Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
A group of attendees of the joint NASA-USGS workshop, Planetary Subsurface Exploration for Science and Resources, gathers for a photo at NASA’s Ames Research Center on Feb. 11, 2025. Workshop participants discussed observations, technologies, and operations needed to support new economies for terrestrial and off-world resources, including critical minerals.NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) welcomed a community of government, industry, and international partners to explore current technology needs around natural resources – both on Earth and “off world.” During a workshop held in February at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, participants discussed technologies that will improve the ability to detect, assess, and develop resources, such as critical minerals and water ice to be found on our Moon, other planets and their moons, and asteroids.
More than 300 attendees, taking part in person and virtually, worked to define the elements needed to find and map resources beyond Earth to support the growing space economy. These include sensors to image the subsurface of planetary bodies, new platforms for cost-effective operations, and technologies that enable new concepts of operation for these systems.
Scientific studies and measurements of off-world sites will be key to detecting and characterizing resources of interest, creating an important synergy with technology goals and helping to answer fundamental science questions as well.
The workshop was the third in a series called Planetary Subsurface Exploration for Science and Resources. By leveraging the expertise gained from decades of resource exploration on this planet and that of the space technology and space mission communities, NASA and USGS aim to spark collaboration across industry, government, and academia to develop new concepts and technologies.
Participants in the NASA-USGS off-world resources workshop take part in a panel review of technology opportunities, Feb. 13, 2025, at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The panelists were Dave Alfano, chief of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley (left); Rob Mueller, a senior technologist and principal investigator in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Directorate at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Christine Stewart, CEO at Austmine Limited in Australia; Gerald Sanders, in-situ resource utilization system capability lead for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; and Jonathon Ralston, Integrated Mining Research Team lead at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
An artist’s concept depicts one of NASA’s Voyager probes. The twin spacecraft launched in 1977.NASA/JPL-Caltech The farthest-flung human-made objects will be able to take their science-gathering even farther, thanks to these energy-conserving measures.
Mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California turned off the cosmic ray subsystem experiment aboard Voyager 1 on Feb. 25 and will shut off Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24. Three science instruments will continue to operate on each spacecraft. The moves are part of an ongoing effort to manage the gradually diminishing power supply of the twin probes.
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 rely on a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of decaying plutonium. Both lose about 4 watts of power each year.
“The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL. “But electrical power is running low. If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission.”
The two spacecraft carry identical sets of 10 science instruments. Some of the instruments, geared toward collecting data during planetary flybys, were turned off after both spacecraft completed their exploration of the solar system’s gas giants.
The instruments that remained powered on well beyond the last planetary flyby were those the science team considered important for studying the solar system’s heliosphere, a protective bubble of solar wind and magnetic fields created by the Sun, and interstellar space, the region outside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space in 2012; Voyager 2 reached the boundary in 2018. No other human-made spacecraft has operated in interstellar space.
Last October, to conserve energy, the project turned off Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument, which measures the amount of plasma — electrically charged atoms — and the direction it is flowing. The instrument had collected only limited data in recent years due to its orientation relative to the direction that plasma flows in interstellar space. Voyager 1’s plasma science instrument had been turned off years ago because of degraded performance.
Interstellar Science Legacy
The cosmic ray subsystem that was shut down on Voyager 1 last week is a suite of three telescopes designed to study cosmic rays, including protons from the galaxy and the Sun, by measuring their energy and flux. Data from those telescopes helped the Voyager science team determine when and where Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere.
Scheduled for deactivation later this month, Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument measures the various ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from our solar system and galaxy. The instrument consists of two subsystems: the low-energy particle telescope for broader energy measurements, and the low-energy magnetospheric particle analyzer for more focused magnetospheric studies.
Both systems use a rotating platform so that the field of view is 360 degrees, and the platform is powered by a stepper motor that provides a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds. The motor was tested to 500,000 steps — enough to guarantee continuous operation through the mission’s encounters with Saturn, which occurred in August 1980 for Voyager 2. By the time it is deactivated on Voyager 2, the motor will have completed more than 8.5 million steps.
“The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission to study the outer planets,” said Patrick Koehn, Voyager program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Every bit of additional data we have gathered since then is not only valuable bonus science for heliophysics, but also a testament to the exemplary engineering that has gone into the Voyagers — starting nearly 50 years ago and continuing to this day.”
Addition Through Subtraction
Mission engineers have taken steps to avoid turning off science instruments for as long as possible because the science data collected by the twin Voyager probes is unique. With these two instruments turned off, the Voyagers should have enough power to operate for about a year before the team needs to shut off another instrument on both spacecraft.
In the meantime, Voyager 1 will continue to operate its magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem. The spacecraft’s low-energy charged particle instrument will operate through the remainder of 2025 but will be shut off next year.
Voyager 2 will continue to operate its magnetic field and plasma wave instruments for the foreseeable future. Its cosmic ray subsystem is scheduled to be shut off in 2026.
With the implementation of this power conservation plan, engineers believe the two probes could have enough electricity to continue operating with at least one science instrument into the 2030s. But they are also mindful that the Voyagers have been weathering deep space for 47 years and that unforeseen challenges could shorten that timeline.
Long Distance
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain the most distant human-made objects ever built. Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away. Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.
In fact, due to this distance, it takes over 23 hours to get a radio signal from Earth to Voyager 1, and 19½ hours to Voyager 2.
“Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at JPL. “That also means every day could be our last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation. So, we’re pulling out all the stops, doing what we can to make sure Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their trailblazing for the maximum time possible.”
