Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
NASA continues to forge ahead in humanity’s quest for knowledge as we explore the Moon and Mars. Through Artemis, we will expand our robotic and human exploration of the Moon and land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface. As we get ready to venture beyond, the technology we develop and discoveries we make on the Moon will prepare us for Mars and our next giant leap: sending humans to the Red Planet.
Exploring the Secrets of the Universe for the Benefit of All | NASA
State of NASA 2022 Highlights: NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.
To learn more about some of the NASA missions featured in this video, take a deep dive into these links:
NASA benefits all humanity and our workforce is key to making this happen. Take a look at the universe of NASA missions and projects made possible by our commitment to teamwork, collaboration, equity and inclusiveness.
Our exploration of the universe, our technology development, our work to help understand climate change, and the opportunities the agency creates make our nation more prosperous, stronger, more inclusive and inspired. NASA furthers the nation’s goals to address climate change, advance space exploration, promote equity and diversity and provide educational STEM opportunities. NASA keeps the United States at the forefront of innovation.
Learn more about Careers at NASA:
https://lnkd.in/eAXwP-tW
Interested in pursuing a career at NASA?
1) Create a USA JOBS account: www.usajobs.gov
2) Build your resume.
3) Search current vacancies here: https://lnkd.in/eCTWc-wZ
(Tip: You can create a “Saved Search” to find specific roles & you will receive emails automatically when new jobs are available.)
"NASA is more than astronauts. We are scientists, engineers, IT specialists, human resources specialists, accountants, writers, technicians, and many other kinds of people working together to break barriers to achieve the seemingly impossible."
Eligibility: U.S. Citizens and permanent residents
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Vigil Space Weather Mission | European Space Agency
It is the first mission of its kind, set to monitor our active and unpredictable Sun and to help protect us from its violent outbursts–and it has a new name.
The European Space Agency’s upcoming Vigil space weather mission will help protect Earth’s infrastructure, satellites, inhabitants and space explorers from unpredictable but violent solar events like solar flares and ‘coronal mass ejections’.
In Latin, ‘vigilis exceptus’ means sentry, or guard, while ‘vigilia’ means wakefulness and the act of keeping a devoted watch, which resonates with the mission’s role—a devoted guardian, keeping constant watch over the Sun, for Earth.
Protecting Modern Life, and Life Itself
Solar storms can damage power grids, disrupt telecommunications and threaten satellites and the vital services they provide. At the same time, as we launch ever-more satellites into orbit we are creating increasing amounts of debris—dramatically increasing the risks of collision for current and future missions.
These satellites have changed our lives and enlarged our perspective on Earth, but they—and the technologies they make possible on which modernity relies—are vulnerable.
The protection of space assets is at the heart of ESA’s Vision for the future. To do this, the new Protect ‘accelerator’ proposes the development of ‘air traffic control for space’, as well as an early warning system to help us prepare for hazardous solar activity.
Searching for Gems | European Southern Observatory
This striking star trail image was captured above the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama desert. Star trails are caused by Earth’s rotation; in this long exposure image, stars appear to circle around the south celestial pole. Almost unrecognizable are the Carina Nebula (bright magenta smudge, center-left) and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (blue smudges in the center-top and center-right, respectively).
Gazing up into the starry vortex are two of the three BlackGEM telescopes, built and operated by Radboud University, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), and KU Leuven. The third telescope on the right was still under construction at the time this photograph was taken, having only a platform and no dome. BlackGEM eventually aims to expand to 15 telescopes, capable of performing extensive surveys of the night sky.
BlackGEM will join detectors such as LIGO and Virgo in the search for the most dramatic events in space, such as merging black holes and neutron stars. Following the detection of gravitational waves from these collisions by LIGO and Virgo, BlackGEM will scan large areas of the sky looking for the visible light emitted in these events. Other facilities like ESO’s Very Large Telescope will then follow up on BlackGEM’s measurements, enabling astronomers to better understand some of our universe’s most elusive phenomena.
