Arshman99

Vice President Kamala Harris chairs the the National Space Council meeting at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will deliver remarks. The council advises the president on America’s space policy and strategy, and reviews the nation’s long-range goals for space activities.

Meet NASA’s rock detectives. Using tiny samples of lunar rock brought back by Apollo astronauts, these NASA Explorers are looking into the origins of our Moon, our planet, and ourselves. They might be among the first scientists to study samples from the Moon’s South Pole that will be delivered to Earth by Artemis astronauts. In episode 2 of “NASA Explorers: Artemis Generation,” we’re joining scientists like Natalie Curran and Jose Aponte, who are looking at clues buried in Moon rocks. Series Executive Producers: Katy Mersmann/Lauren Ward Season Producers: Lonnie Shekhtman/Stephanie Sipila/James Tralie/Molly Wasser Explorers: Natalie Curran/Jose Aponte Music: 1. “Darwin’s Extraordinary Journey” by Laurent Dury 2. “From Small Beginnings” by Jay Price 3. “Life Eternal” by Enrico Cacace and Lorenzo Castellarin 4.

NASA's next outer solar system mission, Europa Clipper, will gather detailed measurements of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Scientists think the intriguing moon may contain a salty ocean below a miles-thick ice shell, and the Europa Clipper mission - which is scheduled for launch in 2024 - will investigate whether it could have conditions suitable for life. Join us Sept 28th at 1:00 pm PT for a live Q&A from JPL's High Bay 1 clean room and see Europa Clipper up close in the early stages of assembly. We'll discuss what we want to learn from Europa and what kind of instruments we will use to explore it with project staff scientist Cynthia Phillips and project system engineer Jennifer Dooley.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s success in landing the low-cost Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 was viewed as proof that spacecraft could be built more often and for far less money — a radical cultural change NASA termed “Faster, Better, Cheaper.” This era also coincided with the discovery of a Mars rock that hinted at the possibility of microbial life elsewhere in the solar system. NASA’s reaction was to envision a steady stream of missions to Mars — all done at cut-rate costs. In fact, the next challenge taken on by JPL was to fly two missions to Mars for the price of the single Pathfinder mission. Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander both made it to the launch pad, on time and on budget, but were lost upon arrival at Mars, resulting in one of the most difficult periods in the history of JPL. “The Breaking Point” tells the story of the demise of these two missions and the abrupt end of NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” era. Documentary length: 1 hour 47 minutes

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.

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.

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

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. 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 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

Are hurricanes getting stronger? Although we’ll never see a Category 6 hurricane, data does show that more hurricanes are becoming more severe. Hurricane and climate expert Mara Cordero-Fuentes of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center tells us more about the connection between climate change and tropical cyclones. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/3yQ168I Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde Editor: Daniel Salazar Credit: NASA

In this video, measurements collected by the Waves instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Europa on Sept. 29, 2022 have been converted to an audible frequency. As the white line moves across the spectrogram, which is a visual way of representing signal strength over time, the variation of frequency of the plasma waves observed near Europa can be heard as the plasma density varies. The video shows data collected over approximately 1.5 hours during the Europa flyby. For more information about NASA’s Juno mission, visit: http://nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.com Details about the Europa flyby can be found.

The 18th Northrop Grumman commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station carries scientific investigations of topics such as 3D printing of knee cartilage, plant mutations, and mudflow structure—along with a demonstration of camera technology and small satellites from Japan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The Cygnus spacecraft carrying these investigations to the orbiting laboratory is scheduled for liftoff no earlier than Nov. 6, 2022 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Learn more about some of the scientific research traveling to the station on this mission: https://go.nasa.gov/3rYCjvA CREDIT: NASA #NASA #SpaceStation #Science

