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By NASA
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, react as they are recognized by employees during a NASA agencywide all hands on Dec. 6, 2024, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington.Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will speak with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and Don Pettit on Monday, Jan. 6, to discuss their mission aboard the International Space Station.
The Earth to space call coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. EST on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is opening access to low Earth orbit and the space station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and eventually, to Mars.
For NASA’s launch blog and more information about the mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Meira Bernstein / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 30, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Commercial Crew Humans in Space ISS Research Johnson Space Center View the full article
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By Space Force
Personnel at the Air Force Accessions Center demonstrated their ability to adapt quickly to evolving accession requirements, resulting in dozens of highly qualified cadets being notified of a pilot career field selection.
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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s Ames Research Center Celebrates 85 Years of Innovation
The NACA Ames laboratory in 1944 Credits: NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley pre-dates a lot of things. The center existed before NASA – the very space and aeronautics agency it’s a critical part of today. And of all the marvelous advancements in science and technology that have fundamentally changed our lives over the last 85 years since its founding, one aspect has remained steadfast; an enduring commitment to what’s known by some on-center simply as, “an atmosphere of freedom.”
Years before breaking ground at the site that would one day become home to the world’s preeminent wind tunnels, supercomputers, simulators, and brightest minds solving some of the world’s toughest challenges, Joseph Sweetman Ames, the center’s namesake, described a sentiment that would guide decades of innovation and research:
My hope is that you have learned or are learning a love of freedom of thought and are convinced that life is worthwhile only in such an atmosphere
Joseph sweetman ames
Founding member of the N.A.C.A.
“My hope is that you have learned or are learning a love of freedom of thought and are convinced that life is worthwhile only in such an atmosphere,” he said in an address to the graduates of Johns Hopkins University in June 1935.
That spirit and the people it attracted and retained are a crucial part of how Ames, along with other N.A.C.A. research centers, ultimately made technological breakthroughs that enabled humanity’s first steps on the Moon, the safe return of spacecraft through Earth’s atmosphere, and many other discoveries that benefit our day-to-day lives.
Russell Robinson momentarily looks to the camera while supervising the first excavation at what would become Ames Research Center.NACA “In the context of my work, an atmosphere of freedom means the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward, innovative ideas that may take time to fully develop and — most importantly — the opportunity to put them into practice for the benefit of all,” said Edward Balaban, a researcher at Ames specializing in artificial intelligence, robotics, and advanced mission concepts.
Balaban’s career at Ames has involved a variety of projects at different stages of development – from early concept to flight-ready – including experimenting with different ways to create super-sized space telescopes in space and using artificial intelligence to help guide the path a rover might take to maximize off-world science results. Like many Ames researchers over the years, Balaban shared that his experience has involved deep collaborations across science and engineering disciplines with colleagues all over the center, as well as commercial and academic partners in Silicon Valley where Ames is nestled and beyond. This is a tradition that runs deep at Ames and has helped lead to entirely new fields of study and seeded many companies and spinoffs.
Before NASA, Before Silicon Valley: The 1939 Founding of Ames Aeronautical Laboratory “In the fields of aeronautics and space exploration the cost of entry can be quite high. For commercial enterprises and universities pursuing longer term ideas and putting them into practice often means partnering up with an organization such as NASA that has the scale and multi-disciplinary expertise to mature these ideas for real-world applications,” added Balaban.
“Certainly, the topics of inquiry, the academic freedom, and the benefit to the public good are what has kept me at Ames,” reflected Ross Beyer, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute at Ames. “There’s not a lot of commercial incentive to study other planets, for example, but maybe there will be soon. In the meantime, only with government funding and agencies like NASA can we develop missions to explore the unknown in order to make important fundamental science discoveries and broadly share them.”
For Beyer, his boundary-breaking moment came when he searched – and found – software engineers at Ames capable and passionate about open-source software to generate accurate, high-resolution, texture-mapped, 3D terrain models from stereo image pairs. He and other teams of NASA scientists have since applied that software to study and better understand everything from changes in snow and ice characteristics on Earth, as well as features like craters, mountains, and caves on Mars or the Moon. This capability is part of the Artemis campaign, through which NASA will establish a long-term presence at the Moon for scientific exploration with commercial and international partners. The mission is to learn how to live and work away from home, promote the peaceful use of space, and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
“As NASA and private companies send missions to the Moon, they need to plan landing sites and understand the local environment, and our software is freely available for anyone to use,” Beyer said. “Years ago, our management could easily have said ‘No, let’s keep this software to ourselves; it gives us a competitive advantage.’ They didn’t, and I believe that NASA writ large allows you to work on things and share those things and not hold them back.”
When looking forward to what the next 85 years might bring, researchers shared a belief that advancements in technology and opportunities to innovate are as expansive as space itself, but like all living things, they need a healthy atmosphere to thrive. Balaban offered, “This freedom to innovate is precious and cannot be taken for granted. It can easily fall victim if left unprotected. It is absolutely critical to retain it going forward, to ensure our nation’s continuing vitality and the strength of the other freedoms we enjoy.”
