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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged — can favor making the building blocks of proteins in either the left-hand or the right-hand orientation. Resolving this mystery could provide clues to the origin of life. The findings appear in research recently published in Nature Communications.
Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes (catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions). Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acid building blocks in a huge variety of arrangements to make millions of different proteins. Some amino acid molecules can be built in two ways, such that mirror-image versions exist, like your hands, and life uses the left-handed variety of these amino acids. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, the two mirror images are rarely mixed in biology, a characteristic of life called homochirality. It is a mystery to scientists why life chose the left-handed variety over the right-handed one.
A diagram of left-handed and right-handed versions of the amino acid isovaline, found in the Murchison meteorite.NASA DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that holds the instructions for building and running a living organism. However, DNA is complex and specialized; it “subcontracts” the work of reading the instructions to RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules and building proteins to ribosome molecules. DNA’s specialization and complexity lead scientists to think that something simpler should have preceded it billions of years ago during the early evolution of life. A leading candidate for this is RNA, which can both store genetic information and build proteins. The hypothesis that RNA may have preceded DNA is called the “RNA world” hypothesis.
If the RNA world proposition is correct, then perhaps something about RNA caused it to favor building left-handed proteins over right-handed ones. However, the new work did not support this idea, deepening the mystery of why life went with left-handed proteins.
The experiment tested RNA molecules that act like enzymes to build proteins, called ribozymes. “The experiment demonstrated that ribozymes can favor either left- or right-handed amino acids, indicating that RNA worlds, in general, would not necessarily have a strong bias for the form of amino acids we observe in biology now,” said Irene Chen, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Samueli School of Engineering, corresponding author of the Nature Communications paper.
In the experiment, the researchers simulated what could have been early-Earth conditions of the RNA world. They incubated a solution containing ribozymes and amino acid precursors to see the relative percentages of the right-handed and left-handed amino acid, phenylalanine, that it would help produce. They tested 15 different ribozyme combinations and found that ribozymes can favor either left-handed or right-handed amino acids. This suggested that RNA did not initially have a predisposed chemical bias for one form of amino acids. This lack of preference challenges the notion that early life was predisposed to select left-handed-amino acids, which dominate in modern proteins.
“The findings suggest that life’s eventual homochirality might not be a result of chemical determinism but could have emerged through later evolutionary pressures,” said co-author Alberto Vázquez-Salazar, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar and member of Chen’s research group.
Earth’s prebiotic history lies beyond the oldest part of the fossil record, which has been erased by plate tectonics, the slow churning of Earth’s crust. During that time, the planet was likely bombarded by asteroids, which may have delivered some of life’s building blocks, such as amino acids. In parallel to chemical experiments, other origin-of-life researchers have been looking at molecular evidence from meteorites and asteroids.
“Understanding the chemical properties of life helps us know what to look for in our search for life across the solar system,” said co-author Jason Dworkin, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and director of Goddard’s Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory.
Dworkin is the project scientist on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which extracted samples from the asteroid Bennu and delivered them to Earth last year for further study.
“We are analyzing OSIRIS-REx samples for the chirality (handedness) of individual amino acids, and in the future, samples from Mars will also be tested in laboratories for evidence of life including ribozymes and proteins,” said Dworkin.
The research was supported by grants from NASA, the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Origin of Life, and the National Science Foundation. Vázquez-Salazar acknowledges support through the NASA Postdoctoral Program, which is administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities under contract with NASA.
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Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 EditorWilliam SteigerwaldContactNancy N. Jonesnancy.n.jones@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Media are invited to learn about a unique series of flight tests happening in Virginia in partnership between NASA and GE Aerospace that aim to help the aviation industry better understand contrails and their impact on the Earth’s climate. Contrails are the lines of clouds that can be created by high-flying aircraft, but they may have an unseen effect on the planet – trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The media event will occur from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. NASA Langley’s G-III aircraft and mobile laboratory, as well as GE Aerospace’s 747 Flying Test Bed (FTB) will be on site. NASA project researchers and GE Aerospace’s flight crew will be available to discuss the Contrail Optical Depth Experiment (CODEX), new test methods and technologies used, and the real-world impacts of understanding and managing contrails. Media interested in attending must contact Brittny McGraw at brittny.v.mcgraw@nasa.gov no later than 12 p.m. EST, Friday, Nov. 22.
