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5 Min Read Eileen Collins Broke Barriers as America’s First Female Space Shuttle Commander Astronauts Eileen M. Collins, mission commander and Jeffrey S. Ashby, pilot, peruse checklists on Columbia's middeck during the STS-93 mission. Credits: NASA At the end of February 1998, Johnson Space Center Deputy Director James D. Wetherbee called Astronaut Eileen Collins to his office in Building 1. He told her she had been assigned to command STS-93 and went with her to speak with Center Director George W.S. Abbey who informed her that she would be going to the White House the following week. Selecting a female commander to fly in space was a monumental decision, something the space agency recognized when they alerted the president of the United States. First Lady Hillary Clinton wanted to publicly announce the flight to the American people along with her husband President William J. Clinton and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. President William Jefferson Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with Eileen Collins in the Oval Office.Sharon Farmer and White House Photograph Office At that event, on March 5, 1998, the First Lady noted what a change it would be to have a female in the commander’s seat. Referencing Neil A. Armstrong’s first words on the Moon, Clinton proclaimed, “Collins will take one big step forward for women and one giant leap for humanity.” Collins, a military test pilot and shuttle astronaut, was about to break one of the last remaining barriers for women at NASA by being assigned a position previously filled by men only. Clinton went on to reflect on her own experience with the space agency when she explained how in 1962, at the age of 14, she had written to NASA and asked about the qualifications to become an astronaut. NASA responded that women were not being considered to fly space missions. “Well, times have certainly changed,” she said wryly. Eileen Collins’ assignment as the first female shuttle commander was front page news in the March 13, 1998 issue of Johnson Space Center’s Space News Roundup.NASA The same year Hillary Clinton inquired about the astronaut corps, a special subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics held hearings on the issue of sexual discrimination in the selection of astronauts. Astronaut John H. Glenn, who had flown that February in 1962, justified women’s exclusion from the corps. “I think this gets back to the way our social order is organized really. It is just a fact. The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order. It may be undesirable.” Attitudes about women’s place in society, not just at NASA, were stubbornly hard to break. It would be 16 years before the agency selected its first class of astronauts that included women. Astronaut Eileen M. Collins looks over a checklist at the commander’s station on the forward flight deck of the space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, the first day of the mission. The most important event of this day was the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.NASA By 1998, views about women’s roles had changed substantially, as demonstrated by the naming of the first female shuttle commander. The agency even commissioned a song for the occasion: “Beyond the Sky,” by singer-songwriter Judy Collins. NASA dedicated the historic mission’s launch to America’s female aviation pioneers from the Ninety-Nines—an international organization of women pilots—to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), women who ferried aircraft for the military during World War II. Collins also extended an invitation to the women who had participated in Randy Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program, where women went through the same medical and psychological tests as the Mercury 7 astronauts; the press commonly refers to these women as the Mercury 13. (Commander Collins had thanked both the WASPs and the Mercury 13 for paving the way and inspiring her career in aviation and spaceflight in her White House speech.) In a way, it's like my dream come true. Betty Skelton Frankman Pioneering Woman Aviator In a group interview with several of the WASPs in Florida, just before launch, Mary Anna “Marty” Martin Wyall explained why they came. “Eileen Collins was one of those women that has always looked at us as being her mentors, and we just think she’s great. That’s why we want to come see her blast off.” Betty Skelton Frankman expressed just how proud she was of Collins, and how NASA’s first female commander would be fulfilling her dream to fly in space. “In a way,” she said, “it’s like my dream come true.” In the ‘60s it was not possible for a woman to fly in space because none met the requirements as laid out by NASA. But by the end of the twentieth century, women had been in the Astronaut Office for 20 years, and opportunities for women had grown as women were selected as pilot astronauts. NASA named its second and only other female space shuttle commander, Pamela A. Melroy, to STS-120, and Peggy A. Whitson went on to command the International Space Station. Melroy and Whitson shook hands in space, when their missions coincided, for another historic first—two women commanding space missions at the same time. Twenty-five years ago, Eileen Collins’ command broke down barriers in human spaceflight. As the First Lady predicted, her selection led to other opportunities for women astronauts. More women continue to command spaceflight missions, including Expedition 65 Commander Shannon Walker and Expedition 68 Commander Samantha Cristoforetti. More importantly, Collins became a role model for young people interested in aviation, engineering, math, science, and technology. Her career demonstrated that there were no limits if you worked hard and pursued your passion. Learn More About Eileen Collins Share Details Last Updated Jul 22, 2024 Related TermsEileen M. CollinsFormer AstronautsNASA HistorySTS-93Women at NASAWomen's History Month Explore More 5 min read Sally Ride Remembered as an Inspiration to Others Article 1 year ago 6 min read The Class of 1978 and the FLATs Article 11 years ago 6 min read Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program Article 20 years ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA NASA History Women at NASA Space Shuttle Former Astronauts View the full article

The latest crew chosen by NASA to venture on a simulated trip to Mars inside the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog. From left are Sergii Iakymov, Erin Anderson, Brandon Kent, and Sarah Elizabeth McCandless.Credit: C7M3 Crew NASA selected a new team of four research volunteers to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Erin Anderson, Sergii Iakymov, Brandon Kent, and Sarah Elizabeth McCandless will begin their simulated trek to Mars on Friday, Aug. 9. The volunteer crew members will stay inside the 650-square-foot habitat for 45 days, exiting Monday, Sept. 23 after a simulated “return” to Earth. Jason Staggs and Anderson Wilder will serve as alternate crew members. The HERA missions offer scientific insights into how people react to the type of isolation, confinement, work and life demands, and remote conditions astronauts might experience during deep space missions. The facility supports more frequent, shorter-duration simulations in the same building as CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Analog). This crew is the third group of volunteers to participate in a simulated Mars mission in HERA this year. The most recent crew completed its HERA mission on June 24. In total, there will be four analog missions in this series. During this summer’s simulation, participants will perform a mix of science and operational tasks, including harvesting plants from a hydroponic garden, growing shrimp, deploying a small, cube-shaped satellite (CubeSat) to simulate gathering virtual data for analysis, “walking” on the surface of Mars using virtual reality goggles, and flying simulated drones on the simulated Mars surface. The team members also will encounter increasingly longer communication delays with Mission Control throughout their mission, culminating in five-minute lags as they “near” Mars. Astronauts traveling to Mars may experience communications delays of up to 20 minutes. NASA’s Human Research Program will conduct 18 human health experiments during each of the 2024 HERA missions. Collectively, the studies explore how a Mars-like journey may affect the crew members’ mental and physical health. The work also will allow scientists to test certain procedures and equipment designed to keep astronauts safe and healthy on deep space missions. Primary Crew Erin Anderson Erin Anderson is a structural engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Her work focuses on manufacturing and building composite structures — using materials engineered to optimize strength, stiffness, and density — that fly in air and space. Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. After graduating, she worked as a structural engineer for Boeing on NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) in Huntsville, Alabama. She moved to New Orleans to support the assembly of the first core stage of the SLS at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. Anderson received a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2020. She started her current job in 2021, continuing her research on carbon fiber composites. In her free time, Anderson enjoys playing rugby, doting on her dog, Sesame, and learning how to ride paddleboard at local beaches. Sergii Iakymov Sergii Iakymov is an aerospace engineer with more than 15 years of experience in research and design, manufacturing, quality control, and project management. Iakymov currently serves as the director of the Mars Desert Research Station, a private, Utah-based research facility that serves as an operational and geological Mars analog. Iakymov received a bachelor’s degree in Aviation and Cosmonautics and a master’s in Aircraft Control Systems from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine. His graduate research focused on the motion of satellites equipped with pitch flywheels and magnetic coils. Iakymov was born in Germany, raised in Ukraine, and currently splits his time between southern Utah and Chino Hills, California. His hobbies include traveling, running, hiking, scuba diving, photography, and reading. Brandon Kent Brandon Kent is a medical director in the pharmaceutical industry, supporting ongoing global efforts to develop new therapies across cancer types. Kent received a bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Biology from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He earned his doctorate in Biomedicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where his work primarily focused on how genetic factors regulate early embryonic development and cancer development. Following graduate school, Kent moved into scientific and medical communications consulting in oncology, primarily focusing on clinical trial data disclosures, scientific exchange, and medical education initiatives. Kent and his wife have two daughters. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his daughters, flying private aircraft, hiking, staying physically fit, and reading. He lives in Kinnelon, New Jersey. Sarah Elizabeth McCandless Sarah Elizabeth McCandless is a navigation engineer for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. McCandless’ job involves tracking the location and predicting the future trajectory of spacecraft, including the Mars Perseverance rover, Artemis I, Psyche, and Europa Clipper. McCandless received a bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and a master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, focused on orbital mechanics. McCandless is originally from Fairway, Kansas, and remains an avid fan of sports teams from her alma mater and hometown. She is active in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) outreach and education and enjoys camping, running, traveling with friends and family, and piloting Cessna 172s. She lives in Pasadena, California. Alternate Crew Jason Staggs Jason Staggs is a cybersecurity researcher and adjunct professor of computer science at the University of Tulsa. His research focuses on systems security engineering, infrastructure protection, and resilient autonomous systems. Staggs is an editor for the International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection and the Critical Infrastructure Protection book series. Staggs supported scientific research expeditions with the National Science Foundation at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. He also previously served as a space engineer and medical officer while working as an analog astronaut in the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) atop the Mauna Loa volcano. Staggs received his bachelor’s degree in Information Assurance and Forensics at Oklahoma State University and master’s and doctorate degrees in Computer Science from the University of Tulsa. During his postdoctoral studies at Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, he investigated electric vehicle charging station vulnerabilities. In his spare time, Staggs enjoys hiking, building radio systems, communicating with ham radio operators in remote locations, and volunteering as a solar system ambassador for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory — sharing his passion for astronomy, oceanography, and space exploration with his community. Anderson Wilder Anderson Wilder is a Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne graduate student working on his doctorate in psychology. His research focuses on team resiliency and human-machine interactions. Wilder also works in the campus neuroscience lab, investigating how spaceflight contributes to astronaut neurobehavioral changes. Wilder previously served as an executive officer and engineer for an analog mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. There, he performed studies related to crew social dynamics, plant growth, and geology. Wilder received bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and Psychology from Ohio State University in Columbus. He also received a master’s degree in Space Studies from International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and is completing a second master’s in Cognitive Experimental Psychology from Cleveland State University in Ohio. Outside of school, Wilder works as a parabolic flight coach, teaching people how to experience reduced-gravity environments. He also enjoys chess, reading, video games, skydiving, and scuba diving. On a recent dive, he explored a submerged section of the Great Wall of China. ____ NASA’s Human Research Program NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, and the International Space Station, HRP scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives HRP’s quest to innovate ways to keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as space travel expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Explore More 2 min read Exploring the Moon: Episode Previews Article 3 days ago 6 min read Voyagers of Mars: The First CHAPEA Crew’s Yearlong Journey Article 2 weeks ago 5 min read From Polar Peaks to Celestial Heights: Christy Hansen’s Unique Path to Leading NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Living in Space Artemis Human Research Program Space Station Research and Technology View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA / Maria Werries NASA Aeronautics Returns to Oshkosh Sunday, July 21 at 8:30 p.m. EDT NASA will appear at Oshkosh with a full slate of interactive exhibits, informative activities, and fascinating people to meet. But if you can’t make it we’ve got you covered. Enjoy the show virtually right here on this page. John Gould will be onsite this coming week sending in daily updates with news about NASA’s events and festivities. Our goal is to give you our best “you are there” experience. Just with no cheese curds. — Jim Banke Read the preview story Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 3 min read NASA to Host Panels, Forums, and More at Oshkosh 2024 Article 2 days ago 4 min read NASA Cloud-Based Platform Could Help Streamline, Improve Air Traffic Article 1 week ago 7 min read ARMD Solicitations Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Artemis Aeronautics STEM Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jul 21, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsAeronautics View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s pavilion as it will look at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 is seen in this illustration, Flying into the graphic, clockwise from upper left: the X-66 sustainable flight demonstrator, X-59 quiet supersonic demonstrator, Saab 340B, a small drone, an air taxi concept, and a DeHavillland “Dash 7.” Both the Saaab and Dash 7 are part of the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project.NASA / Maria Werries Each summer, aviation enthusiasts and experts from around the planet – including NASA’s aeronautical innovators – descend into a regional airport near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to attend the Experimental Aviation Association’s AirVenture Oshkosh. The weeklong airshow and fly-in, where droves of pilots arrive in their own aircraft, draws hundreds of thousands of aviation enthusiasts to enjoy aerial demonstrations, static aircraft displays, aviation-related forums, and hands-on activities for people of all ages and all education levels. NASA will appear at Oshkosh with a full slate of interactive exhibits, informative activities, and fascinating people to meet. This year’s event, held July 22-28, is chock-full of things to do and see. If you’re attending Oshkosh this year, here’s a brief summary of what you can expect inside the NASA Pavilion and on the forum stages: Meet and greet opportunities with NASA’s researchers, leaders, pilots, and maybe even an astronaut Hands-on educational STEM activities and handouts for kids and adults of all ages Talks and panels on NASA activities from our leadership, engineers, pilots, and other subject matter experts Models of NASA aircraft and spacecraft And if you’re looking for certain activities, NASA guides will be available onsite to help you find the ones best suited to you and your group. NASA Panel Events In addition to the NASA Pavilion and forum talks, there are also several NASA-focused panels that are a can’t miss. For example, the “NASA Artemis Campaign: For All Humankind” panel will be held at 7 p.m. CDT on Friday, July 26 at AirVenture’s Theater in the Woods. The event will feature astronaut Randy Bresnik and subject matter experts discussing the upcoming Artemis II mission. “Women of NASA,” another great panel, will take place at 8:30 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 24, the WomenVenture Center. It will feature several inspiring NASA Women, from senior leaders to project managers and engineers. A list of all NASA activities is available on AirVenture’s website, and our aeronautical innovators will be inside the NASA Pavilion to assist you. STEM Engagement Activities The NASA Pavilion’s STEM Zone will have interactive activities and demonstrations. NASA will also have materials available for educators. The STEM Zone will be open Monday to Sunday, July 22-28, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT. The KidVenture buildings, hosted by the EAA Museum, will include hands-on NASA STEM activities also, and NASA will participate at the AeroEducate Center in Aviation Gateway Park with activities intended for middle- and high-school aged youth – including lectures and a drone flight cage. More NASA’s activities are available on the event schedule or on EAA’s app. Online Oshkosh Coverage Online, NASA will post live updates from Oshkosh with news about NASA’s events and festivities through the week, as well as more information about our flight research goals. The live posts will be a great way to keep up with what’s going on for those who are unable to attend the event in person. Additionally, NASA will post on social media using the hashtag #OSH24. About the AuthorJohn GouldAeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation. Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More 4 min read NASA Cloud-Based Platform Could Help Streamline, Improve Air Traffic Article 7 days ago 7 min read ARMD Solicitations Article 3 weeks ago 2 min read NASA Prepares for Air Taxi Passenger Comfort Studies Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Artemis Aeronautics STEM Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Jul 19, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsAeronautics View the full article

