Jump to content
Join the Alien Search, login or register FREE on Aliens and Space Forum
Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site

The Marshall Star for July 17, 2024

NASA

By NASA
in NASA

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Publishers
NASA Mentor

NASA

Posted
  • Publishers
Posted
15 Min Read

The Marshall Star for July 17, 2024

The core stage of the Artemis Space Launch System being loaded on a covered barge. The stage is a large cylinder shape with the engines facing toward the camera on two yellow transporters that are guiding the stage into a covered grey container in the background. The body of the cylinder is mostly an orange color and white around the bottom. The four engines on the bottom are covered with red material.

NASA Ships Moon Rocket Stage Ahead of First Crewed Artemis Flight

NASA rolled out the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for the Artemis II test flight from its Michoud Assembly Facility on Tuesday for shipment to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The rollout is key progress on the path to NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis campaign.

Using highly specialized transporters, engineers maneuvered the giant core stage from inside Michoud to NASA’s Pegasus barge. The barge will ferry the stage more than 900 miles to Kennedy, where engineers will prepare it in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft elements.

The core stage of the Artemis Space Launch System being loaded on a covered barge. The stage is a large cylinder shape with the engines facing toward the camera on two yellow transporters that are guiding the stage into a covered grey container in the background. The body of the cylinder is mostly an orange color and white around the bottom. The four engines on the bottom are covered with red material.
Move teams with NASA and Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, position the massive rocket stage for NASA’s SLS rocket on special transporters to strategically guide the flight hardware the 1.3-mile distance from the factory floor onto the agency’s Pegasus barge on July 16. The core stage will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be integrated with other parts of the rocket that will power NASA’s Artemis II mission. Pegasus is maintained at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility.
Credit: NASA

“With Artemis, we’ve set our sights on doing something big and incredibly complex that will inspire a new generation, advance our scientific endeavors, and move U.S. competitiveness forward,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “The SLS rocket is a key component of our efforts to develop a long-term presence at the Moon.”

Technicians moved the SLS rocket stage from inside Michoud on the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. The move of the rocket stage for Artemis marks the first time since the Apollo Program that a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission rolled out from Michoud.

The NASA Michoud Assembly Facility workforce and with other agency team members take a “family photo” with the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for Artemis II in the background on July 16 at Michoud. The core stage will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission.
The NASA Michoud Assembly Facility workforce and with other agency team members take a “family photo” with the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for Artemis II in the background on July 16 at Michoud. The core stage will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission.
NASA

The SLS rocket’s core stage is the largest NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, it consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to propel four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft toward the Moon.

“The delivery of the SLS core stage for Artemis II to Kennedy Space Center signals a shift from manufacturing to launch readiness as teams continue to make progress on hardware for all major elements for future SLS rockets,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “We are motivated by the success of Artemis I and focused on working toward the first crewed flight under Artemis.”

Team members on July 16 move the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The move marked the first time a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission has rolled out from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans since the Apollo Program.
Team members on July 16 move the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The move marked the first time a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission has rolled out from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans since the Apollo Program.
NASA

After arrival at Kennedy, the stage will undergo additional outfitting inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers then will join it with the segments that form the rocket’s twin solid rocket boosters. Adapters for the Moon rocket that connect it to the Orion spacecraft will be shipped to Kennedy this fall, where the interim cryogenic propulsion stage is already. Engineers at Kennedy continue to prepare Orion and exploration ground systems for launch and flight.

All major structures for every SLS core stage are fully manufactured at Michoud. Inside the factory, core stages and future exploration upper stages for the next evolution of SLS, called the Block 1B configuration, currently are in various phases of production for Artemis III, IV, and V. Beginning with Artemis III, to better optimize space at Michoud, Boeing – the SLS core stage prime contractor – will use space at Kennedy for final assembly and outfitting activities.

Team members at Michoud Assembly Facility load the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission onto the Pegasus barge on July 16. The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Team members at Michoud Assembly Facility load the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission onto the Pegasus barge on July 16. The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA

Building, assembling, and transporting the SLS core stage is a collaborative effort for NASA, Boeing, and lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company. All 10 NASA centers contribute to its development with more than 1,100 companies across the United States contributing to its production. 

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

› Back to Top

NASA Barge Preparations for Artemis II Rocket Stage Delivery

Team members installed pedestals aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, preparing NASA barge crews for their first delivery to support the Artemis II test flight around the Moon. The barge ferried the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility to its Kennedy Space Center.

Teams at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans are preparing the agency’s Pegasus barge to carry the SLS rocket’s core stage from the agency’s rocket factory to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Team members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility install pedestals aboard the Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket ahead.
NASA/Eric Bordelon

The Pegasus crew began installing the pedestals July 10. The barge, which previously was used to ferry space shuttle external tanks, was modified and refurbished to compensate for the much larger and heavier core stage for the SLS rocket. Measuring 212 feet in length and 27.6 feet in diameter, the core stage is the largest rocket stage NASA has ever built and the longest item ever shipped by a NASA barge.

Pegasus now measures 310 feet in length and 50 feet in width, with three 200-kilowatt generators on board for power. Tugboats and towing vessels moved the barge and core stage from Michoud to Kennedy, where the core stage will be integrated with other elements of the rocket and prepared for launch. Pegasus is maintained at NASA Michoud.