New time-lapse movies from NASA’s NEOWISE mission give astronomers the opportunity to see objects, like stars and black holes, as they move and change over time. The videos include previously hidden brown dwarfs, a feeding black hole, a dying star, a star-forming region, and a brightening star. They combine more than 10 years of NEOWISE observations and 18 all-sky images, enabling a long-term analysis and a deeper understanding of the universe. 0:44 – NEOWISE all-sky scan animation 1:03 – Feeding black hole 1:14 – Pulsing star reaches the end of its life 1:21 – Protostars in star-forming region 1:34 – Brown dwarf moves across the sky 2:00 – Unexplained stellar brightening The NEOWISE mission uses a space telescope to hunt for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth. Launched in December 2009 as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the space telescope was originally designed to survey the sky in infrared, detecting asteroids, stars and some of the faintest galaxies in space. WISE did so successfully until completing its primary mission in February 2011. Observations resumed in December 2013, when the telescope was taken out of hibernation and re-purposed for the NEOWISE project as an instrument to study near-Earth objects, or NEOs, as well as more distant asteroids and comets. For more information on the NEOWISE mission go to:

In order to slow down spacecraft quickly and safely as they land, we get some help from an unexpected source: the planet’s atmosphere! To use the air around a planet to our advantage, we use heat shields, which have an air-resistant design. Learn more about heat shields, like LOFTID, and how they may help us land on Mars! For more information about the LOFTID technology demonstration, click here: https://go.nasa.gov/3aRdADV

Watch live as the Dragon Freedom spacecraft undocks with the four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission aboard: NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) is targeted for Friday, Oct. 14. Splashdown is targeted several hours later at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 UTC) Friday off the coast of Florida. During their stay of nearly six months on the ISS, Crew-4 members contributed to ongoing and new scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, work that is helping to prepare humans for future space exploration missions and generating innovations and benefits for humanity on Earth:

The astronauts of Crew-4 have undocked from the International Space Station and are on their way home to Earth. Watch live with NASA as the Dragon spacecraft Freedom reenters the atmosphere and splashes down off the coast of Florida. Splashdown is targeted for 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 UTC), Friday, Oct. 14. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti spent five and a half months living and working aboard the orbiting laboratory. During their stay, they contributed to a number of experiments to expand our understanding of space while benefitting life on Earth:

Set far away from residents and surrounded by dunes, the Remote Hypervelocity Test Laboratory at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has supported every human spaceflight program from the Space Shuttle to Artemis. A team designing shields to protect NASA's Mars Earth Entry System from micrometeorites and space debris traveled to this facility to safely recreate dangerous impacts, and to test the team’s shields and computer models. Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer Lead Editor Videographer Sam Molleur (NASA/JPL): Producer Videographer Dave Hendon (NASA/White Sands): White Sands Videographer Support Marcus Sandy (NASA/White Sands): Manager, White Sands Hypervelocity Testing Dennis Garcia (NASA/White Sands): .50-Caliber Test Conductor Russ Stein (NASA/Goddard): Micrometeoroid Protection System Product Design Lead Bruno Sarli (NASA/Goddard): System Engineer for CCRS Art Pardo (NASA/White Sands): White Sands Lead Electrical Technician Animations from NASA/CILabs, NASA/JPL, and ESA Music is "Tumbleweed" by Paul Osborne, "Old as the Hills" by Matthieu Ouaki, and "Texas Moon" by Anders Johan Greger Lewen of Universal Production Music.

When Artemis astronauts land on the Moon, they’ll travel to sites never before visited by humans. Namely, they'll explore the South Pole region, home to the Moon’s largest crater, areas of near-constant light and deep shadows, and some of the coldest temperatures in the solar system. Exploring the South Pole will teach us more about the Moon’s history, as well as the history of our solar system. It's home to frozen water, which is crucial for living sustainably on the lunar surface and exploring deeper into the solar system. Artemis astronauts will explore the Moon on behalf of all of us and bring back lunar rocks and soil for analyses by generations of scientists who will help us gain unimaginable insights into our cosmic history. Series Executive Producers: Katy Mersmann/Lauren Ward Season Producers: Lonnie Shekhtman/Stephanie Sipila/James Tralie/Molly Wasser Explorers: Jose Aponte/Natalie Curran/Julie Mitchell/Adam Naids/Noah Petro/Kelsey Young/Jessica Watkins Music: a. “Daylight Falls” by Jay Price b. “Good Omens” by Count Zero and Rohan Stevenson c. “Lightspeed” by Gresby Race Nash d. “Wonders of Life” by Enrico Cacace and Lorzeno Castellarin e. “Hold Still” by Enrico Cacace f.

