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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 members (pictured from left to right) NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya OnishiCredit: NASA As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission, four crew members are preparing to launch for a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station.
NASA astronauts Commander Anne McClain and Pilot Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov will join astronauts at the orbiting laboratory no earlier than February 2025.
The flight is the 10th crew rotation with SpaceX to the station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. While aboard, the international crew will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future missions and benefit people on Earth.
Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, this will be McClain’s second spaceflight. A colonel in the U.S. Army, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and holds master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, International Security, and Strategic Studies. The Spokane, Washington, native was an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. McClain has more than 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat, and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Rugby Team. On her first spaceflight, McClain spent 204 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 58 and 59 and was the lead on two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. Since then, she has served in various roles, including branch chief and space station assistant to the chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office.
Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and the first member of NASA’s 2021 astronaut class named to a crew. The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a minor in Russian, where she was a member of the academy’s varsity volleyball team. She later earned a master’s in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University in Houston. Ayers served as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 ADAIR and F-22 Raptor, leading multinational and multiservice missions worldwide. She has more than 1,400 total flight hours, including more than 200 in combat.
With 113 days in space, this mission also will mark Onishi’s second trip to the space station. After being selected by JAXA in 2009, he flew as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49 became the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese experiment module. Since his spaceflight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo and was a pilot for All Nippon Airways, flying more than 3,700 flight hours in the Boeing 767.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission also will be Peskov’s first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, he earned a degree in Engineering from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School and was a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for airlines Nordwind and Ikar. Assigned as a test-cosmonaut in 2020, he has additional experience in skydiving, zero-gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA’s Artemis campaign is underway at the Moon, where the agency is preparing for future human exploration of Mars.
Find more information on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
-end-
Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Raegan Scharfetter
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-910-4989
raegan.r.scharfetter@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 01, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Crew Anne C. McClain Astronauts Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) ISS Research Nichole Ayers View the full article
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3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA has officially announced the 2025 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition.Credit: National Institute of Aerospace NASA has officially announced the 2025 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, an initiative to fuel innovation for aerospace systems concepts, analogs, and technology prototyping through university engagement. RASC-AL, one of NASA’s longest-running student competitions, solicits concepts from the next generation of engineers and scientists to explore the future of deep space exploration.
RASC-AL is seeking proposals from the university community to develop new concepts that leverage innovation to improve our ability to operate on the Moon, Mars and beyond. This year’s themes range from developing large-scale lunar surface architectures enabling long-term, off-world habitation, to designing new systems that address objective characteristics and needs and leverage human-scale exploration infrastructure for new science paradigms.
Through RASC-AL, teams and their faculty advisors will design innovative solutions with supporting original engineering and analysis in response to one of the following four themes:
Sustained Lunar Evolution – An Inspirational Moment
Advanced Science Missions and Technology Demonstrators for Human-Mars Precursor Campaign
Small Lunar Servicing and Maintenance Robot
“The RASC-AL competition is a wellspring for groundbreaking ideas,” said Dan Mazanek, Assistant Branch Head for the Exploration Space Mission Analysis Branch (SMAB) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “It fosters creativity and pushes the boundaries of what is possible in space exploration. We are looking for innovative solutions that can advance our capabilities beyond Earth’s orbit and pave the way for sustainable lunar exploration and beyond.”
Interested undergraduate and graduate university student teams and their faculty advisors should submit a Notice of Intent by October 16, 2024, and submit proposals and videos by February 24, 2025. Based on review of the team proposal and video submissions in March, up to 14 teams will be selected to advance to the final phase of the competition – presenting their concepts to a panel of NASA and industry judges in a competitive design review at the 2025 RASC-AL Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida next June.
In addition to their research, teams are also highly encouraged to develop a prototype of part or all of their concept to demonstrate its key functions. Each finalist team will receive a $6,500 stipend to facilitate their full participation in the 2025 RASC-AL Competition, and the top two overall teams will be awarded with additional travel stipends to present their concept at an aerospace conference later in 2025.
Dr. Christopher Jones, Chief Technologist for the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) at NASA Langley, emphasized RASC-AL’s distinctive fusion of educational value with real-world experience. “RASC-AL provides students with a unique opportunity to engage directly with NASA’s vision for space exploration. Participants not only gain hands-on experience in developing aerospace concepts but also contribute fresh perspectives that the Agency can take as inspiration for future missions and technologies.”
