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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft completed its first maximum afterburner test at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. This full-power test, during which the engine generates additional thrust, validates the additional power needed for meeting the testing conditions of the aircraft. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to overcome a major barrier to supersonic flight over land by reducing the noise of sonic booms.Lockheed Martin Corporation/Garry Tice NASA completed the first maximum afterburner engine run test on its X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft on Dec. 12. The ground test, conducted at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, marks a significant milestone as the X-59 team progresses toward flight.
An afterburner is a component of some jet engines that generates additional thrust. Running the engine, an F414-GE-100, with afterburner will allow the X-59 to meet its supersonic speed requirements. The test demonstrated the engine’s ability to operate within temperature limits and with adequate airflow for flight. It also showed the engine’s ability to operate in sync with the aircraft’s other subsystems.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter. The X-59’s first flight is expected to occur in 2025.
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactMatt Kamletmatthew.r.kamlet@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read
Sols 4732-4735: I’ll Zap You, My Pretty, and Your Pebble Too
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture this image, with a horizon of platy, dark-toned bedrock at the forefront, on Nov. 20, 2024 at 05:54:55 UTC. Curiosity acquired the image on sol 4369 — Martian day 4,369 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 22, 2024
For more than a year, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been climbing through layers of sulfate-rich rock in Gale Crater, where alternating thick light- and dark-toned bands are visible by satellite. After a successful 24.55-meter drive (about 81 feet), Curiosity traversed across a light-toned band into a dark-toned one, entering a workspace that contains the characteristic features of these dark-toned bands: platy, dark-toned material interbedded with lighter-toned bedrock. The origin of this dark-toned, platy material remains a mystery. To help solve it, the Geology and Mineralogy Theme Group focused the weekend’s science plan on continuing our documentation of the sedimentary textures, structures, and chemistry of this bedrock, aiming to uncover clues about the processes that formed the dark-toned, platy material. My role as Keeper of the Geology Plan meant keeping track of all the geology-related requests, which made for a busy day!
To investigate further, we plan to brush away surface dust from a section of light-toned bedrock and capture detailed images using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). This close-up view will be paired with chemical and mineralogical analysis using the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS). Meanwhile, Mastcam will focus on two nearby outcrops nicknamed “Hanging Valley Ridge” 1 and 2, where the dark-toned platy material is visibly layered within the light-toned bedrock. ChemCam will add to the data by zapping both the brushed light-toned area and the dark-toned material to work out their compositions and compare the two.
In addition to studying the sulfate layers, we’re continuing our long-term investigation of Gediz Vallis Ridge, believed to be a remnant of an ancient debris channel that we’ve been investigating for some time. To build on our previous observations, we’ve planned a Mastcam mosaic and a long-distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) observation to further document its morphology and sedimentary structures. Interestingly, we’ve also identified a dark-toned pebble in our workspace that could have been transported from Gediz Vallis Ridge. To test this idea, we’ll use ChemCam to zap the pebble to work out its composition and compare it to the dark-toned material in the outcrop.
While Curiosity focuses on the Martian surface, we’re also monitoring the planet’s atmosphere. The Environmental Theme Group is using the rover’s downtime to conduct a series of dust- and cloud-monitoring activities. One highlight of the weekend plan is an approximately 30-minute ChemCam passive sky observation, which will help us study atmospheric conditions in Gale Crater.
As Americans prepare for Thanksgiving here on Earth, the Curiosity team is gearing up for a special holiday “mega plan.” This seven-sol schedule will keep the rover hard at work, ensuring that science and exploration continue while the team enjoys their celebrations. Stay tuned to see what this plan has in store next week!
Written by Amelie Roberts, Ph.D. candidate at Imperial College London
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Last Updated Dec 02, 2024 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:02:39
The Ignis mission, named after the Latin word for ‘fire,’ symbolises the spark igniting a new era in Poland’s space endeavours.
