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Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails visit the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center near Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on a recent trip to see NASA’s digital tools for aviation efficiency in operational use.American Airlines It’s the holiday season — which means many are taking to the skies to join their loved ones.
If you’ve ever used an app to navigate on a road trip, you’ve probably noticed how it finds you the most efficient route to your destination, even before you depart. To that end, NASA has been working to make flight departures out of major international airports more efficient — thereby saving fuel and reducing delays — in close collaboration with the aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The savings are possible thanks to a NASA-developed tool called Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting.
This tool determines where potential time savings could be gained by slightly altering a departure route, based on existing data about delays. The software presents its proposed more-efficient route in real time to an airline, who can then decide whether or not to use it and coordinate with air traffic control through a streamlined digital process.
The capability is being tested thoroughly at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field Airport in Texas in collaboration with several major air carriers, including American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United.
Now, these capabilities are expanding out of the Dallas area to other major airports in Houston for further research.
“We’re enabling the use of digital services to greatly improve aviation efficiency,” said Shivanjli Sharma, manager of NASA’s Air Traffic Management — eXploration project which oversees the research on aviation services. “Streamlining airline operations, reducing emissions, and saving time are all part of making an efficient next-generation airspace system.”
NASA / Maria Werries The animation above shows the savings Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting is responsible for at just a single airport. As the tool is expanded to be used at other airports, the savings begin to add up even more.
It’s all part of NASA’s vision for transforming the skies above our communities to be more sustainable, efficient, safer, and quieter.
Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting is one of a series of new cloud-based digital air traffic management tools NASA and industry plan to develop and demonstrate as part of the agency’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership. These new flight management capabilities will contribute to the partnership’s goal of accelerating progress towards aviation achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
About the Author
John Gould
Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
When it comes to building spaceflight missions, the software is at least as important as the hardware. For computer engineer Nargess Memarsadeghi, having a hand in the programming is like getting to go along for the ride.
Name: Nargess Memarsadeghi
Title: Associate Branch Head, Software Systems Engineering Branch
Formal Job Classification: Supervisory Computer Engineer
Organization: Software Systems Engineering Branch, Software Engineering Division, Engineering Directorate (Code 581)
Nargess Memarsadeghi is the associate branch head of the Software Systems Engineering branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Courtesy of Nargess Memarsadeghi What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
As associate branch head for the Software Systems Engineering Branch, I spend half of my time supporting the branch head on internal functions, different planning activities, and supervising our employees who are senior software systems engineers and often team leads themselves.
For the other half of my time, I work on a technical project. Currently, I am supporting the Human Landing Systems (HLS) project. I am a member of NASA HLS Software Insight Team working with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Johnson Space Center in Houston, and industry partners SpaceX and Blue Origin to meet software requirements and milestones, and to ensure the Artemis campaign succeeds in taking astronauts to the Moon.
I enjoy learning about various NASA missions and being part of them either by supporting our branch employees who work on these missions or by being a project team member and making technical contributions directly.
Why did you become a software engineer?
I always loved math and sciences. Software engineering seemed like a good and practical way to apply math to different scientific and engineering applications.
What is your educational background?
I got my bachelor’s (2001), master’s (2004), and doctorate (2007) degrees in computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park.
How did you come to Goddard?
I joined Goddard in 2001 right after college. The university had a recruitment event at its career center. I signed up for an interview with NASA, which went well. I then got an invitation for an onsite interview, and then an offer to join Goddard as a computer engineer.
What is your supervisory style?
I have been supervising on average 10 employees. We have tag-ups every two weeks to learn about their work and see if they have any issues or need anything from management. We keep in constant communication which goes both ways. I have an open-door policy. I try to match an employee’s interests and expertise to their work. I am willing to hear their concerns and address them to the best of my ability or putting them in contact with those who can. I enjoy learning about their work and celebrating the achievements.
What are some of the most exciting projects and missions that the Software Systems Engineering Branch is involved with?
We provide end-to-end software systems engineering support to many high-impact missions, like the upcoming flagship astrophysics Roman Space Telescope mission. We support Roman’s software systems, as well as its testing and assembly with one of our software products, the Goddard Dynamic Simulator.
