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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket system on Feb. 4, 2025. During the flight test, the capsule at the top detached from the booster and spun at approximately 11 rpm to simulate lunar gravity for the NASA-supported payloads inside.Blue Origin The old saying — “Practice makes perfect!” — applies to the Moon too. On Tuesday, NASA gave 17 technologies, instruments, and experiments the chance to practice being on the Moon… without actually going there. Instead, it was a flight test aboard a vehicle adapted to simulate lunar gravity for approximately two minutes.
The test began on February 4, 2025, with the 10:00 a.m. CST launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system in West Texas. With support from NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, the company, headquartered in Kent, Washington, enhanced the flight capabilities of its New Shepard capsule to replicate the Moon’s gravity — which is about one-sixth of Earth’s — during suborbital flight.
“Commercial companies are critical to helping NASA prepare for missions to the Moon and beyond,” said Danielle McCulloch, program executive of the agency’s Flight Opportunities program. “The more similar a test environment is to a mission’s operating environment, the better. So, we provided substantial support to this flight test to expand the available vehicle capabilities, helping ensure technologies are ready for lunar exploration.”
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program not only secured “seats” for the technologies aboard this flight — for 16 payloads inside the capsule plus one mounted externally — but also contributed to New Shepard’s upgrades to provide the environment needed to advance their readiness for the Moon and other space exploration missions.
“An extended period of simulated lunar gravity is an important test regime for NASA,” said Greg Peters, program manager for Flight Opportunities. “It’s crucial to reducing risk for innovations that might one day go to the lunar surface.”
One example is the LUCI (Lunar-g Combustion Investigation) payload, which seeks to understand material flammability on the Moon compared to Earth. This is an important component of astronaut safety in habitats on the Moon and could inform the design of potential combustion devices there. With support from the Moon to Mars Program Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, together with Voyager Technologies, designed LUCI to measure flame propagation directly during the Blue Origin flight.
The rest of the NASA-supported payloads on this Blue Origin flight included seven from NASA’s Game Changing Development program that seek to mitigate the impact of lunar dust and to perform construction and excavation on the lunar surface. Three other NASA payloads tested instruments to detect subsurface water on the Moon as well as to study flow physics and phase changes in lunar gravity. Rounding out the manifest were payloads from Draper, Honeybee Robotics, Purdue University, and the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Flight Opportunities is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.
By Nancy Pekar, NASA’s Flight Opportunities program
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Last Updated Feb 04, 2025 EditorLoura HallContactNancy J. Pekarnancy.j.pekar@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This version of a mosaic captured by the star tracker cameras aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper on Dec. 4, 2024, features the names of stars within view of the cameras. NASA/JPL-Caltech This mosaic of a star field was made from three images captured Dec. 4, 2024, by star tracker cameras aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Showing part of the constel-lation Corvus, it’s the first imagery of space the orbiter has captured since its launch on Oct. 14, 2024.NASA/JPL-Caltech The spacecraft’s star trackers help engineers orient the orbiter throughout its long journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
Three months after its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter’s orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras.
Meanwhile, a set of cameras serving a different purpose is snapping photos in the space between Earth and Jupiter. Called star trackers, the two imagers look for stars and use them like a compass to help mission controllers know the exact orientation of the spacecraft — information critical for pointing telecommunications antennas toward Earth and sending data back and forth smoothly.
In early December, the pair of star trackers (formally known as the stellar reference units) captured and transmitted Europa Clipper’s first imagery of space. The picture, composed of three shots, shows tiny pinpricks of light from stars 150 to 300 light-years away. The starfield represents only about 0.1% of the full sky around the spacecraft, but by mapping the stars in just that small slice of sky, the orbiter is able to determine where it is pointed and orient itself correctly.
The starfield includes the four brightest stars — Gienah, Algorab, Kraz, and Alchiba — of the constellation Corvus, which is Latin for “crow,” a bird in Greek mythology that was associated with Apollo.
Engineers on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission work with the spacecraft’s star trackers in a clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2022. Used for orienting the spacecraft, the star trackers are seen here with red covers to protect their lenses.NASA/JPL-Caltech Hardware Checkout
Besides being interesting to stargazers, the photos signal the successful checkout of the star trackers. The spacecraft checkout phase has been going on since Europa Clipper launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Oct. 14, 2024.