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program and Michoud.

› Back to Top

Michoud Marks Artemis II Milestone with Employee Event Featuring NASA Astronaut Victor Glover

Moon to Mars Program Deputy Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, left, and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, right, speak to Michoud Assembly Facility team members on July 15 as part of a Space Flight Awareness event marking Artemis II’s core stage completion. The core stage was rolled out of Michoud’s rocket factory on July 16 for transportation to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it will be integrated with the Orion spacecraft and the remaining components of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.

Moon to Mars Program Deputy Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, left, and NASA astronaut Victor Glover, right, speak to Michoud Assembly Facility team members on July 15 as part of a Space Flight Awareness event marking Artemis II’s core stage completion. The core stage was rolled out of Michoud’s rocket factory on July 16 for transportation to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it will be integrated with the Orion spacecraft and the remaining components of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. (NASA)

› Back to Top

Tawnya Laughinghouse Named Director of Marshall’s Materials and Processes Laboratory

Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse has been named to the Senior Executive Service position of director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, effective July 7.

Tawnya Laughinghouse
Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse has been named to the Senior Executive Service position of director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA

The Materials and Processes Laboratory provides science, technology, and engineering support in materials, processes, and products for use in space vehicle applications, including related ground facilities, test articles and support equipment. As director, Laughinghouse will oversee a workforce of science and engineering experts, as well as several research and development efforts in world-class facilities, including the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Laughinghouse has more than 20 years of experience at NASA holding various technical leadership, supervisory, and programmatic positions. Since October 2018, she has been manager of the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) Program for the Agency, managing the implementation of a diverse portfolio of advanced space technology projects led by NASA Centers and industry partners across the nation with a goal to rapidly develop, demonstrate, and infuse revolutionary, high-payoff technologies. Under her leadership, the program helped expand the boundaries of the aerospace enterprise with the launch of 10 advanced technologies to space between 2018 and 2024. In January 2017, she was competitively selected as deputy manager of the TDM Level 2 Program Office within Marshall’s Science and Technology Office.

In 2014, she was selected as a member of the NASA Mid-Level Leadership Program. During that time, she completed a detail at NASA Headquarters supporting an Office of Chief Engineer/Office of Chief Technologist joint study on NASA’s Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) Process.

Laughinghouse began her NASA career at Marshall in 2004 in the Materials and Processes Laboratory as lead materials engineer for the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) Booster Separation Motor aft closure assembly. In this role, she also provided technical expertise in advanced materials for high temperature applications and thermal protection systems for solid and liquid rocket propulsion systems. Over the next 12 years, she served the lab in various capacities, including technical lead of the Ceramics & Ablatives team from 2010 to 2016, and developmental assignments such as assistant chief of the Space and Environmental Effects Branch, and chief of the Nonmetallic Materials Branch. Prior to joining Marshall, Laughinghouse spent six years in the U.S. manufacturing industry as a process chemist and product engineer.

Laughinghouse has been awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and a host of group achievement and external awards, including the distinguished Merit Award from the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College in 2021. She has been recognized extensively in the community for her advocacy for women in STEM and mentoring.

A federally certified senior/expert program and project manager, Laughinghouse is a graduate of several leadership programs, including the Office of Personnel Management Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society. She is a May 2024 graduate of Leadership Greater Huntsville’s Connect-26 Class.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Laughinghouse was raised in Huntsville and graduated salutatorian of her class at Sparkman High School in Toney, Alabama. After completing a NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) internship at Marshall, she applied for the NASA Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) dual-degree program and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Spelman College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. She also holds a Master of Science in management (concentration in management of technology) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

› Back to Top

Marshall Engineers Unveil Versatile, Low-cost Hybrid Engine Testbed

By Rick Smith

In June, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center unveiled an innovative, 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed.

The new hybrid testbed, which features variable flow capability and a 20-second continuous burn duration, is designed to provide a low-cost, quick-turnaround solution for conducting hot-fire tests of advanced nozzles and other rocket engine hardware, composite materials, and propellants.

A pair of NASA engineers conduct checkout testing of a new hybrid rocket engine testbed, a long, blue, cylindrical facility for testing new government and industry rocket motor hardware, materials, and propellants at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Paul Dumbacher, right, lead test engineer for the Propulsion Test Branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, confers with Meredith Patterson, solid propulsion systems engineer, as they install the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed into its cradle in Marshall’s East Test Stand.
NASA/Charles Beason

Solid rocket propulsion remains a competitive, reliable technology for various compact and heavy-lift rockets as well as in-space missions, offering low propulsion element mass, high energy density, resilience in extreme environments, and reliable performance.

“It’s time consuming and costly to put a new solid rocket motor through its paces – identifying how materials perform in extreme temperatures and under severe structural and dynamic loads,” said Benjamin Davis, branch chief of the Solid Propulsion and Pyrotechnic Devices Branch of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. “In today’s fast-paced, competitive environment, we wanted to find a way to condense that schedule. The hybrid testbed offers an exciting, low-cost solution.”

Initiated in 2020, the project stemmed from NASA’s work to develop new composite materials, additively manufactured – or 3D-printed – nozzles, and other components with proven benefits across the spacefaring spectrum, from rockets to planetary landers.

