NASA

2 min read Hubble Sights a Galaxy with ‘Forbidden’ Light This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth.ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick This whirling image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-014 has an extremely energetic core known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and is categorized as a Type-2 Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies, along with quasars, host one of the most common subclasses of AGN. While the precise categorization of AGNs is nuanced, Seyfert galaxies tend to be relatively nearby and their central AGN does not outshine its host, while quasars are very distant AGNs with incredible luminosities that outshine their host galaxies. There are further subclasses of both Seyfert galaxies and quasars. In the case of Seyfert galaxies, the predominant subcategories are Type-1 and Type-2. Astronomers distinguish them by their spectra, the pattern that results when light is split into its constituent wavelengths. The spectral lines that Type-2 Seyfert galaxies emit are associated with specific ‘forbidden’ emission lines. To understand why emitted light from a galaxy could be forbidden, it helps to understand why spectra exist in the first place. Spectra look the way they do because certain atoms and molecules absorb and emit light at very specific wavelengths. The reason for this is quantum physics: electrons (the tiny particles that orbit the nuclei of atoms and molecules) can only exist at very specific energies, and therefore electrons can only lose or gain very specific amounts of energy. These very specific amounts of energy correspond to the wavelengths of light that are absorbed or emitted. Forbidden emission lines should not exist according to certain rules of quantum physics. But quantum physics is complex, and some of the rules used to predict it were formulated under laboratory conditions here on Earth. Under those rules, this emission is ‘forbidden’ – so improbable that it’s disregarded. But in space, in the midst of an incredibly energetic galactic core, those assumptions don’t hold anymore, and the ‘forbidden’ light gets a chance to shine out toward us. Text credit: European Space Agency Media Contact: Media Contact: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Dec 22, 2023 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Related Terms AstrophysicsAstrophysics DivisionGalaxiesGoddard Space Flight CenterHubble Space TelescopeMissionsScience Mission DirectorateThe Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Galaxies Stories Stars Stories James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the… View the full article

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) An Alta-8 small Unmanned Aircraft System testbed vehicle flies above NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Flying beyond visual line of sight from observers on the ground required special approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA.NASA / Bowman Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently flew multiple drones beyond visual line of sight with no visual observer. The drones successfully flew around obstacles and each other during takeoff, along a planned route, and upon landing, all autonomously without a pilot controlling the flight. This test marks an important step towards advancing self-flying capabilities for air taxis. “Flying the vehicles beyond visual line of sight, where neither the vehicle nor the airspace is monitored using direct human observation, demonstrates years of research into automation and safety systems, and required specific approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA to complete,” said Lou Glaab, branch head for the aeronautics systems engineering branch at NASA Langley. It is safer and more cost effective to test self-flying technology meant for larger, passenger carrying air taxis on smaller drones to observe how they avoid each other and other obstacles. NASA also is testing elements of automation technology using helicopters. These stand-in aircraft help NASA mature the autonomy well before self-flying air taxis are integrated into the skies. “When you have multiple vehicles, all coming and going from a vertiport that is located adjacent to an airport or deep within a community, we have to ensure the automation technologies of these vehicles are capable of safely handling a high volume of air traffic in a busy area,” said Glaab. Building upon past tests, the team successfully performed multiple flights using purchased ALTA 8 Uncrewed Aircraft Systems, also known as drones, with no visual observer and flew the drones beyond visual line of sight, referred to as “NOVO-BVLOS” flights. The software loaded onto the small drones performed airspace communications, flight path management, avoidance with other vehicles, and more skills needed to operate in a busy airspace. This is imperative for what is envisioned with Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), where drones and air taxis will be operating at the same time on a routine basis. The flight tests were observed from NASA Langley’s Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions control center while the drones took off and landed at the City Environment for Testing Autonomous Integrated Navigation test range. NASA researchers monitor the flight of an autonomous vehicle from the Remote Operations for Autonomous Missions UAS Operations Center at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. the center facilitates “beyond visual line of sight” flight operations of small uncrewed aircraft system vehicles, also known as drones.NASA / David Bowman NASA will transfer the new technology created during this project to the public to ensure industry manufacturers can access the software while designing their vehicles. “NASA’s ability to transfer these technologies will significantly benefit the industry,” said Jake Schaefer, flight operations lead for the project. “By conducting flight tests within the national airspace, in close proximity to airports and an urban environment, we are table to test technologies and procedures in a controlled but relevant environment for future AAM vehicles.” One of these technologies was ICAROURS, which stands for NASA’s Integrated Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems. This software provides an autonomous detect-and-avoid function and is part of the overall system to maintain “well clear” from other air traffic. Another technology used was NASA’s Safe2Ditch system, which allows the vehicle to observe the ground below and make an autonomous decision on the safest place to land in the event of an in-flight emergency. NASA’s AAM mission has multiple projects contributing to various research areas. This project, called the High Density Vertiplex, was specifically focused on testing and evaluating where these future vehicles will take off and land at high frequency, called vertiports, or vertiplexes, for multiple vertiports near each other, and the technology advancements needed to make this successful. 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, Joby Pave the Way for Air Taxis in Busy Airports Article 1 day ago 2 min read NASA to Co-Host Stability and Control Prediction Workshop Article 2 days ago 4 min read Armstrong Flight Research Center: A Year in Review Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Aeronautics Science Missions Artemis Explore NASA’s History Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 EditorJim BankeContactDavid Meadedavidlee.t.meade@nasa.govLocationLangley Research Center Related TermsAeronauticsAdvanced Air MobilityAeronautics Research Mission DirectorateDrones & YouLangley Research Center View the full article

SpaceX NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug “Wheels” Wheelock participated in a recent test of a sub-scale mockup elevator for SpaceX’s Starship human landing system that will be used for NASA’s Artemis III and IV missions to the Moon. The Starship human landing system will carry two astronauts from the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit to the surface, serve as a habitat for crew members’ approximately one week stay on the Moon, and transfer them from the surface back to Orion. The elevator will transport equipment and crew between Starship’s habitable area, located near the top of the lander, and the lunar surface, as they exit for moonwalks. The test allowed the astronauts to interact with a flight-like design of the elevator system, serving as both a functional demonstration of the hardware and providing the chance to receive valuable feedback from a crew perspective. Built at SpaceX’s facility in Hawthorne, California, the elevator mockup has a full-scale basket section with functioning mechanical assemblies and crew interfaces for testing. During the demonstration, NASA astronauts wore spacesuits that simulate the suit size and mobility constraints that crew will face on the Moon. For Artemis III, the crew will wear new advanced spacesuits being developed by Axiom Space. The suited crew provided feedback on elevator controls, such as gate latches, ramp deployment interfaces for moving into and out of the elevator basket, available space for cargo, and dynamic operations while the basket moved along a vertical rail system. NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare to send humans to Mars for the benefit of all. The human landing system is a critical piece of deep space exploration architecture, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. Read more about Artemis: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis News Media Contact Jenalane Rowe Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 View the full article

NASA / Bill Ingalls Artemis II crew members (from left) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman pose for a group photograph after their meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Dec. 14, 2023. The crew will travel aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a 10-day mission around the Moon, testing spacecraft systems for the first time with astronauts for long-term exploration and scientific discovery. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls View the full article

Sediment from Canada’s Mackenzie River empties into the Beaufort Sea in milky swirls in this 2017 satellite image. Scientists are studying how river discharge drives carbon dioxide emissions in this part of the Arctic Ocean.NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen using Landsat data from USGS Runoff from one of North America’s largest rivers is driving intense carbon dioxide emissions in the Arctic Ocean. When it comes to influencing climate change, the world’s smallest ocean punches above its weight. It’s been estimated that the cold waters of the Arctic absorb as much as 180 million metric tons of carbon per year – more than three times what New York City emits annually – making it one of Earth’s critical carbon sinks. But recent findings show that thawing permafrost and carbon-rich runoff from Canada’s Mackenzie River trigger part of the Arctic Ocean to release more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it absorbs. The study, published earlier this year, explores how scientists are using state-of-the-art computer modeling to study rivers such as the Mackenzie, which flows into a region of the Arctic Ocean called the Beaufort Sea. Like many parts of the Arctic, the Mackenzie River and its delta have faced significantly warmer temperatures in recent years across all seasons, leading to more melting and thawing of waterways and landscapes. In this marshy corner of Canada’s Northwest Territories, the continent’s second largest river system ends a thousand-mile journey that begins near Alberta. Along the way, the river acts as a conveyor belt for mineral nutrients as well as organic and inorganic matter. That material drains into the Beaufort Sea as a soup of dissolved carbon and sediment. Some of the carbon is eventually released, or outgassed, into the atmosphere by natural processes. Scientists have thought of the southeastern Beaufort Sea as a weak-to-moderate CO2 sink, meaning it absorbs more of the greenhouse gas than it releases. But there has been great uncertainty due to a lack of data from the remote region. To fill that void, the study team adapted a global ocean biogeochemical model called ECCO-Darwin, which was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The model assimilates nearly all available ocean observations collected for more than two decades by sea- and satellite-based instruments (sea level observations from the Jason-series altimeters, for example, and ocean-bottom pressure from the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On missions). Like a conveyer belt of carbon, the Mackenzie River, seen here in 2007 from NASA’s Terra satellite, drains an area of almost 700,000 square miles (1.8 million square kilometers) on its journey north to the Arctic Ocean. Some of the carbon originates from thawing permafrost and peatlands.NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team The scientists used the model to simulate the discharge of fresh water and the elements and compounds it carries – including carbon, nitrogen, and silica – across nearly 20 years (from 2000 to 2019). The researchers, from France, the U.S., and Canada, found that the river discharge was triggering such intense outgassing in the southeastern Beaufort Sea that it tipped the carbon balance, leading to a net CO2 release of 0.13 million metric tons per year – roughly equivalent to the annual emissions from 28,000 gasoline-powered cars. The release of CO2 into the atmosphere varied between seasons, being more pronounced in warmer months, when river discharge was high and there was less sea ice to cover and trap the gas. Ground Zero for Climate Change Scientists have for decades studied how carbon cycles between the open ocean and atmosphere, a process called air-sea CO2 flux. However, the observational record is sparse along the coastal fringes of the Arctic, where the terrain, sea ice, and long polar nights can make long-term monitoring and experiments challenging. “With our model, we are trying to explore the real contribution of the coastal peripheries and rivers to the Arctic carbon cycle,” said lead author Clément Bertin, a scientist at Littoral Environnement et Sociétés in France. Such insights are critical because about half of the area of the Arctic Ocean is composed of coastal waters, where land meets sea in a complex embrace. And while the study focused on a particular corner of the Arctic Ocean, it can help tell a larger story of environmental change unfolding in the region. Since the 1970s, the Arctic has warmed at least three times faster than anywhere else on Earth, transforming its waters and ecosystems, the scientists said. Some of these changes promote more CO2 outgassing in the region, while others lead to more CO2 being absorbed. For example, with Arctic lands thawing and more snow and ice melting, rivers are flowing more briskly and flushing more organic matter from permafrost and peatlands into the ocean. On the other hand, microscopic phytoplankton floating near the ocean surface are increasingly taking advantage of shrinking sea ice to bloom in the newfound open water and sunlight. These plantlike marine organisms capture and draw down atmospheric CO2during photosynthesis. The ECCO-Darwin model is being used to study these blooms and the ties between ice and life in the Arctic. Scientists are tracking these large and seemingly small changes in the Arctic and beyond because our ocean waters remain a critical buffer against a changing climate, sequestering as much as 48% of the carbon produced by burning fossil fuels. 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 Written by Sally Younger 2023-185 Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 Related TermsClimate ChangeCarbon CycleEarthGreenhouse GasesJet Propulsion LaboratoryOceans Explore More 5 min read NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser Article 3 days ago 4 min read Armstrong Flight Research Center: A Year in Review Article 7 days ago 6 min read NASA’s NEOWISE Celebrates 10 Years, Plans End of Mission Article 1 week ago View the full article