Credit: Zdeněk Bardon (bardon.cz)/European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Tendrils of dark dust can be seen threading across the heart of the spiral galaxy NGC 7172 in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies approximately 110 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The lane of dust threading its way across NGC 7172—which is viewed side-on in this image—is obscuring the luminous heart of the galaxy, making NGC 7172 appear to be nothing more than a normal edge-on spiral galaxy.
When astronomers inspected NGC 7172 across the electromagnetic spectrum they quickly discovered that there was more to it than meets the eye: NGC 7172 is a Seyfert galaxy—a type of galaxy with an intensely luminous active galactic nucleus powered by matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole.
This image combines data from two sets of Hubble observations, both of which were proposed to study nearby active galactic nuclei. The image also combines data from two instruments—Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFCS).
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. J. Rosario, A. Barth
Abell 1689: A Galaxy Cluster Makes Its Mark | NASA Chandra
Abell 1689, shown in this composite image, is a massive cluster of galaxies located about 2.3 billion light years away that shows signs of merging activity. Hundred-million-degree gas detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown as purple in this image, while galaxies from optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are colored yellow. The X-ray emission has a smooth appearance, unlike other merging systems such as the Bullet Cluster or MACS J0025.4-1222. The temperature pattern across Abell 1689 is more complicated, however, possibly requiring multiple structures with different temperatures.
The long arcs in the optical image are caused by gravitational lensing of background galaxies by matter in the galaxy cluster, the largest system of such arcs ever found. Further studies of this cluster are needed to explain the lack of agreement between mass estimates based on the X-ray data and on the gravitational lensing. Previous work suggests that filament-like structures of galaxies are located near Abell 1689 along our line-of-sight to this cluster, which may bias mass estimates using gravitational lensing.
Image Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/E.-H Peng et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Color Code: X-ray (Purple); Optical (Yellow)
Observation Dates: 04/15/2004 - 03/09/2006 with five pointings
The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In this perspective, the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 when it was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.
The New Horizons spacecraft is continuing its exploration of our solar system's Kuiper Belt and outer heliosphere. It is about 4.9 billion miles (7.8 billion kilometers) from home—more than 52 times farther from the Sun than Earth—in a region where a radio signal from New Horizons, even traveling at the speed of light, needs more than seven hours to reach Earth.
New Horizons was practically designed to make history. Dispatched at 36,400 miles per hour (58,500 kilometers per hour) on Jan. 19, 2006, New Horizons still holds the record for fastest launch speed from Earth. Its gravity-assist flyby of Jupiter in February 2007 not only shaved about three years from its voyage to Pluto but also allowed it to achieve the best views ever of Jupiter’s faint ring and capture the first movie of a volcano erupting anywhere in the solar system except Earth.
New Horizons successfully pulled off the first exploration of the Pluto system in July 2015, followed by the farthest flyby in history—and first close-up look at a Kuiper Belt object (KBO)—with its flight past Arrokoth on New Year’s Day 2019. From its unique perch in the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons is making observations that can’t be made from anywhere else; even the stars look different from the spacecraft’s point of view.
As New Horizons team members use giant telescopes like the Japanese Subaru observatory to scan the skies for another potential (and long-shot) KBO flyby target, New Horizons itself remains healthy, collecting data on the solar wind and space environment in the Kuiper Belt, other KBOs, and distant planets like Uranus and Neptune.
Mars Crater: Cool as Ice | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.
However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies.
Notes: Black and white images are 5 km across; enhanced color images are 1 km
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
Mars Crater: Cool as Ice | NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.
However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies. (Image is less than 1 km across and was captured from 254 km above the surface.)
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.
Mark Vande Hei: Breaking Records for Science | International Space Station
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is returning to Earth after living in space for 355 days, the record for the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut. This extended mission aboard the International Space Station provides researchers an opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body as the agency makes plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for human exploration at Mars. During his record-setting mission, Vande Hei spent many hours on scientific activities aboard the space station, conducting everything from plant research to physical sciences studies.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) Education
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Dr. Sian Proctor shares her poem "Earthlight" based on her experience as a SpaceX Astronaut for the orbital Inspiration 4 Mission during September 16-18, 2021. Dr. Proctor was the first black female astronaut to pilot a spacecraft.
