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By Space Force
Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna announces his three key initiatives and the new enlisted roadmap during the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
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By European Space Agency
Participants of ESA’s Industry Space Days (ISD 2024) share insights and tips on how to make the most of this space technology business event on 18–19 September at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Coby Asselin, from left, Adam Curry, and L. J. Hantsche set up the data acquisition systems used during testing of a senor to determine parachute canopy material strength at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The sensor tests seek to quantify the limits of the material to improve computer models and make more reliable supersonic parachutes.NASA/Genaro Vavuris Landing rovers and helicopters on Mars is a challenge. It’s an even bigger challenge when you don’t have enough information about how the parachutes are enduring strain during the descent to the surface. Researchers at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, are experimenting with readily available, highly elastic sensors that can be fixed to a parachute during testing to provide the missing data.
Knowing how the canopy material stretches during deployment can enhance safety and performance by quantifying the limits of the fabric and improving existing computer models for more reliable parachutes for tasks such as landing astronauts on Earth or delivering scientific instruments and payloads to Mars. This is the work Enhancing Parachutes by Instrumenting the Canopy, or EPIC, seeks to advance the ability to measure the strain on a parachute.
“We are aiming to prove which sensors will work for determining the strain on parachute canopy material without compromising it,” said L.J. Hantsche, project manager. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the team’s work through the Early Career Initiative project.
Starting with 50 potential sensor candidates, the team narrowed down and tested 10 kinds of different sensors, including commercially available and developmental sensors. The team selected the three most promising sensors for continued testing. Those include a silicone-based sensor that works by measuring a change in storage of electrical charge as the sensor is stretched. It is also easy to attach to data recording systems, Hantsche explained. The second sensor is a small, stretchable braided sensor that measures the change in electrical storage. The third sensor is made by printing with a metallic ink onto a thin and pliable plastic.
The test team prepares a test fixture with a nylon fabric sample at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The fabric in the test fixture forms a bubble when pressure is applied to the silicone bladder underneath. A similar test can be performed with a sensor on the fabric to verify the sensor will work when stretched in three dimensions.NASA/Genaro Vavuris Pressure is applied to a test fixture with a nylon fabric sample until it fails at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The fabric in the test fixture forms a bubble when pressure is applied to the silicone bladder underneath. In this frame, the silicone bladder is visible underneath the torn fabric after it was inflated to failure. A similar test can be performed with a sensor on the fabric to verify the sensor will work when stretched in three dimensions.NASA/Genaro Vavuris Determining methods to bond each of the sensors to super thin and slippery canopy material was hard, Hantsche said. Once the team figured out how to attach the sensors to the fabric, they were ready to begin testing.
“We started with uniaxial testing, where each end of the parachute material is secured and then pulled to failure,” she said. “The test is important because the stretching of the sensor causes its electrical response. Determining the correlation of strain and the sensor response when it is on the fabric is one of our main measurement goals.”
This stage of testing was accomplished in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A high-speed version of this test, which simulates the speed of the parachute deployment, was performed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
The team used a bubble test for the sensors, which simulates testing of a 3D parachute. It consists of the fabric sample and a silicone membrane sandwiched between a four-inch-diameter ring and the test structure. When it is pressurized from the inside, the silicone membrane expands the fabric and sensor into a bubble shape. The test is used to validate the sensor’s performance as it bends and is compared to the other test results.
Erick Rossi De La Fuente, from left, John Rudy, L. J. Hantsche, Adam Curry, Jeff Howell, Coby Asselin, Benjamin Mayeux, and Paul Bean pose with a test fixture, material, sensor, and data acquisition systems at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The sensor tests seek to quantify the limits of the material to improve computer models and make more reliable supersonic parachutes.NASA/Genaro Vavuris With the EPIC project nearing completion, follow-on work could include temperature tests, developing the data acquisition system for flight, determining if the sensor can be packed with a parachute without adverse effects, and operating the system in flight. The EPIC team is also working with researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to flight test their sensors later this year using the center’s drone test, which drops a capsule with a parachute.