2 Min Read Exploring the Moon: Episode Previews Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program Discover. Learn. Explore. NASA’s video series, Exploring the Moon, takes a “behind-the-scenes” look at humanity’s next steps on the Moon. Here is your first look at some of the key moments from the upcoming series! Scroll down or navigate through CONTENTS, to the side, to explore! To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How… How many small steps equal a giant leap? Find out what it takes to plan our next great voyage to the Moon, what exactly we plan to do there, and what may come next. We went to the Moon fifty years ago, but we only explored a very small part of the Moon. Nujoud Merancy Exploration Systems Strategy & Architecture Lead Going to the Moon Won’t Be Easy… To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 01: Why Explore the Moon? Exploring the Moon Series Next-Generation Spacesuits Explore the special technologies and improvements NASA has made to its spacesuits since the International Space Station (ISS), and how they will be used to make Artemis mission possible​. Basically you should think of a spacesuit as a human-shaped spacecraft. Liana Rodriggs Spacesuit Expert Advancements in Mobility To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 02: Artemis SpacesuitsExploring the Moon Series Spacesuits. How do they work? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 02: Artemis SpacesuitsExploring the Moon Series Spacewalks: Microgravity vs Planetary To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 02: Artemis SpacesuitsExploring the Moon Series Lunar Rovers Buckle up and roll out! Learn all about the different capabilities crewed and uncrewed rovers have. Plus, find out how these technologies will be used to explore the lunar surface. We are taking the ability to transport crew and tools. And these rovers that can operate independent of the crew. Nathan Howard Lunar Rovers Expert Reinventing the Wheel: Apollo to Artemis To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 03: Lunar RoversExploring the Moon Series Simulating the Mission To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 03: Lunar RoversExploring the Moon Series Lunar Geology Tools How does NASA collect surface samples from the Moon? The answer may surprise you! Explore the challenges of designing the geology sampling equipment for the Artemis missions and how geology sampling technology has changed since Apollo missions.​ In order to take these samples on the Moon you need something to pick these samples up with. You can't just walk around and pick them up by hand, that is why we make geology tools. Holly Newton Lunar Geology Tools Expert Lessons Learned from Apollo To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 04: Lunar Geology ToolsExploring the Moon Series Breakthrough! The Ingenuity of Artemis Tools To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 04: Lunar Geology ToolsExploring the Moon Series It’s All In The Finer Details… To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 04: Lunar Geology ToolsExploring the Moon Series Special Lunar Challenges Learn how NASA engineers are working to prepare for the unique challenges astronauts will face when exploring the Lunar South Pole for the first time ever. There are parts of the Moon and craters that have not seen the Sun in over a billion years. Ben Greene EVA Development Manager The Challenges Ahead To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 05: Special Lunar ChallengesExploring the Moon Series Dust. Gets. Everywhere. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 05: Special Lunar ChallengesExploring the Moon Series Exploring the South Pole of the Moon To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Episode 05: Special Lunar ChallengesExploring the Moon Series Back to the "Exploring the Moon" Main Page Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

John Campbell, a logistics engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, stands on NASA’s Pegasus barge July 15. NASA How do you move NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s massive 212-foot-long core stage across the country? You do it with a 300-foot-long barge. However, NASA’s Pegasus barge isn’t just any barge. It’s a vessel with a history, and John Campbell, a logistics engineer for the agency based at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is one of the few people who get to be a part of its legacy. For Campbell, this journey is more than just a job – it’s a lifelong passion realized. “Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated by engineering,” he said. “But to be entrusted with managing NASA’s Pegasus barge, transporting history-making hardware for human spaceflight across state lines and waterways – is something I never imagined.” NASA has used barges to ferry the large,and heavy hardware elements of its rockets since the Apollo Program. Replacing the agency’s Poseidon and Orion barges, Pegasus was originally crafted for the Space Shuttle Program and updated in recent years to help usher in the Artemis Generation and accommodate the mammoth dimensions of the SLS core stage. The barge plays a big role in NASA’s logistical operations, navigating rivers and coastal waters across the Southeast, and has transported key structural test hardware for SLS in recent years. Campbell grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in mechanical engineering, he ventured south to Panama City, Florida, where he spent a few years with a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning consulting team. Looking for an opportunity to move home, he applied for and landed a contractor position with NASA and soon moved to his current civil service role. With 17 years under his belt, Campbell has many fond memories during his time with the agency. One standout moment was witnessing the space shuttle stacked in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But it’s not all about rockets and launch pads for Campbell. When he isn’t in his office making sure Pegasus has everything it needs for its next trip out, he is on the water accompanying important pieces of hardware to their next destinations. With eight trips on Pegasus under his belt, the journey never gets old. “There is something peaceful when you look out and it’s just you, the water, one or two other boats, and wildlife,” Campbell said. “On one trip we had a pod of at least 20 dolphins surrounding us. You get to see all kinds of cool wildlife and scenery.” From cherishing special moments like this to ensuring the success of each journey, Campbell recognizes the vital role he plays in the agency’s goals to travel back to the Moon and beyond and does not take his responsibility lightly. “To be a part of the Artemis campaign and the future of space is just cool. I was there when the barge underwent its transformation to accommodate the colossal core stage, and in that moment, I realized I was witnessing history unfold. Though I couldn’t be present at the launch of Artemis I, watching it on TV was an emotional experience. To see something you’ve been a part of, something you’ve watched evolve from mere components to a giant spacecraft hurtling into space – it’s a feeling beyond words.” 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. Read other I am Artemis features. View the full article

Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Gary Eason © CC BY During its 61st close flyby of Jupiter on May 12, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this color-enhanced view of the giant planet’s northern hemisphere. It provides a detailed view of chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms in an area known to scientists as a folded filamentary region. In these regions, the zonal jets that create the familiar banded patterns in Jupiter’s clouds break down, leading to turbulent patterns and cloud structures that rapidly evolve over the course of only a few days. Citizen scientist Gary Eason made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying digital processing techniques to enhance color and clarity. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 68 degrees north of the equator. JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience. More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings. View the full article

NASA On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in the lunar module “Eagle.” Afterward, Aldrin posed for this photo, taken by Armstrong, beside the United States flag. The Apollo 11 mission’s main goal was to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth. The crew also conducted scientific exploration of the Moon’s surface and deployed a television camera to transmit signals to Earth. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon. They explored the surface, took extensive photographs of the lunar terrain and each other, and collected lunar surface samples. The two moonwalkers left behind commemorative medallions bearing the names of the three Apollo 1 astronauts who lost their lives in a launch pad fire, and two cosmonauts who also died in accidents, on the lunar surface. Also left on the Moon were several tokens of world peace. See more photos from this historic mission. Image credit: NASA View the full article

