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By NASA
Heading into a recent staff meeting for Johnson Space Center’s Business Development & Technology Integration Office, Jason Foster anticipated a typical agenda of team updates and discussion. He did not expect an announcement that he had been named a 2025 Rookie of the Year – Honorable Mention through the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s annual awards program.
Foster was one of only three technology transfer professionals across the federal government to be recognized in the Rookie of the Year category, which is open to early-career individuals with less than three years of experience. “It was definitely a surprise,” he said. “It was quite an honor, because it’s not only representing Johnson Space Center but also NASA.”
Jason Foster recognized at the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award Ceremony as a Rookie of the Year – Honorable Mention.Image courtesy of Jason Foster Foster is a licensing specialist and New Technology Report (NTR) specialist within Johnson’s Technology Transfer Office in Houston. That team works to ensure that innovations developed for aeronautics and space exploration are made broadly available to the public, maximizing their benefit to the nation. Foster’s role involves both capturing new technologies developed at Johnson and marketing and licensing those technologies to companies that would like to use and further develop them.
He describes much of his work as “technology hunting” – reaching out to branches, offices, and teams across Johnson to teach them about the Technology Transfer Office, NTRs, and the value of technology reporting for NASA and the public. “NTRs are the foundation that allows our office to do our job,” he said. “We need to know about a technology in order to transfer it.”
Jason Foster (left) visited NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his colleague Edgar Castillo as part of the Technology Transfer Office’s work to capture new technology and innovations developed at Johnson and affiliated facilities. Image courtesy of Jason Foster Foster’s efforts to streamline and strengthen the reporting and patenting of Johnson’s innovations led to his recognition by the consortium. His proactive outreach and relationship-building improved customer service and contributed to 158 NTRs in fiscal year 2024 – the highest number of NTRs disclosed by federal employees at any NASA center. Foster also proposed a three-month NTR sprint, during which he led a team of seven in an intensive exercise to identify and report new technologies. This initiative not only cleared a backlog of leads for the office, but also resulted in more than 120 previously undisclosed NTRs. “We are still using that process now as we continue processing NTRs,” Foster said. On top of those achievements, he helped secure the highest recorded number of license agreements with commercial entities in the center’s history, with 41 licenses executed in fiscal year 2024.
“I am very proud of my accomplishments, none of it would be possible without the open-mindedness and continuous support of my incredible team,” Foster said. “They have always provided a space to grow, and actively welcome innovation in our processes and workflows.”
Jason Foster educated Johnson employees about the Technology Transfer Office and the importance of submitting New Technology Reports during the center’s annual Innovation Showcase.Image courtesy of Jason Foster A self-described “space nerd,” Foster said he always envisioned working at NASA, but not until much later in his career – ideally as an astronaut. He initially planned to pursue an astrophysics degree but discovered a passion for engineering and fused that with his love of space by studying aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering instead. In his last semester of college at California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, he landed a Universities Space Research Association internship at Johnson, supporting flight software development for crew exercise systems on the International Space Station and future exploration missions. “I got really involved in the Johnson Space Center team and the work, and I thought, what if I joined NASA now?”
He was hired as a licensing specialist on the Technology Transfer team under the JETS II Contract as an Amentum employee shortly after graduating and continually seeks new opportunities to expand his role and skillsets. “The more I can learn about anything NASA’s doing is incredible,” he said. “I found myself in this perfect position where literally my job is to learn everything there is to learn.”
Jason Foster holding up Aerogel during his visit to the Hypervelocity Impact Testing Laboratory at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The visit was part of the Technology Transfer Office’s work to capture new technology and innovations developed at Johnson and affiliated facilities. Image courtesy of Jason Foster Foster celebrates three years with NASA this July. In his time at the agency, he has learned the value of getting to know and understand your colleagues’ needs in order to help them. Before he meets with someone, he takes time to learn about the organization or team they are a part of, the work they are involved in, and what they might discuss. It is also important to determine how each person prefers to communicate and collaborate. “Doing your homework pays dividends,” Foster said. He has found that being as prepared as possible opens doors to more opportunities, and it helps to save valuable time for busy team members.
