire, and the materials ignite.” Cameras inside allowed the team to observe the flame while remote sensors outside the Saffire flow unit collected data about what was happening in the Cygnus vehicle. The images and information were gathered in real-time before being sent to Earth for scientists to analyze. “You’ve got a heat release rate and a rate of release of combustion products,” Ruff said. “You can take those as model input and predict what will happen in a vehicle.” The next decade of exploration and science missions will see astronauts flying deeper into space and to locations that have yet to be explored. Though the Saffire experiments have been extinguished, NASA has learned valuable lessons and gathered mountains of data on fire behavior that will help the agency design safer spacecraft and accomplish its ambitious future missions. Explore More 1 min read January 2024 Retirements Article 9 hours ago 2 min read NASA Trains Teachers on Upcoming Solar Eclipse Article 9 hours ago 1 min read NASA Participates in “Ohioans in Space” Painting Unveiling Article 9 hours ago View the full article

NASA/Ben Smegelsky A NASA photographer captured the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The iconic building, completed in 1966 and currently used for assembly of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket for Artemis missions, is still the only building in which rockets were assembled that carried humans to the surface of another world. The VAB stands 525 feet tall and contains 130 million cubic feet of interior space. It sports a large American flag – a 209-foot-tall, 110-foot-wide stars and stripes painted on the exterior of its south side. Each star measures six feet across, and the blue field is the size of a basketball court. The flag originally was painted onto the VAB in 1976 for the Bicentennial Exposition on Space and Technology. A 12,300-square-foot NASA logo also adorns the south side of the facility. The VAB has received a number of distinctions. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 21, 2000. In January 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the VAB as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The Florida Association of The American Institute of Architects honored the facility and its adjacent Launch Control Center with a “Test of Time” design award, recognizing the contributions of the architects and engineers of these unique buildings. Learn more about this distinctive building. Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky View the full article

6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) In an ejection that would have caused its rotation to slow, a magnetar is depicted losing material into space in this artist’s concept. The magnetar’s strong, twisted magnetic field lines (shown in green) can influence the flow of electrically charged material from the object, which is a type of neutron star. NASA/JPL-Caltech Using two of the agency’s X-ray telescopes, researchers were able to zoom in on a dead star’s erratic behavior as it released a bright, brief burst of radio waves. What’s causing mysterious bursts of radio waves from deep space? Astronomers may be a step closer to providing one answer to that question. Two NASA X-ray telescopes recently observed one of such event – known as a fast radio burst – mere minutes before and after it occurred. This unprecedented view sets scientists on a path to better understand these extreme radio events. While they only last for a fraction of a second, fast radio bursts can release about as much energy as the Sun does in a year. Their light also forms a laserlike beam, setting them apart from more chaotic cosmic explosions. Because the bursts are so brief, it’s often hard to pinpoint where they come from. Prior to 2020, those that were traced to their source originated outside our own galaxy – too far away for astronomers to see what created them. Then a fast radio burst erupted in Earth’s home galaxy, originating from an extremely dense object called a magnetar – the collapsed remains of an exploded star. In October 2022, the same magnetar – called SGR 1935+2154 – produced another fast radio burst, this one studied in detail by NASA’s NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) on the International Space Station and NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) in low Earth orbit. The telescopes observed the magnetar for hours, catching a glimpse of what happened on the surface of the source object and in its immediate surroundings, before and after the fast radio burst. The results, described in a new study published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature, are an example of how NASA telescopes can work together to observe and follow up on short-lived events in the cosmos. The burst occurred between two “glitches,” when the magnetar suddenly started spinning faster. SGR 1935+2154 is estimated to be about 12 miles (20 kilometers) across and spinning about 3.2 times per second, meaning its surface was moving at about 7,000 mph (11,000 kph). Slowing it down or speeding it up would require a significant amount of energy. That’s why study authors were surprised to see that in between glitches, the magnetar slowed down to less than its pre-glitch speed in just nine hours, or about 100 times more rapidly than has ever been observed in a magnetar. “Typically, when glitches happen, it takes the magnetar weeks or months to get back to its normal speed,” said Chin-Ping Hu, an astrophysicist at National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan and the lead author of the new study. “So clearly things are happening with these objects on much shorter time scales than we previously thought, and that might be related to how fast radio bursts are generated.” Spin Cycle When trying to piece together exactly how magnetars produce fast radio bursts, scientists have a lot of variables to consider. For example, magnetars (which are a type of neutron star) are so dense that a teaspoon of their material would weigh about a billion tons on Earth. Such a high density also means a strong gravitational pull: A marshmallow falling onto a typical neutron star would impact with the force of an early atomic bomb. The strong gravity means the surface of a magnetar is a volatile place, regularly releasing bursts of X-rays and higher-energy light. Before the fast radio burst that occurred in 2022, the magnetar started releasing eruptions of X-rays and gamma rays (even more energetic wavelengths of light) that were observed in the peripheral vision of high-energy space telescopes. This increase in activity prompted mission operators to point NICER and NuSTAR directly at the magnetar. “All those X-ray bursts that happened before this glitch would have had, in principle, enough energy to create a fast radio burst, but they didn’t,” said study co-author Zorawar Wadiasingh, a research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “So it seems like something changed during the slowdown period, creating the right set of conditions.” What else might have happened with SGR 1935+2154 to produce a fast radio burst? One factor might be that the exterior of a magnetar is solid, and the high density crushes the interior into a state called a superfluid. Occasionally, the two can get out of sync, like water sloshing around inside a spinning fishbowl. When this happens, the fluid can deliver energy to the crust. The paper authors think this is likely what caused both glitches that bookended the fast radio burst. If the initial glitch caused a crack in the magnetar’s surface, it might have released material from the star’s interior into space like a volcanic eruption. Losing mass causes spinning objects to slow down, so the researchers think this could explain the magnetar’s rapid deceleration. But having observed only one of these events in real time, the team still can’t say for sure which of these factors (or others, such as the magnetar’s powerful magnetic field) might lead to the production of a fast radio burst. Some might not be connected to the burst at all. “We’ve unquestionably observed something important for our understanding of fast radio bursts,” said George Younes, a researcher at Goddard and a member of the NICER science team specializing in magnetars. “But I think we still need a lot more data to complete the mystery.” More About the Mission A Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, NuSTAR was developed in partnership with the Danish Technical University and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Virginia. NuSTAR’s mission operations center is at the University of California, Berkeley, and the official data archive is at NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. ASI provides the mission’s ground station and a mirror data archive. