Jump to content

The Marshall Star for March 20, 2024


NASA

Recommended Posts

  • Publishers
22 Min Read

The Marshall Star for March 20, 2024

NASA technologist Les Johnson, on stage, discusses how the solar sail can use solar propulsion to travel farther in space than anyone has traveled before during an exhibit held March 12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Marshall Technologist Talks Solar Sail Technology in Rocket Center Exhibit

By Jessica Barnett

Space enthusiasts at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center were treated to a special exhibit featuring technologist Les Johnson of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and a look at the future of solar sail technology.

NASA technologist Les Johnson, on stage, discusses how the solar sail can use solar propulsion to travel farther in space than anyone has traveled before during an exhibit held March 12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
NASA technologist Les Johnson, on stage, discusses how the solar sail can use solar propulsion to travel farther in space than anyone has traveled before during an exhibit held March 12 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
NASA/Charles Beason

Johnson shared the latest updates on the solar sail technology through brief presentations onstage in the Rocket Center’s atrium as well as one-on-one interactions with museum guests at the various displays set up near the stage. He discussed how the technology will work, showed a video of the solar sail team testing one of the sail’s four quadrants, and discussed what it could mean for the future of space exploration.

“I’m excited about this type of propulsion, because it’s free, it doesn’t run out of fuel, and you can use it to do amazing things in the future,” Johnson said. “We could build really big sails – 10 to 100 times bigger than the Solar Cruiser sail – and instead of using sunlight, we could shine lasers on it and go out in the solar system, literally where we’ve never been before.”

NASA continues to unfurl plans for solar sail technology as a promising method of deep space transportation. The agency cleared a key technology milestone in January with one of four identical solar sail quadrants successfully deploying. Together, the solar sail quadrants will make up the 17,800-square-foot sail.

Marshall leads the solar sail team, which includes Florida-based Redwire Corporation as prime contractor and Huntsville-based NeXolve as subcontractor.

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

Robert Champion Named Manager of SLS Exploration Upper Stage Office at Marshall

Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24th.

In his role, he will be responsible for the continued development of the exploration upper stage on the more powerful SLS Block 1B rocket, which is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission. Marshall manages the SLS Program.

Robert Champion
Robert Champion has been named as manager of the SLS (Space Launch System) Exploration Upper Stage Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA

Champion has been director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall since 2021. In that role, he managed center services that included industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations.

Champion previously served as the director of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans from 2019 to 2021; deputy director of Marshall’s Propulsion Systems Department from 2015 to 2019; deputy director of Marshall’s Space Systems Department from 2014 to 2015; and deputy director at Michoud from 2010 to 2014.

His 37-year career at NASA has included leadership roles in engineering, program and project organizations focused on launch vehicle development, system engineering, and propulsion systems.

Champion has received several of NASA’s highest awards, including the Presidential Rank Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Medal for Exceptional Service, Space Flight Awareness Honoree, Director’s Commendation, and the Contracting Officers Technical Representative of the Year.  He was selected as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Associate fellow and received the organization’s 2018-2019 Holger Toftoy Award for outstanding technical management in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics.

A native of Woodstock, Alabama, Champion holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University. He lives in Hazel Green with his wife, Maria Shelby. They have five adult children and six grandchildren.

› Back to Top

June Malone Named Director of the Office of Center Operations at Marshall 

June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective March 24.

With an annual budget of approximately $94 million, the organization includes 120 engineers and specialized civil servants and more than 500 contractors. Services provided by Center Operations include industrial labor relations, environmental engineering, occupational health, facility management, logistics and transportation, protective services, emergency management, and subordinate site operations.

June Malone
June Malone has been named as director of the Office of Center Operations at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA

Malone has been director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications at Marshall since 2021. In that role, she led the organization in providing strategic planning, objective analysis, and comprehensive communication to support the policy, program, and budget decisions for the center.

Malone has worked in a variety of leadership roles throughout her 30-year NASA career. She previously was manager for Marshall’s Office of Communications from 2019 to 2021, overseeing the center’s full communications portfolio, including media, social media, website content, exhibits, history, and employee communications. Previously in 2019, she worked in Marshall’s Office of Human Capital, where she established a new Human Resources Business Partner organization and operating model. She also held a year-long position in 2016-2017 as deputy director of the Office of Strategic Analysis & Communications.

From 2014-2016 and again 2017-2019, Malone was manager of Marshall’s Office of Communication, guiding media and social media for all center projects, programs, and activities, including crisis and risk communication. She has managed public affairs and media relations activities for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, the Space Launch Initiative, the Advanced Space Transportation Program, and the full suite of science and engineering work at Marshall. She was the primary NASA spokesperson for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Projects Office, communicating with media and the public on technical subjects and controversial issues that included the Columbia accident and Return to Flight.

Prior to joining NASA in 1991, Malone was an active-duty Air Force officer from 1985-1991. She worked at the Pentagon on the secretary of the Air Force staff in the Office of Public Affairs as a public affairs officer, and subsequently at Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, during Operation Desert Storm. She formulated and implemented public affairs and media relations policy, strategic public affairs activities, and media relations plans.

Malone holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in communications research from The Florida State University in Tallahassee. Her awards include a Silver Snoopy, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, and Rotary National Award for Communication.

An Illinois native, Malone and her husband, Roy, reside in Huntsville. Their son, Wil, is a NASA engineer, and their daughter, Madison, is a medical doctor in San Francisco.

› Back to Top

NASA Lights ‘Beacon’ on Moon with Autonomous Navigation System Test

By Rick Smith

For 30 total minutes in February, NASA lit a beacon on the Moon – successfully testing a sophisticated positioning system that will make it safer for Artemis-era explorers to visit and establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.

A man sits in front of a computer screen in a large control room with huge screens in the background.
Evan Anzalone, at lower left, principal investigator for the Lunar Node-1 demonstrator payload, monitors the LN-1 mission from the Lunar Utilization Control Area in the Huntsville Operations Support Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. LN-1 successfully tested an autonomous navigation and geo-positioning system that will make Artemis-era lunar explorers safer as they work to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.
NASA

The Lunar Node 1 demonstrator, or LN-1, is an autonomous navigation system intended to provide a real-time, point-to-point communications network on the Moon. The system – tested during Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative – could link orbiters, landers, and even individual astronauts on the surface, digitally verifying each explorer’s position relative to other networked spacecraft, ground stations, or rovers on the move.

That system would be a marked improvement over conventional, Earth-based radio data relays, NASA researchers said – even more so compared to Apollo-era astronauts trying to “eyeball” distance and direction on the vast, mostly grey lunar surface.

“We’ve lit a temporary beacon on the lunar shore,” said Evan Anzalone, LN-1 principal investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Now, we seek to deliver a sustainable local network – a series of lighthouses that point the way for spacecraft and ground crews to safely, confidently spread out and explore.”

The experiment was launched Feb. 15 as a payload on the IM-1 mission. The Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, successfully touched down Feb. 22 near Malapert A, a lunar impact crater near the Moon’s South Pole region, executing the first American commercial uncrewed landing on the Moon. The lander spent its subsequent days on the surface conducting six science and technology demonstrations, among them LN-1, before it officially powered down on Feb. 29.

“This feat from Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and NASA demonstrates the promise of American leadership in space and the power of commercial partnerships under NASA’s CLPS initiative,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement after the landing. “Further, this success opens the door for new voyages under Artemis to send astronauts to the Moon, then on to Mars.” 

