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By NASA
2 min read
Citizen Scientists Use NASA Open Science Data to Research Life in Space
2023 Workshop of Analysis Working Group members, Washington, D.C., November 14, 2023. Now, you are invited to join their quest to understand how life can thrive in deep space! Want to learn more first? Join our live virtual event April 17 at 3pm Eastern Time to hear an overview of the OSDR AWG’s operations. Photo: NASA OSDR Team How can life thrive in deep space? The Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups invite volunteers from all backgrounds to help answer this question. Request to join these citizen science groups to help investigate how life adapts to space environments, exploring topics like radiation effects, microgravity’s impact on human and plant health, and how microbes change in orbit.
Currently, nine Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) hold monthly meetings to advance their specific focus areas. Participants collaborate using an online platform, the AWG “Forum-Space”, where they connect with peers and experts, join discussions, and contribute to over 20 active projects.
The AWGs work with data primarily from the NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR), a treasure trove of spaceflight data on physiology, molecular biology, bioimaging, and much more. For newcomers, there are tutorials and a comprehensive paper covering all aspects of the repository and the AWG community. You can explore 500+ studies, an omics multi-study visualization portal, the environmental data app, and RadLab, a portal for radiation telemetry data. (“Omics” refers to fields of biology that end in “omics,” like “genomics”.)
Each of the nine AWGs has a Lead who organizes their group and holds monthly virtual meetings. Once you join, make sure to connect with the Lead and get on the agenda so you can introduce yourself. Learn more about the AWGs here.
Have an idea for a new project? Propose a new project and help lead it! From data analysis and visualization to shaping data standards and conducting literature meta-analyses, there’s a place for everyone to contribute. Request to join, and together, we can address a great challenge for humanity: understanding and enabling life to thrive in deep space!
Want to learn more?
On April 17 at 3pm Eastern Time, the NASA Citizen Science Leaders Series is hosting an virtual event with Ryan Scott about these Analysis Working Groups and their work. Ryan is the Science Lead for the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive and the liaison between the Open Data Science Repository and the Analysis Working Groups. Click here to register for this event!
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Last Updated Apr 01, 2025 Related Terms
Citizen Science Biological & Physical Sciences Explore More
9 min read Interview with Michiharu Hyogo, Citizen Scientist and First Author of a New Scientific Paper
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By European Space Agency
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the striking landscape surrounding the Waza National Park in Cameroon. View the full article
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By NASA
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, second from left, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, second from right, and Suni Williams, right, are seen inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft shortly after splashing down off the coast of Florida, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission returned from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (Credit: NASA).NASA/Keegan Barber After completing a long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts will discuss their science mission during a postflight news conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Monday, March 31, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Following the news conference, the crew will be available for a limited number of individual interviews at 3:30 p.m.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore will answer questions about their time in space. The three NASA crew members and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov returned to Earth on March 18. Gorbunov will not participate in the news conference because of his travel schedule.
Watch live coverage on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of additional platforms, including social media.
Media are invited to attend in person or virtually. U.S. media requesting in-person attendance or media seeking an interview with the crew must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 28, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available on the agency’s website. Media participating by phone must dial into the news conference no later than 10 minutes before the start of the event to ask questions. Questions also may be submitted on social media using #AskNASA.
Hague and Gorbunov lifted off at 1:17 p.m. Sept. 28, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The next day, they docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024, from Space Launch Complex 41 as part of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The duo arrived at the space station on June 6. In August, NASA announced the uncrewed return of Starliner to Earth and integrated Wilmore and Williams as part of the space station’s Expedition 71/72 for a return on Crew-9.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles during their mission, spent 286 days in space, and completed 4,576 orbits around Earth. Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 miles during their mission, spent 171 days in space, and completed 2,736 orbits around Earth.
