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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Researchers Kelly Gilkey, Cy Peverill, Daniel Phan, Chase Haddix, and Ariel Tokarz test portable, handheld X-ray systems for use during future long-duration space missions at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna As NASA plans future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, new and unique challenges emerge — like communication delays and limited return-to-Earth options — so enhanced medical care capabilities are critical. Crews will need non-invasive imaging technology to diagnose medical conditions, like broken bones or dental injuries.
Scientists at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are testing portable, handheld X-ray systems for use during future extended space missions. Having portable X-ray capabilities aboard spacecraft would allow astronauts to immediately assess and treat potential injuries or identify equipment issues without having to disassemble the gear.
“Technological innovations like that of the mini-X-ray will help keep our astronauts healthy as we endeavor farther into space than ever before,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “Future missions to the Moon and Mars will be safer due to the research of our scientists at NASA Glenn.”
NASA reviewed more than 200 commercial systems — analyzing size, weight, image quality, ease-of-use, cost, and safety — and selected three systems for further testing: MinXray, Remedi, and Fujifilm.
“We’re working to provide evidence on why a mini-X-ray system should be included in future space exploration,” said Dr. Chase Haddix, a senior biomedical engineering research contractor working for Universities Space Research Association at NASA Glenn. “These X-rays could be used to detect both clinical and non-clinical diagnostics, meaning they can check an astronaut’s body or identify the location of a tear in an astronaut suit.”
Researchers capture X-ray images of a shape memory alloy rover tire at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA Glenn is collaborating with other centers, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and radiography experts at University Hospitals and Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.
“We’re fortunate to have enthusiastic medical and radiography experts right here in our community,” said Dr. Cy Peverill, project task lead at NASA Glenn. “Their knowledge and experience are invaluable as we work to test medical technologies that could significantly improve management of astronaut health on future missions to the Moon or Mars.”
Cuyahoga Community College contributed anatomical phantoms, which are lifelike models of the human body, in its radiography laboratory on the Western Campus and dental hygiene clinical facility at the Metropolitan Campus. Faculty and students consulted with NASA researchers on essential imaging principles, including patient positioning, image acquisition, and image quality.
University Hospitals is partnering with NASA Glenn on a medical study with real patients to compare the performance of the X-ray systems against hospital-grade equipment, focusing on usability, image clarity, and diagnostic accuracy.
“Astronauts live and work in small quarters, much smaller spaces than in a hospital,” Haddix said. “The system must be easy to use since astronauts may not be experienced in radiography. The data from these tests will guide the selection of the most suitable system for future missions.”
Researchers capture X-ray images of an astronaut spacesuit at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Using portable X-rays to improve health care in inaccessible areas is not new, with systems deployed to diagnose medical issues in places such as base camps in Nepal and remote villages in South Africa. NASA researchers theorize that if these systems are successful in high elevations and extreme temperatures on Earth, perhaps they are durable enough for space missions.
Glenn researchers will continue to collect data from all collaborators, including from an X-ray system sourced by SpaceX that launched in April during the Fram2 mission. The crew captured the first human X-ray images in space during their four-day mission to low Earth orbit. NASA plans to select a device near the end of 2025 and will test the chosen system aboard the International Space Station in 2026 or early 2027.
The Mars Campaign Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington and the agency’s Human Research Program at NASA Johnson fund this work as both organizations focus on pursuing technologies and methods to support safe, productive human space travel.
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By NASA
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hong Kong/S. Zhang et al.; Radio: ATNF/CSIRO/ATCA; H-alpha: UK STFC/Royal Observatory Edinburgh; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk In 2009, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory released a captivating image: a pulsar and its surrounding nebula that is shaped like a hand.
Since then, astronomers have used Chandra and other telescopes to continue to observe this object. Now, new radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), has been combined with Chandra’s X-ray data to provide a fresh view of this exploded star and its environment, to help understand its peculiar properties and shape.
At the center of this new image lies the pulsar B1509-58, a rapidly spinning neutron star that is only about 12 miles in diameter. This tiny object is responsible for producing an intricate nebula (called MSH 15-52) that spans over 150 light-years, or about 900 trillion miles. The nebula, which is produced by energetic particles, resembles a human hand with a palm and extended fingers pointing to the upper right in X-rays.
