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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Christine Braden values new experiences that broaden her perspective; a mindset that has guided her 26-year career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she currently serves as a senior systems engineer in the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program. In her role, Braden works with engineering teams to develop commercial space stations that will prioritize the safety of astronauts while maximizing cost-effectiveness and the scientific research capabilities onboard.
Managed by NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, the program supports the development of commercially owned and operated space stations in low Earth orbit from which the agency, along with other customers, can purchase services and stimulate the growth of commercial activities in space. Designing and developing these space stations is the first step of NASA’s two-phase approach, enabling the agency to certify stations and procure services as one of many customers.
With a bachelor’s degree in Technical Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Braden brings a strong engineering foundation to her work. However, her role unique because it allows her to merge technical expertise with her creative instincts.
“My team must think outside the box to define new ways that ensure that the commercial providers’ technical integrations, requirements, development, and operations are designed to the highest degree possible,” said Braden.
Recently, she proposed a certification and systems engineering architecture that redefines how companies will interface with NASA and each other in an evolving landscape. Braden’s hybrid approach strikes a balance, allowing companies to innovate while favoring shared assurance and accountability. It also gives NASA situational awareness of the companies’ design, tests, mission, and operational approaches. As a result of her efforts, Braden was recognized with an “On the Spot” award.
Christine Braden receives an “On the Spot” award from Angela Hart, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, in March 2024.NASA/Helen Arase Vargas
Looking ahead, Braden envisions a world where commercial space stations are a hub for science and technology, spacecraft are more efficient, spaceflight is more accessible, humans are back on the Moon, and Mars is the next frontier. In reflecting on these agency-wide goals, Braden finds that working with passionate team members makes her day-to-day work truly special and enjoyable.
“I am a part of a small, close-knit team that works together to make these advancements in space exploration happen for the world,” said Braden. “Working at NASA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that not only defines my working life going forward but also provides me with an experience I can share with some truly amazing people.”
Working at NASA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that not only defines my working life going forward but also provides me with an experience I can share with some truly amazing people.
Christine Braden
Senior Systems Engineer, Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program
Outside of work, Braden is inspired by her faith, which encourages her to see things from new perspectives and try to understand people from all walks of life. Additionally, Braden is a lifelong learner who loves listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, and reading web articles. She is eager to learn everything from music and dance to plants and animals.
“When I look through scientific websites where new planets and galaxies are discovered, it makes me think of ways humanity may expand itself to the stars, and ways that we can preserve the life we have here on Earth,” said Braden.
On the topic of preservation, one of Braden’s many hobbies is antique restoration. “It reminds me of my dad and grandfather restoring homes together during my childhood and gives me hope that I can inspire my children as they watch me follow in our family’s footsteps,” said Braden. Her other hobbies include gardening and family activities such as puzzles, board games, watching television, playing video games, hunting, and traveling.
As a driven individual known for her creativity and curiosity, Braden’s fresh ideas and spirit are key in guiding the agency’s progress into new frontiers.
NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate maintains a continuous human presence in space for the benefit of people on Earth. The programs within the directorate are the hub of NASA’s space exploration efforts, enabling Artemis, commercial space, science, and other agency missions through communication, launch services, research capabilities, and crew support.
To learn more about NASA’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations
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Last Updated May 15, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Will the Sun ever burn out?
Well, the Sun, just like the stars we see at night, is a star. It’s a giant ball of super hot hydrogen.
Gravity squeezes it in and it creates energy, which is what makes the Sun shine. Eventually, it will use up all of that hydrogen. But in the process, it’s creating helium. So it will then use the helium. And it will continue to use larger and larger elements until it can’t do this anymore.
And when that happens, it will start to expand into a red giant about the size of the inner planets. Then it will shrink back down into a very strange star called a white dwarf — super hot, but not very bright and about the size of the Earth.
But our Sun has a pretty long lifetime. It’s halfway through its 10-billion-year lifetime.
So the Sun will never really burn out, but it will change and be a very, very different dim kind of star when it reaches the end of its normal life.
[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]
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Last Updated May 15, 2025 Related Terms
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4 min read Eclipses, Auroras, and the Spark of Becoming: NASA Inspires Future Scientists
In the heart of Alaska’s winter, where the night sky stretches endlessly and the aurora…
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On March 15, 2024, near the peak of the current solar cycle, the Sun produced…
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to launch the agency’s Aspera mission, a SmallSat to study galaxy formation and evolution, providing new insights into how the universe works.
The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to make fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity launch service task order awards during VADR’s five-year ordering period, with a maximum total contract value of $300 million.
Through the observation of ultraviolet light, Aspera will examine hot gas in the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium. The mission will study the inflow and outflow of gas from galaxies, a process thought to contribute to star formation.
Aspera is part of NASA’s Pioneers Program in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, which funds compelling astrophysics science at a lower cost using small hardware and modest payloads. The principal investigator for Aspera is Carlos Vargas at the University of Arizona in Tucson. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contract.