Note: Sian's father, Edward Langley Proctor Jr., an engineer, worked at a NASA tracking station on the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean supporting the Apollo moon missions.
Sian Hayley "Leo" Proctor (born March 28, 1970) is an American geology professor, science communicator, and commercial astronaut. She was launched into Earth orbit, on September 15, 2021, as the pilot of the Crew Dragon space capsule. This mission was the Inspiration4 private orbital spaceflight. As the pilot on the Inspiration4 mission, Proctor became the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft. She is a geology professor at South Mountain Community College in Arizona. She is also a major in the Civil Air Patrol where she serves as the aerospace education officer for its Arizona Wing. [Source Wikipedia]
"The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space. It is the experience of seeing first-hand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, 'hanging in the void', shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. The effect may also invoke a sense of transcendence and connection with humanity as a whole, from which national borders appear petty. The term and concept were coined in 1987 by American author, Frank White."
International Space Station Upgrade Work Continues | This Week @NASA
Week of March 25, 2022: Upgrade work continues outside the International Space Station, an updated strategy for landing Artemis astronauts on the Moon, and unsealing pieces of the past . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer (DLR/German Aerospace Center)
NASA (U.S.) Flight Engineers: Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Mark Vande Hei
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 | International Space Station
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts: European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Crew-4 mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy;NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-4 mission specialist Jessica Watkins; NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-4 pilot Robert “Bob” Hines; NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-4 commander Kjell Lindgren.
Current Crew-4 Spring 2022 launch date: April 19, 2022
Samantha is the third European astronaut to launch on SpaceX, after Thomas Pesquet in early 2021 and current ESA astronaut-in-space Matthias Maurer in late 2021.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Expedition 67 Crew
Commanders:
Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos)/Thomas Marshburn (NASA)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveev
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti (Italian Space Agency)
NASA (U.S.) Flight Engineers: Jessica Watkins, Kjell Lindgren, Robert “Bob” Hines
Astronauts Matthias & Raja on Spacewalk | International Space Station
On March 23, 2022, Expedition 66 Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency (ESA) completed a 6 hour and 54 minute spacewalk in preparation for an upcoming solar array installation. It was the 248th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, upgrades and maintenance, and was the second in Chari’s career and the first for Maurer.
Maurer and Chari completed their major objective to install hoses on a Radiator Beam Valve Module that routes ammonia through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators to keep systems at the proper temperature. The crew members also installed a power and data cable on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo science platform, replaced an external camera on the station’s truss, and conducted other upgrades to station hardware.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Week of March 25, 2022: NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 66 crew is turning its attention to the departure of three crew members late next week following the completion of a pair of spacewalks. The International Space Station is also gearing up to welcome the first private astronaut mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon vehicle in early April.
On March 23, 2022, Expedition 66 Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) completed a 6 hour and 54 minute spacewalk in preparation for an upcoming solar array installation. It was the 248th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, upgrades and maintenance, and was the second in Chari’s career and the first for Maurer.
Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov continued packing the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship while flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov helped the station’s three newest crew members get familiar with space station systems. Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev with first time space-flyers Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveev are in the first week of six-and-a-half month mission that began on March 18 when they arrived aboard the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
.jpg)
.jpg)
RD.jpg)
Exp67V1.jpg)
Exp67V2.jpg)
Exp67V3.jpg)
Exp67V4.jpg)
Exp67V5.jpg)
Exp67V6.jpg)
Exp67V7.jpg)
Exp67V8.jpg)
Exp67V9.jpg)
V10.jpg)
Exp66V1.jpg)
Exp66V2.jpg)
Exp66V3.jpg)
Exp66V4.jpg)
Exp66V5.jpg)
Exp66V6.jpg)
Exp66V7.jpg)