The new team builds on World Views existing safety protocols as the company readies for human flights in 2024

TUSCON, Ariz. (World View PR) World View, the leading stratospheric exploration and space tourism company, hired three new industry experts to establish and lead a new safety program that includes the companys testing and safety protocols ahead of human space flights starting in 2024. The new personnel will build on World Views existing safety protocols and risk assessment procedures that have successfully guided more than 100 uncrewed flights and remote sensing missions for commercial and government customers. In turn, the committees work will provide the additional measures needed for World View to begin space tourism missions in two years.

Experts leading World Views safety expansion include Greg Ray J Johnson, a former NASA astronaut and Blue Origin executive; Ron Failing from Virgin Galactic; and Charlie Precourt, former NASA astronaut.

Mr. Johnson will serve as World Views Chief Test Pilot. While at NASA, Mr. Johnson was a research pilot, astronaut, and pilot for NASA Shuttle Mission STS-125. He is also a naval officer (retired), Navy test pilot, and aviator with considerable aerospace engineering experience. Most recently a Senior Vice President at Blue Origin, Mr. Johnson led the New Shepard suborbital rocket, overseeing four test flights, and was responsible for engineering logistics, operations, and portions of their West, TX launch and landing site. As World Views Chief Test Pilot, he will help develop and execute testing for space tourism flights and play a critical role in developing safety protocols.

Mr. Failing will serve as World Views Vice President of Aviation Safety. Mr. Failing brings decades of aerospace and aviation safety expertise having implemented several safety management systems, including human factors analysis, risk mitigation, and hazard controls. He was most recently Director of Safety at Virgin Galactic and also worked at Virgin America, Frontier, and Continental Airlines. Drawing from this extensive experience, Mr. Failing will oversee flight safety and the overall development of World Views flight safety program.

Mr. Precourt will lead the development of World Views independent Technical Oversight Committee, which will standardize the key safety and risk assessment protocols needed to ensure successful human flights. While at NASA, Mr. Precourt served as an astronaut, pilot, and commander. He was also Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1998 to 2002, where he led the NASA Astronaut Corps and served as a top advisor to NASA Administrator Daniel Golden during the Clinton and Bush administrations on issues related to training and operations. Following NASA, Mr. Precourt served as the Vice President and General Manager of the Propulsion Division at Northrop Grumman. As a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel with advanced degrees in aeronautics and engineering, Mr. Precourt brings deep technical and leadership knowledge to his new role that will be essential for advancing World Views safety standards.

As we enter human flight, a robust and thorough safety program is one of our most serious and important initiatives, said Ryan Hartman, World Views President and CEO. We have brought together a team with world-class expertise ranging from NASA Shuttle missions to aircraft safety and other aerospace programs to ensure our approach to space tourism and remote sensing is the safest and most reliable in the industry. This is a major step forward in World Views ability to not only establish rigorous standards but demonstrate our commitment to safety as we take space tourists to the new frontier.

World View is also seeking AS9100 certification, a quality standard for aerospace, aviation, and defense companies.

About World View

World View is the leading stratospheric exploration company on a mission to inspire the global community to rediscover Earth. Through both its legacy Stratollite imaging and newly launched space tourism and exploration businesses, World View is working to ensure its ultimate objective: honor the planet so that future generations will feel blessed to call it home. For more information, visit worldview.space.

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World View Assembles Space Flight Safety Experts from NASA, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin to Establish Safety Program and Technical Oversight...

ISS crew members now have a new way to dispose of garbage on the space station.

The rising number of satellite launches and spacecraft are causing a tremendous amount of traffic in space. Not just that, there is so much space junk floating around in Earth orbit that it threatens the lives of those on the International Space Station (ISS). However, here we focus on the garbage generated on the ISS, which too is adding to the trash floating in space. Massive amounts of trash is created by those living in Space. Now, there's some good news for the astronauts, at least! The crew members on the ISS have got a new way to dispose of garbage. The International Space Station has recently ejected roughly 172 pounds (78 kilograms) of garbage within a specialized trash bag on July 2 from the station's commercial Bishop Airlock, Nanoracks informed in a press release. Nanoracks created these airlock systems to dispose of garbage in space.

"We have some incredibly exciting news to share from the weekend: as of 7:05 PM Central on Saturday, July 2, we successfully cycled the Bishop Airlock aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and deployed Nanoracks first-of-its-kind technology to dispose of approximately 172 lbs of waste from the station!" Nanoracks announced in a statement. This was a test of new orbital waste-disposal tech conducted by Nanoracks in collaboration with NASAs Johnson Space Center and according to the report, it went swimmingly well.

Till now, Astronauts aboard the ISS used to collect trash and store it in their orbiting home for months. It is the Cygnus cargo vehicle which used to arrive and collect their bags of trash before it was released from the space station for de-orbit. Later, the entire spacecraft filled with the bags of garbage used to burn up while reentering the Earths atmosphere. But now, with this new waste disposal system, the ISS crew can fill the container with up to 600 lbs of trash, which will then be released and the Airlock is re-mounted empty.

"..individual pieces of hardware have been jettisoned from ISS, and a few bundles of equipment have been hand jettisoned during spacewalks, this is the first use of an airlock trash bag ejection system on the ISS," a tweet by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reads.

This might be the first time for ISS to dispose of garbage in an Airlock disposable system, but it is not new to space flights! Yes, the same trash disposal system was earlier used a number of times. McDowell says in another tweet, Worth recalling that trash bags were regularly jettisoned from the Soviet Salyut space stations in the 1970s and 1980s."

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Garbage on International Space Station- here is how NASA throws it out in space - HT Tech

For the past six months, Scott Friedman and a team of roughly 160 scientists and engineers have been working through one of the most daunting to-do lists in all of science. Nearly every day, they dropped everything at 1:30PM ET to meet and find out how much closer theyve gotten to their goal: getting NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory in history, fully operational.

During each meeting, they reviewed all the work they had done over the last 24 hours with the observatory, which is currently zooming through deep space roughly 1 million miles from Earth. Sometimes their testing and measurements had gone well the day before, and theyd forge ahead with the next task. Other times, thered be hiccups.

We would have our scheduler there too and say, All right, this one didnt work so it has to be rescheduled. Lets get it in the schedule as soon as we can so we can continue, Friedman, the lead commissioning scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, tells The Verge. And that was a tricky business.

It was always going to be a monumental task to get the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, up and running. Equipped with the largest mirror weve ever sent into space, the observatory is set to fundamentally transform astronomy as we know it by capturing the light from stars and galaxies that formed while the Universe was in its infancy. But, before JWST can start collecting all these baby pictures of the cosmos, NASA and STScI, which oversees the telescopes operations and science, needed to know that all of JWSTs state-of-the-art instruments and hardware could actually work in tandem to get the job done.

Now, the commissioning team is wrapping up their work, having successfully completed all their assignments just a few weeks late of their summer deadline. For a telescope thats already a decade behind schedule, the team was remarkably punctual all things considered. Thanks to their efforts, JWST is on the cusp of starting its first year of epic science observations. This transformational period of astronomy will begin with the release of the first full-color images taken by the observatory on July 12th. NASA hasnt said yet what exactly the images will be, but we do know theyll include a detailed look at the atmosphere of a planet outside our Solar System and the deepest image of our Universe that has ever been taken, according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

What I have seen just moves me, Pam Melroy, NASAs deputy administrator, said during a press conference ahead of the image release, as a scientist, as an engineer, and as a human being.

JWST has been on quite the odyssey. The observatory, which has taken about two and a half decades and nearly $10 billion to build, first had to survive the intensity of its launch on Christmas Day last year. Then, once it got into space, it underwent an intricately complex unfurling process to get into the right configuration for observing the cosmos. (JWST was just far too large to launch in its final form, so it had to launch folded in on itself like a tightly packed Swiss Army knife.)

