5 ways to use the new Find My Device on Android5 ways to use the new Find My Device on AndroidVP of Engineering

We're sharing a few ways to use the new Find My Device experience on Android.We're sharing a few ways to use the new Find My Device experience on Android.

Source: 5 ways to use the new Find My Device on Android5 ways to use the new Find My Device on AndroidVP of Engineering

NASA Names Finalists of the Power to Explore Challenge

3 Min Read
                     
                        NASA Names Finalists of the Power to Explore Challenge                     
                  
               
               
               
                           
         
      
      
         
                        
               
                  A word cloud generated from student essay entries.
               
                              
                  Credits:
                  NASA/Dave Lam
               
                           
                     
      
   


NASA has selected the nine finalists of the Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes.



NASA selected nine finalists out of the 45 semifinalist student essays in the Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their personal "super power" would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission.



The competition asked students to learn about NASA's Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), a type of "nuclear battery" that the agency uses to explore some of the most extreme destinations in our solar system and beyond. As cities across the United States experience a total solar eclipse, we experience first hand a momentary glimpse into what life would be like without sunlight. This draws attention to how NASA can power missions at destinations that cannot rely on the energy of the Sun, such as deep craters on the Moon and deep space exploration. In 250 words or less, students wrote about a mission of their own enabled by these space power systems and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.



The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn more about these reliable power systems, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA's diverse workforce. This year's contest received 1,787 submitted entries from 48 states and Puerto Rico.



      
         
              
         
         
            
               "The RPS Program is so impressed by the ideas and quality of writing that come forth from essays submitted to NASA's Power to Explore Challenge
            
            
               
               
                  Carl Sandifer
                  Manager, Radioisotope Power Systems Program
               
            
         
      
   


“The RPS Program is so impressed by the ideas and quality of writing that come forth from essays submitted to NASA's Power to Explore Challenge,” said Carl Sandifer, NASA’s manager for the Radioisotope Power Systems Program in Cleveland. “We would like to congratulate the finalists, and we look forward to welcoming the winners to NASA's Glenn Research Center this summer.”



Entries were split into three categories: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate and an invitation to the Power Up virtual event that announced the semifinalists. Students learned about what powers the NASA workforce to dream big and work together to explore.



Three national finalists in each grade category (nine finalists total) have been selected. In addition to receiving a NASA RPS prize pack, these participants will be invited to an exclusive virtual meeting with a NASA engineer or scientist to talk about their missions and have their space exploration questions answered. Winners will be announced on April 17.



Grades K-4




Katerine Leon, Long Beach, CA



Rainie Lin, Lexington, KY



Zachary Tolchin, Guilford, CT




Grades 5-8




Aadya Karthik, Redmond, WA



Andrew Tavares, Bridgewater, MA



Sara Wang, Henderson, NV




Grades 9-12




Thomas Liu, Ridgewood, NJ



Madeline Male, Fairway, KS



Kailey Thomas, Las Vegas, NV




About the Challenge



The challenge is funded by the Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office in NASA's Science Mission Directorate and administered by Future Engineers under the NASA Open Innovation Services 2 contract. This contract is managed by the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.







Kristin JansenNASA's Glenn Research Center

Source: NASA Names Finalists of the Power to Explore Challenge

NASA Astronaut Loral O'Hara, Crewmates Return from Space Station

Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara gives a thumbs up inside the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft after she, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 6, 2024. O'Hara is returning to Earth after logging 204 days in space as a member of Expeditions 69-70 aboard the International Space Station and Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya return after having spent the last 14 days in space.NASA/Bill Ingalls


NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara returned to Earth after a six-month research mission aboard the International Space Station on Saturday, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya.



The trio departed the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 11:54 p.m. EDT on April 5, and made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 3:17 a.m., April 6 (12:17 p.m. Kazakhstan time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.



O'Hara launched Sept. 15, 2023, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who both will remain aboard the space station to complete a one-year mission. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched aboard Soyuz MS-25 on March 23 along with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, who will remain aboard the orbiting laboratory until this fall.



O'Hara spent a total of 204 days in space as part of her first spaceflight. Novitskiy has logged a total of 545 days in space across four spaceflights and Vasilevskaya has spent 14 days in space as part of her first spaceflight.



Supporting NASA's Artemis campaign, O'Hara's mission helped prepare for exploration of the Moon and build foundations for crewed missions to Mars. She completed approximately 3,264 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 86.5 million miles. O'Hara worked on scientific activities aboard the space station, including investigating heart health, cancer treatments, and space manufacturing techniques during her stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.



Following post-landing medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O'Hara will then board a NASA plane bound for her return to the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.



With the undocking of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with O'Hara, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya, Expedition 71 officially began aboard the station. NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, and Jeannette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko make up Expedition 71 and will remain on the orbiting laboratory until this fall.



Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook, ISS Instagram, and the space station blog.



-end-



Joshua Finch / Julian Coltre / Claire O'SheaHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1100joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / claire.a.o'shea@nasa.gov



Sandra JonesJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

Source: NASA Astronaut Loral O'Hara, Crewmates Return from Space Station

NASA Langley Team to Study Weather During Eclipse Using Uncrewed Vehicles

3 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)


A six-person team of researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will travel to Fort Drum, N.Y., to study changes in the Sun's radiation as it reaches Earth before, during, and after the total solar eclipse April 8.



Weather sensors similar to what is used on daily weather balloons by the National Weather Service will be added to a specially modified Alta X Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) and flown to a maximum altitude of nearly two miles, higher than the team has ever flown the UAS. The UAS will provide vertical modeling of temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and wind to test an alternative data collection to using traditional weather balloons in the troposphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere where most types of clouds are found and where weather occurs.


Jake Revesz, electronic systems engineer, prepping the UAS for flight.NASA/Jen Fowler


"UAS hold promise for rapid deployment into the lower troposphere with repeated measurements for higher temporal resolution at lower cost," said Jennifer Fowler, principal investigator and mission commander, "Typically, atmospheric data collection from instruments on board aircraft is done using balloons as the platform that, once released, are not recovered. UAS allow for the opportunity to conduct repeated profiles since the radiosonde is recovered after each flight."



