NASA

NASA astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren poses with a patient at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center roll-out event for NASA’s “MISSION: All Systems Go!” suite of digital products. Credit: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center As NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity and inspires the world through discovery, the agency launched a new video series specifically designed for use by medical treatment centers across the United States to help reduce anxiety and stress among pediatric patients during treatment. The project, named “MISSION: All Systems GO!”, is hosted by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and was developed alongside the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and National Association of Proton Therapy. The suite of products intentionally draws similarities between an astronaut’s experience and the challenges young patients will encounter during their treatment, such as restricted movement in confined spaces, strange sounds and smells, and separation from family and friends. The videos, and accompanying products, are a new resource for treatment centers, and support President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. “As part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, NASA is committed to improving the experience of cancer patients and their families while we work to end cancer as we know it,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Cancer treatment is full of unknowns, and so is space travel — we hope that this project will provide hope and comfort to patients and their loved ones as they navigate their cancer treatment mission.” Some patients undergo as many as six weeks or more of treatments strapped into sterile, state-of-the-art medical machines that many patients find intimidating. However, some patients expressed fascination toward these high-tech mechanisms and compared them to the look of a NASA spacecraft, leading to the idea for this unique suite of products. “Part of the agency’s mission is to improve life here on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator and NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) program manager. “I’m proud that we can help thousands of kids and their families get through an extremely difficult time in their lives.” In the first of three hosted videos, Lindgren, himself a medical doctor, briefs the patient on their upcoming “mission.” Step by step, Lindgren addresses each requirement and his confidence in how the patients can do it. After completing their treatment, patients will receive a mission de-brief from Lindgren, where he offers reminders on how to follow up with treatment, as well as his heartfelt congratulations. The patient also is presented with a custom certificate of mission completion signed by Lindgren and Dr. James D. Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer. Finally, in the third video, Lindgren takes part in a Q-and-A in which patient’s family and friends learn more about his job and how he’s handled challenges to what they now are facing. In addition to the video products, medical centers will have access to NASA imagery to decorate a center’s video viewing room to look like NASA’s Mission Control Center, as well as display posters featuring human spaceflight and science missions enabled by NASA’s SCaN program. NASA’s “MISSION: All Systems GO!” is another step in the agency’s effort to help President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. NASA is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years. “In 2022, NASA was added to the White House Cancer Moonshot Program. Since then, the agency’s Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer has formed several task forces with one specifically focused on patient and caregiver support,” said Mark Weyland, director of health operations and oversight for the Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer. “We believe the “MISSION: All Systems GO!” initiative will have a positive impact on so many patients and caregivers. Partnering with SCaN and the Cancer Moonshot Program furthers NASA’s desire to continue to provide for the health and wellness of humanity and the discovery of new medical innovations.” The agency’s “MISSION: All Systems GO!” products are available for use by medical treatment centers and facilities across the United States. Centers interested in accessing the suite of products will be required to fill out an electronic form, accept NASA’s Terms of Use, and download the products from a dedicated Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer webpage: OCHMO & NASA Mission: All Systems GO! – NASA View the full article

Live High-Definition Views from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream)

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

Credit: NASA For the 14th consecutive year, NASA received an unmodified, or “clean,” opinion from an external auditor on its fiscal year 2024 financial statements. The rating is the best possible audit opinion, certifying that NASA’s financial statements conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for federal agencies and accurately present the agency’s financial position. The audit opinion reaffirms the agency’s commitment to transparency in the use of American taxpayers’ dollars. “For the 14th year in a row, NASA has delivered a reliable, accurate, and transparent report of our fiscal operations as we explore the unknown in air and space,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I thank NASA’s Chief Financial Officer Margaret Schaus for her leadership, and I am proud that NASA continues to uphold the public’s trust in our goals, our missions, and our financial reporting practices. Such trust is critical to our agency’s success.” The 2024 Agency Financial Report provides key financial and performance information and demonstrates the agency’s commitment to transparency in the use of American taxpayers’ dollars. In addition, the 2024 report presents progress during the past year, and spotlights the array of NASA missions, objectives, and workforce advanced with these financial resources. “I am proud NASA has achieved its 14th consecutive clean bill of health on its financial statements,” said NASA Chief Financial Officer Margaret Schaus. “I want to recognize the outstanding commitment of our NASA team to ensuring sound stewardship and transparency over the resources entrusted to our agency.” In fiscal year 2024, NASA continued preparation for Artemis II, a mission to send four astronauts around the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign. The agency also publicly unveiled the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft, which will change the way we travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound. Among other highlights, NASA built upon our longstanding efforts to study our Earth as a system, advancing our work on the NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite. This joint mission between the agency and ISRO is the first radar of its kind in space to systematically map the Earth. For more information on NASA’s budget, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/budget -end- Meira Bernstein / Roxana Bardan Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / roxana.bardan@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Nov 15, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsNASA HeadquartersBudget & Annual ReportsOffice of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) View the full article

NASA researchers Guan Yang, Jeff Chen, and their team received the 2024 Innovator of The Year Award at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for their exemplary work on a lidar system enhanced with artificial intelligence and other technologies. Engineer Jeffrey Chen tests a lidar prototype on the roof of Building 33 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Chen and his team earned the center’s 2024 Innovator of the Year award for their work on CASALS, a lidar system enhanced with artificial intelligence and other technologies.NASA Like a laser-based version of sonar, lidar and its use in space exploration is not new. But the lidar system Yang and Chen’s team have developed — formally the Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System (CASALS) — can produce higher resolution data within a smaller space, significantly increasing efficiency compared to current models. The true revolution in CASALS is a unique combination of related technologies, such as highly efficient laser and receiver designs, wavelength-based, non-mechanical beam steering, multispectral imaging, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence to allow the instrument to make its own decisions while in orbit, instead of waiting for direction from human controllers on the ground. “Existing 3D-imaging lidars struggle to provide the 2-inch resolution needed by guidance, navigation and control technologies to ensure precise and safe landings essential for future robotic and human exploration missions,” team engineer Jeffrey Chen said in an earlier interview. “Such a system requires 3D hazard-detection lidar and a navigation doppler lidar, and no existing system can perform both functions.” The CASALS lidar is being developed to study land and ice topography, coastline changes, and other Earth science topics. Future applications in solar system science beyond our planet are already in the works, including space navigation improvements and high-resolution lunar mapping for NASA’s Artemis campaign to return astronauts to the Moon. An effective and compact lidar system like CASALS could also map rocky planets like Venus or Mars. NASA leveraged contributions from external Small Business Innovation Research companies such as Axsun Technologies, Freedom Photonics, and Left Hand for laser and optical technology to help make CASALS a reality. The Internal Research and Development (IRAD) Innovator of The Year award is presented by Goddard’s Office of the Chief Technologist to a person or team within the program with a notable contribution to cutting-edge technology. The CASALS team was presented their award at a technology poster session on Nov. 6, 2024, at NASA Goddard. By Avery Truman NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Share Details Last Updated Nov 15, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related TermsGoddard TechnologyTechnology Explore More 5 min read NASA, Industry Improve Lidars for Exploration, Science NASA engineers will test a suite of new laser technologies from an aircraft this summer… Article 8 months ago 4 min read Goddard Engineers Improve NASA Lidar Tech for Exploration Cutting edge innovations by NASA researchers seek to refine lidars into smaller, lighter, more versatile… Article 1 year ago 3 min read NASA Engineer Earns Goddard Innovation Award for Sun-studying Photon Sieves Goddard Engineer Kevin Denis receives innovation award for photon sieves. Article 1 year ago View the full article

At NASA, high-end computing is essential for many agency missions. This technology helps us advance our understanding of the universe – from our planet to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. Supercomputers enable projects across diverse research, such as making discoveries about the Sun’s activity that affects technologies in space and life on Earth, building artificial intelligence-based models for innovative weather and climate science, and helping redesign the launch pad that will send astronauts to space with Artemis II. These projects are just a sample of the many on display in NASA’s exhibit during the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, or SC24. NASA’s Dr. Nicola “Nicky” Fox, associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, will deliver the keynote address, “NASA’s Vision for High Impact Science and Exploration,” on Tuesday, Nov. 19, where she’ll share more about the ways NASA uses supercomputing to explore the universe for the benefit of all. Here’s a little more about the work NASA will share at the conference: 1. Simulations Help in Redesign of the Artemis Launch Environment To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This simulation of the Artemis I launch shows how the Space Launch System rocket's exhaust plumes interact with the air, water, and the launchpad. Colors on surfaces indicate pressure levels—red for high pressure and blue for low pressure. The teal contours illustrate where water is present. NASA/Chris DeGrendele, Timothy Sandstrom Researchers at NASA Ames are helping ensure astronauts launch safely on the Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, scheduled for 2025. Using the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics software, they simulated the complex interactions between the rocket plume and the water-based sound suppression system used during the Artemis I launch, which resulted in damage to the mobile launcher platform that supported the rocket before liftoff. Comparing simulations with and without the water systems activated revealed that the sound suppression system effectively reduces pressure waves, but exhaust gases can redirect water and cause significant pressure increases. The simulations, run on the Aitken supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at Ames, generated about 400 terabytes of data. This data was provided to aerospace engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, who are redesigning the flame deflector and mobile launcher for the Artemis II launch. 2. Airplane Design Optimization for Fuel Efficiency In this comparison of aircraft designs, the left wing models the aircraft’s initial geometry, while the right wing models an optimized shape. The surface is colored by the air pressure on the aircraft, with orange surfaces representing shock waves in the airflow. The optimized design modeled on the right wing reduces drag by 4% compared to the original, leading to improved fuel efficiency. NASA/Brandon Lowe To help make commercial flight more efficient and sustainable, researchers and engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley are working to refine aircraft designs to reduce air resistance, or drag, by fine-tuning the shape of wings, fuselages, and other aircraft structural components. These changes would lower the energy required for flight and reduce the amount of fuel needed, produce fewer emissions, enhance overall performance of aircraft, and could help reduce noise levels around airports. Using NASA’s Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics computational modeling software, developed at Ames, researchers are leveraging the power of agency supercomputers to run hundreds of simulations to explore a variety of design possibilities – on existing aircraft and future vehicle concepts. Their work has shown the potential to reduce drag on an existing commercial aircraft design by 4%, translating to significant fuel savings in real-world applications. 3. Applying AI to Weather and Climate This visualization compares the track of the Category 4 hurricane, Ida, from MERRA-2 reanalysis data (left) with a prediction made without specific training, from NASA and IBM’s Prithvi WxC foundation model (right). Both models were initialized at 00 UTC on 2021-08-27.The University of Alabama in Huntsville/Ankur Kumar; NASA/Sujit Roy Traditional weather and climate models produce global and regional results by solving mathematical equations for millions of small areas (grid boxes) across Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. NASA and partners are now exploring newer approaches using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to train a foundation model. Foundation models are developed using large, unlabeled datasets so researchers can fine-tune results for different applications, such as creating forecasts or predicting weather patterns or climate changes, independently with minimal additional training. NASA developed the open source, publicly available Prithvi Weather-Climate foundation model (Prithvi WxC), in collaboration with IBM Research. Prithvi WxC was pretrained using 160 variables from NASA’s Modern-era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) dataset on the newest NVIDIA A100 GPUs at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility. Armed with 2.3 billion parameters, Prithvi WxC can model a variety of weather and climate phenomena – such as hurricane tracks – at fine resolutions. Applications include targeted weather prediction and climate projection, as well as representing physical processes like gravity waves. 4. Simulations and AI Reveal the Fascinating World of Neutron Stars 3D simulation of pulsar magnetospheres, run on NASA’s Aitken supercomputer using data from the agency‘s Fermi space telescope. The red arrow shows the direction of the star’s magnetic field. Blue lines trace high-energy particles, producing gamma rays, in yellow. Green lines represent light particles hitting the observer’s plane, illustrating how Fermi detects pulsar gamma rays. NASA/Constantinos Kalapotharakos To explore the extreme conditions inside neutron stars, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are using a blend of simulation, observation, and AI to unravel the mysteries of these extraordinary cosmic objects. Neutron stars are the dead cores of stars that have exploded and represent some of the densest objects in the universe. Cutting-edge simulations, run on supercomputers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility, help explain phenomena observed by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) observatory. These phenomena include the rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars known as pulsars, whose detailed physical mechanisms have remained mysterious since their discovery. By applying AI tools such as deep neural networks, the scientists can infer the stars’ mass, radius, magnetic field structure, and other properties from data obtained by the NICER and Fermi observatories. The simulations’ unprecedented results will guide similar studies of black holes and other space environments, as well as play a pivotal role in shaping future scientific space missions and mission concepts. 5. Modeling the Sun in Action – From Tiny to Large Scales Image from a 3D simulation showing the evolution of flows in the upper layers of the Sun, with the most vigorous motions shown in red. These turbulent flows can generate magnetic fields and excite sound waves, shock waves, and eruptions. NASA/Irina Kitiashvili and Timothy A. Sandstrom The Sun’s activity, producing events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, influences the space environment and cause space weather disturbances that can interfere with satellite electronics, radio communications, GPS signals, and power grids on Earth. Scientists at NASA Ames produced highly realistic 3D models that – for the first time – allow them to examine the physics of solar plasma in action, from very small to very large scales. These models help interpret observations from NASA spacecraft like the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Using NASA’s StellarBox code on supercomputers at NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing facility, the scientists improved our understanding of the origins of solar jets and tornadoes – bursts of extremely hot, charged plasma in the solar atmosphere. These models allow the science community to address long-standing questions of solar magnetic activity and how it affects space weather. 6. Scientific Visualization Makes NASA Data Understandable This global map is a frame from an animation showing how wind patterns and atmospheric circulation moved carbon dioxide through Earth’s atmosphere from January to March 2020. The DYAMOND model’s high resolution shows unique sources of carbon dioxide emissions and how they spread across continents and oceans.NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio NASA simulations and observations can yield petabytes of data that are difficult to comprehend in their original form. The Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), based at NASA Goddard, turns data into insight by collaborating closely with scientists to create cinematic, high-fidelity visualizations. Key infrastructure for these SVS creations includes the NASA Center for Climate Simulation’s Discover supercomputer at Goddard, which hosts a variety of simulations and provides data analysis and image-rendering capabilities. Recent data-driven visualizations show a coronal mass ejection from the Sun hitting Earth’s magnetosphere using the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model; global carbon dioxide emissions circling the planet in the DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains (DYAMOND) model; and representations of La Niña and El Niño weather patterns using the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) model. For more information about NASA’s virtual exhibit at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, being held in Atlanta, Nov. 17-22, 2024, visit: https://www.nas.nasa.gov/SC24 For more information about supercomputers run by NASA High-End Computing, visit: https://hec.nasa.gov For news media: Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom. Authors: Jill Dunbar, Michelle Moyer, and Katie Pitta, NASA’s Ames Research Center; and Jarrett Cohen, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center View the full article