During IM-1’s translunar journey, the Marshall team conducted daily tests of the LN-1 beacon. The original plan was for the payload to transmit its beacon around the clock upon landing. NASA’s Deep Space Networkthe international giant radio antenna array, would have received that signal for, on average, 10 hours daily.

Instead, due to the lander’s touchdown orientation, LN-1 conducted two 15-minute transmissions from the surface. DSN assets successfully locked on the signal, feeding telemetry, navigation measurements, and other data to researchers at Marshall, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. The team continues to evaluate the data.

LN-1 even provided critical backup to IM-1’s onboard navigation system, noted Dr. Susan Lederer, CLPS project scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The LN-1 team “really stepped up to the task,” she said, by relaying spacecraft positioning data during translunar flight to NASA’s Deep Space Network satellites at the Goldstone and Madrid Deep Space Communications Complexes in Fort Irwin, California, and Robledo de Chavela, Spain, respectively.

This image from the lander’s narrow-field-of-view camera was retrieved on Feb. 27. It shows spacecraft hardware in the foreground, and the gaping maw of a 2-billion-year-old lunar crater beyond. It’s approximately 500 meters to the near lip of the crater, and another 500 meters to its far side. Inky black space extends above the horizon.
Taken on Feb. 27, Odysseus captured an image using its narrow-field-of-view camera.
Intuitive Machines

In time, navigation aids such as Lunar Node-1 could be used to augment navigation and communication relays and surface nodes, providing increased robustness and capability to a variety of users in orbit and on the surface.

As the lunar infrastructure expands, Anzalone envisions LN-1 evolving into something akin to a network that monitors and maintains a busy metropolitan subway system, tracking every “train” in real time, and operating as one part of a larger, LunaNet-compatible architecture, augmenting other NASA and international investments, including the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Lunar Navigation Satellite System.

And the technology promises even greater value to NASA’s Moon to Mars efforts, he said. LN-1 may improve data delivery to lunar explorers by just a matter of seconds over conventional relays – but real-time navigation and positioning becomes much more vital on Mars, where transmission delays from Earth can take up to 20 minutes.

“That’s a very long time to wait for a spacecraft pilot making a precision orbital adjustment, or humans traversing uncharted Martian landscapes,” Anzalone said. “LN-1 can make lighthouse beacons of every explorer, vehicle, temporary or long-term camp, and site of interest we send to the Moon and to Mars.”

Marshall engineers designed, developed, integrated, and tested LN-1 as part of the NPLP (NASA-Provided Lunar Payloads) project funded by the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Marshall also developed MAPS (Multi-spacecraft Autonomous Positioning System), the underlying networked computer navigation software. MAPS previously was tested on the International Space Station in 2018, using NASA’s Space Communications and Navigations (SCaN) Testbed.

NASA’s CLPS initiative oversees industry development, testing, and launch of small robotic landers and rovers supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign. Learn more here.

Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight

As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.

SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.
SpaceX

A complement of 33 Raptor engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, powered the Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked on top, from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CDT. Starship, using six Raptor engines, separated from the Super Heavy booster employing a hot-staging technique to fire the engines before separation at approximately three minutes into the flight, in accordance with the flight plan. This was the third flight test of the integrated Super Heavy-Starship system.

“With each flight test, SpaceX attempts increasingly ambitious objectives for Starship to learn as much as possible for future mission systems development. The ability to test key systems and processes in flight scenarios like these integrated tests allows both NASA and SpaceX to gather crucial data needed for the continued development of Starship HLS,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, HLS Program Manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

This test accomplished several important firsts that will contribute to the development of Starship for Artemis lunar landing missions. The spacecraft reached its expected orbit and Starship completed the full-duration ascent burn.

One objective closely tied to future Artemis operations is the transfer of thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during the spacecraft’s coast phase as part of NASA’s Space Technology Missions Directorate 2020 Tipping Point awards. The propellant transfer demonstration operations were completed, and the NASA-SpaceX team is currently reviewing the flight data that was received. This Tipping Point technology demonstration is one of more than 20 development activities NASA is undertaking to solve the challenges of using cryogenic fluids during future missions.

As a key step toward understanding how super-cooled propellant sloshes within the tanks when the engines shut down, and how that movement affects Starship’s stability while in orbit, engineers will study flight test data to assess the performance of thrusters that control Starship’s orientation in space. They are also interested to learn more about how the fluid’s movement within the tanks can be settled to maximize propellant transfer efficiency and ensure Raptor engines receive needed propellant conditions to support restart in orbit.

“Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall. “But this is a game-changing technology that must be developed and matured for science and exploration missions at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper into our solar system.”

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars. Commercial human landing systems are critical to deep space exploration, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, exploration ground systems, and the Gateway space station.

Read more about NASA’s Human Landing System.

› Back to Top

Evolved Adapter for Future NASA SLS Flights Readied for Testing

A test article of the universal stage adapter for NASA’s more powerful version of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket arrived to Building 4619 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama.

A test version of the universal stage adapter for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for Artemis 4 is seen inside Marshall Space Flight Center’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The adapter sits on a yellow piece of hardware. There is an American flag hanging on the wall to the right and the word “Leidos” is painted black on the white adapter.
A test article of the universal stage adapter for NASA’s more powerful version of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket arrived to Building 4619 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Feb. 22 from Leidos in Decatur, Alabama.
NASA/Sam Lott

The universal stage adapter will connect the rocket’s upgraded in-space propulsion stage, called the exploration upper stage, to NASA’s Orion spacecraft as part of the evolved Block 1B configuration of the SLS rocket. It will also serve as a compartment capable of accommodating large payloads, such as modules or other exploration spacecraft. The SLS Block 1B variant will debut on Artemis IV and will increase SLS’s payload capability to send more than 84,000 pounds to the Moon in a single launch.

In Building 4619’s Load Test Annex High Bay at Marshall, the development test article will first undergo modal testing that will shake the hardware to validate dynamic models. Later, during ultimate load testing, force will be applied vertically and to the sides of the hardware. Unlike the flight hardware, the development test article has flaws intentionally included in its design, which will help engineers verify that the adapter can withstand the extreme forces it will face during launch and flight.

The test article joins an already-rich history of rocket hardware that has undergone high-and-low pressure, acoustic, and extreme temperature testing in the multipurpose, high-bay test facility; it will be tested in the same location that once bent, compressed, and torqued the core stage intertank test article for SLS rocket’s Block 1 configuration. Leidos, the prime contractor for the universal stage adapter, manufactured the full-scale prototype at its Aerospace Structures Complex in Decatur.

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

Marshall manages the SLS and human landing system programs.

› Back to Top

NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact

When NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) deliberately smashed into a 560-foot-wide asteroid on Sept. 26, 2022, it made its mark in more ways than one. The demonstration showed that a kinetic impactor could deflect a hazardous asteroid should one ever be on a collision course with Earth. Now a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal shows the impact changed not only the motion of the asteroid, but also its shape.

1-dimorphos-before-impact-dart.png?w=170
The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept. 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object.
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

DART’s target, the asteroid Dimorphos, orbits a larger near-Earth asteroid called Didymos. Before the impact, Dimorphos had a roughly symmetrical “oblate spheroid” shape – like a squashed ball that is wider than it is tall. With a well-defined, circular orbit at a distance of about 3,900 feet from Didymos, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete one loop around Didymos.

