April 2024

Tech Today: Taking Earth’s Pulse with NASA Satellites

Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, floods, and tornados can dramatically change the surface of Earth to the point where alterations are visible in space. Changes driven by human actions and interventions, such as mining and deforestation, are also visible in satellite imagery.

Posted April 17, 2024

Astrophysics

Goddard Space Flight Center

International Space Station (ISS)

ISS Research

NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer)

The Universe

Astronauts To Patch Up NASA’s NICER Telescope

NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts.

Posted April 17, 2024

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Goddard Space Flight Center

Goddard Technology

Missions

Science-enabling Technology

Technology

The Universe

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Eyes’ Pass First Vision Test

Engineers at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, have combined all 10 mirrors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Preliminary tests show the newly aligned optics, collectively called the IOA (Imaging Optics Assembly), will direct light into Roman’s science instruments extremely precisely.

Posted April 17, 2024

General

Glenn Research Center

Going Through Changes: Total Eclipse Over NASA Hangar

This composite image shows the dazzling phases of the total solar eclipse, seen above the Flight Research Building at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on April 8, 2024. Glenn was the only NASA center in the eclipse path of totality, plunging into darkness for nearly four minutes as the face of the Sun was […]

Posted April 17, 2024

Ingenuity (Helicopter)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars

Mars 2020

Mars Sample Return (MSR)

Perseverance (Rover)

The Solar System

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Team Says Goodbye … for Now

The final downlink shift by the Ingenuity team was a time to reflect on a highly successful mission — and to prepare the first aircraft on another world for its new role. Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in […]

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Space Biosciences

A Clinical Decision Support System for Earth-independent Medical Operations

Deep space exploration requires a paradigm shift in astronaut medical support toward Earth-independent medical operations. Currently, astronauts rely on real-time communication with ground-based medical providers. However, as the distance from Earth increases, so do communication delays and disruptions.

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Space Biosciences

Space Life Science Highlights

Spaceflight Atrophy Studied with Machine Learning Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria Found on ISS Mutating to Become Functionally Distinct On-demand Nutrient Production System for Long-duration Missions A Clinical Decision Support System for Earth-independent Medical Operations in Space

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Space Biosciences

BioNutrients Flight Experiments

On-demand nutrient production system for long-duration missions When astronauts embark on long space missions, they’ll need to grow their own food because pre-packaged meals from Earth lose their nutritional value over time. The BioNutrients project at Ames Research Center’s Space Biosciences Division has solved this problem by using genetic engine

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Space Biosciences

Spaceflight Atrophy Studied with Machine Learning

Background: Even intense exercise by astronauts cannot compensate for muscle atrophy caused by microgravity. Atrophy occurs, in part, by way of an underlying mechanism that regulates calcium uptake. Recent research has shown exposure to spaceflight alters the uptake of calcium in muscles.

Posted April 17, 2024

Ames Space Biosciences

Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria Found on ISS Mutating to Become Functionally Distinct

In a new scientific paper funded by an Ames Space Biology grant, Principal Investigator Dr. Kasthuri Venkateswaran of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory strains of the bacterial species Enterobacter bugandensis isolated from the International Space Station (ISS) were studied. Thirteen strains of E.

Posted April 17, 2024