Donald Trump badly wanted to be the president who sent Americans back to the moon. Instead, his administration has presided over Artemis, a lunar-landing program plagued by uncertain plans, unproven cost assumptions, and limited oversight, according to a new watchdog report. Pieces of the program, including the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, are billions of dollars over budget, years past deadline and poised to eat into NASAs more promising projects. As a result, the U.S. space agency will almost certainly miss its goal of landing Americans on the moon again by 2024.

President-elect Joe Biden inherits the task of deciding what to do next. He should focus on what has made the U.S. space program distinctive in recent years: the power of private competition.

As far back as 1989, presidents have been advocating for a return to Earths closest neighbor. The most ambitious effort, known as Constellation, began under George W. Bush in 2005, with the goal of putting Americans on the moon around 2020. It was a complex initiative that required the development of new hardware, including rockets and a space capsule now known as Orion.

By 2010, however, Constellation was so far behind schedule and over budget with no realistic prospect for success before the 2030s that President Barack Obama asked Congress to end funding for the program. In its place, Obama proposed a new initiative that retained the Orion capsule but aimed to take humans beyond the moon. It also added a new rocket, the Space Launch System (or SLS), partly based on hardware and designs dating back to the space shuttle.

The 14-year-old Orion capsule has flown exactly once (on a crewless 2014 test flight), while burning through a whopping $24 billion. The SLS hasnt fared much better: It has received more than $20 billion since 2011, cost estimates have risen by 33 percent in the past three years, and the rockets first scheduled launch originally set for 2017 has slipped to at least the end of next year.

Congress has chronically underfunded approved NASA programs, thereby stretching out deadlines and creating new expenses. Just as important is cost-plus accounting, a risk-averse way to pay for hardware development in which NASA reimburses a company Boeing Co. in the case of the SLS, Lockheed Martin Corp. in the case of Orion for all costs incurred, then layers a profit margin on top. Thats arguably a good way to encourage companies to take on risky new technologies. But it also means that the government bears all the risk of missed deadlines and rising costs.

A more efficient alternative is fixed-price contracts, in which a company keeps as profit whatevers left over after it completes its assigned task. The initiative has worked far better than anyone couldve expected. In a 2011 report, NASA expressed bewilderment that SpaceX, then a young upstart, managed to develop its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket for just $390 million as opposed to a likely cost of $1.7 billion to $4 billion under traditional cost-plus assumptions.

Come January, the Biden administration should take a similar approach to the troubled Artemis system. Step one should be eliminating SLS and Orion altogether in favor of cheaper private-sector alternatives. Advocates will argue that the costs sunk into those programs are simply too great to cut them now. But that mindset has been a loser for NASA for more than a decade. So long as NASA and its contractors dont fear the budget axe, theyll have few incentives to speed up the rate of innovation and project completion.

That doesnt mean the agency should suspend its lunar ambitions; if the U.S. wants to defend its traditional lead in space, getting back to the moon should be a priority. But it does need to change its approach. Currently, there are a number of Artemis elements being developed under fixed-price contracts, including future lunar landers. The new administration should use a similar approach with as many aspects of the project as possible, thereby harnessing the efficiency and inventiveness of private competition.

The delays are unlikely to be much greater than the ones already inhibiting Artemis. But the payoff for enduring them will be far richer, ensuring that American companies can start leading the way to distant frontiers.

Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade and Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale.

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Opinion: Biden will inherit a mess at NASA - Houston Chronicle

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

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The next SpaceX resupply launch to the International Space Station, scheduled for Sunday (Dec. 6), will carry a host of science gear to the astronauts living and working on the orbiting laboratory.

The robotic flight, called CRS-21, marks the 21st mission for SpaceX under its commercial cargo resupply services contract with NASA. Launch is scheduled for 11:17 a.m. EST (1617 GMT) on Sunday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and you can watch the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA. You can also watch directly via NASA TV or SpaceX.

SpaceX initially aimed to launch the CRS-21 cargo mission for NASA on Saturday (Dec. 5), but foul weather prompted a delay. "Due to poor weather in the recovery area for todays attempt, now targeting Sunday, December 6 at 11:17 a.m. EST for launch of CRS-21," SpaceX wrote in an update early Saturday morning. SpaceX plans to recover the mission's Falcon 9 booster for later reuse.

The upgraded Dragon cargo capsule that will launch atop a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is filled with 6,400 lbs. (2,903 kilograms) of supplies and science investigations. The research gear will support a variety of experiments in the life sciences, regenerative medicine and many other fields.

Related: How SpaceX's Dragon space capsule works (infographic)

Saturday's flight will mark the first time SpaceXs upgraded Dragon spacecraft will carry cargo. (Up until now, the advanced Dragon variant has solely carried astronauts.) The vehicle is a modified version of the Crew Dragon spacecraft that lacks the systems necessary for human missions, such as seats, cockpit controls and a life-support system, as well as the SuperDraco thrusters that provide a special emergency escape system that's only used if a problem occurs during launch.

This new Dragon allows more science to ride skyward. Costello explained that the interior of Dragon can now support more powered payloads, which is a huge benefit for the life sciences as it allows for more cold storage and other types of investigations. It also allows for the crew to store some of the powered payloads onboard Dragon while the craft is on orbit.

Several of the payloads on Dragon feature a unique piece of hardware called a tissue chip. Human cells and tissue grow on the chip scaffold, creating a 3D structure in microgravity that researchers can observe to learn more about how fundamental processes work in space, including aging and bone and muscle loss.

One such investigation, run by the University of Florida, will study how muscles atrophy in space. Sixteen samples of skeletal muscle will be sent to the space station, where the bundles of muscle tissue will be observed in microgravity. Half of the muscle samples were donated by younger, active individuals while the other half are from older, more sedentary volunteers.

Half of the samples in each group will be subjected to electric stimuli to see how the muscles contract in the absence of gravity. Researchers will use this experiment as a starting point for future research that will eventually test therapies to see if muscle degradation can be prevented.

Another payload will look at brain organoids created using stem cell technology. This investigation seeks to understand how microgravity affects the survival and function of brain cells, which could lead to advances in treatments for autism and Alzheimers disease, researchers said.

"Space travel mimics the effects of aging we see on Earth, only in a much shorter time span, making it easier to examine the processes that are taking place," Bill McLamb, chief scientist at Kentucky-based company Space Tango, told Space.com. "Its hard to study human brains in space, which is why these types of experiments are so beneficial."

