Category: Space Technology Mission Directorate

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NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video From Deep Space via Laser

Source: NASA

The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration, marking a historic milestone.
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment beamed an ultra-high definition streaming video on Dec. 11 from a record-setting 19 million miles away (31 million kilometers, or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance). The milestone is part of a NASA technology demonstration aimed at streaming very high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space – enabling future human missions beyond Earth orbit.
“This accomplishment underscores our commitment to advancing optical communications as a key element to meeting our future data transmission needs,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Increasing our bandwidth is essential to achieving our future exploration and science goals, and we look forward to the continued advancement of this technology and the transformation of how we communicate during future interplanetary missions.”
The demo transmitted the 15-second test video via a cutting-edge instrument called a flight laser transceiver. The video signal took 101 seconds to reach Earth, sent at the system’s maximum bit rate of 267 megabits per second (Mbps). Capable of sending and receiving near-infrared signals, the instrument beamed an encoded near-infrared laser to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, where it was downloaded. Each frame from the looping video was then sent “live” to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the video was played in real time.
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This 15-second clip shows the first ultra-high-definition video sent via laser from deep space, featuring a cat named Taters chasing a laser with test graphics overlayed. To see a “cheat sheet” explaining the components of the video, click here. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe laser communications demo, which launched with NASA’s Psyche mission on Oct. 13, is designed to transmit data from deep space at rates 10 to 100 times greater than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by deep space missions today. As Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the technology demonstration will send high-data-rate signals as far out as the Red Planet’s greatest distance from Earth. In doing so, it paves the way for higher-data-rate communications capable of sending complex scientific information, high-definition imagery, and video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.
“One of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data,” said Bill Klipstein, the tech demo’s project manager at JPL. “But to make this significant event more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video, which captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission.”
Feline Frequency
Uploaded before launch, the short ultra-high definition video features an orange tabby cat named Taters, the pet of a JPL employee, chasing a laser pointer, with overlayed graphics. The graphics illustrate several features from the tech demo, such as Psyche’s orbital path, Palomar’s telescope dome, and technical information about the laser and its data bit rate. Tater’s heart rate, color, and breed are also on display.

“Despite transmitting from millions of miles away, it was able to send the video faster than most broadband internet connections,” said Ryan Rogalin, the project’s receiver electronics lead at JPL. “In fact, after receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the internet, and that connection was slower than the signal coming from deep space. JPL’s DesignLab did an amazing job helping us showcase this technology – everyone loves Taters.”
There’s also a historical link: Beginning in 1928, a small statue of the popular cartoon character Felix the Cat was featured in television test broadcast transmissions. Today, cat videos and memes are some of the most popular content online.
Milestone After Milestone
This latest milestone comes after “first light” was achieved on Nov. 14. Since then, the system has demonstrated faster data downlink speeds and increased pointing accuracy during its weekly checkouts. On the night of Dec. 4, the project demonstrated downlink bit rates of 62.5 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 267 Mbps, which is comparable to broadband internet download speeds. The team was able to download a total of 1.3 terabits of data during that time. As a comparison, NASA’s Magellan mission to Venus downlinked 1.2 terabits during its entire mission from 1990 to 1994.
“When we achieved first light, we were excited, but also cautious. This is a new technology, and we are experimenting with how it works,” said Ken Andrews, project flight operations lead at JPL. “But now, with the help of our Psyche colleagues, we are getting used to working with the system and can lock onto the spacecraft and ground terminals for longer than we could previously. We are learning something new during each checkout.”
More About the Mission
The Deep Space Optical Communications demonstration is the latest in a series of optical communication demonstrations funded by the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) program under NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and supported by NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program within the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis
For more information about the laser communications demo, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/dsoc

News Media Contact
Ian J. O’NeillJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-2649ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2023-184

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Armstrong Flight Research Center: A Year in Review