After analyzing future industry requirements, and with feedback from NASA’s aerospace partners, the Marshall team recognized that their existing 24-inch rocket motor testbed – a subscale version of the Space Launch System booster – could prove too costly for small startups. Additionally, conventional, six-inch test motors limited flexible configuration and required multiple tests to achieve all customer goals. The team realized what industry needed most was an efficient, versatile third option.

“The 11-inch hybrid motor testbed offers the instrumentation, configurability, and cost-efficiency our government, industry, and academic partners need,” said Chloe Bower, subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead at Marshall. “It can accomplish multiple test objectives simultaneously – including different nozzle configurations, new instrumentation or internal insulation, and various propellants or flight environments.”

Three female NASA engineers conduct post-test analysis of disassembled, cylindrical components of a new, hybrid rocket motor testbed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Assessing components of the 11-inch hybrid rocket motor testbed in the wake of successful testing are, from left, Chloe Bower, Marshall’s subscale solid rocket motor manufacturing lead; Jacobs manufacturing engineer Shelby Westrich; and Precious Mitchell, Marshall’s solid propulsion design lead.
NASA/Benjamin Davis

“That quicker pace can reduce test time from months to weeks or days,” said Precious Mitchell, solid propulsion design lead for the project.

Another feature of great interest is the on/off switch. “That’s one of the big advantages to a hybrid testbed,” Mitchell said. “With a solid propulsion system, once it’s ignited, it will burn until the fuel is spent. But because there’s no oxidizer in hybrid fuel, we can simply turn it off at any point if we see anomalies or need to fine-tune a test element, yielding more accurate test results that precisely meet customer needs.”

The team expects to deliver to NASA leadership final test data later this summer. For now, Davis congratulates the Marshall propulsion designers, analysts, chemists, materials engineers, safety personnel, and test engineers who collaborated on the new testbed.

“We’re not just supporting the aerospace industry in broad terms,” he said. “We’re also giving young NASA engineers a chance to get their hands dirty in a practical test environment solving problems. This work helps educate new generations who will carry on NASA’s mission in the decades to come.”

For nearly 65 years, Marshall teams have led development of the U.S. space program’s most powerful rocket engines and spacecraft, from the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle to today’s cutting-edge propulsion systems, including NASA’s newest rocket, the Space Launch System. NASA technology testbeds designed and built by Marshall engineers and their partners have shaped the reliable technologies of spaceflight and continue to enable discovery, testing, and certification of advanced rocket engine materials and manufacturing techniques. 

Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

› Back to Top

NASA Honors 25 Years of Chandra at July National Space Club Breakfast

NASA Ships Moon Rocket Stage Ahead of First Crewed Artemis Flight https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-ships-moon-rocket-stage-ahead-of-first-crewed-artemis-flight/ NASA Marshall Engineers Unveil Versatile, Low-cost Hybrid Engine Testbed https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/nasa-marshall-engineers-unveil-versatile-low-cost-hybrid-engine-testbed/ Take a Summer Cosmic Road Trip With NASA’s Chandra and Webb https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/take-a-summer-cosmic-road-trip-with-nasas-chandra-and-webb/ 55 Years Ago: Apollo 11’s One Small Step, One Giant Leap https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-apollo-11s-one-small-step-one-giant-leap/ Two Years Since Webb’s First Images: Celebrating with the Penguin and the Egg Andrew Schnell, acting manager of the Chandra X-ray Observatory at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, honored 25 years of the project’s mission success at National Space Club – Huntsville’s breakfast event on July 16.

Andrew Schnell, acting manager of the Chandra X-ray Observatory at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, honored 25 years of the project’s mission success at National Space Club – Huntsville’s breakfast event on July 16.

Schnell provided insight into Chandra’s history – sharing photos and stories from the project’s initial development, launch, first light images, and some of the most iconic images captured by the telescope to date.

Chandra launched on STS-93 Shuttle Columbia July 23, 1999. Originally designed as a five-year mission, the telescope’s prolonged success is a testament to the agency’s engineering capabilities.

“One of the things that excites me about working with Chandra is that are we not only changing our understanding of the universe today, but the data we collect now may help answer questions astrophysicists haven’t even asked yet.” Schnell said. “One day, an astrophysicist – maybe one that hasn’t been born yet – will have a theory, and our data will be there to help them test that theory.” (Photo Credit: Face to Face Marketing)

› Back to Top

Take a Summer Cosmic Road Trip with NASA’s Chandra and Webb

It’s time to take a cosmic road trip using light as the highway and visit four stunning destinations across space. The vehicles for this space get-away are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope.

The first stop on this tour is the closest, Rho Ophiuchi, at a distance of about 390 light-years from Earth. Rho Ophiuchi is a cloud complex filled with gas and stars of different sizes and ages. Being one of the closest star-forming regions, Rho Ophiuchi is a great place for astronomers to study stars. In this image, X-rays from Chandra are purple revealing infant stars that violently flare and produce X-rays. Infrared data from Webb are red, yellow, cyan, light blue and darker blue and provide views of the spectacular regions of gas and dust.

