In the heart of baseball season, NASA completed its equivalent of a clean inning, successfully testing the third RS-25 flight controller for use on the new Space Launch System (SLS) deep space rocket. Engineers conducted a 500-second test of RS-25 Engine Controller Unit No. 5 on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, July 25, 2017. The test involved installing the controller unit on an RS-25 development engine and firing it in the same manner, and for the same length of time, as needed during launch.
With this latest test, NASA continues to set the stage for deep-space exploration missions, achieving another milestone toward launch of the first integrated flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft, known as Exploration Mission-1. SLS will be powered at launch by four RS-25 engines, firing simultaneously to provide 2 million pounds of thrust and working in conjunction with a pair of solid rocket boosters to produce up to 8 million pounds of thrust. The four RS-25 engines for the initial flight are former space shuttle main engines, modified to perform at a higher thrust level and with new controllers. The controller is the key modification to the engines and is characterized as the “brain” that provides precision control of engine operation and internal health diagnostics, and allows communication between the RS-25 engine and the SLS. During launch and flight, the controller communicates with the SLS flight computers, receiving critical commands and returning engine health and status data. Early tests at Stennis provided critical data for development of the new controller by NASA, RS-25 prime contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne and subcontractor Honeywell.
NASA tested the first flight controller on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis in March. The second flight controller was tested in May. Following review of test data, both controllers were designated for use on RS-25 engines that will power the SLS launch. RS-25 tests at Stennis are conducted by a team of NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Syncom Space Services engineers and operators. Aerojet Rocketdyne is the RS-25 prime contractor. Syncom Space Services is the prime contractor for Stennis facilities and operations.
Image Credit: NASA
Release Date: July 25, 2017#NASA #Space #Rocket #SLS #Engine #RS25 #Mars #SpaceLaunchSystem #JourneyToMars #DeepSpace #Propulsion #Engineering #Technology #Stennis #Mississippi #USA #UnitedStates #Marshall #AerojetRocketdyne #Asteroid #Moon #Lunar
#Exploration #STEM #Education
Hilary is a small but strengthening hurricane, with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 10 miles (20 km) from the center. Tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 60 miles (95 km).
Hilary began when Tropical Depression 9E formed on July 21. By July 22 at 11 p.m. EDT, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was re-named Hilary. At 5 a.m. EDT on Monday, July 24, 2017, Hilary rapidly intensified into a hurricane.
NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true color image of Hurricane Hilary on July 24 at 11 a.m. EDT. The image revealed a better organized tropical cyclone. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted "Satellite images indicate that Hilary has a small central core of convection, with both the visible and infrared channels suggesting that an eye is trying to form. Microwave data also show an incomplete eyewall."
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Hilary was located near 14.1 degrees north latitude and 104.2 degrees west longitude. That's about 340 miles (545 km) south of Manzanillo, Mexico. Hilary is moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph (13 kph), and the National Hurricane Center said this general motion with some increase in forward speed is expected over the next 48 hours. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 80 mph (130 kph) with higher gusts. The estimated minimum central pressure is 989 millibars.
The National Hurricane Center expects Hilary to become a major hurricane on Tuesday, July 25.
For updated forecasts, visit: www.nhc.noaa.gov
Credit: NASA
Release Date: July 24, 2017#NASA #Earth #Science #Satellite #Space #Hurricane #Hilary #Pacific #Ocean #Mexico #EarthObservation #Aqua #MODIS #Goddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
Numerous arches of magnetic field lines danced and swayed above a large active region over about a 30-hour period (July 17-18, 2017). We can also see the magnetic field lines from the large active region reached out and connected with a smaller active region. Those linked lines then strengthened (become brighter), but soon began to develop a kink in them and rather swiftly faded from view. All of this activity is driven by strong magnetic forces associated with the active regions. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA
Capture Date: July 17, 2017
Release Date: July 24, 2017#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Sun #Solar #Magnetic #Loops #ActiveRegion #Magnetism #Physics #Astrophysics #Ultraviolet #SDO #GSFC #Goddard #STEM #Education
In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Expedition 52-53 prime and backup crews pose for pictures in front of the first stage engines of the Soyuz booster rocket July 24 as part of their final fit check dress rehearsal. From left to right are prime crewmembers Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Randy Bresnik of NASA and backup crew members Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Mark Vande Hei of NASA. Nespoli, Bresnik and Ryazanskiy will launch July 28 aboard the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft for a five-month mission on the International Space Station.