'Forcing events' in weather are events that drive some type of sudden change. Examples of forcing events are volcanic eruptions, wildland fires, and solar eclipses. The predictability of an eclipse, compared to other forcing events, presents a perfect opportunity for scientists to study the impact on the planetary boundary layer, the lowest part of the troposphere, in a natural experiment. Experiments with weather balloons use instruments, called dropsondes, that collect data about the atmosphere as they float to earth. Radiosondes are dropsondes attached to aircraft.



"The configuration [of instruments] that we're using, a radiosonde integrated with a 3D sonic anemometer, flown on a multi-rotor aircraft, to my knowledge, has never been done before," explained Tyler Willhite, airborne sensor operator, "The radiosonde is designed for balloon launches. So, the fact that we're flying it on a drone is very different. Low altitude sounding data is critical to fill knowledge gaps that currently exist in the atmospheric boundary layer. We also have the ability to have a large variety of data outputs that can be streamed in real-time. This is something that other weather payloads are somewhat limited in."



NASA's team will work closely with collaborators from the World Meteorological Organization, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the University of Albany who will launch weather balloons to gather measurements during the same timeframe.



"During our eclipse mission we will also be participating in the World Meteorological Organization's world-wide flight campaign. We will gather data in real-time throughout the eclipse and the days beforehand, send those to the WMO to input into their models for more updated and accurate forecast measurements," said Willhite, "That is the main goal of all this data is to be inputted into models for more updated and accurate forecasts."




   
      
         
            
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   Related TermsLangley Research CenterAeronauticsDrones & You
   

   

      
         
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                        NASA Selects University Teams to Compete in 2024 RASC-AL Competition
                                                
                           
                              
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Source: NASA Langley Team to Study Weather During Eclipse Using Uncrewed Vehicles

NASA Selects University Teams to Compete in 2024 RASC-AL Competition

5 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)


Fourteen undergraduate and graduate teams from across the country were selected as finalists to compete in one of NASA's longest running student challenges — the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition. The competition fuels innovation and challenges undergraduate and graduate teams to develop new concepts to improve our ability to operate on the Moon, Mars and beyond. Finalists will travel to Cocoa Beach, Florida next June to present their proposed concepts to a panel of NASA and aerospace industry leaders. 



The 2024 finalist teams are: 



AI-Powered Self-Replicating Probe Theme: 




Clarkson University with Khalifa University and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) 

AUTONOMY: Augmented Unmanned Technology Operating in Navigating Objects of Mining Yield 



Advisors: Dr. Michael Bazzocchi (Clarkson), Dr. Roberto Sabatini (Khalifa), Dr. Alessandro Gardi (Khalifa), Dr. Anna Bourmistrova (RMIT) 







Stanford University with the University of Waterloo 

Modular Self-Assembling Robotic Architecture (MARA) 



Advisors: Prof. Anton Ermakov (Stanford), Prof. William Melek (Waterloo) 







University of Texas, Austin 

AETHER: Autonomous Exploration Through Extraterrestrial Regions 



Advisor: Prof. Adam Nokes 







Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 

Project Draupnir 



Advisor: Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh 






Large-Scale Lunar Crater Prospector Theme: 




Iowa State University 

Sub-Surface Condensation Analysis Rover for Crater Exploration (SCARCE) 



Advisor: Dr. Matthew Nelson 







South Dakota State University

POSEID-N: Prospecting Observation System for Exploration, Investigation, Discovery, and Navigation 



Advisor: Dr. Todd Letcher 







Tulane University 

S.P.I.D.E.R: South Pole Ice Drilling and Exploration Rover 



Advisors: Dr. Matt Barrios 







University of Maryland 

SITIS: Subsurface Ice and Terrain In-situ Surveyor 



Advisor: Dr. David Akin 







University of Texas, Austin 

VENOM: Volatile Examining luNar prOspectors and Mothership 



Advisor: Prof. Adam Nokes 






Long-Duration Mars Simulation at the Moon Theme: 




Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (ISAE) and National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space (EPFL) 

MARTEMIS: Mars Architecture Research using Taguchi Experiments on the Moon with International Solidarity 



Advisors: Prof. Jeffrey Hoffman (MIT), Madelyn Hoying (MIT), Dr. George Lordos (MIT), Dr. Olivier de Weck (MIT), Dr. Alexandros Lordos (University of Cyprus), Vsevolo Peysakhovich (ISAE), Dr. Andreas Osterwalder (EPFL), Dr. Martin Heyne (Intuitive Machines), Dr. Alexander Miller (Blue Origin) 







University of Maryland 

Moon-2-Mars 



Advisors: Dr. David Akin, Charles Hanner 






Sustained Lunar Evolution Theme: 




University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with Barrios Technology 

THEIA: Trans-lunar Hub for Exploration, ISRU, and Advancement 



Advisors: Dr. Victoria Coverstone (UIUC), Dr. Robyn Woollands (UIUC), Alec Auster (Barrios Technology) 







University of Maryland

TILE: Terrapin Infrastructure for Lunar Evolution 



Advisors: Dr. Jarred Young, Christopher Kingsley 







University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez 

POLARIS: Permanent-Outpost Lunar Architecture for Research and Innovative Services 



Advisors: Dr. Bárbara Calcagno, Dr. Gustavo Gutiérrez






For the 2024 competition, teams were asked to submit a two-minute video and detailed seven-to-nine-page proposal addressing one of four themes related to leveraging innovation to improve our ability to operate on the Moon, Mars and beyond. They included: Long-Duration Mars Simulation at the Moon, Sustained Lunar Evolution, AI-Powered Self-Replicating Probes – an Evolutionary Approach, and Large-Scale Lunar Crater Prospector. A steering committee of NASA personnel and industry experts selected the finalists based on a review of competitive proposals. 