6 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Arctic is captured in this 2010 visualization using data from NASA’s Aqua satellite. A new study quantifies how climate-related processes, including the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, are driving polar motion. Another study looks at how polar meltwater is speeding the lengthening of Earth’s day.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Researchers used more than 120 years of data to decipher how melting ice, dwindling groundwater, and rising seas are nudging the planet’s spin axis and lengthening days. Days on Earth are growing slightly longer, and that change is accelerating. The reason is connected to the same mechanisms that also have caused the planet’s axis to meander by about 30 feet (10 meters) in the past 120 years. The findings come from two recent NASA-funded studies focused on how the climate-related redistribution of ice and water has affected Earth’s rotation. This redistribution occurs when ice sheets and glaciers melt more than they grow from snowfall and when aquifers lose more groundwater than precipitation replenishes. These resulting shifts in mass cause the planet to wobble as it spins and its axis to shift location — a phenomenon called polar motion. They also cause Earth’s rotation to slow, measured by the lengthening of the day. Both have been recorded since 1900. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The animation, exaggerated for clarity, illustrates how Earth’s rotation wobbles as the location of its spin axis, shown in orange, moves away from its geographic axis, which is shown in blue and represents the imaginary line between the planet’s geographic North and South poles.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Analyzing polar motion across 12 decades, scientists attributed nearly all of the periodic oscillations in the axis’ position to changes in groundwater, ice sheets, glaciers, and sea levels. According to a paper published recently in Nature Geoscience, the mass variations during the 20th century mostly resulted from natural climate cycles. The same researchers teamed on a subsequent study that focused on day length. They found that, since 2000, days have been getting longer by about 1.33 milliseconds per 100 years, a faster pace than at any point in the prior century. The cause: the accelerated melting of glaciers and the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets due to human-caused greenhouse emissions. Their results were published July 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The common thread between the two papers is that climate-related changes on Earth’s surface, whether human-caused or not, are strong drivers of the changes we’re seeing in the planet’s rotation,” said Surendra Adhikari, a co-author of both papers and a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The location of Earth’s spin axis moved about 30 feet (10 meters) between 1900 and 2023, as shown in this animation. A recent study found that about 90% of the periodic oscillations in polar motion could be explained by melting ice sheets and glaciers, diminishing groundwater, and sea level rise.NASA/JPL-Caltech Decades of Polar Motion In the earliest days, scientists tracked polar motion by measuring the apparent movement of stars. They later switched to very long baseline interferometry, which analyzes radio signals from quasars, or satellite laser ranging, which points lasers at satellites. Researchers have long surmised that polar motion results from a combination of processes in Earth’s interior and at the surface. Less clear was how much each process shifts the axis and what kind of effect each exerts — whether cyclical movements that repeat in periods from weeks to decades, or sustained drift over the course of centuries or millennia. For their paper, researchers used machine-learning algorithms to dissect the 120-year record. They found that 90% of recurring fluctuations between 1900 and 2018 could be explained by changes in groundwater, ice sheets, glaciers, and sea level. The remainder mostly resulted from Earth’s interior dynamics, like the wobble from the tilt of the inner core with respect to the bulk of the planet. The patterns of polar motion linked to surface mass shifts repeated a few times about every 25 years during the 20th century, suggesting to the researchers that they were largely due to natural climate variations. Past papers have drawn connections between more recent polar motion and human activities, including one authored by Adhikari that attributed a sudden eastward drift of the axis (starting around 2000) to faster melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and groundwater depletion in Eurasia. That research focused on the past two decades, during which groundwater and ice mass loss as well as sea level rise — all measured via satellites — have had strong connections to human-caused climate change. “It’s true to a certain degree” that human activities factor into polar motion, said Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi, lead author of both papers and a doctoral student at the Swiss university ETH Zurich. “But there are natural modes in the climate system that have the main effect on polar motion oscillations.” Longer Days For the second paper, the authors used satellite observations of mass change from the GRACE mission (short for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and its follow-on GRACE-FO, as well as previous mass-balance studies that analyzed the contributions of changes in groundwater, ice sheets, and glaciers to sea level rise in the 20th century to reconstruct changes in the length of days due to those factors from 1900 to 2018. Scientists have known through historical eclipse records that length of day has been growing for millennia. While almost imperceptible to humans, the lag must be accounted for because many modern technologies, including GPS, rely on precise timekeeping. In recent decades, the faster melting of ice sheets has shifted mass from the poles toward the equatorial ocean. This flattening causes Earth to decelerate and the day to lengthen, similar to when an ice skater lowers and spreads their arms to slow a spin. The authors noticed an uptick just after 2000 in how fast the day was lengthening, a change closely correlated with independent observations of the flattening. For the period from 2000 to 2018, the rate of length-of-day increase due to movement of ice and groundwater was 1.33 milliseconds per century — faster than at any period in the prior 100 years, when it varied from 0.3 to 1.0 milliseconds per century. The lengthening due to ice and groundwater changes could decelerate by 2100 under a climate scenario of severely reduced emissions, the researchers note. (Even if emissions were to stop today, previously released gases — particularly carbon dioxide — would linger for decades longer.) If emissions continue to rise, lengthening of day from climate change could reach as high as 2.62 milliseconds per century, overtaking the effect of the Moon’s pull on tides, which has been increasing Earth’s length of day by 2.4 milliseconds per century, on average. Called lunar tidal friction, the effect has been the primary cause of Earth’s day-length increase for billions for years. “In barely 100 years, human beings have altered the climate system to such a degree that we’re seeing the impact on the very way the planet spins,” Adhikari said. News Media Contacts Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307 andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov 2024-101 Share Details Last Updated Jul 19, 2024 Related TermsEarth ScienceEarthEarth Science DivisionEarth's MoonGRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment)GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on)Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More 3 min read New Evidence Adds to Findings Hinting at Network of Caves on Moon An international team of scientists using data from NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) has discovered… Article 22 hours ago 8 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Summer 2024 NASA’s third EOS mission—AURA—marked 20 years in orbit on July 15, with two of its… Article 23 hours ago 3 min read The Earth Observer’s 35th Anniversary Welcome to a new era for The Earth Observer newsletter! Our 35th anniversary also marks the official… Article 23 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

3 Min Read NASA Awards Launch Excitement for STEM Learning Nationwide Southwest Girl Scout Council Leaders test out their “cereal box” pin-hole viewers to study the sun during educator training program. NASA awards inspire the next generation of explorers by helping community institutions like museums, science centers, libraries, and other informal education institutions and their partners bring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content to their communities. NASA’s Next Generation STEM project has expanded the Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) program to include a new tier of funding and provide even more opportunities to informal educational institutions across the country. The new STEM Innovator tier will fund awards of approximately $250,000, the Community Anchor tier will continue to offer awards up to $50,000, and the highest award level will be designated the National Connector and fund initiatives up to $900,000. Fiscal year 2024 solicitations will target the Community Anchor and the new STEM Innovator award levels. Community Anchor and National Connector awards will be the focus for the fiscal year 2025 solicitation. The TEAM II program was first expanded to include Community Anchors in 2022. Since then, the program has designated over 50 institutions across 29 states as NASA Community Anchors. These awards support proposals that strengthen the STEM impact of many community organizations, including: 5th-8th Graders from Whiting Village School join Flight Director Tyson as they embark on a Destination Mars Virtual Mission from their two-room schoolhouse in rural Maine.NASA The Challenger Learning Center of Maine reached more than 960 K-8 students statewide through 58 virtual programs touching 27 mainland schools and four island schools, hosted a STEM community night for residents of rural Whiting, Maine, and held two virtual programs featuring NASA women engineers for girls across the state. “NASA’s funding allowed Challenger Maine to provide this Mars mission experience for free to schools, no matter their size,” said Kirsten Hibbard, executive director of the Challenger Learning Center of Maine. “We’ve connected with new schools and become this resource, literally a community anchor of STEM, for these schools.” Youth at the Standing Arrow Powwow on the Flathead Reservation experience remote sensing content with virtual reality.NASA The University of Montana spectrUM Discovery Area engaged western Montana’s rural and tribal communities in understanding the role NASA and its partners play in sensing and responding to fire. SpectrUM developed the Montana Virtual Reality Fire Sensing Experience. Using ClassVR headsets, visitors learned about NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Joint Polar Satellite System satellites, JPSS-1 and JPSS-2, and how they are used to remotely sense the Earth. SpectrUM collaborated with its community advisory group, SciNation on the Flathead Reservation, to incorporate fire and Earth science curricula developed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes into their field trip and educational programs, impacting hundreds of students. A student from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana is excited to complete an activity in the “Aeronautics Museum in a Box” kit developed by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate; Community Anchor grantee Sci-Port Discovery Center in Shreveport, Louisiana; and Central Creativity, an education center in Laurel, Mississippi.NASA Sci-Port Discovery Center Shreveport, Louisiana introduced middle and high school students to NASA aeronautics content through their Aeronautics Museum in a Box kits. The kits were developed in collaboration with NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Sci-Port, and Central Creativity. The kits include fun, hands-on activities focusing on the parts of an airplane, principles of flight, airplane structure and materials, propulsion, future of flight, careers, and more. Students and families from underserved communities across Northwest Louisiana tested the kits and shared feedback with developers. “Museum in a Box brought our participants to new heights beyond their imagination. They see themselves as teachers for their children, as a source of guidance for STEM careers instead of gangs,” said Dr. Heather Kleiner, director, Northwest LaSTEM Innovation Center, Sci-Port Discovery Center. U.S. informal education institutions interested in proposing for these awards are invited to attend an optional pre-proposal webinar Thursday, July 25, or Tuesday, August 13. Event times and connection details are available here. More information about funding opportunities can be found on NASA’s TEAM II Grant Forecasting webpage. To learn more about TEAM II Community Anchors, visit:TEAM II Community Anchors – NASA Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Outside the Classroom About STEM Engagement at NASA For Educators Learning Resources View the full article