Source: NASA

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It was an abundant year of innovation, exploration, and inspiration for NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA Armstrong continues to demonstrate America’s leadership in aeronautics, Earth and space science, and aerospace technology. Our researchers, engineers, and mission support teams continually seek to revolutionize aviation, add to mankind’s knowledge of the universe, and contribute to the understanding and protection of Earth.
The video above shows many of our achievements, below are a few special moments.
The X-59 achieved a major milestone when the supersonic research aircraft was moved from its construction site to the flight line for ground testing. At the same time, project teams were busy preparing for the aircraft’s first and subsequent flights, while also advancing shock wave photography, trained aircrew on upgraded life support systems, prepared to test updated ground microphone stations designed to measure the X-59’s quiet sonic thump, and began getting the aircraft painted in preparation for its unveiling.
NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission continued to work with industry partners who are building innovative new aircraft like electric air taxis and drones. The team explored how these new designs may help travelers and cargo move between and in cities. At NASA Armstrong, we built a custom virtual-reality flight simulator to explore the air taxi ride experience. We also collected data needed to allow for new self-flying technology, to help make our communities more connected than ever before.
Because wind affects all aircraft, our researchers measured wind at low altitudes to gather data needed to enhance air taxi safety. We tested atmospheric sensors that can monitor air quality and help uncrewed aircraft avoid dangerous wind shears.
To improve fuel efficiency, our Experimental Fabrication branch built a scale model of a unique aircraft wing that will be used to gather data for future, larger versions of the design.
In an effort to advance the use of alternative fuels in today’s planes we worked with aviation partners to study particle and gas emissions from passenger aircraft engines.
With the conclusion of the X-57 Maxwell this year, research from the X-57 Maxwell provided aviation researchers with hundreds of lessons learned, as well as revolutionary developments in areas ranging from battery technology to cruise motor control design.
Our crews flew above snowstorms to investigate how they form and flew over snow-covered regions to collect data on snowmelts and how they contribute to the water supply.
We conducted low-altitude flights over major cities and marine areas to study non-vehicular sources of pollution – like personal care and home products – and their impact on air quality in North America. To advance fire and smoke models, we participated in a multi-agency effort to collect measurements of fuels, fire behavior, fire energy, meteorology, smoke, and fire effects.
On the space front, we tested highly elastic strain sensors to help parachute designers construct better, more reliable parachutes to land rovers and equipment on Mars and enabled testing of an instrument designed to measure surface particles kicked up by a rocket-powered lander on the Moon or Mars.
Armstrong advanced NASA’s commitment to engage, inspire, and attract future generations of explorers. Students saw their experiments soar as payloads from the NASA TechRise Challenge launched high into the sky.  We celebrated the 15th anniversary of our summer internship program, offering undergraduate students hands-on experience during a real airborne science campaign. Our researchers, pilots, and mission support teams traveled the country, showcasing aviation-inspired technology and the latest in NASA aeronautics research, space exploration, science, and more.
We hunted for lightning and collected data on radiation generated by thunderclouds to better predict when storms could turn severe and we paved the way to improve autonomous observation capabilities for small spacecraft flying over Earth, the Moon, or other worlds. Finally, we forged a new partnership to build, test, and fly an experimental aircraft aimed at lowering emissions.
These are just some of Armstrong’s many innovative research efforts that support NASA’s mission to explore the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all.

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NASA Selects Universities to Support Small Spacecraft Technologies

Source: NASA

Eight U.S. university teams are partnering with NASA to advance technologies for small spacecraft, increasing their capability to support the agency’s science and exploration missions within the Earth, cislunar, and deep space domains. 
The University SmallSat Technology Partnerships (USTP) initiative within NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program selected the eight teams from proposals received in response to the program’s 2023 USTP solicitation.
NASA is focused on enabling small missions to continue supporting sustained lunar presence, promoting next generation mission architectures for scientific discovery, and stimulating space commerce. At the present time, small spacecraft, or SmallSats, primarily operate in low Earth orbit. Through these collaborative partnerships, technology advancements will expand the potential of SmallSats as they extend their capabilities to more complex Earth, lunar, and deep space science and exploration missions.
SmallSats are expected to support increasingly important and complex functions and through partnerships with industry and academia, their utility will continue to advance. Improvements in SmallSat capability will enable them to support and perform science and deep space exploration, provide space situational awareness and national security-oriented capabilities, and expand the range of services available to people on Earth for greater economic growth and societal benefit. 
The following university teams were selected by the USTP initiative to mature new systems and capabilities, with support from a NASA center of their choice. The projects focus on one of three technology topic areas listed below to enhance SmallSat potential. 
Topic 1: Earth- and Global Navigation Satellite System-Independent Position Navigation and Timing for Small Spacecraft 
Georgia Institute of Technology, in collaboration with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston “An Autonomous Optical Navigation Instrument for Deep Space Exploration​”
University Of Minnesota, in collaboration with NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley “Deep Space PNT Instrument (DESPINA)​”
California Institute of Technology​, in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California “Ultrastable microphotonic clocks for a Cislunar small spacecraft​”
Topic 2: Edge Computing and Machine-Learning Architectures, Software, Platforms, and Devices for Small Spacecraft​
California State Polytechnic University Pomona, in collaboration with JPL “SCALES: Spacecraft Compartmentalized Autonomous Learning and Edge-computing System​”
Utah State University​, in collaboration with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama “Low-power Array for CubeSat Edge Computing Architecture, Algorithms and Applications​”
University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in collaboration with JPL “SmallSat Steward: Autonomous Online Learning and Planning for Safe Inspection of Cislunar Stations​”
Topic 3: High Specific Power Systems and Thermal Control for Small Spacecraft 
Pennsylvania State University, in collaboration with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland “Passive thermally deployed shape-memory alloy heat-pipe radiators for high-intensity small spacecraft​”
University of Dayton, in collaboration with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland “Passively Deployed Radial Radiator for Transfer and Rejection of CubeSat Waste Heat​”
The SST program office is based at NASA Ames and within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
For more information on USTP initiative and previous awards, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/45a6vVy
For news media:
Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.

