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By NASA
2 Min Read NASA Seeks Commercial Feedback on Space Communication Solutions
An illustration of a commercial space relay ecosystem. Credits: NASA / Morgan Johnson NASA is seeking information from U.S. and international companies about Earth proximity relay communication and navigation capabilities as the agency aims to use private industry satellite communications services for emerging agency science missions.
“As part of NASA’s Communications Services Project, the agency is working with private industry to solve challenges for future exploration,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN Program. “Through this effort, NASA missions will have a greater ability to command spacecraft, resolve issues in flight, and bring home more data and scientific discoveries collected across the solar system.”
In November 2024, NASA announced the TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, the agency’s network of satellites relaying communications from the International Space Station, ground controls on Earth, and spacecraft, will support only existing missions.
NASA, as one of many customers, will obtain commercial satellite services rather than owning and operating a replacement for the existing satellite system. As NASA transitions to commercial relay services, the agency will leverage commercial capabilities to ensure support for future missions and stimulate private investment into the Earth proximity region. Commercial service offerings could become available to NASA missions as early as 2028 and will continue to be demonstrated and validated through 2031.
NASA’s SCaN issued a Request for Information on May 30. Responses are due by 5 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 11.
NASA’s SCaN Program serves as the management office for the agency’s space communications and navigation. More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on SCaN’s two networks, the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network, to support astronauts aboard the International Space Station and future Artemis missions, monitor Earth’s weather, support lunar exploration, and uncover the solar system and beyond.
Learn more about NASA’s SCaN Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/scan
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Last Updated Jun 16, 2025 EditorJimi RussellContactMolly KearnsLocationGlenn Research Center Related Terms
Commercial Space General Glenn Research Center The Future of Commercial Space Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Communicating with Missions
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:40 Proba-3 artificially created what is normally a rare natural phenomenon: a total solar eclipse.
In a world first, ESA’s Proba-3 satellites flew in perfect formation, blocking the Sun’s bright disc to reveal its fiery corona. This enigmatic outer layer burns millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface and drives the solar storms that can disrupt life on Earth.
With its first artificial eclipse, Proba-3 has captured detailed images of this mysterious region, offering scientists new insights into our star’s behaviour.
Read the full story here.
Access the related broadcast qality footage.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Instruments in space are helping scientists map wastewater plumes flowing into the Pacific Ocean from the heavily polluted Tijuana River, seen here with the San Diego sky-line to the north. NOAA Proof-of-concept results from the mouth of the Tijuana River in San Diego County show how an instrument called EMIT could aid wastewater detection.
An instrument built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to map minerals on Earth is now revealing clues about water quality. A recent study found that EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) was able to identify signs of sewage in the water at a Southern California beach.
The authors of the study examined a large wastewater plume at the mouth of the Tijuana River, south of Imperial Beach near San Diego. Every year, millions of gallons of treated and untreated sewage enter the river, which carries pollutants through communities and a national reserve on the U.S.-Mexico border before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Contaminated coastal waters have been known to impact human health — from beachgoers to U.S. Navy trainees — and harm marine ecosystems, fisheries, and wildlife.
For decades scientists have tracked water quality issues like harmful algal blooms using satellite instruments that analyze ocean color. Shades that range from vibrant red to bright green can reveal the presence of algae and phytoplankton. But other pollutants and harmful bacteria are more difficult to monitor because they’re harder to distinguish with traditional satellite sensors.
A plume spreads out to sea in this image captured off San Diego by the Sentinel-2 satellite on March 24, 2023. Both a spectroradiometer used to analyze water samples (yellow star) and NASA’s EMIT identified in the plume signs of a type of bacterium that can sicken humans and animals.SDSU/Eva Scrivner That’s where EMIT comes in. NASA’s hyperspectral instrument orbits Earth aboard the International Space Station, observing sunlight reflecting off the planet below. Its advanced optical components split the visible and infrared wavelengths into hundreds of color bands. By analyzing each satellite scene pixel by pixel at finer spatial resolution, scientists can discern what molecules are present based on their unique spectral “fingerprint.”