The mobile launcher, carried by the crawler-transporter 2, rolls out from its park site location to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in August 2023 for testing ahead of the agency’s Artemis II mission.NASA/Ben Smegelsky Another jam-packed year is in store for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the momentum of a busy 2023 is carried forward into the new year. On the horizon are missions to the Moon, more crew and cargo flights to the International Space Station, and several upgrade projects across the spaceport. NASA’s first CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative mission with Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is set to begin work in 2024 after lifting off on the inaugural launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. These missions will help the agency develop capabilities needed to explore the Moon under Artemis ahead of sending astronauts to the lunar surface. Another CLPS mission, set for launch early in the year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will send the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander to a landing site at the Moon’s South Pole region. The mission will carry NASA payloads focusing on plume-surface interactions, space weather/lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies, and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in November 2023 on the company’s 29th commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. SpaceX Development toward Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed test flight of its lunar-focused Artemis program continues across Kennedy. SLS (Space Launch System) hardware, including twin solid rocket boosters and a 212-foot-tall core stage for the Artemis II mission, will begin stacking and integration inside the Vehicle Assembly Building in the coming months, after which teams will begin a series of testing prior to launch. Processing also is underway on the core stage for Artemis III. The Artemis II Orion crew and service modules will continue prelaunch processing inside Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building alongside the crew modules for Artemis III and Artemis IV– NASA’s initial missions to land the next humans on the lunar surface. The Starliner team works to finalize the mate of the crew module and new service module for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test that will take NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to and from the International Space Station.Boeing/John Grant NASA and its commercial partners, Boeing and SpaceX, have three Commercial Crew Program missions set to fly from Florida’s Space Coast, setting up another busy year of traffic for the International Space Station in 2024. Teams are readying for the short-duration Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner no earlier than April. Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX will continue crew rotation missions to the orbiting laboratory with Crew-8 expected no earlier than mid-February and Crew-9 to follow in mid-August. Other crewed missions to the space station include SpaceX and Axiom Space’s short-duration Axiom Mission 3 and Axiom Mission 4 private astronaut missions. SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn, the second private short-duration orbital flight will also lift off from Kennedy with four individuals that plan to attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk. Along with crewed flights, three of the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services missions hosted on SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus, and the debut flight of Sierra Space’s cargo spaceplane, Dream Chaser, are slated to fly from Kennedy next year to deliver thousands of pounds of supplies, equipment, and science investigations to the orbiting laboratory. The four SpaceX Crew-8 crew members (from left) Alexander Grebenkin from Roscosmos, and Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps, all NASA astronauts, are pictured training inside a Dragon mockup crew vehicle at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy has several science and CubeSat missions manifested to fly on commercial rockets next year. They represent a mix of some of the agency’s most complex robotic and scientific missions, as well as smaller cost-efficient missions, and missions sponsored by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. The first of three primary missions is NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft that will launch early next year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. PACE’s science goals include extending ocean color, atmospheric aerosol, and cloud data records for Earth system and climate studies. GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U) is slated to launch in April on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the fourth and final satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series of advanced geostationary weather-observing satellites. Scheduled for an October launch on a Falcon Heavy, the agency’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine if it has conditions suitable to support life. Among the small spacecraft and CubeSat missions slated to launch in 2024 are two dedicated launches on Rocket Lab’s Electron for PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Infrared Experiment), which aims to give researchers a more accurate picture of the energy entering and leaving Earth. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will host NASA’s EscaPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission that will send two spacecraft to study solar wind energy and momentum through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere. Technicians process the NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory on a spacecraft dolly in a high bay at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA/Kim Shiflett While next year’s expected cadence of nearly 100 launches from Florida’s Space Coast is likely to mirror 2023’s record-setting pace, something else to look out for will be upgrade and sustainability efforts around the spaceport. The Indian River Bridge construction project, which opened the first of two spans in June of 2023, and the solar site 6 project of the Utility Energy Services Contract, are expected to wrap up and become fully operational next year. Restoration and beautification efforts across Kennedy also include the consideration of several sites for development into natural wildflower prairies. In the spring, Spaceport Integration’s sustainability team will work on “Project Arbor at the Spaceport.” It will focus on planting Florida native trees and one seedling from the Artemis Moon Tree project along the Fitness Trail near Operations Support Building II to provide shade, benefit wildlife, and help improve air quality. A historical marker sponsored by NASA and the Florida Department of State will be installed in early 2024 at the site of Kennedy’s original Headquarters Building making it the first to be located within Kennedy’s secure area. As 2023 draws to a close, Kennedy Space Center is gearing up to support more groundbreaking missions that will expand human knowledge of Earth and our solar system while protecting the local ecosystem and natural resources. View the full article

2 Min Read Going the Extra 500 miles for Alaskan River Ice Fresh Eyes on Ice science team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks stop in the Alaska Native village of Shageluk on a community and citizen science journey of 550 mile by snow mobile. Credits: Photo by Amanda Byrd, UAF Teachers and students in remote Alaskan villages have become vital NASA climate researchers. These special volunteers are so important that last year, climate scientists took an epic 550 mile snowmobile journey to collaborate with them! You can learn all about it in a new video from the Fresh Eyes on Ice project. The researchers stopped at several remote Alaskan villages, where teachers and students at the local schools already understood why this work was so crucial. When you drive over ice-covered rivers every day—as many Alaskan residents do—tracking ice thickness is no joke. Neither is climate change. “We knew that climate change was happening around us.” explains Joyanne Hamilton, a teacher whose students worked with the team. “Our elders here in Shageluk were talking about changes that were happening….the data they’re gathering is ultimately important to the tribe.” The new video features Hamilton, her students, and Fresh Eyes on Ice researchers Dr. Chris Arp, Allen Bondurant and Sarah Clement. It follows their journey along the Innoko, Kukokwim and Yukon Rivers and the Iditarod Sled Dog Trail. Fresh Eyes on Ice science team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks stop in the Alaska Native village of Shageluk on a community and citizen science journey of 550 mile by snow mobile. Photo by Amanda Byrd, UAF Do you live in Alaska or elsewhere in North America where ice forms? All you need to help out is a smartphone and NASA’s GLOBE Observer Landcover app. Your photos will be used in near-real time by river forecasters to help predict spring ice jam flooding, and by scientists to understand how ice timing and extent is changing. Join Fresh Eyes on Ice here! Facebook logo @DoNASAScience @DoNASAScience Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 Related Terms Citizen Science Earth Science View the full article

2 min read Scientists and Students Discuss the Future of Space Research at ASGSR Annual Conference Dr. Lisa Carnell, NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences’ (BPS) Division Director, presenting keynote remarks with Dr. Bonnie Dunbar at the 2023 American Space and Gravitational Research Conference (ASGSR). The American Society for Gravitational and Space Research’s (ASGSR) annual meeting brought together over 850 scientists, engineers, educators, and students from around the world to share their latest findings on microgravity research and discuss the future of space exploration. ASGSR stands at the forefront for fostering groundbreaking research and highlighting the cutting-edge science happening now using microgravity, low-gravity, radiation, and other space-based stressors. The meeting, held in Washington, D.C., November 14-18, 2023, featured a variety of general and technical sessions, student fireside chats, and working sessions exploring the conference’s theme: The Future of Space Exploration: Challenges and Opportunities. Dr. Lisa Carnell, NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences’ (BPS) Division Director, opened the conference with her keynote presentation on the state of BPS. Carnell shared that if the U.S. wants to maintain science leadership, with the intent to go farther and stay longer in space, we must continue to pioneer transformative science at the frontiers of biology and physical sciences. Carnell encouraged attendees to look ahead for ways to support the technologies and infrastructure that will be needed to carry out this science. Former astronaut Dr. Bonnie Dunbar echoed Carnell’s remarks as she expressed the need for adequate funding of this scientific and space-based research as a critical path needed for sustainable exploration. Dunbar challenged the group to build upon the pioneering work of BPS to inspire the next generation of space scientists, engineers, and astronauts. ASGSR hosted over 300 presentations where speakers and participants shared their latest findings and discussed the future of space exploration, a few highlighted topics follow: The development of new technologies to enable sustainable space exploration The effects of gravity on biological systems The need to support the commercial space industry to ensure the continuation of research and success of the commercial space economy The growing importance of international collaboration in space research The potential of space exploration to benefit life on Earth The search for new knowledge about the universe The use of space-based research to address global challenges such as climate change and food security Next year’s ASGSR conference will be held in Puerto Rico, December 3-7, 2024. Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 Related Terms Biological & Physical Sciences Physical Sciences Science & Research Space Biology View the full article

