How Do Spacecraft Slow Down? We Asked a NASA Technologist
How do spacecraft slow down? Rigid heat shields and retropropulsion have been the favorites of engineers for years. Now NASA is testing a new inflatable heat shield technology that could allow us to carry even larger payloads to worlds with atmospheres: https://www.nasa.gov/loftid
Launching on Nov. 1 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket along with NOAA’s JPSS-2 mission, the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, will demonstrate the heat shield’s ability to slow down and survive atmospheric entry: https://go.nasa.gov/3N7yzBG
Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde
Editor: Daniel Salazar
Credit: NASA
#NASA #Technology #Spacecraft
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NASA Tests Ways to Crash Land on Mars
We’re testing a new way of landing on Mars… by crashing into its surface.
The Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) is a lander concept being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It could one day provide a new way for low-cost missions to land on Mars.
Rather than rely on parachutes or retrorockets, SHIELD would include a collapsible, accordion-like base to absorb the energy of a landing. A full-size prototype of the base was tested on Aug. 12, 2022. The prototype was hurled at the ground from the top of a nearly 90-foot-tall (27-meter-tall) drop tower at JPL. A steel plate ensured the impact was even harder than what would be experienced on Mars.
The design worked: After crushing against the steel plate at 110 mph (177 kph), several electronic components inside the SHIELD prototype, including a smartphone, survived the impact.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/California Academy of Sciences
How to Bring Mars Sample Tubes Safely to Earth (Mars News Report)
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is filling sample tubes with rocky material on the Red Planet as the agency works on the next steps to get them safely back to Earth.
The Mars Sample Return campaign would bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth for detailed study. The campaign involves an international interplanetary relay team, including the European Space Agency (ESA). These samples could answer a key question: did life ever exist on Mars?
Aaron Yazzie, who works on the Mars Sample Return campaign, explains the work being done at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to ensure the safe return of the sample tubes.
For more information on Mars Sample Return, visit mars.nasa.gov/msr/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 Mission to the Space Station (Official Trailer)
An international crew is preparing to launch to the International Space Station aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos will perform research technology demonstrations, science experiments, and maintenance activities aboard the microgravity laboratory.
Crew-7 is targeted to launch no earlier than 3:49 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 25 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Crew-7 marks the eighth human spaceflight mission supported by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the seventh crew rotation mission to the space station since 2020 for NASA.
You can watch the launch live on NASA TV, NASA.gov, the NASA app, and right here on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/QD2XDoeT8SI
Learn more about the Crew-7 mission here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-7/
Credit: NASA
Video Producer: Sonnet Apple
Music: Universal Production Music
Do Robots Help Humans in Space? We Asked a NASA Technologist
When it comes to space, humans and robots go way back. We rely heavily on our mechanical friends to perform tasks that are too dangerous, difficult, or out of reach for us humans. We’re even working on a new generation of robots that will help us explore in advanced and novel ways.
Learn more about the CADRE—Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration—project and how this new network of mini rovers could enable future self-guided robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. https://go.nasa.gov/3k5EuZx
Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde
Editor: James Lucas
Link to download this video: https://images.nasa.gov/details/Do%20...
Credit: NASA
Find out why July 2023 was a record-breaking month on This Week @NASA – August 18, 2023
Find out why July 2023 was a record-breaking month, a high-flying NASA aircraft is helping to study lighting, and making landings safe for flights of the future … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Link to download this video:
https://images.nasa.gov/details/Find%...
Video Producer: Andre Valentine and Haley Reed
Video Editor: Haley Reed
Narrator: Jesse Carpenter
Music: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
A Commercial Resupply Mission Heads to the Space Station on This Week @NASA – August 4, 2023
A commercial resupply mission heads to the space station, a key piece of hardware for a future Moon mission is on the move, and another spacecraft gets ready to spread its wings in deep space … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Link to download this video: https://images.nasa.gov/details/A%20C...
Video Producer: Andre Valentine
Video Editor: Andre Valentine
Narrator: Andre Valentine
Music: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
The Artemis II Astronauts Check Out Their Ride to the Moon on This Week @NASA – August 11, 2023
The Artemis II astronauts check out their ride to the Moon, practicing post-splashdown recovery operations for Artemis II, and the Webb Space Telescope checks out a record-breaking star … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Link to download this video:
https://images.nasa.gov/details/The%2...
Video Producer: Andre Valentine
Video Editor: Andre Valentine
Narrator: Andre Valentine
Music: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
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Chasing Sprites in Electric Skies
Paul Smith is a night-sky fanatic and photographer. His obsession is sprites: immense jolts of light that flicker high above thunderstorms. Last October, he guided NASA scientist Dr. Burcu Kosar through the backroads of Oklahoma to catch one herself. Although she’d studied sprites for more than 15 years, she hadn’t yet chased one.
Read more about chasing sprites with Paul and Burcu: https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2022/1...
