NASA

High quality production photos of Robonaut (R2) in Building 14 EMI chamber and R1/EMU photos in Building 32 – Robonaut Lab. Photo Date: June 1, 2010. Location: Building 14 – EMI Chamber/Building 32 – Robonaut Lab.NASA / Robert Markowitz & Bill Stafford NASA knows it takes a village to make commercial manufacturing in space a reality. NASA is collaborating with experts from industry, academia and other U.S. Government agencies on the technologies in play with the InSPA portfolio. By joining forces with these experts, NASA can better support its commercial partners, accelerating the transition from proof-of-concept demonstrations on the International Space Station to commercial operations in future commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations. NASA’s InSPA awards help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of LEO for use on Earth. NASA is recruiting agency, government and industry experts to inform NASA’s InSPA priorities, accelerate learning and increase commercialization success. Establishing Priorities We will provide input on NASA Technology Roadmaps and/or evaluate proposals to inform awards for applications that serve national needs and U.S. competitiveness. We will also participate in working group discussions. CHIPS and Science Act Concepts that support the goals of the “CHIPS and Science Act” through semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity are of special interest to NASA. Those selected for further assessment will be invited to submit full proposals. NASA is seeking funding from the CHIPS and Science Act through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity. To support this initiative, NASA’s InSPA program may grant awards that come with funding for facilities, workforce development, academic support, and program development. SHERPA Support Space Hardware Experts for Research, Production, and Applications (SHERPA) shares knowledge as subject matter experts on science, technology, manufacturing, markets, and investors. Provide support directly to principal investigators or through NASA Technical Monitors to accelerate learning. Specific SHERPA activities: Identify new InSPA candidates important to other government agencies where gravity is impeding development. Assist in prioritization and decisions on down-selects. Peer review at major milestones (design reviews, science requirements, ground and in-flight testing). Develop performance goals and metrics that must be met to exceed current state-of-the-art. Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and expand space databases to improve models and increase value from each flight, across the years and programs. Perform independent analysis and validation of flight results. Conduct outreach to industry and other government agencies for Phase 2 and 3 sponsorships. Points of Contact Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate Don Ufford, Advanced Manufacturing Policy Fellow, Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, Department of Commerce – National Institute of Standards and Technology Danilo A. Tagle, Ph.D., Director, Office for Special Initiatives, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health Jas S. Sanghera, Ph.D., Branch Head of Optical Materials and Devices, Naval Research Laboratory Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Keep Exploring Discover More Topics In Space Production Applications Low Earth Orbit Economy Opportunities and Information for Researchers Latest News from Space Station Research View the full article

NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) implementation strategy consists of a multi-phase award process to demonstrate proof-of-concept, advance to high production quality, and ultimately to achieve scalability on a commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destination or platform. InSPA seeks to identify awardees who propose promising manufacturing efforts in microgravity that will invigorate markets on Earth. These InSPA awards help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of LEO for use on Earth. NASA Award Process On an annual and ongoing basis, NASA releases two calls for white papers by U.S. entities through Special Focus Area #1 (In Space Production Applications) of the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNJ13ZBG001N, “Research Opportunities for International Space Station Utilization.” Those entities with the highest rated white papers are then invited to submit a full proposal. After the proposal evaluation period, NASA makes selections, and awardees sign a Firm Fixed Price contract with NASA to develop and demonstrate their concept on the ISS National Laboratory. NRA white paper and proposal submissions are required at each phase of the lifecycle. Access to ISS National Laboratory Awardees are provided access to the ISS National Laboratory and all necessary on-orbit resources: upmass, downmass, U.S. Operating Segment (USOS) crew time, data transmission, and power, including flight manifesting and increment operations planning, at no cost. Payloads are subject to review and approval by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the operator of the ISS National Laboratory. Award Phases NASA has identified three InSPA phases (reference Figure 1) to characterize technology maturation from early concept studies through financially self-sustaining LEO production technologies. InSPA Phase 1 Enable early proof-of-concept studies and/or basic flight hardware development and test through multiple demonstrations on parabolic, sub-orbital, and orbital missions on the ISS to achieve TRL of 6 and MRL of 3. Proposals should identify the improvements sought and describe the number and type of demonstration tests appropriate to achieve exit criteria for the Phase. The goals of Phase 1 (i.e., exit criteria) are: To demonstrate hardware performance and validate the scientific basis for the technology benefit in a LEO space environment.  To establish a minimum level of production control to repeatedly produce the intended product to a quality or performance level comparable to Earth-based controls or state of the art.  To refine the business case with preliminary revenue forecasts based on actual microgravity demonstrations and gain support from potential partners or investors to capture a moderate level of non-NASA investment for Phase 2. InSPA Phase 2 Enable design maturation and advanced flight hardware development with additional demonstrations on ISS to achieve a TRL of 8 and MRL of 7. NASA has an expectation of some degree of cost-sharing in this phase (reference Cost Sharing guideline in section 1.2.3 of the NRA). The goals of Phase 2 (i.e., exit criteria) are: To demonstrate full control of hardware, environments, and processes to meet specific performance standards for the application.  These standards are often set by the customer and should be to a level of performance or quality within the application setting that is significantly better than possible on Earth.  To refine the business case to a level that successfully captures significant investor commitment for Phase 3. InSPA Phase 3 Enable scaled flight hardware production on ISS or an alternative commercial LEO destination/platform to demonstrate commercial operations and end-to-end logistics model producing sufficient quantities to achieve a TRL of 9 and MRL of 9 and to close the business case. NASA expects a significant degree of cost-sharing by industry for a Phase 3 award (reference Cost Sharing guideline in Section 1.2.3 of the NRA). The goals of Phase 3 are: Demonstrate scaling to commercial quantities and quality to support market demand, including supply chain and regulatory approvals.  To establish formal agreements with U.S. LEO transportation and destination partners for transition to commercial operations.  Begin transition to commercial platform(s) and achieve sustainable revenues. Reference NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNJ13ZBG001N, “Research Opportunities for International Space Station Utilization” Keep Exploring Discover More Topics In Space Production Applications Low Earth Orbit Economy Opportunities and Information for Researchers Latest News from Space Station Research View the full article

In microgravity, crystals grow more slowly, but the molecules have time to align more perfectly on the surface of the crystal, which returns much better research outcomes.NASA After four decades of microgravity research, NASA and the ISS National Lab have identified numerous applications that are within reach for NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) portfolio. Uniform crystals, semiconductors, specialized glass and optical fibers are just a few of the many advanced materials that can benefit from production in microgravity. Artificial retinas, drug delivery medical devices, as well as the production of pluripotent stem cells and bio inks are examples of how microgravity can stimulate the medical and bioscience industries. The most promising may be the production of small molecule crystalline proteins for pharmaceutical therapies. NASA’s InSPA objective is to enable sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit for use on Earth. Applications of Special Interest InSPA supports the goals of the White House’s “Cancer Moonshot” by seeking new applications that will accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. These projects are of special interest and may include manufacturing of compounds or therapeutics to address oncology applications on Earth. InSPA also supports the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provides the Department of Commerce with $50 billion for a suite of programs strengthen and revitalize the U.S. position in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. InSPA projects centered around semiconductor manufacturing are of special interest and can ensure United States leadership in semiconductor production. (Source: https://www.nist.gov/chips) InSPA awards fall into two categories, Advanced Materials and Tissue Engineering and Biomanufacturing. Advanced Materials Advanced Materials use microgravity phenomena singly and in combination to produce a growing range of new products. For example: Removing sedimentation and buoyancy enables unique alloys and compositions. Surface tension processes can eliminate voids and ensure continuous contact between dissimilar materials. Lack of convection provides quiescent environments that can remove or minimize defects. Crystal Production in microgravity has numerous applications in drug development, testing, and delivery, as well as semiconductors and inorganic frameworks. For example, crystals have the following properties in microgravity: They grow more slowly, enabling optical fiber manufacturing that suppresses crystallization defects. They grow in a more uniform manner that can better inform and enable better quality protein-based therapeutics. They grow larger and more perfect enabling exceptional quality industrial crystals and macromolecular structures. A 2x-magnification of protein crystals grown during RTPCG-1, using techniques to be used in RTPCG-2.NASA Thin Layer Deposition in microgravity has applications in layering for medical devices, semiconductors, and ceramic coatings. For example: Absence of sedimentation and buoyancy allow surface tension effects to dominate, resulting in more uniform and atomically and molecularly precise layering for artificial retinas and other devices. Tissue Engineering and Biomanufacturing In microgravity, tissues can be formed in three dimensions without supporting architecture, and living matter adapts to microgravity through a variety of mechanisms that can be used to model cellular dysfunction, which occurs on Earth. For example: Gravity constrains tissue engineering on Earth by flattening and deforming 3D tissue constructs. Microgravity allows larger tissues to be constructed and used to inform medicine. Growing evidence indicates that the interaction of microgravity and living systems elicits responses similar to rapid aging on Earth that can be used to accelerate disease modeling and therapeutic development. Combined 3D tissue engineering with accelerated aging effects, informed by latest biotech and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) offers new and rapidly growing knowledge, opportunities, and products for disease modeling, testing, and drug development. Keep Exploring Discover More Topics In Space Production Applications Low Earth Orbit Economy Opportunities and Information for Researchers Latest News from Space Station Research View the full article

NASA supports In Space Production Applications (InSPA) awards to help the selected companies raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products in low-Earth orbit. These commercialization awards provide opportunities for NASA to reduce its future costs in LEO enabling deep-space missions farther from Earth, including the Moon and Mars. NASA is leading commercial LEO development efforts to stimulate non-NASA demand for commercially owned and operated orbital destinations from which NASA can purchase services as one of many customers. As new commercial orbital destinations become available, NASA intends to foster an orderly transition from current space station operations and research to the new commercial enterprise as laid out in NASA’s International Space Station Transition Report. Mission Ensuring U.S. leadership of in-space manufacturing in low-Earth orbit by enabling the use of the ISS National Laboratory to demonstrate the production of advanced materials and products for terrestrial markets. Vision A robust and sustainable space economy where a diverse portfolio of U.S. companies operates a broad array of commercially owned productions facilities alongside government and private astronauts living and training on the LEO Commercial Destinations that follow the space station. Goals Serve national interests by developing in-space production applications for Earth that strengthen U.S. technological leadership, improve national security, and create high-quality jobs, and/or   Provide benefits to humanity by developing products in LEO that significantly improve the quality of life for people on Earth, and  Enable the development of a robust economy in LEO by stimulating scalable and sustainable non-NASA utilization of future commercial LEO destinations or orbital platforms. For more information about InSPA, please read: In Space for Earth! – In Space Production Applications Overview White Paper and InSPA Awards Provide Funding and Expertise to Help Promising U.S. Innovators. For contact information and frequently asked questions, please see: NASA Points of Contact and FAQs Download the InSPA logo here. Keep Exploring Discover More Topics In Space Production Applications Low Earth Orbit Economy Opportunities and Information for Researchers Latest News from Space Station Research View the full article

