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By European Space Agency
Hera asteroid mission launch kit
Everything you'd ever want to know about ESA's first planetary defence mission
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson smiles for a portrait in the vestibule between the Kibo laboratory module and the Harmony module aboard space station.NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is returning home after a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. While on orbit, Dyson conducted an array of experiments and technology demonstrations that contribute to advancements for humanity on Earth and the agency’s trajectory to the Moon and Mars.
Here is a look at some of the science Dyson conducted during her mission:
Heart-Shaped Bioprints
NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson operates the BioFabrication Facility for the Redwire Cardiac Bioprinting Investigation, which 3D prints cardiovascular tissue samples. In microgravity, bio inks used for 3D printing are less likely to settle and retain their shape better than on Earth. Cardiovascular disease is currently the number one cause of death in the United States, and findings from this space station investigation could one day lead to 3D-printed organs such as hearts for patients awaiting transplants.
Wicking in Weightlessness
NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson handles hardware for the Wicking in Gel-Coated Tubes (Gaucho Lung) experiment. This study uses a tube lined with various gel thicknesses to simulate the human respiratory system. A fluid mass known as a liquid plug is then observed as it either blocks or flows through the tube. Data regarding the movement and trailing of the liquid plug allows researchers to design better drug delivery methods to address respiratory ailments.
Programming for Future Missions
NASA NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson runs student-designed software on the free-flying Astrobee robot. This technology demonstration is part of Zero Robotics, a worldwide competition that engages middle school students in writing computer code to address unique specifications. Winning participants get to run their software on an actual Astrobee aboard the space station. This educational opportunity helps inspire the next generation of technology innovators.
Robo-Extensions
NASA As we venture to the Moon and Mars, astronauts may rely more on robots to ensure safety and preserve resources. Through the Surface Avatar study, NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson controls a robot on Earth’s surface from a computer aboard station. This technology demonstration aims to toggle between manipulating multiple robots and “diving inside” a specific bot to control as an avatar. This two-way demonstration also evaluates how robot operators respond their robotic counterparts’ efficiency and general output. Applications for Earth use include exploration of inhospitable zones and search and rescue missions after disasters.
Capturing Earth’s Essence
NASA For Crew Earth Observations, astronauts take pictures of Earth from space for research purposes. NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Tracy C. Dyson (right) contribute by aiming handheld cameras from the space station’s cupola to photograph our planet. Images help inform climate and environmental trends worldwide and provide real-time natural disaster assessments. More than four million photographs have been taken of Earth by astronauts from space.
Multi-faceted Crystallization Processor
NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson holds a cassette for Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory – 04 (ADSEP-PIL-04), an experiment to crystallize the model proteins lysozyme and insulin. Up to three cassettes with samples can be processed simultaneously in the Advanced Space Experiment Processor (ADSEP), each at an independent temperature. Because lysozyme and insulin have well-documented crystal structures, they can be used to evaluate the hardware’s performance in space. Successful crystallization with ADSEP could lead to production and manufacturing of versatile crystals with pharmaceutical applications.
Cryo Care
NASA NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick preserve research samples in freezers aboard the space station. Cryopreservation is essential for maintaining the integrity of samples for a variety of experiments, especially within the field of biology. The orbiting laboratory has multiple freezer options with varying subzero temperatures. Upon return, frozen samples are delivered back to their research teams for further analysis.
Welcoming New Science
NASA NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is pictured between the Unity module and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft in preparation for depressurization and departure from the International Space Station. On long-duration missions, visiting vehicles provide necessities for crew daily living as well as new science experiments and supplies for ongoing research. This vehicle brought experiments to test water recovery technology, produce stem cells in microgravity, study the effects of spaceflight on microorganism DNA, and conduct science demonstrations for students.
Diana Garcia
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
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Expedition 71
Expedition 71 began on April 5, 2024 and ends in September 2024. This crew will explore neuro-degenerative diseases and therapies,…
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines, LLC of Houston, to support the agency’s lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network, operated by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
This Subcategory 2.2 GEO to Cislunar Relay Services is a new firm-fixed-price, multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task order contract. The contract has a base period of five years with an additional 5-year option period, with a maximum potential value of $4.82 billion. The base ordering period begins Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2029, with the option period potentially extending the contract through Sept. 30, 2034.
