Technology for Space Travel

Station Science Top News: August 16, 2024

August 19, 2024 NeRD

Locations designed as a maintenance work area and an exercise area on the International Space Station are commonly used by crew members for stowage and body maintenance activities, respectively. These differences between intended and actual use demonstrate that systematic observation of material culture can help researchers identify how astronauts adapt to life in microgravity and support better design of future spacecraft and habitats. The first archaeological fieldwork in space, SQuARE examined the space station’s material culture – objects and built spaces and their symbolic and social meanings – and how these objects and spaces…

NASA Announces Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge

March 15, 2024 NeRD

NASA selected 45 student essays as semifinalists of its 2024 Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their personal “superpower” would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission. The competition asked students to learn about Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), “nuclear batteries” that NASA uses to explore the harshest, darkest, and dustiest parts of our solar system. RPS have…

NASA Improves GIANT Optical Navigation Technology for Future Missions

October 25, 2023 NeRD

As NASA scientists study the returned fragments of asteroid Bennu, the team that helped navigate the mission on its journey refines their technology for potential use in future robotic and crewed missions. The optical navigation team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, served as a backup navigation resource for the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission to near-Earth asteroid Bennu. They double-checked the primary navigation team’s work and proved the viability of navigation by visual cues. The sample return capsule from…