Artemis II Crew Enjoys Go to with Marshall Staff Members
By Wayne Smith
From speaking about persevering with the legacy of NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle in house exploration to describing their roles in an upcoming historic mission, Artemis II astronauts loved visiting with middle crew members Nov. 27.
The crew would be the first to journey aboard NASA’s SLS (House Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft. They’ll launch atop the rocket to enterprise across the Moon on Artemis II, the primary crewed flight for Artemis. Their mission across the Moon will confirm capabilities for people to discover deep house and pave the best way for long-term exploration and science on the lunar floor. Marshall manages the SLS Program.
The four-member crew answered questions from a standing-room solely crowd for about an hour inside Actions Constructing 4316 earlier than taking pictures with Marshall crew members. The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, who would be the Artemis II commander, Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist), and Canadian House Company astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist).
They even took the time to ship a personalised Christmas greeting to the grandmother of Corey Walker, an atmospheric science programmer at Marshall with Jacobs, who mentioned it will be the right present for her. Throughout the query and reply portion of the occasion, the astronauts had Walker be part of them on stage and made a brief greeting for his grandmother, Brenda Lowery, who lives on Sand Mountain.
“I can’t wait to provide this to her as a result of she loves the house program,” Walker mentioned. “She was younger when the astronauts went to the Moon the primary time. She has a number of mementos at her home of the house program.”
After performing Middle Director Joseph Pelfrey welcomed crew members to the occasion, SLS Program Supervisor John Honeycutt talked about Marshall’s repute of excellence in rocket propulsion and the success of Artemis I earlier than introducing the astronauts.
“Because the starting, NASA astronauts have launched on historic missions and on rockets designed, developed, and constructed proper right here at Marshall House Flight Middle and our Michoud Meeting Facility,” Honeycutt mentioned. “… It appears solely becoming that when a brand new period of human house flight launches on a rocket developed right here, that that’s the best way it needs to be. We’ve been entrusted not simply with an extremely highly effective and succesful rocket, however with the lives of 4 astronauts. Their security and return are chief amongst our obligations.”
Wiseman acknowledged Marshall’s rocket excellence, but in addition identified the middle’s position in analysis for future missions to the Moon and dealing within the lunar setting. The Payload Operations Integration Middle at Marshall is the management middle for scientific operations on the Worldwide House Station.
“(Marshall) means much more to us than getting us off this planet,’ Wiseman mentioned. “It’s additionally our human analysis facet after we are off the planet. Once we are working sustainably within the lunar space, and we see people on Mars, it’s constructed on the shoulders of POIC (Payload Operations Integration Middle), of human analysis in orbit. That’s the bread and butter of what we’re doing. We’re launching people and dwelling in house, and that’s constructed proper right here at Marshall.”
Glover, who would be the first African American on a lunar mission, thanked Marshall crew members for his or her work with SLS and the house station. He spent 168 days in house as a flight engineer aboard the house station for Expedition 64.
“Thanks in your work supporting our associates who’re engaged on the house station now and for that incredible legacy that we’ve all had the chance to be part of in a single aspect or one other,” Glover mentioned. “We’re right here to do the work and be part of this crew. We hope that what we’re doing makes you proud.”
Koch and Hansen additionally will make historical past with the Artemis II mission. Koch would be the first lady on a lunar mission, whereas Hansen would be the first Canadian.
Andy Buehler, a rocket propulsion engineer at Marshall with Boeing, requested Koch what her message to younger ladies is as they see a feminine going to the Moon for the primary time.
“Encompass your self with people who find themselves encouraging,” Koch mentioned. “Inform your self you’re going to do nice issues sooner or later. You may be that voice for your self. Don’t simply attempt to be part of one thing, attempt to be glorious at what you’re doing.”
Hansen mentioned he’s enthusiastic about the way forward for Artemis. He informed Marshall crew members they’re a part of one thing that brings worth to the world with NASA’s management.
“You’re doing that with companions all over the world since you’re selecting to guide,” Hansen mentioned. “We want that form of management and that imaginative and prescient greater than ever. We actually have to be centered on issues that raise up humanity. We’ve lots of motive for hope for our future.”
Be taught extra in regards to the Artemis II crew.
Smith, a Media Fusion worker and the Marshall Star editor, helps the Marshall Workplace of Communications.
Artemis II Crew Indicators NASA Moon Rocket {Hardware} at Marshall
Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch of NASA, and CSA (Canadian House Company) astronaut Jeremy Hansen signed the Orion stage adapter for the SLS (House Launch System) rocket at NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle on Nov. 27. The {hardware} is the topmost portion of the SLS rocket that they are going to launch atop throughout Artemis II when the 4 astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft will enterprise across the Moon.
The Orion stage adapter is a small ring construction that connects NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the SLS rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage and absolutely manufactured at Marshall. At 5 toes tall and weighing 1,800 kilos, the adapter is the smallest main component of the SLS rocket. Throughout Artemis II, the adapter’s diaphragm will function a barrier to forestall gases created throughout launch from getting into the spacecraft.
From left, Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman signal the SLS Orion stage adapter for the Artemis II mission.