The unfolding was a two-week-long nerve-racking process that included hundreds of moving parts and more than 300 events known as single point failures: procedures that had to work or they could jeopardize the entire mission. But, miraculously or perhaps thanks to years of engineering and testing the unfurling went exactly to plan, with the mission team working well into the night on New Years Eve to deploy some of JWSTs most crucial hardware.

But, almost as soon as the unfolding was over, the engineering team began to focus on JWSTs mirror. The observatorys iconic gold-plated mirror, spanning more than 21 feet across, is actually made up of 18 hexagonal mirror segments that have to be aligned ever so precisely so that they function as if they were one single mirror. And they were nowhere near ready to do that. To get started, engineers first had to remove each of the segments off of devices known as snubbers: equipment that kept the mirrors in a snug position for the journey to space. We launched them in a position that is safe for launch, but it doesnt necessarily allow you to move the mirrors back and forth to align them, Lee Feinberg, the optical telescope element manager for JWST at NASA, tells The Verge.

That process took a little more than a week, with each segment moving half an inch from their launch positions. Still, that was only the beginning. That wasnt even alignment, Feinberg says. That was just getting to the point that we could start, really. The team then had to wait for JWSTs main infrared camera, NIRCam, to cool down enough that they could start using the instrument to collect images. Once NIRCam was nice and frigid, they used the mirrors to take their first picture with JWST, pointing all the mirror segments at a single bright star. The result: 18 different versions of that same star.

That was what the team expected; the segments were all pointing in marginally different directions. Thus began the painstaking process of moving each mirror segment ever so slightly so that those 18 pieces ultimately behaved as one. To tweak the position of one mirror, the team had to move the actuator on the back of the segment, adjusting it slowly by a minuscule amount. The alignment team would then use JWSTs instruments and take pictures of their progress, sending those images down to Earth. A series of algorithms would analyze the work and determine how to make further adjustments. Then the entire process would happen all over again. Step and repeat.

Things moved at a snails pace, as each movement had to be done sequentially. And the team had to be extra careful when they moved each segment, verifying the exact position of each piece when they were done so that the mirrors didnt inadvertently run into each other. But finally, after three months of tedious work, JWSTs mirrors came into tight focus.

When the mirrors started to be aligned, they were off from one to the next by millimeters, says Feinberg. And by the time we were done, they were aligned to nanometers so a factor of a million improvement in the alignment.

While mirror alignment was underway, the rest of the commissioning team turned their focus to JWSTs four main instruments. In addition to NIRCam, theres NIRSpec, MIRI, and FGS / NIRISS. All four contain spectrographs, which break light into a spectrum that scientists can analyze to learn more about distant objects. Three of them also have cameras (NIRSpec is the odd one out). Just as the strings of a guitar need to be properly tuned before theyre used, so too do the highly complex instruments on JWST. The commissioning teams job was to calibrate each of the instruments to ensure that they were ready and functioning properly when the observatorys first year of science begins.

JWSTs instruments were booted up and first checked out when the mirrors were still being aligned since the team needed the camera and other instruments to help adjust the mirror segments. Still, the more robust calibration work couldnt begin in earnest until the mirrors were fully lined up, which took about four months.

Now, over the last two months, the team has been putting the instruments through their paces, running through a long list of time-consuming measurements. Sometimes they were quick, but sometimes they were 12 hours of observing time with many observations associated with it, Friedman says.

Some of that work entailed simply using the instruments to observe standard stars, measuring their light and positions in the sky. The team then cross-referenced what they measured with what they know about these stars based on decades of past research to look for corrections that needed to be made. Every camera, even JWSTs NIRCam, has some built-in distortion in its images. By measuring those distortions, the teams can correct for them in the future, according to Friedman.

Some of the calibrations entailed demonstrating JWSTs prowess. The observatory may only have four main instruments, but each instrument has different operating modes that offer various capabilities, and the commissioning team had to test out and verify each mode. The observatory as a whole also has different operating modes that had to be calibrated. For instance, JWST will need to be able to track relatively fast moving objects like asteroids and the moons of the outer planets in our Solar System, so the commissioning team practiced this capability by locking onto test asteroids, using guide stars as references in the sky to make the asteroid appear still. Its all complicated work that hadnt been tested in space before. Its one thing to write that down on a piece of paper and to test everything you can on the ground, but its not the same as in flight, Friedman says. We have to demonstrate these things.

For the most part, Friedman says the entire calibration and commissioning process went very smoothly, though there were a few hiccups along the way. JWST went through half a dozen safe haven events when the spacecraft detects something it doesnt like and goes into a safe operating mode to preserve its instruments and power. In total, those events, mostly related to attitude control, only lasted four days, and the JWST team says such moments are typical of a new spacecraft.

Every spacecraft has a very unique personality when it gets on orbit, Bill Ochs, the project manager of JWST at NASA, said during a press conference. There are unique things about it that no matter how much ground testing you do, you do not learn until you actually get on orbit, and we had those experiences.

Adding to that stress, one of JWSTs 18 mirror segments was struck by a larger than expected micrometeoroid in May, leaving a small dimple. While NASA says the observatory can still perform the extraordinary science its designed to do, the mirror segment had to be adjusted slightly to correct for the damage.

But, despite these minor issues, the commissioning team was able to finish up all the work on their to-do list during their allotted six-month period, only a couple weeks behind schedule. To them, it was nothing short of a miracle. If you had asked me before launch, Do you really think youre going to finish in six months, or within a few days? I would have said, Well, I hope so. But man, theres a zillion things that could go wrong, Friedman says. And you know what? None of those zillion things went wrong. They all went right.

Now, the commissioning team is entering a new phase. Soon, JWST will enter its first year of science observations whats known as Cycle 1 science which is jam-packed with plans to target exoplanets, galaxies, exotic stars, and more. Those working with JWSTs instruments will move into a support role for the astronomers who have time with the observatory in the first year. Those scientists will inevitably have questions about how to use this powerful new observatory or how to interpret their results, and the instrument teams at NASA and STScI will need to be on hand to provide answers. The observatory will be used in ways that we havent completely experienced yet, says Friedman. So well be watching that carefully.

While the work still isnt done, its a bittersweet time for the people working on the team. The daily commissioning briefings are coming to an end, and many of those who put in long hours to tee up JWST for its first year of science are winding down. That isnt necessarily a bad thing for some.

For me personally, I just want to sit back and now enjoy it, says Feinberg, whos been working on JWSTs development in some form for the last 20 years. You know, let the scientists have their day and do great things. Im just looking forward to looking at the images with the rest of the planet and enjoying discovering the Universe.

More:

How engineers got NASA's James Webb Space Telescope ready to take its first images - The Verge

When Corrine Rojas comes into work, Mars is waiting for her. She drives to the office, grabs a cup of coffee, and then pulls up the latest dispatches from Perseverance, a car-size NASA rover situated inside a crater in Marss northern hemisphere. Rojas, an operations engineer at Arizona State University, checks that the rovers main cameras are working well, and that they took the shots scientists back home had asked for. Then, she basks in the wondrous sights of our celestial neighbor. I am often the first person to lay eyes on photos from Mars taken by the rover, Rojas told me.

And Mars has been looking particularly good lately. Thats not to say that the planet has been working on its appearance; aside from the winds blowing around some dust, it has remained mostly unchanged for a few billion years. The difference is us, and particularly the Perseverance mission, which has captured some of the sharpest views of the Martian surface to date. The rovers job is to search for potential signs of fossilized life in the rock, but since it arrived last February, it has become quite the landscape photographer.

In more detail than ever before, we can see that the red planets rocky outcroppings are bursting with texture, layer after layer. The soft, muted browns and oranges of the terrain look remarkably vivid. The soil looks almost silky. In our night sky, Mars is nothing more than a gleaming tangerine speck. In Perseverances pictures, it looks like not only a real planet but also a real place. Its one thing to look at a zoomed-out shot of Mars as a perfect sphere against the darkness of space. Its quite another to gaze upon something you could easily imagine finding on a Tripadvisor page about the best state parks in Arizona.