5 min read NASA’s Webb Telescope Improves Simulation Software The James Webb Space Telescope captures a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. The James Webb Space Telescope truly explores the unknown, displaying stunning images of previously unseen corners of the universe only possible because of the telescope’s 21-foot segmented mirror that unfurled and assembled itself in space. Decades of testing went into the materials, design, and processes needed to develop the largest telescope in space. However, the whole project was too complex to test on the ground, at scale, at minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and in other space-like conditions. Instead, engineers relied on software simulations to understand how the telescope would behave under different in-space conditions, and that work has helped advance the whole field of integrated computer modeling. The Ansys Zemax OpticStudio software package, pictured here in a demo of James Webb Space Telescope mirror modeling, was equipped with new capabilities and features as a result of being used in the observatory’s development. Ansys Inc. “We pushed everything, all the simulation, just as hard as it would go,” said Erin Elliott, an optical engineer at Ansys, Inc., which makes Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, one of the design software suites used to develop hardware and software for the Webb telescope. Simulation technology has improved dramatically over the last two decades because of increases in computing power and new ways of accessing offsite computing power as a cloud service. But additional improvements trace back directly to Webb’s development. Elliott used OpticStudio to support the Webb telescope while working for other NASA contractors, beginning in the early 2000s, before starting work in 2015 for Zemax ¬– which later became Ansys Zemax ¬– headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. In the early days, Elliott said, Zemax tweaked its software for the Webb telescope effort. “They made some specific changes for us at the time having to do with handling the coordinate systems of the segments,” she said, referring to the 18 hexagonal segments that make up the telescope’s primary mirror. Elliott also recalled talking to Zemax leadership numerous times about the need for the software to communicate better with other Microsoft Windows programs. The company introduced an API, or application programming interface, for OpticStudio, which enables the suite to work with other programs and allows for further customization. There were plenty of reasons to add that technology but Webb demands were likely significant among them, Elliott said. An engineer examines the Webb telescope primary mirror Engineering Design Unit segment in the clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA Joseph Howard, an optical engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where Webb and its science instrument module were assembled, noted that using several modeling packages helped drive innovation in the field. “It’s important to have multiple software companies out there that can help you not only for cross-checking the modeling, but because they make each other better through competition,” he said. In addition to improvements made to OpticStudio during Webb telescope development, Ansys Zemax in 2021 introduced the Structural, Thermal, Analysis, and Results (STAR) module, which benefited from the knowledge Elliott gained working on the NASA project. The first six flight-ready James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA When a mirror or lens changes shape due to temperature swings, the optics move. Much of the OpticStudio modeling was completed in smaller pieces — engineers would run a thermal simulation independently and add that data to the next optical model, generating more data for the next run. The STAR module incorporates analyses from other simulation software directly into OpticStudio optical models — an efficiency applicable to telescope and aerospace designs. This feature is also increasingly important for autonomous vehicles, cell phone lenses, and other optics working in tough environments. Future telescopes and other spacecraft are likely to involve elements of the Webb design. More will travel in segments that must self-assemble in space, and the development of the increasingly complicated robotics and optics will rely on improved modeling software. “When we built Webb, we knew we couldn’t fully test it on the ground prior to flight, so we depended a whole lot upon modeling and doing analysis to get ready for flight,” Howard said. “The next great observatory will be even more dependent on modeling software.” Meanwhile, designers of more earthly technologies are already seeing the benefits of an improved OpticStudio, using it to design precision endoscopes, a thermal imager to detect COVID-19 exposures in a crowd, augmented reality displays and headsets, a laser thruster technology for nanosatellites, and, of course, more telescopes. Elliott also noted that the Webb telescope project trained the next cohort of telescope and optical device builders – those designing and using the telescope’s technological spinoffs. “The people who built the Hubble Space Telescope were leading the Webb Telescope,” she said. “And now the younger engineers who cut our teeth on this project and learned from it are becoming the group of people who will build the next structures.” Elliott maintains that the project “was worth it alone for training this huge cohort of young engineers and releasing them into high-tech fields.” NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency’s Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America’s investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). For more information on how NASA brings space technology down to Earth, visit: www.spinoff.nasa.gov Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Technology Transfer & Spinoffs James Webb Space Telescope This placeholder has been created to fill a slot in the Topic Cards block on pages imported for the Hubble… Goddard Space Flight Center Share Details Last Updated Oct 31, 2023 Editor Loura Hall Contact Ann M. Harkeyann.m.harkey@nasa.gov Related Terms Space Technology Mission DirectorateTechnologyTechnology Transfer & Spinoffs View the full article

This enhanced image of the Jovian moon Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s June 7, 2021, flyby of the icy moon. Data from that pass has been used to detect the presence of salts and organics on Ganymede. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kalleheikki Kannisto (CC BY) This look at the complex surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede came from NASA’s Juno mission during a close pass in June 2021. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within just 650 miles (1,046 kilometers) of Ganymede’s surface.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Thomas Thomopoulos (CC BY) Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter’s largest moon. NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy. Larger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is the biggest of Jupiter’s moons and has long been of great interest to scientists due to the vast internal ocean of water hidden beneath its icy crust. Previous spectroscopic observations by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope as well as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope hinted at the presence of salts and organics, but the spatial resolution of those observations was too low to make a determination. Processed data from the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard NASA’s Juno mission is superimposed on a mosaic of optical images from the agency’ s Galileo and Voyager spacecraft that show grooved terrain on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM/Brown University On June 7, 2021, Juno flew over Ganymede at a minimum altitude of 650 miles (1,046 kilometers). Shortly after the time of closest approach, the JIRAM instrument acquired infrared images and infrared spectra (essentially the chemical fingerprints of materials, based on how they reflect light) of the moon’s surface. Built by the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, JIRAM was designed to capture the infrared light (invisible to the naked eye) that emerges from deep inside Jupiter, probing the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below the gas giant’s cloud tops. But the instrument has also been used to offer insights into the terrain of moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (known collectively as the Galilean moons for their discoverer, Galileo). The JIRAM data of Ganymede obtained during the flyby achieved an unprecedented spatial resolution for infrared spectroscopy – better than 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel. With it, Juno scientists were able to detect and analyze the unique spectral features of non-water-ice materials, including hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly aliphatic aldehydes. “The presence of ammoniated salts suggests that Ganymede may have accumulated materials cold enough to condense ammonia during its formation,” said Federico Tosi, a Juno co-investigator from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and lead author of the paper. “The carbonate salts could be remnants of carbon dioxide-rich ices.” Exploring Other Jovian Worlds Previous modeling of Ganymede’s magnetic field determined the moon’s equatorial region, up to a latitude of about 40 degrees, is shielded from the energetic electron and heavy ion bombardment created by Jupiter’s hellish magnetic field. The presence of such particle fluxes is well known to negatively impact salts and organics. During the June 2021 flyby, JIRAM covered a narrow range of latitudes (10 degrees north to 30 degrees north) and a broader range of longitudes (minus 35 degrees east to 40 degrees east) in the Jupiter-facing hemisphere. “We found the greatest abundance of salts and organics in the dark and bright terrains at latitudes protected by the magnetic field,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “This suggests we are seeing the remnants of a deep ocean brine that reached the surface of this frozen world.” Ganymede is not the only Jovian world Juno has flown by. The moon Europa, thought to harbor an ocean under its icy crust, also came under Juno’s gaze, first in October 2021 and then in September 2022. Now Io is receiving the flyby treatment. The next close approach to that volcano-festooned world is scheduled for Dec. 30, when the spacecraft will come within 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io’s surface. More About the Mission NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. More information about Juno is available at: https://www.nasa.gov/juno News Media Contacts DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 agle@jpl.nasa.gov Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501 karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov Deb Schmid Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio 210-522-2254 dschmid@swri.org Marco Galliani National Institute for Astrophysics +39 06 355 33 390 Marco.galliani@inaf.it 2023-157 View the full article

