Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Sentinel-1C arrives in French Guiana
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
3 Min Read NASA’s IMAP Arrives at NASA Marshall For Testing in XRCF
On March 18, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, which simulates the harsh conditions of space.
The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
NASA’s IMAP mission being loaded into the thermal vacuum chamber of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) in Huntsville, Alabama. IMAP arrived at Marshall March 18 and was loaded into the chamber March 19.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman Testing performed in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility will help to assess the spacecraft before its journey toward the Sun. The IMAP mission will orbit the Sun at a location called Lagrange Point 1 (L1), which is about one million miles from Earth towards the Sun. From this location, IMAP can measure the local solar wind and scan the distant heliosphere without background from planets and their magnetic fields. The mission will use its suite of ten instruments to map the boundary of the heliosphere, analyze the composition of interstellar particles that make it through, and investigate how particles change as they move through the solar system.
Furthermore, IMAP will maintain a continuous broadcast of near real-time space weather data from five instruments aboard IMAP that will be used to test new space weather prediction models and improve our understanding of effects impacting our human exploration of space.
Team members from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, install IMAP into the XRCF’s chamber dome before the start of the thermal vacuum test. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman While inside the Marshall facility, the spacecraft will undergo dramatic temperature changes to simulate the environment during launch, on the journey toward the Sun, and at its final orbiting point. The testing facility has multiple capabilities including a large thermal vacuum chamber which simulates the harsh conditions of space such as extreme temperatures and the near-total absence of an atmosphere. Simulating these conditions before launch allow scientists and engineers to identify successes and potential failures in the design of the spacecraft.
Team members from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama work to close the chamber door of the XRCF for IMAP testing. The chamber is 20 feet in diameter and 60 feet long making it one of the largest across NASA. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman “The X-ray and Cryogenic Facility was an ideal testing location for IMAP given the chamber’s size, availability, and ability to meet or exceed the required test parameters including strict contamination control, shroud temperature, and vacuum level,” said Jeff Kegley, chief of Marshall’s Science Test Branch.
The facility’s main chamber is 20 feet in diameter and 60 feet long, making it the 5th largest thermal vacuum chamber at NASA. It’s the only chamber that is adjoined to an ISO 6 cleanroom — a controlled environment that limits the number and size of airborne particles to minimize contamination.
The IMAP mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, no earlier than September.
NASA’s IMAP mission was loaded into NASA Marshall’s XRCF thermal vacuum chamber where the spacecraft will undergo testing such as dramatic temperature changes to simulate the harsh environment of space. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman Learn More about IMAP Media Contact:
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Alabama
256.544.0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Apr 11, 2025 Related Terms
Marshall Space Flight Center Goddard Space Flight Center Heliophysics Marshall Heliophysics & Planetary Science Marshall Science Research & Projects Marshall X-Ray & Cryogenic Facility The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
2 min read Hubble Captures a Star’s Swan Song
The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal,…
Article 4 hours ago 6 min read NASA Webb’s Autopsy of Planet Swallowed by Star Yields Surprise
Observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have provided a surprising twist in the narrative…
Article 1 day ago 3 min read Hubble Helps Determine Uranus’ Rotation Rate with Unprecedented Precision
An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made new measurements…
Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
NASA/Josh Valcarcel From the mountains of Turin to the deserts of Arizona, a core element of Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station, is now one step closer to the Moon. As seen in this April 1, 2025, photo, HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost), Gateway’s first pressurized module and one of its foundational elements, recently arrived in Gilbert, Arizona, following its fabrication by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. Now on U.S. soil, the module will undergo final outfitting by primary contractor Northrop Grumman before it’s integrated with the Power and Propulsion Element at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Together, the two modules will launch to lunar orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of the Artemis IV mission.
HALO will support astronauts visiting Gateway and function as a command and control hub for the space station. It will feature docking ports for spacecraft such as NASA’s Orion, logistics vehicles and lunar landers, and provide data handling, energy storage, power distribution, thermal regulation, and communications and tracking capabilities.
HALO’s arrival marks a major milestone in the construction of Gateway, a cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis campaign to advance science and exploration on and around the Moon in preparation for the next giant leap: the first human missions to Mars.