3 min read NASA’s Hubble Watches ‘Spoke Season’ on Saturn This NASA Hubble Space Telescope photo of Saturn reveals the planet’s cloud bands and a phenomenon called ring spokes. NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC) This photo of Saturn was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s ultra-sharp vision reveals a phenomenon called ring spokes. Saturn’s spokes are transient features that rotate along with the rings. Their ghostly appearance only persists for two or three rotations around Saturn. During active periods, freshly-formed spokes continuously add to the pattern. In 1981, NASA’s Voyager 2 first photographed the ring spokes. NASA’s Cassini orbiter also saw the spokes during its 13-year-long mission that ended in 2017. Hubble continues observing Saturn annually as the spokes come and go. This cycle has been captured by Hubble’s Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program that began nearly a decade ago to annually monitor weather changes on all four gas-giant outer planets. Hubble’s crisp images show that the frequency of spoke apparitions is seasonally driven, first appearing in OPAL data in 2021 but only on the morning (left) side of the rings. Long-term monitoring show that both the number and contrast of the spokes vary with Saturn’s seasons. Saturn is tilted on its axis like Earth and has seasons lasting approximately seven years. “We are heading towards Saturn equinox, when we’d expect maximum spoke activity, with higher frequency and darker spokes appearing over the next few years,” said the OPAL program lead scientist, Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This year, these ephemeral structures appear on both sides of the planet simultaneously as they spin around the giant world. Although they look small compared with Saturn, their length and width can stretch longer than Earth’s diameter! “The leading theory is that spokes are tied to Saturn’s powerful magnetic field, with some sort of solar interaction with the magnetic field that gives you the spokes,” said Simon. When it’s near the equinox on Saturn, the planet and its rings are less tilted away from the Sun. In this configuration, the solar wind may more strongly batter Saturn’s immense magnetic field, enhancing spoke formation. Planetary scientists think that electrostatic forces generated from this interaction levitate dust or ice above the ring to form the spokes, though after several decades no theory perfectly predicts the spokes. Continued Hubble observations may eventually help solve the mystery. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This Hubble Space Telescope time-lapse series of Saturn images (taken on October 22, 2023) resolves a phenomenon called ring spokes appearing on both sides of the planet simultaneously as they spin around the giant world. The video zooms into one set of spokes on the morning (left) side of the rings. The spokes are transient features that rotate along the ring plane. The spokes may be a product of electrostatic forces generated by the interaction of the planet’s magnetic field with the solar wind. This interaction levitates dust or ice above the ring to form the spokes. Credit: NASA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Animation: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C. Media Contacts: Claire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD claire.andreoli@nasa.gov Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Science Contact: Amy Simon NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Related Terms Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions Planets Rings of Saturn Saturn The Solar System Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Saturn Stories Saturn: Facts Cassini Saturn-Orbiter View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Pathways Intern Raquel Cervantes Espinosa is pictured at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near the Fred Haise Test Stand, where she worked throughout the fall semester supporting RS-25 engine testing. Cervantes Espinosa will return to NASA Stennis in the summer following the spring semester at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. NASA/Danny Nowlin A first-generation student from North Carolina will return to school in January feeling more motivated and better connected to her future thanks to time invested as a NASA Pathways Intern at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Raquel Cervantes Espinosa, the first member of her family to attend college and a rising junior at Duke University, applied to the internship at NASA Stennis because of opportunities the site presented, such as working with large rocket engines. She admits to initially being nervous, having never traveled to Mississippi or the Gulf Coast area. The electrical engineering major says she was welcomed with open arms. She grew fond of the diverse and highly skilled workforce that showed how her studies apply to working with NASA, which makes leaving after the fall semester bittersweet. “It feels like NASA is really investing in me as an individual, and the people that I work with make it feel that way, too,” Cervantes Espinosa said. “I feel valued here and feel like I can grow with my career and degree studies in terms of what I want to do in the future. I really enjoyed my time at NASA Stennis during the fall and look forward to returning in the summer.” During the fall semester, Cervantes Espinosa worked with test stand camera systems, including those in support of NASA’s certification test series of the RS-25 engine. The series will lead to production of updated engines that will help power future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. “Raquel had a great first semester as a Pathways Intern learning about various electrical and mechanical systems,” said David Carver, deputy branch chief of the Electrical Operations Branch at NASA Stennis. “Her shining accomplishment for the semester was the new test operations video system that she helped design and bring online. The system will provide test engineers with new insight into the operation and health of critical propulsion systems. I look forward to seeing what she accomplishes in the future.” The thermal visual cameras set up by Cervantes Espinosa at the Fred Haise Test Stand, where RS-25 hot fires take place, help ensure safe operations by allowing engineers to monitor key areas of the test stand, such as the liquid oxygen stalls and hydrogen systems. The cameras can also identify potential gas leaks not seen with the naked eye. Additionally, Cervantes Espinosa had the opportunity to analyze data and work on instruments that are used on the RS-25 engine. “A lot of the experience I’m getting from working at NASA Stennis, a lot of the stuff I’m learning now, is really shaping how I see engineering differently than I used to,” she said. The Duke student says one key takeaway from the fall semester was learning beyond electrical engineering and understanding how her physics minor can be applied in the aerospace industry – an industry she now wants to join following graduation. On pace to graduate in 2026, Cervantes Espinosa said it can be challenging at times in unfamiliar territory, whether as an intern at NASA Stennis or as a first-generation engineering student. “I would encourage other first-generation students to keep your head up and keep going,” Cervantes Espinosa said. “It sounds very cliché, but I think it’s really accurate for people like me and a lot of my friends who are first-generation students in engineering and beginning to immerse ourselves into the workforce and see what we need to do. Keep your head up, keep going, and really take advantage of such opportunities because they are out there, and people want the best for you and want to invest in you. You just have to go and seize the opportunity.” The NASA Pathways Intern Program opens in the spring and fall each year with job postings on USAJobs.gov. The application windows open two times each year – typically around February and September. For information about the NASA Pathways program, visit: NASA Careers: Pathways – NASA Social Media Stay connected with the mission on social media, and let people know you’re following it on X, Facebook, and Instagram using the hashtags #NASAStennis #Pathways #Artemis. Follow and tag these accounts: Facebook logo @NASAStennis @NASAStennis Instagram logo @NASAStennis Share Details Last Updated Dec 21, 2023 EditorNASA Stennis CommunicationsContactC. Lacy Thompsoncalvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov / (228) 688-3333LocationStennis Space Center Related TermsStennis Space Center Explore More 7 min read Lagniappe Article 2 days ago 1 min read People Behind the Work at NASA Stennis Article 3 days ago 3 min read NASA Stennis Continues Preparations for Future Artemis Testing Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics About NASA Stennis NASA Careers: Pathways Pathways Informational Video Playlist Employers and Careers at NASA Stennis View the full article

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, second from left, speaks during the third meeting of the National Space Council alongside Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Steve Welby, left, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget Nani Coloretti, center, Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, second from right, and Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, right, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, the council’s role is to advise the President regarding national space policy and strategy, and ensuring the United States capitalizes on the opportunities presented by the country’s space activities. NASA/Joel Kowsky Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the importance of international partnerships and the societal benefits of space exploration, including NASA’s Earth science missions and the agency’s efforts to build a responsible, sustainable human presence in space during the Biden-Harris Administration’s third National Space Council meeting Wednesday, held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. “For generations, our nation has led the world in the exploration and use of space,” said Harris. “In the coming years, one of the primary ways we will continue to extend that leadership is by strengthening our international partnerships, combining our resources, scientific capacity, and technical skill with that of our allies and partners around the world, all in furtherance of our collective vision.” During the meeting, NASA announced it will deepen its partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by advancing data collection for enhanced air quality monitoring in South America and Africa. Under this effort, NASA and the Italian Space Agency will partner to build and launch the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission, which is expected to launch in 2025 to enable improved measurements of airborne particulate matter in large metropolitan areas. The mission marks the first time NASA has partnered with epidemiologists and health organizations on a satellite mission to study human health and improve lives. “NASA is excited to partner with the Italian Space Agency on the MAIA mission while simultaneously strengthening our support for USAID,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Airborne particles pollute some of the world’s most populous cities and have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as adverse reproductive and birth outcomes. Results from this mission will allow us to better understand the health impacts of pollution in geographically diverse global communities, including our Southern Hemisphere.” The Vice President also underscored the importance of international partnerships enabling long-duration stays on the Moon and future human missions to Mars. “In consultation with international and industry partners, NASA has built a cohesive and robust Moon to Mars strategy to enable a responsible, sustainable presence throughout the solar system. Our future depends on partnerships,” said Melroy. “Together, we will strategically advance science, boost our national posture, and inspire a new generation to want to explore the cosmos.” NASA has welcomed significant development progress and investments by international partners for its Artemis program. The European Space Agency provides the European Service Module, the Orion spacecraft’s powerhouse. Additionally, Canada, Japan, and Europe are contributing to Gateway, a human-tended space station in lunar orbit. Europe and Japan are building the International Habitation Module, Europe is providing the European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) module, Japan will provide cargo resupply with an upgrade of its H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-X), and Canada is developing Canadarm3, a robotic arm to perform science utilization and maintenance. With these significant contributions, the United States intends to land an international astronaut on the lunar surface by the end of the decade. In coordination with the U.S. Department of State, the agency has also welcomed 33 signatories to the Artemis Accords since it was established in 2020, ten in the past year alone. The Artemis Accords establish practical principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA’s Artemis program. The Accords signatories are holding focused discussions on how best to implement the Artemis Accords principles, including transparency and deconfliction at the Moon. NASA also highlighted the April 2023 release of the initial Moon to Mars architecture, comprised of the elements needed for long-term, human-led scientific discovery in deep space. NASA recently hosted its second Architecture Concept Review in November and anticipates releasing the outcomes of the annual cycle early in 2024. NASA noted that it is seeking international partnerships for an array of elements identified in the architecture and is in conversation with international space agencies to identify future partnership opportunities. A full recording of the National Space Council meeting is available online at: https://images.nasa.gov/details/V.P. Kamala Harris Chairs National Space Council Meeting in Washington More information on the outcomes of the meeting is available at: https://go.nasa.gov/3Rya4zV https://go.nasa.gov/482FJRp Faith McKie / Amber Jacobson Headquarters, Washington 202-262-8342 / 240-298-1832 faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsGeneralPamela A. Melroy View the full article

