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The Marshall Star for December 13, 2023

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The Marshall Star for December 13, 2023

Marshall team members gather at the center’s holiday reception Dec. 7 in Activities Building 4316. From left are Cory Brown, Leigh Martin, Lisa Watkins, Shaun Baek, and Randy Silver.

Marshall Team Members Celebrate Holiday Season

By Jessica Barnett

Marshall team members gather at the center’s holiday reception Dec. 7 in Activities Building 4316. From left are Cory Brown, Leigh Martin, Lisa Watkins, Shaun Baek, and Randy Silver.
Marshall team members gather at the center’s holiday reception Dec. 7 in Activities Building 4316. From left are Cory Brown, Leigh Martin, Lisa Watkins, Shaun Baek, and Randy Silver.
NASA/Alex Russell

For hundreds of team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, “eat, drink, and be merry” was the afternoon theme for Dec. 7.

Marshall team members sign up for door prizes while Marshall Acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey offers welcoming remarks at the center’s holiday reception.
Marshall team members sign up for door prizes while Marshall Acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey offers welcoming remarks at the center’s holiday reception.
NASA/Alex Russell

The center hosted a holiday celebration in Activities Building 4316, complete with food, door prizes, and plenty of opportunity to wish one happy holidays. Acting Center Director Joseph Pelfrey welcomed team members to the festivities with a brief recap of 2023 and look forward to 2024.

Hundreds of Marshall team members enjoy the buffet-style food offerings at the center’s holiday reception.
Hundreds of Marshall team members enjoy the buffet-style food offerings at the center’s holiday reception.
NASA/Alex Russell

“I was thrilled to see such an excellent turnout at the holiday reception,” Pelfrey said after the reception. “This has been an exceptional year for us at Marshall, and it’s important we take time this season to celebrate our successes and recharge for 2024.”

The NASA worm logo flanked by two holiday trees was just one of the ways Activities Building 4316 was decked out for a merry holiday reception Dec. 7.
The NASA worm logo flanked by two holiday trees was just one of the ways Activities Building 4316 was decked out for a merry holiday reception Dec. 7.
NASA/Alex Russell

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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IXPE Marks 2 Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy

By Rick Smith

On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists commemorated two years of landmark X-ray science by NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission.

IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of light that can help reveal information about where that light came from, such as the geometry and inner workings of the ultra-powerful energy sources from which it emanates.

A red and orange circle on a black starry background. A portion of the upper left is purple with lines on it.
This image of supernova remnant SN 1006 combines data from IXPE and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The red, green, and blue elements reflect low, medium, and high energy X-rays, respectively, as detected by Chandra. IXPE data is shown in purple in the upper left corner, with the addition of lines representing the outward movement of the remnant’s magnetic field.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO (Chandra); NASA/MSFC/Nanjing Univ./P. Zhou et al. (IXPE); IR: NASA/JPL/CalTech/Spitzer; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Schmidt

Launched Dec. 9, 2021, IXPE orbits Earth some 340 miles high, studying X-ray emissions from powerful cosmic phenomena thousands to billions of light-years from Earth, including quasars, blazars, remnants of supernova explosions, and high-energy particle streams spewing from the vicinity of black holes at nearly the speed of light.

“Adding X-ray polarization to our arsenal of radio, infrared, and optical polarization is a game changer,” said Alan Marscher, a Boston University astronomer who leads a research group that uses IXPE’s findings to analyze supermassive black holes.

Martin Weisskopf, the astrophysicist who led the development of IXPE at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and served as its principal investigator until his retirement from NASA in spring 2022, agreed.

“There can be no question that IXPE has shown that X-ray polarimetry is important and relevant to furthering our understanding of how these fascinating X-ray systems work,” Weisskopf said.

