Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s F-15D research aircraft is positioned adjacent to the X-59 during electromagnetic compatibility testing at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. Researchers activated the F-15D’s radar, C-band transponder, and radios at different distances from the X-59 to evaluate potential electromagnetic interference with the aircraft’s flight-critical systems, ensuring the X-59 can operate safely with other aircraft. These tests showed that the aircraft’s integration is maturing and cleared a major hurdle that moves it one step closer to first flight.NASA/Carla Thomas NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 research aircraft has cleared electromagnetic testing, confirming its systems will work together safely, without interference across a range of scenarios.
“Reaching this phase shows that the aircraft integration is advancing,” said Yohan Lin, NASA’s X-59 avionics lead. “It’s exciting to see the progress, knowing we’ve cleared a major hurdle that moves us closer to X-59’s first flight.”
Electromagnetic interference occurs when an electric or magnetic field source affects an aircraft’s operations, potentially impacting safety. This interference, whether from an external source or the aircraft’s own equipment, can disrupt the electronic signals that control critical systems – similar to effects that lead to static or crackling on a radio from a nearby emitting device, like a phone.
The tests, conducted at contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ facility in Palmdale, California, ensured that the X-59’s onboard systems – such as radios, navigation equipment, and sensors – did not interfere with one another or cause unexpected problems. During these tests, engineers activated each system on the aircraft one at a time while they monitored the other systems for possible interference.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft successfully completed electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. During EMI tests, the team examined each of the X-59’s internal electronic systems, ensuring they worked with one another without interference. The X-59 is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound while reducing the loud sonic boom to a quieter sonic thump.NASA/Carla Thomas “This testing helped us determine whether the systems within the X-59 are interfering with each other,” Lin said. “It’s called a source-victim test – essentially, we activate one system and monitor the other for issues like noise, glitches, faults, or errors.”
The X-59 will generate a quieter thump rather than a loud boom while flying faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which will provide regulators with information that could help lift current bans on commercial supersonic flight over land. Currently, the aircraft is progressing through ground tests to ensure safety and performance. These included the recent, successful completion of a set of engine tests. The electromagnetic interference testing to examine the X-59’s internal electronic systems followed.
Other electromagnetic interference testing involved the team looking at the operation of the X-59’s landing gear, ensuring this critical component can extend and retract without affecting other systems. And they tested that the fuel switch shutoff was functioning properly without interference.
Electromagnetic compatibility was also assessed during this testing – making sure the X-59’s systems will function properly when it eventually flies near NASA research aircraft.
NASA test pilot Jim Less prepares to exit the cockpit of the quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft in between electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing. The EMI testing ensures an aircraft’s systems function properly under various conditions of electromagnetic radiation. The X-59 is the centerpiece of the NASA’s Quesst mission, designed to demonstrate quiet supersonic technology and provide data to address a key barrier to commercial supersonic travel.NASA/Carla Thomas Researchers staged the X-59 on the ground in front of NASA’s F-15D, placing them 47 feet apart, then 500 feet apart. The proximity of the two aircraft replicated conditions needed for the F-15D to use a special probe to gather measurements about the shock waves the X-59 will produce.
“We want to confirm there’s compatibility between the two aircraft, even at close proximity,” Lin said.
For the electromagnetic compatibility testing, the team powered up the X-59’s engine while turning on the F-15D’s radar, C-band radar transponder, and radios. Data from the X-59 were transmitted to NASA’s Mobile Operations Facility, where control room staff and engineers monitored for anomalies.
“You want to make discoveries of any potential electromagnetic interference or electromagnetic compatibility issues on the ground first,” Lin said. “This reduces risk and ensures we’re not learning about problems in the air.”
Now that electromagnetic testing is complete, the X-59 is ready to move on to aluminum bird tests – during which data will be fed to the aircraft on the ground under both normal and failure conditions – and then taxi tests before flight.