You just want to go hiking in that environment, says Jim Bell, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University who leads the camera team Rojas works on. Bring some water; bring some oxygen. Mars would actually be a terrible place to hike, let alone live. In reality, the place would be trying to kill us in so many ways, Bell told me. But the pictures are still swoon-worthy.

Read: Marss soundscape is strangely beautiful

Scientists and engineers have come a long way from the earliest attempts to capture close-up views of Mars. In 1965, a NASA probe called Mariner 4 made the first flyby and beamed home its observations. Back on Earth, converting the data into real images was a slow processso slow that the staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, excited and impatient, pulled numbers from Mariners data that corresponded with color, printed the numerals on paper, and then painted the makeshift canvas with pastels that one of them had bought at a local art store. When the real deal finally came in, it marked the first time humankind had gotten a close-up of the surface of another planet.

The first pictures taken on the Martian surface were captured by another NASA mission in 1976. The Viking 1 lander, which stayed put on the Martian soil, revealed a reddish field of boulders stretching all the way to the horizon. In the late 1990s, NASA began sending a steady stream of robots that, unlike landers, could move around and capture the Martian environment from different angles. The Curiosity rover, which arrived in 2012, is still going strong and filling up its camera roll on the side of a mountain, about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away from Perseverances turf.

The Perseverance rover, meanwhile, has the best set of robotic eyes on Mars yetthough theyre not as sophisticated as you might think. By todays consumer-electronics standards, these cameras that are up on Marsand elsewhere in the solar systemare nowhere near as high-resolution, Bell said. Theres no high-speed internet between Earth and Mars, so there are limits on the data that a rover can transmit home. But Perseverance has 23 cameras, six more than Curiosity, and theyre more advanced than the ones used for previous missions. Perseverance was designed to explore Mars more autonomously than earlier rovers, which meant developing cameras good enough to support that capability, according to Katie Stack Morgan, the deputy project scientist for the mission at NASA. So while some of Curiositys cameras photograph in black-and-white, the same set on Perseverance shoots in color, which helps scientists back home guide the newer rover toward scientifically interesting targets. That feature means that even Perseverances hazard cameraswhich serve a similar purpose to the back-up camera on a carproduce gorgeous, high-resolution images. You can practically hear the gravel crunch beneath the rovers wheels.

The Perseverance rover also has more opportunities for photo shoots than Curiosity, Bell said. In order to operate their instruments during the cold Martian mornings and evenings, rovers need to use extra fuel to keep themselves warm. Curiosity, now a decade old, avoids overexerting itself during these hours to conserve its power supply; sometimes theres more important work to do than taking pictures. But Perseverance is still spry, which means it can take advantage of a classic photography trick. If you want to really bring out the texture in a rocky surface, take pictures of it when the sun is low, Bell said. And then all the little ridges and jagged imperfections and bumps and all that will start to cast shadows and be seen much better.

Read: No, youre crying about a helicopter on Mars

New Mars pictures reach Earth every dayor every sol, the term for the slightly longer-than-ours Mars day. Bells camera team typically doesnt work weekends, but theres a number of us who just cant resist just logging in and checking what came in. Rojas is in charge of stitching together images from the rovers main camera to create sweeping panoramas for public consumption (and which she wishes she could use as wallpaper in her home). The views never get old for them, or for any scientist or engineer who has the surreal privilege of seeing a new spot in the solar system before anyone else. And it is especially thrilling when the photos reveal something scientifically useful.

The sedimentary rock recently photographed by Perseverances hazard cameras is exactly the kind that the rover was designed to study. The ancient terrain here, in a crater called Jezero, was shaped by mud, silt, and water more than 3.5 billion years ago, when Mars was, scientists believe, a balmy world with rivers and lakes. If any microbial life was around at the time, it might have been flattened into these layers and preserved to this daya thrilling prospect for the nosy aliens next door who are wondering whether life arose elsewhere in the solar system. Theres nothing quite like having them right in front of the rover and saying, Aha! This is what we came here for, Morgan said.

The rest is here:

Mars Is More Beautiful Than Ever - The Atlantic

Editors Vox is a blog from AGUs Publications Department.

Dr. Jessica Watkins is a NASA astronaut, planetary geologist, and lead author of a recent manuscript accepted for publication in JGR: Planets, entitled Burial and exhumation of sedimentary rocks revealed by the base Stimson erosional unconformity, Gale crater, Mars. Dr. Watkins recently arrived at the International Space Station as part of NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 and is serving as a Mission Specialist on the mission that will last around 6 months. We recently spoke with Dr. Watkins about her career path and the path to publication in JGR: Planets.

What first interested you in geology, and led you to choose to complete a Ph.D. in geology?

As an undergraduate at Stanford University, I was originally a mechanical engineering major, but during my sophomore year I realized that I just wasnt passionate about the subject. I started looking at other course offerings in the sciences, some of which had intriguing titles such as What Makes a Habitable Planet? and Planetary Materials. So, I signed up for my first geology course and quickly became hooked. I distinctly remember being captivated by a lecture on the process of planetary accretion and deciding then that I wanted to be a planetary geologist.

What led to your interest in studying landslides on Mars during your Ph.D, and what other Mars-related research have you done?

Mars is Earth-like in many ways, and I found it fascinating that we could study Earth processes and landforms to better understand those observed on Mars (and vice versa!). My Ph.D. research focused on investigating the mechanisms that led to long run-out distances associated with both Martian and terrestrial landslides, such as material properties and the role of water at the time they formed. I went on to continue studying Mars geological processes as a post-doctoral student at California Institute of Technology, where I utilized data from NASAs Mars Science Laboratory mission to help characterize the sedimentary depositional history at Gale crater.

Could you describe the major findings from your recent manuscript that is now in-press at the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, and the significance?

This paper describes the discovery of an unconformity in a sequence of sedimentary rocks on Mars. An unconformity represents a discontinuity in the time of deposition between sequences of rocks. In this case, it separates the rocks which record a time in which a lake was present at Gale crater, and an overlying sequence of rocks which record a time when the climate was much drier leading to the formation of eolian sand dunes. The unconformity is significant in that it records not only the transition between environmental regimes, but also substantial erosion of the older (lacustrine) rocks before the younger (eolian) rocks were deposited.

I understand that there was a significant delay between when the paper was first submitted and the time to acceptance. Can you share your story about the path to publication?

Well, the paper was first submitted back in 2017, but prior to that, I had applied to become a member of NASAs astronaut corps. Shortly after the paper was returned to us by the journal editor with reviewer comments, I was selected by NASA and unable to complete the revisions before reporting for duty as an Astronaut Candidate. However, after a few years of focusing on training, I was able to return to it with the help of my co-authors, and the final manuscript was accepted for publication at about the time I launched as part of Crew-4.

Do you have any advice to offer to younger students who are interested in geology, planetary science, and/or space exploration?

My advice would be to find a subject that excites you, and dont be afraid to proactively pursue it. Look for opportunities to continue to learn and explore- internships are a great way to help you narrow down your career interests and gain valuable experience. Finally, seek out supportive mentors who can be sources of encouragement and help you navigate your way toward your goals.

Dr. Jessica Watkins (Jessica.a.watkins@nasa.gov, 0000-0002-4706-8569), NASA Astronaut; A. Deanne Rogers (0000-0002-4671-2551), Editor, JGR-Planets; and Dr. John Grotzinger (0000-0001-9324-1257), California Institute of Technology, manuscript co-author and Dr. Watkins post-doctoral advisor.

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JGR: Planets Author Aboard the International Space Station - Eos

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission has returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here following incomplete "wet dress rehearsal" attempts earlier this month.

