Photos of the Day: L.A.'s Newest Bridge...

Richard Par

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Just thought I'd end 2022 by sharing these images that I shot of Los Angeles' newest bridge, the Sixth Street Viaduct, a few months ago.

The Sixth Street Viaduct, which opened to the public last summer, is a replacement for the Sixth Street Bridge that opened in 1932 and was demolished in 2016. The newest roadway opened on July 9.

I took these photos with my Google Pixel 4A smartphone on September 11, when I was working at a Los Angeles locale that was right next to this architectural beauty. I don't know when's the next time I'll visit this viaduct, so I figured I'll drive through it on the way home that day.

As shown at the bottom of this entry, I also shot a brief clip as I cruised along the Sixth Street Bridge...and decided to turn it into a short video that I edited through Lightworks, with music courtesy of YouTube's audio library.

Hey— I don't know when's the next time I'll shoot an actual short film like The Broken Table, and piece it together on my laptop, so I should might as well use this opportunity to keep my video editing skills from getting rusty!

Have a safe and happy New Year.


Richard Par


Richard Par


Richard Par


Richard Par


Richard Par


Richard Par


Richard Par

NASA Continues to Test Hardware for the Dragonfly Rotorcraft That Will Explore Saturn's Largest Moon...

NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

Rotors for Mission to Titan Tested at Langley’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (News Release - December 20)

NASA explores the unknown in space, bringing the secrets of our solar system home so we can apply that information for the benefit of humanity. In that spirit, NASA will explore Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, to help advance humanity’s search for the building blocks of life in the universe.

A key component of the 8-rotor Dragonfly vehicle that will make that journey to Titan recently underwent testing at the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Similar to a drone, Dragonfly will traverse Titan’s dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, then land on, sample and examine various sites. Dragonfly will have four pairs of rotors, each with two rotors in coaxial configuration, meaning one rotor above the other.

It’s similar to, but significantly larger than, a typical terrestrial drone, as the vehicle is over 12 feet both nose to tail and at the widest points, rotor tip-to-tip.

Researchers at Langley and from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) conducted a number of tests on a coaxial pair of rotors at the TDT meant to validate computer models. The large test section enabled the use of full-scale flight representative hardware, and the ability to fill the tunnel with heavy gas allowed the hardware to be tested at Titan-representative aerodynamic loads.

Researchers simulated expected conditions for hover, descent and climb, and assessed aerodynamic loads for each rotor at a variety of wind speeds, rotor shaft angles and rotor throttle settings. Researchers also conducted tests with one rotor operating and the other stationary to assess failure modes.

Sensors and accelerometers on the test article measured the loads and accelerations created by each rotor under various wind speeds, orientations and rotor speeds. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that CFD predictions of rotor performance and power requirements are valid, and similar predictions for operation on Titan are within expected mission tolerances.

“The testing at this one-of-a-kind facility was a crucial early step toward bringing this exciting mission to fruition,” said Richard Heisler, wind tunnel test lead for Dragonfly at APL, which is designing and building the rotorcraft and manages the mission for NASA. “The data we collected at the TDT will give us a much clearer picture of how we can expect Dragonfly’s rotors to perform in Titan’s alien atmosphere.”

Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2027 and reach Titan by 2034, when it will begin what is expected to be a 3-year mission to explore and shed light on the complex chemistry on the exotic moon and ocean world. It was selected in June 2019 as part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, which includes the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu.

Dragonfly is led by Principal Investigator Elizabeth Turtle at APL, which is located in Laurel, Maryland.

Source: NASA.Gov

****


NASA / Harlen Capen

I'm totally diggin' the new design for NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft!

The June 2027 launch and 2034 arrival at Titan can't come soon enough... 🙂https://t.co/QWX6d8nrEH #DragonflyMission pic.twitter.com/qd52bnHqcD

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) December 31, 2022

A Historic Step Has Been Achieved in the Mars Sample Return Campaign...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS

NASA's Perseverance Rover Deposits First Sample on Mars Surface (News Release - December 21)

Filled with rock, the sample tube will be one of 10 forming a depot of tubes that could be considered for a journey to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.