Terms of Service NASA’s “MISSION: All Systems GO!” Participant Terms and Conditions NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! is a set of images, videos, certificates and related materials (the “Materials”) intended for use by healthcare providers to assist in reducing the anxieties of children and other patients facing difficult treatment protocols for cancer and other maladies by comparing their challenges with those of NASA astronauts about to embark on a mission to space. BY UTILIZING NASA’S MISSION: ALL SYSTEMS GO! MATERIALS, THE PARTICIPANT (YOU) AGREES TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS: “Participant” or “you” means an individual who registers to receive the Materials by [include specific instructions]. “NASA” or “Agency,” as used herein, means the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. PARTICIPATION Participation in this program is fully voluntary, and participants are not entitled to compensation, nor will they be considered employees, agents, independent contractors, or consultants of NASA or of the United States (U.S.) Government. Individuals who participate in the event shall engage in their personal capacity only, including identifying themselves by their own names. NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! and use of Materials is intended for entities and facilities located in the United States which are engaged in providing healthcare treatment to the public. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN MATERIALS The Materials are owned by NASA, and any use by you must be in strict conformance to the terms hereof and only after registering in the manner identified above. The NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! Resources page includes the program information including logos, fonts, and colors you must abide by when using and communicating with other about the NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! Materials in any form. Except for those portions of the Materials which are customizable, you shall not alter the Materials, or use them for purposes not related to preparing patients for healthcare treatments. The Materials may only be used in connection with patient experiences and shall not in any way be used by you to promote or advertise your business, facility or services. Except as used in the Materials, you shall not use “National Aeronautics and Space Administration” or “NASA” in a way that creates the impression that a product or service has the authorization, support, sponsorship, or endorsement of NASA. The NASA name and initials may be used by you in connection with the release of general information regarding your own participation in M:ASG!, but not for any promotional or advertising purpose. NASA is not liable for any use or misuse of copyrighted images/video/music in media created by you, and by agreeing to these Terms and Conditions agree to indemnify NASA for any claims or costs arising from any such use. NASA logo use: NASA has strict restrictions that everyone must follow regarding the use of their NASA Insignia (or “meatball” logo), NASA Logotype (or “worm” logo) and other NASA identifiers. Except as they may appear in the Materials, you do not have permission to use the NASA Insignia, Logotype or other NASA identifiers. Any use of the Materials must conform to NASA’s Media Usage Guidelines (See https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html). If you have any questions about use of Materials, please contact Al Feinberg at Al.feinberg@nasa.gov. PUBLICITY: Except where prohibited, registration for NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! constitutes your consent for NASA to use your name, the name of your facility or business, place of business, photo or likeness, and/or other publicly available information about you for informational purposes in connection with NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! through any form of media, worldwide, without further permission, payment, or consideration. LIABILITY: Use of the Materials is at the participant’s own risk. NASA is not responsible for the use of the Materials or the conduct of any activities in connection therewith. You agree to release NASA from and hold NASA harmless against any and all claims arising from or in connection with use of the Materials or participation in NASA’s MISSION: All Systems GO! View the full article

NASA/Joel Kowsky In this photo, NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, lifts off the pad at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 16, 2022. Set on a path to the Moon, this officially began the Artemis I mission. Since the completion of Orion’s 25.5-day mission around the Moon and back, teams across NASA have been hard at work preparing for the upcoming Artemis II test flight, which will send four astronauts on a 10-day mission around the Moon, paving the way for humans to land on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission. Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky View the full article

4 min read NASA Satellites Reveal Abrupt Drop in Global Freshwater Levels Earth (ESD) Earth Home Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers GRACE satellites measure gravity as they orbit the planet to reveal shifting levels of water on the Earth (artist’s concept). NASA/JPL-Caltech An international team of scientists using observations from NASA-German satellites found evidence that Earth’s total amount of freshwater dropped abruptly starting in May 2014 and has remained low ever since. Reporting in Surveys in Geophysics, the researchers suggested the shift could indicate Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase. From 2015 through 2023, satellite measurements showed that the average amount of freshwater stored on land — that includes liquid surface water like lakes and rivers, plus water in aquifers underground — was 290 cubic miles (1,200 cubic km) lower than the average levels from 2002 through 2014, said Matthew Rodell, one of the study authors and a hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “That’s two and a half times the volume of Lake Erie lost.” During times of drought, along with the modern expansion of irrigated agriculture, farms and cities must rely more heavily on groundwater, which can lead to a cycle of declining underground water supplies: freshwater supplies become depleted, rain and snow fail to replenish them, and more groundwater is pumped. The reduction in available water puts a strain on farmers and communities, potentially leading to famine, conflicts, poverty, and an increased risk of disease when people turn to contaminated water sources, according to a UN report on water stress published in 2024. The team of researchers identified this abrupt, global decrease in freshwater using observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, operated by the German Aerospace Center, German Research Centre for Geosciences, and NASA. GRACE satellites measure fluctuations in Earth’s gravity on monthly scales that reveal changes in the mass of water on and under the ground. The original GRACE satellites flew from March 2002 to October 2017. The successor GRACE–Follow On (GRACE–FO) satellites launched in May 2018. This map shows the years that terrestrial water storage hit a 22-year minimum (i.e., the land was driest) at each location, based on data from the GRACE and GRACE/FO satellites. A significantly large portion of the global land surface reached this minimum in the nine years since 2015, which happen to be the nine warmest years in the modern temperature record. Image by NASA Earth Observatory/Wanmei Liang with data courtesy of Mary Michael O’Neill The decline in global freshwater reported in the study began with a massive drought in northern and central Brazil, and was followed shortly by a series of major droughts in Australasia, South America, North America, Europe, and Africa. Warmer ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific from late 2014 into 2016, culminating in one of the most significant El Niño events since 1950, led to shifts in atmospheric jet streams that altered weather and rainfall patterns around the world. However, even after El Niño subsided, global freshwater failed to rebound. In fact, Rodell and team report that 13 of the world’s 30 most intense droughts observed by GRACE occurred since January 2015. Rodell and colleagues suspect that global warming might be contributing to the enduring freshwater depletion. Global warming leads the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, which results in more extreme precipitation, said NASA Goddard meteorologist Michael Bosilovich. While total annual rain and snowfall levels may not change dramatically, long periods between intense precipitation events allow the soil to dry and become more compact. That decreases the amount of water the ground can absorb when it does rain. “The problem when you have extreme precipitation,” Bosilovich said, “is the water ends up running off,” instead of soaking in and replenishing groundwater stores. Globally, freshwater levels have stayed consistently low since the 2014-2016 El Niño, while more water remains trapped in the atmosphere as water vapor. “Warming temperatures increase both the evaporation of water from the surface to the atmosphere, and the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere, increasing the frequency and intensity of drought conditions,” he noted. While there are reasons to suspect that the abrupt drop in freshwater is largely due to global warming, it can be difficult to definitively link the two, said Susanna Werth, a hydrologist and remote sensing scientist at Virginia Tech, who was not affiliated with the study. “There are uncertainties in climate predictions,” Werth said. “Measurements and models always come with errors.” It remains to be seen whether global freshwater will rebound to pre-2015 values, hold steady, or resume its decline. Considering that the nine warmest years in the modern temperature record coincided with the abrupt freshwater decline, Rodell said, “We don’t think this is a coincidence, and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come.” By James R. Riordon NASA’s Earth Science News Team Share Details Last Updated Nov 15, 2024 Editor James Riordon Contact James Riordon james.r.riordon@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Earth Goddard Space Flight Center GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on) Water on Earth Explore More 4 min read NASA Satellites Find Snow Didn’t Offset Southwest US Groundwater Loss Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and… Article 5 months ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Earth Your home. Our Mission. And the one planet that NASA studies more than any other. Climate Change NASA is a global leader in studying Earth’s changing climate. How Earth’s Surface and Interior are Connected to Freshwater Availability Explore Earth Science View the full article