Scientists have long understood, for example, the fundamentals of blazars such as Markarian 501 and Markarian 421. A blazar is a massive black hole feeding off material swirling around it in a disk, creating powerful jets of high-speed cosmic particles which rush away in two directions perpendicular to the disk. But how are those particles accelerated to such high energies? IXPE data published in November 2022 in the journal Nature identified the culprit at Markarian 501 as a shock wave within the jet.

“This is a 40-year-old mystery that we’ve solved,” said Yannis Liodakis, a NASA Postdoctoral Program researcher at Marshall. “We finally had all of the pieces of the puzzle, and the picture they made was clear.”

IXPE also conducted unprecedented studies of three supernova remnants – Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006 – helping scientists further their understanding of the origin and processes of the magnetic fields surrounding these phenomena.

IXPE is even shedding new light on fundamental mechanisms of our own galaxy. According to studies IXPE conducted in early 2022, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, woke up about 200 years ago to devour gas and other cosmic detritus, triggering an intense, short-lived X-ray flare. By combining data from IXPE, Chandra, and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton mission, researchers determined the event occurred around the start of the 19th century.

An illustration of of a black hole that looks purple at the bottom and shows a stream of white and blue coming out of the hole.
This NASA illustration shows the structure of a black hole jet as inferred by recent IXPE observations of the blazar Markarian 421. The jet is powered by an accretion disk, shown at the bottom of the image, which orbits and falls into the black hole over time. Helical magnetic fields are threaded through the jet. IXPE observations have shown that the X-rays must be generated in a shock originating within material spiraling around the magnetic fields. The inset shows the shock front itself.
NASA/Pablo Garcia

“We know change can happen to active galaxies and supermassive black holes on a human timescale,” said IXPE project scientist Steve Ehlert at Marshall. “IXPE is helping us better understand the timescale on which the black hole at the center of our galaxy is changing. We’re eager to observe it further to determine which changes are typical and which are unique.”

IXPE also has supported observations of unanticipated cosmic events – such as the brightest pulse of intense radiation ever recorded, which swept through our solar system in October 2022. The pulse stemmed from a powerful gamma-ray burst likely to occur no more than once in 10,000 years, researchers said. Backing up data from NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope and other imagers, IXPE helped determine how the pulse was organized and confirmed that Earth imagers viewed the jet almost directly head-on.

Perhaps most exciting to space scientists is how IXPE data is upending conventional wisdom about various classes of high-energy sources.

“So many of the polarized X-ray results we’ve seen over the past two years were a big surprise, tossing theoretical models right out the window,” Ehlert said. “Seeing results we didn’t anticipate sparks new questions, new theories. It’s really exciting!”

That excitement continues to build among IXPE partners around the world. In June, the mission was formally extended for 20 months beyond its initial two-year flight – meaning IXPE will continue to observe high-energy X-ray emissions across the cosmos through at least September 2025.

The new year also will mark the start of the IXPE General Observer Program, which invites astrophysicists and other space scientists around the world to propose and take part in studies using the IXPE telescope. Beginning in February 2024, as much as 80% of IXPE’s time will be made available to the broader scientific community.

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. Led at Marshall, IXPE’s spacecraft operations are jointly managed by Ball Aerospace in Broomfield, Colorado, and the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

Smith, a Manufacturing Technical Solutions employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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This Holiday Season, Take Care of Yourself and Others

Dear Marshall family,

As 2023 comes to a close, my thoughts seem to be focused more than ever upon gratitude. As is true for many of you I’m sure, I am so incredibly thankful for my loved ones, for good health for me and my loved ones, and for the life that I enjoy.

The life that I enjoy encompasses a great deal. I have a comfortable home, with heat for the winter, air conditioning for the summer, hot and cold water all year long, good food to eat, reliable vehicles to drive, nice clothes and shoes to wear, access to entertainment, the ability to be a part of a community, and I could go on and on. The point is, I have a great deal to be thankful for, and being thankful helps me to be more aware of the fact that many in our community and our world are not so fortunate. I hope that you, too, will take some time to consider the people, circumstances, and things for which you are grateful, and also to consider looking for opportunities to help those in our community who are less fortunate.

