Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
New iBooks Textbook Helps Visually Impaired Visit the Stars Through Touch and Sound
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy speaks during an agency town hall on Sept. 21, 2021 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, will travel to Mexico City on Sunday, Nov. 24, for a multi-day trip to build on previous engagements and advance scientific and technological collaboration between the United States and Mexico.
This visit will focus on fostering partnerships in astronomy and astrophysics research, as well as highlighting opportunities for economic, educational, and science, technology, engineering, and math collaborations between the two nations.
Melroy’s trip will include high-level meetings with senior Mexican government officials, including the secretariat-designate for Science, Technology, Humanities, and Innovation. Melroy and Fox also will meet with leaders from academia, industry, and scientific institutions. These discussions will emphasize expanding cooperation in space science, with particular focus on Mexico’s growing astronomy programs.
This visit builds on Melroy’s trip to Mexico City earlier this year and reflects NASA’s commitment to advancing international cooperation in space and science for the benefit of all.
For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/oiir
-end-
Amber Jacobson / Katherine Rohloff
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / katherine.a.rohloff@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Nov 22, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Science Mission Directorate Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) View the full article
-
By NASA
On Nov. 6, 2024, NASA Night brought cosmic excitement to the Toyota Center, where Johnson Space Center employees joined 16,208 fans who interacted with NASA as they watched the Houston Rockets claim victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
Energy soared as International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel stepped up to take the first shot.
International Space Station Program Manager Dana Weigel takes the first shot on Nov. 6, 2024, as the Houston Rockets go up against the San Antonio Spurs at Toyota Center.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas The ceremonial first shot also gave back to the community, with Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta donating $1,000 to the Clutch City Foundation to support underserved youth through education, sports, and disaster relief.
Throughout the game, Johnson employees kept the crowd engaged with NASA trivia, creating a “launch countdown” energy that had fans cheering. The arena lit up as Adam Savage narrated a video showcasing the International Space Station’s groundbreaking contributions to science. From unlocking discoveries impossible on Earth to testing critical technologies for our return to the Moon, the orbiting laboratory plays a vital role in advancing medical and social breakthroughs that enhance life on our planet.
The Artemis II crew also appeared on the jumbotron, reminding everyone of NASA’s mission to establish a long-term presence on the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to inspire a new generation of explorers.
Dana Weigel, center, shows off a Rockets jersey on the court with Rockets mascot Clutch, left, and NASA mascot Cosmo.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas In the Sky Court area of the stadium concourse, Johnson volunteers held “mission control” with an interactive exhibit that drew fans in like a gravitational pull. From exploring a Space Launch System model and handling a spacesuit helmet and glove to touching a 3.4-billion-year-old Moon rock collected during Apollo 17, NASA’s booth offered attendees a glimpse into space exploration.
Visitors had the chance to ask questions and bring home mission pins, stickers, and hands-on activities, provided by the International Space Station Program and the Artemis campaign. Seventy-five “Lucky Row” fans also received bags filled with NASA outreach materials, courtesy of the Johnson Public Engagement team.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center volunteers connect with fans at the game through an interactive exhibit.NASA The Orion Flight Simulator, with its realistic switches and displays, provided an immersive experience that allowed fans to dock the Orion spacecraft to humanity’s first lunar space station, Gateway.
More than 600 fans eagerly lined up to experience NASA’s mobile exhibit trailer in the Toyota Center parking lot—drawing lines as long as those at the box office.
Fans engage with the Orion Flight Simulator at NASA’s booth. NASA/Helen Arase Vargas Fans also tested their skills with a crew assembly activity focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, simulating the challenges astronauts face in orbit. NASA’s inflatable mascot, Cosmo, joined the action on the court, posing for photos and adding galactic fun to events like the T-shirt giveaway.
The Houston Rockets mascot Clutch and NASA mascot Cosmo team up on the court at Toyota Center in Houston.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas NASA’s presence brought together the excitement of sports with the wonder of space exploration, inspiring fans to keep shooting for the stars.
View more images from the event below.
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 Min Read Making Mars’ Moons: Supercomputers Offer ‘Disruptive’ New Explanation
A NASA study using a series of supercomputer simulations reveals a potential new solution to a longstanding Martian mystery: How did Mars get its moons? The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.
The research team, led by Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, found that an asteroid passing near Mars could have been disrupted – a nice way of saying “ripped apart” – by the Red Planet’s strong gravitational pull.
The team’s simulations show the resulting rocky fragments being strewn into a variety of orbits around Mars. More than half the fragments would have escaped the Mars system, but others would’ve stayed in orbit. Tugged by the gravity of both Mars and the Sun, in the simulations some of the remaining asteroid pieces are set on paths to collide with one another, every encounter further grinding them down and spreading more debris.
Many collisions later, smaller chunks and debris from the former asteroid could have settled into a disk encircling the planet. Over time, some of this material is likely to have clumped together, possibly forming Mars’ two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.