“The star trackers are engineering hardware and are always taking images, which are processed on board,” said Joanie Noonan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who leads the mission’s guidance, navigation and control operations. “We usually don’t downlink photos from the trackers, but we did in this case because it’s a really good way to make sure the hardware — including the cameras and their lenses — made it safely through launch.”
Pointing the spacecraft correctly is not about navigation, which is a separate operation. But orientation using the star trackers is critical for telecommunications as well as for the science operations of the mission. Engineers need to know where the science instruments are pointed. That includes the sophisticated Europa Imaging System (EIS), which will collect images that will help scientists map and examine the moon’s mysterious fractures, ridges, and valleys. For at least the next three years, EIS has its protective covers closed.
Europa Clipper carries nine science instruments, plus the telecommunications equipment that will be used for a gravity science investigation. During the mission’s 49 flybys of Europa, the suite will gather data that will tell scientists if the icy moon and its internal ocean have the conditions to harbor life.
The spacecraft already is 53 million miles (85 million kilometers) from Earth, zipping along at 17 miles per second (27 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun, and soon will fly by Mars. On March 1, engineers will steer the craft in a loop around the Red Planet, using its gravity to gain speed.
More About Europa Clipper
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, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, 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, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about Europa Clipper here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/
View an interactive 3D model of NASA’s Europa Clipper News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 04, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
An interesting fact about Johnson Space Center’s Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, is that there are more letters following her name than there are in it.
A licensed professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, and chemical dependency counselor with several other certifications, Isaac has been a fixture of Johnson’s Employee Assistance Program for the last 13 years. She provides confidential counseling and assessment, crisis response, referrals to community providers, and debriefing and support to Johnson’s workforce. Additionally, Isaac leads assertiveness skills training for employees, provides management consults, and presents on various mental health topics by request. She also coordinates the center’s Autism Support Group, which convenes monthly to offer networking, resource sharing, and support for caregivers of those with autism.
Official portrait of Anika Isaac.NASA Isaac’s invaluable counsel earned her a Silver Snoopy Award in 2022. Presented by Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, the award recognized Isaac’s exceptional efforts to support NASA’s ability to execute the tasks necessary for safe human spaceflight. “I taught, modeled, and empowered thousands to address critical issues and topics in the workplace, directly impacting mission success and safety,” she said.
Anika Isaac (center) receives a Silver Snoopy Award from Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche (left) and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. NASA Isaac has also proudly participated in transparent, authentic conversations about personal and socially significant questions raised by the Johnson community, by leading panel discussions during center events and more. “Having those brave and bold conversations are necessary to foster a compassionate workplace culture that we emphasize through the Johnson Expected Behaviors,” she said.
Isaac said her work experiences prior to joining NASA not only affected her personally but also shaped her professionally. “The most troublesome challenges have been dealing with colleagues whom I saw be divisive in their comments and manipulative in their actions,” she said. “I overcame those challenges with faith, time, and talking to mentors and my trusted support system for perspective and guidance.”
Isaac’s career has also taught her to trust herself and give herself some grace. “In each moment I have everything I need to be successful and keep learning when I fall short of my expectations,” she said. She has come to appreciate the value of her unique experience and skillset, as well. “In an agency with so many experts in so many disciplines, in my respective discipline my expertise is as necessary and essential to the success of NASA’s mission,” she said. “I have also learned to stay persistent with my goals, since there are enough people to help me achieve them along the way.”
Johnson’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) received a Group Achievement Award for the team’s support of the Johnson community following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018. From left: Vanessa Wyche, Anika Isaac, EAP Executive Director Jackie Reese, EAP Counselor Daisy Wei, and Mark Geyer, who was Johnson’s director at the time.NASA Isaac looks forward to a future of space exploration that combines the best of the commercial sector, international partnerships, and NASA’s strengths with incredible advances in artificial intelligence and other technologies to ensure crew safety while propelling humanity further into the cosmos. She also celebrates the different backgrounds and cultures of today’s astronaut corps. “We are seeing a level of diversity in the faces of space explorers that has never existed before in the history of the space program,” she said.
