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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 and its international partners are launching scientific investigations on SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station including studies of solar wind, a radiation-tolerant moss, spacecraft materials, and cold welding in space. The company’s Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Read more about some of the research making the journey to the orbiting laboratory:
Measuring solar wind
The CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment) examines the solar wind, creating a globally comprehensive data set to help scientists validate theories for what heats the solar wind – which is a million degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface – and sends it streaming out at almost a million miles per hour.
The investigation uses a coronagraph, an instrument that blocks out direct sunlight to reveal details in the outer atmosphere or corona. The instrument takes multiple daily measurements that determine the temperature and speed of electrons in the solar wind, along with the density information gathered by traditional coronagraphs. A diverse international team has been designing, building, and testing the instrument since 2019 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Multiple missions have studied the solar wind, and CODEX could add important pieces to this complex puzzle. When the solar wind reaches Earth, it triggers auroras at the poles and can generate space weather storms that sometimes disrupt satellite and land-based communications and power grids on the ground. Understanding the source of the solar wind could help improve space-weather forecasts and response.
A worker prepares the CODEX (COronal Diagnostic EXperiment) instrument for launch.NASA Antarctic moss in space
A radiation tolerance experiment, ARTEMOSS, uses a live Antarctic moss, Ceratodon purpureus, to study how some plants better tolerate exposure to radiation and to examine the physical and genetic response of biological systems to the combination of cosmic radiation and microgravity. Little research has been done on how these two factors together affect plant physiology and performance, and results could help identify biological systems suitable for use in bioregenerative life support systems on future missions.
Mosses grow on every continent on Earth and have the highest radiation tolerance of any plant. Their small size, low maintenance, ability to absorb water from the air, and tolerance of harsh conditions make them suitable for spaceflight. NASA chose the Antarctic moss because that continent receives high levels of radiation from the Sun.
The investigation also could identify genes involved in plant adaptation to spaceflight, which might be engineered to create strains tolerant of deep-space conditions. Plants and other biological systems able to withstand the extreme conditions of space also could provide food and other necessities in harsh environments on Earth.
A Petri plate holding Antarctic moss colonies is prepared for launch at Brookhaven National Laboratory. SETI Institute Exposing materials to space
The Euro Material Ageing investigation from ESA (European Space Agency) includes two experiments studying how certain materials age while exposed to space. The first experiment, developed by CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), includes materials selected from 15 European entities through a competitive evaluation process that considered novelty, scientific merit, and value for the material science and technology communities. The second experiment looks at organic samples and their stability or degradation when exposed to ultraviolet radiation not filtered by Earth’s atmosphere. The exposed samples are recovered and returned to Earth.
Predicting the behavior and lifespan of materials used in space can be difficult because facilities on the ground cannot simultaneously test for all aspects of the space environment. These limitations also apply to testing organic compounds and minerals that are relevant for studying comets, asteroids, the surface of Mars, and the atmospheres of planets and moons. Results could support better design for spacecraft and satellites, including improved thermal control, and the development of sensors for research and industrial applications.
Preparation of one of the Euro Material Ageing’s experiments for launch.Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales Repairing spacecraft from the inside
Nanolab Astrobeat investigates using cold welding to repair perforations in the outer shell or hull of a spacecraft from the inside. Less force is needed to fuse metallic materials in space than on Earth, and cold welding could be an effective way to repair spacecraft.
Some micrometeoroids and space debris traveling at high velocities could perforate the outer surfaces of spacecraft, possibly jeopardizing mission success or crew safety. The ability to repair impact damage from inside a spacecraft may be more efficient and safer for crew members. Results also could improve applications of cold welding on Earth as well.
The investigation also involves a collaboration with cellist Tina Guo with support from New York University Abu Dhabi to store musical compositions on the Astrobeat computer. Investigators planned to stream this “Music from Space” from the space station to the International Astronautical Congress in Milan and to Abu Dhabi after the launch.
The Nanolab Astrobeat computer during assembly prior to launch.Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology/ Leonardo Barilaro Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
Johnson Space Center
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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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3 min read NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble Sees a… Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 3 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures a spectacular view the star R Aquarii. Credits:
NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars.
Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas. The twisted stellar outflows make the region look like a lawn sprinkler gone berserk. This dramatically demonstrates how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars and jet back into space.
