Working with industry to develop new lunar
landers …
Testing resumes with our Space Launch System
rocket engine …
And, after a job well done – the end of
the line for one of our Mars rovers … a
few of the stories to tell you about – This
Week at NASA!
We hosted an industry forum at our headquarters
in Washington, to talk to American companies
about developing reusable lunar landers and
supporting systems for future human missions
to the Moon.
"And this is all part of the President's Space
Policy Directive-1, that we here at NASA are
charged with moving out on."
Space Policy Directive-1 calls for NASA to
work with industry to study and refine the
agency’s approach to landing on the Moon.
A key aspect of this proposed approach is
the use of our Gateway – an outpost in lunar
orbit – to support journeys to and from
the lunar surface.
"This is really sustainable -- we're going
to need the best and brightest from you in
industry, we're going to need the best and
brightest from the international partner community
to pull all this off."
Our Stennis Space Center in Mississippi conducted
this year’s first hot fire test of an RS-25
engine controller for use on a future flight
of our new Space Launch System rocket, or
SLS.
The SLS will use four of the engines to launch
astronauts aboard our Orion spacecraft on
missions to the Moon.
Our Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity’s
mission is complete.
Opportunity last communicated with Earth on
June 10, 2018, during a global dust storm
on Mars that blanketed the solar-powered rover's
location.
Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January
2004, was supposed to operate for only 90
Martian days and travel just 1,100 yards.
But it far surpassed those marks – traveling
over 28 miles in its almost 15 years exploring
the Red Planet.
“Everything we do and think about in our
planetary neighborhood – with Mars and elsewhere
– relates to the research that came from
that.”
We announced the selection of a new mission
that will help astronomers understand both
how our universe evolved and how common are
the ingredients for life in our galaxy’s
planetary systems.
The Spectro-Photometer for the History of
the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices
Explorer mission, or SPHEREx is a two-year
mission targeted to launch in 2023, that will
survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared
light to gather data on more than 300 million
galaxies, as well as more than 100 million
stars in our own Milky Way.
Our atmosphere-sniffing MAVEN spacecraft is
lowering its orbit around Mars – a move
that will enable it to act as a data-relay
satellite for our Mars 2020 rover, which launches
next year.
The change in orbit will bring the spacecraft
about a thousand miles closer to the surface
of the planet.
This will slightly increase the number of
daily orbits – which will allow MAVEN to
communicate more often with rovers on the
Martian surface.
When not conducting relay communications,
MAVEN will continue to study the structure
and composition of the upper atmosphere of
Mars.
Our Van Allen Probes mission is in its final
phase, after one of the twin probes began
a series of maneuvers to bring its lowest
point of orbit closer to Earth.
Over the past six-and-a-half years, the probes
have confirmed scientific theories and revealed
new structures and processes at work in the
harsh region of space known as the Van Allen
radiation belts.
That’s what’s up this week @NASA …
For more on these and other stories follow
us on the web at nasa.gov/twan