The investigation will take stem cells and convert them into brain cells that will form three-dimensional structures called brain organoids. Stored in a special container called a well, these types of mini organs are able to mimic both the cellular variety and the function of the developing human brain.

This type of research could help NASA and its partners prepare for crewed missions to distant destinations such as Mars, which will expose astronauts to the rigors of space for long stretches, and also help combat degenerative brain disease here on Earth, researchers said.

A team of researchers from Stanford University will be looking at how engineered heart tissue behaves in microgravity. The Cardinal Heart investigation will send tissue samples that consist of cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts to study how changes in gravity affect the heart at the cellular level.

Researchers know that microgravity causes changes in the workload and shape of the human heart, but it's still unknown if these changes could become permanent if a person lived for long periods of time in space.

The project's tissue bundles will be affixed to tissue chips. The experiment's results could help identify new treatments and support development of screening measures to predict cardiovascular risk prior to spaceflight, team members said. Follow-on investigations will include therapies that could treat heart disease.

The HemoCue investigation will look at how white blood cells react in space. Here on Earth, doctors use the total number of white blood cells, as well as the various types observed, to diagnose illness. HemoCue will debut a new type of technology that will allow users to do white blood cell counts on orbit.

The goal is to test how well the device works in microgravity. If effective, it could be a valuable tool in an astronauts medical kit, researchers said.

Another payload called Micro-14 looks at how yeast, in particular Candida albicans, responds to the space environment. C. albicans is an opportunistic pathogen, capable of causing severe and even life-threatening illness in immunocompromised hosts. Micro-14 will evaluate how the yeast responds to microgravity, looking for changes at the cellular and molecular levels.

Since astronauts can become immunocompromised during spaceflight, researchers are especially interested in how best to predict the health risks from this organism. Previous research has shown that many microbes exhibit increased virulence in a microgravity environment, but more research is needed on this particular pathogen.

NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is spearheading a project that will take swab samples from various locations within the station to look at the relationship between bacteria and their metabolites (chemicals produced by bacterial growth). The project will help researchers better understand the distribution of microbes and metabolites within closed environments and how this distribution affects human health. The research could aid administrators of hospitals and nursing homes, where residents are often immunocompromised.

Related: SpaceX rocket launches for record 7th time, nails landing at sea

Sunday's launch marks the 101st flight overall for SpaceXs workhorse two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. The liftoff is expected to feature a veteran Falcon 9 first stage, designated B1058, that already has three flights under its belt. This frequent flyer previously launched SpaceX's Demo-2 mission, which sent two NASA astronauts to the space station this past summer, well as a communications satellite for the South Korean military and a batch of the companys own Starlink satellites.

Flying previously flown boosters has become commonplace for SpaceX, as the company continues to prove the Falcon 9's reliability. In fact, CRS-21 marks the 24th flight of 2020 for SpaceX, with the majority of those missions having flown on veteran rockets rather than brand-new ones.

To date, SpaceX has successfully landed its first-stage boosters 67 times. Now that the company has two fully operational drone-ship landing platforms "Of Course I Still Love You" and "Just Read the Instructions" in Florida, its able to launch (and land) more rockets. "Of Course I Still Love You" is already at the recovery zone waiting for its turn to catch B1058 when it returns to Earth shortly after liftoff.

Weather was a concern for SpaceX going into the weekend. Forecasts predicted iffy weather for a Saturday launch attempt, with the 45th Weather Squadron predicting a 50% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff. The primary concerns were thick clouds and cumulus clouds. The backup attempt on Sunday looks much better, with the forecast improving to 70% favorable on that day.

If all goes as planned, the Dragon will arrive at the station and dock at the Harmony modules space-facing port just over 24 hours after it blasts off.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:22 a.m. EST to include SpaceX's launch delay to Sunday, Dec. 6, due to bad weather.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Tissue chips and organoids: SpaceX is launching lots of science to space for NASA on Sunday - Space.com

Dec. 2: This article has been updated with information about additional observations completed by astronomers after it was published.

It was after midnight on Sept. 19 and Paul Chodas, the manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was working late, studying an object called 2020 SO that other astronomers had spotted in the night skies just the day before. Something about its orbit was peculiar.

The computer program he was working with showed that 2020 SO followed a nearly circular path just slightly outside our planets orbit. And the plane of the objects orbit was just barely tilted relative to Earths.

I was suspicious immediately, he said.

Out of curiosity, Dr. Chodas ran his simulation in reverse. With time dialing backward, he watched 2020 SO pass very near Earth in September 1966. Close enough that it could have originated from the Earth, he said.

At 1:12 a.m., Dr. Chodas acted on his hunch, and sent an email to fellow astronomers with a subject line of 2020 SO = Surveyor 2 Centaur r/b? In the months that followed, amateur skywatchers and professional astronomers alike have been tracking this specter with their telescopes, following what many now believe is a rocket booster that flew toward the moon more than 50 years ago during a failed NASA mission.

On Tuesday, the object, now temporarily orbiting Earth, made its closest pass. AScientists around the world took advantage of that alignment, and the new observations have revealed conclusive evidence that the dot on their monitors really is a ghost of the Cold War moon race.

Hopes were high when Surveyor 2 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (then known as Cape Kennedy), on Sept. 20, 1966. NASA designed the roughly one-ton lunar lander to collect images of the moon in preparation for the Apollo missions. It was following close on the heels of its successful predecessor, Surveyor 1, launched just a few months earlier, which had landed on the moon and returned over 11,000 images.

Surveyor 1 performed flawlessly, said Mike Dinn, then the deputy station director of Australias Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, where giant radio antennas communicated with the spacecraft during its journey. We fully expected Surveyor 2 to be a complete success.

But it wasnt the spacecraft crashed into the moon. Its death knell came roughly 16 hours after launch, when one of the three small engines attached to the spacecrafts legs failed to fire. The imbalanced thrust sent Surveyor 2 into a spin, and after 38 unsuccessful attempts to revive the engine it became clear that the mission could not be salvaged. Mr. Dinn and his colleagues at Tidbinbilla were the last people to communicate with the spacecraft.

(Five more Surveyor missions followed, and four were successful before NASA switched its focus to human exploration of the moon.)

Fast-forward 54 years. On Sept. 17, one of the Pan-STARRS telescopes near the summit of Haleakala on Maui, which search for asteroids and other objects that may pose a risk to Earth, recorded something moving across the sky. It traced out a small arc, which caught the attention of astronomers reviewing the data the next morning.

