NASA

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A new era of aviation is here, and NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) project is developing innovative data solutions to assure safe, rapid, and repeatable access to a transformed National Airspace System (NAS). SWS was created in 2018 and is part of NASA Aeronautics’ Airspace Operations and Safety Program. SWS evaluates how the aerospace industry and aircraft modernization impacts safety by using technology to address future operational and design risks. SWS Goals To explore, discover, and understand the impact on safety of growing complexity introduced by modernization aimed at improving the efficiency of flight, the access to airspace, and the expansion of services provided by air vehicles To develop and demonstrate innovative solutions that enable this modernization and the aviation transformation envisioned for global airspace system through proactive mitigation of risks in accordance with target levels of safety To transform the NAS, SWS employs high-risk research and development to understand how the modernization of industry and aircraft can affect overall safety. SWS is developing and demonstrating innovative solutions within several key research areas, referred to as technical challenges. Current Technical Challenges (TCs) TC-2: In-Flight Safety Predictions for Emerging Operations TC-4: Complex Autonomous Systems Assurance TC-5: Safety Demonstrator Series for Operational In-Time Aviation Safety Management System TC-6: In-Time Aviation Safety Management System SWS is developing the concept and requirements for an assured In-Time Aviation Safety Management System to achieve the goals described above. It is an integrated set of services, functions, and capabilities to address operational risks and hazards of a transformed NAS. SWS catalyzes the discovery of the unknown and paves the path forward for aviation safety in the future airspace. Back to main System-Wide Safety project page. Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 3 min read System-Wide Safety Collaborations Article 2 months ago 1 min read NASA Langley Participates in Drone Responders Conference Article 4 months ago 4 min read Advice from NASA Mentors to Students Starting Their Careers Article 7 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Artemis Aeronautics STEM Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactKaitlyn Foxkaitlyn.d.fox@nasa.gov Related TermsSystem-Wide Safety View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) System-Wide Safety (SWS) project leaders are listed here. Project Manager Dr. Kyle Ellis Deputy Project Manager Summer Brandt Associate Project Manager Dr. Wendy Okolo Associate Project Manager Michael Vincent Project Scientist Dr. Paul Miner Senior Technical Advisor for Aviation Safety Dr. Lance Prinzel Senior Technical Advisor for Autonomy Dr. Joseph Coughlan Senior Technical Advisor for Assurance Dr. Natasha Neogi Safety Liaison Dr. Misty Davies Back to main System-Wide Safety project page. Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 2 min read System-Wide Safety Project Description Article 34 mins ago 3 min read System-Wide Safety Collaborations Article 2 months ago 1 min read NASA Langley Participates in Drone Responders Conference Article 4 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Artemis Aeronautics STEM Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactKaitlyn Foxkaitlyn.d.fox@nasa.gov Related TermsSystem-Wide Safety View the full article

Note: Please note that this is an “archived project” and is no longer updated. This article is meant for historical purposes only. The Composite Cryogenic Propellant Tank project will develop and ground demonstrate large-scale composite cryogenic propellant tanks applicable to heavy-lift launch vehicles, propellant depots, and future lander systems. The primary objective of the Composite Cryotank Technologies and Demonstration (CCTD) project is to mature the technology readiness of composite cryogenic propellant tanks at diameters that are suitable for future heavy lift vehicles and other in-space applications. The concept being developed and demonstrated by this project involves advanced materials (composites), structural concepts (joints, splices, fasteners, etc.), and manufacturing techniques. For this project, an out-of-autoclave manufacturing approach is being developed. The Boeing Company will: design and manufacture a 2.4-meter diameter and a 5.5-meter tanks based on expected loads from the larger SLS tank using an out-of-autoclave procedure; validate the performance of the tanks composite material systems in a relevant environment (e.g., structural integrity, permeability, microcracking); validate the durability of the tanks composite materials under cyclic thermal-mechanical loads; validate the predicted performance of critical joints and design details under representative mechanical and thermal loads; and validate the manufacturing techniques used to create a structural cryotanks. If successful, the manufacturing of large, high-performance composite structures can be accomplished throughout industry without the need of an autoclave, thus improving competition and potentially further reducing the cost to manufacture very large composite components. Success in this project could lead to rocket propellant tanks that are more than 30 percent lighter and 25 percent cheaper to fabricate compared with current state-of-the-art metallic tanks. Such advancements offer less cost for payload delivery to orbit and the potential of enabling advanced human and robotic space exploration missions. Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 LocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related TermsGame Changing Development ProgramSpace Technology Mission Directorate Explore More 2 min read Tech Today: Space Age Swimsuit Reduces Drag, Breaks Records SpeedoUSA worked with Langley Research Center to design a swimsuit with reduced surface drag. Article 6 days ago 3 min read NASA Streams First 4K Video from Aircraft to Space Station, Back Article 1 week ago 3 min read NASA Releases First Integrated Ranking of Civil Space Challenges Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Game Changing Development Space Technology Mission Directorate NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative NASA Marshall Kicks Off Game Changing Composite Cryotank Testing View the full article

