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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Here you see the X-59 scaled model inside the JAXA supersonic wind tunnel during critical tests related to sound predictions.JAXA Researchers from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently tested a scale model of the X-59 experimental aircraft in a supersonic wind tunnel located in Chofu, Japan, to assess the noise audible underneath the aircraft.
The test was an important milestone for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a loud sonic boom.
When the X-59 flies, sound underneath it – a result of its pressure signature – will be a critical factor for what people hear on the ground.
The X-59 is 99.7 feet long, with a wingspan of 29.7 feet. The JAXA wind tunnel, on the other hand, is just over 3 feet long by 3 feet wide.
So, researchers used a model scaled to just 1.62% of the actual aircraft – about 19 inches nose-to-tail. They exposed it to conditions mimicking the X-plane’s planned supersonic cruising speed of Mach 1.4, or approximately 925 miles per hour.
The series of tests performed at JAXA allowed NASA researchers to gather critical experimental data to compare to their predictions derived through Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling, which include how air will flow around the aircraft.
This marked the third round of wind tunnel tests for the X-59 model, following a previous test at JAXA and at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio.
The data will help researchers understand the noise level that will be created by the shock waves the X-59 produces at supersonic speeds.
The shock waves from traditional supersonic aircraft typically merge together, producing a loud sonic boom. The X-59’s unique design works to keep shock waves from merging, will result in a quieter sonic thump.
The X-59 was built in Palmdale, California at contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and is undergoing final ground tests en route to its historic first flight this year.
NASA’s Quesst mission aims to help change the future of quiet supersonic travel using the X-59. The experimental aircraft allow the Quesst team to gather public feedback on acceptable sound levels for quiet supersonic flight.
Through Quesst’s development of the X-59, NASA will deliver design tools and technology for quiet supersonic airliners that will achieve the high speeds desired by commercial operators without creating disturbance to people on the ground.
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Last Updated Jul 11, 2025 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Quesst: The Vehicle Supersonic Flight View the full article
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 2 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4580-4581: Something in the Air…
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on June 23, 2025 — Sol 4578, or Martian day 4,578 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 02:38:50 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University in St. Louis
Earth planning date: Monday, June 23, 2025
Curiosity was back at work on Monday, with a full slate of activities planned. While summer has officially arrived for much of Curiosity’s team back on Earth, Mars’ eldest active rover is recently through the depths of southern Mars winter and trending toward warmer temperatures itself. Warmer temperatures mean less component heating is required and therefore more power is freed up for science and driving. However, the current cooler temperatures do present an opportunity to acquire quality short-duration APXS measurements first thing in the morning, which is what Curiosity elected to do once again.
Curiosity’s plan commenced by brushing a rock target with potential cross-cutting veins, “Hornitos,” and subsequently analyzing it with APXS. A sequence of Mastcam images followed on targets such as “Volcán Peña Blanca,” “La Pacana,” “Iglesia de Jarinilla de Umatia,” and “Ayparavi.” ChemCam, returning to action after a brief and understood hiatus, rounded out the morning’s chemical analysis activities with a 5-point analysis of Ayparavi. After some images of the brush, and a handful of MAHLI snaps of Hornitos, Curiosity was on its way with a planned drive of about 37 meters (about 121 feet).Curiosity’s night would not be spent entirely dreaming of whatever rovers dream, but rather conducting a lengthy APXS analysis of the atmosphere. These analyses enable Curiosity’s team to assess the abundance of argon in the atmosphere — from a volume about the size of a pop can (or soda can, depending on your unit of preference) — which can be used to trace global circulation patterns and better understand modern Mars. Recently, Curiosity has been increasing the frequency of these measurements and pairing them with ChemCam “Passive Sky” observations. These ChemCam activities do not utilize the instrument’s laser, but instead use its other components to characterize the air above the rover. By combining APXS and ChemCam observations of the atmosphere, Curiosity’s team is able to better assess daily and seasonal trends in gases around Gale crater. A ChemCam “Passive Sky” was the primary observation in the second sol of the plan, with Curiosity spending much of the remaining time recharging and eagerly awaiting commands from Wednesday’s team.
For more Curiosity blog posts, visit MSL Mission Updates
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Last Updated Jun 26, 2025 Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, but its seismic nature is part of a much broader geological history.
