NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC) is collaborating with Moon Express, Inc. to test the company's flight software on NASA's "Mighty Eagle" prototype robotic lander. The collaboration is intended to help foster the development of commercial lunar landers for future low-cost missions to the Moon.

Under the terms of a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement signed with Moon Express, NASA Marshall is providing its "Mighty Eagle" lander test vehicle and engineering team in support of a series of test flights to help validate the company's Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) flight software. Guidance algorithms developed by Moon Express will be integrated into the existing Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) Software on-board the Mighty Eagle and used to perform a flight test series. In return, Moon Express is reimbursing NASA Marshall for the cost of providing the test vehicle and technical support.

The collaborative test flight series is part of a larger Umbrella Agreement between Moon Express and MSFC for Moon Express hardware and testing support. Today the Mighty Eagle flew a "textbook" flight that helped validate Moon Express Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) flight software. This type of software is designed to tell the vehicle where to go and how to get there and is critical for an autonomous soft landing on the Moon. Moon Express GNC software ran in an open-loop mode on today's flight, operating in parallel to the NASA GNC software. Results from today's flight are an important, progressive step in a series of tests proving and validating Moon Express GNC algorithms that will culminate in a closed loop test on the Mighty Eagle next month.

"We are really excited to begin this new series," said Jason Adam, flight manager for the Mighty Eagle at the Marshall Center. "Working with Moon Express to help test their new software is a great example of the types of partnerships NASA is looking to build. By utilizing resources and expertise, we can gather data that will not only be used to better NASA's robotic lander program, but can help advance the commercial sector as well."

Moon Express Principal GNC Engineer Jim Kaidy was a member of the Mighty Eagle development team while at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, and Moon Express Chief Propulsion Engineer Tim Pickens supported the development of the Mighty Eagle rocket engines.

"Our partnership with NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center is key to our goal of landing the world's first commercial spacecraft on the Moon", said Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards. "We have benefitted from NASA's encouragement and support in every step of our growth and development and we look forward to the results of our flight software tests on the Mighty Eagle".

The collaboration involves a high level of integration and coordination between NASA and Moon Express engineers and is representative of NASA partnerships with the private sector to expand commercial space activities.

Moon Express is a leading contender in the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE and is headquarted at the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley with a Propulsion Development Facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The company has been collaborating with NASA for lunar lander development since 2010 when it established a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA Ames, providing Moon Express access to test facilities and NASA's innovative Common Spacecraft Bus designs currently being flight proven within the LADEE lunar orbiter spacecraft on its way to the Moon.

For images and information related to the MSFC Mighty Eagle program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lunarquest/robotic/13-069.html

Excerpt from:

NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center Collaborates With Moon Express for Commercial Robotic Lunar Lander Development

NASA's TRMM satellite found several areas of rain falling at a rate of over 50mm/2 inches per hour (red) when it passed over Manuel on Sept. 19. Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce.

Two NASA satellites observed Hurricane Manuel as it made landfall in northwestern Mexico and brought rainfall into southwestern Texas. NASA's TRMM Satellite measured Hurricane Manuel's rainfall from space and found areas where it was falling as fast as 2 inches per hour. NASA's Aqua satellite captured both visible and infrared images that revealed strong thunderstorms associated with Manuel's remnants were streaming northeast into Texas. Those rains are expected to continue to soaking central Texas through Sept. 21.

As predicted by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), tropical storm Manuel became a category one hurricane on Sept. 18. Manuel was an intensifying tropical storm that was located over the southern Gulf Of California with maximum wind speeds of about 50 knots/ 57.5 mph when the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called TRMM passed overhead on Sept. 18, 2013 at 1845 UTC/2:45 p.m. EDT. Manuel had intensified and was a minimal hurricane, hugging Mexico's coast, with wind speeds of about 65 knots/75.8 mph when seen again by TRMM on Sept. 19 at 0116 UTC/Sept. 18 at 9:16 p.m. EDT.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. TRMM data was used to create a rainfall analyses. TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data were overlaid on visible/infrared satellite images of Manuel from TRMM's Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). TRMM's TMI instrument provided the best coverage of Manuel during both orbits and found several areas of rain falling at a rate of over 50mm/2 inches per hour.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Manuel on Sept. 19 at 20:15 UTC/4:15 p.m. EDT and the MODIS instrument aboard captured a visible image of the storm, while the AIRS instrument viewed it in infrared light.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument's visible image of Manuel, clearly showed the center over northwestern Mexico, and associated clouds streaming into southwestern Texas. Meanwhile, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument measured the cloud tops of those thunderstorms and found them to be as cold as -63F/-52C. Cloud tops in thunderstorms that cold have the potential to drop heavy rain. Warmer cloud top temperatures were seen in the stream of moisture moving into southwestern Texas, indicating cloud tops were not as high, and the uplift was not as strong.

