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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
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Amber Jacobson / Katherine Rohloff
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / katherine.a.rohloff@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 22, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Science Mission Directorate Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) View the full article
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By Space Force
Over the past two years, the first U.S. space service component has tripled in size, established a 24/7 space watch cell and executed three Tier 1 Combatant Command exercises.
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By NASA
2 Min Read Why NASA Is a Great Place to Launch Your Career
Students at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory pose for photos around the laboratory wearing their eclipse glasses. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Recently recognized as the most prestigious internship program by Vault.com, NASA has empowered countless students and early-career professionals to launch careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. NASA interns make real contributions to space and science missions, making it one of the best places to start your career.
“NASA internships give students the chance to work on groundbreaking projects alongside experts, providing impactful opportunities for professional growth,” said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. “Since starting my career as an intern at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, I’ve experienced firsthand how NASA creates lasting connections and open doors—not just for me, but for former interns who are now colleagues across the agency. These internships build STEM skills, confidence, and networks, preparing the next generation of innovators and leaders.”
NASA interns achieve impressive feats, from discovering new exoplanets to becoming astronauts and even winning Webby Awards for their science communication efforts. These valuable contributors play a crucial role in NASA’s mission to explore the unknown for the benefit of all. Many NASA employees start their careers as interns, a testament to the program’s lasting impact.
Students congratulate the 23rd astronaut class at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on March 5, 2024.NASA/Josh Valcarcel Additionally, NASA is recognized as one of America’s Best Employers for Women and one of America’s Best Employers for New Graduates by Forbes, reflecting the agency’s commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. NASA encourages people from underrepresented groups to apply, creating a diverse cohort of interns who bring a wide range of perspectives and ideas to the agency.
“My internship experience has been incredible. I have felt welcomed by everyone I’ve worked with, which has been so helpful as a Navajo woman as I’ve often felt like an outsider in male-dominated STEM spaces,” said Tara Roanhorse, an intern for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.
If you’re passionate about space, technology, and making a difference in the world, NASA’s internship program is the perfect place to begin your journey toward a fulfilling and impactful career.
To learn more about NASA’s internship programs, visit: https://www.intern.nasa.gov/
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By NASA
From left to right, Dr. Peter Parker, Astronaut Victor Glover and Dr. Shih-Yung post for a photo after the 2024 Silver Snoopy Awards ceremony.NASA/Mark Knopp Two employees from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently earned the prestigious Silver Snoopy award, an honor given to NASA employees and contractors across the agency for outstanding achievements related to astronaut safety or mission success. Dr. Shih-Yung Lin and Dr. Peter Parker received the awards during a Space Flight Awareness (SFA) award ceremony at Langley on Nov. 21. Lin earned the award for exceptional engineering and technical leadership contributions to the Orion program. Parker earned the award for outstanding leadership and technical contributions in support of the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut Victor Glover visited Langley to present the awards. Glover is currently assigned as the pilot of NASA’s Artemis II mission to the Moon. He piloted the SpaceX Crew 1 mission to the International Space Station in 2018 and served as a flight engineer on expeditions 64 and 65.
“This, for me, feels like how I felt when I received my astronaut pin. This is us giving you our team pin,” said Glover. He later added, “This is something to wear with honor. You are a very special part of our safety and mission assurance culture.”
Astronaut Victor Glover presents the 2024 Silver Snoopy Awards to Dr. Shih-Yung at NASA Langley Research Center.NASA/Angelique Herring The Silver Snoopy is the astronauts’ personal award and is presented to less than one percent of the total NASA workforce annually. The significance of the award was not lost on the honorees, who both brought family members to share in the moment.
“I’m involved with lots of research projects, but they don’t all involve loss of human life,” said Parker. “It definitely is a more prestigious, more impactful, more consequential type of project that I’m being recognized for.”
Lin, who recently retired, echoed that sentiment.
“You set a very high standard in order to achieve the safest conditions for all the astronauts,” he said. “For me, if we get a good mission out of it, or multiple missions, I would consider that my personal lifetime goal for my career. That’s what it means to me.”
Lin and Parker each received a sterling Silver Snoopy lapel pin that has flown in space, plus a certificate of appreciation signed by Glover and an authentication letter. The pins awarded to Langley’s recipients flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour during an assembly mission to the International Space Station, STS-118, August 8-21, 2007. The award depicts Snoopy, a character from the “Peanuts” comic strip created by Charles Schulz.
An avid supporter of the U.S. space program, Schulz gave NASA astronauts permission to adopt Snoopy as their personal safety symbol during the Apollo era and has long served to promote excellence in every phase of space flight to help ensure the success of NASA missions. The Snoopy emblem reflects NASA and industry’s sense of responsibility and continuing concern for astronaut flight safety.
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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.
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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
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