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By NASA
6 min read
NASA Research To Be Featured at American Astronomical Society Meeting
In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
Press conferences highlighting results enabled by NASA missions will stream live on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel. Additional agency highlights for registered attendees include:
NASA Town Hall: Monday, Jan. 13, 12:45 p.m. EST Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m. EST James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. EST Throughout the week, experts at the NASA Exhibit Booth will deliver science talks about missions including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called “Webb” or “JWST”), Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station that will be repaired in a spacewalk Jan. 16. Talks will also highlight future missions such as Pandora, Roman, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), which is targeted to launch in late February; as well as mission concepts for NASA’s new Probe Explorers mission class in astrophysics, open science, heliophysics, and NASA Science Activation.
Members of the media can request interviews with NASA experts on any of these topics by contacting Alise Fisher at alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov.
Schedule of Highlights (EST)
Monday, Jan. 13
10 a.m.: Special Session – “SPHEREx: The Upcoming All-Sky Infrared Spectroscopic Survey”
Chesapeake 4-5
10 a.m.: Special Session – “Early Science Results from XRISM [X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission]”
National Harbor 10
10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “A Feast of Feasting Black Holes”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News based on data from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, NICER, NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), and Hubble, as well as XMM-Newton, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, will be featured:
“Witnessing the Birth of a New Plasma Jet from a Supermassive Black Hole” “Rapidly Evolving X-Ray Oscillations in the Active Galaxy 1ES 1927+654” “Uncovering the Dining Habits of Supermassive Black Holes in Our Cosmic Backyard with NuLANDS” “The Discovery of a Newborn Quasar Jet Triggered by a Cosmic Dance” 12:45 p.m.: NASA Town Hall
Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
Potomac Ballroom AB
2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Supernovae and Massive Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble space telescopes will be highlighted:
“JWST Discovery of a Distant Supernova Linked to a Massive Progenitor in the Early Universe” “Core-Collapse Supernovae as Key Dust Producers: New Insights from JWST” “JWST Tracks the Expanding Dusty Fingerprints of a Massive Binary” “Stellar Pyrotechnics on Display in Super Star Cluster” “A Blue Lurker Emerges from a Triple-System Merger” Tuesday, Jan. 14
10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Black Holes & New Outcomes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News based on data from NASA’s NuSTAR, Chandra, and Webb missions will be highlighted:
“A Variable X-Ray Monster at the Epoch of Reionization” “JWST’s Little Red Dots and the Rise of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei in the Early Universe” “Revealing the Mid-Infrared Properties of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole” 2 p.m.: Special Session – “Open Science: NASA Astrophysics in the Roman Era”
Chesapeake 4-5
2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Information from Milky Way Highlights”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News from NASA’s Webb and Chandra missions will be highlighted:
“Infrared Echoes of Cassiopeia A Reveal the Dynamic Interstellar Medium” “A Path-Breaking Observation of the Cold Neutral Medium of the Milky Way Through Thermal Light Echoes” “X-Ray Echoes from Sgr A* Provide Insight on the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center” 3:40 p.m.: Plenary – “A Detector Backstory: How Silicon Detectors Came to Enable Space Missions”
Shouleh Nikzad, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Potomac Ballroom AB
6:30 p.m.: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall
National Harbor 11
Wednesday, Jan. 15
8 a.m.: Plenary – “HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize Lecture: The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)”
Martin Weisskopf, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (emeritus), and Paolo Soffitta, INAF-IAPS (National Institute for Astrophysics-Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology)
Potomac Ballroom AB
10 a.m.: Special Session – Habitable Worlds Observatory
Potomac Ballroom C
10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Discovering the Universe Beyond Our Galaxy”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News from NASA’s Hubble and Webb will be highlighted:
“The Hubble Tension in Our Own Backyard” “JWST Reveals the Early Universe in Our Backyard” “Growing in the Wind: Watching a Galaxy Seed Its Environment” 11:40 a.m.: Plenary – “Are We Alone? The Search for Life on Habitable Worlds”
Giada Arney, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Potomac Ballroom AB