Our team also supports a variety of Earth science missions, such as the Joint Polar Satellite Systems (JPSS), GOES-R, and GOES-U, all of which NASA supports on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We also develop and manage different ground segment software systems for different missions including PACE, TSIS-II, and others.
What are some of your career highlights so far?
One was being part of the James Webb Space Telescope team and working on stability testing of microshutters. Webb is a huge, multinational observatory making many scientific discoveries.
Another is being part of the Dawn mission’s satellite working group searching for moons of the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. I worked on this from prelaunch through launch and operations. We were some of the first to see the scientific images soon after being downlinked. It felt like going on a ride with the spacecraft itself.
I would add my more recent work on the Roman Space Telescope.
In general, I really enjoyed working on various missions during their different stages of their life cycle. I got to see the whole picture of how software is used for missions, from technology development to post-launch.
What advice do you give your graduate students and interns as a mentor?
I emphasize that they also need to work on their communication skills, leadership skills, and team building. I tell them to focus not just on their technical skills but also on their interpersonal skills both written and oral. NASA has a lot of collaborative projects and being able to effectively communicate across different levels is crucial for mission success.
Whom do you wish to thank?
I would like to thank my family for their support. I would also like to thank my past teachers and mentors who made a big difference in me and positively impacted my life.
What do you do to relax?
I like going for long walks, spending time with family and friends, and doing activities with my son including attending his piano recitals.
Who is your favorite author?
As a young reader, I enjoyed reading Jules Verne. I also enjoy reading poetry. My favorites are Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Persian poets Sohrab Sepehri and Saadi Shirazi.
What motto do you live by?
Be the change you want to see in the world.
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Dec 19, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
A rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander and a rover developed for the company’s third mission to the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.Credit: Firefly Aerospace NASA continues to advance its campaign to explore more of the Moon than ever before, awarding Firefly Aerospace $179 million to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface. This fourth task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon in 2028.
As part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign, Firefly will deliver a group of science experiments and technology demonstrations under NASA’s CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, to these lunar domes, an area of ancient lava flows, to better understand planetary processes and evolution. Through CLPS, NASA is furthering our understanding of the Moon’s environment and helping prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
“The CLPS initiative carries out U.S. scientific and technical studies on the surface of the Moon by robot explorers. As NASA prepares for future human exploration of the Moon, the CLPS initiative continues to support a growing lunar economy with American companies,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, as well as the ancient lava flows surrounding the landing site, will help the U.S. answer important questions about the lunar surface.”
Firefly’s first lunar delivery is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-January 2025 and will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, on the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Firefly’s second lunar mission includes two task orders: a lunar orbit drop-off of a satellite combined with a delivery to the lunar surface on the far side and a delivery of a lunar orbital calibration source, scheduled in 2026.
This new delivery in 2028 will send payloads to the Gruithuisen Domes and the nearby Sinus Viscositatus. The Gruithuisen Domes have long been suspected to be formed by a magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite. Granitic rocks form easily on Earth due to plate tectonics and oceans of water. The Moon lacks these key ingredients, so lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time. For the first time, as part of this task order, NASA also has contracted to provide “mobility,” or roving, for some of the scientific instruments on the lunar surface after landing. This will enable new types of U.S. scientific investigations from CLPS.
“Firefly will deliver six instruments to understand the landing site and surrounding vicinity,” said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “These instruments will study geologic processes and lunar regolith, test solar cells, and characterize the neutron radiation environment, supplying invaluable information as NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon.”
