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By NASA
NASA logo Chile will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 25, at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will host Aisén Etcheverry, Chile’s minister of science, technology, knowledge and innovation, and Juan Gabriel Valdés, ambassador of Chile to the United States, along with other officials from Chile and the U.S. Department of State.
This event is in-person only. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations interested in attending must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, to hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The signing ceremony will take place at the agency’s Glennan Assembly Room inside NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St. SW Washington.
NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State and seven other initial signatory nations, established the Artemis Accords in 2020. With many countries and private companies conducting missions and operations around the Moon, the Artemis Accords provide a common set of principles to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space.
The Artemis Accords reinforce the commitment by signatory nations to the Outer Space Treaty, the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior for civil space exploration and use.
Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
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Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA and partners from Aerostar and AeroVironment discuss a simulation of a high-altitude air traffic management system for vehicles flying 60,000 feet and above in the Airspace Operations Lab (AOL) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.NASA/Don Richey NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, recently demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes. This work seeks to open the door for increased internet coverage, improved disaster response, expanded scientific missions, and even supersonic flight. The concept is referred to as an Upper-Class E traffic management, or ETM.
There is currently no traffic management system or set of regulations in place for aircraft operating 60,000 feet and above. There hasn’t been a need for a robust traffic management system in this airspace until recently. That’s because commercial aircraft couldn’t function at such high altitudes due to engine constraints.
However, recent advancements in aircraft design, power, and propulsion systems are making it possible for high altitude long endurance vehicles — such as balloons, airships, and solar aircraft — to coast miles above our heads, providing radio relay for disaster response, collecting atmospheric data, and more.
But before these aircraft can regularly take to the skies, operators must find a way to manage their operations without overburdening air traffic infrastructure and personnel.
NASA partners from Aerostar and AeroVironment discuss a simulation of the ATM-X E Traffic Management (ETM) system for vehicles flying 60,000 feet and above in the Airspace Operations Lab (AOL) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “We are working to safely expand high-altitude missions far beyond what is currently possible,” said Kenneth Freeman, a subproject manager for this effort at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “With routine, remotely piloted high-altitude operations, we have the opportunity to improve our understanding of the planet through more detailed tracking of climate change, provide internet coverage in underserved areas, advance supersonic flight research, and more.”
Current high-altitude traffic management is processed manually and on a case-by-case basis. Operators must contact air traffic control to gain access to a portion of the Class E airspace. During these operations, no other aircraft can enter this high-altitude airspace. This method will not accommodate the growing demand for high-altitude missions, according to NASA researchers.
To address this challenge, NASA and its partners have developed an ETM traffic management system that allows aircraft to autonomously share location and flight plans, enabling aircraft to stay safely separated.
During the recent traffic management simulation in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at Ames, data from multiple air vehicles was displayed across dozens of traffic control monitors and shared with partner computers off site. This included aircraft location, health, flight plans and more. Researchers studied interactions between a slow fixed-wing vehicle from AeroVironment and a high-altitude balloon from Aerostar operating at stratospheric heights. Each aircraft, connected to the ETM traffic management system for high altitude, shared location and flight plans with surrounding aircraft.
This digital information sharing allowed Aerostar and AeroVironment high-altitude vehicle operators to coordinate and deconflict with each other in the same simulated airspace, without having to gain approval from air traffic control. Because of this, aircraft operators were able to achieve their objectives, including wireless communication relay.
This simulation represents the first time a traffic management system was able to safely manage a diverse set of high-altitude aircraft operations in the same simulated airspace. Next, NASA researchers will work with partners to further validate this system through a variety of real flight tests with high-altitude aircraft in a shared airspace.
The Upper-Class E traffic management concept was developed in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and high-altitude platform industry partners, under NASA’s National Airspace System Exploratory Concepts and Technologies subproject led out of Ames.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Clean air is essential for healthy living, but according to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 99% of the global population breathes air exceeding their guideline limits of air pollution. “Air quality is a measure of how much stuff is in the air, which includes particulates and gaseous pollutants,” said Kristina Pistone, a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Pistone’s research covers both atmospheric and climate areas, with a focus on the effect of atmospheric particles on climate and clouds. “It’s important to understand air quality because it affects your health and how well you can live your life and go about your day,” Pistone said. We sat down with Pistone to learn more about air quality and how it can have a noticeable impact on human health and the environment.
What makes up air quality?
There are six main air pollutants regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States: particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and lead. These pollutants come from from natural sources, such as the particulate matter that rises into the atmosphere from fires and desert dust, or from human activity, such as the ozone generated from sunlight reacting to vehicle emissions.
Satellite image showing wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada into the American Midwest, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on June 09, 2015. NASA/Jeff Schmaltz
What is the importance of air quality?
Air quality influences health and quality of life. “Just like we need to ingest water, we need to breathe air,” Pistone said. “We have come to expect clean water because we understand that we need it to live and be healthy, and we should expect the same from our air.”