21 Min Read The Marshall Star for July 31, 2024 SLS Core Stage Rolls Inside Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage for the Artemis II mission is inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage 900-miles to the Florida spaceport from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it was manufactured and assembled. After completing its journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility aboard the Pegasus barge, teams with Exploration Ground Systems transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on July 23.NASA/Isaac Watson Team members with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program safely transferred the 212-foot-tall core stage from the agency’s Pegasus barge, which arrived at NASA Kennedy’s Complex 39 turn basin wharf on July 23, onto the self-propelled module transporter, which is used to move large elements of hardware. It was then rolled to the Vehicle Assembly Building transfer aisle where teams will process it until it is ready for rocket stacking operations. In the coming months, teams will integrate the rocket core stage atop the mobile launcher with the additional Artemis II flight hardware, including the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back. › Back to Top Take 5 with Chris Calfee By Wayne Smith Ask Chris Calfee about his favorite memory from his 38-year career at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and you’ll discover it’s a difficult question to answer. That’s because there have been many memories. Chris Calfee is the SLS Spacecraft Payload Integration and Evolution element manager. NASA/Charles Beason Calfee was the integrator for the upper stage spacecraft for the Marshall-led Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which marked its 25th launch anniversary July 23. He’s worked with Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART), a technology mission aimed at demonstrating that a spacecraft could independently rendezvous with an orbiting satellite without human intervention. Calfee was the booster manager for the Ares I-X test flight, which he points to as another career highlight. And then there’s his favorite memory – working with NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and watching the 2022 Artemis I launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “I’ve been fortunate in my career to have the opportunities I’ve had with NASA,” said Calfee, the SLS Spacecraft Payload Integration and Evolution (SPIE) element manager. “Seeing the Chandra mission fly and the success it has had is awesome. Being able to work DART from cradle to grave, including its flight, was unforgettable. But I’d have to say being able to represent the SLS SPIE Element Office at Kennedy’s Launch Control Center and seeing Artemis I light up the night sky is the proudest moment.” As the SLS Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution element manager, Calfee’s responsibilities include overseeing the development and delivering key adapter hardware for SLS rockets that will power the first crewed Artemis missions and first flight of SLS in its evolved Block 1B configuration. The hardware includes the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, and the Orion stage adapter – and the universal stage adapter for SLS Block 1B. The SPIE Element Office serves a key role in the successful execution of the SLS mission, both for the initial launch capability as well as the evolution of subsequent rocket configurations. NASA moved a step closer to the Artemis II launch with the July shipment of the SLS core stage to Kennedy from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Calfee and his team have the adapters complete for Artemis II and will soon ship them to Kennedy for launch preparations. As work advances toward Artemis II, Calfee looks back on the Artemis I launch as a “surreal experience.” But he put his celebration on hold as he watched the initial moments of the flight. “The pressure was on the SPIE hardware to finish the job for SLS as we tracked the successful booster burn and separation, and then the core stage’s excellent performance,” said Calfee, who is from Newport, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee. “The interim cryogenic propulsion (ICPS) stage 20-minute burn was approximately one and a half hours after launch, followed by Orion spacecraft separation from the ICPS and Orion stage adapter, the most critical event of the mission from my perspective. It was another huge relief to see the ICPS burn and the Orion separation event go flawlessly.” Calfee pauses for a photo in front of the SLS rocket ahead of the Artemis I launch in 2022. NASA/Courtesy of Chris Calfee Memorable indeed. Question: Looking ahead to Artemis II and the Artemis campaign, what excites you most about the future of human space exploration and your team’s role it? Calfee: For me personally, it is exciting just to be a part of the future of human space flight and having the opportunity to influence that future. With respect to the SPIE team, it’s a similar feeling. Having the opportunity to lead a team that has such a significant role and responsibility in our future is an awesome experience. Question: Who or what drives/motivates you? Calfee: The opportunity to make a difference, be a part of history, and lead and mentor our future leaders. Question: Who or what inspired you to pursue an education/career that led you to NASA and Marshall? Calfee: My parents were my inspiration and provided me the opportunity to pursue my education. Although I followed the space program as a kid, specifically the Apollo program and Moon landings, I never dreamed that I would actually have the opportunity to work for NASA. I found my way to NASA via an on-campus interview job fair, was invited to Marshall for a follow-up interview, and it became an easy decision when an offer was made. Question: What advice do you have for employees early in their NASA career or those in new leadership roles? Calfee: For those early in their career, keep an open mind and be willing to take on new challenges. Diversify the resume. For those in new leadership roles, never get complacent. The moment you think you have it all figured out, something will surprise and humble you. I love the quote, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable,” because I guarantee as a leader, you will experience many uncomfortable moments. Question: What do you enjoy doing with your time while away from work? Calfee: Spending time with my grandkids. I also enjoy homebrewing and wine making, and I probably spend too much time following and watching college sports. Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top Stars, Stripes, and STEM: Q&A with Former NASA Intern, Miss America Team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recently sat down with reigning Miss America, Madison Marsh. In addition to her crown, Marsh is a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force and a former intern who contributed to astrophysics research at Marshall. Watch to learn more about her experience studying gamma-ray bursts and hear what advice she has for anyone interested in a STEM career. (NASA) › Back to Top Thomas Brown Named Marshall’s Chief Engineer, Manager of Engineering Office Thomas Brown has been named center chief engineer and manager of the Chief Engineering Office within the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective July 28. Thomas Brown has been named center chief engineer and manager of the Chief Engineering Office within the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA In his role, Brown will be responsible for assuring the technical excellence and success of all Marshall-assigned spacecraft, propulsion, science payload, life support, and mission systems. He will provide expert technical leadership in planning, directing, and executing research, technology, ground and flight systems design and development, production, integration, and sustaining engineering for the Space Launch System Program, Human Landing System Program, the Human Exploration Development and Operations Office, and the Science and Technology Office. Brown previously served as director of the Propulsion Systems Department of the Engineering Directorate, since 2020. In this role, he managed a $68 million annual budget and oversaw a workforce responsible for new and ongoing design and development activities for the propulsion components and systems at Marshall and other NASA centers. As the capability lead for In-Space Transportation Systems from 2018-2020, Brown led the Systems Capability Leadership Team of system-specific subject matter experts from across the agency for the in-space transportation system’s disciplines, which support NASA’s robotic and human exploration missions. From 2014 to 2018, he was the NASA Technical Fellow for Propulsion and the NASA Propulsion Capability Lead, the agency’s most senior propulsion subject matter expert. Between 2005 and 2014, Brown served as chief of two divisions within the Propulsion Systems Department, as well as technical advisor to the director of the Propulsion Systems Department at Marshall, where he assisted in internal technology investment planning and served in agency and cross-government level assignments. In 2007, he completed a one-year developmental assignment at Glenn Research Center as acting deputy manager of the Advanced Capabilities Project Office. Brown began his NASA career at Marshall in 1999 as an aerospace engineer in the Space Transportation Directorate, performing propulsion systems analysis and integration. Initially working design, analysis, and integration of the X-34 Main Propulsion System and the Fastrac/MC-1 rocket engine, Brown’s activities quickly expanded into a broad range of propulsion technology development efforts. He served as chief engineer for several of these efforts during both the Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program and the Next Generation Launch Technology Program. Specific projects included the Main Propulsion and Auxiliary Propulsion Systems Technology Project and the ISTAR, Rocket Based Combined Cycle technology project. Brown received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, before earning his master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He holds a U.S. patent and has published more than 30 refereed journal publications, book sections, and conference proceedings related to fundamental combustion, advanced measurement techniques, propulsion technology, and propulsion systems analysis and integration. › Back to Top Marshall Deputy Director Rae Ann Meyer Honored During Huntsville City Football Club Space Night NASA Marshall Deputy Director Rae Ann Meyer waves to a crowd of more than 4,000 fans at the Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville on July 27 during halftime of the soccer match between Huntsville City Football Club and Atlanta United 2. Meyer was honored as the “Hero of the Match,” recognizing her leadership and accomplishments in 35 years of service to the agency. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin) Representatives from 10 Marshall programs and projects staffed booths and exhibits at the stadium throughout the match, sharing details of their respective work to thousands of guests. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin) Marshall’s exhibit footprint began outside of the stadium, welcoming soccer and space fans to the stadium with inflatables and educational materials. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin) › Back to Top NASA Supports Burst Test for Orbital Reef Commercial Space Station An element of a NASA-funded commercial space station, Orbital Reef, under development by Blue Origin and Sierra Space, recently completed a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test as part of the agency’s efforts for new destinations in low Earth orbit. This milestone is part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded to Blue Origin in 2021. Orbital Reef includes elements provided by Sierra Space, including the LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat structure. Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat following a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.Sierra Space Teams conducted the burst test on Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat structure using testing capabilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The inflatable habitat is fabricated from high-strength webbings and fabric that form a solid structure once pressurized. The multiple layers of soft goods materials that make up the shell are compactly stowed in a payload fairing and inflated when ready for use, enabling the habitat to launch on a single rocket. “This is an exciting test by Sierra Space for Orbital Reef, showing industry’s commitment and capability to develop innovative technologies and solutions for future commercial destinations,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. “Every successful development milestone by our partners is one more step to achieving our goal of enabling commercial low Earth orbit destinations and expanding the low Earth orbit marketplace.” The pressurization to failure during the test demonstrated the habitat’s capabilities and provided the companies with critical data supporting NASA’s inflatable softgoods certification guidelines, which recommend a progression of tests to evaluate these materials in relevant operational environments and understand the failure modes. Demonstrating the habitat’s ability to meet the recommended factor of safety through full-scale ultimate burst pressure testing is one of the primary structural requirements on a soft goods article, such as Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat, seeking flight certification. Prior to this recent test, Sierra Space conducted its first full-scale ultimate burst pressure test on the LIFE habitat at Marshall in December 2023. Additionally, Sierra Space previously completed subscale tests, first at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and then at Marshall as part of ongoing development and testing of inflatable habitation architecture. NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations, including Orbital Reef, through funded and unfunded agreements. The current design and development phase will be followed by the procurement of services from one or more companies. NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy in low Earth orbit where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit will provide the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions. Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy. › Back to Top DART Mission Sheds New Light on Target Binary Asteroid System In studying data collected from NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which in 2022 sent a spacecraft to intentionally collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, the mission’s science team has discovered new information on the origins of the target binary asteroid system and why the DART spacecraft was so effective in shifting Dimorphos’ orbit. In five recently published papers in Nature Communications, the team explored the geology of the binary asteroid system, comprising moonlet Dimorphos and parent asteroid Didymos, to characterize its origin and evolution and constrain its physical characteristics. The various geological features observed on Didymos helped researchers tell the story of Didymos’ origins. The asteroid’s triangular ridge (first panel from left), and the so-called smooth region, and its likely older, rougher “highland” region (second panel from left) can be explained through a combination of slope processes controlled by elevation (third panel from left). The fourth panel shows the effects of spin-up disruption that Didymos likely underwent to form Dimorphos. Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin “These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for Solar System Small Bodies at NASA Headquarters. “This is important not just for understanding the near-Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just part of the wealth of new knowledge we’ve gained from DART.” Olivier Barnouin and Ronald-Louis Ballouz of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, led a paper that analyzed the geology of both asteroids and drew conclusions about their surface materials and interior properties. From images captured by DART and its accompanying LICIACube cubesat – contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the team observed the smaller asteroid Dimorphos’ topography, which featured boulders of varying sizes. In comparison, the larger asteroid Didymos was smoother at lower elevations, though rocky at higher elevations, with more craters than Dimorphos. The authors inferred that Dimorphos likely spun off from Didymos in a large mass shedding event. There are natural processes that can accelerate the spins of small asteroids, and there is growing evidence that these processes may be responsible for re-shaping these bodies or even forcing material to be spun off their surfaces. Analysis suggested that both Didymos and Dimorphos have weak surface characteristics, which led the team to posit that Didymos has a surface age 40–130 times older than Dimorphos, with the former estimated to be 12.5 million years and the latter less than 300,000 years old. The low surface strength of Dimorphos likely contributed to DART’s significant impact on its orbit. “The images and data that DART collected at the Didymos system provided a unique opportunity for a close-up geological look of a near-Earth asteroid binary system,” said Barnouin. “From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Didymos and Dimorphos and expand our understanding on the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos.” To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Based on the internal and surface properties described in Barnouin et al. (2024), this video demonstrates how the spin-up of asteroid Didymos could have led to the growth of its equatorial ridge and the formation of the smaller asteroid Dimorphos, seen orbiting the former near the end of the clip. Particles are colored according to their speeds, with the scale shown at the top, along with the continually changing spin period of Didymos.University of Michigan/Yun Zhang and Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin Maurizio Pajola, of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome, and co-authors led a paper comparing the shapes and sizes of the various boulders and their distribution patterns on the two asteroids’ surfaces. They determined the physical characteristics of Dimorphos indicate it formed in stages, likely of material inherited from its parent asteroid Didymos. That conclusion reinforces the prevailing theory that some binary asteroid systems arise from shed remnants of a larger primary asteroid accumulating into a new asteroid moonlet. Alice Lucchetti, also of INAF, and colleagues found that thermal fatigue – the gradual weakening and cracking of a material caused by heat – could rapidly break up boulders on the surface of Dimorphos, generating surface lines and altering the physical characteristics of this type of asteroid more quickly than previously thought. The DART mission was likely the first observation of such a phenomenon on this type of asteroid. Supervised by researcher Naomi Murdoch of ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, and colleagues, a paper led by students Jeanne Bigot and Pauline Lombardo determined Didymos’ bearing capacity – the surface’s ability to support applied loads – to be at least 1,000 times lower than that of dry sand on Earth or lunar soil. This is considered an important parameter for understanding and predicting the response of a surface, including for the purposes of displacing an asteroid. Colas Robin, also of ISAE-SUPAERO, and co-authors analyzed the surface boulders on Dimorphos, comparing them with those on other rubble pile asteroids, including Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu. The researchers found the boulders shared similar characteristics, suggesting all these types of asteroids formed and evolved in a similar fashion. The team also noted that the elongated nature of the boulders around the DART impact site implies that they were likely formed through impact processing. These latest findings form a more robust overview of the origins of the Didymos system and add to the understanding of how such planetary bodies were formed. As ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission prepares to revisit DART’s collision site in 2026 to further analyze the aftermath of the first-ever planetary defense test, this research provides a series of tests for what Hera will find and contributes to current and future exploration missions while bolstering planetary defense capabilities. Johns Hopkins APL managed the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office, which is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA provided support for the mission from several centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Glenn Research Center, and Langley Research Center. › Back to Top Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT — the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before. “A few minutes after the BOAT erupted, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor recorded an unusual energy peak that caught our attention,” said lead researcher Maria Edvige Ravasio at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and affiliated with Brera Observatory, part of INAF (the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics) in Merate, Italy. “When I first saw that signal, it gave me goosebumps. Our analysis since then shows it to be the first high-confidence emission line ever seen in 50 years of studying GRBs.” A jet of particles moving at nearly light speed emerges from a massive star in this artist’s concept. The star’s core ran out of fuel and collapsed into a black hole. Some of the matter swirling toward the black hole was redirected into dual jets firing in opposite directions. We see a gamma-ray burst when one of these jets happens to point directly at Earth. NASA A paper about the discovery appears in the July 26 edition of the journal Science. When matter interacts with light, the energy can be absorbed and reemitted in characteristic ways. These interactions can brighten or dim particular colors (or energies), producing key features visible when the light is spread out, rainbow-like, in a spectrum. These features can reveal a wealth of information, such as the chemical elements involved in the interaction. At higher energies, spectral features can uncover specific particle processes, such as matter and antimatter annihilating to produce gamma rays. “While some previous studies have reported possible evidence for absorption and emission features in other GRBs, subsequent scrutiny revealed that all of these could just be statistical fluctuations. What we see in the BOAT is different,” said coauthor Om Sharan Salafia at INAF-Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy. “We’ve determined that the odds this feature is just a noise fluctuation are less than one chance in half a billion.” GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the cosmos and emit copious amounts of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. The most common type occurs when the core of a massive star exhausts its fuel, collapses, and forms a rapidly spinning black hole. Matter falling into the black hole powers oppositely directed particle jets that blast through the star’s outer layers at nearly the speed of light. We detect GRBs when one of these jets points almost directly toward Earth. The BOAT, formally known as GRB 221009A, erupted Oct. 9, 2022, and promptly saturated most of the gamma-ray detectors in orbit, including those on Fermi. This prevented them from measuring the most intense part of the blast. Reconstructed observations, coupled with statistical arguments, suggest the BOAT, if part of the same population as previously detected GRBs, was likely the brightest burst to appear in Earth’s skies in 10,000 years. The brightest gamma-ray burst yet recorded gave scientists a new high-energy feature to study. Learn what NASA’s Fermi mission saw, and what this feature may be telling us about the burst’s light-speed jets. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) The putative emission line appears almost 5 minutes after the burst was detected and well after it had dimmed enough to end saturation effects for Fermi. The line persisted for at least 40 seconds, and the emission reached a peak energy of about 12 MeV (million electron volts). For comparison, the energy of visible light ranges from 2 to 3 electron volts. So what produced this spectral feature? The team thinks the most likely source is the annihilation of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons. “When an electron and a positron collide, they annihilate, producing a pair of gamma rays with an energy of 0.511 MeV,” said coauthor Gor Oganesyan at Gran Sasso Science Institute and Gran Sasso National Laboratory in L’Aquila, Italy. “Because we’re looking into the jet, where matter is moving at near light speed, this emission becomes greatly blueshifted and pushed toward much higher energies.” If this interpretation is correct, to produce an emission line peaking at 12 MeV, the annihilating particles had to have been moving toward us at about 99.9% the speed of light. “After decades of studying these incredible cosmic explosions, we still don’t understand the details of how these jets work,” noted Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Finding clues like this remarkable emission line will help scientists investigate this extreme environment more deeply.” The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by Goddard. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is responsible for one of the instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope – the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, or GBM. The GBM studies gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, as well as other flashes of gamma rays. The GBM sees these bursts across the entire sky, and scientists are using its observations to learn more about the universe. › Back to Top View the full article