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University of Utah takes top honors in BIG Idea Lunar Forge Challenge 

Source: NASA

Through Artemis, NASA plans to conduct long-duration human and robotic missions on the lunar surface in preparation for future crewed exploration of Mars. Expanding exploration capabilities requires a robust lunar infrastructure, including practical and cost-effective ways to construct a lunar base. One method is employing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) – or the ability to use naturally occurring resources – to produce consumables and build structures in the future, which will make explorers more Earth-independent.  
An ISRU process that NASA wants to learn more about is forging metals from lunar minerals to create structures and tools in the future. Through its 2023 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Lunar Forge Challenge, NASA sought innovative concepts from university students to design an ISRU metal production pipeline on the Moon. The year-and-a-half-long challenge, funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and Office of STEM Engagement, supports NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative in developing new approaches and novel technologies to pave the way for successful exploration on the surface of the Moon.
Finalist teams presented their research, designs, prototypes, and testing results to a panel of NASA and industry judges at a culminating forum on Nov. 16, in Cleveland, Ohio.
The University of Utah team, partnering with Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory, earned the Artemis Award, which represents top honors in the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge. Their lunar forge project, Production of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR), represents a promising avenue to extract iron from reduced lunar regolith and refine it into a high purity powder product in a two-stage process. The Artemis Award is given to the team whose concept has the best potential to contribute to and be integrated into an Artemis mission. 

Collin Andersen, Team Lead
University of Utah and Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory

Teams could select to address technologies needed along any point in the lunar metal production pipeline, including, but not limited to: 
Metal detecting 
Metal refining
Forming materials for additive manufacturing
Testing and qualifying 3D printed infrastructure for use on the Moon
In January, teams submitted proposal packages, from which seven finalists were selected in March 2023 for funding of up to $180,000, totaling nearly $1.1 million across all teams. The finalists then worked for nine months designing, developing, and demonstrating their concepts. The 2023 BIG Idea program concluded at its annual forum, where teams presented their results and answered questions from judges, followed by an interactive poster session. Experts from NASA and other aerospace companies evaluated the student concepts based on technical innovation, credibility, management, and teams’ verification testing. In addition to the presentation, the teams provided a technical paper and technical poster detailing their proposed metal production pipeline.

Niki werkheiser
Director of technology maturation within STMD

In addition to the top spot, several teams were recognized in other categories, including: 
Edison Award: Missouri University of Science & Technology
Path-to-Flight Award: University of North Texas with Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Processes Institute at UNT; Enabled Engineering
Systems Engineering: Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc.
Best Verification Demonstration: Colorado School of Mines
BIG Picture Award: Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Honeybee Robotics 
Innovation Award: Pennsylvania State University with RFHIC & Jacobs Space Exploration Group
The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge is sponsored by NASA through a collaboration between STMD’s Game Changing Development program and the Office of STEM Engagement’s Space Grant project. The Challenge is managed by a partnership between the National Institute of Aerospace and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). 

NASA sponsors the 2023 BIG Idea Challenge through its Game Changing Development program and the Office of STEM Engagement’s Space Grant project. The National Institute of Aerospace and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland managed the challenge for NASA. 
Team presentations, technical papers, and digital posters are available on the BIG Idea website.   