Hague, Williams, and Wilmore completed over 900 hours of research, conducting more than 150 unique experiments. During their time in orbit, the crew studied plant growth and development, tested stem cell technology to improve patient outcomes on Earth, and participated in research to understand how the space environment affects material degradation. They also performed a spacewalk and collected samples from the station’s exterior, studying the survivability of microorganisms in space. Additionally, the crew supported 30 ham radio events with students worldwide and conducted a student-led genetic experiment, helping to inspire the next generation of explorers.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening access to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.
Find more information on NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
-end-
Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Courtney Beasley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 24, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Humans in Space International Space Station (ISS) Missions View the full article
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By NASA
Explore This Section Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 11 min read
The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: January–March 2025
NASA’s Earth Observing fleet continues to age gracefully. While several new missions have joined the fleet in the past year, scientists and engineers work to extend the life of existing missions and maximize their science along the way. The crowning example is the first Earth Observing System (EOS) Flagship mission, Terra, which celebrated a quarter-century in orbit on December 18, 2024.
Terra, continues to collect daily morning Earth observations using five different instruments: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT). Collectively, these observations have established a robust satellite record of global scientific processes to track changes in temperature, glaciers, clouds, vegetation, land-use, air quality, and natural hazards such as hurricanes, wildfires, and volcanic eruptions.
Originally designed for a six-year prime mission, Terra continues to deliver data used by emergency managers, researchers, and modelers over a quarter-of-a-century later. On December 18th, 2024, NASA celebrated the 25th anniversary of Terra’s launch with a celebration at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Visitor’s Center. NASA Senior management [from NASA Headquarters and GSFC] as well as other key figures from Terra’s long history gave brief remarks and perspectives on Terra’s development and achievements. To read a review of the celebration, see “Celebrating 25 Years of Terra.”
Terra-related sessions (poster and oral) during the Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting were well-attended. The Terra team took advantage of the meeting to have a celebratory anniversary dinner that included attendees representing each of the five instruments.
Another mission to recently reach a longevity milestone is NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), which celebrated 10 years in space last summer. OCO-2, which launched on July 2, 2014, from the Vandenburg Air Force (now Space Force) Base in California, was originally designed as a pathfinder mission to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) with the precision and accuracy needed to quantify where, when, and how the Earth inhales and exhales this important greenhouse gas seasonally. OCO-2 was part of the international Afternoon Constellation, or “A-Train,” which also included Aqua, Aura, CloudSat, and CALIPSO, as well as international partner missions.
Since its launch, OCO-2 data have revealed unprecedented insights into how the carbon cycle operates – from observing the impact and recovery of tropical land and ocean ecosystems during El Niño events to revealing the outsized impacts of extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and fires on ecosystem health and functioning. Researchers from around the world use OCO-2 data, opening new opportunities for understanding the response of the carbon cycle to human-driven perturbations, such as the impact of COVID lockdowns on atmospheric CO2 and improved quantification of emissions from large power plants and cities.
OCO-2 also maps vegetation fluorescence, which shows promise as a reliable early warning indicator of flash drought. During photosynthesis, plants “leak” unused photons, producing a faint glow known as solar-induced fluorescence (SIF). The stronger the fluorescence, the more CO2 a plant is taking from the atmosphere to power its growth. Ancillary SIF measurements from OCO-2 will help scientists better predict flash droughts, and understand how these impact carbon emissions.
Ten years into the mission, OCO-2 has become the gold standard for CO2 measurements from space. The spacecraft and instrument continue to perform nominally, producing data leading to new scientific discoveries.
OCO–3, built from spare parts during the build of OCO-2 and launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019, also celebrated a milestone, marking five years in orbit on May 4, 2024. While the follow-on has the same instrument sensitivity and makes essentially the same measurements as OCO-2, the vantage point on the ISS as opposed to OCO-2’s polar orbit and the use of a new pointing mirror assembly (PMA) results in significant day-to-day spatial and temporal sampling differences that allows CO2 tracking for diurnal variability. In addition, the flexible PMA system allows for a much more dynamic observation-mode schedule.