Jason Foster practices fire spinning on a California beach. Image courtesy of Jason Foster When he is not technology hunting, you might find Foster practicing the art of fire spinning. He picked up the hobby in college, joining a club that met at local beaches to practice spinning and capturing different geometric patterns through long exposure photos. “It was kind of a strange thing to get into, but it was really fun,” he said. His love of learning drives his interest in other activities as well. Gardening is a relatively new hobby inspired by a realization that he had never grown anything before.
“It’s a genuine joy, I think, coming across something with curiosity and wanting to learn from it,” he said. “I think it especially helps in my job, where your curiosity switch has to be on at least 90% of the time.”
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By European Space Agency
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) newest planetary defender has opened its ‘eye’ to the cosmos for the first time. The Flyeye telescope’s ‘first light’ marks the beginning of a new chapter in how we scan the skies for new near-Earth asteroids and comets.
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Advancing new hazard detection and precision landing technologies to help future space missions successfully achieve safe and soft landings is a critical area of space research and development, particularly for future crewed missions. To support this, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is pursuing a regular cadence of flight testing on a variety of vehicles, helping researchers rapidly advance these critical systems for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“These flight tests directly address some of NASA’s highest-ranked technology needs, or shortfalls, ranging from advanced guidance algorithms and terrain-relative navigation to lidar-and optical-based hazard detection and mapping,” said Dr. John M. Carson III, STMD technical integration manager for precision landing and based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Since the beginning of this year, STMD has supported flight testing of four precision landing and hazard detection technologies from many sectors, including NASA, universities, and commercial industry. These cutting-edge solutions have flown aboard a suborbital rocket system, a high-speed jet, a helicopter, and a rocket-powered lander testbed. That’s four precision landing technologies tested on four different flight vehicles in four months.
“By flight testing these technologies on Earth in spaceflight-relevant trajectories and velocities, we’re demonstrating their capabilities and validating them with real data for transitioning technologies from the lab into mission applications,” said Dr. Carson. “This work also signals to industry and other partners that these capabilities are ready to push beyond NASA and academia and into the next generation of Moon and Mars landers.”
The following NASA-supported flight tests took place between February and May:
Suborbital Rocket Test of Vision-Based Navigation System
Identifying landmarks to calculate accurate navigation solutions is a key function of Draper’s Multi-Environment Navigator (DMEN), a vision-based navigation and hazard detection technology designed to improve safety and precision of lunar landings.
Aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system, DMEN collected real-world data and validated its algorithms to advance it for use during the delivery of three NASA payloads as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. On Feb. 4, DMEN performed the latest in a series of tests supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
During the February flight, which enabled testing at rocket speeds on ascent and descent, DMEN scanned the Earth below, identifying landmarks to calculate an accurate navigation solution. The technology achieved accuracy levels that helped Draper advance it for use in terrain-relative navigation, which is a key element of landing on other planets.
New Shepard booster lands during the flight test on February 4, 2025.Blue Origin High-Speed Jet Tests of Lidar-Based Navigation
Several highly dynamic maneuvers and flight paths put Psionic’s Space Navigation Doppler Lidar (PSNDL) to the test while it collected navigation data at various altitudes, velocities, and orientations.
Psionic licensed NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar technology developed at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and created its own miniaturized system with improved functionality and component redundancies, making it more rugged for spaceflight. In February, PSNDL along with a full navigation sensor suite was mounted aboard an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and underwent flight testing at NASA Armstrong.
The aircraft followed a variety of flight paths over several days, including a large figure-eight loop and several highly dynamic maneuvers over Death Valley, California. During these flights, PSNDL collected navigation data relevant for lunar and Mars entry and descent.
The high-speed flight tests demonstrated the sensor’s accuracy and navigation precision in challenging conditions, helping prepare the technology to land robots and astronauts on the Moon and Mars. These recent tests complemented previous Flight Opportunities-supported testing aboard a lander testbed to advance earlier versions of their PSNDL prototypes.