Share
Details
Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
Armstrong Flight Research Center Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Langley Research Center Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Quesst: The Vehicle Supersonic Flight Explore More
4 min read NASA University Research Program Makes First Award to a Community College Project
Article 2 days ago 3 min read NASA Selects New Round of Student-Led Aviation Research Awards
Article 7 days ago 3 min read NASA’s X-59 Turns Up Power, Throttles Through Engine Tests
Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Armstrong Flight Research Center
Aeronautics
Integrated Aviation Systems Program
Supersonic Flight
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s EZIE Launching to Study Magnetic Fingerprints of Earth’s Aurora
High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. These auroral electrojets push about a million amps of electrical charge around the poles every second. They can create some of the largest magnetic disturbances on the ground, and rapid changes in the currents can lead to effects such as power outages. In March, NASA plans to launch its EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission to learn more about these powerful currents, in the hopes of ultimately mitigating the effects of such space weather for humans on Earth.
Results from EZIE will help NASA better understand the dynamics of the Earth-Sun connection and help improve predictions of hazardous space weather that can harm astronauts, interfere with satellites, and trigger power outages.
The EZIE mission includes three CubeSats, each about the size of a carry-on suitcase. These small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string formation, following each other as they orbit Earth from pole to pole about 350 miles (550 kilometers) overhead. The spacecraft will look down toward the electrojets, which flow about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground in an electrified layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.
During every orbit, each EZIE spacecraft will map the electrojets to uncover their structure and evolution. The spacecraft will fly over the same region 2 to 10 minutes apart from one another, revealing how the electrojets change.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
supports HTML5 video
NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission will use three CubeSats to map Earth’s auroral electrojets — intense electric currents that flow high above Earth’s polar regions when auroras glow in the sky. As the trio orbits Earth, each satellite will use four dishes pointed at different angles to measure magnetic fields created by the electrojets. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben Previous ground-based experiments and spacecraft have observed auroral electrojets, which are a small part of a vast electric circuit that extends 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from Earth to space. But for decades, scientists have debated what the overall system looks like and how it evolves. The mission team expects EZIE to resolve that debate.
“What EZIE does is unique,” said Larry Kepko, EZIE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets, and it does so with a completely new measurement technique.”
EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets.
Larry Kepko
EZIE mission scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This technique involves looking at microwave emission from oxygen molecules about 10 miles (16 kilometers) below the electrojets. Normally, oxygen molecules emit microwaves at a frequency of 118 Gigahertz. However, the electrojets create a magnetic field that can split apart that 118 Gigahertz emission line in a process called Zeeman splitting. The stronger the magnetic field, the farther apart the line is split.
Each of the three EZIE spacecraft will carry an instrument called the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram to observe the Zeeman effect and measure the strength and direction of the electrojets’ magnetic fields. Built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, each of these instruments will use four antennas pointed at different angles to survey the magnetic fields along four different tracks as EZIE orbits.
The technology used in the Microwave Electrojet Magnetograms was originally developed to study Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems. Engineers at JPL had reduced the size of the radio detectors so they could fit on small satellites, including NASA’s TEMPEST-D and CubeRRT missions, and improved the components that separate light into specific wavelengths.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that
supports HTML5 video
NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission will investigate Earth’s auroral electrojets, which flow high above Earth’s polar regions when auroras (northern and southern lights) glow. By providing unprecedented measurements of these electrical currents, EZIE will answer decades-old mysteries. Understanding these currents will also improve scientists’ capabilities for predicting hazardous space weather. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL The electrojets flow through a region that is difficult to study directly, as it’s too high for scientific balloons to reach but too low for satellites to dwell.
“The utilization of the Zeeman technique to remotely map current-induced magnetic fields is really a game-changing approach to get these measurements at an altitude that is notoriously difficult to measure,” said Sam Yee, EZIE’s principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
The mission is also including citizen scientists to enhance its research, distributing dozens of EZIE-Mag magnetometer kits to students in the U.S. and volunteers around the world to compare EZIE’s observations to those from Earth. “EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, EZIE project manager at APL.
EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground.
Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer
EZIE project manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
The EZIE spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX via launch integrator Maverick Space Systems.
The mission will launch during what’s known as solar maximum — a phase during the 11-year solar cycle when the Sun’s activity is stronger and more frequent. This is an advantage for EZIE’s science.