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory.NACAView the full article
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By NASA
NASA-supported scientists have suggested an updated framework for the role of ferns in environmental recovery from disaster. Instead of competing with other organisms, ferns may act as facilitators that ease the way for other plants and animals to re-establish themselves in a damaged landscape.
The study examines how a biosphere recovers from major upheaval, be it from wildfires or asteroid impacts, using what scientists call a ‘facilitative’ framework (where the actions of organisms help each other) rather than the long-held ‘competition-based’ framework.
NASA supported researchers at a fossil plant quarry near the Old Raton Pass Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary in New Mexico.Ellen Currano Ferns are a common type of vascular plant found in woodlands, gardens, and many a plant pot on apartment shelves. Unlike many other vascular plants, ferns do not flower or seed. Instead, they reproduce via spores. Ferns first appeared on Earth some 360 million years ago during the Devonian period and, prior to the evolution of flowering plants, were the most common vascular plant on Earth.
Ferns are often one of the first plants to re-establish in areas affected by large-scale upheaval events, and it has been suggested that this is because ferns produce spores in great amounts that are widely distributed on the wind. Some scientists, particularly in the fields of geology and paleontology, have used this ‘competitive’ success of ferns as a foundation for ecological theories about how recolonization happens after upheavals.
However, in recent years, growing research has shown that recovery is not only about competition. Positive interactions, known as facilitation, between ferns and other species also play a significant role. The authors of the recent study believe that it is time to re-examine positive interactions within ecosystems, rather than defaulting to a competition framework.
Ferns in History
“I love to imagine ecosystems through time and play a game in my head where I ask myself, ’if I could stand here for 1 million years, would this fossilize?’” said lead author Lauren Azevedo Schmidt of the University of California at Davis. “Because of the mental time gymnastics I do, my research questions follow the same pathway. How do I create synergy between modern and paleo research?”
Early Paleocene fern fossil discovered on the Vermejo Park Ranch, NM. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano The team examined ideas that have been developed based on observing modern organisms as well as ancient populations in the fossil record. They propose that, rather than out-competing other species, ferns act as facilitators for ecosystem recovery by stabilizing the ground, enhancing properties of the soil, and mediating competition between other organisms. This repositions ferns as facilitators of ecological recovery within disturbed habitats. This has broad implications for understanding how a community recovers and the importance of positive interactions following disturbance events. Because ferns are among the oldest lineages of plants on Earth and have experienced unimaginable climates and extinction events, they provide critical information to better understand the fossil record and Earth before humans.
Fossil plant excavation in the Cretaceous rocks just below the K-Pg boundary at Old Raton Pass, NM. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano “The Cretaceous – Paleogene [K-Pg] extinction event reworked Earth’s biosphere, resulting in approximately 75% of species going extinct, with up to 90% of plants going extinct,” said Azevedo Schmidt. “This magnitude of devastation is something humans (luckily) have never had to deal with, making it hard to even think about. But it is something we must consider when tackling research/issues surrounding exobiology.”
The longevity of ferns on Earth provides a view into the evolution of life on Earth, even through some of the planet’s most devastating disasters. This is of interest to astrobiology and exobiology because exploring how environmental factors can and have impacted the large-scale evolution of life on Earth through mass extinctions and mass radiation events can help us understand the potential for the origin, evolution and distribution for life elsewhere in the Universe.
Ferns in Space
In addition to their relevance to astrobiology, the resilience of ferns and their ability to help heal a damaged environment could also make them important partners for future human missions in space. NASA’s Space Biology program has supported experiments to study how plants adapt to space with the expectation that knowledge gained can lead to ways by which crops can be cultivated for fresh food. Lessons learned from studying resilient plants, such as ferns, could guide efforts to make crops adapt better to harsh space conditions so they can serve as a reliable food source as humans explore destinations beyond our planet. Previous studies have also looked at how plants might keep air clean in enclosed spaces like the International Space Station or in habitats on the Moon or Mars.
NASA supported scientists can be seen prospecting for plant fossils in Berwind Canyon, CO. Photo by Ellen Currano.Ellen Currano “Ferns were able to completely transform Earth’s biosphere following the devastation of the K-Pg [Cretaceous–Paleogene] extinction event. The environment experienced continental-scale fires, acid rain, and nuclear winter, but ferns were able to tolerate unbelievable stress and make their environment better,” says Azevedo Schmidt. “I think we can all learn something from the mighty ferns.”
The study, “Ferns as facilitators of community recovery following biotic upheaval,” was published in the journal BioScience [doi:10.1093/biosci/biae022]
For more information on NASA’s Astrobiology program, visit:
https://www.science.nasa.gov/astrobiology
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Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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By NASA
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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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