Building the international effort to go forward
to the Moon and Mars …
Selecting new Sun missions and potential new
small sats …
And dropping a plane to study safety …
… a few of the stories to tell you about
–
This Week at NASA!
Our Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, was at
the Paris Air Show this week, meeting with
leaders from international space agencies
to discuss our plans to put the first woman
and the next man on the Moon by 2024 with
our Artemis program.
He also spoke with media and other groups,
and met world leaders, including French President
Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister
Guiseppe Conte (ju-ZEP-eh CONE-teh).
Our Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has now been
exploring the Moon for 10 years, and continues
to collect vast amounts of data vital to our
understanding of the lunar landscape and environment,
our solar system, and to our future exploration
goals for the Moon and Mars.
LRO’s research is paving the way forward
for a human return to the Moon with Artemis.
NASA has selected three finalists among a
dozen concepts for future small satellites
mission.
The finalists include Janus, a mission to
study two asteroid systems … EscaPADE, twin
spacecraft to study the effects of energetic
particles around Mars … and Lunar Trailblazer,
an orbiter to study water on the Moon.
At least one of these missions is expected
to move to final selection and flight.
We’ve selected two new missions to advance
our understanding of the Sun and its dynamic
effects on space.
The PUNCH mission will study the Sun’s outer
atmosphere, the corona, and how it generates
the solar wind.
The TRACERS mission will study Earth’s response
to the sun by observing the magnetic field
around the North Pole
Our new free-flying robot known as Astrobee
has taken its first steps to autonomous flight
aboard the International Space Station.
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques tested
the Astrobee robot known as “Bumble” for
its sighting and motion abilities aboard the
orbital lab.
Bumble and the other robots, “Honey” and
“Queen” may someday support routine maintenance
tasks and lab monitoring.
Our NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia
crash-tested a Fokker F-28 airplane for the
Federal Aviation Administration.
It’s the largest aircraft ever dropped at
the center’s Landing and Impact Research
Facility.
The test used crash-test dummies to measure
crash response and likelihood of injury, generating
data that can be used in computer simulations
to improve future airline safety.
That’s what’s up this week @NASA …
For more on these and other stories follow
us on the web at nasa.gov/twan.