During the wet dress, which took place at KSC's Pad 39B, NASA was unable to run its new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), through the complete gambit of tests needed to ensure that the vehicle is ready for flight. The agency has now brought the huge rocket back to the VAB to make some minor repairs and adjustments.

The Artemis 1 stack rolled off Pad 39B at 7:54 p.m. EDT (2354 GMT) on Monday (April 25) atop NASA's huge crawler-transporter 2 vehicle. The SLS and Orion arrived at the VAB, which is 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away, at about 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT) on Tuesday (April 26), NASA officials said in an update.

Live updates: NASA's Artemis 1 moon missionRelated: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos

Artemis 1 will use the first-ever SLS to send an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon and back sometime later this year. If all goes well with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 will launch astronauts around the moon in 2024, and Artemis 3 will put boots on the lunar surface in 2025 or 2026.

It's unclear when Artemis 1 will get off the ground; NASA officials won't set an official target date until the wet dress is done and they've had a chance to analyze the data.

SLS began its journey from the VAB to Pad 39B on March 17 and got there about 12 hours later, early in the morning of March 18. NASA began the wet dress rehearsal on April 1 and had hoped to complete a simulated countdown by April 3.

Unfortunately, propellant loading operations during the wet dress rehearsal revealed several technical issues with the SLS and its mobile launch tower. The Artemis 1 team identified a faulty valve in the launch tower, as well as a hydrogen leak in a line leading from the tower to the rocket.

The decision was made to fix these problems before another attempted wet dress rehearsal. At the VAB, technicians will examine the Artemis 1 stack and make repairs to gear up for another run at the wet dress rehearsal in the coming weeks.

With all the work ahead, Artemis 1 will likely not be ready in time for the missions mid-summer launch window of June 29 to July 12, and is now targeting a date sometime in August, sources at NASA told Space.com.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.

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NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket rolls off the launch pad for repairs (photos) - Space.com

Ensuring that Ingenuity has plenty of stored energy aboard to maintain heating and other vital functions while also maintaining optimal battery health is essential to the success of the Mars Helicopter. The one-hour power-up will boost the rotorcrafts batteries to about 30% of its total capacity. A few days after that, theyll be charged again to reach 35%, with future charging sessions planned weekly while the helicopter is attached to the rover. The data downlinked during tomorrows charge sessions will be compared to battery-charging sessions done during cruise to Mars to help the team plan future charging sessions.

Like much of the 4-pound (2-kilogram) rotorcraft, the six lithium-ion batteries are off-the-shelf. They currently receive recharges from the rovers power supply. Once Ingenuity is deployed to Mars surface, the helicopters batteries will be charged solely by its own solar panel.

After Perseverance deploys Ingenuity to the surface, the helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window. If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world.

If Ingenuity succeeds in taking off and hovering during its first flight, over 90% of the projects goals will have been achieved. If the rotorcraft lands successfully and remains operable, up to four more flights could be attempted, each one building on the success of the last.

We are in uncharted territory, but this team is used to that, said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at JPL. Just about every milestone from here through the end of our flight demonstration program will be a first, and each has to succeed for us to go on to the next. Well enjoy this good news for the moment, but then we have to get back to work.

Next-generation rotorcraft, the descendants of Ingenuity, could add an aerial dimension to future exploration of the Red Planet. These advanced robotic flying vehicles would offer a unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters high overhead or by rovers and landers on the ground, providing high-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans, and enable access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach.

More About Ingenuity

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California which also manages the technology demonstration for NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASAs Ames and Langley Research Centers provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, Snapdragon, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. The Mars Helicopter Delivery System was designed and manufactured by Lockheed Space Systems in Denver.

For more information about Ingenuity:

https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter

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News . NASA's Mars Helicopter Reports In - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The "Lunar Ladies" won the state's grand prize for the second year in a row and were national co-winners with 3 other teams

OREGON CITY, Ore. When the Perseverance Rover landed on Mars on Thursday, a middle and high school STEM robotics team was watching.

"It was nice to see when the parachute came out and when then the rotors landing system was showing, so it'd figure out where it was going to land. I really liked that," said 10th grader Pahlychai Thao.

Before NASA landed on Mars, the Oregon City STEM team had already landed their own rover weeks earlier on an 8 x 10 mat simulating Mars' surface. They were competing in NASA's ROADS (Rover Observation and Drone Survey) on Mars Challenge.

"ROADS on Mars is a robotics challenge that involves programming robots, Legos, construction and drone flying," said 7th grader Sophia Misley. "It also educates you a lot about lunar landings and things about NASA."

The team calls themselves "The Lunar Ladies". Team members are PJ Misley (9th grade), Sophia Misley (7th Grade), Pahlychai Thao (10th Grade), Lily Kirkpatrick (9th Grade) and Ariana Nackos (9th Grade).

Tom Misley is their coach.

"This was their most complicated challenge," Tom Misley said. "They had to run their rover. It was probably 50 feet back and forth, picking up samples off of a mat and it was not an easy challenge to do at all."

The team was scored on how well they landed a replica of the rover using a drone on an 8 x 10 mat that showed the surface of Mars. They had to drive their Lego-built rover around obstacles and collect samples as well as perform other mini challenges.

"I just think that it's super cool that you can create things and you can use electronics to make them move," said Ariana Nackos about what draws her to the challenge.

Teammate PJ Misley added, "I really enjoy robotics cause it's just a ton of fun and it's really cool to be able see how just putting blocks of code and putting numbers in can get your robot to do cool things like go around a mat and complete little missions."

The competition started in September of 2019 and was supposed to wrap up by April 2020. The pandemic and lockdown pushed back the final date until October 2020, which gave the team time to perfect some of their final submissions.

The extra time paid off. Not only did The Lunar Ladies win in the state of Oregon for the second year in a row, they also were national co-winners with 3 other teams and the only all-girl team to win.

"It's pretty cool knowing that for our state we won and knowing that in other states people were also good enough to win. It's kind of interesting now to be able to see the other people's videos and see just how well everyone did," PJ Misley said.

As part of their prize, the team will get an all expense paid trip to NASA to watch a launch once restrictions from the pandemic ease up.

For now, the team is focused on their next mission and that means landing on an asteroid.

Read more:

Oregon City STEM robotics team wins share of national NASA competition - KGW.com

As the Perseverance rover descended to the surface of Mars just before 4 p.m. Feb. 18, University of Dayton Research Institute scientist Chad Barklay closely watched NASAs live feed of its Joint Propulsion Lab control room, listening for touchdown confirmation.

Exactly four years prior, Barklay and UDRI colleague and engineer Allan Tolson were also closely watching as they essentially cooked a generator similar to the one that will power the Mars 2020 rover, heating it up to temperatures never before experienced by the unit or its sister units on earth and Mars. By assessing the effects of high heat on the prototype unit, the laboratory test was designed to predict whether the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Generator (MMRTG) attached to Perseverance would continue to perform normally should it encounter unanticipated extreme temperatures during the rover's mission.

The successful test helped NASA prepare for the Mars 2020 mission, which launched in July and successfully delivered Perseverance by sky crane to the red planet surface seven months later.

Since opening UDRI's MMRTG Laboratory in late 2013, Barklaygroup leader for advanced high-temperature materials in UDRI's power and energy divisionand his team have designed and performed qualification and evaluation tests on generators in support of NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rover and future deep-space missions. Their research, sponsored by the Department of Energy, provides critical information on the performance of the power units over time and under the punishing temperatures and other harsh operating conditions of space.

"The MMRTG is essentially the lifeblood of the rover," said Barklay, who helped develop the layout and assembly procedures for the MMRTG that continues to power Curiosity at Mars' Gale Crater. "Heat generated by naturally decaying isotopes within the generator's core keep the rover warm during the extreme cold of Martian nights, and is also converted to electricity to power the rover's mechanical, computer and communication systems. The information we provide on MMRTG performance helps mission planners understand how much power they'll have and how long they'll have it for the science they want to do."