2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Findings About Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News based on data from NASA’s Webb and Solar Dynamics Observatory will be highlighted:
“A Super Star Cluster Is Born: JWST Reveals Dust and Ice in a Stellar Nursery” “The Discovery of Ancient Relics in a Distant Evolved Galaxy” “Exploring the Sun’s Active Regions in the Moments Before Flares” 6:30 p.m.: James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall
Potomac Ballroom C
Thursday, Jan. 16
10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Exoplanets: From Formation to Disintegration”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News from NASA’s Pandora, Chandra, TESS, and Webb missions, as well as XMM-Newton, will be highlighted:
“A New NASA Mission to Characterize Exoplanets and Their Host Stars” “X-Rays in the Prime of Life: Irradiating Vulnerable Planets” “Bright Star, Fading World: Dusty Debris of a Dying Planet” “JWST Exposes Hot Rock Entrails from a Planet’s Demise” 2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Galactic Histories and Policy Futures”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6
News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble will be highlighted:
“The Boundary of Galaxy Formation: Constraints from the Ancient Star Formation of the Isolated, Extremely Low-Mass Galaxy Leo P” “Resolving 90 Million Stars in the Southern Half of Andromeda” For more information on the meeting, including press registration and the complete meeting schedule, visit:
https://aas.org/meetings/aas245
Media Contacts
Alise Fisher / Liz Landau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-358-0845
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 10, 2025 Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Chandra X-Ray Observatory Hubble Space Telescope IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) The Universe Explore More
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By NASA
A collage of artist concepts highlighting the novel approaches proposed by the 2025 NIAC awardees for possible future missions.Credit: NASA/Left to Right: Saurabh Vilekar, Marco Quadrelli, Selim Shahriar, Gyula Greschik, Martin Bermudez, Ryan Weed, Ben Hockman, Robert Hinshaw, Christine Gregg, Ryan Benson, Michael Hecht NASA selected 15 visionary ideas for its NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) program which develops concepts to transform future missions for the benefit of all. Chosen from companies and institutions across the United States, the 2025 Phase I awardees represent a wide range of aerospace concepts.
The NIAC program nurtures innovation by funding early-stage technology concept studies for future consideration and potential commercialization. The combined award for the 2025 concepts is a maximum of $2.625M in grants to evaluate technologies that could enable future aerospace missions.
“Our next steps and giant leaps rely on innovation, and the concepts born from NIAC can radically change how we explore deep space, work in low Earth orbit, and protect our home planet” said Clayton Turner, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “From developing small robots that could swim through the oceans of other worlds to growing space habitats from fungi, this program continues to change the possible.”
The newly selected concepts include feasibility studies to explore the Sun’s influence on our solar system, build sustainable lunar habitats from glass, explore Saturn’s icy moon, and more. All NIAC studies are in the early stages of conceptual development and are not considered official NASA missions.
Ryan Weed, Helicity Space LLC in Pasadena, California, proposes a constellation of spacecraft powered by the Helicity Drive, a compact and scalable fusion propulsion system, that could enable rapid, multi-directional exploration of the heliosphere and beyond, providing unprecedented insights on how the Sun interacts with our solar system and interstellar space. Demonstrating the feasibility of fusion propulsion could also benefit deep space exploration including crewed missions to Mars.
Martin Bermudez, Skyeports LLC in Sacramento, California, presents the concept of constructing a large-scale, lunar glass habitat in a low-gravity environment. Nicknamed LUNGS (Lunar Glass Structure), this approach involves melting lunar glass compounds to create a large spherical shell structure. This idea offers a promising solution for establishing self-sustaining, large-scale habitats on the lunar surface.
Justin Yim, University of Illinois in Urbana, proposes a jumping robot appropriately named LEAP (Legged Exploration Across the Plume), as a novel robotic sampling concept to explore Enceladus, a small, icy moon of Saturn that’s covered in geysers, or jets. The LEAP robots could enable collection of pristine, ocean-derived material directly from Enceladus’s jets and measurement of particle properties across multiple jets by traveling from one to another.
“All advancements begin as an idea. The NIAC program allows NASA to invest in unique ideas enabling innovation and supporting the nation’s aerospace economy,” said John Nelson, program executive for NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts in Washington.
