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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ESI24 Haghighi Quadchart
Azadeh Haghighi
University of Illinois, Chicago
In-space manufacturing and assembly are vital to NASA’s long-term exploration goals, especially for the Moon and Mars missions. Deploying welding technology in space enables the assembly and repair of structures, reducing logistical burdens and supply needs from Earth. The unique challenges and extreme conditions of space–high thermal variations, microgravity, and vacuum–require advanced welding techniques and computational tools to ensure reliability, repeatability, safety, and structural integrity in one-shot weld scenarios. For the first time, this project investigates these challenges by focusing on three key factors: (1) Very low temperatures in space degrade the weldability of high thermal conductivity materials, like aluminum alloys, making it harder to achieve strong, defect-free welds. (2) The extreme vacuum in space lowers the boiling points of alloying elements, altering the keyhole geometry during welding. This selective vaporization changes the weld’s final chemical composition, affecting its microstructure and properties. (3) Microgravity nearly eliminates buoyancy-driven flow of liquid metal inside the molten pool, preventing gas bubbles from escaping, which leads to porosity and defects in the welds. By examining these critical factors using multi-scale multi-physics models integrated with physics-informed machine learning, and forward/inverse uncertainty quantification techniques, this project provides the first-ever real-time digital twin platform to evaluate welding processes under extreme space/lunar conditions. The models are validated through Earth-based experiments, parabolic flight tests, and publicly available data from different databases and agencies worldwide. Moreover, the established models will facilitate extendibility to support in-situ resource utilization on the Moon, including construction and repair using locally sourced materials like regolith. The established fundamental scientific knowledge will minimize trial-and-error, enable high-quality one-shot welds in space, and reduce the need for reworks, significantly reducing the costs and time needed for space missions.
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By NASA
This illustration shows a red, early-universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is pulling in matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s “feast” could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist’s concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general.
Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole just 1.5 billion years after the big bang. The black hole is pulling in matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s “feast” could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.
Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate so soon after the birth of the universe, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early universe.
The black hole, called LID-568, was hidden among thousands of objects in the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s COSMOS legacy survey, a catalog resulting from some 4.6 million Chandra observations. This population of galaxies is very bright in the X-ray light, but invisible in optical and previous near-infrared observations. By following up with Webb, astronomers could use the observatory’s unique infrared sensitivity to detect these faint counterpart emissions, which led to the discovery of the black hole.
The speed and size of these outflows led the team to infer that a substantial fraction of the mass growth of LID-568 may have occurred in a single episode of rapid accretion.
LID-568 appears to be feeding on matter at a rate 40 times its Eddington limit. This limit relates to the maximum amount of light that material surrounding a black hole can emit, as well as how fast it can absorb matter, such that its inward gravitational force and outward pressure generated from the heat of the compressed, infalling matter remain in balance.
These results provide new insights into the formation of supermassive black holes from smaller black hole “seeds,” which current theories suggest arise either from the death of the universe’s first stars (light seeds) or the direct collapse of gas clouds (heavy seeds). Until now, these theories lacked observational confirmation.
The new discovery suggests that “a significant portion of mass growth can occur during a single episode of rapid feeding, regardless of whether the black hole originated from a light or heavy seed,” said International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab astronomer Hyewon Suh, who led the research team.
A paper describing these results (“A super-Eddington-accreting black hole ~1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang observed with JWST”) appears in the journal Nature Astronomy.
About the Missions
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.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
News Media Contact
Elizabeth Laundau
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC
202-923-0167
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Shauntina Lilly, a NASA Glenn public affairs officer, speaks to students about NASA’s available internships and educational resources during the STEM Goes Red for Girls event at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, on Oct. 21.Credit: NASA/Debbie Welch NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland supported this year’s STEM Goes Red for Girls event at Great Lakes Science Center on Oct. 21. The program provides seventh and eighth grade students exposure to some of Greater Cleveland’s leading STEM companies. The event also featured a hands-on exhibitor fair, speed mentoring, and educational classes.