Learn about NASA’s citizen science project Spritacular: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/...
Learn about the Heliophysics Big Year: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-sy...
Image credits: Paul Smith, Frankie Lucena, Panagiotis Tsouras, Thomas Ashcraft. All imagery of sprites is copyrighted and used with permission.
Music credits: “The Beauty Beyond” by Jeremy Noel William Abbott [PRS], Vasco [PRS]; “Outer Orbit” by Alexander Ryder Mcnair [ASCAP], Harry Gregson Williams [BMI], Ho Ling Tang [BMI]; “Wonderful Orbit” by Tom Furse Fairfax Cowan [PRS]; “Starlights” by Marc Teitler [PRS], Vasco [PRS]; “A Tranquil End” by Luke Gordon [PRS]; “Virtual Tidings” by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS]; “Winter Aurora” by Samuel Karl Bohn [PRS]; “Lava Flow” and “Water Dance” by Ben Niblett [PRS], Jon Cotton [PRS].
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Joy Ng (KBRwyle)
Scientist: Burcu Kosar (Catholic University of America)
Photographer: Paul Smith
Photographer: Frankie Lucena
Photographer: Panagiotis Tsouras
Photographer: Thomas Ashcraft
Videographer: Joy Ng, Thomas Smith
Writer: Lina Tran
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14206. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14206. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel:
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SWOT: Earth Science Satellite Will Help Communities Plan for a Better Future
A new Earth science mission, led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), will help communities plan for a better future by surveying the planet’s salt and freshwater bodies. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will measure the height of water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the oceans.
As climate change accelerates the water cycle, more communities around the world will be inundated with water while others won’t have enough. SWOT data will be used to improve flood forecasts and monitor drought conditions, providing essential information to water management agencies, civil engineers, universities, the U.S. Department of Defense, disaster preparedness agencies, and others who need to track water in their local areas. In this video, examples of how SWOT data will be used in these communities are shared by a National Weather Service representative in Oregon, an Alaska Department of Transportation engineer, researchers from the University of Oregon and University of North Carolina, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist working with the Department of Defense, and a JPL scientist working with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Agency.
:30 - Flood Watches & Warnings - Portland, Oregon
1:08 - Water Management - Fern Ridge Lake, Oregon
2:05 - Protecting Infrastructure - Alaska
2:54 - National Security - Department of Defense
3:24 - Coastal Protection - Mississippi River Delta
SWOT is expected to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in December 2022.
The mission is a collaboration between NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and UK Space Agency. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project.
To learn more about the mission, visit: https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/Thales Alenia Space
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133 Days on the Sun | NASA Video
This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.
With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.
While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.
The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer
Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer
Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Editor
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Where Are the Moon Rocks? We Asked a NASA Expert
Where are the Moon rocks from the Apollo missions kept? When they’re not being studied by institutions or enjoyed by museumgoers, NASA has a specialized Lunar Sample Curation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to store and keep these otherworldly samples safe. Studying these samples helps us learn more about the origin of not only our moon, but our planet. Deputy Apollo Sample Curator (Sept 2019 – Dec 2022) Dr. Juliane Gross explains more about lunar sample curation.
Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde
Editor: David Shelton
Link to download this video: https://go.nasa.gov/3QK72Km
Credit: NASA
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How Will We Extract Water on the Moon? We Asked a NASA Technologist
We know the Moon contains water, but, could future astronauts access and make use of it? That’s the goal. At NASA, we’re actively trying to answer that question. Once it lands at the lunar south pole, our PRIME-1 — Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 – will robotically sample and analyze ice from beneath the lunar surface, contributing to our search for water on the Moon: https://go.nasa.gov/2QygCmF
Producers: Jessica Wilde, Scott Bednar
Editor: James Lucas
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NASA's Psyche Mission to an Asteroid: Official NASA Trailer
Join the journey as NASA’s Psyche mission team prepares for a targeted Oct. 5, 2023, launch to explore a unique metallic asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid, likely made largely of nickel-iron metal mixed with rock, could contain metal from the core of a planetesimal (the building block of an early rocky planet) and may offer a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets like Earth. Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission.
JPL, which is managed by Caltech for NASA, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
For more info about NASA's #MissionToPsyche, go to: http://www.nasa.gov/psyche and https://psyche.asu.edu/
Link to download this video: https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-2...
Credit: NASA
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Is Climate Change the Same as Global Warming? – We Asked a NASA Expert
Is climate change the same as global warming? Not quite. The warming of Earth — or global warming — is just one factor that makes up a range of changes that are happening to our planet, which is climate change. And NASA is studying all of it: https://climate.nasa.gov/
Link to download this video: https://go.nasa.gov/3OFwkb2
Producers: Jessica Wilde, Scott Bednar
Editor: Daniel Salazar
Credit: NASA
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133 Days on the Sun | NASA Video
This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.
With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.
While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.
The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer
Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer
Scott Wiessinger(PAO):Editor
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