“When DART made impact, things got very interesting,” said Shantanu Naidu, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led the study. “Dimorphos’ orbit is no longer circular: Its orbital period” – the time it takes to complete a single orbit – “is now 33 minutes and 15 seconds shorter. And the entire shape of the asteroid has changed, from a relatively symmetrical object to a ‘triaxial ellipsoid’ – something more like an oblong watermelon.”

Naidu’s team used three data sources in their computer models to deduce what had happened to the asteroid after impact. The first source was aboard DART: The spacecraft captured images as it approached the asteroid and sent them back to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). These images provided close-up measurements of the gap between Didymos and Dimorphos while also gauging the dimensions of both asteroids just prior to impact.

The second data source was the DSN’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, located near Barstow, California, which bounced radio waves off both asteroids to precisely measure the position and velocity of Dimorphos relative to Didymos after impact. Radar observations quickly helped NASA conclude that DART’s effect on the asteroid greatly exceeded the minimum expectations.

The third and most significant source of data: ground telescopes around the world that measured both asteroids’ “light curve,” or how the sunlight reflecting off the asteroids’ surfaces changed over time. By comparing the light curves before and after impact, the researchers could learn how DART altered Dimorphos’ motion.

As Dimorphos orbits, it periodically passes in front of and then behind Didymos. In these so-called “mutual events,” one asteroid can cast a shadow on the other, or block our view from Earth. In either case, a temporary dimming – a dip in the light curve – will be recorded by telescopes.

See the DART impact with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System.

“We used the timing of this precise series of light-curve dips to deduce the shape of the orbit, and because our models were so sensitive, we could also figure out the shape of the asteroid,” said Steve Chesley, a senior research scientist at JPL and study co-author. The team found Dimorphos’ orbit is now slightly elongated, or eccentric. “Before impact,” Chesley continued, “the times of the events occurred regularly, showing a circular orbit. After impact, there were very slight timing differences, showing something was askew. We never expected to get this kind of accuracy.”

This illustration shows the approximate shape change that the asteroid Dimorphos experienced after DART hit it. Before impact, left, the asteroid was shaped like a squashed ball; after impact it took on a more elongated shape, like a watermelon.
This illustration shows the approximate shape change that the asteroid Dimorphos experienced after DART hit it. Before impact, left, the asteroid was shaped like a squashed ball; after impact it took on a more elongated shape, like a watermelon.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

The models are so precise, they even show that Dimorphos rocks back and forth as it orbits Didymos, Naidu said.

The team’s models also calculated how Dimorphos’ orbital period evolved. Immediately after impact, DART reduced the average distance between the two asteroids, shortening Dimorphos’ orbital period by 32 minutes and 42 seconds, to 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 37 seconds.

Over the following weeks, the asteroid’s orbital period continued to shorten as Dimorphos lost more rocky material to space, finally settling at 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 3 seconds per orbit – 33 minutes and 15 seconds less time than before impact. This calculation is accurate to within 1 ½ seconds, Naidu said. Dimorphos now has a mean orbital distance from Didymos of about 3,780 feet – about 120 feet closer than before impact.

“The results of this study agree with others that are being published,” said Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters. “Seeing separate groups analyze the data and independently come to the same conclusions is a hallmark of a solid scientific result. DART is not only showing us the pathway to an asteroid-deflection technology, it’s revealing new fundamental understanding of what asteroids are and how they behave.”

These results and observations of the debris left after impact indicate that Dimorphos is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object, similar to asteroid Bennu. ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, planned to launch in October 2024, will travel to the asteroid pair to carry out a detailed survey and confirm how DART reshaped Dimorphos.

DART was designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which oversees the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense. The mission is a project of the agency’s Planetary Mission Program Office, which is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. DART was humanity’s first mission to intentionally move a celestial object.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the DSN for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters.

› Back to Top

Crew, Cargo Launches to Space Station Scheduled for March 21

Equipment installs, health investigations, and training occupied the schedule aboard the International Space Station on March 19 as the seven orbital residents near the arrival of three crew members and a cargo delivery.

nasa-johnson-astronauts.jpg?w=2048
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on Nov. 2, 2023.
Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin

NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission to the station is scheduled for launch at 3:55 p.m. CDT March 21 from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The Dragon cargo craft will deliver food, supplies, and new science investigations to the crew, including a set of sensors for the free-flying Astrobee robots and a new botany experiment to examine how two types of grass capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Dragon will autonomously dock to the zenith port of the Harmony module at 6:30 a.m. March 23.

Ahead of Dragon’s liftoff, three crew members – NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, and Flight Engineer Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus – will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:21 a.m. March 21. The international crew will take a short ride to the station, docking only a few hours later at 11:39 p.m., before opening the hatch and joining the Expedition 70 crew in microgravity. Dyson will begin a six-month microgravity research mission once aboard, while Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days on station before departing back to Earth with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.

NASA TV will cover both launches beginning at 7:20 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. respectively.

Aboard station, the crew returned to work March 19 following a few days off-duty. Throughout the day, O’Hara and two of her NASA crewmates, Michael Barratt and Matthew Dominick, completed a round of SpaceX Dragon rendezvous training ahead of Dragon’s cargo arrival.

The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within the HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

› Back to Top

Europa Clipper Mission Highlighted on ‘This Week at NASA’

Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center recently fully extended the first of two five-panel solar arrays for the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. The mission is featured in “This Week @ NASA,” a weekly video program broadcast on NASA-TV and posted online.

The 46.5-foot arrays also will be inspected and cleaned as part of assembly, test, and launch operations. Targeted for launch in October 2024, the mission will study Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is believed to have a global ocean beneath its icy crust that has more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

View this and previous episodes at “This Week @NASA” on NASA’s YouTube page.

› Back to Top

View the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By NASA
      Researchers demonstrated the feasibility of 3D bioprinting a meniscus or knee cartilage tissue in microgravity. This successful result advances technology for bioprinting tissue to treat musculoskeletal injuries on long-term spaceflight or in extraterrestrial settings where resources and supply capacities are limited.

      BFF Meniscus-2 evaluated using the BioFabrication Facility to 3D print knee cartilage tissue using bioinks and cells. The meniscus is the first engineered tissue of an anatomically relevant shape printed on the station. Manufactured human tissues have potential as alternatives to donor organs, which are in short supply. Bioprinting in microgravity overcomes some of the challenges present in Earth’s gravity, such as deformation or collapse of tissue structures.
      A human knee meniscus 3D bioprinted in space using the International Space Station’s BioFabrication Facility.Redwire Complex cultures of central nervous system cells known as brain organoids can be maintained in microgravity for long periods of time and show faster development of neurons than cultures on Earth. These findings could help researchers develop treatments for neurodegenerative diseases on Earth and address potential adverse neurological effects of spaceflight.

      Cosmic Brain Organoids examined growth and gene expression in 3D organoids created with neural stem cells from individuals with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Results could improve understanding of these neurological diseases and support development of new treatments. Researchers plan additional studies on the underlying causes of the accelerated neuron maturation.
      Neural growth in brain organoids that spent more than a month in space. Jeanne Frances Loring, National Stem Cell Foundation Researchers demonstrated that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be processed in microgravity using off the-shelf cell culture materials. Using standard laboratory equipment and protocols could reduce costs and make space-based biomedical research accessible to a broader range of scientists and institutions.