Further out in space, about 1 million mi (~1.1 million km) from Earth, orbiting the “L1” Lagrange point between Earth and Sun, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch on February 11, 2025. The two NASA Earth observing instruments on DSCOVR are the Earth Polychromatic Camera (EPIC) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Radiometer [NISTAR].
The 10th DSCOVR EPIC NISTAR Science Team Meeting was held October 16–18, 2024 at Goddard Space Flight Center. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore opened the meeting with remarks that focused on remote sensing and the future of Earth observations. Following Gore’s remarks, DSCOVR mission leadership and representatives from GSFC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gave presentations on DSCOVR operations, EPIC calibration, and NISTAR Status and Science.
The meeting provided an opportunity for participants to learn the status of DSCOVR’s Earth-observing instruments, the status of recently released Level-2 (geophysical) data products, and the resulting science. As more people use DSCOVR data worldwide, the science team hopes to hear from users and team members at its next meeting. The latest updates from the mission can be found on the EPIC website. For more details, see the Summary of the 10th DSCOVR EPIC and NISTAR Science Team Meeting.
Flying in the space between satellites and ground-based observations, NASA’s Airborne Science Program operates a fleet of aircraft, unpiloted aerial vehicles, and even kites to study Earth and space science. Since 1987, a highly modified McDonnell Douglas DC-8 aircraft has been a mainstay of ASP’s fleet – see Photo 1. The aircraft, located at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) in California, flew countless missions as a science laboratory, producing science data for the national and global scientific communities. NASA decided to retire the venerable DC-8 aircraft, which made its last science flight in April 2024. The DC-8 is being replaced with a similarly refurbished Boeing 777 aircraft, which will be even more capable than the DC-8 and is located at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC).
The NASA History Office and NASA Earth Science Division cohosted a workshop, titled “Contributions of the DC-8 to Earth System Science at NASA,” on October 24–25, 2024 at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters (HQ) Building in Washington, DC – for more details on the DC-8 event, see the article The NASA DC-8 Retires: Reflections on its Contributions to Earth System Science.
Photo 1. NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory flew Earth science missions from 1987 to 2024. Expert maintenance allowed the aircraft to conduct research on six continents and study ice fields on the seventh, Antarctica. Image Credit: Lori Losey/NASA There are also updates from three recent NASA field campaigns – where ground observations are timed and coordinated with aircraft flights (often at more than one altitude) and with satellite overpasses to gain a comprehensive (i.e., multilayered, multiscale) picture of the atmosphere over a certain area.
The Westcoast & Heartland Hyperspectral Microwave Sensor Intensive Experiment (WHyMSIE) campaign was held from October 17- November 18, 2024. Serving as a future NASA planetary boundary-layer (PBL) mission prototype, WHyMSIE aimed to capture a wide variety of thermodynamic, moisture, and PBL regimes across a variety of surface types. WHyMSIE was an initial step towards an integrated and affordable PBL observing system of systems, with multiple observing nodes – i.e., space, suborbital, and ground – from passive and active sensors to enable a comprehensive and coherent picture of essential PBL variables and hydrometeors that is not possible with any single sensor, observational approach, or scale. As a partnership between NASA and NOAA, this field campaign flew a first-of-its-kind hyperspectral microwave airborne measurements (CoSMIR-H) that was complemented by other passive (thermal emission, solar reflectance) and active (lidar, radar) sensors flying onboard the NASA ER-2 (AFRC) and G-III (LaRC), with coordination over a variety of ground-based sensor facilities.
The GSFC Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) was conducted in February 2025 at Edwards Air Force Base, California – see photo 2. GLOVE flew the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), Roscoe lidar, enhanced MODIS Airborne Simulator (eMAS) imaging scanner, and Cloud Radar System (CRS) on the ER-2 to validate NASA ICESat-2 atmospheric data products and validate ESA’s recently launched EarthCARE lidar, radar, and spectrometer products.