Whenever you see an object that moves in a slightly curved path in the sky, it has to be close, said Richard Wainscoat, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a Pan-STARRS team member.

Dr. Wainscoat and his colleagues reported their discovery to the Minor Planet Center, a clearinghouse for observations of asteroids, comets and other small bodies. On Sept. 18, the Minor Planet Center issued an announcement about the new object, naming it 2020 SO.

Within a few hours, Dr. Chodas was studying the object, and eventually poring over records of space launches in 1966 that aligned with the orbital path his computer program had mapped out. He quickly found Surveyor 2.

Although the robotic spacecraft was destroyed when it hit the moon, the second stage of the Atlas-Centaur rocket that carried it to space had been jettisoned a few minutes after launch. After flying by the moon, the roughly 25-foot-long cylindrical booster had disappeared into space.

In the email he sent to colleagues, Dr. Chodas explained his conclusion that 2020 SO was very likely the Centaur rocket booster from Surveyor 2.

Since September, scientists around the world have been investigating 2020 SO. Vishnu Reddy, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizonas Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and Adam Battle, a graduate student there, compared observations of 2020 SO with a known Centaur rocket booster orbiting just a few hundred miles above Earth.

The optical colors matched, Dr. Reddy said, but sealing the deal would require infrared observations of 2020 SO. At those wavelengths, its a slam dunk to compare objects compositions.

Theres very little ambiguity in the infrared, Dr. Reddy said.

The orbit of 2020 SO is also ever so slightly anomalous, deviating from what is expected based on gravity alone, said Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid dynamicist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That may shed light on its identity.

The cause of that irregularity is most likely the pressure exerted by solar radiation. Particles of sunlight photons have energy, and they exert a force when they collide with something, Dr. Farnocchia said. They cause a gentle push away from the sun.

The fact that 2020 SO is being shoved around by sunlight suggests that its something relatively large and low mass, like an empty rocket booster, as opposed to something small and massive, like a rocky asteroid.

Dr. Farnocchia compared the phenomenon with the wind.

If you have an empty soda can, youre going to move it much farther, he said. If you have a solid rock, its much harder to push it away.

In the last few weeks, scientists have been gearing up for a much closer look at 2020 SO. It was captured by Earths gravity in early November, and it made its closest approach to our planet on Tuesday. At that point, 2020 SO was about 27,400 miles away, or roughly one-tenth of the distance to the moon.

Dr. Reddy and his colleagues were waiting. Using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on the island of Hawaii, they captured an infrared spectrum of 2020 SO and compared it with the other Centaur rocket body they had already observed. Everything matched.

It was the ultimate apples to apples comparison, Dr. Reddy said.

And confirming its identity felt exciting, he added: Its something different. We look at rocks all the time.

In a few months, 2020 SO will escape Earths gravity and once again start to orbit the sun. But its not gone forever, Dr. Chodas said.

In 2036, its coming back.

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NASA Launched a Rocket 54 Years Ago. Has It Finally Come Home? - The New York Times

Read: The Voyager mission made the solar system a real place

More than 40 years ago, Gurnett designed and built one of the instruments on the Voyager mission that can sense such things. Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed in 2018. But the spacecraft actually havent left the solar system, despite many headlines over the years claiming that they have. This might seem, at first glance, a little contradictoryhow can something exist in the space between stars and within the solar system at the same time? Arent those two different things?

From our perspective, interstellar space begins when sun particles cant go any farther. The sun releases a steady current of high-energy particles in all directions, all the time, and this solar wind encompasses the planets, their moons, and other celestial bodies in a protective bubble called the heliosphere. Scientists had predicted that the breeze would stop where it met the cold particles of the interstellar medium, which is sprinkled with material left behind by supernovas, the deaths of other stars. But they didnt know exactly where this sphere of the suns influence stopped until 2012, when Voyager 1 detected the beginning of a different cosmic environment. Its not impossible, but its very difficult for solar plasmas to cross that boundary, Bill Kurth, a research scientist at the University of Iowa and Gurnetts co-author on the new findings, told me.

Read: Its easier to leave the solar system than to reach the sun

This is where the Voyagers are, beyond the heliosphere. Kurth once published a commentary in a science journal that said leaving the heliosphere was more or less the same as leaving the solar system. I was soundly criticized, he said, laughing. Because while the solar wind blows quite far120 astronomical units, with a single unit equal to the distance between the Earth and the sunour stars influence extends even deeper. Not through warmth, but through gravity.

The suns gravity can keep objects in its orbit far beyond where the heliosphere ends. As the Voyagers continue on their journey, eventually they will enter the Oort cloud, a region of icy objects past Pluto. Because those objects are gravitationally bound to the sun, they still count as ours. This is where the solar system truly endspast the far edge of the Oort cloud, which is somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 astronomical units away. Even though Voyager 1s out and beyond 150 astronomical units, its got a long, long ways to go before it gets beyond the Oort cloud, Kurth says. It will be another few hundred years before the Voyagers reach this region, and tens of thousands more before they pass through to the other side.

Read: When will the Voyagers stop calling home?

When the Voyagers launched in 1977, the notion of doing science so far from our own planet, out in interstellar space, was a distant thought. NASA was focused on swinging by our neighboring planets and moons to collect valuable data and beautiful pictures. After the grand tour, the spacecraft just kept going. In the years since, mission managers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory have turned off various components on the two spacecraft, from science instruments to heaters, rationing every watt of power to keep the machines going. Someday, engineers may be forced to turn off one of the elements that help the spacecraft communicate with Earth, a process that takes about 20 hours each way. Its a risky move. If it does work, then we gain two more watts, Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager project manager, told me last year. If it doesnt, then we lose the mission."

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The Voyagers Found a Small Surprise in Interstellar Space - The Atlantic

A misunderstood piece of space junk whizzed by Earth Tuesday (Dec. 1), but don't worry, it's just part of an old moon mission's rocket.

The object, nicknamed 2020 SO, was once thought to be an asteroid. But after its (re)discovery by the PAN-STARRS survey telescope, astronomers realized the mystery object's orbit didn't make sense for a rocky or icy world.

"We followed it quite a bit for the very first few days, once there was a possibility for it to be natural," Marco Michelli, an astronomer at the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, said in a statement.