Official NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 portraits with Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and Aleksandr Gorbunov.Credit: NASA NASA will host a pair of news conferences Friday, July 26, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station. NASA will host a mission overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. The news conference will cover NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the microgravity laboratory and Expeditions 71 and 72. NASA also will host a crew news conference at 2 p.m., and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website, followed by individual astronaut interviews at 3 p.m. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media. The Crew-9 mission, targeted to launch in mid-August, will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos to the orbiting laboratory. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA. These events will be the final media opportunity to speak to the Crew-9 astronauts before they travel to NASA Kennedy for launch. United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m., Thursday, July 25, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson by 9:45 a.m. the day of the event. U.S. or international media seeking remote interviews must submit requests to the NASA Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m., Thursday, July 25. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. Briefing participants are as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations): 12 p.m.: Mission Overview News. Conference Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Johnson Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson Sarah Walker, director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX Sergei Krikalev, executive director of Human Space Flight Programs, Roscosmos 2 p.m.: Crew News Conference Zena Cardman, spacecraft commander, NASA Nick Hague, pilot, NASA Stephanie Wilson, mission specialist, NASA Alexsandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, Roscosmos 3 p.m.: Crew Individual Interview Opportunities Crew-9 members available for a limited number of interviews The Crew-9 mission will be the first spaceflight for Cardman, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. The Williamsburg, Virginia, native holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a master’s in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the time of selection, she was a doctoral candidate in geosciences. Cardman’s research focused on geobiology and geochemical cycling in subsurface environments, from caves to deep sea sediments. Since completing initial training, Cardman has supported real-time station operations and development for lunar surface exploration. Follow @zenanaut on X and @zenanaut on Instagram. With 203 days logged in space, this will be Hague’s third launch and second mission to the orbiting laboratory. During his first launch in 2018, Hague and his crewmate, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, experienced a rocket booster failure, resulting in an in-flight launch abort and safe landing for their Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft. Five months later, Hague launched aboard Soyuz MS-12 and served as a flight engineer aboard the space station during Expeditions 59 and 60. Hague conducted three spacewalks to upgrade space station power systems and install a docking adapter for commercial spacecraft. As an active-duty colonel in the U.S. Space Force, Hague completed a developmental rotation at the Department of Defense in Washington, where he served as the USSF director of test and evaluation from 2020 to 2022. In August 2022, Hague resumed duties at NASA, working on the Boeing Starliner Program until this flight assignment. Follow @astrohague on X and @astrohauge on Instagram. A veteran of three spaceflights aboard space shuttle Discovery, Wilson has spent 42 days in space. During her first mission, STS-121, in July 2006, she and her crewmates spent 13 days in orbit. Wilson served as the robotic arm operator for spacecraft inspection, the installation of the “Leonardo” Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and spacewalk support. In October 2007, Wilson and her STS-120 crewmates delivered the Harmony module to the station and relocated a solar array. In April 2010, Wilson and her STS-131 crewmates completed another resupply mission to the orbiting complex, delivering a new ammonia tank for the station cooling system, new crew sleeping quarters, a window observation facility, and a freezer for experiments. During nearly 30 years with NASA, Wilson served as the integration branch chief for NASA’s Astronaut Office, focusing on International Space Station systems and payload operations. She also completed a nine-month detail as the acting chief of NASA’s Program and Project Integration Office at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Follow @astro_stephanie on X. This will be Gorbunov’s first trip to space and the station. Born in Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, Russia, he studied engineering with qualifications in spacecraft and upper stages from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Gorbunov graduated from the military department with a specialty in operating and repairing aircraft, helicopters, and aircraft engines. Before being selected as a cosmonaut in 2018, he worked as an engineer for Rocket Space Corporation Energia and supported cargo spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Learn more about how NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at: https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew -end- Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov Leah Cheshier / Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 leah.d.cheshier@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jul 19, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsHumans in SpaceCommercial CrewCommercial SpaceInternational Space Station (ISS)ISS ResearchJohnson Space CenterKennedy Space Center View the full article

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the 55th Anniversary of Apollo 11

3 min read Hubble Studies a Potential Galactic Merger This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238. ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Annibali This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance seems to resemble an oversized star cluster more than a classic image of a galaxy. Its lackluster appearance belies its complicated structure, which is the subject of a great deal of research. As the image reveals, Hubble is able to pick out the galaxy’s countless stars, as well as its associated globular clusters — glowing, bright spots both inside and around the galaxy swarmed by even more stars. Astronomers theorize that NGC 5238 may have had a close encounter with another galaxy as recently as a billion years ago. NGC 5238’s distorted shape provides evidence for this interaction. As the two galaxies interacted, their gravity caused distortions in the distribution of stars in each galaxy. There’s no nearby galaxy which could have caused this disturbance, so astronomers think NGC 5238 devoured a smaller satellite galaxy. Astronomers look for traces of the consumed galaxy by closely examining the population of stars in NGC 5238, a task made for Hubble’s excellent resolution. One tell-tale sign of the smaller galaxy would be groups of stars with different properties from most of NGC 5238’s other stars, indicating they were originally formed in a separate galaxy. Another sign would be a burst of star formation that occurred abruptly at around the same time the two galaxies merged. The Hubble data used to create this image will help astronomers determine NGC 5238’s history. Despite their small size and unremarkable appearance, it’s not unusual for dwarf galaxies like NGC 5238 to drive our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. One main theory of galaxy evolution is that galaxies formed ‘bottom-up’ in a hierarchical fashion: star clusters and small galaxies were the first to form out of gas and dark matter. Over time, gravity gradually assembled these smaller objects into galaxy clusters and superclusters, which explains the shape of the largest structures we see in the universe today. A dwarf irregular galaxy like NGC 5238 merging with a smaller companion is just the type of event that might have started the process of galaxy assembly in the early universe. Hubble’s observations of tiny NGC 5238 may help test some of our most fundamental ideas of how the universe evolves! Download this image Explore More Galaxy Details and Mergers Tracing the Growth of Galaxies Hubble’s Galaxies Hubble’s Star Clusters Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Irregular Galaxies Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble E-books Hubble Science Hubble Online Activities View the full article

Members of the Artemis II crew met with the crew of NASA’s Pegasus barge prior to their departure to deliver the core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket to the Space Coast. NASA astronaut and pilot of the Artemis II mission Victor Glover met the crew July 15. From left to right: Ashley Marlar, Jamie Crews, Nick Owen, Jeffery Whitehead, Scott Ledet, Jason Dickerson, John Campbell, NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Farid Sayah, Kelton Hutchinson, Terry Fitzgerald, Bryan Jones, and Joe Robinson.NASA/Brandon Hancock NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, commander, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist, visited the barge July 16 shortly before the flight hardware was loaded onto it. The Pegasus crew and team, from left, includes Kelton Hutchinson, Jeffery Whitehead, Jason Dickerson, Arlan Cochran, John Brunson, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Marc Verhage, Terry Fitzgerald, Scott Ledet, CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Wil Daly, Ashley Marlar, Farid Sayah, Jamie Crews, Joe Robinson, and Nick Owen.NASA/Sam Lott Pegasus is currently transporting the SLS core stage from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be integrated and prepared for launch. During the Artemis II test flight, the core stage with its four RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send the Artemis II crew around the Moon. Pegasus, which was previously used to ferry space shuttle tanks, was modified and refurbished to ferry the SLS rocket’s massive core stage. At 212 feet in length and 27.6 feet in diameter, the Moon rocket stage is more than 50 feet longer than the space shuttle external tank. See more images: Members of NASA’s Pegasus barge crew meet with Artemis II crew members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans July 15 and 16. NASA/Eric Bordelon Members of NASA’s Pegasus barge crew meet with Artemis II crew members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans July 15 and 16. NASA/Eric Bordelon Members of NASA’s Pegasus barge crew meet with Artemis II crew members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans July 15 and 16. NASA/Brandon Hancock Members of NASA’s Pegasus barge crew meet with Artemis II crew members at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans July 15 and 16.NASA/Evan DeRoche NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, 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. View the full article

Curiosity NavigationCuriosityMission OverviewWhere is Curiosity?Mission UpdatesScienceOverviewInstrumentsHighlightsExploration GoalsNews and FeaturesMultimediaCuriosity Raw ImagesMars ResourcesMars MissionsMars Sample ReturnMars Perseverance RoverMars Curiosity RoverMAVENMars Reconnaissance OrbiterMars OdysseyMore Mars MissionsAll PlanetsMercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePluto & Dwarf Planets 2 min read Sols 4248-4249: Lunch at Fairview Dome This image was taken by Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4246 – Martian day 4,246 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission – on July 16, 2024, at 23:32:19 UTC. Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 17, 2024 We started our day at an outcrop called “Fairview Dome,” a light-colored rock so big that it can easily be seen from orbit! We have had our eye on Fairview Dome since Curiosity descended into the Gediz Vallis channel. As a geologist who has spent a lot of time in the field, I imagined this as a perfect place to drop my backpack, enjoy my lunch, and soak in the stunning panoramic views from this vantage point mid-channel. The science team opted to stay for two full days of contact science at Fairview Dome and assembled a plan consisting of numerous science observations. In the workspace directly in front of the rover’s wheels, we analyzed Fairview Dome using the dust removal tool, APXS, and MAHLI instruments at a target called “Amphitheater Dome.” The ChemCam team selected two LIBS targets on the Fairview Dome outcrop – “Columbia Finger” and “Agnew Meadows” – to analyze the chemistry. Mastcam planned four stereo mosaics on sol 4248 to image the rover’s surroundings, including the floor of upper Gediz Vallis, the floor of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, the upper Gediz Vallis ridge channel, and a rock near the rover named “Tresidder Peak.” On the following sol, Mastcam assembled what will surely be a breathtaking, postcard-worthy, 360-degree mosaic of our current location. Rounding out Curiosity’s to-do list for this two-sol plan, ChemCam took two long-distance RMI images to document the stratigraphy of the rocks looking up Gediz Vallis toward the south. Science team members in the environmental theme group planned observations including a suprahorizon movie to look at clouds, a dust devil movie, and a mastcam tau survey to measure the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Today, I served as the science team member responsible for compiling and organizing the details for each activity from the geology and mineralogy theme groups. Despite the intensity of the planning session, the spectacular views at Fairview Dome made me pause to appreciate where we are and how far Curiosity has come. And with so much striking geology still in front of us, it is indeed a very exciting time to be exploring on Mars! Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Related TermsBlogs Explore More 2 min read Sols 4246-4247: Next Stop: Fairview Dome Article 2 days ago 3 min read Sols 4243-4245: Exploring Stubblefield Canyon Article 2 days ago 2 min read Sols 4241–4242: We Can’t Go Around It…We’ve Got To Go Through It! Article 6 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four… View the full article

Space ROS is an open-source software framework, derived from ROS 2, which was created to be compatible with the demands of safety-critical space robotics applications. NASA is looking to expand the Space ROS repository with new higher fidelity demonstration environments and additional capabilities. Award: $10,000 in total prizes Open Date: July 18, 2024 Close Date: September 11, 2024 For more information, visit: https://www.freelancer.com/contest/2417552 View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) By Wayne Smith Investigators at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will use observations from a recently-launched sounding rocket mission to provide a clearer image of how and why the Sun’s corona grows so much hotter than the visible surface of Earth’s parent star. The MaGIXS-2 mission – short for the second flight of the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer – launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on Tuesday, July 16. NASA’s MaGIXS-2 sounding rocket mission successfully launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on July 16. United States Navy The mission’s goal is to determine the heating mechanisms in active regions on the Sun by making critical observations using X-ray spectroscopy. The Sun’s surface temperature is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit – but the corona routinely measures more than 1.8 million degrees, with active regions measuring up to 5 million degrees. Amy Winebarger, Marshall heliophysicist and principal investigator for the MaGIXS missions, said studying the X-rays from the Sun sheds light on what’s happening in the solar atmosphere – which, in turn, directly impacts Earth and the entire solar system. X-ray spectroscopy provides unique capabilities for answering fundamental questions in solar physics and for potentially predicting the onset of energetic eruptions on the Sun like solar flares or coronal mass ejections. These violent outbursts can interfere with communications satellites and electronic systems, even causing physical drag on satellites as Earth’s atmosphere expands to absorb the added solar energy. “Learning more about these solar events and being able to predict them are the kind of things we need to do to better live in this solar system with our Sun,” Winebarger said. The NASA team retrieved the payload immediately after the flight and has begun processing datasets. “We have these active regions on the Sun, and these areas are very hot, much hotter than even the rest of the corona,” said Patrick Champey, deputy principal investigator at Marshall for the mission. “There’s been a big question – how are these regions heated? We previously determined it could relate to how often energy is released. The X-rays are particularly sensitive to this frequency number, and so we built an instrument to look at the X-ray spectra and disentangle the data.” The MaGIXS-2 sounding rocket team stand on the launchpad in White Sands, New Mexico prior to launch on July 16, 2024. United States Navy Following a successful July 2021 launch of the first MaGIXS mission, Marshall and its partners refined instrumentation for MaGIXS-2 to provide a broader view for observing the Sun’s X-rays. Marshall engineers developed and fabricated the telescope and spectrometer mirrors, and the camera. The integrated instrument was exhaustively tested in Marshall’s state-of-the-art X-ray & Cryogenic Facility. For MaGIXS-2, the team refined the same mirrors used on the first flight, with a much larger aperture and completed the testing at Marshall’s Stray Light Test Facility. A Marshall project from inception, technology developments for MaGIXS include the low-noise CCD camera, high-resolution X-ray optics, calibration methods, and more. Winebarger and Champey said MaGIXS many of the team members started their NASA careers with the project, learning to take on lead roles and benefitting from mentorship. “I think that’s probably the most critical thing, aside from the technology, for being successful,” Winebarger said. “It’s very rare that you get from concept to flight in a few years. A young engineer can go all the way to flight, come to White Sands to watch it launch, and retrieve it.” NASA routinely uses sounding rockets for brief, focused science missions. They’re often smaller, more affordable, and faster to design and build than large-scale satellite missions, Winebarger said. Sounding rockets carry scientific instruments into space along a parabolic trajectory. Their overall time in space is brief, typically five minutes, and at lower vehicle speeds for a well-placed scientific experiment. The MaGIXS mission was developed at Marshall in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Sounding Rockets Program Office, located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, provides suborbital launch vehicles, payload development, and field operations support to NASA and other government agencies. Jonathan Deal Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256.544.0034 jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov Lane Figueroa Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256.932.1940 lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 LocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related TermsMarshall Space Flight CenterSounding RocketsSounding Rockets Program Explore More 15 min read The Marshall Star for July 17, 2024 Article 23 hours ago 4 min read NASA Marshall Engineers Unveil Versatile, Low-cost Hybrid Engine Testbed Article 6 days ago 15 min read The Marshall Star for July 10, 2024 Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Sounding Rockets For over 40 years the Sounding Rocket Program has provided critical scientific, technical, and educational contributions to the nation’s space… White Sands Test Facility Sun Overview The Sun’s gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything – from the biggest planets to the smallest particles… Wallops Flight Facility View the full article

