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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) researchers Lynne Martin, left, and Connie Brasil use the Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) to view a simulated fire zone and set a drone flight plan during a flight test the week of March 17, 2025.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete NASA researchers conducted initial validation of a new airspace management system designed to enable crews to use aircraft fight and monitor wildland fires 24 hours a day, even during low-visibility conditions.
From March 17-28, NASA’s Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project stationed researchers at multiple strategic locations across the foothills of the Sierra de Salinas mountains in Monterey County, California. Their mission: to test and validate a new, portable system that can provide reliable airspace management under poor visual conditions, one of the biggest barriers for aerial wildland firefighting support.
The mission was a success.
“At NASA, we have decades of experience leveraging our aviation expertise in ways that improve everyday life for Americans,” said Carol Carroll, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at agency headquarters in Washington. “We need every advantage possible when it comes to saving lives and property when wildfires affect our communities, and ACERO technology will give responders critical new tools to monitor and fight fires.”
NASA ACERO researchers Samuel Zuniga,left, and Jonathan La Plain prepare for a drone flight test using the PAMS in Salinas on March 19, 2025.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete One of the barriers for continued monitoring, suppression, and logistics support in wildland fire situations is a lack of tools for managing airspace and air traffic that can support operations under all visibility conditions. Current aerial firefighting operations are limited to times with clear visibility when a Tactical Air Group Supervisor or “air boss” in a piloted aircraft can provide direction. Otherwise, pilots may risk collisions.
The ACERO technology will provide that air boss capability for remotely piloted aircraft operations – and users will be able to do it from the ground. The project’s Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) is a suitcase-sized solution that builds on decades of NASA air traffic and airspace management research. The PAMS units will allow pilots to view the locations and operational intents of other aircraft, even in thick smoke or at night.
During the testing in Salinas, researchers evaluated the PAMS’ core airspace management functions, including strategic coordination and the ability to automatically alert pilots once their aircrafts exit their preapproved paths or the simulated preapproved fire operation zone.
Using the PAMS prototype, researchers were able to safely conduct flight operations of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft operated by Overwatch Aero, LLC, of Solvang, California, and two small NASA drones.
Flying as if responding to a wildfire scenario, the Overwatch aircraft connected with two PAMS units in different locations. Though the systems were separated by mountains and valleys with weak cellular service, the PAMS units were able to successfully share and display a simulated fire zone, aircraft location, flight plans, and flight intent, thanks to a radio communications relay established by the Overwatch aircraft.
Operating in a rural mountain range validated that PAMS could work successfully in an actual wildland fire environment.
“Testing in real mountainous environments presents numerous challenges, but it offers significantly more value than lab-based testing,” said Dr. Min Xue, ACERO project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “The tests were successful, providing valuable insights and highlighting areas for future improvement.”
NASA ACERO researchers fly a drone to test the PAMS during a flight test on March 19, 2025.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete Pilots on the ground used PAMS to coordinate the drones, which performed flights simulating aerial ignition – the practice of setting controlled, intentional fires to manage vegetation, helping to control fires and reduce wildland fire risk.
As a part of the testing, Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, California, flew its remotely piloted aircraft, similar in size to a Cessna Grand Caravan, over the testing site. The PAMS system successfully exchanged aircraft location and flight intent with Joby’s mission management system. The test marked the first successful interaction between PAMS and an optionally piloted aircraft.
Fire chiefs from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) attended the testing and provided feedback on the system’s functionality, features that could improve wildland fire air traffic coordination, and potential for integration into operations.
“We appreciate the work being done by the NASA ACERO program in relation to portable airspace management capabilities,” said Marcus Hernandez, deputy chief for CAL FIRE’s Office of Wildfire Technology. “It’s great to see federal, state, and local agencies, as it is important to address safety and regulatory challenges alongside technological advancements.”
ACERO chief engineer Joey Mercer, right, shows the Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) to Cal Fire representatives Scott Eckman, center, and Pete York, left, in preparation for the launch of the Overwatch Aero FVR90 Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) test “fire” information sharing, airspace management, communication relay, and aircraft deconfliction capabilities during the Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) test in Salinas, California.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete These latest flights build on successful PAMS testing in Watsonville, California, in November 2024. ACERO will use flight test data and feedback from wildland fire agencies to continue building out PAMS capabilities and will showcase more robust information-sharing capabilities in the coming years.
