Lee Mohon Mar 29, 2024 NASA selected 12 finalist teams to compete in the next round of the Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) competition. In 2023, NASA invited undergraduate and graduate students from accredited colleges and universities in the United States to propose innovative solutions to manage the lunar dust a spacecraft stirs up when [...]
A full moon rises over Utah. Credits: NASA/Bill Dunford The next full moon is the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, or Worm Moon; the Paschal Moon; Purim; the Holi Festival Moon; Madin Poya; the Pothole Moon; a Micromoon, and a Partial Lunar Eclipse. The next full moon will be on Monday morning, March 25, 2024, appearing [...]
Our solar system has eight planets, and five officially recognized dwarf planets. Which planet is biggest? Which is smallest? What is the order of the planets as we move out from the Sun? This is a simple guide to the sizes of planets based on the equatorial diameter – or width – at the equator [...]
Abbey A. Donaldson Mar 29, 2024 NASA has selected Science Applications International Corporation of Reston, Virginia, for safety and mission assurance support at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. The Safety and Mission Assurance Engineering Contract III (SMAEC) is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with the ability to [...]
The International Space Station provides researchers access to the unique features of low Earth orbit: long-duration microgravity, exposure to space, and a one-of-a-kind perspective of our planet. These special attributes enable scientists to conduct innovative experiments that can’t be done anywhere else. Employees in the International Space Station Research Integration Office at NASA’s Johnson Space [...]
In honor of Women’s History Month, we caught up with the ASIA-AQ team on the other side of the Earth and asked the women from Langley about their inspirations and challenges as scientists. The ASIA-AQ (Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality) mission is an international cooperative field study designed to address local air [...]
As the world eagerly anticipates the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, NASA is preparing for an extraordinary opportunity for scientific discovery, open collaboration, and public engagement. At the heart of the agency’s approach to this unusual event lies a commitment to open science, ensuring that the data captured during the eclipse is [...]
NASA and its partners are developing the foundational systems needed for long-term exploration at the Moon for the benefit of all with NASA’s Artemis campaign. Following the Artemis III mission that will land the first people near the Moon’s South Pole, astronauts on Artemis IV will live and work in humanity’s first lunar space station, [...]
Melanie Grande works in mission design and systems analysis at NASA’s Langley Research Center, where she has contributed to planning for human exploration of both the Moon and Mars. Starting in Langley’s Space Mission Analysis Branch (SMAB) as a Pathways co-op student in 2016, Melanie currently works as an aerospace engineer on the Mars [...]
Gwendolyn Wheatle currently serves as the Administrative Assistant for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. What started as a temporary, three-week clerical position supporting the Office of the Chief Scientist has blossomed into a 38-year career at NASA. In 1986, Gwendolyn joined the Office of Education (now [...]