For more information about NASA’s Voyager missions, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager
News Media Contacts
DC Agle / Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-653-6297 / 626-808-2469
agle@jpl.nasa.gov / calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-032
Share
Details
Last Updated Mar 05, 2025 Related Terms
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More
3 min read University High Knows the Answers at NASA JPL Regional Science Bowl
Article 2 days ago 3 min read NASA Uses New Technology to Understand California Wildfires
Article 5 days ago 6 min read NASA’s Europa Clipper Uses Mars to Go the Distance
Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
NASA/Cory S Huston A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander (IM-2) soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. The lander is set to land on the Moon on March 6.
The NASA science and technology demonstrations aboard the lander will, once on the Moon, gather data to support future human missions. NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, which launched as a rideshare with the IM-2 mission, also began its journey to lunar orbit, where it will map the distribution of the different forms of water on the Moon.
Image credit: NASA/Cory S Huston
View the full article
-
By NASA
Tall plumes of white vapor rise from the rocky Venusian surface in this April 19, 1977, artist’s concept.NASA/Rick Guidice Tall plumes of white vapor rise from the rocky Venusian surface in this April 19, 1977, artist’s concept. A little over a year later, NASA’s Pioneer Venus 1 would launch as the first of a two-spacecraft orbiter-probe combination designed to study the atmosphere of Venus.
The first American spacecraft to orbit Venus, Pioneer Venus 1 used radar to map the surface of Venus. The probe found Venus to be generally smoother than Earth, though with a mountain higher than Mt. Everest and a chasm deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Thanks to exploration by Pioneer Venus 1 and other spacecraft like Magellan, Galileo, Cassini, and even the Parker Solar Probe, we now have a much better view of what the surface of Venus looks like.
Image credit: NASA/Rick Guidice
View the full article
-
By NASA
Before Apollo astronauts set foot upon the Moon, much remained unknown about the lunar surface. While most scientists believed the Moon had a solid surface that would support astronauts and their landing craft, a few believed a deep layer of dust covered it that would swallow any visitors. Until 1964, no closeup photographs of the lunar surface existed, only those obtained by Earth-based telescopes.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed the Ranger program, a series of spacecraft designed to return closeup images before impacting on the Moon’s surface. Ranger 7 first accomplished that goal in July 1964. On Feb. 17, 1965, its successor Ranger 8 launched toward the Moon, and three days later returned images of the Moon. The mission’s success helped the country meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of a human Moon landing before the end of the decade.
Schematic diagram of the Ranger 8 spacecraft, showing its major components. NASA/JPL The television system aboard Ranger 8 showing its six cameras.NASA/JPL. Launch of Ranger 8. NASA. Ranger 8 lifted off from Cape Kennedy, now Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 17, 1965. The Atlas-Agena rocket first placed the spacecraft into Earth orbit before sending it on a lunar trajectory. The next day, the spacecraft carried out a mid-course correction, and on Feb. 20, Ranger 8 reached the Moon. The spacecraft’s six cameras turned on as planned, about eight minutes earlier than its predecessor to obtain images comparable in resolution to ground-based photographs for calibration purposes. Ranger 8 took its first photograph at an altitude of 1,560 miles, and during its final 23 minutes of flight, the spacecraft sent back 7,137 images of the lunar surface. The last image, taken at an altitude of 1,600 feet and 0.28 seconds before Ranger 8 impacted at 1.67 miles per second, had a resolution of about five feet. The spacecraft impacted 16 miles from its intended target in the Sea of Tranquility, ending a flight of 248,900 miles. Scientists had an interest in this area of the Moon as a possible landing zone for a future human landing, and indeed Apollo 11 landed 44 miles southeast of the Ranger 8 impact site in July 1969.
Ranger 8’s first image from an altitude of 1,560 miles.NASA/JPL. Ranger 8 image from an altitude of 198 miles, showing craters Ritter and Sabine.NASA/JPL. Ranger 8’s final images, taken at an altitude as low as 1,600 feet. NASA/JPL. One more Ranger mission followed, Ranger 9, in March 1965. Television networks broadcast Ranger 9’s images of the Alphonsus crater and the surrounding area “live” as the spacecraft approached its impact site in the crater – letting millions of Americans see the Moon up-close as it happened. Based on the photographs returned by the last three Rangers, scientists felt confident to move on to the next phase of robotic lunar exploration, the Surveyor series of soft landers. The Ranger photographs provided confidence that the lunar surface could support a soft-landing and that the Sea of Tranquility presented a good site for the first human landing. A little more than four years after the final Ranger images, Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the Moon.
Impact sites of Rangers 7, 8, and 9. NASA/JPL. The Ranger 8 impact crater, marked by the blue circle, photographed by Lunar Orbiter 2 in 1966.NASA/JPL. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the Ranger 8 impact crater, taken in 2012 at a low sun angle.NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University. The impacts of the Ranger probes left visible craters on the lunar surface, later photographed by orbiting spacecraft. Lunar Orbiter 2 and Apollo 16 both imaged the Ranger 8 impact site at relatively low resolution in 1966 and 1972, respectively. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the crash site in greater detail in 2012.
Watch a brief video about the Ranger 8 impact on the Moon.
Explore More
5 min read 60 Years Ago: Ranger 7 Photographs the Moon
Article 7 months ago 8 min read 55 Years Ago: Apollo 11’s One Small Step, One Giant Leap
Article 7 months ago 4 min read NASA’s Artemis II Crew Uses Iceland Terrain for Lunar Training
At first glance, it seems like a scene from an excursion on the Moon’s surface…except…
Article 5 months ago View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.