R Aquarii belongs to a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. The primary star is an aging red giant and its companion is a compact burned-out star known as a white dwarf. The red giant primary star is classified as a Mira variable that is over 400 times larger than our Sun. The bloated monster star pulsates, changes temperature, and varies in brightness by a factor of 750 times over a roughly 390-day period. At its peak the star is blinding at nearly 5,000 times our Sun’s brightness.
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the binary star system R Aquarii. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Hubble) When the white dwarf star swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates on the dwarf star’s surface until it undergoes spontaneous nuclear fusion, making that surface explode like a gigantic hydrogen bomb. After the outburst, the fueling cycle begins again.
This outburst ejects geyser-like filaments shooting out from the core, forming weird loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers. The plasma is twisted by the force of the explosion and channeled upwards and outwards by strong magnetic fields. The outflow appears to bend back on itself into a spiral pattern. The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes! The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo.
Hubble first observed the star in 1990. R Aquarii was resolved into two very bright stars separated by about 1.6 billion miles. The ESA/Hubble team now has made a unique timelapse of R Aquarii’s dynamic behavior, from observations spanning from 2014 to 2023. Across the five images, the rapid and dramatic evolution of the binary star and its surrounding nebula can be seen. The binary star dims and brightens due to strong pulsations in the red giant star.
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This video features five frames spanning from 2014 to 2023 of R Aquarii. These frames show the brightness of the central binary changing over time due to strong pulsations in the red giant star. The central structures spiral outward due to their interaction with material previously ejected by the binary. This timelapse highlights the value of Hubble’s high resolution optical observations in the changing universe, known as time-domain astronomy. NASA, ESA, Matthias Stute , Margarita Karovska , Davide De Martin , Mahdi Zamani , N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble) The scale of the event is extraordinary even in astronomical terms. Space-blasted material can be traced out to at least 248 billion miles from the stars, or 24 times our solar system’s diameter. Images like these and more from Hubble are expected to revolutionize our ideas about such unique stellar “volcanoes” as R Aquarii.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble
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Last Updated Oct 16, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A natural color view from Cassini of Saturn with its Titan moon in the foreground in August 2012. Titan’s diameter is 50% larger than Earth’s moon.Credit: NASA NASA’s ambitious Cassini mission to Saturn in the late 1990s was one of the agency’s greatest accomplishments, providing unprecedented revelations about the esoteric outer planet and its moons. The complex undertaking was also a tremendous, yet bittersweet, achievement for the Lewis Research Center (today, NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland), which oversaw the rockets that propelled Cassini to Saturn. Cassini brought a close to over 35 years of Lewis’ management of NASA’s launch vehicles.
Cassini Mission: 5 Things to Know About NASA Lewis’ Last Launch
1. NASA Lewis Launched the Largest and Most Complex Deep-Space Mission to Date
In the early 1980s, NASA began planning the first-ever in-depth study of the planet Saturn. The mission would use the Cassini orbiter designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the European Space Agency’s Huygens lander. It was one of the heaviest and most complex interplanetary spacecraft ever assembled. Cassini’s plutonium power system and intricate flight path further complicated the mission.
NASA Lewis was responsible for managing the launches of government missions involving the Centaur upper stage and the Atlas and Titan boosters. Cassini’s 6-ton payload forced Lewis to use the U.S. Air Force’s three-stage Titan IV, the most powerful vehicle available, and pair it with the most advanced version of the Centaur, referred to as G-prime.
The Titan IV shroud in the Space Power Facility in October 1990. It was only the second test since the world-class facility had been brought back online after over a decade in standby conditions.Credit: NASA/Quentin Schwinn 2. Lewis Performed Hardware Testing for the Cassini Launch
One of NASA Lewis’ primary launch responsibilities was integrating the payload and upper stages with the booster. This involved balancing weight requirements, providing adequate insulation for Centaur’s cryogenic propellants, determining correct firing times for the stages, and ensuring that that the large shroud, which encapsulated both the upper stage and payload, jettisoned cleanly after launch.
By the time of Cassini, the center had been testing shrouds (including the Titan III fairing) in simulated space conditions for over 25 years. NASA’s Space Power Facility possesses the world’s largest vacuum chamber and was large enough to accommodate the Titan IV’s 86-foot-tall, 16-foot-diameter fairing. In the fall of 1990, the shroud was installed in the chamber, loaded with weights that simulated the payload, and subjected to atmospheric pressures found at an altitude of 72 miles.
