Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Secret underground alien base hold the answers to the vanishing of 20,000 people in the Alaska Triangle?
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on a ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, during sunset. The one-of-a-kind aircraft is powered by a General Electric F414 engine, a variant of the engines used on F/A-18 fighter jets. The engine is mounted above the fuselage to reduce the number of shockwaves that reach the ground. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight and enable future commercial travel over land – faster than the speed of sound.Lockheed Martin Corporation/Garry Tice The team behind NASA’s X-59 completed another critical ground test in March, ensuring the quiet supersonic aircraft will be able to maintain a specific speed during operation. The test, known as engine speed hold, is the latest marker of progress as the X-59 nears first flight this year.
“Engine speed hold is essentially the aircraft’s version of cruise control,” said Paul Dees, NASA’s X-59 deputy propulsion lead at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “The pilot engages speed hold at their current speed, then can adjust it incrementally up or down as needed.”
The X-59 team had previously conducted a similar test on the engine – but only as an isolated system. The March test verified the speed hold functions properly after integration into the aircraft’s avionics.
“We needed to verify that speed hold worked not just within the engine itself but as part of the entire aircraft system.” Dees explained. “This test confirmed that all components – software, mechanical linkages, and control laws – work together as intended.”
The successful test confirmed the aircraft’s ability to precisely control speed, which will be invaluable during flight. This capability will increase pilot safety, allowing them to focus on other critical aspects of flight operation.
“The pilot is going to be very busy during first flight, ensuring the aircraft is stable and controllable,” Dees said. “Having speed hold offload some of that workload makes first flight that much safer.”
The team originally planned to check the speed hold as part of an upcoming series of ground test trials where they will feed the aircraft with a robust set of data to verify functionality under both normal and failure conditions, known as aluminum bird tests. But the team recognized a chance to test sooner.
“It was a target of opportunity,” Dees said. “We realized we were ready to test engine speed hold separately while other systems continued with finalizing their software. If we can learn something earlier, that’s always better.”
With every successful test, the integrated NASA and Lockheed Martin team brings the X-59 closer to first flight, and closer to making aviation history through quiet supersonic technology.
Share
Details
Last Updated Mar 26, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.gov Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Armstrong Flight Research Center Commercial Supersonic Technology Langley Research Center Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Supersonic Flight Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Armstrong Flight Research Center
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
4 min read
NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth’s far upper atmosphere.
The experiment’s outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora’s interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the world becomes increasingly reliant on satellite-based devices such as GPS units in everyday life.
Colorful ribbons of aurora sway with geomagnetic activity above the launch pads of Poker Flat Research Range. NASA/Rachel Lense The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute owns Poker Flat, located 20 miles north of Fairbanks, and operates it under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which is part of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The experiment, titled Auroral Waves Excited by Substorm Onset Magnetic Events, or AWESOME, features one four-stage rocket and two two-stage rockets all launching in an approximately three-hour period.
Colorful vapor tracers from the largest of the three rockets should be visible across much of northern Alaska. The launch window is March 24 through April 6.
The mission, led by Mark Conde, a space physics professor at UAF, involves about a dozen UAF graduate student researchers at several ground monitoring sites in Alaska at Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, Toolik Lake, Eagle, and Venetie, as well as Poker Flat. NASA delivers, assembles, tests, and launches the rockets.
“Our experiment asks the question, when the aurora goes berserk and dumps a bunch of heat in the atmosphere, how much of that heat is spent transporting the air upward in a continuous convective plume and how much of that heat results in not only vertical but also horizontal oscillations in the atmosphere?” Conde said.
Confirming which process is dominant will reveal the breadth of the mixing and the related changes in the thin air’s characteristics.
“Change in composition of the atmosphere has consequences,” Conde said. “And we need to know the extent of those consequences.”
Most of the thermosphere, which reaches from about 50 to 350 miles above the surface, is what scientists call “convectively stable.” That means minimal vertical motion of air, because the warmer air is already at the top, due to absorption of solar radiation.
A technician with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility sounding rocket office works on one of the payload sections of the rocket that will launch for the AWESOME campaign. NASA/Lee Wingfield When auroral substorms inject energy and momentum into the middle and lower thermosphere (roughly 60 to 125 miles up), it upsets that stability. That leads to one prevailing theory — that the substorms’ heat is what causes the vertical-motion churn of the thermosphere.
Conde believes instead that acoustic-buoyancy waves are the dominant mixing force and that vertical convection has a much lesser role. Because acoustic-buoyancy waves travel vertically and horizontally from where the aurora hits, the aurora-caused atmospheric changes could be occurring over a much broader area than currently believed.
Better prediction of impacts from those changes is the AWESOME mission’s practical goal.
“I believe our experiment will lead to a simpler and more accurate method of space weather prediction,” Conde said.
Two two-stage, 42-foot Terrier-Improved Malemute rockets are planned to respectively launch about 15 minutes and an hour after an auroral substorm begins. A four-stage, 70-foot Black Brant XII rocket is planned to launch about five minutes after the second rocket.