On July 19, 2024, NASA officially named Johnson Space Center’s building 12 the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.” A portrait of Dorothy Vaughan is now the central feature at the entrance of the newly named building. This portrait was hand-painted by Eliza Hoffman, an accomplished artist who is also a recent graduate from Clear Creek Independent School District. Recent Clear Creek Independent School District graduate and artist Eliza Hoffman hand-painted a portrait of Dorothy Vaughan in honor of the Women of Apollo. The handcrafted portrait of Vaughan took about a month to complete. The photo the Vaughan family wanted to use for the ceremony was black and white, so Hoffman had to brainstorm how to bring the photo to life in living color. This led her to search for colorized versions of the reference photo on the internet to guide her in the painting process. She revealed that she first learned of Vaughan from the movie “Hidden Figures,” which she was inspired to watch after reading the book “Women in Space” throughout her childhood. When privately revealing the artwork to the Vaughan family, Hoffman felt their emotion and joy. She reflected, “I am honored to have the family of such a great woman be so moved by my painting. It is a memory that I will always remember.” NASA’s Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche greets artist Eliza Hoffman at the surprise unveiling of Dorothy Vaughan’s painted portrait in the main hallway of the Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.NASA/David DeHoyos Hoffman shared that “One of the great things about making art is that it communicates information about the subject and its emotion to the audience. In this case, I was given the chance to create a portrait which will help inform people for years to come about Dorothy Vaughan’s life and legacy.” At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, it was noted to Hoffman that her portrait will now become a part of Johnson’s history. Through Hoffman’s research on Vaughan, she noticed that Vaughan was not only a person beloved by many but also a woman that walked with humility and gentleness, which she hopes viewers see in her painting. View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Johnson Space Center: ORDEM represents the state of the art in orbital debris models intended for engineering analysis. It is a data-driven model, relying on large quantities of radar, optical, in situ, and laboratory measurement data. When released, it was the first software code to include a model for different orbital debris material densities, population models from low Earth orbit (LEO) all the way to Geosynchronous orbit (GEO), and uncertainties in each debris population. ORDEM allows users to compute the orbital debris flux on any satellite in Earth orbit. This allows satellite designers to mitigate possible orbital debris damage to a spacecraft and its instruments using shielding and design choices, thereby extending the useful life of the mission and its experiments. The model also has a mode that simulates debris telescope/radar observations from the ground. Both it and the spacecraft flux mode can be used to design experiments to measure the meteoroid and orbital debris environments. ORDEM is used heavily in the hypervelocity protection community, those that design, build, and test shielding for spacecraft and rocket upper stages. The fidelity of the ORDEM model allows for the optimization of shielding to balance mission success criteria, risk posture, and cost considerations. As both government and civilian actors continue to exploit the space environment for security, science, and the economy, it is important that we track the debris risks in increasingly crowded orbits, in order to minimize damage to these space assets to make sure these missions continue to operate safely. ORDEM is NASA’s primary tool for computing and mitigating these risks. ORDEM is used by NASA, the Department of Defense, and other U.S. government agencies, directly or indirectly (via the Debris Assessment Software, MSC-26690-1) to evaluate collision risk for large trackable objects, as well as other mission-ending risks associated with small debris (such as tank ruptures or wiring cuts). In addition to the use as an engineering tool, ORDEM has been used by NASA and other missions in the conceptual design phase to analyze the frequency of orbital debris impacts on potential in situ sensors that could detect debris too small to be detected from ground-based assets. Commercial and academic users of ORDEM include Boeing, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, the University of Colorado, California Polytechnic State University, among many others. These end users, similar to the government users discussed above, use the software to (1) directly determine potential hazards to spaceflight resulting from flying through the debris environment, and (2) research how the debris environment varies over time to better understand what behaviors may be able to mitigate the growth of the environment. The quality and quantity of data available to the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) for the building, verification, and validation of the ORDEM model is greater than for any other entity that performs similar research. Many of the models used by other research and engineering organizations are derived from the models that ODPO has published after developing them for use in ORDEM.   ORDEM Team Alyssa Manis Andrew B, Vavrin Brent A. Buckalew Christopher L. Ostrom Heather Cowardin Jer-chyi Liou John H, Seago John Nicolaus Opiela Mark J. Matney, Ph.D. Matthew Horstman Phillip D. Anz-Meador, Ph.D. Quanette Juarez Paula H. Krisko, Ph.D. Yu-Lin Xu, Ph.D. Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related TermsOffice of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Ames Research Center: ProgPy is an open-source Python package supporting research and development of prognostics, health management, and predictive maintenance tools. Prognostics is the science of prediction, and the field of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) aims at estimating the current physical health of a system (e.g., motor, battery, etc.) and predicting how the system will degrade with use. The results of prognostics are used across industries to prevent failure, preserve safety, and reduce maintenance costs. Prognostics, and prediction in general, is a very difficult and complex undertaking. Accurate prediction requires a model of the performance and degradation of complex systems as a function of time and use, estimation and management of uncertainty, representation of system use profiles, and ability to represent impact of neighboring systems and the environment. Any small discrepancy between the model and the actual system is compounded repeatedly, resulting in a large variation in the resulting prediction. For this reason, prognostics requires complex and capable algorithms, models, and software systems. The ProgPy architecture can be thought of as three innovations: the Prognostic Models, the Prognostic Engine, Prognostic Support Tools. The first part of the ProgPy innovation is the Prognostic Models. The model describes the prognostic behavior of the specific system of interest. ProgPy’s architecture includes a spectrum of modeling methodologies, ranging from physics-based models to entirely data-driven or hybrid techniques. Most users develop their own physics-based model, train one of the ProgPy data-driven models (e.g., Neural-Network models), or some hybrid of the two. A set of mature models for systems like batteries, electric motors, pumps, and valves are distributed in ProgPy. For these parameterized models, users tune the model to their specific system using the model tuning tools. The Prognostics Engine and Support Tools are built on top of these models, meaning a user that creates a new model will immediately be able to take advantage of the other features of ProgPy. The Prognostic Engine is the most important part of ProgPy and forms the backbone of the software. The Prognostics Engine uses a Prognostics Model to perform the key functions of prognostics and health state estimation. The value in this design is that the Prognostics Engine can use any ProgPy model, whether it be a model distributed with ProgPy or a custom model created by users, to perform health state estimation and prognostics in a configurable way. The components of the Prognostics Engine are extendable, allowing users to implement their own state estimation or prediction algorithm for use with ProgPy models or use one distributed with ProgPy. Given the Prognostics Engine and a model, users can start performing prognostics for their application. This flexible and extendable framework for performing prognostics is truly novel and enables the widespread impact of ProgPy in the prognostic community. The Prognostic Support Tools are a set of features that aid with the development, tuning, benchmarking, evaluation, and visualization of prognostic models and Prognostics Engine results (i.e., predictions). Like the Prognostic Engine, the support tools work equally with models distributed with ProgPy or custom models created by users. A user creating a model immediately has access to a wide array of tools to help them with their task. Detailed documentation, examples, and tutorials of all these features are available to help users learn and use the software tools. These three innovations of ProgPy implement architectures and widely used prognostics and health management functionality, supporting both researchers and practitioners. ProgPy combines technologies from across NASA projects and mission directorates, and external partners into a single package to support NASA missions and U.S. industries. Its innovative framework makes it applicable to a wide range of applications, providing enhanced capabilities not available in other, more limited, state-of-the-art software packages. ProgPy offers unique features and a breadth and depth of unmatched capabilities when compared to other software in the field. It is novel in that it equips users with the tools necessary to do prognostics in their applications as-is, eliminating the need to adapt their use case to comply with the software available. This feature of ProgPy is an improvement upon the current state-of-the-art, as other prognostics software are often developed for specific use cases or based on a singular modeling method (Dadfarina and Drozdov, 2013; Davidson-Pilon, 2022; Schreiber, 2017). ProgPy’s unique approach opens a world of possibilities for researchers, practitioners, and developers in the field of prognostics and health management, as well as NASA missions and U.S. industries. ProgPy Team: Adam J Sweet, Aditya Tummala, Chetan Shrikant Kulkarni Christopher Allen Teubert Jason Watkins Kateyn Jarvis Griffith Matteo Corbetta Matthew John Daigle Miryam Stautkalns Portia Banerjee  Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related TermsOffice of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) View the full article