A titanium tube containing a rock sample is resting on the Red Planet’s surface after being placed there on December 21 by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the location, called “Three Forks,” building humanity’s first sample depot on another planet.

The depot marks a historic early step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Perseverance has been taking duplicate samples from rock targets the mission selects. The rover currently has the other 17 samples (including one atmospheric sample) taken so far in its belly.

Based on the architecture of the Mars Sample Return campaign, the rover would deliver samples to a future robotic lander. The lander would, in turn, use a robotic arm to place the samples in a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that would blast off to Mars orbit, where another spacecraft would capture the sample container and return it safely to Earth.

The depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance can’t deliver its samples. In that case, a pair of Sample Recovery Helicopters would be called upon to finish the job.

The first sample to drop was a chalk-size core of igneous rock informally named “Malay,” which was collected on Jan. 31, 2022, in a region of Mars’ Jezero Crater called “South Séítah.” Perseverance’s complex Sampling and Caching System took almost an hour to retrieve the metal tube from inside the rover’s belly, view it one last time with its internal CacheCam, and drop the sample roughly 3 feet (89 centimeters) onto a carefully-selected patch of Martian surface.

But the job wasn’t done for engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built Perseverance and leads the mission. Once they confirmed the tube had dropped, the team positioned the WATSON camera located at the end of Perseverance’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm to peer beneath the rover, checking to be sure that the tube hadn’t rolled into the path of the rover’s wheels.

They also wanted to ensure the tube hadn’t landed in such a way that it was standing on its end (each tube has a flat end piece called a “glove” to make it easier to be picked up by future missions). That occurred less than 5% of the time during testing with Perseverance’s Earthly twin in JPL’s Mars Yard.

In case it does happen on Mars, the mission has written a series of commands for Perseverance to carefully knock the tube over with part of the turret at the end of its robotic arm.

In coming weeks, they’ll have other opportunities to see whether Perseverance needs to use the technique as the rover deposits more samples at the Three Forks cache.

“Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on January 6,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at JPL. “It’s a nice alignment that, just as we’re starting our cache, we’re also closing this first chapter of the mission.”

Source: NASA.Gov

****

One small drop for humankind.@NASAPersevere has deposited the first of several samples onto the Martian surface! The #MarsSampleReturn mission could deliver some of these samples to Earth for in-depth analysis. https://t.co/epa4Be5oId pic.twitter.com/n7Cf9DfrIu

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 22, 2022

Another Robotic Emissary Launched by Humanity Has Fallen Silent on the Red Planet...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science (Press Release)

NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy – a state engineers refer to as “dead bus.”

NASA had previously decided to declare the mission over if the lander missed two communication attempts. The agency will continue to listen for a signal from the lander, just in case, but hearing from it at this point is considered unlikely.

The last time InSight communicated with Earth was December 15.

“I watched the launch and landing of this mission, and while saying goodbye to a spacecraft is always sad, the fascinating science InSight conducted is cause for celebration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The seismic data alone from this Discovery Program mission offers tremendous insights not just into Mars but other rocky bodies, including Earth.”

Short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, InSight set out to study the deep interior of Mars. The lander data has yielded details about Mars’ interior layers, the surprisingly strong remnants beneath the surface of its extinct magnetic dynamo, weather on this part of Mars, and lots of quake activity.

Its highly sensitive seismometer, along with daily monitoring performed by the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Marsquake Service managed by ETH Zurich, detected 1,319 marsquakes, including quakes caused by meteoroid impacts, the largest of which unearthed boulder-size chunks of ice late last year.

Such impacts help scientists determine the age of the planet’s surface, and data from the seismometer provides scientists a way to study the planet’s crust, mantle and core.

