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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA instruments and aircraft are helping identify potential sources of critical minerals across vast swaths of California, Nevada, and other Western states. Pilots gear up to reach altitudes about twice as high as those of a cruising passenger jet.NASA NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been mapping the planets since Apollo. One team is searching closer to home for minerals critical to national security and the economy.
If not for the Joshua trees, the tan hills of Cuprite, Nevada, would resemble Mars. Scalded and chemically altered by water from deep underground, the rocks here are earthly analogs for understanding ancient Martian geology. The hills are also rich with minerals. They’ve lured prospectors for more than 100 years and made Cuprite an ideal place to test NASA technology designed to map the minerals, craters, crusts, and ices of our solar system.
Sensors that discovered lunar water, charted Saturn’s moons, even investigated ground zero in New York City were all tested and calibrated at Cuprite, said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He’s honed instruments in Nevada for decades.
One of Green’s latest projects is to find and map rocky surfaces in the American West that could contain minerals crucial to the nation’s economy and security. Currently, the U.S. is dependent on imports of 50 critical minerals, which include lithium and rare earth elements used in everything from rechargeable batteries to medicine.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are searching nationwide for domestic sources. NASA is contributing to this effort with high-altitude aircraft and sensors capable of detecting the molecular fingerprints of minerals across vast, treeless expanses in wavelengths of light not visible to human eyes.
The hills of Cuprite, Nevada, appear pink and tan to the eye (top image) but they shine with mica, gypsum, and alunite among other types of minerals when imaged spectroscopically (lower image). NASA sensors used to study Earth and other rocky worlds have been tested there.USGS/Ray Kokaly The collaboration is called GEMx, the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment, and it’s likely the largest airborne spectroscopic survey in U.S. history. Since 2023, scientists working on GEMx have charted more than 190,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of North American soil.
Mapping Partnership Started During Apollo
As NASA instruments fly in aircraft 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) overhead, Todd Hoefen, a geophysicist, and his colleagues from USGS work below. The samples of rock they test and collect in the field are crucial to ensuring that the airborne observations match reality on the ground and are not skewed by the intervening atmosphere.
The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
For example, geologic maps of the Moon made in the early 1960s at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, helped Apollo mission planners select safe and scientifically promising sites for the six crewed landings that occurred from 1969 to 1972. Before stepping onto the lunar surface, NASA’s Moon-bound astronauts traveled to Flagstaff to practice fieldwork with USGS geologists. A version of those Apollo boot camps continues today with astronauts and scientists involved in NASA’s Artemis mission.
Geophysicist Raymond Kokaly, who leads the GEMx campaign for USGS, is pictured here conducting ground-based hyperspectral imaging of rock in Cuprite, Nevada, in April 2019.USGS/Todd Hoefen The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
Rainbows and Rocks
To detect minerals and other compounds on the surfaces of rocky bodies across the solar system, including Earth, scientists use a technology pioneered by JPL in the 1980s called imaging spectroscopy. One of the original imaging spectrometers built by Robert Green and his team is central to the GEMx campaign in the Western U.S.
About the size and weight of a minifridge and built to fly on planes, the instrument is called AVIRIS-Classic, short for Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. Like all imaging spectrometers, it takes advantage of the fact that every molecule reflects and absorbs light in a unique pattern, like a fingerprint. Spectrometers detect these molecular fingerprints in the light bouncing off or emitted from a sample or a surface.
In the case of GEMx, that’s sunlight shimmering off different kinds of rocks.
Compared to a standard digital camera, which “sees” three color channels (red, green, and blue), imaging spectrometers can see more than 200 channels, including infrared wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.
NASA spectrometers have orbited or flown by every major rocky body in our solar system. They’ve helped scientists investigate methane lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and study Pluto’s thin atmosphere. One JPL-built spectrometer is currently en route to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, to help search for chemical ingredients necessary to support life.