On the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston commemorated the unsung heroes who helped make humanity’s first steps on the Moon possible. To celebrate their enduring legacy, Johnson named one of its central buildings the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo” on July 19, 2024, during a ceremony recognizing the early pioneers who laid the groundwork for the Artemis Generation. NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston named one of its central building the “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo.” NASA/David DeHoyos Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician and NASA’s first Black manager, played a crucial role in this historic achievement. As the head of the West Area Computing Unit at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, from 1949 to 1958, she led her team in mastering new computer programming languages, helping to pave the way for the agency’s current diverse workforce and leadership. The program included remarks from Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails. Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche gives opening remarks at the building naming ceremony on July 19, 2024. NASA/Robert Markowitz “Dorothy Vaughan, alongside all of our Women of Apollo, represents the best of NASA’s past, and their legacies serve as the inspiration and foundation for our future,” said Wyche. “As we prepare to take our next giant leap, the Women of Apollo will take each step with us.” NASA leadership joined for the special occasion, including Associate Administrator Jim Free, Acting Associate Administrator for Space Technology Mission Directorate and Langley Director Clayton Turner, Director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi John Bailey, and former Johnson Director Mike Coats. Also in attendance were Reps. Lizzie Fletcher and Sylvia Garcia, and representatives from the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. John Cornyn, and Rep. Brian Babin. NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Jeanette J. Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson celebrated the historic moment with a special message from the International Space Station. “We have accomplished our dreams of space exploration thanks to the many NASA women that paved the way for diversity, inclusion, and excellence,” said Epps. “Building on the efforts of our space exploration pioneers, we continue to work for the benefit of humanity,” said Dyson. “NASA’s success is only possible because of the tenacity and expertise of individuals like Dorothy Vaughan whose legacy of brilliance continues to inspire us today.” Texas Southern University’s Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Debate Team delivers a speech during the building naming event. NASA/Robert Markowitz The program also featured the reading of a poem by Dr. Vivian Ayers Allen, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, cultural activist, and former NASA editor and typist. The poem, titled “Hawk,” was published just 11 weeks before humankind’s first venture into space with Sputnik I as an allegory where space flight symbolizes freedom. Allen’s daughter, Phylicia Rashad, recited the poem ahead of the presentation by Texas Southern University’s Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Debate Team. The Women of Apollo stand behind the “Women in Human Spaceflight” panelists. From left: Sandy Johnson, CEO of Barrios Technology; Andrea Mosie, manager and senior sample processor for NASA’s Lunar Materials Repository Laboratory; NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch; Dr. Shirley Price, former NASA equal opportunity specialist; Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program; and panel moderator Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion Program. NASA/Robert Markowitz The ceremony also included a “Women in Human Spaceflight” panel discussion with some of the impactful Women of Apollo and current trailblazers in human spaceflight. The panelists inspired the crowd with their collective experiences of breaking barriers and making monumental contributions to space exploration. Debbie Korth, deputy manager of the Orion Program, moderated the event with panelists Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program; Sandy Johnson, CEO of Barrios Technology; NASA astronaut Christina Hammock Koch; Andrea Mosie, manager and senior sample processor for NASA’s Lunar Materials Repository Laboratory; and Dr. Shirley Price, former NASA equal opportunity specialist. “I learned that as long as I am being myself, I can make a difference,” said Price. “Dorothy Vaughan helped me make that difference because she paved the way for me, and I am here to pave the way forward for more to follow.” Koch reflected on the future, saying, “I am looking forward to us being driven by our values of inclusivity, making sure that we are going for all and by all in a non-hidden way and that we are calling out the amazing contributions of every single person that has a dream.” Dorothy Vaughan’s granddaughter Heather Vaughan-Batten cuts the ribbon to officially name building 12 the Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of the Women of Apollo. NASA/David DeHoyos Heather Vaughan-Batten, Vaughan’s granddaughter, marked the official naming of the building with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Vaughan’s family reacts to the surprise unveiling of Dorothy Vaughan’s painted portrait, created by artist Eliza Hoffman. NASA/David DeHoyos The event concluded with a surprise unveiling of a painting of Vaughan to her family. The portrait, created by Eliza Hoffman, an artist and student from Clear Creek Independent High School, now illuminates the main hallway of the Dorothy Vaughan Center in honor of the Women of Apollo. More than 30 portraits of women who made notable contributions to NASA during the Apollo era now line the building’s main hallway. Watch the building dedication ceremony, ribbon-cutting, and portrait unveiling below. View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: A thrust chamber assembly (TCA) is the critical and central component in a rocket engine that provides thrust to propel a launch vehicle into space. Since the 1960s, while small improvements in TCA performance have been made, little has been done to reduce weight, improve development timelines, and reduce manufacturing cost. This invention makes dramatic improvements in all three areas. This Thrust Chamber Liner and Fabrication Method technology eliminates complex, bolted joints by using 3D printing and large-scale additive manufacturing (AM) to fabricate a one-piece TCA. This creates a combined combustion chamber and nozzle. A novel composite overwrap provides support with an overall mass reduction of >40%. The TCA is the heaviest component on the rocket engine, so every pound eliminated allows for additional payload. The benefits include significantly better performance of launch vehicles, consolidation of parts, and a simplified fabrication that reduces cost and lead time. A liquid rocket engine provides thrust through the injection of a fuel and oxidizer into a combustion chamber then expanding the hot gases through a nozzle. The engine’s core component is the TCA, which comprises an injector, a combustion chamber, and a nozzle. To prevent the TCA’s wall material from reaching melting temperatures, a regenerative cooling system is employed. Small internal channels circulate either fuel or oxidizer as a coolant before it’s injected into the combustion chamber for the combustion process. The TCA must withstand a wide range of challenges, including extreme temperatures (from cryogenic temperatures below -290 °F and up to +6,000°F), high pressures (up to 6,000 psi), demanding duty cycles that impact fatigue life, engine dynamics, and the reactive thrust loads. This necessitates the use of a variety of materials and involves intricate manufacturing and joining processes while maintaining exceptionally tight tolerances. The walls can be as thin as a few sheets of paper, measuring approximately 0.02 inch, increasing the complexity of the technological challenge. The design and construction of the combined combustion chamber and nozzle has several novel features: (1) A NASA-developed alloy, Copper-Chrome-Niobium (GRCop-42) was matured for the combustion chamber resulting in a 45% increase in wall temperatures. (2) The integral channel design supports effective cooling, manifolds, and a range of features that facilitate an integrated coupled nozzle and composite overwrap. (3) The chamber and its internal structures are produced using a NASA-developed (and later commercialized) process known as laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). This uses minimal exterior material, allowing the composite overwrap to effectively contain the high pressure and various engine loads. (4) Stock material and integral features build the chamber nozzle onto the aft end using a different alloy, optimizing the overall strength-to-weight ratio. (5) Traditionally, AM requires a build plate onto which parts are fabricated, but this innovation can use the chamber itself as the build plate. (6) A large-scale AM process called laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) was developed with a new NASA alloy for hydrogen environments, called NASA HR-1 (HR = hydrogen resistant). The AM employed to integrate the chamber and nozzle involves the use of two distinct AM processes and alloys, using GRCop-42 for the chamber and NASA HR-1 for the nozzle. A composite overwrap significantly reduces weight and provides adequate strength to sustain required pressures and loads. Various filament winding techniques and fiber orientations, guided by modeling simulations effectively counteract the (barrel) static pressure, startup, and shutdown loads, thrust, and gimbal loads. The unique locking features designed into the chamber include turn-around regions (referred to as “humps”) to eliminate complex tooling. Traditional TCA design incorporates multiple manifolds, adding unnecessary weight and bolted or welded joints. These joints necessitate exceedingly tight tolerances, polished surface finishes, and intricate sealing mechanisms to prevent leakage. Maintaining precise concentricity among the components and ancillary features, such as shear-lips to avoid hot gas circulation and joint separation, is imperative. The risk of potential leakage can lead to the catastrophic failure of the engine or the entire vehicle. The tragic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger serves as a stark reminder of how joint failure, albeit in a solid rocket motor in that case, can have dire consequences. By contrast, this design eliminates these vulnerabilities by employing integrated AM processes to create a one-piece TCA, dramatically improving safety and efficiency. Thrust Chamber Liner Team Paul R. Gradl Christopher Stephen Protz Cory Ryan Medina Justin R. Jackson Omar Roberto Mireles Sandra Elam Greene William C. C. Brandsmeier Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related TermsOffice of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) View the full article

NASA/JPL On July 31, 1964, the Ranger 7 spacecraft took this photo, the first image of the Moon taken by a United States spacecraft. 17 minutes later, it crashed into the Moon on the northern rim of the Sea of Clouds as intended. The 4,316 images sent back helped identify safe Moon landing sites for Apollo astronauts. Until 1964, no closeup photographs of the lunar surface existed. Ranger 7 returned the first high resolution close-up photographs of the lunar surface. The mission marked a turning point in America’s lunar exploration program, taking the country one step closer to a human Moon landing. Learn more about Ranger 7. Image credit: NASA/JPL View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA used its remotely piloted Ikhana aircraft to test technology it helped develop or recommended to the U.S. Forest Service, including a system to send sensor data to decision makers on the ground in near real time.Credit: NASA It’s not easy to predict the path of forest fires—a lot depends on constantly changing factors like wind. But it is crucial to be as accurate as possible because the lives, homes, and businesses of the tens of thousands of people living and working in fire-prone areas depend on the reliability of these predictions. Sensors mounted on airplanes or drones that provide a picture of the fire from above are an important tool, and that’s where NASA comes in. In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, local and state firefighting agencies, and the Bureau of Land Management, NASA plays a pivotal role in battling infernos. The agency’s extensive experience and technical expertise in remote sensing technology have significantly improved the speed and accuracy of information relayed to firefighting decision-makers. According to Don Sullivan, who specialized in information technology design at the time, the Airborne Science Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, was integral to that effort. In the 1990s, NASA began a project to adapt uncrewed aircraft for environmental research. The researchers at Ames wanted to ensure the technology would be useful to the broadest possible spectrum of potential end users. One concept tested during the project was sending data in real-time to the ground via communications links installed on the aircraft. That link sent data faster and to multiple recipients at once—not just the team on the fire front line, but also the commanders organizing the teams and decision makers looking at the big picture across the entire region throughout the fire season, explained Sullivan. For the Forest Service, this was a much-needed upgrade to the original system on their crewed jets: rolling up a printout and later thumb drives with thermal sensor data placed into a plastic tube attached to a parachute and dropped out of the airplane. NASA’s remotely piloted aircraft called Ikhana tested the technology, and it’s still used by the agency to collect data on wildfires. Since the introduction of this technology, wildfires have gotten bigger, burn hotter, and set new records every year. But in California in 2008, this technology helped fight what was then the worst fire season on record. A NASA test flight using a data downlink system provided updated information to the incident managers that was crucial in determining where to send firefighting resources and whether a full evacuation of the town of Paradise was needed. Without that timely information, said Sullivan, “there likely would have been injuries and certainly property damage that was worse than it turned out to be.” Read More Share Details Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 Related TermsGeneral Explore More 5 min read NASA Public Engagement Specialist Loves to Inspire Kids with STEM Article 2 hours ago 3 min read NASA’s First-Ever Quantum Memory Made at Glenn Research Center Article 5 hours ago 8 min read Overview for NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st Commercial Resupply Mission NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 11:29 a.m. EDT on Saturday,… Article 22 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Earth Observations Fire and Air Quality Climate Change Drones & You View the full article

NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st Cargo Resupply Services Launch