“With InSight, seismology was the focus of a mission beyond Earth for the first time since the Apollo missions, when astronauts brought seismometers to the Moon,” said Philippe Lognonné of Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, principal investigator of InSight’s seismometer. “We broke new ground, and our science team can be proud of all that we’ve learned along the way.”

The seismometer was the last science instrument that remained powered on as dust accumulating on the lander’s solar panels gradually reduced its energy, a process that began before NASA extended the mission earlier this year.

“InSight has more than lived up to its name. As a scientist who’s spent a career studying Mars, it’s been a thrill to see what the lander has achieved, thanks to an entire team of people across the globe who helped make this mission a success,” said Laurie Leshin, director of JPL, which manages the mission. “Yes, it’s sad to say goodbye, but InSight’s legacy will live on, informing and inspiring.”

All Mars missions face challenges, and InSight was no different. The lander featured a self-hammering spike – nicknamed “the mole” – that was intended to dig 16 feet (5 meters) down, trailing a sensor-laden tether that would measure heat within the planet, enabling scientists to calculate how much energy was left over from Mars’ formation.

Designed for the loose, sandy soil seen on other missions, the mole could not gain traction in the unexpectedly clumpy soil around InSight. The instrument, which was provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), eventually buried its 16-inch (40-centimeter) probe just slightly below the surface, collecting valuable data on the physical and thermal properties of the Martian soil along the way.

This is useful for any future human or robotic missions that attempt to dig underground.

The mission buried the mole to the extent possible thanks to engineers at JPL and DLR using the lander’s robotic arm in inventive ways. Primarily intended to set science instruments on the Martian surface, the arm and its small scoop also helped remove dust from InSight’s solar panels as power began to diminish.

Counterintuitively, the mission determined they could sprinkle dirt from the scoop onto the panels during windy days, allowing the falling granules to gently sweep dust off the panels.

“We’ve thought of InSight as our friend and colleague on Mars for the past four years, so it’s hard to say goodbye,” said Bruce Banerdt of JPL, the mission’s principal investigator. “But it has earned its richly-deserved retirement.”

JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

Several European partners, including France’s CNES and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris).

Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP₃) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland.

Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

****

My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me. pic.twitter.com/wkYKww15kQ

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 19, 2022

Astrobotic's Moon Lander Has One More Test to Do Before It Ships to Cape Canaveral for Launch Early Next Year...

Astrobotic

Peregrine EMI Testing a Success & Ahead of Schedule (Press Release)

Pittsburgh, PA – Astrobotic announced today that their Peregrine lunar lander has completed electromagnetic interference (EMI/EMC) testing early and will arrive back at their headquarters on December 23.

Originally, Peregrine was to spend the next week at Dayton T. Brown Inc.’s facility in Bohemia, New York to complete residual integration activities and prepare for thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC) testing. Because the test campaign is ahead of schedule, Peregrine will be brought back to Pittsburgh to give employees an opportunity to be home for the holidays.

"I commend the test teams who worked tirelessly to identify opportunities for an efficient campaign. Peregrine’s journey back to Pittsburgh also gives the public an opportunity to see the Peregrine spacecraft one last time before it continues on to TVAC testing, then to Florida for a Q1 2023 launch," says Sharad Bhaskaran, Mission Director for Peregrine Mission One.

EMI/EMC testing checked the electromagnetic compatibility between the Peregrine lander and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The radiated emissions tests proved that Peregrine does not emit electromagnetic energy harmful to the Vulcan rocket, while radiated susceptibility ensured Peregrine can operate properly after being subjected to electromagnetic energy emitted by Vulcan.

Finally, “Self Compatibility” testing confirms the spacecraft will function nominally during standard flight operations.

"As Peregrine’s first EMI/EMC test campaign, passing against all reviewed test criteria is a major company accomplishment. It really exhibits the skill, experience and determination of our engineers and technicians,” said Yoonhee Steadman, Lead Spacecraft Electrical Integration and Test Engineer at Astrobotic.

The Peregrine spacecraft will be sent to thermal vacuum testing before it arrives in Cape Canaveral, Florida for integration with ULA’s Vulcan Centaur.