Flights for CODEX are being conducted this week. NASA Langley’s G-III will follow GE Aerospace’s FTB in the sky and scan the aircraft wake with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. This will advance the use of LiDAR by NASA to generate three-dimensional imaging of contrails to better characterize how contrails form and how they behave over time.
For more information about NASA’s work in green aviation tech, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/green-aero-tech
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David Meade
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
757-751-2034 davidlee.t.meade@nasa.gov
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons is reflected in the water’s surface during a pool test at Caltech in September. Conducted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the testing showed the feasibility of a mission concept for a swarm of mini swimming robots.NASA/JPL-Caltech In a competition swimming pool, engineers tested prototypes for a futuristic mission concept: a swarm of underwater robots that could look for signs of life on ocean worlds.
When NASA’s Europa Clipper reaches its destination in 2030, the spacecraft will prepare to aim an array of powerful science instruments toward Jupiter’s moon Europa during 49 flybys, looking for signs that the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust could sustain life. While the spacecraft, which launched Oct. 14, carries the most advanced science hardware NASA has ever sent to the outer solar system, teams are already developing the next generation of robotic concepts that could potentially plunge into the watery depths of Europa and other ocean worlds, taking the science even further.
This is where an ocean-exploration mission concept called SWIM comes in. Short for Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers, the project envisions a swarm of dozens of self-propelled, cellphone-size swimming robots that, once delivered to a subsurface ocean by an ice-melting cryobot, would zoom off, looking for chemical and temperature signals that could indicate life.
Dive into underwater robotics testing with NASA’s futuristic SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers) concept for a swarm of miniature robots to explore subsurface oceans on icy worlds, and see a JPL team testing a prototype at a pool at Caltech in Pasadena, California, in September 2024. NASA/JPL-Caltech “People might ask, why is NASA developing an underwater robot for space exploration? It’s because there are places we want to go in the solar system to look for life, and we think life needs water. So we need robots that can explore those environments — autonomously, hundreds of millions of miles from home,” said Ethan Schaler, principal investigator for SWIM at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Under development at JPL, a series of prototypes for the SWIM concept recently braved the waters of a 25-yard (23-meter) competition swimming pool at Caltech in Pasadena for testing. The results were encouraging.
SWIM Practice
The SWIM team’s latest iteration is a 3D-printed plastic prototype that relies on low-cost, commercially made motors and electronics. Pushed along by two propellers, with four flaps for steering, the prototype demonstrated controlled maneuvering, the ability to stay on and correct its course, and a back-and-forth “lawnmower” exploration pattern. It managed all of this autonomously, without the team’s direct intervention. The robot even spelled out “J-P-L.”
Just in case the robot needed rescuing, it was attached to a fishing line, and an engineer toting a fishing rod trotted alongside the pool during each test. Nearby, a colleague reviewed the robot’s actions and sensor data on a laptop. The team completed more than 20 rounds of testing various prototypes at the pool and in a pair of tanks at JPL.
“It’s awesome to build a robot from scratch and see it successfully operate in a relevant environment,” Schaler said. “Underwater robots in general are very hard, and this is just the first in a series of designs we’d have to work through to prepare for a trip to an ocean world. But it’s proof that we can build these robots with the necessary capabilities and begin to understand what challenges they would face on a subsurface mission.”
Swarm Science
A model of the final envisioned SWIM robot, right, sits beside a capsule holding an ocean-composition sensor. The sensor was tested on an Alaskan glacier in July 2023 through a JPL-led project called ORCAA (Ocean Worlds Reconnaissance and Characterization of Astrobiological Analogs). The wedge-shaped prototype used in most of the pool tests was about 16.5 inches (42 centimeters) long, weighing 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms). As conceived for spaceflight, the robots would have dimensions about three times smaller — tiny compared to existing remotely operated and autonomous underwater scientific vehicles. The palm-size swimmers would feature miniaturized, purpose-built parts and employ a novel wireless underwater acoustic communication system for transmitting data and triangulating their positions.