Rho Ophiuchi, a cloud complex filled with gas, and dotted with stars. The murky green and gold cloud resembles a ghostly head in profile, swooping down from the upper left, trailing tendrils of hair. Cutting across the bottom edge and lower righthand corner of the image is a long, narrow, brick red cloud which resembles the ember of a stick pulled from a fire. Several large white stars dot the image. Many are surrounded by glowing neon purple rings, and gleam with diffraction spikes.
The first stop on this tour is the closest, Rho Ophiuchi, at a distance of about 390 light-years from Earth.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/C. Canizares; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/K. Pontoppidan; Image Processing: NASA/ESA/STScI/Alyssa Pagan, NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major

The next destination is the Orion Nebula. Still located in the Milky Way galaxy, this region is a little bit farther from our home planet at about 1,500 light-years away. If you look just below the middle of the three stars that make up the “belt” in the constellation of Orion, you may be able to see this nebula through a small telescope. With Chandra and Webb, however, we get to see so much more. Chandra reveals young stars that glow brightly in X-rays, colored in red, green, and blue, while Webb shows the gas and dust in darker red that will help build the next generation of stars here.

chandrawebb3-m42.jpg?w=2048
The Orion Nebula.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Fei

It’s time to leave our galaxy and visit another. Like the Milky Way, NGC 3627 is a spiral galaxy that we see at a slight angle. NGC 3627 is known as a “barred” spiral galaxy because of the rectangular shape of its central region. From our vantage point, we can also see two distinct spiral arms that appear as arcs. X-rays from Chandra in purple show evidence for a supermassive black hole in its center while Webb finds the dust, gas, and stars throughout the galaxy in red, green, and blue. This image also contains optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope in red, green, and blue.

The galaxy NGC 3627 appears pitched at an oblique angle, tilted from our upper left down to our lower right. Much of its face is angled toward us, making its spiral arms, composed of red and purple dots, easily identifiable. Several bright white dots ringed with neon purple speckle the galaxy. At the galaxy’s core, where the spiral arms converge, a large white and purple glow identified by Chandra provides evidence of a supermassive black hole.
Spiral galaxy NGC 3627.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESO/STScI, ESO/WFI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST; Image Processing:/NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

Our final landing place on this trip is the farthest and the biggest. MACS J0416 is a galaxy cluster, which are among the largest objects in the Universe held together by gravity. Galaxy clusters like this can contain hundreds or even thousands of individual galaxies all immersed in massive amounts of superheated gas that Chandra can detect. In this view, Chandra’s X-rays in purple show this reservoir of hot gas while Hubble and Webb pick up the individual galaxies in red, green, and blue.

Here is the distant galaxy cluster known as MACS J0416. The blackness of space is packed with glowing dots and tiny shapes, in whites, purples, oranges, golds, and reds, each a distinct galaxy. Upon close inspection (and with a great deal of zooming in!) the spiraling arms of some of the seemingly tiny galaxies are revealed in this highly detailed image. Gently arched across the middle of the frame is a soft band of purple; a reservoir of superheated gas detected by Chandra.
ACS J0416 galaxy cluster.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/G. Ogrean et al.; Optical/Infrared: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: (JWST) NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Jose M. Diego (IFCA), Jordan C. J. D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yan (University of Missouri)

