Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
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
-end-
Meira Bernstein / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
meira.b.bernstein@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 21, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) artemis accords View the full article
-
By NASA
Environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Oct. 16, 2024, to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission.
“The image of our Earth from space is the single most compelling iconic image that any of us have ever seen,” Gore said at a panel discussion for employees. “Now we have, thanks to DSCOVR, 50,000 ‘Blue Marble’ photographs … To date there are more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications that are based on the unique science gathered at the L1 point by DSCOVR. For all of the scientists who are here and those on the teams that are represented here, I want to say congratulations and thank you.”
To commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) mission, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., hosted environmentalist and former Vice President Al Gore, shown here addressing a crowd in the Building 3 Harry J. Goett Auditorium, on Oct. 16, 2024.NASA/Travis Wohlrab Following opening remarks from Gore, Goddard scientists participated in a panel discussion entitled “Remote Sensing and the Future of Earth Observations. From left to right: Dalia Kirschbaum, director, NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Division; Miguel Román, deputy director, atmospheres, NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Division; Lesley Ott, project scientist, U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center; John Bolten, chief, NASA Goddard Hydrological Sciences Laboratory.NASA/Travis Wohlrab Gore shakes hands with Kirschbaum following the panel discussion. Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup stands between the two.NASA/Katy Comber Gore visits the overlook for the NASA Goddard clean room where the Roman Space Telescope is being assembled. Julie McEnery, Roman senior project scientist, stands at right.NASA/Katy Comber Christa Peters-Lidard, NASA Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration Directorate director (left), speaks with Gore in the lobby of Building 32, where the former vice president viewed the control room of NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.NASA/Katy Comber Following Gore’s talk on climate monitoring, Goddard scientists participated in a panel discussion, “Remote Sensing and the Future of Earth Observations,” which explored the latest advancements in technology that allow for the monitoring of the atmosphere from space and showcased how Goddard’s research drives the future of Earth science.
Gore’s visit also entailed a meeting with the DSCOVR science team, a view into the clean room where Goddard is assembling the Roman Space Telescope, and a stop at the control center for PACE: NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission.
Launched Feb. 11, 2015, DSCOVR is a space weather station that monitors changes in the solar wind, providing space weather alerts and forecasts for geomagnetic storms that could disrupt power grids, satellites, telecommunications, aviation and GPS.
DSCOVR is a joint mission among NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Air Force. The project originally was called Triana, a mission conceived of by Gore in 1998 during his vice presidency.
Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) View the full article
-
By NASA
Due to launch in the early 2030s, NASA’s DAVINCI mission will investigate whether Venus — a sweltering world wrapped in an atmosphere of noxious gases — once had oceans and continents like Earth.
Consisting of a flyby spacecraft and descent probe, DAVINCI will focus on a mountainous region called Alpha Regio, a possible ancient continent. Though a handful of international spacecraft plunged through Venus’ atmosphere between 1970 and 1985, DAVINCI’s probe will be the first to capture images of this intriguing terrain ever taken from below Venus’ thick and opaque clouds.
But how does a team prepare for a mission to a planet that hasn’t seen an atmospheric probe in nearly 50 years, and that tends to crush or melt its spacecraft visitors?
Scientists leading the DAVINCI mission started by using modern data-analysis techniques to pore over decades-old data from previous Venus missions. Their goal is to arrive at our neighboring planet with as much detail as possible. This will allow scientists to most effectively use the probe’s descent time to collect new information that can help answer longstanding questions about Venus’ evolutionary path and why it diverged drastically from Earth’s.
On the left, a new and more detailed view of Venus’ Alpha Regio region developed by scientists on NASA’s DAVINCI mission to Venus, due to launch in the early 2030s. On the right is a less detailed map created using radar altimeter data collected by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in the early 1990s. The colors on the maps depict topography, with dark blues identifying low elevations and browns identifying high elevations. To make the map on the left, the DAVINCI science team re-analyzed Magellan data and supplemented it with radar data collected on three occasions from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and used machine vision computer models to scrutinize the data and fill in gaps in information. The red ellipses on each image mark the area DAVINCI’s probe will descend over as it collects data on its way toward the surface. Jim Garvin/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Between 1990 and 1994, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft used radar imaging and altimetry to map the topography of Alpha Regio from Venus’ orbit. Recently, NASA’s DAVINICI’s team sought more detail from these maps, so scientists applied new techniques to analyze Magellan’s radar altimeter data. They then supplemented this data with radar images taken on three occasions from the former Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and used machine vision computer models to scrutinize the data and fill in gaps in information at new scales (less than 0.6 miles, or 1 kilometer).