The call for proposals is now open, with proposal submissions due by February 24, 2025. Interested student teams are encouraged to visit the official RASC-AL competition website for detailed guidelines and eligibility requirements.
RASC-AL is sponsored by the Strategy and Architecture Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, and by SMAB within SACD at NASA Langley. It is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace.
For more information about the RASC-AL competition, including eligibility, complete themes, and submission guidelines, visit: http://rascal.nianet.org
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5 min read NASA Additive Manufacturing Project Shapes Future for Agency, Industry Rocket Makers
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5 Min Read NASA Additive Manufacturing Project Shapes Future for Agency, Industry Rocket Makers
Additively manufactured rocket engine hardware coupled with advanced composites allows for precision features, such as multi-material coolant channels developed by the Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology team at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama Credits: NASA The widespread commercial adoption of additive manufacturing technologies, commonly known as 3D printing, is no surprise to design engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama whose research created stronger, lighter weight materials and new manufacturing processes to make rocket parts.
NASA’s RAMPT (Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology) project is on the cutting-edge of additive manufacturing – helping the agency and industry produce new alloys and additively manufactured parts, commonly referred to as 3D printing, according to Paul Gradl, the project’s co-principal investigator at NASA Marshall.
“Across NASA’s storied legacy of vehicle and hardware design, testing, and integration, our underlying strength is in our application of extremely durable and severe environment materials and innovative manufacturing for component design,” said Gradl. “We strive to fully understand the microstructure and properties of every material and how they will ultimately be used in components before we make them available to industry for flight applications.”
The same principle applies to additive manufacturing, the meticulous process of building components and hardware one layer of material at a time.
The graphic captures additive manufacturing technology milestones led by the RAMPT project. Using 3D-printed, liquid oxygen/hydrogen thrust chamber hardware at chamber pressures of up to 1,400 pounds per square inch, Marshall engineers have completed 12 hot-fire tests totaling a combined 330 seconds. The project also has delivered composite materials demonstrating a 40% weight savings over conventional bimetallic combustion chambers. NASA and its industry partners are working to make this cutting-edge technology accessible for a host of future NASA and commercial space missions. NASA/Pablo Garcia “The RAMPT project’s goal is to support commercial, technical readiness, enabling our industry partners to meet the challenges inherent in building new generations of safer, more cost-effective deep space exploration propulsion systems,” said John Fikes, RAMPT project manager.
Since its inception, RAMPT has conducted 500 test-firings of 3D-printed injectors, nozzles, and chamber hardware totaling more than 16,000 seconds, using newly developed extreme-environment alloys, large-scale additive manufacturing processes, and advanced composite technology. The project has also started developing a full-scale version for the workhorse RS-25 engine – which experts say could reduce its costs by up to 70% and cut manufacturing time in half.
As printed structures are getting bigger and more complex, a major area of interest is the additive manufacturing print scale. A decade ago, most 3D-printed parts were no bigger than a shoebox. Today, additive manufacturing researchers are helping the industry produce lighter, more robust, intricately designed rocket engine components 10-feet tall and eight-feet in diameter.
Tyler Gibson, left, and Allison Clark, RAMPT engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, inspect an additively manufactured composite overwrap thrust chamber assembly. Conventional rocket hardware may require more than 1,000 or more individually joined parts. Additive manufacturing permits engineers to print these channels in novel alloys as a single piece with multiple alloys, dramatically reducing manufacturing time. NASA/Danielle Burleson “NASA, through public-private partnerships, is making these breakthroughs accessible to the commercial space industry to help them rapidly advance new flight technologies of their own,” Gradl said. “We’re solving technical challenges, creating new supply chains for parts and materials, and increasing the industry’s capacity to rapidly deliver reliable hardware that draws a busy commercial space infrastructure ever closer.”
The RAMPT project does not just develop the end technology but the means to fully understand that technology, whatever the application. That means advancing cutting-edge simulation tools that can identify the viability of new alloys and composites at the microstructural level – assessing how they handle the fiery rigors of liftoff, the punishing cold of space, and the dynamic stresses associated with liftoffs, landings, and the long transits between.
