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By European Space Agency
Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captures the intricate blend of natural, rural and urban landscapes around Kunshan, a city in eastern China. View the full article
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By NASA
During National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we celebrate the thousands of employees living with disabilities who contribute to NASA’s mission. By sharing their stories, we highlight the impact people with disabilities have on our organization and the vital role they play in fostering an inclusive workforce at NASA.
Meghan Daley sits in the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the final days of the Space Shuttle Program. Meghan Daley has spent nearly two decades blazing new trails in robotics. As a project manager in NASA’s Engineering, Software Robotics, and Simulation Division at Johnson Space Center in Houston, she is building simulations that will shape the future of space exploration.
From training astronauts with advanced robotic tools to collaborating with the Department of Defense on research simulations, Daley’s work is transforming how humans interact with space, ensuring that every mission is set up for success.
Daley oversees key programs at Johnson, including the Generic On-Orbit Robotic Trainer (GROOT), the Robotic OnBoard Trainer, and Dynamics Skills Trainers. These tools are vital to NASA’s mission and are used in both ground-based simulations and real-time space operations.
One of Daley’s proudest achievements is launching GROOT, a simulation system that trains astronauts in a variety of robotic operations. From handling the Canadarm2 for spacecraft docking to servicing satellites, GROOT prepares astronauts for tasks like performing maintenance, assembling structures in space, managing cargo, and even coordinating multiple robotic systems.
The tool also supports astronauts in mastering robotic inspections, autonomous operations, and emergency procedures, making it indispensable for missions to the Moon and Mars.
During a visit by Gen. John W. Raymond to the Systems Engineering Simulator, the general requested an outdated rendezvous and proximity operations simulation for the United States Space Force.
Recognizing the limitations of the old system and knowing her team’s capabilities, Daley proposed building a new simulation from scratch to meet their needs. In 2019, GROOT was born and continues to be a critical asset in NASA’s training toolkit.
United States Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson observes a demonstration of the Generic On-Orbit Robotic Trainer alongside NASA astronauts and crew members. For Daley, celebrating her identity and culture in the workplace is about advocacy and education. She is passionate about using her voice to promote awareness and understanding, not just for her own experience, but for the benefit of all.
“Being a woman in engineering is extremely difficult. However, being a woman with a disability in engineering is even harder,” Daley said. “I have learned how important it is to communicate your ideas, questions, and concerns.”
When reflecting on her career, Daley says she cannot pick a favorite project. Each one—from Orion to Gateway to the International Space Station and space shuttle—has deepened her understanding of NASA’s vision.
The Robotic OnBoard Trainer onboard the International Space Station in the U.S. Destiny Laboratory. As Daley looks to the future of robotics and human spaceflight, she remains optimistic and passionate about inspiring the next generation of explorers.
“Keep your hope and don’t be afraid to ask questions because that is how you learn and become a leader!” she said.
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By NASA
Ruidoso, New Mexico lay in an unusual hush on June 20, 2024. During any normal summer day, the village in the southern part of the state lives up to the Spanish translation of its name — noisy.
But the bustle of this vacation hotspot, which attracts nearly 2 million visitors each year, was stifled by a mandatory evacuation order issued as wildfires raged unchecked across Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation. After four days of fires, news of the disaster began spreading to surrounding communities.
Wildfires cast an orange haze over the Sierra Blanca mountain range in Ruidoso, New Mexico, on June 20, 2024. Image courtesy of James Herrera At NASA’s White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), Fire Department Deputy Chief James Herrera and his team were on high alert from the moment the blaze began.
“There were so many rumors, so many things going on,” Herrera said. “People were saying the town was completely burning down. We were expecting the worst before we even got there.”
Herrera’s expectations were realistic.
Tinderbox conditions, rough terrain, and winds reaching more than 70 miles per hour fueled the flames raging at the South Fork area west of Ruidoso, devouring nearly 5,000 acres just hours after the fire started.
As first responders expended every resource available to them both on the ground and in the air, a second fire — the Salt Fire — broke out on tribal land south of the village.
Now the twin infernos closed in on Ruidoso like a set of jaws poised to snap shut.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham quickly declared a state of emergency and the early whispers crescendoed into an urgent plea for aid from anyone who would listen.
There was no doubt in Herrera’s mind: WSTF, based 150 miles from Ruidoso in Las Cruces, New Mexico, would answer the call.
“Never once did [WSTF leadership] say ‘Sorry, we can’t help,’” he said. “They asked, ‘What can we do to help? How can we get there as soon as possible?’”