Source: Astrobotic

****

👀 Peregrine is headed home! Which means… YOU’VE GOT ONE FINAL CHANCE TO SEE IT before its launch in 2023. Visit us during expanded hours next week: https://t.co/EnOXnxA0IX https://t.co/WnfiEa4udf

— Moonshot Museum (@MoonshotMuseum) December 20, 2022

Webb's Predecessor Spots Two Potential Ocean Worlds Located 218 Light-Years Away...

NASA, ESA, L. Hustak (STScI)

Hubble Helps Discover a New Type of Planet Largely Composed of Water (News Release - December 15)

Researchers have found evidence for the existence of a new type of planet they have called a “water world,” where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet. These worlds, discovered in a planetary system 218 light-years away, are unlike any planets in our solar system.

The team, led by Caroline Piaulet of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at the University of Montreal, published a detailed study of a planetary system known as Kepler-138 in the journal Nature Astronomy on 15 December.

Piaulet, who is a member of Björn Benneke’s research team at the University of Montreal, observed the exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d with both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. She found that the planets could be composed largely of water.

Water wasn’t directly detected, but by comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, they conclude that a significant fraction of their volume — up to half of it — should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium (which constitute the bulk of gas-giant planets like Jupiter). The most common candidate material is water.

“We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that’s why we called them super-Earths,” explained Benneke. "However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a large fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorised by astronomers to exist for a long time.”

With volumes more than three times that of Earth and masses twice as big, planets c and d have much lower densities than Earth. This is surprising because most of the planets just slightly bigger than Earth that have been studied in detail so far all seemed to be rocky worlds like ours.

The closest comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.

“Imagine larger versions of Europa or Enceladus, the water-rich moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, but brought much closer to their star,” explained Piaulet. “Instead of an icy surface, they would harbour large water-vapour envelopes."

“The secure identification of an object with the density of the icy moons of the solar system, but significantly larger and more massive, clearly demonstrates the great diversity of exoplanets,” added team member Jose-Manuel Almenara of Grenoble Alpes University in France. “This is expected to be the outcome of a variety of formation and evolution processes.”

Researchers caution that the planets may not have oceans like those on Earth directly at the planet’s surface. “The temperature in Kepler-138 d’s atmosphere is likely above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet. Only under that steam atmosphere could there potentially be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressures, called a supercritical fluid," Piaulet said.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will also facilitate valuable follow-up research. “Now that we have securely identified the ‘water-world’ Kepler-138 d, the James Webb Space Telescope is the key to unveiling the atmospheric composition of such an exotic object,” shared team member Daria Kubyshkina of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. “It will give us critical information enabling us to compare the composition of the icy moons of the solar system with that of their larger and heavier extrasolar counterparts.

Recently, another team at the University of Montreal found a planet called TOI-1452b that could potentially be covered with a liquid-water ocean, but Webb will be needed to also confirm this.

In 2014 data from the NASA Kepler Space Telescope allowed astronomers to announce the detection of three planets orbiting Kepler-138, a red dwarf star in the constellation Lyra. This was based on a measurable dip in starlight as each planet momentarily passed in front of the star.

Benneke and his colleague Diana Dragomir, from the University of New Mexico, came up with the idea of re-observing the planetary system with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes between 2014 and 2016 to catch more transits of Kepler-138 d, the third planet in the system, in order to study its atmosphere.

The secure identification of an object with the density of the icy moons of the solar system, but significantly larger and more massive, clearly demonstrates the great diversity of exoplanets, which is expected to be the outcome of a variety of formation and evolution processes.

A New Exoplanet in the System

While the earlier Kepler space telescope observations only showed transits of three small planets around Kepler-138, Piaulet and her team were surprised to find that the Hubble and Spitzer observations required the presence of a fourth planet in the system, Kepler-138 e.