The central motif of the patch features an eagle – a reference to the emblem of Poland – in white and red, reflecting the colours and design of the Polish national flag. Its tail gracefully evokes a flame, while its outstretched wings trace the contours of the Orla Perć mountain range in the Polish Tatra Mountains. Within the mission’s name, the second ‘i’ takes the form of the International Space Station. Above it, stars converge to form the Scutum constellation, paying homage to astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611-87), who was born in the Polish city of Gdańsk. Finally, a silver line represents the horizon, signifying the dawn of a new era in space exploration.
For more details, read the press release here.
Follow Sławosz’s journey on the Ignis website.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft in silhouette against Europa’s surface, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed at top and the antennas for the radar instrument extending out from the solar arrays.NASA/JPL-Caltech Headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft is operating without a hitch and will reach Mars in just three months for a gravity assist.
NASA’s Europa Clipper, which launched Oct. 14 on a journey to Jupiter’s moon Europa, is already 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. Two science instruments have deployed hardware that will remain at attention, extending out from the spacecraft, for the next decade — through the cruise to Jupiter and the entire prime mission.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched it away from Earth’s gravity, and now the spacecraft is zooming along at 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and in 2031 will begin a series of 49 flybys, using a suite of instruments to gather data that will tell scientists if the icy moon and its internal ocean have the conditions needed to harbor life.
For now, the information mission teams are receiving from the spacecraft is strictly engineering data (the science will come later), telling them how the hardware is operating. Things are looking good. The team has a checklist of actions the spacecraft needs to take as it travels deeper into space. Here’s a peek:
Boom Times
Shortly after launch, the spacecraft deployed its massive solar arrays, which extend the length of a basketball court. Next on the list was the magnetometer’s boom, which uncoiled from a canister mounted on the spacecraft body, extending a full 28 feet (8.5 meters).
To confirm that all went well with the boom deployment, the team relied on data from the magnetometer’s three sensors. Once the spacecraft is at Jupiter, these sensors will measure the magnetic field around Europa, both confirming the presence of the ocean thought to be under the moon’s icy crust and telling scientists about its depth and salinity.
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This animation shows how the boom of Europa Clipper’s magnetometer deployed — while the spacecraft was in flight — to its full length of 28 feet (8.5 meters). NASA/JPL-Caltech On the Radar
After the magnetometer, the spacecraft deployed several antennas for the radar instrument. Now extending crosswise from the solar arrays, the four high-frequency antennas form what look like two long poles, each measuring 57.7 feet (17.6 meters) long. Eight rectangular very-high-frequency antennas, each 9 feet (2.76 meters) long, were also deployed — two on the two solar arrays.
“It’s an exciting time on the spacecraft, getting these key deployments done,” said Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Most of what the team is focusing on now is understanding the small, interesting things in the data that help them understand the behavior of the spacecraft on a deeper level. That’s really good to see.”
Instrument Checkout
The remaining seven instruments will be powered on and off through December and January so that engineers can check their health. Several instruments, including the visible imager and the gas and dust mass spectrometers, will keep their protective covers closed for the next three or so years to guard against potential damage from the Sun during Europa Clipper’s time in the inner solar system.
Mars-Bound
Once all the instruments and engineering subsystems have been checked out, mission teams will shift their focus to Mars. On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper will reach Mars’ orbit and begin to loop around the Red Planet, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed. (This effect is similar to how a ball thrown at a moving train will bounce off the train in another direction at a higher speed.) Mission navigators already have completed one trajectory correction maneuver, as planned, to get the spacecraft on the precise course.
At Mars, scientists plan to turn on the spacecraft’s thermal imager to capture multicolored images of Mars as a test operation. They also plan to collect data with the radar instrument so engineers can be sure it’s operating as expected.
The spacecraft will perform another gravity assist in December 2026, swooping by Earth before making the remainder of the long journey to the Jupiter system. At that time, the magnetometer will measure Earth’s magnetic field, calibrating the instrument.
More About Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about Europa Clipper here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper
8 Things to Know About Europa Clipper Europa Clipper Teachable Moment NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Its Giant Solar Arrays Kids Can Explore Europa With NASA’s Space Place News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Related Terms
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