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By NASA
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, in preparation for the agency’s Artemis II crewed mission to the Moon, conduct testing of four emergency egress baskets on the mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in July 2024. The baskets are used in the case of a pad abort emergency to allow astronauts and other pad personnel to escape quickly from the mobile launcher to the base of the pad to be driven to safety by emergency transport vehicles.NASA/Amanda Arrieta Since NASA began sending astronauts to space, the agency has relied on emergency systems for personnel to safely leave the launch pad and escape the hazard in the unlikely event of an emergency during the launch countdown.
During the Mercury and Gemini programs, NASA used launch escape systems on spacecraft for the crew to safely evacuate if needed. Though these systems are still in use for spacecraft today, the emergency routes on the ground were updated starting with the Apollo missions to account for not only the crew, but all remaining personnel at the launch pad.
During Apollo, personnel relied on a ground-based emergency egress system – or emergency exit route – to allow for a quick and safe departure. Though the system has varied over time and different launch pads use different escape systems, the overall goal has stayed the same – quickly leave the launch pad and head to safety.
Beginning with Artemis II, the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will use a track cable which connects the mobile launcher to the perimeter area of the launch pad where four baskets, similar to gondolas at ski lifts, can ride down. Once down at the ground level, armored emergency response vehicles are stationed to take personnel safely away from the launch pad to one of the triage site locations at Kennedy.
“We have four baskets that sit on the side of the mobile launcher tower at the same level as the crew access arm, the location where the crew enters the spacecraft,” said Amanda Arrieta, mobile launcher 1 senior element engineer for NASA’s EGS Program. “The intention is to provide another means of egress for the crew and the closeout crew in the event of an emergency. Each of these baskets will go down a wire. It’s a wire rope system that connects to the pad terminus, an area near the pad perimeter where the baskets will land after leaving the mobile launcher tower.”
Infographic shows the route astronauts and personnel would take during an emergency abort situation. Credit: NASA The Artemis system works like this: personnel will exit the Orion spacecraft or the white room (depending where teams are at the time of the emergency) inside the crew access arm of the mobile launcher. Located on the 274-foot-level, teams are approximately 375 feet above the ground. From there, they will head down the 1,335-foot-long cables inside the emergency egress baskets to the launch pad perimeter, or the pad terminus area. Each basket, which is similar in size to a small SUV, is designed to carry up to five people or a maximum weight of 1,500 pounds.
Once teams have left the terminus area and arrive at the triage site location, emergency response crews are there to evaluate and take care of any personnel.
“When we send our crews to the pad during launch, their safety is always at the forefront of our minds. While it is very unlikely that we will need the emergency egress and pad abort systems, they are built and tested to ensure that if we do need them then they are ready to go,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director. “Our upcoming integrated ground systems training is about demonstrating the capability of the entire emergency egress response from the time an emergency condition is declared until we have the crews, both flight and ground, safely accounted for outside the hazardous area.”
For the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX uses a slidewire cable with baskets that ride down the cable at the Launch Complex 39A pad. At Space Launch Complex 40, meanwhile, the team uses a deployable chute for its emergency egress system. Boeing and United Launch Alliance also use a slidewire, but instead of baskets, the team deploys seats that ride down the slide wires, similar to riding down a zip line, at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Artemis II will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft and will also introduce several new ground systems for the first time – including the emergency egress system. Though no NASA mission to date has needed to use its ground-based emergency egress system during launch countdown, those safety measures are still in place and maintained as a top priority for the agency.
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By NASA
The NASA Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS) formally launched on 6/13/24 during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters with Administrator Nelson as the keynote speaker. The DRCS is a revamped one NASA approach in how the agency responds to natural hazards and disasters domestically and internationally to support partners and stakeholders The DRCS will be organized by the Program Office located at LaRC. MSFC and Earth Science Branch Disasters team will continue to support the DRCS and events that agency respond too by tapping into expertise and subject matter expertise here at MSFC. MSFC was represented at the DRCS launch by Center Response Coordinators Jordan Bell (ST11), Ronan Lucey (ST11/UAH) and Earth Action Associate Disasters Program Manager Lori Schultz (ST11). Additional information about the DRCS launch can be found here: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/natural-disasters/nasa-announces-new-system-to-aid-disaster-response/.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
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Imagery captured by a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on Jan. 23 shows the position of a cover on the SHERLOC instrument. The cover had become stuck several weeks earlier but the rover team has since found a way to address the issue so the instrument can continue to operate.NASA/JPL-Caltech After six months of effort, an instrument that helps the Mars rover look for potential signs of ancient microbial life has come back online.
The SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has analyzed a rock target with its spectrometer and camera for the first time since encountering an issue this past January. The instrument plays a key role in the mission’s search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed on June 17 that the instrument succeeded in collecting data.
“Six months of running diagnostics, testing, imagery and data analysis, troubleshooting, and retesting couldn’t come with a better conclusion,” said SHERLOC principal investigator Kevin Hand of JPL.
