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By NASA
NASA logo Chile will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 25, at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will host Aisén Etcheverry, Chile’s minister of science, technology, knowledge and innovation, and Juan Gabriel Valdés, ambassador of Chile to the United States, along with other officials from Chile and the U.S. Department of State.
This event is in-person only. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations interested in attending must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, to hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The signing ceremony will take place at the agency’s Glennan Assembly Room inside NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St. SW Washington.
NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State and seven other initial signatory nations, established the Artemis Accords in 2020. With many countries and private companies conducting missions and operations around the Moon, the Artemis Accords provide a common set of principles to enhance the governance of the civil exploration and use of outer space.
The Artemis Accords reinforce the commitment by signatory nations to the Outer Space Treaty, the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior for civil space exploration and use.
Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
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Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA has selected four new crew members to participate in the final simulated mission to Mars in 2024 inside the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog. From left are Kristen Magas, Anderson Wilder, Obaid Alsuwaidi, and Tiffany Snyder.Credit: C7M4 Crew NASA selected a crew of four research volunteers to participate in its last simulated mission to Mars in 2024 within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Obaid Alsuwaidi, Kristen Magas, Tiffany Snyder, and Anderson Wilder will step into the 650-square-foot HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) facility on Friday, Nov. 1. Once inside, the team will live and work like astronauts for 45 days. The crew will exit the facility on Monday, Dec. 16, after simulating their return to Earth. Jordan Hundley and Robert Wilson also were named as alternate crew members.
Scientists use HERA studies to examine how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions before NASA sends astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The studies provide data about human health and performance in an enclosed environment over time with crews facing different challenges and tasks.
The four volunteers will carry out scientific research and operational tasks throughout their simulated mission, including raising shrimp, growing vegetables, and “walking” on the surface of Mars using virtual reality. They will also experience communication delays lasting up to five minutes as they “near” Mars, allowing researchers to see how crews may respond to the type of delays astronauts will encounter in deep space. Astronauts traveling to the Red Planet may encounter one-way communication delays lasting as long as 20 minutes.
As with the previous HERA missions, crew members will conduct 18 human health studies during the mission through NASA’s Human Research Program. Collectively, the work helps scientists understand how a spaceflight-like environment contributes to the physiological, behavioral, and psychological health of crew members. Insights gleaned from the studies will allow researchers to develop and test strategies aimed at helping astronauts overcome obstacles on deep space missions.
Primary Crew
Obaid Alsuwaidi
Obaid Alsuwaidi serves as captain engineer for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Ministry of Defense. In this role, he provides guidance in civil and marine engineering and addresses challenges facing the organization. Previously, Alsuwaidi worked as a project manager for the defense ministry, helping to streamline productivity, establish high standards of professionalism, and build a team of experts to serve the UAE’s needs.
Alsuwaidi earned a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Western Sydney University in Australia, followed by a master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from George Washington University in Washington.
In his free time, Alsuwaidi enjoys horseback riding, swimming, and running.
Kristen Magas
Kristen Magas is an educator and engineer, currently teaching at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin, Massachusetts. She also mentors students involved in a NASA design and prototyping program, helping them develop and fabricate products to improve life in space on both International Space Station and Artemis missions. Magas was a finalist for the 2025 Massachusetts State Teacher of the Year.
Magas received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She also holds a master’s degree in Vocational Education from Westfield State University in Massachusetts. She has worked as a community college professor as well as a design engineer in municipal water and wastewater treatment.
In her spare time, Magas enjoys coaching robotics and track and field, hiking, biking, and staying connected with her community. She has two children and resides in North Attleboro, Massachusetts with her husband of 25 years.
Tiffany Snyder
Tiffany Snyder is a supervisor for the Cybersecurity Mission Integration Office at NASA, helping to ensure agency missions are shielded against cybersecurity threats. She has more than 20 years of information technology and cybersecurity experience, working with the Air National Guard and as a special agent with the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency. She joined NASA in 2018 as an IT specialist, and later served as the deputy chief information security officer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, providing cybersecurity oversight.