NASA’s strategy to encourage commercial and academic buy-in is to offer public-private partnership opportunities, wherein industry and academia contribute as much as 25% of project development costs, allowing them to reap the benefits.
For example, NASA successfully delivered a refined version of an alloy, known as GRCop42, created at NASA Glenn nearly 40 years ago which helped commercial launch provider, Relativity Space, launch the first fully 3D-printed rocket in March 2023.
“Our primary goal with these higher-performance alloys is to prove them in a rocket engine test-fire environment and then hand them off to enable commercial providers to build hardware, fly launch vehicles, and foster a thriving space infrastructure with real scientific, social, and economic rewards,” Gradl said.
A key benefit of additive manufacturing hardware development is radically reducing the “design-fail-fix” cycle – when engineers develop new hardware, ground-test it to failure to determine the hardware’s design limits under all possible conditions and then tweak accordingly. That capability is increasingly important with the creation of new alloys and designs, new processing techniques, and the introduction of composite overwraps and other innovations.
Shown above, during a hot-fire test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, this 2,000-pound-force coupled thrust chamber assembly features a NASA HR-1 alloy nozzle. Manufacturing the hardware requires the directed energy deposition process with composite-overwrap for structural support, reducing weight by 40%. Industry, academic, and government partners are working with RAMPT engineers at Marshall and other NASA field centers to advance this revolutionary technology.NASA This 2,000-pound-force coupled thrust chamber assembly features a NASA HR-1 alloy nozzle directly deposited onto the additive manufacturing combustion chamber using the directed energy deposition process and composite-overwrapped for structural support, reducing weight by 40%. It was hot-fire tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Industry, academic, and government partners are working with RAMPT engineers at Marshall and other NASA field centers to advance this revolutionary technology. NASA/Danielle Burleson The RAMPT project did just that, successfully advancing new additive manufacturing alloys and processes, integrating them with carbon-fiber composites to reduce weight by up to 40%, developing and validating new simulation tools – and making all this data available to industry through public-private partnerships.
“We’re able to deliver prototypes in weeks instead of years, conduct dozens of scaled ground tests in a period that would feasibly permit just one or two such tests of conventionally manufactured hardware, and most importantly, deliver technology solutions that are safer, lighter, and less costly than traditional components,” Gradl said.
Fikes added, “Ten years from now, we may be building rocket engines – or rockets themselves – out of entirely new materials, employing all-new processing and fabrication techniques. NASA is central to all of that.”
The RAMPT project continues to progress and receive recognition from NASA and industry partners. On July 31, the RAMPT team was awarded NASA’s 2024 Invention of The Year award for its excellence and contributions to NASA and the commercial industry’s deep space exploration goals.
NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, leads RAMPT, with key support among engineers and technologists at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; and Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, plus contributions from other academic partners and industry contractors. RAMPT is funded by NASA’s Game Changing Development Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Learn more at:
https://www.nasa.gov/rapid-analysis-and-manufacturing-propulsion-technology
Ramon J. Osorio
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov
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SLS Core Stage Rolls Inside Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage for the Artemis II mission is inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.
Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage 900-miles to the Florida spaceport from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it was manufactured and assembled.
After completing its journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility aboard the Pegasus barge, teams with Exploration Ground Systems transport the agency’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) core stage to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building on July 23.NASA/Isaac Watson Team members with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program safely transferred the 212-foot-tall core stage from the agency’s Pegasus barge, which arrived at NASA Kennedy’s Complex 39 turn basin wharf on July 23, onto the self-propelled module transporter, which is used to move large elements of hardware. It was then rolled to the Vehicle Assembly Building transfer aisle where teams will process it until it is ready for rocket stacking operations.
In the coming months, teams will integrate the rocket core stage atop the mobile launcher with the additional Artemis II flight hardware, including the twin solid rocket boosters, launch vehicle stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.
The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.
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Take 5 with Chris Calfee
By Wayne Smith
Ask Chris Calfee about his favorite memory from his 38-year career at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and you’ll discover it’s a difficult question to answer.
That’s because there have been many memories.