Digital versions of these little robots got their own test, not in a pool but in a computer simulation. In an environment with the same pressure and gravity they would likely encounter on Europa, a virtual swarm of 5-inch-long (12-centimeter-long) robots repeatedly went looking for potential signs of life. The computer simulations helped determine the limits of the robots’ abilities to collect science data in an unknown environment, and they led to the development of algorithms that would enable the swarm to explore more efficiently.
The simulations also helped the team better understand how to maximize science return while accounting for tradeoffs between battery life (up to two hours), the volume of water the swimmers could explore (about 3 million cubic feet, or 86,000 cubic meters), and the number of robots in a single swarm (a dozen, sent in four to five waves).
In addition, a team of collaborators at Georgia Tech in Atlanta fabricated and tested an ocean composition sensor that would enable each robot to simultaneously measure temperature, pressure, acidity or alkalinity, conductivity, and chemical makeup. Just a few millimeters square, the chip is the first to combine all those sensors in one tiny package.
Of course, such an advanced concept would require several more years of work, among other things, to be ready for a possible future flight mission to an icy moon. In the meantime, Schaler imagines SWIM robots potentially being further developed to do science work right here at home: supporting oceanographic research or taking critical measurements underneath polar ice.
More About SWIM
Caltech manages JPL for NASA. JPL’s SWIM project was supported by Phase I and II funding from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program under the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The program nurtures visionary ideas for space exploration and aerospace by funding early-stage studies to evaluate technologies that could transform future NASA missions. Researchers across U.S. government, industry, and academia can submit proposals.
How the SWIM concept was developed Learn about underwater robots for Antarctic climate science See NASA’s network of ready-to-roll mini-Moon rovers News Media Contact
Melissa Pamer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-314-4928
melissa.pamer@jpl.nasa.gov
2024-162
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Last Updated Nov 20, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
On Nov. 16, 2009, space shuttle Atlantis began its 31st trip into space, on the third Utilization and Logistics Flight (ULF3) mission to the International Space Station, the 31st shuttle flight to the orbiting lab. During the 11-day mission, the six-member STS-129 crew worked with the six-person Expedition 21 crew during seven days of docked operations. The mission’s primary objectives included delivering two external logistics carriers and their spare parts, adding nearly 15 tons of hardware to the station, and returning a long-duration crew member, the last to return on a shuttle. Three of the STS-129 astronauts conducted three spacewalks to transfer spare parts and continue assembly and maintenance of the station. As a group of 12, the joint crews celebrated the largest and most diverse Thanksgiving gathering in space.
Left: Official photograph of the STS-129 crew of Leland D. Melvin, left, Charles O. Hobaugh, Michael J. Foreman, Robert “Bobby” L. Satcher, Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore, and Randolph “Randy” J. Bresnik. Middle: The STS-129 crew patch. Right: The ULF3 payload patch.
The six-person STS-129 crew consisted of Commander Charles O. Hobaugh, Pilot Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore, and Mission Specialists Randolph “Randy” J. Bresnik, Michael J. Foreman, Leland D. Melvin, and Robert “Bobby” L. Satcher. Primary objectives of the mission included launch and transfer to the station of the first two EXPRESS Logistics Carriers (ELC-1 and ELC-2) and their multiple spare parts, and the return of NASA astronaut and Expedition 20 and 21 Flight Engineer Nicole P. Stott, the last astronaut to rotate on the shuttle.
Left: In the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers finish processing Atlantis for STS-129. Right: Space shuttle Atlantis rolls over from the OPF to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Left: Atlantis rolls out to Launch Pad 39A. Right: The STS-129 crew during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.
