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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Researchers look at a bend that occurred in the 94-foot triangular, rollable and collapsible boom during an off-axis compression test.NASA/David C. Bowman Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have developed a technique to test long, flexible, composite booms for use in space in such a way that gravity helps, rather than hinders, the process. During a recent test campaign inside a 100-foot tower at a NASA Langley lab, researchers suspended a 94-foot triangular, rollable, and collapsible boom manufactured by Florida-based aerospace company, Redwire, and applied different forces to the boom to see how it would respond.
Having a facility tall enough to accommodate vertical testing is advantageous because horizontal tests require extra equipment to keep gravity from bending the long booms, but this extra equipment in turn affects how the boom responds. These mechanical tests are important because NASA and commercial space partners could use long composite booms for several functions including deployable solar sails and deployable structures, such as towers for solar panels, that could support humans living and working on the Moon.
Redwire will be able to compare the results of the physical testing at NASA Langley to their own numerical models and get a better understanding of their hardware. NASA’s Game Changing Development program in the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funded the tests.
Researchers conducted the tests inside a 100-foot tower at NASA Langley.NASA/Mark Knopp Share
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Last Updated May 29, 2025 Related Terms
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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 4 min read
Sols 4549-4552: Keeping Busy Over the Long Weekend
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 23, 2025 — Sol 4548, or Martian day 4,548 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 07:17:19 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
Earth planning date: Friday, May 23, 2025
In Wednesday’s mission update, Alex mentioned that this past Monday’s plan included a “marathon” drive of 45 meters (148 feet). Today, we found ourselves almost 70 meters (230 feet) from where we were on Wednesday. This was our longest drive since the truly enormous 97-meter (318-foot) drive back on sol 3744.
Today’s plan looks a little different from our usual weekend plans. Because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, the team will next assemble on Tuesday, so an extra sol had to be appended to the weekend plan. This extra sol is mostly being used for our next drive (about 42 meters or 138 feet), which means that all of the science that we have planned today can be done “targeted,” i.e., we know exactly where the rover is. As a result, we can use the instruments on our arm to poke at specific targets close to the rover, rather than filling our science time exclusively with remote sensing activities of farther-away features.
The rover’s power needs are continuing to dominate planning. Although we passed aphelion (the farthest distance Mars is from the Sun) a bit over a month ago and so are now getting closer to the Sun, we’re just about a week away from winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. This is the time of year when Gale Crater receives the least amount of light from the Sun, leading to particularly cold temperatures even during the day, and thus more power being needed to keep the rover and its instruments warm. On the bright side, being at the coldest time of the year means that we have only warmer sols to look forward to!
Given the need to keep strictly to our allotted power budget, everyone did a phenomenal job finding optimizations to ensure that we could fit as much science into this plan as possible. All together, we have over four hours of our usual targeted and remote sensing activities, as well as over 12 hours of overnight APXS integrations.
Mastcam is spending much of its time today looking off in the distance, particularly focusing on the potential boxwork structures that we’re driving towards. These structures get two dedicated mosaics, totaling 42 images between the two of them. Mastcam will also observe “Mishe Mokwa” (a small butte about 15 meters, or 49 feet, to our south) and some bedrock troughs in our workspace, and will take two tau observations to characterize the amount of dust in the atmosphere.
ChemCam has just one solo imaging-only observation in this plan: an RMI mosaic of Texoli butte off to our east. ChemCam will be collaborating with APXS to take some passive spectral observations (i.e., no LIBS) to measure the composition of the atmosphere. Mastcam and ChemCam will also be working together on observations of LIBS activities. This plan includes an extravagant three LIBS, on “Orocopia Mountains,” “Dripping Springs,” and “Mountain Center.” Both Mastcam and ChemCam also have a set of “dark” observations intended to characterize the performance of the instruments with no light on their sensors, something that’s very important for properly calibrating their measurements.
Our single set of arm activities includes APXS, DRT, and MAHLI activities on “Camino Del Mar” and “Mount Baden-Powell,” both of which are bedrock targets in our workspace.
Of course, I can’t forget to mention the collection of Navcam observations that we have in this plan to monitor the environment. These include a 360-degree survey looking for dust devils, two line-of-sight activities to measure the amount of dust in the air within Gale, and three cloud movies. As always, we’ve also got a typical collection of REMS, RAD, and DAN activities throughout.