      Stellar Stem Cells Ax-2 evaluated how microgravity affects methods used to generate and grow stem cells into a variety of tissue types on the ground. iPSCs can give rise to any type of cell or tissue in the human body, and insight into processing in space could support their use in regenerative medicine and future large-scale biomanufacturing of cellular therapeutics in space.
      NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, an Axiom Mission 2 crew member, works on stem cell research on a previous mission. NASA/Shane KimbroughView the full article
    • By NASA
      Astrogram banner TIME Recognizes the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System
      In October, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System a project managed at NASA Ames, was recognized by TIME Magazine as a “Top Invention of 2024”! TIME Magazine also recognized two other NASA missions this year: Europa Clipper, and the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment.   
      The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is a demonstration of technologies that enable spacecraft to “sail on sunlight,” using solar radiation for propulsion. Results from this mission could provide an alternative to chemical and electric propulsion systems and guide the design of future larger-scale spacecraft for space weather early warning satellites, near-Earth asteroid reconnaissance missions, or communications relays for crewed exploration missions at the Moon and Mars.  
      The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System a project managed at NASA Ames, was recognized by TIME Magazine as a “Top Invention of 2024.”NASA This twelve-unit (12U) CubeSat features a reflective sail held taut by composite booms made from flexible polymer and carbon fiber materials that are stiffer and lighter than previous designs. The square-shaped solar sail measures approximately 80 square meters, but the new boom technology could support future missions for solar sails up to 500 square meters.   
      The mission launched on April 23 via a Rocket Lab Electron rocket and met its primary objective in August by deploying the boom and sail system in space. Next, the team will attempt to demonstrate maneuverability in orbit using the sail.   
      Congratulations to the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System team and the Small Spacecraft Technology program office, based at Ames, for this well-earned recognition. Their contributions continue to push the boundaries of what we can achieve at NASA, and this acknowledgment highlights the capabilities and vision of our center.   

      Representative Anna Eshoo Recognized for 32 Years of Distinguished Public Service
      On Oct. 29, Ames hosted a recognition event for Representative Anna Eshoo to honor her 32 years of public service and to thank her for her enduring support for NASA and our center. Representative Eshoo announced her retirement from Congress in 2023.
      On Oct. 29, Ames Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu presented the Pioneer Plaque to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo in the ballroom of Building 3 at NASA Research Park.NASA photo by Brandon Torres Representative Zoe Lofgren, public officials from across the Bay Area, and colleagues from around the center were in attendance to celebrate Representative Eshoo’s decades of tireless support. During the formal program, Ames Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu presented her with a replica of a Pioneer Plaque (photo above) as a token of appreciation for her many years as a champion for NASA Ames – from Hangar One, to the USGS Building, and the Moffett Field Museum.
      Congresswoman Anna Eshoo gives remarks to the audience during the unveiling of her commemorative plaque at the Moffett Field Museum, in NASA Research Park, on Oct. 29.NASA photo by Brandon Torres Safety Day Organizational Silence Town Hall Held

      On Oct. 1, a Safety Day Organizational Silence Town Hall was held that focused on employee feedback and insights from prior Safety Culture, Federal Employee Viewpoint, and DEIA Organizational Climate surveys.
      Fostering a psychologically safe culture of open communication at NASA and Ames is imperative for the safety of our team and for the collective success of our missions. This is a topic of particular interest and concern to Ames center leadership. 
      Acting Director of the NASA Safety Center Bob Conway speaks during the Oct. 1 Safety Day Organization Silence Town Hall.NASA photo by Don RIchey Acting Director of the NASA Safety Center, Bob Conway, presented in person at Ames to conduct the hybrid town hall event in the N201 auditorium on Organizational Silence. In addition to valuable insights and tactics, there was the opportunity for employees to ask questions via a Conference I/O channel and in person during the event. 
      Following the main presentation, Associate Center Director Amir Deylami, at the podium, leads a question-and-answer session with the town hall audience and online attendees of the Safety Day: Organizational Silence town hall, with (seated left to right) Acting Director of the NASA Safety Center Bob Conway, Deputy Center Director David Korsmeyer, Director of Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate Drew Demo, and Director of Center Operations Directorate Aga Goodsell.NASA photo by Don RIchey Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy Visits Ames, Attends Roundtable Discussions

      NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy speaks with NASA 2040 participants in the lobby of N232, during her visit to Ames on Sept. 16.NASA photo by Brandon Torres On Sept. 16, Ames welcomed NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy to the center. Having toured the facilities at Ames on past visits, Melroy visited the center to engage in several roundtable discussions with employees focused on procurement, NASA 2040, and leadership. She also greeted a delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, with Australia being among the original eight international partners to sign on to the Artemis Accords in 2020. Across all of her conversations, Melroy voiced her appreciation for the Ames workforce for their steadfast dedication. She also consistently expressed her admiration for the diverse array of foundational work being done at Ames to advance NASA’s mission. 

      President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs Visits Ames
      The President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs visited Ames on Sept. 18 to learn about our aeronautics research and some of the center’s technical capabilities. Accompanied by a delegation of Latvian business representatives, the president visited the Airspace Operations Lab and FutureFlight Central.  
      President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs, right, chats with Ames Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu, second from right, while in FutureFlight Central.NASA photo by Brandon Torres During the visit, he was briefed on the center’s air traffic management simulation capabilities aimed at solving the challenges – present and emerging – of the nation’s air traffic management system. Center experts discussed innovative work in airspace management, including commercial and public safety drone operations that extend from local incidents to large-scale disaster response. Through these international visits, we are showcasing NASA to the world.  