Snyder holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree in Digital Forensics from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
In her spare time, she enjoys playing with her dogs — Artemis and Apollo, gardening, running, and visiting the beach with her family.
Anderson Wilder
Anderson Wilder is a Florida Institute of Technology graduate student working on his doctorate in Psychology. His research focuses on team resiliency and human-machine interactions. He also works in the campus’s neuroscience lab, investigating how spaceflight contributes to neurobehavioral changes in astronauts.
Wilder previously served as an executive officer and engineer for an analog mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. There, he performed studies related to crew social dynamics, plant growth, and geology.
Wilder received his bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and in Psychology from Ohio State University in Columbus. He also holds master’s degrees in Space Studies from International Space University in Strasbourg, France, and in Aviation Human Factors from the Florida Institute of Technology. He is completing another master’s degree in Cognitive Experimental Psychology at Cleveland State University in Ohio.
Outside of school, Wilder works as a parabolic flight coach, teaching people how to fly in reduced gravity environments. He also enjoys chess, reading, video games, skydiving, and scuba diving. On a recent dive, he explored a submerged section of the Great Wall of China.
Alternate Crew
Jordan Hundley
Jordan Hundley is a senior consultant at a professional services firm, offering federal agencies technical and programmatic support. Prior to his current position, he focused on U.S. Department of Defense clients, performing model-based system engineering and serving as a subject matter expert for related operations.
Hundley was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. While on active duty, he served as an intercontinental ballistic missile operations officer. He later joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Currently, he is a space operations officer with experience in space battle management and electromagnetic warfare.
Hundley earned a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in Systems Engineering at the university.
Hundley holds a private pilot license and is a certified rescue diver. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking and camping, researching theology, and learning musical instruments.
Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson is a senior researcher and project manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. He leads work enhancing human-machine collaborations, developing human prediction models, and integrating that technology into virtual reality and robotic systems designed to operate in isolated, constrained, and extreme environments. His human-machine teaming expertise also extends into responsible artificial intelligence development. He recently participated in a United Nations Roundtable discussion about artificial intelligence in security and defense.
Wilson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University in 2013 and 2015, respectively. He earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2020.
Outside of work, Wilson is an avid outdoors enthusiast. He enjoys scuba diving, winter camping, backcountry skiing, and hiking through the woods or mountains throughout the year. At home, he also likes to tinker in computer networking and self-hosted systems.
____
NASA’s Human Research Program pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, and the International Space Station, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research continues to drive NASA’s mission to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
For more information about human research at NASA, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp
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By NASA
3 min read
NASA Selects Two Teams to Advance Life Sciences Research in Space
NASA announced two awards Thursday to establish scientific consortia – multi-institutional coalitions to conduct ground-based studies that help address the agency’s goals of maintaining a sustained human presence in space. These consortia will focus on biological systems research in the areas of animal and human models, plants, and microbiology. When fully implemented, the awards for these consortia will total about $5 million.
Space biology efforts at NASA use the unique environment of space to conduct experiments impossible to do on Earth. Such research not only supports the health and welfare of astronauts, but results in breakthroughs on diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders to help protect humanity down on the ground.
The awards for the two consortia are for the following areas:
Studying space biosphere. The Biology in Space: Establishing Networks for DUrable & REsilient Systems consortium involves a collaborative effort between human/animal, plant, and microbial biologists to ensure an integrated view of the space flight biosphere by enhancing data acquisition, modeling, and testing. It will include participation of more than thirty scientists and professionals working together from at least three institutions. Led by Kristi Morgansen at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Converting human waste into materials for in-space biomanufacturing. The Integrative Anaerobic Digestion and Phototrophic Biosystem for Sustainable Space Habitats and Life Supports consortium will develop an anaerobic digestion process that converts human waste into organic acids and materials that can be used for downstream biomanufacturing applications in space. It will include eight scientists from six different institutions in three different states, including Delaware and Florida. The consortium is led by Yinjie Tang at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Proposals for these consortia were submitted in response to ROSES 2024 Program Element E.11 Consortium in Biological Sciences for a consortium with biological sciences expertise to carry out research investigations and conduct activities that address NASA’s established interests in space life sciences.