To assess whether this was a realistic chain of events, the research team explored hundreds of different close encounter simulations, varying the asteroid’s size, spin, speed, and distance at its closest approach to the planet. The team used their high-performance, open-source computing code, called SWIFT, and the advanced computing systems at Durham University in the United Kingdom to study in detail both the initial disruption and, using another code, the subsequent orbits of the debris.
In a paper published Nov. 20 in the journal Icarus, the researchers report that, in many of the scenarios, enough asteroid fragments survive and collide in orbit to serve as raw material to form the moons.
“It’s exciting to explore a new option for the making of Phobos and Deimos – the only moons in our solar system that orbit a rocky planet besides Earth’s,” said Kegerreis. “Furthermore, this new model makes different predictions about the moons’ properties that can be tested against the standard ideas for this key event in Mars’ history.”
Two hypotheses for the formation of the Martian moons have led the pack. One proposes that passing asteroids were captured whole by Mars’ gravity, which could explain the moons’ somewhat asteroid-like appearance. The other says that a giant impact on the planet blasted out enough material – a mix of Mars and impactor debris – to form a disk and, ultimately, the moons. Scientists believe a similar process formed Earth’s Moon.
The latter explanation better accounts for the paths the moons travel today – in near-circular orbits that closely align with Mars’ equator. However, a giant impact ejects material into a disk that, mostly, stays close to the planet. And Mars’ moons, especially Deimos, sit quite far away from the planet and probably formed out there, too.
“Our idea allows for a more efficient distribution of moon-making material to the outer regions of the disk,” said Jack Lissauer, a research scientist at Ames and co-author on the paper. “That means a much smaller ‘parent’ asteroid could still deliver enough material to send the moons’ building blocks to the right place.”
It’s exciting to explore a new option for the making of Phobos and Deimos – the only moons in our solar system that orbit a rocky planet besides Earth’s.
Jacob Kegerreis
Postdoctoral research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
Testing different ideas for the formation of Mars’ moons is the primary goal of the upcoming Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) sample return mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). The spacecraft will survey both moons to determine their origin and collect samples of Phobos to bring to Earth for study. A NASA instrument on board, called MEGANE – short for Mars-moon Exploration with GAmma rays and Neutrons – will identify the chemical elements Phobos is made of and help select sites for the sample collection. Some of the samples will be collected by a pneumatic sampler also provided by NASA as a technology demonstration contribution to the mission. Understanding what the moons are made of is one clue that could help distinguish between the moons having an asteroid origin or a planet-plus-impactor source.
Before scientists can get their hands on a piece of Phobos to analyze, Kegerreis and his team will pick up where they left off demonstrating the formation of a disk that has enough material to make Phobos and Deimos.
“Next, we hope to build on this proof-of-concept project to simulate and study in greater detail the full timeline of formation,” said Vincent Eke, associate professor at the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University and a co-author on the paper. “This will allow us to examine the structure of the disk itself and make more detailed predictions for what the MMX mission could find.”
For Kegerreis, this work is exciting because it also expands our understanding of how moons might be born – even if it turns out that Mars’ own formed by a different route. The simulations offer a fascinating exploration, he says, of the possible outcomes of encounters between objects like asteroids and planets. These events were common in the early solar system, and simulations could help researchers reconstruct the story of how our cosmic backyard evolved.
This research is a collaborative effort between Ames and Durham University, supported by the Institute for Computational Cosmology’s Planetary Giant Impact Research group. The simulations used were run using the open-source SWIFT code, carried out on the DiRAC (Distributed Research Utilizing Advanced Computing) Memory Intensive service (“COSMA”), hosted by Durham University on behalf of the DiRAC High-Performance Computing facility.
For news media:
Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.
Share
Details
Last Updated Nov 20, 2024 Related Terms
Mars Ames Research Center Ames Research Center's Science Directorate General High-Tech Computing Mars Moons Martian Moon Exploration (MMX) Missions NASA Centers & Facilities Planets Technology The Solar System Explore More
5 min read NASA’s Swift Reaches 20th Anniversary in Improved Pointing Mode
After two decades in space, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is performing better than ever…
Article 1 hour ago 2 min read Gateway Tops Off
Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element is now equipped with its xenon and liquid fuel tanks.
Article 2 hours ago 2 min read About the Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer (OCKO)
Article 6 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By European Space Agency
Zoom into Solar Orbiter's four new Sun images, assembled from high-resolution observations by the spacecraft's PHI and EUI instruments made on 22 March 2023. The PHI images are the highest-resolution full views of the Sun's visible surface to date, including maps of the Sun's messy magnetic field and movement on the surface. These can be compared to the new EUI image, which reveals the Sun's glowing outer atmosphere, or corona.
