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USSF, USC Sign MOU Establishing University Partnership Program
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By Space Force
In partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the United States Space Force is currently accepting proposals for USSF University Consortium/Space Strategic Technology Institute 4, focused on Advanced Remote Sensing.
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By Space Force
SSC and USC partnered up to pair USC Trojans with SSC Guardians to work within real USSF programs. This partnership team acted as a “living laboratory” to identify strategies for implementing agile development into complex defense projects.
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By NASA
Following eight months of intense research, design, and prototyping, six university teams presented their “Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations” concepts to a panel of judges at NASA’s 2024 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge forum.
The challenge, funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Office of STEM Engagement, seeks novel ideas from higher education on a new topic each year and supports the agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative in developing new approaches and innovative technologies to pave the way for successful exploration on the surface of the Moon. This year, teams were asked to develop low Size, Weight, and Power inflatable technologies, structures and systems that could benefit future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Taking top honors at this year’s forum receiving the Artemis Award was Northwestern University with National Aerospace Corporation & IMS Engineered Products, with their concept titled METALS: Metallic Expandable Technology for Artemis Lunar Structures. The Artemis Award is given to the team whose concept has the best potential to contribute to and be integrated into an Artemis mission.
The Northwestern University BIG Idea Challenge team developed METALS, an inflatable metal concept for long-term storage of cryogenic fluid on the Moon. The concept earned the Artemis Award, top honors in NASA’s 2024 BIG Idea Challenge.Credit: National Institute of Aerospace The Artemis Award is a generous recognition of the potential impact that our work can have. We hope it can be a critical part of the Artemis Program moving forward. We’re exceptionally grateful to have the opportunity to engage directly with NASA in research for the Artemis Program in such a direct way while we’re still students.”
Julian Rocher
Team co-lead for Northwestern University
METALS is an inflatable system for long term cryogenic fluid storage on the Moon. Stacked layers of sheet metal are welded along their aligned edges, stacked inside a rocket, and inflated once on the lunar surface. The manufacturing process is scalable, reliable, and simple. Notably, METALS boasts superior performance in the harsh lunar environment, including resistance against radiation, abrasion, micrometeorites, gas permeability, and temperature extremes.
Northwestern University team members pose with lunar inflatable prototypes from their METALS project in NASA’s 2024 BIG Idea Challenge. Credit: Northwestern University We learned to ask the right questions, and we learned to question what is the status quo and to go above and beyond and think outside the box. It’s a special mindset for everyone to have on this team… it’s what forces us to innovate.”
Trevor Abbott
Team co-lead for Northwestern University
Arizona State University took home the 2024 BIG Idea Challenge Systems Engineering prize for their project, AEGIS: Inflatable Lunar Landing Pad System. The AEGIS system is designed to deflect the exhaust gasses of lunar landers thereby reducing regolith disturbances generated during landing. The system is deployed on the lunar surface where it uses 6 anchors in its base to secure itself to the ground. Once inflated to its deployed size of 14 m in diameter, AEGIS provides a reusable precision landing zone for incoming landers.
Arizona State University earned the Systems Engineering prize for their BIG Idea Challenge project: AEGIS: Inflatable Lunar Landing Pad System. Arizona State University
This year’s forum was held in tandem with the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium’s (LSIC) Fall Meeting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where students had the opportunity to network with NASA and industry experts, attend LSIC panels and presentations, and participate in the technical poster session. The consortium provides a forum for NASA to communicate technological requirements, needs, and opportunities, and for the community to share with NASA existing capabilities and critical gaps.
We felt that hosting this year’s BIG Idea Forum in conjunction with the LSIC Fall Meeting would be an exciting opportunity for these incredibly talented students to network with today’s aerospace leaders in government, industry, and academia. Their innovative thinking and novel contributions are critical skills required for the successful development of the technologies that will drive exploration on the Moon and beyond.”
Niki Werkheiser
Director of Technology Maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate
In February, teams submitted proposal packages, from which six finalists were selected for funding of up to $150,000 depending on each team’s prototype and budget. The finalists then worked for eight months designing, developing, and demonstrating their concepts. The 2024 BIG Idea program concluded at its annual forum, where teams presented their results and answered questions from judges. Experts from NASA, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and other aerospace companies evaluated the student concepts based on technical innovation, credibility, management, and the teams’ verification testing. In addition to the presentation, the teams provided a technical paper and poster detailing their proposed inflatable system for lunar operations.
Year after year, BIG Idea student teams spend countless hours working on tough engineering design challenges. Their dedication and ‘game-changing’ ideas never cease to amaze me. They all have bright futures ahead of them.”
David Moore
Program Director for NASA’s Game Changing Development program
Second-year mechanical engineering student Connor Owens, left, and electrical engineering graduate student Sarwan Shah run through how they’ll test the sheath-and-auger anchor for the axial vertical pull test of the base anchor in a former shower room in Sun Devil Hall. Image credit: Charlie Leight/ASU News The University of Maryland BIG Idea Challenge team’s Auxiliary Inflatable Wheels for Lunar Rover project in a testing environment University of Maryland Students from University of Michigan and a component of their Cargo-BEEP (Cargo Balancing Expandable Exploration Platform) projectUniversity of Michigan Northwestern University welders prepare to work on their 2024 BIG Idea Challenge prototype, a metal inflatable designed for deployment on the Moon.Northwestern University Brigham Young University’s Untethered and Modular Inflatable Robots for Lunar Operations projectBrigham Young University California Institute of Technology’s PILLARS: Plume-deployed Inflatable for Launch and Landing Abrasive Regolith Shielding projectCalifornia Institute of Technology The Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations theme allowed teams to submit various technology concepts such as soft robotics, deployable infrastructure components, emergency shelters or other devices for extended extravehicular activities, pressurized tunnels and airlocks, and debris shields and dust protection systems. National Institute of Aerospace NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate sponsors the BIG Idea Challenge through a collaboration between its Game Changing Development program and the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement. It is managed by a partnership between the National Institute of Aerospace and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Team presentations, technical papers, and digital posters are available on the BIG Idea website.
