Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Senior leaders chart the future of the Space Force at CSIS
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
A rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander and a rover developed for the company’s third mission to the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative.Credit: Firefly Aerospace NASA continues to advance its campaign to explore more of the Moon than ever before, awarding Firefly Aerospace $179 million to deliver six experiments to the lunar surface. This fourth task order for Firefly will target landing in the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the Moon in 2028.
As part of the agency’s broader Artemis campaign, Firefly will deliver a group of science experiments and technology demonstrations under NASA’s CLPS initiative, or Commercial Lunar Payload Services, to these lunar domes, an area of ancient lava flows, to better understand planetary processes and evolution. Through CLPS, NASA is furthering our understanding of the Moon’s environment and helping prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach.
“The CLPS initiative carries out U.S. scientific and technical studies on the surface of the Moon by robot explorers. As NASA prepares for future human exploration of the Moon, the CLPS initiative continues to support a growing lunar economy with American companies,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding the formation of the Gruithuisen Domes, as well as the ancient lava flows surrounding the landing site, will help the U.S. answer important questions about the lunar surface.”
Firefly’s first lunar delivery is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-January 2025 and will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, on the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Firefly’s second lunar mission includes two task orders: a lunar orbit drop-off of a satellite combined with a delivery to the lunar surface on the far side and a delivery of a lunar orbital calibration source, scheduled in 2026.
This new delivery in 2028 will send payloads to the Gruithuisen Domes and the nearby Sinus Viscositatus. The Gruithuisen Domes have long been suspected to be formed by a magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite. Granitic rocks form easily on Earth due to plate tectonics and oceans of water. The Moon lacks these key ingredients, so lunar scientists have been left to wonder how these domes formed and evolved over time. For the first time, as part of this task order, NASA also has contracted to provide “mobility,” or roving, for some of the scientific instruments on the lunar surface after landing. This will enable new types of U.S. scientific investigations from CLPS.
“Firefly will deliver six instruments to understand the landing site and surrounding vicinity,” said Chris Culbert, manager of the CLPS initiative at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “These instruments will study geologic processes and lunar regolith, test solar cells, and characterize the neutron radiation environment, supplying invaluable information as NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon.”
The instruments, collectively expected to be about 215 pounds (97 kilograms) in mass, include:
Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer, which consists of two stationary and three mobile instruments, will study rocks and regoliths on the summit of one of the domes to determine their origin and better understand geologic processes of early planetary bodies. The principal investigator is Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna of the University of Central Florida, Orlando. Heimdall is a flexible camera system that will be used to take pictures of the landing site from above the horizon to the ground directly below the lander. The principal investigator is Dr. R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering, and Probing of Lunar Regolith is a robotic arm that will collect samples of lunar regolith and use a robotic scoop to filter and isolate particles of different sizes. The sampling technology will use a flight spare from the Mars Exploration Rover project. The principal investigator is Sean Dougherty of Maxar Technologies, Westminster, Colorado. Low-frequency Radio Observations from the Near Side Lunar Surface is designed to observe the Moon’s surface environment in radio frequencies, to determine whether natural and human-generated activity near the surface interferes with science. The project is headed up by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photovoltaic Investigation on the Lunar Surface will carry a set of the latest solar cells for a technology demonstration of light-to-electricity power conversion for future missions. The experiment will also collect data on the electrical charging environment of the lunar surface using a small array of solar cells. The principal investigator is Jeremiah McNatt from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface is a neutron spectrometer that will characterize the surface neutron radiation environment, monitor hydrogen, and provide constraints on elemental composition. The principal investigator is Dr. Heidi Haviland of NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Through the CLPS initiative, NASA purchases lunar landing and surface operations services from American companies. The agency uses CLPS to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to advance capabilities for science, exploration, or commercial development of the Moon. By supporting a robust cadence of lunar deliveries, NASA will continue to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry. Two upcoming CLPS flights scheduled to launch in early 2025 will deliver NASA payloads to the Moon’s near side and south polar region, respectively.
Learn more about CLPS and Artemis at:
https://www.nasa.gov/clps
-end-
Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Natalia Riusech / Nilufar Ramji
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
natalia.s.riusech@nasa.gov / nilufar.ramji@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 18, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Artemis View the full article
-
By NASA
Dr. Jeannette Wing and Dr. Christa Peters-Lidard sign a collaborative Space Act Agreement at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. NASA/Travis Wohlrab NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Columbia University in New York, New York, enacted a collaborative Space Act Agreement to advance research and education opportunities during a signing ceremony Monday, Dec. 16, at Goddard.
Presiding over the ceremony were Dr. Christa Peters-Lidard, director of Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration directorate, and Dr Jeannette Wing, executive vice president for research and professor of computer science at Columbia University.