For full competition details, visit:https://bigidea.nianet.org/2023-challenge/

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NASA’s Deep Space Optical Comm Demo Sends, Receives First Data

Source: NASA

DSOC, an experiment that could transform how spacecraft communicate, has achieved ‘first light,’ sending data via laser to and from far beyond the Moon for the first time.
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment has beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with test data fromnearly 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) away – about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth – to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. This is the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communications.
Riding aboard the recently launched Psyche spacecraft, DSOC is configured to send high-bandwidth test data to Earth during its two-year technology demonstration as Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages both DSOC and Psyche.
The tech demo achieved “first light” in the early hours of Nov. 14 after its flight laser transceiver – a cutting-edge instrument aboard Psyche capable of sending and receiving near-infrared signals – locked onto a powerful uplink laser beacon transmitted from the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at JPL’s Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California. The uplink beacon helped the transceiver aim its downlink laser back to Palomar (which is 100 miles, or 130 kilometers, south of Table Mountain) while automated systems on the transceiver and ground stations fine-tuned its pointing.
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Learn more about how DSOC will be used to test high-bandwidth data transmission beyond the Moon for the first time – and how it could transform deep space exploration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU“Achieving first light is one of many critical DSOC milestones in the coming months, paving the way toward higher-data-rate communications capable of sending scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” said Trudy Kortes, director of Technology Demonstrations at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Test data also was sent simultaneously via the uplink and downlink lasers, a procedure known as “closing the link” that is a primary objective for the experiment. While the technology demonstration isn’t transmitting Psyche mission data, it works closely with the Psyche mission-support team to ensure DSOC operations don’t interfere with those of the spacecraft.
“Tuesday morning’stest was the first to fully incorporate the ground assets and flight transceiver, requiring the DSOC and Psyche operations teams to work in tandem,” said Meera Srinivasan, operations lead for DSOC at JPL. “It was a formidable challenge, and we have a lot more work to do, but for a short time, we were able to transmit, receive, and decode some data.”
Before this achievement, the project needed to check the boxes on several other milestones, from removing the protective cover for the flight laser transceiver to powering up the instrument. Meanwhile, the Psyche spacecraft is carrying out its own checkouts, including powering up its propulsion systems and testing instruments that will be used to study the asteroid Psyche when it arrives there in 2028.

With successful first light, the DSOC team will now work on refining the systems that control the pointing of the downlink laser aboard the transceiver. Once achieved, the project can begin its demonstration of maintaining high-bandwidth data transmission from the transceiver to Palomar at various distances from Earth. This data takes the form of bits (the smallest units of data a computer can process) encoded in the laser’s photons – quantum particles of light. After a special superconducting high-efficiency detector array detects the photons, new signal-processing techniques are used to extract the data from the single photons that arrive at the Hale Telescope.
The DSOC experiment aims to demonstrate data transmission rates 10 to 100 times greater than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by spacecraft today. Both radio and near-infrared laser communications utilize electromagnetic waves to transmit data, but near-infrared light packs the data into significantly tighter waves, enabling ground stations to receive more data. This will help future human and robotic exploration missions and support higher-resolution science instruments.

“Optical communication is a boon for scientists and researchers who always want more from their space missions, and will enable human exploration of deep space,” said Dr. Jason Mitchell, director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technologies Division within NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. “More data means more discoveries.”
While optical communication has been demonstrated in low Earth orbit and out to the Moon, DSOC is the first test in deep space. Like using a laser pointer to track a moving dime from a mile away, aiming a laser beam over millions of miles requires extremely precise “pointing.”
The demonstration also needs to compensate for the time it takes for light to travel from the spacecraft to Earth over vast distances: At Psyche’s farthest distance from our planet, DSOC’s near-infrared photons will take about 20 minutes to travel back (they took about 50 seconds to travel from Psyche to Earth during the Nov. 14 test). In that time, both spacecraft and planet will have moved, so the uplink and downlink lasers need to adjust for the change in location. “Achieving first light is a tremendous achievement. The ground systems successfully detected the deep space laser photons from DSOC’s flight transceiver aboard Psyche,” said Abi Biswas, project technologist for DSOC at JPL. “And we were also able to send some data, meaning we were able to exchange ‘bits of light’ from and to deep space.”

DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication demonstrations funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program within the agency’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
The Psyche mission is led by Arizona State University. JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA’s Discovery Program under the Science Mission Directorate, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, managed the launch service. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.
For more information about DSOC, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/dsoc
News Media Contact
Ian J. O’NeillJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-2649ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2023-171

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NASA Invites Stakeholders to STMD’s LIFT-1 Industry Forum

Source: NASA

NASA is hosting a virtual industry forum on Nov. 13, 2023, to introduce the agency’s Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies (LIFT-1) demonstration Request for Information (RFI). At this event, representatives of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will discuss the relevant Moon-to-Mars Objectives, STMD Envisioned Future Priorities (EFPs), and will answer questions from potential respondents interested in the RFI. Written responses to the Q&A will be posted to NSPIRES after the meeting. 
Although the primary focus for this activity is a future lunar surface resource utilization (ISRU) demonstration it will require multiple capabilities that may address other infrastructure objectives. The Industry Day offers an opportunity for respondents to gain insight and understanding of the ISRU objectives as well as those other foundational infrastructure objectives.
LIFT-1 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION INDUSTRY FORUM (virtual)  
Monday, Nov. 13, 2023 
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST 
Speakers: 
Niki Werkheiser, director of Technology Maturation, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters     
Jerry Sanders, lead for NASA’s In-Space Resource Utilization (ISRU), NASA Capability Leadership Team (CLT) (multiple NASA centers)  
Mike Ching, technical advisor, NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII); Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters     
Platform: The Industry Forum will be conducted via the Webex application. To connect to the industry forum Webex meeting, participants must first register. Once registered, participants will receive a meeting invitation to the registered email address with options to join via Webex or audio only (phone). 
MORE INFORMATION 
The LIFT-1 RFI is available on NSPIRES and open for responses through December 18, 2023 (5:00 p.m. EST)
Please direct questions related to the RFI and industry day by email to: HQ-STMD-LIFT-1-RFI@nasaprs.com 
For media inquiries, please contact Jimi Russell, james.j.russell@nasa.gov.

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NASA Seeks Input for Future Lunar Surface Resource Utilization Demo

Source: NASA

As NASA ushers in an exciting era of long-term exploration on the Moon with Artemis, new strategies are being formulated to determine how technology, infrastructure, and operations will function together as a cohesive and cross-cutting system.
As a sustained presence grows at the Moon, opportunities to harvest lunar resources could lead to safer, more efficient operations with less dependence on Earth. Many new technologies in six priority areas encompassed by NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative will need testing. For example, advancing In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies could lead to future production of fuel, water, or oxygen from local materials, expanding exploration capabilities.
To support ISRU technology maturation, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) on Nov. 6 to formulate its future Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies (LIFT-1) demonstration. Led by the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), NASA’s primary objective for LIFT-1 is to demonstrate ISRU technologies to extract oxygen from lunar soil, to inform eventual production, capture, and storage. Additional LIFT-1 objectives may include demonstrating new landing technologies, surface operations, and scalable power generation in the Moon’s South Pole region.
With the RFI, NASA is asking for input from the lunar community to inform an integrated approach inclusive of launch, landing, and demonstration of surface infrastructure technologies as part of a subscale ISRU demonstration.
“The LIFT-1 demonstration creates a viable path to launch, land, and conduct operations on the lunar surface. This is the infusion path we need for ongoing industry and NASA center-led technology development activities,” said Dr. Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator of STMD at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “Using in-situ resources is essential to making a sustained presence farther from Earth possible. Just as we need consumables and infrastructure to live and work on our home planet, we’ll need similar support systems on the Moon for crew and robots to operate safely and productively.”
NASA has several current ISRU investments through partnerships with industry and academia. Prospecting, extraction, and mining initiatives are advancing our capabilities to find and harness resources from the lunar regolith. Chemical and thermal process developments may provide options to break down naturally occurring minerals and compounds found on the Moon and convert them to propellant or human consumables. Other potential longer-term applications could lead to extraterrestrial metal processing and construction of lunar surface structures using resources found on the Moon. Many of these technologies could be demonstrated and advanced on the Moon for future use at Mars. While the Moon has almost no atmosphere, Mars has an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, and NASA is investing in initiatives to use CO2 to create other useful elements or compounds.
MOXIE on NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover marked the beginning of off-Earth ISRU technology demonstrations, successfully extracting oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide throughout a series of tests. NASA intends to demonstrate a similar capability on the lunar surface from its resources, and this RFI will help NASA capture stakeholder interest and ideas on how to partner, preferred acquisition approaches, and funding feasibility. This kind of input is critical to advancing innovative solutions that will help NASA and its partners explore the surface of the Moon for longer periods of time than ever before possible.
“An ISRU technology demonstration approach has been a topic of discussion within the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative and Consortium communities for several years,” said Niki Werkheiser, director of Technology Maturation in STMD. “This RFI is the next phase to make it a reality.” 
The Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) was established by NASA in 2020 to coalesce government, academia, non-profit institutions, and the private sector to identify technological capabilities and hurdles that must be retired to achieve a sustained presence on the surface of the Moon, both human and robotic. 
The LIFT-1 RFI is available on NSPIRES and open for responses through Dec. 18, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. EST. NASA will host an industry forum on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. EST.