"Each year we come up with themes for the competition that NASA and the aerospace industry are invested in, because these are real challenges that we are facing, and every year we are impressed with the proposals we receive," said Patrick Troutman, RASC-AL sponsor and lead for human exploration strategic assessments at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "We heard a lot of great ideas from the university community this year, but these 14 finalists really raised the bar and impressed us." 



RASC-AL projects allow university students to incorporate their coursework into space exploration objectives in a team environment and help bridge strategic knowledge gaps associated with NASA's vision. The competition emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary teams.   



"It’s never an easy decision when it comes to choosing finalists, because we love working with university students across the board and appreciate how passionate they all are about aerospace, but these fourteen teams really went above and beyond in their approaches and we look forward to hearing more from them at the forum, " said Dr. Christopher Jones, Chief Technologist for the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley, and RASC-AL sponsor and judge.  



For 2024, each finalist team receives a $6,500 stipend to further develop and present their concept at the RASC-AL Forum in Cocoa Beach, where they will present their findings to a judging panel of NASA and industry experts. The teams with the top two winning papers will be invited to present their design projects to industry experts at AIAA's 2024 ASCEND Conference. 



RASC-AL is sponsored by the Strategies and Architectures Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, and by the Space Mission Analysis Branch within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley. It is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace. 



For more information about the RASC-AL competition, including complete theme and submission guidelines, visit: https://rascal.nianet.org 




   
      
         
            
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               Apr 05, 2024
            
                  
      
   Related TermsLangley Research CenterExploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
   

   

      
         
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Source: NASA Selects University Teams to Compete in 2024 RASC-AL Competition

NASA's LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea's Danuri Moon Orbiter

NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024.


The dark spot centered in the bottom third of this image is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri orbiter, smudged because it was traveling quickly in the opposite direction of NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) when LRO snapped the photo. At the time, Danuri was orbiting 5 miles, or 8 kilometers, below LRO's orbit, and LRO was about 50 miles, or 80 kilometers, above the Moon's surface. This image covers an area about 2 miles, or 3 kilometers, wide.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University


LRO's narrow angle camera (one in a suite of cameras known as "LROC") captured the images featured here during three orbits that happened to be close enough to Danuri’s to grab snapshots.



Due to the fast relative velocities between the two spacecraft (about 7,200 miles, or 1,500 kilometers, per hour), the LRO operations team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, needed exquisite timing in pointing LROC to the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of Danuri, the Republic of Korea's first spacecraft at the Moon. Danuri has been in lunar orbit since December 2022. Although LRO's camera exposure time was very short, only 0.338 milliseconds, Danuri still appears smeared to 10 times its size in the opposite direction of travel because of the relative high travel velocities between the two spacecraft.


At the first imaging opportunity, LRO was oriented down 43 degrees from its typical position of looking down at the lunar surface to capture Danuri (streaked across the middle) from 3 miles, or 5 kilometers, above it.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

During the next encounter, LRO was closer to Danuri, about 2.5 miles, or 4 kilometers, and oriented 25 degrees toward it.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

For the final photo, LRO was reoriented by 60 degrees to catch a glimpse of Danuri when it was 5 miles, or 8 kilometers, below it. This image pair was corrected for viewing geometry, and, on the right, the Danuri pixels were unsmeared and the image stretched to highlight the Korean spacecraft. The image was rotated 90 degrees so the surface would look like something a person would see looking out the window.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

This image shows Danuri in the white box near the right-hand corner of the image. The large bowl-shaped crater visible in the upper left is 7.5 miles, or 12 kilometers, wide.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Last spring, Danuri had an opportunity to photograph LRO. Its ShadowCam instrument, provided by NASA, snapped this photo of LRO as the Korean spacecraft passed about 11 miles (18 kilometers) above it on April 7, 2023. Based on the design of LRO's narrow angle cameras, the ShadowCam was built to take high-resolution images of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions, where frozen water is likely trapped. The relative velocity between the two spacecraft was about 7,000 miles, or 11,000 kilometers, per hour.NASA/KARI/Arizona State University


LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.



   
      More on this story from Arizona State University's LRO Camera website
      
   

   


By Mark Robinson, Arizona State University, Tempe, and Lonnie Shekhtman, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.



Media Contact:Nancy N. JonesNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.


      
         
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         EditorRob GarnerContactNancy N. Jonesnancy.n.jones@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center         
      
   Related TermsLunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)Earth's MoonGoddard Space Flight CenterPlanetary SciencePlanetary Science DivisionScience Mission DirectorateThe Solar System

Source: NASA's LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea's Danuri Moon Orbiter

Lagniappe for April 2024

7 Min Read
                     
                        Lagniappe for April 2024                     
                  
               
               
               
                           
         
      
      
         
                        
               
                  Explore the April 2024 issue, highlighted by NASA achieving a milestone for new Artemis Moon rocket engines, NASA and Stennis Leaders providing an annual update, and a reminder about the total solar eclipse on April 8.
               
                           
                     
      
   


 Explore the April 2024 issue of Lagniappe featuring:




NASA Achieves Milestone for Engines to Power Future Artemis Missions



NASA-Sponsored FIRST Robotics Competition Welcomes 37 Teams to Magnolia Regional



NASA, Stennis Leaders Provide Annual Update




Gator Speaks


Gator SpeaksNASA/Stennis


Picture this. The year is 2044. It is 20 years into the future, and you think to yourself, "Life is all about moments. Sometimes we recognize the moment at hand, and at other times, it passes us by before we notice. I wish I paid attention when NASA told me about the last total solar eclipse in 2024, since it has been such a long time since one was visible across the United States."



Then, you snap out of the daydream of the future, return to the present moment, and realize, "Wait! There's still time to view the total solar eclipse in 2024."



The regret you were feeling from missing out on the total solar eclipse in 2024 fades. Indeed, the moment has not passed you by... yet.