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about the NuSTAR mission, visit: https://www.nustar.caltech.edu/ NICER, an Astrophysics Explorer Mission of Opportunity, is an external payload on the International Space Station. NICER is managed by and operated at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; its data is archived at NASA’s HEASARC. NASA’s Explorers program provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined, and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. For more information about the NICER mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/nicer News Media Contact Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-016 Share Details Last Updated Feb 14, 2024 Related TermsNuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array)AstrophysicsGalaxies, Stars, & Black HolesGoddard Space Flight CenterJet Propulsion LaboratoryMagnetarsNeutron StarsThe Milky Way Explore More 2 min read Stars Sparkle in New Hubble Image This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope view shows the globular cluster NGC 2298, a sparkling… Article 4 hours ago 3 min read Team Assessing SHERLOC Instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Rover Article 24 hours ago 7 min read Sujung Go: Helping Humanity and the Environment Article 1 day ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

La portada del Plan de acción para la equidad 2023.Credits: NASA Read this release in English here. La NASA publicó su Plan de acción para la equidad 2023 el miércoles, en el cual describe los logros clave en el aumento de la diversidad, la equidad, la inclusión y la accesibilidad en toda la agencia, y sus nuevos compromisos para continuar eliminando los obstáculos y retos injustos a los que se enfrentan las comunidades desatendidas. “En la NASA, estamos comprometidos con el avance de la equidad para garantizar que nuestro trabajo beneficie a toda la humanidad”, dijo el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson. “El Plan de acción para la equidad profundiza nuestro compromiso a largo plazo para identificar y eliminar las barreras sistémicas que limitan las oportunidades para las comunidades desatendidas y subrepresentadas”. Este año, la NASA ha identificado la educación STEM como un área en la cual incentivar la participación e inspirar el talento diverso de nuestros futuros líderes. Estamos invitando a la próxima generación, la generación Artemis, a asumir las audaces misiones del futuro en el cosmos, y aquí en la Tierra”. El Plan de acción para la equidad es parte del enfoque integral del gobierno de la administración Biden-Harris para el fomento de la equidad. Este plan respalda la Orden Ejecutiva 14091 del presidente de “Mayor fomento de la equidad racial y apoyo a las comunidades desatendidas por medio del gobierno federal”. A medida que continúa el trabajo de la NASA para el fomento de la equidad para el beneficio de la humanidad, el Plan de acción para la equidad 2023 ofrece las siguientes estrategias para garantizar que más gente pueda trabajar y aprender con esta agencia: Aumentar la utilización e integración de contratistas y empresas de comunidades desatendidas para ampliar la equidad en el proceso de contrataciones públicas de la NASA. Mejorar las subvenciones y los acuerdos de cooperación para fomentar las oportunidades, el acceso y la representación de las comunidades desatendidas. Aumentar la accesibilidad y el uso de los datos de las ciencias de la Tierra. Mejorar las políticas de acceso lingüístico para ampliar el acceso de las poblaciones con dominio limitado del inglés a los programas y actividades de la NASA. Fomentar la participación de los estudiantes para desarrollar una futura fuerza laboral diversa en el área de la ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas (CTIM). El Plan de acción para la equidad 2023 también se basa en el éxito del plan de 2022. Estos son algunos de los logros de la NASA desde esa publicación: La Oficina de Programas para Pequeñas Empresas aumentó sus eventos de divulgación en un 80% con respecto al año fiscal 2021, superando la meta del 50% para 2029. Además, desde el año fiscal 2021 hasta el año fiscal 2022, la NASA comprometió 1.900 millones de dólares en contratos de la línea de bienes y servicios reservados para las categorías de pequeñas empresas y programas AbilityOne, los cuales son la mayor fuente de empleo para personas con discapacidades. Desarrolló recursos para crear conciencia sobre los programas de subvenciones e incluyó el Aviso de Oportunidades de Financiamiento en el boletín de Intercambio con Instituciones al Servicio a las Minorías de la agencia. La agencia también aumentó en un 39,9% el monto de las subvenciones otorgadas a las escuelas profesionales y universidades de población históricamente negra entre el año fiscal 2021 y 2022. Otorgó financiamiento a 39 propuestas sobre temas como la calidad del aire, los peligros climáticos, y el calor extremo. Inauguró su primer Centro de Información de la Tierra en la sede de la agencia en Washington, proporcionando recursos accesibles, información fácil de utilizar y datos tanto en línea como en el sitio para uso del público y de los responsables de la toma de decisiones. Desarrolló y actualizó sus Planes de acceso lingüístico en todos sus 10 centros con el fin de establecer una estrategia de comunicaciones más equitativa para llegar a las poblaciones con dominio limitado del inglés. Para más información sobre el Plan de acción para la Equidad 2023 y para seguir nuestros avances a medida que la NASA continúa con su viaje hacia la Misión Equidad, visita el sitio web: https://nasa.gov/mission-equity -fin- Gerelle Dodson Sede, Washington 202-358-4637 gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov María José Viñas Sede, Washington 240-458-0248 maria-jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 14, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNASA Headquarters View the full article

