More than 400 miles above Earth, a satellite the size of a school bus is earning its frequent flyer miles. On Oct. 6, NASA’s Terra completed 100,000 orbits around Earth. Terra joins a handful of satellites to mark this orbital milestone, including the International Space Station, Earth’s Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), Landsat 5 and Landsat…
Hubble in Safe Mode as Gyro Issues Are Diagnosed
NASA is working to resume science operations of the Hubble Space Telescope after the spacecraft entered safe mode on Friday, October 5, shortly after 6:00 p.m. EDT. Hubble’s instruments still are fully operational and are expected to produce excellent science for years to come. Hubble entered safe mode after one of the three gyroscopes (gyros) actively being used to point and steady…
NASA Selects Two Companies to Help Take Out the Deep Space Trash
NASA has selected Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) to develop systems that can reduce trash volume, and process the resulting atmosphere contaminants during deep space missions. The U.S. companies responded to NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Appendix F: Logistics Reduction (LR) in Space by Trash Compaction and Processing System…
First SpaceX Mission With Astronauts Set for June 2019
NASA has announced the first crewed flight by a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to take place in June 2019. It will be the first manned US launch to the orbiting research laboratory since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011, forcing US astronauts to hitch costly rides aboard…
Curiosity Rover to Temporarily Switch ‘Brains’
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, this week commanded the agency’s Curiosity rover to switch to its second computer. The switch will enable engineers to do a detailed diagnosis of a technical issue that has prevented the rover’s active computer from storing science and some key engineering data since Sept. 15. Like…
NASA iTech Semifinalists Rethink Terrestrial Technologies for Space
Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and 3D printing are just a few of the technology threads pitched during the third cycle of the NASA iTech competition. With an eye on how these promising ideas could benefit space exploration, NASA has selected 25 competition semifinalists. An initiative by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), iTech aims to find innovative ideas that have…
Advancing Local Terahertz Oscillators to Enable Cosmic Observations
NASA is developing a new type of detector that will provide insight into the formation and structure of the universe. Many of the radiative and mechanical interactions that shape the interstellar medium of galaxies and drive galactic evolution (e.g., shock waves from stellar winds and jets, supernova explosions, etc.) are best observed in the 4.744…
NASA Tests Space Tech on UP Aerospace Rocket
Three NASA technology demonstration payloads launched aboard UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft 12 mission from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Sept. 12. The suborbital rocket carried an umbrella-like heat shield called Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT). Developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, ADEPT’s unique design could be used for planetary lander and…
Exploring the Solar System? You May Need to Pack an Umbrella
Gearing up for its first flight test, NASA’s Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology, or ADEPT, is no ordinary umbrella. ADEPT is a foldable device that opens to make a round, rigid heat shield, called an aeroshell. This game-changing technology could squeeze a heat shield into a rocket with a diameter larger than the rocket itself. The design…
Cool Ways of Studying the Cryosphere
One of the key elements of Earth’s climate system is the cryosphere – the many forms of ice found on Earth. Two new NASA missions use different technologies to help scientists better understand how frozen water is affecting our planet. Both will continue satellite data records that have greatly improved our understanding of Earth’s frozen…
Faces of Technology: Justin Jackson
Meet Justin Jackson, Materials Engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Justin makes composite rocket structures. He works with materials that are incredibly strong and lightweight. Precise manufacturing of these components is of the utmost importance because the work Justin does is essential to human spaceflight. For more information about composite technologies at NASA, visit:https://gameon.nasa.gov/projects/composite-technology-for-exploration-cte/
NASA Launching Advanced Laser To Measure Earth’s Changing Ice
NASA’s Trash Talk: Managing Garbage In Space
Dealing with trash is a challenge wherever people work and live, and space is no exception. Astronauts produce a couple of pounds of trash per crew member per day. To better manage this, NASA is developing a new trash processing system to demonstrate on the International Space Station. This work is critical for potential future missions…