Terry Sterry.
Dr. Terry Sterry.
NASA

With the holidays upon us, this can be a very demanding time of year, and that can add a good deal of stress to our lives. The stressors of the season will be different for each of us, but some common ones include attending more parties and other events, hosting parties, being around people whom we would prefer to avoid, spending too much on gifts, and trying to make everything turn out perfectly.

Please be deliberate in taking good care of yourselves during the holiday season. That, too, will look different for everyone, but some tips include giving ourselves permission to get enough sleep and rest, setting a budget and sticking to it, striving for enjoyment rather than perfection, limiting our indulgence in all the good food of the season, not drinking to excess, and giving ourselves permission to say ‘no’ to things that will cause us to be stretched too thin or pushed beyond our limits. 

While we typically think of the holidays as a time of joy and celebration, it can also be a time of intense sadness, grief, and feeling overwhelmed. Pay attention to those around you and if you see opportunities to offer support, please do. The holidays are very family focused, and this can be especially difficult for those who have discord within their family, for those with little or no remaining family, or those who have lost loved ones over this past year. If you find yourself struggling, please reach out to those you trust, be that family members, friends, spiritual leaders, or counselors (including the Marshall Employee Assistance Program), for support. Don’t suffer alone or in silence. It’s OK to ask for help. 

I’ll close with a couple of requests. First, please use your leave – take some time off to enjoy the holiday season, or just to go out and do something that you’ve been wanting to do. Second, if you have leave that you can’t use, please consider donating it to the leave bank. Donated leave makes a tremendous difference for those who have exhausted their own leave due to illness or accident, or to care for loved ones who are ill or recovering. Your generosity has the potential to help someone avoid the painful situation of having to take leave without pay.

Happy Holidays!  Be safe and well.

Dr. Terry Sterry
Licensed psychologist and Marshall Employee Assistance Program coordinator

For more information, team members can visit the Employee Assistance Program page on Inside Marshall.

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NASA Teams Prepare Moon Rocket-to-Spacecraft Connector for Assembly

The elements of the super-heavy lift SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA’s Artemis II mission are undergoing final preparations before shipment to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for stacking and pre-launch activities in 2024.

Teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recently rotated the Orion stage adapter – a ring structure that connects NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the SLS rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) – in preparation for the installation of its diaphragm. The installation Nov. 30 marks one of the final steps for the adapter before it is readied for shipment to Kennedy via NASA’s Super Guppy cargo aircraft.

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center flip the Artemis II Orion stage adapter for installation of its diaphragm Nov. 30.
Teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recently rotated the Orion stage adapter – a ring structure that connects NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the SLS rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage – in preparation for the installation of its diaphragm. The installation Nov. 30 marks one of the final steps for the adapter before it is readied for shipment to Kennedy via NASA’s Super Guppy cargo aircraft.
NASA/Sam Lott

“The diaphragm is a composite, dome-shaped structure that isolates the volume above the ICPS from that below Orion,” said Brent Gaddes, lead for the Orion stage adapter, in the Spacecraft/Payload Integration & Evolution Office for the SLS Program at Marshall. “It serves as a barrier between the two, preventing the highly flammable hydrogen gas that could escape the rocket’s propellant tanks from building up beneath the Orion spacecraft and its crew before and during launch.”

At five feet tall and weighing in at 1,800 pounds, the adapter is the smallest major element of the SLS rocket that will produce more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch four Artemis astronauts inside Orion around the Moon. The adapter is fully manufactured by engineering teams at Marshall.

NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

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25 Years Ago: NASA, Partners Begin Space Station Assembly

On Dec. 6, NASA marked 25 years since the first two elements of the International Space Station were launched and joined in space. Today, the space station remains a global endeavor, with 273 people from 21 countries now having visited the microgravity laboratory and has hosted more than 3,700 research and educational investigations from people in 108 countries and areas.

