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Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to Resume Operations
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By NASA
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home This image was taken by Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4564 NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework
Earth planning date: Monday, June 9, 2025
The image above shows the drill poised on the surface of Mars at the start of our attempt to collect sample at “Altadena” over the weekend. Now we know, from subsequent imaging and telemetry, that the drill activity was successful, allowing planning today to focus on delivering sample powder to CheMin and SAM. CheMin and SAM will give us their distinct and valuable insights into the mineralogy (CheMin) and volatiles and organic compounds (SAM) within Altadena, which are key to our continued unravelling the history of Mt. Sharp. It is always exciting to find out what each of these instruments uncovers from Martian samples.
In addition to those sample deliveries, we had three other Altadena-focused activities. We acquired ChemCam RMI of the drill hole which helps ChemCam refine their laser targeting for future LIBS analyses of the drill hole. We planned a ChemCam passive spectroscopy observation of the cuttings around the drill hole for more insight into the mineralogy of the sample. We also included a single Mastcam M100 image of the drill hole which helps us track the wind activity at the drill site and thus the stability of the cuttings ahead of planned observations with APXS and MAHLI.
The weekend activities ran faster and more efficiently than modeled so that we had power to add additional science observations into the plan. We gathered more ChemCam data from the bedrock near Altadena at the target “Bolsa Chica,” and planned two ChemCam RMI long distance mosaics on sedimentary structures within “Texoli” butte and nearby boxwork structures. We kept track of the environment around us with yet more Mastcam imaging for wind-induced changes in the “Camp Williams” area, regular RAD and REMS measurements, two DAN measurements, and Navcam dust devil imaging and cloud movies.
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By NASA
Landing on the Moon is not easy, particularly when a crew or spacecraft must meet exacting requirements. For Artemis missions to the lunar surface, those requirements include an ability to land within an area about as wide as a football field in any lighting condition amid tough terrain.
NASA’s official lunar landing requirement is to be able to land within 50 meters (164 feet) of the targeted site and developing precision tools and technologies is critically important to mission success.
NASA engineers recently took a major step toward safe and precise landings on the Moon – and eventually Mars and icy worlds – with a successful field test of hazard detection technology at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.
A joint team from the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s in Houston and Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, achieved this huge milestone in tests of the Goddard Hazard Detection Lidar from a helicopter at Kennedy in March 2025.
NASA’s Hazard Detection Lidar field test team at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida in March 2025. NASA The new lidar system is one of several sensors being developed as part of NASA’s Safe & Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) Program, a Johnson-managed cross-agency initiative under the Space Technology Mission Directorate to develop next-generation landing technologies for planetary exploration. SPLICE is an integrated descent and landing system composed of avionics, sensors, and algorithms that support specialized navigation, guidance, and image processing techniques. SPLICE is designed to enable landing in hard-to-reach and unknown areas that are of potentially high scientific interest.
The lidar system, which can map an area equivalent to two football fields in just two seconds, is a crucial program component. In real time and compensating for lander motion, it processes 15 million short pulses of laser light to quickly scan surfaces and create real-time, 3D maps of landing sites to support precision landing and hazard avoidance.
Those maps will be read by the SPLICE Descent and Landing Computer, a high-performance multicore computer processor unit that analyzes all SPLICE sensor data and determines the spacecraft’s velocity, altitude, and terrain hazards. It also computes the hazards and determines a safe landing location. The computer was developed by the Avionics Systems Division at Johnson as a platform to test navigation, guidance, and flight software. It previously flew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster rocket.
The NASA team prepares the Descent and Landing Computer for Hazard Detection Lidar field testing at Kennedy Space Center. NASA For the field test at Kennedy, Johnson led test operations and provided avionics and guidance, navigation, and control support. Engineers updated the computer’s firmware and software to support command and data interfacing with the lidar system. Team members from Johnson’s Flight Mechanics branch also designed a simplified motion compensation algorithm and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California contributed a hazard detection algorithm, both of which were added to the lidar software by Goddard. Support from NASA contractors Draper Laboratories and Jacobs Engineering played key roles in the test’s success.
Primary flight test objectives were achieved on the first day of testing, allowing the lidar team time to explore different settings and firmware updates to improve system performance. The data confirmed the sensor’s capability in a challenging, vibration-heavy environment, producing usable maps. Preliminary review of the recorded sensor data shows excellent reconstruction of the hazard field terrain.
A Hazard Detection Lidar scan of a simulated hazard field at Kennedy Space Center (left) and a combined 3D map identifying roughness and slope hazards. NASA Beyond lunar applications, SPLICE technologies are being considered for use on Mars Sample Return, the Europa Lander, Commercial Lunar Payload Services flights, and Gateway. The DLC design is also being evaluated for potential avionics upgrades on Artemis systems.
Additionally, SPLICE is supporting software tests for the Advancement of Geometric Methods for Active Terrain Relative Navigation (ATRN) Center Innovation Fund project, which is also part of Johnson’s Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division. The ATRN is working to develop algorithms and software that can use data from any active sensor – one measuring signals that were reflected, refracted, or scattered by a body’s surface or its atmosphere – to accurately map terrain and provide absolute and relative location information. With this type of system in place, spacecraft will not need external lighting sources to find landing sites.
With additional suborbital flight tests planned through 2026, the SPLICE team is laying the groundwork for safer, more autonomous landings on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. As NASA prepares for its next era of exploration, SPLICE will be a key part of the agency’s evolving landing, guidance, and navigation capabilities.
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