Labeled Version of the ImageX-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hong Kong/S. Zhang et al.; Radio: ATNF/CSIRO/ATCA; H-alpha: UK STFC/Royal Observatory Edinburgh; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk The collapse of a massive star created the pulsar when much of the star crashed inward once it burned through its sustainable nuclear fuel. An ensuing explosion sent the star’s outer layers outward into space as a supernova.
The pulsar spins around almost seven times every second and has a strong magnetic field, about 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s. The rapid rotation and strong magnetic field make B1509-58 one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the Galaxy, enabling it to drive an energetic wind of electrons and other particles away from the pulsar, creating the nebula.
In this new composite image, the ATCA radio data (represented in red) has been combined with X-rays from Chandra (shown in blue, orange and yellow), along with an optical image of hydrogen gas (gold). The areas of overlap between the X-ray and radio data in MSH 15-52 show as purple. The optical image shows stars in the field of view along with parts of the supernova’s debris, the supernova remnant RCW 89. A labeled version of the figure shows the main features of the image.
Radio data from ATCA now reveals complex filaments that are aligned with the directions of the nebula’s magnetic field, shown by the short, straight, white lines in a supplementary image. These filaments could result from the collision of the pulsar’s particle wind with the supernova’s debris.
Complex Filaments Aligned with the Directions of the Nebula’s Magnetic FieldX-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hong Kong/S. Zhang et al.; Radio: ATNF/CSIRO/ATCA; H-alpha: UK STFC/Royal Observatory Edinburgh; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk By comparing the radio and X-ray data, researchers identified key differences between the sources of the two types of light. In particular, some prominent X-ray features, including the jet towards the bottom of the image and the inner parts of the three “fingers” towards the top, are not detected in radio waves. This suggests that highly energetic particles are leaking out from a shock wave — similar to a supersonic plane’s sonic boom — near the pulsar and moving along magnetic field lines to create the fingers.
The radio data also shows that RCW 89’s structure is different from typical young supernova remnants. Much of the radio emission is patchy and closely matches clumps of X-ray and optical emission. It also extends well beyond the X-ray emission. All of these characteristics support the idea that RCW 89 is colliding with a dense cloud of nearby hydrogen gas.
However, the researchers do not fully understand all that the data is showing them. One area that is perplexing is the sharp boundary of X-ray emission in the upper right of the image that seems to be the blast wave from the supernova — see the labeled feature. Supernova blast waves are usually bright in radio waves for young supernova remnants like RCW 89, so it is surprising to researchers that there is no radio signal at the X-ray boundary.
MSH 15–52 and RCW 89 show many unique features not found in other young sources. There are, however, still many open questions regarding the formation and evolution of these structures. Further work is needed to provide better understanding of the complex interplay between the pulsar wind and the supernova debris.
A paper describing this work, led by Shumeng Zhang of the University of Hong Kong, with co-authors Stephen C.Y. Ng of the University of Hong Kong and Niccolo’ Bucciantini of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, has been published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adf333.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description
This release features a composite image of a nebula and pulsar that strongly resembles a cosmic hand reaching for a neon red cloud.
The neon red cloud sits near the top of the image, just to our right of center. Breaks in the cloud reveal interwoven strands of gold resembling spiderwebs, or a latticework substructure. This cloud is the remains of the supernova that formed the pulsar at the heart of the image. The pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star only 12 miles in diameter, is far too small to be seen in this image, which represents a region of space over 150 light-years across.
The bottom half of the image is dominated by a massive blue hand reaching up toward the pulsar and supernova cloud. This is an intricate nebula called MSH 15-52, an energetic wind of electrons and other particles driven away from the pulsar. The resemblance to a hand is undeniable. Inside the nebula, streaks and swirls of blue range from pale to navy, evoking a medical X-ray, or the yearning hand of a giant, cosmic ghost.
The hand and nebula are set against the blackness of space, surrounded by scores of gleaming golden specks. At our lower left, a golden hydrogen gas cloud extends beyond the edges of the image. In this composite, gold represents optical data; red represents ATCA radio data; and blue, orange, and yellow represent X-ray data from Chandra. Where the blue hand of the nebula overlaps with the radio data in red, the fingers appear hazy and purple.