These images from NASA’s LRO spacecraft show a collection of pits detected on the Moon. Each image covers an area about 728 feet wide. An international team of scientists using data from NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) has discovered evidence of caves beneath the Moon’s surface. In re-analyzing radar data collected by LRO’s Mini-RF (Miniature Radio-Frequency) instrument in 2010, the team found evidence of a cave extending more than 200 feet from the base of a pit. The pit is located 230 miles northeast of the first human landing site on the Moon in Mare Tranquillitatis. The full extent of the cave is unknown, but it could stretch for miles beneath the mare. Scientists have suspected for decades that there are subsurface caves on the Moon, just like there are on Earth. Pits that may lead to caves were suggested in images from NASA’s lunar orbiters that mapped the Moon’s surface before NASA’s Apollo human landings. A pit was then confirmed in 2009 from images taken by JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Kaguya orbiter, and many have since been found across the Moon through images and thermal measurements of the surface taken by LRO. NASA’s LRO Finds Lunar Pits Harbor Comfortable Temperatures “Now the analysis of the Mini-RF radar data tells us how far these caves might extend,” said Noah Petro, LRO project scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Lunar Pits Could Shelter Astronauts, Reveal Details of How ‘Man in the Moon’ Formed Like “lava tubes” found here on Earth, scientists suspect that lunar caves formed when molten lava flowed beneath a field of cooled lava, or a crust formed over a river of lava, leaving a long, hollow tunnel. If the ceiling of a solidified lava tube collapses, it opens a pit, like a skylight, that can lead into the rest of the cave-like tube. Evidence is mounting that an intricate, winding network of channels exist just below the surface of the Moon. These “lava tubes” are produced by underground flowing magma from ancient volcanoes. Credit: NASA Mini-RF is operated by The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities. By Lonnie Shekhtman NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. View the full article

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 8 min read The Earth Observer Editor’s Corner: Summer 2024 Welcome to a new era for The Earth Observer newsletter! This communication marks the official public release of our new website. While this release moves us into a new online future, the newsletter team has worked to ensure the new website also allows for continuity with our publication’s robust 35-year history. The Executive Editor has written a more detailed overview of our new site that is posted separately. I am happy to report on the success of several recent launches. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite–U (GOES-U) successfully launched at 5:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. GOES-U (renamed GOES-19 after reaching geostationary orbit on July 8) is the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R Series, providing advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and space weather observations. Once the checkout phase is complete, NASA will hand operational control to NOAA. After checkout, the plan is for GOES-19 to replace GOES-16 (originally GOES–R) as GOES-East. GOES-19 will work in tandem with GOES-18 (GOES–T), NOAA’s GOES-West satellite, to enable observations from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand. In addition to its critical role in terrestrial weather prediction, the GOES constellation of satellites helps forecasters predict near Earth space weather that can interfere with satellite and terrestrial electronics and communication. The GOES-U satellite goes beyond the capabilities of its predecessors with a new space weather instrument, the Compact Coronagraph-1 (CCOR-1), which blocks light from the solar disk to allow imagery of the faint solar corona, providing low latency observations for detecting coronal mass ejections. Speaking of space weather, Solar Cycle 25 is nearing its peak, which typically results in an increase in solar activity and geomagnetic storms. A particularly intense geomagnetic storm took place in mid-May 2024—the strongest in over two decades The G5 storm culminated in a remarkable display of the aurora overnight—in both hemispheres—on May 10–11, visible from many areas worldwide—including latitudes where sightings of auroras are uncommon. It also caused concerns for the safety of some of NASA’s Earth science satellite missions, although fortunately there was no lasting impact. The aurora produced by the storm could be observed from the day-night band on the NASA–NOAA Suomi NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) that is sensitive enough to detect nighttime light across a broad band of wavelengths (green to near-infrared) to observe signals such as city lights, reflected moonlight, and auroras. VIIRS captured the image shown below on the night of May 11, 2024. Figure. The day-night band on Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) captured this image of the aurora borealis that occurred on the night of May 11, 2024, as the culminating event of a particularly intense geomagnetic storm that occurred in May 2024. In this view, the northern lights appear as a bright white strip across parts of Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan. Figure credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory There were two deployments from the International Space Station (ISS) as part of NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) program. The SigNals Of Opportunity: P-band Investigation (SNOOPI) was launched on March 21 from NASA’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft (CRS-30) as part of the company’s thirtieth commercial resupply mission. On April 21, the instrument was released into orbit from the station. The SNOOPI mission will demonstrate and validate the in-space use of P-band (~300 MHz) signals of opportunity to measure root zone soil moisture and snow water equivalent, reducing the risk of utilizing this technique on future space missions. SNOOPI will also verify important assumptions about reflected signal coherence, robustness to the RFI environment, and the ability to capture and process the transmitted signal in space. James Garrison [Purdue University] is PI for SNOOPI, with co-investigators from GSFC. The Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI) CubeSat was also flown aboard CRS-30 and deployed from the ISS. HyTI is a technology demonstration mission by the University of Hawaiiʻi at Mānoa designed to demonstrate how high spatial resolution (60-m ground resolution), high spectral resolution (25 bands), and long-wave infrared image data can be acquired to monitor water resources using a 6U CubeSat. Robert Wright [University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa] is principal investigator for HyTI. NASA is conducting the Arctic Radiation Cloud Aerosol Surface Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX) over the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland this spring and summer. Altogether, about 75 scientists (including sea ice surface researchers, aerosol researchers, and cloud researchers), along with instrument operators and flight crew, are participating in ARCSIX’s two phases based out of Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland. The first three-week deployment, from late May to mid-June of this year, was timed to document the start of the ice melt season. The second deployment will occur in late July and August to monitor late summer conditions leading up to the freeze-up period. As part of ARCSIX, NASA is flying two of its aircraft, with the first flights having occurred on May 28, 2024. The P-3 Orion aircraft from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility flies at relatively low altitudes to characterize sea ice surface properties, the optical and microphysical properties of cloud and aerosol particles, atmospheric chemistry, radiative fluxes, and other lower atmospheric properties. At the same time, a Gulfstream III aircraft, managed by NASA’s Langley Research Center, flies at higher altitudes to provide hyperspectral imagery and obtain atmospheric profiles, adding a perspective similar to those of orbiting satellites. Two members of NASA’s Earth observing fleet celebrate milestone anniversaries this summer. The third of NASA’s EOS Flagships—Aura—marks 20 years in orbit on July 15. During the 1990s and early 2000s, an international team of engineers and scientists worked together to design the first integrated observatory for studying atmospheric composition. This was a “bold endeavor” at the time, intended to provide unprecedented detail essential to understanding how Earth’s ozone layer and air quality respond to changes in atmospheric composition caused by both human activities and natural phenomena, a key NASA Earth science objective. The Aura spacecraft (Latin for “breeze” and “air”) was launched on July 15, 2004, with its four instruments. Twenty years later, the spacecraft and two of its instruments, the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), are in remarkable shape, which is a testament to Aura’s solid engineering. MLS and OMI are remarkably stable, allowing for the continuation of their science- and trend-quality datasets. However, all good things must come to an end. Insufficient solar power generation will require that data collection end in mid-2026. In the meantime, MLS and OMI will continue to monitor the everchanging composition of Earth’s atmosphere. I extend my congratulations to Bryan Duncan [GSFC—Aura Project Scientist] and the entire Aura team, past and present, on this remarkable achievement. On July 2, 2024, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) celebrated ten years since its launch, marking a decade of gold-standard measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) from space. OCO-2 was originally designed as a pathfinder mission to measure CO2 with the precision and accuracy needed to quantify regional sources and sinks of this key greenhouse gas. OCO-2 has tracked the relentless rise of CO2 in our atmosphere and has provided unprecedented information on where, when, and how CO2 is released into and removed from the atmosphere. OCO-2 data have provided new insights into how CO2 emissions are offset by natural carbon sinks such as forests and oceans. The data have demonstrated that spaceborne measurements can be used to accurately quantify CO2 emissions from power plants and cities. The long-term, global record has also been used to examine the two-way interactions between CO2 and climate. As the length of the data record has increased, OCO-2 is beginning to be able to provide policy-relevant information and to address an ever more diverse range of carbon cycle science questions. Because of the mission’s success, NASA now has two instruments in space monitoring Earth’s carbon cycle. OCO-2’s spare parts were repurposed and nested as OCO-3 on the International Space Station in 2019. OCO-2 is unique among NASA missions in providing near-global sampling in combination with the spectral resolution and signal to noise needed to provide CO2 with the sensitivity required to inform studies of the natural carbon cycle as well as anthropogenic sources. The OCO-2 mission has been and will remain a key element of any U.S. or international greenhouse gas observational network to enhance our scientific understanding of the carbon cycle and inform climate mitigation efforts. Congratulations to Vivienne Payne [JPL—OCO-2 Principal Investigator] and the entire OCO-2 team on this noteworthy achievement. The Earth Observer plans more in-depth feature coverage of both these missions celebrating milestones in July over the coming months. Last but certainly not least, I would like to congratulate Sarah Ringerud [GSFC] on being chosen as the Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. Ringerud holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science with an emphasis on Remote Sensing from Colorado State University. Ringerud is a research meteorologist at GSFC, leading projects focused on GPM and future mission concepts. Her expertise lies in satellite algorithm development, particularly for microwave instruments, and she actively collaborates with government and academic partners to advance the field of precipitation remote sensing. Congratulations to Sarah and best wishes in her new role. Steve Platnick EOS Senior Project Scientist steven.e.platnick@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science Uncategorized View the full article