The total solar eclipse coming on Monday, April 8, 2024, will in fact be the last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States until 2044. If you are like Gator, you may have to brush up on what the word contiguous means, which describes the adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia that make up the United States of America.



It is a long time until 2044, so I invite all to step outside on April 8 and safely give this year's eclipse a look. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun.



Depending on your location, you may be in a spot where the Moon's shadow completely covers the Sun, known as the path of totality. The sky will become dark, as if it were dawn or dusk. Weather permitting, people along the path of totality will see the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, which is usually obscured by the bright face of the Sun.



No matter where you are on April 8, NASA has you covered with this Solar Eclipse Guide: What to Expect: A Solar Eclipse Guide (nasa.gov).



It will help you learn more about when the eclipse will occur, where you can go to watch the eclipse, and how you will watch the eclipse safely.



Every day, NASA explores the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. On April 8, I invite you to join NASA wherever you might be and explore the views of the total solar eclipse.



INFINITY Science Center, the official visitor center of NASA Stennis, will be open on Monday, April 8, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at regular admission rates. All are invited for a day of solar science.



In Case You Missed It



NASA Stennis welcomed two special guests March 6 when NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch visited south Mississippi to view an RS-25 hot fire test. Along with NASA astronaut Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Wiseman and Koch were named to the Artemis II crew on April 3, 2023. The four astronauts will be the crew that ventures around the Moon on Artemis II as the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis.



   
      View their reaction and hear comments from the Artemis II astronauts following the March 6 hot fire
      
   

   


About Gator



Gator has served as the official mascot of NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, dating back to the site's early construction years. The character has since been featured on NASA Stennis site certificates and awards. Gator also provides a source of encouragement for all things NASA in Lagniappe, the official monthly newsletter of NASA Stennis. To subscribe to the monthly newsletter, simply send your name, location, and email address to the NASA Stennis Office of Communications. Together, we are going back to the Moon – and beyond!



NASA Stennis Top News



NASA Achieves Milestone for Engines to Power Future Artemis Missions



NASA achieved a major milestone April 3 for production of new RS-25 engines to help power its Artemis campaign to the Moon and beyond with completion of a critical engine certification test series at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.



   
      Read More About the Final Test in the Certification Test Series
      
   

   


Artemis Generation Students Inspired During NASA STEM Event



The questions kept coming, exceeding the allotted time, as students at NASA's Next Gen STEM event in late February explored the importance of computer science for future agency missions.



   
      Read More About the Happenings at the STEM Event
      
   

   


Center Activities



NASA, Stennis Leaders Provide Annual Update



NASA Stennis Acting Director John Bailey delivered the annual State of NASA Stennis address to over 100 business and industry leaders from Mississippi and Louisiana during the 12th annual NASA Stennis Space Center Director's Community Briefing on March 20 at the Slidell Municipal Auditorium in Slidell, Louisiana.



Bailey discussed ongoing activities at the center and the outlook for NASA Stennis' mission objectives, including propulsion testing, autonomous systems, range operations, and growth of the federal city.



A new NASA Stennis overview video, narrated by NASA Stennis employee Barry Robinson and featuring the diverse and highly skilled NASA Stennis workforce, premiered at the briefing with community leaders to an enthusiastic response.



"I really love that video," Bailey said to the audience. "We just produced that, and it really gives you an idea of who we are. Really, the thing I like the most is when all of our employees get up there and I see how excited they are because they are our most valuable resource we have. We could not do what we do without our employees, and we have some of the best in the world doing what we do for NASA."



Participating speakers and organizations included: Hansel Gill, acting director of NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; Jennifer Hailes, deputy technical director of Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command; Steve Heller, founder, CEO, and CTO of Evolution Space. Mark Glorioso, chairman of Partners for Stennis & Michoud, served as emcee for the event.



NASA-Sponsored FIRST Robotics Competition Welcomes 37 Teams to Magnolia Regional



Thirty-seven high school teams from eight states and one from Mexico competed during the second annual FIRST Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15. The FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics event is described as the ultimate sport of the mind as teams concentrate and share in the excitement of success. NASA's Stennis Space Center joined with NASA's Robotics Alliance Project and co-sponsor Mississippi Power to bring to life all aspects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the Magnolia state through the regional event.


      
         
                                 
                     
                        
                        Metal Mages, a team from New Orleans, prepares for competition during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Michele Beisler, deputy program manager of the NASA Stennis Rocket Propulsion Test Program Office, talks to the Tigerbots team from Boutte, Louisiana, while serving as judge during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Kelly Martin-Rivers, deputy director of NASA's Southeast Regional Office of STEM Engagement, is interviewed by WDAM reporter Keaundria Milloy during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional
Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Joe Schuyler, director of the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate,
(right) is shown with members of Alpha Omega, a NASA Stennis House Team from Our Lady
Academy in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel,
Mississippi, on March 15. As a NASA Stennis House Team, Alpha Omega has an ongoing relationship
with NASA Stennis with Schuyler serving as the team mentor.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        A member of Denham Venom, a team from Denham Springs, Louisiana, competes during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Members of Voodoo Voltage, a team from New Orleans, work on the team's machine in the machine shop area during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel,
Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Rogue Robotics, a team from Farmington, Minnesota, is interviewed by judges during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Members of the Alpha Omega team from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and
Poultronix team from Forest, Mississippi, celebrate a win during the second annual FIRST (For the
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in
Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Team Storm 4107, a team from Long Beach, Mississippi, roll their machine
from the competition area to the machine shop during the second annual FIRST (For the Inspiration
and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional Competition in Laurel,
Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                                 
                     
                        
                        Cerbotics – Peñoles, a team from Torreón, Coahuila in Mexico, is pictured in
front of the NASA inflatable displayed as NASA served as a lead sponsor during the second annual
FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Magnolia Regional
Competition in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 15.NASA/Bo Black                        
                     
                  
                        
         
            
               
            
            
               
            
         
      
      