Atlantis returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from its previous mission, STS-125, on June 2, 2009, and workers towed it to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) to prepare it for STS-129. The orbiter rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Oct. 6, and after mating with its external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, rolled out to Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 14, targeting a Nov. 16 launch. Six days later, the six-member crew participated in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, essentially a dress rehearsal of the actual countdown for launch, returning to Houston for final training. They returned to KSC on Nov. 13 to prepare for launch.
Left: With Atlantis sitting on Launch Pad 39A, the Ares 1-X rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39B. Right: The payload canister arrives at Launch Pad 39A.
Left: The STS-129 astronauts leave crew quarters for the ride to Launch Pad 39A. Right: Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-129.
On Nov. 16, at 2:28 p.m. EST, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launch Pad 39A to begin its 31st trip into space, carrying its six-member crew on the ULF3 space station outfitting and resupply mission. Eight and a half minutes later, Atlantis and its crew had reached orbit. The flight marked Hobaugh’s third time in space, having flown on STS-104 and STS-118, Foreman’s and Melvin’s second, having flown on STS-123 and STS-122, respectively, while Wilmore, Bresnik, and Satcher enjoyed their first taste of weightlessness.
Left: The two EXPRESS Logistics Carriers in Atlantis’ payload bay. Middle: Leland D. Melvin participates in the inspection of Atlantis’ thermal protection system. Right: The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System grasps the Orbiter Boom Sensor System for the inspection.
After reaching orbit, the crew opened the payload bay doors, deployed the shuttle’s radiators, and removed their bulky launch and entry suits, stowing them for the remainder of the flight. The astronauts spent six hours on their second day in space conducting a detailed inspection of Atlantis’ nose cap and wing leading edges, with Hobaugh, Wilmore, Melvin, and Bresnik taking turns operating the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), or robotic arm, and the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS).
Left: The International Space Station as seen from Atlantis during the rendezvous and docking maneuver. Middle: Atlantis as seen from the space station, showing the two EXPRESS Logistics Carriers (ELC) in the payload bay. Right: View of the space station from Atlantis during the rendezvous pitch maneuver, with the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System grasping ELC-1 in preparation for transfer shortly after docking.
On the mission’s third day, Hobaugh assisted by his crewmates brought Atlantis in for a docking with the space station. During the rendezvous, Hobaugh stopped the approach at 600 feet and completed the Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver so astronauts aboard the station could photograph Atlantis’ underside to look for any damage to the tiles. Shortly after docking, the crews opened the hatches between the two spacecraft and the six-person station crew welcomed the six-member shuttle crew. After the welcoming ceremony, Stott joined the STS-129 crew, leaving a crew of five aboard the station. Melvin and Bresnik used the SRMS to pick up ELC-1 from the payload bay and hand it off to Wilmore and Expedition 21 NASA astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams operating the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), who then installed it on the P3 truss segment.
Images from the first spacewalk. Left: Michael J. Foreman unstows the S-band Antenna Support Assembly prior to transferring it to the station. Middle: Robert “Bobby” L. Satcher lubricates the robotic arm’s Latching End Effector. Right: Satcher’s image reflected in a Z1 radiator panel.
During the mission’s first of three spacewalks on flight day four, Foreman and Satcher ventured outside for six hours and 37 minutes. During the excursion, with robotic help from their fellow crew members, they transferred a spare S-band Antenna Support Assembly from the shuttle’s payload bay to the station’s Z1 truss. Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon by training, performed “surgery” on the station’s main robotic arm as well as the robotic arm on the Kibo Japanese module, by lubricating their latching end effectors. One day after joining Atlantis’ crew, Stott celebrated her 47th birthday.
Left: Space station crew member Jeffery N. Williams assists STS-129 astronaut Leland D. Melvin in operating the space station’s robotic arm to transfer and install the second EXPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC2) on the S3 truss. Middle: The station robotic arm installs ELC2 on the S3 truss. Right: Michael J. Foreman, left, and Randolph J. Bresnik during the mission’s second spacewalk.