Credit: Andrey Shelepin/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
Image Date: July 24, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Science #Cosmonauts #Soyuz #Commander #SergeyRyazanskiy #AlexanderMisurkin #Astronauts #NorishigeKanai #Japan #日本 #JAXA #MarkVandeHei #PaoloNespoli #RandyBresnik #ASI #ESA #Europe #Russia #Россия #Baikonur #Cosmodrome #Kazakhstan #Human #Spaceflight #Expedition52 #UnitedStates #JSC #STEM
#Education
This beautiful clump of glowing gas, dark dust, and glittering stars is the spiral galaxy NGC 4248, located about 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs).
This image was produced by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as it embarked upon compiling the first Hubble ultraviolet “atlas”, for which the telescope targeted 50 nearby star-forming galaxies. A sample spanning all kinds of different morphologies, masses, and structures. Studying this sample can help us to piece together the star-formation history of the Universe.
By exploring how massive stars form and evolve within such galaxies, astronomers can learn more about how, when, and where star formation occurs, how star clusters change over time, and how the process of forming new stars is related to the properties of both the host galaxy and the surrounding interstellar medium (the “stuff” that fills the space between individual stars).
This image is formed of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date: July 24, 2017#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Science #Space #Galaxy #Spiral #NGC4248 #CanesVenatici #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #STEM #Education
Approximately 95 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Octans (The Octant), lies NGC 7098—an intriguing spiral galaxy with numerous sets of double features. The first of NGC 7098’s double features is a duo of distinct ring-like structures that loop around the galaxy’s hazy heart. These are NGC 7098’s spiral arms, which have wound themselves around the galaxy’s luminous core. This central region hosts a second double feature: a double bar.
NGC 7098 has also developed features known as ansae, visible as small, bright streaks at each end of the central region. Ansae are visible areas of overdensity—they commonly take looping, linear, or circular shapes, and can be found at the extremities of planetary ring systems, in nebulous clouds, and, as is the case with NGC 7098, in parts of galaxies that are packed to the brim with stars.
This image is formed from data gathered by the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) instrument, installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory. An array of distant galaxies are also visible throughout the frame, the most prominent being the small, edge-on, spiral galaxy visible to the left of NGC 7098, known as ESO 048-G007.
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Release Date: July 24, 2017#ESO #Astronomy #Science #Space #Galaxy #Spiral #Ansae #NGC7098 #Octans #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #Telescope #Paranal #Observatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #STEM #Education
July 20, 2017: While photographing Mars, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a cameo appearance of the tiny moon Phobos on its trek around the Red Planet. Discovered in 1877, the diminutive, potato-shaped moon is so small that it appears star-like in the Hubble pictures. Phobos orbits Mars in just 7 hours and 39 minutes, which is faster than Mars rotates. The moon’s orbit is very slowly shrinking, meaning it will eventually shatter under Mars’ gravitational pull, or crash into the planet.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
Release Date: July 20, 2017#NASA #Hubble #Astronomy #Science #Mars #Planet #Moon #Phobos #RedPlanet #SolarSystem #Exploration #Space #Telescope #ESA #Goddard #GSFC #STScI #Astrophotography #Timelapse #STEM #Education
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Eastern Pacific Ocean's Hurricane Fernanda as it continued to track toward the Central Pacific. The storm continues to move over cooler waters and is on a weakening trend.
The storm's eye is now cloud-filled.
July 18, 2017: On July 17 at 6:10 p.m. EDT (2210 UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible picture of Fernanda. The image revealed strong thunderstorms continued to circle the low-level center of circulation, and the eye of the storm had become filled in from clouds.
At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Hurricane Fernanda was located near 15.4 degrees north latitude and 132.8 degrees west longitude. That's about 1,495 miles (2,410 km) east of Hilo, Hawaii. Fernanda was moving toward the northwest near 9 mph (15 kph) and this general motion is expected during the next day or so. A turn to the west-northwest is expected on Wednesday. The estimated minimum central pressure is 971 millibars.
Maximum sustained winds are near 105 mph (165 kph) with higher gusts. Continued gradual weakening is forecast during the next couple of days.