      Discussions, Lightning Pitches Presented at Ames’ Aeronautics Innovation Forum
      The 2024 Aeronautics Innovation Forum was held Sept. 17 – 19, supporting aeronautics research and innovation. A panel discussion, “Aeronautics & Space Economy” was held the first day with Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, Director of the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) acting as the moderator. Panelists were Dr. Alex MacDonald, Chief Economist, NASA; Peter Shannon, Radius Capital, AAM Investor; Julia Black, Director of Range Operations, Stoke Space; and Dr. Yewon Kim, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Facility tours were also given during the forum. Lightning pitches were presented, along with an All Hands meeting, an aeronautics taco fiesta picnic and games at the Ames Park, and an ice cream social and Aeronautics Innovation Center (AIC) discussion.
      Director of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) Parimal Kopardekar (PK) moderates a panel session “Aeronautics & Space Economy” during the 2024 Ames Aeronautics Innovation Forum in the Syvertson Auditorium.NASA photo by Don Richey Nelson Iwai gives attendees of the 2024 Ames Aeronautics INNOVATION Forum a tour of the Aerospace Cognitive Engineering Lab Rapid Automation Test Environment (ACEL-RATE) in N262.NASA photo by Don Richey Don Durston gives his lightening pitch on day three of the 2024 Ames Aeronautics Innovation Forum in the Syvertson Auditorium.NASA photo by Don Richey Following the 2024 Ames Aeronautics Innovation Forum, attendees met in Mega-Bytes for an ice cream social and to discuss the Aeronautics Innovation Center.NASA photo by Don Richey
      NASA and Partners Scaling to New Heights in Air Traffic Management
      by Hillary Smith
      NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, recently demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes.
      This work seeks to open the door for increased internet coverage, improved disaster response, expanded scientific missions, and even supersonic flight. The concept is referred to as an Upper-Class E traffic management, or ETM.  There is currently no traffic management system or set of regulations in place for aircraft operating 60,000 feet and above. There hasn’t been a need for a robust traffic management system in this airspace until recently. That’s because commercial aircraft couldn’t function at such high altitudes due to engine constraints.  
      NASA and partners from Aerostar and AeroVironment discuss a simulation of a high-altitude air traffic management system in the Airspace Operations Lab at NASA Ames.NASA photo by Don Richey However, recent advancements in aircraft design, power, and propulsion systems are making it possible for high- altitude, long-endurance vehicles — such as balloons, airships, and solar aircraft — to coast miles above our heads, providing radio relay for disaster response, collecting atmospheric data, and more.  
      But before these aircraft can regularly take to the skies, operators must find a way to manage their operations without overburdening air traffic infrastructure and personnel.  
      “We are working to safely expand high-altitude missions far beyond what is currently possible,” said Kenneth Freeman, a subproject manager for this effort at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “With routine, remotely piloted high-altitude operations, we have the opportunity to improve our understanding of the planet through more detailed tracking of climate change, provide internet coverage in underserved areas, advance supersonic flight research, and more.” 
      Current high-altitude traffic management is processed manually and on a case-by-case basis. Operators must contact air traffic control to gain access to a portion of the Class E airspace. During these operations, no other aircraft can enter this high-altitude airspace. This method will not accommodate the growing demand for high-altitude missions, according to NASA researchers.  
      To address this challenge, NASA and its partners have developed an ETM traffic management system that allows aircraft to autonomously share location and flight plans, enabling aircraft to stay safely separated. 
      During the recent traffic management simulation in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at Ames, data from multiple air vehicles was displayed across dozens of traffic control monitors and shared with partner computers off site.
      This included aircraft location, health, flight plans and more. Researchers studied interactions between a slow fixed-wing vehicle from AeroVironment and a high-altitude balloon from Aerostar operating at stratospheric heights.
      Each aircraft, connected to the ETM traffic management system for high altitude, shared location and flight plans with surrounding aircraft.  
      This digital information sharing allowed Aerostar and AeroVironment high-altitude vehicle operators to coordinate and deconflict with each other in the same simulated airspace, without having to gain approval from air traffic control.
      Because of this, aircraft operators were able to achieve their objectives, including wireless communication relay. 
      This simulation represents the first time a traffic management system was able to safely manage a diverse set of high-altitude aircraft operations in the same simulated airspace.
      Next, NASA researchers will work with partners to further validate this system through a variety of real flight tests with high-altitude aircraft in a shared airspace.   
      The Upper-Class E traffic management concept was developed in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and high-altitude platform industry partners, under NASA’s National Airspace System Exploratory Concepts and Technologies subproject led out of Ames.  

      Starship Super Heavy Breezes Through Wind Tunnel Testing at NASA Ames
      by Lee Mohon
      NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress toward Artemis III and beyond, the first crewed lunar landing missions under the agency’s Artemis campaign. SpaceX, the commercial Human Landing System (HLS) provider for Artemis III and Artemis IV, recently tested a 1.2% scale model of the Super Heavy rocket, or booster, in the transonic Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames. The Super Heavy rocket will launch the Starship human landing system to the Moon as part of Artemis.
      A 1.2% scale model of the Super Heavy rocket that will launch the Starship human landing system to the Moon for future crewed Artemis missions was recently tested at NASA Ames’ transonic wind tunnel, providing valuable information on vehicle stability when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.NASA During the tests, the wind tunnel forced an air stream at the Super Heavy scale model at high speeds, mimicking the air resistance and flow the booster experiences during flight. The wind tunnel subjected the Super Heavy model, affixed with pressure-measuring sensors, to wind speeds ranging from Mach .7, or about 537 miles per hour, to Mach 1.4, or about 1,074 miles per hour. Mach 1 is the speed that sound waves travel, or 761 miles per hour, at sea level.
      Engineers then measured how Super Heavy model responded to the simulated flight conditions, observing its stability, aerodynamic performance, and more. Engineers used the data to update flight software for flight 3 of Super Heavy and Starship and to refine the exterior design of future versions of the booster. The testing lasted about two weeks and took place earlier in 2024.
      After Super Heavy completes its ascent and separation from Starship HLS on its journey to the Moon, SpaceX plans to have the booster return to the launch site for catch and reuse. The Starship HLS will continue on a trajectory to the Moon.
      To get to the Moon for the Artemis missions, astronauts will launch in NASA’s Orion spacecraft aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once in lunar orbit, Orion will dock with the Starship HLS or with Gateway. Once the spacecraft are docked, the astronauts will move from Orion or Gateway to the Starship HLS, which will bring them to the surface of the Moon. After surface activities are complete, Starship will return the astronauts to Orion or Gateway waiting in lunar orbit. The astronauts will transfer to Orion for the return trip to Earth. 
      With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s SLS, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, Gateway lunar space station, and future rovers are NASA’s foundation for deep space exploration.

      2024 NASA SmallSat In-Person LEARN Forum Held

      Audience members participate in a discussion during the 2024 NASA SmallSat Learning from Experience, Achievements, and Resolution, Navigation LEARN forum held Sept. 24 in the ballroom of Building 3 at NASA Research Park.NASA NASA Conjunction Assessment Program Officer Lauri Newman speaks at the 2024 NASA SmallSat Learning from Experience, Achievements, and Resolution, Navigation LEARN forum in the ballroom of Building 3 at NASA Research Park.NASA Attendees of the 2024 NASA SmallSat Learning from Experience, Achievements, and Resolution, Navigation LEARN forum read about other projects during the poster session in the ballroom of Building 3 at NASA Research Park.NASA NASA Astronauts, Leadership Visit Children’s Hospital, Cancer Moonshot Event
      NASA astronauts, scientists, and researchers, and leadership from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) met with cancer patients and gathered in a discussion about potential research opportunities and collaborations as part of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative on Oct. 4.
      Roundtable discussions centered conversation around the five hazards of human spaceflight: space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, gravity, and closed or hostile environments. Many of these hazards have direct correlations to a cancer patient’s lived experience, like the isolation of a hospital room and long-term effects of radiation.
      NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell pose with Eli Toribio and Rhydian Daniels at the University of California, San Francisco Bakar Cancer Hospital. Patients gathered to meet the astronauts and learn more about human spaceflight and NASA’s cancer research efforts.NASA photo by Brandon Torres During the visit with patients at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell answered questions about spaceflight and life in space.
      Patients also received a video message from NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station, and met with the Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Vanessa Wyche, Ames Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu, and other agency leaders.
      Leadership from NASA and the University of California, San Francisco gathered for an informal luncheon before a collaborative roundtable discussion of research opportunities. From left to right, Alan Ashworth, president of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Eugene Tu, director NASA Ames, Dr. David Korsmeyer, deputy director NASA Ames, Sam Hawgood, chancellor of UCSF, and Vanessa Wyche, director NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA photo by Brandon Torres By connecting the dots between human space research and cancer research, NASA and the University of California hope to open doors to innovative new research opportunities. NASA is working with researchers, institutions, and agencies across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, a goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
      Learn more about the Cancer Moonshot at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot

      NASA Begins New Deployable Solar Array Tech Demo on Pathfinder Spacecraft
      by Gianine Figliozzi
      NASA recently evaluated initial flight data and imagery from Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-4 (PTD-4), confirming proper checkout of the spacecraft’s systems including its on-board electronics as well as the payload’s support systems such as the small onboard camera. Shown below is a test image of Earth taken by the payload camera, shortly after PTD-4 reached orbit. This camera will continue photographing the technology demonstration during the mission. 
      Payload operations are now underway for the primary objective of the PTD-4 mission – the demonstration of a new power and communications technology for future spacecraft. The payload, a deployable solar array with an integrated antenna called the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna, or LISA-T, has initiated deployment of its central boom structure. The boom supports four solar power and communication arrays, also called petals. Releasing the central boom pushes the still-stowed petals nearly three feet (one meter) away from the spacecraft bus. The mission team currently is working through an initial challenge to get LISA-T’s central boom to fully extend before unfolding the petals and beginning its power generation and communication operations.
      A test image of Earth taken by NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-4’s onboard camera. The camera will capture images of the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna upon deployment.NASA Small spacecraft on deep space missions require more electrical power than what is currently offered by existing technology. The four-petal solar array of LISA-T is a thin-film solar array that offers lower mass, lower stowed volume, and three times more power per mass and volume allocation than current solar arrays. The in-orbit technology demonstration includes deployment, operation, and environmental survivability of the thin-film solar array.  
      “The LISA-T experiment is an opportunity for NASA and the small spacecraft community to advance the packaging, deployment, and operation of thin-film, fully flexible solar and antenna arrays in space. The thin-film arrays will vastly improve power generation and communication capabilities throughout many different mission applications,” said Dr. John Carr, deputy center chief technologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “These capabilities are critical for achieving higher value science alongside the exploration of deep space with small spacecraft.”
      The Pathfinder Technology Demonstration series of missions leverages a commercial platform which serves to test innovative technologies to  increase the capability of small spacecraft. Deploying LISA-T’s thin solar array in the harsh environment of space presents inherent challenges such as deploying large highly flexible non-metallic structures with high area to mass ratios. Performing experiments such as LISA-T on a smaller, lower-cost spacecraft allows NASA the opportunity to take manageable risk with high probability of great return. The LISA-T experiment aims to enable future deep space missions with the ability to acquire and communicate data through improved power generation and communication capabilities on the same integrated array.
      The PTD-4 small spacecraft is hosting the in-orbit technology demonstration called LISA-T. The PTD-4 spacecraft deployed into low Earth orbit from SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rocket which launched from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Aug. 16. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama designed and built the LISA-T technology as well as LISA-T’s supporting avionics system. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program, based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, funds and manages the PTD-4 mission as well as the overall Pathfinder Technology Demonstration mission series. Terran Orbital Corporation of Irvine, California, developed and built the PTD-4 spacecraft bus, named Triumph.

      2024 Silver Snoopy Awards Presented by Astronaut Nicole Mann
      On Oct. 24, Astronaut Nicole Mann presented the Silver Snoopy Awards in the Syvertson Auditorium at the center. The Silver Snoopy best symbolizes the intent and spirit of Space Flight Awareness.  An astronaut always presents the Silver Snoopy because it is the astronauts’ own award for outstanding performance, contributing to flight safety and mission success.  Fewer than one percent of the aerospace program workforce receive it annually, making it a special honor to receive this award.
      Silver Snoopy Award recipient Tomomi Oishi (holding award) and Astronaut Nicole Mann with colleagues in the Syvertson Auditorium during the award ceremony on Oct. 24.NASA photo by Brandon Torres Silver Snoopy Award presented to Ali Guarneros Luna, center, by Center Director Dr. Eugene Tu, left, and Astronaut Nicole Mann in the Syvertson Auditorium on Oct. 24.NASA photo by Brandon Torres Jordan Kam Receives a Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Undergraduate Research Competition Award
      by Maria C. Lopez
      Jordan Kam, a rising star at NASA Ames and a dedicated member of the Ames Hispanic Advisory Committee for Employees (HACE), recently received the prestigious Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Undergraduate Research Competition Award at the SHPE 50th National Convention held in Anaheim, California.
      Left to right, at the SHPE 50th National Convention award ceremony: Oscar Dubón, professor of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and associate dean of Students in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley; Jordan Kam, recipient of the SHPE Undergraduate Research Competition Award; and Marvin Lopez, director of Student Programs, College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. Currently pursuing an engineering degree at UC Berkeley, Jordan also is interning at NASA Ames through the Volunteer Internship Program, supporting the Intelligent Systems Division. Jordan’s award-winning research, entitled “Development of The Wireless Prototype ‘STAMPS’ for Data Acquisition, Analysis, and Visualization,” focuses on the System for Telemetry Amalgamation of Multimodal Prognostics. This innovative project plays a crucial role in diagnostics and prognostics for the Earth Independent Operations (EIO) Domain, which is essential for NASA’s Mars Campaign efforts.
      The SHPE National Convention is the largest annual gathering of Hispanic STEM students and professionals, with more than 20,000 members dedicated to promoting Hispanic leadership in STEM fields. Jordan’s achievement is not only a testament to hard work and dedication but also an inspiration to all of us.

      Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Ignacio Lopez-Francos Featured in Newsweek En Español
      by Maria C. Lopez
      In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Newsweek En Español has released a special October/November edition that highlights Hispanics around the globe who are making significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. NASA Ames’ very own Ignacio Lopez-Francos has been featured in this prestigious publication!
      Ignacio Lopez-Francos, a principal research engineer with the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames has been featured in this Newsweek En Español. Ignacio is a principal research engineer with the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames, working through the KBR Wyle Services, LLC contract. Ignacio’s groundbreaking research focuses on applied AI for robot autonomy, encompassing core areas such as vision-based navigation, 3D scene reconstruction, geospatial mapping, edge computing, and foundation models. In addition to Ignacio’s impressive technical work, Ignacio is an active member of the Ames Hispanic Advisory Committee for Employees (HACE), further demonstrating his commitment to community and representation.
      Congratulations, Ignacio! Your pioneering efforts in AI are not only advancing technology but also making a global impact. It is inspiring to see you representing the NASA workforce and serving as a role model for future generations. We celebrate your passion and dedication!

      Congratulations to Major Crystal A. Armendariz on her Promotion to Army Major!
      by Maria C. Lopez
      On Sept. 16, the Ames Veterans Committee (AVC) proudly celebrated the promotion of Crystal A. Armendariz to the rank of United States Army Major during a ceremony at NASA Ames. This momentous occasion was organized by AVC and the Asian American Pacific Islander Advisory Group (AAPIAG), bringing together colleagues and friends to honor Major Armendariz’s exceptional service and dedication.
      Major Crystal Armendariz 397th Engineer Battalion Executive Officer (center) wears her new Major rank, standing alongside her daughter Maya Karp and guest David Chavez during the September 16 ceremony. Major Armendariz is a distinguished military graduate of California State University-Sacramento, where she earned a degree in Health Science with a focus on Community Health Education, as well as her commission in the United States Army. After completing the Army Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leader Course, she began her career with the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade at Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawaii, quickly deploying to Afghanistan as the Brigade Assistant Intelligence Officer in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Her career has since seen her take on key leadership roles, including Battalion Intelligence Officer in Charge and Company Executive Officer, where she demonstrated remarkable skill and commitment to her missions.
      Following her completion of the Army Military Intelligence Captain’s Career Course, Major Armendariz served at Fort Carson, Colorado, and took part in Operation Atlantic Resolve in Germany. Her leadership extended to managing complex security programs and providing critical intelligence support in joint operational environments. In 2021, she served as the Battalion Security Officer for the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, ensuring safety compliance and advising command on security matters across multiple operational theaters.
      In 2023, Major Armendariz transitioned to the 397th Reserve Engineer Battalion in Marina, California, as the Battalion S2. Shortly thereafter, she was selected as the Battalion Executive Officer and promoted to Major, overseeing staff operations and ensuring effective communication and planning. Her impressive accolades include the Knowlton Award, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and several other commendations that highlight her unwavering commitment to excellence in military service. Congratulations Major Crystal Armendariz on a well-deserved promotion and remarkable achievements!