For full competition details, visit: https://bigidea.nianet.org/2024-challenge
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Game Changing Development projects aim to advance space technologies, focusing on advancing capabilities for going to and living in space.
NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative
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By NASA
NASA astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren poses with a patient at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center roll-out event for NASA’s “MISSION: All Systems Go!” suite of digital products. Credit: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center As NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity and inspires the world through discovery, the agency launched a new video series specifically designed for use by medical treatment centers across the United States to help reduce anxiety and stress among pediatric patients during treatment.
The project, named “MISSION: All Systems GO!”, is hosted by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and was developed alongside the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and National Association of Proton Therapy. The suite of products intentionally draws similarities between an astronaut’s experience and the challenges young patients will encounter during their treatment, such as restricted movement in confined spaces, strange sounds and smells, and separation from family and friends. The videos, and accompanying products, are a new resource for treatment centers, and support President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
“As part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, NASA is committed to improving the experience of cancer patients and their families while we work to end cancer as we know it,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Cancer treatment is full of unknowns, and so is space travel — we hope that this project will provide hope and comfort to patients and their loved ones as they navigate their cancer treatment mission.”
Some patients undergo as many as six weeks or more of treatments strapped into sterile, state-of-the-art medical machines that many patients find intimidating. However, some patients expressed fascination toward these high-tech mechanisms and compared them to the look of a NASA spacecraft, leading to the idea for this unique suite of products.
“Part of the agency’s mission is to improve life here on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator and NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) program manager. “I’m proud that we can help thousands of kids and their families get through an extremely difficult time in their lives.”
In the first of three hosted videos, Lindgren, himself a medical doctor, briefs the patient on their upcoming “mission.” Step by step, Lindgren addresses each requirement and his confidence in how the patients can do it.
After completing their treatment, patients will receive a mission de-brief from Lindgren, where he offers reminders on how to follow up with treatment, as well as his heartfelt congratulations. The patient also is presented with a custom certificate of mission completion signed by Lindgren and Dr. James D. Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer.
Finally, in the third video, Lindgren takes part in a Q-and-A in which patient’s family and friends learn more about his job and how he’s handled challenges to what they now are facing.
In addition to the video products, medical centers will have access to NASA imagery to decorate a center’s video viewing room to look like NASA’s Mission Control Center, as well as display posters featuring human spaceflight and science missions enabled by NASA’s SCaN program.
NASA’s “MISSION: All Systems GO!” is another step in the agency’s effort to help President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. NASA is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years.
“In 2022, NASA was added to the White House Cancer Moonshot Program. Since then, the agency’s Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer has formed several task forces with one specifically focused on patient and caregiver support,” said Mark Weyland, director of health operations and oversight for the Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer. “We believe the “MISSION: All Systems GO!” initiative will have a positive impact on so many patients and caregivers. Partnering with SCaN and the Cancer Moonshot Program furthers NASA’s desire to continue to provide for the health and wellness of humanity and the discovery of new medical innovations.”
The agency’s “MISSION: All Systems GO!” products are available for use by medical treatment centers and facilities across the United States. Centers interested in accessing the suite of products will be required to fill out an electronic form, accept NASA’s Terms of Use, and download the products from a dedicated Office of Chief Health and Medical Officer webpage: OCHMO & NASA Mission: All Systems GO! – NASA
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio to build three coronagraphs for the Lagrange 1 Series project, part of NOAA’s Space Weather Next program.
Once operational, the coronagraphs will provide critical data to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, which issues forecasts, warnings, and alerts that help mitigate space weather impacts, including electric power outages and interruption to communications and navigation systems.
This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is valued at approximately $60 million, and the anticipated period of performance is from this November through January 2034, concluding after launch of the second coronagraph aboard a NOAA spacecraft. The third coronagraph will be delivered as a flight spare.
This contract award marks a transfer of coronagraph development from the government to the U.S. commercial sector. The contract scope includes design, analysis, development, fabrication, integration, test, verification, and evaluation of the coronagraphs; launch support; supply and maintenance of ground support equipment; and support of post-launch instrument operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility. The work will take place at Southwest Research Institute’s facility in San Antonio.
The coronagraphs will observe the density structure of the Sun’s faint outermost atmosphere — the corona — and will detect Earth-directed coronal mass ejections shortly after they erupt, providing the longest possible lead time for geomagnetic storm watches. With this forewarning, public and private organizations affected by space weather can take actions to protect their assets. The coronagraphs will also provide data continuity from the Space Weather follow-on Lagrange 1 mission.
NASA and NOAA oversee the development, launch, testing and operation of all the satellites in the project. NOAA is the program owner providing the requirements and funding along with managing the program, operations, data products, and dissemination to users. NASA and its commercial partners develop and build the instruments, spacecraft, and provide launch services on behalf of NOAA.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Jeremy Eggers
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
757-824-2958
jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov
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