32 Min Read The Marshall Star for December 20, 2023 Crew-6 Connects with Marshall Team Members During Visit By Celine Smith One week after the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 visited the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share their experience during Expedition 69. The event was held Dec. 14 in Building 4316. Expedition 69 began March 2 with Crew-6 flying on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. While aboard the space station, the crew studied the behavior of flames in microgravity, grew cardiac tissue using 3-D culturing, and researched the impact of weightlessness on astronauts’ health. Expedition 69 Crew-6 astronauts smile and hold a banner for a photo with team members from the Human Exploration Development & Operations Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. From left, the astronauts are Sultan Alneyadi, Steven Bowen, Warren “Woody” Hoburg, and Frank Rubio. NASA/Charles Beason NASA astronauts Frank Rubio (flight engineer), Stephen Bowen (flight engineer), Warren “Woody” Hoburg (flight engineer), and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi (flight engineer) answered questions from Marshall team members after viewing a short film summarizing the research done on Expedition 69. Acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey welcomed Marshall team members, thanking them and Crew-6 for all the effort that goes into making a mission successful. “As we wrap up 2023, I just want to say how proud I am of our team and all the accomplishments that you have helped us achieve this year,” Pelfrey said. “Crew-6 is going to talk about their amazing experience. Marshall is a part of that experience and mission with the work we do here between Payload Operations, the Environmental Control and Life Support System and payload facilities and our Commercial Crew Program support. This is a great time to hear from our guests and celebrate our successes together.” During the Q&A portion of the event, the audience learned about the strides in research being made on the station. Hoburg discussed the growing of human tissue while on the expedition. “One day Sultan worked on heart muscle cells up there and we actually got to see the cells beating under the microscope,” Hoburg said. “We’re doing work in Low Earth orbit to help people back on Earth with potential heart disease. We also did work with the BioFabrication facility where we 3D-printed biological material. We printed the first-ever section of human meniscus.” The microgravity environment of the station provides crew members with the ability to do more intricate work that cannot be done as well on Earth, Hoburg explained. Expedition 69 is particularly important because it marks the longest time an American astronaut has been in space. The end of the mission concluded Rubio’s 371-day stay in space, which began with Expedition 68. “I was excited to implement lessons learned right away,” Rubio said. “With your first mission, you’re learning. You typically don’t get to implement your better self until years later. I got that opportunity much sooner.” From left, Alneyadi, Hoburg, Bowen, and Rubio answer questions during the Marshall team member Q&A portion of their visit. NASA/Charles Beason Rubio also used his experience to detail the effects of prolonged time in space on the body. “You miss microgravity, in the sense that it’s a lot of fun to just fly around,” he said. “It takes 72 hours to 5 days to fully acclimate to microgravity. After two weeks, you’re completely used to it. When you come back to Earth, there’s a lot of aches and pains because the reality is offloading everything off your joints, especially your spine, feels good – specifically for those who are older. Like, for me, it feels like I’ve run a 5k every time I get up because my feet did nothing for a year, but your body does readjust.” Expedition 69 also marks the first time a UAE astronaut has been to the station. Alneyadi spoke about his unique experience when asked about his participation in a culturally based event. “I was presenting to the whole region, speaking Arabic, discussing the International Space Station, and showcasing the importance of its science,” Alneyadi said. “It was very impactful, and I felt honored to be a part of it as well. I see the impact on the students. They ask a lot of questions and have a lot of excitement.” The event concluded with the opportunity for attendees to get their picture taken with the Crew-6 astronauts. “People are the same everywhere, that’s the basics of humanity,” Bowen said when asked what’s the most exciting thing he’s learned from the international aspect of his work. From our perspective, we can’t see borders — it’s one Earth. At the very intimate singular level, people are people. We’re people, and we’re absolutely capable of doing amazing things.” Learn more about Crew-6. Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top Take 5 with Jason Adam By Wayne Smith For Jason Adam, joining NASA wasn’t a career choice. It was a calling. “A calling to push the boundaries of human knowledge, to turn the dreams of a starry-eyed child gazing up at the sky into a reality, and to be a part of humanity’s greatest adventure – the exploration of the universe,” said Adam, who is the manager for the CFM (Cryogenic Fluid Management) Portfolio Project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Jason Adam, manager for the CFM Portfolio Project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, holds a full-size resin model of a Thermodynamic Vent System Injector while standing in front of an Exploration Systems Test Facility within the CFM Laboratory in Building 4205.NASA/Danielle Burleson The project develops key CFM technologies used to acquire, transfer, and store cryogenic fluids in orbit. The project is within STMD (Space Technology Mission Directorate) and develops crucial technologies for STMD and other mission directorates. Adam’s role extends across 12 states and six NASA centers, managing significant contracts and a multitude of complex activities nationwide. Growing up in North Dakota, Adam said he always was captivated by the mysteries of the universe as he studied the night sky. “(I was fascinated) by the endless expanse above, with its twinkling stars and wandering planets, and boundless possibilities,” he said. “This childhood wonder laid the foundation for my journey to NASA. It was here that my dream to explore the cosmos took flight.” Working with projects like CFM enables Adam to live his dream, and he hopes to inspire others as well toward NASA’s mission of exploring the universe for the benefit of all. “Remember your journey at NASA is not just about personal achievements, but also about contributing to the greater goal of exploring and understanding our universe,” he said. “Embrace this opportunity with enthusiasm and a commitment to excellence.” Question: What excites you most about the future of human space exploration and your team’s role it? Adam: Cryogenic fluid management is a critical and exciting area of technology, particularly in relation to the exploration of Mars for several reasons. One of the primary uses of cryogenic fluids in space exploration is as rocket fuel, specifically liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. These cryogenically stored fuels are highly efficient but must be kept at extremely low temperatures. Effective cryogenic fluid management is crucial for months or years-long missions to Mars, as it ensures that the spacecraft has enough fuel for the journey there, operations on the Martian surface, and the return trip. Mars missions are looking into using ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) to generate fuel from Martian resources. For example, water ice from Mars can be processed into liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Managing these cryogenic fluids effectively is essential for this process to be viable, enabling longer and more sustainable missions. Cryogenic fluid management is not only a cornerstone to enable Mars exploration but also a catalyst for broader innovations in space travel and various terrestrial applications. Question: What has been the proudest moment of your career and why? Adam: There have been many proud moments in my 20-plus years at Marshall that originated at Stennis Space Center. Some of those moments include helping the shuttle return to safe flight through testing SSMEs (space shuttle main engines) at Stennis, to flying the Mighty Eagle Lander with a small team in the Marshall West Test Area, to now having the privilege of leading the CFM project with a group of spectacular individuals. In each case, I have been proudest when the team was accountable, authentic, passionate, inclusive, and highly competent. Those are the teams I cherish most and the type of environment I try to create as a leader. Question: Who or what drives/motivates you? Adam: Working at Marshall, my motivation is deeply rooted in the pioneering spirit of technological innovation and the quest for knowledge beyond Earth. Marshall, known for its groundbreaking work in developing systems that push the boundaries of space technology, serves as a constant source of inspiration for me. My drive is fueled by a profound passion for space exploration. The idea of contributing to missions that reach into the unknown, that test the limits of human ingenuity and reveal the mysteries of the cosmos, is what gets me up in the morning. I’m driven by the knowledge that the systems and technologies you’re helping to develop at Marshall will one day make space more accessible and safer for astronauts. This drive isn’t just about the technology itself, it’s about what that technology represents – the human desire to explore, to learn, and to constantly push forward. My motivation comes from wanting to contribute in a meaningful way to this grand endeavor. Each day at Marshall offers a new opportunity to be a part of something larger than yourself – to contribute to a legacy of exploration that benefits not just the present generation but also the future ones. In my role, I’m not just a witness to history in the making; I’m an active participant in shaping it. Question: What advice do you have for employees early in their NASA career or those in new leadership roles? Adam: First, follow your passion. Begin by immersing yourself in a field that truly fascinates you. NASA’s diverse missions span from the depths of the oceans to the far reaches of space, so align your work with what genuinely excites you. This passion will be your driving force and will keep you motivated through challenges. Second, build a strong foundation. Whether your focus is technical, scientific, or administrative, strive to develop a robust base of knowledge and skills. Seek opportunities to learn from different projects and teams. This diverse experience will be invaluable as you progress in your career, providing a well-rounded perspective and a toolkit of solutions. Third, nurture your team. As you advance into leadership roles, remember that your success is intricately linked to the well-being and performance of your team. Invest in understanding their strengths, aspirations, and challenges. Encourage an environment where everyone feels valued and motivated. Strive to create an environment where employees can bring their full self to work. Question: What do you enjoy doing with your time while away from work? Adam: Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family. My wife and I have three children and two dogs. We like to spend time outdoors and enjoy camping around the region in our camper on some weekends. My wife and I also like to watch our alma mater, North Dakota State University, play football. Smith, a Media Fusion employee and the Marshall Star editor, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top Pamela Bourque Named Chief Counsel at Marshall Pamela Bourque has been named as chief counsel at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. She has served as the center’s acting chief counsel since May, leading Marshall’s Office of the General Counsel team and overseeing the legal practice areas of procurement and contract law, partnerships and agreements, personnel law, ethics, fiscal law, employment law, intellectual property, and litigation. Marshall’s chief counsel is responsible for coordinating a full range of legal operations affecting the center and its organizations. The chief counsel also serves as a senior member of the NASA Office of the General Counsel’s enterprise leadership team. Pamela Bourque, chief counsel at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA From 2022 to April 2023, Bourque was Marshall’s deputy chief counsel, assisting the chief counsel with managing the legal operations of the center. She also supported the NASA legal enterprise on various senior teams, including the Legal Leadership Board, the Ethics Best Practices Working Group, the Deputy Counsel Forum, and participated as a mentor in NASA’s attorney mentoring program. From 2005 to 2022, Bourque was the center’s assistant chief counsel for general law and litigation. She was the functional lead for litigation matters and provided Marshall management with legal advice and representation in the areas of personnel law, federal ethics standards, agreements, and other matters. Under her leadership, Marshall’s Ethics Program was recognized by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics with an Ethics Program Award. From 1993 to 2005, Bourque was an attorney-adviser at Marshall. She has previously served as president of the North Alabama Chapter of the FBA (Federal Bar Association), as well as the chair of FBA’s Labor Law Symposium for multiple years. Bourque has been recognized with numerous NASA awards during her career, including the NASA Office of the General Counsel’s Meritorious Service Award, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Silver Achievement Medal, the NASA Space Flight Awareness Launch Honoree Award, the NASA Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy Award, the Marshall Engineering Directorate’s Service to Engineering Award, and other performance, on-the-spot, and peer awards. She has been profiled in Women at NASA. A native of Broussard, Louisiana, Bourque is a graduate of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command’s Leadership Investment for Tomorrow (LIFT-II) Program, the Simmons Executive Leadership for Women/NASA Fellowship at Simmons College, the Department of Defense Mediator Certification Program, and she is currently enrolled in the Leadership of Greater Huntsville’s Connect Emerging Leaders Program. Bourque earned a Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she was a senior fellow. She received her honors baccalaureate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She lives in Madison with her husband, Max Patin. They have two children. › Back to Top Thomas Percy Named Systems Engineering and Integration Manager for Human Landing System Program Thomas Percy has been named as the SE&I (Systems Engineering and Integration) manager for the HLS (Human Landing System) Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The SE&I office oversees the development and verification of requirements, cross-discipline insight into commercial lander providers, and cross-program integration. The HLS SE&I team is also responsible for integration with the Moon to Mars Program in the areas of mission development, general analyses, and requirements management. Thomas Percy, Systems Engineering and Integration manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/Danielle Burleson Since 2021, Percy has been the deputy SE&I manager for HLS. From 2020 to 2021, he was the integrated performance lead for HLS, managing the team within SE&I responsible for trajectory analysis, environments, performance assessment, mission development, and metric tracking. From 2016 to 2020, Percy was a space systems analyst prior to his role as chief architect of the Advanced Concepts Office at Marshall, where he supported the formulation of the HLS Program as well as transportation architecture studies for human Mars missions and the development of various robotic spacecraft concepts. Prior to joining NASA in 2016, Percy spent 13 years working in private industry at SAIC as a section manager and support contractor to Marshall and Johnson Space Center. He also was a part-time instructor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Alabama in Huntsville off and on from 2006-2021. His honors include a NASA Group Achievement Award: Human Landing System Source Evaluation Panel; NASA Exceptional Service medal; NASA Silver Achievement Medal Group: Human Landing System Source Evaluation Panel; and a NASA Group Achievement Award: Mars Basis of Comparison Reference Team. A native of Easton, Massachusetts, Percy received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, a master’s in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, and a doctorate in aerospace systems engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He and his wife, Erin, live in Madison. They have three children. › Back to Top Mission Success is in Our Hands: Chelsi Cassilly Mission Success is in Our Hands is a safety initiative collaboration between NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Jacobs. As part of the initiative, eight Marshall team members are featured in new testimonial banners placed around the center. This is the second in a Marshall Star series profiling team members featured in the testimonial banners. Chelsi Cassilly is a planetary protection microbiologist working for Jacobs at Marshall, where she’s been for almost three years. A native of Tennessee, she previously worked at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, as a postdoctoral fellow prior to joining Jacobs. She’s a graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology, and of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned a doctoral degree in microbiology. Chelsi Cassilly is a planetary protection microbiologist working at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA/Charles Beason “It’s an honor and privilege to work for Jacobs and NASA,” Cassilly said. “I look forward to work every single day and consider myself exceptionally blessed with this opportunity I’ve been afforded.” Question: What are some of your key responsibilities? Cassilly: I support many different projects at Marshall. Primarily I help projects implement planetary protection. This includes the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which is part of the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander; a mission concept for a Europa Lander; and the lunar Human Landing System. I also manage the Planetary Protection Lab at Marshall, which is a fully functional biosafety level 2 lab. Funded by multiple sources, including NASA ROSES (Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science), Marshall Cooperative Agreement Notices, Marshall Technical Excellence funding, and Jacobs Innovation Grants, I have both completed and continue to support multiple smaller experiments to determine microbial abundance within materials as well as sterilization methods. Question: How does your work support the safety and success of NASA and Marshall missions? Cassilly: NASA missions must meet the requirements laid out by headquarters. One subset