Poor air quality has been tied to cardiovascular and respiratory effects in humans. Short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), for example, can cause respiratory symptoms like coughing and wheezing, and long-term exposure increases the risk of developing respiratory diseases such as asthma or respiratory infections. Exposure to ozone can aggravate the lungs and damage the airways. Exposure to PM2.5 (particulates 2.5 micrometers or smaller) causes lung irritation and has been linked to heart and lung diseases.
In addition to its impacts on human health, poor air quality can damage the environment, polluting bodies of water through acidification and eutrophication. These processes kill plants, deplete soil nutrients, and harm animals.
Measuring Air Quality: the Air Quality Index (AQI)
Air quality is similar to the weather; it can change quickly, even within a matter of hours. To measure and report on air quality, the EPA uses the United States Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI is calculated by measuring each of the six primary air pollutants on a scale from “Good” to “Hazardous,” to produce a combined AQI numeric value 0-500.
“Usually when we’re talking about air quality, we’re saying that there are things in the atmosphere that we know are not good for humans to be breathing all the time,” Pistone said. “So to have good air quality, you need to be below a certain threshold of pollution.” Localities around the world use different thresholds for “good” air quality, which is often dependent on which pollutants their system measures. In the EPA’s system, an AQI value of 50 or lower is considered good, while 51-100 is considered moderate. An AQI value between 100 and 150 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, and higher values are unhealthy to everyone; a health alert is issued when the AQI reaches 200. Any value over 300 is considered hazardous, and is frequently associated with particulate pollution from wildfires.
NASA Air Quality Research and Data Products
Air quality sensors are a valuable resource for capturing air quality data on a local level.
In 2022, the Trace Gas GRoup (TGGR) at NASA Ames Research Center deployed Inexpensive Network Sensor Technology for Exploring Pollution, or INSTEP: a new network of low-cost air quality sensors that measures a variety of pollutants. These sensors are capturing air quality data in certain areas in California, Colorado, and Mongolia, and have proven advantageous for monitoring air quality during California’s fire season.
The 2024 Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ) mission integrated sensor data from aircraft, satellites, and ground-based platforms to evaluate air quality over several countries in Asia. The data captured from multiple instruments on these flights, such as the Meteorological Measurement System (MMS) from NASA Ames Atmospheric Science Branch, are used to refine air quality models to forecast and assess air quality conditions.
Agency-wide, NASA has a range of Earth-observing satellites and other technology to capture and report air quality data. In 2023, NASA launched the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission, which measures air quality and pollution over North America. NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth Observations (LANCE) tool provides air quality forecasters with measurements compiled from a multitude of NASA instruments, within three hours of its observation.
Nitrogen dioxide levels over the D.C./Philadelphia/New York City region measured by TEMPO.NASA/Scientific Visualization Studio
Air Quality Resources to Learn More
In addition to the EPA’s website, which houses air-quality related sources, the EPA also has a platform called AirNow, which reports the local AQI across the United States and allows users to check air quality levels in their area. Pistone also recommends looking at Purple Air’s real-time map, which displays PM data taken from a crowd-sourced network of low-cost sensors and translates those measurements to estimate AQI. For those concerned about air quality, Pistone recommends checking out https://cleanaircrew.org/ for resources on indoor air quality, breathing safely with wildfire smoke, and even building your own box fan filter.
To learn more about air quality research applications, see NASA’s Applied Sciences Program’s Health & Air Quality program area, which details the use of Earth observations to assess and address air quality concerns at local, regional, and national levels. Additionally, the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST) helps connect NASA data and tools with stakeholders to better share and understand the effects of air quality on human health.
Written by Katera Lee, NASA Ames Research Center
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Last Updated Oct 18, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s C-130 Hercules is prepared for departure from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on October 15, 2024, for a cargo transport mission to India. The C-130 is supporting the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.NASA/Madison Griffin NASA’s globetrotting C-130 Hercules team is carrying out a cargo transport mission to Bengaluru, India, in support of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.
The C-130 departed from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Tuesday, Oct. 15, to embark on the multi-leg, multi-day journey. The flight path will take the aircraft coast to coast within the United States, across the Pacific Ocean with planned island stops, and finally to its destination in India. The goal: safely deliver NISAR’s radar antennae reflector, one of NASA’s contributions to the mission, for integration on the spacecraft. NISAR is a joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
The cargo transport mission will encompass approximately 24,500 nautical miles and nearly 80 hours of flight time for the C-130 and crew. The flight plan includes strategic stops and rest days to service the aircraft and reduce crew fatigue from long-haul segments of the flight and multiple time zone changes.
The flight crew inspects the aircraft prior to departure from NASA Wallops.NASA/Madison Griffin The C-130’s cargo compartment has plenty of space to hold the more than 2,800-pound payload containing the radar antennae reflector once retrieved from California.NASA/Madison Griffin The first stop for the C-130 was March Air Reserve Base located in Riverside County, California, to retrieve the radar antennae reflector from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Additional stops during the mission include Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Clark Air Base, Philippines; and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport in Bengaluru, India.