Hosted by the American Heart Association, this year’s event welcomed its largest audience to date with 352 students and educators from 32 schools within Northeast Ohio. NASA Glenn’s presence focused heavily on internships and career advice, but also highlighted the center’s work with the Space Communications and Navigation program’s Deep Space Network. Glenn’s Julie Sufka also served as a mentor, speaking to young girls about STEM opportunities in mathematics.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
In Punakha, Bhutan, Dr. Aparna Phalke (left) from SERVIR works with a translator to converse with a local chili farmer (center) about his experiences cultivating these fields for over 30 years– including agricultural management practices, market prices, and farming challenges Sarah Cox/SERVIR NASA and the Kingdom of Bhutan have been actively learning from each other and growing together since 2019. The seeds planted over those years have ripened into improved environmental conservation, community-based natural resource management, and new remote sensing tools.
Known for its governing philosophy of “gross national happiness,” and has a constitutional mandate to maintain at least 60% forest cover. The government’s goals include achieving nationwide food security by 2030.
Bhutan first approached the U.S. State Department to partner on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) opportunities for the country, and NASA was invited to help lead these opportunities. In 2019, Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck visited NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, and was introduced to several NASA programs.
NASA’s Earth scientists and research staff from several complementary programs have helped support Bhutan’s goals by providing data resources and training to make satellite data more useful to communities and decision makers. Bhutan now uses NASA satellite data in its national land management decisions and plans to foster more geospatial jobs to help address environmental issues.
Supporting Bhutan’s Environmental Decision Makers
Bhutan’s National Land Commission offers tax breaks to farmers to support food security and economic resilience. However, finding and reaching eligible farmers on the ground can be expensive and time consuming, which means small farmers in remote areas can be missed.
A team from SERVIR – a joint NASA-U.S. Agency for International Development initiative – worked with Bhutanese experts to create decision-making tools like the Farm Action Toolkit (FAcT). The tool uses imagery from the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites to identify and measure the country’s farmland. SERVIR researchers met with agricultural organizations – including Bhutan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, National Statistics Bureau, and National Center for Organic Agriculture – to adjust the tool for the country’s unique geography and farming practices. The Land Commission now uses FAcT to identify small farms and bring support to more of the country.
NASA also develops local capacity to use Earth data through efforts like the Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET). In early 2024, ARSET staff worked with SERVIR and Druk Holdings and Investments (DHI) to host a workshop with 46 Bhutanese government personnel. Using tailored local case studies, the teams worked to find ways to better manage natural resources, assist land use planning, and monitor disasters.
“We look forward to continuing this collaboration, as there are still many areas where NASA’s expertise can significantly impact Bhutan’s development goals,” said Manish Rai, an analyst with DHI who helped coordinate the workshop. “This collaboration is a two-way street. While Bhutan has benefited greatly from NASA’s support, we believe there are also unique insights and experiences that Bhutan can share with NASA, particularly in areas like environmental conservation and community-based natural resource management.”
Dr. Aparna Phalke gives a presentation on NASA technology and the SERVIR program to a group of 100 students at the Royal University of Bhutan College of Natural Resources. Sarah Cox/SERVIR Encouraging Bhutan’s Future Environmental Leaders
By working with students and educators from primary schools to the university level, Bhutan and NASA have been investing in the country’s future environmental leadership. Supporting educators and “training trainers” have been pillars of this collaboration.
NASA and Bhutan have worked together to boost the skills of early-career Earth scientists. For example, NASA’s DEVELOP program for undergraduates worked directly with local institutions to create several applied science internships for Bhutanese students studying in the U.S.
Tenzin Wangmo, a high school biology teacher in Bhutan, participated in DEVELOP projects focusing on agriculture and water resources. According to Wangmo, the lessons learned from those projects have been helpful in connecting with her students about STEM opportunities and environmental issues. “Most people only think of NASA as going to space, rather than Earth science,” she said. “It was encouraging to my students that there are lots of opportunities for you if you try.”