NASA’s Space Biology Program within the agency’s Biological and Physical Sciences division conducts research across a wide spectrum of biological organization and model systems to probe underlying mechanisms by which organisms acclimate to stressors encountered during space exploration (including microgravity, ionizing radiation, and elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide). This research informs how biological systems regulate and sustain growth, metabolism, reproduction, and development in space and how they repair damage and protect themselves from infection and disease.
For more information about NASA’s fundamental space-based research, visit https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Jacquelyn Shuman visually assesses a prescribed fire at Ft. Stewart in Georgia, working with partner organizations as part of the Department of Defense Ft. Stewart 2024 Fire Research Campaign. USFS/Linda Chappell Jacquelyn Shuman, FireSense Project Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, originally wanted to be a veterinarian. By the time she got to college, Shuman had switched interests to biology, which became a job teaching middle and high school science. Teaching pivoted to finance for a year, before Shuman returned to the science world to pursue a PhD.
It was in a forest ecology class taught by her future PhD advisor, Herman “Hank” Shugart, that she first discovered a passion for ecosystems and dynamic vegetation that led her into the world of fire science, and eventually to NASA Ames.
While Shuman’s path into the world of fire science was not a direct one, she views her diverse experiences as the key to finding a fulfilling career. “Do a lot of different things and try a lot of different things, and if one thing isn’t connecting with you, then do something different,” Shuman said.
Diving into the World of Fire
Shuman’s PhD program focused on boreal forest dynamics across Russia, examining how the forest changes in response to climate change and wildfire. During her research, she worked mainly with scientists from Russia, Canada, and the US through the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), where Shugart served as the NEESPI Chief Scientist. “The experience of having a highly supportive mentor, being a part of the NEESPI community, and working alongside other inspiring female scientists from across the globe helped me to stay motivated within my own research,” Shuman said.
After completing her PhD, Shuman wanted to become involved in collaborative science with a global impact, which led her to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). There, she spent seven years working as a project scientist on the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment NGEE-Tropics) on a dynamic vegetation model project called FATES (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator). As part of the FATES team, Shuman used computer modeling to test vegetation structure and function in tropical and boreal forests after wildfires, and was the lead developer for updating the fire portion of the model.
This figure shows fire characteristics from an Earth system model that uses vegetation structure and interactive fire. The FATES model captures the fire intensity associated with burned land and grass growth in the Southern Hemisphere. Shuman et al. 2024 GMD Fire has also played a powerful role in Shuman’s personal life. In 2021, the Marshall Fire destroyed neighborhoods near her hometown of Boulder, Colorado, causing over $513 million of damage and securing its place as the state’s most destructive wildfire. Despite this, Shuman is determined to not live in fear. “Fire is part of our lives, it’s a part of the Earth system, and it’s something we can plan for. We can live more sustainably with fires.” The way to live safely in a fire-inclusive ecosystem, according to Shuman, is to develop ways to accurately track and forecast wildfires and smoke, and to respond to them efficiently: efforts the fire community is continuously working on improving.
The Fire Science Community
Collaboration is a critical element of wildland fire management. Fire science is a field that involves practitioners such as firefighters and land managers, but also researchers such as modelers and forecasters; the most effective efforts, according to Shuman, come when this community works together. “People in fire science might be out in the field and carrying a drip torch and marching along in the hilltops and the grasslands or be behind a computer and analyzing remote sensing data,” Shuman said. “We need both pieces.”
Protecting communities from wildfire impacts is one of the most fulfilling aspects of Shuman’s career, and a goal that unites this community. “Fire research poses tough questions, but the people who are thinking about this are the people who are acting on it,” Shuman said. “They are saying, ‘What can we do? How can we think about this? What information do we need? What are the questions?’ It’s a special community to be a part of.”