The Psionic Space Navigation Doppler Lidar (PSNDL) system is installed in a pod located under the right wing of a NASA F/A-18 research aircraft for flight testing above Death Valley near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, in February 2025.NASA Helicopter Tests of Real-Time Mapping Lidar
Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed a state-of-the-art Hazard Detection Lidar (HDL) sensor system to quickly map the surface from a vehicle descending at high speed to find safe landing sites in challenging locations, such as Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons), our own Moon, Mars, and other planetary bodies throughout the solar system. The HDL-scanning lidar generates three-dimensional digital elevation maps in real time, processing approximately 15 million laser measurements and mapping two football fields’ worth of terrain in only two seconds.
In mid-March, researchers tested the HDL from a helicopter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with flights over a lunar-like test field with rocks and craters. The HDL collected numerous scans from several different altitudes and view angles to simulate a range of landing scenarios, generating real-time maps. Preliminary reviews of the data show excellent performance of the HDL system.
The HDL is a component of NASA’s Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) technology suite. The SPLICE descent and landing system integrates multiple component technologies, such as avionics, sensors, and algorithms, to enable landing in hard-to-reach areas of high scientific interest. The HDL team is also continuing to test and further improve the sensor for future flight opportunities and commercial applications.
NASA’s Hazard Detection Lidar field test team at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida in March 2025. Lander Tests of Powered-Descent Guidance Software
Providing pinpoint landing guidance capability with minimum propellant usage, the San Diego State University (SDSU) powered-descent guidance algorithms seek to improve autonomous spacecraft precision landing and hazard avoidance. During a series of flight tests in April and May, supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, the university’s software was integrated into Astrobotic’s Xodiac suborbital rocket-powered lander via hardware developed by Falcon ExoDynamics as part of NASA TechLeap Prize’s Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge.
The SDSU algorithms aim to improve landing capabilities by expanding the flexibility and trajectory-shaping ability and enhancing the propellant efficiency of powered-descent guidance systems. They have the potential for infusion into human and robotic missions to the Moon as well as high-mass Mars missions.
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As part of a series of tethered and free-flight tests in April and May 2025, algorithms developed by San Diego State University guided the descent of the Xodiac lander testbed vehicle.Astrobotic By advancing these and other important navigation, precision landing, and hazard detection technologies with frequent flight tests, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is prioritizing safe and successful touchdowns in challenging planetary environments for future space missions.
Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/space-technology-mission-directorate/
By: Lee Ann Obringer
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program
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Last Updated May 29, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Percolating Clues: NASA Models New Way to Build Planetary Cores
NASA’s Perseverance rover was traveling in the channel of an ancient river, Neretva Vallis, when it captured this view of an area of scientific interest nicknamed “Bright Angel” – the light-toned area in the distance at right. The area features light-toned rocky outcrops that may represent either ancient sediment that later filled the channel or possibly much older rock that was subsequently exposed by river erosion. NASA/JPL-Caltech A new NASA study reveals a surprising way planetary cores may have formed—one that could reshape how scientists understand the early evolution of rocky planets like Mars.
Conducted by a team of early-career scientists and long-time researchers across the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the study offers the first direct experimental and geochemical evidence that molten sulfide, rather than metal, could percolate through solid rock and form a core—even before a planet’s silicate mantle begins to melt.
For decades, scientists believed that forming a core required large-scale melting of a planetary body, followed by heavy metallic elements sinking to the center. This study introduces a new scenario—especially relevant for planets forming farther from the Sun, where sulfur and oxygen are more abundant than iron. In these volatile-rich environments, sulfur behaves like road salt on an icy street—it lowers the melting point by reacting with metallic iron to form iron-sulfide so that it may migrate and combine into a core. Until now, scientists didn’t know if sulfide could travel through solid rock under realistic planet formation conditions.
Working on this project pushed us to be creative. It was exciting to see both data streams converge on the same story.
Dr. Jake Setera
ARES Scientist with Amentum
The study results gave researchers a way to directly observe this process using high-resolution 3D imagery—confirming long-standing models about how core formation can occur through percolation, in which dense liquid sulfide travels through microscopic cracks in solid rock.
“We could actually see in full 3D renderings how the sulfide melts were moving through the experimental sample, percolating in cracks between other minerals,” said Dr. Sam Crossley of the University of Arizona in Tucson, who led the project while a postdoctoral fellow with NASA Johnson’s ARES Division. “It confirmed our hypothesis—that in a planetary setting, these dense melts would migrate to the center of a body and form a core, even before the surrounding rock began to melt.”