On Oct. 29, 1998, NASA astronaut John H. Glenn made history again when he returned to space aboard space shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission, nearly 37 years after becoming the first American in orbit during his February 1962 Friendship 7 mission. The seven-member STS-95 crew consisted of Commander Curtis L. Brown, Pilot Steven W. Lindsey, Mission Specialists Stephen K. Robinson, Dr. Scott E. Parazynski, and Pedro F. Duque of the European Space Agency, and Payload Specialists Dr. Chiaki Mukai of the National Space Development Agency of Japan, now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Glenn, who at age 77 became the oldest person to orbit the Earth, a record that stands to this day. During the nine-day mission, they conducted more than 80 experiments, many of them to study how exposure to weightlessness might relate to the aging process. Left: The STS-95 crew during their introductory press conference. Right: President William J. “Bill” Clinton introduces the STS-95 crew, including Senator John H. Glenn, during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Glenn, whom NASA essentially grounded after his historic 1962 mission for fear of losing a national hero in a spaceflight accident, had always dreamed of returning to space. Upon learning about the physiological changes that occur during spaceflight, and how they somewhat resemble those brought about by aging, now Senator Glenn began lobbying NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin for an opportunity to put that theory to the test, by volunteering himself as a subject. Goldin agreed in principle, providing Glenn passed the same physicals as all the other astronauts and that the flight included valuable peer-reviewed research. Glenn did, and teams at NASA working with the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging to put together a research program of experiments to study bone and muscle loss, balance disorders, sleep disturbances, and changes in the immune system. In addition, the mission conducted other experiments in fields such as materials processing, protein crystal growth, cell biology, and plant growth. Also part of the mission, the SPARTAN 201-5 free-flyer pallet carried instruments to study the Sun’s corona and the solar wind. On Jan. 16, 1998, NASA announced that Glenn would fly as a payload specialist on STS-95. On Feb. 13, the agency announced the rest of the STS-95 crew, who held a press conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Feb. 20, coincidentally the 36th anniversary of Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight. During a visit to JSC on April 14, President William J. “Bill” Clinton introduced the STS-95 astronauts. Left: STS-95 astronauts Steven W. Lindsey, seated left, and Curtis L. Brown; Scott E. Parazynski, standing left, Stephen K. Robinson, Chiaki Mukai of the National Space Development Agency of Japan, now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Pedro F. Duque of the European Space Agency, and John H. Glenn. Middle: The STS-95 crew patch. Right: Liftoff of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-95 mission, returning Glenn to orbit. Space shuttle Discovery’s 25th liftoff took place at 2:19 p.m. EDT on Oct. 29, 1998, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, carrying a double Spacehab module filled with scientific equipment. Brown, making his fifth trip into space and second as commander, and Pilot Lindsey on his second launch, monitored Discovery’s systems as they climbed into orbit, assisted by Mission Specialist Parazynski, a physician making his third trip into space, serving as the flight engineer. Mission Specialist Duque accompanied them on the flight deck. Mission Specialist Robinson, on his second mission, and Payload Specialists Mukai, also a physician and on her second trip to space, and Glenn experienced launch in the shuttle’s middeck. Left: View of the Spacehab module and the Canadian robotic arm in Discovery’s payload bay. Middle: The crew’s first view of the interior of the Spacehab module. Right: Chiaki Mukai, left, and Stephen K. Robinson begin activating the Spacehab. Upon reaching orbit, the crew opened the payload bay doors, thus deploying the shuttle’s radiators. Shortly after, the crew opened the hatch from the shuttle’s middeck, translated down the transfer tunnel, and entered Spacehab for the first time, activating the module and turning on the first experiments. These included the life sciences experiments that Glenn conducted to compare the effects of weightlessness and aging. Left: Physician astronaut Dr. Scott E. Parazynski, left, prepares to draw a blood sample from John H. Glenn. Middle: Glenn, left, and Parazynski prepare to centrifuge the collected blood sample. Right: Glenn, instrumented for a sleep study, prepares to begin his sleep period. Left: The STS-95 astronauts use the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator system, or robotic arm, to release the SPARATAN 201-5 free flyer. Middle: Stephen K. Robinson operates the RMS to retrieve the SPARTAN after its four-day autonomous flight. Right: Robinson places the SPARTAN back in the shuttle’s payload bay. On the mission’s second day, the crew deployed the PANSAT, a small experimental communications satellite built by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Later in the day, Robinson used the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or robotic arm to grapple the SPARTAN free flyer. He removed it from its cradle in the payload bay and deployed it for its four-day independent mission. It successfully completed its autonomous flight, traveling up to 30 miles from the shuttle. On flight day 6, Robinson used the RMS to capture SPARTAN and placed it back in its cradle in the payload bay. Left: Stephen K. Robinson processes a sample in the Advanced Gradient Heating Facility (AGHF). Right: John H. Glenn operates the Osteoporosis Experiment in Orbit (OSTEO) payload investigating the behavior of bone cells in microgravity. Left: Scott E. Parazynski prepares an experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox. Right: Chiaki Mukai examines plants grown in the Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) experiment. For the remainder of the mission, the seven-member crew busied itself with conducting the 80 experiments in the shuttle’s middeck, the Spacehab, and in the payload bay. Left: Chiaki Mukai operates the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU) investigation the vestibular systems of toadfish. Middle: John H. Glenn removes cartridges from the Advanced Separation (ADSEP) experiment. Right: Steven Lindsey operates the BIOBOX used to store biological samples. Left: Pedro F. Duque operates the Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System (MEPS) experiment. Middle: Chiaki Mukai operates the high-definition camcorder provided by the Japanese company NHK. Right: John H. Glenn takes one of the 2,500 Earth observation images obtained during the STS-95 mission. A selection of the Earth observation photographs taken by the STS-95 crew. Left: The Hawaiian Islands. Middle left: Houston. Middle right: Florida. Right: Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Left: STS-95 astronauts, clockwise from lower left, Pedro F. Duque, Chiaki Mukai, Scott E. Parazynski, John H. Glenn, Curtis L. Brown, Steven W. Lindsey, and Stephen K. Robinson. Middle: Brown, left, and Lindsey review entry checklists before donning their launch and entry suits in preparation for returning to Earth. Right: Mukai, left, and Duque help Glenn, center, put on his launch and entry suit for reentry. On their last day in space, the crew finished the experiments, closed up the Spacehab module, donned their launch and entry suits, and strapped themselves into their seats to prepare for their return to Earth. They fired the shuttle’s Orbital Maneuvering System engines to begin the descent from orbit. Brown piloted Discovery to a smooth landing at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility on Nov. 7, after completing 134 orbits around the Earth in 8 days, 21 hours, and 44 minutes. The astronauts exited Discovery about one hour after landing and immediately began their postflight data collection to measure their immediate physiological responses after returning to a 1 g environment. Ground crews towed Discovery to the Orbiter Processing Facility to begin preparing it for its next mission, STS-96, the first shuttle docking to the International Space Station. The astronauts returned to Houston’s Ellington Field, where a large crowd of well-wishers, including government officials and the media, welcomed them home. Left: Space Shuttle Discovery lands at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to end the nine-day STS-95 mission. Middle: Dignitaries including Isao Uchida, president of Japan’s National Space Development Agency, KSC Director Roy D. Bridges, and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin greet the returning STS-95 crew after their landing. Right: Dignitaries including Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown, left, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Administrator Goldin, and Johnson Space Center Director George W.S. Abbey greet the STS-95 crew at Ellington Field in Houston. Left: U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison addresses the crowd at Ellington Field gathered to welcome the STS-95 crew back to Houston. Right: NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin addresses the crowd at Ellington as the STS-95 astronauts listen. Enjoy the crew-narrated video about the STS-95 mission. Explore More 5 min read 25 Years Ago: Launch of Deep Space 1 Technology Demonstration Spacecraft Article 6 days ago 7 min read 30 Years Ago: The STS-58 Spacelab Life Sciences-2 Mission Article 2 weeks ago 11 min read 55 Years Ago: Nine Months Before the Moon Landing Article 2 weeks ago View the full article

2 min read Daily Minor Planet Volunteers Spot an Asteroid Passing Close to Earth The Catalina Sky Survey telescope “G96” with the follow-up telescope “I52” in the background. Credit: David Rankin Volunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet have made the project’s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day, volunteers H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and E. Chaghafi spotted a clear streak moving through each image and quickly notified the Daily Minor Planet team. Other telescopes from around the world went on the hunt for this space rock to find where it was heading. Observations of the asteroid came in from New Mexico and Croatia confirming the asteroid’s trajectory. It was found that the asteroid would pass by Earth about twice as far as the moon the next week and that it was about 50 meters (164 feet) in diameter! The Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA funded project to find dangerous Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) based at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. The Daily Minor Planet is a citizen science project hosted by the Zooniverse that asks volunteers to review animated nightly images taken by this survey to determine if they are real asteroids or false detections. The Daily Minor Planet team has already submitted observations of over 1,000 main belt asteroids and a few dozen NEA candidates since it started in May of this year. This is the first one to be independently confirmed and published by the Minor Planet Center. Fortunately, further observations of this object ruled out any possibility of this asteroid hitting the Earth. But the Daily Minor Planet volunteers continue to search! New data is uploaded after each clear night of observing, so there are always new discoveries to be made. To join the search, visit https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/fulsdavid/the-daily-minor-planet NASA’s Citizen Science Program: Learn about NASA citizen science projects Follow on X Follow on Facebook View the full article

6 Min Read Accounts Receivable ACH Credit Payment ACH Credit is a payment method that allows a payer to initiate payment through their financial institution through the ACH/Federal Reserve network. ACH Credit allows the payer to control the initiation and timing of payments as well as when the date the funds are sent. Please view the instructions by accessing ACH Credit Payment Instructions. Payments to NASA For your convenience and fast results, you have the following options to pay online: Option 1: Pay Via Bank Account (ACH Direct Debit, also known as electronic check); or Option 2: Pay Via Plastic Card (any credit or debit card with Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover, debit cards are accepted by Pay.gov). For information on other payment, options please contact NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Customer Contact Center: 1.877.677.2123. NSSC Accounts Receivable does not process checks for returned funds from Grantees. Grantees should refer to Health and Human Services website for instructions on returning funds. For other payment options, please contact the Customer Contact Center. Check Payments Make checks payable to: NSSC/For the account (s) of [applicable center] Please include the bill number on your check. Send all check payments to the following address: NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Building 1111, Jerry Hlass Road Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 Credit/Debit Card Payments to NASA To begin, please go to the Treasury Financial Manual at: https://tfm.fiscal.treasury.gov/v1/p5/c700.html. Please reference the following sections for more guidance on the following items: Credit Card Section 7045—Limitations on Card Collection Transactions Section 7045.10—Transaction Maximums Debit Card Section 7010—Scope, Applicability, and Network Rules Section 7025—Honoring of Cards and Surcharges Section 7025.10—Honoring of Cards Section 7025.20—Surcharges Testing Agencies wishing to test the new credit card daily dollar value limits can do so using the Vanity emulator. Use the $1.72 amount. The return code will be V2. Please refer to section 10.10 and Appendix A of the Pay.gov Agency Guide to the Collections Service for additional information on using the Vanity emulator. Fedwire Payments for NASA The Federal Reserve Banks provide the Fedwire Funds Service, a real-time gross settlement system that enables participants to initiate funds transfer that are immediate, final, and irrevocable once processed. Depository institutions and certain other financial institutions that hold an account with a Federal Reserve Bank are eligible to participate in the Fedwire Funds Services. There are approximately 7,300 participants who make Fedwire funds transfers. The Fedwire Funds Service is generally used to make large-value, time-critical payments. International and Domestic financial institutions can use Fedwire to send a wire transfer in United States dollars directly to the bank to the United States Treasury, which then forwards the payment to NASA. The Fedwire Funds Service is a credit transfer service. Participants originate funds transfers by instructing a Federal Reserve Bank to debit funds from its own account and credit funds to the account of another participant. Participants may originate funds transfers online, by initiating a secure electronic message, or off line, via telephone procedures. The Fedwire Funds Service business day begins at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the preceding calendar day and ends at 6:30 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, excluding designated holidays. For example, the Fedwire Funds Service opens for Monday at 9:00 p.m. on the preceding Sunday. The deadline for initiating transfers for the benefit of a third party (such as a bank’s customer) is 6:00 p.m. ET each business day. Under certain circumstances, Fedwire Funds Service operating hours may be extended by the Federal Reserve Banks. For more information, please visit: https://frbservices.org/financial-services/wires/index.html Sending A Fedwire Payments can be made through your Financial Institution. Your Financial Institution may charge additional fees for this service which will be incurred by the customer. Please also include a point of contact for your business in case NASA has any questions about the payment once it is received. Include any other identifying information with the payment, such as the bill of collection number, reference numbers and identify where to apply the payment. Customers should use the following instructions that meet their payment requirements. Note: NASA does not charge the Fedwire fee. Pay.Gov Payments Online payments to NASA can be made through Pay.Gov through NASA Online Payment link only. Customers should use the following instructions for Pay.Gov that meet their payment requirements: 1. Reimbursable Customers requesting to make an Advance Payment, please view instructions by accessing NASA Online Payments via Pay.Gov (Advances). 2. Direct Customers (Non-Reimbursable) requesting to make a payment on a Bill of Collection, please view instructions by accessing NASA Online Payments via Pay.Gov (Direct). 3. Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) Customers requesting to make a payment on a SEWP Fee, please view instructions by accessing NASA Online Payments via Pay.Gov (SEWP). 4. Click to view a Pay.Gov Screen Shot Example. SWIFT Payment Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment is an interbank communications system in which financial institutions worldwide can send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized and reliable environment. SWIFT does not facilitate funds transfer; rather, it sends payment orders, which must be settled by correspondent accounts that the institutions have with each other. Each financial institution, to exchange banking transactions, must have a banking relationship by either being a bank or affiliating itself with one or more. SWIFT is linked to more than 9,000 financial institutions in 209 countries and territories. For payments to NASA, the SWIFT message directs funds to a United States Treasury account, which then references and forwards the payment to a NASA Center. Please view the instructions by accessing SWIFT Payment Instructions. Note: NASA does not charge the SWIFT fee. Foreign Payments International Treasury Service (ITS) or ITS.gov is a comprehensive payment and collection system. ITS.gov is the federal government’s single portal for all types of international transactions, including payments and collections. Wire transfers allow for the individualized transmission of funds from single individuals or entities to others while still maintaining the efficiencies associated with the fast and secure movement of money. By using a wire transfer, people in different geographic locations can safely transfer money to locales and financial institutions around the globe. International wire transfers are monitored by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and agency of the U.S. Treasury tasked with preventing money from going to or coming from countries that are the subject of sanctions by the U.S. government. Please reference Foreign Currency Accounts and ITS Collection Instructions for more information. View the full article