This is the C-130 and crew’s third cargo transport to India in support of the NISAR mission, with prior flights in July 2023 and March 2024.
For more information, visit nasa.gov/wallops.
By Olivia Littleton
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
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Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 EditorOlivia F. LittletonContactOlivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA pilot Nils Larson, and flight test engineer and pilot Wayne Ringelberg, head for a mission debrief after flying a NASA F/A-18 at Mach 1.38 to create sonic booms as part of the Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence flight series at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, to study sonic boom signatures with and without the element of atmospheric turbulence.NASA/Lauren Hughes NASA research pilots are experts on how to achieve the right flight-test conditions for experiments and the tools needed for successful missions. It is that expertise that enables pilots to help researchers learn how an aircraft can fly their technology innovations and save time and money, while increasing the innovation’s readiness for use.
NASA pilots detailed how they help researchers find the right fit for experiments that might not advance without proving that they work in flight as they do in modeling, simulation, and ground tests at the Ideas to Flight Workshop on Sept. 18 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “Start the conversation early and make sure you have the right people in the conversation,” said Tim Krall, a NASA Armstrong flight operations engineer. “What we are doing better is making sure pilots are included earlier in a flight project to capitalize on their experience and knowledge.”
Flight research is often used to prove or refine computer models, try out new systems, or increase a technology’s readiness. Sometimes, pilots guide a research project involving experimental aircraft. For example, pilots play a pivotal role on the X-59 aircraft, which will fly faster than the speed of sound while generating a quiet thump, rather than a loud boom. In the future, NASA’s pilots with fly the X-59 over select U.S. communities to gather data about how people on the ground perceive sonic thumps. NASA will provide this information to regulators to potentially change regulations that currently prohibit commercial supersonic flight over land.
Mark Russell, center, a research pilot at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, explains the differences in flight environments at different NASA centers. Jim Less, a NASA pilot at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, left, Russell, and Nils Larson, NASA Armstrong chief X-59 aircraft pilot and senior advisor on flight research, provided perspective on flight research at the Ideas to Flight Workshop on Sept. 18 at NASA Armstrong.NASA/Genaro Vavuris “We have been involved with X-59 aircraft requirements and design process from before it was an X-plane,” said Nils Larson, NASA chief X-59 aircraft pilot and senior advisor on flight research. “I was part of pre-formulation and formulation teams. I was also on the research studies and brought in NASA pilot Jim Less in for a second opinion. Because we had flown missions in the F-15 and F-18, we knew the kinds of systems, like autopilots, that we need to get the repeatability and accuracy for the data.”
NASA pilots’ experience can provide guidance to enable a wide range of flight experiments. A lot of times researchers have an idea of how to get the required flight data, but sometimes, Larson explains, while there are limits to what an aircraft can do – like flying the DC-8 upside down, there are maneuvers that given the right mitigations, training, and approval could simulate those conditions.
Less says he’s developed an approach to help focus researchers: “What do you guys really need? A lot of what we do is mundane, but anytime you go out and fly, there is some risk. We don’t want to take a risk if we are going after data that nobody needs, or it is not going to serve a purpose, or the quality won’t work.”
Justin Hall, left, attaches the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-M, glider onto the Carbon-Z Cub, which Justin Link steadies. Hall and Link are part of a team from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, that uses an experimental magnetic release mechanism to air launch the glider.NASA/Lauren Hughes Sometimes, a remotely piloted aircraft can provide an advantage to achieve NASA’s research priorities, said Justin Hall, NASA Armstrong’s subscale aircraft laboratory chief pilot. “We can do things quicker, at a lower cost, and the subscale lab offers unique opportunities. Sometimes an engineer comes in with an idea and we can help design and integrate experiments, or we can even build an aircraft and pilot it.”
Most research flights are straight and level like driving a car on the highway. But there are exceptions. “The more interesting flights require a maneuver to get the data the researcher is looking for,” Less said. “We mounted a pod to an F/A-18 with the landing radar that was going to Mars and they wanted to simulate Martian reentry using the airplane. We went up high and dove straight at the ground.”
Another F/A-18 experiment tested the flight control software for the Space Launch System rocket for the Artemis missions. “A rocket takes off vertically and it has to pitch over 90 degrees,” Less explained. “We can’t quite do that in an F-18, but we could start at about a 45-degree angle and then push 45 degrees nose low to simulate the whole turn. That’s one of the fun parts of the job, trying to figure out how to get the data you want with the tools we have.”
NASA pilot Jim Less is assisted by life support as he is fitted with a pilot breathing monitoring system. The sensing system is attached to a pilot’s existing gear to capture real-time physiological, breathing gas, and cockpit environmental data.NASA/Carla Thomas Share
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactJay Levinejay.levine-1@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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