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

› Back to Top

View the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Similar Topics

    • European Space Agency
      IAC 2024 - Day 4
      By European Space Agency
      View the full article
    • NASA
      The Marshall Star for October 16, 2024
      By NASA
      24 Min Read The Marshall Star for October 16, 2024
      Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter
      NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 11:06 a.m. CDT on Oct. 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
      A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:06 a.m. CDT on Oct. 14. After launch, the spacecraft plans to fly by Mars in February 2025, then back by Earth in December 2026, using the gravity of each planet to increase its momentum. With help of these “gravity assists,” Europa Clipper will achieve the velocity needed to reach Jupiter in April 2030.Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.
      “Congratulations to our Europa Clipper team for beginning the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA leads the world in exploration and discovery, and the Europa Clipper mission is no different. By exploring the unknown, Europa Clipper will help us better understand whether there is the potential for life not just within our solar system, but among the billions of moons and planets beyond our Sun.”
      Approximately five minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage fired up and the payload fairing, or the rocket’s nose cone, opened to reveal Europa Clipper. About an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Ground controllers received a signal soon after, and two-way communication was established at 12:13 p.m. with NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia. Mission teams celebrated as initial telemetry reports showed Europa Clipper is in good health and operating as expected.
      “We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and Europa Clipper’s scientific discoveries will build upon the legacy that our other missions exploring Jupiter – including Juno, Galileo, and Voyager – created in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”
      The main goal of the mission is to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, but its interior is different. Information from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that under Europa’s ice lies an enormous, salty ocean with more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Scientists also have found evidence that Europa may host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface.
      If the mission determines Europa is habitable, it may mean there are more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than imagined.
      “We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve labored over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our solar system and inspire future exploration.”
      In 2031, the spacecraft will begin conducting its science-dedicated flybys of Europa. Coming as close as 16 miles to the surface, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water. As the most sophisticated suite of science instruments NASA has ever sent to Jupiter, they will work in concert to learn more about the moon’s icy shell, thin atmosphere, and deep interior.
      To power those instruments in the faint sunlight that reaches Jupiter, Europa Clipper also carries the largest solar arrays NASA has ever used for an interplanetary mission. With arrays extended, the spacecraft spans 100 feet from end to end. With propellant loaded, it weighs about 13,000 pounds.
      In all, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper mission since it was formally approved in 2015.
      “As Europa Clipper embarks on its journey, I’ll be thinking about the countless hours of dedication, innovation, and teamwork that made this moment possible,” said Jordan Evans, project manager, JPL. “This launch isn’t just the next chapter in our exploration of the solar system; it’s a leap toward uncovering the mysteries of another ocean world, driven by our shared curiosity and continued search to answer the question, ‘are we alone?’”
      Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
      Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Langley Research Center. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
      NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
      › Back to Top
      Staying the Course: 30 Years of NASA’s Student Rover Challenge
      Get ready, get set, and let’s go take a look back at NASA’s 2024 Human Exploration Rover Challenge! Watch as talented student teams from around the world gather in Huntsville for the 30th annual competition to push the boundaries of innovation and engineering. These student teams piloted their human-powered rovers over simulated lunar and Martian terrain for a chance at winning an award during this Artemis student challenge. From jaw-dropping triumphs to unexpected setbacks, this year’s competition was a thrilling ride from start to finish. Buckle up and enjoy the ride as you witness the future of space exploration unfold!
      The challenge is managed by NASA’s Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Learn more about the challenge.
      › Back to Top
      Black Hole Destroys Star, Goes After Another, NASA Missions Find
      NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.
      This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Queen’s Univ. Belfast/M. Nicholl et al.; Optical/IR: PanSTARRS, NSF/Legacy Survey/SDSS; Illustration: Soheb Mandhai / The Astro Phoenix; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces. Over the course of a few years, this disk expanded outward until it intersected with another object – either a star or a small black hole – that is also in orbit around the giant black hole. Each time this object crashes into the disk, it sends out a burst of X-rays detected by Chandra. The inset shows Chandra data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue).
      In 2019, an optical telescope in California noticed a burst of light that astronomers later categorized as a “tidal disruption event”, or TDE. These are cases where black holes tear stars apart if they get too close through their powerful tidal forces. Astronomers gave this TDE the name of AT2019qiz.
      Meanwhile, scientists were also tracking instances of another type of cosmic phenomena occasionally observed across the Universe. These were brief and regular bursts of X-rays that were near supermassive black holes. Astronomers named these events “quasi-periodic eruptions,” or QPEs.
      This latest study gives scientists evidence that TDEs and QPEs are likely connected. The researchers think that QPEs arise when an object smashes into the disk left behind after the TDE. While there may be other explanations, the authors of the study propose this is the source of at least some QPEs.
      In 2023, astronomers used both Chandra and Hubble to simultaneously study the debris left behind after the tidal disruption had ended. The Chandra data were obtained during three different observations, each separated by about 4 to 5 hours. The total exposure of about 14 hours of Chandra time revealed only a weak signal in the first and last chunk, but a very strong signal in the middle observation.
      From there, the researchers used NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to look frequently at AT2019qiz for repeated X-ray bursts. The NICER data showed that AT2019qiz erupts roughly every 48 hours. Observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and India’s AstroSat telescope cemented the finding.
      The ultraviolet data from Hubble, obtained at the same time as the Chandra observations, allowed the scientists to determine the size of the disk around the supermassive black hole. They found that the disk had become large enough that if any object was orbiting the black hole and took about a week or less to complete an orbit, it would collide with the disk and cause eruptions.
      This result has implications for searching for more quasi-periodic eruptions associated with tidal disruptions. Finding more of these would allow astronomers to measure the prevalence and distances of objects in close orbits around supermassive black holes. Some of these may be excellent targets for the planned future gravitational wave observatories.
      The paper describing these results appears in the Oct. 9 issue of the journal Nature. The first author of the paper is Matt Nicholl of Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland.
      NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
      › Back to Top
      Revealing the Hidden Universe with Full-shell X-ray Optics at Marshall
      The study of X-ray emission from astronomical objects reveals secrets about the universe at the largest and smallest spatial scales. Celestial X-rays are produced by black holes consuming nearby stars, emitted by the million-degree gas that traces the structure between galaxies, and can be used to predict whether stars may be able to host planets hospitable to life. X-ray observations have shown that most of the visible matter in the universe exists as hot gas between galaxies and have conclusively demonstrated that the presence of “dark matter” is needed to explain galaxy cluster dynamics, that dark matter dominates the mass of galaxy clusters, and that it governs the expansion of the cosmos.
