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Juice arrives at ESA’s technical heart
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By European Space Agency
Image: For Valentine’s Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission picks out a heart in the landscape north of Mount St Helens in the US state of Washington. View the full article
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By NASA
4 Min Read Heart Health
Jessica Meir conducts cardiac research in the space station’s Life Sciences Glovebox. Credits: NASA Science in Space: February 2025
February was first proclaimed as American Heart Month in 1964. Since then, its 28 (or 29) days have served as an opportunity to encourage people to focus on their cardiovascular health.
The International Space Station serves as a platform for a variety of ongoing research on human health, including how different body systems adapt to weightlessness. This research includes assessing cardiovascular health in astronauts during and after spaceflight and other studies using models of the cardiovascular system, such as tissue cultures. The goal of this work is to help promote heart health for humans in space and everyone on Earth. For this Heart Month, here is a look at some of this spaceflight research
Building a better heart model
Media exchange in the tissue chambers for the Engineered Heart Tissue investigation.NASA Microgravity exposure is known to cause changes in cardiovascular function. Engineered Heart Tissues assessed these changes using 3D cultured cardiac tissues that model the behavior of actual heart tissues better than traditional cell cultures. When exposed to weightlessness, these “heart-on-a-chip” cells behaved in a manner similar to aging on Earth. This finding suggests that these engineered tissues can be used to investigate the effects of space radiation and long-duration spaceflight on cardiac function. Engineered tissues also could support development of measures to help protect crew members during a mission to Mars. Advanced 3D culture methodology may inform development of strategies to prevent and treat cardiac diseases on Earth as well.
Private astronaut heart health
In April 2022, the 11-person station crew included (clockwise on the outside from bottom right) NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn; Roscomos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov; NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer; and Ax-1 astronauts (center row from left) Mark Pathy, Eytan Stibbe, Larry Conner, and Michael López-Alegría.-Alegria.NASA For decades, human research in space has focused on professional and government-agency astronauts, but commercial spaceflight opportunities now allow more people to participate in microgravity research. Cardioprotection Ax-1 analyzed cardiovascular and general health in private astronauts on the 17-day Axiom-1 mission.
The study found that 14 health biomarkers related to cardiac, liver, and kidney health remained within normal ranges during the mission, suggesting that spaceflight did not significantly affect the health of the astronaut subjects. This study paves the way for monitoring and studying the effects of spaceflight on private astronauts and developing health management plans for commercial space providers.
Better measurements for better health
ESA astronaut Tim Peake conducts operations for the Vascular Echo experiment. NASA Vascular Echo, an investigation from CSA (Canadian Space Agency), examined blood vessels and the heart using a variety of tools, including ultrasound. A published study suggests that 3D imaging technology might better measure cardiac and vascular anatomy than the 2D system routinely used on the space station. The research team also developed a probe for the ultrasound device that better directs the beam, making it possible for someone who is not an expert in sonography to take precise measurements. This technology could help astronauts monitor heart health and treat cardiovascular issues on a long-duration mission to the Moon or Mars. The technology also could help patients on Earth who live in remote locations, where an ultrasound operator may not always be available.
Long-term heart health in space
As part of exploring ways to keep astronauts healthy on missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA is conducting a suite of space station studies called CIPHER that looks at the effects of spaceflight lasting up to a year. One CIPHER study, Vascular Calcium, examines whether calcium lost from bone during spaceflight might deposit in the arteries, increasing vessel stiffness and contributing to increased risk of future cardiovascular disease. Astronaut volunteers provide blood and urine samples and undergo ultrasound and high-resolution scans of their bones and arteries for this investigation. Another CIPHER study, Coronary Responses, uses advanced imaging tests to measure heart and artery response to spaceflight.
These studies will help scientists determine whether spaceflight accelerates narrowing and stiffening of the arteries, known as atherosclerosis, or increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, a rapid and irregular heartbeat seen in middle-aged adults. This work also could help identify potential biomarkers and early warning indicators of cardiovascular disease.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
Johnson Space Center
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By NASA
The portfolio of current NESC technical activities reaches across mission directorates and programs encompassing design, test, and flight phases.
ISS PrK Independent Assessment Orion Crew Module Heatshield Avcoat Char Investigation CFT Flight Anomaly Support Total Ionizing Dose Tolerance of Power Electronics on Europa Clipper Psyche Cold-Gas Thruster Technical Advisory Team Support X-59 Fuel Tank Assessment ISS PrK Independent Assessment
The NESC is assessing the ongoing leak in the ISS Russian segment, PrK, the segment’s remaining life, and how to manage the risk of potential failure.
ISS pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour. Orion Crew Module Heatshield Avcoat Char Investigation
The NESC provided thermal experts to the Artemis I Char Loss Team investigation of heatshield performance on the Artemis I return. The NESC is working with the team to ensure the observed material loss is understood so that decisions may be made regarding use for upcoming Artemis missions.
An artist’s illustration of Orion crew module entering the Earth’s atmosphere. View from Artemis I crew cabin window showing material loss during entry (foreground). CFT Flight Anomaly Support
NESC discipline experts provided real-time support to CCP to aid in determining the CFT flight anomaly causes and risks associated with a crewed return. The NESC performed propulsion system testing for predicted mission profiles at WSTF.
Boeing CST-100 Starliner docked to ISS during CFT mission. Total Ionizing Dose Tolerance of Power Electronics on Europa Clipper
The NESC provided power electronics and avionics expertise to JPL’s Europa Clipper tiger team to help evaluate the radiation tolerance of key spacecraft electronics, assisting in a risk-based launch decision.