The NIAC researchers, known as fellows, will investigate the fundamental premise of their concepts, identify potential challenges, and look for opportunities to bring these concepts to life.
In addition to the projects mentioned above, the following selectees received 2025 NIAC Phase I grants:
Michael Hecht, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge: EVE (Exploring Venus with Electrolysis) Selim Shahriar, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois: SUPREME-QG: Space-borne Ultra-Precise Measurement of the Equivalence Principle Signature of Quantum Gravity Phillip Ansell, University of Illinois, Urbana: Hy2PASS (Hydrogen Hybrid Power for Aviation Sustainable Systems) Ryan Benson, ThinkOrbital Inc., Boulder, Colorado: Construction Assembly Destination Gyula Greschik, Tentguild Engineering Co, Boulder, Colorado: The Ribbon: Structure Free Sail for Solar Polar Observation Marco Quadrelli, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California’s Silicon Valley: PULSAR: Planetary pULSe-tAkeRv Ben Hockman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California’s Silicon Valley: TOBIAS: Tethered Observatory for Balloon-based Imaging and Atmospheric Sampling Kimberly Weaver, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland: Beholding Black Hole Power with the Accretion Explorer Interferometer John Mather NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland: Inflatable Starshade for Earthlike Exoplanets Robert Hinshaw, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California: MitoMars: Targeted Mitochondria Replacement Therapy to Boost Deep Space Endurance Christine Gregg, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California: Dynamically Stable Large Space Structures via Architected Metamaterials Saurabh Vilekar, Precision Combustion, North Haven, Connecticut: Thermo-Photo-Catalysis of Water for Crewed Mars Transit Spacecraft Oxygen Supply NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the NIAC program, as it is responsible for developing the agency’s new cross-cutting technologies and capabilities to achieve its current and future missions.
To learn more about NIAC, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/niac
-end-
Jasmine Hopkins
Headquarters, Washington
321-431-4624
jasmine.s.hopkins@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jan 10, 2025 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Space Technology Mission Directorate View the full article
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of the Thermo-Photo-Catalysis of Water for Crewed Mars Transit Spacecraft Oxygen Supply concept.NASA/Saurabh Vilekar Saurabh Vilekar
Precision Combustion
Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) proposes to develop a uniquely compact, lightweight, low-power, and durable Microlith® Thermo-Photo-Catalytic (TPC) Reactor for crewed Mars transit spacecraft O2 supply. As crewed space exploration mission destinations move from low Earth orbit to sustained lunar surface habitation toward Mars exploration, the need becomes more intense to supplant heritage physico-chemical unit operations employed for crewed spacecraft cabin CO2 removal, CO2 reduction, and O2 supply. The primary approach to date has been toward incremental improvement of the heritage, energy intensive process technologies used aboard the International Space Station (ISS), particularly for water electrolysis-based O2 generation. A major breakthrough is necessary to depose these energy intensive process technologies either partly or completely. This is achievable by considering the recent advances in photocatalysis. Applications are emerging for converting CO2 to useful commodity products and generating H2 from atmospheric water vapor. Considering these developments, a low power thermo-photo-catalytic process to replace the heritage high-power water electrolysis process is proposed for application to a Mars transit vehicle life support system (LSS) functional architecture. A key component in realizing this breakthrough is utilizing a catalyst substrate such as Microlith that affords high surface area and promotes mass transport to the catalyst surface. The proposed TPC oxygenator is expected to operate passively to continually renew the O2 content of the cabin atmosphere. The targeted mission for the proposed TPC oxygenator technology deployment is a 2039 Long Stay, Earth-Mars-Earth mission opportunity. This mission as defined by the Moon to Mars (M2M) 2024 review consists of 337.9 days outbound, 348.5 days in Mars vicinity, and 295.8 days return for a total 982.2-day mission. The proposed Microlith oxygenator technology, if successful, is envisioned to replace the OGA technology in the LSS process architecture with significant weight and power savings. In Phase I, we will demonstrate technical feasibility of Microlith TPC for O2 generation, interface requirements, and integration trade space and a clear path towards a prototype demonstration in Phase II will also be described in the final report.