The first two rockets will release tracers at altitudes of 50 and 110 miles to detect wind movement and wave oscillations. The third rocket will release tracers at five altitudes from 68 to 155 miles.
Pink, blue, and white vapor traces should be visible from the third rocket for 10 to 20 minutes. Launches must occur in the dawn hours, with sunlight hitting the upper altitudes to activate the vapor tracers from the first rocket but darkness at the surface so ground cameras can photograph the tracers’ response to air movement.
By Rod Boyce
University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute
NASA Media Contact: Sarah Frazier
Share
Details
Last Updated Mar 21, 2025 Related Terms
Sounding Rockets Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Heliophysics Division Heliophysics Research Program Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Sounding Rockets Program Uncategorized Wallops Flight Facility Explore More
2 min read Hubble Captures a Neighbor’s Colorful Clouds
Article
7 hours ago
11 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: January–March 2025
Article
24 hours ago
5 min read Celebrating 25 Years of Terra
Article
24 hours ago
Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By USH
In the depths of the ocean, where countless strange fish and creatures dwell in perpetual darkness, they remain unseen, unless unexpectedly caught. This was the case during an expedition by a Russian deep-sea fisherman, who was stunned when he reeled in a bizarre creature that strikingly resembled an alien’s head.
The eerie catch was made by Roman Fedortsov during an expedition in the northern Pacific Ocean.
The fisherman shared the video of the strange creature with his followers, with viewers comparing the bulbous fish to an extraterrestrial or even Krang, the villain from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Fisherman Fedortsov has previously made headlines thanks to other weird and wonderful catches which you can view at Dailymail.
Despite its eerie appearance, the fish was not an alien or a mutant but rather a species known as the smooth lumpsucker, a deep-sea fish recognized for its distinctive, gelatinous look.
View the full article
-
By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A team from University High School of Irvine, California, won the 2025 regional Science Bowl at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 1. From left, co-coach Nick Brighton, sophomores Shloke Kamat and Timothy Chen, juniors Feodor Yevtushenko and Angelina Yan, senior Sara Yu, and coach David Knight.NASA/JPL-Caltech In a fast-paced competition, students showcased their knowledge across a wide range of science and math topics.
What is the molecular geometry of sulfur tetrafluoride? Which layer of the Sun is thickest? What is the average of the first 10 prime numbers? If you answered “see-saw,” “radiation zone,” and “12.9,” respectively, then you know a tiny fraction of what high school students must learn to compete successfully in the National Science Bowl.
On Saturday, March 1, students from University High School in Irvine answered enough of these kind of challenging questions correctly to earn the points to defeat 19 other high school teams, winning a regional Science Bowl competition hosted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Troy High, from Fullerton, won second place, while Arcadia High placed third.
Some 100 students gathered at JPL for the fast-paced event, which drew schools from across Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties. Teams are composed of four students and one alternate, with a teacher serving as coach. Two teams at a time face off in a round robin tournament, followed by tie-breaker and double-elimination rounds, then final matches.
Students, coaches, and volunteers gathered on March 1 for the annual regional Science Bowl competition held at JPL, which has hosted the event since 1993.NASA/JPL-Caltech The questions — in biology, chemistry, Earth and space science, energy, mathematics, and physics — are at a college first-year level. Students spend months preparing, studying, quizzing each other, and practicing with “Jeopardy!”-style buzzers.
It was the third year in a row for a University victory at the JPL-hosted event, and the championship round with Troy was a nail-biter until the very last question. The University team only had one returning student from the previous year’s team, junior Feodor Yevtushenko. Both he and longtime team coach and science teacher David Knight said the key to success is specialization — with each student focusing on particular topic areas.
“I wake up and grind math before school,” Feodor said. “Being a jack-of-all-trades means you’re a jack-of-no-trades. You need ruthless precision and ruthless speed.”
University also won for four years in row from 2018 to 2021. The school’s victory this year enables its team to travel to Washington in late April and vie for ultimate dominance alongside other regional event winners in the national finals.
More than 10,000 students compete in some 115 regional events held across the country. Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Bowl was created in 1991 to make math and science fun for students, and to encourage them to pursue careers in those fields. It’s one of the largest academic competitions in the United States.
JPL’s Public Services Office coordinates the regional contest with the help of volunteers from laboratory staff and former Science Bowl participants in the local community. This year marked JPL’s 33rd hosting the event.
News Media Contact
Melissa Pamer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-030
Share
Details
Last Updated Mar 03, 2025 Related Terms
Jet Propulsion Laboratory STEM Engagement at NASA Explore More
3 min read NASA Uses New Technology to Understand California Wildfires
Article 3 days ago 6 min read NASA’s Europa Clipper Uses Mars to Go the Distance
Article 6 days ago 6 min read How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Will Make a Looping Voyage to the Moon
Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.