Recreating planetary formation conditions in the lab required not only experimental precision but also close collaboration among early-career scientists across ARES to develop new ways of observing and analyzing the results. The high-temperature experiments were first conducted in the experimental petrology lab, after which the resulting samples—or “run products”—were brought to NASA Johnson’s X-ray computed tomography (XCT) lab for imaging.
A molten sulfide network (colored gold) percolates between silicate mineral grains in this cut-out of an XCT rendering—rendered are unmelted silicates in gray and sulfides in white. Credit: Crossley et al. 2025, Nature Communications X-ray scientist and study co-author Dr. Scott Eckley of Amentum at NASA Johnson used XCT to produce high-resolution 3D renderings—revealing melt pockets and flow pathways within the samples in microscopic detail. These visualizations offered insight into the physical behavior of materials during early core formation without destroying the sample.
The 3D XCT visualizations initially confirmed that sulfide melts could percolate through solid rock under experimental conditions, but that alone could not confirm whether percolative core formation occurred over 4.5 billion years ago. For that, researchers turned to meteorites.
“We took the next step and searched for forensic chemical evidence of sulfide percolation in meteorites,” Crossley said. “By partially melting synthetic sulfides infused with trace platinum-group metals, we were able to reproduce the same unusual chemical patterns found in oxygen-rich meteorites—providing strong evidence that sulfide percolation occurred under those conditions in the early solar system.”
To understand the distribution of trace elements, study co-author Dr. Jake Setera, also of Amentum, developed a novel laser ablation technique to accurately measure platinum-group metals, which concentrate in sulfides and metals.
“Working on this project pushed us to be creative,” Setera said. “To confirm what the 3D visualizations were showing us, we needed to develop an appropriate laser ablation method that could trace the platinum group-elements in these complex experimental samples. It was exciting to see both data streams converge on the same story.”
When paired with Setera’s geochemical analysis, the data provided powerful, independent lines of evidence that molten sulfide had migrated and coalesced within a solid planetary interior. This dual confirmation marked the first direct demonstration of the process in a laboratory setting.
Dr. Sam Crossley welds shut the glass tube of the experimental assembly. To prevent reaction with the atmosphere and precisely control oxygen and sulfur content, experiments needed to be sealed in a closed system under vacuum. Credit: Amentum/Dr. Brendan Anzures The study offers a new lens through which to interpret planetary geochemistry. Mars in particular shows signs of early core formation—but the timeline has puzzled scientists for years. The new results suggest that Mars’ core may have formed at an earlier stage, thanks to its sulfur-rich composition—potentially without requiring the full-scale melting that Earth experienced. This could help explain longstanding puzzles in Mars’ geochemical timeline and early differentiation.
The results also raise new questions about how scientists date core formation events using radiogenic isotopes, such as hafnium and tungsten. If sulfur and oxygen are more abundant during a planet’s formation, certain elements may behave differently than expected—remaining in the mantle instead of the core and affecting the geochemical “clocks” used to estimate planetary timelines.
This research advances our understanding of how planetary interiors can form under different chemical conditions—offering new possibilities for interpreting the evolution of rocky bodies like Mars. By combining experimental petrology, geochemical analysis, and 3D imaging, the team demonstrated how collaborative, multi-method approaches can uncover processes that were once only theoretical.
Crossley led the research during his time as a McKay Postdoctoral Fellow—a program that recognizes outstanding early-career scientists within five years of earning their doctorate. Jointly offered by NASA’s ARES Division and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, the fellowship supports innovative research in astromaterials science, including the origin and evolution of planetary bodies across the solar system.
As NASA prepares for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, understanding how planetary interiors form is more important than ever. Studies like this one help scientists interpret remote data from spacecraft, analyze returned samples, and build better models of how our solar system came to be.
For more information on NASA’s ARES division, visit: https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/
Victoria Segovia
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
281-483-5111
victoria.segovia@nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 22, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
When future astronauts set foot on Mars, they will stand on decades of scientific groundwork laid by people like Andrea Harrington.