2025 Selections
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Last Updated Jan 10, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
NIAC Studies NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Keep Exploring Discover More NIAC Topics
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By NASA
Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL, aims to take a critical element of nuclear electric propulsion, its heat dissipation system, and divide it into smaller components that can be assembled robotically and autonomously in space. This is an artist’s rendering of what the fully assembled system might look like.NASA The trip to Mars and back is not one for the faint of heart. We’re not talking days, weeks, or months. But there are technologies that could help transport a crew on that round-trip journey in a relatively quick two years.
One option NASA is exploring is nuclear electric propulsion, which employs a nuclear reactor to generate electricity that ionizes, or positively charges, and electrically accelerates gaseous propellants to provide thrust to a spacecraft.
Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are working on a system that could help bring nuclear electric propulsion one significant, technology-defining step closer to reality.
Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL, aims to take a critical element of nuclear electric propulsion, its heat dissipation system, and divide it into smaller components that can be assembled robotically and autonomously in space.
“By doing that, we eliminate trying to fit the whole system into one rocket fairing,” said Amanda Stark, a heat transfer engineer at NASA Langley and the principal investigator for MARVL. “In turn, that allows us to loosen up the design a little bit and really optimize it.”
Loosening up the design is key, because as Stark mentioned, previous ideas called for fitting the entire nuclear electric radiator system under a rocket fairing, or nose cone, which covers and protects a payload. Fully deployed, the heat dissipating radiator array would be roughly the size of a football field. You can imagine the challenge engineers would face in getting such a massive system folded up neatly inside the tip of a rocket.
The MARVL technology opens a world of possibilities. Rather than cram the whole system into an existing rocket, this would allow researchers the flexibility to send pieces of the system to space in whatever way would make the most sense, then have it all assembled off the planet.
Once in space, robots would connect the nuclear electric propulsion system’s radiator panels, through which a liquid metal coolant, such as a sodium-potassium alloy, would flow.
While this is still an engineering challenge, it is exactly the kind of engineering challenge in-space-assembly experts at NASA Langley have been working on for decades. The MARVL technology could mark a significant first milestone. Rather than being an add-on to an existing technology, the in-space assembly component will benefit and influence the design of the very spacecraft it would serve.
“Existing vehicles have not previously considered in-space assembly during the design process, so we have the opportunity here to say, ‘We’re going to build this vehicle in space. How do we do it? And what does the vehicle look like if we do that?’ I think it’s going to expand what we think of when it comes to nuclear propulsion,” said Julia Cline, a mentor for the project in NASA Langley’s Research Directorate, who led the center’s participation in the Nuclear Electric Propulsion tech maturation plan development as a precursor to MARVL. That tech maturation plan was run out of the agency’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate awarded the MARVL project through the Early Career Initiative, giving the team two years to advance the concept. Stark and her teammates are working with an external partner, Boyd Lancaster, Inc., to develop the thermal management system. The team also includes radiator design engineers from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and fluid engineers from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After two years, the team hopes to move the MARVL design to a small-scale ground demonstration.
The idea of robotically building a nuclear propulsion system in space is sparking imaginations.
“One of our mentors remarked, ‘This is why I wanted to work at NASA, for projects like this,’” said Stark, “which is awesome because I am so happy to be involved with it, and I feel the same way.”
Additional support for MARVL comes from the agency’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project. The project’s ongoing effort is maturing technologies for operations around the Moon and near-Earth exploration, deep space science missions, and human exploration using nuclear electric propulsion and nuclear thermal propulsion.
An artist’s rendering that shows the different components of a fully assembled nuclear electric propulsion system.NASAView the full article
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By NASA
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore works inside the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory module to begin installing the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device. (Credit: NASA) Students from the Toms River School District in New Jersey will have the chance to connect with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call in collaboration with Science Friday at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 14, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
Science Friday is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing science with the public through storytelling, educational programs, and connections with audiences. Middle school students will use their knowledge from the educational downlink to address environmental problems in their communities.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m., Friday, Jan. 10, to Santiago Florez at: sflorez@sciencefriday.com or 221-840-2244.
For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
-end-
Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
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