NASA Team Demonstrates “Science On A Shoestring” With Greenhouse Gas-Measuring Instrument
A novel instrument that has already proven its mettle on field campaigns will attempt to measure atmospheric greenhouse gases from an occultation-viewing, low-Earth-orbiting CubeSat mission called Mini-Carb early next year — marking the first time this type of instrument has flown in space. Emily Wilson, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,…
NASA Announces New Partnerships To Develop Space Exploration Technologies
NASA is partnering with six U.S. companies to develop 10 “tipping point” technologies that have the potential to significantly benefit the commercial space economy and future NASA missions, including lunar lander and deep space rocket engine technologies. Selections are based on the agency’s third competitive Tipping Point solicitation, and have a combined total award value of…
NASA’s Laser Communications Small Satellite Mission Demonstrates Technology First
For the first time, a free-flying CubeSat has successfully completed space-to-ground optical communications. The Optical Communication and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) mission, designed and built by The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, sent a laser signal from low-Earth orbit to a ground station at the company’s facilities. The small satellite transmitted at a data rate…
Using AR And VR To Train For NASA Missions
Meet Tom Grubb, Product Development Lead for augmented and virtual reality at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Grubb is developing software that utilizes AR and VR as an intuitive way to help train employees for NASA missions. To learn more about this work, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/2OCb8Sq
Top Five Technologies Needed For A Spacecraft To Survive Deep Space
When a spacecraft built for humans ventures into deep space, it requires an array of features to keep it and a crew inside safe. Both distance and duration demand that spacecraft must have systems that can reliably operate far from home, be capable of keeping astronauts alive in case of emergencies and still be light…
First SLS Core Stage Flight Hardware Complete, Ready For Joining
The first major piece of core stage hardware for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket has been assembled and is ready to be joined with other hardware for Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft. SLS will enable a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, launching crew and cargo on deep space exploration missions…
NASA Interns Develop Navigation Software Simulating Star Tracker
Interning at NASA puts students at the center of innovation and discovery. For two students at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, this meant having the incredible opportunity to not only leave their mark on one of NASA’s most unique testing facilities, but also release their own open source software. Junior engineering interns Greta Studier,…
NASA’s New Mini Satellite Will Study Milky Way’s Halo
Astronomers keep coming up short when they survey “normal” matter, the material that makes up galaxies, stars and planets. A new NASA-sponsored CubeSat mission called HaloSat, deployed from the International Space Station on July 13, will help scientists search for the universe’s missing matter by studying X-rays from hot gas surrounding our Milky Way galaxy. The cosmic microwave background (CMB)…
NASA Debuts Online Toolkit To Promote Commercial Use Of Satellite Data
While NASA’s policy of free and open remote-sensing data has long benefited the scientific community, other government agencies and nonprofit organizations, it has significant untapped potential for commercialization. NASA’s Technology Transfer program has created an online resource to promote commercial use of this data and the software tools needed to work with it. With the…
Testing Robotic Satellite Servicing Capabilities
This six-legged, 10 by 16-foot robot mimics how satellites move in space. NASA uses the hexapod robot to conduct precise tests of robotic satellite servicing operations. Sitting on top of the six-legged hexapod is a partial model of a satellite. Mounted to a panel close by, representing the payload deck of a robotic servicing spacecraft,…
NASA’s TESS Spacecraft Continues Testing Prior To First Observations
After a successful launch on April 18, 2018, NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is currently undergoing a series of commissioning tests before it begins searching for planets. The TESS team has reported that the spacecraft and cameras are in good health, and the spacecraft has successfully reached its final science orbit.…
NASA, Partners, Advance In-Space Assembly Robotics
A robotic arm moving a solar array up and down along a space structure, and a robotic hand and jigging system autonomously building truss segments – sounds like a scene from a science fiction movie, but it’s just another day in the office for NASA engineers. This week marked the last in a series of…