For updated forecasts, visit: www.nhc.noaa.gov
Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response
Release Date: July 18, 2017#NASA #Earth #Science #Satellite #Weather #Storm #Hurricane #Pacific #Ocean #Aqua #MODIS #GSFC #Goddard #NOAA #STEM #Education
A flare medium-sized (M2) flare and a coronal mass ejection erupted from the same, large active region (July 14, 2017). The flare lasted almost two hours, quite a long duration. Coronagraphs on the SOHO spacecraft show a substantial cloud of charged particles blasting into space just after the blast. The coils arcing over this active region are particles spiraling along magnetic field lines, which were reorganizing themselves after the magnetic field was disrupted by the blast. Images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA
Image Date: July 14, 2017
Release Date: July 17, 2017#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Sun #Solar #Flare #M2 #SolarFlare #CME #Magnetic #Loops #Magnetism #Physics #Astrophysics #Ultraviolet #SDO #SOHO #GSFC #Goddard #STEM #Education
#France #BastilleDay
Assembled using near-infrared, red, and green filtered images taken of Saturn by Cassini on July 16, 2017.
The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech//Space Science Institute/Kevin M. Gill
Image Date: July 16, 2017
Release Date: July 17, 2017 #NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Saturn #Planet #Rings #Atmosphere #SolarSystem #Exploration #Cassini #Spacecraft #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #ESA #ASI #STEM #Education
Image: Neil Armstrong in flight suit with lunar module simulator in 1969.
When the United States set a goal of landing a man on the moon, NASA Langley Research Center tackled the many challenges of spaceflight, trained astronauts, managed Project Mercury, and assumed major roles in both the Gemini and Apollo programs. Langley led the Lunar Orbiter initiative, which not only mapped the moon, but chose the spot for the first human landing. Langley aerospace engineer John Houbolt championed the lunar-orbit rendezvous concept, enabling the Apollo 11 moon landing and the safe return of its crew to Earth.
Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, trained at Langley's Lunar Landing Research Facility on equipment that cancelled all but one-sixth of Earth's gravitational force to match that of the moon's. This photograph shows Armstrong at the Lunar Landing Research Facility on Feb. 12, 1969. Twenty-four astronauts practiced touchdowns at the facility, where overhead cables supported five-sixths of the weight of a full-size model lander, and thrust was provided by a working rocket engine.
Part of the landing facility was the Reduced Gravity Simulator, which was attached to an overhead, lightweight trolley track. There, suspended on one side by a network of slings and cables, an astronaut's ability to walk, run, and perform the various tasks required during lunar excursions was evaluated.
Armstrong offered what was perhaps the greatest tribute to the importance of his Langley training in Apollo 11's success. When asked what it was like to land on the moon, he replied: "Like Langley."
Image Credit: NASA/Langley Research Center
Image Date: Feb. 12, 1969
Release Date: July 17, 2017#NASA #Space #Apollo #Moon #Lunar #Landing #Langley #Research #Astronaut #NeilArmstrong #Apollo11 #History #Centennial #Pioneers #Hampton #Virginia #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
U.S. Astronaut Jack Fischer: "One recent experiment (ROSA) looked at a new solar array that unfurled like a party horn on New Year’s and it worked!"
ROSA is an experiment to test a new type of solar array that rolls open in space like a party favor and is more compact than current rigid panel designs.
Learn more about this new U.S. technology at:
Deployable Space Systems, Inc. (DSS)
http://www.dss-space.com
Credit: NASA/JSC
Release Date: July 15, 2017#NASA #ISS #Earth #Planet #Science #Space #Solar #SolarArray #ROSA #DSS #Testing #Experiment #Renewable #Energy #Engineering #EarthObservation #Astronaut #JackFischer #Expedition52 #Human #Spaceflight #Technology #CSA #Canadarm2 #Dextre #Photography #JSC #UnitedStates #OverviewEffect #OrbitalPerspective #STEM #Education
This intriguing surface texture is the result of rock interacting with water. The rock was then eroded and later exposed to the surface. The pinkish, almost dragon-like scaled texture represents Martian bedrock that has specifically altered into a clay-bearing rock.