“It’s better to launch during solar max,” Kepko said. “The electrojets respond directly to solar activity.”
The EZIE mission will also work alongside other NASA heliophysics missions, including PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), launching in late February to study how material in the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.
According to Yee, EZIE’s CubeSat mission not only allows scientists to address compelling questions that have not been able to answer for decades but also demonstrates that great science can be achieved cost-effectively.
“We’re leveraging the new capability of CubeSats,” Kepko added. “This is a mission that couldn’t have flown a decade ago. It’s pushing the envelope of what is possible, all on a small satellite. It’s exciting to think about what we will discover.”
The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard. APL leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats.
by Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Header Image:
An artist’s concept shows the three EZIE satellites orbiting Earth.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
Share
Details
Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Related Terms
Heliophysics Auroras EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) Goddard Space Flight Center Missions Small Satellite Missions The Sun Explore More
6 min read NASA’s PUNCH Mission to Revolutionize Our View of Solar Wind
Article
4 days ago
2 min read Hubble Spies a Spiral That May Be Hiding an Imposter
Article
4 days ago
3 min read Eclipses to Auroras: Eclipse Ambassadors Experience Winter Field School in Alaska
Article
1 week ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has its next flyby target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in its sights. By blinking between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20 and 22, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s first views of the asteroid Donaldjohanson. The asteroid is circled on the left to guide the eye.NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Lucy will pass within 596 miles (960 km) of the 2-mile-wide asteroid on April 20. This second asteroid encounter for the Lucy spacecraft will serve as a dress-rehearsal for the spacecraft’s main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Lucy already successfully observed the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its contact-binary moon, Selam, in November 2023. Lucy will continue to image Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of its optical navigation program, which uses the asteroid’s apparent position against the star background to ensure an accurate flyby.
Donaldjohanson will remain an unresolved point of light during the spacecraft’s long approach and won’t start to show surface detail until the day of the encounter.
From a distance of 45 million miles (70 million km), Donaldjohanson is still dim, though it stands out clearly in this field of relatively faint stars in the constellation of Sextans. Celestial north is to the right of the frame, and the 0.11-degree field of view would correspond to 85,500 miles (140,000 km) at the distance of the asteroid. In the first of the two images, another dim asteroid can be seen photobombing in the lower right quadrant of the image. However, just as the headlights of an approaching car often appear relatively stationary, Donaldjohanson’s apparent motion between these two images is much smaller than that of this interloper, which has moved out of the field of view in the second image.
These observations were made by Lucy’s high-resolution camera, the L’LORRI instrument — short for Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager — provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named for anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton — called “Lucy” — of a human ancestor. NASA’s Lucy mission is named for the fossil.
Lucy’s principal investigator, Hal Levison, is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
For more information about NASA’s Lucy mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/lucy
By Katherine Kretke
Southwest Research Institute
Media Contact:
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Share
Details
Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Related Terms
Lucy General Goddard Space Flight Center Planetary Science The Solar System Trojan Asteroids View the full article
-
By NASA
NASA’s X-59 lights up the night sky with its unique Mach diamonds, also known as shock diamonds, during maximum afterburner testing at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The test demonstrates the engine’s ability to generate the thrust required for supersonic flight, advancing NASA’s Quesst mission.Lockheed Martin Corporation/Gary Tice NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took another successful step toward flight with the conclusion of a series of engine performance tests. During maximum afterburner testing, a test demonstrating the engine’s ability to generate the thrust required for supersonic flight, the aircraft showed off a phenomenon known as Mach diamonds, seen in this image from Jan. 22, 2025. Mach diamonds, or shock diamonds, appear in the exhaust of supersonic aircraft like the X-59.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to commercial supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter.
See what’s next for X-59.
Image credit: Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice
View the full article
-
By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper as it flies by Mars, using the planet’s gravitational force to alter the spacecraft’s path on its way to the Jupiter system. NASA/JPL-Caltech The orbiter bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa will investigate whether the moon is habitable, but it first will get the help of Mars’ gravitational force to get to deep space.
On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper will streak just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface of Mars for what’s known as a gravity assist — a maneuver to bend the spacecraft’s trajectory and position it for a critical leg of its long voyage to the Jupiter system. The close flyby offers a bonus opportunity for mission scientists, who will test their radar instrument and thermal imager.
