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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Shauntina Lilly, a NASA Glenn public affairs officer, speaks to students about NASA’s available internships and educational resources during the STEM Goes Red for Girls event at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, on Oct. 21.Credit: NASA/Debbie Welch NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland supported this year’s STEM Goes Red for Girls event at Great Lakes Science Center on Oct. 21. The program provides seventh and eighth grade students exposure to some of Greater Cleveland’s leading STEM companies. The event also featured a hands-on exhibitor fair, speed mentoring, and educational classes.
Hosted by the American Heart Association, this year’s event welcomed its largest audience to date with 352 students and educators from 32 schools within Northeast Ohio. NASA Glenn’s presence focused heavily on internships and career advice, but also highlighted the center’s work with the Space Communications and Navigation program’s Deep Space Network. Glenn’s Julie Sufka also served as a mentor, speaking to young girls about STEM opportunities in mathematics.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Note: The following article is part of a series highlighting propulsion testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. To access the entire series, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/propulsion-powering-space-dreams/.
Crews at NASA’s Stennis Space Center work Jan. 21-22, 2020, to install the first flight core stage of NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand for a Green Run test series. Operations required crews to lift the massive core stage from a horizontal position into a vertical orientation, a procedure known as “break over.” Once the stage was oriented in a horizontal position on the night of Jan. 21, crews tied it in place to await favorable wind conditions. The following morning, crews began the process of raising, positioning, and securing the stage on the stand. NASA/Stennis The future is now at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi – at least when it comes to helping power the next great era of human space exploration.
NASA Stennis is contributing directly to the agency’s effort to land the first woman, the first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon – for the benefit of all humanity. Work at the nation’s largest – and premier – propulsion test site will help power SLS (Space Launch System) rockets on future Artemis missions to enable long-term lunar exploration and prepare for the next giant leap of sending the first astronauts to Mars.
“We play a critical role to ensure the safety of astronauts on future Artemis missions,” NASA Stennis Space Center Director John Bailey said. “Our dedicated workforce is excited and proud to be part of NASA’s return to the Moon.”
NASA Stennis achieved an RS-25 testing milestone in April at the Fred Haise Test Stand. Completion of the successful RS-25 certification series provided critical data for L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) to produce new RS-25 engines, using modern processes and manufacturing techniques. The engines will help power SLS rockets beginning with Artemis V.
The first four Artemis missions are using modified space shuttle main engines also tested at NASA Stennis. For each Artemis mission, four RS-25 engines, along with a pair of solid rocket boosters, power the SLS rocket to produce more than 8.8 million pounds of total combined thrust at liftoff.
NASA’s powerful SLS rocket is the only rocket that can send the Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and cargo to the Moon on a single mission.
Following key test infrastructure upgrades near the Fred Haise Test Stand, NASA Stennis will be ready for more RS-25 engine testing. NASA has awarded L3Harris contracts to provide 24 new engines, supporting SLS launches for Artemis V through Artemis IX.
“Every RS-25 engine that launches Artemis to space will be tested at NASA Stennis,” said Joe Schuyler, director of the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate. “We take pride in helping to power this nation’s human space exploration program. We also take great care in testing these engines because they are launching astronauts to space. We always have safety in mind.”
NASA’s Stennis Space Center conducts a successful hot fire of the first flight core stage of NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand on March 18, 2021. NASA employees, as well as NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Zena Cardman, watched the milestone moment. The hot fire of more than eight minutes marked the culmination of a Green Run series of tests on the stage and its integrated systems. NASA/Stennis In addition to RS-25 testing, preparations are ongoing at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2) for future testing of the agency’s new exploration upper stage. The more powerful SLS second stage, which will send astronauts and cargo to deep space aboard the Orion spacecraft, is being built at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
Before its first flight, the NASA Stennis test team will conduct a series of Green Run tests on the new stage’s integrated systems to demonstrate it is ready to fly. Crews completed installation of a key component for testing the upper stage in October. The lift and installation of the 103-ton interstage simulator component, measuring 31 feet in diameter and 33 feet tall, provided crews best practices for moving and handling the actual flight hardware when it arrives to NASA Stennis.