But after a couple of weeks measuring its position, Michelli and his team realized the object had to be artificial. It was showing a lot of changes in its orbit due to the ongoing pressure of the solar wind, which sends particles streaming across the solar system. "It was too light to have formed naturally."

Astronomers eventually concluded the orbit matched the upper stage of the rocket for NASA's failed Surveyor 2 lander that was supposed to land on the moon in 1966. However, the mission failed after the rocket overshot the moon, and the rocket drifted into orbit around the sun.

Related: The strange story of 2020 SO: How an asteroid turned into rocket junk and the NASA scientist who figured it out

So why did the rocket show up now? The theory is the rocket was temporarily caught in Earth's gravity and will soon fly away from our planet again.

In the ongoing search for near-Earth asteroids, the rocket shows a bit of a blind spot in the zones where telescope surveys typically search, another ESA official added.

"In some ways it has been and is hiding in the boundary between near-Earth object and space debris searches, a search region where there are very few objects distributed over a large volume of space" Tim Flohrer, head of ESA's space debris office, said in the same statement.

"The life of this rocket part so far has similarities to an object called WT1190F, a small temporary satellite of Earth thought to be debris from the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission, that impacted in 2015. It is still to be assessed if this newly rediscovered object could return and re-enter Earths atmosphere one day."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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A piece of vintage NASA space junk from a 1966 moon mission just whizzed by Earth - Space.com

The Plutonium Pathway followed by Pu-238 used in the nuclear batteries that fuel NASA rovers.

The plutonium-238 that powers NASAs rovers on Mars crisscrosses the United States first on a tour of national laboratories.

Department of Energy officials outlined the path and process of manufacturing the Pu-238 for the Perseverance Rover that launched in July and is already about two-thirds of the way to the Red Planet.

Perseverance's nuclear heart completed its own journey of seven years and nearly 5,000 miles before finally meeting up with the rover at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said Matt Dozier, the host of DOEs Direct Current podcast.

NASA uses a solid-state nuclear battery, called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, instead of, say, solar arrays, so the rover can keep operating during dust storms and the Martian night. With a halflife of 90 years, Pu-238 can keep a craft powered for decades.

Whats the secret to their longevity? Dozier asks. Its not turmeric, or acai berries, or wheat germthe Mars rovers, and dozens of other NASA missions, run on a diet of pure plutonium-238.

The $75 million MMRTG produces about 110 watts of electricity from the heat of decaying PU-238.

Dozier interviewed DOE officials tasked with processing and securing the dangerous isotope during each step of its manufacture:

1 Idaho National Laboratory: The fuel begins its journey as neptunium-237, a by-product of nuclear reactors thats stored at Idaho National Laboratories. The Oak Ridge National Lab essentially calls up the Idaho National Lab and phones in a shipment, let's say, for neptunium, said Robert Wham, program manager for the Pu-238 Supply Program at Oak Ridge. We get neptunium on a just-in-time basis; its shipped to us, and then we do the chemical processing here.

2 Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Oak Ridge mixes the Np-237 with aluminum and bombards it with radiation in a reactor for 50 to 60 days. Some of the Np-237 turns into Pu-238, which Oak Ridge technicians separate, collecting plutonium as a powder. Oak Ridge also builds an iridium cladding that should keep the plutonium contained.

Oak Ridge National Laboratorys Chris Jensen peers through 4.5 feet of alternating lead and glass ... [+] layers into a hot cell where plutonium is separated from neptunium for NASA rover power systems.

One of the things that we worry about is that if there's an accident either during launch or shortly after launch, that when these generators come back to Earth, and they'll crash into Earth at very high velocities, very high speeds, said Easo George, an alloys expert who serves as the governors chair at the Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee. And we want to make sure that ifsuch a very low-probability eventbut if something like that were to happen, that the iridium would contain the plutonium fuel and prevent it contaminating areas around where it strikes.

3 Los Alamos National Laboratory: The Pu-238 then heads 1,400 miles west to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where technicians press it into ceramic pellets, heat it in a kiln, encapsulate it in the iridium cladding, and test it to NASAs standards. At that point:

It's silver in color, it's kind of round, about an inch tall, and it's fairly heavy because it is a dense material, said Jackie Lopez-Barlow, LANLs radioisotope power systems program manager. So if you were to hold it in the palm of your hand, it would take up about half the size of your palm of your hand. You wouldn't want to hold it in your hand, because it's extremely hot, about 400 Celsius.

4 Idaho National Laboratory: The fuel then hits the road again, returning to Idaho where the fuel clads will be inserted into nuclear-power systems built by Teledyne Energy Systems Incorporated and Aerojet Rocketdyne. INL performs more testing on the whole unit and then has to get the power system to Florida in time for NASAs launch window, when Earth and Mars are closest in their orbits, an event that occurs once every 26 months.

5 Kennedy Space Center: The 2,500-mile trip from Idaho to Florida happens via semi-trailer, supervised by the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration.

So those guys come up to our laboratory with their tractor, said Kelly Lively, INLs department manager for radioisotope power systems, and we would already have our power system inserted into a steel cask inside our transportation trailer which is a 52 foot long semi-trailer.

You know it's a nuclear payload being transported across several state lines, so it's kind of a sobering moment.

6 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: After the power unit is married to the rover at Kennedy, it takes a relatively short trip to the cape to enter the nose cone ofin Perseverences casean Atlas V rocket.

The Pu-238 is not weapons-grade, but that doesnt mean the Martians couldnt turn it to nefarious ends. It is still a proliferation risk, according to the World Nuclear Association:

In practical terms, there are two different kinds of plutonium to be considered: reactor-grade and weapons-grade.... The two kinds differ in their isotopic composition but must both be regarded as a potential proliferation risk, and managed accordingly.

Marvin the Martian holding an Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator. (Photo by Albert L. ... [+] Ortega/Getty Images)

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NASAs Plutonium Tours U.S. Before Heading To Mars - Forbes

What if you could hitch a ride on NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter? We may be stuck on Earth, but the space agency has given us the next best option: a new video flyover of Jupiter based on photos from Juno's recent flyby in June.

The stunning video, which is made up of 41 images captured on June 2, gives us a glimpse of what we'd see if we were able to fly around Jupiter ourselves, combining pictures taken from different angles as the spacecraft sped by the solar system's largest planet.