“One of the cool things about NASA is that we develop technology to look out at the solar system and beyond, but we also turn around and look back down,” said Ben Phillips, a longtime NASA program manager who led GEMx until he retired in 2025.
The Newest Instrument
More than 200 hours of GEMx flights are scheduled through fall 2025. Scientists will process and validate the data, with the first USGS mineral maps to follow. During these flights, an ER-2 research aircraft from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, will cruise over the Western U.S. at altitudes twice as high as a passenger jet flies.
At such high altitudes, pilot Dean Neeley must wear a spacesuit similar to those used by astronauts. He flies solo in the cramped cockpit but will be accompanied by state-of-the-art NASA instruments. In the belly of the plane rides AVIRIS-Classic, which will be retiring soon after more than three decades in service. Carefully packed in the plane’s nose is its successor: AVIRIS-5, taking flight for the first time in 2025.
Together, the two instruments provide 10 times the performance of the older spectrometer alone, but even by itself AVIRIS-5 marks a leap forward. It can sample areas ranging from about 30 feet (10 meters) to less than a foot (30 centimeters).
“The newest generation of AVIRIS will more than live up to the original,” Green said.
More About GEMx
The GEMx research project will last four years and is funded by the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. The initiative will capitalize on both the technology developed by NASA for spectroscopic imaging, as well as the agency’s expertise in analyzing the datasets and extracting critical mineral information from them.
Data collected by GEMx is available here.
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Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Written by Sally Younger
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Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A collage of artist concepts highlighting the novel approaches proposed by the 2025 NIAC awardees for possible future missions. Through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, NASA nurtures visionary yet credible concepts that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace, while engaging America’s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey.
These concepts span various disciplines and aim to advance capabilities such as finding resources on distant planets, making space travel safer and more efficient, and even providing benefits to life here on Earth. The NIAC portfolio of studies also includes several solutions and technologies that could help NASA achieve a future human presence on Mars. One concept at a time, NIAC is taking technology concepts from science fiction to reality.
Breathing beyond Earth
Astronauts have a limited supply of water and oxygen in space, which makes producing and maintaining these resources extremely valuable. One NIAC study investigates a system to separate oxygen and hydrogen gas bubbles in microgravity from water, without touching the water directly. Researchers found the concept can handle power changes, requires less clean water, works in a wide range of temperatures, and is more resistant to bacteria than existing oxygen generation systems for short-term crewed missions. These new developments could make it a great fit for a long trip to Mars.
Newly selected for another phase of study, the team wants to understand how the system will perform over long periods in space and consider ways to simplify the system’s build. They plan to test a large version of the system in microgravity in hopes of proving how it may be a game changer for future missions.
Detoxifying water on Mars
Unlike water on Earth, Mars’ water is contaminated with toxic chemical compounds such as perchlorates and chlorates. These contaminants threaten human health even at tiny concentrations and can easily corrode hardware and equipment. Finding a way to remove contaminates from water will benefit future human explorers and prepare them to live on Mars long term.
Researchers are creating a regenerative perchlorate reduction system that uses perchlorate reduction pathways from naturally occurring bacteria. Perchlorate is a compound comprised of oxygen and chlorine that is typically used for rocket propellant. These perchlorate reduction pathways can be engineered into a type of bacterium that is known for its remarkable resilience, even in the harsh conditions of space. The system would use these enzymes to cause the biochemical reduction of chlorate and perchlorate to chloride and oxygen, eliminating these toxic molecules from the water. With the technology to detoxify water on Mars, humans could thrive on the Red Planet with an abundant water supply.
Tackling deep space radiation exposure
Mitochondria are the small structures within cells often called the “powerhouse,” but what if they could also power human health in space? Chronic radiation exposure is among the many threats to long-term human stays in space, including time spent traveling to and from Mars. One NIAC study explores transplanting new, undamaged mitochondria to radiation-damaged cells and investigates cell responses to relevant radiation levels to simulate deep-space travel. Researchers propose using in vitro human cell models – complex 3D structures grown in a lab to mimic aspects of organs – to demonstrate how targeted mitochondria replacement therapy could regenerate cellular function after acute and long-term radiation exposure.