On Nov. 20 and Dec. 4, 1998, Zarya and Unity, respectively, launched into orbit as the first two modules of the International Space Station. On Dec. 6, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour STS-88 crew, NASA astronauts Bob Cabana, Rick Sturckow, Nancy Currie, Jerry Ross, and James Newman, along with Russian Space Agency (now Roscosmos) cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, captured the Zarya module with the space shuttle’s robotic arm and mated it to Unity.

Image of the Unity Node 1 module being lifted out of the cargo bay
The Unity Node 1 module being lifted out of the cargo bay. On Nov. 20 and Dec. 4, 1998, Zarya and Unity, respectively, launched into orbit as the first two modules of the International Space Station. On Dec. 6, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour STS-88 crew captured the Zarya module with the space shuttle’s robotic arm and mated it to Unity.
NASA

Engineers thousands of miles apart designed and built the two modules and the elements first met in space. The STS-88 crew, commanded by Cabana, spent the next few days and three spacewalks making connections between the two modules before releasing the early station.

Since the joining of Zarya and Unity, the space station has grown with additions from international partners, resulting in the largest and most complex piece of technology constructed in space.

In November 2000, the space station received its first long-duration residents, Expedition 1, including NASA astronaut William Shepard, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. Since that time, international teams have kept the space station permanently inhabited, performing routine operations and maintenance including dozens of spacewalks, and conducting world-class research in a wide array of scientific disciplines. From visiting spacecraft with cargo, crew, and private astronauts, to spacewalks for station upgrades, to science investigations and technology demonstrations, to commercial activities, to public outreach and STEM downlinks, the International Space Station is a busy orbital outpost and microgravity laboratory.

The International Space Station as it appeared in 2021, compared to Zarya and Unity at the same scale in the inset
The International Space Station as it appeared in 2021, compared to Zarya and Unity at the same scale in the inset

The seven-member Expedition 70 crew called down to Earth on Dec. 6 and discussed with NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana and International Space Station Program Manager Joel Montalbano the orbital outpost’s accomplishments since the assembly era began on Dec. 6, 1998. Cabana was the commander of Endeavour when both modules were robotically mated then outfitted during a series of spacewalks. Montalbano, NASA’s sixth station leader since the program’s inception, said, “We want to celebrate today all the people who designed, built, and operate the International Space Station.”

The Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

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Hubble Captures a Cluster in the Cloud

A striking Hubble Space Telescope image shows the densely packed globular cluster known as NGC 2210, which is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The LMC lies about 157,000 light-years from Earth and is a so-called satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, meaning that the two galaxies are gravitationally bound. Globular clusters are very stable, tightly bound clusters of thousands or even millions of stars. Their stability means that they can last a long time, and therefore globular clusters are often studied to investigate potentially very old stellar populations.

A dense cluster of stars. It is brightest and most crowded in the center, where the stars are mostly a cool white color. Moving out towards the edges the stars become more spread out and reddish until a noticeable ‘edge’ to the cluster is reached. Beyond that edge there are still many stars, more disorganized and seen on a black background. Some stars appear to be in front of the cluster.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope can resolve individual stars in the densely packed cores of globular clusters like NGC 2210.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini

In fact, 2017 research using some of the data that were also used to build the image revealed that a sample of LMC globular clusters were incredibly close in age to some of the oldest stellar clusters found in the Milky Way’s halo. They found that NGC 2210 specifically probably clocks in at around 11.6 billion years old. Even though this is only a couple of billion years younger than the universe itself, it made NGC 2210 by far the youngest globular cluster in their sample. All other LMC globular clusters studied in the same work were found to be even older, with four of them over 13 billion years old. This tells astronomers that the oldest globular clusters in the LMC formed contemporaneously with the oldest clusters in the Milky Way, even though the two galaxies formed independently.

