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Detecting nitrogen dioxide from power plants with Sentinel-2
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By NASA
NICER (left) is shown mounted to the International Space Station, and LEXI (right) is shown attached to the top of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost in an artist’s rendering.NASA/Firefly Aerospace The International Space Station supports a wide range of scientific activities from looking out at our universe to breakthroughs in medical research, and is an active proving ground for technology for future Moon exploration missions and beyond. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission-1 landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025, kicking off science and technology operations on the surface, including three experiments either tested on or enabled by space station research. These projects are helping scientists study space weather, navigation, and computer performance in space— knowledge crucial for future Moon missions.
One of the experiments, the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), is a small telescope designed to study the Earth’s magnetic environment and its interaction with the solar wind. Like the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope mounted outside of the space station, LEXI observes X-ray sources. LEXI and NICER observed the same X-ray star to calibrate LEXI’s instrument and better analyze the X-rays emitted from Earth’s upper atmosphere, which is LEXI’s primary target. LEXI’s study of the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s protective magnetosphere could help researchers develop methods to safeguard future space infrastructure and understand how this boundary responds to space weather.
Other researchers sent the Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC) to the Moon to test how computers can recover from radiation-related faults. Before RadPC flew on Blue Ghost, researchers tested a radiation tolerant computer on the space station and developed an algorithm to detect potential hardware faults and prevent critical failures. RadPC aims to demonstrate computer resilience in the Moon’s radiation environment. The computer can gauge its own health in real time, and RadPC can identify a faulty location and repair it in the background as needed. Insights from this investigation could improve computer hardware for future deep-space missions.
In addition, the Lunar Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) located on the lunar surface has officially received a GNSS signal at the farthest distance from Earth, the same signals that on Earth are used for navigation on everything from smartphones to airplanes. Aboard the International Space Station, Navigation and Communication Testbed (NAVCOM) has been testing a backup system to Earth’s GNSS using ground stations as an alternative method for lunar navigation where GNSS signals may have limitations. Bridging existing systems with emerging lunar-specific navigation solutions could help shape how spacecraft navigate the Moon on future missions.
The International Space Station serves as an important testbed for research conducted on missions like Blue Ghost and continues to lay the foundation for technologies of the future.
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By European Space Agency
Launched just two months ago and still in the process of being commissioned for service, the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite is, remarkably, already showing how its radar data can be used to map the shape of Earth’s land surface with extreme precision.
These first cross-satellite ‘interferometry’ results assure its ability to monitor subsidence, uplift, glacier flow, and disasters such as landslides and earthquakes.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s X-59 lights up the night sky with its unique Mach diamonds, also known as shock diamonds, during maximum afterburner testing at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The test demonstrated the engine’s ability to generate the thrust required for supersonic flight, advancing NASA’s Quesst mission.Credit: Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took another successful step toward flight with the conclusion of a series of engine performance tests.
In preparation for the X-59’s planned first flight this year, NASA and Lockheed Martin successfully completed the aircraft’s engine run tests in January. The engine, a modified F414-GE-100 that powers the aircraft’s flight and integrated subsystems, performed to expectations during three increasingly complicated tests that ran from October through January at contractor Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.
“We have successfully progressed through our engine ground tests as we planned,” said Raymond Castner, X-59 propulsion lead at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “We had no major showstoppers. We were getting smooth and steady airflow as predicted from wind tunnel testing. We didn’t have any structural or excessive vibration issues. And parts of the engine and aircraft that needed cooling were getting it.”
The tests began with seeing how the aircraft’s hydraulics, electrical, and environmental control systems performed when the engine was powered up but idling. The team then performed throttle checks, bringing the aircraft up to full power and firing its afterburner – an engine component that generates additional thrust – to maximum.
In preparation for the X-59’s planned first flight this year, NASA and Lockheed Martin successfully completed the aircraft’s engine run tests in January. Testing included electrical, hydraulics, and environmental control systems.
Credit: NASA/Lillianne Hammel A third test, throttle snaps, involved moving the throttle swiftly back and forth to validate that the engine responds instantly. The engine produces as much as 22,000 pounds of thrust to achieve a desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet.
The X-59’s engine, similar to those aboard the U.S. Navy’s F-18 Super Hornet, is mounted on top of the aircraft to reduce the level of noise reaching the ground. Many features of the X-59, including its 38-foot-long nose, are designed to lower the noise of a sonic boom to that of a mere “thump,” similar to the sound of a car door slamming nearby.