While still in early stages, the research could help significantly reduce radiation risks for crewed missions to Mars and beyond. Here on Earth, the technology could also help treat a wide variety of age-related degenerative diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction.
Suiting up for Mars
Mars is no “walk in the park,” which is why specialized spacesuits are essential for future missions. Engineers propose using a digital template to generate custom, cost-effective, high-performance spacesuits. This spacesuit concept uses something called digital thread technology to protect crewmembers from the extreme Martian environment, while providing the mobility to perform daily Mars exploration endeavors, including scientific excursions.
This now completed NIAC study focused on mapping key spacesuit components and current manufacturing technologies to digital components, identifying technology gaps, benchmarking required capabilities, and developing a conceptional digital thread model for future spacesuit development and operational support. This research could help astronauts suit up for Mars and beyond in a way like never before.
Redefining what’s possible
From studying Mars to researching black holes and monitoring the atmosphere of Venus, NIAC concepts help us push the boundaries of exploration. By collaborating with innovators and entrepreneurs, NASA advances concepts for future and current missions while energizing the space economy.
If you have a visionary idea to share, you can apply to NIAC’s 2026 Phase I solicitation now until July 15.
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA Tech to Use Moonlight to Enhance Measurements from Space
NASA's Arcstone instrument will be the first mission exclusively dedicated to measuring moonlight, or lunar reflectance, from space as a way to calibrate and improve science data collected by Earth-viewing, in-orbit instruments. Credits: Blue Canyon Technologies NASA will soon launch a one-of-a-kind instrument, called Arcstone, to improve the quality of data from Earth-viewing sensors in orbit. In this technology demonstration, the mission will measure sunlight reflected from the Moon— a technique called lunar calibration. Such measurements of lunar spectral reflectance can ultimately be used to set a high-accuracy, universal standard for use across the international scientific community and commercial space industry.
To ensure satellite and airborne sensors are working properly, researchers calibrate them by comparing the sensor measurements against a known standard measurement. Arcstone will be the first mission exclusively dedicated to measuring lunar reflectance from space as a way to calibrate and improve science data collected by Earth-viewing, in-orbit instruments.
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This visualization demonstrates how Arcstone will operate while in orbit measuring lunar reflectance to establish a new calibration standard for future Earth-observing remote sensors. Arcstone’s satellite platform was manufactured by Blue Canyon Technologies. NASA/Tim Marvel/Blue Canyon Technologies “One of the most challenging tasks in remote sensing from space is achieving required instrument calibration accuracy on-orbit,” said Constantine Lukashin, principal investigator for the Arcstone mission and physical scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “The Moon is an excellent and available calibration source beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The light reflected off the Moon is extremely stable and measurable at a very high level of detail. Arcstone’s goal is to improve the accuracy of lunar calibration to increase the quality of spaceborne remote sensing data products for generations to come.”
Across its planned six-month mission, Arcstone will use a spectrometer — a scientific instrument that measures and analyzes light by separating it into its constituent wavelengths, or spectrum — to measure lunar spectral reflectance. Expected to launch in late June as a rideshare on a small CubeSat, Arcstone will begin collecting data, a milestone called first light, approximately three weeks after reaching orbit.
“The mission demonstrates a new, more cost-efficient instrument design, hardware performance, operations, and data processing to achieve high-accuracy reference measurements of lunar spectral reflectance,” said Lukashin.
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Measuring the lunar reflectance at the necessary ranges of lunar phase angles and librations is required to build a highly accurate lunar reference. A satellite platform in space would provide this required sampling. Arcstone will use a spectrometer to demonstrate the ability to observe and establish a data record of lunar spectral reflectance throughout its librations and phases for other instruments to use the Moon to calibrate sensors.NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio Measurements of lunar reflectance taken from Earth’s surface can be affected by interference from the atmosphere, which can complicate calibration efforts. Researchers already use the Sun and Moon to calibrate spaceborne instruments, but not at a level of precision and agreement that could come from having a universal standard.