As well as being a source of interesting research, this old-but-relatively-young cluster is also extremely beautiful, with its highly concentrated population of stars. The night sky would look very different from the perspective of an inhabitant of a planet orbiting one of the stars in a globular cluster’s center: the sky would appear to be stuffed full of stars, in a stellar environment that is thousands of times more crowded than our own.

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Webb Stuns with New High-Definition Look at Exploded Star

Like a shiny round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. As part of the 2023 Holidays at the White House, First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden debuted the first-ever White House Advent Calendar. To showcase the “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” of the holiday season, Dr. Biden and NASA are celebrating with this new image from Webb.

While all is bright, this scene is no proverbial silent night. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view of Cas A displays this stellar explosion at a resolution previously unreachable at these wavelengths. This high-resolution look unveils intricate details of the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new view of Cassiopeia A in near-infrared light is giving astronomers hints at the dynamical processes occurring within the supernova remnant. Tiny clumps represented in bright pink and orange make up the supernova’s inner shell, and are comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself. A large, striated blob at the bottom right corner of the image, nicknamed Baby Cas A, is one of the few light echoes visible NIRCam’s field of view. In this image, red, green, and blue were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam data at 4.4, 3.56, and 1.62 microns (F444W, F356W, and F162M, respectively).
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new view of Cassiopeia A in near-infrared light is giving astronomers hints at the dynamical processes occurring within the supernova remnant. Tiny clumps represented in bright pink and orange make up the supernova’s inner shell, and are comprised of sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself. A large, striated blob at the bottom right corner of the image, nicknamed Baby Cas A, is one of the few light echoes visible NIRCam’s field of view. In this image, red, green, and blue were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam data at 4.4, 3.56, and 1.62 microns (F444W, F356W, and F162M, respectively).
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)

Cas A is one of the most well-studied supernova remnants in all of the cosmos. Over the years, ground-based and space-based observatories, including NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Spitzer Space Telescope have assembled a multiwavelength picture of the object’s remnant.

However, astronomers have now entered a new era in the study of Cas A. In April 2023, Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) started this chapter, revealing new and unexpected features within the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Many of those features are invisible in the new NIRCam image, and astronomers are investigating why.

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.

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Gorgeously Green: Geminids Peak Dec. 13-14

By Lauren Perkins

The Geminid meteor shower is active for much of December, but the peak occurs the night of the 13th into the morning of the 14th. Meteor rates in rural areas can be upwards of one per minute this year with minimal moonlight to interfere.

Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on Dec. 13. This 30 second-long exposure records their shimmering glow gently lighting the wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, it also captures the sudden flash of a fireball meteor from December’s excellent Geminid meteor shower. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini, off the top of the view.
Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on Dec. 13. This 30 second-long exposure records their shimmering glow gently lighting the wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, it also captures the sudden flash of a fireball meteor from December’s excellent Geminid meteor shower. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini, off the top of the view.
Bjørnar G. Hansen

Bill Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, shares why the Geminids particularly excite him: “Most meteors appear to be colorless or white, however the Geminids appear with a greenish hue. They’re pretty meteors!”

Depending on the meteor’s chemical composition, the meteor will emit different colors when burned in the Earth’s atmosphere. Oxygen, magnesium, and nickel usually produce green.

As with all meteor showers, all you need is a clear sky, darkness, a bit of patience, and perhaps warm outer wear and blankets for this one. You don’t need to look in any particular direction; meteors can generally be seen all over the sky.

Perkins, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      https://youtu.be/63uNNcCpxHI How are we made of star stuff?

      Well, the important thing to understand about this question is that it’s not an analogy, it’s literally true.

      The elements in our bodies, the elements that make up our bones, the trees we see outside, the other planets in the solar system, other stars in the galaxy. These were all part of stars that existed well before our Sun and Earth and solar system were even formed.

      The universe existed for billions of years before we did. And all of these elements that you see on the periodic table, you see carbon and oxygen and silicon and iron, the common elements throughout the universe, were all put there by previous generations of stars that either blew off winds like the Sun blows off a solar wind, or exploded in supernova explosions and thrust their elements throughout the universe.