As NASA’s sample return curation integration lead, Harrington is helping shape the future of planetary exploration and paving the way for interplanetary discovery.
Official portrait of Andrea Harrington. NASA/Josh Valcarcel Harrington works in NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Sciences Division, or ARES, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she integrates curation, science, engineering, and planetary protection strategies into the design and operation of new laboratory facilities and sample handling systems. She also helps ensure that current and future sample collections—from lunar missions to asteroid returns—are handled with scientific precision and preserved for long-term study.
“I am charged with protecting the samples from Earth—and protecting Earth from the restricted samples,” Harrington said. This role requires collaboration across NASA centers, senior leadership, engineers, the scientific community, and international space exploration agencies.
With a multidisciplinary background in biology, planetary science, geochemistry, and toxicology, Harrington has become a key expert in developing the facility and contamination control requirements needed to safely preserve and study sensitive extraterrestrial samples. She works closely with current and future curators to improve operational practices and inform laboratory specifications—efforts that will directly support future lunar missions.
Andrea Harrington in front of NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Sciences Division Mars Wall at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her work has already made a lasting impact. She helped develop technologies such as a clean closure system to reduce contamination during sample handling and ultraclean, three-chamber inert isolation cabinets. These systems have become standard equipment and are used for preserving samples from missions like OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2. They have also supported the successful processing of sensitive Apollo samples through the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program.
In addition to technology development, Harrington co-led the assessment of high-containment and pristine facilities to inform future technology and infrastructural requirements for Restricted Earth Returns, critical for sample returns Mars, Europa, and Enceladus.
Harrington’s leadership, vision, and technical contribution have reached beyond ARES and have earned her two Director’s Commendations.
“The experiences I have acquired at NASA have rounded out my background even more and have provided me with a greater breadth of knowledge to draw upon and then piece together,” said Harrington. “I have learned to trust my instincts since they have allowed me to quickly assess and effectively troubleshoot problems on numerous occasions.”
Andrea Harrington in Johnson’s newly commissioned Advanced Curation Laboratory. Harrington also serves as the Advanced Curation Medical Geology lead. She and her team are pioneering new exposure techniques that require significantly less sample material to evaluate potential health risks of astromaterials.
Her team is studying a range of astromaterial samples and analogues to identify which components may trigger the strongest inflammatory responses, or whether multiple factors are at play. Identifying the sources of inflammation can help scientists assess the potential hazards of handling materials from different planetary bodies, guide decisions about protective equipment for sample processors and curators, and may eventually support astronaut safety on future missions.
Harrington also spearheaded a Space Act Agreement to build a science platform on the International Space Station that will enable planetary science and human health experiments in microgravity, advancing both human spaceflight and planetary protection goals.
Andrea Harrington at the National Academies Committee on Planetary Protection and Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences in Irvine, California. Harrington credits her NASA career for deepening her appreciation of the power of communication. “The ability to truly listen and hear other people’s perspectives is just as important as the ability to deliver a message or convey an idea,” she said.
Her passion for space science is rooted in purpose. “What drew me to NASA is the premise that what I would be doing was not just for myself, but for the benefit of all,” she said. “Although I am personally passionate about the work I am doing, the fact that the ultimate goal is to enable the fulfillment of those passions for generations of space scientists and explorers to come is quite inspiring.”
Andrea Harrington and her twin sister, Jane Valenti, as children (top two photos) and at Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, Texas, in 2024. Harrington loves to travel, whether she is mountain biking through Moab, scuba diving in the Galápagos, or immersing herself in the architecture and culture of cities around the world. She shares her passion for discovery with her family—her older sister, Nicole Reandeau; her twin sister, Jane Valenti; and especially her husband, Alexander Smirnov.
A lesson she hopes to pass along to the Artemis Generation is the spirit of adventure along with a reminder that exploration comes in many forms.
“Artemis missions and the return of pristine samples from another planetary bodies to Earth are steppingstones that will enable us to do even more,” Harrington said. “The experience and lessons learned could help us safely and effectively explore distant worlds, or simply inspire the next generation of explorers to do great things we can’t yet even imagine.”
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