Category: General

Anything and everything space

NASA Ames Astrogram – May/June 2024

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Swarming for Success: Starling Completes Primary Mission by Tara Friesen After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations.  Swarms of satellites may one day be used in deep space exploration. An autonomous network of spacecraft could self-navigate, manage scientific experiments, and execute maneuvers to respond to environmental changes without the burden of significant communications delays between the swarm and Earth.  The four CubeSate spacecraft that make up the Starling swarm have demonstrated success in autonomous…

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NASA’s Laser Relay System Sends Pet Imagery to, from Space Station

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Using NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system, pictures and videos of cherished pets flew through space over laser communications links at a rate of 1.2 gigabits per second — faster than most home internet speeds. NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Christina Koch, and Kjell Lindgren, along with other agency employees, submitted photos and videos of their pets to take a trip to and from the International Space Station. The transmissions allowed NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program to showcase the power of laser communications while simultaneously testing out a…

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Our First Transformer of the Month: Matt Dosberg

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It is impossible to pinpoint a single, static definition of what makes a “Digital Transformer.” Although Matt Dosberg’s official title is Digital Transformation and IT Innovation Lead for Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), his full contributions to NASA require a lengthier description. He is the nexus for everything under the Digital Transformation (DT) umbrella at GSFC, including digital engineering, AI, data-driven programmatics, data strategy, and more. He serves as liaison to the agency-level DT team and other centers, coordinating across directorates to drive cultural change within the organization, and has…

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Every Day is Earth Day for OSI’s Environmental Program

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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In OSI’s Environmental Management Division, we believe every day is Earth Day as we enable environmentally sound mission success through leadership of NASA efforts to comply with environmental laws and advance stewardship and sustainability. See more about what we do for the environment in the Office of Strategic Infrastructure’s (OSI) Earth Day video and nasa.gov/emd where we showcase our programs. Thank you for all you do for protecting our environment.

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Space Station Research Advances NASA’s Plans to Explore the Moon, Mars

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4 Min Read Space Station Research Advances NASA’s Plans to Explore the Moon, Mars The full moon is pictured as the International Space Station orbited 254 miles above the Pacific Ocean northeast of Guam. Credits: NASA Space, the saying goes, is hard. And the farther humans go, the harder it can get. Some of the challenges on missions to explore the Moon and Mars include preventing microbial contamination of these destinations, navigating there safely, protecting crew members and hardware from radiation, and maintaining and repairing equipment. Research on the International…

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Spaceflight effects tumor-bearing fruit fly hosts and their parasites

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How does spaceflight affect tumor-bearing fruit fly hosts and their parasites? Pigmentation: A side-by-side comparison of wasps shows a clear difference in the melanization of wing veins for wild-type and each mutant.Blade Shape: The kona mutant has an angular wing shape in contrast to wild-type’s rounded wing blade (vertical arrows in D–F). S. Govind. Background: Like humans, fruit flies (a model organism for spaceflight research) also exhibit immune system dysfunction in space. Despite decades of studies on fruit flies and wasps, little was known about how their immune systems interact with…

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Johnson Celebrates AA and NHPI Heritage Month: Britney Tang

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When you think about personal property, your home, clothes, and electronic devices probably come to mind. For NASA, personal property comprises government-owned government-held assets ranging from laptops to spacecraft and space station components. Managing the financial records for these assets is the responsibility of the Property Accounting Team, which includes Personal Property Accountant Britney Tang. Tang sits within the Accounting Services Office of Johnson Space Center’s Office of the Chief Financial Services Officer (OCFO). She works with her colleagues to determine which NASA-held assets must be tracked over time versus…

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NASA, Sierra Space Deliver Dream Chaser to Florida for Launch Preparation

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Dream Chaser Tenacity, Sierra Space’s uncrewed cargo spaceplane, is processed inside the Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, May 20, 2024. The spaceplane arrived inside a climate-controlled transportation container from the agency’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio. Final testing and prelaunch processing will be completed inside the high bay of the SSPF ahead of Dream Chaser’s inaugural launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett As part of NASA’s efforts to…

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