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LIFA: Lightweight Fiber-based Antenna for Small Sat-Compatible Radiometry
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ECF 2024 Quadchart Arya.pdf
Manan Arya
Stanford University
This grant will design and develop lightweight, low-cost modular solar reflectors that can be stowed for transport in a compact volume. These reflectors can potentially be used to reflect and concentrate sunlight into a permanently shadowed area of the Moon where it could power photovoltaics. These reflectors could also potentially be used for concentrated photovoltaics for deep-space missions, solar thermal propulsion, or for thermal mining. The team will use recently developed origami design algorithms to allow for compact and reversible stowage of paraboloidal shell structures without any cuts or slits.
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Last Updated Apr 18, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
Early Career Faculty (ECF) Space Technology Research Grants View the full article
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs will host the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for the first time at its monthly webinar for small businesses at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 16.
The webinar, currently open for registration, will focus on a new SBA manufacturing initiative and provide information about SBA’s flagship 7(a) loan program in addition to small business program updates from NASA.
Participants in the webinar include:
Casey Swails, deputy associate administrator, NASA Dwight Deneal, assistant administrator, Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), NASA Headquarters in Washington Charles Williams, program manager, NASA OSBP SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler Dianna Seaborn, deputy associate administrator, Office of Capital Access, SBA The NASA OSBP Learning Series is a collection of webinars that provide small businesses with an opportunity to receive training and ask questions to experts at the agency. Upcoming webinars are listed on OSBP website. Previous webinars the office has hosted can be found on the OSBP Learning Series Archives.
For more information about NASA OSBP’s learning series and other outreach events, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/osbp
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Last Updated Apr 14, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
General NASA Headquarters Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) View the full article
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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 Mars Home 4 min read
Sols 4466-4468: Heading Into the Small Canyon
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity produced this image from its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. This image is a combination of two MAHLI images, merged on the rover on Feb. 25, 2025 — sol 4464, or Martian day 4,464 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 22:36:53 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025
The fine detail of the image above reminds us once again that geoscience — on Mars and on Earth — is an observational science. If you look at the image for a few moments, you will see that there are different areas made of different textures. You will also observe that some features appear to be more resistant to weathering than others, and as a consequence stand out from the surface or the rims of the block. Sedimentologists will study this and many other images in fine detail and compare them to similar images we have acquired along the most recent drive path. From that they put together a reconstruction of the environment billions of years in the past: Was it water or wind that laid down those rocks, and what happened next? Many of the knobbly textures might be from water-rock interaction that happened after the initial deposition of the material. We will see; the jury is out on what these details tell us, and we are looking closely at all those beautiful images and then will turn to the chemistry data to understand even more about those rocks.
In the caption of the image above it says “merged” images. This is an imaging process that happens aboard the rover — it takes two (or more) images of the same location on the same target, acquired at different focus positions, and merges them so a wider range of the rock is in focus. This is especially valuable on textures that have a high relief, such as the above shown example. The rover is quite clever, isn’t it?
In today’s plan MAHLI does not have such an elaborate task, but instead it is documenting the rock that the APXS instrument is measuring. The team decided that it is time for APXS to measure the regular bedrock again, because we are driving out of an area that is darker on the orbital image and into a lighter area. If you want, you can follow our progress on that orbital image. (But I am sure many of the regular readers of this blog know that!)
That bedrock target was named “Trippet Ranch.” ChemCam investigates the target “San Ysidro Trail,” which is a grayish-looking vein. As someone interested in water-rock interactions for my research, I always love plans that have the surrounding rock (the APXS target in this case) and the alteration features in the same location. This allows us to tease out which of the chemical components of the rock might have moved upon contact with water, and which ones have not.
As we are driving through very interesting terrain, with walls exposed on the mesas — especially Gould mesa — and lots of textures in the blocks around us, there are many Mastcam mosaics in today’s plan! The mosaics on “Lytle Creek,” “Round Valley,” “Heaton Flat,” “Los Liones,” and the single image on “Mount Pinos” all document this variety of structures, and another mosaic looks right at our workspace. It did not get a nice name as it is part of a series with a more descriptive name all called “trough.” We often do this to keep things together in logical order when it comes to imaging series. The long-distance RMIs in today’s plan are another example of this, as they are just called “Gould,” followed by the sol number they will be taken on — that’s 4466 — and a and b to distinguish the two from each other. Gould Mesa, the target of both of them, exposes many different structures and textures, and looking at such walls — geologists call them outcrops — lets us read the rock record like a history book! And it will get even better in the next few weeks as we are heading into a small canyon and will have walls on both sides. Lots of science to come in the next few downlinks, and lots of science on the ground already! I’d better get back to thinking about some of the data we have received recently, while the rover is busy exploring the ever-changing geology and mineralogy on the flanks of Mount Sharp.
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Last Updated Feb 26, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) is pleased to announce the official release of the highly anticipated 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report. This significant accomplishment was made possible by the contributions of numerous dedicated people across NASA who graciously supported the preparation of the document as authors and reviewers. We also want to extend our gratitude to all the companies, universities, and organizations that provided content for this report.
The 2024 report can be found online at https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa. The report is also available in PDF format as a single document containing all report content as well as individual chapters available on their respective chapter webpages. This 2024 edition reflects updates in several chapters to include: the Formation Flying and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations section within the “Guidance, Navigation, and Control” chapter; the Additive Manufacturing section within the “Structures, Materials, and Mechanisms” chapter; the Free Space Optical Communications section within the “Communications” chapter; and the Hosted Orbital Services section within the “Complete Spacecraft Platforms” chapter.
As in previous editions, the report contains a general overview of current state-of-the-art SmallSat technologies and their development status as discussed in open literature. The report is not intended to be an exhaustive representation of all technologies currently available to the small spacecraft community, nor does the inclusion of technologies in the report serve as an endorsement by NASA. Sources of publicly available date commonly used as sources in the development of the report include manufacturer datasheets, press releases, conference papers, journal papers, public filings with government agencies, and news articles. Readers are highly encouraged to reach out to companies for further information regarding the performance and maturity of described technologies of interest. During the report’s development, companies were encouraged to release test information and flight data when possible so it may be appropriately captured. It should be noted that technology maturity designations may vary with change to payload, mission requirements, reliability considerations, and the associated test/flight environment in which performance was demonstrated.
Suggestions or corrections to the 2024 report toward a subsequent edition, should be submitted to the NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute Agency-SmallSat-Institute@mail.nasa.gov for consideration prior to the publication of the future edition. When submitting suggestions or corrections, please cite appropriate publicly accessible references. Private correspondence is not considered an adequate reference. Efforts are underway for the 2025 report and organizations are invited to submit technologies for consideration for inclusion by August 1, 2025.
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute.
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By NASA
NASA/JPL-Caltech A crane lowers the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) steel framework for the Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23) reflector dish into position on Dec. 18, 2024, at the Deep Space Network’s (DSN) Goldstone Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. Once online in 2026, DSS-23 will be the fifth of six new beam waveguide antennas to be added to the network; DSS-23 will boost the DSN’s capacity and enhance NASA’s deep space communications capabilities for decades to come.
The DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on the DSN and Near Space Network, including supporting astronauts aboard the International Space Station and future Artemis missions, supporting lunar exploration, and uncovering the solar system and beyond.
Watch a time-lapse video of construction activities on Dec. 18.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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