SSE-Skywatching Skywatching Home Eclipses What’s Up Daily Guide Night Sky Network Tips and Guides More FAQ 6 min read What’s Up: August 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA What to look for: A planetary rendezvous, meteors, and a “star forge”! Two planets meet for a super close conjunction, the Perseid meteor shower peaks, and look for the Lagoon Nebula – a stellar nursery in Sagittarius. Highlights August 4 – New moon August 11 – The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight tonight! Provided you have clear skies, viewing conditions will be favorable this year, as the Moon sets by around 11:30 pm local time. Meteor activity picks up from then until dawn. August 14 – Jupiter and Mars have an extremely close pair-up called a conjunction this morning. They’ll appear just a third of a degree apart, which is less than the width of the full Moon. Find them in the eastern sky in the couple of hours before sunrise. August 19 – Full moon August 20 – The Moon chases Saturn across the sky tonight. The pair rise in the east shortly after dark, and trek toward the west together until dawn. August 27 – This morning the crescent moon joins Mars and Jupiter to form a captivating trio. Look for them in the east in the hour or so before sunrise. All month – You can use binoculars or a telescope to observe the Lagoon Nebula all month in the first few hours after dark. It’s located in the constellation Sagittarius near the star pattern known as “The Teapot.” Similar in size and brightness to the Orion Nebula, it’s a cauldron of star formation located about 4,000 light years away. Sky chart showing the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter in the morning of August 14. NASA/JPL-Caltech Transcript What’s Up for August? A super close meetup of Jupiter and Mars, the outlook for the Perseid meteors, and see a stellar nursery in the Lagoon Nebula. During the month of August, the Red Planet, Mars, speeds past our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, in the a.m. sky. They have an extremely close pair-up, called a conjunction, on August 14th, when they’ll appear just a third of a degree apart, which is less than the width of the full Moon. The view from NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System reveals the two planets arranged along the same line of sight, which is why they appear so close together in the sky at this time. Mars quickly pulls away from Jupiter over the following mornings, but on the 27th, the crescent moon joins the two planets to form a captivating trio in the morning sky. Sky chart showing a planetary trio of the crescent moon, Jupiter, and Mars on the morning of August 27. NASA/JPL-Caltech Saturn flies solo most of the month on the opposite side of the sky, though the Moon chases close behind the Ringed Planet on August 20th. The pair rise shortly after dark, and trek toward the west together until dawn. The warm summer nights of August in the Northern Hemisphere make the Perseid meteor shower an annual favorite. This year’s peak night for Perseids comes on August 11th, and into morning twilight on the 12th. Provided you have clear skies, viewing conditions will be favorable this year, as the Moon sets by around 11:30 pm local time. Meteor activity picks up from then until dawn. From darker viewing locations, meteor counts of 50 to 75 per hour are pretty normal at the peak. The Perseids appear to originate from a place in the sky that rises in the northeast, so lie back and face roughly in that direction, but try to take in as much of the sky as you can in your view, as meteors can appear all over. All the stars in the sky share a common origin in giant clouds of gas and dust called nebulas. And one such stellar nursery, the Lagoon Nebula, is well placed to observe in the August sky. Image Before/After The Lagoon Nebula will feel familiar to you if you’ve ever observed the Orion Nebula – with the latter being just a bit brighter. Being about three times wider than the full moon, it’s still relatively easy to find, even under suburban skies, with binoculars or a small telescope. The Lagoon Nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius, which regular skywatchers will know is synonymous with the faintly glowing band of the Milky Way core. You’ll find it here, just above the top of the star pattern known as the Teapot. The nebula is located about 4,000 light years away. Its oblong structure is about 100 light years long by about 50 light years wide. It’s a cauldron of intense star forming activity, with many young stars blazing brightly, causing the surrounding gas to glow. That glow is faint and colorless when peering at the Lagoon Nebula through binoculars, but long-exposure photos reveal its colorful nature. The bright stars are also sculpting the nebula, creating voids and turbulent knots and streamers of gas. The nebula gets its name from one of these dense, dark clouds that stretches across its middle, looking something like a watery lagoon. The Lagoon Nebula appears high overhead in August for those in the Southern Hemisphere, and quite low for those at higher northern latitudes, but it’s visible throughout the lower 49 United States. If you can locate the stars in the Teapot, you should be able to observe the nebula too. To find it, follow a line toward the west, twice the distance from the top of the Teapot’s handle to the top of its lid. Nebulas can be challenging to observe, even with a telescope. But with its large size and relative brightness, the Lagoon Nebula offers a great opportunity to see one of these star forges for yourself in August. Here are the phases of the Moon for August. The phases of the Moon for August 2024. Stay up to date on NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month. Skywatching Resources​ NASA’s Night Sky Network NASA’s Watch the Skies Blog Daily Moon Observing Guide About the ‘What’s Up’ Production Team “What’s Up” is NASA’s longest running web video series. It had its first episode in April 2007 with original host Jane Houston Jones. Today, Preston Dyches, Christopher Harris, and Lisa Poje are the space enthusiasts who produce this monthly video series at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Additional astronomy subject matter guidance is provided by JPL’s Bill Dunford, Lyle Tavernier, and the Night Sky Network’s Kat Troche. The What’s Up team celebrates the memory of Gary Spiers, who provided astronomy observing guidance for the series for many years. View the full article

Jonas Dino speaks to students at the Cezar Chavez Middle School in Union City, California, as part of a NASA-sponsored traveling space museum tour of Bay Area schools. Careers at NASA were not on his radar growing up. But Jonas Dino, public engagement specialist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, ended up with his perfect job that involves connecting people with NASA. One of the best parts of his job is to learn first-hand about NASA’s cutting-edge research and translate these concepts to the next generation. “I’m excited about what NASA does and where we are going,” said Dino, “As an extrovert, I love interacting with the public, especially little kids.” When speaking to younger children, Dino often kneels, to get to their level. With the future of aeronautics and space exploration in mind, he has a message for them: ‘NASA needs you.’ “They love space and think it is very cool, but many don’t think they could ever work at NASA,” said Dino. “I want to help them see: anything is possible.” NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley takes NASA’s message on the road to area schools and public events with its public engagement trailer. Jonas Dino is shown unloading the trailer for an event.NASA/Dominic Hart A path to NASA he didn’t know existed A first-generation immigrant from the Philippines, Dino’s academic start focused on studying life sciences. “As a Filipino, you’re encouraged to go into the medical field as a career,” said Dino. After joining the Marine Corps, Reserve, he returned home to study biology at San Jose State University (SJSU). After doing poorly at organic chemistry, he took his next “logical” step and switched his major to nursing. After working in the field, he realized that was not for him either. Luckily, he had been taking psychology classes, following his interests, and could graduate with a psychology degree by only taking two more classes. After three changes in major and just getting ready to graduate, Dino was hit by a car. His injury and subsequent recovery gave him time to evaluate what he wanted to do with his life. “I was pretty good at talking to people and teaching,” said Dino. “Maybe I could to that as a job?” Dino started his teaching career at James Logan – the same high school he graduated from in 1985. He eventually ran for and was elected as a trustee for the New Haven Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately, to take that seat, he could not be a teacher in the district – a conflict of interest. Suddenly needing a job, he found the internship book at SJSU where he was getting his master’s degree. Soon, he was evaluating opportunities: a high-tech company or NASA? “It was during the dotcom boom and my family strongly encouraged me to take the high-tech internship,” said Dino. “I took the internship at NASA Ames and have never regretted my decision.” Working as a communicator, Dino has covered the gamut of NASA projects from aeronautics to space missions, including a lunar mission, LCROSS, that helped confirm the presence of water on the Moon. His favorite part of his job is STEM engagement. “There is nothing like seeing a kid’s eyes get larger, or that proverbial light-bulb-turn-on-above-their-heads when you teach them something new,” said Dino. “When you see kids are hungry for science, you need to feed it.” He did serve his community on the school board for four terms – 16 years. Now, he serves as an advocate for the NASA Ames workforce as president of the Ames Federal Employees Union. “NASA is a great place to work, it has been a blast, for nearly 24 years.” Science data from NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission’s 2009 lunar impact helped confirm the presence of water on the Moon. Here, LCROSS project manager, Daniel Andrews (left), points to a model of the LCROSS spacecraft integrated with the Atlas V Centaur upper stage rocket. Jonas Dino (right) led public communications for the mission at NASA Ames.NASA/Eric James Nudging an asteroid A little push in the right direction, even incidental, can have a huge effect on your trajectory – and thus where you end up – if it happens early on. This is true both for rogue rocks, on the loose in the solar system, and for people too. “When I was a kid, I took apart everything because I wanted to know what’s inside and how everything worked,” said Dino. “Looking back, I should have been an engineer.” “I have two children, a son and a daughter,” said Dino. “I’m encouraging my daughter to go into STEM; we need more young women in STEM careers but too many girls are pushed away from this choice by the time they are in middle school. I also want to encourage Filipino kids to make their own career choices and maybe even to come work for NASA.” To help pursue these goals, Dino started a memorial scholarship in honor of his father for Filipino students going into STEM fields. He handed out the inaugural scholarship for this last May. There is nothing like seeing a kid’s eyes get larger, or that proverbial light-bulb-turn-on-above-their-heads when you teach them something new. Jonas Dino Public engagement specialist, president of the Ames Federal Employees Union NASA never stops for Dino. Whether at work or on his free time, he’s always talking about NASA. While dishing out samples of his Filipino adobo recipe during a recent adobo-cooking contest – according to Dino, every Filipino family has their own recipe for this dish – he also handed out NASA knowledge. He won second place. View the full article

Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream)

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Glenn Research Center’s quantum team stands with new quantum memory laboratory equipment.Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Bringing bright minds together has once again proven to be the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Researchers developed technology that will store information within a cloud of atoms. Together with Infleqtion Inc., researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland produced NASA’s first-ever quantum memory. This technology is NASA’s first step in creating a large-scale quantum network, which could lead to more secure space communications and, eventually, new scientific discoveries. Quantum memory stores information encoded in matter or on photons — which are single particles of light ­— for a certain amount of time. The memory developed in partnership with Glenn stores information in a cloud of laser-cooled atoms and later releases it as photons. On Earth, many quantum networks use fiber optic infrastructure. However, quantum information degrades after just a few dozen miles, greatly limiting the size of any future network. Quantum memory will help enable the expansion of quantum networks to send information over longer distances. Credit: NASA/Steve Logan “If we’re able to put quantum memory into space, then we could use free space transmission and further those distances to spanning the country,” said Dr. Adam Fallon, quantum scientist at NASA Glenn. A large-scale quantum network would process information faster, provide better information security, and improve the accuracy of how we explore the world compared to a traditional computer network. “So, quantum may provide NASA the ability to explore or sense things in space that we could not do otherwise classically,” said Evan Katz, quantum scientist at NASA Glenn. “While quantum networks are a little further down the road, in the here-and-now, we are excited to have received this memory through an SBIR effort with Infleqtion Inc. so that we can understand more about how quantum memory impacts quantum networks.” A cloud of rubidium atoms is illuminated by a red laser. Quantum memory stores information that is encoded in matter or on photons for a certain amount of time. Credit: NASA/Jef Janis Glenn’s quantum team intends to study and refine the new technology and then plug what they’ve learned into models to simulate how it would work in a large-scale quantum network. From there, they plan to provide feedback to NASA, academia, and industry so all parties can come closer to their goal of developing a quantum network. Infleqtion Inc. created the quantum memory through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Program, which provides funding for research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that fulfill the needs of NASA and the commercial marketplace. Learn more about the SBIR/STTR program. Explore More 8 min read Overview for NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st Commercial Resupply Mission NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday,… Article 18 hours ago 2 min read Ames Science Directorate’s Stars of the Month, July 2024 Article 20 hours ago 3 min read NASA Embraces Streaming Service to Reach, Inspire Artemis Generation Article 2 days ago View the full article