To learn more about NASA’s Aspera mission and the Pioneers Program, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/42U1Wkn
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Joshua Finch / Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 14, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
The Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left to right: ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Credit: Axiom Space NASA will join a media teleconference hosted by Axiom Space at 10:30 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, May 20, to discuss the launch of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
Briefing participants include:
Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Allen Flynt, chief of mission services, Axiom Space Sarah Walker, director, Dragon mission management, SpaceX Sergio Palumberi, mission manager, ESA (European Space Agency) Aleksandra Bukała, project manager, head of strategy and international cooperation, POLSA (Polish Space Agency) Orsolya Ferencz, ministerial commissioner of space research, HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) To join the call, media must register with Axiom Space by 12 p.m., Monday, May 19, at:
https://bit.ly/437SAAh
The Ax-4 launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted no earlier than 9:11 a.m., Sunday, June 8, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
During the mission aboard the space station, a four-person multi-national crew will complete about 60 research experiments developed for microgravity in collaboration with organizations across the globe.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The first private astronaut mission to the station, Axiom Mission 1, lifted off in April 2022 for a 17-day mission aboard the orbiting laboratory. The second private astronaut mission to the station, Axiom Mission 2, also was commanded by Whitson and launched in May 2023 for eight days in orbit. The most recent private astronaut mission, Axiom Mission 3, launched in January 2024; the crew spent 18 days docked to the space station.
The International Space Station is a springboard for developing a low Earth economy. NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy off the Earth where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit provides the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-space
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Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov
Alexis DeJarnette
Axiom Space, Houston
alexis@axiomspace.com
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Last Updated May 14, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
6 min read
NASA Observes First Visible-light Auroras at Mars
On March 15, 2024, near the peak of the current solar cycle, the Sun produced a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive explosion of gas and magnetic energy that carries with it large amounts of solar energetic particles. This solar activity led to stunning auroras across the solar system, including at Mars, where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover made history by detecting them for the first time from the surface of another planet.
The first visible-light image of green aurora on Mars (left), taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. On the right is a comparison image of the night sky of Mars without aurora but featuring the Martian moon Deimos. The moonlit Martian night sky, lit up mostly by Mars’ nearer and larger moon Phobos (outside the frame) has a reddish-brown hue due to the dust in the atmosphere, so when green auroral light is added, the sky takes on a green-yellow tone, as seen in the left image. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI “This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars’ surface.” said Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway and lead author of the Science Advances study, which reported the detection.
Picking the right aurora
On Earth, auroras form when solar particles interact with the global magnetic field, funneling them to the poles where they collide with atmospheric gases and emit light. The most common color, green, is caused by excited oxygen atoms emitting light at a wavelength of 557.7 nanometers. For years, scientists have theorized that green light auroras could also exist on Mars but suggested they would be much fainter and harder to capture than the green auroras we see on Earth.
Due to the Red Planet’s lack of a global magnetic field, Mars has different types of auroras than those we have on Earth. One of these is solar energetic particle (SEP) auroras, which NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission discovered in 2014. These occur when super-energetic particles from the Sun hit the Martian atmosphere, causing a reaction that makes the atmosphere glow across the whole night sky.
While MAVEN had observed SEP auroras in ultraviolet light from orbit, this phenomenon had never been observed in visible light from the ground. Since SEPs typically occur during solar storms, which increase during solar maximum, Knutsen and her team set their sights on capturing visible images and spectra of SEP aurora from Mars’ surface at the peak of the Sun’s current solar cycle.
Coordinating the picture-perfect moment
Through modeling, Knutsen and her team determined the optimal angle for the Perseverance rover’s SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera to successfully observe the SEP aurora in visible light. With this observation strategy in place, it all came down to the timing and understanding of CMEs.
“The trick was to pick a good CME, one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars’ atmosphere,” said Knutsen.
That is where the teams at NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office and the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), both located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, came in. The M2M team provides real-time analysis of solar eruptions to the CCMC for initiating simulations of CMEs to determine if they might impact current NASA missions. When the simulations suggest potential impacts, the team sends out an alert.
At the University of California, Berkeley, space physicist Christina Lee received an alert from the M2M office about the March 15, 2024, CME. Lee, a member of the MAVEN mission team who serves as the space weather lead, determined there was a notable solar storm heading toward the Red Planet,which could arrive in a few days. She immediately issued the Mars Space Weather Alert Notification to currently operating Mars missions.
“This allows the science teams of Perseverance and MAVEN to anticipate impacts of interplanetary CMEs and the associated SEPs,” said Lee.
“When we saw the strength of this one,” Knutsen said, “we estimated it could trigger aurora bright enough for our instruments to detect.”
A few days later, the CME impacted Mars, providing a lightshow for the rover to capture, showing the aurora to be nearly uniform across the sky at an emission wavelength of exactly 557.7 nm. To confirm the presence of SEPs during the aurora observation, the team looked to MAVEN’s SEP instrument, which was additionally corroborated by data from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Mars Express mission. Data from both missions confirmed that the rover team had managed to successfully catch a glimpse of the phenomenon in the very narrow time window available.
“This was a fantastic example of cross-mission coordination. We all worked together quickly to facilitate this observation and are thrilled to have finally gotten a sneak peek of what astronauts will be able to see there some day,” said Shannon Curry, MAVEN principal investigator and research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder).
The future of aurora on Mars
By coordinating the Perseverance observations with measurements from MAVEN’s SEP instrument, the teams could help each other determine that the observed 557.7 nm emission came from solar energetic particles. Since this is the same emission line as the green aurora on Earth, it is likely that future Martian astronauts would be able to see this type of aurora.
“Perseverance’s observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that’s complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters,” said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “A better understanding of auroras and the conditions around Mars that lead to their formation are especially important as we prepare to send human explorers there safely.”
On September 21, 2014, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. The mission has produced a wealth of data about how Mars’ atmosphere responds to the Sun and solar wind NASA/JPL-Caltech More About Perseverance and MAVEN
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio and NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
The MAVEN mission, also part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio, is led by LASP at CU Boulder. It’s managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and was built and operated by Lockheed Martin Space, with navigation and network support from NASA’s JPL.
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By Willow Reed
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder
Media Contact:
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 14, 2025 Related Terms
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