Throughout the video, we see zoomed-in views of Jupiter's upper atmosphere at Juno's closest approach, when the spacecraft was about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops, as well as zoomed-out views. At the spacecraft's closest point to Jupiter, the gas giant's powerful gravity sped the spacecraft up to an impressive 130,000 mph (209,000 kph) relative to the planet, according to a NASA statement.

In photos: Juno's amazing views of Jupiter

Citizen scientist Kevin Gill created the video with data from Juno's JunoCam, which digitally projects images onto a sphere with a virtual "camera," giving us these beautiful views of Jupiter. These pictures were taken between 5:47 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. EDT (0947 and 1125 GMT) on June 2 as the spacecraft made its 27th close flyby of the planet.

Juno launched in 2011 and, after a five-year trek through space, reached Jupiter in July 2016. The spacecraft circles the solar system's largest planet taking data so we can understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Since its first flyby, Juno has provided incredible information about the planet, including an up-close look at Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a giant storm swirling through the planet's atmosphere.

Though the spacecraft was meant to take a dive into Jupiter's atmosphere in 2018, NASA has extended its mission through 2021.

Follow Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Fly over Jupiter in this stunning video from NASA's Juno spacecraft - Space.com

Space technology and prepared foods developed for astronauts will also help keep Americans safe this Thanksgiving, as many prepare for a socially distanced family meal.

While the holidays may be a bit different this year, the video cameras used for virtual family dinners stem from tools that were originally developed in part by NASA. In fact, the space agency first modernized conference calling for the purpose of spaceflight, according to a statement from NASA.

More importantly, the packaged food system formally known as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system developed for astronauts on the Gemini and Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s is used commercially today to ensure food safety and reduce foodborne illnesses.

Video: Food on Thanksgiving table is safer because ... space travelThanksgiving in space 2020: Here's what astronauts will eat in orbit (video)

"It's one of these things where we maybe don't appreciate the benefits, we just take them for granted now, because HACCP is so ingrained in how we produce food," Alice Johnson, vice president of food safety and quality at Butterball Turkey LLC., said in the statement.

The HACCP system was originally developed in the early 1960s by Paul Lachance NASA's first flight food and nutrition coordinator and Howard Bauman, a microbiologist at Pillsbury. Their efforts were focused on eliminating potential hazards during the food production process to ensure safe food was manufactured for astronauts.

However, in addition to helping astronauts, the HACCP has helped improve food safety around the world. Following an outbreak of the food-borne illness botulism in 1971, canned food companies started following HACCP regulations. Soon thereafter, the same protocols were implemented for meat, poultry, seafood and juice industries. And, with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, all U.S. food producers and foriegn imports that register with the FDA must meet regulations originally established by the HACCP, according to the statement.

NASA recipe: How to make space cornbread dressingRelated: Space food photos: what astronauts eat in orbit

Implementing the HACCP system may vary across different food industries. For example, checkpoints at a Butterball plan may look for "farm residue," or pesticides, and ensure that refrigeration is below a certain temperature, whereas checkpoints at an Ocean Spray plant focus on filtration and metal detection. In addition, an important aspect of the HACCP is keeping meticulous records, which makes FDA inspections more effective.

"It takes a team of quality assurance folks, engineers, and scientists to identify critical control points for safety and quality," Katy Latimer, vice president of research and development for Ocean Spray, said in the statement.

Since HACCP was originally developed for astronauts, the system has helped to prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses linked to unsafe practices, as well as ensure safe meals on Thanksgiving, and all year round, NASA officials said.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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How NASA tech helped make your Thanksgiving food safe (and your family Zoom sessions, too) - Space.com

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as Nasa, has said they will be there when one of last nights Toy Show stars is ready.

Adam King, from Cork, won the hearts of the nation following his appearance on Fridays Late Late Toy Show.

Adam told host Ryan Tubridy that his dream is to become CAPCOM - capsule communicator or captain of ground control - at Nasa.

Ground control has since responded to Adam, with Nasa tweeting: Adams kind heart and adventurous spirit inspires us.

Theres space for everybody at NASA, and we cant wait for him to one day join our team of dreamers. Well be here when hes ready.

The Irish Embassy in the US had said they would reach out to Nasa and see if they can't help bring your dreams a little closer.

Adams kind heart and adventurous spirit inspires us.

Theres space for everybody at NASA, and we cant wait for him to one day join our team of dreamers. Well be here when hes ready. pic.twitter.com/WJCzue9O13

And that wasnt the only space shout out for the 6-year-old. Famed astronaut Chris Hadfield - who has completed three flights into space - also reached out on social media.

Adam - Ive been lucky enough to CAPCOM many spaceflights. We should talk space together. Take care, be good.

Adam - Ive been lucky enough to CAPCOM many spaceflights. We should talk space together. Take care, be good - Chris@RTELateLateShow https://t.co/XacYA9ncKT

And the space community werent finished yet!

The European Space Agency reached out to the Late Late team for Adams details so they could send some spacey goodies.

Plenty of other figures also came forward, including Nasa Astronaut Shane Kimbrough who said he was inspired by Adam.

Aeronautical engineer Dr Nora Patten said she would love to meet Adam, calling him a star while former astronaut Daniel Tank added: We need more Irish talent in the space program - Im behind you 100%!

Speaking to the Irish Examiner on Saturday, Adams father David said they had been humbled by the reaction to his appearance.

It came across that Adam was just being himself on the show. The outpouring of emotion, not just from Ireland, but from all over the world has been incredibly humbling, he said.

"I don't think it's hit home with us yet, the meaning of it."

David said they have Nora Patten and Chris Hadfield's books at home, and they are well worn and well-read.

"Our children would genuinely aspire to be like them. We are fortunate that we can see the International Space Station fly over our house, we can get the telescope out and see Mars and Venus in the sky because we live in the countryside.

He said that Adam and his siblings would jump at the chance to work with NASA and the European Space Agency.

Adam was surprised by Temple Street porter John Doyle on last night's, who Adam said was his friend who gave him presents when he attended the hospital.

Adams joy at seeing John was, for many, a highlight of the 2020 Toy Show.

John said Adam has an infectious smile and he brings the best out of people while Adam said that John is one of his heroes, with John replying in kind.

I am actually humbled that Adam is my friend, John said.

Who needs a (virtual) hug from Adam King right about now?#LateLateToyShow pic.twitter.com/4pMqwpEty6

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Nasa tells Toy Shows Adam 'we cant wait for him to one day join our team of dreamers' - Irish Examiner

A giant metallic asteroid, about three times farther away from the sun than the Earth, has caught the attention of scientists and astronomers across the planet since 1852 - but now NASA has plans to travel to the rare, expensive find.