The cover of the 2023 NASA Equity Action Plan.Credits: NASA Lee esta nota de prensa en español aquí. NASA published its 2023 Equity Action Plan Wednesday, which outlines key accomplishments in increasing equity across the agency, and new commitments to continue removing inequitable barriers and challenges facing underserved communities. “At NASA, we are committed to advancing equity to ensure our work benefits all humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The Equity Action plan deepens our long-term commitment to recognize and overcome systemic barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities. This year, NASA has identified STEM education as an area to engage and inspire the diverse talent of our future leaders. We are inviting the next generation, the Artemis Generation, to take on the daring missions of the future in the cosmos, and here on Earth.” The equity plan is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to advancing equity. It supports the President’s Executive Order 14091 on “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” NASA’s 2023 Equity Action Plan provides strategies for ensuring more individuals can work with and learn from the agency by: Increasing utilization and integration of contractors and businesses from underserved communities to expand equity in NASA’s procurement process. Enhancing grants and cooperative agreements to advance opportunities, access, and representation for underserved communities. Increasing the accessibility and use of Earth science data. Improving language access policies to expand access to NASA programs and activities for limited-English proficient populations. Engaging more students to build a diverse future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce. The 2023 Equity Action Plan builds on the success of the 2022 plan. Some of NASA’s achievements since that publication include: The Office of Small Business Programs increased its outreach events by 80% from fiscal year 2021, surpassing its goal of 50% by 2029. Additionally, from fiscal year 2021 through 2022, NASA obligated $1.9 billion in contracts under the product service line set aside for small business categories and AbilityOne programs, the largest source of employment for individuals with disabilities. Developed resources to bring awareness to grant programs and included Notice of Funding Opportunities in the agency’s Minority Serving Institutions’ Exchange newsletter. The agency also increased the grant award amount to historically Black colleges and universities between fiscal year 2021 and 2022 by 39.9%. Awarded 39 proposals totaling $6.9 million for up to three years on topics such as air quality, climate hazards, and extreme heat. Opened its first Earth Information Center at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, providing accessible resources, user-friendly information, and data, both online and on-site for use by members of the public and decision-makers. Developed and updated its Language Access Plans at all 10 centers to establish a more equitable communication strategy for reaching limited-English proficient populations. For more information about the 2023 Equity Action Plan, and to follow along as NASA continues its journey toward Mission Equity, visit: https://nasa.gov/mission-equity -end- Gerelle Dodson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4637 gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 14, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNASA HeadquartersNASA STEM Projects View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Robert Paulin Aerospace Test Branch, retired Jan. 3, 2024, with 40 years of NASA service. Robert Paulin, Aerospace Test Branch, retired Jan. 3, 2024, with 40 years of NASA service.Credit: NASA James Douglas Kiser (Not Pictured) Ceramic and Polymer Composites Branch, retired Jan. 12, 2024, with 41 years of NASA service. View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Educators test construction box pinhole projectors for solar eclipse viewing.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna On Monday, April 8, Northeast Ohioans will get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a total solar eclipse. During this rare natural phenomenon, the Moon will pass between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun and darkening the sky for nearly four minutes. Teachers, librarians, and community leaders from across Northeast Ohio came to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Jan. 29 to learn how to conduct eclipse events safely and effectively. NASA education program specialists taught educators about the science behind solar eclipses, connections to NASA’s study of the Sun, and eclipse-related student engagement activities. An educator tests a model of a total solar eclipse viewing device she constructed.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA subject matter experts taught the educators how to make pinhole projectors and models of the eclipse, and how ultraviolet (UV) beads react with UV light. They talked about eye and face protection including the importance of viewing the eclipse safely through glasses that comply with ISO 12312-2:2015. “During totality, unusual things can happen,” said Cathy Graves, STEM integration manager, Office of STEM Engagement. “Because it’s going to feel like its twilight outside, the animals in nature will feel confused. Birds that chirp during the day may get quiet, and animals that are active at night may become active during the day. There are many things children can look for and observe during the eclipse.” Educators from Northeast Ohio learn how to construct box pinhole projectors that their students can build and use to safely view the total solar eclipse.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Educators also had the opportunity to tour NASA Glenn’s Simulated Lunar Operations Laboratory and Graphics and Visualization Lab. Many teachers say they left feeling inspired. “Today was awesome. This experience brought home why I do this, and I felt like the student,” said Monica Reese, science teacher, Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “Space is fascinating, and my students love it. I teach physical science, so it’s one of the units we teach. I usually teach it in the spring, but they want to know about it now! View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Representatives from NASA Headquarters and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland participated in the unveiling of the “Ohioans in Space” painting at a large gala at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Jan. 24. The portrait, which depicts Ohio-born national heroes Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Judy Resnik, and Gene Kranz, is the first painting hung in the Ohio Statehouse Rotunda in nearly 70 years – since a portrait of the Wright Brothers, who grew up in Ohio, was hung.  Central Ohio middle school students participated in a large interactive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) event at the Statehouse. The Center of Science and Industry (COSI), NASA Glenn and its Office of STEM Engagement, Great Lakes Science Center, and other museums from across Ohio led the activities. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, First Lady Fran DeWine, and three former NASA astronauts from Ohio participated.  A public panel discussion on aviation and aerospace was also held. Speakers included NASA’s Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails; former astronauts Carl Walz, Michael Good, and Dr. Don Thomas; The Ohio State University’s Dr. John Horack; State Rep. Adam Holmes; and COSI CEO Dr. Frederic Bertley.   The portrait unveiled at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus depicts Ohio-born national heroes Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Judy Resnik, and Gene Kranz. Credit: Artist Bill Hinsch Left to right: Vice President, Center of Science and Industry (COSI) Stephen White; former astronaut Dr. Don Thomas; Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine; First Lady Fran DeWine; former astronaut Carl Walz, former astronaut Michael Good; NASA Glenn Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon; and COSI President and CEO Dr. Frederic Bertley stand in front of the mural. Credit: NASA/Scott Broemsen View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Every year on NASA’s Day of Remembrance, the agency pauses to honor the sacrifice of the NASA family members who gave their lives to advance the cause of exploration. Employees remember friends and colleagues, including the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. A key element in observances across the agency centers on lessons learned from each tragedy and the importance of embracing NASA’s core value of safety. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and Associate Administrator Jim Free led a virtual agencywide Day of Remembrance Safety Town Hall on Jan. 23. In a dialogue with employees, the leaders highlighted how NASA safety is the cornerstone to achieving mission success. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, right, lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetary in Arlington, Virginia, as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber Center Director Dr. Jimmy Kenyon and Deputy Director Dawn Schaible led NASA Glenn Research Center’s Day of Remembrance observance in Cleveland. While at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Schaible worked on payload recovery efforts for Columbia and helped get the space shuttle back in flight. She shared how these experiences affected her and shaped her NASA career. NASA Glenn Research Center Deputy Director Dawn Schaible addresses employees during NASA Glenn’s Day of Remembrance Observance. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Schaible stressed the importance of communication and the threat of compliancy. She explained that all jobs have potential hazards to employees and others. Schaible called on employees to take the time to pause, listen, and ask questions during their daily activities. View the full article

1 min read Stars Sparkle in New Hubble Image The globular cluster, NGC 2298, sparkles in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. NASA, ESA, G. Piotto (Universita degli Studi di Padova), and A. Sarajedini (Florida Atlantic University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope view shows the globular cluster NGC 2298, a sparkling collection of thousands of stars held together by their mutual gravitational attraction. Globular clusters are typically home to older populations of stars, and they mostly reside in the dusty outskirts of galaxies. Scientists utilized Hubble’s unique ability to observe the cosmos across multiple wavelengths of light to study NGC 2298 in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. This valuable information helps astronomers better understand how globular clusters behave, including their internal movements, orbits, and the evolution of their stars. Download this image Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions Star Clusters Stars The Universe 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. Galaxies Stories Stars Stories NASA Astrophysics View the full article

Feb. 13, 2024 MEDIA ADVISORY: J24-002 JSC Town Hall with Center Director Vanessa Wyche. Photographer: Robert MarkowitzNASA NASA Johnson Director to Discuss Exploration Park at ASCENDxTexas Media are invited to attend an event with NASA taking place as part of ASCENDxTexas on Thursday, Feb. 15. Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will be in attendance, as will Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp and Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh. They will provide updates on Exploration Park and are available briefly for interviews after the announcement. NASA sought proposals for use of the undeveloped and underutilized land near Saturn Lane, known as Exploration Park, on June 9, 2023. The parcel is outside of Johnson’s controlled access area and adjacent to its main campus. ASCENDxTexas, hosted by AIAA, begins on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center, League City, Texas. Media check-in will begin at 9:20 a.m. CST, with the event beginning promptly at 9:45 a.m. For ASCENDxTexas media credentialing, visit: https://www.aiaa.org/events-learning/events/ascend/ascend-press-pass For more than 60 years, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has led the nation and the world on a continuing adventure of human exploration, discovery, and achievement. Today, Johnson is the hub of human spaceflight, the home of mission control and astronaut training, and leads the International Space Station, Orion, and Gateway programs, while also playing important roles in numerous other advanced human exploration and research projects. -end- Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov View the full article

This image shows the heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097, as seen by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, K. Sheth As NASA explores the unknown in air and space, a new mission to survey ultraviolet light across the entire sky will provide the agency with more insight into how galaxies and stars evolve. The space telescope, called UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer), is targeted to launch in 2030 as NASA’s next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In addition to conducting a highly sensitive all-sky survey, UVEX will be able to quickly point toward sources of ultraviolet light in the universe. This will enable it to capture the explosions that follow bursts of gravitational waves caused by merging neutron stars. The telescope also will carry an ultraviolet spectrograph to study stellar explosions and massive stars. “NASA’s UVEX will help us better understand the nature of both nearby and distant galaxies, as well as follow up on dynamic events in our changing universe,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission will bring key capabilities in near-and far-ultraviolet light to our fleet of space telescopes, delivering a wealth of survey data that will open new avenues in exploring the secrets of the cosmos.” The telescope’s ultraviolet survey will complement data from other missions conducting wide surveys in this decade, including the Euclid mission led by ESA (European Space Agency) with NASA contributions, and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027. Together, these missions will help create a modern, multi-wavelength map of our universe. “With the innovative new UVEX mission joining our portfolio, we will gain an important legacy archive of data that will be of lasting value to the science community,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “This new telescope will contribute to our understanding of the universe across multiple wavelengths and address one of the major priorities in Astrophysics today: studying fleeting changes in the cosmos.” NASA selected the UVEX Medium-Class Explorer concept to continue into development after detailed review of two Medium-Class Explorer and two Mission of Opportunity concept proposals by a panel of scientists and engineers, and after evaluation based on NASA’s current astrophysics portfolio coupled with available resources. The UVEX mission was selected for a two-year mission and will cost approximately $300 million, not including launch costs. The mission’s principal investigator is Fiona Harrison at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Other institutions involved in the mission include University of California at Berkeley, Northrop Grumman, and Space Dynamics Laboratory. The Explorers Program is the oldest continuous NASA program. The program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the agency’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs. Since the launch of Explorer 1 in 1958, which discovered the Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer missions that led to Nobel prizes for their investigators. The program is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for the Science Mission Directorate, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system, and the universe. For more information about the Explorers Program, visit: https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov -end- Alise Fisher Headquarters, Washington 202-358-2546 alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 13, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNASA Headquarters View the full article