Lukashin and colleagues want to increase calibration accuracy by getting above the atmosphere to measure reflected solar wavelengths in a way that provides a stable and universal calibration source. Another recent NASA mission, called the Airborne Lunar Spectral Irradiance mission also used sensors mounted on high-altitude aircraft to improve lunar irradiance measurements from planes.
There is not an internationally accepted standard (SI-traceable) calibration for lunar reflectance from space across the scientific community or the commercial space industry.
“Dedicated radiometric characterization measurements of the Moon have never been acquired from a space-based platform,” said Thomas Stone, co-investigator for Arcstone and scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “A high-accuracy, SI-traceable lunar calibration system enables several important capabilities for space-based Earth observing missions such as calibrating datasets against a common reference – the Moon, calibrating sensors on-orbit, and the ability to bridge gaps in past datasets.”
The Arcstone spacecraft with solar panels installed as it is tested before being integrated for launch. Blue Canyon Technologies If the initial Arcstone technology demonstration is successful, a longer Arcstone mission could allow scientists to make the Moon the preferred reference standard for many other satellites. The new calibration standard could also be applied retroactively to previous Earth data records to improve their accuracy or fill in data gaps for data fields. It could also improve high-precision sensor performance on-orbit, which is critical for calibrating instruments that may be sensitive to degradation or hardware breakdown over time in space.
“Earth observations from space play a critical role in monitoring the environmental health of our planet,” said Stone. “Lunar calibration is a robust and cost-effective way to achieve high accuracy and inter-consistency of Earth observation datasets, enabling more accurate assessments of Earth’s current state and more reliable predictions of future trends.”
The Arcstone technology demonstration project is funded by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office’s In-space Validation of Earth Science Technologies. Arcstone is led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in partnership with Colorado University Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, USGS, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Resonon Inc., Blue Canyon Technologies, and Quartus Engineering.
For more information on NASA’s Arcstone mission visit:
https://science.larc.nasa.gov/arcstone/about/
About the Author
Charles G. Hatfield
Science Public Affairs Officer, NASA Langley Research Center
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Last Updated Jun 20, 2025 LocationNASA Langley Research Center Related Terms
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4 Min Read NASA to Gather In-Flight Imagery of Commercial Test Capsule Re-Entry
During the September 2023 daytime reentry of the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule, the SCIFLI team captured visual data similar to what they're aiming to capture during Mission Possible. Credits: NASA/SCIFLI A NASA team specializing in collecting imagery-based engineering datasets from spacecraft during launch and reentry is supporting a European aerospace company’s upcoming mission to return a subscale demonstration capsule from space.
NASA’s Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery (SCIFLI) team supports a broad range of mission needs across the agency, including Artemis, science missions like OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer), and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The SCIFLI team also supports other commercial space efforts, helping to develop and strengthen public-private partnerships as NASA works to advance exploration, further cooperation, and open space to more science, people, and opportunities.
Later this month, SCIFLI intends to gather data on The Exploration Company’s Mission Possible capsule as it returns to Earth following the launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. One of the key instruments SCIFLI will employ is a spectrometer detects light radiating from the capsule’s surface, which researchers can use to determine the surface temperature of the spacecraft. Traditionally, much of this data comes from advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling of what happens when objects of various sizes, shapes, and materials enter different atmospheres, such as those on Earth, Mars, or Venus.
“While very powerful, there is still some uncertainty in these Computational Fluid Dynamics models. Real-world measurements made by the SCIFLI team help NASA researchers refine their models, meaning better performance for sustained flight, higher safety margins for crew returning from the Moon or Mars, or landing more mass safely while exploring other planets,” said Carey Scott, SCIFLI capability lead at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
A rendering of a space capsule from The Exploration Company re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Image courtesy of The Exploration CompanyThe Exploration Company The SCIFLI team will be staged in Hawaii and will fly aboard an agency Gulfstream III aircraft during the re-entry of Mission Possible over the Pacific Ocean.
