Tag: Ames Research Center

NASA Noise Prediction Tool Supports Users in Air Taxi Industry

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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The results from a NASA software tool called OVERFLOW, used to model the flow of air around aircraft, are shown in this image. NASA Several air taxi companies are using a NASA-developed computer software tool to predict aircraft noise and aerodynamic performance. This tool allows manufacturers working in fields related to NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission to see early in the aircraft development process how design elements like propellors or wings would perform. This saves the industry time and…

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Luxembourg Leaders Focus on Lunar Exploration at Visit to NASA Ames

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Using the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds at NASA’s Ames Research Center, a team created this simulated lunar environment to study lighting conditions experienced at the unexplored poles of the Moon.  NASA/Uland Wong The challenges of working on the surface of the Moon are at the center of a facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds help scientists and engineers – from NASA and industry alike – study how well science instruments, robots, and people might be able to safely work,…

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Into the Belly of the Rover: VIPER’s Final Science Instrument Installed 

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A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. NASA/Bill Stafford A team of engineers prepares to integrate TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – into the belly of NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover).  TRIDENT, designed and developed by engineers at Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, is the fourth and…

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BioNutrients: A Five-Year Experiment in Space Nears Completion

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Research scientists Sandra Vu, left, Natalie Ball, center, and Hiromi Kagawa, right, process BioNutrients production packs. NASA/Brandon Torres NASA’s bio-manufacturing experiment called BioNutrients is testing a way to use microorganisms to produce on-demand nutrients that will be critical for human health during future long-duration space missions. Launched to the International Space Station in 2019, the experiment assesses the stability and performance of a hand-held system – dubbed a production pack – to manufacture fresh vitamins and other nutrients in space over a five-year span. About once a year, scientists at NASA’s Ames…

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NASA Awards Contract for Aviation, Railroad Safety Reporting Systems

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NASA NASA has awarded a contract to Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Virginia, for the maintenance and operation of incident reporting programs and continuing development to improve current and future reporting systems. The Aviation Safety Reporting System and Related Systems award is a cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract managed by the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The contract will support NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System and the agency’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS). The award for continuation of work includes a 60-day…

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NASA, Lockheed Martin Reveal X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft

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NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the apron outside Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility at dawn in Palmdale, California. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to address one of the primary challenges to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial…

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NASA Astronaut, Congresswoman Discuss STEM Careers with Students

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NASA/Brandon Torres NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren talk with students and families at Youth Alliance, a community organization in Hollister, California, on Jan. 5.  Mann, who was born in another small California community, spoke about her parents’ work as an auto mechanic and a manicurist and her own path to becoming a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. Later, she said, becoming the first indigenous woman from NASA to go to space helped her connect with people of other indigenous communities. Mann is registered with the Wailacki of…

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NASA Ames Awards Task Order Modification for Wind Tunnel Upgrades 

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NASA has awarded a task order modification to the Aerospace Testing and Facilities Operations and Maintenance (ATOM-5) contract to Jacobs Technology Inc., of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to provide the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, with an upgrade to the center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel main drive speed control variable frequency drive.  The ATOM-5 award is a cost-plus fixed-fee indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract that supports several experiments in the ground-based aerospace facilities at Ames, including wind tunnels, high-enthalpy arc jet facilities, and the Sensor and Thermal Protection System Advanced Research…

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Funding Future Tech: NASA Names 2024 Innovative Concept Studies

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A collage of illustrations highlighting the novel concepts proposed by the 2024 NIAC Phase I awardees. Credit: clockwise, from upper right: Steven Benner, Beijia Zhang, Matthew McQuinn, Alvaro Romero-Calvo, Thomas M. Eubanks, Kenneth Carpenter, James Bickford, Alvaro Romero-Calvo, Peter Cabauy, Geoffrey Landis, Lynn Rothschild, and Ge-Cheng Zha. NASA NASA selected the 2024 Phase I awardees for its program to fund ideas that could  innovate for the benefit of all and transform future agency missions. From proposals to explore low Earth orbit to the stars, the 13 concepts chosen stem from…

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