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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has its next flyby target, the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, in its sights. By blinking between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20 and 22, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s first views of the asteroid Donaldjohanson. The asteroid is circled on the left to guide the eye.NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Lucy will pass within 596 miles (960 km) of the 2-mile-wide asteroid on April 20. This second asteroid encounter for the Lucy spacecraft will serve as a dress-rehearsal for the spacecraft’s main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Lucy already successfully observed the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its contact-binary moon, Selam, in November 2023. Lucy will continue to image Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of its optical navigation program, which uses the asteroid’s apparent position against the star background to ensure an accurate flyby.
Donaldjohanson will remain an unresolved point of light during the spacecraft’s long approach and won’t start to show surface detail until the day of the encounter.
From a distance of 45 million miles (70 million km), Donaldjohanson is still dim, though it stands out clearly in this field of relatively faint stars in the constellation of Sextans. Celestial north is to the right of the frame, and the 0.11-degree field of view would correspond to 85,500 miles (140,000 km) at the distance of the asteroid. In the first of the two images, another dim asteroid can be seen photobombing in the lower right quadrant of the image. However, just as the headlights of an approaching car often appear relatively stationary, Donaldjohanson’s apparent motion between these two images is much smaller than that of this interloper, which has moved out of the field of view in the second image.
These observations were made by Lucy’s high-resolution camera, the L’LORRI instrument — short for Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager — provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named for anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton — called “Lucy” — of a human ancestor. NASA’s Lucy mission is named for the fossil.
Lucy’s principal investigator, Hal Levison, is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
For more information about NASA’s Lucy mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/lucy
By Katherine Kretke
Southwest Research Institute
Media Contact:
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Feb 25, 2025 Related Terms
Lucy General Goddard Space Flight Center Planetary Science The Solar System Trojan Asteroids View the full article
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) is pleased to announce the official release of the highly anticipated 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report. This significant accomplishment was made possible by the contributions of numerous dedicated people across NASA who graciously supported the preparation of the document as authors and reviewers. We also want to extend our gratitude to all the companies, universities, and organizations that provided content for this report.
The 2024 report can be found online at https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa. The report is also available in PDF format as a single document containing all report content as well as individual chapters available on their respective chapter webpages. This 2024 edition reflects updates in several chapters to include: the Formation Flying and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations section within the “Guidance, Navigation, and Control” chapter; the Additive Manufacturing section within the “Structures, Materials, and Mechanisms” chapter; the Free Space Optical Communications section within the “Communications” chapter; and the Hosted Orbital Services section within the “Complete Spacecraft Platforms” chapter.
As in previous editions, the report contains a general overview of current state-of-the-art SmallSat technologies and their development status as discussed in open literature. The report is not intended to be an exhaustive representation of all technologies currently available to the small spacecraft community, nor does the inclusion of technologies in the report serve as an endorsement by NASA. Sources of publicly available date commonly used as sources in the development of the report include manufacturer datasheets, press releases, conference papers, journal papers, public filings with government agencies, and news articles. Readers are highly encouraged to reach out to companies for further information regarding the performance and maturity of described technologies of interest. During the report’s development, companies were encouraged to release test information and flight data when possible so it may be appropriately captured. It should be noted that technology maturity designations may vary with change to payload, mission requirements, reliability considerations, and the associated test/flight environment in which performance was demonstrated.
Suggestions or corrections to the 2024 report toward a subsequent edition, should be submitted to the NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute Agency-SmallSat-Institute@mail.nasa.gov for consideration prior to the publication of the future edition. When submitting suggestions or corrections, please cite appropriate publicly accessible references. Private correspondence is not considered an adequate reference. Efforts are underway for the 2025 report and organizations are invited to submit technologies for consideration for inclusion by August 1, 2025.
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute.
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By NASA
Ambiguity.
That’s the word that comes to mind when documentary photographers start each day at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
PACE mission photographer Denny Henry and lead documentary photographer Desiree Stover pose for selfies in the clean room.Credits: NASA “You walk in and think one thing is happening,” said OCI’s lead documentary photographer Desiree Stover. “But in an instant things change – maybe goes wrong –- and you need to be ready to capture it.”
From build to testing to launch, one figure is always present in the background capturing the story of each Goddard mission – the documentary photographer.