Scientists wonder whether this asteroid, named 16 Psyche, could be an exposed core of an early planet, once possibly as large as Mars, that lost its rocky outer layers after countless collisions billions of years ago. Scientists have numerous other theories for how 16 Psyche could have formed.

Astronomers have studied 16 Psyche in visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as radar, and have found that the asteroid's shape somewhat resembles a potato.

The extremely valuable piece of space debris, which is one of the most massive objects floating in our solar system's asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is said to be worth an astounding $10,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is $10 quintillion, a financial amount greater than the world's total gross domestic product (GDP).

The reason this intriguing asteroid is worth so much money is that it is unlike most other asteroids that have rocky or icy bodies, NASA said. Scientists believe the asteroid is composed mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth's core.

"We've seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel," Tracy Becker, a researcher with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said in a statement. Becker was an author of a study on the asteroid that published earlier this fall.

This means this asteroid may represent a scale model of the Earth's core as it existed during planetary accretion, before gaining enough mass to become a planet. Psyche is the only known metallic corelike body currently floating close enough for us to access, according to Extreme Tech.

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"What makes Psyche and the other asteroids so interesting is that they're considered to be the building blocks of the solar system," Becker said.

The asteroid travels around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles from the sun. Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit of the sun, but only a bit over four hours to rotate once on its axis (a Psyche "day"), NASA explained.

Observations indicate that its dimensions are 173 miles by 144 miles, by 117 miles. Its average diameter is about 140 miles - about 1/16 the diameter of Earth's moon or about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego.

NASA is planning to launch a spacecraft to study the asteroid in 2022. However, it will be several years beyond that until researchers learn more specific details about the asteroid because the spacecraft won't arrive until early 2026.

"The Psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate a world of metal rather than of rock and ice," the NASA website says. "Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets."

With a planned orbit that will last for 21 months, the spacecraft will map and study 16 Psyche's properties to understand whether Psyche is a core or unmelted material, as well as charting the topography of the asteroid and determine how it was formed in comparison to the Earth. They hope studying the asteroid will help them better understand Earth's core.

"To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating. Once we get to Psyche, we're really going to understand if that's the case, even if it doesn't turn out as we expect. Any time there's a surprise, it's always exciting," Becker said.

Studying 16 Psyche could provide the opportunity to learn more about an object that is akin to the inside of planets like Earth and unveil secrets of the solar system, researchers say.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

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NASA planning first-of-its-kind mission to rare asteroid - Yahoo News

In this annotated illustration, the location of the Perseverance rovers entry, descent, and landing microphone is shown. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The first to be rigged with microphones, the agencys latest Mars rover picked up the subtle sounds of its own inner workings during interplanetary flight.

A microphone aboard NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has recorded the sounds of the spacecraft as it hurtles through interplanetary space. While another mic aboard the rover is intended specifically to listen for the laser zaps of the SuperCam instrument, this one is devoted to capturing some or all of the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence from the firing of the mortar that releases the parachute to the Mars landing engines kicking in to the rover wheels crunching down onto the surface.

Data for the 60-second audio file was collected on October 19 during an in-flight checkout of the camera and microphone system that will pick up some of the landing drama at Mars Jezero Crater early next year.

You can listen to the sound file here:

The subdued whirring you hear is from the rovers heat rejection fluid pump. Located at the rear-starboard side of the Perseverance, the pump is part of the rovers thermal system, which will help maintain operational temperatures for vehicle components on even the coldest of winter nights. It does its job by circulating fluid through a heat exchanger mounted adjacent to the always-toasty Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator and then into a network of tubes spread throughout the rovers chassis.

With apologies to the person who came up with the slogan for Alien, I guess you could say that in space no one may be able to hear you scream, but they can hear your heat rejection fluid pump, said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020s EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem. The microphone we included to hear what its like to land on Mars was actually able to pick up Perseverances thermal system operating in the vacuum of space through mechanical vibration.

In this annotated illustration, the location of the Perseverance rovers entry, descent, and landing microphone is shown. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As any fan of cinematic sci-fi knows, the vacuum of space is a less-than-optimal environment for auditory transmissions. But that doesnt mean sound cant find another way. Sound waves can travel through solid objects. When these mechanical vibrations are registered by an electrical component, they sometimes are turned into an electrical signal. (Anyone listening to music through in-ear headphones may have encountered this phenomenon as a rustling or thumping noise when the headphone cord brushes up against a surface.)

The sound file was processed by DPA Microphones of Alleroed, Denmark, which manufactured the EDL microphone hardware flying on Mars 2020.

As great as it is to pick up a little audio on spacecraft operations in-flight, the sound file has a more important meaning, Gruel added. It means that our system is working and ready to try to record some of the sound and fury of a Mars landing.

An electrical cable can be seen snaking its way along insulation material in this in-flight image of the interior of the Mars 2020 spacecraft on its way to the Red Planet. The picture was assembled using three images taken by the Perseverance rovers rear left Hazcam during a systems check on October 19, 2020. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The EDL microphone was not tailor-made for this mission or space exploration and the team does not know quite what to expect from their sound files of landing day.

Getting sound from landing is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have, said Gruel. If it doesnt happen, it will not impede the rovers mission of discovery at Jezero Crater one bit. If even a portion of the landing sequence is captured on audio, that would be awesome.

Humanitys most sophisticated rover is traveling to the Red Planet with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Together, they will enter the Martian atmosphere on Feb. 18, 2021, at 12:47 p.m. PST (3:47 p.m. EST) and will touchdown at Jezero Crater 410 seconds later.

A key objective of Perseverances mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planets geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASAs Artemis lunar exploration plans.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

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Hear Subtle Sounds NASA's Perseverance Picked Up As It Travels Through Deep Space on the Way to Mars - SciTechDaily

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Giving thanks to NASA this Thanksgiving - AZFamily

The "Rest and Be Thankful" target is located up and to the left of the image center. This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2951. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image

We're planning four Martian days covering sols 2954 through 2957 ahead of the U.S. holiday break. Holidays, for me, are times to celebrate, reflect, or mourn. For some, it can be all three at once. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, I'd like to share a quote from Paula Peters of the Mashpee Wampanoag: "We are still here to acknowledge them, learn from them, talk about them, and give gratitude to the creator for them." While the "them" was in reference to the material objects from their culture that endures to this day, I think "them" can also mean our loved ones past and present.