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 3 min read The Earth Observer’s 35th Anniversary Welcome to a new era for The Earth Observer newsletter! Our 35th anniversary also marks the official public release of our new website. Over the past year and a half, The Earth Observer has migrated from a print publication (the last printed issue was November–December 2022) to publishing PDFs online only (final PDF issue published in May 2024) to publishing individual articles on our new site. While this move shifts The Earth Observer’s format to be more in line with that of other online publications, our intent is for the content to remain distinctive. Readers can expect to continue receiving the same quality reporting on NASA Earth Science activities that they have come to depend on from The Earth Observer for over 35 years. The release of the website coincides with a historical milestone for The Earth Observer. It was 35 years ago – in March 1989 – that the first print issue of the newsletter was produced. At that time, The Earth Observer was a crucial communication tool for the initial group of investigators for the Earth Observing System (EOS), which had been selected that same year. They depended on the periodic delivery of the newsletter to their physical mailboxes to keep them informed about decisions made at recent science team and payload panel meetings, and other activities related to the program. As communication technologies have evolved, so has The Earth Observer. The interweaving tale of the evolution of EOS and The Earth Observer has been told in previous issues of our publication. (For example, see The Earth Observer: Twenty-Five Years Telling NASA’s Earth Science Story in the March–April 2014 issue [Volume 26, Issue 2, pp. 4–13] and A Thirtieth Anniversary Reflection by the Executive Editor in the March–April 2019 issue [Volume 31, Issue 2 – online version, pp. 1–4.) Publishing content online marks the next step in the evolution of The Earth Observer. On the new website, readers will find overlapping content from our November–December 2023 and final PDF issues – as well as original content. To maintain a sense of continuity with our past, the content is organized much like previous issues. There are separate sections for Feature Articles, Meeting Summaries, News Content, and “The Editor’s Corner,” as well as Calendars for NASA and Global Science Community activities. Given The Earth Observer’s focus on history, and in keeping with the organization of our previous website, the new site also includes an Archives section where readers can view PDFs of all previous issues of The Earth Observer. There is also a listicle in which our team has compiled links to many of our most popular historical articles. In addition to articles written to mark anniversaries of The Earth Observer (including the two referenced earlier), the page contains a link to the popular Perspectives on EOS Series. These articles originally ran in The Earth Observer from 2008–2011, with each article focusing on a particular aspect (or aspects) of the early history of EOS from the perspective of someone who lived it. There are also links to articles that have been written to mark milestone anniversaries for satellite missions and observing networks, and to summaries of several symposia that include historical information. We hope readers find this collection of historical information a useful link to the past as The Earth Observer moves full speed ahead into its digital future. Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science View the full article

NASA/Eric Bordelon & Michael DeMocker On July 16, 2024, the first core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission began a journey from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage was moved onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried 900 miles to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once at Kennedy, engineers will prepare it in the Vehicle Assembly Building for attachment to other rocket and Orion spacecraft elements. The SLS rocket’s core stage is the largest NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, it consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super-chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to propel four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft toward the Moon. Watch a timelapse video of the SLS core stage rollout. Image credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon & Michael DeMocker View the full article

Earth (ESD) Earth Home Explore Climate Change Science in Action Multimedia Data For Researchers NASA invites a global community of innovators, technologists, storytellers, and problem solvers to register for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest annual global hackathon. The annual event, held this year on October 5-6, fosters innovation through international collaboration by providing an opportunity for participants to utilize NASA’s free and open data and space-based data from space agency partners. “It takes a variety of skills and perspectives to launch a mission into space, and NASA’s Space Apps Challenge brings people together across cultures and borders toward solving real world problems on Earth and in space,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “I am excited that this year’s NASA Space Apps Challenge participants will join in our global Heliophysics Big Year celebration. I look forward to seeing all the innovative ideas that our future generation puts forth.” This year, the NASA Space Apps Challenge welcomes 15 international space agency partners, including two new agencies: the Communications, Space & Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia and the Spanish Space Agency. NASA Space Apps also welcomes back the Australian Space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, Indian Space Research Organization, Italian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Mexican Space Agency, National Space Activities Commission of Argentina, National Space Science Agency of Bahrain, Paraguayan Space Agency, South African National Space Agency, and the Turkish Space Agency. During the NASA Space Apps Challenge, participants around the world gather at hundreds of simultaneous in-person and virtual local events to address challenges submitted by subject matter experts across NASA divisions. These challenges range in complexity and topic, tasking participants with everything from creating artistic visualizations of NASA data to conceptualizing and developing informational apps and software programs. In keeping with this year’s theme, “The Sun Touches Everything,” NASA Space Apps invites participants to consider the far-reaching influence of the Sun on Earth and space science. The theme connects participants with NASA’s Heliophysics Division’s celebration of the Helio Big Year. After the hackathon, project submissions are judged by space agency experts. Winners are selected for one of 10 global awards and invited to an in-person celebration with NASA leadership and subject matter experts. NASA Space Apps is funded by NASA’s Earth Science Division through a contract with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, and SecondMuse. The theme for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge is funded by NASA Heliophysics Division. We invite you to register for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge and choose a virtual or in-person local event near you at: spaceappschallenge.org Stay up to date with #SpaceApps by following these accounts: X: @SpaceApps Instagram: @nasa_spaceapps Facebook: @spaceappschallenge YouTube: @NASASpaceAppsChallenge View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Ames Center Director Eugene Tu, left, and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, left, pose in front of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility hyperwall as it displays New Zealand and Earth’s ocean currents.NASA/ Brandon Torres Navarrete As one of eight nations that helped to develop the Artemis Accords, New Zealand is a valuable NASA partner. On July 12, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon visited NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to learn more about how Ames supports efforts to return humans to the Moon and the ongoing collaboration between NASA and New Zealand to observe and study Earth’s interconnected systems. Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Related TermsAmes Research CenterGeneral Explore More 4 min read July 2024 Transformer of the Month: Brooke Weborg Article 4 hours ago 5 min read Experience the Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Mission Article 23 hours ago 1 min read Robotic Assembly and Outfitting for NASA Space Missions Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Ames Research Center Artemis Accords SOFIA The Flying Observatory SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, was a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter… 6 Things to Know About Supercomputing at NASA View the full article

5 min read NASA: Life Signs Could Survive Near Surfaces of Enceladus and Europa Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, have evidence of oceans beneath their ice crusts. A NASA experiment suggests that if these oceans support life, signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (e.g. amino acids, nucleic acids, etc.) could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh radiation on these worlds. If robotic landers are sent to these moons to look for life signs, they would not have to dig very deep to find amino acids that have survived being altered or destroyed by radiation. “Based on our experiments, the ‘safe’ sampling depth for amino acids on Europa is almost 8 inches (around 20 centimeters) at high latitudes of the trailing hemisphere (hemisphere opposite to the direction of Europa’s motion around Jupiter) in the area where the surface hasn’t been disturbed much by meteorite impacts,” said Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of a paper on the research published July 18 in Astrobiology. “Subsurface sampling is not required for the detection of amino acids on Enceladus – these molecules will survive radiolysis (breakdown by radiation) at any location on the Enceladus surface less than a tenth of an inch (under a few millimeters) from the surface.” The frigid surfaces of these nearly airless moons are likely uninhabitable due to radiation from both high-speed particles trapped in their host planet’s magnetic fields and powerful events in deep space, such as exploding stars. However, both have oceans under their icy surfaces that are heated by tides from the gravitational pull of the host planet and neighboring moons. These subsurface oceans could harbor life if they have other necessities, such as an energy supply as well as elements and compounds used in biological molecules. Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice and vapor from many locations along the famed “tiger stripes” near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute The research team used amino acids in radiolysis experiments as possible representatives of biomolecules on icy moons. Amino acids can be created by life or by non-biological chemistry. However, finding certain kinds of amino acids on Europa or Enceladus would be a potential sign of life because they are used by terrestrial life as a component to build proteins. Proteins are essential to life as they are used to make enzymes which speed up or regulate chemical reactions and to make structures. Amino acids and other compounds from subsurface oceans could be brought to the surface by geyser activity or the slow churning motion of the ice crust. This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by JunoCam, the public engagement camera aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The picture is a composite of JunoCam’s second, third, and fourth images taken during the flyby, as seen from the perspective of the fourth image. North is to the left. The images have a resolution of just over 0.5 to 2.5 miles per pixel (1 to 4 kilometers per pixel). As with our Moon and Earth, one side of Europa always faces Jupiter, and that is the side of Europa visible here. Europa’s surface is crisscrossed by fractures, ridges, and bands, which have erased terrain older than about 90 million years. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the images to enhance the color and contrast. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0 To evaluate the survival of amino acids on these worlds, the team mixed samples of amino acids with ice chilled to about minus 321 Fahrenheit (-196 Celsius) in sealed, airless vials and bombarded them with gamma-rays, a type of high-energy light, at various doses. Since the oceans might host microscopic life, they also tested the survival of amino acids in dead bacteria in ice. Finally, they tested samples of amino acids in ice mixed with silicate dust to consider the potential mixing of material from meteorites or the interior with surface ice. This image shows experiment samples loaded in the specially designed dewar which will be filled with liquid nitrogen shortly after and placed under gamma radiation. Notice that the flame-sealed test tubes are wrapped in cotton fabric to keep them together because test tubes become buoyant in liquid nitrogen and start floating around in the dewar, interfering with the proper radiation exposure. Candace Davison The experiments provided pivotal data to determine the rates at which amino acids break down, called radiolysis constants. With these, the team used the age of the ice surface and the radiation environment at Europa and Enceladus to calculate the drilling depth and locations where 10 percent of the amino acids would survive radiolytic destruction. Although experiments to test the survival of amino acids in ice have been done before, this is the first to use lower radiation doses that don’t completely break apart the amino acids, since just altering or degrading them is enough to make it impossible to determine if they are potential signs of life. This is also the first experiment using Europa/Enceladus conditions to evaluate the survival of these compounds in microorganisms and the first to test the survival of amino acids mixed with dust. The team found that amino acids degraded faster when mixed with dust but slower when coming from microorganisms. “Slow rates of amino acid destruction in biological samples under Europa and Enceladus-like surface conditions bolster the case for future life-detection measurements by Europa and Enceladus lander missions,” said Pavlov. “Our results indicate that the rates of potential organic biomolecules’ degradation in silica-rich regions on both Europa and Enceladus are higher than in pure ice and, thus, possible future missions to Europa and Enceladus should be cautious in sampling silica-rich locations on both icy moons.” A potential explanation for why amino acids survived longer in bacteria involves the ways ionizing radiation changes molecules — directly by breaking their chemical bonds or indirectly by creating reactive compounds nearby which then alter or break down the molecule of interest. It’s possible that bacterial cellular material protected amino acids from the reactive compounds produced by the radiation. The research was supported by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002, NASA’s Planetary Science Division Internal Scientist Funding Program through the Fundamental Laboratory Research work package at Goddard, and NASA Astrobiology NfoLD award 80NSSC18K1140. Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Editor wasteigerwald Contact wasteigerwald william.a.steigerwald@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Astrobiology Enceladus Europa Goddard Space Flight Center The Search for Life The Solar System Explore More 8 min read Europa’s Ocean Exploration Stories: Favorite Historical Moments – Robert Pappalardo Interview Article 7 years ago 2 min read Enceladus: What Lies Beneath? Article 16 years ago 8 min read Are Water Plumes Spraying from Europa? NASA’s Europa Clipper is on the Case Finding plumes at Europa is an exciting prospect, but scientists warn it’ll be tricky, even… Article 3 years ago View the full article