Imagery captured by a navigation camera aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on Jan. 23 shows the position of a cover on the SHERLOC instrument. The cover had become stuck several weeks earlier but the rover team has since found a way to address the issue so the instrument can continue to operate.NASA/JPL-Caltech Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC uses two cameras and a laser spectrometer to search for organic compounds and minerals in rocks that have been altered in watery environments and may reveal signs of past microbial life. On Jan. 6, a movable lens cover designed to protect the instrument’s spectrometer and one of its cameras from dust became frozen in a position that prevented SHERLOC from collecting data.
Analysis by the SHERLOC team pointed to the malfunction of a small motor responsible for moving the protective lens cover as well as adjusting focus for the spectrometer and the Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI) camera. By testing potential solutions on a duplicate SHERLOC instrument at JPL, the team began a long, meticulous evaluation process to see if, and how, the lens cover could be moved into the open position.
Perseverance’s team used the SHERLOC instrument’s Autofocus and Context Imager to capture this image of its calibration target on May 11 to confirm an issue with a stuck lens cover had been resolved. A silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is at the center of the target.NASA/JPL-Caltech SHERLOC Sleuthing
Among many other steps taken, the team tried heating the lens cover’s small motor, commanding the rover’s robotic arm to rotate the SHERLOC instrument under different orientations with supporting Mastcam-Z imagery, rocking the mechanism back and forth to loosen any debris potentially jamming the lens cover, and even engaging the rover’s percussive drill to try jostling it loose. On March 3, imagery returned from Perseverance showed that the ACI cover had opened more than 180 degrees, clearing the imager’s field of view and enabling the ACI to be placed near its target.
“With the cover out of the way, a line of sight for the spectrometer and camera was established. We were halfway there,” said Kyle Uckert, SHERLOC deputy principal investigator at JPL. “We still needed a way to focus the instrument on a target. Without focus, SHERLOC images would be blurry and the spectral signal would be weak.”
Like any good ophthalmologist, the team set about figuring out SHERLOC’s prescription. Since they couldn’t adjust the focus of the instrument’s optics, they relied on the rover’s robotic arm to make minute adjustments in the distance between SHERLOC and its target in order to get the best image resolution. SHERLOC was commanded to take pictures of its calibration target so that the team could check the effectiveness of this approach.
This image of NASA’s Perseverance rover gathering data on the “Walhalla Glades” abrasion was taken in the “Bright Angel” region of Jezero Crater by one of the rover’s front hazard avoidance cameras on June 14. The WATSON camera on the SHERLOC instrument is closest to the Martian surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech “The rover’s robotic arm is amazing. It can be commanded in small, quarter-millimeter steps to help us evaluate SHERLOC’s new focus position, and it can place SHERLOC with high accuracy on a target,” said Uckert. “After testing first on Earth and then on Mars, we figured out the best distance for the robotic arm to place SHERLOC is about 40 millimeters,” or 1.58 inches. “At that distance, the data we collect should be as good as ever.”
Confirmation of that fine positioning of the ACI on a Martian rock target came down on May 20. The verification on June 17 that the spectrometer is also functional checked the team’s last box, confirming that SHERLOC is operational.
“Mars is hard, and bringing instruments back from the brink is even harder,” said Perseverance project manager Art Thompson of JPL. “But the team never gave up. With SHERLOC back online, we’re continuing our explorations and sample collection with a full complement of science instruments.”
Perseverance is in the later stages of its fourth science campaign, looking for evidence of carbonate and olivine deposits in the “Margin Unit,” an area along the inside of Jezero Crater’s rim. On Earth, carbonates typically form in the shallows of freshwater or alkaline lakes. It’s hypothesized that this also might be the case for the Margin Unit, which formed over 3 billion years ago.
More About the Mission
A key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance
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Last Updated Jun 26, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Marshall Research Scientist Enables Large-Scale Open Science
Rahul Ramachandran is a senior research scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA By Jessica Barnett
Most people use tools at work, whether it’s a hammer, a pencil, or a computer. Very few seek a doctorate degree in creating new tools for the job.
Using that degree to make it easier for people around the world to access and use the vast amounts of data gathered by NASA? Well, that might just be unheard of if you didn’t know someone like Rahul Ramachandran, a senior research scientist in the Earth Science branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
“My undergrad was in mechanical engineering. I wanted to do industrial engineering, so I came to the U.S. for that, but I didn’t like the field that much,” Ramachandran explained. “It was by chance somebody suggested meteorology.”
That led him to learn about atmospheric science as well, but it was the 1990s and the technology of the time was very limiting. So, Ramachandran set out to learn more about computers and how to better analyze data.
“The limitations effectively prompted me to get a degree in computer science,” he said. “I now had science, engineering, and computer science in my background. Then, over the years, I got more and more interested in the tools and capabilities that can help not only manage data but also how you extract knowledge from these large datasets.”
Fast forward to today, and Ramachandran is an award-winning scientist helping to ensure the vast amounts of data collected by NASA are accessible and searchable for scientists around the world.
“I never would have thought that I could ever get a job working at an agency like NASA,” he said. “You get to work with some of the smartest people in the world, and you get to work on really hard problems. I think that’s what makes it so intellectually stimulating.”