of requirements on some missions is planetary protection, that is, preventing forward and backward microbial contamination. Marshall is involved with several missions where there are planetary protection requirements to meet. I help the center interpret and implement techniques to meet the requirements. I am currently the only point of contact for this discipline at Marshall, so I take seriously the responsibility of helping engineers understand unfamiliar terminology while also ensuring we are compliant with requirements, therefore helping achieve the goals of our missions. Question: What does the Mission Success is in Our Hands initiative mean to you? Cassilly: It means that success is personal. It means every single one of us can contribute in large ways to mission success simply by being ethical and maintaining our integrity as workers and as individuals. Question: How can we work together better to achieve mission success? Cassilly: We can support one another by encouraging safety, ethics, a culture of learning, ownership, and integrity within our teams. We can foster an environment where ownership is lauded and correction is not seen as negative, but rather as learning opportunities and areas of improvement. Benchmarking such progress of both individuals and teams, using mistakes and problems to propel us forward, will serve to strengthen teams, develop a sense of pride in our collective mission, and provide clear trajectory for our long-term efforts and goals. › Back to Top I am Artemis: Bruce Askins Growing up, Bruce Askins was passionate about space and oceanography. His desire to explore other worlds always made him want to be an astronaut. Though he did not become an astronaut, Askins has built a 42-year career at NASA, and, as the infrastructure management lead for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Askins is an integral part for the next generation of explorers. Askins and his team are the gatekeepers and protectors of data and responsible for both cyber- security and physical security for the SLS Program. Under Askins’ leadership, his team ensures all data is stored properly, that information about the rocket shared outside NASA is done with proper data markings, and access is given to those that need it. Bruce Askins is the infrastructure management lead for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA/Sam Lott Askins wasn’t always familiar with the world of infrastructure and cyber security. As a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Askins began his career as part of NASA’s internship program. He considered himself imaginative, or “creatively driven,” which is why Askins originally pursued a career at NASA. “I always loved the design aspect of my early position in special test equipment,” Askins says. “Back then I drew everything by hand with a pencil before eventually transitioning to computers.” His creativity and interest in underwater worlds, along with his scuba diver certification, led him to have a hand in designing early test elements for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. At the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a former underwater training facility at Marshall, Askins interacted with a crew of astronauts supporting Hubble and designed the flight simulation hardware used for crew training on the Canadarm2 robotic arm that is still a part of the International Space Station today. Askins has been a part of the NASA family for almost half a century and is thrilled to be a part of the next era of space exploration to the Moon under Artemis. “To explore is one of the greatest things that we can all do, and with the Artemis Generation the sky’s the limit,” Askins said. 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. › Back to Top NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video from Deep Space via Laser NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment beamed an ultra-high definition streaming video on Dec. 11 from a record-setting 19 million miles away (or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The milestone is part of a NASA technology demonstration aimed at streaming very high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space – enabling future human missions beyond Earth orbit. “This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Increasing our bandwidth is essential to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions.” Members of the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) team react to the first high-definition streaming video to be sent via laser from deep space Dec. 11 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sent by the DSOC transceiver aboard the Psyche spacecraft nearly 19 million miles from Earth, the video features a cat named Taters.NASA/JPL-Caltech The demo transmitted the 15-second test video via a cutting-edge instrument called a flight laser transceiver. The video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 Mbps (megabits per second). Capable of sending and receiving near-infrared signals, the instrument beamed an encoded near-infrared laser to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, where it was downloaded. Each frame from the looping video was then sent “live” to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the video was played in real time. Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, a NASA technology demonstration riding aboard the Psyche space craft, is using advanced laser communication technology to transmit large amounts of data back to earth. DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication demonstrations funded by the agency’s TDM (Technology Demonstration Missions) program office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “We just demonstrated a highly advanced data transmission capability that will play an instrumental role in NASA’s boldest missions to deep space, and it shows that DSOC is functioning successfully in a relevant environment,” said Tawnya Laughinghouse, manager of the TDM program office at Marshall. “Streaming an ultra-high definition video from millions of miles away in deep space is no small feat.” The laser communications demo, which launched with NASA’s Psyche mission Oct. 13, is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times greater than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today. As Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the technology demonstration will send high-data-rate signals as far out as the Red Planet’s greatest distance from Earth. In doing so, it paves the way for higher-data-rate communications capable of sending complex scientific information, high-definition imagery, and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars. “One of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data,” said Bill Klipstein, the tech demo’s project manager at JPL. “But to make this significant event more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video, which captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission.” Uploaded before launch, the short ultra-high definition video features an orange tabby cat named Taters, the pet of a JPL employee, chasing a laser pointer, with overlayed graphics. The graphics illustrate several features from the tech demo, such as Psyche’s orbital path, Palomar’s telescope dome, and technical information about the laser and its data bit rate. Tater’s heart rate, color, and breed are also on display. This 15-second clip shows the first ultra-high-definition video sent via laser from deep space, featuring a cat named Taters chasing a laser with test graphics overlayed. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) “Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. “In fact, after receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the internet, and that connection was slower than the signal coming from deep space. JPL’s DesignLab did an amazing job helping us showcase this technology – everyone loves Taters.” There’s also a historical link: Beginning in 1928, a small statue of the popular cartoon character Felix the Cat was featured in television test broadcast transmissions. Today, cat videos and memes are some of the most popular content online. This latest milestone comes after “first light” was achieved on Nov. 14. Since then, the system has demonstrated faster data downlink speeds and increased pointing accuracy during its weekly checkouts. On the night of Dec. 4, the project demonstrated downlink bit rates of 62.5 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 267 Mbps, which is comparable to broadband internet download speeds. The team was able to download a total of 1.3 terabits of data during that time. As a comparison, NASA’s Magellan mission to Venus downlinked 1.2 terabits during its entire mission from 1990 to 1994. “When we achieved first light, we were excited, but also cautious. This is a new technology, and we are experimenting with how it works,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “But now, with the help of our Psyche colleagues, we are getting used to working with the system and can lock onto the spacecraft and ground terminals for longer than we could previously. We are learning something new during each checkout.” The Deep Space Optical Communications demonstration is the latest in a series of optical communication demonstrations funded by the TDM program under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and supported by NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program within the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. › Back to Top NASA Geologist Paves Way for Building on the Moon By Jessica Barnett For many at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a love – be it for space, science, or something else – drew them to the career they’re in today. For geologist Jennifer Edmunson, there were multiple reasons. Her love for geology dates back to her childhood in Arizona, playing in the mud, fascinated by the green river rocks she would find and how they fit together. As she grew older, her love for astronomy led her to study the regolith and geology of the Moon and Mars in graduate school. Jennifer Edmunson, geologist and MMPACT project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA That, in turn, led her to Marshall for her post-doctorate, where she studied how shock processes from meteorite impacts potentially affect scientists’ work to determine the age of rocks using different radioisotope systems. On her first day, she needed help from the center’s IT department, which is how she met Joel Miller, the man she now calls her husband. “I met him on April Fools’ Day, and he asked me out on Friday the 13th,” Edmunson recalled. “I knew I needed to get a stable job, so I got a job as the junior geologist on the simulant team here at Marshall. That was back in 2009.” Fourteen years later, they still work at Marshall. He’s now the center’s acting spectrum manager, and she manages the MMPACT (Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology) project. Through MMPACT, Marshall is working with commercial partners and academia to develop and test robotic technology that will one day use lunar soil and 3-D printing technology to build structures on the Moon. “It’s phenomenal to see the development of the different materials we’ve been working on,” Edmunson said. “We started with this whole array of materials, and now we’re like, ‘OK, what’s the best one for our proof of concept?’” NASA aims for a proof-of-concept mission to validate the technology and capability by the end of this decade. This mission would involve traveling to the Moon to create a representative element of a landing pad. MMPACT aims to build lunar infrastructure using the materials readily available on the Moon. This process, known as in-situ resource utilization, allows NASA engineers to use lunar regolith, fine-grained silicate minerals thought to be available in a layer between 10 to 70 feet deep on the lunar surface, to build different structures and infrastructure elements. Marshall geologist and MMPACT project manager Jennifer Edmunson, fourth from right, joined several other scientists for a trip to Stillwater, Montana, earlier this year. Stillwater is known to have rocks like those found on the Moon.NASA However, regolith can’t be used like cement here on Earth, as it wouldn’t solidify in the low-pressure environment. So, Edmunson and her team are now looking at microwaves and laser technology to heat the regolith to create solid building materials. After successfully building a full-scale landing pad on the Moon, MMPACT will likely focus on a vertical structure, like a garage, habitat, or safe haven for astronauts. “The possibilities are endless,” she said. “There is so much potential for using different materials for different applications. There’s just a wealth of opportunity for anyone who wants to play in the field, really.” Edmunson hopes to get more lunar regolith first, as NASA is still working with samples from the Apollo missions and simulants based on those samples. She’s also looking forward to Artemis bringing back samples from different parts of the lunar surface because it will provide her team with a wider pool of regolith samples to analyze. “We want to learn more about different locations on the Moon,” she said. “We have to understand the differences and how that might affect our processes.” Knowing this will make it easier not just to build landing pads and habitats but to build roadways and the start of a lunar economy, Edmunson said. Some minerals are rare on Earth but abundant on the Moon. To study how those minerals could be used for building, scientists rely on simulants, like the synthetic anorthite pictured here.NASA “I want there to be sufficient structures there to make things safe for crew, so if we want to build a hotel on the Moon, we could,” she said. “We could have tourists going there, mining districts pulling rare Earth elements from the Moon. We could do that and get a lot of resources that way. I want science to progress, things like building a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. I want more information on more of the different sites around the Moon, so we can get a be`tter understanding of how the Moon formed and the history of the Moon. We’ve only scratched the surface there.” There are parts of the Moon that can only be explored in detail by visiting in person, Edmunson explained, and she’s excited to be working at Marshall as that exploration is made possible. “It’s awesome to be part of this. Honestly, it’s the reason I get out of bed in the morning,” she said. “I was born in ’77, so I missed the Apollo lunar landings. I would love to see humans on the Moon in my lifetime, and on Mars would just be amazing.” Her advice is simple to anyone considering a career like hers: Just go for it. “A lot of it comes down to passion and tenacity,” she said. “If you really love what you do and you get to do it every day, you find more enjoyment in your career. I feel like I’m making a difference, and with surface construction at such an infant kind of stage right now, I feel like it’s a contribution that will last for a very long time.” Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications. › Back to Top Sprightly Stars Illuminate ‘Christmas Tree Cluster’ A new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars – with ages between about one and five million years old – in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses. This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major This new composite image enhances the resemblance to a Christmas tree through choices of color and rotation. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white. This image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image. Young stars, like those in NGC 2264, are volatile and undergo strong flares in X-rays and other types of variations seen in different types of light. The coordinated, blinking variations shown in this animation, however, are artificial, to emphasize the locations of the stars seen in X-rays and highlight the similarity of this object to a Christmas tree. In reality, the variations of the stars are not synchronized. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This composite image shows the Christmas Tree Cluster. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation’s WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak shows gas in the nebula in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree, and infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white. This image has been rotated clockwise by about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image. The variations observed by Chandra and other telescopes are caused by several different processes. Some of these are related to activity involving magnetic fields, including flares like those undergone by the Sun – but much more powerful – and hot spots and dark regions on the surfaces of the stars that go in and out of view as the stars rotate. There can also be changes in the thickness of gas obscuring the stars, and changes in the amount of material still falling onto the stars from disks of surrounding gas. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. › Back to Top NASA’s 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Test a Success NASA has achieved a new benchmark in developing an innovative propulsion system called the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center successfully tested a novel, 3D-printed RDRE for 251 seconds (or longer than four minutes), producing more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars, said Marshall combustion devices engineer Thomas Teasley, who leads the RDRE test effort at the center. Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center conduct a successful, 251-second hot fire test of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor in fall 2023, achieving more than 5,800 pounds of thrust.NASA RDRE’s first hot fire test was performed at Marshall in the summer of 2022 in partnership with In Space LLC and Purdue University, both of Lafayette, Indiana. That test produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute. The primary goal of the latest test, Teasley noted, is to better understand how to scale the combustor to different thrust classes, supporting engine systems of all types and maximizing the variety of missions it could serve, from landers to upper stage engines to supersonic retropropulsion, a deceleration technique that could land larger payloads – or even humans – on the surface of Mars. Test stand video captured at Marshall shows ignition of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor, which was fired for a record 251 seconds and achieved more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. (NASA) “The RDRE enables a huge leap in design efficiency,” he said. “It demonstrates we are closer to making lightweight propulsion systems that will allow us to send more mass and payload further into deep space, a critical component to NASA’s Moon to Mars vision.” Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Venus Aerospace of Houston, Texas, are working with Marshall to identify how to scale the technology for higher performance. RDRE is managed and funded by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. › Back to Top View the full article