Image credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
View the full article
-
By NASA
From left to right, NASA Marshall engineers Carlos Diaz and John Luke Bili, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory mechanical engineer contractor Eloise Stump, and Marshall engineers Tomasz Liz, David Banks, and Elise Doan observe StarBurst in the cleanroom environment before it’s unboxed from its shipping container. The cleanroom environment at Marshall is designed to minimize contamination and protect the observatory’s sensitive instruments. Image Credit: NASA /Daniel Kocevski StarBurst, a wide-field gamma ray observatory, arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, March 4 for environmental testing and final instrument integration. The instrument is designed to detect the initial emission of short gamma-ray bursts, a key electromagnetic indicator of neutron star mergers.
“Gamma-ray bursts are among the most powerful explosions in the universe, and they serve as cosmic beacons that help us understand extreme physics, including black hole formation and the behavior of matter under extreme conditions,” said Dr. Daniel Kocevski, principal investigator of the StarBurst mission at NASA Marshall.
According to Kocevski, neutron star mergers are particularly exciting because they produce gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves, meaning scientists can study these events using two different signals – light and ripples in space time.
Starburst Principal Investigator Dr. Daniel Kocevski, left, and Integration and Test Engineer Elise Doan, right, pose with the StarBurst instrument after it was unboxed in the cleanroom environment at NASA Marshall. The Naval Research Lab transferred the instrument to NASA in early March.Image Credit: NASA/Davy Haynes The merging of neutron stars forges heavy elements such as gold and platinum, revealing the origins of some of Earth’s building blocks.
“By studying these gamma-ray bursts and the neutron star mergers that produce them, we gain insights into fundamental physics, the origins of elements, and even the expansion of the universe,” Kocevski said. “Neutron star mergers and gamma-ray bursts are nature’s laboratories for testing our understanding of the cosmos.”
StarBurst will undergo flight vibration and thermal vacuum testing at Marshall in the Sunspot Thermal Vacuum Testing Facility. These tests ensure it can survive the rigors of launch and harsh environment of space.
Final instrument integration will happen in the Stray Light Facility, which is a specialized environment to help identify and reduce unwanted light in certain areas of the optical systems.
The StarBurst Multimessenger Pioneer is a wide-field gamma-ray observatory designed to detect the initial emission of short gamma-ray bursts, important electromagnetic indicators of neutron star mergers. With an effective area over five times that of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and complete visibility of the unobscured sky, StarBurst will conduct sensitive observations. NASA/Daniel Kocevski StarBurst is a collaborative effort led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, with partnerships with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Alabama Huntsville, the Universities Space Research Association, and the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory. StarBurst was selected for development as part of the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers program, which supports lower-cost, smaller hardware missions to conduct compelling astrophysics science.
To learn more about StarBurst visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/starburst/
Media Contact:
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Alabama
256.544.0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Marking another step towards new insights into Earth’s forests and their role in the carbon cycle, ESA’s groundbreaking Biomass satellite has arrived at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, to be prepared for liftoff on a Vega-C rocket at the end of April.
View the full article
-
By NASA
This photo shows the Wide Field Instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arriving at the big clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. About the size of a commercial refrigerator, this instrument will help astronomers explore the universe’s evolution and the characteristics of worlds outside our solar system. Unlocking these cosmic mysteries and more will offer a better understanding of the nature of the universe and our place within it.NASA/Chris Gunn The primary instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a sophisticated camera that will survey the cosmos from the outskirts of our solar system all the way out to the edge of the observable universe. Called the Wide Field Instrument, it was recently delivered to the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The camera’s large field of view, sharp resolution, and sensitivity from visible to near-infrared wavelengths will give Roman a deep, panoramic view of the universe. Scanning much larger portions of the sky than astronomers can with NASA’s Hubble or James Webb space telescopes will open new avenues of cosmic exploration. Roman is designed to study dark energy (a mysterious cosmic pressure thought to accelerate the universe’s expansion), dark matter (invisible matter seen only via its gravitational influence), and exoplanets (worlds beyond our solar system).