View the full article
-
By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Abigail Reigner, a systems engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, supports the agency’s research in electrified aircraft propulsion to enable more sustainable air travel. Behind her is a 25% scale model of NASA’s SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan aircraft concept used to test and demonstrate hybrid electric propulsion systems for emission reductions and performance boosts in future commercial aircraft.
Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Growing up outside of Philadelphia, Abigail Reigner spent most of her childhood miles away from where her family called home, and where there was little trace of her Native American tribe and culture.
Belonging to the Comanche Nation that resides in Lawton, Oklahoma, Reigner’s parents made every effort to keep her connected to her Indigenous heritage and part of a community that would later play a key role in her professional journey.
“My parents were really adamant on making sure my brother and I were still involved in the Native American traditions."
Abigail Reigner
“My parents were really adamant on making sure my brother and I were still involved in the Native American traditions,” Reigner said. “We would go down to Oklahoma often in the summertime, spending time with family and staying immersed in our culture.”
Both her parents come from a teaching background, so Reigner was surrounded by hands-on learning experiences early in life. As a school teacher, her mother would participate in local outreach events each year, talking and interacting with students. Her father, a middle school technology education teacher, taught Reigner how to use computer-aided design (CAD) and helped introduce her to the world of engineering at a young age.
These unique experiences helped spark Reigner’s curiosity for learning about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and connecting with others in her community who shared these interests. Reigner says she never takes her upbringing for granted.
“I feel pretty lucky to have grown up with so many educational opportunities, and I try to use them as a way to give back to my community,” Reigner said.
After participating in various engineering and robotics classes in high school and realizing a career in STEM was the right fit for her, Reigner went on to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.
During her time there, she joined the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) where she got the unique opportunity to connect with other Indigenous students and mentors in STEM fields and gain leadership experience on projects that eventually set her up for internship opportunities at NASA.
“The opportunities I got through AISES led me to get an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the summer of 2021, and then an eight-month co-op the following year working in the center’s materials science division,” Reigner said.
Through AISES, Reigner also met Joseph Connolly, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland who was looking to recruit Indigenous students for full-time positions in the agency. Upon graduating from college, Reigner joined NASA Glenn as an engineer in the summer of 2024.
Abigail Reigner (top far left) and Joseph Connolly (middle far right) pose with NASA employees while staffing a booth at an American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) conference to help recruit Indigenous students to the agency. Credit: Abigail Reigner Today, Reigner works as a systems engineer supporting NASA Glenn’s efforts to test and demonstrate electrified aircraft propulsion technologies for future commercial aircraft as part of the agency’s mission to make air travel more sustainable.
One of the projects she works on is NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD), where she supports risk-reduction testing that enables the project to explore the feasibility of hybrid electric propulsion in reducing emissions and improving efficiency in future aircraft.
“It’s always good to know that you’re doing something that is furthering the benefit of humanity,” Reigner said. “Seeing that unity across NASA centers and knowing that you are a part of something that is accelerating technology for the future is very cool.”
“I really feel like the reason I am here at NASA is because of the success of not just the Native American support group here at Glenn, but also Natives across the agency.”
Abigail Reigner
The growing community of Native Americans at NASA Glenn has fostered several initiatives over the years that have helped recruit, inspire, and retain Indigenous employees.
Leveraging some of the agency’s diversity programs that provide educational STEM opportunities for underrepresented communities, the Native Americans at NASA group has encouraged more students with Indigenous backgrounds to get involved in technical projects while developing the skills needed to excel in STEM fields.
“The Native American support group at NASA has been around since the mid-to-late 1980s and was actually one of the first Native American employee resources groups at the agency,” Connolly said. “Through this, we’ve been able to connect a number of Native employees with senior leaders across NASA and establish more agencywide recruitment efforts and initiatives for Native Americans.”
These initiatives range from support through NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) to help recruit more Indigenous students, to encouraging participation in hands-on learning experiences through projects such as NASA’s University Leadership Initiative (ULI) and the agency’s involvement in the First Nations Launch competition, which helps provide students with opportunities to conduct research while developing engineering and team-building skills.
The efforts of the Native American community at NASA Glenn and across the agency have been successful in not only creating a direct pipeline for Indigenous students into the NASA workforce, but also allowing them to feel seen and represented in the agency, says Connolly.
For Reigner, having this community and resource group at NASA to help guide and support her through her journey has been crucial to her success and important for the future of diversity within the agency.
“I really feel like the reason I am here at NASA is because of the success of not just the Native American support group here at Glenn, but also Natives across the agency,” Reigner said. Without their support and initiatives to recruit and retain students, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Explore More
7 min read Six Ways Supercomputing Advances Our Understanding of the Universe
Article 4 days ago 1 min read NASA Glenn Chief Counsel Named to CSU Law Hall of Fame
Article 6 days ago 1 min read NASA Encourages Careers in STEM During Event
Article 6 days ago View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.