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft is pictured moments away from being captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm controlled by NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg from inside the International Space Station. Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Friday, Dec. 22, four months after delivering more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, scientific investigations, commercial products, hardware, and other cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA and its international partners. Live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure will begin at 7:45 a.m. EST on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Flight controllers on the ground will send commands for the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach Cygnus from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port, then maneuver the spacecraft into position for its release at 8:05 a.m. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara will monitor Cygnus’ systems upon its departure from the space station. Following a deorbit engine firing in early January, Cygnus will begin a planned destructive re-entry, in which the spacecraft – filled with trash packed by the station crew – will safely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Cygnus arrived at the space station Aug. 4 following a launch on Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. It was the company’s 19th commercial resupply services mission to the space station for NASA. Northrop Grumman named the spacecraft after the late NASA astronaut Laurel Clark. Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and X. Learn more about Cygnus’ mission and the International Space Station at: https://www.nasa.gov/station -end- Joshua Finch Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov View the full article

NASA has awarded the Glenn-Langley Administrative Support Services (GLASS) contract to PBG FedSync JV LLC of McLean, Virginia, to provide administrative support services to various organizations, programs, and projects at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. GLASS is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that includes a 60-day phase-in period beginning Jan. 1, 2024, followed by a two-year base period and three one-year option periods. The total award value is $41.4 million over a five-year potential performance period. The services include, but are not limited to, general office operations, meeting and event planning, correspondence and information delivery, information technology services coordination, training tasks support, office move coordination, property coordination, and general reporting and data collection. For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov -end- Abbey Donaldson NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov View the full article

1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan stow biological research samples into a science freezer located inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory module. In September 2022, the National Space Council directed NASA to “develop a plan for the next generation microgravity national lab in a commercial space station world.” NASA has been working to develop this strategy, to include considerations for establishing robust international partner pathways outlined in a report from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy titled “Models for Facilitating Government-Funded Activities in the Post-International Space Station (ISS) Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Ecosystem,” as one step in NASA’s effort to define and develop a comprehensive strategy. Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 EditorBill Keeter Related TermsOffice of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) View the full article

Image credit: NASA As part of NASA’s ongoing commitment to supporting American innovators and advancing new aerospace technologies the agency announced its second round of Phase I awards for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Ignite. The 10 selected small businesses will each receive up to $150,000 and have six months to establish the scientific, technical, and commercial merit and feasibility of their proposed innovation – the same timeframe as the program’s main SBIR Phase I awards. Astral Forge, LLC, Palo Alto, California: Development of a High-temperature (>1200 C) Crystal Growth Furnace toward Semiconductor In-Space Production Applications in LEO for Terrestrial Use Astrobotic Technology Inc., Pittsburgh: Photon Counting Sensor for In-space Debris Detection Benchmark Space Systems, Burlington, Vermont: Resilient Independent Propulsive Controlled On-orbit Recovery Device (RIPCORD) Brayton Energy, LLC, Hampton, New Hampshire: High Efficiency Solid Oxide Fuel Cell / Turbogenerator Hybrid Electric Propulsion System Channel-Logistics LLC dba Space-Eyes, Miami: Fire Watch: Prediction and Detection of Wildfires Through Advanced AI/ML GeoVisual Analytics, Westminster, Colorado: Decision Support for Water Management in the Agriculture Sector Lunar Resources, Inc., Houston: Silicon and Iron Regolith Extraction on the Moon (SIRE) Space Lab Technologies, LLC, Boulder, Colorado: EcoMine – Bioregenerative Mineral Mining from Lunar Regolith Space Tango, Lexington, Kentucky: TangoBox: Next Generation Infrastructure for In-Space Production on Commercial Space Stations VerdeGo Aero, De Leon Springs, Florida: VerdeGo Aero VH-3 Hybrid Electric Powerplant This three-year pilot Ignite initiative, housed under NASA’s SBIR program, provides funding and other support to commercialization-focused small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs as they seek to develop their early-stage technology ideas. “The investments we’re able to offer through SBIR Ignite give us the ability to de-risk technologies that have a strong commercial pull, helping make them more attractive to outside investors, customers, and partners,” said Jason L. Kessler, program executive for the NASA SBIR program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “We also hope it advances the sometimes-overlooked goal of all SBIR programs to increase private-sector commercialization of the innovations derived from federal research and development funding.” NASA’s SBIR Ignite targets product-driven companies which seek to commercialize products instead of targeting the agency as a primary customer. This commercialization focus is a key differentiator from the NASA SBIR program’s traditional solicitations that, in addition to considering commercial potential, have historically sought technologies to address specific NASA needs and have a goal of getting infused into a NASA mission. The SBIR Ignite solicitation contains only a few topics relevant to emerging commercial markets in aerospace; these topics are refined based on market insights gained in the interactive NASA SBIR Ignite Catalyst events that precede the solicitation release. One of the topics in the 2023 SBIR Ignite Phase I solicitation sought technologies to accelerate in-space production applications in low Earth orbit (LEO). In support of this topic, NASA selected Astral Forge – a women-owned small business and first-time SBIR recipient – to advance semiconductor crystal production by developing a high-temperature crystal growth furnace for in-space operation in LEO, with applications on Earth as well. This furnace could enable efficient and scalable synthesis of semiconductor materials with a specific initial focus on Gallium Nitride (GaN). With silicon performance plateauing and devices demanding more efficient processors, GaN – considered a next-generation semiconductor compound – holds immense promise, offering enhanced performance characteristics, particularly in terms of power efficiency and thermal tolerance, compared to conventional silicon technology. The NASA SBIR Ignite initiative and its parent program, NASA SBIR, are a part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and are managed by the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. To learn more about the NASA SBIR program and apply to future opportunities, visit: https://sbir.nasa.gov/ View the full article