Europa Clipper will be closest to the Red Planet at 12:57 p.m. EST, approaching it at about 15.2 miles per second (24.5 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun. For about 12 hours prior and 12 hours after that time, the spacecraft will use the gravitational pull of Mars to pump the brakes and reshape its orbit around the Sun. As the orbiter leaves Mars behind, it will be traveling at a speed of about 14 miles per second (22.5 kilometers per second).
The flyby sets up Europa Clipper for its second gravity assist — a close encounter with Earth in December 2026 that will act as a slingshot and give the spacecraft a velocity boost. After that, it’s a straightforward trek to the outer solar system; the probe is set to arrive at Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030.
“We come in very fast, and the gravity from Mars acts on the spacecraft to bend its path,” said Brett Smith, a mission systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Meanwhile, we’re exchanging a small amount of energy with the planet, so we leave on a path that will bring us back past Earth.”
This animation depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper as it flies by the Red Planet. The spacecraft will use the planet’s gravity to bend its path slightly, setting up the next leg of its long journey to investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. NASA/JPL-Caltech Harnessing Gravity
Europa Clipper launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 14, 2024, via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, embarking on a 1.8-billion-mile (2.9-billion-kilometer) trip to Jupiter, which is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Without the assists from Mars in 2025 and from Earth in 2026, the 12,750-pound (6,000-kilogram) spacecraft would require additional propellant, which adds weight and cost, or it would take much longer to get to Jupiter.
Gravity assists are baked into NASA’s mission planning, as engineers figure out early on how to make the most of the momentum in our solar system. Famously, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which launched in 1977, took advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary lineup to fly by the gas giants, harnessing their gravity and capturing data about them.
While navigators at JPL, which manages Europa Clipper and Voyager, have been designing flight paths and using gravity assists for decades, the process of calculating a spacecraft’s trajectory in relation to planets that are constantly on the move is never simple.
“It’s like a game of billiards around the solar system, flying by a couple of planets at just the right angle and timing to build up the energy we need to get to Jupiter and Europa,” said JPL’s Ben Bradley, Europa Clipper mission planner. “Everything has to line up — the geometry of the solar system has to be just right to pull it off.”
About 4½ months after its launch, NASA’s Europa Clipper is set to perform a gravity as-sist maneuver as it flies by Mars on March 1. Next year the spacecraft will swing back by Earth for a final gravity assist before NASA/JPL-Caltech Refining the Path
Navigators sent the spacecraft on an initial trajectory that left some buffer around Mars so that if anything were to go wrong in the weeks after launch, Europa Clipper wouldn’t risk impacting the planet. Then the team used the spacecraft’s engines to veer closer to Mars’ orbit in what are called trajectory correction maneuvers, or TCMs.
Mission controllers have performed three TCMs to set the stage for the Mars gravity assist — in early November, late January, and on Feb. 14. They will conduct another TCM about 15 days after the Mars flyby to ensure the spacecraft is on track and are likely to conduct additional ones — upwards of 200 — throughout the mission, which is set to last until 2034.
Opportunity for Science
While navigators are relying on the gravity assist for fuel efficiency and to keep the spacecraft on their planned path, scientists are looking forward to the event to take advantage of the close proximity to the Red Planet and test two of the mission’s science instruments.
About a day prior to the closest approach, the mission will calibrate the thermal imager, resulting in a multicolored image of Mars in the months following as the data is returned and scientists process the data. And near closest approach, they’ll have the radar instrument perform a test of its operations — the first time all its components will be tested together. The radar antennas are so massive, and the wavelengths they produce so long that it wasn’t possible for engineers to test them on Earth before launch.
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/
Check out Europa Clipper's Mars flyby in 3D 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
2025-024
Share
Details
Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Related Terms
Europa Clipper Europa Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More
2 min read Is There Potential for Life on Europa? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 52
Article 2 hours ago 6 min read How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Will Make a Looping Voyage to the Moon
Article 2 weeks ago 5 min read NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Will Seek Life’s Ingredients
Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
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.