“This instrument will turn signals from space into a new understanding of how our universe works,” said Julie McEnery, the Roman senior project scientist at Goddard. “To achieve its main goals, the mission will precisely measure hundreds of millions of galaxies. That’s quite a dataset for all kinds of researchers to pull from, so there will be a flood of results on a vast array of science.”
Technicians inspect NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument upon delivery to the big clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.NASA/Chris Gunn About 1,000 people contributed to the Wide Field Instrument’s development, from the initial design phase to assembling it from around a million individual components. The WFI’s design was a collaborative effort between Goddard and BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. Teledyne Imaging Sensors, Hawaii Aerospace Corporation, Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Honeybee Robotics, CDA Intercorp, Alluxa, and JenOptik provided critical components. Those parts and many more, made by other vendors, were delivered to Goddard and BAE Systems, where they were assembled and tested prior to the instrument’s delivery to Goddard this month.
“I am so happy to be delivering this amazing instrument,” said Mary Walker, Roman’s Wide Field Instrument manager at Goddard. “All the years of hard work and the team’s dedication have brought us to this exciting moment.”
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a next-generation observatory that will survey the infrared universe from beyond the orbit of the Moon. The spacecraft’s giant camera, the Wide Field Instrument, will be fundamental to this exploration. Data it gathers will enable scientists to discover new and uniquely detailed information about planetary systems around other stars. The instrument will also map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos, which could ultimately allow scientists to discover the fate of the universe. Watch this video to see a simplified version of how the Wide Field Instrument works.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Seeing the Bigger Picture
After Roman launches by May 2027, each of the Wide Field Instrument’s 300-million-pixel images will capture a patch of the sky bigger than the apparent size of a full moon. The instrument’s large field of view will enable sweeping celestial surveys, revealing billions of cosmic objects across vast stretches of time and space. Astronomers will conduct research that could take hundreds of years using other telescopes.
And by observing from space, Roman’s camera will be very sensitive to infrared light –– light with longer wavelengths than our eyes can see –– from far across the cosmos. This ancient cosmic light will help scientists address some of the biggest cosmic mysteries, one of which is how the universe evolved to its present state.
From the telescope, light’s path through the instrument begins by passing through one of several optical elements in a large wheel. These elements include filters, which allow specific wavelengths of light to pass through, and a grism and prism, which split light into all of its individual colors. These detailed patterns, called spectra, reveal information about the object that emitted the light.
Then, the light travels on toward the camera’s set of 18 detectors, which each contain 16 million pixels. The large number of detectors and pixels gives Roman its large field of view. The instrument is designed for accurate, stable images and exquisite precision in measuring the exact amount of light in every pixel of every image, giving Roman unprecedented power to study dark energy. The detectors will be held at about minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 184 degrees Celsius) to increase sensitivity to the infrared universe.
“When the light reaches the detectors, that marks the end of what may have been a 10-billion-year journey through space,” said Art Whipple, an aerospace engineer at Goddard who has contributed to the Wide Field Instrument’s design and construction for more than a decade.
Once Roman begins observing, its rapid data delivery will require new analysis techniques.
“If we had every astronomer on Earth working on Roman data, there still wouldn’t be nearly enough people to go through it all,” McEnery said. “We’re looking at modern techniques like machine learning and artificial intelligence to help sift through Roman’s observations and find where the most exciting things are.”
Now that the Wide Field Instrument is at Goddard, it will be tested to ensure everything is operating as expected. It will be integrated onto the instrument carrier and mated to the telescope this fall, bringing scientists one step closer to making groundbreaking discoveries for decades to come.
One panel on the Wide Field Instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope contains hundreds of names of team members who helped design and build the instrument.BAE Systems To virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope, visit:
https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media contact:
Claire Andreoli
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1940
Explore More
3 min read NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Eyes’ Pass First Vision Test
Article 4 months ago 6 min read How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Chronicle the Active Cosmos
Article 9 months ago 5 min read NASA Tests Deployment of Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Visor’
Article 4 days ago Share
Details
Last Updated Aug 13, 2024 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Dark Energy Dark Matter Exoplanets Goddard Space Flight Center Science-enabling Technology The Universe View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
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.