“The data will provide The Exploration Company with a little bit of redundancy and a different perspective — a decoupled data package, if you will — from their onboard sensors,” said Scott.
From the Gulfstream, SCIFLI will have the spectrometer and an ultra-high-definition telescope trained on Mission Possible. The observation may be challenging since the team will be tracking the capsule against the bright daytime sky. Researchers expect to be able to acquire the capsule shortly after entry interface, the point at roughly 200,000 feet, where the atmosphere becomes thick enough to begin interacting with a capsule, producing compressive effects such as heating, a shock layer, and the emission of photons, or light.
Real-world measurements made by the SCIFLI team help NASA researchers refine their models, meaning better performance for sustained flight, higher safety margins for crew returning from the Moon or Mars, or landing more mass safely while exploring other planets.
Carey Scott
SCIFLI Capability Lead
In addition to spectrometer data on Mission Possible’s thermal protection system, SCIFLI will capture imagery of the parachute system opening. First, a small drogue chute deploys to slow the capsule from supersonic to subsonic, followed by the deployment of a main parachute. Lastly, cloud-cover permitting, the team plans to image splashdown in the Pacific, which will help a recovery vessel reach the capsule as quickly as possible.
If flying over the ocean and capturing imagery of a small capsule as it zips through the atmosphere during the day sounds difficult, it is. But this mission, like all SCIFLI’s assignments, has been carefully modeled, choreographed, and rehearsed in the months and weeks leading up to the mission. There will even be a full-dress rehearsal in the days just before launch.
Not that there aren’t always a few anxious moments right as the entry interface is imminent and the team is looking out for its target. According to Scott, once the target is acquired, the SCIFLI team has its procedures nailed down to a — pardon the pun — science.
“We rehearse, and we rehearse, and we rehearse until it’s almost memorized,” he said.
Ari Haven, left, asset coodinator for SCIFLI’s support of Mission Possible, and Carey Scott, principal engineer for the mission, in front of the G-III aircraft the team will fly on.
Credit: NASA/Carey ScottNASA/Carey Scott The Exploration Company, headquartered in Munich, Germany, and Bordeaux,
France, enlisted NASA’s support through a reimbursable Space Act Agreement and will use SCIFLI data to advance future capsule designs.
“Working with NASA on this mission has been a real highlight for our team. It shows what’s possible when people from different parts of the world come together with a shared goal,” said Najwa Naimy, chief program officer at The Exploration Company. “What the SCIFLI team is doing to spot and track our capsule in broad daylight, over the open ocean, is incredibly impressive. We’re learning from each other, building trust, and making real progress together.”
NASA Langley is known for its expertise in engineering, characterizing, and developing spacecraft systems for entry, descent, and landing. The Gulfstream III aircraft is operated by the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
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Last Updated Jun 18, 2025 EditorJoe AtkinsonContactJoe Atkinsonjoseph.s.atkinson@nasa.govLocationNASA Langley Research Center Related Terms
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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA/Jacob Shaw A NASA system designed to measure temperature and strain on high-speed vehicles is set to make its first flights at hypersonic speeds – greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound – when mounted to two research rockets launching this summer.
Technicians in the Environmental Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, used machines called shakers to perform vibration tests on the technology, known as a Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS), on March 26. The tests confirmed the FOSS could operate while withstanding the shaking forces of a rocket launch. Initial laboratory and flight tests in 2024 went well, leading to the recently tested system’s use on the U.S. Department of Defense coordinated research rockets to measure critical temperature safety data.
Hypersonic sensing systems are crucial for advancing hypersonics, a potentially game-changing field in aeronautics. Capitalizing on decades of research, NASA is working to address critical challenges in hypersonic engine technology through its Advanced Air Vehicles Program.