Chris Calfee is the SLS Spacecraft Payload Integration and Evolution element manager. NASA/Charles Beason Calfee was the integrator for the upper stage spacecraft for the Marshall-led Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which marked its 25th launch anniversary July 23. He’s worked with Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART), a technology mission aimed at demonstrating that a spacecraft could independently rendezvous with an orbiting satellite without human intervention. Calfee was the booster manager for the Ares I-X test flight, which he points to as another career highlight.
And then there’s his favorite memory – working with NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and watching the 2022 Artemis I launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
“I’ve been fortunate in my career to have the opportunities I’ve had with NASA,” said Calfee, the SLS Spacecraft Payload Integration and Evolution (SPIE) element manager. “Seeing the Chandra mission fly and the success it has had is awesome. Being able to work DART from cradle to grave, including its flight, was unforgettable. But I’d have to say being able to represent the SLS SPIE Element Office at Kennedy’s Launch Control Center and seeing Artemis I light up the night sky is the proudest moment.”
As the SLS Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution element manager, Calfee’s responsibilities include overseeing the development and delivering key adapter hardware for SLS rockets that will power the first crewed Artemis missions and first flight of SLS in its evolved Block 1B configuration. The hardware includes the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, and the Orion stage adapter – and the universal stage adapter for SLS Block 1B. The SPIE Element Office serves a key role in the successful execution of the SLS mission, both for the initial launch capability as well as the evolution of subsequent rocket configurations.
NASA moved a step closer to the Artemis II launch with the July shipment of the SLS core stage to Kennedy from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Calfee and his team have the adapters complete for Artemis II and will soon ship them to Kennedy for launch preparations. As work advances toward Artemis II, Calfee looks back on the Artemis I launch as a “surreal experience.” But he put his celebration on hold as he watched the initial moments of the flight.
“The pressure was on the SPIE hardware to finish the job for SLS as we tracked the successful booster burn and separation, and then the core stage’s excellent performance,” said Calfee, who is from Newport, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee. “The interim cryogenic propulsion (ICPS) stage 20-minute burn was approximately one and a half hours after launch, followed by Orion spacecraft separation from the ICPS and Orion stage adapter, the most critical event of the mission from my perspective. It was another huge relief to see the ICPS burn and the Orion separation event go flawlessly.”
Calfee pauses for a photo in front of the SLS rocket ahead of the Artemis I launch in 2022. NASA/Courtesy of Chris Calfee Memorable indeed.
Question: Looking ahead to Artemis II and the Artemis campaign, what excites you most about the future of human space exploration and your team’s role it?
Calfee: For me personally, it is exciting just to be a part of the future of human space flight and having the opportunity to influence that future. With respect to the SPIE team, it’s a similar feeling. Having the opportunity to lead a team that has such a significant role and responsibility in our future is an awesome experience.
Question: Who or what drives/motivates you?
Calfee: The opportunity to make a difference, be a part of history, and lead and mentor our future leaders.
Question: Who or what inspired you to pursue an education/career that led you to NASA and Marshall?
Calfee: My parents were my inspiration and provided me the opportunity to pursue my education. Although I followed the space program as a kid, specifically the Apollo program and Moon landings, I never dreamed that I would actually have the opportunity to work for NASA. I found my way to NASA via an on-campus interview job fair, was invited to Marshall for a follow-up interview, and it became an easy decision when an offer was made.
Question: What advice do you have for employees early in their NASA career or those in new leadership roles?
Calfee: For those early in their career, keep an open mind and be willing to take on new challenges. Diversify the resume. For those in new leadership roles, never get complacent. The moment you think you have it all figured out, something will surprise and humble you. I love the quote, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable,” because I guarantee as a leader, you will experience many uncomfortable moments.
Question: What do you enjoy doing with your time while away from work?
Calfee: Spending time with my grandkids. I also enjoy homebrewing and wine making, and I probably spend too much time following and watching college sports.
Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
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Stars, Stripes, and STEM: Q&A with Former NASA Intern, Miss America
Team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recently sat down with reigning Miss America, Madison Marsh. In addition to her crown, Marsh is a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force and a former intern who contributed to astrophysics research at Marshall. Watch to learn more about her experience studying gamma-ray bursts and hear what advice she has for anyone interested in a STEM career. (NASA)
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Thomas Brown Named Marshall’s Chief Engineer, Manager of Engineering Office
Thomas Brown has been named center chief engineer and manager of the Chief Engineering Office within the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective July 28.
