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By NASA
2 min read
Hubble Traces Star Formation in a Nearby Nebula
NASA, ESA, and L. C. Johnson (Northwestern University); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) NGC 261 blooms a brilliant ruby red against a myriad of stars in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Discovered on Sept. 5, 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, this nebula is located in one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic companions, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The ionized gas blazing from within this diffuse region marks NGC 261 as an emission nebula. It is home to numerous stars hot enough to irradiate surrounding hydrogen gas, causing the cloud to emit a pinkish-red glow.
This inset image shows the location of NGC 261 within the Small Magellanic Cloud. NASA, ESA, L. C. Johnson (Northwestern University), and ESO/VISTA VMC; Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Hubble turned its keen eye toward NGC 261 to investigate how efficiently stars form in molecular clouds, which are extremely dense and compact regions of gas and dust. These clouds often consist of large amounts of molecular hydrogen — cold areas where most stars form. However, measuring this raw fuel of star formation in stellar nurseries is a challenge because molecular hydrogen doesn’t radiate easily. Since it is difficult to detect, scientists instead trace other molecules present in the molecular clouds.
The SMC hosts a gas-rich environment of young stars along with trace amounts of carbon monoxide (CO), a chemical correlated with hydrogen and often used to identify the presence of such clouds. Using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), Hubble imaged these stars in the southwest portion of the SMC where NGC 261 resides. The combined power of ACS and WFC3 allowed scientists to closely examine the nebula’s star-forming properties through its CO content at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. This research helps astronomers better understand how stars form in our home galaxy and others in our galactic neighborhood.
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Aug 28, 2024 Editor Michelle Belleville Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
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By European Space Agency
The two Proba-3 satellites were set facing each other across a cleanroom as cameras, LEDs, a laser and shadow sensors were activated in turn, testing the systems that will let the pair sense their precise positions relative to each other, allowing them to line up precisely in orbit down to a single millimetre.
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By NASA
5 Min Read Six Adapters for Crewed Artemis Flights Tested, Built at NASA Marshall
Six adapters for the next of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rockets for Artemis II through Artemis IV are currently at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Engineers are analyzing data and applying lessons learned from extensive in-house testing and the successful uncrewed Artemis I test flight to improve future iterations of the rocket. Credits: NASA/Sam Lott As a child learning about basic engineering, you probably tried and failed to join a square-shaped toy with a circular-shaped toy: you needed a third shape to act as an adapter and connect them both together. On a much larger scale, integration of NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and the Orion spacecraft for the agency’s Artemis campaign would not be possible without the adapters being built, tested, and refined at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Marshall is currently home to six adapters designed to connect SLS’s upper stages with the core stages and propulsion systems for future Artemis flights to the Moon.
Preparing Block 1 Adapters for Upcoming Crewed Flights
The first three Artemis flights use the SLS Block 1 rocket variant, which can send more than 27 metric tons (59,500 pounds) to the Moon in a single launch with the assistance of the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. The propulsion stage is sandwiched between two adapters: the launch vehicle stage adapter and the Orion stage adapter.
The cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter provides structural strength and protects the rocket’s flight computers and other delicate systems from acoustic, thermal, and vibration effects.
“The inside of the launch vehicle stage adapter for the SLS rocket uses orthogrid machining – also known as waffle pattern machining,” said Keith Higginbotham, launch vehicle stage adapter hardware manager supporting the SLS Spacecraft/Payload Integration & Evolution Office at Marshall. “The aluminum alloy plus the grid pattern is lightweight but also very strong.”
The launch vehicle stage adapter for Artemis II is at Marshall and ready for shipment to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while engineering teams are completing outfitting and integration work on the launch vehicle stage adapter for Artemis III. These cone-shaped adapters differ from their Artemis I counterpart, featuring additional avionics protection for crew safety.
Just a few buildings over, the Orion stage adapter for Artemis II, with its unique docking target that mimics the target on the interim cryogenic propulsion stage to test Orion’s handling during the piloting demonstration test, is in final outfitting prior to shipment to Kennedy for launch preparations. The five-foot-tall, ring-shaped adapter is small but mighty: in addition to having space to accommodate small secondary payloads, it contains a diaphragm that acts as a barrier to prevent gases generated during launch from entering Orion.
The Artemis III Orion stage adapter’s major structure is complete and its avionics unit and diaphragm will be installed later this year.