Scientists compared EMIT’s observations of the Tijuana River plume with water samples they tested on the ground. Both EMIT and the ground-based instruments detected a spectral fingerprint pointing to phycocyanin, a pigment in cyanobacteria, an organism that can sicken humans and animals that ingest or inhale it.
‘Smoking Gun’
Many beachgoers are already familiar with online water-quality dashboards, which often rely on samples collected in the field, said Christine Lee, a scientist at JPL in Southern California and a coauthor of the study. She noted the potential for EMIT to complement these efforts.
“From orbit you are able to look down and see that a wastewater plume is extending into places you haven’t sampled,” Lee said. “It’s like a diagnostic at the doctor’s office that tells you, ‘Hey, let’s take a closer look at this.’”
Lead author Eva Scrivner, a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut, said that the findings “show a ‘smoking gun’ of sorts for wastewater in the Tijuana River plume.” Scrivner, who led the study while at San Diego State University, added that EMIT could be useful for filling data gaps around intensely polluted sites where traditional water sampling takes a lot of time and money.
EMIT’s Many Uses
The technology behind EMIT is called imaging spectroscopy, which was pioneered at JPL in the 1980s. Imaging spectrometers developed at JPL over the decades have been used to support areas ranging from agriculture to forest health and firefighting.
When EMIT was launched in July 2022, it was solely aimed at mapping minerals and dust in Earth’s desert regions. That same sensitivity enabled it to spot the phycocyanin pigments off the California coast.
Scrivner hadn’t anticipated that an instrument initially devoted to exploring land could reveal insights about water. “The fact that EMIT’s findings over the coast are consistent with measurements in the field is compelling to water scientists,” she said. “It’s really exciting.”
To learn more about EMIT, visit:
https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/
News Media Contacts
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2025-078
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Last Updated Jun 12, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA Systems Engineer Daniel Eng serves his second year as a judge for the Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California, in 2019. NASA/Lauren Hughes As a child in the 1960s, Daniel Eng spent his weekends in New York City’s garment district in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, clipping loose threads off finished clothing. He worked alongside his mother, a seamstress, and his father, a steam press operator, where he developed an eye for detail and a passion for learning. Now, he applies these capabilities at NASA, where he works as an engineer for the Air Mobility Pathfinders project.
“I often wonder whether the NASA worm magnet that someone left on my refrigerator in college, which I kept all these years, may have something to do with me ending up at NASA,” Eng said.
His route to NASA was not straightforward. Eng dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He earned a GED certificate while on active duty and after his service earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
After college, Eng worked as a researcher investigating laser communications for the U.S. Navy, work which launched his career in aerospace. He then held jobs at several global corporations before landing at NASA.
NASA systems engineer, Daniel Eng, right, talks with student participants at the 2019 Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California.NASA/Lauren Hughes “Looking back now, the Navy was ‘my launching point’ into the aerospace industry,” Eng said. “In more than four decades, I held various positions rising through the ranks ranging from circuit card design to systems analyst to production support to project and program management for advanced technology systems on a multitude of military and commercial aircraft projects.”
Today, he uses virtual models to plan and develop flight test requirements for piloted and automated aircraft, which will help guide future air taxi operations in cities.
“Engineers can virtually test computer models of designs, concepts, and operations before they are in place or even built, providing a safe and cost-effective way to verify the processes work the way they should,” Eng said.
He tells his grandkids to stay curious and ask a lot of questions so they can learn as much as possible.
“Be courteous, humble, kind, and respectful of people, and always remind yourself that you are just one human being among many ‘Earthlings,’” Eng said. “Teamwork is a very important aspect of success because rarely, if ever, does one person succeed on their own without help from others.”