NASA’s goal for ACERO is to validate this technology, so it can be developed for wildland fire crews to use in the field, saving lives and property. The project is managed by NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program and supports the agency’s Advanced Air Mobility mission.
ACERO’s PAMS unit shown during a flight test on March 19, 2025NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrette Share
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Last Updated Mar 25, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Explore This Section RPS Home About About RPS About the Program About Plutonium-238 Safety and Reliability For Mission Planners Contact RPS Systems Overview Power Systems Thermal Systems Dynamic Radioisotope Power Missions Overview Timeline News Resources STEM Power to Explore Contest FAQ 4 min read
NASA Reveals Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge
A word cloud showing “superpowers” of the 45 semifinalists. NASA/David Lam NASA selected 45 student essays as semifinalists of its 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their personal “superpower” would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission to explore one of the nearly 300 moons of our solar system.
The competition asked students to learn about radioisotope power systems (RPS), a type of “nuclear battery” that NASA uses to explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system. RPS have enabled many spacecraft to explore a variety of these moons, some with active volcanoes, methane lakes, and intricate weather patterns similar to Earth. Many of these moons remain a mystery to us.
This year’s submissions to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge were immensely enthralling, and we’re thrilled that the number of entries reached a record high.
Carl Sandifer II
Program Manager, NASA Radioisotope Power Systems Program
In 275 words or less, students wrote about a mission of their own that would use these space power systems to explore any moon in our solar system and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.
The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn more about these reliable power systems, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA’s diverse workforce. This year’s contest set a record, receiving 2,051 submitted entries from all 50 states, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Overseas.
“This year’s submissions to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge were immensely enthralling, and we’re thrilled that the number of entries reached a record high,” said Carl Sandifer II, program manager of the Radioisotope Power Systems Program at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “It was particularly interesting to see which moons the students selected for their individual essays, and the mysteries they hope to unravel. Their RPS-powered mission concepts always prove to be innovative, and it’s a joy to learn about their ‘superpowers’ that exemplify their path forward as the next generation of explorers.”
Entries were split into three categories: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate, and over 4,859 participants who signed up received an invitation to the Power Up with NASA virtual event. Students learned about what powers the NASA workforce utilizes to dream big and work together to explore. Speakers included Carl Sandifer II, Dr. Wanda Peters, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for programs in the Science Mission Directorate and Dr. Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for NASA’s Dragonfly mission from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Fifteen national semifinalists in each grade category (45 semifinalists total) have been selected. These participants also will receive a NASA RPS prize pack. Finalists for this challenge will be announced on April 23.
Grades K-4
Vihaan Akhoury, Roseland, NJ Ada Brolan, Somerville, MA Ashwin Cohen, Washington D.C Unnathi Chandra Devavarapu, San Marcos, CA Levi Fisher, Portland, OR Tamanna Ghosh, Orlando, FL Ava Goodison, Arnold, MD Anika Lal, Pflugerville, TX Diya Loganathan, Secaucus, NJ Mini M, Ann Arbor, MI Mark Porter, Temple Hills, MD Rohith Thiruppathy, Canton, MI Zachary Tolchin, Guilford CT Kavin Vairavan, West Windsor Township, NJ Terry Xu, Arcadia, CA Grades 5-8
Chowdhury Wareesha Ali, Solon OH Caydin Brandes, Los Angeles, CA Caleb Braswell, Crestview, FL Lilah Coyan, Spokane, WA Ashwin Dhondi Kubeer, Phoenix, AZ Jonathan Gigi, Cypress, TX Gagan Girish, Portland, OR Maggie Hou, Snohomish, WA Sanjay Koripelli, Louisville, KY Isaiah Muniz, South Orange, NJ Sarabhesh Saravanakumar, Bothell, WA Eliya Schubert, Katonah, NY Gabriel Traska, Fort Woth, TX Jaxon Verbeck, Riggins, ID Krish Vinodhkumar, Monrovia, MD Grades 9-12
Samaria Berry, Kinder, LA David Cai, Saipan, MP Reggie Castro, Saipan, MP Ryan Danyow, Rutland City, VT Faiz Karim, Jericho, NY Sakethram Kuncha, Chantilly, VA Katerina Morin, Miami, FL Emilio Olivares, Edmond, OK Kairat Otorov, Trumbull, CT Dev Rai, Herndon, VA Shaurya Saxena, Irving, TX Saanvi Shah, Bothell, WA Niyant Sithamraju, San Ramon, CA Anna Swenson, Henderson, NV Alejandro Valdez, Orlando, FL About the Challenge
The Power to Explore Student Challenge is funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office and managed and administered by Future Engineers under the direction of the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Kristin Jansen
NASA’s Glenn Research Center
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By European Space Agency
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. View the full article
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By NASA
NICER (left) is shown mounted to the International Space Station, and LEXI (right) is shown attached to the top of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost in an artist’s rendering.NASA/Firefly Aerospace The International Space Station supports a wide range of scientific activities from looking out at our universe to breakthroughs in medical research, and is an active proving ground for technology for future Moon exploration missions and beyond. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission-1 landed on the Moon on March 2, 2025, kicking off science and technology operations on the surface, including three experiments either tested on or enabled by space station research. These projects are helping scientists study space weather, navigation, and computer performance in space— knowledge crucial for future Moon missions.
