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By Space Force
The U.S. Space Force and Canadian Armed Forces have kicked off an Operations and Sustainment Phase which will provide Canada with six years of access to the Space Force’s Mobile User Objective System Satellite System.
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By NASA
NASA logo NASA has awarded $15.6 million in grant funding to 15 projects supporting the maintenance of open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries used by the NASA science community, for the benefit of all.
The agency’s Open-Source Tools, Frameworks, and Libraries awards provide support for the sustainable development of tools freely available to everyone and critical for the goals of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
“We received almost twice the number of proposals this year than we had in the previous call,” said Steve Crawford, program executive, Open Science implementation, Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The NASA science community’s excitement for this program demonstrates the need for sustained support and maintenance of open-source software. These projects are integral to our missions, critical to our data infrastructure, underpin machine learning and data science tools, and are used by our researchers, every day, to advance science that protects our planet and broadens our understanding of the universe.”
This award program is one of several cross-divisional opportunities at NASA focused on advancing open science practices. The grants are funded by NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer through the agency’s Research Opportunities for Space and Earth Science. The solicitation sought proposals through two types of awards:
Foundational awards: cooperative agreements for up to five years for open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries that have a significant impact on two or more divisions of the Science Mission Directorate. Sustainment awards: grants or cooperative agreements of up to three years for open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries that have significant impact in one or more divisions of the Science Mission Directorate. 2024 awardees are:
Foundation awards:
NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Ross Beyer “Expanding and Maintaining the Ames Stereo Pipeline” Caltech, Pasadena, CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Brigitta Sipocz “Enhancement of Infrastructure and Sustained Maintenance of Astroquery” Cornell University, Scarsdale, New YorkPrincipal investigator: Ramin Zabih “Modernize and Expand arXiv’s Essential Infrastructure” NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MarylandPrincipal investigator: D. Cooley “Enabling SMD Science Using the General Mission Analysis Tool” NumFOCUS, Austin, TexasPrincipal investigator: Thomas Caswell “Sustainment of Matplotlib and Cartopy” NumFOCUSPrincipal investigator: Erik Tollerud “Investing in the Astropy Project to Enable Research and Education in Astronomy” Sustainment awards:
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern CaliforniaPrincipal investigator: Cedric David “Sustain NASA’s River Software for the Satellite Data Deluge,” three-year award Pennsylvania State University, University ParkPrincipal investigator: David Radice “AthenaK: A Performance Portable Simulation Infrastructure for Computational Astrophysics,” three-year award United States Geological Survey, Reston, VirginiaPrincipal investigator: Trent Hare “Planetary Updates for QGIS,” one-year award NASA JPLPrincipal investigator: Michael Starch “How To F Prime: Empowering Science Missions Through Documentation and Examples,” three-year award NASA GoddardPrincipal investigator: Albert Shih “Enhancing Consistency and Discoverability Across the SunPy Ecosystem,” three-year award Triad National Security, LLC, Los Alamos, New MexicoPrincipal investigator: Julia Kelliher “Enhancing Analysis Capabilities of Biological Data With the NASA EDGE Bioinformatics Platform,” four-year award iSciences LLC, Burlington, VermontPrincipal investigator: Daniel Baston “Sustaining the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library,” three-year award University of Maryland, College Park,Principal investigator: C Max Stevens “Sustaining the Community Firn Model,” three-year award Quansight, LLC, Austin, TexasPrincipal investigator: Dharhas Pothina “Ensuring a Fast and Secure Core for Scientific Python – Security, Accessibility and Performance of NumPy, SciPy and scikit-learn; Going Beyond NumPy With Accelerator Support,” three-year award For information about open science at NASA, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/open-science
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Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Victor Glover of NASA sips on a water bag. The latest book marks our third effort to review available literature regarding the role of nutrition in astronaut health. In 2009, we reviewed the existing knowledge and history of human nutrition for spaceflight, with a key goal of identifying additional data that would be required before NASA could confidently reduce the risk of an inadequate food system or inadequate nutrition to as low as possible in support of human expeditions to the Moon or Mars. We used a nutrient-by-nutrient approach to address this effort, and we included a brief description of the space food systems during historical space programs.