On the mission’s fifth day, the astronauts performed another focused inspection of the shuttle’s thermal protection system. The next day, through another coordinated robotic activity involving the shuttle and station arms, the astronauts transferred ELC-2 and its complement of spares from the payload bay to the station’s S3 truss. Foreman and Bresnik completed the mission’s second spacewalk. Working on the Columbus module, they installed the Grappling Adaptor to On-Orbit Railing (GATOR) fixture that includes a system used for ship identification and an antenna for Ham radio operators. They next installed a wireless video transmission system on the station’s truss. This spacewalk lasted six hours and eight minutes.
Left: Randolph J. Bresnik during the third STS-129 spacewalk. Middle: Robert “Bobby” L. Satcher during the third spacewalk. Right: The MISSE 7 exposure experiment suitcases installed on ELC2.
Following a crew off duty day, on flight day eight Satcher and Bresnik exited the airlock for the mission’s third and final spacewalk. Their first task involved moving an oxygen tank from the newly installed ELC-2 to the Quest airlock. They accomplished this task with robotic assistance from their fellow crew members. Bresnik retrieved the two-suitcase sized MISSE-7 experiment containers from the shuttle cargo bay and installed them on the MISSE-7 platform on ELC-2, opening them to begin their exposure time. This third spacewalk lasted five hours 42 minutes.
Left: An early Thanksgiving meal for 12 aboard the space station. Right: After the meal, who has the dishes?
Thanksgiving Day fell on the day after undocking, so the joint crews celebrated with a meal a few days early. The meal represented not only the largest Thanksgiving celebration in space with 12 participants, but also the most international, with four nations represented – the United States, Russia, Canada, and Belgium (representing the European Space Agency).
Left: The 12 members of Expedition 21 and STS-129 pose for a final photograph before saying their farewells. Right: The STS-129 crew, now comprising seven members.
A selection of STS-129 Earth observation images. Left: Maui. Middle: Los Angeles. Right: Houston.
Despite their busy workload, as with all space crews, the STS-129 astronauts made time to look out the windows and took hundreds of photographs of their home planet.
Left: The space station seen from Atlantis during the flyaround. Middle: Atlantis as seen from the space station during the flyaround, with a now empty payload bay. Right: Astronaut Nicole P. Stott looks back at the station, her home for three months, from the departing Atlantis.
On flight day nine, the joint crews held a brief farewell ceremony. European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, the first European to command the space station, handed over command to NASA astronaut Williams. The two crews parted company and closed the hatches between the two spacecraft. The next day, with Wilmore at the controls, Atlantis undocked from the space station, having spent seven days as a single spacecraft. Wilmore completed a flyaround of the station, with the astronauts photographing it to document its condition. A final separation burn sent Atlantis on its way.
The astronauts used the shuttle’s arm to pick up the OBSS and perform a late inspection of Atlantis’ thermal protection system. On flight day 11, Hobaugh and Wilmore tested the orbiter’s reaction control system thrusters and flight control surfaces in preparation for the next day’s entry and landing. The entire crew busied themselves with stowing all unneeded equipment.
Left: Atlantis about to touch down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Middle: Atlantis touches down. Right: Atlantis deploys its drag chute as it continues down the runway.
Left: Six of the STS-129 astronauts pose with Atlantis on the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Right: The welcome home ceremony for the STS-129 crew at Ellington Field in Houston.
On Nov. 27, the astronauts closed Atlantis’ payload bay doors, donned their launch and entry suits, and strapped themselves into their seats, a special recumbent one for Stott who had spent the last three months in weightlessness. Hobaugh fired Atlantis’ two Orbital Maneuvering System engines to bring them out of orbit and head for a landing half an orbit later. He guided Atlantis to a smooth touchdown at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility.
The landing capped off a very successful STS-129 mission of 10 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes. The six astronauts orbited the planet 171 times. Stott spent 90 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes in space, completing 1,423 orbits of the Earth. After towing Atlantis to the OPF, engineers began preparing it for its next flight, STS-132 in May 2010. The astronauts returned to Houston for a welcoming ceremony at Ellington Field.
Enjoy the crew narrate a video about the STS-129 mission.
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