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 18 min read Summary of the 2023 Sun – Climate Symposium Introduction Observations of the Sun and Earth from space continue to revolutionize our view and understanding of how solar variability and other natural and anthropogenic forcings impact Earth’s atmosphere and climate. For more than four decades (spanning four 11-year solar cycles and now well into a fifth), the total and spectral solar irradiance and global terrestrial atmosphere and surface have been observed continuously, providing an unprecedented, high-quality time series of data for Sun–climate studies, such as the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) composite record – see Figure 1. Figure 1. The Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) composite record spans almost 5 decades and includes measurements from 13 different instruments (9 NASA and 4 international). Figure credit: Greg Kopp, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP)/University of Colorado (UC). Sun–Climate Symposia, originally called SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Science Team Meetings, have been held at a regular cadence since 1999 – before the launch of SORCE in 2003. These meetings provide an opportunity for experts from across the solar, Earth atmosphere, climate change, stellar, and planetary communities to present and discuss their research results about solar variability, climate influences and the Earth-climate system, solar and stellar variability comparative studies, and stellar impacts on exoplanets. The latest iteration was the eighteenth in the series and occurred in October 2023. (As an example of a previous symposium, see Summary of the 2022 Sun–Climate Symposium, in the January–February 2023 issue of The Earth Observer [Volume 35, Issue 1, pp. 18–27]). The 2023 Sun–Climate Symposium took place October 17­–20 in Flagstaff, AZ – with a focus topic of “Solar and Stellar Variability and its Impacts on Earth and Exoplanets.” The Sun–Climate Research Center – a joint venture between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado (UC) with the Lowell Observatory hosting the meeting. The in-person meeting had 75 attendees – including 7 international participants – with diverse backgrounds covering a wide range of climate change and solar-stellar variability research topics – see Photo. Photo. Attendees at the 2023 Sun–Climate Symposium in Flagstaff, AZ. Photo credit: Kelly Boden/LASP Update on NASA’s Current and Planned TSIS Missions The current NASA solar irradiance mission, the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS-1), marks a significant advance in our ability to measure the Sun’s energy input to Earth across various wavelengths. Following in the footsteps of its predecessors, most notably SORCE, TSIS-1 contributes to the continuous time series of solar energy data dating back to 1978 – see Figure 1. The two instruments on TSIS-1 improve upon those on previous missions, enabling scientists to study the Sun’s natural influence on Earth’s ozone layer, atmospheric circulation, clouds, and ecosystems. These observations are essential for a scientific understanding of the effects of solar variability on the Earth system. TSIS-1 launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2017 and is deployed on the Station’s EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (ExPRESS) Logistics Carrier–3 (ELC-3). Its payload includes the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) for observing the TSI and the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) for measuring the Solar Spectral Irradiance (SSI) – see comparison in Figure 2. The mission completed its five-year prime science mission in March 2023. SIM measures from 200–2400 nm with variable spectral resolution ranging from about 1 nm in the near ultraviolet (NUV) to about 10 nm in the near infrared (NIR). TSIS-1 has been extended by at least three more years as part of the Earth Sciences Senior Review process. TSIS-2 is intended as the follow-on to TSIS-1. The mission is currently in development at LASP and GSFC with a planned launch around mid 2025. The TSIS-2 payload is nearly identical to that of TSIS-1, except that the payload will ride on a free-flying spacecraft rather than be mounted on a solar pointing platform on the ISS. NASA hopes to achieve 1–2 years of overlap between TSIS-1 and TSIS-2. Achieving such measurement overlap between missions is crucial to the continuity of the long-term records of the TSI and SSI without interruption and improving the solar irradiance composite. In addition to the current solar irradiance mission and its planned predecessor, NASA is always looking ahead to plan for the inevitable next solar irradiance mission. Two recent LASP CubeSat missions – called Compact SIM (CSIM) and Compact TIM (CTIM) – have tested miniaturized versions of the SIM and TIM instruments, respectively. Both CSIM and CTIM have performed extremely well in space – with measurements that correlate well with the larger instruments – and are being considered as continuity options for the SSI and TSI measurements. Based on the success of CSIM and CTIM, LASP has developed a concept study report about the Compact-TSIS (CTSIS) as a series of small satellites viable for a future TSIS-3 mission. Figure 2. The Solar Spectral Irradiance (SSI) variability from TSIS-1 Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) is compared to the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) variability from TSIS-1 Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM). The left panel shows the SIM SSI integrated over its wavelength range of 200–2400 nm, which is in excellent agreement with the TSI variability during the rising phase of solar cycle 25. The right panels show comparison of SSI variability at individual wavelengths to the TSI variability, revealing linear relationships with ultraviolet variability larger than TSI variability, visible variability similar to TSI variability, and near infrared variability smaller than TSI variability. Figure credit: Erik Richard/LASP Meeting Overview After an opening plenary presentation in which Erik Richard [LASP] covered the information on TSIS-1, TSIS-2, CSIM, and CTIM presented in the previous section on “NASA’s Current and Planned Solar Irradiance Missions,” the remainder of the four-day meeting was divided into five science sessions each with oral presentations, and a poster session featuring 23 contributions. The five session topics were: Solar and Stellar Activity Cycles Impacts of Stellar Variability on Planetary Atmospheres Evidence of Centennial and Longer-term Variability in Climate Change Evidence of Short-term Variability in Climate Change Trending of Solar Variability and Climate Change for Solar Cycle 25 (present and future) There was also a banquet held on the final evening of the meeting (October 19) with special presentations focusing on the water drainage system and archaeology of the nearby Grand Canyon – see Sun-Climate Symposium Banquet Special Presentation on the Grand Canyon National Park. The remainder of this report summarizes highlights from each of the science sections. To learn more, the reader is referred to the full presentations from the 2023 Sun–Climate Symposium, which can be found on the Symposium website by clicking on individual presentation titles in the Agenda tab. Session 1: Solar and Stellar Activity Cycles Sun-like stars (and solar analogs, solar twins) provide a range of estimates for how the Sun’s evolution may affect its solar magnetic cycle variability. Recent astrophysics missions (e.g., NASA’s Kepler mission) have added thousands of Sun-like stars to study, compared to just a few dozen from a couple decades ago when questions remained if the Sun is a normal G star or not. Tom Ayres [UC Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA)] gave the session’s keynote presentation on Sun-like stars. He pointed out that the new far ultraviolet (FUV) and X-ray stellar observations have been used to clarify that our Sun is a normal G-type dwarf star with low activity relative to most other G-type dwarf stars. Travis Metcalfe [White Dwarf Research Corporation (WDRC)] discussed the recent progress in modeling of the physical processes that generate a star’s magnetic field – or stellar dynamo. He explained how the presence of stellar wind can slow down a star’s rotation, which in turn lengthens the period of the magnetic cycle. He related those expectations to the Sun and to the thousands of Sun-like stars observed by Kepler. Continuing on the topic of solar dynamo, Lisa Upton [Space Systems Research Corporation (SSRC)] and Greg Kopp [LASP] discussed their recent findings using a solar surface magnetic flux transport model, which they can use to reconstruct an estimated TSI record back in time to the anomalously low activity during the Maunder Minimum in the 1600s. Dan Lubin [University of California San Diego (UCSD)] described efforts to identify grand-minimum stars – which exhibit characteristics similar to our Sun during the Maunder Minimum. Using Hamilton Echelle Spectrograph observations, they have identified about two dozen candidate grand-minimum stars. In other presentations and posters offered during this session, Adam Kowalski [LASP]) discussed stellar and solar flare physics and revealed that the most energetic electrons generated during a flare are ten times more than previously thought, while Moira Jardine [University of St. Andrews, Scotland]) discussed the related subject of space weather on the Sun and stars and how the coronal extent was likely much larger for the younger Sun. Three presenters – Debi Choudhary [California State University, Northridge], Garrett Zills [Augusta University], and Serena Criscuoli [National Solar Observatory] –discussed how solar emission line variability from both line intensity and line width are good indicators of magnetic activity on the Sun and thus relevant for studies of Sun-like star variability. Andres Munoz-Jaramillo [Southwest Research Institute (SWRI)] highlighted the importance of archiving large datasets showing the Harvard dataverse as an example. Juan Arjona [LASP] discussed the solar magnetic field observations made using the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research’s GREGOR solar telescope. Session 2: Impacts of Stellar Variability on Planetary Atmospheres Presenters in this session focused on how the stellar variability can impact exoplanet evolution and climate. By analyzing data from NASA’s Kepler mission, scientists have discovered numerous Earth-like planets orbiting other stars – or exoplanets, which has enabled comparative studies between planets in our Solar System and exoplanets. Aline Vidotto [University of Leiden, Netherlands] gave this session’s keynote presentation in which he discussed the impact of stellar winds on exoplanets. In general, younger stars rotate faster and thus have more stellar variability. The evolution of the exoplanet’s atmosphere is dependent on its star’s variability and also modulated by the exoplanet’s own magnetic field. Robin Ramstad [LASP] further clarified a planetary magnetic field’s influences on atmospheric evolution for planets in our solar system. Vladimir Airapetian [GSFC] presented an overview of how laboratory measurements used to simulate pre-biosignatures – characteristics that precede those elements, molecules, or substances that would indicate past or present life – could be created in an exoplanet atmosphere by highly energetic particles and X-rays from stars with super flares, very large-scale magnetic eruptions on a star that can be thousands of times brighter than a typical solar flare. While the probability of a super flare event is low for our Sun (perhaps 1 every 400 years), super flares are routinely observed on more active stars. The stellar flares and the spectral distribution of the flare’s released energy can have large impacts on exoplanet’s atmospheres. Laura Amaral [Arizona State University] presented on the super-flare influences on the habitable zone of exoplanets and explained how the flare’s significantly enhanced X-ray emissions would greatly accelerate water escape from the exoplanet’s atmosphere. Ward Howard [ UC CASA] showed that exoplanet transits can also provide information about starspots (akin to the dark sunspots on the Sun) when a transit event happens to occult a starspot – see Figure 3. Ward also explained the importance of observing the transit events at multiple wavelengths, referred to as transit spectroscopy, to understand the physical characteristics of the starspots. Yuta Notsu [LASP] compared the energetics observed in many different stars using X-ray and far ultraviolet (FUV) observations to estimate stellar magnetic field strengths, which in turn can be used to estimate the stellar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectra. Those results provide new information on how the stellar spectra could evolve during the lifetime of Sun-like stars, and how those spectral changes can affect the atmospheric escape rates on their exoplanets. Nina-Elisabeth Nemec [University of Göttingen, Germany] described how Kepler observations of exoplanets rely on tracking their transits across its host star’s disk. She explained some of the challenges that arise with analyzing such transits when there are large starspots present. Figure 3. Illustration of an exoplanet transit that will occult a starspot. The transit