The instruments, collectively expected to be about 215 pounds (97 kilograms) in mass, include:
Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer, which consists of two stationary and three mobile instruments, will study rocks and regoliths on the summit of one of the domes to determine their origin and better understand geologic processes of early planetary bodies. The principal investigator is Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna of the University of Central Florida, Orlando. Heimdall is a flexible camera system that will be used to take pictures of the landing site from above the horizon to the ground directly below the lander. The principal investigator is Dr. R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar Regolith is a robotic arm that will collect samples of lunar regolith and use a robotic scoop to filter and isolate particles of different sizes. The sampling technology will use a flight spare from the Mars Exploration Rover project. The principal investigator is Sean Dougherty of Maxar Technologies, Westminster, Colorado. Low-frequency Radio Observations from the Near Side Lunar Surface is designed to observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine whether natural and human-generated activity near the surface interferes with science. The project is headed up by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface will carry a set of the latest solar cells for a technology demonstration of light-to-electricity power conversion for future missions. The experiment will also collect data on the electrical charging environment of the lunar surface using a small array of solar cells. The principal investigator is Jeremiah McNatt from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface is a neutron spectrometer that will characterize the surface neutron radiation environment, monitor hydrogen, and provide constraints on elemental composition. The principal investigator is Dr. Heidi Haviland of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry. Two upcoming CLPS flights scheduled to launch in early 2025 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon’s near side and south polar region, respectively.
Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 18, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis View the full article
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By NASA
Caption: Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub from Roscosmos is pictured during a spacewalk to inspect a backup radiator, deploy a nanosatellite, and install communications hardware on the International Space Station’s Nauka science module.Credit: NASA NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 19.
NASA’s live coverage begins at 9:45 a.m. EST, Thursday on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:10 a.m. and last about six and a half hours.
Expedition 72 crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner will venture outside the station’s Poisk module to install an experiment package designed to monitor celestial x-ray sources and new electrical connector patch panels and remove several experiments for disposal. The two cosmonauts also will relocate a control panel for the European robotic arm, which is attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov will operate the arm during the spacewalk from inside the station.
Roscosmos spacewalk 63 will be the second for Ovchinin and the first for Vagner. Ovchinin will wear an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, and Vagner will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes. It will be the 272nd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
Get breaking news, images, and features from the space station on the station blog, Instagram, Facebook, and X.
Learn more about the International Space Station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Claire O’Shea / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 17, 2024 LocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:11:10 In 2024, ESA continued to drive Europe’s innovation and excellence in space, equipping the continent with advanced tools and knowledge to address global and local challenges. The year saw pioneering missions, cutting-edge satellites and the pivotal restoration of Europe’s independent access to space.
The first Ariane 6 launch was perhaps ‘the’ highlight of the year but it was only one of many achievements. We saw the last Vega launch and then the return to flight of Vega-C, the more powerful, upgraded version carrying Sentinel-1C.
Far away in our Solar System, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft performed twoMercury flybys in 2024, needed so that it can enter orbit around Mercury in 2026. Juice also performed a crucial gravity assist, this time becoming the first spacecraft to conduct a Moon-Earth double flyby on its way to Jupiter.
Twenty years after ESA’s Rosetta was launched and 10 years since its historic arrival at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we launched another spacecraft to a small body, the Hera planetary defence mission to investigate asteroid Dimorphos.
2024 was an important year for Europe’s Galileo constellation which continued to expand with the launch of four new satellites and an updated Galileo ground system. The year also saw the launch of ESA’s Proba-3 mission: two precision formation-flying satellites forming a solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona.
In human spaceflight, Europe continues to contribute to science from the ISS as Andreas Mogensen’s Huginn mission continued into 2024. Andreas even met up in space with ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt who was launched on his Muninn mission, making it the first time two Scandinavians were in space together.
Meanwhile the latest class of ESA astronauts completed basic training and graduated in April. Two of them, Sophie and Raphaël, were then assigned to long-duration missions to the ISS in 2026.
We made crucial steps for Europe in gaining access to the Moon: the inauguration of our LUNA facility with DLR, and the delivery of a third European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis programme.
Europe is also contributing to the international Lunar Gateway and developing and ESA lunar lander called Argonaut. These landers will rely on ESA Moonlight, the programme to establish Europe’s first dedicated satellite constellation for lunar communication and navigation.
As 2024 draws to a close, ESA’s achievements this year have reinforced Europe’s role in space. ESA’s journey continues to explore new frontiers, shaping the space landscape for generations to come.
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