Illustration depicting the Europa Clipper. Psyche Cold-Gas Thruster Technical Advisory Team Support
In support of a successful launch, NESC augmented the Psyche team’s investigation into increased understanding of the spacecraft’s cold-gas thrusters and aided the project’s risk-informed decisions regarding mitigations and readiness for launch.
Illustration of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft headed to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. X-59 Fuel Tank Assessment
The NESC is assisting in the evaluation of risks associated with the installation and operation of strain gages in the fuel storage system on X-59 hardware. The work includes analysis, modeling, and the development of mitigation strategies.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. View the full article
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from recent flybys is helping scientists understand Io’s interior. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt A new study points to why, and how, Io became the most volcanic body in the solar system.
Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have discovered that the volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io are each likely powered by their own chamber of roiling hot magma rather than an ocean of magma. The finding solves a 44-year-old mystery about the subsurface origins of the moon’s most demonstrative geologic features.
A paper on the source of Io’s volcanism was published on Thursday, Dec. 12, in the journal Nature, and the findings, as well as other Io science results, were discussed during a media briefing in Washington at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, the country’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists.
About the size of Earth’s Moon, Io is known as the most volcanically active body in our solar system. The moon is home to an estimated 400 volcanoes, which blast lava and plumes in seemingly continuous eruptions that contribute to the coating on its surface.
This animated tour of Jupiter’s fiery moon Io, based on data collected by NASA’s Juno mission, shows volcanic plumes, a view of lava on the surface, and the moon’s internal structure. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/Koji Kuramura/Gerald Eichstädt Although the moon was discovered by Galileo Galilei on Jan. 8, 1610, volcanic activity there wasn’t discovered until 1979, when imaging scientist Linda Morabito of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California first identified a volcanic plume in an image from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
“Since Morabito’s discovery, planetary scientists have wondered how the volcanoes were fed from the lava underneath the surface,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Was there a shallow ocean of white-hot magma fueling the volcanoes, or was their source more localized? We knew data from Juno’s two very close flybys could give us some insights on how this tortured moon actually worked.”
The Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of its pizza-faced surface. During the close approaches, Juno communicated with NASA’s Deep Space Network, acquiring high-precision, dual-frequency Doppler data, which was used to measure Io’s gravity by tracking how it affected the spacecraft’s acceleration. What the mission learned about the moon’s gravity from those flybys led to the new paper by revealing more details about the effects of a phenomenon called tidal flexing.
This five-frame sequence shows a giant plume erupting from Io’s Tvashtar volcano, extending 200 miles (330 kilometers) above the fiery moon’s surface. It was captured over an eight-minute period by NASA’s New Horizons mission as the spacecraft flew by Jupiter in 2007.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/SwRI Prince of Jovian Tides
Io is extremely close to mammoth Jupiter, and its elliptical orbit whips it around the gas giant once every 42.5 hours. As the distance varies, so does Jupiter’s gravitational pull, which leads to the moon being relentlessly squeezed. The result: an extreme case of tidal flexing — friction from tidal forces that generates internal heat.
“This constant flexing creates immense energy, which literally melts portions of Io’s interior,” said Bolton. “If Io has a global magma ocean, we knew the signature of its tidal deformation would be much larger than a more rigid, mostly solid interior. Thus, depending on the results from Juno’s probing of Io’s gravity field, we would be able to tell if a global magma ocean was hiding beneath its surface.”
The Juno team compared Doppler data from their two flybys with observations from the agency’s previous missions to the Jovian system and from ground telescopes. They found tidal deformation consistent with Io not having a shallow global magma ocean.
“Juno’s discovery that tidal forces do not always create global magma oceans does more than prompt us to rethink what we know about Io’s interior,” said lead author Ryan Park, a Juno co-investigator and supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at JPL. “It has implications for our understanding of other moons, such as Enceladus and Europa, and even exoplanets and super-Earths. Our new findings provide an opportunity to rethink what we know about planetary formation and evolution.”
There’s more science on the horizon. The spacecraft made its 66th science flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops on Nov. 24. Its next close approach to the gas giant will occur 12:22 a.m. EST, Dec. 27. At the time of perijove, when Juno’s orbit is closest to the planet’s center, the spacecraft will be about 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops and will have logged 645.7 million miles (1.039 billion kilometers) since entering the gas giant’s orbit in 2016.
More About Juno
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. Various other institutions around the U.S. provided several of the other scientific instruments on Juno.
More information about Juno is available at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno
News Media Contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Erin Morton
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-385-1287 / 202-805-9393
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / erin.morton@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
210-522-2254
dschmid@swri.org
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Last Updated Dec 12, 2024 Related Terms
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1 Min Read 2024 NESC Technical Update
Annual Report of NESC Technical Activities
On behalf of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), I am pleased to provide you with the 2024 NESC Technical Update. This annual report summarizes the technical work, engineering advancements, and knowledge capture efforts we made in FY24. With support provided by members of our NASA community from across the centers, we focused our efforts on performing value-added independent testing, analysis, and assessments of NASA’s high-risk projects to ensure safety and mission success.
This report contains summaries of technical assessments requested by our stakeholders and the technical bulletins and innovative techniques that resulted from that assessment work. Several of the NASA Technical Fellows provide summaries of accomplishments in their respective disciplines, and expertise drawn from across the Agency is featured on the Center Pages.
We appreciate the opportunity to share our progress and highlight the accomplishments of our technically and culturally diverse, multidisciplinary, multigenerational teams. All NESC knowledge products are available at nasa.gov/nesc. As always, we value your feedback and engagement. Thank you for your continuing support of the NESC.
Timmy R. Wilson
Director, NASA Engineering and Safety Center
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