      A composite X-ray/Optical/Infrared image of the Crab Pulsar. The X-ray image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and white), reveals exquisite details in the central ring structures and gas flowing out of the polar jets. Optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope (purple) shows foreground and background stars as pinpoints of light. Infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) traces cooler gas in the nebula. Finally, magnetic field direction derived from X-ray polarization observed by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is shown as orange lines.Magnetic field lines: NASA/Bucciantini et al; X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA-JPL-Caltech X-ray observations also enable us to probe mysteries of the universe on the smallest scales. X-ray observations of compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes allow us to use the universe as a physics laboratory to study conditions that are orders of magnitude more extreme in terms of density, pressure, temperature, and magnetic field strength than anything that can be produced on Earth. In this astrophysical laboratory, researchers expect to reveal new physics at the subatomic scale by conducting investigations such as probing the neutron star equation of state and testing quantum electrodynamics with observations of neutron star atmospheres.
      At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a team of scientists and engineers is building, testing, and flying innovative optics that bring the universe’s X-ray mysteries into sharper focus.
      Unlike optical telescopes that create images by reflecting or refracting light at near-90-degree angles (normal incidence), focusing X-ray optics must be designed to reflect light at very small angles (grazing incidence). At normal incidence, X-rays are either absorbed by the surface of a mirror or penetrate it entirely. However, at grazing angles of incidence, X-rays reflect very efficiently due to an effect called total external reflection. In grazing incidence, X-rays reflect off the surface of a mirror like rocks skipping on the surface of a pond.
      A classic design for astronomical grazing incidence optics is the Wolter-I prescription, which consists of two reflecting surfaces, a parabola and hyperbola (see figure below). This optical prescription is revolved around the optical axis to produce a full-shell mirror (i.e., the mirror spans the full circumference) that resembles a gently tapered cone. To increase the light collecting area, multiple mirror shells with incrementally larger diameters and a common focus are fabricated and nested concentrically to comprise a mirror module assembly (MMA).
      Focusing optics are critical to studying the X-ray universe because, in contrast to other optical systems like collimators or coded masks, they produce high signal-to-noise images with low background noise. Two key metrics that characterize the performance of X-ray optics are angular resolution, which is the ability of an optical system to discriminate between closely spaced objects, and effective area, which is the light collecting area of the telescope, typically quoted in units of cm2. Angular resolution is typically measured as the half-power diameter (HPD) of a focused spot in units of arcseconds. The HPD encircles half of the incident photons in a focused spot and measures the sharpness of the final image; a smaller number is better. 
      Schematic of a full-shell Wolter-I X-ray optic mirror module assembly with five concentrically nested mirror shells. Parallel rays of light enter from the left, reflect twice off the reflective inside surface of the shell (first off the parabolic segment and then off the hyperbolic segment), and converge at the focal plane.NASA Marshall has been building and flying lightweight, full-shell, focusing X-ray optics for over three decades, always meeting or exceeding angular resolution and effective area requirements. Marshall utilizes an electroformed nickel replication technique to make these thin full-shell X-ray optics from nickel alloy.
      X-ray optics development at Marshall began in the early 1990s with the fabrication of optics to support NASA’s Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF-S) and then continued via the Constellation-X technology development programs. In 2001, Marshall launched a balloon payload that included two modules each with three mirrors, which produced the first focused hard X-ray images of an astrophysical source by imaging Cygnus X-1, GRS 1915, and the Crab Nebula. This initial effort resulted in several follow-up missions over the next 12 years and became known as the High Energy Replicated Optics (HERO) balloon program.
      In 2012, the first of four sounding rocket flights of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) flew with Marshall optics onboard, producing the first focused images of the Sun at energies greater than 5 keV. In 2019 the Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC) instrument on the Spectr-Roentgen-Gamma Mission launched with seven Marshall-fabricated X-ray MMAs, each containing 28 mirror shells. ART-XC is currently mapping the sky in the 4-30 keV hard X-ray energy range, studying exotic objects like neutron stars in our own galaxy as well as active galactic nuclei, which are spread across the visible universe. In 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), flew and is now performing extraordinary science with a Marshall-led team using three, 24-shell MMAs that were fabricated and calibrated in-house.
      Most recently, in 2024, the fourth FOXSI sounding rocket campaign launched with a high-resolution Marshall MMA. The optics achieved 9.5 arcsecond HPD angular resolution during pre-flight test with an expected 7 arcsecond HPD in gravity-free flight, making this the highest angular resolution flight observation made with a nickel-replicated X-ray optic. Currently Marshall is fabricating an MMA for the Rocket Experiment Demonstration of a Soft X-ray (REDSoX) polarimeter, a sounding rocket mission that will fly a novel soft X-ray polarimeter instrument to observe active galactic nuclei. The REDSoX MMA optic will be 444 mm in diameter, which will make it the largest MMA ever produced by MSFC and the second largest replicated nickel X-ray optic in the world.
      The ultimate performance of an X-ray optic is determined by errors in the shape, position, and roughness of the optical surface. To push the performance of X-ray optics toward even higher angular resolution and achieve more ambitious science goals, Marshall is currently engaged in a fundamental research and development effort to improve all aspects of full-shell optics fabrication.
      Scientists Wayne Baumgartner, left, crouched, and Nick Thomas, left, standing, calibrate an IXPE MMA in the Marshall 100 m Beamline. Scientist Stephen Bongiorno, right, applies epoxy to an IXPE shell during MMA assembly.NASA Given that these optics are made with the electroformed nickel replication technique, the fabrication process begins with creation of a replication master, called the mandrel, which is a negative of the desired optical surface. First, the mandrel is figured and polished to specification, then a thin layer of nickel alloy is electroformed onto the mandrel surface. Next, the nickel alloy layer is removed to produce a replicated optical shell, and finally the thin shell is attached to a stiff holding structure for use.
      Each step in this process imparts some degree of error into the final replicated shell. Research and development efforts at Marshall are currently concentrating on reducing distortion induced during the electroforming metal deposition and release steps. Electroforming-induced distortion is caused by material stress built into the electroformed material as it deposits onto the mandrel. Decreasing release-induced distortion is a matter of reducing adhesion strength between the shell and mandrel, increasing strength of the shell material to prevent yielding, and reducing point defects in the release layer.
      Additionally, verifying the performance of these advanced optics requires world-class test facilities. The basic premise of testing an optic designed for X-ray astrophysics is to place a small, bright X-ray source far away from the optic. If the angular size of the source, as viewed from the optic, is smaller than the angular resolution of the optic, the source is effectively simulating X-ray starlight. Due to the absorption of X-rays by air, the entire test facility light path must be placed inside a vacuum chamber.
      At the center, a group of scientists and engineers operate the Marshall 100-meter X-ray beamline, a world-class end-to-end test facility for flight and laboratory X-ray optics, instruments, and telescopes. As per the name, it consists of a 100-meter-long vacuum tube with an 8-meter-long, 3-meter-diameter instrument chamber and a variety of X-ray sources ranging from 0.25 – 114 keV. Across the street sits the X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF), a 527-meter-long beamline with an 18-meter-long, 6-meter-diameter instrument chamber. These facilities are available for the scientific community to use and highlight the comprehensive optics development and test capability that Marshall is known for.
      Within the X-ray astrophysics community there exist a variety of angular resolution and effective area needs for focusing optics. Given its storied history in X-ray optics, Marshall is uniquely poised to fulfill requirements for large or small, medium- or high-angular-resolution X-ray optics. To help guide technology development, the astrophysics community convenes once per decade to produce a decadal survey. The need for high-angular-resolution and high-throughput X-ray optics is strongly endorsed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.In pursuit of this goal, Marshall is continuing to advance the state of the art in full-shell optics. This work will enable the extraordinary mysteries of the X-ray universe to be revealed.