In honor of #WorldPhotoDay, follow along as two of our documentarians share what it’s like to capture the story of Goddard’s latest mission build PACE.
PACE or Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, is set to launch in early 2024. Its goal is to see ocean and atmosphere features in unparalleled detail. By measuring the intensity of the color that reflects from Earth’s ocean surface, PACE will capture fine details about tiny plant-like organisms and algae that live in the ocean, called phytoplankton, that are the basis of the marine food web and generate half of Earth’s oxygen.
Crafting the Story
For Stover and her partner Denny Henry, PACE’s lead mission photographer, the story starts with the smallest details.
“I think one of the first things I photographed was the outside of a circuit port box. It was literally an empty metal box,” said Henry, who started photographing PACE in 2020, right before the pandemic. “It might be small, but it’s part of a system that’s going to do big things.”
Mark Walter, David Kim, Melyane Ortiz-acosta, and Ariel Obaldo discuss plans for testing the PACE flight Solar Array Panels.Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Denny Henry A typical day for these photographers usually starts with a morning meeting, assignments and getting ready. By the end of the day, the original plan has likely been changed, multiple times.
“Some days we might shoot eight photos, other days it might be hundreds or more,” Stover said.
PACE, or Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, is set to launch in early 2024. Its goal is to see ocean and atmosphere features in unparalleled detail.Credits: NASA Images captured during shoots are used for a variety of things, especially technical components of the mission. This includes documenting builds, spotting mistakes and testing.
Stover got her start at Goddard by photographing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope before switching to capturing imagery of Goddard’s small instruments, including PACE’s Ocean Color Instrument, or OCI. This advanced sensor will enable continuous measurement of light throughout the ultraviolet to shortwave infrared spectrum to better understand Earth’s ocean and atmosphere.
She says she’s still in awe that her teammates trust her “eye.”
“One of the most fascinating things about working here is that we have a specific job,” she said. “And even though engineers can pick up a camera and take photos, they don’t. They know we’re the experts at it. They trust our eyes to tell and capture the story.”
Henry said one of the most memorable days he’s documented so far was watching the PACE team integrate the SPEXone instrument into the spacecraft.
“All the partners were there as I photographed. It was a big deal,” he said. “I captured every bolt all the way to the mounting. It’s important to get these details. Six months from now someone who wasn’t there might want to see what was done in what order.”
Henry said that capturing images is only part of the job. For every hour of shooting, there’s also an hour spent processing and working with partners to ensure things were documented correctly.
Playing Detective
While telling the story is important, Stover says that part of the job is speaking up, especially when you notice something wrong.
During one assignment documenting vibration testing, Stover noticed that OCI’s Earth shade looked different.
“We took the bagging off and could see tape peeling off the radiator panels, possibly loose wires in certain places,” she said. “When I saw this, I thought back to what it was like when we shot this the first time.”
Physical Science Technician Kristen Washington performs a contamination inspection of the OCI Flight Fold Flat Mirror optic.Credits: Desiree Stover, NASA Goddard It’s common for the photographers to shoot things twice to examine how things might change when in testing. When Stover saw the tape, she got to work ensuring her hunch was right.
She sent a series of images to the thermal team lead letting him know what she found. Plans were already underway to change the design.
The unexpected
Stover and Henry agree that documenting missions has come with some interesting experiences.
Both had to undergo fall protection harness training in the event they had to climb around one of Goddard’s cleanrooms, something that happened to Stover during one assignment.
“Once I was up in Building 29’s high bay. Like up at the very top in the crane rafters shooting. I never thought I was afraid of heights until that moment,” she said. “But I focused on the image and what task I was accomplishing and completed the assignment without issue.”
Henry said adjusting to Covid-19 required a lot of flexibility, especially with sudden changes.
“This is not a job you can do from home,” he said. “After a few months, we adapted.”
Radio Frequency testing of the PACE Earth Coverage Antenna in the Electromagnetic Anechoic Chamber at Goddard Space Flight Center.Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Denny Henry Henry said that many times mission teams will find that engineering drawings won’t match up with what was actually built. With the pandemic restrictions, PACE heavily relied on his images to note how things changed and why issues occurred.
As PACE heads toward big milestones in the next year, both Stover and Henry are excited to see their work come together, including the day of launch.
