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By NASA
NASA has a strong need for advanced materials and processes (M&P) across the realms of robotic- and crewed-spaceflight, as well as aeronautics, particularly when one acknowledges that all craft must be made of something. To meet that need, the materials discipline relies on collaboration—both between centers and across disciplines. Reaching the Agency’s Moon-to-Mars objectives will require leveraging each center’s specific M&P expertise, cross-training among the centers, and routinely interacting with the 20-plus Agency disciplines like structures, space environments, and loads and dynamics. When a discipline touches all classes of materials; all aspects of design, manufacturing, testing, and operations; and all phases of flight, collaboration is the only way to broaden and deepen its reach.
This year, the Materials TDT pulled in wide-ranging center and discipline support for the VIPER lunar rover, investigations of cracks in the ISS Russian PrK, the X-59 supersonic aircraft, and the SLS Program. It also leveraged its contamination control experience to aid the Commercial Crew and Orion Programs. Below are some additional highlights from the year.
Collaboration Among Disciplines
Ms. Alison Park, NASA Deputy Technical Fellow for Materials, led a multi-disciplinary NESC team to address JPL’s request for sup – port to investigate anomalous temperature readings during thermal vacuum testing of the NASA Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Synthetic Aperture Rader (NISAR) reflect-array hardware, already integrated onto the spacecraft in India. The team provided detailed reviews of the thermal models and supported materials testing and characterization of the reflect-array construction record. The team’s work identified operability concerns from higher than expected temperatures that would be seen during the multi-day deployment process. The hardware was demated from the space – craft and returned to the United States for design upgrades and modifications to address the new concerns. The hardware is now set to return to India for reintegration and final launch preparations.
Fostering Intercenter Cooperation
Mr. Robert Carter, NASA Deputy Technical Fellow for Materials and GRC Deputy Division Chief, attended a technical exchange between GRC and MSFC. The exchange uncovered the need for an Agency-wide, materials-driven alloy development plan to identify key needs that would benefit spaceflight and aeronautics. From there, materials representatives from 7 of the 10 centers met in-person to develop a roadmap and a plan to be released in FY25. The Materials TDT also stood up an Alloy Development Community of Practice to provide a grassroots mechanism to identify cross-Agency needs, technical challenges, and benefits that aren’t identified programmatically or within mission directorates.
Illustration depicting the NISAR satellite in orbit over central and Northern California. The satellite features an advanced radar system to globally monitor changes to Earth’s land and ice surfaces to deepen scientists’ understanding of natural hazards, land use, climate change, and other global processes. In June 2023, NISAR’s radar instrument payload and spacecraft bus were combined in an ISRO clean room facility in Bengaluru, India. Image credit: VDOS-URSC Leveraging NASA Partnerships
The NASA Technical Fellow for Materials, Dr. Bryan W. McEnerney, hosted visitors from the European Space Agency (ESA) for a combined trip to JPL, GRC, and KSC, as well as the jointly organized Worldwide Advanced Manufacturing Symposium (WAMS) in Orlando, FL. In-depth technical interchanges between NASA and ESA emphasized advanced manufacturing with a focus on spaceflight needs. The event increased technical collaboration be – tween the two organizations, leading to ESA’s request to NASA for a formal review of ESA’s stress corrosion standard. Work was also initiated on a joint NASA/ESA intern program. Next year brings a number of new and exciting challenges, including an elevated temperature testing program focused on HallPetch effects in C-103 (niobium alloy), the domestic North American WAMS symposium in Knoxville, TN, and a continued focus on intercenter technical support. And, always a key objective, the discipline will actively engage early-career personnel on NESC assessments to learn from our veteran materials experts and to pass on the knowledge so unique to the space industry.
Alloy Development community of practice participants. Robert Carter is at center.View the full article
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
ESI24 Li Quadchart
Wei Li
University of Texas at Dallas
Internal defects are always formed in laser welding process due to the keyhole instability, molten pool collapse, and rapid solidification. The extreme lunar environment complicates the reliable implementation of welding, thereby enhancing the welding defects formation. The welding defects are critical material barriers preventing the metal components from Moon exploration. Professor Wei Li’s team will establish an integrated computational materials modelling framework to study the process-structure-property linkage of laser welding under the lunar conditions. The research is emphasized on modelling the internal defects (void, lack of fusion) formed in the lunar laser welding by fully considering the reduced gravity, large temperature change, and extreme vacuum on the Moon surface, and predicting the influence of internal defects on the material and mechanical properties of welding joint.