The Nova-C lunar lander is seen in the high bay of Intuitive Machines Headquarters in Houston, before it shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for launch as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.Credit: Intuitive Machines NASA is gearing up for a commercial robotic flight to the Moon under the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign. Intuitive Machines will launch its Nova-C lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Wednesday, Feb. 14, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission will carry six NASA payloads targeted for the South Polar region. The group of NASA instruments aboard IM-1 will conduct scientific research and demonstrate technologies to help us better understand the Moon’s environment and improve landing precision and safety in the challenging conditions of the lunar south polar region, paving the way for future Artemis astronaut missions. The payloads will collect data on how the plume of engine gasses interacts with the Moon’s surface and kicks up lunar dust, investigate radio astronomy and space weather interactions with the lunar surface, test precision landing technologies, and measure the quantity of liquid propellant in Nova-C propellant tanks in the zero gravity of space. The Nova-C lander will also carry a retroreflector array that will contribute to a network of location markers on the Moon that will be used as a position marker for decades to come The Nova-C lander is targeted to land Thursday, Feb. 22, in a relatively flat and safe area near the Malapert A crater, in the south polar region of the Moon. The six NASA payloads aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission include: LN-1 (Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator) A small, CubeSat-sized flight hardware experiment that integrates navigation and communication functionality for autonomous navigation to support future surface and orbital operations. Principal investigator: Dr. Evan Anzalone, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array) A collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between an orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. LRA is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come. Principal investigator: Dr. Xiaoli Sun, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NDL (Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing) A Lidar-based (Light Detection and Ranging) descent and landing sensor. This instrument operates on the same principles of radar but uses pulses from a laser emitted through three optical telescopes. NDL will measure vehicle velocity (speed and direction) and altitude (distance to surface) with high precision during descent to touchdown. Principal investigator: Dr. Farzin Amzajerdian, NASA’s Langley Research Center RFMG (Radio Frequency Mass Gauge) A rocket propellant gauge used to measure the amount of spacecraft propellant in a low-gravity space environment. Using sensor technology, RFMG will measure the amount, or mass, of cryogenic propellants in Nova-C’s tanks, providing data that can help predict propellant usage on future missions. Principal investigator: Dr. Greg Zimmerli, NASA’s Glenn Research Center ROLSES (Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath) Four antennas and a low-frequency radio receiver system designed to study the dynamic radio energy environment near the lunar surface and determine how natural and human-generated activity near the surface interacts with science investigations. It will also detect radio emissions from the Sun, Jupiter, and Earth, as well as dust impacting the surface of the Moon. Principal investigator: Dr. Nat Gopalswamy, NASA Goddard SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies) A suite of four cameras to capture stereo and still images of the dust plume created by the lander’s engine as it begins its descent to the lunar surface until after the engine shuts off. Principal investigator: Michelle Munk, NASA Langley Intuitive Machines is one of 14 vendors eligible to carry NASA payloads to the Moon through the agency’s CLPS initiative, which began in 2018. CLPS is an innovative approach connecting NASA with commercial solutions from American companies to deliver scientific, exploration, and technology payloads to the Moon’s surface and into lunar orbit. Through CLPS, NASA aims to gain new insights into the lunar environment and expand the lunar economy to support future crewed missions under the Artemis campaign. Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at: https://www.nasa.gov/clps/ Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services Artemis Commercial Space Humans In Space View the full article

It’s oh-so-easy to be mesmerized by this spiral galaxy. Follow its clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to its center, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope delivered highly detailed scenes of this and other nearby spiral galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team NGC 4254, a spiral galaxy, is resplendent in orange and blue in this Jan. 29, 2024, image from the James Webb Space Telescope. This is one of 19 nearby spiral galaxies recently imaged by the telescope as part of the long-standing Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera captured millions of stars in these images, which sparkle in blue tones, while the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument data highlights glowing dust, showing us where it exists around and between stars. Explore the intricacies of spiral galaxies in this deep dive. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team View the full article

A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. NASA/Bill Stafford A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover). TRIDENT, designed and developed by engineers at Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, is the fourth and final science instrument to be installed into VIPER. NASA engineers have already successfully integrated VIPER’s three other science instruments into the rover. These include: the MSOLO (Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations), NIRVSS (Near-Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System), and NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System). Shortly after TRIDENT was integrated in the clean room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team also successfully tested its ability to power on, release the locks that hold the drill in place during launch, extend to its full depth of more than three feet (one meter), perform percussive drilling, and return to its stowed position inside the rover. TRIDENT will dig up soil from below the lunar surface using a rotary percussive drill – meaning it both spins to cut into the ground and hammers to fragment hard material for more energy-efficient drilling. In addition to being able to measure the strength and compactedness of the lunar soil, the drill also carries a temperature sensor to take readings below the surface. VIPER will launch to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole. Scientists will work with these four instruments to better understand the origin of water and other resources on the Moon, which could support human exploration as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign. View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Perseverance puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in a set of images captured in June and July 2022 by the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera system. SHERLOC is mounted on the end of the arm.NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS Engineers are working to stabilize a dust cover on one of the science instrument’s cameras. Data and imagery from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate one of two covers that keep dust from accumulating on the optics of the SHERLOC instrument remains partially open. In this position, the cover interferes with science data collection operations. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) uses cameras, a spectrometer, and a laser to search for organic compounds and minerals that have been altered in watery environments and may be signs of past microbial life. The mission determined on Jan. 6 that the cover was oriented in such a position that some of its operation modes could not successfully operate. An engineering team has been investigating to determine the root cause and possible solutions. Recently, the cover partially opened. To better understand the behavior of the cover’s motor, the team has been sending commands to the instrument that alter the amount of power being fed to it. With the cover in its current position, the instrument cannot use its laser on rock targets, and cannot collect spectroscopy data. However, imaging microscopy can still be acquired with WATSON, a color camera on SHERLOC used for taking close-up images of rock grains and surface textures. WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) operates through a different aperture. SHERLOC is part of a seven-instrument suite on Perseverance. During development of the mission, the team designed the instrument suite such that the rover could still achieve its science objectives should any single instrument fail, as there is some overlap among the capabilities of the instruments. Along with SHERLOC, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and SuperCam also perform spectroscopy. Currently making its way to explore an area nicknamed “Beehive Geyser,” the rover marked its 1,000th Martian day, or sol, on the Red Planet on Dec. 12, 2023 – more than 300 sols beyond its initial prime mission. Since the rover’s landing Feb. 18, 2021, SHERLOC has scanned and provided rich data on 34 rock targets, creating a total of 261 hyperspectral maps of those targets. Featuring a radioisotope power system, Perseverance’s design is based on the agency’s Curiosity Mars rover, which is still going strong after more than 11 years (4,000 sols) on the Red Planet. More About the Mission A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ News Media Contacts Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 agle@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-015 Share Details Last Updated Feb 13, 2024 Related TermsPerseverance (Rover)Jet Propulsion LaboratoryMars 2020 Explore More 7 min read JPL Workforce Update Article 7 days ago 2 min read University High School Wins Regional Science Bowl at NASA’s JPL Article 1 week ago 6 min read NASA Puts Next-Gen Exoplanet-Imaging Technology to the Test Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

In early 1969, the goal set by President John F. Kennedy to land a man on the Moon seemed within reach. A new president, Richard M. Nixon, now sat in the White House and needed to chart America’s course in space in the post-Apollo era. President Nixon directed his science advisor to evaluate proposals for America’s next steps in space. He established a Space Task Group (STG), chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, to report back to him with their recommendations. The STG delivered its report to President Nixon on Sept. 15, 1969, who declined to select any of the options proposed. Instead, more than two years later, he directed NASA to build the space shuttle, just one element of the ambitious plans the STG had proposed. Left: President John F. Kennedy announces his goal of a Moon landing during a Joint Session of Congress in May 1961. Right: President Kennedy reaffirms the goal during his address at Rice University in Houston in September 1962. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy, before a Joint Session of Congress, committed the United States to the goal, before the decade was out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. President Kennedy reaffirmed the commitment during an address at Rice University in Houston in September 1962. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who played a key role in establishing NASA in 1958, and under Kennedy served as the Chair of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, worked with members of Congress to ensure adequate funding for the next several years to provide NASA with the proper resources to meet that goal. Following Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, now President Johnson continued his strong support of the space program to ensure that his predecessor’s goal of a Moon landing could be achieved within the stipulated time frame. But with increasing competition for scarce federal resources from the conflict in southeast Asia and from domestic programs, Johnson showed less interest in any space endeavors that might follow the Moon landing. The space agency’s annual budget peaked in 1966 and began a steady decline three years before Kennedy’s goal was met. From a budgetary standpoint, the prospects of a vibrant post-Apollo space program did not look too rosy, the Apollo triumphs of 1968 and 1969 notwithstanding. Left: President Richard M. Nixon, right, meets with his science advisor Lee DuBridge in the Oval Office – note the Apollo 8 Earthrise photo on the wall. Right: President Nixon, left, and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, right, introduce Thomas O. Paine as the nominee to be NASA administrator on March 5, 1969. On Feb. 4, just two weeks after taking office, President Nixon directed his Science Advisor Lee A. DuBridge to appoint an interagency committee to advise him on a post-Apollo space program. Nine days later, the President announced the formation of the STG to develop a strategy for America’s space program for the next decade. Vice President Agnew, as the Chair of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, led the group. Other members of the STG included NASA Acting Administrator Thomas O. Paine (the Senate confirmed him as administrator on March 20), the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology. Left: Proposed lunar landing sites through Apollo 20, per NASA planning in August 1969. Right: Illustration of the Apollo Applications Program experimental space station. At the time, the only approved human space flight programs included lunar missions through Apollo 20 and the Apollo Applications Program (AAP), later renamed Skylab, that involved three flights to an experimental space station based on Apollo technology. Beyond a general vague consensus that the United States human space flight program should continue, no approved projects existed to follow these missions when they ended by about 1975. Left: Concept of a fully reusable space shuttle system from early 1969. Middle: Illustration from early 1969 of low Earth orbit infrastructure, including a large space station supported by space shuttles. Right: Cover page of NASA’s report to the interagency Space Task Group. Within NASA, given the intense focus on achieving the Moon landing within President Kennedy’s time frame, officials paid less attention to what would follow the Apollo Program and AAP. During a Jan. 27, 1969 meeting at NASA chaired by Paine, a general consensus evolved that the next step after the Moon landing should involve the development of a 12-person earth-orbiting space station by 1975, followed by an even larger outpost capable of housing up to 100 people “with a multiplicity of capabilities.” In June, with the goal of the Moon landing about to be realized, NASA’s internal planning added the development of a space shuttle by 1977 to support the space station, and truly optimistically, the development of a lunar base by 1976, among other highly ambitious endeavors that included the idea that the U.S. should begin preparing for a human mission to Mars as early as the 1980s. These proposals were presented to the STG for consideration in early July in a report titled “America’s Next Decade in Space.” Left: The Space Task Group’s (STG) Report to