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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test required extreme precision in mission planning to achieve its mission of impacting an asteroid. The founders of Continuum Space worked on astrodynamics relating to this mission, which they used to inform their product.NASA Planning space missions is a very involved process, ensuring orbits are lined up and spacecraft have enough fuel is imperative to the long-term survival of orbital assets. Continuum Space Systems Inc. of Pasadena, California, produces a cloud-based platform that gives mission planners everything they need to certify that their space resources can accomplish their goals.
Continuum’s story begins at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Loic Chappaz, the company’s co-founder, started at JPL as an intern working on astrodynamics related to NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test. There he met Leon Alkalai, a JPL technical fellow who spent his 30-year career at the center planning deep space missions. After Alkalai retired from NASA, he founded Mandala Space Ventures, a startup that explored several avenues of commercial space development. Chappaz soon became Mandala’s first employee, but to plan their future, Mandala’s leadership began thinking about the act of planning itself.
Because the staff had decades of combined experience at JPL, they knew the center had the building blocks for the software they needed. After licensing several pieces of software from JPL, the company began building planning systems that were highly adaptable to any space mission they could come up with. Mandala eventually evolved into a venture firm that incubated space-related startups. However, because Mandala had invested considerably in developing mission-planning tools, further development could be performed by a new company, and Continuum was fully spun off from Mandala in 2021.
Continuum’s platform includes several features for mission planners, such as plotting orbital maneuvers and risk management evaluations. Some of these are built upon software licensed from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Continuum Space Systems Inc. Continuum’s tools are designed to take a space mission from concept to completion. There are three different components to their “mission in a box” — design, build and test, and mission operations. The base of these tools are several pieces of software developed at NASA. As of 2024, several space startups have begun planning missions with Continuum’s NASA-inspired software, as well as established operators of satellite constellations. From Continuum to several startups, NASA technologies continue to prove a valuable foundation for the nation’s space economy.
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Last Updated Mar 25, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
3 min read
NASA’s Cloud-based Confluence Software Helps Hydrologists Study Rivers on a Global Scale
The Paraná River in northern Argentina. Confluence, which is open-source and free to use, allows researchers to estimate river discharge and suspended sediment levels in Earth’s rivers at a global scale. NASA/ISS Rivers and streams wrap around Earth in complex networks millions of miles long, driving trade, nurturing ecosystems, and stocking critical reserves of freshwater.
But the hydrologists who dedicate their professional lives to studying this immense web of waterways do so with a relatively limited set of tools. Around the world, a patchwork of just 3,000 or so river gauge stations supply regular, reliable data, making it difficult for hydrologists to detect global trends.
“The best way to study a river,” said Colin Gleason, Armstrong Professional Development Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “is to get your feet wet and visit it yourself. The second best way to study a river is to use a river gauge.”
Now, thanks to Gleason and a team of more than 30 researchers, there’s another option: ‘Confluence,’ an analytic collaborative framework that leverages data from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 archive (HLS) to estimate river discharge and suspended sediment levels in every river on Earth wider than 50 meters. NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) hosts the software, making it open-source and free for users around the world.
By incorporating both altimetry data from SWOT which informs discharge estimates, and optical data from HLS, which informs estimates of suspended sediment data, Confluence marks the first time hydrologists can create timely models of river size and water quality at a global scale. Compared to existing workflows for estimating suspended sediment using HLS data, Confluence is faster by a factor of 30.
I can’t do global satellite hydrology without this system. Or, I could, but it would be extremely time consuming and expensive.
Colin Gleason
Nikki Tebaldi, a Cloud Adoption Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Co-Investigator for Confluence, was the lead developer on this project. She said that while the individual components of Confluence have been around for decades, bringing them together within a single, cloud-based processing pipeline was a significant challenge.
“I’m really proud that we’ve pieced together all of these different algorithms, got them into the cloud, and we have them all executing commands and working,” said Tebaldi.
Suresh Vannan, former manager of PO.DAAC and a Co-Investigator for Confluence, said this new ability to produce timely, global estimates of river discharge and quality will have a huge impact on hydrological models assessing everything from the health of river ecosystems to snowmelt.
“There are a bunch of science applications that river discharge can be used for, because it’s pretty much taking a snapshot of what the river looks like, how it behaves. Producing that snapshot on a global scale is a game changer,” said Vannan.
While the Confluence team is still working with PO.DAAC to complete their software package, users can currently access the Confluence source code here. For tutorials, manuals, and other user guides, visit the PO.DAAC webpage here.
All of these improvements to the original Confluence algorithms developed for SWOT were made possible by NASA’s Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology (AIST) program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), in collaboration with SWOT and PO.DAAC.
To learn more about opportunities to develop next-generation technologies for studying Earth from outer space, visit ESTO’s solicitation page here.
Project Lead: Colin Gleason / University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sponsoring Organization: Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology program, within NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office
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Last Updated Feb 04, 2025 Related Terms
Science-enabling Technology Earth Science Oceanography SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) Explore More
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By USH
A video taken by an airline passenger reportedly during a commercial flight over the UK shows what seem to be two figures standing on a layer of clouds.
The intriguing footage has sparked a wave of speculation online. While some viewers suggest the figures could be supernatural beings, closer analysis of the footage reveals additional shapes emerging through the clouds as the camera pans from left to right, image below.
This has led others to theorize that the "figures" might actually be exhaust stacks or other tall structures releasing steam, breaking through a fog layer and creating an illusion of human-like forms.
Rather than supernatural entities, the phenomenon is more likely an example of pareidolia, a psychological tendency to perceive familiar shapes, such as faces or figures, in random patterns.
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By USH
During an interview with Chris Letho, Dr. Courtney Brown, a university professor and founder of Farsight.org, an organization known for its remote-viewing phenomenon through the process of scientific experimentation, has made a bold prediction: larger UFOs will begin appearing in increasing numbers across the U.S. in the next month. He asserts their presence will serve as undeniable proof that humanity is not alone in the universe, forcing governments to disclose the truth about alien life.
While intriguing, this claim has been met with skepticism. Could it be true that aliens are stepping forward to force disclosure? Or, might this be part of a staged event orchestrated by shadowy forces, such as the "Deep State," to stage an UFO invasion.
Recently, a witness in California filmed a massive craft with flickering lights hovering silently over a city. This object, described as far larger than the drones or UFOs previously reported, has sparked further speculation. Witnesses noted that these objects appear to be increasing in size, and many argue they are clearly not conventional drones.
The sighting raises questions: could this lend credibility to Dr. Brown’s claims of imminent extraterrestrial revelation? Or are these larger crafts part of a deceptive agenda, as explained by Dark Journalist? See our previous article: Mystery drones: A 'dry run' to a false UFO event to trigger COG emergency powers.
One way or another, we will know in the coming months!
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By NASA
New Zealand’s stunning scenery has famously provided the backdrop for fictional worlds in fantasy films. A unique cloud that forms over the Otago region of the country’s South Island also evokes the otherworldly, while very much existing in reality.NASA/Lauren Dauphin; USGS Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager acquired this image of an elongated lenticular cloud, locally nicknamed the “Taieri Pet,” above New Zealand’s South Island on Sept. 7, 2024. Lenticular clouds form when prevailing winds encounter a topographic barrier, such as a mountain range. Wind that is forced to flow up and over the mountains creates a kind of wave in the atmosphere. Air cools at the crest of the wave, and the water vapor it contains condenses into clouds.
Image credit: NASA/Lauren Dauphin; USGS
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