Astronauts To Patch Up NASA’s NICER Telescope

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4 min read 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. In May 2023, scientists discovered that NICER had developed a “light leak.” Unwanted sunlight was entering the instrument and reaching the telescope’s sensitive detectors. While the team took immediate steps to mitigate the impact on observations, they also began thinking about a potential…

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

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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (left of center in the image). NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS 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…

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A Clinical Decision Support System for Earth-independent Medical Operations

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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. Deep space exploration crews will need to autonomously detect, diagnose, treat, and prevent medical conditions. One potential solution is to augment the long duration exploration crew’s knowledge, skills, and abilities with a digital clinical decision support system, or CDSS. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) element of NASA’s Human Research Program is investigating…

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Space Life Science Highlights

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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) 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 Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA NASA Biological & Physical Sciences BPS administers NASA’s: BPS partners with the research community and a wide range of organizations to accomplish its mission. Grants… International Space Station Human Research Program Ames Research Center

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What’s left of the 2024 solar eclipse lives in our hearts

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For a few moments this year, the sun was a lime green portal for Vicki Stirm. It happened while she was standing among tens of thousands of people on an asphalt racetrack in Indiana, on the same day our moon briefly stopped our star from illuminating our world. The ocean of onlookers around her had been watching a total solar eclipse unfold through paper glasses shaped like what you might’ve gotten as a child before a 3D movie, similarly meant to prime the human eye for a new layer of…

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NASA to Host a Pair of Briefings for Starliner Crew Flight

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NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare for their mission in the company’s Starliner spacecraft simulator at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz NASA will host two media opportunities on Thursday, April 25, in preparation for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. The mission is targeting launch at 10:34 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 6, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will lift…

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Uranus and Neptune aren’t made of what we thought, new study hints

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Astronomers have long believed that the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are rich in frozen water. However, a new study suggests they may also have tons of methane ice. The findings could help solve a puzzle about how these icy worlds formed. Much about Uranus and Neptune remains unknown. These ice giant worlds have had just a single spacecraft visitor, Voyager 2, which flew past them in the 1980s. As a result, scientists have only a hazy idea of the ice giants’ compositions — for example, that they contain significant…

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Exotic ‘Einstein ring’ suggests that mysterious dark matter interacts with itself

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A fresh analysis of a remarkably massive yet compact galaxy from the early universe suggests that dark matter interacts with itself. The galaxy, JWST-ER1, which formed just 3.4 billion years after the Big Bang, was first spotted last October in images snapped by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). At over 17 billion light-years from Earth, JWST-ER1g is the farthest-ever example of a perfect “Einstein ring” — an unbroken circle of light around the galaxy, a result of light rays from a distant, unseen galaxy being bent due to the…

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Media Invited to NASA’s 30th Anniversary of International Rover Competition

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Students from Alabama A&M University compete during NASA’s 2023 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. The 2024 competition takes place Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, 2024, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge course in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA/Charles Beason NASA will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Human Exploration Rover Challenge when the competition returns to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge Course in Huntsville, Alabama, Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20. The event is free and open…

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