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By NASA
A 1.2% scale model of the Super Heavy rocket that will launch the Starship human landing system to the Moon for future crewed Artemis missions was recently tested at NASA’s Ames Research Center’s transonic wind tunnel, providing valuable information on vehicle stability when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.NASA Four grid fins on the Super Heavy rocket help stabilize and control the rocket as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere after launching Starship to a lunar trajectory. Engineers tested the effects of various aerodynamic conditions on several grid fin configurations during wind tunnel testing. NASA Wind tunnel testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center helped engineers better understand the aerodynamic forces the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket, with its 33 Raptor engines, experiences during various stages of flight. As a result of the testing, engineers updated flight control algorithms and modified the exterior design of the rocket. NASA NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress toward Artemis III and beyond, the first crewed lunar landing missions under the agency’s Artemis campaign. SpaceX, the commercial Human Landing System (HLS) provider for Artemis III and Artemis IV, recently tested a 1.2% scale model of the Super Heavy rocket, or booster, in the transonic Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Super Heavy rocket will launch the Starship human landing system to the Moon as part of Artemis.
During the tests, the wind tunnel forced an air stream at the Super Heavy scale model at high speeds, mimicking the air resistance and flow the booster experiences during flight. The wind tunnel subjected the Super Heavy model, affixed with pressure-measuring sensors, to wind speeds ranging from Mach .7, or about 537 miles per hour, to Mach 1.4, or about 1,074 miles per hour. Mach 1 is the speed that sound waves travel, or 761 miles per hour, at sea level.
Engineers then measured how Super Heavy model responded to the simulated flight conditions, observing its stability, aerodynamic performance, and more. Engineers used the data to update flight software for flight 3 of Super Heavy and Starship and to refine the exterior design of future versions of the booster. The testing lasted about two weeks and took place earlier in 2024.
After Super Heavy completes its ascent and separation from Starship HLS on its journey to the Moon, SpaceX plans to have the booster return to the launch site for catch and reuse. The Starship HLS will continue on a trajectory to the Moon.
To get to the Moon for the Artemis missions, astronauts will launch in NASA’s Orion spacecraft aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once in lunar orbit, Orion will dock with the Starship HLS or with Gateway. Once the spacecraft are docked, the astronauts will move from Orion or Gateway to the HLS Starship, which will bring them to the surface of the Moon. After surface activities are complete, Starship will return the astronauts to Orion or Gateway waiting in lunar orbit. The astronauts will transfer to Orion for the return trip to Earth.
With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s SLS, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, Gateway lunar space station, and future rovers are NASA’s foundation for deep space exploration.
For more information about Artemis, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
News Media Contact
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen here on Aug. 21 at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians deployed and tested the giant solar arrays to be sure they will operate in flight.NASA/Frank Michaux The largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for planetary exploration just got its ‘wings’ — massive solar arrays to power it on the journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft recently got outfitted with a set of enormous solar arrays at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Each measuring about 46½ feet (14.2 meters) long and about 13½ feet (4.1 meters) high, the arrays are the biggest NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. They have to be large so they can soak up as much sunlight as possible during the spacecraft’s investigation of Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is.
The arrays have been folded up and secured against the spacecraft’s main body for launch, but when they’re deployed in space, Europa Clipper will span more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) — a few feet longer than a professional basketball court. The “wings,” as the engineers call them, are so big that they could only be opened one at a time in the clean room of Kennedy’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where teams are readying the spacecraft for its launch period, which opens Oct. 10.
Watch as engineers and technicians deploy and test Europa Clipper’s massive solar arrays in a clean room at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC/APL/Airbus Flying in Deep Space
Meanwhile, engineers continue to assess tests conducted on the radiation hardiness of transistors on the spacecraft. Longevity is key, because the spacecraft will journey more than five years to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030. As it orbits the gas giant, the probe will fly by Europa multiple times, using a suite of science instruments to find out whether the ocean underneath its ice shell has conditions that could support life.
Powering those flybys in a region of the solar system that receives only 3% to 4% of the sunlight Earth gets, each solar array is composed of five panels. Designed and built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and Airbus in Leiden, Netherlands, they are much more sensitive than the type of solar arrays used on homes, and the highly efficient spacecraft will make the most of the power they generate.
At Jupiter, Europa Clipper’s arrays will together provide roughly 700 watts of electricity, about what a small microwave oven or a coffee maker needs to operate. On the spacecraft, batteries will store the power to run all of the electronics, a full payload of science instruments, communications equipment, the computer, and an entire propulsion system that includes 24 engines.
NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen here on Aug. 21 in a clean room at Kennedy Space Center after engineers and technicians tested and stowed the spacecraft’s giant solar arrays.NASA/Frank Michaux While doing all of that, the arrays must operate in extreme cold. The hardware’s temperature will plunge to minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 240 degrees Celsius) when in Jupiter’s shadow. To ensure that the panels can operate in those extremes, engineers tested them in a specialized cryogenic chamber at Liège Space Center in Belgium.
“The spacecraft is cozy. It has heaters and an active thermal loop, which keep it in a much more normal temperature range,” said APL’s Taejoo Lee, the solar array product delivery manager. “But the solar arrays are exposed to the vacuum of space without any heaters. They’re completely passive, so whatever the environment is, those are the temperatures they get.”