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) La Movilidad Aérea Avanzada conectará a los habitantes de las ciudades con los residentes de las zonas rurales ofreciendo una nueva forma de viajar en avión. Como se muestra en este arte conceptual, los pasajeros podrían viajar de las zonas rurales a la ciudad más rápidamente que en coche para subir a un avión comercial, recibir atención médica o comprar mercancías.NASA/Kyle Jenkins Read this feature in English here. Imagina pedir un taxi aéreo por app, como haces ahora con Uber o Lyft, para viajar a tu aeropuerto local: podrías elevarte por encima del tráfico de carretera y llegar mucho más rápido que si fueras en coche. Los creativos de la industria aeronáutica ya están diseñando servicios aéreos de viaje compartido entre casa y el aeropuerto. Las nuevas aeronaves autónomas y pilotadas por control remoto harán que los viajes aéreos sean más accesibles al público de lo que lo han sido hasta ahora. La NASA está investigando cómo estas aeronaves pueden integrarse con seguridad en el espacio aéreo existente y explorando la tecnología que este nuevo espacio aéreo futurista y altamente digital necesitará para tener éxito. Los datos de este trabajo, realizado por la misión de Movilidad Aérea Avanzada, se está compartiendo con la Administración Federal de Aviación. La Administración Federal de Aviación regula y certifica estas aeronaves para garantizar que puedan volar con seguridad en el espacio aéreo nacional. La NASA está investigando opciones de diseño y operación para situaciones en las que las aeronaves aterrizarán y despegarán, y cómo se construirán, propulsarán y mantendrán las aeronaves. Esta y otras investigaciones aportarán ideas para ayudar a la industria a crear un entorno de accesibilidad óptimo. Hay más de 5000 aeropuertos públicos en los Estados Unidos. La Movilidad Aérea Avanzada ofrecería a los pasajeros nuevas vías de acceso a estos aeropuertos. Los pasajeros podrían desplazarse rápidamente desde zonas rurales o ciudades para subir en aviones comerciales, y estos mismos servicios de taxi aéreo le darían un mayor acceso a la atención médica o a la compra de mercancías. Los drones de reparto también podrían facilitar el acceso a la mercancía y los servicios. La Movilidad Aérea Avanzada intenta de crear recursos de aviación económicos y eficientes para el público en general con el fin de permitir que más personas pudieran disfrutar fácilmente de nuevos servicios por demanda. Al igual que ocurre con el transporte aéreo comercial hoy en día, habrá que hacer adaptaciones en estas aeronaves para atender a todos los niveles de capacidad. Esto podría incluir la instalación de rampas de acceso para sillas de ruedas, asientos y cinturones de seguridad especiales y ayudas visuales y auditivas adicionales para que el avión cumpla la Ley de Estadounidenses con Discapacidades. Las áreas de investigación de la NASA sobre el control del tráfico aéreo, la automatización, el ruido y la seguridad tendrán que combinarse para hacer realidad estas operaciones. Las agencias gubernamentales, la industria y el público tendrán que combinar sus esfuerzos para integrar con seguridad esta nueva clase de aviones. La visión de la NASA es diseñar un nuevo sistema de transporte aéreo seguro, accesible y económico junto con socios de la industria y la comunidad y la Administración Federal de Aviación. Estas nuevas capacidades permitirían a los pasajeros y a la carga viajar a pedido en aeronaves innovadoras y automatizadas a través de la ciudad, entre ciudades vecinas o a otros lugares a los que hoy se suele acceder en automóvil. La visión de la NASA para la Movilidad Aérea Avanzada, o AAM por sus siglas en inglés, es trazar un nuevo sistema de transporte aéreo seguro, accesible y económico junto con socios de la industria, socios comunitarios y la Administración Federal de Aviación (FAA por sus siglas en inglés). En este episodio del Manual de Movilidad Aérea Avanzada de la NASA, explicamos cómo AAM permitirá formas más accesibles de viajar de ciudad a ciudad y de ciudad a zonas rurales. Artículo Traducido por: Elena Aguirre Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 EditorJim BankeContactJessica Arreolajessica.arreola@nasa.gov Related TermsNASA en españolAeronáuticaNASA Home & CitySmall Business Innovation Research / Small Business Explore More 4 min read NASA: Una jugosa historia de tomates en la Estación Espacial Internacional Article 6 days ago 4 min read La Movilidad Aérea Avanzada Ayuda al Transporte de Mercancías Article 4 weeks ago 4 min read Mira cómo la NASA construye su primer vehículo lunar robótico Article 2 months ago Facebook logo @NASA@NASAArmstrong@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAArmstrong@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Armstrong Flight Research Center Armstrong Aeronautics Projects Airspace Operations and Safety Program Drones & You View the full article

Savvy Verma, left, and Huy Tran, director of aeronautics at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, center, explain a recent air traffic management simulation to guests at Ames’ FutureFlight Central simulator on Sept. 26. Credit: NASA/Jesse Carpenter Researchers are one step closer to integrating air taxis and other electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles into the country’s busiest airports, thanks to a new air traffic simulation developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and Joby Aviation. These zero-operating-emission aircraft use electric power to take off, cruise, and land, and provide an appealing option for commercial industry interested in more sustainable transportation. NASA and Joby researchers recently invited representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, and stakeholders to view the simulation in the Ames’ air traffic control simulation facility, called FutureFlight Central. The two-story facility offers a 360-degree, full-scale simulation of an airport, where controllers, pilots and airport personnel can test operating procedures and evaluate new technologies. “We’re trying to enable a better quality of life,” said Savvy Verma, urban air mobility researcher at NASA Ames. “Some people are stuck in traffic for hours on the way to the airport. A 12-mile trip can take 45 minutes. Imagine being able to do that same trip in 15 minutes.” In preparation for air taxis and other aircraft flying passengers in and out of airports, NASA and industry partners are working with the FAA to demonstrate how creative use of existing tools and airspace procedures can support safe integration of air taxi operations into the national airspace. The groups are also exploring potential changes to the current airspace system to enable an even greater scale of flights. The recent air traffic management integration simulation developed by NASA with Joby will provide useful air traffic controller data to the FAA and industry for integrating these aircraft into operations. “There is so much momentum across the world for advanced air mobility,” Verma said. “We’ve been talking about integrating these kinds of vehicles into the airspace, but to be able to show it in high-fidelity simulation is very promising.” Inside the facility, visitors saw eVTOL pilots flying safely along NASA-developed, predetermined routes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport. The eVTOL pilots operated seamlessly through the airports, with the facility simulating weather conditions, live flight data, and airport operational data. The simulation showed how NASA-developed air traffic control procedures and airspace concepts would significantly reduce the workload on air traffic controllers for eVTOL operations in airports. “This simulation validates the idea that we can find a way to safely integrate these vehicles into the airspace at scale,” said NASA researcher Ken Freeman. The human-in-the-loop simulation, which featured active and retired air traffic controllers, evaluated a series of traffic schedules developed by Joby based on the company’s market analysis and expectations of future demand. NASA’s initial analysis of the simulation indicates that researchers could scale these procedures for operating eVTOLs in other airports throughout the country, which could reduce the associated workload on air traffic controllers. NASA plans to publish a complete analysis of the simulation results in 2024. The brand-new data will be provided to the FAA, commercial industry, and airports to help identify the air traffic controller tools and procedures could enable high-tempo integration of eVTOLs into near-term and future operations in airports. Enabling eVTOLs as a taxi service for passengers to and from airports in the future could begin to reduce carbon emissions and greatly improve the commute experience for passengers. This project work supports NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission, which focuses on air taxi and drone research with industry and government partners View the full article

NASA / Grace Weikert Flames burn orange through green conifers and golden aspen on the slopes of Monroe Mountain in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest, sending gray and brown smoke billowing into the sky in this image from Oct. 9, 2023. This fire was intentionally set with a fire-dripping device suspended from a helicopter. The burn aimed to reintroduce fire to the Monroe Mountain region. Fire promotes aspen regeneration and reduces accumulated brush and dead vegetation that could fuel a larger uncontrolled fire. Scientists from NASA’s FireSense project, along with dozens of others from the Forest Service and other organizations and universities, collected data from the ground and from the sky as part of the Forest Service’s Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment. Observing a prescribed high-intensity fire gave NASA an opportunity to test technologies and demonstrate their effectiveness in supporting wildland fire management across the life cycle of a fire. Read more about fire’s effect on this region and what we can learn from studying fires. Image Credit: NASA/Grace Weikert View the full article

Nov. 11, 2023 — Thrusters on the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft fire automatically while adjusting the vehicle’s slow, methodical approach toward the International Space Station for a docking to the Harmony module’s forward port.NASA NASA and its international partners are set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Wednesday, Dec. 20. The agency will provide live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure starting at 8:45 p.m. EST on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or the NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Dragon will undock from the station’s Harmony module at 9:05 p.m. and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station after receiving a command from ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida. NASA will not broadcast the splashdown, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog. Dragon will carry back to Earth more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments designed to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment. Splashing down off the coast of Florida enables quick transportation of the experiments to NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, allowing researchers to collect data with minimal sample exposure to Earth’s gravity. Scientific hardware and samples returning to Earth include Planet Habitat-03, which assesses whether genetic adaptations in one generation of plants grown in space can transfer to the next generation. This is one of the first multi-generation plant biology studies in orbit. Other studies include JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Cell Gravisensing, an investigation that looks at how cells sense and respond to the effects of gravity. Results could promote drug development for treating muscle atrophy and osteoporosis. Also returning on Dragon is Genes in Space-10, a student-led project that tests a method for in-orbit measurement of the length of telomeres, cap-like structures at the end of DNA strands that shorten with age, but have been found to lengthen in space. Additionally, samples from MaRVIn-PCIM (Microgravity Research for Versatile Investigations-Phase Change in Mixtures) and Neuronix (Innovative Paralysis Therapy Enabling Neuroregeneration) also are returning to Earth for scientific analysis. Dragon arrived at the station Nov. 11 as SpaceX’s 29th commercial resupply services mission for NASA, delivering about 6,500 pounds of research investigations, crew supplies, and station hardware. The spacecraft launched Nov. 9 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through NASA’s Artemis program. Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and X. Learn more about SpaceX’s mission for NASA at: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex -end- Julian Coltre Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 EditorRoxana BardanLocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsCommercial SpaceCommercial ResupplyInternational Space Station (ISS)SpaceX Commercial Resupply View the full article

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conduct a successful, 251-second hot fire test of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor in fall 2023, achieving more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. NASA NASA has achieved a new benchmark in developing an innovative propulsion system called the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, successfully tested a novel, 3D-printed RDRE for 251 seconds (or longer than four minutes), producing more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars, said Marshall combustion devices engineer Thomas Teasley, who leads the RDRE test effort at the center. RDRE’s first hot fire test was performed at Marshall in the summer of 2022 in partnership with In Space LLC and Purdue University, both of Lafayette, Indiana. That test produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute. The primary goal of the latest test, Teasley noted, is to better understand how to scale the combustor to different thrust classes, supporting engine systems of all types and maximizing the variety of missions it could serve, from landers to upper stage engines to supersonic retropropulsion, a deceleration technique that could land larger payloads – or even humans – on the surface of Mars. Test stand video captured at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, shows ignition of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor, which was fired for a record 251 seconds and achieved more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. Click here for full video “The RDRE enables a huge leap in design efficiency,” he said. “It demonstrates we are closer to making lightweight propulsion systems that will allow us to send more mass and payload further into deep space, a critical component to NASA’s Moon to Mars vision.” Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and researchers at Venus Aerospace of Houston, Texas, are working with NASA Marshall to identify how to scale the technology for higher performance. RDRE is managed and funded by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. Ramon J. Osorio NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov 256-544-0034 Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related TermsMarshall Space Flight CenterGame Changing Development Program Explore More 2 min read NASA Validates Revolutionary Propulsion Design for Deep Space Missions Article 11 months ago 4 min read Intern Contributes ‘Sizably’ to Marshall’s Advanced Propulsion Project Article 3 months ago 1 min read Hypergolic Rotating Detonation Rocket Propulsion with Low Pressure-loss Injection and Advanced Thermal Management Article 4 years ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