Using FOSS, NASA will gather data on the strain placed on vehicles during flight, as well as temperature information, which helps engineers understand the condition of a rocket or aircraft. The FOSS system collects data using a fiber about the thickness of a human hair that collects data along its length, replacing heavier and bulkier traditional wire harnesses and sensors.
Jonathan Lopez and Allen Parker confer on the hypersonic Fiber Optic Sensor System at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on February 13, 2025. The system measures strain and temperature, critical safety data for hypersonic vehicles that travel five time the speed of sound.NASA/Steve Freeman “There is no reliable technology with multiple sensors on a single fiber in the hypersonic environment,” said Patrick Chan, FOSS project manager at Armstrong. “The FOSS system is a paradigm shift for hypersonic research, because it can measure temperature and strain.”
For decades, NASA Armstrong worked to develop and improve the system, leading to hypersonic FOSS, which originated in 2020. Craig Stephens, the Hypersonic Technology Project associate project manager at NASA Armstrong, anticipated a need for systems and sensors to measure temperature and strain on hypersonic vehicles.
“I challenged the FOSS team to develop a durable data collection system that had reduced size, weight, and power requirements,” Stephens said. “If we obtain multiple readings from one FOSS fiber, that means we are reducing the number of wires in a vehicle, effectively saving weight and space.”
The research work has continually made the system smaller and lighter. While a space-rated FOSS used in 2022 to collect temperature data during a NASA mission in low Earth orbit was roughly the size of a toaster, the hypersonic FOSS unit is about the size of two sticks of butter.
Jonathan Lopez and Nathan Rick prepare the hypersonic Fiber Optic Sensing System for vibration tests in the Environmental Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Testing on a machine called a shaker proved that the system could withstand the severe vibration it will endure in hypersonic flight, or travel at five times the speed of sound.NASA/Jim Ross Successful Partnerships
To help advance hypersonic FOSS to test flights, NASA Armstrong Technology Transfer Office lead Ben Tomlinson orchestrated a partnership. NASA, the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in Edwards, California, and the U.S. Air Force’s 586th Flight Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, agreed to a six-flight series in 2024.
The test pilot school selected an experiment comparing FOSS and traditional sensors, looking at the data the different systems produced.
The hypersonic FOSS was integrated into a beam fixed onto one end of a pod. It had weight on the other end of the beam so that it could move as the aircraft maneuvered into position for the tests. The pod fit under a T-38 aircraft that collected strain data as the aircraft flew.
“The successful T-38 flights increased the FOSS technology readiness,” Tomlinson said. “However, a test at hypersonic speed will make FOSS more attractive for a United States business to commercialize.”
April Torres, from left, Cryss Punteney, and Karen Estes watch as data flows from the hypersonic Fiber Optic Sensing System at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Testing on a machine called a shaker proved that the system could withstand the severe vibration it will endure in hypersonic flight, or travel at five times the speed of sound.NASA/Jim Ross New Opportunities
After the experiment with the Air Force, NASA’s hypersonic technology team looked for other opportunities to advance the miniaturized version of the system. That interest led to the upcoming research rocket tests in coordination with the Department of Defense.
“We have high confidence in the system, and we look forward to flying it in hypersonic flight and at altitude,” Chan said.
A hypersonic Fiber Optic Sensing System, developed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, is ready for a test flight on a T-38 at the U.S. Air Force 586th Flight Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. NASA Armstrong, the flight test squadron, and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in Edwards, California, partnered for the test. From left are Earl Adams, Chathu Kuruppu, Colby Ferrigno, Allen Parker, Patrick Chan, Anthony Peralta, Ben Tomlinson, Jonathan Lopez, David Brown, Lt. Col. Sean Siddiqui, Capt. Nathaniel Raquet, Master Sgt. Charles Shepard, and Greg Talbot.U.S. Air Force/Devin Lopez Share
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Last Updated Jun 18, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactJay Levinejay.levine-1@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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