      › Back to Top
      Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus
      NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of planets around other stars.
      NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (left) and NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft (right) image the planet Uranus.NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Astronomers used Uranus as a proxy for similar planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets, comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the more-distant view from New Horizons. This combined perspective will help scientists learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future telescopes.
      “While we expected Uranus to appear differently in each filter of the observations, we found that Uranus was actually dimmer than predicted in the New Horizons data taken from a different viewpoint,” said lead author Samantha Hasler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and New Horizons science team collaborator.
      Direct imaging of exoplanets is a key technique for learning about their potential habitability, and offers new clues to the origin and formation of our own solar system. Astronomers use both direct imaging and spectroscopy to collect light from the observed planet and compare its brightness at different wavelengths. However, imaging exoplanets is a notoriously difficult process because they’re so far away. Their images are mere pinpoints and so are not as detailed as the close-up views that we have of worlds orbiting our Sun. Researchers can also only directly image exoplanets at “partial phases,” when only a portion of the planet is illuminated by their star as seen from Earth.
      Uranus was an ideal target as a test for understanding future distant observations of exoplanets by other telescopes for a few reasons. First, many known exoplanets are also gas giants similar in nature. Also, at the time of the observations, New Horizons was on the far side of Uranus, 6.5 billion miles away, allowing its twilight crescent to be studied – something that cannot be done from Earth. At that distance, the New Horizons view of the planet was just several pixels in its color camera, called the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera.
      On the other hand, Hubble, with its high resolution, and in its low-Earth orbit 1.7 billion miles away from Uranus, was able to see atmospheric features such as clouds and storms on the day side of the gaseous world.
      “Uranus appears as just a small dot on the New Horizons observations, similar to the dots seen of directly imaged exoplanets from observatories like Webb or ground-based observatories,” Hasler said. “Hubble provides context for what the atmosphere is doing when it was observed with New Horizons.”
      The gas giant planets in our solar system have dynamic and variable atmospheres with changing cloud cover. How common is this among exoplanets? By knowing the details of what the clouds on Uranus looked like from Hubble, researchers can verify what is interpreted from the New Horizons data. In the case of Uranus, both Hubble and New Horizons saw that the brightness did not vary as the planet rotated, which indicates that the cloud features were not changing with the planet’s rotation.
      In this image, two three-dimensional shapes, top, of Uranus are compared to the actual views of the planet from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, bottom left, and NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft, bottom right. Comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the smaller view from New Horizons offers a combined perspective that will help researchers learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future observatories. NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI) However, the importance of the detection by New Horizons has to do with how the planet reflects light at a different phase than what Hubble, or other observatories on or near Earth, can see. New Horizons showed that exoplanets may be dimmer than predicted at partial and high phase angles, and that the atmosphere reflects light differently at partial phase.
      NASA has two major upcoming observatories in the works to advance studies of exoplanet atmospheres and potential habitability.
      “These landmark New Horizons studies of Uranus from a vantage point unobservable by any other means add to the mission’s treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, and have, like many other datasets obtained in the mission, yielded surprising new insights into the worlds of our solar system,” added New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute.
      NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by 2027, will use a coronagraph to block out a star’s light to directly see gas giant exoplanets. NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, in an early planning phase, will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for atmospheric biosignatures on Earth-sized, rocky planets orbiting other stars.
      “Studying how known benchmarks like Uranus appear in distant imaging can help us have more robust expectations when preparing for these future missions,” concluded Hasler. “And that will be critical to our success.”
      Launched in January 2006, New Horizons made the historic flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015, before giving humankind its first close-up look at one of these planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object, Arrokoth, in January 2019. New Horizons is now in its second extended mission, studying distant Kuiper Belt objects, characterizing the outer heliosphere of the Sun, and making important astrophysical observations from its unmatched vantage point in distant regions of the solar system.
      The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
      The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio and Boulder, Colorado, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Alan Stern and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
      › Back to Top
      Crew-8 Awaits Splashdown; Expedition 72 Stays Focused on Science
      Four International Space Station crew members continue waiting for their departure date as mission managers monitor weather conditions off the coast of Florida. The rest of the Expedition 72 crew stayed focused Oct. 14 on space biology and lab maintenance aboard the orbital outpost.
      The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft is pictured through the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with a vivid green and pink aurora below.NASA NASA and SpaceX mission managers are watching unfavorable weather conditions off the Florida coast right now for the splashdown of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. The homebound quartet spent Oct. 14 mostly relaxing while also continuing departure preps. Mission teams are currently targeting Dragon Endeavour’s undocking for no earlier than 2:05 a.m. CDT on Oct. 18. The Crew-8 foursome is in the seventh month of their space research mission that began on March 3.
      The other seven orbital residents will stay aboard the orbital outpost until early 2025. NASA astronaut Don Pettit is scheduled to return to Earth first in February with Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship. Next, station Commander Suni Williams and flight engineer Butch Wilmore are targeted to return home aboard SpaceX Dragon Freedom with SpaceX Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague, all three NASA astronauts, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
      Williams had a light duty day Oct. 14 disassembling life support gear before working out for a cardio fitness study. Wilmore installed a new oxygen recharge tank and began transferring oxygen into tanks located in the Quest airlock. Hague collected his blood and saliva samples for incubation and cold stowage to learn how microgravity affects cellular immunity. Pettit also had a light duty day servicing biology hardware including the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a research incubator with an artificial gravity generator, and the BioLab, which supports observations of microbes, cells, tissue cultures and more.
      The Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the CCP, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
      The first flight of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser to the space station is now scheduled for no earlier than May 2025 to allow for completion of spacecraft testing. Dream Chaser, which will launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket and later glide to a runway landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, will carry cargo to the orbiting laboratory and stay on board for approximately 45 days on its first mission.
      Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog.
      › Back to Top
      View the full article
    • European Space Agency
      IAC 2024 – Day 3
      By European Space Agency
      View the full article
    • NASA
      Station Science Top News: Oct. 11, 2024
      By NASA
      Researchers verified that 3D micro-computed tomography scans can map the orientation of plant roots in space and used the method to demonstrate that carrots grown in actual and simulated microgravity both had random root orientation. These findings suggest that simulated microgravity offers a reliable and more affordable tool for studying plant adaptation to spaceflight.

