June 2024 – Page 14 – NeRDs Moonbase

Kennedy Space Center Recipient of Presidential Federal Sustainability Award

June 12, 2024 NeRD

KSC is the first NASA Center to offer workplace EV charging, setting the foundation for other NASA Centers. EV chargers are one way the KSC team is embracing the Executive Order goal for Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035. These charging stations greatly benefit KSC sustainability efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Within the first ten months of operation, the charging stations reduced emissions by 40,000 kg (actuals from ChargePoint’s analytics page) with over 3,000 individual charging sessions. The project also reduces cost by leveraging a Fixing America’s Surface Transportation…

Lakita Lowe: Leading Space Commercialization Innovations and Fostering STEM Engagement

June 12, 2024 NeRD

Lakita Lowe is at the forefront of space commercialization, seamlessly merging scientific expertise with visionary leadership to propel NASA’s commercial ambitions and ignite a passion for STEM in future generations. As a project integrator for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program (CLDP), Lowe leverages her extensive background in scientific research and biomedical studies to bridge the gap between science and commercial innovation. Lowe recently supported both planning and real-time operations contributing to the successful completion of the Axiom-3 private astronaut mission which launched in January 2024 and is gearing…

A Solitary Sight

June 12, 2024 NeRD

The waning gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth from the International Space Station as it soared into an orbital nighttime 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean near the northeast coast of South America on Sept. 30, 2023.

Alaska’s rivers are turning bright orange and as acidic as vinegar as toxic metal escapes from melting permafrost

June 12, 2024 NeRD

Dozens of Alaskan rivers have turned bright orange in recent years because melting permafrost has released high levels of toxic metals into the waterways, a worrying new study reveals. The colorful contamination, which can be seen from space, is a potential ecological nightmare — and is likely to get even worse in the coming years, researchers say. In the new study, which was published May 20 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, researchers identified at least 75 orange rivers and streams in a Texas-size area of Alaska’s Brooks mountain…

Hubble Telescope shares stunning galactic view despite recent hardware malfunction (photo)

June 12, 2024 NeRD

The aging but tenacious Hubble Space Telescope has beamed back yet another stunning photo of a distant galaxy. Hubble‘s latest view captures the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059, which lies about 57 million light-years from Earth. The photo, released on June 7, was taken in May using the space telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument as part of a broader galactic study, according to a statement from NASA. The space telescope uses various filters for its observations, each of which allows specific wavelengths of light to pass through to the…

NASA’s Roman Mission Gets Cosmic ‘Sneak Peek’ From Supercomputers

June 12, 2024 NeRD

Researchers are diving into a synthetic universe to help us better understand the real one. Using supercomputers at the U.S. DOE’s (Department of Energy’s) Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, scientists have created nearly 4 million simulated images depicting the cosmos as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by NSF (the National Science Foundation) and DOE, in Chile will see it. Michael Troxel, an associate professor of physics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, led the simulation campaign as part of a…

Ed Stone, who led NASA’s iconic Voyager project for 50 years, dies at 88

June 12, 2024 NeRD

Humanity has lost an interstellar pioneer. Ed Stone, who served as the project scientist for NASA’s groundbreaking Voyager mission from 1972 to 2022, died on Sunday (June 9) at the age of 88. “Ed Stone was a trailblazer who dared mighty things in space. He was a dear friend to all who knew him, and a cherished mentor to me personally,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in NASA’s obituary for Stone, which the agency posted on Tuesday (June 11). “Ed…

NASA Supports California Students Aiming to Advance Technology

June 12, 2024 NeRD

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Brad Flick, center director at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, talks to students from California State University, Northridge, California. As part of the university’s Autonomy Research Center for science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, arts, humanities, and mathematics, the students displayed posters and answered questions about their technologies May 23 at the Air Force Test Pilot School auditorium on Edwards Air Force Base, California. NASA/Steve Freeman Students from a minority-serving university in California are helping solve challenges of…

NASA Ames Hosts National Wildfire Coordinating Group

June 12, 2024 NeRD

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NWCG Executive Board members stand in front of giant turbines in the National Full Scale Aerodynamic Complex during their visit to Ames Research Center on May 23, 2024. USAF/Patrick Goulding On May 21-23, 2024, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) visited NASA Ames Research Center, with participants representing 13 agencies and organizations. NWCG is a cooperative group focused on providing national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners. NASA became an…

Celebrating Pride at NASA’s Ames Research Center

June 11, 2024 NeRD

The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies beneath the American flag on the center pole with the California state and NASA flag at either side. The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies for the first time at any NASA center in front of the Ames Administration Building, N200, to commemorate Pride Month.