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Workshop to Highlight NASA’s Support for Mobility, In-Space Servicing

Source: NASA

NASA leadership, including Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, will participate in a workshop on space mobility and in-space servicing on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Beginning at 8:30 a.m. EST, the Consortium for Space Mobility and ISAM Capabilities (COSMIC) workshop runs through Wednesday, Nov. 8. NASA announced the consortium in April, aiming to create a nationwide aerospace community alliance that provides global leadership in space mobility and in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) for use in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, deep space, and on planetary surfaces.
Following welcome remarks from Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Melroy will provide a keynote on NASA’s support for ISAM.
Other leaders from The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the defense and aerospace industry, and academia, also will participate. The conference features panel discussions and breakout workshops for COSMIC’s three caucuses ­– U.S. government, industry, and academia ­– and the Consortium’s five focus areas.
Media interested in attending the opening day, either in person or virtually, should RSVP by 12 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 6, to Parker Wishik at 708-391-7806 or parker.wishik@aero.org. NASA and COSMIC experts will be available for interview opportunities upon request. Other COSMIC plenary sessions will be recorded and later published to the COSMIC YouTube channel.
NASA funds COSMIC, creating a nationwide alliance around the capability areas, and it will support the ISAM National Strategy and National ISAM Implementation Plan, released in 2022, which define a national approach to build on existing investments and emerging capabilities to realize future opportunities enabled by ISAM. The Consortium aims to accelerate ISAM’s universal adoption and support its utilization as a routine part of space architectures and mission lifecycles.  
The Aerospace Corporation leads COSMIC as the management entity contracted by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate to ensure coordination among members, caucuses, and focus areas and to execute COSMIC initiative-focused events.  
For information on the COSMIC kickoff meeting, including the full agenda, visit:

COSMIC’s Kickoff Meeting


-end-
Jimi RussellHeadquarters, Washington216-704-2412james.j.russell@nasa.gov
Parker WishikCOSMIC708-391-7806parker.wishik@aero.org

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Improves Simulation Software

Source: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope truly explores the unknown, displaying stunning images of previously unseen corners of the universe only possible because of the telescope’s 21-foot segmented mirror that unfurled and assembled itself in space.
Decades of testing went into the materials, design, and processes needed to develop the largest telescope in space. However, the whole project was too complex to test on the ground, at scale, at minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and in other space-like conditions.
Instead, engineers relied on software simulations to understand how the telescope would behave under different in-space conditions, and that work has helped advance the whole field of integrated computer modeling.

“We pushed everything, all the simulation, just as hard as it would go,” said Erin Elliott, an optical engineer at Ansys, Inc., which makes Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, one of the design software suites used to develop hardware and software for the Webb telescope.
Simulation technology has improved dramatically over the last two decades because of increases in computing power and new ways of accessing offsite computing power as a cloud service. But additional improvements trace back directly to Webb’s development.
Elliott used OpticStudio to support the Webb telescope while working for other NASA contractors, beginning in the early 2000s, before starting work in 2015 for Zemax ¬– which later became Ansys Zemax ¬– headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
In the early days, Elliott said, Zemax tweaked its software for the Webb telescope effort. “They made some specific changes for us at the time having to do with handling the coordinate systems of the segments,” she said, referring to the 18 hexagonal segments that make up the telescope’s primary mirror.
Elliott also recalled talking to Zemax leadership numerous times about the need for the software to communicate better with other Microsoft Windows programs. The company introduced an API, or application programming interface, for OpticStudio, which enables the suite to work with other programs and allows for further customization. There were plenty of reasons to add that technology but Webb demands were likely significant among them, Elliott said.