Hubble Space Telescope Home Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 2 min read Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled Galaxies This Hubble image features a pair of interacting spiral galaxies called MCG+05-31-045. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz) Download this image This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image depicts the cosmic tangle that is MCG+05-31-045, a pair of interacting galaxies located 390 million light-years away and a part of the Coma galaxy cluster. The Coma Cluster is a particularly rich cluster that contains over a thousand known galaxies. Amateur astronomers can easily spot several of these in a backyard telescope (See Caldwell 35). Most of them are elliptical galaxies, and that’s typical of a dense galaxy cluster like the Coma Cluster: many elliptical galaxies form through close encounters between galaxies that stir them up, or even collisions that rip them apart. While the stars in interacting galaxies can stay together, their gas is twisted and compressed by gravitational forces and rapidly used up to form new stars. When the hot, massive, blue stars die, there is little gas left to form new generations of young stars to replace them. As spiral galaxies interact, gravity disrupts the regular orbits that produce their striking spiral arms. Whether through mergers or simple near misses, the result is a galaxy almost devoid of gas, with aging stars orbiting in uncoordinated circles: an elliptical galaxy. It’s very likely that a similar fate will befall MCG+05-31-045. As the smaller spiral galaxy is torn up and integrated into the larger galaxy, many new stars will form, and the hot, blue ones will quickly burn out, leaving cooler, redder stars behind in an elliptical galaxy, much like others in the Coma Cluster. But this process won’t be complete for many millions of years. Explore more Coma Cluster images from Hubble. Hubble Uncovers Thousands of Globular Star Clusters Scattered Among Galaxies Hubble’s Galaxies With Knots, Bursts Hubble Sees Near and Far Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas Hubble Catches Galaxies Swarmed by Star Clusters Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Hubble Space Telescope Spiral Galaxies Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Galaxy Details and Mergers Hubble’s Galaxies Explore the Night Sky View the full article

Parallels between spaceflight and the aging process may extend to encompass frailty. Figure Left: Venn diagram of differentially expressed frailty genes in rodent and human samples shows the common differentially expressed genes between the two species. Figure Right: Schematic of the Inspiration4 experiments and samples. This study relied on data from the OSDR, including 7 rodent spaceflight datasets, 2 human space analog datasets, astronaut data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Inspiration4. Data on sarcopenia were mined from National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Gene Expression Omnibus. Spaceflight accelerates the symptoms of aging in astronaut bodies by inducing genomic instability, mitochondrial dysfunction, and increased inflammation. This is the first study to comprehensively examine biomarkers and pathways associated with spaceflight and terrestrial aging, frailty, and sarcopenia. Main Findings: Spaceflight induced notable changes in gene expression patterns related to frailty and muscle loss indicative of a frailty-like condition. Exposure to the space environment leads to changes related to inflammation, muscle wasting, and other age-related features observed in both mice and humans. Parallels between spaceflight and the aging process may extend to also encompass frailty. Impact: This work reveals the need for a frailty index to monitor development of frailty-related astronaut health risks during spaceflight. The results provide insights into potential avenues for developing countermeasures to combat frailty-related health risks for both astronauts and aging populations on Earth. This study was part of the 44-article Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) package published in Nature. It demonstrates the effectiveness of open science combined with robust data submission, standards, and curation. The study began within and was organized through the Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) of NASA’s Open Science Data Repository (OSDR). View the full article

El viceministro de Políticas para la Defensa del Ministerio de Defensa de Perú, César Medardo Torres Vega, el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, y el director de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial del Perú (CONIDA), mayor general Roberto Melgar Sheen, se reúnen en Lima, Perú, el 14 de noviembre de 2024, donde EE. UU. y Perú firmaron un memorando de entendimiento acordando estudiar una potencial campaña de cohetes sonda.Crédito: Embajada de EE. UU. en Perú Read this release in English here. La NASA y la Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial del Perú (CONIDA) sentaron las bases para una posible campaña de varios años de duración para el lanzamiento de pequeños cohetes científicos desde Perú, conjuntamente con Estados Unidos. Ambos países firmaron el jueves un memorando de entendimiento no vinculante que incluye capacitación en seguridad, un estudio de factibilidad conjunto para la posible campaña, y asistencia técnica para CONIDA en lanzamientos de cohetes sonda. Los cohetes sonda son pequeños cohetes de bajo costo que proporcionan acceso suborbital al espacio. “Estamos entusiasmados de analizar la posibilidad de lanzar nuevamente cohetes sonda desde Perú”, dijo el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, quien firmó en nombre de Estados Unidos. “Este acuerdo profundiza nuestra colaboración internacional con Perú y la investigación científica que llevamos a cabo debido a la ubicación del país en el ecuador magnético. Juntos iremos más lejos”. El mayor general Roberto Melgar Sheen, jefe institucional de CONIDA, firmó en nombre de Perú. Brian Nichols, subsecretario de Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU., y Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, embajadora de EE. UU. en Perú, también participaron, entre otros funcionarios peruanos. El evento tuvo lugar durante la semana del Foro de Cooperación Económica Asia-Pacífico que comenzó el 9 de noviembre en Lima. Durante su visita a Perú, Nelson también discutió la importancia de las asociaciones y la colaboración internacionales en el espacio y celebró la firma de los Acuerdos Artemis por parte de Perú a principios de este año. Estados Unidos y Perú tienen una larga historia de cooperación espacial. La NASA llevó a cabo campañas de cohetes sonda en la base de lanzamiento Punta Lobos de CONIDA en 1975 y 1983. La NASA utiliza cohetes sonda para transportar instrumentos científicos al espacio en vuelos suborbitales para recopilar importantes datos científicos y poner a prueba prototipos de instrumentos. Con ellos se obtienen datos de incalculable valor que mejoran nuestra comprensión de la atmósfera y el clima de la Tierra, nuestro sistema solar y el universo, y se ponen a prueba equipamientos para viajes espaciales más profundos. Comprender la atmósfera de la Tierra y cómo es influenciada por el Sol es crucial para proteger los recursos terrestres y espaciales de los que dependemos todos los días, desde la red eléctrica hasta los datos meteorológicos e incluso la navegación. Para obtener más información sobre las asociaciones internacionales de la NASA (en inglés), visita: https://www.nasa.gov/oiir -fin- Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsOffice of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR)Artemis AccordsSounding Rockets View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Diana Oglesby’s love for NASA began long before she started working for the agency. A native of Decatur, Texas, Oglesby knew at the age of eight that she would make NASA her future destination. That dream became a reality when Oglesby joined the agency, first as an intern and later as a NASA full-time employee, marking the beginning of a career that would span over two decades. From left, Richard Jones, CCP (Commercial Crew Program) deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Steve Stich, program manager for CCP; Dana Hutcherson, CCP deputy program manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and Diana Oglesby, director, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate, pose with the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission flag near the countdown clock at the NASA News Center at the Kennedy on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.NASA/Cory S Huston Oglesby currently serves as director of the Strategic Integration and Management Division within NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The division plays a key role in ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of space operations, providing essential business support such as programmatic integration, strategic planning, information technology and cybersecurity leadership, stakeholder outreach, and administrative services. Before her current role, Oglesby led the business management function for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She had a front-row seat to history during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission, which successfully launched astronauts to the International Space Station in the first commercially built and operated American rocket and spacecraft, marking a significant milestone in NASA’s space exploration efforts. “It was an honor of a lifetime,” she says, reflecting on her role in this historic achievement. Oglesby’s ability to foster teamwork and genuine care for others has been a hallmark of her career, whether serving in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program or now guiding the Strategic Integration and Management Division. While reflecting on her new role as division director, Oglesby is most excited about the people. As someone who thrives on diverse activities and complex challenges, she looks forward to the strategic aspects of her role and the opportunity to lead a dynamic team helping to shape NASA’s future. The future is bright. We are actively building the future now with each choice as part of the agency's strategic planning and transition from current International Space Station operations to the new commercial low Earth orbit destinations. Diana Oglesby Director, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate “The future is bright,” said Oglesby. “We are actively building the future now with each choice as part of the agency’s strategic planning and transition from current International Space Station operations to the new commercial low Earth orbit destinations.” While Oglesby is deeply committed to her work, she also believes in “work-life harmony” rather than a work-life balance, by giving her attention to the sphere of life she is currently in at that moment in time. She remains ever focused on harmonizing between her NASA duties and her life outside of work, including her three children. Oglesby enjoys spending time with her family, baking, crafting, and participating in her local church and various causes to support community needs. Known for her positive energy, passion, and innovation, Oglesby always seeks ways to improve systems and make a difference in whatever project she is tackling. Her attention to detail and problem-solving approach makes her an invaluable leader at NASA. NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate maintains a continuous human presence in space for the benefit of people on Earth. The programs within the directorate are the heart of NASA’s space exploration efforts, enabling Artemis, commercial space, science, and other agency missions through communication, launch services, research capabilities, and crew support. To learn more about NASA’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related TermsSpace Operations Mission DirectorateStrategic Integration and Management Division Explore More 4 min read Precision Pointing Goes the Distance on NASA Experiment Article 2 hours ago 4 min read NASA Technologies Named Among TIME Inventions of 2024 Article 2 weeks ago 3 min read Commercial Services User Group (CSUG) Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Humans In Space International Space Station Commercial Space NASA Directorates View the full article

Credit: NASA NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio to build three coronagraphs for the Lagrange 1 Series project, part of NOAA’s Space Weather Next program. Once operational, the coronagraphs will provide critical data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which issues forecasts, warnings, and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts, including electric power outages and interruption to communications and navigation systems. This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is valued at approximately $60 million, and the anticipated period of performance is from this November through January 2034, concluding after launch of the second coronagraph aboard a NOAA spacecraft. The third coronagraph will be delivered as a flight spare. This contract award marks a transfer of coronagraph development from the government to the U.S. commercial sector. The contract scope includes design, analysis, development, fabrication, integration, test, verification, and evaluation of the coronagraphs; launch support; supply and maintenance of ground support equipment; and support of post-launch instrument operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility. The work will take place at Southwest Research Institute’s facility in San Antonio. The coronagraphs will observe the density structure of the Sun’s faint outermost atmosphere — the corona — and will detect Earth-directed coronal mass ejections shortly after they erupt, providing the longest possible lead time for geomagnetic storm watches. With this forewarning, public and private organizations affected by space weather can take actions to protect their assets. The coronagraphs will also provide data continuity from the Space Weather follow-on Lagrange 1 mission. NASA and NOAA oversee the development, launch, testing and operation of all the satellites in the project. NOAA is the program owner providing the requirements and funding along with managing the program, operations, data products, and dissemination to users. NASA and its commercial partners develop and build the instruments, spacecraft, and provide launch services on behalf of NOAA. For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov -end- Abbey Donaldson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov Jeremy Eggers Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 757-824-2958 jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov View the full article