NASA Attends New Orleans Entrepreneur Week


Two employees from NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, participated as technology transfer panelists during the 13th annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week at Gallier Hall on March 13. Tom Stanley, chief technology transfer officer at NASA Stennis, and Tom Lipski, technology transfer expansion lead at NASA Stennis, joined Passant Rabie, space reporter at Gizmodo, and Anil John, technical director at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to discuss how NASA and DHS help contribute to startup business activity. Pictured from left are Rabie, Lipski, Stanley, and John. The New Orleans Entrepreneur Week panel event focused on bringing together innovators and visionaries to explore, learn, and connect.  NOEW


NASA in the News




President's NASA FY 2025 Funding Supports US Space, Climate Leadership – NASA



Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Moon's Moment in the Sun (nasa.gov)



New Look at NASA Boeing Sustainable Experimental Airliner




Employee Profile


Cherie Beech works in the NASA Stennis Office of the Chief Information Officer, where she helps many of the more than 5,200 employees of the NASA Stennis Federal City, as customer engagement and information technology acquisition specialist.NASA/Danny Nowlin


Cherie Beech knows full well the opportunity that working at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, affords.



   
      Read More About Cherie Beech
      
   

   


Additional Resources




NASA Stennis Overview – Going Further



KSLA: NASA Gives Tips For Incoming Solar Eclipse



WLOX: NASA Stennis Associate Director Highlights Work at NASA Stennis



WVUE: NASA Stennis Delivers Annual State of NASA Stennis



SuperTalk Mississippi: Dr. Lauren Underwood Talks NASA Stennis' First In-Space Mission



WDAM: FIRST Robotics Competition Held in Laurel



WLOX: NASA Stennis Delivers Annual State of NASA Stennis



SuperTalk Mississippi: NASA Stennis Associate Director Rodney McKellip Highlights NASA Stennis Work



WVUE: Massive new rocket engine undergoes successful test at Stennis Space Center



Sun Herald: Did you hear that? NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne complete key engine certification tests



WLOX: Final RS-25 engine test paves way for use in Artemis space missions



WXXV: Engine testing for RS-25 Space Engine at Stennis Space Center



WJTV: NASA completes final test firing of engines at Stennis Space Center



Associated Press: NASA conducts final engine test for Artemis V



WWL-TV: How Solar Eclipses are Predicted




Subscription Info



Lagniappe is published monthly by the Office of Communications at NASA's Stennis Space Center. The NASA Stennis office may be contacted by at 228-688-3333 (phone); ssc-office-of-communications@mail.nasa.gov (email); or NASA OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS, Attn: LAGNIAPPE, Mail code IA00, Building 1111 Room 173, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 (mail).



The Lagniappe staff includes: Managing Editor Lacy Thompson, Editor Bo Black, and photographer Danny Nowlin.



To subscribe to the monthly publication, please email the following to ssc-office-of-communications@mail.nasa.gov – name, location (city/state), email address.


      
         
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                        Lagniappe for March 2024
                                                
                           
                              
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Source: Lagniappe for April 2024

40 Years Ago: STS-41C, the Solar Max Repair Mission

On Apr. 6, 1984, space shuttle Challenger took off on its fifth flight, STS-41C. Its five-person crew of Commander Robert L. "Crip" Crippen, Pilot Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, and Mission Specialists Terry J. "TJ" Hart, James D. "Ox" Van Hoften, and George D. "Pinky Nelson flew a seven-day mission that expanded the shuttle's capabilities. They deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), the largest and heaviest shuttle payload up to that time. They retrieved, repaired, and redeployed the failing Solar Max satellite in a highly complex choreography of rendezvous and proximity operations, autonomous astronaut flying of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), robotic operations, and spacewalking. The mission also demonstrated the ability of the ground teams and astronauts to successfully respond to unexpected situations.



  Left: The STS-41C crew of (clockwise from bottom left) Commander Robert L. Crippen, Mission Specialists Terry J. Hart, James D. "Ox" Van Hoften, and George D. "Pinky" Nelson, and Pilot Francis R. "Dick" Scobee. Middle: The STS-41C crew patch. Right: Challenger's payload bay for STS-41C.



In February 1983, NASA announced Crippen, Scobee, Hart, Van Hoften, and Nelson as the STS-13 crew, the mission renamed STS-41C in September 1983. Crippen, the flight's only veteran, had flown as the pilot for the first shuttle flight STS-1 in April 1981 and at the time of the announcement in training to command STS-7 in June 1983. For the other four, all selected as astronauts in 1978, STS-41C represented their first trip into space. The mission had two primary objectives. First, the deployment of the LDEF, managed by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and second, the retrieval, repair, and release of the Solar Maximum Mission, Solar Max for short, satellite, managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. A student experiment in the middeck looked at the behavior of 3,300 honeybees in weightlessness. Crippen and Scobee had prime responsibility for operating the shuttle and conducting the rendezvous and proximity operations. Hart had primary responsibility for deploying LDEF using the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS), the shuttle's robotic arm. Nelson would fly the MMU to secure Solar Max so Hart could grapple it with the RMS and place it into a Flight Support Structure (FSS) in Challenger's payload bay where Nelson and Van Hoften would execute the repairs. Several earlier shuttle flights rehearsed techniques and tested hardware to make STS-41C successful, including the first shuttle spacewalk on STS-6, the SPAS-01 rendezvous and proximity operations on STS-7, the PFTA test of the RMS on STS-8, and the test flights of the MMU on STS-41B.



  Left: The structure of the Long-Duration Exposure Facility before the installation of the experiments. Middle: Launch of the Solar Maximum Mission in February 1980. Right: Schematic of the Solar Max satellite.