4 min read NASA X-ray Telescopes Reveal the “Bones” of a Ghostly Cosmic Hand Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt) Rotating neutron stars with strong magnetic fields, or pulsars, serve as laboratories for extreme physics, offering high-energy conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth. Young pulsars can create jets of matter and antimatter moving away from the poles of the pulsar, along with an intense wind, forming a “pulsar wind nebula”. In 2001, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory first observed the pulsar PSR B1509-58 and revealed that its pulsar wind nebula (referred to as MSH 15-52) resembles a human hand. The pulsar is located at the base of the “palm” of the nebula. Now Chandra’s data of MSH 15-52 have been combined with data from NASA’s newest X-ray telescope, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to unveil the magnetic field “bones” of this remarkable structure, as reported in our press release. IXPE stared at MSH 15-52 for 17 days, the longest it has looked at any single object since it launched in December 2021. By combining data from Chandra and IXPE, astronomers are learning more about how a pulsar is injecting particles into space and shaping its environment. The X-ray data are shown along with infrared data from the Dark Energy Camera in Chile. Young pulsars can create jets of matter and antimatter moving away from the poles of the pulsar, along with an intense wind, forming a “pulsar wind nebula”. This one, known as MSH 15-52, has a shape resembling a human hand and provides insight into how these objects are formed.Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt In a new composite image, Chandra data are seen in orange (low-energy X-rays), green, and blue (higher-energy X-rays), while the diffuse purple represents the IXPE observations. The pulsar is in the bright region at the base of the palm and the fingers are reaching toward low energy X-ray clouds in the surrounding remains of the supernova that formed the pulsar. The image also includes infrared data from the second data release of the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) in red and blue. The IXPE data provides the first map of the magnetic field in the ‘hand’. It reveals information about the electric field orientation of X-rays determined by the magnetic field of the X-ray source. This is called “X-ray polarization”. An additional X-ray image shows the magnetic field map in MSH 15-52. In this image, short straight lines represent IXPE polarization measurements, mapping the direction of the local magnetic field. Orange “bars” mark the most precise measurements, followed by cyan and blue bars with less precise measurements. The complex field lines follow the `wrist’, ‘palm’ and ‘fingers’ of the hand, and probably help define the extended finger-like structures. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt The amount of polarization — indicated by bar length — is remarkably high, reaching the maximum level expected from theoretical work. To achieve that strength, the magnetic field must be very straight and uniform, meaning there is little turbulence in those regions of the pulsar wind nebula. One particularly interesting feature of MSH 15-52 is a bright X-ray jet directed from the pulsar to the “wrist” at the bottom of the image. The new IXPE data reveal that the polarization at the start of the jet is low, likely because this is a turbulent region with complex, tangled magnetic fields associated with the generation of high-energy particles. By the end of the jet the magnetic field lines appear to straighten and become much more uniform, causing the polarization to become much larger. A paper describing these results by Roger Romani of Stanford University and collaborators was published in The Astrophysical Journal on October 23, 2023, and is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.16067 IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. 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. Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/chandra Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Center Cambridge, Mass. 617-496-7998 Jonathan Deal Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-0034 Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Related Terms AstrophysicsChandra X-Ray ObservatoryIXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)Marshall Space Flight CenterThe Universe Explore More 5 min read The Crab Nebula Seen in New Light by NASA’s Webb Article 5 hours ago 6 min read NASA Rocket to See Sizzling Edge of Star-Forming Supernova A new sounding rocket mission is headed to space to understand how explosive stellar deaths… Article 3 days ago 2 min read Hubble Captures a Galactic Dance This striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the interacting galaxy pair known… Article 3 days ago View the full article

3 min read NASA, Partners Explore Sustainable Fuel’s Effects on Aircraft Contrails NASA Armstrong’s DC-8 aircraft flies over the northwestern U.S. to monitor emissions from Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator Explorer aircraft. As the largest flying science laboratory in the world, the DC-8 is equipped to collect crucial data about the sustainable aviation fuel and its effects on condensation trail formation.NASA/Jim Ross Contrails, the lines of clouds left by high-flying aircraft that crisscross the skies, are familiar sights, but they may have an unseen effect on the planet – trapping heat in the atmosphere. Working with Boeing, United Airlines, and other industry, government, and international partners, NASA researchers are collecting data to see how new, greener aviation fuels can help reduce the problem. Throughout October, NASA has supported contrail research through Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator program, a multi-year effort to analyze sustainable aviation fuel its capacity to benefit the environment. Boeing’s current ecoDemonstrator Explorer aircraft, a 737-10, has conducted test flights switching between tanks filled either with 100% sustainable aviation fuel or conventional fuel. NASA’s DC-8 aircraft, the world’s largest flying science laboratory, has followed, measuring emissions and contrail ice formation from each type of fuel. This data will help determine whether sustainable aviation fuels help reduce the formation of contrails. “Contrails are believed to be a major source of pollution,” said Rich Moore, a research physical scientist in NASA’s Langley Aerosol Research Group Experiment. Moore was among the researchers who flew aboard the DC-8. “With this mission, we’re looking not so much at correcting contrails, but at preventing them.” In addition to the DC-8, which is based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the agency contributed other critical capabilities, including a mobile laboratory for ground testing. Other collaborators for the ecoDemonstrator flights include General Electric Aerospace, the German Aerospace Center, National Research Council Canada, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Within a year, the researchers will publish their results. “One of the most amazing things about this collaboration is that this data will be released publicly with the world,” Moore said. Contrail clouds form when aircraft operate in the cold temperatures at high altitudes and water vapor in engine exhaust condenses and freezes. Made up of ice particles, contrail clouds can have both a cooling and warming effect based on ambient conditions, timing, and persistence – but scientists estimate that their warming effect is greater on a global scale. Over the past decade, NASA-funded research has shown that sustainable aviation fuels have significant benefits for reducing engine particle emissions that can influence local air quality near airports and contribute to the formation of contrails. Efforts to develop and evaluate sustainable aviation fuels focus on delivering the performance of conventional jet fuel without releasing new carbon dioxide into the environment. These fuels can be derived from sustainable sources such as feedstocks and waste resources. Flight testing remains the gold standard for understanding aerospace innovations and their environmental impacts, making partnerships like ecoDemonstrator and research aircrafts like NASA’s DC-8 important sources for data that can help make aviation more sustainable, protecting the environment and improving life on Earth. Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Editor Ryan M. Henderson Contact Location Armstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms Armstrong Flight Research CenterAtmospheric CompositionClimate ChangeDC-8Earth's AtmosphereScience in the Air Explore More 3 min read See SWOT Mission’s Unprecedented View of Global Sea Levels Article 2 hours ago 4 min read NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of 2023 Article 3 days ago 4 min read Aviones de movilidad aérea avanzada: un viaje suave en el futuro Article 4 days ago View the full article

