Science Mission Directorate – Page 3

NASA Awards Advance Technologies for Future Habitable Worlds Mission

May 31, 2024 NeRD

This artist’s concept features one of multiple initial possible design options for NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab NASA announced Friday it selected three industry proposals to help develop technologies for future large space telescopes and plan for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept, which could be the first space telescope designed to search for life outside our solar system. The mission would directly image Earth-like planets around stars like our Sun and study their atmospheres for the chemical signatures of life,…

Dr. Lori Glaze to begin six-month Detail as Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for ESDMD

May 17, 2024 NeRD

3 min read Dr. Lori Glaze to begin six-month Detail as Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for ESDMD May 17, 2024 I am pleased to share some exciting news regarding senior executive detail backfills to provide broadening opportunities for some of our leadership team. Agency leadership has chosen Dr. Lori Glaze to begin a six-month detail as the Acting Deputy AA for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) due to the transition of Kelvin Manning back to KSC at the end of May 2024. It is expected that this detail…

Meet NASA Women Behind World’s Largest Flying Laboratory

May 13, 2024 NeRD

5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s DC-8 aircraft – the world’s largest flying science laboratory – began its science missions in 1987 and since then, has flown in service of the science community over places like Antarctica, Greenland, and Thailand. Aircraft like the DC-8 have enabled scientists to ask questions about life on Earth and explore them in a way that only NASA’s Airborne Science program can make happen. After 37 years, the DC-8 will retire to Idaho State University, where it will serve…

Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4

May 10, 2024 NeRD

8 Min Read Hubble Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Servicing Mission 4 Michael Good (on the end of the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System) works to refurbish and upgrade Hubble during Servicing Mission 4. Credits: NASA Fifteen years ago, human hands touched NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope for the last time. As astronauts performed finishing tasks on the telescope during its final servicing mission in May 2009, they knew they had successfully concluded one of the most challenging and ambitious series of spacewalks ever conducted. But they couldn’t have known at the…

NASA SCoPE Engages and Empowers at AbSciCon 2024 with Gaming Activities and Childcare Support

May 9, 2024 NeRD

2 min read NASA SCoPE Engages and Empowers at AbSciCon 2024 with Gaming Activities and Childcare Support At the AbSciCon conference held from May 6-10, 2024 in Providence, RI, NASA SCoPE (SMD Community of Practice for Engagement) left a lasting impression with its engaging activities centered around gaming. The NASA SCoPE exhibit hall booth was a vibrant hub featuring three digital game consoles, where nearly 150 of the 900 conference attendees, had the opportunity to learn about NASA Science Activation, the NASA SCoPE project, and avenues for proposing funded projects…

NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program

May 2, 2024 NeRD

4 min read NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS matches students with mentors from the mission’s science team for a 10-week program to conduct original scientific research on topics related to the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech The program is planned to run every year until Europa Clipper completes its prime…

NASA Grants Support Academic Collaborations for STEM Student Success

April 30, 2024 NeRD

Credit: NASA NASA has awarded $3.9 million to 13 teams at under-resourced academic institutions across the country, to support collaborative projects with NASA that offer students mentorship and career development in science, technology, engineering, and math. This is the second round of seed funding awards given through the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program, which was established in 2022 to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the science and engineering communities, as well as NASA’s workforce. “We are thrilled to welcome 13 new teams into our community,” said…

NASA’s ORCA, AirHARP Projects Paved Way for PACE to Reach Space

April 26, 2024 NeRD

It took the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission just 13 minutes to reach low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in February 2024. It took a network of scientists at NASA and research institutions around the world more than 20 years to carefully craft and test the novel instruments that allow PACE to study the ocean and atmosphere with unprecedented clarity. In the early 2000s, a team of scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, prototyped the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA) instrument,…

The April 8 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA

April 12, 2024 NeRD

5 Min Read The April 8 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA A total solar eclipse is seen in Dallas on April 8, 2024. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of Central America and Europe. Credits: NASA/Keegan Barber On April 8, 2024, the Moon’s shadow swept across North America, treating millions to a breathtaking…

NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter

April 5, 2024 NeRD

NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024. The dark spot centered in the bottom third of this image is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri orbiter, smudged because it was traveling quickly in the opposite direction of NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) when LRO snapped the photo.…