The nature of the water responsible for the alteration, and how it interacted with the rock to form the clay remains poorly understood. Not surprisingly, the study of such altered rocks on Mars is an area of active investigation by the Mars science community. Understanding such interactions, and how they happened, help scientists to understand the past climate on Mars, and if the red planet ever harbored life.
Recent studies indicate that the early Martian climate may not have been as warm, wet, and Earth-like, as previously suggested. This is not a problem for finding life on Mars as one might think. Ongoing studies of dry and cold environments on Earth shows that life finds ways to adapt to such extremes. Such work provides hope for finding evidence for life on other planets, like Mars, someday.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Caption Credit: Livio L. Tornabene, Jon Kissi, Zach Morse and Gavin Tolometti Release Date: July 11, 2017
#NASA #Astronomy #Science #Space #Mars #Geology #Geoscience #Clay #Water #Bedrock #MRO #HiRISE #Spacecraft #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #SolarSystem #STEM #Education
July 12, 2017: This color image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstadt using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft.
The image was taken on July 10, 2017 as the Juno spacecraft performed its 7th close flyby of Jupiter.
More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt
Release Date: July 12, 2017
#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Planet #Atmosphere #GreatRedSpot #GRS #Juno #Spacecraft #SwRI #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
#CitizenScience
This enhanced-color image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft. | July 12, 2017: Images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot reveal a tangle of dark, veinous clouds weaving their way through a massive crimson oval. The JunoCam imager aboard NASA's Juno mission snapped pics of the most iconic feature of the solar system's largest planetary inhabitant during its Monday (July 10) flyby. The images of the Great Red Spot were downlinked from the spacecraft's memory on Tuesday and placed on the mission's JunoCam website Wednesday morning.
"For hundreds of years scientists have been observing, wondering and theorizing about Jupiter's Great Red Spot," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Now we have the best pictures ever of this iconic storm. It will take us some time to analyze all the data from not only JunoCam, but Juno's eight science instruments, to shed some new light on the past, present and future of the Great Red Spot."
As planned by the Juno team, citizen scientists took the raw images of the flyby from the JunoCam site and processed them, providing a higher level of detail than available in their raw form. The citizen-scientist images, as well as the raw images they used for image processing, can be found at:
https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing
"I have been following the Juno mission since it launched," said Jason Major, a JunoCam citizen scientist and a graphic designer from Warwick, Rhode Island. "It is always exciting to see these new raw images of Jupiter as they arrive. But it is even more thrilling to take the raw images and turn them into something that people can appreciate. That is what I live for."
Measuring in at 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width (as of April 3, 2017) Jupiter's Great Red Spot is 1.3 times as wide as Earth. The storm has been monitored since 1830 and has possibly existed for more than 350 years. In modern times, the Great Red Spot has appeared to be shrinking.
All of Juno's science instruments and the spacecraft's JunoCam were operating during the flyby, collecting data that are now being returned to Earth. Juno's next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on Sept. 1.
Juno reached perijove (the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter's center) on July 10 at 6:55 p.m. PDT (9:55 p.m. EDT). At the time of perijove, Juno was about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops. Eleven minutes and 33 seconds later, Juno had covered another 24,713 miles (39,771 kilometers), and was passing directly above the coiling, crimson cloud tops of the Great Red Spot. The spacecraft passed about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) above the clouds of this iconic feature.
Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet's cloud tops -- as close as about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
Early science results from NASA's Juno mission portray the largest planet in our solar system as a turbulent world, with an intriguingly complex interior structure, energetic polar aurora, and huge polar cyclones.
"These highly-anticipated images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are the 'perfect storm' of art and science. With data from Voyager, Galileo, New Horizons, Hubble and now Juno, we have a better understanding of the composition and evolution of this iconic feature," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science. "We are pleased to share the beauty and excitement of space science with everyone."
JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena.
More information on the Juno mission is available at:
https://www.nasa.gov/juno
http://missionjuno.org
More information on the Great Red Spot can be found at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/jupiter-s-great-red-spot-a-swirling-mystery
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jupiter-s-great-red-spot-likely-a-massive-heat-source
More information on Jupiter can be found at:
https://www.nasa.gov/jupiter
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt
Release Date: July 12, 2017#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Planet #Atmosphere #GreatRedSpot #GRS #Juno #Spacecraft #SwRI #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education
#CitizenScience