Joseph Howard, an optical engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where Webb and its science instrument module were assembled, noted that using several modeling packages helped drive innovation in the field. “It’s important to have multiple software companies out there that can help you not only for cross-checking the modeling, but because they make each other better through competition,” he said.
In addition to improvements made to OpticStudio during Webb telescope development, Ansys Zemax in 2021 introduced the Structural, Thermal, Analysis, and Results (STAR) module, which benefited from the knowledge Elliott gained working on the NASA project.

When a mirror or lens changes shape due to temperature swings, the optics move. Much of the OpticStudio modeling was completed in smaller pieces — engineers would run a thermal simulation independently and add that data to the next optical model, generating more data for the next run.
The STAR module incorporates analyses from other simulation software directly into OpticStudio optical models — an efficiency applicable to telescope and aerospace designs. This feature is also increasingly important for autonomous vehicles, cell phone lenses, and other optics working in tough environments.
Future telescopes and other spacecraft are likely to involve elements of the Webb design. More will travel in segments that must self-assemble in space, and the development of the increasingly complicated robotics and optics will rely on improved modeling software.“When we built Webb, we knew we couldn’t fully test it on the ground prior to flight, so we depended a whole lot upon modeling and doing analysis to get ready for flight,” Howard said. “The next great observatory will be even more dependent on modeling software.”Meanwhile, designers of more earthly technologies are already seeing the benefits of an improved OpticStudio, using it to design precision endoscopes, a thermal imager to detect COVID-19 exposures in a crowd, augmented reality displays and headsets, a laser thruster technology for nanosatellites, and, of course, more telescopes.Elliott also noted that the Webb telescope project trained the next cohort of telescope and optical device builders – those designing and using the telescope’s technological spinoffs.“The people who built the Hubble Space Telescope were leading the Webb Telescope,” she said. “And now the younger engineers who cut our teeth on this project and learned from it are becoming the group of people who will build the next structures.”Elliott maintains that the project “was worth it alone for training this huge cohort of young engineers and releasing them into high-tech fields.”
NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency’s Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America’s investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
For more information on how NASA brings space technology down to Earth, visit:
www.spinoff.nasa.gov

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NASA Supports Tests of Dust Sensor to Aid Lunar Landings

Source: NASA

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University of Central Florida researchers tested an instrument designed to measure the size and speed of surface particles kicked up by the exhaust from a rocket-powered lander on the Moon or Mars. The four tethered flights on Astrobotic’s Xodiac rocket-powered lander took place in Mojave, California, from Sept. 12 through Oct. 4, 2023. Researchers tested the Ejecta STORM technology’s integration with a lander and operation in flight conditions that simulated the plume effects of a lunar lander.
Credits: Astrobotic
A research team from the University of Central Florida recently tested an instrument designed to measure the size and speed of surface particles kicked up by the exhaust from a rocket-powered lander on the Moon or Mars. Supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, researchers evaluated the instrument in a series of flight tests on Astrobotic’s Xodiac rocket-powered lander in Mojave, California.
When spacecraft land on the Moon or Mars, the rocket exhaust plume creates regolith ejecta – abrasive dust and large particles moving at high speeds – that can damage the lander and surrounding structures. Understanding how a rocket engine’s exhaust affects this ejecta will help mission designers plan more effectively for lunar landings by allowing them to model the soil erosion rate, the particle size distribution, and the velocities associated with plume-surface interaction.
Researchers at the University of Central Florida developed the laser-based instrument, named Ejecta STORM (Sheet Tracking, Opacity, and Regolith Maturity), to answer this need while embracing the Flight Opportunities program’s “fly, fix, fly” ethos to quickly advance the technology.
Four tethered flights enabled researchers to test the system’s integration with a lander and operation in flight conditions that simulated the plume effects of a lunar lander. These tests build on data collected during a 2020 flight campaign leveraging Xodiac. These 2020 flight tests, funded by the program’s TechFlights solicitation, allowed researchers to measure the density and size of particles during terrestrial simulations of lunar landings.
Researchers expect the technology to inform model development and reduce risk for future lunar landings, ultimately improving mission design for rover-based planetary science missions, crewed missions to the Moon and other bodies, and in-situ resource utilization. Flight Opportunities is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
By Chloe Tuck
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center