Isaac encourages the Artemis Generation to learn and incorporate key aspects of NASA and space exploration history into their work while building their own culture and valuing their unique perspectives. “Trust yourself! Have you not usually recovered from setbacks? Those that came before you made similar mistakes,” she said. “Pay attention and learn from them. And build those crucial, reciprocal mentor and social relationships to enhance your ongoing personal and work journey.”
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By NASA
3 min read
NASA’s Cloud-based Confluence Software Helps Hydrologists Study Rivers on a Global Scale
The Paraná River in northern Argentina. Confluence, which is open-source and free to use, allows researchers to estimate river discharge and suspended sediment levels in Earth’s rivers at a global scale. NASA/ISS Rivers and streams wrap around Earth in complex networks millions of miles long, driving trade, nurturing ecosystems, and stocking critical reserves of freshwater.
But the hydrologists who dedicate their professional lives to studying this immense web of waterways do so with a relatively limited set of tools. Around the world, a patchwork of just 3,000 or so river gauge stations supply regular, reliable data, making it difficult for hydrologists to detect global trends.
“The best way to study a river,” said Colin Gleason, Armstrong Professional Development Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “is to get your feet wet and visit it yourself. The second best way to study a river is to use a river gauge.”
Now, thanks to Gleason and a team of more than 30 researchers, there’s another option: ‘Confluence,’ an analytic collaborative framework that leverages data from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 archive (HLS) to estimate river discharge and suspended sediment levels in every river on Earth wider than 50 meters. NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) hosts the software, making it open-source and free for users around the world.
By incorporating both altimetry data from SWOT which informs discharge estimates, and optical data from HLS, which informs estimates of suspended sediment data, Confluence marks the first time hydrologists can create timely models of river size and water quality at a global scale. Compared to existing workflows for estimating suspended sediment using HLS data, Confluence is faster by a factor of 30.
I can’t do global satellite hydrology without this system. Or, I could, but it would be extremely time consuming and expensive.
Colin Gleason
Nikki Tebaldi, a Cloud Adoption Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Co-Investigator for Confluence, was the lead developer on this project. She said that while the individual components of Confluence have been around for decades, bringing them together within a single, cloud-based processing pipeline was a significant challenge.
“I’m really proud that we’ve pieced together all of these different algorithms, got them into the cloud, and we have them all executing commands and working,” said Tebaldi.
Suresh Vannan, former manager of PO.DAAC and a Co-Investigator for Confluence, said this new ability to produce timely, global estimates of river discharge and quality will have a huge impact on hydrological models assessing everything from the health of river ecosystems to snowmelt.
“There are a bunch of science applications that river discharge can be used for, because it’s pretty much taking a snapshot of what the river looks like, how it behaves. Producing that snapshot on a global scale is a game changer,” said Vannan.
While the Confluence team is still working with PO.DAAC to complete their software package, users can currently access the Confluence source code here. For tutorials, manuals, and other user guides, visit the PO.DAAC webpage here.
All of these improvements to the original Confluence algorithms developed for SWOT were made possible by NASA’s Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology (AIST) program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), in collaboration with SWOT and PO.DAAC.
To learn more about opportunities to develop next-generation technologies for studying Earth from outer space, visit ESTO’s solicitation page here.
Project Lead: Colin Gleason / University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sponsoring Organization: Advanced Intelligent Systems Technology program, within NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office
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Last Updated Feb 04, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA has awarded Dynamic Aviation Group Inc. of Bridgewater, Virginia, the Commercial Aviation Services contract to support the agency’s Airborne Science Program. The program provides aircraft and technology to further science and advance the use of Earth observing satellite data, making NASA data about our home planet and innovations accessible to all.
This is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of $13.5 million. The period of performance began Friday, Jan. 31, and continues through Jan. 30, 2030.
Under this contract, the company will provide ground and flight crews and services using modified commercial aircraft, including a Beechcraft King Air B200 and Beechcraft King Air A90. Work will include mechanical and electrical engineering services for instrument integration and de-integration, flight planning and real-time tracking, project execution, as well as technical feasibility assessments and cost estimation. Aircraft modifications may include instrumented nosecones, viewing ports, inlets, computing systems, and satellite communications capabilities.
This work is essential for NASA to conduct airborne science missions, develop and validate earth system models, and support satellite payload calibration. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will administer the agency-wide contract on behalf of the Airborne Science Program in the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
To learn more about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.
650-604-4789
rachel.hoover@nasa.gov
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