About 90 minutes after launch, the arrays will unfurl from their folded position over the course of about 40 minutes. About two weeks later, six antennas affixed to the arrays will also deploy to their full size. The antennas belong to the radar instrument, which will search for water within and beneath the moon’s thick ice shell, and they are enormous, unfolding to a length of 57.7 feet (17.6 meters), perpendicular to the arrays.
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. The mission’s launch period opens Oct. 10. NASA/JPL-Caltech “At the beginning of the project, we really thought it would be nearly impossible to develop a solar array strong enough to hold these gigantic antennas,” Lee said. “It was difficult, but the team brought a lot of creativity to the challenge, and we figured it out.”
More About the Mission
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.
Find more information about Europa here:
europa.nasa.gov
News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-6215
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 27, 2024 Related Terms
Europa Clipper Europa Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jupiter Jupiter Moons The Solar System Explore More
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/wp-content/plugins/nasa-blocks/assets/images/media/media-example-01.jpgThis landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI /wp-content/plugins/nasa-blocks/assets/images/media/media-example-01.jpgThis landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI /wp-content/plugins/nasa-blocks/assets/images/media/media-example-01.jpgThis landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScIView the full article
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By NASA
4 min read
Super Blue Moons: Your Questions Answered
Moonrise over the Syr Darya river, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, Baikonur, Kazakhstan. NASA/Bill Ingalls A trifecta of labels is being applied to the Moon of Aug. 19, 2024. It’s a full moon, a supermoon, and finally a blue moon. You may hear it referred to as a super blue moon as a result. It sounds exciting, but what does that really mean? We’ve got you covered.
What is a supermoon?
The Moon travels around our planet in an elliptical orbit, or an elongated circle, with Earth closer to one side of the ellipse. Each month, the Moon passes through the point closest to Earth (perigee) and the point farthest from Earth (apogee). When the Moon is at or near its closest point to Earth at the same time as it is full, it is called a “supermoon.” During this event, because the full moon is a little bit closer to us than usual, it appears especially large and bright in the sky.
Because the Moon’s orbit wobbles and differs depending on where the Sun and Earth are in their orbits, the exact distance of these closest and furthest points varies. But the Moon can look up to 14 percent bigger at perigee than apogee.
This animation shows the difference between a Moon at its closest point to Earth, when supermoons occur, and at its farthest. Distance to apogee and perigee vary by event. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech OK, so what is a blue moon?
A monthly blue moon occurs when we see the full moon twice in a single month. The Moon’s cycle is 29.5 days, so just a bit shorter than the average length of a calendar month. Eventually that gap results in a full moon happening at the beginning of a month with enough days still remaining for another full cycle ― so a second full moon in the same month. In other words, a full moon that happens on the 1st or 2nd of a month will probably be followed by a second full moon on the 30th or 31st. This happens every two to three years.
A seasonal blue moon occurs when there are four full moons in a single season (spring, summer, fall and winter) instead of the usual three. The third moon in this lineup is a blue moon. This Aug. 19 moon is a seasonal blue moon.
Will the Moon be blue?
No, that’s just the term for two full moons in a month, or the third full moon in a season with four.
Is the Moon ever blue?
On rare occasions, tiny particles in the air ― typically of smoke or dust ― can scatter away red wavelengths of light, causing the Moon to appear blue.
Will this Moon be bigger and more “super?”
You probably won’t notice a big difference in size. When the Moon is closest to Earth (a “supermoon”), it can look up to 14 percent bigger than when it’s farthest from Earth. This is similar to the size difference between a quarter and a nickel. Because the Moon will be close to us in its orbit, it will appear a bit brighter than usual.
Image Before/After Do blue moons and supermoons always occur together?
No. The term “supermoon” is used to describe a full Moon that occurs within a day or so of perigee, so they happen three to four times a year. About 25 percent of all full moons are supermoons, but only 6 percent of full moons are blue moons (seasonal and monthly). The time between super blue moons is quite irregular ― it can be as much as 20 years ― but in general, 10 years is the average. However, if you like to celebrate both seasonal and monthly blue moons, the gap is closer to five years.
Monthly blue moons always occur in the last two or three days of the month. A monthly blue moon in January is usually followed by another one in March of the same year. And in fact, the next monthly super blue moons will occur as a pair, in January and March 2037. Seasonal blue moons always occur almost exactly one month before an equinox or a solstice. The next seasonal blue moon will be on Aug. 21, 2032.
So if it’s not blue and not super-sized, is this worth checking out?
Hey, it’s always a good time to look at the Moon! Try our Daily Moon Guide to see if you can locate some of our recommended daily Moon sights.
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Last Updated Aug 19, 2024 Related Terms
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