The LDEF consisted of a 21,400-pound structure measuring 14 by 30 feet, at the time the largest and heaviest object launched by the shuttle and handled by the RMS. The satellite contained 86 trays of various types of materials and structures, power and propulsion science, electronics, and optics representing 57 individual experiments managed by 194 U.S. and international principal investigators. A later shuttle mission planned to retrieve LDEF after 9-10 months in orbit and return it to Earth. Solar Max, launched on Feb. 14, 1980, utilized the Multi-Mission Modular Spacecraft body, specifically designed for retrieval by the space shuttle for servicing and/or repair by spacewalking astronauts. One of its instruments, the white-light coronagraph/polarimeter, operated successfully before suffering an electronics failure in September 1980. Two months later, the second of four fuses in Solar Max's attitude control system failed, causing it to rely on its magnetorquers to maintain attitude. This meant that only three of its seven instruments could obtain useful data, as others required more accurate pointing. Ground controllers put the satellite in a slow spin to keep it in a stable sun-pointed orbit awaiting the arrival of the repair crew. Should the repairs prove unsuccessful, the astronauts could secure Solar Max in Challenger's payload bay and return it to Earth.



  Left: The crawler transporter departs Launch Pad 39A after delivering Challenger. Middle: On launch day, the STS-41C astronauts walk out of crew quarters to board the Astrovan for the ride to Launch Pad 39A. Right: Challenger rises into the sky.



Challenger's successful first shuttle landing at KSC on Feb. 11, 1984, to end the STS-41B mission shortened the turnaround time between touchdown and the next launch to a then-record 55 days. Following refurbishment and mating with its External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters, Challenger returned to Launch Pad 39A on March 29. Liftoff occurred on schedule at 8:58 a.m. EST on April 6, with Challenger taking its five-member crew into the skies. As soon as the shuttle cleared the launch tower, control of the flight shifted to Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Flight Director Gary E. Coen led his team of controllers, including capsule communicator or capcom John E. Blaha, monitored all aspects of the launch. STS-41C performed the first direct to orbit ascent, using the shuttle's main engines to achieve orbit instead of relying on the Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) engines to complete the job. The ET reentered over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, providing ground observers with a brilliant light show as it broke apart. A later two-minute OMS burn circularized the orbit to reach Solar Max's 290-mile altitude, the highest of the shuttle program to that time. Once in orbit, the astronauts opened Challenger's payload bay doors and deployed the Ku-band high-gain antenna to communicate with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). They activated and checked out the FSS to support Solar Max in the payload bay and Hart unstowed the RMS and tested its mobility.



  Left: STS-41C astronaut Terry J. Hart lifts the Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) out of Challenger's payload bay. Middle: LDEF shortly after release. Right: LDEF recedes from Challenger.



The main activity for the astronauts' second day in space centered around the deployment of LDEF. Crippen undid the retention latches holding LDEF in the payload bay. Hart operated the RMS, grappling LDEF first by the Experiment Initiation System fixture to activate the experiments, then relocating the arm's end-effector to LDEF's second fixture to lift it straight out of the payload bay. Holding it high over Challenger, Hart commanded the end effector to release LDEF and Crippen and Scobee pulsed Challenger's thrusters to slowly back away. LDEF assumed a gravity gradient orientation, with its heavier end pointing at the Earth, remaining stable without the use of any thrusters. To prepare for the next day's spacewalk, Nelson and Van Hoften began their prebreathe, breathing pure oxygen using their launch and entry helmets, while Crippen reduced the cabin's pressure from the normal 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) to 10.2 psi. Due to a configuration issue that had them breathing air instead of oxygen, Nelson and Van Hoften had to repeat the prebreathe activity. They also checked out their spacesuits to ensure their readiness for the spacewalk, while Crippen and Scobee began the series of rendezvous maneuvers to reach Solar Max.



  Left: STS-41C astronauts James D. "Ox" Van Hoften, left, and George D. "Pinky" Nelson wear their launch and entry helmets during the prebreathe for the first spacewalk. Middle: Nelson flies the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) from Challenger to Solar Max. Right: Nelson prepares for the first docking attempt with Solar Max.



Mission Control during the first STS-41C spacewalk as NASA astronaut George D. "Pinky" Nelson flies the Manned Maneuvering Unit to the Solar Max satellite.



By the time the crew awoke to begin their third day in space, Challenger had closed the distance to Solar Max to 320 miles. Engineers at Goddard powered down Solar Max's instruments and enabled its communications system to interact with Challenger's. They also inhibited its attitude control system to allow the astronauts to maneuver it without resistance. The satellite continued its slow rotation of once every six minutes to maintain stability. The astronauts first visually sighted Solar Max at a distance of 600,000 feet, and continued maneuvers to close the distance to the satellite. As Challenger approached Solar Max, Hart assisted Nelson and Van Hoften to don their spacesuits. Jerry L. Ross served as capcom during the spacewalk. Nelson and Van Hoften switched their suits to battery power, officially starting the spacewalk, as Crippen and Scobee closed in on Solar Max, finally stopping 140 feet away. The spacewalkers exited the airlock into the payload bay and began checking out the MMU. Nelson donned the unit and with Van Hoften's help installed the Trunnion Pin Attachment Device (TPAD), the device used to dock the MMU with a trunnion pin on Solar Max, on the front of the unit. Hart unstowed the RMS, ready to grapple Solar Max. Nelson flew the MMU in the payload bay to familiarize himself with its characteristics then began his 10-minute flight to Solar Max. On his first attempt to dock to the satellite using the TPAD, its jaws didn't fire to grasp the trunnion pin and he bounced off the satellite. He tried a second time, and once again could not dock. He tried a third time, but bounced off again, his attempts causing Solar Max to wobble in all three axes. He grabbed one of the solar arrays in an attempt to stabilize the satellite. Running low on maneuvering gas, Nelson flew back to the payload bay. Crippen decided to capture Solar Max using the rolling grapple technique with Hart operating the RMS. After several unsuccessful attempts, Mission Control and the crew decided to stand down for the day. Goddard turned on the magnetorquers to slowly bring the spacecraft under control. Nelson parked the MMU, and both he and Van Hoften returned inside after a shortened spacewalk lasting 2 hours 38 minutes. Crippen fired Challenger's thrusters to back away from Solar Max and station keep 60 miles away overnight. The initial plan for the next day would have Crippen and Scobee rendezvous a second time and have Hart do a rotating grapple with the RMS to capture Solar Max and place it in the FSS, with Nelson and Van Hoften performing the repairs on the satellite during a second spacewalk the day after.