Johnson Space Center Vibration Test FacilityNASA Nov. 14, 2024 NASA Johnson Invites Proposals to Lease Vibration Test Facility NASA’s Johnson Space Center is seeking proposals for the use of its historic, but underused, Vibration and Acoustic Test Facility. Prospective tenants must submit facility walk-through requests by Monday, Nov. 18. Final proposals are due by 12 p.m. EST Monday, Dec. 16, and must promote activities that will build, expand, modernize, or operate aerospace-related capabilities at NASA Johnson and help preserve the historic and iconic building through preservation and adaptive reuse. NASA plans to sign a National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) lease agreement for the facility, also known as Building 49, for a five-year base period and one five-year extension to be negotiated between NASA and the tenant. To request a walk-through, send an email to hq-realestate@mail.nasa.gov. “This historic facility has been used for decades to ensure the success and safety of all human spaceflight missions by putting engineering designs and hardware to the ultimate stress tests,” said NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche. “For more than 60 years, NASA Johnson has been the hub of human space exploration and this agreement will be a vital part of the center’s efforts to develop a robust and durable space economy that refines our understanding of the solar system and space exploration.” All proposals must adhere to the guidelines detailed in the Agency Announcement for Proposals describing concept plans for development of the property, including any modifications proposed to the building; a statement of financial capability to successfully achieve and sustain operations, demonstrated experience with aerospace-related services or other space-related activities, and a detailed approach to propelling the space economy. The nine-story building complex has a gross square footage of 62,737 square feet and consists of a north wing measuring 62 feet long, 268 feet wide and 106 feet tall, and a central wing about 64 feet long and 115 feet wide. Building 49 currently houses five laboratories, including the General Vibration Laboratory, Modal Operations Laboratory, Sonic Fatigue Laboratory, Spacecraft Acoustic Laboratory, and Spacecraft Vibration Laboratory. The south administrative portion of the building is not included in the property offered for lease. As the home of Mission Control Center for the agency’s human space missions, astronaut training, robotics, human health and space medicine, NASA Johnson leads the way for the human exploration. Leveraging its unique role and location, the center is developing multiple lease agreements, including the recently announced Exploration Park, to sustain its key role in helping the human spaceflight community foster a robust space. In the coming years, NASA and its academic, commercial, and international partners will see the completion of the International Space Station Program, the commercial development of low Earth orbit, and the first human Artemis campaign missions establishing sustainable human presence on the Moon in preparation for human missions to Mars. Johnson already is leading the commercialization of space with the commercial cargo and crew programs and private astronaut missions to the space station. The center also is supporting the development of commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, and lunar-capable commercial spacesuits and lunar landers that will be provided as services to both NASA and the private sector to accelerate human access to space. Through the development of Exploration Park, the center will broaden the scope of the human spaceflight community that is tackling the many difficult challenges ahead. Learn more about NASA Johnson’s efforts to collaborate with industry partners: https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/frontdoor -end- Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov View the full article

Peru’s Vice Minister of Defense Policies for Ministry of Defense César Medardo Torres Vega, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and Director of Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen meet in Lima, Peru, Nov. 14, 2024, where the U.S. and Peru signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to study a potential sounding rocket campaign.Credit: U.S. Embassy Peru NASA and Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) laid the groundwork for a potential multi-year scientific rocket launch campaign in the South American country. Both countries signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding Thursday that includes safety training, a joint feasibility study for the potential campaign, and technical assistance for CONIDA on sounding rocket launches. Sounding rockets are small, low-cost rockets that provide suborbital access to space. “We are excited to look at the possibility of once again launching sounding rockets from Peru,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who signed on behalf of the United States. “This agreement deepens our international partnership with Peru and the scientific research we conduct because of the country’s location along the magnetic equator. Together we will go farther.” Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen, head of CONIDA, signed on behalf of Peru. Brian Nichols, assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the U.S. State Department, and Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, U.S. ambassador to Peru, also participated, among other Peruvian officials. The event took place during the week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum beginning Nov. 9 in Lima. During his visit to Peru, Nelson also discussed the importance of international partnerships and collaboration in space and celebrated Peru’s signing of the Artemis Accords earlier this year. The United States and Peru have a long history of space cooperation. NASA conducted sounding rocket campaigns at CONIDA’s Punta Lobos launch base in 1975 and 1983. NASA uses sounding rockets to carry scientific instruments into space on suborbital flights to collect important science data and test prototype instruments. They yield invaluable data that enhance our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere and weather, our solar system, and the universe, and test equipment for deeper space travel. Understanding our Earth’s atmosphere and how it is influenced by the Sun is crucial to protecting ground and space-based assets that we rely on every day, from the power grid to weather data and even navigation. For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/oiir -end- Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsOffice of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR)Sounding Rockets View the full article

In the unforgiving lunar environment, the possibility of an astronaut crewmember becoming incapacitated due to unforeseen circumstances (injury, medical emergency, or a mission-related accident) is a critical concern, starting with the upcoming Artemis III mission, where two astronaut crewmembers will explore the Lunar South Pole. The Moon’s surface is littered with rocks ranging from 0.15 to 20 meters in diameter and craters spanning 1 to 30 meters wide, making navigation challenging even under optimal conditions. The low gravity, unique lighting conditions, extreme temperatures, and availability of only one person to perform the rescue, further complicate any rescue efforts. Among the critical concerns is the safety of astronauts during Extravehicular Activities (EVAs). If an astronaut crewmember becomes incapacitated during a mission, the ability to return them safely and promptly to the human landing system is essential. A single crew member should be able to transport an incapacitated crew member distances up to 2 km and a slope of up to 20 degrees on the lunar terrain without the assistance of a lunar rover. This pressing issue opens the door for innovative solutions. We are looking for a cutting-edge design that is low in mass and easy to deploy, enabling one astronaut crewmember to safely transport their suited (343 kg (~755lb)) and fully incapacitated partner back to the human landing system. The solution must perform effectively in the Moon’s extreme South Pole environment and operate independently of a lunar rover. Your creativity and expertise could bridge this critical gap, enhancing the safety measures for future lunar explorers. By addressing this challenge, you have the opportunity to contribute to the next “giant leap” in human space exploration. Award: $45,000 in total prizes Open Date: November 14, 2024 Close Date: January 23, 2025 For more information, visit: https://www.herox.com/NASASouthPoleSafety View the full article

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy (front center left) discusses NASA 2040 on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, the agency’s strategic initiative for aligning workforce, infrastructure, and technologies to meet the needs of the future with various groups of employees at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The initiative launched in June 2023 to implement meaningful changes to ensure the agency remains the global leader in aerospace and science in the year 2040 while also making the greatest impacts for the nation and the world. NASA will focus on addressing the agency’s aging infrastructure, shaping an agency workforce strategy, improving decision velocity at many levels, and exploring ways to achieve greater budget flexibility. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The laser that transmits between NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and Earth-based observatories for the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment successfully reaches its target thanks, in part, to a vibration isolation platform developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc., and supported by several Space Technology Mission Directorate programs. NASA/JPL-Caltech One year ago today, the future of space communications arrived at Earth as a beam of light from a NASA spacecraft nearly 10 million miles away. That’s 40 times farther than our Moon. That’s like using a laser pointer to track a moving dime from a mile away. That’s pretty precise. That laser — transmitted from NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration — has continued to hit its target on Earth from record-breaking distances. “NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications features many novel technologies that are needed to precisely point and track the uplink beacon and direct the downlink laser,” said Bill Klipstein, DSOC project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. One of the technologies aiding that extremely precise pointing was invented by a small business and fostered by NASA for more than a decade. Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On (Not!) Part of the challenge with the precision pointing needed for DSOC was isolating the laser from the spacecraft’s vibrations, which would nudge the beam off target. Fortunately for NASA, Controlled Dynamics Inc. (CDI), in Huntington Beach, California, offered a solution to this problem. The company had a platform designed to isolate orbiting experiments from vibrations caused by their host spacecraft, other payloads, crew movements, or even their own equipment. Just as the shocks on a car provide a smoother ride, the struts and actuators on CDI’s vibration isolation platform created a stable setting for delicate equipment. This idea needed to be developed and tested first to prove successful. The Path to Deep Space Success NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate started supporting the platform’s development in 2012 under its Game Changing Development program with follow-on support from the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program. The technology really began to take off — pun intended — under NASA’s Flight Opportunities program. Managed out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, Flight Opportunities rapidly demonstrates promising technologies aboard suborbital rockets and other vehicles flown by commercial companies. Early flight tests in 2013 sufficiently demonstrated the platform’s performance, earning CDI’s technology a spot on the International Space Station in 2016. But the flight testing didn’t end there. A rapid series of flights with Blue Origin, UP Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic put the platform through its paces, including numerous boosts and thruster firings, pyrotechnic shocks, and the forces of reentry and landing. “Flight Opportunities was instrumental in our development,” said Dr. Scott Green, CDI’s co-founder and the platform’s principal investigator. “With five separate flight campaigns in just eight months, those tests allowed us to build up flight maturity and readiness so we could transition to deep space.” The vibration isolation platform developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc., and used on the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment conducted numerous tests through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, including this flight aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity in February 2019. Virgin Galactic The culmination of NASA’s investments in CDI’s vibration isolation platform was through its Technology Demonstration Missions program, which along with NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program supported NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications. On Oct. 13, 2023, DSOC launched aboard the Psyche spacecraft, a mission managed by JPL. The CDI isolation platform provided DSOC with the active stabilization and precision pointing needed to successfully transmit a high-definition video of Taters the cat and other sample data from record-breaking distances in deep space. “Active stabilization of the flight laser transceiver is required to help the project succeed in its goal to downlink high bandwidth data from millions of miles,” said Klipstein. “To do this, we need to measure our pointing and avoid bumping into the spacecraft while we are floating. The CDI struts gave us that capability.” The Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration’s flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021. The transceiver is mounted on an assembly of struts and actuators — developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc. — that stabilizes the optics from spacecraft vibrations. Several Space Technology Mission Directorate programs supported the vibration isolation technology’s development. NASA/JPL-Caltech Onward Toward Psyche The Psyche spacecraft is expected to reach its namesake metal-rich asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter by August 2029. In the meantime, the DSOC project team is celebrating recognition as one of TIME’s Inventions of 2024 and expects the experiment to continue adding to its long list of goals met and exceeded in its first year. By Nancy Pekar NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) Game Changing Development Flight Opportunities Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 EditorLoura Hall Related TermsSpace Technology Mission DirectorateArmstrong Flight Research CenterDeep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)Flight Opportunities ProgramGame Changing Development ProgramJet Propulsion LaboratoryPsyche MissionSmall Business Innovation Research / Small BusinessSpace Communications & Navigation ProgramTechnologyTechnology Demonstration Missions Program View the full article

NASA The Apollo 12 spacecraft launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this image from Nov. 14, 1969, with astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan L. Bean aboard. During liftoff, the Saturn V rocket which carried the Apollo capsule was struck twice by lightning. On Nov. 19, 1969, the lunar module landed on the Moon. About three hours after landing, Conrad emerged from the lunar module, becoming the third person to step on the Moon. He was followed by Bean. Image credit: NASA View the full article