Lunar relays will play an essential role in NASA’s Artemis campaign to establish a long-term presence on the Moon. These relays will provide vital communication and navigation services for the exploration and scientific study of the Moon’s South Pole region. Without the extended coverage offered by lunar relays, landing opportunities at the Moon’s South Pole will be significantly limited due to the lack of direct communication between potential landing sites and ground stations on Earth.
The lunar relay award also includes services to support position, navigation, and timing capabilities, which are crucial for ensuring the safety of navigation on and around the lunar surface. Under the contract, Intuitive Machines also will enable NASA to provide communication and navigation services to customer missions in the near space region.
The initial task award will support the progressive validation of lunar relay capabilities/services for Artemis. NASA anticipates these lunar relay services will be used with human landing systems, the LTV (lunar terrain vehicle), and CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) flights.
As lunar relay services become fully operational, they will be integrated into the Near Space Network’s expanding portfolio, enhancing communications and navigation support for future lunar missions. By implementing these new capabilities reliance on NASA’s Deep Space Network will be reduced.
NASA’s goal is to provide users with communication and navigation services that are secure, reliable, and affordable, so that all NASA users receive the services required by their mission within their latency, accuracy, and availability requirements.
This is another step in NASA partnering with U.S. industry to build commercial space partners to support NASA missions, including NASA’s long-term Moon to Mars objectives for interoperable communications and navigation capabilities. This award is part of the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program and will be executed by the Near Space Network team at NASA Goddard.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 17, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Near Space Network Communicating and Navigating with Missions Goddard Space Flight Center Space Communications & Navigation Program Space Operations Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. The mission is targeting an Oct. 10, 2024, launch.NASA/JPL-Caltech The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out if the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable.
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft’s launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
Learn more about how NASA’s Europa Clipper came together – and how it will explore an ocean moon of Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Data from previous NASA missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the moon. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon to gather data needed to determine whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that could support life.
Here are eight things to know about the mission:
1. Europa is one of the most promising places to look for currently habitable conditions beyond Earth.
There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life — water, the right chemistry, and energy — may exist at Europa right now. This mission will gather the information scientists need to find out for sure. The moon may hold an internal ocean with twice the water of Earth’s oceans combined, and it may also host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface. If the mission determines that Europa is habitable, it would mean there may be more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than we have imagined.
2. The spacecraft will fly through one of the most punishing radiation environments in our solar system — second only to the Sun’s.
Jupiter is surrounded by a gigantic magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s. As the field spins, it captures and accelerates charged particles, creating radiation that can damage spacecraft. Mission engineers designed a spacecraft vault to shield sensitive electronics from radiation, and they plotted orbits that will limit the time Europa Clipper spends in most radiation-heavy areas around Jupiter.
3. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter, studying Europa while flying by the moon dozens of times.
The spacecraft will make looping orbits around Jupiter that bring it close to Europa for 49 science-dedicated flybys. On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in Jupiter’s dangerous radiation zone near Europa before zipping back out. Two to three weeks later, it will repeat the process, making another flyby.
4. Europa Clipper features NASA’s most sophisticated suite of science instruments yet.
To determine if Europa is habitable, Europa Clipper must assess the moon’s interior, composition, and geology. The spacecraft carries nine science instruments and a gravity experiment that uses the telecommunications system. In order to obtain the best science during each flyby, all the science instruments will operate simultaneously on every pass. Scientists will then layer the data together to paint a full picture of the moon.
5. With antennas and solar arrays fully deployed, Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.
The spacecraft extends 100 feet (30.5 meters) from one end to the other and about 58 feet (17.6 meters) across. That’s bigger than a basketball court, thanks in large part to the solar arrays, which need to be huge so they can collect enough sunlight while near Jupiter to power the instruments, electronics, and other subsystems.
