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NASA Invites Media to Upcoming SpaceX Resupply Launch to Space Station
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By NASA
The NESC Mechanical Systems TDT provides broad support across NASA’s mission directorates. We are a diverse group representing a variety of sub-disciplines including bearings, gears, metrology, lubrication and tribology, mechanism design, analysis and testing, fastening systems, valve engineering, actuator engineering, pyrotechnics, mechatronics, and motor controls. In addition to providing technical support, the
TDT owns and maintains NASA-STD-5017, “Design and Development Requirements for Space Mechanisms.”
Mentoring the Next Generation
The NESC Mechanical Systems TDT actively participates in the Structures, Loads & Dynamics, Materials, and Mechanical Systems (SLAMS) Early Career Forum that mentors early-career engineers. The TDT sent three members to this year’s forum at WSTF, where early-career engineers networked with peers and NESC mentors, gave presentations on tasks they worked on at their home centers, and attended splinter sessions where they collaborated with mentors.
New NASA Valve Standard to Reduce Risk and Improve Design and Reliability
Valve issues have been encountered across NASA’s programs and continue to compromise mission performance and increase risk, in many cases because the valve hardware was not qualified in the environment as specified in NASA-STD-5017. To help address these issues, the Mechanical Systems TDT is developing a NASA standard for valves. The TDT assembled a team of subject matter experts from across the Agency representing several disciplines including mechanisms, propulsion, environmental control and life support systems, spacesuits, active thermal control systems, and materials and processes. The team has started their effort by reviewing lessons learned and best practices for valve design and hope to have a draft standard ready by the end of 2025.
Bearing Life Testing for Reaction Wheel Assemblies
The Mechanical Systems TDT just concluded a multiyear bearing life test on 40 motors, each containing a pair of all steel bearings of two different conformities or a pair of hybrid bearings containing silicon nitride balls. The testing confirmed that hybrid bearings outperformed their steel counterparts, and bearings with higher conformity (54%) outperformed bearings with lower conformity (52%). The team is disassembling and inspecting the bearings, and initial results have been surprising. The TDT was able to “recover” some of the bearings that failed during the life test and get them running as well as they did when testing began. Some bearings survived over five billion revolutions and appeared like new when they were disassembled and inspected. These results will be published once analysis is complete.
X-57 Design Assessment
The Mechanical Systems TDT was asked by the Aeronautics Mission Directorate to assess the design of the electric cruise motors installed on X-57. The team responded quickly to meet the Project’s schedule, making an onsite visit and attending numerous technical interchange meetings. After careful review of the design, the TDT identified areas for higher-level consideration and risk assessment and attended follow-on reviews to provide additional comments and advice.
CLARREO Pathfinder Inner Radial Bearing Anomaly
The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder was designed to take highly accurate measurements of reflected solar radiation to better-understand Earth’s climate. During payload functional testing, engineers detected a noise as the HySICS pointing system was rotated from its normal storage orientation. Mechanical Systems TDT members reviewed the design and inspection reports after disassembly of the inner bearing unit, noticing contact marks on the bore of the inner ring and the shaft that confirmed that the inner ring of the bearing was moving on the shaft with respect to the outer ring. Lubricant applied to this interface resolved the noise problem and allowed the project to maintain schedule without any additional costs.
JPL Wheel Drive Actuator Extended Life Test Independent Review Team
A consequence of changes to its mission on Mars will require the Perseverance Rover to travel farther than originally planned. Designed to drive 20 km, the rover will now need to drive ~91 km to rendezvous and support Mars sample tube transfer to the Sample Retrieval Lander. The wheel drive actuators with integral brakes had only been life tested to 40 km, so a review was scheduled to discuss an extended life test. The OCE Science Mission Directorate Chief Engineer assembled an independent review team (IRT) that included NESC Mechanical Systems TDT members. This IRT issued findings and guidance that questioned details of the JPL assumptions and plan. Several important recommendations were made that improved the life test plan and led to the identification of brake software issues that were reducing brake life. The life test has achieved 40 km of its 137 km goal and is ongoing. In addition, software updates were sent to the rover to improve brake life.
Orion Crew Module Hydrazine Valve
When an Orion crew module hydrazine valve failed to close, the production team asked the Mechanical Systems TDT for help. A TDT member attended two meetings and then visited the valve manufacturer, where it was determined this valve was a scaled-down version of the 12-inch SLS prevalve that was the subject of a previous NESC assessment and shared similar issues. The Orion Program requested NESC materials and mechanical systems support. The Mechanical Systems TDT member then worked closely with a Lockheed Martin (LM) Fellow for Mechanisms to review all the valve vendor’s detailed drawings and assembly procedures and document any issues. A follow-on meeting was held to brief both the LM and NASA Technical Fellows for Propulsion that a redesign and requalification was recommended. These recommendations have now been elevated to the LM Vice President for Mission Success and the LM Chief Engineer for Orion.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover selfie taken in July 2024.