The system was successfully separated in less than half a second. Using simulated Cassini and Centaur vehicles, NASA engineers also redesigned a thicker thermal blanket that would protect Cassini’s power system from acoustic vibrations during liftoff.
Members of NASA Lewis’ Launch Vehicle Directorate pose with a Centaur model in May 1979 to mark the 50th successful launch of the Atlas/Centaur.Credit: NASA/Martin Brown 3. Lewis Personnel Assisted with the Launch
In late August 1997, a group of NASA Lewis engineers traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to make final preparations for the Cassini launch, working with Air Force range safety personnel at Patrick Air Force Base to ensure a safe launch under all circumstances.
After an aborted launch two days earlier, the vehicle was readied for another attempt in the evening of October 14. Lewis personnel took stations in the Launch Vehicle Data Center inside Hangar AE to monitor the launch vehicle’s temperature, pressure, speed, trajectory, and vibration during the launch. The weather was mild, and the countdown proceeded into the morning hours of October 15 without any major issues.
At 4:43 a.m. EDT, Titan’s first stage and the two massive solid rocket motors roared to life, and the vehicle rose into the dark skies over Florida. The Lewis launch team monitored the flight as the vehicle exited Earth’s atmosphere, Titan burned through its stages, and Centaur sent Cassini out of Earth orbit and on its 2-billion-mile journey to Saturn. After a successful spacecraft separation, Lewis’ responsibilities were complete. The launch had gone exceedingly well.
This illustration depicts the Cassini orbiter with the Huygens lander descending to the Titan moon (left) and Saturn in the background.Credit: NASA 4. Cassini-Huygens Brought a Close to Decades of Lewis Launch Operations
Cassini-Huygens was NASA Lewis’ 119th and final launch, and it brought to a close the center’s decades of launch operations. The center had been responsible for NASA’s upper-stage vehicles since the fall of 1962. The primary stages were the Agena, which had 28 successful launches, and Centaur, which has an even more impressive track record and remains in service today.
While Lewis continued to handle vehicle integration and other technical issues for launches of NASA payloads, in the 1980s, NASA began transferring launch responsibilities to commercial entities. In the mid-1990s, NASA underwent a major realignment that consolidated all launch vehicle responsibilities at NASA Kennedy.
So it was with mixed emotions that around 20 Lewis employees and retirees gathered at the Cleveland center in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 1997, to watch the Cassini launch. The group held its cheers for 40 minutes after liftoff until Lewis’ responsibilities concluded for the last time with the safe separation of Cassini from Centaur. “In many ways, this is the end of an era, across the agency and, in particular, here at Lewis,” noted one engineer from the Launch Vehicle and Transportation Office.
The Titan IV/Centaur lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral on Oct. 15, 1997. NASA Lewis engineers were monitoring the launch from Hangar AE, roughly 3.5 miles to the south. Credit: NASA 5. Cassini Made Groundbreaking Discoveries That Inform Today’s NASA Missions
Cassini’s seven-year voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (twice), Earth, and Jupiter so that the planets’ gravitational forces could accelerate the spacecraft. Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit in June 2004 and began relaying data and nearly half a million images back to Earth. Huygens separated from the spacecraft and descended to the surface of the Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in January 2005. It was the first time a vehicle ever landed on a celestial body in the outer solar system.
Cassini went on to make plunges into the planet’s upper atmosphere and through Saturn’s rings. Scientific information on the mysterious planet, its moons, and rings led to the publication of nearly 4,000 technical papers. After over 13 years and nearly 300 orbits, on Sept. 15, 2017, NASA intentionally sent Cassini plummeting into the atmosphere where it burned up, ending its remarkable mission.
NASA engineers used their experiences from the Cassini mission to help design the Europa Clipper, which is intended to perform flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa Clipper launched on Oct. 14.
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Read the “Sending Cassini to Saturn” Series from NASA Glenn Visit NASA’s Cassini-Huygens Website Visit the European Space Agency’s Cassini-Huygens Website Watch NASA Coverage of the Cassini Launch See NASA Glenn’s Historic Centaur Rocket Display
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