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By NASA
Bridget Moody stands at NASA’s Stennis Space Center where she is the technical lead for the NASA Stennis Environmental and Health Services Office. Along with supporting the NASA mission at NASA Stennis, Moody supports commercial companies by helping them determine environmental requirements and obtain required permits.NASA/Danny Nowlin Bridget Moody has the future in mind every day she works for NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The future success of NASA’s Artemis campaign. The future success of commercial companies working at NASA Stennis. The future success of the Artemis Generation to follow.
As technical lead for the NASA Stennis Environmental and Health Services Office, Moody’s job helps ensure work at America’s largest rocket propulsion test site is carried out with the best environmental stewardship in mind.
“This work is important because it helps preserve a legacy,” Moody said. “NASA has a mission, and it is also making sure we do that in the most environmentally sound manner possible. We all have the responsibility to protect and improve the environment.”
The McNeill, Mississippi, resident supports NASA’s Artemis campaign by managing the NASA Stennis air permit, ensuring all federal and state requirements are met.
The south Mississippi center is at the front end of the critical path for future space exploration by conducting hot fire testing for RS-25 engines that will help power NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.
NASA Stennis also is preparing to test the agency’s new exploration upper stage for future SLS flights. The newer upper stage will help NASA carry larger payloads on future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Additionally, Moody’s knowledge of operations and environmental requirements benefits commercial companies working at NASA Stennis by helping them determine environmental requirements and obtain required permits in a timely manner.
“We know what needs to be done and how to get it done, so we can really help facilitate and expedite those processes for them,” she said.
Moody, a native of Slidell, Louisiana, moved to Mississippi from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2005. One year later, she started working as a contractor at NASA Stennis before being hired by NASA in 2016.
The Southeastern Louisiana graduate received a NASA Early Career Achievement Medal in 2021. She was named a Space Hero by the agency that same year and received NASA’s prestigious Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy award, the astronaut’s award given to less than 1 percent of the total NASA workforce annually, in 2023.
“NASA is one of the top federal agencies to work for,” Moody said. “Everybody knows about NASA, so it is amazing to be here, to contribute to our mission and be a part of that legacy. At NASA Stennis, we work as a team with everyone contributing to meet all challenges. The work culture at NASA helps everybody realize that their contribution is important to our success, and all can have their voices heard.”
As NASA continues its mission of exploring the unknown in air and space, innovating for the benefit of humanity, and inspiring the world through discovery, Moody will continue working to leave things better than she found it in hopes of inspiring the Artemis Generation to come.
Learn more about the people who work at NASA Stennis View the full article
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By NASA
Manufacturing equipment that will be used to build components for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for future Artemis missions is being installed at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tooling will be used to produce the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing area, picture here.NASA/Evan Deroche NASA Michoud Assembly facility technicians Cameron Shiro (foreground), Michael Roberts, and Tien Nguyen (background) install the strain gauge on the forward adapter barrel structural test article for the exploration upper stage of the SLS rocket. NASA/Eric Bordelon NASA Michoud Assembly facility quality inspectors Michael Conley (background) and Michael Kottemann perform Ultrasonic Test (UT) inspections on the mid-body V-Strut for a structural test article for the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing area. NASA/Evan Deroche Manufacturing equipment that will be used to build components for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for future Artemis missions is being installed at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The novel tooling will be used to produce the SLS rocket’s advanced exploration upper stage, or EUS, in the factory’s new manufacturing area. The EUS will serve as the upper, or in-space, stage for all Block 1B and Block 2 SLS flights in both crew and cargo configurations.
In tandem, NASA and Boeing, the SLS lead contractor for the core stage and exploration upper stage, are producing structural test articles and flight hardware structures for the upper stage at Michoud and the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Early manufacturing is already underway at Michoud while preparations for an engine-firing test series for the upper stage are in progress at nearby Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
“The newly modified manufacturing space for the exploration upper stage signifies the start of production for the next evolution of SLS Moon rockets at Michoud,” said Hansel Gill, director at Michoud. “With Orion spacecraft manufacturing and SLS core stage assembly in flow at Michoud for the past several years, standing up a new production line and enhanced capability at Michoud for EUS is a significant achievement and a reason for anticipation and enthusiasm for Michoud and the SLS Program.”
The advanced upper stage for SLS is planned to make its first flight with Artemis IV and replaces the single-engine Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) that serves as the in-space stage on the initial SLS Block 1 configuration of the rocket. With its larger liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks feeding four L3 Harris Technologies- built RL10C-3 engines, the EUS generates nearly four times the thrust of the ICPS, providing unrivaled lift capability to the SLS Block 1B and Block 2 rockets and making a new generation of crewed lunar missions possible.
This upgraded and more powerful rocket will increase the SLS rocket’s payload to the Moon by 40%, from 27 metric tons (59,525 lbs.) with Block 1 to 38 metric tons (83,776 lbs.) in the crew configuration. Launching crewed missions along with other large payloads enables multiple large-scale objectives to be accomplished in a single mission.
Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon. The rocket is part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. NASA’s 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.