4 min read NASA’s Fermi Mission Creates 14-Year Time-Lapse of the Gamma-Ray Sky The cosmos comes alive in an all-sky time-lapse movie made from 14 years of data acquired by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Our Sun, occasionally flaring into prominence, serenely traces a path though the sky against the backdrop of high-energy sources within our galaxy and beyond. From solar flares to black hole jets: NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope team has produced a unique time-lapse tour of the dynamic high-energy sky. Fermi Deputy Project Scientist Judy Racusin narrates the movie, which compresses 14 years of gamma-ray observations into 6 minutes. Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA/DOE/LAT Collaboration “The bright, steady gamma-ray glow of the Milky Way is punctuated by intense, days-long flares of near-light-speed jets powered by supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies,” said Seth Digel, a senior staff scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, who created the images. “These dramatic eruptions, which can appear anywhere in the sky, occurred millions to billions of years ago, and their light is just reaching Fermi as we watch.” Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light. The movie shows the intensity of gamma rays with energies above 200 million electron volts detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) between August 2008 and August 2022. For comparison, visible light has energies between 2 and 3 electron volts. Brighter colors mark the locations of more intense gamma-ray sources. “One of the first things to strike your eye in the movie is a source that steadily arcs across the screen. That’s our Sun, whose apparent movement reflects Earth’s yearly orbital motion around it,” said Fermi Deputy Project Scientist Judy Racusin, who narrates a tour of the movie, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Most of the time, the LAT detects the Sun faintly due to the impact of accelerated particles called cosmic rays – atomic nuclei traveling close to the speed of light. When they strike the Sun’s gas or even the light it emits, gamma rays result. At times, though, the Sun suddenly brightens with powerful eruptions called solar flares, which can briefly make our star one of the sky’s brightest gamma-ray sources. The movie shows the sky in two different views. The rectangular view shows the entire sky with the center of our galaxy in the middle. This highlights the central plane of the Milky Way, which glows in gamma rays produced from cosmic rays striking interstellar gas and starlight. It’s also flecked with many other sources, including neutron stars and supernova remnants. Above and below this central band, we’re looking out of our galaxy and into the wider universe, peppered with bright, rapidly changing sources. Most of these are actually distant galaxies, and they’re better seen in a different view centered on our galaxy’s north and south poles. Each of these galaxies, called blazars, hosts a central black hole with a mass of a million or more Suns. Somehow, the black holes produce extremely fast-moving jets of matter, and with blazars we’re looking almost directly down one of these jets, a view that enhances their brightness and variability. “The variations tell us that something about these jets has changed,” Racusin said. “We routinely watch these sources and alert other telescopes, in space and on the ground, when something interesting is going on. We have to be quick to catch these flares before they fade away, and the more observations we can collect, the better we’ll be able to understand these events.” Fermi plays a key role in the growing network of missions working together to capture these changes in the universe as they unfold. Many of these galaxies are extremely far away. For example, the light from a blazar known as 4C +21.35 has been traveling for 4.6 billion years, which means that a flare up we see today actually occurred as our Sun and solar system were beginning to form. Other bright blazars are more than twice as distant, and together provide striking snapshots of black hole activity throughout cosmic time. Not seen in the time-lapse are many short-duration events that Fermi studies, such as gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful cosmic explosions. This is a result of processing data across several days to sharpen the images. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by Goddard. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. By Francis Reddy NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Media contact: Claire Andreoli claire.andreoli@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (301) 286-1940 Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 Related Terms Astrophysics Black Holes Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Goddard Space Flight Center Origin & Evolution of the Universe Supermassive Black Holes The Sun The Universe Explore More 2 min read NASA’s Hubble Presents a Holiday Globe of Stars Article 1 hour ago 2 min read Cosmic Companionship Quest Marks Major Milestone Article 2 days ago 3 min read NASA’s BurstCube Passes Milestones on Journey to Launch Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

V.P. Kamala Harris Chairs National Space Council Meeting in Washington (Official NASA Stream)

Science in Space: December 2023 Imagine someone needs a heart transplant and scientists take cells from that person to create an entire new heart for them. Research on the International Space Station is helping to bring that dream closer to reality. The process of 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing) enables the design and production of one-of-a-kind items made of plastic, metal, and other materials, including tools, equipment, and even buildings. Biological printing or bioprinting uses living cells, proteins, and nutrients as raw materials and has the potential to produce human tissues for treating injury and disease and to create entire organs for transplants. In Earth’s gravity, bioprinting requires a scaffold or other type of structure to support tissues, but in the near-weightlessness of the space station’s orbit, tissues grow in three dimensions without such support. Redwire Corporation developed the BioFabrication Facility (BFF) as a part of the larger goal of using microgravity to bioprint human organs. Popular Science magazine recently awarded the BFF a 2023 Best of What’s New Award in the Health Category. These awards, handed out since 1988, recognize “groundbreaking innovations changing our world,” according to Popular Science, and “radical ideas that are improving our everyday lives and our futures.” NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli swaps components inside the BioFabrication Facility (BFF).NASA A current investigation, BFF-Cardiac, uses the BFF to evaluate the printing and processing of cardiac tissue samples. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the United States. Adult heart tissue is unable to regenerate, so damaged heart tissue is mostly replaced with scar tissue, which can block electrical signals and prevent proper cardiac contractions. This investigation could support the development of patches to replace damaged tissue – and eventually the creation of replacement hearts. The work represents a big step toward addressing the significant gap between the number of transplant organs needed and available donors. The first human knee meniscus successfully 3D bioprinted in orbit using the BioFabrication Facility.NASA The BFF-Meniscus investigation and the follow-up BFF-Meniscus-2 investigation resulted in the first successful bioprinting of a human knee meniscus in orbit using the space station’s BioFabrication Facility, announced in September 2023. Musculoskeletal injuries, including tears in the meniscus, are one of the most common injuries for the U.S. military and this milestone is a step toward developing improved treatments on the ground and for crew members who experience musculoskeletal injuries on future space missions. After initial printing and a period of growth in microgravity, the tissues returned to Earth for additional analysis and testing. The Russian state space agency ROSCOSMOS launched equipment in 2018, 3D MBP, that included a magnetic printer called Organ.Aut. A series of experiments from 2018 through 2020 showed that this approach could create tissue constructs, helping to pave the way for additional research on producing artificial organs. Bioprinting technology also could create artificial retinas to help restore sight for the 30 million people worldwide who suffer from degenerative retinal diseases. One way to manufacture artificial retinas is a technique that alternates layers of a light-activated protein and a binder on a film. On Earth, gravity affects the quality of these films, but researchers suspected that films created in microgravity would be more stable and have higher optical clarity. Protein-Based Artificial Retina Manufacturing is one of several investigations by LambdaVision Inc. in partnership with developer Space Tango Inc. to develop and validate space-based manufacturing methods for artificial retinas. The company has consistently manufactured multiple 200-layer artificial retina films in microgravity and now is working to commercialize its hardware and strategies for development of other therapies and drugs. The Protein-Based Artificial Retina Manufacturing experiment hardware on the space station. NASA Bioprint FirstAid, a study from ESA (European Space Agency) and the German Space Agency (DLR), demonstrated the function of a prototype for a portable handheld bioprinter that creates a patch from a patient’s own skin cells. Space causes changes in the wound healing process, and such customized bandages could accelerate healing on future missions to the Moon and Mars. Using cultured cells from the patient reduces the risk of rejection by the immune system, and the device offers greater flexibility to address wound size and position. Because the device is small and portable, health care workers could take it almost anywhere on Earth. The investigation showed that the device works as intended in microgravity, and researchers are studying the space-printed patches and comparing them with samples printed on the ground before taking the next step. Sample patches printed using simulant inks and the hand-held tool for Bioprint FirstAid. NASA Bioprinting in microgravity also could make it possible to produce food and medicine on demand on future space missions. Such capabilities would reduce the mass and cost of materials needed at launch and help maintain the health and safety of crew members throughout a mission. The 3D Printing In Zero-G investigation, which started in 2014, demonstrated that the process of 3D printing with inorganic materials such as plastic worked normally in microgravity.1 3D printing could reduce the need to pack costly spare parts on future long-term missions and help solve the problem of trying to predict every tool or object that might be needed on a mission. With the addition of bioprinting capabilities, crews eventually may be able to 3D print almost anything they need – from a replacement screwdriver to a replacement knee. John Love, ISS Research Planning Integration Scientist Expedition 70 Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above. Citations: 1 Prater TJ, Bean QA, Werkheiser N, Grguel R, Beshears RD, Rolin TD, Huff T, Ryan RM, Ledbetter III FE, Ordonez EA. Analysis of specimens from phase I of the 3D Printing in Zero G Technology demonstration mission. Rapid Prototyping Journal. 2017 October 6; 23(6): 1212-1225. DOI: 10.1108/RPJ-09-2016-0142. Keep Exploring Discover More Topics Latest News from Space Station Research Living in Space Station Science 101: Human Research Humans In Space View the full article

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers opening remarks at the first meeting of the National Space Council, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. Chaired by Vice President Harris, the council’s role is to advise the President regarding national space policy and strategy, and ensuring the United States capitalizes on the opportunities presented by the country’s space activities. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA is participating in a meeting of the National Space Council on Wednesday, Dec. 20, in Washington. The meeting, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, will focus on international partnerships and is the third council meeting held by the Biden-Harris Administration. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Artemis II and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will represent the agency at the meeting, which also includes other federal government agencies. NASA will provide coverage of the meeting at 2 p.m. EST on the NASA+ streaming service via the web or NASA app. Coverage also will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media. Deputy Administrator Melroy will provide remarks that will focus on the societal benefits of NASA’s space exploration, including the agency’s Earth science missions that provide open and transparent climate data for all people. Melroy also will discuss NASA’s space exploration with international partners to build a responsible and sustainable human presence in space. For more information on the National Space Council visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/spacecouncil/ -end- Amber Jacobson / Jennifer Dooren Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / jennifer.m.dooren@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Dec 20, 2023 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsPamela A. MelroyEarthNASA Headquarters View the full article