Shift changes made for an earliest possible departure at dawn on June 20. The WSTF Fire Department spent the night preparing their truck, gathering their belongings, and bracing for the uncertain.
“We didn’t know where we were going to sleep, there were no hotels, everything was closed,” Herrera said. “More than likely, we were going to end up sleeping in our engine.”
For the moment, rest was off the table.
“I’m not going to lie, we probably didn’t even sleep. I know I didn’t,” Herrera said. “I closed my eyes, and it was two o’clock in the morning. Time to get going.”
After checking in at the Incident Command Post, Herrera and the WSTF team — Lieutenant Gary Sida, firefighters Steven Olsson and Gabriel Rodriguez, and driver and engineer Tommy Montoya — were deployed to Ruidoso’s Casino Apache Travel Center off Highway 70.
Deputy Chief James Herrera (far left) and his crew (L-R) Driver/Operator Tommy Montoya, Firefighter Gabe Rodriguez (top), Lieutenant Gary Sida, and Firefighter Stephen Olsson return to a hero’s welcome at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. NASA/Anthony Luis Quiterio When Herrera and his four-man crew reached the edge of the deserted mountain town, the silence was more than unusual. It was unsettling, as heavy as the smoke suffocating the Sierra Blanca Peak.
“You could not see more than 100 feet,” Herrera said. “The only sign of life was all the fire agencies that were there. It was an eerie feeling.”
NASA’s arrival on scene brought a shift from anxiety to optimism and relief.
“There were tears in some of their eyes because we were showing up to help,” he said. “I could hear people saying, ‘What’s NASA doing here?’” He added, “One gentleman asked us how we got there. I joked that we drove the whole line from Kennedy Space Center.”
By the afternoon, the light-heartedness among comrades was extinguished as escalating winds charged the situation to a fever pitch. The fire, once perched atop the mountains, began hurling down in a landslide of embers, leaping across Highway 70, and forming a nearly complete ring of danger.
Breathing grew difficult as ground crews, with aerial units roaring overhead, battled a relentless assault of heat. WSTF Fire Department’s assignment evolved into an effort to protect anything and everything within reach. “It makes you realize how fast something can be taken away from you,” Herrera said.
The NASA WSTF Fire Department makes engine preparations along U.S. Route 70 at the Ruidoso border. Image courtesy of James Herrera Though disaster descended in an instant, the day itself had been long. Herrera and his team were released from duty after a grueling 12 hours spent providing critical support to wildland units and successfully protecting nearby buildings.
“Once it starts to calm down, you can feel your hands start to shake a little bit because this thing was getting out of control really fast,” Herrera said.
By the weekend, containment efforts were gaining ground thanks to the efforts of a combined 780-strong emergency response force. Eager to rebuild, Ruidoso residents trickled back in, but the village soon encountered another challenge: rain.
Following the South Fork and Salt fires — which claimed an estimated 25,000 acres, 1,400 structures, and two lives — monsoons battered Ruidoso. Throughout July, deluges washed over the region’s burn scars in an ironic insult to injury leaving people trapped in vehicles and homes underwater. As recently as Aug. 7, evacuations continued as the Ruidoso Police Department worked to preemptively clear the Cherokee Mobile Village due to past flash flooding in the area.
In this harsh landscape of crisis and aftermath, Herrera views mutual aid as more than a tactical response, but a vital investment.
“Building goodwill with the community is akin to cultivating fertile ground for growth and success,” he said. “I strongly feel it strengthens the bond between us and our community.”
With the wet season expected to continue through the end of September, Ruidoso’s forecast remains uncertain. Even as storm clouds gather, one thing is clear: if the call comes again, the WSTF Fire Department will always be ready to answer.
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By NASA
4 Min Read Robotic Moving ‘Crew’ Preps for Work on Moon
The LANDO system works by using onboard sensors to scan encoded markers (similar to a QR code) on a payload, which will reveal critical information about its position and orientation relative to the LSMS. This information is used to calculate where the robotic arm exists in space and plan the motion path to pick up and move payloads. Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman As NASA moves forward with efforts to establish a long-term presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis campaign, safely moving cargo from landers to the lunar surface is a crucial capability.
Whether the cargo, also known as payloads, are small scientific experiments or large technology to build infrastructure, there won’t be a crew on the Moon to do all the work, which is where robots and new software come in.