NASA’s Earth Science Division FireSense project focuses on delivering NASA’s unique Earth science and technological capabilities to operational agencies, striving to address challenges in US wildland fire management. Together with agency, academic, and private partners, FireSense completed an airborne campaign in a wildfire smoke-impacted airshed in Missoula, MT on August 27–29, 2024. During the three-day campaign, a NASA Uninhabited Aerial System (UAS) team conducted eight data-collection flights, partnering these launches with weather balloon launches.
FireSense uses airborne campaigns to evaluate capabilities and technologies to support decision making in wildland fire management and air quality forecasting. Targeted data collection produces better forecasts and more successful technology transfer to wildland fire operations. In the future, the FireSense Program will coordinate two airborne campaigns for spring 2025 at Geneva State Forest, Alabama and Kennedy Space Center located within Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Both 2025 campaigns will incorporate data collection before, during, and after prescribed fire operations. Beyond NASA, the campaign works in close partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, National Weather Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Defense, as well as partners in academia and the private sector. For more information on FireSense’s most recent campaign in Montana see the Editor’s Corner supplemental summary of “The FireSense Project.”
Photo 2. NASA personnel stand in front of theNASA ER-2 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, during the GSFC Lidar Observation and Validation Experiment (GLOVE) in February 2025. Image credit: John Yorks/NASA Congratulations to Jack Kaye, Associate Director for research with the Earth Science Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, who has received the William T. Pecora Award for his vision and creative leadership in multidisciplinary Earth science research, as well as spurring advancements in the investigator community, supporting development of sensors, and shaping NASA satellite and aircraft missions and research programs at the highest levels. To read more about this accomplishment, see “Kaye Honored with Pecora Award.”
On the outreach front, AGU returned to Washington, DC, for its annual meeting from December 9–14, 2024. NASA continued to uphold its long-standing tradition as an AGU partner and exhibitor, leveraging the meeting as an opportunity to share the agency’s cutting-edge research, data, and technology with the largest collection of Earth and planetary science professionals in the world. Many of the estimated 25,000 students, scientists, and industry personnel who attended the conference visited the NASA Science exhibit, interacting with NASA subject matter experts and listening to Hyperwall presentations throughout the week.
As the final event in a busy calendar of annual scientific conferences, AGU is often an opportunity for NASA scientists to publish findings from the previous year and set goals for the year ahead. The agency’s robust portfolio of missions and programs will continue to set new records, such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe pass of the Sun, and conduct fundamental research in Earth and space science. To read more about AGU 2024, see the article: AGU 2024: NASA Science on Display in the Nation’s Capital.
Ending on a somber note, we recently posted three notable obituaries. Each of these individuals made significant contributions to EOS history, which are highlighted in the In Memoriam articles linked below.
Jeff Dozier, an environmental scientist, snow hydrologist, researcher, academic, and former EOS Project Scientist, died on November 17, 2024. Jeff embraced remote sensing with satellites to measure snow properties and energy balance. As a Project Scientist with the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), he contributed to the design and management of very large information systems that would impact spatial modeling and environmental informatics.
Berrien Moore, Dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma (OU), died on December 17, 2024. Berrien served in several roles with NASA, including as a committee member and later chair of the organization’s Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee, Chair of the Earth Observing System Payload Advisory Committee, member and Chair of NASA’s Earth Science and Applications Committee, and member of the NASA Advisory Council. Berrien received NASA’s highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, for outstanding service and the NOAA Administrator’s Recognition Award.
Pierre Morel, the first director of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and founding member of WCRP’s Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Core project, died on December 10, 2024. Pierre’s work played an integral role in the development of tools used to study the atmosphere, many of which are still active today. Pierre was the recipient of the 2008 Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership for his outstanding contributions to geophysical fluid dynamics, his leadership in the development of climate research, and the applications of space observation to meteorology and the Earth system science.
Steve Platnick
EOS Senior Project Scientist
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Last Updated Mar 20, 2025 Related Terms
Earth Science View the full article
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By Space Force
The U.S. Space Force published its Data and Artificial Intelligence FY 2025 Strategic Action Plan.
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