NASA/Charles Beason
Along with signing the Orion stage adapter, Wiseman and Koch additionally visited the Programs Integration Lab at Marshall previous to an worker occasion.
NASA is working to land the primary lady and first individual of colour on the Moon underneath Artemis. SLS is a part of NASA’s spine for deep house exploration, together with the Orion spacecraft, superior spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit across the Moon, and business human touchdown programs. SLS is the one rocket that may ship Orion, astronauts, and provides to the Moon in a single mission. By Artemis, NASA will discover extra of the lunar floor than ever earlier than and put together for the subsequent big leap: sending astronauts to Mars.
Month-to-month Brown Bag Seminars Shine Highlight on Marshall’s Enterprise Models
By Jessica Barnett
With hundreds of staff throughout a whole lot of departments and groups, there’s no scarcity of cool issues occurring at NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle. To assist maintain Marshall crew members updated, the middle just lately began a sequence of month-to-month brown bag seminars geared toward highlighting its enterprise models.
Every month encompasses a totally different enterprise unit. On Nov. 7, practically 300 Marshall crew members attended the primary seminar, which centered on Marshall’s Moon/Mars Floor Applied sciences and Programs. In doing so, the members realized extra in regards to the middle’s technique.
“We’re in between the hopes and goals of what you would possibly discover on the market or what the imaginative and prescient of the long run on the lunar floor would possibly appear to be, and what’s really sensible,” mentioned Michael Zanetti, a lunar and planetary geologist at Marshall who was additionally one of many audio system in the course of the Nov. 7 seminar.
Zanetti mentioned GPS-denied LiDAR navigation programs, together with KNaCK (Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack), a proof-of-concept 3D terrain mapping, navigation, and algorithm improvement device that can be utilized to find out the format of parts of the lunar or Martian floor even when there isn’t any gentle supply or GPS to information it.
He additionally talked about Marshall’s Lunar Regolith Terrain Facility – a 125-by-125-foot space coated in 500 tons of lunar regolith simulant that may be rapidly modified as wanted for robotics testing.
“If we’re going to ship something to the lunar floor, we have to guarantee that expertise goes to have the ability to operate when it will get there,” mentioned Jennifer Edmunson, mission supervisor for Marshall’s Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Building Expertise Undertaking, or MMPACT. “Testing with regolith is essential to do this, however since we don’t have sufficient regolith materials from the Apollo missions, we depend on simulants.”
MMPACT is presently working to find out how finest to construct infrastructure on the lunar floor utilizing the regolith and assets already out there there. Edmunson shared how the mission goals to construct touchdown pads and even habitats on the Moon, however that it’s essential to seek out methods of constructing that may stand up to the acute temperature variations, prolonged moonquakes, and different challenges that will be confronted on the lunar floor.
Becoming a member of Edmunson and Zanetti on the seminar was Annette Grey, a supplies take a look at engineer who was a part of MERCRII (Metallic Environmentally Resistant Coatings Fast Innovation Initiative). Grey defined how the early profession initiative mission labored with different facilities and NASA companions to develop a radiation-resistant coating to enhance the damage resistance of mechanism joints on the lunar or Martian floor.
A part of the initiative included buying a Planetary, Lunar, and Asteroid Pure Surroundings Testbed, or PLANET. Grey mentioned the PLANET was a 2-meter-by-3-meter chamber with as much as 1 ton of regolith simulant inside that might take a look at excessive vacuum, low-density plasma, and numerous atmospheric circumstances.
The seminar ended with a question-and-answer session and an opportunity for in-person attendees to take a look at regolith simulant samples.
“It was a superb technique to showcase how the numerous work we do at Marshall is enabling future NASA missions and addressing crucial gaps,” mentioned MMSTS Technique Lead Shawn Maynor. “The thrill was palpable, and the dialogue was vigorous. I actually really feel that Marshall is in a novel place to capitalize on the evolving house business.”
The following brown bag seminar is about for January 2024, after the winter vacation season.
Barnett, a Media Fusion worker, helps the Marshall Workplace of Communications.
NASA Releases Its First Worldwide House Station Tour in Spanish
Lee esta nota de prensa en español aquí.
File-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio gives the company’s first Spanish-language video tour of humanity’s residence in house – the Worldwide House Station.
Rubio welcomes the general public aboard the microgravity science laboratory in a behind-the-scenes take a look at dwelling and dealing in house recorded throughout his 371-day mission aboard the house station, the longest single spaceflight in historical past by an American.
The station tour is offered to observe on the company’s NASA+ streaming platform, NASA app, NASA Tv, YouTube, and the company’s web site.
Constantly inhabited for greater than 23 years, the house station is a scientific platform the place crew members conduct experiments throughout a number of disciplines of analysis, together with Earth and house science, biology, human physiology, bodily sciences, and expertise demonstrations that might not be carried out on Earth.
The Payload Operations Integration Middle at NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the house station twelve months a 12 months, 24 hours a day.
The crew dwelling aboard the station are the arms of hundreds of researchers on the bottom conducting greater than 3,300 experiments in microgravity. Throughout his record-breaking mission, Rubio spent many hours contributing to scientific actions aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting every little thing from human well being research to plant analysis.