Two artist’s concepts show the WISE spacecraft, left, in front of an image of the infrared sky it observed during its prime mission, and NASA’s Lucy mission, right, during its Nov. 1 encounter with asteroid Dinkinesh. NASA/JPL-Caltech and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Researchers have utilized infrared survey data to refine the asteroid’s size and surface brightness in support of the Nov. 1 encounter by NASA’s Lucy mission. NASA’s Lucy mission will soon have its first asteroid encounter as the spacecraft travels through deep space en route to Jupiter’s orbit. But before the spacecraft passes 265 miles (425 kilometers) from the surface of the small asteroid Dinkinesh, researchers have used 13-year-old infrared data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to support the mission’s flyby. Their new study provides updated estimates of the asteroid’s size and albedo – a measurement of surface reflectivity – that could help scientists better understand the nature of some near-Earth objects. Located between Mars and Jupiter, the main asteroid belt is home to most asteroids in our solar system, including Dinkinesh, which is following an orbit around the Sun that places it near Lucy’s path. The Lucy mission is using the Dinkinesh encounter as an opportunity to test systems and procedures that are designed to keep the asteroid within the science instruments’ fields of view as the spacecraft flies past at 10,000 mph (4.5 kilometers per second). This will help the team prepare for the mission’s primary objective: investigating the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, a population of primitive small bodies orbiting in tandem with Jupiter. In the new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, University of Arizona researchers used observations made by the WISE spacecraft, which serendipitously scanned Dinkinesh in 2010 during its prime mission. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, WISE launched on Dec. 14, 2009, to create an all-sky infrared map of the universe. Although the signal was weak in the exposures captured by WISE, the authors managed to identify 17 infrared observations of the region of sky where Dinkinesh’s signal could be seen. Then they used an algorithm to align and stack the images. The observations were made in March 2010 and represent 36.5 hours of observing time. “Dinkinesh wasn’t initially detected by WISE, because the asteroid’s infrared signal was too weak for the software that was designed to find objects in a single exposure,” said Kiana De’Marius McFadden, a graduate student at the University of Arizona and lead author of the study. “But the asteroid’s dim infrared signal was still there, so our main challenge was to first find Dinkinesh and then to stack multiple exposures of the same region of sky to get its signal to emerge from the noise.” Beyond WISE Dinkinesh was discovered in 1999 – over a decade before WISE made the observations – and although its approximate size has been known, the new analysis refines not only its size, but also its albedo. The WISE observations suggest the asteroid has a diameter of about a half-mile (760 meters) and an albedo consistent with stony (S-type) asteroids. Although WISE’s purpose wasn’t to detect asteroids, the spacecraft was sensitive to the infrared light (which is invisible to the naked eye) radiating from them as a result of sunlight heating their rocky surfaces. WISE had recorded about 190,000 asteroid observations by the end of its prime mission. In 2013, NASA reactivated WISE and renamed the mission Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). Its purpose: to detect and track asteroids and comets that stray close to Earth’s orbit. “Dinkinesh is the smallest main belt asteroid to be studied up-close and could provide valuable information about this type of object,” said the University of Arizona’s Amy Mainzer, a study co-author and the principal investigator for NEOWISE. “This population of main-belt asteroids overlap in size with the potentially hazardous near-Earth object population. Studying Dinkinesh could provide insights as to how these small main-belt asteroids form and where near-Earth asteroids come from.” Targeting a late-2027 launch, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) will take over where NEOWISE leaves off. Scanning the sky in infrared wavelengths for hard-to-find asteroids and comets, NEO Surveyor could also utilize the same technique used to detect faint signals hiding in WISE observations, boosting the next-generation space telescope’s power. Mainzer is the principal investigator for NEO Surveyor. More About the Mission Lucy’s principal investigator, Hal Levison, is based at the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Explore Lucy's flyby of Dinkinesh with NASA's Eyes on the Solar System News Media Contact Ian J. O’Neill Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-2649 ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov 2023-155 Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Related Terms AsteroidsJet Propulsion LaboratoryLucyNear-Earth Asteroid (NEA)NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope)NEOWISEPlanetary DefenseTrojan AsteroidsWISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) Explore More 3 min read See SWOT Mission’s Unprecedented View of Global Sea Levels Article 2 hours ago 5 min read NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map Article 4 days ago 5 min read How NASA Is Protecting Europa Clipper From Space Radiation Article 6 days ago View the full article

NASA Iron-rich sediment colors the red-orange waters of the Betsiboka River Delta in Madagascar in this image taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on Sept. 30, 2023. The sediment can clog waterways in the delta’s estuarial environment, but it can also form new islands that become colonized by mangroves. Despite its rusty color, this artery of water is important for biodiversity. Within the Betsiboka River Delta, the estuary supplies food, such as seagrasses, to the endangered green turtle and vulnerable dugong, or sea cow. Text credit: Sara Schmidt Image Credit: NASA View the full article

This animation shows global sea level data collected by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite from July 26 to Aug. 16. Red and orange indicate higher-than-average ocean heights, while blue represents lower-than-average heights. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Data on sea surface heights around the world from the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission yields a mesmerizing view of the planet’s ocean. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is sending down tantalizing views of Earth’s water, including a global composite of sea surface heights. The satellite collected the data visualized above during SWOT’s first full 21-day science orbit, which it completed between July 26 and Aug. 16. SWOT is measuring the height of nearly all water on Earth’s surface, providing one of the most detailed, comprehensive views yet of the planet’s oceans and freshwater lakes and rivers. The satellite is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency, CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). The animation shows sea surface height anomalies around the world: Red and orange indicate ocean heights that were higher than the global mean sea surface height, while blue represents heights lower than the mean. Sea level differences can highlight ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream coming off the U.S. East Coast or the Kuroshio current off the east coast of Japan. Sea surface height can also indicate regions of relatively warmer water – like the eastern part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean during an El Niño – because water expands as it warms. The SWOT science team made the measurements using the groundbreaking Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument. With two antennas spread 33 feet (10 meters) apart on a boom, KaRIn produces a pair of data swaths (tracks visible in the animation) as it circles the globe, bouncing radar pulses off the water’s surface to collect surface-height measurements. “The detail that SWOT is sending back on sea levels around the world is incredible,” said Parag Vaze, SWOT project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The data will advance research into the effects of climate change and help communities around the world better prepare for a warming world.” More About the Mission Launched on Dec. 16, 2022, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, SWOT is now in its operations phase, collecting data that will be used for research and other purposes. SWOT was jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and the UK Space Agency. JPL, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA provided the KaRIn instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. CNES provided the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground operations. CSA provided the KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly. NASA provided the launch vehicle and the agency’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, managed the associated launch services. To learn more about SWOT, visit: https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/ News Media Contacts Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874 jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov 2023-156 Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Related Terms Climate ChangeEarthJet Propulsion LaboratoryOceansSWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography)Water on Earth Explore More 4 min read NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of 2023 Article 3 days ago 6 min read NASA-ISRO Radar Mission to Provide Dynamic View of Forests, Wetlands Article 3 days ago 5 min read NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map Article 4 days ago View the full article

4 Min Read NASA C-130 Makes First-Ever Flight to Antarctica for GUSTO Balloon Mission NASA's Wallops Flight Facility C-130 aircraft delivered the agency’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) payload to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on Oct. 28, 2023. The GUSTO mission will launch on a scientific balloon in December 2023. Credits: NASA/Scott Battaion On Oct. 28, 2023, NASA’s C-130 Hercules and crew safely touched down at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, after an around-the-globe journey to deliver the agency’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO). The United States research station, operated by the National Science Foundation, is host to NASA’s Antarctic long-duration balloon campaign in which the GUSTO mission will take a scientific balloon flight beginning December 2023. The C-130 crew, which has now completed half of the 26,400-nautical-mile round-trip journey, first stopped at Fort Cavazos, Texas, on Oct. 17, to load the GUSTO observatory and members of its instrument team. Additional stops to service the aircraft and for crew rest included Travis Air Force Base (AFB), California; Hickman AFB, Hawaii; Pago Pago, American Samoa; and Christchurch, New Zealand, before finally reaching McMurdo, Antarctica – a mere 800 miles from the South Pole. Aircraft Office teams prepare the C-130 aircraft for departure at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The aircraft will deliver the agency’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) payload to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The GUSTO mission will launch on a scientific balloon in December 2023.NASA/Terry Zaperach GUSTO, part of NASA’s Astrophysics Explorers Program, is set to fly aboard a football-stadium-sized, zero-pressure scientific balloon 55 days and beyond, on a mapping mission of a portion of the Milky Way Galaxy and nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. A telescope with carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen emission line detectors will measure the interstellar medium, the cosmic material found between stars, and trace the full lifecycle of that matter. GUSTO’s science observations will be performed in a balloon launch from Antarctica to allow for enough observation time aloft, access to astronomical objects, and solar power provided by the austral summer in the polar region. NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Aircraft Office in Wallops Island, Virginia, which manages the C-130, spent nearly a year in coordination efforts preparing for GUSTO’s trip to its launch site. From international clearances with agencies, cargo configurations with NASA’s Balloon Program Office, logistical support with the National Science Foundation at McMurdo, to specialized training on nontraditional navigation systems in Antarctica, the Aircraft Office developed an extensive plan to safely deliver the intricate science payload. The first-ever mission to Antarctica for the NASA C-130 aircraft presented several long-haul cargo flight challenges. Mission managers and NASA’s Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) started early to stay ahead of coordination of international flight clearances. “We work very hard to make sure that we execute the mission at a high standard of technical competence and professionalism to maintain NASA’s international reputation,” said John Baycura, Wallops research pilot on the GUSTO mission. Large time-zone changes challenge the crew’s circadian rhythm. Ninety hours in flight across multiple time zones requires an extra pilot and flight engineer on the mission to share the workload. Mandatory crew rest days at strategic locations, per NASA policy, ensure the crew receives enough time to rest, adjust to the schedule, and proceed safely. Visit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr for more photos. Unexpected weather also tops the list of most pressing challenges for this type of flight. Oceanic crossings come with the added risk of weather complicated by no radar coverage over the ocean. The crew uses DOD and civilian weather agencies to identify hazardous weather and adjust flight routes, altitude, and timings accordingly. “For the specific case of McMurdo, while en route, we called the weather shop at McMurdo Station to get a forecast update before we reached our ‘safe return’ point. Using a conservative approach, we decided whether to continue to McMurdo Station or return to Christchurch and try again the next day,” said Baycura. For this mission, no commercial entities supported the final leg to Antarctica. U.S. Air Force C-17’s and the New York Air National Guard LC-130’s that typically transport to McMurdo Station had limited space in their schedules. By using NASA’s C-130 for this specialized cargo mission, “the balloon program gained a dedicated asset with a highly experienced crew and support team. This greatly reduced the standard project risks to schedule, cargo, and cost,” said Baycura. For more information, visit nasa.gov/wallops. Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Editor Jamie Adkins Contact Olivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.gov Location Wallops Flight Facility Related Terms AeronauticsNASA AircraftScientific BalloonsWallops Flight Facility Explore More 4 min read NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of 2023 Article 3 days ago 4 min read Aviones de movilidad aérea avanzada: un viaje suave en el futuro Article 4 days ago 3 min read NASA Retires UHF SmallSat Tracking Site Ops at Wallops Article 5 days ago View the full article