In November 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Richard F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Alan L. Bean completed the second crewed lunar landing mission. Conrad and Bean achieved a pinpoint landing in the Ocean of Storms within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft that landed there in April 1967. While Gordon conducted science from lunar orbit, Conrad and Bean completed two spacewalks on the lunar surface, deploying science instruments, collecting geology samples, and inspecting Surveyor including retrieving several of it parts for study back on Earth. Preparations continued for the next two missions, Apollo 13 and 14, tentatively planned for March and July 1970, respectively. Apollo 12 Left: The crew of Apollo 12 – Charles “Pete” Conrad, left, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean. Right: The Apollo 12 crew patch. Left: The Apollo 12 crew of Charles “Pete” Conrad, center, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean, facing them, at the traditional prelaunch breakfast, with their mascot “Irving” behind Conrad. Right: Conrad leads Gordon and Bean onto the astronaut van for the ride to Launch Pad 39A. Left: Apollo 12, moments before liftoff into rainy skies. Middle: Liftoff of Apollo 12. Right: Lightning strikes Launch Pad 39A shortly after the Apollo 12 launch. Lift off came precisely at 11:22 a.m. EST on Nov. 14, 1969, with the Saturn V launching Apollo 12 into a dark and rainy sky. The flight proceeded normally for the first 36 seconds, with Conrad even commenting that, “It’s a lovely liftoff. It’s not bad at all.” Then everything went haywire. With Apollo 12 at about 6,600 feet altitude and flying through clouds, observers on the ground noted lightning striking the launch pad. Onboard the spacecraft, the astronauts saw a bright flash, followed by many of the spacecraft’s electronics going offline, causing the three power-generating fuel cells to also go offline. A second event 52 seconds into the flight caused the spacecraft guidance navigation system to go offline. In the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, a young engineer named John W. Aaron monitored the spacecraft’s systems through the two incidents. He correctly deduced that the spacecraft’s Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE) must have suffered some unknown upset and went offline. The simple solution to restoring it to normal function involved moving a seldom-used switch from its Normal to its Auxiliary position. Bean recalled the switch’s location on his panel, carried out the requested action, and restored the spacecraft’s systems. Aaron’s quick action saved the launch from two lightning strikes. Once Conrad understood the cause of the excitement, he radioed to Houston, “I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing.” Left: View of the Earth shortly after Trans Lunar Injection, with one of the Spacecraft Lunar Module (LM) Adapter panels silhouetted against the clouds. Middle: During Transposition and Docking, the LM Intrepid still attached to the S-IVB third stage. Right: The receding Earth during the translunar coast. The rest of the ascent continued without incident and Apollo 12 settled into orbit around the Earth. After verifying that all systems continued functioning properly following the lightning strikes, the astronauts received the call, “The good word is you’re Go for TLI,” the Trans Lunar Injection, the second burn of the third stage engine to send them on their way to the Moon. In his characteristic fashion, Conrad replied, “Hoop-ee-doo! We’re ready! We didn’t expect anything else!” The next major event, the Transposition and Docking (T&D) maneuver, began about 25 minutes later. After the separation of the Command and Service Module (CSM) Yankee Clipper from the S-IVB stage, Gordon turned it around and slowly guided it to a docking with the LM Intrepid still attached to the top of the S-IVB. Conrad commented during the maneuver, “I got an awful pretty looking Intrepid sitting out the window here, gang. We’ll go get her.” After the docking, Gordon backed away from the third stage, extracting the LM in the process, and completing the T&D maneuver. For the next three days, the astronauts continued their journey toward the Moon. Along the way, they inspected Intrepid to verify it came to no harm from the lightning strikes, conducted one midcourse maneuver to ensure their accurate arrival near the Moon, and provided two TV broadcasts showing views of Earth and their spacecraft. Left: Image from lunar orbit of the Fra Mauro highlands, the proposed landing site for Apollo 13 (inside white circle). Middle: The Lunar Module Intrepid as seen from the Command Module Yankee Clipper shortly after undocking. Right: Yankee Clipper as seen from Intrepid. The Apollo 12 astronauts awoke for their fourth mission day to find themselves within the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence. Apollo 12 sailed behind the Moon, losing contact with Earth. Thirteen minutes later, the astronauts fired the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine for the Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, placing them into an elliptical orbit around the Moon. Left: Still from 16 mm film looking out Alan L. Bean’s window at about 3,500 feet during the descent, showing the location of Surveyor Crater, the Apollo 12 landing site. Right: Illustration of the Apollo 12 landing site and the two surface traverses. During the third lunar orbit, the crew fired the SPS engine again to circularize their orbit. The next day, Conrad and Bean donned their spacesuits and reactivated the LM for the separation and landing, extending Intrepid’s landing legs. After undocking and while behind the Moon, Conrad and Bean fired the LM’s Descent Propulsion System engine to lower Intrepid’s orbit. Exactly half a revolution later, Intrepid began the burn to drop it from orbit all the way to the landing in the Ocean of Storms. With Bean providing updates from the guidance computer, Conrad skillfully piloted Intrepid to a smooth landing just northwest of Surveyor Crater, and as they learned later, only 538 feet from Surveyor 3. Without much fanfare, Conrad and Bean completed the postlanding checklist, although Bean allowed himself a little exuberant “Good landing, Pete! Outstanding, man! Beautiful!” Conrad radioed to Mission Control, “Okay, we’re in hot shape, Houston. We’re in real good shape!” They had a chance to look out the windows, with Bean exclaiming, “Holy cran, it’s beautiful out here!” Conrad replied, “It sure is; it’s something else,” later adding, “Man! I can’t wait to get outside!” Left: Charles “Pete” Conrad on the Lunar Module ladder about to descend to the surface. Middle: Alan L. Bean takes his first steps on the Moon. Right: Conrad working on the central station of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, with its various instruments deployed around it. Conrad and Bean donned their Portable Life Support System (PLSS) backpacks that provided oxygen and communications while on the surface and donned their helmets and gloves. They depressurized the LM, opened the hatch, and Conrad backed out onto the porch, slowly climbing down the ladder. Halfway down, he pulled a lanyard that deployed a color TV camera on the side of the LM’s descent stage, providing a view of him on the LM ladder. After he jumped from the bottom rung onto the footpad, Conrad exclaimed, “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me,” in reference to Armstrong’s famous words as he took humanity’s first step on the Moon and Conrad’s shorter stature. As he stepped off the pad, he remarked, “Oooh is that soft and queasy.” After taking a few tentative steps, Conrad informed everyone that he could see Surveyor 3 sitting inside the crater. He collected the contingency sample – in case they had to leave quickly due to an emergency, geologists would have one small sample from the Ocean of Storms. Bean joined Conrad on the surface, both acclimating rapidly to working in one-sixth g. Conrad set up the S-band antenna for communications with Earth, but while setting up the TV camera, Bean accidentally pointed it at the Sun and damaged the vidicon tube, ending the live TV transmission from the Moon. Bean deployed the Solar Wind Collector (SWC), a Swiss experiment that collected particles from the solar wind, and then he and Conrad set up the American flag. They began the primary task of the first spacewalk – setting up the various instruments of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP). Conrad and Bean carried them to their deployment location about 430 feet to the northwest of Intrepid. They explored the area around the ALSEP site, visiting craters of interest and collecting rock and soil samples before heading back toward Intrepid. They remarked on several occasions how the lunar dust clung to their suits and equipment, and as Conrad quipped, “We’re going to be a couple of dirty boogers.” First Bean then Conrad climbed up the ladder and once inside Intrepid they closed the hatch and repressurized the cabin. Their first spacewalk lasted 3 hours and 56 minutes. They set up hammocks in Intrepid and went to sleep. Left and middle: Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan L. Bean with the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, with their Lunar Module (LM) Intrepid visible in the background. Right: View from inside the LM through Bean’s window following the second spacewalk. After a short night’s rest, Conrad and Bean prepared for their second spacewalk. As before, first Conrad and then Bean descended the ladder to the surface. Conrad walked to the ALSEP to inspect one of the instruments, the seismometer they deployed during the first spacewalk picking up his footsteps. Both then headed west from Intrepid, where Conrad rolled two rocks down into a crater, the vibrations captured by the seismometer. They collected several documented samples, often preceded with expressions like “Oooooh!” and “That’s a beauty!” and dug a trench to expose subsurface material, collecting a sample from about eight inches deep. They set off toward the main objective of this spacewalk – Surveyor 3, resting on the inner slope of 600-foot-wide Surveyor Crater. Entering the crater from the south rim, they walked counterclockwise while descending down the slope until they reached the robotic spacecraft. After taking “tourist” pictures with Surveyor, the two photographed the craft from all angles, noting that the trenches left by its scoop and the marks from its footpads when it bounced after landing looked as fresh as when Surveyor photographed them in 1967. Using cutters, Conrad removed the craft’s camera, scoop, and other parts for return to Earth, where engineers and scientists examined them for the effects of 31 months in the harsh lunar environment. The work at Surveyor completed, the two returned to Intrepid. Bean retrieved the SWC experiment, overcoming difficulties in rolling it back up. Compared with a short 77-minute exposure during Apollo 11, this SWC collected samples of the solar wind for nearly 19 hours. With everything packed up, Bean followed by Conrad headed up the ladder. After closing the hatch, they repressurized Intrepid, ending the 3-hour 49-minute excursion. The Apollo 12 landing site photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2011, the inset showing the Lunar Module Intrepid’s descent stage. Left: A still from 16 mm film recorded aboard Yankee Clipper of Intrepid’s approach just prior to docking. Middle: The Moon shortly after Trans Earth Injection. Right: A receding Moon during the trans Earth coast. After returning inside Intrepid, Conrad and Bean took photographs out the windows, showing the signs of their visit – numerous footprints, the American flag, the S-band antenna, and in the distance, the ALSEP station. As Gordon in Yankee Clipper flew overhead on his 30th lunar revolution, Intrepid’s Ascent Stage engine ignited, and Conrad and Bean lifted off from the Moon after 31 hours and 31 minutes on the surface. Conrad exclaimed, “Liftoff! And away we go!” with Bean adding, “Boy, did it fire!” Intrepid and Yankee Clipper executed a series of maneuvers that led to their docking about three and a half hours after liftoff from the Moon. Their independent flights had lasted 37 hours and 42 minutes. The three astronauts opened the hatches between the two spacecraft and began transfers from Intrepid into Yankee Clipper, including the lunar samples, cameras, and film. Gordon transferred some unneeded items to be jettisoned in Intrepid. The transfers completed, they closed the hatches between the spacecraft and jettisoned the LM. To calibrate the seismometer left on the Moon, controllers sent a command to Intrepid to fire its thrusters to drop it out of orbit and send it crashing onto the surface. The seismometer recorded signals for nearly one hour after the impact. Left: Recording from the Apollo 12 seismometer of the intentional crash of Intrepid’s ascent stage. Right: LRO image of the impact area and debris field of Intrepid’s ascent stage, east of the Fra Mauro B crater. The primary activity for their remaining time around the Moon consisted of photographing potential landing sites for future Apollo missions, such as the Fra Mauro highlands and the Descartes region. On their 45th revolution, they went around to the Moon’s back side for the last time and they fired the SPS for the Trans Earth Injection burn. Apollo 12 left lunar orbit after 3 days 17 hours and 2 minutes. Conrad radioed to Mission Control, “Hello, Houston. Apollo 12’s en route home.” During the three-day return trip to Earth, the astronauts conducted a midcourse maneuver to refine their trajectory, answered questions from geologists and other scientists, and held a press conference at the end of which they held up a homemade sign to the camera that read, “Yankee Clipper sailed with Intrepid to the Sea of Storms, Moon, November 14, 1969,” signed by all three crew members. With the Sun and the Earth nearly aligned, the astronauts could only see a very thin crescent of their home planet, prompting Conrad to comment, “Houston, we just got our first glimpse of you this morning, and there’s not very much of you out there.” Left: The Moon continues to shrink in size as Apollo 12 heads for home. Middle: The Earth appearing as a thin crescent. Right: The Apollo 12 astronauts observed a total solar eclipse as they passed into Earth’s shadow shortly before reentry. Left: The Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper descends on its three main parachutes seconds before splashdown. Middle: A recovery helicopter hovers over Yankee Clipper in the Stable II, or apex down, position, seconds after splashdown. Right: Image taken by a recovery diver of the decontamination officer assisting Alan L. Bean out of Yankee Clipper, with Richard F. Gordon, left, and Charles “Pete” Conrad already aboard the life raft. Shortly before reentry, orbital mechanics had a show in store for the astronauts – their trajectory passed through the Earth’s shadow, treating them to a total solar eclipse. Gordon radioed Mission Control, “We’re getting a spectacular view at eclipse,” and Bean added that it was a “fantastic sight.” The excitement of the eclipse over, the astronauts prepared the cabin for reentry. The CM separated from the Service Module and rotated to point its heatshield into the direction of flight. At 400,000 feet, Yankee Clipper now travelling at 24,625 miles per hour encountered the first tendrils of Earth’s atmosphere. About four minutes of radio blackout followed as ionized gases created by the heat of reentry surrounded the spacecraft. As Apollo 12 came out of the blackout, the prime recovery ship U.S.S. Hornet established radar contact with the spacecraft at a distance of 119 miles. At about 24,000 feet, the spacecraft jettisoned its apex cover, then deployed its two drogue parachutes to slow and stabilize the capsule. At 10,000 feet, the three main orange and white parachutes deployed, with Conrad reporting, “Three gorgeous beautiful chutes.” Precisely 244 hours and 36 minutes after lifting off from Florida, Apollo 12 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean less than four miles from Hornet, bringing the second lunar landing mission to a successful conclusion. Left: Apollo 12 astronauts Richard F. Gordon, left, Alan L. Bean, and Charles “Pete” Conrad aboard the recovery helicopter. Middle: Conrad, front, Gordon, and Bean walk from the helicopter