Today, the science team reflected on the rocks on one of the many "benches" we're traversing over on our way to significant sulfate outcrops identified from orbit. Over the planning sols, we'll take five ChemCam observations named after the Scottish locations "Achnagarron" ("Field of the Geldings"), "Achnaha" ("Field by the Stable"), "Achnacarry" ("Field by the Wier"), "Achininver" ("Field by the River Mouth"), and "Achnasau" ("Field with the Barns") along with Mastcam documentation images of each. Additional observations include a Mastcam mosaic "along strike" (i.e. in the direction of the rock bedding plane) to the bench and a distant ChemCam RMI mosaic of the sulfates ahead. Before we drive off on sol 2956, the appropriate "Rest and Be Thankful" target, named after an actual location where hikers stopped in Scotland, will be cleaned by the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) and measured with APXS. Afterwards, we'll continue to drive ~75 meters towards the sulfates and take a Mastcam mosaic of the arm workspace in front of the rover, a Navcam cloud search movie, and a MARDI image looking at the rocks underneath the rover.

I recommend being like that target and "rest and be thankful" for the coming week.

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Sols 2954-2957: Rest and Be Thankful NASA's Mars Exploration Program - NASA Mars Exploration

Scientists used data gathered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during 13 years of exploring the Saturn system to make detailed images of the icy moon - and to reveal geologic activity.

New composite images made from NASA's Cassini spacecraft are themost detailed global infrared views ever produced of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Anddata used to build those images provides strong evidence that the northernhemisphere of the moon has been resurfaced with ice from its interior.

Cassini'sVisible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) collected light reflected off Saturn, its rings and itsten major icy moons - light that is visible to humans as well as infrared light.VIMS then separated the light into its various wavelengths, information that tellsscientists more about the makeup of the material reflecting it.

The VIMS data,combined with detailed images captured by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem,were used to make the new global spectral map of Enceladus.

Cassiniscientists discovered in 2005 that Enceladus - which looks like a highly reflective,bright white snowball to the naked eye - shoots out enormous plumes of icegrains and vapor from an ocean that lies under the icy crust. The new spectralmap shows that infrared signals clearly correlate with that geologic activity,which is easily seen at the south pole. That's where the so-called "tiger stripe"gashes blast ice and vapor from the interior ocean.

Infrared images of Enceladus were used to make this interactive 3D globe. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/LPG/CNRS/University of Nantes/Space Science Institute

But some of thesame infrared features also appear in the northern hemisphere. That tellsscientists not only that the northern area is covered with fresh ice but thatthe same kind of geologic activity - a resurfacing of the landscape - has occurredin both hemispheres. The resurfacing in the north may be due either to icy jetsor to a more gradual movement of ice through fractures in the crust, from the subsurfaceocean to the surface.

"Theinfrared shows us that the surface of the south pole is young, which is not asurprise because we knew about the jets that blast icy material there,"said Gabriel Tobie, VIMS scientist with the University of Nantes in France and co-authorof the new research published in Icarus.

"Now,thanks to these infrared eyes, you can go back in time and say that one largeregion in the northern hemisphere appears also young and was probably activenot that long ago, in geologic timelines."

Managedby NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Cassini was anorbiter that observed Saturn for more than 13 years before exhausting its fuelsupply. The mission plunged it into the planet's atmosphere in September 2017,in part to protect Enceladus, which has the potential of holding conditionssuitable for life, with its ocean likely heated and churned by hydrothermalvents like those on Earth's ocean floors.

TheCassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the EuropeanSpace Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech inPasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate inWashington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini can be found here:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/cassini

News Media Contact

Grey Hautaluoma / Alana JohnsonNASA Headquarters, Washington202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / Alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

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Infrared Eyes on Enceladus: Hints of Fresh Ice in Northern Hemisphere - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA is going to be testing a new precision landing system designed for use on the tough terrain of the moon and Mars for the first time during an upcoming mission of Blue Origins New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket. The Safe and Precise Landing Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) system is made up of a number of lasers, an optical camera and a computer to take all the data collected by the sensors and process it using advanced algorithms, and it works by spotting potential hazards, and adjusting landing parameters on the fly to ensure a safe touchdown.

SPLICE will get a real-world test of three of its four primary subsystems during a New Shepard mission to be flown relatively soon. The Jeff Bezos -founded company typically returns its first-stage booster to Earth after making its trip to the very edge of space, but on this test of SPLICE, NASAs automated landing technology will be operating on board the vehicle the same way they would when approaching the surface of the moon or Mars. The elements tested will include terrain relative navigation, Doppler radar and SPLICEs descent and landing computer, while a fourth major system lidar-based hazard detection will be tested on future planned flights.

Currently, NASA already uses automated landing for its robotic exploration craft on the surface of other planets, including the Perseverance rover headed to Mars. But a lot of work goes into selecting a landing zone with a large area of unobstructed ground thats free of any potential hazards in order to ensure a safe touchdown. Existing systems can make some adjustments, but theyre relatively limited in that regard.

SPLICE is designed to enable more exact landings, and ones that can deal with more nearby hazards, enabling exploration in areas that were previously considered off-limits for landers. That could greatly expand our ability to gain more knowledge and better understanding of the moon and Mars, which is particularly important as we continue to work toward more human exploration and even potential colonization.

The lidar system mentioned above is a key new ingredient in these SPLICE tests, as we dont actually know in great detail how well lidar will perform with the terrain on Mars and the moon, where reflectivity could be quite different from what it is here on Earth within our own atmosphere. Still, NASA is confident it should provide much better precision than radar-based methods for surface mapping and feature detection.

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NASA to test precision automated landing system designed for the moon and Mars on upcoming Blue Origin mission - TechCrunch

TAMPA, Fla. NASA's annual hackathon is now virtual because of the pandemic. It's happening the first weekend of October, wherever you are!

The theme of the 2020 International Space Apps Challenge is "Take Action." Organizers say it's a reminder of the difference we can all make in the world, even from our own homes. Teams will be given data from NASA and other space agencies around the world to solve challenges like how to sustain our planet or how to create a global internet network.

Even though this is an international competition, Space Apps is broken into local groups. The closest to us is Tampa. You can sign up individually or as a team of two to six people. You can register now.

The competition starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3. The hackathon ends at midnight Sunday, Oct. 4. Awards will be given to the most promising projects.

