NEW FROM NASA
See the latest NASA news and media releases at:
Latest News Releases: https://www.nasa.gov/news/releases/latest/index.html
Media Contact Info: https://www.nasa.gov/news/media/info/index.html
JPL News: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news
Two Outstanding NASA Leaders Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom! President Biden presented our Nation’s highest civilian honor to Dr. Ellen Ochoa, whose 30-year career with NASA included service as the first Hispanic woman astronaut (STS-56, STS-66, STS-96, and STS-110), as director of Flight Crew Operations, and the director of the Johnson Space Center. Also receiving the Medal of Freedom was Dr. Jana Rigby, the James Webb Space Telescope Operations Project Scientist. Pages of A+StW are replete with the amazing results of this wonderful scientific instrument! For more information about these extraordinary (even by NASA standards) women, see: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/former-nasa-center-director-scientist-to-receive-presidential-medals. Congratulations to both!
NASA’s Six New Innovative Tech Concepts have been selected for additional development funding by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. NIAC is one of the reasons NASA can seem to do the impossible for the benefit of us all. The ideas sound like science fiction: a Space telescope that uses a fluid shaped by ionic liquids as its mirror; a pulsed plasma rocket that could significantly reduce Earth-Mars travel time; an orbital radio telescope comprising thousands of SmallSats; an advanced Radioisotope Thermal Generator; a lunar maglev railway system; and a solar sail with quantum dot sensors for exploration of the outer Solar System. What an exciting time to be alive!
CADRE of Mini-robots Moon-Bound:Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration is technology demonstration project involving a number of small robots to be landed on the Moon, where they will explore the landing area collectively, without direct guidance from Earth. The robots will take images of the surface, map the area in which they are collectively operating, and utilize ground-penetrating radar to explore the lunar subsurface. “The goal is to show that a group of robotic spacecraft can work together to accomplish tasks and record data as a team without explicit commands from mission controllers on Earth. If the project succeeds, future missions could include teams of robots spreading out to take simultaneous, distributed scientific measurements, potentially in support of astronauts.” For more information, see: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-network-of-small-moon-bound-rovers-is-ready-to-roll.
Ingenuity Ain’t Done Yet! NASA never seems to run out of ingenuity, so it’s only appropriate for Ingenuity to never run out on NASA! The helicopter Ingenuity was carried to Mars aboard the Perseverance rover. It was designed to be a demonstration experiment of the potential for vertical flight in Mars’ very thin atmosphere, but it worked far, far beyond expectations. Its initial plan was to make five short flights over its first 30 days on Mars, but it ended up making 72 flights in a 1000 or so days, serving as an advanced scout for the team planning Perseverance’s movements. Its success is showing the way for a possible future Mars helicopter, and the newly-approved Dragonfly helicopter mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan.
Ingenuity’s 72nd flight ended in a rough landing that damaged its rotor system at a place named “Valinor Hills,” making it impossible for it to fly again. However, a software update sent to Mars before the damage will allow it to make and store photographic, temperature, and other data for about 20 years. Ingenuity cannot transmit data to Earth directly, as it required Perseverance to relay those data, and Percy has moved out of range as it continues its own mission. But Ingenuity will continue to collect a long-term data set that could be retrieved someday.
“Whenever humanity revisits Valinor Hills — either with a rover, a new aircraft, or future astronauts — Ingenuity will be waiting with her last gift of data, a final testament to the reason we dare mighty things,” said Ingenuity’s project manager, Teddy Tzanetos of JPL. “Thank you, Ingenuity, for inspiring a small group of people to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds at the frontiers of Space.”
For more on this super-successful part of Perseverance’s mission, see: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-team-says-goodbye-for-now.
As only NASA can!
HST Gyro Woes: The Hubble Space Telescope, like many satellites, uses a set of three gyroscopes rather than thrusters in order to orient itself very precisely in Space to image the object desired. The operate at high speed and get a lot of wear-and-tear. Each has an on-board spare, and the final Shuttle servicing visit to HST, in 2009, replaced all six. In the fifteen years since, three of the six have gone out of service, and now one of the final three is acting up, which caused the HST to enter a “safe mode,” shutting down to let engineers clear the problem. The problem gyro had caused a safe-mode shutdown once before, back in last November. HST can continue to operate with less than three healthy gyros, but much less efficiency. In its 34+ years in Space, it has made many important observations, and NASA hopes to be able to keep it in useful operation for the rest of this decade, if not beyond. For more on the gyro situation, see: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue.
The 34th anniversary of HST launch (April 24) was celebrated in fine style by acquiring a beautiful image of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, aka M-76 or NGC 650/651. It’s a pretty “planetary” nebula in Perseus. Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets; rather, they are a shell of gases blown out of a dying red giant star, which ends up as a white dwarf star imbedded in nebulosity. That shell of gas in a smaller telescope resembles a planet in appearance, hence the misnomer designation.