In addition to helping NASA plan for the routine, UDRI researchers also help the agency prepare for the unexpected, Barklay said.

"There are a number of factors that can affect generator performance, including heat. Four years ago, there were still several potential elements of the pending Perseverance mission that each could have caused the MMRTG to run hotter than the its predecessor unit on Curiosity, including landing site, which hadn't been selected yet; the Martian climate at time of landing; the age of the generator at launch; and some minor design differences in the rover that could affect heat transference from its generator," Barklay added. "So we were asked to design and conduct what was basically a worst-case-scenario experiment that would assume the hottest temperatures for each of those factors, and then some."

To prepare for that 2017 test, Barklay and Tolson wrapped a generator in an insulating material, then heated the unit to 428 F approximately 100 degrees hotter than the maximum temperature Curiosity's generator experiences. They held the unit at that temperature for 24 hours, neither sleeping nor leaving the generator unattended, prepared to quickly shut down the experiment if they observed any behavior that threatened the system.

"The outcome was highly successful; better than we could have hoped," Barklay said.

For several years after opening, the MMRTG lab was equipped with the first two multi-mission generators built by NASA. These earthbound generators, designed for qualification and testing, are identical to their sister units on the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers with one significant exceptionthey are powered by electricity rather than by the plutonium at the core of generators attached to the rovers on Mars.

In the last two years, one of the prototype generators was shipped to Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab for research and testing related to the Dragonfly rotocopter mission to Saturn's moon, Titan, currently scheduled for launch in 2026. The second generator traveled first to the Idaho National Lab and NASA's Joint Propulsion Lab before ultimately landing at Kennedy Space Center last year for final testing prior to the launch of Mars 2020.

Barklay anticipates the test generators returning to Dayton at some point in the future. In the meantime, his team built a thermal simulator that mimics the NASA generators in appearance and behavior. "We made some modifications to the thermal simulator that will allow us to adapt to advancing generator technology if needed," Barklay said. "For now, we'll continue to support the missions of Curiosity, Perseverance and future deep space exploration, and we're hoping to do some work in support of Dragonfly."

The simulator was also used for a research study into the possibility of using MMRTGs to power lunar experiments, should the U.S. go back to the moon, Barklay said. He will publish and present a paper on the study at the IEEE Aerospace Conference in early March.

Barklay, who formerly worked at Mound Laboratories in Miamisburgwhich he calls the birthplace of radioisotope generator technologysaid he will never tire of watching launches and landings, in spite of the number he has already seen.

"Nothing can really prepare you for the emotions you experience when watching," he said. "It's amazing to feel part of something so much bigger than yourself, and it's a profound experience to realize that you and your colleagues contributed to the success of the mission."

For interviews, contact Pamela Gregg, UDRI communication administrator, at 937-269-8963 (cell).

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From Dayton to Mars - University of Dayton - News Home

A potent arctic weather system chilled much of the United States with frigid weather in mid-February 2021, shattering low-temperature records in the middle of the country. The extreme cold combined with several snow and ice storms to leave millions of people without power.

Texas was hit particularly hard. According to news reports, natural gas shortages were already limiting power generation across Texas prior to the mid-February storm. Demand intensified after the polar air mass moved in on February 13, and controlled outages and downed power lines left parts of the state in the dark.

The Houston Chronicle reported that 4 million customers across the state were without power on February 15, including 1.4 million in the Houston area. Many of those outages continued into the next day and are apparent in the images above depicting nighttime lights. Satellite data for the right image was acquired around 1 a.m. Central Standard Time on February 16; the left image was acquired around the same time on February 7, prior to the severe cold spell. Nighttime lights data have been overlaid on Landsat imagery so that city structure can still be distinguished.

The nighttime lights data were acquired with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAANASA Suomi NPP satellite. VIIRS has a low-light sensorthe day/night bandthat measures light emissions and reflections. Data are processed by a team of scientists from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to account for changes in the landscape (such as snow cover), the atmosphere, and Moon phase.

The team has produced power outage maps for years. But according to Miguel Romn, director of the Earth from Space Institute at USRA and a principal investigator of the Black Marble research team, this event is unique. Large area outages are rare in developed countries, yet this outage spans the entire state of Texas. He noted that Texas is the only state that has isolated its power grid from the rest of the country.

The map above provides a view of the extreme cold associated with the arctic air mass. Data for the map were derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model; they represent air temperatures at 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) above the ground on February 15, 2021. The darkest blue areas are where the model indicates temperatures reaching as low as -35C (-31F). Areas outside of the southern and central U.S. are relatively warmer, but still cold. White colors equate to temperatures around 0C (32F).

Note that some areas in Texas are colder than Maine and even Alaska. According to news reports, Dallas reached a low of 4F (-16C) on February 15the coldest temperature the city has seen since 1989. Temperatures near 60F are more typical this time of year. The temperature at Houstons Intercontinental Airport early that day was 17F (-8C)the coldest temperature there in 32 years.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Black Marble data courtesy of Ranjay Shrestha/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, and GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

Read more:

Extreme Winter Weather Causes US Blackouts - nasa.gov

Editors' note: NASA's Perseverance rover has landed safely on Mars. Read all about it here.

When it comes to spacehappenings, few are as tense, exciting and high stakes as landing a vehicle on another planet. Within minutes,NASA's Perseverance rover will endeavor to stick the landing on Mars, kicking off a new era in red planet exploration.

While NASA has a lot of experience with delivering machines to Mars (here's looking at you, Curiosity and InSight), that doesn't make it any easier this time. "Landing on Mars is hard," NASA said. "Only about 40% of the missions ever sent to Mars -- by any space agency -- have been successful."

It's going to be a wild ride. Here's what to expect on Perseverance's landing day.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

NASA will provide live coverage of the landing, which you can watch below. The NASA TV broadcast from mission control kicks off on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 11:15 a.m. PT. Touchdown in the Jezero Crater on Mars is scheduled for around 12:30 p.m. PT.

Here are the times across different timezones:

This won't be like a rocket launch where we get to see every detail as it's happening. We will get NASA commentary and updates, views from mission control, and hopefully some images not too long after landing. It will be a must-watch event for space fans.

Thursday, Feb. 18

Friday, Feb. 19

We've been to Mars before. So why all the hype? The red planet is our solar system neighbor. It's rocky like Earth. It has a long history of water. We can imagine ourselves perhaps living there some day.

"The level of interest that people have in this planet is just extraordinary," Alice Gorman-- space archaeologist and associate professor at Flinders University in Australia -- told CNET. Gorman highlighted humanity's search for life beyond Earth and how Mars is a candidate for having hosting microbial life in its ancient past.

There's also something special about a rover, a wheeled mechanical creature with a "head" and "eyes." "People feel towards the rovers because they're active and they move," said Gorman, likening it an almost parental sense of attachment. The outpouring of emotion over the demise of NASA's Opportunity rover proves how connected humans can get to a Mars explorer. Perseverance is set to become our new Martian sweetheart.

Mars arrivals are always harrowing. NASA calls the process EDL for "entry, descent and landing."

"During landing, the rover plunges through the thin Martian atmosphere, with the heat shield first, at a speed of over 12,000 mph (about 20,000 kph)," NASA said in a landing explainer. There's a reason NASA describes the landing process as "seven minutes of terror."

This NASA graphic shows the entire entry, descent and landing (EDL) sequence.

Small thrusters will fire to keep the rover on track on the potentially bumpy ride through the atmosphere. The rover's protective heat shield helps to slow it down. At an altitude of around 7 miles (11 kilometers), asupersonic parachute will deploy and Perseverance will soon separate from its heat shield.

NASA gave a briefing on Jan. 27 with a detailed rundown on the entire EDL sequence, including the "sky crane" maneuver, which lowers the rover the final distance to the surface using a set of cables.