Rubio returned to Earth in September, having accomplished roughly 5,936 orbits of the Earth and a journey of greater than 157 million miles throughout his first spaceflight, roughly the equal of 328 journeys to the Moon and again.
Get the most recent NASA house station information, pictures and options on Instagram, Fb, and X.
NASA’s Dragonfly to Proceed with Last Mission Design Work
NASA’s Dragonfly mission has been licensed to proceed with work on remaining mission design and fabrication – often called Section C – throughout FY (fiscal 12 months) 2024. The company is suspending formal affirmation of the mission (together with its complete price and schedule) till mid-2024, following the discharge of the FY 2025 President’s Price range Request.
Earlier this 12 months, Dragonfly – a mission to ship a rotorcraft to discover Saturn’s moon Titan – handed all of the success standards of its Preliminary Design Assessment. The Dragonfly crew carried out a re-plan of the mission primarily based on anticipated funding out there in FY 2024 and estimate a revised launch readiness date of July 2028. The company will formally assess the mission’s launch readiness date in mid-2024 on the company Program Administration Council.
“The Dragonfly crew has efficiently overcome quite a lot of technical and programmatic challenges on this daring endeavor to collect new science on Titan,” mentioned Nicola Fox, affiliate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “I’m happy with this crew and their means to maintain all points of the mission shifting towards affirmation.”
Dragonfly takes a novel strategy to planetary exploration, for the primary time using a rotorcraft-lander to journey between and pattern various websites on Titan. Dragonfly’s objective is to characterize the habitability of the moon’s setting, examine the development of prebiotic chemistry in an setting the place carbon-rich materials and liquid water could have blended for an prolonged interval, and even seek for chemical indications of whether or not water-based or hydrocarbon-based life as soon as existed on Titan.
Dragonfly is being designed and constructed underneath the path of the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which manages the mission for NASA. The crew contains key companions at NASA’s Goddard House Flight Middle; Lockheed Martin House in Littleton, Colorado; Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin firm; NASA’s Ames Analysis Middle; NASA’s Langley Analysis Middle; Penn State College in State School, Pennsylvania; Malin House Science Programs in San Diego, California; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; CNES (Centre Nationwide d’Etudes Spatiales), the French house company, in Paris, France; DLR (German Aerospace Middle) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) in Tokyo, Japan.
Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle for the Science Mission Directorate.
Webb Telescope: A Outstanding Protostar in Perseus
A brand new Image of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb House Telescope reveals intricate particulars of the Herbig Haro object 797, often called HH 797.
Herbig-Haro objects are luminous areas surrounding new child stars (often called protostars), and are shaped when stellar winds or jets of fuel spewing from these new child stars type shockwaves colliding with close by fuel and mud at excessive speeds. HH 797, which dominates the decrease half of the picture, is situated near the younger open star cluster IC 348, which is situated close to the jap fringe of the Perseus darkish cloud complicated. The intense infrared objects within the higher portion of the picture are thought to host two additional protostars.
The picture was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Close to-InfraRed Digital camera). Infrared imaging is highly effective in learning new child stars and their outflows, as a result of the youngest stars are invariably nonetheless embedded throughout the fuel and mud from which they’re shaped. The infrared emission of the star’s outflows penetrates the obscuring fuel and mud, making Herbig-Haro objects preferrred for commentary with Webb’s delicate infrared devices. Molecules excited by the turbulent circumstances, together with molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, emit infrared gentle that Webb can acquire to visualise the construction of the outflows. NIRCam is especially good at observing the new (hundreds of diploma Celsius) molecules which can be excited because of shocks.
Utilizing ground-based observations, researchers have beforehand discovered that for chilly molecular fuel related to HH 797, a lot of the red-shifted fuel (shifting away from us) is discovered to the south (backside proper), whereas the blue-shifted fuel (shifting in direction of us) is to the north (backside left). A gradient was additionally discovered throughout the outflow, such that at a given distance from the younger central star, the speed of the fuel close to the jap fringe of the jet is extra red-shifted than that of the fuel on the western edge. Astronomers prior to now thought this was as a result of outflow’s rotation. On this greater decision Webb picture, nevertheless, we will see that what was regarded as one outflow is in actual fact made up of two nearly parallel outflows with their very own separate sequence of shocks (which explains the speed asymmetries). The supply, situated within the small darkish area (backside proper of middle), and already identified from earlier observations, is due to this fact not a single however a double star. Every star is producing its personal dramatic outflow. Different outflows are additionally seen on this picture, together with one from the protostar within the prime proper of middle together with its illuminated cavity partitions.
HH 797 resides straight north of HH 211 (separated by roughly 30 arcseconds), which was the function of a Webb picture launch in September 2023.
The James Webb House Telescope is the world’s premier house science observatory. Webb is fixing mysteries in our photo voltaic system, wanting past to distant worlds round different stars, and probing the mysterious constructions and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is a world program led by NASA with its companions, ESA (European House Company) and the Canadian House Company. A number of NASA facilities contributed to the mission, together with NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle.