In addition, the EPIC team is partnering with the Entry Systems Modeling Group at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to propose an all-encompassing parachute project aimed at better understanding parachutes through modeling and test flights. The collaborative NASA project may result in better parachutes that are safer and more dependable for the approaching era of exploration.
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Last Updated Jun 27, 2024 Related Terms
Armstrong Flight Research Center Ames Research Center Glenn Research Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory Langley Research Center Space Technology Mission Directorate Explore More
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By NASA
4 min read
Don’t Make Me Wait for April 8!
Can’t wait to see the Moon block the Sun on April 8? Neither can we. But we have good news – if you want to see an incredible cosmic alignment, you can catch one right now! Exoplanets, asteroids, and other objects regularly pass in front of stars and block their light. Observing these events is easier than you might think – and it can be a fantastic way to contribute to NASA science.
The Baily’s Beads – the bright spots of light on the lower left of the Moon – seen here are the last rays of sunlight that shone through the low spots or valleys on the Moon’s rugged surface as the Moon made its final move over the Sun during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, above Madras, Oregon. Baily’s Beads will appear on the opposite side of the Moon as it begins to move away from the Sun following totality. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani There are three main kinds of cosmic alignments that temporarily block our view of a star. Each one can help us pick out fine details about astronomical objects that can’t be observed any other way.
Eclipse – when one object blocks another that’s apparently similar in size.
Occultation – when a relatively big object completely blocks an apparently smaller object.
Transit – when an apparently small object passes in front of a larger star, blocking some but not all of its light.
You’ll notice that we use the word “apparently” in each of those definitions. That’s because what matters is how big the object looks from our perspective, not how big it actually is.
Now let’s look at some science projects you can get involved in that observe these phenomena.
Eclipses help scientists see faint objects next to bright objects. Just like you might raise your hand to block light from your car’s headlight while you search the ground for your keys, eclipses block the overpowering light from a star so objects around it can be viewed more easily. This is what the Eclipse Megamovie project, the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative, and Citizen CATE 2024 are doing: taking advantage of the Moon blocking the fierce sunlight so they can see what’s happening right around the Sun. These projects invite you to help them use this method to study the Sun’s faint corona. Eclipses and occultations can also tell us about the relative sizes and shapes of objects. This is how Sunsketcher will harness the April 8 eclipse. With your help, they will use our precise knowledge of the size and topography of the Moon to vastly improve estimates of the shape of the Sun. At the very beginning and end of totality, viewers will see Baily’s Beads – bright spots of light around the Moon’s edge where rays of sunlight slip through the valleys between the mountains on the Moon’s surface just before and after totality. The SunSketcher app will capture images of these beads along with precise time and location data of each observation. Following the eclipse, the SunSketcher team will use the collected observations to calculate the shape of the Sun.
When a planet passes directly between a star and its observer – what astronomers call a transit – the planet dims the star’s light by a measurable amount. The graph in the lower left shows a real time visualization of the strength of the light signal from the star.
NASA When an object transits – or passes in front of – a star, the star’s light dims. Measuring changes in starlight to search for these transits has revealed thousands of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) in recent years. You can join the search today! Three NASA citizen science projects are focused on investigating exoplanets using transits.
Planet Hunters TESS invites everyone to look for traces of transiting planets in the changing light of distant stars. The most promising of these signals indicate “exoplanet candidates” to be confirmed through additional observations. This project, hosted on the Zooniverse platform, can be done on a smartphone or a computer. Exoplanet Watch is a community of people who use their own telescopes or a shared community robotic telescope to observe exoplanet candidates to better predict the next time the objects will transit. This project requires an internet-connected computer. UNITE, like Exoplanet Watch, is a community of folks using their telescopes to observe exoplanet candidates. This community uses Unistellar telescopes, which operate on a standard, user-friendly system. The UNITE and Exoplanet Watch teams often share data and collaborate! Whichever events you observe, or whichever projects you choose to contribute to, we’re sure you’ll find yourself marveling at our presence on this wonderful planet in this mysterious universe. You don’t have to wait until April 8!
by Sarah Kirn and Marc J. Kuchner
NASA Citizen Science
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Last Updated Mar 28, 2024 Related Terms
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