Thomas Brown has been named center chief engineer and manager of the Chief Engineering Office within the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA In his role, Brown will be responsible for assuring the technical excellence and success of all Marshall-assigned spacecraft, propulsion, science payload, life support, and mission systems. He will provide expert technical leadership in planning, directing, and executing research, technology, ground and flight systems design and development, production, integration, and sustaining engineering for the Space Launch System Program, Human Landing System Program, the Human Exploration Development and Operations Office, and the Science and Technology Office.
Brown previously served as director of the Propulsion Systems Department of the Engineering Directorate, since 2020. In this role, he managed a $68 million annual budget and oversaw a workforce responsible for new and ongoing design and development activities for the propulsion components and systems at Marshall and other NASA centers.
As the capability lead for In-Space Transportation Systems from 2018-2020, Brown led the Systems Capability Leadership Team of system-specific subject matter experts from across the agency for the in-space transportation system’s disciplines, which support NASA’s robotic and human exploration missions. From 2014 to 2018, he was the NASA Technical Fellow for Propulsion and the NASA Propulsion Capability Lead, the agency’s most senior propulsion subject matter expert.
Between 2005 and 2014, Brown served as chief of two divisions within the Propulsion Systems Department, as well as technical advisor to the director of the Propulsion Systems Department at Marshall, where he assisted in internal technology investment planning and served in agency and cross-government level assignments. In 2007, he completed a one-year developmental assignment at Glenn Research Center as acting deputy manager of the Advanced Capabilities Project Office.
Brown began his NASA career at Marshall in 1999 as an aerospace engineer in the Space Transportation Directorate, performing propulsion systems analysis and integration. Initially working design, analysis, and integration of the X-34 Main Propulsion System and the Fastrac/MC-1 rocket engine, Brown’s activities quickly expanded into a broad range of propulsion technology development efforts. He served as chief engineer for several of these efforts during both the Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program and the Next Generation Launch Technology Program. Specific projects included the Main Propulsion and Auxiliary Propulsion Systems Technology Project and the ISTAR, Rocket Based Combined Cycle technology project.
Brown received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, before earning his master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. He holds a U.S. patent and has published more than 30 refereed journal publications, book sections, and conference proceedings related to fundamental combustion, advanced measurement techniques, propulsion technology, and propulsion systems analysis and integration.
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Marshall Deputy Director Rae Ann Meyer Honored During Huntsville City Football Club Space Night
NASA Marshall Deputy Director Rae Ann Meyer waves to a crowd of more than 4,000 fans at the Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville on July 27 during halftime of the soccer match between Huntsville City Football Club and Atlanta United 2. Meyer was honored as the “Hero of the Match,” recognizing her leadership and accomplishments in 35 years of service to the agency. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin)
Representatives from 10 Marshall programs and projects staffed booths and exhibits at the stadium throughout the match, sharing details of their respective work to thousands of guests. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin)
Marshall’s exhibit footprint began outside of the stadium, welcoming soccer and space fans to the stadium with inflatables and educational materials. (NASA/Taylor Goodwin)
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NASA Supports Burst Test for Orbital Reef Commercial Space Station
An element of a NASA-funded commercial space station, Orbital Reef, under development by Blue Origin and Sierra Space, recently completed a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test as part of the agency’s efforts for new destinations in low Earth orbit.
This milestone is part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded to Blue Origin in 2021. Orbital Reef includes elements provided by Sierra Space, including the LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat structure.
Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat following a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.Sierra Space Teams conducted the burst test on Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat structure using testing capabilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The inflatable habitat is fabricated from high-strength webbings and fabric that form a solid structure once pressurized. The multiple layers of soft goods materials that make up the shell are compactly stowed in a payload fairing and inflated when ready for use, enabling the habitat to launch on a single rocket.
“This is an exciting test by Sierra Space for Orbital Reef, showing industry’s commitment and capability to develop innovative technologies and solutions for future commercial destinations,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. “Every successful development milestone by our partners is one more step to achieving our goal of enabling commercial low Earth orbit destinations and expanding the low Earth orbit marketplace.”