light curve can provide information about the size of the starspot, and transit observations at multiple wavelengths can reveal physical parameters, such as temperature, of the starspot. Figure credit: Ward Howard, CASA/University of Colorado Session 3: Evidence of Centennial and Longer-term Variability in Climate Change Venkatachalam “Ram” Ramaswamy [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL)] gave the keynote for this session in which he discussed Earth’s variable climate change over the past two centuries. He explained in detail Earth’s energy budget and energy imbalance, which leads to less land and sea ice, warmer temperatures at the surface and in the atmosphere and ocean, and more extreme weather. These weather changes have different regional impacts, such as more floods in some regions and more drought in different regions – see Figure 4. Figure 4. The rainfall amount has shifted over the past fifty years (red is less and blue is more) with strong regional impacts on droughts and floods. Figure credit: Ram Ramaswamy/NOAA/GFDL Bibhuti Kumar Jha [SWRI], Bernhard Hofer [Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany], and Serena Criscuoli [National Solar Observatory] discussed long-term solar measurements from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory and showed that the chromospheric plages (Ca K images) have 1.6% faster solar rotation rate than sunspots (white light images). Timothy Jull [University of Arizona (UA)], Fusa Miyake [Nagoya University, Japan], Georg Fueulner [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany], and Dan Lubin discussed the impact that solar influences (i.e., solar flares, solar energetic particles) have had on Earth’s climate over hundreds of years through their impact on phenomena such as the natural distribution of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and fluctuations in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Hisashi Hayawawa [Nagoya University] and Kalevi Mursula [University of Oulu, Finland] discussed the influence that ever-changing sunspots and magnetic fields on the Sun are having on climate – with a focus on the Maunder Minimum period. Irina Panyushkina [UA] and Timothy Jull presented tree ring radioisotope information as it relates to climate change trends as well as long-term, solar variability trends. According to Lubin, if a reduction in solar input similar to what happened during the Maunder Minimum would happen today, the resulting reduction in temperature would be muted due to the higher concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. Session 4: Evidence of Short-term Variability in Climate Change Session 4 focused on discussions that examined shorter-term variations of solar irradiance and climate change. Bill Collins [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)] started off the session with a presentation on Earth albedo asymmetry across the hemispheres from Nimbus-7 observations, and then showed some important differences when looking at the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) record – shown in Figure 5. Lon Hood [UA] discussed the changes in atmospheric circulation patterns which might be the consequence of Arctic sea ice loss increasing the sea level pressure over northern Eurasia. Alexi Lyapustin [GSFC] described how higher temperatures are causing an extension of the wildfire season in the Northern hemisphere by 1–3 months. Figure 5. The albedo difference between the visible and near-infrared bands are shown for the southern hemisphere (red line) and the northern hemisphere (blue lines) for CERES [left] and Nimbus 7 [right]. The southern hemisphere albedo difference is higher than the northern hemisphere albedo difference, both for the 1980s as measured by Nimbus-7 and for the recent two decades as measured by CERES. These hemispheric differences are related mostly to differences in cloud coverage. The seasonal effect on the albedo difference values is about 2%, but the changes from 1980s to 2010s appear to be about 10%. Figure credit: Bill Collins/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Jae Lee [GSFC/University of Maryland, Baltimore County] discussed changes in the occurrence and intensity of the polar mesosphere clouds (PMCs), showing high sensitivity to mesospheric temperature and water, and fewer PMCs for this solar cycle. In addition, some presenters discussed naturally driven climate changes. Luiz Millan [JPL], whose research has found that the water-laden plume from the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai (HT-HH) volcano eruption in January 2022 has had a warming effect on the atmosphere as well as the more typical cooling effect at the surface from the volcanic aerosols. In another presentation, Jerry Raedar [University of New Hampshire, Space Science Center] showed results from his work indicating about 5% reductions in temperature and pressure following major solar particle storms, but noted differences in dependence between global and regional effects. Session 5: Trending of Solar Variability and Climate Change for Solar Cycle 25 (present and future) Session 5 focused on trends during Solar cycle 25 (SC-25), which generated lively discussions about predictions. It appears the SC-25 maximum sunspot number could be about 15% higher than the original SC-25 maximum predictions. Those differences between the sunspot observations and this prediction may be related to the timing of SC-25 ramp up. Lisa Upton started off Session 5 by presenting both the original and latest predictions from the NASA–NOAA SC-25 Prediction Panel. Her assessment of the Sun’s polar magnetic fields and different phasing of magnetic fields over the Sun’s north and south poles suggests that the SC-25 maximum will be larger than the prediction – see Figure 6. The next several speakers – Matt DeLand [Science Systems and Applicatons Inc. (SSAI)], Sergey Marchenko [SSAI], Dave Harber [LASP], Tom Woods [LASP], and Odele Coddington [LASP] – showed a variety of TSI and SSI (NUV, visible, and NIR) variability observations during SC-25. The group consensus was that the difference between the SC-24 and SC-25 maxima may be due to the slightly higher solar activity during SC-25 as compared to the time of the SC-24 maximum – which was an anomalously low cycle. The presenters all agreed that SC-25 maximum may not have been reached yet (and SC-25 maximum may not have occurred yet in 2024). Figure 6. The sunspot number progression (black) during solar cycle 25 is higher than predicted (red). The original NASA–NOAA panel prediction was for a peak sunspot number of 115 in 2025. Lisa Upton’s updated prediction is for a sunspot number peak of 134 in late 2024. Figure credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center On the climate change side, Don Wuebbles [University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign] provided a thorough overview of climate change science showing that: the largest impacts result from the activities of humans, land is warming faster than the oceans, the Arctic is warming two times faster than rest of the world, and 2023 was the hottest year on record with an unprecedented number of severe weather events. There were several presentations about the solar irradiance observations. Leah Ding [American University] presented new analysis techniques using machine learning with Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) solar images to study irradiance variability. Steve Penton [LASP] discussed new SIM algorithm improvements for TSIS-1 SIM data product accuracy. Margit Haberreiter [Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD), Switzerland] discussed new TSI observations from the Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer (CLARA) on the Norwegian NorSat-1 microsatellite. Marty Snow [South African National Space Agency] discussed a new TSI-proxy from the visible light (green filter) Solar Position Sensor (SPS) flown on the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R). (The first of four satellites in the GOES-R series launched in 2016 (GOES-16) followed by GOES-17 and GOES-18 in 2018 and 2022 respectively. The final satellite in the series – GOES-U – launched June 25, 2024 will become GOES-19 after checkout is complete.) Peter Pilewskie [LASP] discussed future missions, focusing on the Libera mission for radiative energy budget, on which he is Principal Investigator. Selected as the first Earth Venture Continuity mission (EVC-1), Libera will record how much energy leaves our planet’s atmosphere on a day-by-day basis providing crucial information about how Earth’s climate is evolving. In Roman mythology, Libera was Ceres’ daughter. The mission name is thus fitting as Libera will act as a follow-on mission to maintain the decades long data record of observation from NASA’s suite of CERES instruments. Figure 7 shows the CERES climate data record trends over the past 20 years. Figure 7. The CERES Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) climate data record shows a positive trend for the absorbed solar radiation [left] and the net radiation [right] and a small negative trend for the emitted terrestrial radiation [middle]. Figure credit: Peter Pilewskie/adapted from a 2021 paper in Geophysical Research Letters Susan Breon [GSFC] discussed the plans for and status of TSIS-2 , and Tom Patton [LASP] discussed CTSIS as an option for TSIS-3 – both of these topics were discussed earlier in this article in the section on “NASA’s Current and Planned Solar Irradiance Missions.” Angie Cookson [California State University, San Fernando Observatory (SFO)] shared information about the SFO’s 50-year history, and how analyses of solar image observations taken at SFO are used to derive important indicators of solar irradiance variability – see Figure 8. Figure 8. The San Fernando Observatory (SFO) [left] has been making visible [middle] and near ultraviolet (NUV) [right] solar images from the ground for more than 50 years. Those solar images have been useful for understanding the sources of solar irradiance variability. Figure credit: Angie Cookson/SFO Sun-Climate Symposium Banquet Special Presentation on the Grand Canyon National Park At the Thursday evening banquet, two speakers – Mark Nebel and Anne Millar – from the National Park Service (NPS) presented some of their geological research on the nearby Grand Canyon. Nebel discussed the water drainage systems surrounding the Grand Canyon while Millar described the many different fossils that have been found in the surrounding rocks. Nebel explained how the Grand Canyon’s water drainage system into the Colorado River is complex and has evolved over the past few decades – see map and photo below. Millar brought several samples of the plant and insect fossils found in the Grand Canyon to share with banquet participants. Those fossils ranged in time from the Bright Angel Formation ocean period 500 million years ago to the Hermit Formation period 285 million years ago – when the Grand Canyon was semi-arid land with slow-moving rivers. Map and photo credit: Mark Nebel/NPS Conclusion Altogether, 80 presentations during the 2023 Sun–Climate Symposium spread across 6 sessions about solar analogs, exoplanets, long-term climate change, short-term climate change, and solar/climate recent trending. The multidisciplinary group of scientists attending made for another exciting conference for learning more about the TSIS solar irradiance observations. Sun–Climate recent results have improved perception of our Sun’s variability relative to many other Sun-like stars, solar impact on Earth and other planets and similar type impacts of stellar variability on exoplanets, and better characterization of anthropogenic climate drivers (e.g., increases in GHG) and natural climate drivers (Sun and volcanoes). The next Sun–Climate Symposium will be held in spring 2025 with a potential focus on polar climate records, including polar ice trends and long-term solar variabilities derived from ice-core samples. Readers who may be interested in participating in the 2025 science organizing committee should contact Tom Woods and/or Dong Wu [GSFC]. Acknowledgments The three co-authors were all part of the Science Organizing Committee for this meeting and wish to acknowledge the other members for their work in planning for and participating in another successful Sun–Climate Symposium. They include: Odele Coddington, Greg Kopp, and Ed Thiemann [all at LASP]; Jae Lee, Doug Rabin, and Dong Wu [all at GSFC]; Jeff Hall, Joe Llama, and Tyler Ryburn [all at Lowell Observatory]; Dan Lubin [UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)]; and Tom Stone [U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center]. The authors and other symposium participants are also deeply grateful to Kelly Boden [LASP] for organizing the logistics and management of the conference, and to the Lowell Observatory, the Drury Inn conference center staff, and the LASP data system engineers for their excellent support in hosting this event. Tom Woods University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Research tom.woods@lasp.colorado.edu Peter Pilewskie University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Research peter.pilewskie@lasp.colorado.edu Erik Richard University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Research erik.richard@lasp.colorado.edu Share Details Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science Uncategorized View the full article