Looking to the Future of Fire
Currently at NASA Ames Research Center, Shuman is the Project Scientist for FireSense: a project focused on delivering NASA science and technology to practitioners and operational agencies. Shuman acts as the lead for the project office, identifying and implementing tools and strategies. Shuman still does ecosystem modeling work, including implementing vegetation models that forecast the impact of fire, but also spends time traveling to active fires across the country so she can help partners implement NASA tools and strategies in real time.
FireSense Project Scientist Jacquelyn Shuman stands with Roger Ottmar (United States Forest Service), surveying potential future locations for prescribed burns in Fishlake National Forest. NASA Ames/Milan Loiacono
“Right now, many different communities are all recognizing that we can partner to identify the best path forward,” Shuman said. “We have an opportunity to use everyone’s strengths and unique perspectives. It can be a devastating thing for a community and an ecosystem when a fire happens. Everyone is interested in using all this collective knowledge to do more, together.”
Written by Molly Medin, NASA Ames Research Center
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Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Mars Sample Return MSR Home Mission Concept Overview Perseverance Rover Sample Retrieval Lander Mars Ascent Vehicle Sample Recovery Helicopters Earth Return Orbiter Science Overview Bringing Mars Samples to Earth Mars Rock Samples MSR Science Community Member Sign up News and Features Multimedia Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 4 min read
New Team to Assess NASA’s Mars Sample Return Architecture Proposals
NASA announced Wednesday a new strategy review team will assess potential architecture adjustments for the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program, which aims to bring back scientifically selected samples from Mars, and is a key step in NASA’s quest to better understand our solar system and help answer whether we are alone in the universe.
Earlier this year, the agency commissioned design studies from the NASA community and eight selected industry teams on how to return Martian samples to Earth in the 2030s while lowering the cost, risk, and mission complexity. The new strategy review team will assess 11 studies conducted by industry, a team across NASA centers, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The team will recommend to NASA a primary architecture for the campaign, including associated cost and schedule estimates.
“Mars Sample Return will require a diversity of opinions and ideas to do something we’ve never done before: launch a rocket off another planet and safely return samples to Earth from more than 33 million miles away,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “It is critical that Mars Sample Return is done in a cost-effective and efficient way, and we look forward to learning the recommendations from the strategy review team to achieve our goals for the benefit of humanity.”
Returning samples from Mars has been a major long-term goal of international planetary exploration for more than three decades, and the Mars Sample Return Program is jointly planned with ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and potential hazards for future human explorers. Retrieval of the samples also will help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.
The team’s report is anticipated by the end of 2024 and will examine options for a complete mission design, which may be a composite of multiple studied design elements. The team will not recommend specific acquisition strategies or partners. The strategy review team has been chartered under a task to the Cornell Technical Services contract. The team may request input from a NASA analysis team that consists of government employees and expert consultants. The analysis team also will provide programmatic input such as a cost and schedule assessment of the architecture recommended by the strategy review team.
The Mars Sample Return Strategy Review Team is led by Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator, and includes the following members:
Greg Robinson, former program director, James Webb Space Telescope Lisa Pratt, former planetary protection officer, NASA Steve Battel, president, Battel Engineering; Professor of Practice, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Phil Christensen, regents professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe Eric Evans, director emeritus and fellow, MIT Lincoln Lab Jack Mustard, professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science, Brown University Maria Zuber, E. A. Griswold professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy, MIT The NASA Analysis Team is led by David Mitchell, chief program management officer at NASA Headquarters, and includes the following members:
John Aitchison, program business manager (acting), Mars Sample Return Brian Corb, program control/schedule analyst, NASA Headquarters Steve Creech, assistant deputy associate administrator for Technical, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters Mark Jacobs, senior systems engineer, NASA Headquarters Rob Manning, chief engineer emeritus, NASA JPL Mike Menzel, senior engineer, NASA Goddard Fernando Pellerano, senior advisor for Systems Engineering, NASA Goddard Ruth Siboni, chief of staff, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters Bryan Smith, director of Facilities, Test and Manufacturing, NASA Glenn Ellen Stofan, under secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian For more information on NASA’s Mars Sample Return, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-sample-return
Dewayne Washington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
dewayne.a.washington@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Related Terms
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