Manuel's extreme rainfall, with flooding and mudslides, caused extensive destruction in places such Acapulco near Mexico's Pacific coastline.

On Friday, Sept. 23, 2013 at 4:23 a.m. EDT, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Austin/San Antonio, Texas issued a Flood Watch for south central Texas and the Hill country as a result of Manuel's remnants streaming through. The NWS noted that heavy rainfall was expected from Sept. 20 through Sept. 21 across south central Texas and the hill country. Manuel's remnants were providing a steady supply of tropical pacific moisture that are combining with deepening gulf moisture and an approaching cold front. Those factors are expected to bring widespread showers and thunderstorms to south central Texas on Sept. 20 and 21, according to NWS. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are expected with isolated 6 inch amounts possible.

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NASA sees remnants of Hurricane Manuel soaking northern Mexico, Texas

The probe, with which NASA can no longer communicate, will ring the sun until it runs out of fuel.

NASA on Friday gave up on the Deep Impact spacecraft, which suddenly fell silent after nearly nine years of exploring comets.

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The U.S.spaceagency declared an end to Deep Impact, which in 2005 smashed a comet with a projectile to give scientists a peek of the interior. The spacecraft went on to rendezvous with two more comets.

Last month, engineers lost contact with Deep Impact and unsuccessfully tried to regain communications. The cause of the failure was unknown, but NASA suspects the spacecraft lost control, causing its antenna and solar panels to be pointed in the wrong direction.

University of Maryland scientists, who led the team, say the spacecraft lasted longer than they imagined and returned many discoveries about how comets formed.

During the mission, Deep Impact beamed back 500,000 images including of comet Ison, which could shine as bright as the moon when it makes a close approach in November.

Since there's no way for ground controllers to talk to Deep Impact, the spacecraft will continue on its path around the sun until it runs out of fuel.

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NASA declares its Deep Impact Probe finished

20 hours ago

ESA / NASA

An artist's conception show's a close-up look at NASA's comet-hunting Deep Impact spacecraft.

NASA's veteran Deep Impact spacecraft has chased its last comet.

The space agency declared Deep Impact dead Friday, six weeks after the last communication from the probe, which slammed an impactor into one comet and successfully flew by another icy wanderer during its long and productive life.

"Deep Impact has been a fantastic, long-lasting spacecraft that has produced far more data than we had planned," Deep Impact principal investigator Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland said in a statement. "It has revolutionized our understanding of comets and their activity." [Best Close Encounters of the Comet Kind]

Deep Impact launched in January 2005 on a mission to rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1. In July of that year, the spacecraft crashed an impactor into Tempel 1, allowing scientists to study the icy body's composition.

Deep Impact then flew by Comet Hartley 2 in November 2010, as part of a broad extended mission dubbed EPOXI (a combination of "Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization" and "Deep Impact Extended Investigation").

The spacecraft also observed Comet Garradd from afar from February to April 2012, then snapped its first photos of the potentially dazzling Comet ISON in January of this year. In addition, Deep Impact captured images of Earth, Mars and the moon and studied six separate stars to confirm the motions of their orbiting planets, NASA officials said.

Over the course of its operational life, the spacecraft beamed home about 500,000 images and traveled 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion kilometers) through deep space.

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NASA's Deep Impact craft dead

20 hours ago

ESA / NASA

An artist's conception show's a close-up look at NASA's comet-hunting Deep Impact spacecraft.

NASA's veteran Deep Impact spacecraft has chased its last comet.

The space agency declared Deep Impact dead Friday, six weeks after the last communication from the probe, which slammed an impactor into one comet and successfully flew by another icy wanderer during its long and productive life.

"Deep Impact has been a fantastic, long-lasting spacecraft that has produced far more data than we had planned," Deep Impact principal investigator Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland said in a statement. "It has revolutionized our understanding of comets and their activity." [Best Close Encounters of the Comet Kind]

Deep Impact launched in January 2005 on a mission to rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1. In July of that year, the spacecraft crashed an impactor into Tempel 1, allowing scientists to study the icy body's composition.

Deep Impact then flew by Comet Hartley 2 in November 2010, as part of a broad extended mission dubbed EPOXI (a combination of "Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization" and "Deep Impact Extended Investigation").

The spacecraft also observed Comet Garradd from afar from February to April 2012, then snapped its first photos of the potentially dazzling Comet ISON in January of this year. In addition, Deep Impact captured images of Earth, Mars and the moon and studied six separate stars to confirm the motions of their orbiting planets, NASA officials said.

Over the course of its operational life, the spacecraft beamed home about 500,000 images and traveled 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion kilometers) through deep space.

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NASA's comet-hunting Deep Impact spacecraft declared dead