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Last Updated Jun 09, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactLaura Mitchelllaura.a.mitchell@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Auburn University’s project, “Dynamic Ecosystems for Mars ECLSS Testing, Evaluation, and Reliability (DEMETER),” won top prize in NASA’s 2025 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition Forum. National Institute of Aerospace A team from Auburn University took top honors in NASA’s 2025 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition Forum, where undergraduate and graduate teams competed to develop new concepts for operating on the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Auburn’s project, “Dynamic Ecosystems for Mars Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) Testing, Evaluation, and Reliability (DEMETER)” advised by Dr. Davide Guzzetti, took home top prize out of 14 Finalist Teams from academic institutions across the nation. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University took second place overall for their concept, “Adaptive Device for Assistance and Maintenance (ADAM),” advised by Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh. The University of Maryland took third place overall with their project, “Servicing Crane Outfitted Rover for Payloads, Inspection, Operations, N’stuff (SCORPION),” advised by Dr. David Akin, Nich Bolatto, and Charlie Hanner.
The first and second place overall winning teams will present their work at the 2025 AIAA Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery (ASCEND) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in July.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University took second place overall in NASA’s 2025 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition Forum for their concept, “Adaptive Device for Assistance and Maintenance (ADAM).”National Institute of Aerospace The RASC-AL Competition, which took place from June 2-4, 2025, in Cocoa Beach, Florida, is a unique initiative designed to bridge the gap between academia and the aerospace industry, empowering undergraduate and graduate students to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world challenges in space exploration. This year’s themes included “Sustained Lunar Evolution – An Inspirational Moment,” “Advanced Science Missions and Technology Demonstrators for Human-Mars Precursor Campaign,” and “Small Lunar Servicing and Maintenance Robot.”
“The RASC-AL Competition cultivates students who bring bold, imaginative thinking to the kinds of complex challenges we tackle at NASA,” said Dan Mazanek, RASC-AL program sponsor and senior space systems engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “These teams push the boundaries of what’s possible in space system design and offer new insights. These insights help build critical engineering capabilities, preparing the next generation of aerospace leaders to step confidently into the future of space exploration.”
As NASA continues to push the boundaries of space exploration, the RASC-AL Competition stands as an opportunity for aspiring aerospace professionals to design real-world solutions to complex problems facing the Agency. By engaging with the next generation of innovators, NASA can collaborate with the academic community to crowd-source new solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.
Additional 2025 Forum Awards include:
Best in Theme: Sustained Lunar Evolution: An Inspirational Moment
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Project Title: Project Aeneas Advisor: Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh Best in Theme: Advanced Science Missions and Technology Demonstrators for Human-Mars Precursor Campaign
Auburn University Project Title: Dynamic Ecosystems for Mars ECLSS Testing, Evaluation, and Reliability (DEMETER) Advisor: Dr. Davide Guzzetti Best in Theme: Small Lunar Servicing and Maintenance Robot
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Project Title: Adaptive Device for Assistance and Maintenance (ADAM) Advisor: Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh Best Prototype: South Dakota State University
Project Title: Next-gen Operations and Versatile Assistant (NOVA) Advisor: Dr. Todd Letcher, Allea Klauenberg, Liam Murray, Alex Schaar, Nick Sieler, Dylan Stephens, Carter Waggoner
RASC-AL is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying disciplines related to human exploration, including aerospace, bio-medical, electrical, and mechanical engineering, and life, physical, and computer sciences. RASC-AL projects allow students to incorporate their coursework into space exploration objectives in a team environment and help bridge strategic knowledge gaps associated with NASA’s vision. Students have the opportunity to interact with NASA officials and industry experts and develop relationships that could lead to participation in other NASA student research programs.
RASC-AL is sponsored by the Strategies and Architectures Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, and by the Space Mission Analysis Branch within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley. It is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace.
For more information about the RASC-AL competition, including complete theme and submission guidelines, visit: http://rascal.nianet.org.
National Institute of Aerospace
About the Author
Joe Atkinson
Public Affairs Officer, NASA Langley Research Center
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Last Updated Jun 05, 2025 Related Terms
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