President Nixon. Right: Meeting in the White House to present the STG Report to President Nixon. Image credit: courtesy Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Still bathing in the afterglow of the successful Moon landing, the STG presented its 29-page report “The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future” to President Nixon on Sep. 15, 1969, during a meeting in the White House Cabinet Room. In its Conclusions and Recommendations section, the report noted that the United States should pursue a balanced robotic and human space program but emphasized the importance of the latter, with a long-term goal of a human mission to Mars before the end of the 20th century. The report proposed that NASA develop new systems and technologies that emphasized commonality, reusability, and economy in its future programs. To accomplish these overall objectives, the report presented three options: Option I – this option required more than a doubling of NASA’s budget by 1980 to enable a human Mars mission in the 1980s, establishment of a lunar orbiting space station, a 50-person Earth orbiting space station, and a lunar base. A decision would be required by 1971 on development of an Earth-to-orbit transportation system to support the space station. A strong robotic scientific and exploration program would be maintained. Option II – this option maintained NASA’s budget at then current levels for a few years then anticipated a gradual increase to support the parallel development of both an earth orbiting space station and an Earth-to-orbit transportation system, but deferred a Mars mission to about 1986. A strong robotic scientific and exploration program would be maintained, but smaller than in Option I. Option III – essentially the same as Option II but deferred indefinitely the human Mars mission. In separate letters, both Agnew and Paine recommended to President Nixon to choose Option II. Left: Illustration of a possible space shuttle orbiter from 1969. Right: Illustration of a possible 12-person space station from 1969. The White House released the report to the public at a press conference on Sep. 17 with Vice President Agnew and Administrator Paine in attendance. Although he publicly supported a strong human spaceflight program and enjoyed the positive press he received when photographed with Apollo astronauts, and initially sounding positive about the STG options, President Nixon ultimately chose not to act on the report’s recommendations. Faced with the still ongoing conflict in southeast Asia and domestic programs competing for scarce federal dollars, the fiscally conservative Nixon decided these plans were just too grandiose and far too expensive. He also believed that NASA should be considered as one America’s domestic programs without the special status it enjoyed during the 1960s, one of the lasting legacies of the Nixon space doctrine. Even some of the already planned remaining Moon landing missions fell victim to the budgetary axe. On Jan. 4, 1970, NASA canceled Apollo 20 since it needed its Saturn V rocket to launch the Skylab experimental space station – NASA Administrator James E. Webb had turned off the Saturn V assembly line in 1968 and none remained beyond the original 15 built under contract. In September 1970, reductions in NASA’s budget forced the cancellation of two more Apollo missions, and for a time in 1971 President Nixon considered cancelling two more but he relented, and they flew as the final two Apollo Moon landing missions in 1972. Left: NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher, left, and President Richard M. Nixon announce the approval to proceed with space shuttle development in 1972. Right: First launch of the space shuttle in 1981. More than two years after the STG submitted its report, in January 1972 President Nixon directed NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher to develop the Space Transportation System, the formal name for the space shuttle, the only element of the recommendations to survive the budgetary challenges. At that time, the first flight of the program was expected in 1979; in actuality, the first flight occurred two years later. It would be 12 years after Nixon’s shuttle decision before President Ronald W. Reagan approved the development of a space station, the second major component of the STG recommendation, and another 14 years after that before the first element of that program reached orbit. In those intervening years, the original American space station had been redesigned and evolved into the multinational partnership called the International Space Station. The International Space Station as it appeared in 2021. 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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the company’s Dragon spacecraft atop, is raised to a vertical position at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on March 13, 2023, in preparation for the 27th commercial resupply services launch to the International Space Station. SpaceX Media accreditation is open at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for SpaceX’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-30) mission to the International Space Station for the agency. Liftoff of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted no earlier than mid-March from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Media prelaunch and launch activities will take place at NASA Kennedy. Attendance for this launch is open to U.S. citizens. The application deadline for U.S. media is 11:59 p.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 27. All accreditation requests should be submitted online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. For questions about accreditation, or to request special logistical needs, please email ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact Kennedy’s newsroom at: 321-867-2468. Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitor entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov. SpaceX’s Dragon will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the international crew. NASA and partner research flying aboard the CRS-30 mission includes a look at plant metabolism in space, a set of new sensors for free-flying Astrobee robots to provide 3D mapping capabilities, and a fluid physics study that could benefit solar cell technology. Other studies launching include JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) FLARE, which continues flame behavior studies in space, and a university project from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) that will monitor sea ice and ocean conditions. Commercial resupply by U.S. companies significantly increases NASA’s ability to conduct more investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory. These investigations lead to new technologies, medical treatments, and products that improve life on Earth. Other U.S. government agencies, private industry, and academic and research institutions can also conduct microgravity research through the agency’s partnership with the International Space Station National Laboratory. Humans have occupied the space station continuously since November 2000. In that time, 276 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft have visited the orbital outpost. It remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in exploration, including future missions to the Moon under Artemis, and ultimately, human exploration of Mars. For more information about commercial resupply missions, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/commercialresupply-end- -end- Josh Finch / Claire O’Shea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-876-2468 stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov / steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 13, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsInternational Space Station (ISS)Commercial ResupplySpaceX Commercial Resupply View the full article