What other people are reading right now:

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NASA needs your help to solve some of the world's biggest problems - WTSP.com

A satellite spotted several tropical storms and dozens of wildfires ravaging the United States together in one image.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured six tropical storms and more than 100 different U.S. wildfires in a single photo snapped on Tuesday (Sept. 15). The wildfires, which have particularly scoured California, have now burned about 4 million acres (over 16,000 square kilometers) across 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. When the photo was taken, there were six named storms total Sally off the Gulf Coast, Paulette, Rene, Teddy and Vicky in the Atlantic Ocean and Karina in the Pacific.

While "satellite images are generated every single day, in fact multiple times from multiple satellites," NASA said in a statement, "it is still very unusual to capture an image of so many hazards in one image."

Related: No, we can't control hurricanes from space

In the image, you can see Hurricane Sally making landfall on the Gulf Coast overnight on Sept. 15, where it brought extreme flooding. The red spots in the image show the areas across the country where significantly higher temperatures indicate fires.

On the left of the image, you can see Hurricane Karina in the Pacific. In the Atlantic, on the right of the image, are several other tropical storms. Then-Hurricane Paulette, for one, can be seen nearing Bermuda with winds as high as 74 mph (119 kph), though it is not expected to hit land, according to NASA. In the lower right-hand corner of the image, you can see Hurricane Teddy, swirling east of the Leeward Islands. Teddy also has winds reaching 74 mph (119 kph).

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Tropical storms and billowing wildfire smoke rage in the same NASA satellite photo - Space.com

Southern University has signed onto a mentoring program with aerospace giant Boeing that will get students involved in work with NASA on the program that will send astronauts into space.

For Southern, it's a chance to get students job experience and exposure.

"We're looking at focusing more on the aerospace industry and getting our students prepared to work there," said Samuel Washington, director of the office of governmental contracting services.

While Southern does not have a specific aerospace engineering degree track, the university is looking to develop a focus on it within the engineering college, Washington said.

The18-month "mentor-protg" agreement will involve work on NASAs Space Launch System program. The SLS is the worlds most powerful rocket, and is capable of launching missions "to the moon, Mars and beyond," according to a press release.

There are already a number of Southern engineering alumni working with Boeing and NASA at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Cedric Cole is one of four alumni currently working on the SLS. He believes the mentorship program is a great opportunity for students to work on anything of any magnitude at NASA.

"Its the exposure that theyll get that will set them up for the rest of their career," he said. "The amount of intense engineering that goes on here, itll set you up to work in almost any industry."

Cole and his colleagues are electrical and avionics engineers who work on wiring harnesses, programming and troubleshooting the rockets.

"The fact that youre using 3-D and 2-D modeling software and then there's the physical aspect of it where you get to physically touch the wiring harnesses and the connectors and being able to have the hands-on experience will set anybody up in engineering.

Dr. Washington said the mentorship program is an opportunity to further the progress of Black people in aerospace engineering.

In 2017, NASA increased its hiring of Black engineers by 12 percent, according to that year's Federal Viewpoint Survey. The aerospace engineering industry, especially at NASA has had a steady increase in diversity over the last 20 years.

Boeing has enjoyed a productive relationship with Southern University that will only be enhanced by this NASA Mentor-Protg agreement, said John Shannon, Boeing SLS vice president and program manager, in a press release. The Mentor-Protg program allows Boeing to promote the growth of small suppliers and strengthen the NASA industrial base.

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Southern signs mentorship agreement with Boeing, NASA for work on moon, Mars rockets - The Advocate

New images from data provided by the Cassini spacecraft provide evidence that Saturn's moon Enceladus has been resurfaced with ice from the interior.

Composite images were reconstructed using the NASA spacecraft's monitoring data - gathered over 13 years of exploring Saturn and its moons - to map out the geologic activity on the icy satellite Enceladus.

(Photo: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute via Wikimedia Commons )This spectacular view is a mosaic of four high-resolution images taken by the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 16, 2005, during its close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The infrared mapping of the icy Saturn moon was taken through the Cassini Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). This instrument collected the light that bounces off Saturn, its ring systems, and its ten major moons. The collected light includes those that are most visible to the human eye, as well as its infrared emissions.

VINS, onboard the Cassini, then sorts the light gathered based on its wavelength - which also gave scientists an idea of the materials detected by the satellite-based on the discrepancies of the light wavelengths reflected off of it.

RELATED:NASA On Saturn: The Final Chapter Of Cassini

The research team that handles Cassini data discovered that Enceladus "shoots out enormous plumes of ice grains and vapor from an ocean that lies under the icy crust" in 2005, according to a NASA news release.

A new interactive model from NASA shows infrared images corroborate with the previously inferred geologic activity, which is more distinguishable at the moon's south pole. In the composite images, the so-called "tiger stripe," marked by red lines of varying lengths, represent the ice and vapor coming from the ocean below the surface.

The same infrared features were also noted in the northern hemisphere, which tells the Cassini scientists that the northern part of Enceladus is covered with fresh ice. Furthermore, it strongly suggests that the same kind of geologic activity that created ice and vapor in the south also occurs in the northern hemisphere. The smaller amounts of ice and vapor in the northern hemisphere, according to NASA, might be caused by either icy jets or the gradual movement of ice through fractures in Enceladus' crust.

"The infrared shows us that the surface of the south pole is young, which is not a surprise because we knew about the jets that blast icy material there," said VIMS scientist Gabriel Tobie, from the University of Nantes in France.

The Cassini-Huygens space-research mission was first launched in October 1997. It included the Cassini orbiter, which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) located in Southern California, and the Huygens lander that probed the ringed planet's largest moon - Titan. The European Space Agency provided the Huygens probe, which analyzed Titan's atmospheric structure as well as its surface as it landed via parachute. The data collected by the probe was transmitted through a radio link to Cassini, through a probe data relay subsystem (PDRS).

RELATED: Engineers from the European Space Agency Solves the Huygens Probe Mistery

Cassini-Huygens was a collaboration between the United States' NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency.

Cassini has observed Saturn for more than 13 years. Once it ran out of fuel, and to protect Saturn and its moons from damage, moved to finish its mission by plunging into Saturn's atmosphere in September 2017, continuously transmitting data to the NASA JPL up until the end.

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NASA on Enceladus - Infrared Mapping Reveals Fresh Ice on Northern Hemisphere - Science Times