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Aug 20, 2025 EditorLee MohonContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov Related Terms
Astrophysics Chandra X-Ray Observatory Marshall Astrophysics Marshall Space Flight Center Nebulae Pulsars The Universe Explore More
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By NASA
3 min read
Adam and Hirsa Present Research on the Ring-Sheared Drop
Abnormal fibrous, extracellular, proteinaceous deposits found in organs and tissues are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. (“Amyloid fibril formation in microgravity: Distinguishing interfacial and flow effects” NNX13AQ22G). The Ring Sheared Drop investigation studies the biophysics of protein amyloidogenesis in the absence of gravity in order to study fibril formation at fluid interfaces, in the absence of solid walls. NASA Researchers across Space Biology and Physical Sciences come together for a special presentation at the May PSI Users Group.
The Ring-Sheared Drop (RSD) is a Microgravity Science Glovebox experiment that launched in July 2019 to the ISS to study shearing flow in the absence of solid walls. The major goals of this project were to adapt and use the RSD module to develop and test predictive models of non-Newtonian flow of high-concentration proteins at the interface.
At the May Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) User Group, Dr. Joe Adam, Research Scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University Payload Director of the RSD module, presented, “Protein Solution Hydrodynamic Studies in the Ring-Sheared Drop” detailing the history of RSD, research campaigns and data to be released in PSI. This investigation was led by Principal Investigator, Prof. Amir Hirsa of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The ring-sheared drop interfacial bioprocessing of pharmaceuticals-I (RSD-IBP-I) campaign aimed to study non-Newtonian interfacial hydrodynamics of the blood transport proteins bovine serum albumin (BSA) and human serum albumin (HSA) in microgravity. Specifically, scientific aims focus on the effects of protein primary structure (BSA or HSA), protein concentration and interfacial shear rate on microgravity fluid flow, measured using velocimetry of hollow glass microsphere tracer particles within protein samples. This campaign intended to confer improved understanding of interfacial protein flows in relation to physiology, the environment, and industry relevant to both spaceflight and Earth. Results from this line of research could have applications to in situ pharmaceutical production, tissue engineering, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, infectious prions, and type 2 diabetes.
To encourage collaboration across common areas of BPS’s Physical Sciences and Biology research, PSI invited Ryan Scott, ALSDA lead Scientist, and members of the ADBR (Alz Disease & Brain Resilience) and Parkinson’s AWG subgroups to attendee this month’s meeting which fueled discussions and led to several connections. During the discussions the two relevant collaborative publications that were shared are:
McMackin, P., Adam, J., Griffin, S. et al. Amyloidogenesis via interfacial shear in a containerless biochemical reactor aboard the International Space Station. npj Microgravity 8, 41 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-022-00227-2 Nilufar Ali paper resulting in part from a collaboration within the Parkison’s AWG subgroup Ali, N., Beheshti, A. & Hampikian, G. Space exploration and risk of Parkinson’s disease: a perspective review. npj Microgravity 11, 1 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-024-00457-6
Ring-Sheared Drop – Interfacial Bioprocessing of Pharmaceuticals(RSD-IBP-I) is now accessible in PSI. http://doi.org/10.60555/smat-bb74
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Last Updated Jul 29, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA instruments and aircraft are helping identify potential sources of critical minerals across vast swaths of California, Nevada, and other Western states. Pilots gear up to reach altitudes about twice as high as those of a cruising passenger jet.NASA NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been mapping the planets since Apollo. One team is searching closer to home for minerals critical to national security and the economy.
If not for the Joshua trees, the tan hills of Cuprite, Nevada, would resemble Mars. Scalded and chemically altered by water from deep underground, the rocks here are earthly analogs for understanding ancient Martian geology. The hills are also rich with minerals. They’ve lured prospectors for more than 100 years and made Cuprite an ideal place to test NASA technology designed to map the minerals, craters, crusts, and ices of our solar system.
Sensors that discovered lunar water, charted Saturn’s moons, even investigated ground zero in New York City were all tested and calibrated at Cuprite, said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He’s honed instruments in Nevada for decades.
One of Green’s latest projects is to find and map rocky surfaces in the American West that could contain minerals crucial to the nation’s economy and security. Currently, the U.S. is dependent on imports of 50 critical minerals, which include lithium and rare earth elements used in everything from rechargeable batteries to medicine.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are searching nationwide for domestic sources. NASA is contributing to this effort with high-altitude aircraft and sensors capable of detecting the molecular fingerprints of minerals across vast, treeless expanses in wavelengths of light not visible to human eyes.