A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, spent the last couple of years infusing existing robotic hardware with a software system that makes the robot operate autonomously. Earlier this month, that team, led by researcher Dr. Julia Cline of NASA Langley’s Research Directorate, ran demonstrations of their system called LANDO (Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for surface Operations and construction).
LANDO prepares to move its payload to a safe spot on the simulated lunar surface.NASA/David C. Bowman The demos took place in an area set up to look like the Moon’s surface, complete with fake boulders and a model lunar lander. During the first demo, the team placed the payload, a small metal box, on a black pedestal. The robotic arm stretched over the scene, with its dangling hook poised to grasp the box.
As the team huddled nearby around computers, sensors on the arm scanned the surrounding area, looking for the metal box, which was outfitted with encoded markers — similar to QR codes — that revealed critical information about its position and orientation relative to the arm. Using a graphic user interface, team member Amelia Scott also chose a location for LANDO to place the payload.
During a series of slow, methodical movements, LANDO transports a payload from a pedestal to a simulated lunar surface.NASA/Angelique Herring After locating the metal box and computing a safe path to move it, the arm began a slow, deliberate movement toward its target, coming in at a precise angle that allowed the hook to select a capture point on the payload. Once engaged, the arm slowly lifted the payload from the pedestal, moved right, and gently lowered the payload to the simulated lunar surface. With the payload safely on the surface, the system carefully disengaged the hook from the capture point and returned to its home position. The entire process took a few minutes. Shortly after the first demo was complete, the team did it again, but with a small model rover.
“What we demonstrated was the repeatability of the system,moving multiple payloads to show that we’re consistently and safely able to get them from point A to point B,” said Cline. “We also demonstrated the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System hardware – the ability to control the system through space and plan a path around obstacles.”
The system’s successful performance during the September demonstration marks the end of this project, but the first step in developing a larger system to go to the Moon.
Now that the team has determined how the system should function, Cline believes the next natural step would be to develop and test an engineering design unit on one of the landers going to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The team is actively looking for industry partners who want to commercialize the capability.
Through CLPS, NASA is working with commercial companies to deliver science and technology demonstrations to the Moon.
The work behind LANDO could be directly infused into much larger versions of a lightweight surface manipulation system.
The LANDO team, back row, left to right: Dominic Bisio, Joshua Moser, Walter Waltz, Jacob Martin, Ryan Bowers, Brace White and Iok Wong. And kneeling, left to right: Amelia Scott, Matthew Vaughan, Julia Cline, Jessica Friz and Javier Puig-Navarro.NASA/Ryan Hill “The overall control system we’ve developed would apply to larger versions of the technology,” said Cline. “When you think about the payloads we’ll have to offload for on the Moon, like habitats and surface power systems, this is the kind of general-purpose tool that could be used for those tasks.”
The LANDO system was funded through the Early Career Initiative in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). Through STMD, NASA supports and develops transformative space technologies to enable future missions. As NASA embarks on its next era of exploration with the Artemis campaign, STMD is helping advance technologies, developing new systems, and testing capabilities at the Moon that will be critical for crewed missions to Mars.
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Last Updated Sep 25, 2024 EditorJoe AtkinsonLocationNASA Langley Research Center Related Terms
Langley Research Center Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Two robotic arms wrapped in gold material sitting on top of a black and silver box.Naval Research Laboratory NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have signed an interagency agreement to collaborate on a satellite servicing demonstration in geosynchronous Earth orbit, where hundreds of satellites provide communications, meteorological, national security, and other vital functions.
Under this agreement, NASA will provide subject matter expertise to DARPA’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program to help complete the technology development, integration, testing, and demonstration. The RSGS servicing spacecraft will advance in-orbit satellite inspection, repair, and upgrade capabilities.
NASA is excited to support our long-term partner and advance important technologies poised to benefit commercial, civil, and national objectives. Together, we will make meaningful, long-lasting contributions to the nation’s in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities.
Pam Melroy
NASA Deputy Administrator
NASA will use expertise from the agency’s On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 project and other relevant efforts to provide hands-on support to RSGS in the areas of space robotics, systems engineering, spacecraft subsystems, integration and testing, operator training, and spaceflight operations. NASA’s involvement in RSGS will continue advancing the agency’s understanding of and experience with complex ISAM systems.
DARPA will continue to lead the RSGS program, which has already achieved several important milestones, including the completion of two dexterous robotic arms designed for inspection and service that have been stress-tested for an on-orbit environment and the integration of those arms with their associated electronics, tools, and ancillary hardware to produce the fully integrated robotic payload.
Media Contact: Jasmine Hopkins
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
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