The pressurization to failure during the test demonstrated the habitat’s capabilities and provided the companies with critical data supporting NASA’s inflatable softgoods certification guidelines, which recommend a progression of tests to evaluate these materials in relevant operational environments and understand the failure modes.
Demonstrating the habitat’s ability to meet the recommended factor of safety through full-scale ultimate burst pressure testing is one of the primary structural requirements on a soft goods article, such as Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat, seeking flight certification.
Prior to this recent test, Sierra Space conducted its first full-scale ultimate burst pressure test on the LIFE habitat at Marshall in December 2023. Additionally, Sierra Space previously completed subscale tests, first at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and then at Marshall as part of ongoing development and testing of inflatable habitation architecture.
NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations, including Orbital Reef, through funded and unfunded agreements. The current design and development phase will be followed by the procurement of services from one or more companies.
NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy in low Earth orbit where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit will provide the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy.
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DART Mission Sheds New Light on Target Binary Asteroid System
In studying data collected from NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which in 2022 sent a spacecraft to intentionally collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, the mission’s science team has discovered new information on the origins of the target binary asteroid system and why the DART spacecraft was so effective in shifting Dimorphos’ orbit.
In five recently published papers in Nature Communications, the team explored the geology of the binary asteroid system, comprising moonlet Dimorphos and parent asteroid Didymos, to characterize its origin and evolution and constrain its physical characteristics.
The various geological features observed on Didymos helped researchers tell the story of Didymos’ origins. The asteroid’s triangular ridge (first panel from left), and the so-called smooth region, and its likely older, rougher “highland” region (second panel from left) can be explained through a combination of slope processes controlled by elevation (third panel from left). The fourth panel shows the effects of spin-up disruption that Didymos likely underwent to form Dimorphos. Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin “These findings give us new insights into the ways that asteroids can change over time,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for Solar System Small Bodies at NASA Headquarters. “This is important not just for understanding the near-Earth objects that are the focus of planetary defense, but also for our ability to read the history of our Solar System from these remnants of planet formation. This is just part of the wealth of new knowledge we’ve gained from DART.”
Olivier Barnouin and Ronald-Louis Ballouz of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, led a paper that analyzed the geology of both asteroids and drew conclusions about their surface materials and interior properties. From images captured by DART and its accompanying LICIACube cubesat – contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the team observed the smaller asteroid Dimorphos’ topography, which featured boulders of varying sizes. In comparison, the larger asteroid Didymos was smoother at lower elevations, though rocky at higher elevations, with more craters than Dimorphos. The authors inferred that Dimorphos likely spun off from Didymos in a large mass shedding event.
There are natural processes that can accelerate the spins of small asteroids, and there is growing evidence that these processes may be responsible for re-shaping these bodies or even forcing material to be spun off their surfaces.
Analysis suggested that both Didymos and Dimorphos have weak surface characteristics, which led the team to posit that Didymos has a surface age 40–130 times older than Dimorphos, with the former estimated to be 12.5 million years and the latter less than 300,000 years old. The low surface strength of Dimorphos likely contributed to DART’s significant impact on its orbit.
“The images and data that DART collected at the Didymos system provided a unique opportunity for a close-up geological look of a near-Earth asteroid binary system,” said Barnouin. “From these images alone, we were able to infer a great deal of information on geophysical properties of both Didymos and Dimorphos and expand our understanding on the formation of these two asteroids. We also better understand why DART was so effective in moving Dimorphos.”
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Based on the internal and surface properties described in Barnouin et al. (2024), this video demonstrates how the spin-up of asteroid Didymos could have led to the growth of its equatorial ridge and the formation of the smaller asteroid Dimorphos, seen orbiting the former near the end of the clip. Particles are colored according to their speeds, with the scale shown at the top, along with the continually changing spin period of Didymos.University of Michigan/Yun Zhang and Johns Hopkins APL/Olivier Barnouin Maurizio Pajola, of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome, and co-authors led a paper comparing the shapes and sizes of the various boulders and their distribution patterns on the two asteroids’ surfaces. They determined the physical characteristics of Dimorphos indicate it formed in stages, likely of material inherited from its parent asteroid Didymos. That conclusion reinforces the prevailing theory that some binary asteroid systems arise from shed remnants of a larger primary asteroid accumulating into a new asteroid moonlet.