If all goes well, Perseverance will end up standing on the surface of Mars. "The really hard part is to soft land and not crash land, and then to deploy the moving parts," said Gorman. Perseverance is not alone on the trip. It also carries a helicopter named Ingenuity in its belly. Ingenuity will be unleashed later in the mission.

Now playing: Watch this: How NASA's Mars helicopter could change the future of...

5:20

The mission is equipped with cameras and microphones designed to capture the EDL process, so we can expect to both see and hear the excitement of the landing at some point. "It will be the raw sounds of the descent and coming onto the surface," Gorman said. "So that's a whole other level of sensory engagement."

It takes time to send data between Mars and Earth. For us back home, we can expect a first photo not too long after landing, but the full visual and audio experience may take a few days for NASA to share with the world.

The agency released an arrival trailer in December that shows an animated, sped-up version of the process. You'll get the idea of just how wild it is to land a rover on another planet.

Gorman is excited about getting visuals of the rover's landing spot in Jezero Crater. It will be our first close-up look at the landscape in an area that had a history of water. Perseverance hopes to explore that history and look for evidence of life.

While the photos, sounds, helicopter and all-around science will be reasons to celebrate, there's the big lingering question the mission might answer: Was Mars home to microbial life? Said Gorman, "It would just be really great if we've got a bit of a closer handle on whether anything once lived on Mars."

Perseverance is our next great hope in the search for signs of life beyond Earth. It all starts with sticking the landing.

FollowCNET's 2021 Space Calendarto stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.

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How to watch live as NASA lands its Perseverance rover on Mars today - CNET

This Orion spacecraft will fly on NASA's uncrewed Artemis I mission, possibly in late 2021.

Last year was big for space missions. Now that we're officially in 2021, NASA is looking ahead to a packed schedule of space exploration as it aims for the moon, Mars and beyond. The space agency released a video preview hyping its plans for the new year, and the moon is the star of the show.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

The NASA 2021 video kicks off with all eyes on the moon and the planned launch of Artemis I.

While the video is full of hope and optimism, the reality is that getting space missions off the ground on time is a challenge. A NASA report released in late 2020 cited Space Launch System (SLS) rocket delays, coronavirus pandemic scheduling issues, and high costs as obstacles to the agency's stated goal of landing humans on the moon in 2024 through the Artemis program.

The first big test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft is in the works for 2021 with Artemis I, but we'll have to wait and see if the uncrewed mission is able to launch this year after all.

Other NASA goals for 2021 are well on track. The Perseverance rover is all set for a landing on Mars on Feb. 18. If all goes well, it will mark the start of a long-range plan to bring Martian rock samples back to Earth. The much-delayed James Webb Space Telescope is still on the calendar for an Oct. 31 launch date.

The moon, Mars and James Webb are just a few of the highlights. The full video will take you all the way from the International Space Station to the DART asteroid-redirection mission. If NASA manages to check most of these items off its 2021 to-do list, we'll be in for another epic year in space.

Follow along with NASA and other agencies' exploits all year long with our 2021 space calendar.

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Watch NASA's 2021 hype video full of moon dreams and Mars hopes - CNET

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently shared an image of a slow-motion firework in space that it says has lasted over 150 years. The image has since received plenty of reactions online.

The image, which is of a doomed super-massive star 7,500 light-years away named Eta Carinae, was captured by NASAs Hubble telescope.

According to the post, the massive star went through a Great Eruption in the 1840s that made it the second-brightest visible star in the sky for over a decade.

The explosion was so bright that the sailors at the time used it as an important navigational star, NASA said in the post.

Since being posted online, the post has received over 9 lakh likes. Take a look at some of the reactions to the post here:

Eta Carinae is a star system of at least two stars orbiting each other. Its combined luminosity is said to be greater than five million times that of the sun in our solar system.

Read more here:

NASA shares image of slow motion firework in space that has lasted over 150 years - The Indian Express

The White House has laid out a plan for overhauling the federal government's planetary-protection rules, which work to prevent contamination between Earth and other potentially habitable worlds.

The document outlines the government's plan for a suite of federal agencies to modernize planetary-protection rules over the course of the next year. Scientists and engineers discuss planetary protection in two directions: keeping other destinations free of meaningful Earth contamination and keeping our planet safe from potentially dangerous extraterrestrial materials. The plan is careful to note that in both directions, the government must consider both its own activities and those of commercial companies.

"Current and future missions to Mars and other destinations necessitate a strategy to support a safe, sustainable and predictable Earth and space environment," Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council and deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, said in a statement released on Dec. 30.

Related: NASA fed Apollo 11 moon rocks to cockroaches (then things got weird)

The new plan builds on a goal included in a Space Policy Directive the Trump administration issued earlier in December. "By establishing objectives for the implementation of the 2020 National Space Policy's direction on planetary protection, this strategy continues American leadership in scientific discovery, human exploration and private-sector space activities," Pace said in the new statement.

Developing the strategy fell and implementing it will fall to the Planetary Protection Interagency Working Group established in July, which brings together nearly 20 federal agencies, of which NASA is only one. Others include the departments of agriculture, homeland security, transportation and defense, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Such collaboration on issues of potentially planet-wide concern has precedent. During preparations for the Apollo 11 moon mission, which would return lunar rocks to Earth for the first time ever, public health officials in particular were instrumental in developing processes to assess the safety of astronauts and samples alike upon landing here. Similarly, FEMA is a key partner when NASA studies issues surrounding potential impacts of nearby asteroids.

In the new strategy document, the working group highlights the age of existing planetary-protection guidelines and the changing nature of spaceflight as motivations for new procedures. For example, the report cites ongoing work to bring back samples from Mars, NASA's long-term goal of sending humans to the Red Planet and the general prevalence of commercial space players.

Some of these trends may intersect; SpaceX in particular has touted its plans to land humans on Mars, targeting an ambitious timeline that could move faster than NASA's. Whether crewed or robotic missions, the government wants to prepare for an expected boom in commercial space launches beyond Earth orbit.

"Given the rapid growth in private-sector space capabilities and activities, it is very possible that United States companies will be key participants in the search for life," the group wrote.

NASA is well aware of the challenges of current planetary-protection guidelines. In 2019, the agency commissioned an independent group of experts to evaluate steps forward. The resulting report cited similar concerns and laid out 77 points for the agency to consider.

But NASA doesn't necessarily have say in private missions, an issue raised in the agency's own report and underscored in the new strategy, which sets a tighter timeline for the projects that relate to commercial outreach. The new plan calls for surveying relevant private-sector representatives about planetary protection within three months and creating guidelines for government oversight of commercial projects within six months.

The working group's other projects require developing frameworks for evaluating or addressing a handful of other aspects of planetary protection, including crewed missions and sample return.

Two big questions are not addressed by the strategy document: what, if any, review processes the new procedures will undergo, and how the incoming administration led by President-elect Joe Biden will execute the document's plans.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Planetary protection needs more than just NASA, White House plan says - Space.com

A solar coronal mass ejection as observed on June 20, 2013. Image: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

Two new missions to explore the Sun and Earths auroras could vastly improve our understanding of the complex interactions responsible for potentially dangerous space weather.

Auroras seen at our planets northern and southern high latitudes can be very beautiful, but the phenomena and processes responsible for these dramatic light shows are known to interfere with our communication signals and utility grids. Experts fear that severe space weather, in the form of powerful geomagnetic storms, will do much worse, knocking out handheld devices, fleets of satellites, and transformers responsible for transmitting electricity through power grids.

A geomagnetic storm of this scale hasnt struck Earth since the mid-19th century, but scientists have reason to believe well experience a similar event at some point in the future. Trouble is, were not very good at predicting this sort of stuff, whether its the mundane day-to-day space weather or the scary kind that happens once every 100 years.

Thats where these two new heliophysics missions come in, as theyll help us to better understand the Sun and Earth as an interconnected system, according to NASA. To do so, the new satellites will investigate the physics behind such things as solar winds, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections, the latter of which are responsible for geomagnetic storms. Insights from these missions will improve our forecasting abilities, giving us a potential heads up to some incoming stormy weather.