      MULTI-TROP evaluated the role of gravity and other factors on plant growth. Plant roots grow downward in response to gravity on Earth, but in random directions in microgravity, which is a challenge for developing plant growth facilities for space. Results from this investigation could help address this challenge, advancing efforts to grow plants for food and other uses on future space missions as well as improving plant cultivation on Earth.
      Preflight image of the BIOKON facility used to grow carrots for MULTI-TROP. Kayser Italia For climate model simulations, researchers developed four parameters of electrical discharges from thunderclouds that produce visual emissions known as Blue LUminous Events or BLUEs. BLUEs are thought to affect regional atmospheric chemistry and climate. The parameters reported by this study could inform models that help test the global and regional effects of thunderstorm corona discharges, including how their geographic distribution and global occurrence rate will change as the atmosphere warms.

      ASIM, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), studies high-altitude lightning in thunderstorms and the role it plays in Earth’s atmosphere and climate. Scientists need to understand processes occurring in Earth’s upper atmosphere to determine how lightning is connected to Earth’s climate and weather so they can develop better atmospheric models to guide weather and climate predictions.
      Lightning in a thunderstorm off the coast of Africa as seen from the International Space Station. NASA/Matthew Dominick A technique to detect sounds generated by the inner ear could be used as a non-invasive tool for monitoring changes in fluid pressure in the head during spaceflight. Increased fluid pressure in the head that occurs in microgravity can cause visual impairment and may also affect the middle and inner ear. Insight into fluid pressure changes could help scientists develop ways to protect astronauts from these effects.

      The ESA and ASI investigation Acoustic Diagnostics monitored hearing function in astronauts on long-term missions using otoacoustic emissions (sounds generated by the inner ear in response to specific tones). Researchers compared these measurements before and during flight to indirectly detect changes in fluid pressure in the head. Different body position and fit of the ear probes affected results of the test and the authors note that these issues need to be addressed.
      NASA astronaut Drew Morgan participates in a hearing test for the Acoustic Diagnostics investigation. ESA (European Space Agency)/Luca ParmitanoView the full article
    • European Space Agency
      IAC 2024 - Day 2
      By European Space Agency
      View the full article

  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...