Following the first flight of SLS with Artemis I, technicians adjusted their approach to assembling the launch vehicle stage adapter by introducing the use of a rounding tool to ensure that no unintended forces are placed on the hardware.NASA/Sam Lott The Orion stage adapter is complete at Marshall, including welding, painting, and installation of the secondary payload brackets, cables, and avionics unit. The adapter is protected by a special conductive paint that prevents electric arcing in space. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch viewed the hardware during a Nov. 27 visit to Marshall.NASA/Charles Beason SLS Block 1B’s payload adapter is an evolution from the Orion stage adapter used in the Block 1 configuration, but each will be unique and customized to fit individual mission needs. “Both the Orion stage adapter and the payload adapter are being assembled in the same room at Marshall,” said Brent Gaddes, lead for the Orion stage adapter in the Spacecraft/Payload Integration & Evolution Office at Marshall. “So, there’s a lot of cross-pollination between teams.”NASA/Sam Lott Unlike the flight hardware, the universal stage adapter’s development test article has flaws intentionally included in its design to test if fracture toughness predictions are correct. Technicians are incorporating changes for the next test article, including alterations to the vehicle damping system mitigating vibrations on the launch pad.NASA/Brandon Hancock Block 1B Adapters Support Bolder Missions
Beginning with Artemis IV, a new configuration of SLS, the SLS Block 1B, will use the new, more powerful exploration upper stage to enable more ambitious missions to deep space. The new stage requires new adapters.
The cone-shaped payload adapter – containing two aluminum rings and eight composite panels made from a graphite epoxy material – will be housed inside the universal stage adapter atop the rocket’s exploration upper stage.
The payload adapter test article is being twisted, shaken, and placed under extreme pressure to check its structural strength as part of testing at Marshall. Engineers are making minor changes to the design of the flight article, such as the removal of certain vent holes, based on the latest analyses.
The sixth adapter at Marshall is a development test article of the universal stage adapter, which will be the largest composite structure from human spaceflight missions ever flown at 27.5 feet in diameter and 32 feet long. It is currently undergoing modal and structural testing to ensure it is light, strong, and ready to connect SLS Block 1B’s exploration upper stage to Orion.
“Every pound of structure is equal to a pound of payload,” says Tom Krivanek, universal stage adapter sub-element project manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Glenn manages the adapter for the agency. “That’s why it’s so valuable that the universal stage adapter be as light as possible. The universal stage adapter separates after the translunar insertion, so NASA will need to demonstrate the ability to separate cleanly in orbit in very cold conditions.”
The Future of Marshall Is Innovation
With its multipurpose testing equipment, innovative manufacturing processes, and large-scale integration facilities, Marshall facilities and capabilities enable teams to process composite hardware elements for multiple Artemis missions in parallel, providing for cost and schedule savings.
Lessons learned from testing and manufacturing hardware for the first three SLS flights in the Block 1 configuration have aided in designing and integrating the SLS Block 1B configuration.
“NASA learns with every iteration we build. Even if you have a room full of smart people trying to foresee everything in the future, production is different from development. It’s why NASA builds test articles and doesn’t just start with the flight article as the first piece of hardware.”
Brent Gaddes
Lead for the Orion stage adapter in the Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution Office
Both adapters for the SLS Block 1 are manufactured using friction stir welding in Marshall’s Materials and Processes Laboratory, a process that very reliably produces materials that are typically free of flaws.
Pioneering techniques such as determinant assembly and digital tooling ensure an efficient and uniform manufacturing process and save NASA and its partners money and time when building Block 1B’s payload adapter. Structured light scanning maps each panel and ring individually to create a digital model informing technicians where holes should be drilled.
“Once the holes are put in with a hand drill located by structured light, it’s simply a matter of holding the pieces together and dropping fasteners in place,” Gaddes said. “It’s kind of like an erector set.”
From erector sets to the Moon and beyond – the principles of engineering are the same no matter what you are building.
NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
News Media Contact
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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By NASA
4 Min Read Next Generation NASA Technologies Tested in Flight
Erin Rezich, Ian Haskin, QuynhGiao Nguyen, Jason Hill (Zero-G staff), and George Butt experience Lunar gravity while running test operations on the UBER payload. Credits: Zero-G Teams of NASA researchers put their next-generation technologies to the microgravity test in a series of parabolic flights that aim to advance innovations supporting the agency’s space exploration goals.
These parabolic flights provide a gateway to weightlessness, allowing research teams to interact with their hardware in reduced gravity conditions for intervals of approximately 22 seconds. The flights, which ran from February to April, took place aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s G-FORCE ONE aircraft and helped to advance several promising space technologies.