For more on SLS, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/space-launch-system
News Media Contact
Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
View the full article
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By NASA
4 Min Read Robotic Moving ‘Crew’ Preps for Work on Moon
The LANDO system works by using onboard sensors to scan encoded markers (similar to a QR code) on a payload, which will reveal critical information about its position and orientation relative to the LSMS. This information is used to calculate where the robotic arm exists in space and plan the motion path to pick up and move payloads. Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman As NASA moves forward with efforts to establish a long-term presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign, safely moving cargo from landers to the lunar surface is a crucial capability.
Whether the cargo, also known as payloads, are small scientific experiments or large technology to build infrastructure, there won’t be a crew on the Moon to do all the work, which is where robots and new software come in.
A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, spent the last couple of years infusing existing robotic hardware with a software system that makes the robot operate autonomously. Earlier this month, that team, led by researcher Dr. Julia Cline of NASA Langley’s Research Directorate, ran demonstrations of their system called LANDO (Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for surface Operations and construction).
LANDO prepares to move its payload to a safe spot on the simulated lunar surface.NASA/David C. Bowman The demos took place in an area set up to look like the Moon’s surface, complete with fake boulders and a model lunar lander. During the first demo, the team placed the payload, a small metal box, on a black pedestal. The robotic arm stretched over the scene, with its dangling hook poised to grasp the box.
As the team huddled nearby around computers, sensors on the arm scanned the surrounding area, looking for the metal box, which was outfitted with encoded markers — similar to QR codes — that revealed critical information about its position and orientation relative to the arm. Using a graphic user interface, team member Amelia Scott also chose a location for LANDO to place the payload.
During a series of slow, methodical movements, LANDO transports a payload from a pedestal to a simulated lunar surface.NASA/Angelique Herring After locating the metal box and computing a safe path to move it, the arm began a slow, deliberate movement toward its target, coming in at a precise angle that allowed the hook to select a capture point on the payload. Once engaged, the arm slowly lifted the payload from the pedestal, moved right, and gently lowered the payload to the simulated lunar surface. With the payload safely on the surface, the system carefully disengaged the hook from the capture point and returned to its home position. The entire process took a few minutes. Shortly after the first demo was complete, the team did it again, but with a small model rover.
“What we demonstrated was the repeatability of the system,moving multiple payloads to show that we’re consistently and safely able to get them from point A to point B,” said Cline. “We also demonstrated the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System hardware – the ability to control the system through space and plan a path around obstacles.”
The system’s successful performance during the September demonstration marks the end of this project, but the first step in developing a larger system to go to the Moon.
Now that the team has determined how the system should function, Cline believes the next natural step would be to develop and test an engineering design unit on one of the landers going to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The team is actively looking for industry partners who want to commercialize the capability.
Through CLPS, NASA is working with commercial companies to deliver science and technology demonstrations to the Moon.
The work behind LANDO could be directly infused into much larger versions of a lightweight surface manipulation system.
The LANDO team, back row, left to right: Dominic Bisio, Joshua Moser, Walter Waltz, Jacob Martin, Ryan Bowers, Brace White and Iok Wong. And kneeling, left to right: Amelia Scott, Matthew Vaughan, Julia Cline, Jessica Friz and Javier Puig-Navarro.NASA/Ryan Hill “The overall control system we’ve developed would apply to larger versions of the technology,” said Cline. “When you think about the payloads we’ll have to offload for on the Moon, like habitats and surface power systems, this is the kind of general-purpose tool that could be used for those tasks.”
The LANDO system was funded through the Early Career Initiative in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). Through STMD, NASA supports and develops transformative space technologies to enable future missions. As NASA embarks on its next era of exploration with the Artemis campaign, STMD is helping advance technologies, developing new systems, and testing capabilities at the Moon that will be critical for crewed missions to Mars.
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By NASA
NASA/JPL-Caltech What will remain of our solar system a few billion years from now? We’re launching the Exoasteroids project to gather some clues. Join this new citizen science project, and help search for variable white dwarfs – bizarre objects that we can catch in the act of disassembling planetary systems.
White dwarfs each pack the mass of a star into a ball the size of a planet. They are also the future of our solar system. A few billion years from now, the Sun will evolve into a red giant and then into a white dwarf, devouring the innermost planets and millions of asteroids in the process.
With the Exoasteroids project, you’ll search for white dwarfs that are growing brighter or dimmer. Such white dwarfs may be remnants of planetary systems still actively munching on asteroids, leading to outbursts detectable in images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope.
Help us find planetary remains and disintegrating asteroids in other solar systems!
Anyone with a laptop or cell phone can participate. Participation does not require citizenship in any particular country.
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Last Updated Sep 23, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy (left) and Center Director at NASA’s Ames Research Center Eugene Tu (right) hear from Ames employees Sept. 16, 2024.NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy spent time at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, on Sept. 16, 2024, engaging with center leaders and employees to discuss strategies that could drive meaningful changes to ensure NASA remains the preeminent institution for research, technology, and engineering, and to lead science, aeronautics, and space exploration for humanity. Melroy’s visit also provided an opportunity to meet with early- and mid-career employees, who shared their perspectives and feedback.
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