The exploration upper stage Green Run test series will culminate with a hot fire of the stage’s four RL10 engines, made by L3Harris, the lead SLS engines contractor.
“All of Mississippi shares in our return to the Moon with the next great era of human space exploration going through NASA Stennis,” Bailey said. “Together, we can be proud of the state’s contributions to NASA’s great mission.”
For information about NASA’s Stennis Space Center, visit:
Stennis Space Center – NASA
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Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Teams with NASA and Lockheed Martin prepare to conduct testing on NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, in the altitude chamber inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lockheed Martin/David Wellendorf Teams lifted NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II test flight out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moved it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on Nov. 6 inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Engineers returned the spacecraft to the altitude chamber, which simulates deep space vacuum conditions, to complete the remaining test requirements and provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer.
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.
Image credit: Lockheed Martin/David Wellendorf
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 2 min read
Sols 4359-4361: The Perfect Road Trip Destination For Any Rover!
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its workspace, which includes several targets for investigation — “Buttress Tree,” “Forester Pass,” “Crater Mountain,” “Mahogany Creek,” and “Filly Lake.” Curiosity used its Left Navigation Camera on Nov. 8, 2024 — sol 4357, or Martian day 4.357, of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 00:06:17 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Friday, Nov. 8, 2024
After the excitement of Wednesday’s plan, it was a relief to come in today to hear that the drive toward our exit from Gediz Vallis completed successfully and that we weren’t perched on any rocks or in any other precarious position. This made for a very smooth planning morning, which is always nice on a Friday after a long week.
But that isn’t to say that Curiosity will be taking it easy for the weekend. Smooth planning means we have lots of time to pack in as much science as we can fit. Today, this meant that the geology group (GEO) got to name eight new targets, and the environmental group (ENV) got to spend some extra time contemplating the atmosphere. Reading through the list of target names from GEO felt a bit like reading a travel guide — top rocks to visit when you’re exiting Gediz Vallis!
If you look to the front of your rover, what we refer to as the “workspace” (and which you can see part of in the image above), you’ll see an array of rocks. Take in the polygonal fractures of “Colosseum Mountain” and be amazed by the structures of “Tyndall Creek” and “Cascade Valley.” Get up close and personal with our contact science targets, “Mahogany Creek,” “Forester Pass,” and “Buttress Tree.” Our workspace has something for everyone, including the laser spectrometers in the family, who will find plenty to explore with “Filly Lake” and “Crater Mountain.” We have old favorites too, like the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge and the Texoli outcrop.
After a busy day sightseeing, why not kick back with ENV and take a deep breath? APXS and ChemCam have you covered, watching the changing atmospheric composition. Look up with Navcam and you may see clouds drifting by, or spend some time looking for dust devils in the distance. Want to check the weather before planning your road trip? Our weather station REMS works around the clock, and Mastcam and Navcam are both keeping an eye on how dusty the crater is.
All good vacations must come to an end, but know that when it’s time to drive away there will be many more thrilling sights to come!
Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
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Last Updated Nov 11, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA/Carla Thomas NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits in its run stall at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, in this image from Oct. 30, 2024.
The engine-run tests, which began Oct. 30, allow the X-59 team to verify the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. In previous tests, the X-59 used external sources for power. The engine-run tests set the stage for the next phase of the experimental aircraft’s progress toward flight.
After the engine runs, the X-59 team will move to aluminum bird testing, where data will be fed to the aircraft under both normal and failure conditions. The team will then proceed with a series of taxi tests, where the aircraft will be put in motion on the ground. These tests will be followed by final preparations for first flight.
Image credit: NASA/Carla Thomas
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