Research scientist Sujung Go analyzes atmospheric data to help humanity and the environment. Name: Sujung Go Title: Research scientist Organization: Climate and Radiation Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science Directorate (Code 613) Sujung Go is a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Courtesy of Sujung Go What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? I work in the team of Dr. Alexei Lyapustin and support data analysis and processing algorithms for different missions including DSCOVR EPIC, TROPOMI and PACE. I focus on aerosol retrievals and further analysis of absorbing aerosol composition in mineral dust. I also work on hyperspectral atmospheric correction of TROPOMI and PACE OCI data. These subjects are quite novel for the remote sensing community at large – that’s what makes it so interesting. What is your educational background? I got a bachelor’s, master’s, and, in 2020, a Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Yonsei University in South Korea. Sujung Go recieved her Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Yonsei University in South Korea in 2020.Courtesy of Sujung Go What brought you to Goddard? When I was getting my Ph.D., I was working on the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) satellite for the Ministry of Environment of South Korea. During my final year, my professor, who was the principal investigator of the GEMS project, invited my current supervisor at Goddard, Alexei Lyapustin, to visit our laboratory to foster collaborations on satellite aerosol retrievals. Several months later, Alexei offered me a research scientist position in his group. I came to Goddard in March 2020. Did you continue working on GEMS after you arrived at Goddard? GEMS is a South Korean instrument which is identical to NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission. GEMS was launched in February 2020. Since I had worked on GEMS while getting my Ph.D., the GEMS project asked me to help with the initial in-orbit test period for about a month. TEMPO was launched in 2023, and I hope to also be involved with their data analysis both on aerosol and surface reflectance retrievals. What was most fascinating about your first project at Goddard, determining the mineral composition of atmospheric dust? Hematite (Fe2O3) and goethite (FeOOH) are the two major absorbers of visible solar radiation in atmospheric dust. Variations in their concentration control dust radiative (climate) effect defining how much of sunlight dust scatters back to space versus how much it absorbs. Most climate models assume the same distribution of iron oxides in airborne dust globally, and thus knowledge of the real distributions, which we can get from satellites, would be very valuable. Alexei developed the algorithm to retrieve aerosol loading, spectral absorption and even average height of aerosols from the DSCOVR EPIC instrument, which observes the entire illuminated part of the Earth multiple times a day from its orbit at Lagrange point 1, a spot between Earth and the Sun about 900,000 miles away from our planet. He suggested that I look into how we can use this information to derive hematite and goethite concentrations based on ideas from the earlier works of Dr. Greg Schuster from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Greg pioneered such aerosol composition analysis based on AERONET data. It was a pleasure to work with Greg who helped me to fully understand the problem. It took a while, and I was so happy when in the end it worked. It was fascinating! So exciting! What is special about your work on hyperspectral atmospheric correction for the PACE mission? Technically, it’s a very challenging problem and it was never done before in operational settings. We are dealing with very large volume of data, and need to have an accurate radiative transfer across the full UV-visible-shortwave IR spectral range and a very efficient algorithm. From well-calibrated PACE OCI (Ocean Color Imager), we expect to produce high quality land surface reflectance spectra while the PACE ocean team will deliver spectra of the ocean water-leaving reflectance. These data will provide a wealth of information for the ocean biology community, like composition and life cycles of ocean microorganisms, and for the land vegetation community to help better characterize the state and function of vegetation and improve the knowledge of the global carbon cycle as a result. Sujung Go (second from left) is driven by her passion for her work. “I want to be a scientist who can provide or suggest what we really need to help human beings and the environment,” she says.Courtesy of Sujung Go What makes your research interdisciplinary? What we measure from space is a contribution from both atmosphere and the surface. We need to know surface properties to get information about aerosols, and we need aerosol information to retrieve spectral surface reflectance. The problems are inter-related and rooted in how we separate atmospheric and surface signals in satellite measurements. To do both aerosol and surface retrievals accurately, and especially working with applications like composition of absorbers in aerosols, or assessing vegetation greenness and other properties, I need to be truly interdisciplinary. What has your mentor, Alexei Lyapustin, taught you? I am always motivated by his scientific insights. I am really happy that I can learn such high-level science from him and help contribute to scientific findings that help humanity. I started working at Goddard only two weeks before the lockdown, so I hardly knew any of my colleagues. During that time, Alexei kept our team together, helped us form connections with each other, and made sure that everyone was safe. All of my family is in South Korea, and Alexei made me feel like part of his lab’s family. I sincerely thank Alexei for all he has done for me and for our lab. Who inspires you? I have had several different mentors in my life. First of all, my mother was always dedicated to my education. Second, when I was in middle school, one of my teachers, who taught me science for three years, made it possible for me to attend a science high school in South Korea, which changed my perspective toward life totally. She felt that I had a talent for science, and I was very interested in science. Lastly, my Ph.D. advisor inspired me to have job responsibility as a scientist as well as getting my Ph.D. I am grateful for everyone’s help. What do you do for fun? I enjoy hiking. I am also trying to improve my cooking skills by watching online cooking channels. I am working on American and Korean recipes. I make something new every weekend. Some of my friends who are good cooks are coaching me. We get together over holidays to enjoy delicious food together. What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words. Optimistic. Life-long learner. Thoughtful. Visionary. Prudent. Persistent. Do you have a favorite saying? Life is about doing whatever you want to do. Alexei often says learn something! Our team is always optimistic and enthusiastic. What is your goal as a scientist? I want to be a scientist who can provide or suggest what we really need to help human beings and the environment. Working at Goddard is a great opportunity to become a scientist who can provide essential research to help humanity. Goddard has an unparalleled expertise in satellite data processing, in particular in atmospheric and biospheric sciences, and this helps and motivates me. By Elizabeth M. Jarrell NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage. Share Details Last Updated Feb 13, 2024 EditorMadison OlsonContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related TermsGoddard Space Flight CenterPeople of GoddardPeople of NASA View the full article