   STS-41C crew Earth observation photographs. Left: The Texas Gulf Coast. Middle left: Panama. Middle right: The Richat structure in Mauritania. Right: Circular irrigation in Saudi Arabia.



Overnight, Mission Control decided to take another 24 hours to finalize plans and delayed the rendezvous by one day, adding an extra day to the mission. They informed the crew shortly after the wakeup call on flight day four. In the meantime, engineers at Goddard managed to slow Solar Max's tumble and pointed its solar arrays to the Sun to charge up its batteries. The crew's activities on this day focused on the honeybee student experiment, the large format camera, and Earth observations.



 Left: Terry J. Hart grapples Solar Max during orbital night. Right: Using the RMS, Hart moving Solar Max to the Flight Support Structure in Challenger's payload bay.



The astronauts began their fifth day by starting the second rendezvous with Solar Max, the series of maneuvers bringing Challenger to within 40 feet of the satellite, now rotating at half a degree per second as expected to perform the rolling grapple. With Solar Max positioned over the payload bay, Hart steered the RMS and grappled the satellite on his first attempt. He maneuvered it to the rear of the payload bay and berthed it on the FSS, marking the first in-orbit capture of a satellite for repair. Umbilicals provided power from the shuttle to Solar Max. Hart unlatched the RMS and stowed until its next use during the following day's spacewalk. President Ronald W. Reagan called to congratulate the crew on the successful capture of Solar Max.



  Left: Astronauts George D. "Pinky" Nelson, left, and James D. "Ox" Van Hoften replace Solar Max's attitude control system module during the second STS-41C spacewalk. Middle: Van Hoften, left, and Nelson replace the main electronics box of one of the satellite's instruments. Right: Nelson on the end of the Remote Manipulator System inspects Solar Max.



  Left: During the second STS-41C spacewalk, James D. "Ox" Van Hoften flies the Manned Maneuvering Unit in Challenger's payload bay. Middle: Terry J. Hart lifts the repaired Solar Max out of Challenger's payload bay. Right: Solar Max departs from Challenger.



On flight day six, Scobee helped Nelson and Van Hoften put on their spacesuits in preparation for the mission's second spacewalk, with the plan to complete all the repairs on Solar Max originally planned across two excursions. After depressurizing and exiting the airlock, Van Hoften positioned himself on the Manipulator Foot Restraint (MFR) that Hart had picked up with the RMS. With both spacewalkers back with the Solar Max, they first replaced the satellite's attitude control system module – the item that crippled the satellite – in just 45 minutes. They next installed a manifold to protect the X-ray polychromator instrument. For the final task, the replacement of the main electronics box of the satellite's chronograph polarimeter instrument, never designed for on-orbit repair, Nelson swapped places with Van Hoften on the MFR. The two completed that task in one hour. Nelson then moved over to take measurements of the trunnion pin to determine why the TPAD could not latch onto it during the first spacewalk. He noted a little thermal button sticking up about ¼ inch that might have interfered with the TPAD, later identified conclusively as the culprit. Hart then steered Nelson on the end of the arm to conduct a survey of Solar Max. Because the spacewalkers completed the repair tasks ahead of schedule, Mission Control allowed Van Hoften to fly the MMU in the payload bay and conduct engineering tests with it. Nelson and Van Hoften returned to the airlock, ending the second spacewalk after 6 hours 44 minutes, the longest Earth orbital spacewalk to that time. Between the two spacewalks, Nelson and Van Hoften spent 9 hours 22 minutes outside Challenger. Hart grappled Solar Max with the RMS and lifted it out of the FSS, holding it over the payload bay overnight as engineers at Goddard checked out the satellite's systems prior to release the next day.



  Left: STS 41C astronaut James D. "Ox" Van Hoften examines the honeybee student experiment. Right: The STS-41C crew members pose on Challenger's flight deck near the end of their successful mission, wearing customized shirts.



The next morning, Hart released Solar Max from the RMS and Scobee flew the shuttle away from the satellite. Later in the morning, the astronauts, sporting shirts that read "Ace Satellite Repair Co.," held a 30-minute press conference, answering reporters' questions about their ultimately successful first repair of an on-orbit satellite. They spent the rest of the day readying Challenger for the next day's entry and landing, including stowing unneeded equipment and testing the orbiter's maneuvering thrusters and aerodynamic control surfaces. Nelson and Van Hoften stowed the two spacesuits and Hart the RMS, equipment that had served the crew so well during this mission.



  Left: Space shuttle Challenger rolls down the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California to end the STS-41C mission. Middle: STS-41C astronauts congratulate themselves on a successful flight. Right: In Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Lead STS-41C Flight Director Eugene F. Kranz applauds the successful landing of STS-41C.



On Friday April 13, as the astronauts awakened for their final day in space, their distance to LDEF had increased to more than 6,000 miles and to Solar Max to 80 miles. In preparation for reentry, the astronauts closed the payload bay doors. Mission Control called up that a low cloud deck had moved over the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at KSC and waved off the deorbit burn by one revolution. As the weather at KSC worsened, with light rain showers moving in, Mission Control decided to bring Challenger home at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the weather seemed perfect. Crippen and Scobee oriented Challenger with its tail in the direction of flight and fired its two OMS engines to slow the spacecraft enough to drop it from orbit. They reoriented the orbiter to fly with its heat shield exposed to the direction of flight as it entered Earth's atmosphere at 400,000 feet. The buildup of ionized gases caused by the heat of reentry prevented communications for about 15 minutes but provided the astronauts a great light show as their reentry took place in darkness. After crossing the California coastline, they made the final turn into Edwards. Scobee lowered the landing gear at 300 feet and Crippen brought Challenger down to a smooth touchdown 16 minutes after sunrise on Edwards's dry lake bed runway 17, calling out "Houston, Challenger is wheels stop," to end the successful satellite deployment and repair mission. During the mission lasting 6 days 23 hours 40 minutes they orbited the Earth 108 times.