Alice Lucchetti, also of INAF, and colleagues found that thermal fatigue – the gradual weakening and cracking of a material caused by heat – could rapidly break up boulders on the surface of Dimorphos, generating surface lines and altering the physical characteristics of this type of asteroid more quickly than previously thought. The DART mission was likely the first observation of such a phenomenon on this type of asteroid.
Supervised by researcher Naomi Murdoch of ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, and colleagues, a paper led by students Jeanne Bigot and Pauline Lombardo determined Didymos’ bearing capacity – the surface’s ability to support applied loads – to be at least 1,000 times lower than that of dry sand on Earth or lunar soil. This is considered an important parameter for understanding and predicting the response of a surface, including for the purposes of displacing an asteroid.
Colas Robin, also of ISAE-SUPAERO, and co-authors analyzed the surface boulders on Dimorphos, comparing them with those on other rubble pile asteroids, including Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu. The researchers found the boulders shared similar characteristics, suggesting all these types of asteroids formed and evolved in a similar fashion. The team also noted that the elongated nature of the boulders around the DART impact site implies that they were likely formed through impact processing.
These latest findings form a more robust overview of the origins of the Didymos system and add to the understanding of how such planetary bodies were formed. As ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission prepares to revisit DART’s collision site in 2026 to further analyze the aftermath of the first-ever planetary defense test, this research provides a series of tests for what Hera will find and contributes to current and future exploration missions while bolstering planetary defense capabilities.
Johns Hopkins APL managed the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office, which is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA provided support for the mission from several centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Glenn Research Center, and Langley Research Center.
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Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen
In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT — the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before.
“A few minutes after the BOAT erupted, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor recorded an unusual energy peak that caught our attention,” said lead researcher Maria Edvige Ravasio at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and affiliated with Brera Observatory, part of INAF (the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics) in Merate, Italy. “When I first saw that signal, it gave me goosebumps. Our analysis since then shows it to be the first high-confidence emission line ever seen in 50 years of studying GRBs.”
A jet of particles moving at nearly light speed emerges from a massive star in this artist’s concept. The star’s core ran out of fuel and collapsed into a black hole. Some of the matter swirling toward the black hole was redirected into dual jets firing in opposite directions. We see a gamma-ray burst when one of these jets happens to point directly at Earth. NASA A paper about the discovery appears in the July 26 edition of the journal Science.
When matter interacts with light, the energy can be absorbed and reemitted in characteristic ways. These interactions can brighten or dim particular colors (or energies), producing key features visible when the light is spread out, rainbow-like, in a spectrum. These features can reveal a wealth of information, such as the chemical elements involved in the interaction. At higher energies, spectral features can uncover specific particle processes, such as matter and antimatter annihilating to produce gamma rays.
“While some previous studies have reported possible evidence for absorption and emission features in other GRBs, subsequent scrutiny revealed that all of these could just be statistical fluctuations. What we see in the BOAT is different,” said coauthor Om Sharan Salafia at INAF-Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy. “We’ve determined that the odds this feature is just a noise fluctuation are less than one chance in half a billion.”
GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the cosmos and emit copious amounts of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. The most common type occurs when the core of a massive star exhausts its fuel, collapses, and forms a rapidly spinning black hole. Matter falling into the black hole powers oppositely directed particle jets that blast through the star’s outer layers at nearly the speed of light. We detect GRBs when one of these jets points almost directly toward Earth.
The BOAT, formally known as GRB 221009A, erupted Oct. 9, 2022, and promptly saturated most of the gamma-ray detectors in orbit, including those on Fermi. This prevented them from measuring the most intense part of the blast. Reconstructed observations, coupled with statistical arguments, suggest the BOAT, if part of the same population as previously detected GRBs, was likely the brightest burst to appear in Earth’s skies in 10,000 years.