They both agreed that photographing the teams involved in each aspect of PACE’s build is especially rewarding as they help create mementos that go along with their mission’s story.
By: Sara Blumberg
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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By NASA
NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley invites media to learn more about Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA), a technology that allows individual spacecraft to make independent decisions while collaborating with each other to achieve common goals – without human input. The DSA team achieved multiple firsts during tests of such swarm technology as part of the agency’s project.
DSA develops software tools critical for future autonomous, distributed, and intelligent spacecraft that will need to interact with each other to achieve complex mission objectives. Testing onboard the agency’s Starling mission resulted in accomplishments including the first fully distributed autonomous operation of multiple spacecraft, the first use of space-to-space communications to autonomously share status information between multiple spacecraft, and more.
DSA’s accomplishments mark a significant milestone in advancing autonomous systems that will make new types of science and exploration possible.
Caleb Adams, DSA project manager, is available for interview on Wednesday, Feb. 5 and Thursday, Feb. 6. To request an interview, media can contact the Ames Office of Communications by email at arc-dl-newsroom@nasa.gov or by phone at 650-604-4789.
Learn more about NASA Ames’ world-class research and development in aeronautics, science, and exploration technology at:
https://www.nasa.gov/ames
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Tiffany Blake
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
650-604-4789
tiffany.n.blake@nasa.gov
To receive local NASA Ames news, email local-reporters-request@lists.arc.nasa.gov with “subscribe” in the subject line. To unsubscribe, email the same address with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:00:40 Back in 2023, we reported on Solar Orbiter’s discovery of tiny jets near the Sun’s south pole that could be powering the solar wind. The team behind this research has now used even more data from the European Space Agency’s prolific solar mission to confirm that these jets exist all over dark patches in the Sun’s atmosphere, and that they really are a source of not only fast but also slow solar wind.
The newfound jets can be seen in this sped-up video as hair-like wisps that flash very briefly, for example within the circled regions of the Sun's surface. In reality they last around one minute and fling out charged particles at about 100 km/s.
The surprising result is published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics, highlighting how Solar Orbiter’s unique combination of instruments can unveil the mysteries of the star at the centre of our Solar System.
The solar wind is the never-ending rain of electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. It pervades the Solar System and its effects can be felt on Earth. Yet despite decades of study, its origin remained poorly understood. Until now.
The solar wind comes in two main forms: fast and slow. We have known for decades that the fast solar wind comes from the direction of dark patches in the Sun’s atmosphere called coronal holes – regions where the Sun’s magnetic field does not turn back down into the Sun but rather stretches deep into the Solar System.
Charged particles can flow along these ‘open’ magnetic field lines, heading away from the Sun, and creating the solar wind. But a big question remained: how do these particles get launched from the Sun in the first place?
Building upon their previous discovery, the research team (led by Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany) used Solar Orbiter’s onboard ‘cameras’ to spot more tiny jets within coronal holes close to the Sun’s equator.
By combining these high-resolution images with direct measurements of solar wind particles and the Sun’s magnetic field around Solar Orbiter, the researchers could directly connect the solar wind measured at the spacecraft back to those exact same jets.
What’s more, the team was surprised to find not just fast solar wind coming from these jets, but also slow solar wind. This is the first time that we can say for sure that at least some of the slow solar wind also comes from tiny jets in coronal holes – until now, the origin of the solar wind had been elusive.
The fact that the same underlying process drives both fast and slow solar wind comes as a surprise. The discovery is only possible thanks to Solar Orbiter’s unique combination of advanced imaging systems, as well as its instruments that can directly detect particles and magnetic fields.
The measurements were taken when Solar Orbiter made close approaches to the Sun in October 2022 and April 2023. These close approaches happen roughly twice a year; during the next ones, the researchers hope to collect more data to better understand how these tiny jets ‘launch’ the solar wind.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA. This research used data from Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Solar Wind Plasma Analyser (SWA) and Magnetometer (MAG). Find out more about the instruments Solar Orbiter is using to reveal more about the Sun.
Read our news story from 2023 about how Solar Orbiter discovered tiny jets that could power the solar wind
Read more about how Solar Orbiter can trace the solar wind back to its source region on the Sun
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