to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). Right: Admiral John S. McCain addresses the Apollo 12 astronauts in the MQF. The capsule assumed the apex down Stable 2 position in the water, but in less than five minutes three self-inflating balloons righted the spacecraft into the Stable 1 upright orientation. Five minutes later, a helicopter dropped the first three recovery team swimmers into the water, tasked with securing a flotation collar and rafts to the spacecraft. Decontamination officer Ernest “Ernie” L. Jahncke next dropped into the water and once the crew opened the hatch, he handed them fresh flight suits and respirators. A few minutes later, the crew reopened the hatch, and first Conrad, then Gordon, and finally Bean climbed aboard a life raft where Jahncke used a disinfectant solution to decontaminate the astronauts and the spacecraft. The recovery helicopter lowered a Billy Pugh net to haul the astronauts up from the raft, first Gordon, then Bean, and finally Conrad. Aboard the helicopter, NASA flight surgeon Dr. Clarence A. Jernigan gave each astronaut a brief physical examination during the short flight back to Hornet, declaring all three healthy. After it landed on Hornet’s deck, sailors lowered the helicopter to the hangar deck, where Conrad, Gordon, and Bean, followed by Dr. Jernigan, walked the few steps to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) where NASA engineer Brock R. “Randy” Stone awaited them. He sealed the door of the MQF exactly one hour after splashdown. The five men spent the next five days together in the MQF until they arrived at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at MSC. The astronauts took congratulatory phone calls from President Richard M. Nixon, who field-promoted all three from U.S. Navy Commanders to Captains, and from NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine. After the astronauts talked briefly with their families, Commander-in-Chief of Pacific Naval Forces Admiral John S. McCain formally welcomed them back to Earth, followed by brief speeches by Rear Admiral Donald C. Davis, Commander of Recovery Forces, and Capt. Carl J. Seiberlich, Hornet’s skipper. Left: Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper in the water with U.S.S. Hornet approaching as a rescue helicopter circles. Middle: Recovery team members lift Yankee Clipper out of the water. Right: Sailors haul Yankee Clipper aboard the Hornet. Within an hour after the astronauts arrived on board Hornet, the recovery team hauled Yankee Clipper out of the water and towed it below to the hangar deck next to the MQF. As Hornet set sail for Pearl Harbor, arriving there four days later, workers attached a hermetically sealed plastic tunnel between the MQF and Yankee Clipper, allowing Stone to leave the MQF and open the hatch to the capsule without breaking the biological barrier. He retrieved the two rock boxes containing the lunar samples, the bags containing the Surveyor parts, film cassettes, and mission logs from the capsule. He brought them to the MQF where he sealed them in plastic bags and transferred them to the outside through a transfer lock that included a decontamination wash. Outside the MQF, NASA engineers placed these items into transport containers and loaded them aboard two separate aircraft. The first aircraft carrying one rock box and a second package containing film departed Hornet within nine hours of the recovery, flying to Pago Pago, American Samoa. From there the two containers were placed aboard a cargo aircraft and flown directly to Ellington Air Force Base (AFB) near MSC in Houston, arriving there late in the afternoon of Nov. 25. A second aircraft departed Hornet 14 hours after the first and included the second rock box, additional film as well as the astronaut medical samples. It flew to Pago Pago where workers transferred the containers to another cargo plane that flew them to Houston. Less than 48 hours after splashdown, scientists in the LRL were examining the lunar samples and processing the film. Left: Technicians carry the first box of Apollo 12 lunar samples from the cargo plane after its arrival at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. Middle: Technicians log in the first set of Apollo 12 lunar samples and film at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory’s (LRL) loading dock. Right: A technician weighs the first Apollo 12 Sample Return Container in the LRL. Left: Technicians place the first Apollo 12 Sample Return Container (SRC) inside a glovebox at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Middle: The first Apollo 12 SRC inside a glovebox. Right: Scientists get the first glimpse of the Moon rocks inside the first SRC. Left: Apollo 12 astronauts Richard F. Gordon, second from left, Alan L. Bean and Charles “Pete” Conrad prepare their mission report inside the MQF. Middle: Workers at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu offload the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) from Hornet with the Apollo 12 crew inside. Right: Workers at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston offload the MQF with the astronauts inside. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, Hornet sailed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with the astronauts inside the MQF to maintain the strict back-contamination protocols. They also celebrated Thanksgiving on Nov. 27. Dr. Jernigan conducted regular medical examinations of the astronauts, who showed no ill effects from their ten-day spaceflight or any signs of infection by any lunar microorganisms. The crew members availed themselves of one amenity aboard the MQF that was a novelty at the time – a microwave oven for meal preparation. On Nov. 28, Hornet arrived at Pearl Harbor. Workers lifted the MQF with the astronauts inside onto a flat-bed trailer. After a brief welcoming ceremony including traditional Hawaiian flower leis, ukulele music, and hula dancers, they drove the MQF to nearby Hickam AFB, where Air Force personnel loaded it onto a cargo aircraft. After an eight-hour flight, the aircraft arrived at Ellington on the morning of Nov. 29, where the MQF was offloaded in front of a waiting crowd of well-wishers including MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth and Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A. Armstrong. The astronauts’ wives and children were on hand to welcome them home to Houston. Workers placed the MQF on a flat-bed truck and drove it to the LRL. Less than two hours after landing in Houston the astronauts arrived inside the Crew Reception Area (CRA) where they spent the next 11 days. During their time in quarantine, they completed many of the postflight debriefs and examined the lunar rocks as well as the parts of Surveyor 3 such as its camera that they returned from the Ocean of Storms. Left: Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, welcomes the Apollo 12 astronauts home. Middle: The Apollo 12 astronauts’ wives Barbara Gordon, left, Jane Conrad, and Sue Bean and their children welcome their husbands home. Right: Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A. Armstrong greets the Apollo 12 crew upon their return to Ellington. Left: Workers drive the Apollo 12 astronauts inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) from Ellington Air Force Base to the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: The MQF approaches MSC. Right: The MQF docked the MSC’s Building 37, the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Left: Charles “Pete” Conrad examines some of the Moon rocks he and Alan L. Bean returned from the Moon. Middle: Conrad and Richard F. Gordon place the rocks samples back in the collection bags. Right: Conrad examines the camera from Surveyor 3 that he and Bean returned from the Moon. Left: The Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper arrives at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: Yankee Clipper temporarily parked outside the LRL before workers roll it inside. Right: In the LRL, Richard F. Gordon writes on Yankee Clipper that served as his home for 10 days. After the astronauts departed Hornet in Pearl Harbor, workers lifted Yankee Clipper from the carrier’s flight deck to the dock and drove it to Hickam AFB where technicians safed the vehicle by draining its toxic fuels. To preserve back-contamination protocols, Yankee Clipper’s hatch remained sealed. On Dec. 1, workers loaded Yankee Clipper onto a cargo aircraft at Hickam AFB. It arrived at Ellington AFB the next day and workers trucked it to the LRL, then towed it inside the spacecraft room of the CRA. The Apollo 12 astronauts signed their names on the capsule below the same words they held up during their inflight news conference – “Yankee Clipper Sailed with Intrepid to The Ocean of Storms, Moon, November 14, 1969.” Left: The Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton. Middle: A technician examines the Surveyor 3 camera returned by Apollo 12. Right: The Surveyor 3 camera on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton can view the Apollo 12 CM Yankee Clipper on display. Surveyor’s camera is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Apollo 13 Left: Apollo 13 astronaut James A. Lovell preparing to test his spacesuit in a vacuum chamber in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: Workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare the Apollo 13 Command and Service Module. Right: Lovell during the geology field trip to Kilbourne Hills, New Mexico. The next Moon landing mission, Apollo 13, planned to launch on March 12, 1970, and visit the Fra Mauro highlands region of the Moon. With the mission’s increased emphasis on science, geology training for the Apollo 13 prime crew of Commander James A. Lovell, CMP Thomas K. “Ken” Mattingly, and LMP Fred W. Haise, and their backups John W. Young, Jack L. Swigert, and Charles M. Duke, took on greater importance. Lovell, Haise, Young, and Duke, accompanied by several geologists, traveled to Kilbourne Hole, New Mexico, for a one-day geology field trip on Nov. 11. The area’s volcanic origins served as appropriate training for their planned landing site, then believed to be a result of volcanic activity. The astronauts practiced deploying their ALSEP set of instruments, including during suited tests in a vacuum chamber in MSC’s Space Environment Simulation Laboratory. At KSC, workers in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB) continued preparing both the CSM and the LM for Apollo 13 prior to stacking with the Saturn V rocket in December. Apollo 14 Left: The Apollo 14 Command and Service Modules arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for preflight processing. Middle: The Apollo 14 Lunar Module (LM) descent stage arrives at KSC. Right: The Apollo 14 LM ascent stage arrives at KSC. Spacecraft components for Apollo 14, then planned for launch around July 1970, arrived at KSC in November 1969. The CM and SM arrived on Nov. 19 and workers in the MSOB mated the two components five days later. The two stages of the LM arrived in the MSOB on Nov. 24. With special thanks to Robert B. Fish for his expertise on U.S.S. Hornet recovery operations. To be continued … News from around the world in November 1969: November 10 – Sesame Street premieres on PBS. November 12 – Five Americans and one New Zealander became the first women to visit the South Pole. November 15 – Wendy’s Hamburgers opens in Columbus, Ohio. November 20 – Brazilian soccer star Pelé scores his 1,000th goal. November 22 – Isolation of a single gene announced by scientists at Harvard University. Explore More 12 min read 40 Years Ago: STS-51A – “The Ace Repo Company” Article 6 days ago 1 min read Oral History with Jon A. McBride, 1943 – 2024 Article 7 days ago 9 min read 30 Years Ago: STS-66, the ATLAS-3 Mission to Study the Earth’s Atmosphere Article 1 week ago View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Aerostar Thunderhead balloon carries the STRATO payload into the sky to reach the stratosphere for flight testing. The balloon appears deflated because it will expand as it rises to higher altitudes where pressures are lower.Credit: Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting/Austin Buttlar NASA is participating in a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland fires. The rugged and often remote locations where wildland fires burn mean cell phone service is often limited, making communication between firefighters and command posts difficult. The flight testing of the Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology brought together experts from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, the U.S. Forest Service, high-altitude balloon company Aerostar, and Motorola to provide cell service from above. The effort was funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division Airborne Science Program and the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Flight Opportunities program. “This project leverages NASA expertise to address real problems,” said Don Sullivan, principal investigator for STRATO at NASA Ames. “We do a lot of experimental, forward-thinking work, but this is something that is operational and can make an immediate impact.” Flying High Above Wildland Fires Soaring above Earth at altitudes of 50,000 feet or more, Aerostar’s Thunderhead high-altitude balloon systems can stay in operation for several months and can be directed to “station keep,” staying within a radius of few miles. Because wildland fires often burn in remote, rugged areas, firefighting takes place in areas where cell service is not ideal. Providing cellular communication from above, from a vehicle that can move as the fire changes, would improve firefighter safety and firefighting efficiency. The STRATO project’s first test flight took place over the West Mountain Complex fires in Idaho in August and demonstrated significant opportunities to support future firefighting efforts. The balloon was fitted with a cellular LTE transmitter and visual and infrared cameras. To transmit between the balloon’s cell equipment and the wildland fire incident command post, the team used a SpaceX Starlink internet satellite device and Silvus broadband wireless system. When tested, the onboard instruments provided cell coverage for a 20-mile radius. By placing the transmitter on a gimbal, that cell service coverage could be adjusted as ground crews moved through the region. The onboard cameras gave fire managers and firefighters on the ground a bird’s-eye view of the fires as they spread and moved, opening the door to increased situational awareness and advanced tracking of firefighting crews. On the ground, teams use an app called Tactical Awareness Kit (TAK) to identify the locations of crew and equipment. Connecting the STRATO equipment to TAK provides real-time location information that can help crews pinpoint how the fire moves and where to direct resources while staying in constant communication. Soaring Into the Future The next steps for the STRATO team are to use the August flight test results to prepare for future fire seasons. The team plans to optimize balloon locations as a constellation to maximize coverage and anticipate airflow changes in the stratosphere where the balloons fly. By placing balloons in strategic locations along the airflow path, they can act as replacements to one another as they are carried by airflow streams. The team may also adapt the scientific equipment aboard the balloons to support other wildland fire initiatives at NASA. As the team prepares for further testing next year, the goal is to keep firefighters informed and in constant communication with each other and their command posts to improve the safety and efficiency of fighting wildland fires. “Firefighters work incredibly hard saving lives and property over long days of work,” said Sullivan. “I feel honored to be able to do what we can to make their jobs safer and better.” Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related TermsAmes Research CenterAirborne ScienceEarth Science DivisionFlight Opportunities Program Explore More 5 min read NASA’s EMIT Will Explore Diverse Science Questions on Extended Mission Article 17 mins ago 3 min read Entrevista con Instructor de OCEANOS Samuel Suleiman Article 1 day ago 4 min read Entrevista con Instructora de OCEANOS María Fernanda Barberena-Arias Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Ames Research Center Improving Firefighter Safety with STRATO Airborne Science at Ames Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article