In 2014, we published a second volume of the book, which was not so much a second edition, but rather a view of space nutrition from a different perspective. This volume updated research that had been published in the intervening 6 years and addressed space nutrition with a more physiological systems-based approach.
The current version is an expanded, updated version of that second book, providing both a systems approach overall, but also including details of nutrients and their roles within each system. As such, this book is divided into chapters based on physiological systems (e.g., bone, muscle, ocular); highlighted in each chapter are the nutrients associated with that particular system. We provide updated information on space food
systems and constraints of the same, and provide dietary intake data from International Space Station (ISS) astronauts.
We present data from ground-based analog studies, designed to mimic one or more conditions similar to those produced by spaceflight. Head-down tilt bed rest is a common analog of the general (and specifically musculoskeletal) disuse of spaceflight. Nutrition research from Antarctica relies on the associated confinement
and isolation, in addition to the lack of sunlight exposure during the winter months. Undersea habitats help expand our understanding of nutritional changes in a confined space with a hyperbaric atmosphere. We also review spaceflight research, including data from now “historical” flights on the Space Shuttle, data from the Russian space station Mir, and earlier space programs such as Apollo and Skylab. The ISS, now more than
20 years old, has provided (and continues to provide) a wealth of nutrition findings from extended-duration spaceflights of 4 to 12 months. We review findings from this platform as well, providing a comprehensive review of what is known regarding the role of human nutrition in keeping astronauts healthy.
With this latest book, we hope we have accurately captured the current state of the field of space food and nutrition, and that we have provided some guideposts for work that remains to be done to enable safe and successful human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
Human Adaptation to Spaceflight: The Role of Food and Nutrition – 2nd Edition
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Human Adaptation to Spaceflight: The Role of Food and Nutrition – 1st Edition
Download 1st Edition PDF
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Last Updated Oct 23, 2024 EditorRobert E. LewisLocationJohnson Space Center Related Terms
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By NASA
7 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Jhony Zavaleta, ASIA-AQ Project Manager, welcomes DC-8 Navigator Walter Klein and the rest of the aircraft crew to U-Tapao, Thailand for its initial arrival to the country during the ASIA-AQ campaign. Erin Czech (back, blue shirt) and Jaden Ta (front, black pants) served as part of the Thailand ESPO site management team, while Zavaleta and Sam Kim (far right) worked as the ESPO advance team to prepare each new site for the mission’s arrival. NASA Ames/Rafael Luis Méndez Peña ESPO solves problems before you know you have them. If you are missing a canister of liquid nitrogen, got locked out of your rental car, or need clearance for a South Korean military base, you want ESPO in your corner.
What is ESPO?
While the Earth Science Project Office (ESPO) does many things, one of the team’s primary responsibilities is providing project management for many of the largest and most complex airborne campaigns across NASA’s Earth Science Division.
Some of these missions are domestic, such as the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE). S-MODE deployed three separate field campaigns from 2021-2023, using planes, drones, marine robotics, and research vessels to study ocean eddies and sub-surface dynamics. NASA Ames Research Center, located in Northern California, served as S-MODE’s control center and the base for two of the three deployed aircraft.
Erin Czech (far left) stands with Jacob Soboroff and the Today Show crew, members of the NASA Ames Public Affairs Office, researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the NASA Langley G-III air crew during S-MODE’s 2023 deployment. Courtesy of Jacob Soboroff
ESPO also provides project management for many international missions, such as the Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ), which deployed in January, 2024 out of South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. The campaign used satellites, aircraft, and ground-based sensors to study air quality across Asia, as part of a global effort to better understand the factors that contribute to air quality.