Over the course of his career, he has worked on many different projects focused on scientific data management, designed frameworks for large scale scientific analysis, and developed machine learning applications. Recently, he worked with team members at IBM Research to create a geospatial AI foundation model that could turn NASA satellite data into maps of natural disasters or other environmental changes. He also established the Interagency Implementation and Advanced Concepts Team (IMPACT) at NASA, which supports NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems Program by collaborating with other agencies and partners to boost the scientific benefits of data collected by NASA’s missions and experiments.
Ramachandran received the 2023 Greg Leptoukh Lecture award for his accomplishments, an honor he attributes in large part to the many collaborators and mentors he’s had over the years.
During his presentation, Ramachandran spoke about the ways in which artificial intelligence can help NASA continue to adapt and support open science.
“We’ve seen what people can do with ChatGPT, which is built on a language foundation model, but there are AI foundation models for science that can be adapted into analyzing scientific data so we can augment what we are doing now in a much more efficient manner,” he said. “It requires a bit of a change in people’s mindset. How do we rethink our processes? How do we rethink a strategy for managing data? How will people search and analyze data information differently? All those things have to be thought of with a different perspective now.”
Such work will have benefits not only for NASA but for those who use the data collected by the agency. Ramachandran said he recently got an email from someone in Africa who was able to use NASA’s data and the geospatial AI foundation model for detecting locust breeding grounds on the continent.
“NASA has produced valuable science data that we make available to the community to use,” Ramachandran said. “I think the future would be that we not only provide the data, but we also provide these AI models that allow the science community to use the data effectively, whether it’s doing basic research or building applications like the locust breeding ground prediction.”
As that future nears, Ramachandran and his team will be ready to help others in the science community find the data they need to learn and build the tools they’ll use for years to come.
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Last Updated Jun 20, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
In early May, widespread flooding and landslides occurred in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, leaving thousands of people without food, water, or electricity. In the following days, NASA teams provided data and imagery to help on-the-ground responders understand the disaster’s impacts and deploy aid.
Building on this response and similar successes, on June 13, NASA announced a new system to support disaster response organizations in the U.S. and around the world.
Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue team in Adiyaman, Turkey (Türkiye), conducting rescue efforts in the wake of powerful earthquakes that struck the region in February 2023. NASA provided maps and data to support USAID and other regional partners during these earthquakes. USAID “When disasters strike, NASA is here to help — at home and around the world,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “As challenges from extreme weather grow, so too does the value of NASA’s efforts to provide critical Earth observing data to disaster-response teams on the frontlines. We’ve done so for years. Now, through this system, we expand our capability to help power our U.S. government partners, international partners, and relief organizations across the globe as they take on disasters — and save lives.”
The team behind NASA’s Disaster Response Coordination System gathers science, technology, data, and expertise from across the agency and provides it to emergency managers. The new system will be able to provide up-to-date information on fires, earthquakes, landslides, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other extreme events.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson delivers remarks during an event launching a new Disaster Response Coordination System that will provide communities and organizations around the world with access to science and data to aid disaster response, Thursday, June 13, 2024, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. NASA/Bill Ingalls “The risk from climate-related hazards is increasing, making more people vulnerable to extreme events,” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “This is particularly true for the 10% of the global population living in low-lying coastal regions who are vulnerable to storm surges, waves and tsunamis, and rapid erosion. NASA’s disaster system is designed to deliver trusted, actionable Earth science in ways and means that can be used immediately, to enable effective response to disasters and ultimately help save lives.”
Agencies working with NASA include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Agency for International Development — as well as international organizations such as World Central Kitchen.
“With this deliberate and structured approach, we can be even more effective in putting Earth science into action,” said Josh Barnes, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Barnes manages the Disaster Response Coordination System.
NASA Disasters Team Aiding Brazil
When the floods and landslides ravaged parts of Brazil in May, officials from the U.S. Southern Command — working with the U.S. Space Force and Air Force, and regional partners — reached out to NASA for Earth-observing data.
Image Before/After NASA’s response included maps of potential power outages from the Black Marble project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Disaster response coordinators at NASA Goddard also reviewed high-resolution optical data — from the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program — to map more than 4,000 landslides.
Response coordinators from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both in Southern California, produced flood extent maps using data from the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey Landsat mission and from ESA’s (the European Space Agency) Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite. Response coordinators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston also provided photographs of the flooding taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Building on Previous Work
The Brazil event is just one of hundreds of responses NASA has supported over the past decade. The team aids decision-making for a wide range of natural hazards and disasters, from hurricanes and earthquakes to tsunamis and oil spills.
“NASA’s Disasters Program advances science for disaster resilience and develops accessible resources to help communities around the world make informed decisions for disaster planning,” said Shanna McClain, manager of NASA’s Disasters Program. “The new Disaster Response Coordination System significantly expands our efforts to bring the power of Earth science when responding to disasters.”
For more information visit:
https://disasters.nasa.gov/response
By Jacob Reed
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 13, 2024 Editor Rob Garner Related Terms
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