One of the experiments, the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), is a small telescope designed to study the Earth’s magnetic environment and its interaction with the solar wind. Like the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope mounted outside of the space station, LEXI observes X-ray sources. LEXI and NICER observed the same X-ray star to calibrate LEXI’s instrument and better analyze the X-rays emitted from Earth’s upper atmosphere, which is LEXI’s primary target. LEXI’s study of the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s protective magnetosphere could help researchers develop methods to safeguard future space infrastructure and understand how this boundary responds to space weather.
Other researchers sent the Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC) to the Moon to test how computers can recover from radiation-related faults. Before RadPC flew on Blue Ghost, researchers tested a radiation tolerant computer on the space station and developed an algorithm to detect potential hardware faults and prevent critical failures. RadPC aims to demonstrate computer resilience in the Moon’s radiation environment. The computer can gauge its own health in real time, and RadPC can identify a faulty location and repair it in the background as needed. Insights from this investigation could improve computer hardware for future deep-space missions.
In addition, the Lunar Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) located on the lunar surface has officially received a GNSS signal at the farthest distance from Earth, the same signals that on Earth are used for navigation on everything from smartphones to airplanes. Aboard the International Space Station, Navigation and Communication Testbed (NAVCOM) has been testing a backup system to Earth’s GNSS using ground stations as an alternative method for lunar navigation where GNSS signals may have limitations. Bridging existing systems with emerging lunar-specific navigation solutions could help shape how spacecraft navigate the Moon on future missions.
The International Space Station serves as an important testbed for research conducted on missions like Blue Ghost and continues to lay the foundation for technologies of the future.
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By NASA
The NISAR mission will help map crops and track their development through the entire growing season. Using synthetic aperture radar, the satellite will be able to observe both small plots of farmland and monitor trends across broad regions, gathering data to in-form agricultural decision making.Adobe Stock/Greg Kelton Data from the NISAR satellite will be used to map crop growth, track plant health, and monitor soil moisture — offering detailed, timely information for decision making.
When it launches this year, the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite will provide a powerful data stream that could help farmers in the U.S. and around the world. This new Earth mission by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation will help monitor the growth of crops from planting to harvest, generating crucial insights on how to time plantings, adjust irrigation schedules, and, ultimately, make the most of another precious resource: time.
Using synthetic aperture radar, NISAR will discern the physical characteristics of crops, as well as the moisture content of the plants and the soil they grow in. The mission will have the resolution to see small plots of farmland, but a potentially more meaningful benefit will come from its broad, frequent coverage of agricultural regions.
The satellite will image nearly all of Earth’s land twice every 12 days and will be able to resolve plots down to 30 feet (10 meters) wide. The cadence and resolution could allow users to zoom in to observe week-to-week changes on small farms or zoom out to monitor thousands of farms for broader trends. Such big-picture perspective will be useful for authorities managing crops or setting farm policy.
Tapping NISAR data, decision-makers could, for example, estimate when rice seedlings were planted across a region and track their height and blooming through the season while also monitoring the wetness of the plants and paddies over time. An unhealthy crop or drier paddies may signal the need to shift management strategies.