MeerKAT: Some meerkats are cute prairie dog-like varmints on TV that dig holes and make interesting warning noises. Another is a radio telescope complex undergoing construction in South Africa, operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. This MeerKAT “possesses a unique combination of exceptional sensitivity and good resolution, enabling astronomers to study the universe in greater detail than ever before.
“For instance, its prowess in detecting faint radio signals has led to groundbreaking discoveries in transient astronomy. This branch of astronomy deals with objects that have changing characteristics on relatively short timescales. In 2017, the telescope was involved with follow-up observations of the collision of two neutron stars. Multi-wavelength studies of this nature hold the key to better understanding these highly energetic events. This discovery has deepened our understanding of the universe's most energetic phenomena.” For more info on MeerKAT, see: https://phys.org/news/2024-04-meerkat-south-african-radio-telescope.html.
TEACHERS: The My NASA Data website has a LOT of mini-lessons to support your classroom instruction in the natural sciences! See: https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov!
NASA Student Art Contest: Esther Lee, a student at Washington State University, was awarded the top prize in the 2024 NASA Student Art Contest, which was hosted by NASA’s Langley Research Center. Her piece was entitled, “Beyond Imagination,” inspired by her own experiences in childhood. It shows a young girl and her puppy flying in a NASA-labeled box -errr aircraft - of her imagination. There many other entries of note; for more information on the contest and a view of Ms. Lee’s winner, see here. Wouldn’t it make a great T-shirt!?
NASA Innovation was on Display at the recent American Astronautical Society Symposium, held at the University of Maryland. The theme of the meeting was “Space 2040: Pathways to the Future.” The symposium included discussions on Space weather, climate science, interplanetary missions, and Earth science. For more information about the Symposium, see: https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasa-innovation-on-display-at-aas-goddard-space-science-symposium.
Europa Clipper Spacecraft Message: NASA has placed plaques aboard various Spacecraft in the past, including those on both Pioneers and both Voyagers. The plaque for the upcoming Europa Clipper was rolled out last week. It’s made of tantalum (to help protect internal electronics from Jupiter’s intense radiation field) and carries messages, both written and audio, and the names of more than 2.8 million people. It also has an engraved portrait of the late Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University, who was a big advocate of a mission to Europa. He was also the dissertation advisor for Bob Pappalardo, the Europa Clipper’s Principal Investigator (and mine’s, too!). For more info about the Europa Clipper mission, see here; for more about the Plaque, see here. For more about Ron Greeley, see here and here. But wait, there’s …
More About Europa: Europa lies in the middle of a belt filled with charged particles, think the Van Allen Belts at Earth on steroids. Europa has an icy surface, and the intense rain of ions dissociate the water ice on the surface into hydrogen and oxygen. Almost all of the former and much of the latter are then lost to Space, but some of the oxygen might reach the ocean beneath the ice, affecting potential biological development there. For more information, see: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-mission-measures-oxygen-production-at-europa.
Three NASA White Papers: On February 23, NASA released three position papers on Space data ethics, ensuring food safety, and enhancing Earth observation capabilities. See them at: https://www.nasa.gov/general/white-papers.
NASA’s New Website! “NASA has switched its primary World Wide Web addresses to a beta version of the new NASA.gov and science.nasa.gov websites, continuing the long-term development and consolidation of its public web presence. The new sites will offer visitors an improved, intuitive web design and elevated user experience.
The ongoing work on the agency’s upgraded website is the first step to a broad new digital experience from NASA, which will include a new on-demand streaming service called NASA + and an updated NASA app. This enhanced digital presence will allow the space agency to share science, research, exploration, and innovation with the world through cohesive platforms, encouraging users to spend more time experiencing the universe through the eyes of NASA.
This new site will be the foundation of a one-stop-shop for the agency’s missions and research, climate data, Artemis updates and more. The new, topic-driven experience will ensure easier, integrated access to NASA information currently found across the agency’s many websites.”
Check it out everyone, the new site: https://www.nasa.gov, is really useful!
But Wait, There’s More! The new website has a page from which you can stay up-to-date on NASA’s latest content. The pieces are short, but contain all the salient information you are looking for. It’s also your portal to all of NASA news, events, and social media offering. You owe it to yourself to check it out, and share it with others you know. See: https://www.nasa.gov/news/all-news.
Blogs, Blogs, Blogs: NASA produces a number of blogs on a regular basis, covering topics from Artemis to “Watch the Skies!” Check them all out at: https://blogs.nasa.gov!
Introducing NASA On-Demand Streaming Service:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrlDv-ts2f0&ab_channel=NASA!
As only NASA can.