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm shortly after being captured at the International Space Station.Credit: NASA NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency. NASA’s live launch coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media. Filled with nearly 8,200 pounds of supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA coverage of arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will act as backup to Dominick. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. Highlights of space station research facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus are: Test articles to evaluate liquid and gas flow through porous media found in space station life support systems. A balloon, penny, and hexnut for a new STEMonstration on centripetal force. Microorganisms known as Rotifers to examine the effects of spaceflight on DNA repair mechanisms. A bioreactor to demonstrate the production of many high-quality blood and immune stem cells. Vascularized liver tissue to analyze the development of blood vessels in engineered tissue flown to the space station. NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative also is sending two CubeSats to deploy from the orbiting laboratory, CySat-1 from Iowa State University and DORA (Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture) from Arizona State University, making up ELaNa 52 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites). Media interested in speaking to a science subject matter expert, should contact Sandra Jones at sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov. The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until January when it will depart the orbiting laboratory at which point it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. This spacecraft is named the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee after the former NASA astronaut. NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations): Friday, Aug. 2 3 p.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference (no earlier than one hour after completion of the Launch Readiness Review) with the following participants: Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program Meghan Everett, deputy chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Ryan Tintner, vice president, civil space systems, Northrop Grumman Jared Metter, director, flight reliability, SpaceX Melody Lovin, launch weather officer, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron Media who wish to participate by phone must request dial-in information by 1 p.m. Aug. 2, by emailing Kennedy’s newsroom at ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv Saturday, Aug. 3: 11:10 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. 11:28 a.m. – Launch NASA Television launch coverage Live coverage of the launch on NASA Television will begin at 11:10 a.m., Aug. 3. For downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit: https://nasa.gov/nasatv. Audio of the news teleconference and launch coverage will not be carried on the NASA “V” circuits. Launch coverage without NASA TV commentary via a tech feed will not be available for this launch. NASA website launch coverage Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on the NASA website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 11:10 a.m., Aug. 3, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video on NASA+ and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on our International Space Station blog for updates. Attend Launch Virtually Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities or changes, and a stamp for the NASA virtual guest passport following launch. Engage on Social Media Let people know you’re watching the mission on X, Facebook, and Instagram by following and tagging these accounts: X: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, @ISS_Research, @ISS_CASIS Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @ISSNationalLab Coverage en Espanol Did you know NASA has a Spanish section called NASA en Espanol? Check out NASA en Espanol on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for additional mission coverage. Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo o Messod Bendayan a: antonia.jaramillobotero@nasa.gov o messod.c.bendayan@nasa.gov. Learn more about the commercial resupply mission at: https://www.nasa.gov -end- Claire O’Shea / Josh Finch Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 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 Laura Keefe Northrop Grumman, Cygnus 571-205-0258 laura.keefe@ngc.com Share Details Last Updated Jul 30, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsInternational Space Station (ISS)Commercial ResupplyISS ResearchJohnson Space CenterKennedy Space CenterNorthrop Grumman Commercial Resupply View the full article

NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to deliver research and supplies to the International Space Station.NASA NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.NASA NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 3, for the next launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. Filled with more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, carried on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This launch is the 21st Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency. Live launch coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. and stream on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms. Learn more at: www.nasa.gov/northropgrumman Northrop Grumman S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee NASA selected Richard Scobee as an astronaut in 1978. Scobee flew as a pilot of STS 41-C and was the commander of STS 51-L. The STS 51-L crew, including Scobee, died on January 28, 1986, when space shuttle Challenger exploded after launch.NASA Arrival & Departure The Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the orbiting laboratory on Monday, Aug. 5, filled with supplies, hardware, and critical materials to directly support dozens of scientific and research investigations during Expeditions 71 and 72. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will capture Cygnus using the station’s robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps will act as backup. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and will spend almost six months connected to the orbiting laboratory before departing in January 2025. Cygnus also provides the operational capability to reboost the station’s orbit. Live coverage of Cygnus’ arrival will begin at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps will be on duty during the Cygnus spacecraft’s approach and rendezvous. Dominick will be at the controls of the Canadarm2 robotic arm ready to capture Cygnus as Epps monitors the vehicle’s arrival.NASA Research Highlights Scientific investigations traveling in the Cygnus spacecraft include tests of water recovery technology and a process to produce blood and immune stem cells in microgravity, studies of the effects of spaceflight on engineered liver tissue and microorganism DNA, and live science demonstrations for students. Gravitational Effects on Filtration Systems The Packed Bed Reactor Experiment: Water Recovery Series evaluates gravity’s effects on eight additional test articles.NASA The Packed Bed Reactor Experiment: Water Recovery Series investigates how gravity affects two-phase flow or simultaneous movement of gas and liquid through porous media. Teams will evaluate eight different test articles representing components found in the space station’s water processor or urine processor to understand two-phase flows for both liquid and gas in microgravity. Packed bed reactors are structures that use “packing” of objects, usually pellet-like catalysts, of various shapes and materials to increase contact between different phases of fluids. These systems are used for a variety of applications such as water recovery, thermal management, and fuel cells, and the experiment develops a set of guidelines and tools to optimize their design and operation for water filtration and other systems in microgravity and on the Moon and Mars. Insights from the investigation also could lead to improvements in this technology for applications on Earth such as water purification and heating and cooling systems. Balloon Sounds in Space The Office of STEM Engagement’s Next Gen STEM Project, STEMonstrations, that will demonstration the effects centripetal force has on sounds during spaceflight.NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement STEMonstrations, as part of NASA’s Next Gen STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Project, are performed and recorded by astronauts on the space station. Each NASA STEMonstration illustrates a different scientific concept, such as centripetal force, and includes resources to help teachers further explore the topics with their students. Astronauts will demonstrate centripetal force on the space station using a penny, a hexnut, and two clear balloons. The penny and the hexnut are whirled inside of the inflated balloon to compare the sounds made in a microgravity environment. Cell Production on Station The production of blood and immune stem cells on the space station with the BioServe In-Space Cell Expansion Platform (BICEP).NASA In-Space Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Clinical Application (InSPA-StemCellEX-H1) tests hardware to produce human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in space. HSCs give rise to blood and immune cells and are used in therapies for patients with certain blood diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancers. Researchers use BioServe In-Space Cell Expansion Platform, a stem cell expansion bioreactor designed to expand the stem cells three hundredfold without the need to change or add new growth media. Someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer about every three minutes. Treating patients with transplanted stem cells requires a donor-recipient match and long-term repopulation of transplanted stem cells. This investigation demonstrates whether expanding stem cells in microgravity could generate far more continuously renewing stem cells. Spaceflight Effects on DNA The Rotifer-B2 investigation on the Internation Space Station explores the effects of spaceflight on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair mechanisms.ESA (European Space Agency) Rotifer-B2, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, explores how spaceflight affects DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) repair mechanisms in a microscopic organisms called bdelloid rotifer, or Adineta vaga. These tiny but complex organisms are known for their ability to withstand harsh conditions, including radiation doses 100 times higher than human cells can survive. Researchers culture rotifers, microorganisms that inhabit mainly freshwater aquatic environments, in an incubator facility on the space station. After exposure to microgravity conditions, the samples provide insights into how spaceflight affects the rotifer’s ability to repair sections of damaged DNA in a microgravity environment and could improve the general understanding of DNA damage and repair mechanisms for applications on Earth. Bioprinting Tissue The Maturation of Vascularized Liver Tissue Construct in Zero Gravity (MVP Cell-07) investigation used to conduct bioprinting of tissue on the space station. NASA Maturation of Vascularized Liver Tissue Construct in Zero Gravity (MVP Cell-07) examines engineered liver tissue constructs that contain blood vessels. Researchers aim to learn more about the progression of tissue and development of blood vessels in engineered tissues on the space station. The experiment observes how bioprinted liver tissue behaves in space and whether microgravity causes changes in cell shape, size, and volume. The formation of tissue structures and vascular linings also are studied to ensure proper structure generation in orbit. Bioprinting in microgravity may enable the manufacturing of high-quality tissues and organs that are difficult to maintain on the ground, which could help advance space-based production of tissues and functional organs to treat patients on Earth. Cargo Highlights SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station. NASA’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission will carry more than 8,500 pounds (3,856 kilograms) of cargo to the International Space Station.NASA Hardware International Space Station Roll Out Solar Array Modification Kit 8 – This upgrade kit consists of power cables and large structural components such as a backbone, mounting brackets, and two sets of struts. This kit will support the installation of the eighth set of roll out solar arrays located on the S6 truss segment of orbiting laboratory in 2025. The new arrays are designed to augment the station’s original solar arrays which have degraded over time. The replacement solar arrays are installed on top of existing arrays to provide a net increase in power with each array generating more than 20 kilowatts of power. Plant Habitat Environmental Control System – The environmental control system is a component of the Advanced Plant Habitat and controls the temperature, humidity, and air flow in the growth chamber. The habitat is an enclosed, fully automated plant growth facility that will conduct plant bioscience research in orbit for up to 135 days and complete at least one year of continuous operation without maintenance. Rate Gyro Enclosure Assembly – The Rate Gyro Assembly determines the rate of angular motion of the space station. The assembly is integrated into the enclosure housing on ground to protect the hardware for launch and in-orbit storage. This unit will serve as an in-orbit spare. European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device & Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (E4D VIS) Assembly Kit – This assembly kit consists of fasteners, clips, and labels to be used during the in-orbit assembly projected to be completed in mid-2025. ESA and the Danish Aerospace Company developed the E4D to address the challenge of preventing muscle and bone deterioration during long space missions. Some key features of E4D are resistive exercise, cycling ergonomic exercise, rowing, and rope pulling. X-Y Rotation Axis Launch Configuration – This assembly consists of the X-Y-Rotational and Translational subassemblies in the flight configuration and adds the launch stabilization hardware to protect the various axes of motions for the transport to the space station. Once in orbit, the stabilizing hardware will be discarded, and the remaining assembly will then be installed into the Columbus module location with other subassemblies to provide a base for the E4D exercise device. Pressure Control and Pump Assembly – This assembly evacuates the Distillation Assembly at startup, periodically purges non-condensable gases and water vapor, and pumps them into the Separator Plumbing Assembly as part of the Urine Processing Assembly. This unit will serve as an in-orbit spare to ensure successful urine processing operation capability without interruption. Resupply Water Tanks – The resupply water tanks are cylindrical composite fibrewound pressure tanks that provide stored potable water for the space station. NORS (Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System) Maintenance Tank/Recharge Tank Assembly, Nitrogen – The NORS Maintenance Kit is comprised of two separate assemblies: the NORS Recharge Tank Assembly and the NORS Vehicle Interface Assembly. The recharge tank assembly will be pressurized for launch with Nitrogen gas. The vehicle interface assembly will protect the recharge tank assembly for launch and stowage aboard the space station. Tungsten Plates – A total of 14 tungsten plates will serve as the counter mass of the Vibration Isolation & Stabilization System designed to integrate with the European Enhanced Exercise Device. Watch and Engage Live coverage of the launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will stream on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Coverage will begin at 11:10 a.m. on Aug. 3. Live coverage of Cygnus’ arrival at the space station will begin at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 5 on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. View the full article