Columbia University has been a trusted partner for many years and has a long history of interactions with Goddard Space Flight Center. Notably, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is located at Columbia University serving as a laboratory in Goddard’s Earth Sciences Division and is affiliated with the Columbia Climate School and School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The agreement expands NASA’s CU partnership to Goddard’s Greenbelt campus and will be centered around collaborative research, education, technology development, workforce development, science and engineering exchanges, applied science, commercial as well as nonprofit research along with technology infusion.
Areas of mutual interest include but are not limited to: artificial intelligence, foundation models, machine learning, and data science; climate sustainability, justice, adaptation, and resilience; materials and sensors; quantum sensing and computing; Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, physics and astrophysics.
Share
Details
Last Updated Dec 18, 2024 EditorKaty MersmannContactJeremy Eggers Related Terms
Goddard Institute for Space Studies Goddard Space Flight Center View the full article
-
By NASA
4 Min Read Space Gardens
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron with chile peppers in the station’s Advanced Plant Habitat. Credits: NASA Science in Space December 2024
As NASA plans missions to the Moon and Mars, one challenge is figuring out how to provide crew members with enough healthy food. Bringing along a supply for months or even years in space is impractical, and stored food can lose taste and nutritional value. Growing plants in space is one way to help solve this problem. Tending space gardens also has positive psychological effects for crew members, and plants can be part of life support systems that provide services such as producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide.
Outredgeous romaine lettuce grows inside a laboratory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for preflight testing of Plant Habitat-07.NASA A current investigation, Plant Habitat-07, looks at how plants and their associated communities of microorganisms respond to different levels of water. The study uses ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce, a food crop already known to grow well on the International Space Station. Results from this investigation could inform ways to produce healthy crops under different water conditions in space and on Earth.
Multiple studies of plants on the space station have tested a wide range of crops and methods for growing them. Researchers have successfully grown lettuces, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, kale, tomatoes, radishes, and chile peppers in space. Here are details on results from earlier plant studies.
Better lighting
NASA astronaut Nick Hague harvests Mizuna mustard greens for VEG-04.NASA The Veg-04A and Veg-04B investigations looked at the effects of light quality and fertilizer on plant growth in space. Researchers found differences in yield and nutritional content depending on how leafy greens are grown and harvested – including choice of light spectrum (red versus blue), a consideration for design of future plant growth facilities.
It’s in their genes
Arabidopsis thaliana plants grow in the type of nutrient gel Petri plate used for APEX-04. Anna-Lisa Paul, University of Florida APEX-04 studied molecular changes in thale cress seedlings. Researchers found differences in the expression of specific genes in the root systems of the plants, including two genes not previously known to influence root development. This finding could identify ways to genetically modify plants to grow better on future long-duration missions.
European Modular Cultivation System Seed Cassettes used for the Plant RNA Regulation investigation.NASA Plant Signaling, a NASA investigation conducted in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), studied the effects of various gravity levels on plant seedlings, and Plant RNA Regulation compared gene expression involved in the development of roots and shoots in microgravity and simulated 1 g (Earth’s gravity). Both investigations used the European Modular Cultivation System, a centrifuge that creates 1 g in space and makes it possible to examine the effects of partial gravity. The investigations found increases in the expression of some genes, such as those involved in light response, and decreases in expression of others, including defense response. These findings can help inform design of space-based plant growth facilities.
And in their hormones
Auxins are plant hormones that affect processes such as root growth. Gravity affects the abundance of these hormones and their movement within a plant. Auxin Transport, an investigation from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), examined the role of auxins in controlling growth of pea and maize seedlings in microgravity. Researchers found that microgravity caused decreases in hormones involved in determining direction of growth in pea seedlings and increases of those same hormones in maize seedlings. Understanding how microgravity affects plant hormonal pathways could hep improve the design of space-based plant growth systems.
Growth and gravity
Plant development on Earth is strongly influenced by gravity, but exactly how that works at the molecular level is not well understood. APEX-03-1 investigated the effects of microgravity on plant development and, along with previous studies, showed that spaceflight triggers changes in the development of cell walls in plant roots. Strong cell walls provide mechanical strength needed for roots to grow, and this finding provides insight into how to develop plants that are well-adapted to space conditions.
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg harvests samples for the Resist Tubule investigation.NASA JAXA’s Resist Tubule also studied the mechanisms of gravity resistance in plants. Researchers found that thale cress plants grown in microgravity exhibited reduced levels of sterols, compounds involved in a variety of cellular processes, which could limit plant growth. These findings could help scientists genetically engineer plants that grow better in microgravity.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
Johnson Space Center
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Space Station Research and Technology
Station Benefits for Humanity
Humans In Space
International Space Station News
View the full article
-
-
By Space Force
The NACE program’s mission is to rapidly iterate and improve space superiority, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, and defensive cyber command-and-control processes and procedures.
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.