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By NASA
ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pictured aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 20, 2014, during Expedition 42.Credit: NASA Crew members aboard the International Space Station celebrate the holiday season in a unique way while living and working at the orbiting laboratory. Each crew member, including the current Expedition 72, spends time enjoying the view of Earth from the space station, privately communicating with their friends and families, and sharing a joint meal with their expedition crewmates, while continuing experiments and station maintenance.
This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts William Ander, Frank Borman, and James Lovell on Dec. 24, 1968, as they approached from behind the Moon after the fourth nearside lunar orbit.Credit: NASA As the first crew to spend Christmas in space and leave Earth orbit, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, celebrated while circling the Moon in December 1968. The crew commemorated Christmas Eve by reading opening verses from the Bible’s Book of Genesis as they broadcast scenes of the lunar surface below. An estimated one billion people across 64 countries tuned in to the crew’s broadcast.
Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue trim their homemade Christmas tree in December 1973. Credit: NASA In 1973, Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in space, as the first crew to spend the harvest festival and ring in the new year while in orbit. The crew built a homemade tree from leftover food containers, used colored decals as decorations, and topped it with a cardboard cutout in the shape of a comet. Carr and Pogue conducted a seven-hour spacewalk to change out film canisters and observe the passing Comet Kohoutek on Dec. 15, 1973. Once back inside the space station, the crew enjoyed a holiday dinner complete with fruitcake, communicated with their families, and opened presents.
NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman pictured with a dreidel during Hanukkah in December 1993.Credit: NASA After NASA launched the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit in 1990, NASA sent a space shuttle crew on a mission, STS-61, to service the telescope. In 1993, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman celebrated Hanukkah after completing the third spacewalk of the servicing mission. Hoffman celebrated with a traveling menorah and dreidel.
STS103-340-036 (19-27 December 1999) — Wearing Santa hats, astronauts John M. Grunsfeld and Steven L. Smith blend with the season for a brief celebration on the mid deck of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The interruption was very brief as the two mission specialists shortly went about completing their suit-up process in order to participate in STS-103 space walk activity, performing needed work on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).Credit: NASA As NASA continued to support another Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, the STS-103 crew celebrated the first space shuttle Christmas aboard Discovery in 1999. NASA astronauts Curtis Brown, Scott Kelly, Steven Smith, John Grunsfeld, and Michael Foale, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronauts Jean-François Clervoy and Claude Nicollier enjoyed duck foie gras on Mexican tortillas, cassoulet, and salted pork with lentils. Smith and Grunsfeld completed repairs on the telescope during a spacewalk on Dec. 24, 1999, and at least one American astronaut has celebrated Christmas in space every year since.
Expedition 1 crew members Yuri Gidzenko of Roscosmos, left, NASA astronaut William Shepherd, and Sergei Krikalev of Roscosmos reading a Christmas message in December 2000.
Credit: NASA In November 2000, the arrival of Expedition 1 crew members, NASA astronaut William Shepherd and Roscosmos cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, aboard the International Space Station, marked the beginning of a continuous presence in space. As the first crew to celebrate the holiday season at the laboratorial outpost, they began the tradition of reading a goodwill message to those back on Earth. Shepherd honored a naval tradition of writing a poem as the first entry of the new year in the ship’s log.
For more than 24 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the International Space Station, through which astronauts have learned to live and work in space for extended periods of time. As NASA supports missions to and from the station, crew members have continued to celebrate the holidays in space.
Expedition 4 crew members, NASA astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Onufriyenko, pose for a Christmas photo in December 2001. Credit: NASA Expedition 8 crew members, NASA astronaut Michael Foale, left, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, right, celebrate Christmas in December 2003. Credit: NASA Expedition 10 crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, left, and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, right, celebrate New Year’s Eve in December 2004.Credit: NASA Expedition 12 crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Tokarev, left, and NASA astronaut William McArthur, pose with Christmas stockings in December 2005. NASA Expedition 14 crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, left, and NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Suni Williams pose wearing Santa hats in December 2006.Credit: NASA Expedition 16 crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, left, and NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Daniel Tani, with Christmas stockings and presents in December 2007. Expedition 18 crew members enjoy Christmas dinner in December 2008. Expedition 22 crew members gather around the dinner table in December 2009.Credit: NASA Expedition 26 crew members celebrates New Year’s Eve in December 2010.Credit: NASA Expedition 30 crew members pictured in December 2011.Credit: NASA Expedition 34 crew members pictured in December 2012. Credit: NASA Expedition 42 crew members leave milk and cookies for Santa and hang stockings using the airlock as a makeshift chimney in December 2013.Credit: NASA Expedition 50 crew members celebrate New Year’s Eve in December. Credit: NASA Expedition 54 crew member NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei pictured as an elf for Christmas in December 2017.Credit: NASA Expedition 58 crew members inspect stockings for presents in December 2018 Expedition 61 crew member NASA astronaut Jessica Meir pictured with Hanukkah-themed socks in the cupola in December 2019. Expedition 61 crew members NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan, Christina Koch, and Jessica Meir, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano share a holiday message on Dec. 23, 2019, from the International Space Station.Credit: NASA NASA astronaut Kayla Barron pictured with presents she wrapped for her crewmates in December 2021.Credit: NASA Expedition 68 crew members wear holiday outfits in December 2022.Credit: NASA Expedition 70 flight engineer NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli’s husband and daughters made a felt menorah for her to celebrate Hanukkah during her mission. Since astronauts can’t light real candles aboard the space station, Moghbeli pinned felt “lights” for each night of the eight-day holiday. A dreidel spun in weightlessness will continue spinning until it comes in contact with another object but can’t land on any of its four faces. Expedition 70 crew members recorded a holiday message for those back on Earth.
Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli’s felt menorah and dreidel that she used to celebrate Hanukkah in December 2023. Credit: NASA NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Suni Williams, Expedition 72 flight engineer and commander respectively, pose for a fun holiday season portrait while speaking on a ham radio inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module. Credit: NASA To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Expedition 72 video holiday message from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology, and human innovation that enables research not possible on Earth. The orbiting laboratory is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and, ultimately, human exploration of Mars.
Go here for more holiday memories onboard the space station. To learn more about the International Space Station, its research, and its crew, at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
News Media Contacts:
Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A crane lowers the steel reflector framework for Deep Space Station 23 into position Dec. 18 on a 65-foot-high (20-meter) platform above the antenna’s pedestal that will steer the reflector. Panels will be affixed to the structure create a curved surface to collect radio frequency signals.NASA/JPL-Caltech After the steel framework of the Deep Space Station 23 reflector dish was lowered into place on Dec. 18, a crew installed the quadripod, a four-legged support structure that will direct radio frequency signals from deep space that bounce off the main reflector into the antenna’s receiver.NASA/JPL-Caltech Deep Space Station 23’s 133-ton reflector dish was recently installed, marking a key step in strengthening NASA’s Deep Space Network.
NASA’s Deep Space Network, an array of giant radio antennas, allows agency missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond. NASA is adding a new antenna, bringing the total to 15, to support increased demand for the world’s largest and most sensitive radio frequency telecommunication system.
Installation of the latest antenna took place on Dec. 18, when teams at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, installed the metal reflector framework for Deep Space Station 23, a multifrequency beam-waveguide antenna. When operational in 2026, Deep Space Station 23 will receive transmissions from missions such as Perseverance, Psyche, Europa Clipper, Voyager 1, and a growing fleet of future human and robotic spacecraft in deep space.
“This addition to the Deep Space Network represents a crucial communication upgrade for the agency,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program. “The communications infrastructure has been in continuous operation since its creation in 1963, and with this upgrade we are ensuring NASA is ready to support the growing number of missions exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
This time-lapse video shows the entire day of construction activities for the Deep Space Station 23 antenna at the NASA Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, on Dec. 18. NASA/JPL-Caltech Construction of the new antenna has been under way for more than four years, and during the installation, teams used a crawler crane to lower the 133-ton metal skeleton of the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) parabolic reflector before it was bolted to a 65-foot-high (20-meter-high) alidade, a platform above the antenna’s pedestal that will steer the reflector during operations.
“One of the biggest challenges facing us during the lift was to ensure that 40 bolt-holes were perfectly aligned between the structure and alidade,” said Germaine Aziz, systems engineer, Deep Space Network Aperture Enhancement Program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This required a meticulous emphasis on alignment prior to the lift to guarantee everything went smoothly on the day.”
Following the main lift, engineers carried out a lighter lift to place a quadripod, a four-legged support structure weighing 16 1/2 tons, onto the center of the upward-facing reflector. The quadripod features a curved subreflector that will direct radio frequency signals from deep space that bounce off the main reflector into the antenna’s pedestal, where the antenna’s receivers are housed.
In the early morning of Dec. 18, a crane looms over the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) steel framework for Deep Space Station 23 reflector dish, which will soon be lowered into position on the antenna’s base structure.NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineers will now work to fit panels onto the steel skeleton to create a curved surface to reflect radio frequency signals. Once complete, Deep Space Station 23 will be the fifth of six new beam-waveguide antennas to join the network, following Deep Space Station 53, which was added at the Deep Space Network’s Madrid complex in 2022.
“With the Deep Space Network, we are able to explore the Martian landscape with our rovers, see the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning cosmic observations, and so much more,” said Laurie Leshin, director of JPL. “The network enables over 40 deep space missions, including the farthest human-made objects in the universe, Voyager 1 and 2. With upgrades like these, the network will continue to support humanity’s exploration of our solar system and beyond, enabling groundbreaking science and discovery far into the future.”
NASA’s Deep Space Network is managed by JPL, with the oversight of NASA’s SCaN Program. More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on the Deep Space Network and Near Space Network, including supporting astronauts aboard the International Space Station and future Artemis missions, monitoring Earth’s weather and the effects of climate change, supporting lunar exploration, and uncovering the solar system and beyond.
For more information about the Deep Space Network, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn
News Media Contact
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 Related Terms
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