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Last Updated May 27, 2025 Related Terms
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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 2 min read
Sols 4547-4548: Taking in the View After a Long Drive
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on May 21, 2025 — Sol 4546, or Martian day 4,546 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 05:05:33 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University
Earth planning date: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Monday’s single-sol plan included a marathon 45-meter drive (about 148 feet), which put us in position for two full sols of imaging. This means both sols have what we call “targeted” science blocks, in which we have images of the workspace down from the last plan and can carefully choose what we want to take a closer look at. This always means a lot of good discussion amongst the geology and mineralogy theme group (GEO) about what deserves this closer look. As an outsider on the environmental theme group (ENV), I don’t always grasp the complexities of these discussions, but it’s always interesting to see what GEO is up to and to learn new things about the geology of Mount Sharp.
GEO ended up picking “Big Bear Lake” as our contact science target, which is getting its typical treatment from APXS and MAHLI, as well as a LIBS observation from ChemCam. Aside from that there was plenty of room for remote sensing. ChemCam is also taking a LIBS observation of “Volcan Mountains” and a long-distance mosaic of the Texoli butte. Mastcam is also taking mosaics of a nearby trough, as well as two depressions known as “Sulphur Spring,” a more distant boxwork structure, and the very distant Mishe Mokwa butte.
All of ENV’s activities are remote sensing, and we managed to squeeze in a few of those too. We have a couple dust monitoring observations, looking for dust devils and checking the amount of dust in the atmosphere. And since we’re still in the cloudy season we always try to make room for cloud observations. Today that meant a suraphorizon movie looking for clouds just above the horizon to the south, and a phase function sky survey, which captures clouds all around the rover, to try to understand how these clouds scatter sunlight.
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Last Updated May 22, 2025 Related Terms
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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 3 min read
Sols 4509-4510: A weekend of long drives
This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4507 (2025-04-11 03:54:35 UTC). Written by Abigail Fraeman, Planetary Geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Friday, April 11, 2025
Curiosity is continuing to book it to the potential boxwork structures. The rover drove over 50 meters on Wednesday, and we plan to drive more than 50 meters again in today’s plan thanks to an unusually good viewshed that allows us to see far ahead. We’ve been able to see glimpses of the boxwork structures in the distance for a few weeks now, and I am really excited about being able to plan long drives that get us closer and closer. What will we find when we reach them?
Power was on everyone’s mind as we put the plan together today. The science team had lots of amazing ideas about observations to collect from our current location, but we had to carefully plan and prioritize them to make sure we didn’t use too much power and leave the rover battery lower than we’d like for Monday’s plan. Winter on Mars certainly keeps us on our toes! We ended up putting together what I think is a pretty good set of activities for the weekend. MAHLI, APXS, and ChemCam will all work together to observe a flat rock in front of us named “Iron Mountain.” MAHLI will also do an experiment with this rock, testing different combinations of camera positions to see which produces the best data to help us generate 3D models of the rock’s surface. I know rocks don’t have feelings, but if they did, I hope Iron Mountain can use this time to feel a bit like a movie star on the red carpet, getting photographed from all angles. Mastcam will also be photographing the surroundings, working with ChemCam’s RMI imager to take images the ridge containing boxwork structures named “Ghost Mountain,” and taking some solo shots of targets in the foreground named “Redondo Flat,” “Silverwood Sanctuary,” and the oft photographed Gould Mesa. Navcam, REMS, and DAN round out the science plan with some environmental observations. We’ll be getting one more science and engineering hybrid observation when we collect ChemCam passive spectral data of the instrument’s calibration target in parallel with one of our communication passes. This observation is part of a series of tests we’re doing to run rover activities in parallel with these passes, and if successful, will allow us to be more even more power efficient in the future.
We’re also celebrating a soliday this weekend, which means we only have a two-sol plan instead of our usual three as the Mars and Earth time zones re-align for the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing where Curiosity drives next week.
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By NASA
NASA astronauts (left to right) Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under Artemis. Astronauts on their first flight aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft will confirm all of the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed with crew aboard in the actual environment of deep space. Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
The unique Artemis II mission profile will build upon the uncrewed Artemis I flight test by demonstrating a broad range of SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion capabilities needed on deep space missions. This mission will prove Orion’s critical life support systems are ready to sustain our astronauts on longer duration missions ahead and allow the crew to practice operations essential to the success of Artemis III and beyond.