The brightest gamma-ray burst yet recorded gave scientists a new high-energy feature to study. Learn what NASA’s Fermi mission saw, and what this feature may be telling us about the burst’s light-speed jets. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) The putative emission line appears almost 5 minutes after the burst was detected and well after it had dimmed enough to end saturation effects for Fermi. The line persisted for at least 40 seconds, and the emission reached a peak energy of about 12 MeV (million electron volts). For comparison, the energy of visible light ranges from 2 to 3 electron volts.
So what produced this spectral feature? The team thinks the most likely source is the annihilation of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
“When an electron and a positron collide, they annihilate, producing a pair of gamma rays with an energy of 0.511 MeV,” said coauthor Gor Oganesyan at Gran Sasso Science Institute and Gran Sasso National Laboratory in L’Aquila, Italy. “Because we’re looking into the jet, where matter is moving at near light speed, this emission becomes greatly blueshifted and pushed toward much higher energies.”
If this interpretation is correct, to produce an emission line peaking at 12 MeV, the annihilating particles had to have been moving toward us at about 99.9% the speed of light.
“After decades of studying these incredible cosmic explosions, we still don’t understand the details of how these jets work,” noted Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Finding clues like this remarkable emission line will help scientists investigate this extreme environment more deeply.”
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by Goddard. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is responsible for one of the instruments on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope – the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, or GBM. The GBM studies gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, as well as other flashes of gamma rays. The GBM sees these bursts across the entire sky, and scientists are using its observations to learn more about the universe.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Johnson Space Center: ORDEM represents the state of the art in orbital debris models intended for engineering analysis. It is a data-driven model, relying on large quantities of radar, optical, in situ, and laboratory measurement data. When released, it was the first software code to include a model for different orbital debris material densities, population models from low Earth orbit (LEO) all the way to Geosynchronous orbit (GEO), and uncertainties in each debris population.
ORDEM allows users to compute the orbital debris flux on any satellite in Earth orbit. This allows satellite designers to mitigate possible orbital debris damage to a spacecraft and its instruments using shielding and design choices, thereby extending the useful life of the mission and its experiments. The model also has a mode that simulates debris telescope/radar observations from the ground. Both it and the spacecraft flux mode can be used to design experiments to measure the meteoroid and orbital debris environments.
ORDEM is used heavily in the hypervelocity protection community, those that design, build, and test shielding for spacecraft and rocket upper stages. The fidelity of the ORDEM model allows for the optimization of shielding to balance mission success criteria, risk posture, and cost considerations.
As both government and civilian actors continue to exploit the space environment for security, science, and the economy, it is important that we track the debris risks in increasingly crowded orbits, in order to minimize damage to these space assets to make sure these missions continue to operate safely. ORDEM is NASA’s primary tool for computing and mitigating these risks.
ORDEM is used by NASA, the Department of Defense, and other U.S. government agencies, directly or indirectly (via the Debris Assessment Software, MSC-26690-1) to evaluate collision risk for large trackable objects, as well as other mission-ending risks associated with small debris (such as tank ruptures or wiring cuts). In addition to the use as an engineering tool, ORDEM has been used by NASA and other missions in the conceptual design phase to analyze the frequency of orbital debris impacts on potential in situ sensors that could detect debris too small to be detected from ground-based assets.
Commercial and academic users of ORDEM include Boeing, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, the University of Colorado, California Polytechnic State University, among many others. These end users, similar to the government users discussed above, use the software to (1) directly determine potential hazards to spaceflight resulting from flying through the debris environment, and (2) research how the debris environment varies over time to better understand what behaviors may be able to mitigate the growth of the environment.
The quality and quantity of data available to the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) for the building, verification, and validation of the ORDEM model is greater than for any other entity that performs similar research. Many of the models used by other research and engineering organizations are derived from the models that ODPO has published after developing them for use in ORDEM.
ORDEM Team
Alyssa Manis Andrew B, Vavrin Brent A. Buckalew Christopher L. Ostrom Heather Cowardin Jer-chyi Liou John H, Seago John Nicolaus Opiela Mark J. Matney, Ph.D. Matthew Horstman Phillip D. Anz-Meador, Ph.D. Quanette Juarez Paula H. Krisko, Ph.D. Yu-Lin Xu, Ph.D. Share
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Last Updated Jul 31, 2024 EditorBill Keeter Related Terms
Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) View the full article
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