Exquisite, never-before-seen details help unravel the supernova remnant’s puzzling history. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers, the Crab Nebula has continued to draw attention and additional study as scientists seek to understand the conditions, behavior, and after-effects of supernovae through thorough study of the Crab, a relatively nearby example. Image: Crab Nebula This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveals new details in infrared light. The supernova remnant is comprised of several different components, including doubly ionized sulfur (represented in red-orange), ionized iron (blue), dust (yellow-white and green), and synchrotron emission (white). In this image, colors were assigned to different filters from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI: blue (F162M), light blue (F480M), cyan (F560W), green (F1130W), orange (F1800W), and red (F2100W). : Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University). Using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), a team led by Tea Temim at Princeton University is searching for answers about the Crab Nebula’s origins. “Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution allow us to accurately determine the composition of the ejected material, particularly the content of iron and nickel, which may reveal what type of explosion produced the Crab Nebula,” explained Temim. Image: Webb and Hubble This side-by-side comparison of the Crab Nebula as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in optical light (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared light (right) reveals different details. By studying the recently collected Webb data, and consulting previous observations of the Crab taken by other telescopes like Hubble, astronomers can build a more comprehensive understanding of this mysterious supernova remnant.: Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (Arizona State University); Webb Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University). At first glance, the general shape of the supernova remnant is similar to the optical wavelength image released in 2005 from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope: In Webb’s infrared observation, a crisp, cage-like structure of fluffy gaseous filaments are shown in red-orange. However, in the central regions, emission from dust grains (yellow-white and green) is mapped out by Webb for the first time. Additional aspects of the inner workings of the Crab Nebula become more prominent and are seen in greater detail in the infrared light captured by Webb. In particular, Webb highlights what is known as synchrotron radiation: emission produced from charged particles, like electrons, moving around magnetic field lines at relativistic speeds. The radiation appears here as milky smoke-like material throughout the majority of the Crab Nebula’s interior. This feature is a product of the nebula’s pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star. The pulsar’s strong magnetic field accelerates particles to extremely high speeds and causes them to emit radiation as they wind around magnetic field lines. Though emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, the synchrotron radiation is seen in unprecedented detail with Webb’s NIRCam instrument. Video: Tour of Webb Image To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This video tours the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant that lies 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Despite this distance from Earth, the Crab Nebula is a relatively close example of what remains after the explosive death of a massive star. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures in unprecedented detail the various components that comprise the Crab, including the expanding cloud of hot gas, cavernous filaments of dust, and synchrotron emission. The synchrotron emission is the result of the nebula’s pulsar: a rapidly rotating neutron star that is located in the center. To locate the Crab Nebula’s pulsar heart, trace the wisps that follow a circular ripple-like pattern in the middle to the bright white dot in the center. Farther out from the core, follow the thin white ribbons of the radiation. The curvy wisps are closely grouped together, outlining the structure of the pulsar’s magnetic field, which sculpts and shapes the nebula. At center left and right, the white material curves sharply inward from the filamentary dust cage’s edges and goes toward the neutron star’s location, as if the waist of the nebula is pinched. This abrupt slimming may be caused by the confinement of the supernova wind’s expansion by a belt of dense gas. The wind produced by the pulsar heart continues to push the shell of gas and dust outward at a rapid pace. Among the remnant’s interior, yellow-white and green mottled filaments form large-scale loop-like structures, which represent areas where dust grains reside. The search for answers about the Crab Nebula’s past continues as astronomers further analyze the Webb data and consult previous observations of the remnant taken by other telescopes. Scientists will have newer Hubble data to review within the next year or so from the telescope’s reimaging of the supernova remnant. This will mark Hubble’s first look at emission lines from the Crab Nebula in over 20 years, and will enable astronomers to more accurately compare Webb and Hubble’s findings. Learn More Want to learn more? Through NASA’s Universe of Learning, part of NASA’s Science Activation program, explore images of the Crab Nebula from other telescopes, a 3D visualization, data sonification, and hands-on activities. These resources and more information about supernova remnants and star lifecycles can be found at NASA’s Universe of Learning. The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Media Contacts Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu , Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edi Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. Downloads Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Related Information Neutron Stars – https://universe.nasa.gov/stars/types/#otp_neutron_stars Universe/Stars Basics – https://universe.nasa.gov/stars/basics/ Universe Basics – https://universe.nasa.gov/universe/basics/ More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/ More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/ Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/ En Español Ciencia de la NASA NASA en español Space Place para niños Keep Exploring Related Topics Stars Overview Stars are giant balls of hot gas – mostly hydrogen, with some helium and small amounts of other elements.… How does the universe work? How does the universe work? Understanding the universe’s birth and its ultimate fate are essential first steps to unveil the… The Big Bang Overview The origin, evolution, and nature of the universe have fascinated and confounded humankind for centuries. New ideas and major… Universe Explore the universe: Learn about the history of the cosmos, what it’s made of, and so much more. Share Details Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 Editor Steve Sabia Contact Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes ResearchGoddard Space Flight CenterJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST)Neutron StarsOrigin & Evolution of the UniverseStarsThe Universe View the full article

5 min read NASA’s Modern History Makers: Sarah Tipler Sarah Tipler poses in front of a mural of NASA astronaut Michael Anderson in Plattsburgh, New York. Credit: Sarah Tipler <back to gallery Growing up, Sarah Tipler always felt out of place. She had trouble with time management, structuring her day, and focusing her attention, but she didn’t know why. “For all of my undergraduate education, I really struggled to keep up despite understanding the material,” Tipler said. “It took a ton of work to make good grades happen, including asking for extensions and pulling last-minute all-nighters. I used to beat myself up for my apparent lack of self-control.” Tipler enrolled in college after high school but withdrew after facing depression and other mental health challenges. A few years later, she took another stab at school to become a French teacher but found the career wasn’t for her. After realizing studying computer science and engineering fascinated her, she applied for a Pathways internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “At NASA, I knew that I was working on the kinds of projects that are helping advance humanity’s knowledge of the universe and the world we live in,” she said. It wasn’t until transitioning to a full-time computer scientist job at Glenn that she finally got some answers about herself. “At NASA, I was feeling happy, I was in a great place in my life, and I was excited about where I was, but I was still struggling to effectively manage my workload,” she said. “That’s what led me to seek help and obtain a diagnosis of ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder], which has really helped me understand a lot of the issues that I’ve had in my life and put a lot of things in a different perspective.” Tipler’s colleagues provided her encouragement and a support system, and she’s now helping NASA take its next giant leap with the Artemis missions. Tipler’s team develops code that models the power systems of the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft, and the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) that will help propel Gateway, NASA’s future lunar space station. This SPACE (or system power analysis for capability evaluation) code can predict how much power is generated by solar arrays and determine whether it is sufficient to support important spacecraft systems, like life support and propulsion. For example, throughout Gateway’s journey, the solar arrays that generate power for PPE won’t always be able to face the sun and generate maximum energy. “We need to make sure that when Gateway is using its thrusters, which require a lot of electrical power, we’ll have enough for the rest of the spacecraft,” Tipler explains. Tipler’s team is also developing a graphical user interface that will make it easier for the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to use the code. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that I’m some small part of that giant puzzle,” she said. “It makes all of the challenges and obstacles that I go through feel worth it when I get to sit down and look at things from the big picture.” Learning to navigate ADHD has been a long journey, Tipler says, but her family, friends, fiancé, and five rambunctious cats have been there to cheer her up and encourage her. In addition, being able to work remotely from her home in northern New York has been critical to her success at work. “I have found that teleworking and being fully remote has really helped with my ADHD because my focus isn’t always consistent, so this adds a lot more flexibility into my work life and has helped me be the best productive person I can be,” she said. Ensuring open communication with coworkers and having conversations about expectations has also kept Tipler on the right track, and she has found ways to thrive. “I think there are some really cool, unique perspectives that people living with different disabilities can bring to the workplace in the ways we think differently or work to overcome obstacles or problems,” she said. Often, practices that help people with disabilities can be beneficial to all workers, Tipler says, such as offering written agendas and notes instead of just verbal information or being open to new workplace approaches. “You don’t always need to know what someone is dealing with to make things better for everyone,” she said. Tipler wants people working to overcome their own obstacles to know that they are not alone and to remind others that some disabilities, like ADHD, can seem invisible. “Remember that you never know what someone else is going through,” she said. “The best approach is to operate with kindness.” NASA is in a Golden Era of aeronautics and space exploration. In partnership with commercial and private businesses, NASA is currently making history with significant missions such as Artemis, Quesst, and electrified aviation. The NASA’s Modern History Makers series highlights members of NASA Glenn’s workforce who make these remarkable missions possible. Ellen Bausback NASA’s Glenn Research Center Explore More 4 min read NASA, JAXA Benefit from Collaborative Fellowship Experience Article 3 days ago 4 min read Progress Continues Toward NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to Station Article 3 days ago 3 min read NASA Updates Commercial Crew Planning Manifest Article 3 days ago View the full article

Celebrating International Observe the Moon Night on This Week @NASA – October 27

2 min read NASA Supports Tests of Dust Sensor to Aid Lunar Landings University of Central Florida researchers tested an instrument designed to measure the size and speed of surface particles kicked up by the exhaust from a rocket-powered lander on the Moon or Mars. The four tethered flights on Astrobotic’s Xodiac rocket-powered lander took place in Mojave, California, from Sept. 12 through Oct. 4, 2023. Researchers tested the Ejecta STORM technology’s integration with a lander and operation in flight conditions that simulated the plume effects of a lunar lander. Credits: Astrobotic A research team from the University of Central Florida recently tested an instrument designed to measure the size and speed of surface particles kicked up by the exhaust from a rocket-powered lander on the Moon or Mars. Supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, researchers evaluated the instrument in a series of flight tests on Astrobotic’s Xodiac rocket-powered lander in Mojave, California. When spacecraft land on the Moon or Mars, the rocket exhaust plume creates regolith ejecta – abrasive dust and large particles moving at high speeds – that can damage the lander and surrounding structures. Understanding how a rocket engine’s exhaust affects this ejecta will help mission designers plan more effectively for lunar landings by allowing them to model the soil erosion rate, the particle size distribution, and the velocities associated with plume-surface interaction. Researchers at the University of Central Florida developed the laser-based instrument, named Ejecta STORM (Sheet Tracking, Opacity, and Regolith Maturity), to answer this need while embracing the Flight Opportunities program’s “fly, fix, fly” ethos to quickly advance the technology. Four tethered flights enabled researchers to test the system’s integration with a lander and operation in flight conditions that simulated the plume effects of a lunar lander. These tests build on data collected during a 2020 flight campaign leveraging Xodiac. These 2020 flight tests, funded by the program’s TechFlights solicitation, allowed researchers to measure the density and size of particles during terrestrial simulations of lunar landings. Researchers expect the technology to inform model development and reduce risk for future lunar landings, ultimately improving mission design for rover-based planetary science missions, crewed missions to the Moon and other bodies, and in-situ resource utilization. Flight Opportunities is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. By Chloe Tuck NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Flight Opportunities News Moon to Mars Architecture Armstrong Flight Research Center Share Details Last Updated Oct 27, 2023 Editor Loura Hall Contact Related Terms Flight Opportunities ProgramSpace Technology Mission Directorate View the full article