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For the EUVST mission, or Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission, a spacecraft will analyze the spectrum of our stars extreme ultraviolet radiation. Itll study how solar wind emerges from the Suns atmosphere, or corona, how stellar material propagates into space. Scientists will use this data to determine the ways in which these processes affect the solar system, including Earths atmosphere.

This next-generation solar-observing satellite will have the highest resolution and sensitivity of any previous UV spectrometer, according to the project website. These capabilities could untangle the different ways in which magnetic and plasma processes produce coronal heating and tremendous releases of energy.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will lead the EUVST mission while working with partners in the United States and Europe. NASA will contribute $55 million to the project, which will cover a UV detector, parts for the spectrograph, a guide telescope, software, and an imaging system to contextualize spectrographic measurements. Harry Warren from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington will serve as the principal investigator. Launch of EUVUST is expected in 2026.

The second mission, the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, or EZIE, will involve three cubesats in Earth orbit. EZIE, with a budget of $53.3 million, will study the electric currents in Earths atmosphere associated with auroral activity and our planets magnetosphere. The satellites will investigate the auroral electrojetan electric current that reaches into the magnetosphere and zips through the atmosphere at altitudes between 60 and 90 miles (97-145 km)to determine how and why it changes over time.

Jeng-Hwa Yee at the Johns Hopkins University will serve as the principal investigator.

Despite decades of research, we still dont understand the basic configuration of the electrical currents which are central to the interactions between Earth and the surrounding space, said Yee in a Johns Hopkins statement. This is a problem of universal importance since it applies to any magnetized body such as Mercury, Saturn and Jupiterbut it also has practical importance since these currents have a profound impact on our technologies in space and here on Earth.

Launch of EZIE is expected around June 2024.

We are very pleased to add these new missions to the growing fleet of satellites that are studying our Sun-Earth system using an amazing array of unprecedented observational tools, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a NASA statement.

Itll be years before we see the results of these missions, but its important that we do this space-based heliophysics, both for scientific and practical reasons. Research from 2017 suggested that a sufficiently powerful geomagnetic storm could cost the United States upwards of $40 billion per day as the result of damaged technology and global-scale blackouts.

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Two Upcoming NASA Missions Will Study Earth-Threatening Space Weather - Gizmodo

On a clear day, the towering peaks on Fogo, Santa Anto, and So Nicolau stand out amid the flatter islands of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde). These three volcanic islands, the tallest in the archipelago, stand high enough to generate rain shadow effects that support unique dry forests on some of the islands.

The height also helps these islands disturb passing air masses and clouds in a way that Theodore von Krman accomplished mathematician, aerospace engineer, and one of the Jet Propulsion Laboratorys founderslikely would have appreciated. The trails are called von Krmn vortex streets, a distinctive pattern that can occur when a fluid passes a tall, isolated, stationary object. In 1912, von Krmn was the first to describe the oscillating flow features in mathematical terms while he was working as a graduate assistant for the pioneering German fluid dynamicist Ludwig Prandtl.

Though a French scientist was the first to photograph the feature, von Krmns key insight was a mathematical proof demonstrating that staggered vortices were the most lasting flow pattern that such features can produce. I found that only the anti-symmetric arrangement could be stable, and only for a certain ratio of the distance between the rows and the distance between two consecutive vortices of each row, von Krmn later wrote about the discovery. In other words, the vortices are always offset and never line up.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra captured this image of the swirling trails of clouds on December 20, 2020. The dry forests appear slightly darker than the rest of the islands.

Von Krmn was a student at the University of Gttingen (Germany) when he made his insight about the vortices. He remained in Germany until 1930, with a three-year interruption to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army. Concerned about the rise of the Nazis in Germany, von Krmn accepted an offer to direct the new Daniel Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in 1930. That lab later became NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1958.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Adam Voiland.

Read more:

The Stability of von Krmn's Vortices - nasa.gov

MAGIC VALLEY After his original internship with NASA fell through because of the pandemic, Twin Falls native Carlos Munoz decided to take a different opportunity studying gravity waves with NASA, even though he had no background in atmospheric science.

"Approaching this project, I knew practically nothing regarding atmospheric science. I could look at the clouds and say those are pretty clouds, but now I learned about a completely new field of science. How to understand energy mechanisms in the atmosphere in a whole different way," Munoz said.

The research involved teams at the University of Idaho and other parts of the nation and South America. The groups launched high altitude balloons along the path of totality during a total solar eclipse; this helped them track the gravity waves to better predict and anticipate major weather events.

"If you ever look at the clouds and see Rolley and wavy clouds, that's evidence of gravity waves. They are what happens when hot air rises and falls in the atmosphere as it cools down, and it starts as a big wave in the atmosphere, like ripples in a pond," Munoz said.

Munoz and his team were in charge of analyzing those gravity wave measurements.

"And then we take that and say how does that affect the weather? How do we use that to improve the current climate models that meteorologists use to predict if it's going to rain tomorrow or any severe weather," Munoz said.

Understanding this data is not only essential to research teams, but to everyday people, Munoz says.

"You can better understand the weather. I mean, that's a big thing. You can help with timing crops. You can look at anything that weather directly affects and understand things like hurricanes better or severe weather better," Munoz said.

Munoz became involved in the project in June of last year and plans to be involved in the project until he graduates in May.

"For me, this has opened so many different doors. Like I said I've always had a passion for research, so working for an organization that's devoted to research is super big for me. It's given me tons of different opportunities," Munoz said.

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Twin Falls native works with NASA to study gravity waves - 6 On Your Side

The most interesting work, however, has to do with NASAs next-generation spacesuit for astronauts going to the moonthe eXploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or xEMU. It is ostensibly the successor to the spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and other Apollo astronauts when they set foot on the lunar surface half a century ago. But it also incorporates what weve learned through the EMUs used in orbit during the space shuttle and ISS eras of human exploration, as well as the hard lessons from Apollo. The goal behind Artemis is to have people living and working on the moon. New spacesuits will be critical to ensuring that the experience is safe and comfortable.

We are so excited about putting people back on the moon, says Richard Rhodes, a spacesuit engineer at NASA whos working on the xEMU. Our main goal is that the crew doesnt even think about us. They put the suit on, and they do their workthe science, the explorationand do not even think twice about how mobile they are or how effectively they can work. Thats a tall order, but were trying to get as close to that as possible. We want to be invisible.

Here are some of the biggest innovations we can expect out of xEMU.

When youre designing a spacesuit, you want it to move freely and efficiently, with the least amount of effort possible, so we can be as near to shirtsleeve mobility as possible, says Rhodes. The goal is to limit the amount of volume in the suit, because the more volume there is, the harder astronauts must to work to bend their joints, and that can quickly grow exhausting.

The solution is to use bearings, since they rotate around a single point and ensure a constant amount of volume. The old Apollo suits used bearings only in the arms, because it was basically a multipurpose suit (used for both launch and entry, as well as lunar exploration). It needed to be light enough to accommodate all these different situations, and too many bearings could have weighed it down.

The xEMU has bearings that are lighter and hew closer to the joints than ones used for previous EMUs. The ones at the shoulders should allow astronauts to reach outward and lift objects more easily while reducing risk of injury to the upper body. There are finally bearings at the waist, hips, thighs, and ankles, creating much greater mobility in the lower body. All of these together allow for very low-torque, low-energy mobility and motion, says Rhodes.

The suits also have a variable pressure system to give astronauts more flexibility when they need it. It should allow them to get ready more quickly in the suit when it's necessary, but also to lift materials or kneel down to study things when the situation calls for it.

NASA

The hip mobility bearings in particular are a big deal for moonwalking (no, notthatkind of moonwalking). Apollo astronauts werent spending a whole lot of time on the surface of the moon during their missions, and the time they did spend was largely to just get to know this new environment. They quickly found it difficult to walk around normally in microgravity, and they were also very careful to avoid any dangers.