4 min read Repair Kit for NASA’s NICER Mission Heading to Space Station NASA will deliver a patch kit for NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, on the agency’s Northrop Grumman 21st commercial resupply mission. Astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to complete the repair. Located near the space station’s starboard solar array, NICER was damaged in May 2023. The mission team delivered the patch kit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2024 so it could be prepped and packed for the upcoming resupply mission. “It’s incredible that in just one year, we were able to diagnose the problem and then design, build, test, and deliver a solution,” said Steve Kenyon, NICER’s mechanical lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’re so excited to see the patches installed during a future spacewalk, return to a more regular operating schedule, and keep doing groundbreaking science.” This image, obtained June 8, 2018, shows NASA’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) on the International Space Station, where it studies neutron stars and other X-ray sources. NICER is about the size of a washing machine. The sunshades of its X-ray concentrators are visible as an array of circular features. NASA UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi captured this view of NICER from a window in the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 on the space station in July 2023. Photos like this one helped the mission team map the damage to the thermal shields over NICER’s X-ray concentrators. NASA/Sultan Alneyadi Some of NICER’s damaged thermal shields (circled) are visible in this photograph. NASA/Sultan Alneyadi From its perch on the station, the washing machine-sized NICER studies the X-ray sky. It has precisely measured superdense stellar remnants called neutron stars, which contain the densest matter scientists can directly observe. It has also investigated mysterious fast radio bursts, observed comets in our solar system, and collected data about Earth’s upper atmosphere. But in May 2023, NICER developed a “light leak,” where unwanted sunlight began entering the telescope. Photos taken aboard the station revealed several areas of damage to NICER’s thermal shields. The shields are 500 times thinner than a human hair and filter out infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light while allowing X-rays to pass through. They cover each of NICER’s 56 X-ray concentrators, sets of 24 nested circular mirrors designed to skip X-rays into corresponding detectors. A sunshade tops each concentrator and shield assembly, with a slight gap in between. The sunshades are segmented by six internal struts, resembling a sliced pie. The largest damage to the shields is around the size of a typical U.S. postage stamp. The other areas are closer in size to pinheads. During the station’s daytime, the damage allows sunlight to reach the detectors, saturating sensors and interfering with NICER’s measurements. The mission team altered their daytime observing strategy to mitigate the effect. The damage does not impact nighttime observations. “NICER wasn’t designed to be serviced or repaired,” said Keith Gendreau, the mission’s principal investigator at Goddard. “It was installed robotically, and we operate it remotely. When we decided to investigate the possibility of patching the largest damaged areas on the thermal shields, we had to come up with a method that would use the existing parts of the telescope and station toolkits. We couldn’t have done it without all the support and collaboration from our colleagues at Johnson and throughout the space station program.” NICER’s patches are made from aluminum and anodized, or coated, black. Each is about 2 inches tall. “LCK” indicates the lock position for a tab at the bottom that will hold the patch in place. NASA is sending 12 of these patches to the International Space Station. During a spacewalk, astronauts will insert five into sunshades on the telescope to cover the most significant areas of damage. NASA/Sophia Roberts NICER’s patches will be inserted into its sunshades, as shown here. The small tab that locks the patch into place is visible beneath it. The carbon composite sunshades cover each of NICER’s 56 X-ray concentrators. Each sunshade is supported by three gold-colored fiberglass mounting feet. NASA/Sophia Roberts NICER’s thermal shields — the silver film shown here — cover each of the mission’s 56 X-ray concentrators. They block ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light while allowing X-rays to pass through to the mirrors underneath. Each shield is only about 160 nanometers thick, or 500 times thinner than a human hair. The fragile shield is supported by a stainless-steel frame which consists of a pattern of 1/8 inch (3 millimeter) squares in each of the wedges. NASA/Sophia Roberts NICER has 56 individual X-ray focusing elements, called concentrators, that each contain 24 nested mirrors. Every concentrator delivers X-rays to its own detector. The concentrator shown here is tilted on its side, so the camera is looking into the nested mirrors. X-rays are high-energy light, so they can pass through the atoms of telescope mirrors like those for NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. Instead, X-ray observatories use grazing incidence mirrors, where the surfaces are turned on their sides. X-rays skip across their surfaces and into detectors. NASA/Sophia Roberts The solution, in the end, was simple. The team designed patches, each shaped like a piece of pie, that will slide into the sunshades. A tab at the bottom of each patch will turn into the space between the bottom of the sunshade and the top of the thermal shield, keeping it in place. Astronauts will install five patches during the spacewalk. They’ll cover the most significant areas of damage and block the sunlight affecting NICER’s X-ray measurements. The repair kit contains 12 patches in total, allowing for spares if needed. Astronauts will carry the patches in a caddy, a rectangular frame containing two spare sunshades with the patches held inside. “NICER will be the first X-ray telescope in orbit to be serviced by astronauts and only the fourth science observatory to be repaired overall — joining the ranks of missions like NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope,” said Charles Baker, the NICER project systems engineer at Goddard. “It’s been amazing to watch the patch kit come together over the last year. NICER has taught us so many wonderful things about the cosmos, and we’re really looking forward to this next step of its journey.” The NICER caddy is an aluminum box containing two of the mission’s spare sunshades, which are attached to the bottom. Inside the sunshades, 12 patches are locked into place. Astronauts will take the complete caddy assembly with them during a future spacewalk to address damage to NICER’s thermal shields. They’ll insert five of the patches over the largest areas of damage, which will allow the mission to return to a normal operating status during the station’s daytime. The NICER telescope is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA’s Explorers Program, which 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. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate supported the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation. Download high-resolution NICER images and videos By Jeanette Kazmierczak NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Media Contact: Claire Andreoli 301-286-1940 claire.andreoli@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Facebook logo @NASAUniverse @NASAUniverse Instagram logo @NASAUniverse Share Details Last Updated Jul 30, 2024 Related Terms Astrophysics Goddard Space Flight Center International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Johnson Space Center Neutron Stars NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) Pulsars The Universe View the full article

The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Ryan T. Scott, Mike Kubo, Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad, and Kristen Okorn. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the talent, camaraderie, and vision needed to explore this world and beyond. Space Biosciences Star: Ryan T. Scott Ryan Scott, a Space Biosciences Research Branch (SCR) scientist, serves as the Science Lead for the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) and chairs the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) analysis working group, where he guides the efforts of nearly 200 professionals. He contributed significantly to the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) Nature publication package, the largest-ever collection of data for aerospace medicine and space biology. Space Science Star: Mike Kubo Mike Kubo is an indispensable member of the Exobiology Branch (STX) with expertise in astrobiology and biogeochemistry who plays a vital role in the conduct of research and outreach. While always a star in the branch, most recently, Mike saved the day by noticing the imminent failure of a shared research-grade freezer in building N239 that stored irreplaceable samples, and quickly identified a replacement. Space Science Star: Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad Dr. Ehsan (Sam) Gharib-Nezhad is a data and research scientist with the Planetary Systems Branch (STT). A specialist in exoplanetary atmospheres and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), Sam was recently selected as lead for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) working group for AI/ML. Earth Science Star: Kristen Okorn Kristen Okorn is a Research Scientist with the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI), affiliated with the Atmospheric Science Branch (SGG). She is one of the two center coordinators for NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, and the PI for the recently awarded NASA Mentoring and Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success (MOSAICS) seed project focused on year-round hands-on learning and mentoring of three undergraduate students from a minority-serving institution (Whittier College) in the use of low-cost sensors and satellite-based measurements to study regional air pollution. View the full article

Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read Sols 4259-4260: Kings Canyon Go Again! MAHLI image of the brushed “Kings Canyon” target NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Monday, July 29, 2024 Our weekend drill preload test on the target “Kings Canyon” (shown in the accompanying MAHLI image) didn’t give us the full range of data we need to move forward with the full drilling process. This coming Wednesday, we hope to rerun our preload test on Kings Canyon or somewhere very similar on the same bedrock, and to get APXS and ChemCam analyses in order to determine scientific suitability for drilling. As a result, this plan focused on getting the arm ready to fulfill those diagnostic activities, described by our Science Operations Team Chief Elena in last Friday’s blog. In the meantime, we are in such an interesting area that we have a very long liens list (our wish list). Our problem today and probably for the foreseeable future will be a good one – trying to keep below our upper limits on how much of that wish list we are going to try to get in on a given day! We have recently seen examples of bedrock slabs or outcrops with a flat, paler toned centre and a rim of darker, greyer material which surrounds the main slab. We saw this about 50 sols ago at the Mammoth Lakes drill site and we see it here too. The relationships between the centre of the slab and the rim are very intriguing and we are keen to understand the interplay between the two textures. Mastcam will take two large mosaics in this area. “Sam Mack Meadow” is a 7×4 mosaic (i.e., 4 rows of 7 images) on an area of crushed grey material, and “Merced Grove” is a 7×6 mosaic on more intact rim material. ChemCam have also planned a LIBS analysis of Merced Grove and one at “Clinch Pass” in the centre of the block. Together these activities will help us to look at relationships here and to compare with previous examples, such as at the Mammoth Lakes drill site. ChemCam will acquire a passive measurement on “Wilts Col,” a small dark toned float rock about 4 metres away from the rover as part of a continuing campaign to assess the nature of the floats (loose rocks) which are strewn around this part of the crater. ChemCam will also acquire 2 RMI (long distance images) 10×1 mosaics, looking at the stratigraphy and layering of the distant hills – getting a head start on the science assessment before we even get close! The atmosphere and environment science theme group (ENV) also crammed their section of the plan full of activities. Since landing (almost 12 years ago now!!), the ENV group has been reporting on environmental conditions in Gale, and this plan was no exception. We have some regular DAN passives, REMS activities and a Navcam dust devil movie, and a single Mastcam “Tau” measurement, which looks at dust in the atmosphere. Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick Share Details Last Updated Jul 30, 2024 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 3 min read Sols 4257-4258: A Little Nudge on Kings Canyon Article 20 hours ago 2 min read Sols 4255-4256: Just Passing Through Article 20 hours ago 2 min read Sols 4253-4254: Pit Stop for Contact Science Article 7 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four… View the full article