As NASA explores, innovates, and inspires through its work, agency inventions aimed at monitoring atmospheric pollution, studying samples from asteroids, extracting oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, and revolutionizing flight have been named TIME’s Inventions of 2023. TIME announced the honorees on Oct. 24. “For more than 65 years, NASA has innovated for the benefit of humanity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From turning carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars, to delivering the largest asteroid sample to Earth, helping improve air quality across North America, and changing the way we fly, our MOXIE, TEMPO, OSIRIS-REx and X-59 Quesst missions are proof that NASA turns science fiction into science fact. It’s all made possible by our world-class workforce who, time after time, show us nothing is beyond our reach when we work together.” Improving Air Quality Data NASA graphic showing basic path of TEMPO scanning. Image Credit: NASA NASA’s TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission is the first space-based instrument to measure pollution hourly during the daytime across North America, spanning from Mexico City to Northern Canada and coast-to-coast. Launched in April 2023, TEMPO provides unprecedented daytime measurement and monitoring of major air pollutants. The first-of-its-kind instrument can monitor pollution within a four-square-mile area and is helping climate scientists improve life on Earth by providing openly accessible air quality data for studies of rush hour pollution, the transport of pollution from forest fires and volcanoes, and even the effects of fertilizers, and it also has the potential to help improve air quality alerts. Making Oxygen on Mars Technicians lower the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument into the belly of the Perseverance rover. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech In September, a microwave-size device known as MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover generated oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for the 16th and final time. Extracting oxygen from the atmospheric resources found on Mars via In-situ Resource Utilization processes will be critical to long-term human exploration of the Red Planet, providing explorers with breathable air and rocket propellant. Since Perseverance landed in 2021, MOXIE has proven far more successful than expected, generating more than 130 grams of oxygen, including 9.8 grams on its final run. At its most efficient, MOXIE produced 12 grams of oxygen an hour – twice as much as NASA’s original goals for the instrument – at least 98% purity. Asteroid Sampler Curation teams process the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Photo Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber On Sept. 24, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth. The sample is the first asteroid collected in space by NASA, and the largest ever collected from an asteroid. The rock and dust represent relics of our early solar system and could shed light on the origins of life. Early analysis of the sample at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has revealed high carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock. The Bennu sample will be divided and shared with partner space agencies and other institutions, providing generations of scientists a window about 4.5 billion years into the past. Quiet Sonic Thumps The X-59 Quesst aircraft is rolled out at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Palmdale, California. Photo credit: Lockheed Martin NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft, the agency’s first purpose-built, supersonic X-plane in decades, is currently scheduled to take to the skies in 2024. The centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, the agency will fly the X-59 to demonstrate the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound while reducing the typically loud sonic boom to a quieter “sonic thump”. NASA will use the X-59 to provide data to help regulators amend current rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land, opening the door to greatly reduced flight times. NASA will fly the X-59 over several U.S. cities in the final phase of the mission, gathering public input to the hushed sonic thumps. The TEMPO instrument is managed by NASA Langley’s Science Directorate in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It was built by Ball Aerospace and integrated onto Intelsat 40E by Maxar. The MOXIE experiment was built Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the project for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched on Sept. 8, 2016, was led by the University of Arizona. It is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, under the agency’s Science Mission Directorate’s New Frontiers Program. The Low-Boom Flight Demonstration project is managed by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the X-59 Quesst is managed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and both efforts are led by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. For more information about the agency’s missions, visit: https://www.nasa.gov View the full article

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Katherine Cook, fourth from the left, attends a welcome reception for the 26th class of Mansfield Scholars at the Iikura House in Japan on Sept. 1, 2022. The reception was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Mansfield Foundation, and the National Personnel Authority of Japan.Contributed photo A yearlong journey of cultural and professional development overseas has a NASA Deep Space Logistics employee excited about current and future collaboration with one of America’s key international partners in the agency’s Artemis program. Katherine Cook, who develops cargo delivery services for NASA’s Gateway, recently returned to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after an immersive experience in Japan. There, she collaborated with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), government ministries contributing to Japan’s space activities, and The National Diet’s House of Representatives. Katherine Cook speaks at Kumamoto University Graduate School for Science and Technology in Japan on Dec. 16, 2022. The university is located on Kyushu, the southernmost main island of Japan.Contributed photo “Everything I did involved Artemis and human exploration,” Cook said. “Developing technologies for Moon to Mars is challenging, but if we can find a good balance of leveraging the strengths of each partner and continue to evolve the partnership, we’ll be able to share knowledge in an even more integrated way.” As part of her trip, Cook spent about five months at the Tsukuba Space Center, approximately one hour north of Tokyo, working under JAXA Vice President and Director General for Human Spaceflight Technology Hiroshi Sasaki. She partnered with JAXA subject matter experts to host themed discussions for the directorate team, sharing and discussing ideas about the U.S and Japanese approaches, including future partnering opportunities. Her research themes included: NASA’s Moon to Mars objectives; commercial capabilities such as commercial low Earth orbit development; lunar surface transportation such as rovers and utility vehicles; lunar in-situ resource utilization, human landing systems, and science priorities to enable human exploration to the Moon and beyond. This required intense language training – before and throughout Cook’s trip – so she could understand, write, and speak Japanese with an audience ranging from students and coworkers to Japanese dignitaries, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi and JAXA President Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa. On June 15, 2022, Koji Tomita (fourth from the left), ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States, hosts six members of the Mansfield Fellowship, including NASA’s Katherine Cook, fifth from the left, in Washington, D.C., before their departure to Japan.Contributed photo “I think a lot of growth came out of challenging myself – both in learning more about NASA and U.S. agencies collaborating on space and learning about it deeply enough to explain it and communicate it in a succinct way that could make it through translation,” Cook said. Cook was just the third NASA person selected in the nearly 30-year history of the Mansfield Fellowship, a program named for former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield. Invited to lecture at several university graduate programs, Cook was inspired by students’ interest in NASA’s Moon to Mars plans, as well as their knowledge and in-depth questions. Her interaction with Japanese colleagues was equally positive, as they welcomed her to their group with open arms. During the Artemis I launch in November 2022, Cook invited members of the JAXA human spaceflight team to a launch viewing party. Aware that she was disappointed about missing the launch live, they blew her away by showing up in great numbers, doling out high-fives and ecstatically cheering on the launch in front of a big screen TV at the Tsukuba Space Center. After a ride on the new Superconducting Maglev, the world’s fastest bullet train that travels up to 311 mph and operates on a magnetic levitation railway system, Mansfield Fellows stop by a convenience store for a drinkable ice cream treat on May 18, 2023. NASA’s Katherine Cook is pictured third from the left.Contributed photo “One thing that leaves an impression on you from Japan is their hospitality. The word for it is ‘omotenashi,’” Cook said. “It’s more than just a word; it’s culturally ingrained in how they interact with each other and the level of consideration that they put into everything they do.” Enriched technically, culturally, and spiritually from her transformative experience in Japan, Cook returned to NASA “forever changed.” She learned a great deal about science, life, and her own agency. She even picked up a saying that she incorporated into her daily work routine. “In Japan, at the end of every day, you say, ‘Otsukaresama deshita,’ which means, ‘Thank you for your hard work.’ When you pass a coworker in the hall and when you toast in celebration with coworkers, you say ‘Otsukaresama des,’ ” Cook said. “Even still, when I meet with my Japanese counterparts, I will often say it. And it reminds me to carry that appreciation of my team throughout my day back at NASA. The simple phrase bonds us all together across the international Artemis work we do.” View the full article

6 min read NASA-ISRO Radar Mission to Provide Dynamic View of Forests, Wetlands NISAR will use radar to study changes in ecosystems around the world, such as this forest in Tikal National Park in northern Guatemala, to understand how these areas are affected by climate change and human activity, and the role they play in the global carbon cycle.Credit: USAID NISAR will help researchers explore how changes in Earth’s forest and wetland ecosystems are affecting the global carbon cycle and influencing climate change. Once it launches in early 2024, the NISAR radar satellite mission will offer detailed insights into two types of ecosystems – forests and wetlands – vital to naturally regulating the greenhouses gases in the atmosphere that are driving global climate change. NISAR is a joint mission by NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), and when in orbit, its sophisticated radar systems will scan nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. The data it collects will help researchers understand two key functions of both ecosystem types: the capture and the release of carbon. Pictured in this artist’s concept, NISAR, short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, marks the first time the U.S. and Indian space agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. Its two radar systems will monitor change in nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Forests hold carbon in the wood of their trees; wetlands store it in their layers of organic soil. Disruption of either system, whether gradual or sudden, can accelerate the release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. Tracking these land-cover changes on a global scale will help researchers study the impacts on the carbon cycle – the processes by which carbon moves between the atmosphere, land, ocean, and living things. “The radar technology on NISAR will allow us to get a sweeping perspective of the planet in space and time,” said Paul Rosen, the NISAR project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It can give us a really reliable view of exactly how Earth’s land and ice are changing.” Tracking Deforestation Forestry and other land-use changes account for about 11% of net human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. NISAR’s data will improve our understanding of how the loss of forests around the world influences the carbon cycle and contributes to global warming. “Globally, we do not understand well the carbon sources and sinks from terrestrial ecosystems, particularly from forests,” said Anup Das, an ecosystems scientist and co-lead of the ISRO NISAR science team. “So we expect that NISAR will greatly help address that, especially in less dense forests, which are more vulnerable to deforestation and degradation.” To show the kind of imagery NISAR will produce, researchers pointed to this composite that uses data from two Japanese L-band SAR missions to reveal land-cover change in Brazil’s Xingu River basin between 1996 and 2007. Black shows forest areas converted to farmland before 1996, and red shows additional areas cleared by 2007.Credit: Woodwell Climate Research Center/Earth Big Data LLC. Data courtesy of METI and JAXA. The signal from NISAR’s L-band radar will penetrate the leaves and branches of forest canopies, bouncing off the tree trunks and the ground below. By analyzing the signal that reflects back, researchers will be able to estimate the density of forest cover in an area as small as a soccer field. With successive orbital passes, it will be able to track whether a section of forest has been thinned or cleared over time. The data – which will be collected in early morning and evening and in any weather – could also offer clues as to what caused the change, such as disease, human activity, or fire. It’s an important set of capabilities for studying vast, often cloud-covered rainforests such as those in the Congo and Amazon basins, which lose millions of wooded acres every year. Fire releases carbon into the air directly, while the deterioration of forests reduces the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The data could also help improve accounting of deforestation and forest degradation – as well as forest growth – as countries that rely on logging try to shift toward more sustainable practices, said Josef Kellndorfer, a member of the NISAR science team and founder of Earth Big Data LLC, a provider of large data sets and analytic tools for research and decisions support. “Reducing deforestation and degradation is low-hanging fruit to address a substantial part of the global carbon emission problem,” he added. Monitoring Wetland Flooding Wetlands present another carbon puzzle: Swamps, bogs, peatlands, inundated forests, marshes, and other wetlands hold 20 to 30% of the carbon in Earth’s soil, despite constituting only 5 to 8% of the land surface. When wetlands flood, bacteria go to work digesting organic matter (mostly dead plants) in the soil. Through this natural process, wetlands are the planet’s largest natural source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, which bubbles to the water’s surface and travels into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, when wetlands dry out, the carbon they store is exposed to oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide. NISAR will track wetland flooding to study how these carbon-rich ecosystems are reacting to climate change. It will generate images like this one from an airborne radar that flew over Peru in 2013. Black indicates water, gray is rainforest, green is low vegetation, and red and pink are flooded plants.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech “These are huge reservoirs of carbon that can be released in a relatively short time frame,” said Erika Podest, a NISAR science team member and a carbon cycle and ecosystems researcher at JPL. Less well understood is how changing temperature and precipitation patterns due to climate change – along with human activities such as development and agriculture – are affecting the extent, frequency, and duration of flooding in wetlands. NISAR will be able to monitor flooding, and with repeated passes, researchers will be able to track seasonal and annual variations in wetlands inundation, as well as long-term trends. By coupling NISAR’s wetlands observations with separate data on the release of greenhouse gases, researchers should gain insights that inform the management of wetland ecosystems, said Bruce Chapman, a NISAR science team member and JPL wetlands researcher. “We have to be careful to reduce our impact on wetland areas so that we don’t worsen the situation with the climate,” he added. NISAR is set to launch in early 2024 from southern India. In addition to tracking ecosystem changes, it will collect information on the motion of the land, helping researchers understand the dynamics of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and subsidence and uplift (when the surface sinks and rises). It will also track the movements and melting of both glaciers and sea ice. More About the Mission NISAR is an equal collaboration between NASA and ISRO and marks the first time the two agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of the project and is providing the mission’s L-band SAR. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. ISRO’s U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, which is leading the ISRO component of the mission, is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR electronics, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations. To learn more about NISAR, visit: https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/ See the NISAR spacecraft in 3D in NASA's interactive Eyes on the Earth 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 2023-151 Share Details Last Updated Oct 27, 2023 Related Terms EarthEarth ScienceEarth Science DivisionEarth System Observatory (ESO)NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) Explore More 5 min read NASA, Pacific Disaster Center Increase Landslide Hazard Awareness Article 23 hours ago 5 min read AWE Launching to Space Station to Study Atmospheric Waves via Airglow NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, mission is scheduled to launch to the International Space… Article 2 days ago 4 min read New Software Enables Atmospheric Modeling with Greater Resolution Next-generation software is making it easier for researchers, policy makers, and citizen scientists to model… Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