Despite the critical nature of ESPO’s work, they’ll be the first to tell you that their goal is to remain behind the scenes. “Our mission statement is essentially to let the scientists concentrate on science,” said Erin Czech, Assistant Branch Chief of ESPO. “Our team’s job is to stay in the background. We don’t really advertise all the things we do, the pieces we put together, the crises we solve, because we don’t want folks to have to be in the weeds with us. We’ll take care of it.”
Making the invisible, visible: What does this look like in practice?
Before a deployment:
Project management for major airborne campaigns begins long before a deployment. The team begins by helping establish a mission framework, such as getting a budget in place, settling grants and funding with partner universities and agencies, and performing site visits.
“We are not scientists,” Czech said, “it’s the job of the Principal Investigator to mission plan. Our job is to evaluate risk, set up contingency plans, and help make sure all the different groups are talking to each other. We work with world-class scientists, who are going to come up with an awesome plan; we just want to do whatever we need to in order to support them.”
We work with world-class scientists, who are going to come up with an awesome plan; we just want to do whatever we need to in order to support them.
Erin Czech
ESPO Assistant Branch Chief
As the deployment date draws closer, the team nails down logistics: deciding how and where to ship equipment, reserving hotel blocks for researchers, acquiring diplomatic clearances, running planning meetings between agencies, and so much more.
This process is particularly complicated for multi-site, international missions like ASIA-AQ, which required multiple visits to each country before the actual deployment. “We looked at many locations in each country on the first scouting trip, to help figure out deployment sites,” said Jhony Zavaleta, Deputy Director for ESPO and Project Manager for ASIA-AQ. “The second scouting trip was to evaluate modifications promised during the first trip, such as upgrades to infrastructure, and to figure out hotels, transit options, specific facilities for mission operations, that sort of thing.”
According to Zavaleta, another purpose of these advance trips was to put pieces in place with partner organizations – such as civilian aviation authorities, foreign science ministries, or military operations – so that when NASA officially requested diplomatic clearance to run the airborne campaigns, the groundwork had already been laid.
Then it’s go time.
During the deployment:
As the deployment gets underway, ESPO keeps the flurry of activity running as smoothly as possible.
“During a deployment, you’re working all day every day,” said Czech, who is also the Project Manager for S-MODE. “But really that’s the whole mission team. When you’re on a NASA project, the whole team is incredibly dedicated and working like crazy, because everybody’s on the same page to make the most out of this investment, and take advantage of any kind of science opportunity that presents itself day to day.”
For Zavaleta, day-to-day operations meant escorting personnel onto military bases, tracking down liquid nitrogen, coordinating media days with local news outlets, setting up satellite communications, arranging transportation between sites, and preparing the next location. “I was on the ESPO advance team, which would set up one location, overlap with the ESPO site management team for about a week, then head to the next,” Zavaleta recalled. “Our teams would leapfrog; we were always managing site logistics, but also always preparing and setting up for the next spot.”
(From left) Stevie Phothisane, Vidal Salazar, and Daisy Gonzalez, the ESPO site management team for the Philippines during ASIA-AQ, sit at Clark International Airport coordinating daily operations support while the aircraft was in flight.NASA Ames/Rafael Luis Méndez Peña
Beyond the day-to-day operations, ESPO also steps in when major issues arise. According to Czech, they can usually expect one or two big wrenches to come up for any major mission.
For S-MODE, the first wrench came in the form of a global pandemic. “The original deployment was set for April, 2020,” Czech said. “Everything was shutting down, and we had just set everything up: ship, aircraft, everything. In fact, we set everything up two more times before we ultimately got to do our first deployment, in October of 2021.”
The second major wrench happened when four months before the actual launch, the research vessel the mission was planned around backed out. From there, Czech said it was a mad scramble to find a suitable replacement vessel that was already on the West Coast, and to build out the on-board infrastructure to meet the mission requirements.
The R/V (Research Vessel) Oceanus sits docked in Newport, Oregon during S-MODE ship mobilization. The Oceanus was one of three research vessels that deployed throughout the mission. NASA Ames/Sommer Nicholas
“The key is just to always be on the lookout for issues, keep agile, and don’t get too frustrated if things don’t go your way,” Czech said. “It is what it is. Some major issue comes up on every big mission: you’ve just got to figure out how to deal with it, then move on.”