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of primitive asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit that may hold clues to the formation of the planets. Lucy launched on October 16, 2021. After a year in orbit around the Sun, it is returning home on its launch anniversary for the first of three Earth gravity assists. On October 16, 2022, Lucy will fly by the Earth like a partner in a swing dance, boosting its speed and elongating its orbit around the Sun. At 7:04 am, Eastern Time, Lucy will make its closest approach at just 219 miles above the planet: lower than the International Space Station. This exceptionally close shave will increase its velocity by four-and-a-half miles per second, setting Lucy on track to gain even more speed when it returns to Earth for its second gravity assist in December 2024.

An image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars located about 5,300 light-years from Earth. Each ring was created when the stars came close together and their colliding stellar winds (streams of gas they blow into space) caused some of the gas to compress into dust. Collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140, the stars’ orbits bring them together about once every eight years, so just like the growth rings of a tree trunk, these dusty loops mark the passage of time: The 17 rings reveal more than a century of stellar interactions. And while other Wolf-Rayet stars produce dust, no other pair is known to produce rings quite like Wolf-Rayet 140. Because the stars’ orbits are elliptical rather than circular, the distance between the stars changes constantly, and dust forms only when they are close. The amount of dust produced by this interaction varies, so the system doesn’t form a perfect bullseye. One of the densest regions of dust production creates the bright feature repeating at 2 o’clock. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Before Jessica Watkins was an astronaut, she was a geologist. Now working on the International Space Station, Jessica and her fellow astronauts are preparing to explore the Moon and beyond. But collecting and investigating rocks on other worlds is very different from digging dirt here on Earth. That’s where tools engineer Adam Naids comes in. Tools designed for Earth geologists may not work in the lower gravity and extreme temperatures of the Moon, and that’s before you bring in the bulky spacesuits! NASA Explorers come together at space school to train astronauts to conduct science on the Moon. Series Executive Producers: Katy Mersmann/Lauren Ward Season Producers: Lonnie Shekhtman/Stephanie Sipila/James Tralie/Molly Wasser Explorers: Jessica Watkins/Adam Naids/Kelsey Young Music: a. “Iced Planet” by Anthony Edwin Phillips and Samuel Karl Bohn b. “The Deep” by Paul Werner c. “Carpe Diem” by Michael James Burns d. “State of Matter” by Markus Gleissner e. “A Grand Enterprise” by Daniel Marantz and Dave Carr f. “Optimistic Attitude 1" by Joel Goodman and Vicente Julio Ortiz Gimeno g. “Dawn Beauty” Laurent Dury h.

After months aboard the International Space Station, the astronauts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission are returning home. Traveling back to Earth inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. During their time aboard the orbiting laboratory, these crew members contributed to ongoing and new scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, work that is helping to prepare humans for future space exploration missions and generating innovations and benefits for humanity on Earth.

A new NASA and Durham University simulation puts forth a different theory of the Moon’s origin – the Moon may have formed in a matter of hours, when material from the Earth and a Mars sized-body were launched directly into orbit after the impact. The simulations used in this research are some of the most detailed of their kind, operating at the highest resolution of any simulation run to study the Moon’s origins or other giant impacts.

There may not be any humans aboard NASA's #Artemis I flight test, but there will be a special canine: Snoopy! Learn why Astronaut Snoopy is flying to space when Artemis launches on its historic mission around the Moon and back. Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of the Space Launch System rocket that will send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth. The mission will check out all spacecraft systems for the first time before crew fly aboard Artemis II. It's one more step toward taking the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.

The DART mission deployed a kinetic impactor to smack the small moon Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos on the evening of Sept. 26. This was an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection, a key test of NASA's kinetic impactor technology, designed to impact an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. This particular asteroid moon is NOT a threat to Earth, but is technology being explored to use for when we DO find a potentially hazardous asteroid. The Hubble Space Telescope captured these extraordinary views of the asteroid moon soon after the successful impact.