NISAR will provide maps of croplands on a global basis every two weeks. Observations will be uninterrupted by weather and provide up-to-date information on the large-scale trends that affect international food security. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech “It’s all about resource planning and optimizing, and timing is very important when it comes to crops: When is the best time to plant? When is the best time to irrigate? That is the whole game here,” said Narendra Das, a NISAR science team member and agricultural engineering researcher at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Mapping Crops
NISAR is set to launch this year from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India’s southeastern coast. Once in operation, it will produce about 80 terabytes of data products per day for researchers and users across numerous areas, including agriculture.
Satellites have been used for large-scale crop monitoring for decades. Because microwaves pass through clouds, radar can be more effective at observing crops during rainy seasons than other technologies such as thermal and optical imaging. The NISAR satellite will be the first radar satellite to employ two frequencies, L- and S-band, which will enable it to observe a broader range of surface features than a single instrument working at one frequency.
Microwaves from the mission’s radars will be able to penetrate the canopies of crops such as corn, rice, and wheat, then bounce off the plant stalks, soil, or water below, and then back to the sensor. This data will enable users to estimate the mass of the plant matter (biomass) that’s aboveground in an area. By interpreting the data over time and pairing it with optical imagery, users will be able to distinguish crop types based on growth patterns.
Data gathered in 2017 by the European Sentinel-1 SAR satellite program shows changes to croplands in the region southeast of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Colors in the fields indicate various crops in different parts of their growth and harvest cycles. NISAR will gather similar data in L- and S-band radar frequencies.ESA; processing and visualization by Earth Big Data LLC Additionally, NISAR’s radars will measure how the polarization, or vertical and horizontal orientation of signals, changes after they bounce back to the satellite from the surface. This will enable a technique called polarimetry that, when applied to the data, will help identify crops and estimate crop production with better accuracy.
“Another superpower of NISAR is that when its measurements are integrated with traditional satellite observations, especially vegetation health indexes, it will significantly enhance crop information,” added Brad Doorn, who oversees NASA’s water resources and agriculture research program.
The NISAR satellite’s high-resolution data on which crops are present and how well they are growing could feed into agricultural productivity forecasts.
“The government of India — or any government in the world — wants to know the crop acreage and the production estimates in a very precise way,” said Bimal Kumar Bhattacharya, the agricultural applications lead at ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad. “The high-repeat time-series data of NISAR will be very, very helpful.”
Tracking Soil Moisture
The NISAR satellite can also help farmers gauge the water content in soil and vegetation. In general, wetter soils tend to return more signals and show up brighter in radar imagery than drier soils. There is a similar relationship with plant moisture.
A collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, NISAR will use synthetic aperture radar to offer insights into change in Earth’s ecosystems, including its agricultural lands. The spacecraft, depicted here in an artist’s concept, will launch from India.NASA/JPL-Caltech These capabilities mean that NISAR can estimate the water content of crops over a growing season to help determine if they are water-stressed, and it can use signals that have scattered back from the ground to estimate soil moisture.
The soil moisture data could potentially inform agriculture and water managers about how croplands respond to heat waves or droughts, as well as how quickly they absorb water and then dry out following rain — information that could support irrigation planning.
“Resource managers thinking about food security and where resources need to go are going to be able to use this sort of data to have a holistic view of their whole region,” said Rowena Lohman, an Earth sciences researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and soil moisture lead on the NISAR science team.
More About NISAR
The NISAR satellite is a joint collaboration between NASA and ISRO and marks the first time the two agencies have cooperated on flight hardware for an Earth-observing mission. Managed by Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the U.S. component of the project and provided the L-band SAR. NASA JPL also provided the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the Near Space Network, which will receive NISAR’s L-band data.
The ISRO Space Applications Centre is providing the mission’s S-band SAR. The U R Rao Satellite Centre provided the spacecraft bus. The launch vehicle is from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, launch services are through Satish Dhawan Space Centre, and satellite mission operations are by the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network. The National Remote Sensing Centre is responsible for S-band data reception, operational products generation, and dissemination.
To learn more about NISAR, visit:
https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov
How NISAR Will See Earth What Sets NISAR Apart From Other Earth Satellites News Media Contacts
Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 12, 2025 Related Terms
NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Earth Earth Science Earth Science Division Explore More
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