After the deployment:
After a field deployment is finished, there are still years of work to do – for the scientists and for ESPO.
The final S-MODE field deployment concluded in Spring of 2023. While the science team has been processing data and analyzing results, ESPO’s role has been to organize annual science team meetings, track publications tied to the mission, and help compile a final report to be presented in Washington DC when the mission officially wraps in May of 2025.
Researchers Kayli Matsuyoshi, Luke Colosi and Luc Lenain in the Air-Sea Interaction Laboratory at SIO discussing the latest S-MODE findings. Courtesy of Nick Pizzo For ASIA-AQ, whose deployment wrapped up in March of 2024, ESPO’s first task was getting all equipment and personnel back to their respective home bases. Next up, Zavaleta and his team are coordinating a science team meeting in Malaysia in January of 2025, and supporting the scientists as they put together a preliminary research report for later that spring.
Knowledge and Expertise
While logistical skills and communication brokering are important pieces of ESPO’s role, knowledge may be the group’s most important asset. “In many ways, our value to NASA lies in the fact that we’ve been doing this a long time,” Czech said. “Our first mission was in 1987, and we’ve run over 60 campaigns since then; we have a lot of institutional knowledge that gets passed down, and a lot of experience between our team members. That expertise is a large part of our value to the agency.”
To access the data from S-MODE, visit the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)
About the Author
Milan Loiacono
Science Communication SpecialistMilan Loiacono is a science communication specialist for the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center.
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Last Updated Oct 18, 2024 Related Terms
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By USH
The Department of Defense has appointed a new director to lead the AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office), which is responsible for investigating UFOs and UAPs. The choice of Dr. Jon T. Kosloski, a former NSA scientist, is notable. According to USAF whistleblower Dan Sherman, the NSA has been involved in tracking UFO and non-human intelligence (NHI) activity for decades. Additionally, there are claims that the NSA manages interstellar trade operations from a base in Antarctica.
Kosloski replaces Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the inaugural director of AARO, who faced criticism during his tenure. Many believed Kirkpatrick did little to support whistleblowers, hindering efforts to reveal critical information about UFOs and related phenomena.
One of the intriguing aspects of this story is the alleged NSA connection to Antarctica.
Eric Hecker a Raytheon contractor who worked at the Ice Cube Neutrino observatory at Antarctica from 2010-2011 said that this observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica is a huge air traffic control power station that monitors all interstellar craft that be operated by humans as well as non-humans.
The observatory is not the only station that tracks interstellar craft, reports from whistleblowers over the years have hinted at the presence of a vast underground military complex in the area. Allegedly, the NSA operates an office there, which also is involved in monitoring interstellar activity, possibly utilizing the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory's facilities. In addition, this office is reportedly engaged in interstellar trade. According to Navy whistleblowers, the office is managed from the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, specifically on the sixth floor.
It may sound fantastical, but the NSA has been tracking UFO activity since its inception in 1952. The agency is believed to have developed capabilities to detect UFOs anywhere on Earth but keep quiet about it.
Now, as we look to the future, institutions that shape national security believe the U.S. needs to prepare the public for disclosure, as humanity's future may lie in space. Advanced propulsion systems, including anti-gravity and torsion field technologies, are being developed to construct fleets of spacecraft that can keep pace with extraterrestrial civilizations.
Furthermore, there is a large spaceport in Alabama, near the caverns around Huntsville, where pilots from around 30 nations are reportedly being trained to fly interstellar craft under supervision of a group of extraterrestrials known as the Nordics. It is said that this underground facility already houses hundreds of these craft.
Despite the ongoing UFO cover-up, with Dr. Kosloski now leading AARO, there is hope that in particular the NSA’s involvement in these operations will become more transparent and that further revelations may follow.
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