      These are the same things that we can trace with modern telescopes, like the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These are all elements that we can map out in the universe with these observatories and trace back to the same things that form us and the elemental abundances that we see in stars now are the same things that we see in the Earth’s crust, we see in asteroids. And so we know that these are the same elements that were once part of these stars.

      So the question of, “How are we made of star stuff?”, in the words of Carl Sagan, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

      [END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

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      Last Updated Apr 28, 2025 Related Terms
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      By NASA
      4 Min Read NASA Marshall Fires Up Hybrid Rocket Motor to Prep for Moon Landings
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      To better understand the physics behind the interaction of exhaust from the commercial human landing systems and the Moon’s surface, engineers and scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently test-fired a 14-inch hybrid rocket motor more than 30 times. The 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor, developed at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, ignites both solid fuel and a stream of gaseous oxygen to create a powerful stream of rocket exhaust.
      “Artemis builds on what we learned from the Apollo missions to the Moon. NASA still has more to learn more about how the regolith and surface will be affected when a spacecraft much larger than the Apollo lunar excursion module lands, whether it’s on the Moon for Artemis or Mars for future missions,” said Manish Mehta, Human Landing System Plume & Aero Environments discipline lead engineer. “Firing a hybrid rocket motor into a simulated lunar regolith field in a vacuum chamber hasn’t been achieved in decades. NASA will be able to take the data from the test and scale it up to correspond to flight conditions to help us better understand the physics, and anchor our data models, and ultimately make landing on the Moon safer for Artemis astronauts.”
      Fast Facts
      Over billions of years, asteroid and micrometeoroid impacts have ground up the surface of the Moon into fragments ranging from huge boulders to powder, called regolith. Regolith can be made of different minerals based on its location on the Moon. The varying mineral compositions mean regolith in certain locations could be denser and better able to support structures like landers. Of the 30 test fires performed in NASA Marshall’s Component Development Area, 28 were conducted under vacuum conditions and two were conducted under ambient pressure. The testing at Marshall ensures the motor will reliably ignite during plume-surface interaction testing in the 60-ft. vacuum sphere at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, later this year.
      Once the testing at NASA Marshall is complete, the motor will be shipped to NASA Langley. Test teams at NASA Langley will fire the hybrid motor again but this time into simulated lunar regolith, called Black Point-1, in the 60-foot vacuum sphere. Firing the motor from various heights, engineers will measure the size and shape of craters the rocket exhaust creates as well as the speed and direction the simulated lunar regolith particles travel when the rocket motor exhaust hits them.
      “We’re bringing back the capability to characterize the effects of rocket engines interacting with the lunar surface through ground testing in a large vacuum chamber — last done in this facility for the Apollo and Viking programs. The landers going to the Moon through Artemis are much larger and more powerful, so we need new data to understand the complex physics of landing and ascent,” said Ashley Korzun, principal investigator for the plume-surface interaction tests at NASA Langley. “We’ll use the hybrid motor in the second phase of testing to capture data with conditions closely simulating those from a real rocket engine. Our research will reduce risk to the crew, lander, payloads, and surface assets.”
      To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
      Credit: NASA Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
      For more information about Artemis, visit:
      https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
      News Media Contact
      Corinne Beckinger 
      Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
      256.544.0034  
      corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov 
      View the full article
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      This scene has been forming for at least 4,000 years — and will continue to change over many more millennia. At the center are two stars that appear as one in Webb’s observation, and are set off with brilliant diffraction spikes. The stars follow a tight, elongated nine-year orbit and are draped in an arc of dust represented in orange.
      One of these stars, which used to be several times more massive than our Sun, took the lead role in producing this scene. “As it evolved, it puffed up, throwing off layers of gas and dust in in a very slow, dense stellar wind,” said David Jones, a senior scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics on the Canary Islands, who proved there is a binary star system at the center in 2017.
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      Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC)
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