5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s EMIT collected this hyperspectral image of the Amazon River in northern Brazil on June 30 as part of an effort to map global ecosystem biodiversity. The instrument was originally tasked with mapping minerals over deserts; its data is now being used in research on a diverse range of topics. NASA/JPL-Caltech The imaging spectrometer measures the colors of light reflected from Earth’s surface to study fields such as agriculture, hydrology, and climate science. Observing our planet from the International Space Station since July 2022, NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) mission is beginning its next act. At first the imaging spectrometer was solely aimed at mapping minerals over Earth’s desert regions to help determine the cooling and heating effects that dust can have on regional and global climate. The instrument soon added another skill: pinpointing greenhouse gas emission sources, including landfills and fossil fuel infrastructure. Following a mission extension this year, EMIT is now collecting data from regions beyond deserts, addressing topics as varied as agriculture, hydrology, and climate science. Imaging spectrometers like EMIT detect the light reflected from Earth, and they separate visible and infrared light into hundreds of wavelength bands — colors, essentially. Scientists use patterns of reflection and absorption at different wavelengths to determine the composition of what the instrument is observing. The approach echoes Isaac Newton’s prism experiments in 1672, in which the physicist discovered that visible light is composed of a rainbow of colors. Perched on the International Space Station, NASA’s EMIT can differentiate between types of vegetation to help researchers understand the distribution and traits of plant communities. The instrument collected this data over the mid-Atlantic U.S. on April 23.NASA/JPL-Caltech “Breakthroughs in optics, physics, and chemistry led to where we are today with this incredible instrument, providing data to help address pressing questions on our planet,” said Dana Chadwick, EMIT’s applications lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. New Science Projects In its extended mission, EMIT’s data will be the focus of 16 new projects under NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) program, which funds science investigations at universities, research institutions, and NASA. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service are exploring how EMIT can assess climate-smart agricultural practices. Those practices — winter cover crops and conservation tillage — involve protecting cropland during non-growing seasons with either living plants or dead plant matter to prevent erosion and manage nitrogen. Imaging spectrometers are capable of gathering data on the distribution and characteristics of plants and plant matter, based on the patterns of light they reflect. The information can help agricultural agencies incentivize farmers to use sustainable practices and potentially help farmers manage their fields. “We’re adding more accuracy and reducing error on the measurements we are supplying to end users,” said Jyoti Jennewein, an Agricultural Research Service research physical scientist based in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a project co-lead. The USGS-USDA project is also informing analytical approaches for NASA’s future Surface Biology and Geology-Visible Shortwave Infrared mission. The satellite will cover Earth’s land and coasts more frequently than EMIT, with finer spatial resolution. Looking at Snowmelt Another new project will test whether EMIT data can help refine estimates of snowpack melting rates. Such an improvement could inform water management in states like California, where meltwater makes up the majority of the agricultural water supply. Imaging spectrometers like EMIT measure the albedo of snow — the percentage of solar radiation it’s reflecting. What isn’t reflected is absorbed, so the observations indicate how much energy snow is taking in, which in turn helps with estimates of snow melt rates. The instruments also discern what’s affecting albedo: snow-grain size, dust or soot contamination, or both. For this work, EMIT’s ability to measure beyond visible light is key. Ice is “pretty absorptive at near-infrared and the shortwave infrared wavelengths,” said Jeff Dozier, a University of California, Santa Barbara professor emeritus and the project’s principal investigator. Other ROSES-funded projects focus on wildflower blooming, phytoplankton and carbon dynamics in inland waters, ecosystem biodiversity, and functional traits of forests. Dust Impacts Researchers with EMIT will continue to study the climate effects of dust. When lofted into the air by windstorms, darker, iron-filled dust absorbs the Sun’s heat and warms the surrounding air, while lighter-colored, clay-rich particles do the opposite. Scientists have been uncertain whether airborne dust has overall cooling or warming effects on the planet. Before EMIT, they could only assume the color of particles in a region. The EMIT mission is “giving us lab-quality results, everywhere we need to know,” said Natalie Mahowald, the mission’s deputy principal investigator and an Earth system scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Feeding the data into Earth system computer models, Mahowald expects to get closer to pinpointing dust’s climate impact as Earth warms. Greenhouse Gas Detection The mission will continue to identify point-source emissions of methane and carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gases most responsible for climate change, and observations are available through EMIT’s data portal and the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center. The EMIT team is also refining the software that identifies and measures greenhouse-gas plumes in the data, and they’re working to streamline the process with machine-learning automation. Aligning with NASA’s open science initiative, they are sharing code with public, private, and nonprofit organizations doing similar work. “Making this work publicly accessible has fundamentally pushed the science of measuring point-source emissions forward and expanded the use of EMIT data,” said Andrew Thorpe, the JPL research technologist heading the EMIT greenhouse gas effort. More About EMIT The EMIT instrument was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. Launched to the International Space Station in July 2022, EMIT is on an extended three-year mission in which it’s supporting a range of research projects. EMIT’s data products are available at the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center for use by other researchers and the public. To learn more about the mission, visit: https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/ How the new NISAR satellite will track Earth’s changing surface A planet-rumbling Greenland tsunami seen from above News Media Contacts Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307 andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-159 Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related TermsEMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation)EarthEarth ScienceEarth Science DivisionJet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More 4 min read NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate Article 12 mins ago 9 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Fall 2024 On September 18, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared the first images… Article 35 mins ago 3 min read Summary of Aura 20th Anniversary Event Snippets from The Earth Observer’s Editor’s Corner The last of NASA’s three EOS Flagships –… Article 37 mins ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 9 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Fall 2024 On September 18, 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared the first images of the Western Hemisphere from the GOES-19 satellite, its newest geostationary satellite launched on June 25, 2024 onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Previously known as GOES-U, the satellite was renamed GOES-19 upon reaching geostationary orbit on July 7, 2024. GOES-19 orbits about 35,785 km above the equator at the same speed the Earth rotates, allowing the satellite to constantly view the same area of the planet and track weather conditions and hazards as they happen. The satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument recently captured stunning views of Earth in 16 spectral channels. This data provides researchers information about Earth’s atmosphere, land, and ocean for short-term forecasts and tracking severe weather – see Figure. ABI data is also used for detecting and monitoring environmental hazards, such as wildfires, smoke, dust storms, volcanic eruptions, turbulence, and fog. Data from multiple ABI channels can be combined to create imagery that approximates what the human eye would see from space referred to as GeoColor (see Figure). Figure. [Left] The GOES-19 images show the contiguous U.S. observed by each of the Advanced Baseline Imager’s (ABI) 16 channels on August 30, 2024, at 6:00 PM UTC. This 16-panel image [progressing left to right, across each row] shows the ABI’s two visible (gray scale), four near-infrared (IR) (gray scale), and 10 infrared channels (warmer brightness temperatures of the IR bands map to warmer colors). Each band’s appearance illustrates how it reflects or absorbs radiation. [Right] The GOES-19 full disk GeoColor image combines data from multiple ABI channels to approximate what the human eye would see from space. Figure Credit: NOAA GOES-19 is the final satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R series and serves as a bridge to a new age of advanced satellite technology. NOAA and NASA are currently developing NOAA’s next generation geostationary satellites, called Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO), to advance operational geostationary Earth observations. NASA Earth sciences celebrated several satellite milestone anniversaries in 2024. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory (CO) celebrated its 10th anniversary in February while Aura and Orbiting Carbon Observatory–2 (OCO–2) celebrated their 20th and 10th anniversaries, respectively, in July. Here, we focus on GPM and Aura. The GPM CO launched on February 27, 2024, aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, as a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). To celebrate its 10th anniversary, GPM has been hosting special outreach activities. One example is the GPM 10-in-10 webinar series that began on February 8, 2024. This series of 10 public webinars explores GPM and the story behind the mission, which is aimed at anyone interested in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the synergy of these disciplines to better understand and protect our home planet. Now over 10 years into the mission, GPM continues to provide important data on precipitation around the globe leading to new scientific discoveries and contributing data to help society, from monitoring storms to supporting weather forecasts and aiding water-borne disease public health alerts. As an example, GPM made several passes of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall near Siesta Key, FL on October 9, 2024 as a Category 3 storm. As a complement to GPM CO observations, a multi-satellite sensor IMERG animation shows rainfall rates and accumulation over the course of Milton’s history. To read more about how GPM continues to observe important precipitation characteristics and gain physical insights into precipitation processes, please see the article “GPM Celebrates Ten Years of Observing Precipitation for Science and Society” in The Earth Observer. The last of NASA’s three EOS Flagships – Aura – marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, 2024, with a celebration on September 18, 2024, at Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Recreational Center. The 120 attendees – including about 40 participating virtually – reminisced about Aura’s (originally named EOS-CHEM) tumultuous beginning, from the instrument and Principal Investigator (PI) selections up until the delayed launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) in California. They remembered how Bill Townsend, who was Deputy Director of GSFC at the time, and Ghassem Asrar, who was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Earth Science, spent many hours on site negotiating with the Vandenberg and Boeing launch teams in preparation for launch (after several delays and aborts). Photo 1 shows the Aura mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg shortly before launch. Photo 1. The Aura (formerly EOS CHEM) mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several of instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) shortly before launch on July 15, 2004. The individuals pictured [left to right] are Reinhold Beer [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) PI]; John Gille [University of Colorado, Boulder/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)—High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) PI]; Pieternel Levelt [Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute—Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) PI]; Ernest Hilsenrath [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Aura Deputy Scientist and U.S. OMI Co-PI]; Anne Douglass [GSFC—Aura Deputy PS]; Mark Schoeberl [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist];Joe Waters [NASA/JPL—Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) PI]; P.K. Bhartia [GSFC—OMI Science Team Leader and former Aura Project Scientist]; and Phil DeCola [NASA Headquarters—Aura Program Scientist]. NOTE: Affiliations/titles listed for individuals named were those at the time of launch. Photo Credit: Ernest Hilsenrath At the anniversary event, Bryan Duncan [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist] gave formal opening remarks. Aura’s datasets have given a generation of scientists the most comprehensive global view of gases in Earth’s atmosphere to better understand the chemical and dynamic processes that shape their concentrations. Aura’s objective was to gather data to monitor Earth’s ozone layer, examine trends in global air pollutants, and measure the concentration of atmospheric constituents contributing to climate forcing. To read more about Aura’s incredible 20 years of accomplished air quality and climate science, see the anniversary article “Aura at 20 Years” in The Earth Observer. To read more about the anniversary event, see Summary of Aura 20th Anniversary Event. It has been over a year and a half since the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission began collecting data on the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface, including oceans, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. During that time, data collected by the satellite has started to improve our understanding of energy in the ocean, yielding insights on surface currents and waves, internal tides, the vertical mixing of seawater, as well as atmosphere–ocean interactions. Notably, SWOT has been measuring the amplitude of solitary internal waves in the ocean. These waves reflect the dynamics of internal tides (tides that occur deep in the ocean rather than at the surface) that can influence biological productivity as well as ocean energy exchanges through their contribution to mixing and general oceanic circulation. SWOT measurements are also being used to study inland and coastal flooding to inform water management strategies. Earlier this year, researchers used SWOT data to measure the total volume of water during major floods in southern Brazil in April to improve understanding of these events and prepare for the future. In addition, the Water Ministry of Bangladesh is working to incorporate SWOT water elevation maps, along with other near-real time satellite data, into their flood forecasts. Researchers at Alexandria University, Egypt are using SWOT data in the Nile River Basin to improve dam operations. A detailed account of SWOT Significant Events since launch is available online. To learn more about project status and explore the many facets of operational and applied uses of SWOT data, please see The Earth Observer article, “Summary of the 10th SWOT Applications Workshop.” In September 2024, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem–Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE–PAX) gathered data for the validation of the PACE mission, which launched in February 2024. The operations spanned Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions, logging 81 flight hours for the NASA ER-2, which operated out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in Edwards, CA, and 60 hours for Twin Otter aircraft, which was operated by the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) at the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) out of Marina Municipal Airport in Marina, CA – see Photo 2. Photo 2. The Twin Otter aircraft operated out of the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) during the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem–Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE–PAX) campaign. The image shows the Twin Otter aircraft missing the approach at Marina Airport to check instrument performance on the aircraft against identical instrumentation on an airport control tower. Photo credit: ???TBD ??? Congratulations to PACE-PAX leads Kirk Knobelspiesse [GSFC], Brian Cairns [NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)], and Ivona Cetinić [GSFC/Morgan State University] for successfully executing and planning this campaign. PACE–PAX data will be available in March 2025 via NASA’s Langley Research Center Suborbital Science Data for Atmospheric Composition website and NASA’s SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS). Photo 3. Clockwise from top left: Mike Ondrusek (NOAA), mission scientist of the R/V Shearwater, waves to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Twin Otter as it samples at low altitude. Bridge fire in San Gabriel mountains, September 10, 2024. Photo by NASA ER-2 pilot Kirt Stallings. Carl Goodwin (JPL) performs calibration reference measurements at Ivanpah Playa, California. Scott Freeman (GSFC) and Harrison Smith (GSFC) deploy instrumentation from the R/V Shearwater in the Santa Barbara Channel. Instrument integration on the NASA ER-2 in preparation for PACE-PAX. San Francisco observed by the NPS Twin Otter as it samples at low altitude over the San Francisco Bay. The R/V Shearwater seen from the NPS Twin Otter. Photo credit: ???TBD ??? Shifting venues, NASA’s BlueFlux Campaign conducted a series of ground-based and airborne fieldwork missions out of the Miami Homestead Air Reserve Base and the Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, which are adjacent to the eastern border of the Everglades National Park. The full study region – broadly referred to as South Florida – is narrowly defined by the wetland ecosystems that extend from Lake Okeechobee and its Northern estuaries to the saltwater marshland and mangrove forests along the state’s southernmost shore. Glenn Wolfe [GSFC] and Erin Delaria [GSFC/UMD] organized more than 34 flights across 5 separate fieldwork deployments during the campaign. The data during BlueFlux are intended to contribute to a more robust understanding of how Florida’s coastal ecology fits into the carbon cycle. The article, “NASA’s BlueFlux Campaign Supports Blue Carbon Management in South Florida,” provides additional information about this program, which was made possible by David Lagomasino [East Carolina University], Cheryl Doughty [GSFC/UMD], Lola Fatoyinbo [GSFC], and Peter Raymond [Yale University]. To learn more about PACE-PAX and BlueFlux, see: Updates on NASA Field Campaigns. Notable recent Science Support Office (SSO) outreach activities include the 2024 Eclipse outreach and engagement efforts on April 7, 2024, in Kerrville, TX and Cleveland, OH. The two locations are among a dozen that NASA set up along path of totality. To read about the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse through the eyes of NASA outreach and engagement activities, please see The Earth Observer feature article, “Looking Back on Looking Up: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.” The SSO also supported the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future event and the 79th General Assembly High Level week, September 19–27, 2024 at UN Headquarters (HQ) in New York City, NY. SSO supported the NASA Sea Level Change Team (N-SLCT) during the High-level Meeting on Sea-Level Rise by having Hyperwall content available for the release of the new Pacific Flooding Analysis Tool. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson visited the Hyperwall on September 23 with Aarti Holla-Maini [UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)—Director]. Karen St. Germain [NASA HQ—Director of the Earth Science Division], Julie Robinson [NASA HQ—Deputy Director of the Earth Science Division], Kate Calvin [NASA HQ—NASA Chief Scientist], Lesley Ott [GSFC— Climate Scientist], and Anjali Tripathi [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Astrophysicist] talked with delegates and members about NASA Science and accessed NASA global datasets. Photos from the event are available at the SSO Flickr Page. Looking ahead, the SSO is once again leading the planning and logistics for the NASA exhibit at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, which will be held December 9–13, 2024 in Washington, DC. Nearly 40 NASA projects and missions will have hands-on activities within the perimeter of the NASA Science exhibit, from the James Webb Space Telescope to the Airborne Science Fleet. The NASA Hyperwall, a video wall used for visual-forward science storytelling, will host approximately 50 Hyperwall stories and presentations throughout the meeting, including presentations delivered by the 2024 winners of the NASA-funded AGU Michael H. Freilich Student Visualization Competition. The exhibit will also feature roughly 40 tech demonstrations throughout the week, covering a wide range of hands-on introductions to everything from the capabilities of the OpenSpace data visualization software to the scientific applications of augmented reality. Please be sure to stop by the NASA exhibit when you are at AGU. Steve Platnick EOS Senior Project Scientist Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science View the full article