In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists, supported by an ESA-funded project, have uncovered the underlying forces that forged the North Atlantic’s fiery volcanic past – shedding light on the vast geological region that spans from Greenland to western Europe, which is home to iconic natural wonders like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
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By USH
Some time ago, while visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona, a photographer captured several short video clips of the landscape. In one of those clips, an unusual anomaly was discovered.
The original footage is only 1.9 seconds long, but within that moment, something remarkable was caught on camera. An unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) flashed across the frame, visible for less than a second, only noticeable when the video was paused and analyzed frame by frame.
The object was moving at an astonishing speed, covering an estimated two to three miles in under a second, far beyond the capabilities of any conventional aircraft, drone, or helicopter.
This isn’t the first time such anomalous flying objects have been observed. Their characteristics defy comparison with known aerial technology.
Some skeptics have proposed that the object might have been a rock thrown into the canyon from behind the camera. However, that explanation seems unlikely. Most people can only throw objects at speeds of 10 to 20 meters per second (approximately 22 to 45 mph). The velocity of this object far exceeded that range, and its near-invisibility in the unedited video suggests it was moving much faster.
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 4 min read
Sols 4549-4552: Keeping Busy Over the Long Weekend
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 23, 2025 — Sol 4548, or Martian day 4,548 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 07:17:19 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Friday, May 23, 2025
In Wednesday’s mission update, Alex mentioned that this past Monday’s plan included a “marathon” drive of 45 meters (148 feet). Today, we found ourselves almost 70 meters (230 feet) from where we were on Wednesday. This was our longest drive since the truly enormous 97-meter (318-foot) drive back on sol 3744.
Today’s plan looks a little different from our usual weekend plans. Because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, the team will next assemble on Tuesday, so an extra sol had to be appended to the weekend plan. This extra sol is mostly being used for our next drive (about 42 meters or 138 feet), which means that all of the science that we have planned today can be done “targeted,” i.e., we know exactly where the rover is. As a result, we can use the instruments on our arm to poke at specific targets close to the rover, rather than filling our science time exclusively with remote sensing activities of farther-away features.
The rover’s power needs are continuing to dominate planning. Although we passed aphelion (the farthest distance Mars is from the Sun) a bit over a month ago and so are now getting closer to the Sun, we’re just about a week away from winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. This is the time of year when Gale Crater receives the least amount of light from the Sun, leading to particularly cold temperatures even during the day, and thus more power being needed to keep the rover and its instruments warm. On the bright side, being at the coldest time of the year means that we have only warmer sols to look forward to!
Given the need to keep strictly to our allotted power budget, everyone did a phenomenal job finding optimizations to ensure that we could fit as much science into this plan as possible. All together, we have over four hours of our usual targeted and remote sensing activities, as well as over 12 hours of overnight APXS integrations.
Mastcam is spending much of its time today looking off in the distance, particularly focusing on the potential boxwork structures that we’re driving towards. These structures get two dedicated mosaics, totaling 42 images between the two of them. Mastcam will also observe “Mishe Mokwa” (a small butte about 15 meters, or 49 feet, to our south) and some bedrock troughs in our workspace, and will take two tau observations to characterize the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
ChemCam has just one solo imaging-only observation in this plan: an RMI mosaic of Texoli butte off to our east. ChemCam will be collaborating with APXS to take some passive spectral observations (i.e., no LIBS) to measure the composition of the atmosphere. Mastcam and ChemCam will also be working together on observations of LIBS activities. This plan includes an extravagant three LIBS, on “Orocopia Mountains,” “Dripping Springs,” and “Mountain Center.” Both Mastcam and ChemCam also have a set of “dark” observations intended to characterize the performance of the instruments with no light on their sensors, something that’s very important for properly calibrating their measurements.
Our single set of arm activities includes APXS, DRT, and MAHLI activities on “Camino Del Mar” and “Mount Baden-Powell,” both of which are bedrock targets in our workspace.
Of course, I can’t forget to mention the collection of Navcam observations that we have in this plan to monitor the environment. These include a 360-degree survey looking for dust devils, two line-of-sight activities to measure the amount of dust in the air within Gale, and three cloud movies. As always, we’ve also got a typical collection of REMS, RAD, and DAN activities throughout.
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Last Updated May 27, 2025 Related Terms
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