6. It’s a long journey to Jupiter.
Jupiter is on average some 480 million miles (about 770 million kilometers) from Earth; both planets are in motion, and a spacecraft can carry only a limited amount of fuel. Mission planners are sending Europa Clipper past Mars and then Earth, using the planets’ gravity as a slingshot to add speed to the spacecraft’s trek. After journeying about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) over 5½ years, the spacecraft will fire its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.
7. Institutions across the U.S. and Europe have contributed to Europa Clipper.
Currently, about a thousand people work on the mission, including more than 220 scientists from both the U.S. and Europe. Since the mission was officially approved in 2015, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper, including teams who work for contractors and subcontractors.
8. More than 2.6 million of us are riding along with the spacecraft, bringing greetings from one water world to another.
As part of a mission campaign called “Message in a Bottle,” the spacecraft is carrying a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, cosigned by millions of people from nearly every country in the world. Their names have been stenciled onto a microchip attached to a tantalum metal plate that seals the spacecraft’s electronics vault. The plate also features waveforms of people saying the word “water” in over 100 spoken languages.
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, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory 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. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s 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, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.
Find more information about Europa here:
https://europa.nasa.gov
Europa Clipper Teachable Moment See Europa’s Chaos Terrain in Crisp Detail Europa Clipper Gets Its Super-Size Solar Arrays News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-6215
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 Sep 17, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
The Sun rises above the Flight Research Building at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.Credit: NASA NASA‘s Watts on the Moon Challenge, designed to advance the nation’s lunar exploration goals under the Artemis campaign by challenging United States innovators to develop breakthrough power transmission and energy storage technologies that could enable long-duration Moon missions, concludes on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland.
“For astronauts to maintain a sustained presence on the Moon during Artemis missions, they will need continuous, reliable power,” said Kim Krome-Sieja, acting program manager, Centennial Challenges at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “NASA has done extensive work on power generation technologies. Now, we’re looking to advance these technologies for long-distance power transmission and energy storage solutions that can withstand the extreme cold of the lunar environment.”
The technologies developed through the Watts on the Moon Challenge were the first power transmission and energy storage prototypes to be tested by NASA in an environment that simulates the extreme cold and weak atmospheric pressure of the lunar surface, representing a first step to readying the technologies for future deployment on the Moon. Successful technologies from this challenge aim to inspire, for example, new approaches for helping batteries withstand cold temperatures and improving grid resiliency in remote locations on Earth that face harsh weather conditions.
Media and the public are invited to attend the grand finale technology showcase and awards ceremony for the $5 million, two-phase competition. U.S. and international media interested in covering the event should confirm their attendance with Lane Figueroa by 3 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Sept. 17, at: lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. Members of the public may register as an attendee by completing this form, also by Friday, Sept. 17.
During the final round of competition, finalist teams refined their hardware and delivered a full system prototype for testing in simulated lunar conditions at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The test simulated a challenging power system scenario where there are six hours of solar daylight, 18 hours of darkness, and the user is three kilometers from the power source.
“Watts on the Moon was a fantastic competition to judge because of its unique mission scenario,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive, Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing, Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each team’s hardware was put to the test against difficult criteria and had to perform well within a lunar environment in our state-of-the-art thermal vacuum chambers at NASA Glenn.”
Each finalist team was scored based on Total Effective System Mass (TESM), which determines how the system works in relation to its mass. At the awards ceremony, NASA will award $1 million to the top team who achieves the lowest TESM score, meaning that during testing, that team’s system produced the most efficient output-to-mass ratio. The team with the second lowest mass will receive $500,000. The awards ceremony stream live on NASA Glenn’s YouTube channel and NASA Prize’s Facebook page.
The Watts on the Moon Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge led by NASA Glenn. NASA Marshall manages Centennial Challenges, which are part of the agency’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA has contracted HeroX to support the administration of this challenge.
For more information on NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/wattson
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Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
321-432-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-932-1940
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
Brian Newbacher
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-460-9726
brian.t.newbacher@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 13, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program Artemis Centennial Challenges Glenn Research Center Marshall Space Flight Center Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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