NASA is also supporting Bhutan’s future environmental leadership through the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program. The GLOBE program is a U.S. interagency outreach program that works with teachers to support STEM literacy through hands-on environmental learning. Since 2020, GLOBE has worked through the U.S. State Department and organizations like the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Forest Research and Training to support educators at two dozen schools in Bhutan. The program reached more than 650 students with activities like estimating their school’s carbon footprint.
This focus on STEM education enables students and professionals to contribute to Bhutan’s specific development goals now and in the future.
Sonam Tshering, a student who completed two DEVELOP projects on Bhutanese agriculture while studying at the University of Texas at El Paso, was able to share the value of these efforts at the 2023 United Nations Climate Conference. “By applying satellite data from NASA, we aimed to create actionable insights for our local farmers and our policymakers back in Bhutan,” she said.
News Media Contact
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 04, 2024 Related Terms
SERVIR (Regional Visualization and Monitoring System) Earth Earth Science Earth Science Division Marshall Science Research & Projects Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
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By NASA
Portraits of Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, Office of STEM Engagement (left), and Alexander MacDonald, chief economist (right). NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM), and Alexander MacDonald, chief economist, will retire from the agency.
Following Kincaid’s departure on Nov. 30, Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator for strategy and integration in OSTEM, will serve as acting associate administrator for that office beginning Dec. 1, and after MacDonald’s departure on Dec. 31, research economist Dr. Akhil Rao from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy will serve as acting chief economist.
“I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Mike Kincaid and Alex MacDonald for their service to NASA and our country,” said Nelson. “Both have been essential members of the NASA team – Mike since his first days as an intern at Johnson Space Center and Alex in his many roles at the agency. I look forward to working with Kris Brown and Dr. Akhil Rao in their acting roles and wish Mike and Alex all the best in retirement.”
As associate administrator of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, Kincaid led the agency’s efforts to inspire and engage Artemis Generation students and educators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). He also chaired NASA’s STEM Board, which assesses the agency’s STEM engagement functions and activities, as well as served as a member of Federal Coordination in STEM, a multiagency committee focused on enhancing STEM education efforts across the federal government. In addition, Kincaid was NASA’s representative on the International Space Education Board, leading global collaboration in space education, sharing best practices, and uniting efforts to foster interest in space, science, and technology among students worldwide.
Having served at NASA for more than 37 years, Kincaid first joined the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as an intern in 1987, and eventually led organizations at Johnson in various capacities including, director of education, deputy director of human resources, deputy chief financial officer and director of external relations. Kincaid earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M and a master’s degree from University of Houston, Clear Lake.
MacDonald served as the first chief economist at NASA. He was previously the senior economic advisor in the Office of the Administrator, as well as the founding program executive of NASA’s Emerging Space Office within the Office of the Chief Technologist. MacDonald has made significant contributions to the development of NASA’s Artemis and Moon to Mars strategies, NASA’s strategy for commercial low Earth orbit development, NASA’s Earth Information Center, and served as the program executive for the International Space Station National Laboratory, leading it through significant leadership changes. He also is the author and editor of several NASA reports, including “Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight,” “Public-Private Partnerships for Space Capability Development,” “Economic Development of Low Earth Orbit,” and NASA’s biennial Economic Impact Report.
As chief economist, MacDonald has guided NASA’s economic strategy, including increasing engagement with commercial space companies, and influenced the agency’s understanding of space as an engine of economic growth. MacDonald began his career at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the Mission Design Center, and served at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an executive staff specialist on commercial space before moving to NASA Headquarters. MacDonald received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Queen’s University in Canada, his master’s degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, and obtained his doctorate on the long-run economic history of American space exploration from the University of Oxford.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Meira Bernstein / Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
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