With such limited hip mobility, striding just wasnt feasible. So they mostly shuffled; when they got more comfortable and more adventurous, they could manage a more loping gait to move faster. Trying to grab objects on the ground required an awkward lunge.

The xEMU is supposed to encourage normal walking as opposed to hopping, and make it easier to kneel down stably in one motion to work close to the groundwhich wasnt much of an option for Apollo astronauts. No more lunging for objects. This is going to make it much easier for astronauts to conduct worthwhile science on the ground, like examining geological samples or setting up complex instruments.

A huge lesson learned from Apollo was that lunar dust is terrible. The moons surface hasnt been exposed to the kind of weathering Earths geology has faced. As a result, the lunar soil is very coarse and jagged, and it sticks to everything (yeah, I know I soundlike Anakin Skywalker). It contaminates inner layers of the garment and any parts that are supposed to detach, and causes general wear and tear to the exterior of the suits.

So to avoid any exposed gaps, designers minimized components like zippers or wrist disconnects, as well as seams where dust could infiltrate. Were looking at more of a whole garment that goes over the entire assembly, with small features where you can still perform operational checks and disconnect things during a contingency, says Rhodes. Its like a whole shirt and whole pants thats all one piece, without breaks where dust can get inside. And for areas where there are breaks (like bearings), the team is working on developing and incorporating seals that should keep dust out.

NASA

The xEMU helmets offer a wider range of vision than the Apollo helmets, with onboard lights to help illuminate dark places. Theyll have a HUD (heads-up display) for astronauts to access important information on the go. High-definition shoulder cameras will help record journeys as if right from the astronauts own eyes.

The Snoopy caps used for communications are a pretty recognizable part of EMUs, but as most astronauts whove been on spacewalks can attest, they can quickly get drenched in sweat, and their microphones dont always work well after many hours of movement. The xEMU gets rid of the Snoopy cap for an audio system thats embedded into the suit, voice activated to automatically pick up sounds as theyre spoken.

A common complaint among any astronaut whos gone on an EVA is that the gloves are a menace. Their bulky layers mean you lose a lot of dexterity, and you also dont necessarily know how much pressure youre using when you grab something. Lack of circulation and the accumulation of moisture can lead to some nasty side effects, like brittle fingernails and even fungus. Gloves are not a new challenge, says Rhodes. Theres absolutely room for improvement.

The main improvements Rhodes and his team are working on for the xEMU is to make sure astronauts hands are protected from extreme temperature changes and dust, and that they can handle lunar material safely. NASA is also figuring out how to make it easier for them to do simple tasks like grasp tools and operate small equipment.

NASA

Back in 2014, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano was on a spacewalk when his suit began to leak water, flooding the helmet and nearly drowning him. Engineers later found that contamination had caused water from the cooling system to back uptrouble exacerbated by the fact that the water and cooling loops were in such close contact. So the xEMU now keeps those loops completely separate to avoid another such emergency from happening.

The xEMU also sports a new carbon dioxide scrubbing system that uses two different absorption beds (in this case, small cans made of lithium hydroxide that readily attract and trap carbon dioxide). While one is being used, the other can be exposed to the vacuum of space and emptied outso carbon dioxide is constantly scrubbed without forcing astronauts to come back inside to clean the absorption beds. The oxygen tanks are higher-pressure systems that should deliver oxygen for longer periods of time than Apollo suits did. The only limitation now for how long someone can stay in the suit, theoretically, is battery power.

Meanwhile, the xEMU is retaining some life support and safety features that are tried and true. Theres protection from micrometeorites based on a similar design for the current orbital EMUs. Theres also thermal protection to withstand the sharp temperature changes (from -250 F in the shade to 250 F under the sun).

Back in March 2019, NASA canceled plans for the first all-woman spacewalkbecause there werent enough correctly sized spacesuitsonly larger ones were available.

It was a tough lesson about the need to make sure that suits are designed properly to accommodate people of all sizes. The agency has decided that with the xEMU, theyre leaving nothing to chance. Each suit will be custom fitted to the height, size, and comfort of the individual astronaut and will aim to provide the broadest range of motion for activities on the moon. If a moonwalk is canceled this time, it wont be because the suits dont fit.Spacesuit design is still a work in progress, though. Theres not a lot of data on operation on the lunar surface, says Rhodes. Any kind of feedback will be fantastic. NASA intends to incorporate what it learns from the first few Artemis missions to improve the xEMU over and over againwith an eye toward making something that will work on Mars one day.

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Current spacesuits wont cut it on the moon. So NASA made new ones. - MIT Technology Review

You may have had the chance to see various types of fireworks throughout your life. But, have you seen a firework show in space? Well, if so, then lucky you. But if no, then worry not as today is your lucky day. NASA shared an image of a doomed super-massive star 7,500 light-years away named Eta Carinae or as the caption reads slow-motion firework show that lasted well over 150 years. If reading that has got you excited, wait until you see the picture. This is one informative and intriguing post that is bound to leave you amazed.

The official Instagram account of NASA shared this photograph on January 2. The text shared alongside the post describes what it depicts. Goodbye, 2020. Hello, 2021 Have you ever seen a slow-motion firework show that lasted well over 150 YEARS? Meet Eta Carinae, it reads.

The caption further goes onto state, Eta Carinae, shown here in a @NASAHubble image is a doomed super-massive star 7,500 light-years away that went through a Great Eruption in the 1840s that made it the second-brightest visible star in the sky for over a decade it was so bright that sailors at the time used it as an important navigational star in the southern seas.

Read the rest of the caption by checking out the entire post:

Since being shared on the photo and video sharing platform, this snapshot has captured netizens attention. It currently has over 9.4 lakh likes. The post has also amassed many comments.

Heres what Instagram users had to say about the share. One person said, So cool.

Another individual wrote, So incredibly beautiful. Very wonderful, read one comment under the post.

What are your thoughts on this share?

Also Read | NASA shares pics that unravel complexities of Earth from a cosmic vantage point

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NASA shares pic of slow motion firework that lasted over 150 years - Hindustan Times

FP TrendingJan 04, 2021 11:42:06 IST

NASA has said yes to two heliophysics missions to explore the Sun and will also observe the system that drives space weather near Earth. As per a statement by NASA, the Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission (EUVUST) and Electroject Zeeman Imaging Explorere (EZIE) will help scientists understand the Sun and Earth as an interconnected system. Scientists are of the opinion that understanding the physics that drive solar wind and solar explosions could in the future help them predict events, which in turn can impact human technology as well as explorers in space.

With these new missions, were expanding how we study the Sun, space, and Earth as an interconnected system, said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in a statement.

From the International Space Stations orbit 269 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia, this nighttime photograph captures the aurora australis, or "southern lights." Russia's Soyuz MS-12 crew ship is in the foreground and Progress 72 resupply ship in the background.Credits: NASA

The EUVST Mission is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in partnership with other international organisations. The EUVST is targeting a launch date in 2026. It is a solar telescope that will study how the sun's atmosphere releases solar wind and drives eruptions of solar material.

NASA's hardware contributions to the mission include an intensified UV detector and support electronics, spectrograph components, a guide telescope, software and a slip-jaw imaging system to provide context for the spectrographic measurement.

NASA's budget to the whole mission is $55 million and the principal investigator for the NASA contribution to EUVST is Harry Warren at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

The EZIE mission is made up of three Cubesats which will study electric currents in Earth's atmosphere linking aurora to the Earth's magnetosphere.

According to NOAA, the magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space. The magnetosphere is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetic field.

The total budget for the EZIE mission is $53.3 million and is slated to launch in June 2024. The principal investigator for the mission is Jeng-Hwa (Sam) Yee at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

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NASA gives nod of approval to two heliophysics missions that will explore Sun, space weather - Firstpost