Next steps before first flight will include evaluating the X-59 for potential electromagnetic interference effects, as well as “aluminum bird” testing, during which data will be fed to the aircraft under both normal and failure conditions. A series of taxi tests and other preparations will also take place before the first flight.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to commercial supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of Beholding Black Hole Power with the Accretion Explorer Interferometer concept.NASA/Kimberly Weaver Kimberly Weaver
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Some of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe are giant supermassive black holes (SMBH). Yet after 30 years of study, we don’t know precisely how these objects produce their power. This requires observations at X-ray wavelengths. The state-of-the-art for X-ray images is Chandra (~0.5-1 arcsecond resolution) but this is insufficient to image regions near SMBH where the most energetic behavior occurs. The Accretion Explorer (AE) is a mission architecture that will shatter new ground by creating X-ray images at scientifically crucial energies of 0.7-1.2 keV, 1.5-2.5 keV, 6-7 keV, up to 6 orders of magnitude better than Chandra, and will offer imaging at 4-5 orders of magnitude better than JWST (IR) and HST(optical/UV). The specific X-ray energy bands we are proposing to cover contain vital X-ray line signatures that can distinguish between SMBH activity and stellar processes. The AE NIAC concept would be a game changer for NASA and astrophysics. X-ray interferometry will challenge and change the conversation around future mission possibilities for NASA’s flagships. It will also influence the Astrophysics 2030 Decadal Survey and will significantly contribute to our scientific knowledge base in astrophysics and other fields. AE has tremendous potential to generate enthusiasm for future missions and the potential to build advocacy to support it within NASA, society, and the aerospace community.
Alternative approaches to ultra high-resolution X-ray imaging technology are not currently being funded. Our study will focus on a large free-flying X-ray interferometer. We will design a multiple spacecraft system that provides the architecture to align individual mirror pair baseline groupings provided by individual collector spacecraft, with the pointing precision to achieve micro-arcsecond resolution. Our study will assess the required pointing stability and determine optimal ways to nest and mount the collecting mirror flats within mirror modules. We will assess the required size for the detector array(s) to accommodate the wavelength coverage for detecting fringes, study how images will be created from fringes, and produce a simulated image from a design with accompanying optical element tolerance tables. We will document alternative approaches, how new factors substantially differentiate AE from prior efforts for X-ray interferometry, and identify technical hurdles.
As a result of performing this study, there are notable engineering benefits that can contribute to space missions, even if the concept is shown to be infeasible. These include establishing how small baseline interferometers can be flown with less risk in terms of spacing and tethering mirror modules, studies of very high levels of pointing precision for space-based interferometers, and extreme stability on target. Producing a simulated image from this design with accompanying tolerance tables can inform other space-based interferometry designs.
2025 Selections
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Last Updated Jan 10, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program NIAC Studies Keep Exploring Discover More NIAC Topics
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By NASA
Twelve-year-old, Aadya Karthik of Seattle, Washington; nine-year-old, Rainie Lin of Lexington, Kentucky; and eighteen-year-old, Thomas Lui, winners of the 2023-2024 Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge observe testing at a NASA Glenn cleanroom during their prize trip to Cleveland. Credit: NASA NASA’s fourth annual Power to Explore Student Challenge kicked off November 7, 2024. The science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) writing challenge invites kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions.
Students are invited to write an essay about a new nuclear-powered mission to any moon in the solar system they choose. Submissions are due Jan. 31, 2025.
With freezing temperatures, long nights, and deep craters that never see sunlight on many of these moons, including our own, missions to them could use a special kind of power: radioisotope power systems. These power systems have helped NASA explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system and enabled spacecraft to study its many moons.
“Sending spacecraft into space is hard, and it’s even harder sending them to the extreme environments surrounding the diverse moons in our solar system,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA’s Power to Explore Student Challenge provides the incredible opportunity for our next generation – our future explorers – to design their own daring missions using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to explore space and discover new science for the benefit of all, while also revealing incredible creative power within themselves. We cannot wait to see what the students dream up!”
Entries should detail where students would go, what they would explore, and how they would use radioisotope power systems to achieve mission success in a dusty, dark, or far away moon destination.
Judges will review entries in three grade-level categories: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Student entries are limited to 275 words and should address the mission destination, mission goals, and describe one of the student’s unique powers that will help the mission.
One grand prize winner from each grade category will receive a trip for two to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to learn about the people and technologies that enable NASA missions. Every student who submits an entry will receive a digital certificate and an invitation to a virtual event with NASA experts where they’ll learn about what powers the NASA workforce to dream big and explore.
Judges Needed
NASA and Future Engineers are seeking volunteers to help judge the thousands of contest entries anticipated submitted from around the country. Interested U.S. residents older than 18 can offer to volunteer approximately three hours to review submissions should register to judge at the Future Engineers website.
The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
To learn more about the challenge, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/power-to-explore
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Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Kristin Jansen
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-296-2203
kristin.m.jansen@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 07, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Opportunities For Students to Get Involved Science Mission Directorate STEM Engagement at NASA View the full article
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