      Faces of NASA – Ames’ Dr. Donald Mendoza, Chief Engineer
      “From my earliest childhood, flight had always captivated me. I lived out in the boonies and the farmlands, so I didn’t have neighbors to go and play with. If I wasn’t working, I was left to my own devices, and often, I would just be captivated by the wildlife and in particular, the birds of prey that I would see.
      Dr. Donald Menodoza, Chief Engineer, NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Ames.NASA photo by Dominic Hart “To me, they represented a freedom of some kind or another. These birds and the view they have — they can take in so much. So, from that point on, I knew I wanted to be involved in flight and aviation.
      “I [enjoyed] all things flight, all things spaceflight. I couldn’t get enough of it. I became an avid reader, whereas before, I wasn’t much of a reader. I couldn’t get enough material to read about my heroes from flight and space. They became my role models and the path that they took involved, at some point or another, a pretty rigorous education and dedication to doing well academically, physically, or athletically. So, I threw myself into that entire sort of mindset.
      “When I was working for the Air Force, I was able to fly and work on aircraft that I would dream about, looking at in the magazines Aviation Week and Space Technology. Here they are, right in front of me.
      “… So, my career has been as close as possible to that of a flight test engineer. And then, right on the heels of being captivated by atmospheric flight, working in human spaceflight has put me over the Moon.”
      —Dr. Donald Mendoza, Chief Engineer, NASA Engineering & Safety Center, NASA’s Ames Research Center
      Check out some of our other Faces of NASA.

      Cybersecurity Specialist Jonathan Kaldani Inspires Students at CSU East Bay
      On Oct. 29, Jonathan Kaldani, a cybersecurity specialist on the Cybersecurity Posture Assessment Services (CPAS) team within the Cybersecurity and Privacy Division (CSPD) at NASA Ames, spoke to students in Professor Ahmed Banafa’s Computer Network class at CSU East Bay in Hayward, California.
      Jonathan Kaldani, a cybersecurity specialist on the Cybersecurity Posture Assessment Services (CPAS) team at NASA Ames, giving his “Fly Me to the Moon” presentation to a Computer Network class at CSU East Bay in Hayward, California. The insightful session, “Fly Me to the Moon” delved into NASA’s mission and it’s future, and cybersecurity. It provided students with valuable career insights, including information about jobs and internships at NASA. The engagement was exceptional with students actively participating, and showcasing a high level of interest through numerous questions that extended beyond the scheduled class time.
      For all NASA Ames employees, if you are interested in sharing the NASA mission with others in your community, you are encouraged to take time to participate in NASA Engages speaking events!

      We Are All Made of Cells: Space and the Immune System
      by Rachel Hoover
      Malcolm O’Malley and his mom sat nervously in the doctor’s office awaiting the results of his bloodwork. This was no ordinary check-up. In fact, this appointment was more urgent and important than the SATs the seventeen-year-old, college hopeful had spent months preparing for and was now missing in order to understand his symptoms. 
      But when the doctor shared the results – he had off-the-charts levels of antibodies making him deathly allergic to shellfish – O’Malley realized he had more questions than answers. Like: Why is my immune system doing this? How is it working? Why is it reacting so severely and so suddenly (he’d enjoyed shrimp less than a year ago)? And why does the only treatment – an injection of epinephrine – have nothing to do with the immune system, when allergies appear to be an immune system problem? Years later, O’Malley would look to answer some of these questions while interning in the Space Biosciences Research Branch at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
      Bone cells NASA/Eduardo Almeida and Cassie Juran “Anaphylaxis is super deadly and the only treatment for it is epinephrine; and I remember thinking, ‘how is this the best we have?’ because epinephrine does not actually treat the immune system at all – it’s just adrenaline,” said O’Malley, who recently returned to his studies as a Ph.D. student of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville. “And there’s a thousand side effects, like heart attacks and stroke – I remember thinking ‘these are worse than the allergy!’”
      O’Malley’s curiosity and desire to better understand the mechanisms and connections between what triggers different immune system reactions combined with his interest in integrating datasets into biological insights inspired him to shift his major from computer science to biomedical engineering as an undergraduate student. With his recent allergy diagnosis and a lifelong connection to his aunt who worked at the UVA Heart and Vascular Center, O’Malley began to build a bridge between the immune system and heart health. By the time he was a senior in college, he had joined the Cardiac Systems Biology Lab, and had chosen to focus his capstone project on better understanding the role of neutrophils, a specific type of immune cell making up 50 to 70% of the immune system, that are involved in cardiac inflammation in high blood pressure and after heart attacks.
      “The immune system is involved in everything,” O’Malley says. “Anytime there’s an injury – a paper cut, a heart attack, you’re sick – the immune system is going to be the first to respond; and neutrophils are the first responders.”
      jA preflight image of beating cardiac spheroid composed of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs), endothelial cells (ECs), and cardiac fibroblasts (CFs). These cells are incubated and put under the microscope in space as part of the Effect of Microgravity on Drug Responses Using Heart Organoids (Cardinal Heart 2.0) investigation.
      Image credit: courtesy of Drs. Joseph Wu, Dilip Thomas and Xu Cao, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute O’Malley’s work to determine what regulates the immune system’s interrelated responses – like how one cell could affect other cells or immune processes downstream – provided a unique opportunity for him to support multiple interdisciplinary NASA biological and physical sciences research projects during his 10-week internship at NASA Ames over the summer of 2024. O’Malley applied machine learning techniques to the large datasets the researchers were using from experiments and specimens collected over many years to help identify possible causes of inflammation seen in the heart, brain, and blood, as well as changes seen in bones, metabolism, the immune system, and more when humans or other model organisms are exposed to decreased gravity, social isolation, and increased radiation. These areas are of keen interest to NASA due to the risks to human health inherent in space exploration and the agency’s plans to send humans on long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
      “It’s exciting that we just never know what’s going to happen, how the immune system is going to react until it’s already been activated or challenged in some way,” said O’Malley. “I’m particularly interested in the adaptive immune system because it’s always evolving to meet new challenges; whether it’s a pandemic-level virus, bacteria or something on a mission to Mars, our bodies are going to have some kind of adaptive immune response.”
      During his NASA internship, O’Malley applied a statistical analysis techniques to plot and make more sense of the massive amounts of life sciences data. From there, researchers could find out which proteins, out of hundreds, or attributes – like differences in sex – are related to which behaviors or outcomes. For example, through O’Malley’s analysis, researchers were able to better pinpoint the proteins involved in inflammation of the brain that may play a protective role in spatial memory and motor control during and after exposure to radiation – and how we might be able to prevent or mitigate those impacts during future space missions and even here on Earth.
      “I had this moment where I realized that since my internship supports NASA’s Human Research Program that means the work I’m doing directly applies to Artemis, which is sending the first woman and person of color to the Moon,” reflected O’Malley. “As someone who’s both black and white, representation is important to me. It’s inspiring to think there will be people like me on the Moon – and that I’m playing a role in making this happen.”
      When O’Malley wasn’t exploring the mysteries of the immune system for the benefit of all at NASA Ames, he taught himself how to ride a bike and started to surf in the nearby waters of the Pacific Ocean. O’Malley considers Palmyra, Virginia, his hometown and he enjoys playing sports – especially volleyball, water polo, and tennis – reading science fiction and giving guest lectures to local high school students hoping to spark their curiosity. 
      O’Malley’s vision for the future of biomedical engineering reflects his passion for innovation. “I believe that by harnessing the unique immune properties of other species, we can achieve groundbreaking advancements in limb regeneration, revolutionize cancer therapy, and develop potent antimicrobials that are considered science fiction today,” he said.