Leaving Earth
The mission will launch a crew of four astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a Block 1 configuration of the SLS rocket. Orion will perform multiple maneuvers to raise its orbit around Earth and eventually place the crew on a lunar free return trajectory in which Earth’s gravity will naturally pull Orion back home after flying by the Moon. The Artemis II astronauts are NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The initial launch will be similar to Artemis I as SLS lofts Orion into space, and then jettisons the boosters, service module panels, and launch abort system, before the core stage engines shut down and the core stage separates from the upper stage and the spacecraft. With crew aboard this mission, Orion and the upper stage, called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), will then orbit Earth twice to ensure Orion’s systems are working as expected while still close to home. The spacecraft will first reach an initial orbit, flying in the shape of an ellipse, at an altitude of about 115 by 1,400 miles. The orbit will last a little over 90 minutes and will include the first firing of the ICPS to maintain Orion’s path. After the first orbit, the ICPS will raise Orion to a high-Earth orbit. This maneuver will enable the spacecraft to build up enough speed for the eventual push toward the Moon. The second, larger orbit will take approximately 23.5 hours with Orion flying in an ellipse between about 115 and 46,000 miles above Earth. For perspective, the International Space Station flies a nearly circular Earth orbit about 250 miles above our planet.
After the burn to enter high-Earth orbit, Orion will separate from the upper stage. The expended stage will have one final use before it is disposed through Earth’s atmosphere—the crew will use it as a target for a proximity operations demonstration. During the demonstration, mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will monitor Orion as the astronauts transition the spacecraft to manual mode and pilot Orion’s flight path and orientation. The crew will use Orion’s onboard cameras and the view from the spacecraft’s windows to line up with the ICPS as they approach and back away from the stage to assess Orion’s handling qualities and related hardware and software. This demonstration will provide performance data and operational experience that cannot be readily gained on the ground in preparation for critical rendezvous, proximity operations and docking, as well as undocking operations in lunar orbit beginning on Artemis III.
Checking Critical Systems
Following the proximity operations demonstration, the crew will turn control of Orion back to mission controllers at Johnson and spend the remainder of the orbit verifying spacecraft system performance in the space environment. They will remove the Orion Crew Survival System suit they wear for launch and spend the remainder of the in-space mission in plain clothes, until they don their suits again to prepare for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and recovery from the ocean.
While still close to Earth, the crew will assess the performance of the life support systems necessary to generate breathable air and remove the carbon dioxide and water vapor produced when the astronauts breathe, talk, or exercise. The long orbital period around Earth provides an opportunity to test the systems during exercise periods, where the crew’s metabolic rate is the highest, and a sleep period, where the crew’s metabolic rate is the lowest. A change between the suit mode and cabin mode in the life support system, as well as performance of the system during exercise and sleep periods, will confirm the full range of life support system capabilities and ensure readiness for the lunar flyby portion of the mission.
Orion will also checkout the communication and navigation systems to confirm they are ready for the trip to the Moon. While still in the elliptical orbit around Earth, Orion will briefly fly beyond the range of GPS satellites and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites of NASA’s Space Network to allow an early checkout of agency’s Deep Space Network communication and navigation capabilities. When Orion travels out to and around the Moon, mission control will depend on the Deep Space Network to communicate with the astronauts, send imagery to Earth, and command the spacecraft.
After completing checkout procedures, Orion will perform the next propulsion move, called the translunar injection (TLI) burn. With the ICPS having done most of the work to put Orion into a high-Earth orbit, the service module will provide the last push needed to put Orion on a path toward the Moon. The TLI burn will send crew on an outbound trip of about four days and around the backside of the Moon where they will ultimately create a figure eight extending over 230,000 miles from Earth before Orion returns home.
To the Moon and “Free” Ride Home
On the remainder of the trip, astronauts will continue to evaluate the spacecraft’s systems, including demonstrating Earth departure and return operations, practicing emergency procedures, and testing the radiation shelter, among other activities.
The Artemis II crew will travel approximately 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. From this vantage point, they will be able to see the Earth and the Moon from Orion’s windows, with the Moon close in the foreground and the Earth nearly a quarter-million miles in the background.
With a return trip of about four days, the mission is expected to last about 10 days. Instead of requiring propulsion on the return, this fuel-efficient trajectory harnesses the Earth-Moon gravity field, ensuring that—after its trip around the far side of the Moon—Orion will be pulled back naturally by Earth’s gravity for the free return portion of the mission.
Two Missions, Two Different Trajectories
Following Artemis II, Orion and its crew will once again travel to the Moon, this time to make history when the next astronauts walk on the lunar surface. Beginning with Artemis III, missions will focus on establishing surface capabilities and building Gateway in orbit around the Moon.
Through Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before and create an enduring presence in deep space.
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