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 3 min read Summary of Aura 20th Anniversary Event Snippets from The Earth Observer’s Editor’s Corner The last of NASA’s three EOS Flagships – Aura – marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, 2024, with a celebration on September 18, 2024, at the Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Recreational Center. The 120 attendees – including about 40 virtually – reminisced about Aura’s (originally named EOS-CHEM) tumultuous beginning, from the instrument and Principal Investigator (PI) selections up until the delayed launch at the Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Vandenberg Air Force Base) in California. They remembered how Bill Townsend, who was Deputy Director of GSFC at the time, and Ghassem Asrar, who was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Earth Science, spent many hours on site negotiating with the Vandenberg and Boeing launch teams in preparation for launch (after several delays and aborts). The Photo shows the Aura mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several instrument principal investigators (PI) shortly before launch. Photo 1. The Aura (formerly EOS CHEM) mission program scientist, project scientists (PS), and several of instrument principal investigators (PI) at Vandenberg Space Force Base (then Air Force Base) shortly before launch on July 15, 2004. The individuals pictured [left to right] are Reinhold Beer [NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) PI]; John Gille [University of Colorado, Boulder/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)—High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) PI]; Pieternel Levelt [Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute—Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) PI]; Ernest Hilsenrath [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)—Aura Deputy Scientist and U.S. OMI Co-PI];Anne Douglass [GSFC—Aura Deputy PS]; Mark Schoeberl [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist]; Joe Waters [NASA/JPL—Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) PI]; P.K. Bhartia [GSFC—OMI Science Team Leader and former Aura Project Scientist]; and Phil DeCola [NASA Headquarters—Aura Program Scientist]. NOTE: Affiliations/titles listed for individuals named were those at the time of launch. Photo Credit: Ernest Hilsenrath At the anniversary event, Bryan Duncan [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist] gave formal opening remarks. Aura’s datasets have given a generation of scientists the most comprehensive global view of gases in Earth’s atmosphere to better understand the chemical and dynamic processes that shape their concentrations. Aura’s objective was to gather data to monitor Earth’s ozone layer, examine trends in global air pollutants, and measure the concentration of atmospheric constituents contributing to climate forcing. To read more about Aura’s incredible 20 years of accomplished air quality and climate science, see the anniversary article “Aura at 20 Years” in The Earth Observer. Bill Guit [GSFC—Aqua and Aura Program Manager and former Aura Mission Operations Lead] gave brief remarks focusing on how Aura became part of the international Afternoon Constellation, or “A-Train,” of satellites, including Aqua, which launched in 2002, and joined by several other NASA and international missions. Aura and Aqua have provided data for over two decades of multidisciplinary Earth science discovery and enhancement. Both current and former Aura instrument PIs gave brief remarks. Each discussed Aura’s scientific legacy and their instrument’s contributions. They thanked their engineering teams for the successful development and operation of their instruments, and the members of the instrument science teams for developing the algorithms, discovering new science, and demonstrating how the science will serve the public. The PIs were particularly grateful that their instruments or the variants thereof will continue to fly on current and/or future NASA science missions or on international operational satellites. Steve Platnick EOS Senior Project Scientist Share Details Last Updated Nov 14, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science View the full article