      Wildly Popular 21st Annual Chili Cook-Off and Car Show Held
      The Ames Exchange sponsored its 21st annual Chili Cook-Off on Oct. 30 behind Building 3. The theme for this year’s event was “Halloween Night,” which led to some really creative costumes. Attendees, both from Ames and the NASA Research Park, sampled chili and voted on their favorites. See below for photos of some of the spooky entries. A car and motorcycle show was also held in conjunction with the chili cook-off.
      The 21st Annual Chili Cook-off held Oct. 30 with Hanger One in the background.NASA photos by Don Richey The NASA Ames Fire Department won the Judge’s Choice award for best chili. The classic car collection at the recent Chili Cook-off. One of the collector’s cars at the Chili Cook-off. Classic bike collection at the Chili Cook-off. Employees Participate in the October Fun Run/Walk & Roll
      Runners begin the 2-mile Fun Run/Walk & Roll, sponsored by the Ames Fitness Center. The course covers a 2-mile stretch starting on Durand Road, runs up DeFrance Road to North Perimeter Road and back. The Ames Fitness Center is committed to fostering an inclusive community and encourages everyone, regardless of fitness level, experience, or capability, to participate in these events. Invite your colleagues and come join the fun at future Fun Run/Walk & Roll events! Contact Marco or Orion at the Fitness Center 650-604-5804 or visit https://q.arc.nasa.gov/content/fitness-center for more information about these events and other Fitness Center classes and programs.
      Runners begin the October 2-mile Fun Run/Walk & Roll, sponsored by the Ames Fitness Center. NASA photo by Don Richey Runners and organizers of the 2-mile Fun Run/Walk & Roll, sponsored by the Ames Fitness Center. Eric Yee front row left, David King, Nicholas Wogan, Sarah Nickerson, Jose Ignacio de Alvear Cardenas, Lara Lash, Bob Windhorst, Jon Hill, and Marco Santoyo front row right. Orion Spellman back row left, Marton Mester, Alejandro Serrano Borlaff, Evan Crowe, Jackson Donaldson, Jonathan Kaldani, Clayton Elder, and Collin Payne back row right.NASA photo by Don RIchey In Memoriam …

      Laura Lewis, Science Directorate Project Manager, Dies
      Laura Lewis passed away on Sept. 24 after a three-year fight against cancer.  Laura spent her entire 34-year career at NASA. She was a member of the Science Directorate at Ames. Laura launched her career at Kennedy Space Center. She then moved to Headquarters to work in the Space Life Sciences Office. She joined the Ames community in 1995.
      Laura Lewis Laura is survived by her husband and fellow Ames colleague, Bruce Yost, three children, and their three German Shepards.
      A passionate animal lover, Laura found ways throughout her life to care for and advocate for animals. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be sent to animal shelters or animal rescue organizations such as the San Jose Humane Society or Sunshine Canyon Dog Rescue.
      Laura was a valued member of the NASA community. We extend our condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues.

      Former Technology Partnerships Manager Robin Orans Passes Away

      Robin Orans Robin Orans passed away on Sept. 27.  She was the technology partnership manager at Ames for 27 years. Prior to that role, she served as the software release authority for the center. She retired from NASA in 2015.
      Throughout Robin’s career at Ames she received numerous awards including NASA Ames Total Award for pivotal efforts in organizing the Technical SUPPORT Paper Contest for Woman and serving as the Technical Committee Paper Contest Committee in 1992; NASA Ames 2001 Technical Support Honor Award; NASA Ames 2015 Administrative Professional Honor Award; and NASA Ames 2016 Exceptional Service Medal.
      We value the many years Robin dedicated to the NASA mission and send our condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues.

      Joseph (Jay) Skiles, Senior Research Scientist, Dies
      Dr. Joseph (Jay) W. Skiles III passed away at home on October 22. He had a long and varied career studying, teaching, and lecturing about environmental sciences. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Redlands, an M.S. in Botany from the University of Idaho, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Irvine.
      Joseph (Jay) Skiles Jay worked with a number of organizations, including SETI, Johnson Controls, and NASA Ames. While at Ames, he sponsored and tutored select groups of students, lectured internationally, evaluated various projects from schools and agencies, and initiated and developed scientific investigative projects on his own. He has worked modeling the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on ecosystems and modeling perturbations of Arctic ecosystems. He studied terrestrial plant responses to increased ultraviolet radiation in the polar regions of Earth and the effects of low intensity microwave fields on vascular plants. He used supercomputers to do ecosystem modeling.
      While not at work, Jay volunteered with the Mountain View Police Department and played golf. He was active with the local Masonic lodge and was a pretty fair clarinetist. Jay was born in Bakersfield, California, to Rev. Joseph W. Skiles II and Genevieve Eola Moody Skiles. He is survived by his brother Stephen, his sister Elizabeth, and eight nieces and nephews.
      Private service arrangements are pending.

      View the full article
    • By European Space Agency
      Week in images: 04-08 November 2024
      Discover our week through the lens
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      1 Min Read Oral History with Jon A. McBride, 1943 – 2024
      Jon A. McBride with the IMAX large format camera in the middeck during the STS-41G mission. Credits: NASA Selected as an astronaut in 1978, Jon A. McBride served as the pilot for STS 41-G, launched October 5, 1984, the first shuttle mission to carry a full crew of seven. His other NASA assignments included lead chase pilot for the maiden voyage of Columbia and CAPCOM for three early shuttle flights.
      Read more about Jon McBride
      Jon A. McBride Oral History, 4/17/12 NASA Biography More NASA Oral Histories The transcripts available on this site are created from audio-recorded oral history interviews. To preserve the integrity of the audio record, the transcripts are presented with limited revisions and thus reflect the candid conversational style of the oral history format. Brackets and ellipses indicate where the text has been annotated or edited for clarity. Any personal opinions expressed in the interviews should not be considered the official views or opinions of NASA, the NASA History Office, NASA historians, or staff members.
      View the full article
    • By European Space Agency
      Space startups and SMEs can meet ESA’s SME Office at Space Tech Expo, a space technology trade fair and conference in Bremen, Germany from 19–21 November.
      View the full article
  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...