The hills of Cuprite, Nevada, appear pink and tan to the eye (top image) but they shine with mica, gypsum, and alunite among other types of minerals when imaged spectroscopically (lower image). NASA sensors used to study Earth and other rocky worlds have been tested there.USGS/Ray Kokaly The collaboration is called GEMx, the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment, and it’s likely the largest airborne spectroscopic survey in U.S. history. Since 2023, scientists working on GEMx have charted more than 190,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of North American soil.
Mapping Partnership Started During Apollo
As NASA instruments fly in aircraft 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) overhead, Todd Hoefen, a geophysicist, and his colleagues from USGS work below. The samples of rock they test and collect in the field are crucial to ensuring that the airborne observations match reality on the ground and are not skewed by the intervening atmosphere.
The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
For example, geologic maps of the Moon made in the early 1960s at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, helped Apollo mission planners select safe and scientifically promising sites for the six crewed landings that occurred from 1969 to 1972. Before stepping onto the lunar surface, NASA’s Moon-bound astronauts traveled to Flagstaff to practice fieldwork with USGS geologists. A version of those Apollo boot camps continues today with astronauts and scientists involved in NASA’s Artemis mission.
Geophysicist Raymond Kokaly, who leads the GEMx campaign for USGS, is pictured here conducting ground-based hyperspectral imaging of rock in Cuprite, Nevada, in April 2019.USGS/Todd Hoefen The GEMx mission marks the latest in a long history of partnerships between NASA and USGS. The two agencies have worked together to map rocky worlds — and keep astronauts and rovers safe — since the early days of the space race.
Rainbows and Rocks
To detect minerals and other compounds on the surfaces of rocky bodies across the solar system, including Earth, scientists use a technology pioneered by JPL in the 1980s called imaging spectroscopy. One of the original imaging spectrometers built by Robert Green and his team is central to the GEMx campaign in the Western U.S.
About the size and weight of a minifridge and built to fly on planes, the instrument is called AVIRIS-Classic, short for Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. Like all imaging spectrometers, it takes advantage of the fact that every molecule reflects and absorbs light in a unique pattern, like a fingerprint. Spectrometers detect these molecular fingerprints in the light bouncing off or emitted from a sample or a surface.
In the case of GEMx, that’s sunlight shimmering off different kinds of rocks.
Compared to a standard digital camera, which “sees” three color channels (red, green, and blue), imaging spectrometers can see more than 200 channels, including infrared wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.
NASA spectrometers have orbited or flown by every major rocky body in our solar system. They’ve helped scientists investigate methane lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and study Pluto’s thin atmosphere. One JPL-built spectrometer is currently en route to Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, to help search for chemical ingredients necessary to support life.
“One of the cool things about NASA is that we develop technology to look out at the solar system and beyond, but we also turn around and look back down,” said Ben Phillips, a longtime NASA program manager who led GEMx until he retired in 2025.
The Newest Instrument
More than 200 hours of GEMx flights are scheduled through fall 2025. Scientists will process and validate the data, with the first USGS mineral maps to follow. During these flights, an ER-2 research aircraft from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, will cruise over the Western U.S. at altitudes twice as high as a passenger jet flies.
At such high altitudes, pilot Dean Neeley must wear a spacesuit similar to those used by astronauts. He flies solo in the cramped cockpit but will be accompanied by state-of-the-art NASA instruments. In the belly of the plane rides AVIRIS-Classic, which will be retiring soon after more than three decades in service. Carefully packed in the plane’s nose is its successor: AVIRIS-5, taking flight for the first time in 2025.
Together, the two instruments provide 10 times the performance of the older spectrometer alone, but even by itself AVIRIS-5 marks a leap forward. It can sample areas ranging from about 30 feet (10 meters) to less than a foot (30 centimeters).
“The newest generation of AVIRIS will more than live up to the original,” Green said.
More About GEMx
The GEMx research project will last four years and is funded by the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative. The initiative will capitalize on both the technology developed by NASA for spectroscopic imaging, as well as the agency’s expertise in analyzing the datasets and extracting critical mineral information from them.
Data collected by GEMx is available here.
News Media Contacts
Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307
andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2025-086
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Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 Related Terms
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