As a result, scientists improved the resolution of Alpha Regio maps tenfold, predicting new geologic patterns on the surface and prompting questions about how these patterns could have formed in Alpha Regio’s mountains.
Benefits of Looking Backward
Old data offers many benefits to new missions, including information about what frequencies, parts of spectrum, or particle sizes earlier instruments covered so that new instruments can fill in the gaps.
At NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, which is managed out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, staff restore and digitize data from old spacecraft. That vintage data, when compared with modern observations, can show how a planet changes over time, and can even lead to new discoveries long after missions end. Thanks to new looks at Magellan observations, for instance, scientists recently found evidence of modern-day volcanic activity on Venus.
The three images in this carousel were taken in March 2024 at NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The first shows stacked boxes of microfilm with data from Apollo missions. The middle image shows miniaturized records from NASA’s 1964 Mariner 4 flyby mission to Mars. And the final image shows a view of Jupiter from NASA’s Pioneer 10 flyby mission to the outer planets, which launched on March 2, 1972. The three images in this carousel were taken in March 2024 at NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The first shows stacked boxes of microfilm with data from Apollo missions. The middle image shows miniaturized records from NASA’s 1964 Mariner 4 flyby mission to Mars. And the final image shows a view of Jupiter from NASA’s Pioneer 10 flyby mission to the outer planets, which launched on March 2, 1972. The three images in this carousel were taken in March 2024 at NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The first shows stacked boxes of microfilm with data from Apollo missions. The middle image shows miniaturized records from NASA’s 1964 Mariner 4 flyby mission to Mars. And the final image shows a view of Jupiter from NASA’s Pioneer 10 flyby mission to the outer planets, which launched on March 2, 1972.
Magellan was among the first missions to be digitally archived in NASA’s publicly accessible online repository of planetary mission data. But the agency has reams of data — much of it not yet digitized — dating back to 1958, when the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer 1.
Data restoration is a complex and resource-intensive job, and NASA prioritizes digitizing data that scientists need. With three forthcoming missions to Venus — NASA’s DAVINCI and VERITAS, plus ESA’s (European Space Agency) Envision — space data archive staff are helping scientists access data from Pioneer Venus, NASA’s last mission to drop probes into Venus’ atmosphere in 1978.
Mosaic of Venus
Alpha Regio is one of the most mysterious spots on Venus. Its terrain, known as “tessera,” is similar in appearance to rugged Earth mountains, but more irregular and disorderly.
So called because they resemble a geometric parquet floor pattern, tesserae have been found only on Venus, and DAVINCI will be the first mission to explore such terrain in detail and to map its topography.
DAVINCI’s probe will begin photographing Alpha Regio — collecting the highest-resolution images yet — once it descends below the planet’s clouds, starting at about 25 miles, or 40 kilometers, altitude. But even there, gases in the atmosphere scatter light, as does the surface, such that these images will appear blurred.
Could Venus once have been a habitable world with liquid water oceans — like Earth? This is one of the many mysteries associated with our shrouded sister world. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center DAVINCI scientists are working on a solution. Recently, scientists re-analyzed old Venus imaging data using a new artificial-intelligence technique that can sharpen the images and use them to compute three-dimensional topographic maps. This technique ultimately will help the team optimize DAVINCI’s images and maps of Alpha Regio’s mountains. The upgraded images will give scientists the most detailed view ever — down to a resolution of 3 feet, or nearly 1 meter, per pixel — possibly allowing them to detect small features such as rocks, rivers, and gullies for the first time in history.
“All this old mission data is part of a mosaic that tells the story of Venus,” said Jim Garvin, DAVINCI principal investigator and chief scientist at NASA Goddard. “A story that is a masterpiece in the making but incomplete.”
By analyzing the surface texture and rock types at Alpha Regio, scientists hope to determine if Venusian tesserae formed through the same processes that create mountains and certain volcanoes on Earth.
By Lonnie Shekhtman
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Get to know Venus
Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 Editor Lonnie Shekhtman Contact Lonnie Shekhtman lonnie.shekhtman@nasa.gov Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) Pioneer Venus Planetary Science Planetary Science Division Planets Science & Research Science Mission Directorate The Solar System Venus VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy) View the full article
-
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
Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 17, 2024 Related Terms
General Earth Science Earth Science Division Explore More
4 min read Navigating Space and Sound: Jesse Bazley Supports Station Integration and Colleagues With Disabilities
Article 18 hours ago 3 min read Sacrifice and Success: NASA Engineer Honors Family Roots
Article 19 hours ago 7 min read What is a Coral Reef?
Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
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
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Space Station Research and Technology
Station Benefits for Humanity
Latest News from Space Station Research
International Space Station
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.