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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
Aeronautics NASA Aircraft Wallops Flight Facility View the full article
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By European Space Agency
ESA has signed a contract with OHB Italia SpA worth €63 million to begin preparatory work on the Agency’s proposed Ramses mission to the infamous asteroid Apophis.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:03:27 On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October 2024, the European Space Agency opened the doors to the European Space Research and Technology Centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands, welcoming some 9000 visitors to its 13th annual Open Day. As in previous years, ESA’s largest establishment in Europe invited the public to meet space engineers, astronauts and to see actual space hardware. Attendees explored state-of-the-art facilities, interacted with ESA and NASA astronauts and discovered various job opportunities at ESA. There was also a full schedule of talks from Space Rocks, celebrating the art and culture of science and space.
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By NASA
4 Min Read NASA to Embrace Commercial Sector, Fly Out Legacy Relay Fleet
An artist's concept of commercial and NASA space relays. Credits: NASA/Morgan Johnson NASA is one step closer on its transition to using commercially owned and operated satellite communications services to provide future near-Earth space missions with increased service coverage, availability, and accelerated science and data delivery.
As of Friday, Nov. 8, the agency’s legacy TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, as part of the Near Space Network, will support only existing missions while new missions will be supported by future commercial services.
“There have been tremendous advancements in commercial innovation since NASA launched its first TDRS satellite more than 40 years ago,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program. “TDRS will continue to provide critical support for at least the next decade, but now is the time to embrace commercial services that could enhance science objectives, expand experimentation, and ultimately provide greater opportunities for discovery.”
TDRS will continue to provide critical support for at least the next decade, but now is the time to embrace commercial services."
Kevin Coggins
Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s SCaN
Just as NASA has adopted commercial crew, commercial landers, and commercial transport services, the Near Space Network, managed by NASA’s SCaN, will leverage private industry’s vast investment in the Earth-based satellite communications market, which includes communications on airplanes, ships, satellite dish television, and more. Now, industry is developing a new space-based market for these services, where NASA plans to become one of many customers, bolstering the domestic space industry.
NASA’s Communications Services Project is working with industry through funded Space Act Agreements to develop and demonstrate commercial satellite communications services that meet the agency’s mission needs, and the needs of other potential users.
In 2022, NASA provided $278.5 million in funding to six domestic partners so they could develop and demonstrate space relay communication capabilities.
Inmarsat Government Inc. Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS) LLC SES Government Solutions Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Telesat U.S. Services LLC Viasat Incorporated Read More About the CSP Partners An artist’s concept of commercial relay satellites. NASA/Morgan Johnson A successful space-based commercial service demonstration would encompass end-to-end testing with a user spacecraft for one or more of the following use cases: launch support, launch and early operations phase, low and high data rate routine missions, terrestrial support, and contingency services. Once a demonstration has been completed, it is expected that the commercial company would be able to offer their services to government and commercial users.
NASA also is formulating non-reimbursable Space Act Agreements with members of industry to exchange capability information as a means of growing the domestic satellite communications market. The Communications Services Project currently is partnered with Kepler Communications US Inc. through a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement.
As the agency and the aerospace community expand their exploration efforts and increase mission complexity, the ability to communicate science, tracking, and telemetry data to and from space quickly and securely will become more critical than ever before. The goal is to validate and deliver space-based commercial communications services to the Near Space Network by 2031, to support future NASA missions.
NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay System
While TDRS will not be accepting new missions, it won’t be retiring immediately. Current TDRS users, like the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, and many other Earth- and universe-observing missions, will still rely on TDRS until the mid-2030s. Each TDRS spacecraft’s retirement will be driven by individual health factors, as the seven active TDRS satellites are expected to decline at variable rates.
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An artist's concept of the International Space Station using NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) fleet to transmit data to Earth. NASA The TDRS fleet began in 1983 and consists of three generations of satellites, launching over the course of 40 years. Each successive generation of TDRS improved upon the previous model, with additional radio frequency band support and increased automation.
The first TDRS was designed for a mission life of 10 years, but lasted 26 years before it was decommissioned in 2009. The last in the third generation – TDRS-13 –was launched Aug. 18, 2017.
The TDRS constellation has been a workhorse for the agency, enabling significant data transfer and discoveries.”
DAve Israel
Near Space Network Chief Architect
“Each astronaut conversation from the International Space Station, every picture you’ve seen from Hubble Space Telescope, Nobel Prize-winning science data from the COBE satellite, and much more has flowed through TDRS,” said Dave Israel, Near Space Network chief architect. “The TDRS constellation has been a workhorse for the agency, enabling significant data transfer and discoveries.”
NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 13 (TDRS-13) atop an Atlas V rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before launch. NASA/Tony Gray and Sandra Joseph The Near Space Network and the Communications Services Project are funded by NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The network is operated out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the Communications Services Project is managed out of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 EditorGoddard Digital TeamContactKatherine Schauerkatherine.s.schauer@nasa.govMolly KearnsLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Communicating and Navigating with Missions Glenn Research Center Goddard Space Flight Center Space Communications & Navigation Program The Future of Commercial Space Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) Explore More
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NASA is seeking commercial communication and navigation service providers for the Near Space Network.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Orbital Mining Corporation took second place in NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. Left to right: Rob Button, deputy chief of NASA Glenn’s Power Division; three members of the team; Mary Wadel, NASA director of Technology Integration and Partnerships; and NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Great Lakes Science Center, home of the visitor center for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, hosted the final phase of NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge on Sept. 20. NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen attended to help acknowledge the top winners.
NASA awarded a total of $1.5 million to two U.S. teams for their novel technology solutions addressing energy distribution, management, and storage as part of the challenge. The innovations from this challenge aim to support NASA’s Artemis missions, which will establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.
This two-phase competition challenged U.S. innovators to develop breakthrough technologies that could enable long-duration Moon missions to advance the nation’s lunar exploration goals.
The winning teams are:
First Prize ($1 million): Team H.E.L.P.S. (High Efficiency Long-Range Power Solution) from University of California, Santa Barbara , won the grand prize for their hardware solution, which featured the lowest mass and highest efficiency of all competitors. Second prize ($500,000): Orbital Mining Corporation, a space technology startup in Golden, Colorado, earned the second prize for its hardware solution that also successfully completed the 48-hour test with high performance. Four teams were invited to refine their hardware and deliver full system prototypes in the final stage of the competition, and three finalist teams completed their technology solutions for demonstration and assessment at NASA Glenn.
The University of California (UC), Santa Barbara, took first place in NASA’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. Left to right: Mary Wadel, NASA director of Technology Integration and Partnerships; Rob Button, deputy chief of NASA Glenn’s Power Division; UC Santa Barbara team members; and NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA Glenn’s Mary Wadel, director of Technology Integration and Partnerships, recognized the work involved to bring this challenge to its conclusion. Rob Button, deputy chief of Glenn’s Power Division and his team of experts, formulated and executed the challenge and oversaw testing.
The technologies were the first power transmission and energy storage prototypes to be tested by NASA in a vacuum chamber mimicking the freezing temperature and absence of pressure found at the permanently shadowed regions of the Lunar South Pole.
The Watts on the Moon Challenge is a NASA Centennial Challenge led by NASA Glenn. As the agency’s lead center for power systems technologies, NASA Glenn has been involved in the Watts on the Moon Challenge from its inception.
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