Learn Home GLOBE Alumna and Youth for… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Stories Science Activation Highlights Citizen Science 4 min read GLOBE Alumna and Youth for Habitat Program Lead Named Scientist of the Month in Alaska As a 16-year old high school graduate, Maggie House decided to leave the military base in Germany where she lived with her family and go to college close to nature in Fairbanks, Alaska. She had lived in many countries and US states and knew she was ready. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha’ campus in Fall 2022, Maggie enrolled in a 300-level Watershed Management course, which required all students to implement a Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) project and poster. Maggie’s project focused on using the GLOBE Observer App to monitor the erosion of nearby Cripple Creek, which had a history of mining and made Fairbanks famous for its gold. She and a classmate wrote a funded mini-grant proposal to study how ice was related to erosion. While not on the frozen creek, Maggie worked as a student employee with the NASA Science Activation Program’s Arctic and Earth STEM Integrating GLOBE and NASA (SIGNs) team at the International Arctic Research Center, during which she trained teachers and mentored students at Alaska’s first-ever Student Research Symposium in 2022. Maggie also wrote an article about the symposium, published on the University of Alaska Fairbanks News page: https://www.uaf.edu/news/alaskan-youth-present-research-earth-day-symposium.php When the ice melted and the symposium ended, Maggie wanted to study the freshwater habitats of the Creek using GLOBE hydrosphere protocols, so she wrote another proposal. Maggie got a full scholarship and grant funding through Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLaST), supported by the National Institutes of Health. Her work earned recognition in the US Fish and Wildlife Service story, “Natural Flows Return to Cripple Creek” and honors as the December 2023/January 2024 BLaST Scientist of the Month. The story does not stop there. In May, 2024, Maggie House graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and received the first-ever GLOBE internship at the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District, where Maggie House leads the summer Youth for Habitat program for middle school students. Today, you can find Maggie in Cripple Creek near Fairbanks, Alaska, teaching students to learn science by doing science. “I have a firm belief that the health of our environment is intertwined with the health of humans. I am interested in making science-related issues more understandable, for everyone to be a part of their local community. In my future, I see myself continuing to work towards strengthening the relationship between humans and nature and promoting the conservation of our dependence on one another.” – Maggie House Arctic and Earth SIGNs created the conditions for Maggie as an undergraduate student to collect OpenSource GLOBE data that contributed to local solutions, to be awarded funding to pursue actionable research, and to be a leader for educators and future learners. Maggie’s data on ice conditions informed the engineering redesign of the Cripple Creek stream restoration project. Her success in using GLOBE protocols and culturally responsive research methods modeled by Arctic and Earth SIGNs gave her the confidence to write a research proposal and be awarded a full undergraduate research scholarship. Maggie was the first person in the world to monitor aquatic invertebrates in Cripple Creek just three weeks after flow was restored to the creek after 85 years. In Arctic and Earth SIGNs, environmental stewardship is a culminating part of the Learning Framework. Now, Maggie leads the stewardship of salmon habitat in Cripple Creek and mentors middle school youth to pursue STEM fields as a GLOBE trainer and mentor. Maggie’s story matters because one person, with a Science Activation support network and a focus on real-world environmental issues, can make a difference. Arctic & Earth SIGNs is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC52A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn NASA Science Activation Program participant alumna Maggie House leads youth in GLOBE macroinvertebrate identification at an intergenerational workshop in June, 2024, using a microscope she purchased with her grant funds. Christi Buffington Share Details Last Updated Jul 30, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms Earth Science Grades 5 – 8 for Educators Grades 9-12 for Educators Grades K – 4 for Educators Opportunities For Students to Get Involved Science Activation Explore More 2 min read PLACES team publishes blog post on NextGenScience Blog Article 22 hours ago 5 min read NASA’s ICON Mission Ends with Several Ionospheric Breakthroughs Article 6 days ago 8 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Summer 2024 NASA’s third EOS mission—AURA—marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, with two of its… Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… Perseverance Rover This rover and its aerial sidekick were assigned to study the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient microbial… Parker Solar Probe On a mission to “touch the Sun,” NASA’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to fly through the corona… Juno NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter in 2016, the first explorer to peer below the planet’s dense clouds to… View the full article

5 min read NASA’s DART Mission Sheds New Light on Target Binary Asteroid System The various geological features observed on Didymos helped researchers tell the story of Didymos’ origins. The asteroid’s triangular ridge (first panel from left), and the so-called smooth region, and its likely older, rougher “highland” region (second panel from left) can be explained through a combination of slope processes controlled by elevation (third panel from left). The fourth panel shows the effects of spin-up disruption that Didymos likely underwent to form Dimorphos. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin In studying data collected from NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which in 2022 sent a spacecraft to intentionally collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, the mission’s science team has discovered new information on the origins of the target binary asteroid system and why the DART spacecraft was so effective in shifting Dimorphos’ orbit. In five recently published papers in Nature Communications, the team explored the geology of the binary asteroid system, comprising moonlet Dimorphos and parent asteroid Didymos, to characterize its origin and evolution and constrain its physical characteristics. “These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for Solar System Small Bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This is important not just for understanding the near-Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just part of the wealth of new knowledge we’ve gained from DART.” Olivier Barnouin and Ronald-Louis Ballouz of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, led a paper that analyzed the geology of both asteroids and drew conclusions about their surface materials and interior properties. From images captured by DART and its accompanying LICIACube cubesat – contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the team observed the smaller asteroid Dimorphos’ topography, which featured boulders of varying sizes. In comparison, the larger asteroid Didymos was smoother at lower elevations, though rocky at higher elevations, with more craters than Dimorphos. The authors inferred that Dimorphos likely spun off from Didymos in a large mass shedding event. There are natural processes that can accelerate the spins of small asteroids, and there is growing evidence that these processes may be responsible for re-shaping these bodies or even forcing material to be spun off their surfaces. Analysis suggested that both Didymos and Dimorphos have weak surface characteristics, which led the team to posit that Didymos has a surface age 40–130 times older than Dimorphos, with the former estimated to be 12.5 million years and the latter less than 300,000 years old. The low surface strength of Dimorphos likely contributed to DART’s significant impact on its orbit. “The images and data that DART collected at the Didymos system provided a unique opportunity for a close-up geological look of a near-Earth asteroid binary system,” said Barnouin. “From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Didymos and Dimorphos and expand our understanding on the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos.” To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Based on the internal and surface properties described in Barnouin et al. (2024), this video demonstrates how the spin-up of asteroid Didymos could have led to the growth of its equatorial ridge and the formation of the smaller asteroid Dimorphos, seen orbiting the former near the end of the clip. Particles are colored according to their speeds, with the scale shown at the top, along with the continually changing spin period of Didymos. Credit: University of Michigan/Yun Zhang and Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin Maurizio Pajola, of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome, and co-authors led a paper comparing the shapes and sizes of the various boulders and their distribution patterns on the two asteroids’ surfaces. They determined the physical characteristics of Dimorphos indicate it formed in stages, likely of material inherited from its parent asteroid Didymos. That conclusion reinforces the prevailing theory that some binary asteroid systems arise from shed remnants of a larger primary asteroid accumulating into a new asteroid moonlet. Alice Lucchetti, also of INAF, and colleagues found that thermal fatigue — the gradual weakening and cracking of a material caused by heat — could rapidly break up boulders on the surface of Dimorphos, generating surface lines and altering the physical characteristics of this type of asteroid more quickly than previously thought. The DART mission was likely the first observation of such a phenomenon on this type of asteroid. Supervised by researcher Naomi Murdoch of ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, and colleagues, a paper led by students Jeanne Bigot and Pauline Lombardo determined Didymos’ bearing capacity — the surface’s ability to support applied loads — to be at least 1,000 times lower than that of dry sand on Earth or lunar soil. This is considered an important parameter for understanding and predicting the response of a surface, including for the purposes of displacing an asteroid. Colas Robin, also of ISAE-SUPAERO, and co-authors analyzed the surface boulders on Dimorphos, comparing them with those on other rubble pile asteroids, including Itokawa, Ryugu and Bennu. The researchers found the boulders shared similar characteristics, suggesting all these types of asteroids formed and evolved in a similar fashion. The team also noted that the elongated nature of the boulders around the DART impact site implies that they were likely formed through impact processing. These latest findings form a more robust overview of the origins of the Didymos system and add to the understanding of how such planetary bodies were formed. As ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission prepares to revisit DART’s collision site in 2026 to further analyze the aftermath of the first-ever planetary defense test, this research provides a series of tests for what Hera will find and contributes to current and future exploration missions while bolstering planetary defense capabilities. Johns Hopkins APL managed the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office. NASA provided support for the mission from several centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. For more information about the DART mission: https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-dart News Media Contacts Karen Fox / Alana Johnson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov Facebook logo @NASA@Asteroid Watch @NASA@AsteroidWatch Instagram logo @NASA Linkedin logo @NASA Share Details Last Updated Jul 30, 2024 Related Terms Asteroids DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) Missions Planetary Science Planetary Science Division Science Mission Directorate The Solar System Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Planetary Science Early Career Workshop Asteroids Solar System View the full article

NASA TV Is Now NASA+

The International Space Station pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon during a fly around of the orbiting laboratory. Credit: NASA NASA will broadcast groundbreaking discoveries, benefits for humanity, and how the agency and its commercial and international partners are maximizing research and development in orbit from the 13th annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference. The conference runs Monday through Thursday, Aug. 1, in Boston. The full conference agenda is available online. NASA will stream live coverage of select panels on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media. NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern): Tuesday, July 30 9 a.m. – Igniting Innovation Keynote with the following participants: Diana Ly, manager, deputy director, Biological and Physical Sciences, NASA Headquarters Michael Roberts, chief scientific officer, International Space Station National Laboratory 9:35 a.m. – NASA’s Expedition 71 astronauts will discuss research from aboard the orbiting space station laboratory with the following participants: Mike Barratt Matt Dominick Jeanette Epps Tracy C. Dyson Wednesday, July 31 12 p.m. – Keynote address with the following participant: NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free 1:45 p.m. – Lightning: The Power of Science in Low Earth Orbit talk with the following participant: Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters 4:40 p.m. – Low Earth Orbit Research Continuity panel with the following participants: Robyn Gatens, director, International Space Station Program, NASA Headquarters Kirt Costello, utilization manager, Low Earth Orbit Development Program, NASA Johnson Ryan Prouty, manager, International Space Station Research Integration Office, NASA Johnson Thursday, Aug. 1 8:40 a.m. – International Space Station International Partners panel with the following participants: Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson Dr. Masaki Shirakawa, director, Japanese Experiment Module Utilization Center, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Fabio Caramelli, manager, Space Rider System Payload and Exploitation, ESA (European Space Agency) Mathieu Caron, director, Astronauts, Life Sciences and Space Medicine, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Hazzaa Al Monsoori, chief, Astronaut Office, United Arab Emirates Luca Di Fino, utilization manager, International Space Station Program, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana 10:15 a.m. – Accessibility to Low Earth Orbit panel with the following participants: Brittany Brown, director, digital communications, Office of Communications, NASA Headquarters Jessica Gagen, scientist and educator, Miss United Kingdom 2024 Eric Ingram, chairman and chief strategy officer, SCOUT Space, Inc. John Shoffner, founder, Perseid Foundation 12:15 p.m. – Keynote address with the following participant: Steve Bowen, NASA astronaut The International Space Station Research and Development Conference is hosted by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and the American Astronautical Society, in cooperation with NASA, and brings together leaders from industry, academia, and government. With more than 23 years of continuously crewed operations, the space station is a unique scientific platform where crew members conduct experiments across multiple disciplines of research, including Earth and space science, biology, human physiology, physical sciences, and technology demonstrations not possible on Earth. Crews living aboard the station have executed more than 3,300 experiments in microgravity for thousands of researchers on Earth. The space station also supports space commerce, from commercial crew and cargo partnerships to commercial research and national lab research. Data collected from these activities helps set standards for future commercial stations. Get updates about the science conducted aboard the space station on X at @ISS_Research. Learn more about conducting research in microgravity at: https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science -end- Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov Patrick O’Neill International Space Station National Laboratory 904-806-0035 poneill@issnational.org Share Details Last Updated Jul 29, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsInternational Space Station (ISS)International Space Station DivisionISS Research View the full article