Under the Fundamental Regolith Properties, Handling, and Water Capture (FLEET) project, researchers tested an ultrasonic blade technology in a regolith simulant at lunar and Martian gravities. On Earth, vibratory tools reduce the forces between the tool and the soil, which also lowers the reaction forces experienced by the system. Such reductions indicate the potential for mass savings for tool systems used in space.
This flight test aims to establish the magnitude of force reduction achieved by an ultrasonic tool on the Moon and Mars. Regolith interaction, including excavation, will be important to NASA’s resources to support long-duration lunar and Martian missions.
This experiment represents the success of an international effort three years in the making between NASA and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.
Erin Rezich
Project Principal Investigator
“This experiment represents the success of an international effort three years in the making between NASA and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. It was a NASA bucket list item for me to conduct a parabolic flight experiment, and it was even more special to do it for my doctoral thesis work. I’m very proud of my team and everyone’s effort to make this a reality,” said Erin Rezich, project principal investigator at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The FLEET project also has a separate payload planned for a future flight test on a suborbital rocket. The Vibratory Lunar Regolith Conveyor will demonstrate a granular material (regolith) transport system to study the vertical transport of lunar regolith simulants (soil) in a vacuum under a reduced gravity environment.
These two FLEET payloads increase the understanding of excavation behavior and how the excavated soil will be transported in a reduced gravity environment.
QuynhGiao Nguyen takes experiment notes while Pierre-Lucas Aubin-Fournier and George Butt oversee experiment operations during a soil reset period between parabolas.Zero-G 3D Printed Technologies Take on Microgravity
Under the agency’s On-Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project, researchers tested 3D printing technologies to ease the use of electronics and tools aboard the International Space Station.
Flying its first microgravity environment test, the ODME Advanced Toolplate team evaluated a new set of substantially smaller 3D printed tools that provide more capabilities and reduce tool changeouts. The toolplate offers eight swappable toolheads so that new technologies can be integrated after it is sent up to the space station. The 3D printer component enables in-space manufacturing of electronics and sensors for structural and crew-monitoring systems and multi-material 3D printing of metals.
“The development of these critical 3D printing technologies for microelectronics and semiconductors will advance the technology readiness of these processes and reduce the risk for planned future orbital demonstrations on the International Space Station.
curtis hill
ODME Project Principal Investigator
Left to Right: Pengyu Zhang, Rayne Wolfe, and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-G NASA researchers tested another 3D printing technology developed under the agency’s ODME project for manufacturing flexible electronics in space. The Space Enabled Advanced Devices and Semiconductors team is developing electrohydrodynamic inkjet printer technology for semiconductor device manufacturing aboard the space station. The printer will allow for printing electronics and semiconductors with a single development cartridge, which could be updated in the future for various materials systems.
(Left to right) Paul Deffenbaugh (Sciperio), Cadré Francis (NASA MSFC), Christopher Roberts (NASA MSFC), Connor Whitley (Sciperio), and Tanner Corby (Redwire Space Technologies) operate the On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) Advanced Toolplate printer in zero gravity to demonstrate the potential capability of electronics manufacturing in space.Zero-G The On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) Advanced Toolplate printer mills a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printed plastic substrate surface smooth in preparation for the further printing of electronic traces. Conducting this study in zero gravity allowed for analysis of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) capture created during milling.Zero-G Left to Right: Rayne Wolfe and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-G Left to Right: Pengyu Zhang, Rayne Wolfe, and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-G NASA’s Flight Opportunities program supported testing various technologies in a series of parabolic flights earlier this year. These technologies are managed under NASA’s Game Changing Development program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Space Enabled Advanced Devices and Semiconductors technology collaborators included Intel Corp., Tokyo Electron America, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University, and Iowa State University. The Space Operations Mission Directorate’s In-Space Production Applications also supports this technology. Advanced Toolplate Technology collaborated with Redwire and Sciperio. The Ultrasonic Blade technology is a partnership with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, through an International Space Act Agreement.
For more information about the Game Changing Development program, visit: nasa.gov/stmd-game-changing-development/
For more information about the Flight Opportunities program, visit: nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/
Testing In-Space Manufacturing Techs and More in Flight Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology Share
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Last Updated Jun 20, 2024 EditorIvry Artis Related Terms
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By European Space Agency
ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has passed its environmental test campaign with flying colours – meaning that the satellite has been declared fit for liftoff and its life in the harsh environment of space.
This new satellite, which is slated for launch in June, has been designed to show how it can improve weather forecasts in the Arctic – a region that currently lacks data for accurate short-term forecasts.
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