“Obviously, Spanish has a lot to do with accessibility and broadening our audiences. We are using Spanish as a tool to break those barriers to connect with audiences. Spanish is the language I grew up with in Uruguay, and the language that I feel more comfortable with. It is amazing that I get to use it as a bridge to communicate with our audiences on different platforms. “We want to inform, but we also want to inspire and tell the stories that go beyond the mission and science. We want to tell the personal stories in [‘Universo Curioso de la NASA,’ NASA’s first-ever Spanish podcast]. “We started as a bonus episode of a miniseries of an existing podcast, ‘NASA’s Curious Universe,’ but we wanted to build something that was unique, specifically tailored to the Hispanic audience in the U.S. and worldwide. That would have our style and our voice. And I feel very, very lucky and proud and thankful to have had that opportunity to kind of build the podcast from the ground up with the guidance and work of other colleagues. “As an immigrant myself reporting on stories about other immigrants, I want to show people that space is for all, and that’s something that we repeat over and over. I keep confirming how true that message is because it goes beyond NASA. It goes beyond the United States. There are no borders in space. These people that work on these missions are doing something for humanity, not just for the space agency. I am not a scientist or an engineer, and I feel a part of it. I am a part of these historic moments, like when we launched Artemis and DART [the Double Asteroid Redirection Test].” – Noelia González, NASA en español Senior Science Writer and Editor, ADNET Systems, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Image Credit: NASA / Angeles Miron Interviewer: NASA / Angel Kumari Check out some of our other Faces of NASA. View the full article

2 min read Join NASA to Celebrate Worm Design, Influence with Original Designer Dr. Christine Mann Darden holding a model of Mach II in the Unitary Tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center on Aug. 18, 1990. Darden is pictured in a lab coat with a NASA ‘worm’ logotype patch across her back. NASA / Carol Petrachenko Chapman Media are invited to hear a discussion on the design and cultural significance of the worm logotype with NASA and its creator Richard Danne at 11:30 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 6, at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. The logotype, a simple, red unique type style of the word NASA, replaced the agency’s official logo (meatball) for several decades beginning in the 1970s before it was retired. The worm has since been revived for limited use. The event will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms. Following opening remarks by Marc Etkind, associate administrator for NASA’s Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters, Danne and David Rager, creative art director at NASA, will provide remarks followed by a panel discussion with Danne and others including: Bert Ulrich, entertainment and branding liaison, NASA Headquarters Michael Beirut, designer, Pentagram Shelly Tan, design reporter, The Washington Post (moderator) Julia Heiser, head of live event merchandise, Amazon Music NASA experts and Danne are available for on-site interviews, as well as remote interviews after the event. Media interested in participating in person must RSVP to the NASA Headquarters newsroom by 3 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3, at hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online. The televised event will take place in the agency’s Webb Auditorium in the West Lobby inside NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St. SW in Washington. Learn more about NASA’s missions at: https://www.nasa.gov -end- News Media Contacts: Claire O’Shea / Melissa Howell Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1600 claire.a.oshea@nasa.gov / melissa.e.howell@nasa.gov Read More Share Details Last Updated Oct 27, 2023 Location NASA Headquarters Related Terms NASA History Explore More 5 min read 25 Years Ago: Launch of Deep Space 1 Technology Demonstration Spacecraft Article 3 days ago 7 min read 30 Years Ago: The STS-58 Spacelab Life Sciences-2 Mission Article 1 week ago 11 min read 55 Years Ago: Nine Months Before the Moon Landing Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System View the full article

5 min read NASA Rocket to See Sizzling Edge of Star-Forming Supernova A new sounding rocket mission is headed to space to understand how explosive stellar deaths lay the groundwork for new star systems. The Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment, or INFUSE, sounding rocket mission, will launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on Oct. 29, 2023, at 9:35 p.m. MDT. For a few months each year, the constellation Cygnus (Latin for “swan”) swoops through the northern hemisphere’s night sky. Just above its wing is a favorite target for backyard astronomers and professional scientists alike: the Cygnus Loop, also known as the Veil Nebula. This image shows an illustration of the constellation Cygnus, Latin for “swan,” in the night sky. The Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, also known as the Veil Nebula, is located near one of the swan’s wings, outlined here in a rectangular box. NASA The Cygnus Loop is the remnant of a star that was once 20 times the size of our Sun. Some 20,000 years ago, that star collapsed under its own gravity and erupted into a supernova. Even from 2,600 light-years away, astronomers estimate the flash of light would have been bright enough to see from Earth during the day. This image taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows part of the Veil Nebula or Cygnus Loop. To create this colorful image, observations were taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument using five different filters. New post-processing methods have further enhanced details of emissions from doubly ionized oxygen (shown here in shades of blue), ionized hydrogen, and ionized nitrogen (shown here in shades of red). ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay Supernovae are part of a great life cycle. They spray heavy metals forged in a star’s core into the clouds of surrounding dust and gas. They are the source of all chemical elements in our universe heavier than iron, including those that make up our own bodies. From the churned-up clouds and star stuff left in their wake, gases and dust from supernovae gradually clump together to form planets, stars, and new star systems. “Supernovae like the one that created the Cygnus Loop have a huge impact on how galaxies form,” said Brian Fleming, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and principal investigator for the INFUSE mission. The Cygnus Loop provides a rare look at a supernova blast still in progress. Already over 120 light-years across, the massive cloud is still expanding today at approximately 930,000 miles per hour (about 1.5 million kilometers per hour). What our telescopes capture from the Cygnus Loop is not the supernova blast itself. Instead, we see the dust and gas superheated by the shock front, which glows as it cools back down. “INFUSE will observe how the supernova dumps energy into the Milky Way by catching light given off just as the blast wave crashes into pockets of cold gas floating around the galaxy,” Fleming said. To see that shock front at its sizzling edge, Fleming and his team have developed a telescope that measures far-ultraviolet light – a kind of light too energetic for our eyes to see. This light reveals gas at temperatures between 90,000 and 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 50,000 to 300,000 degrees Celsius) that is still sizzling after impact. INFUSE is an integral field spectrograph, the first instrument of its kind to fly to space. The instrument combines the strengths of two ways of studying light: imaging and spectroscopy. Your typical telescopes have cameras that excel at creating images – showing where light is coming from, faithfully revealing its spatial arrangement. But telescopes don’t separate light into different wavelengths or “colors” – instead, all of the different wavelengths overlap one another in the resulting image. Spectroscopy, on the other hand, takes a single beam of light and separates it into its component wavelengths or spectrum, much as a prism separates light into a rainbow. This procedure reveals all kinds of information about what the light source is made of, its temperature, and how it is moving. But spectroscopy can only look at a single sliver of light at a time. It’s like looking at the night sky through a narrow keyhole. The INFUSE instrument captures an image and then “slices” it up, lining up the slices into one giant “keyhole.” The spectrometer can then spread each of the slices into its spectrum. This data can be reassembled into a 3-dimensional image that scientists call a “data cube” – like a stack of images where each layer reveals a specific wavelength of light. PhD student Emily Witt installs the delicate image slicer – the core optical technology for INFUSE – onto its mount in a CU-LASP clean room ahead of integration into the payload. CU Boulder LASP/Brian Fleming Using the data from INFUSE, Fleming and his team will not only identify specific elements and their temperatures, but they’ll also see where those different elements lie along the shock front. “It’s a very exciting project to be a part of,” said lead graduate student Emily Witt, also at CU Boulder, who led most of the assembly and testing of INFUSE and will lead the data analysis. “With these first-of-their-kind measurements, we will better understand how these elements from the supernova mix with the environment around them. It’s a big step toward understanding how material from supernovas becomes part of planets like Earth and even people like us.” To get to space, the INFUSE payload will fly aboard a sounding rocket. These nimble, crewless rockets launch into space for a few minutes of data collection before falling back to the ground. The INFUSE payload will fly aboard a two-stage Black Brant 9 sounding rocket, aiming for a peak altitude of about 150 miles (240 kilometers), where it will make its observations, before parachuting back to the ground to be recovered. The team hopes to upgrade the instrument and launch again. In fact, parts of the INFUSE rocket are themselves repurposed from the DEUCE mission, which launched from Australia in 2022. NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program is conducted at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, which is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program for the agency. The development of the INFUSE payload was supported by NASA’s Astrophysics Division. View the full article