  Left: Space shuttle Challenger arrives back at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Middle: Solar Max image of a solar coronal mass ejection event on May 4, 1986. Right: Solar Max false color image of Halley's comet taken on Feb. 28, 1986.



Following the landing, the astronauts returned to Houston, where they reunited with their families who had awaited them at KSC. Workers at Edwards towed Challenger to NASA's Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center and mounted it atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747. On April 17, the duo took off from Edwards on the first leg of the transcontinental flight to KSC. After an overnight refueling stop at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Challenger arrived at KSC's SLF, where workers began preparing it for its next flight, STS-41G. Meanwhile, engineers at Goddard began activating Solar Max's instruments almost immediately after deployment, and all systems, including the repaired ones, worked perfectly, and within three days its instruments began collecting science data. Following a 30-day thorough checkout, Solar Max returned to a fully operational status. And although it missed the 1980 solar maximum, the satellite returned much useful data as the Sun cycled through a solar minimum and approached the next maximum in the 11-year cycle. When the mission ended in November 1989, Solar Max had returned 240,000 images of the Sun's corona, recorded more than 12,000 solar flares, and observed 15 deep-space gamma ray bursts and also observed Halley's Comet as it passed through the inner solar system in early 1986. Although planned for retrieval after 9-10 months in space, LDEF remained in orbit far longer. A series of payload shuffles in 1985 followed by the Challenger accident in January 1986 and subsequent extended grounding of the shuttle fleet delayed its return until STS-32 in January 1990, after 57 months in space.



Enjoy the crew narrated video of the STS-41C mission.



Read Crippen's, Hart's, Van Hoften's, and Nelson's recollections of the STS-41C mission in their oral histories with the JSC History Office.


      
         
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Source: 40 Years Ago: STS-41C, the Solar Max Repair Mission

NASA Langley Team to Study Weather During Eclipse Using Uncrewed Vehicles

3 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)


A six-person team of researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will travel to Fort Drum, N.Y., to study changes in the Sun's radiation as it reaches Earth before, during, and after the total solar eclipse April 8.



Weather sensors similar to what is used on daily weather balloons by the National Weather Service will be added to a specially modified Alta X Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) and flown to a maximum altitude of nearly two miles, higher than the team has ever flown the UAS. The UAS will provide vertical modeling of temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and wind to test an alternative data collection to using traditional weather balloons in the troposphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere where most types of clouds are found and where weather occurs.


Jake Revesz, electronic systems engineer, prepping the UAS for flight.NASA/Jen Fowler


"UAS hold promise for rapid deployment into the lower troposphere with repeated measurements for higher temporal resolution at lower cost," said Jennifer Fowler, principal investigator and mission commander, "Typically, atmospheric data collection from instruments on board aircraft is done using balloons as the platform that, once released, are not recovered. UAS allow for the opportunity to conduct repeated profiles since the radiosonde is recovered after each flight."



'Forcing events' in weather are events that drive some type of sudden change. Examples of forcing events are volcanic eruptions, wildland fires, and solar eclipses. The predictability of an eclipse, compared to other forcing events, presents a perfect opportunity for scientists to study the impact on the planetary boundary layer, the lowest part of the troposphere, in a natural experiment. Experiments with weather balloons use instruments, called dropsondes, that collect data about the atmosphere as they float to earth. Radiosondes are dropsondes attached to aircraft.



"The configuration [of instruments] that we're using, a radiosonde integrated with a 3D sonic anemometer, flown on a multi-rotor aircraft, to my knowledge, has never been done before," explained Tyler Willhite, airborne sensor operator, "The radiosonde is designed for balloon launches. So, the fact that we're flying it on a drone is very different. Low altitude sounding data is critical to fill knowledge gaps that currently exist in the atmospheric boundary layer. We also have the ability to have a large variety of data outputs that can be streamed in real-time. This is something that other weather payloads are somewhat limited in."



NASA's team will work closely with collaborators from the World Meteorological Organization, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the University of Albany who will launch weather balloons to gather measurements during the same timeframe.



"During our eclipse mission we will also be participating in the World Meteorological Organization's world-wide flight campaign. We will gather data in real-time throughout the eclipse and the days beforehand, send those to the WMO to input into their models for more updated and accurate forecast measurements," said Willhite, "That is the main goal of all this data is to be inputted into models for more updated and accurate forecasts."




   
      
         
            
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NASA Noise Prediction Tool Supports Users in Air Taxi Industry

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The results from a NASA software tool called OVERFLOW, used to model the flow of air around aircraft, are shown in this image.NASA


Several air taxi companies are using a NASA-developed computer software tool to predict aircraft noise and aerodynamic performance. This tool allows manufacturers working in fields related to NASA's Advanced Air Mobility mission to see early in the aircraft development process how design elements like propellors or wings would perform. This saves the industry time and money when making potential design modifications.



This NASA computer code, called "OVERFLOW," performs calculations to predict fluid flows such as air, and the pressures, forces, moments, and power requirements that come from the aircraft. Since these fluid flows contribute to aircraft noise, improved predictions can help engineers design quieter models. Manufacturers can integrate the code with their own aircraft modeling programs to run different scenarios, quantifying performance and efficiency, and visually interpreting how the airflow behaves on and around the vehicle. These interpretations can come forward in a variety of colors representing these behaviors.



This computer program is available to industry for U.S. release via the software.nasa.gov website.


An OVERFLOW modeling image from the manufacturer Joby Aviation.Joby Aviation

An OVERFLOW modeling image from the manufacturer Wisk.Wisk

An OVERFLOW modeling image from the manufacturer Archer Aviation.Archer Aviation



   
      
         
            
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                  Last Updated
               
               Apr 04, 2024
            
         EditorDede DiniusContactTeresa Whitingteresa.whiting@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center         
      
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Source: NASA Noise Prediction Tool Supports Users in Air Taxi Industry