This newly-found planet is small and farther from its star than the three others, taking 38 days to complete an orbit. The planet is in the habitable zone of its star, a temperate region where it receives just the right amount of heat from its cool star to be neither too hot nor too cold to allow the presence of liquid water.

The nature of this additional, newly-found planet, however, remains an open question because it does not seem to transit its host star. Observing the exoplanet’s transit would have allowed astronomers to determine its size.

With Kepler-138 e now in the picture, the masses of the previously-known planets were measured again via the transit timing-variation method, which involves tracking small variations in the precise moments of the planets’ transits in front of their star caused by the gravitational pull of other nearby planets. The researchers had another surprise: they found that the two water worlds Kepler-138 c and d are “twin” planets, with virtually the same size and mass, while they were previously thought to be drastically different.

The closer-in planet, Kepler-138 b, on the other hand, is confirmed to be a small Mars-mass planet, one of the smallest exoplanets known to date.

“As our instruments and techniques become sensitive enough to find and study planets that are farther from their stars, we might start finding a lot more of these water worlds," Benneke concluded.

Source: European Space Agency

****

Hubble helped find evidence of two exoplanets (planets that orbit stars beyond our Sun) where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet.

Located 218 light-years away, these exoplanets are unlike any planets in our own solar system: https://t.co/4wlPFzmSlW pic.twitter.com/wWfO9VeWDh

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) December 15, 2022

A Major Milestone for the Mars Sample Return Mission Will Occur Over the Coming Days...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU / MSSS

NASA's Perseverance Rover to Begin Building Martian Sample Depot (News Release)

The 10 sample tubes being dropped on Mars’ surface so they can be studied on Earth in the future carry an amazing diversity of Red Planet geology.

In the coming days, NASA’s Perseverance rover is expected to begin building the first sample depot on another world. This will mark a crucial milestone in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study.

The depot-building process starts when the rover drops one of its titanium sample tubes carrying a chalk-size core of rock from its belly 2.9 feet (88.8 centimeters) onto the ground at an area within Jezero Crater nicknamed “Three Forks.” Over the course of 30 or so days, Perseverance will deposit a total of 10 tubes that carry samples representing the diversity of the rock record in Jezero Crater.

The rover has been taking a pair of samples from each of its rock targets. Half of every pair will be deposited at Three Forks as a backup set, and the other half will remain inside Perseverance, which will be the primary means to convey the collected samples to the Mars launch vehicle as part of the campaign.

“The samples for this depot – and the duplicates held aboard Perseverance – are an incredible set representative of the area explored during the prime mission,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, the Mars Sample Return program principal scientist from Arizona State University. “We not only have igneous and sedimentary rocks that record at least two and possibly four or even more distinct styles of aqueous alteration, but also regolith, atmosphere and a witness tube.”

How to Build a Depot

One of the first requirements to build a sample depot on Mars is to find a level, rock-free stretch of terrain in Jezero Crater where there’s room for each tube to be deposited.

“Up to now, Mars missions required just one good landing zone; we need 11,” said Richard Cook, Mars Sample Return program manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The first one is for the Sample Retrieval Lander, but then we need 10 more in the vicinity for our Sample Recovery Helicopters to perform takeoffs and landings, and driving too.”

After settling on a suitable site, the campaign’s next task was to figure out exactly where and how to deploy the tubes within that location. “You can’t simply drop them in a big pile because the recovery helicopters are designed to interact with only one tube at a time,” said Cook.

The helicopters are intended to serve as a backup, just like the depot. To ensure a helicopter could retrieve samples without disturbing the rest of the depot or encountering any obstructions from the occasional rock or ripple, each tube-drop location will have an “area of operation” at least 18 feet (5.5 meters) in diameter.

To that end, the tubes will be deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample 16 to 49 feet (5 to 15 meters) apart from one another.

The depot’s success will depend on accurate placement of the tubes – a process that will take over a month. Before and after Perseverance drops each tube, mission controllers will review a multitude of images from the rover.

This assessment will also give the Mars Sample Return team the precise data necessary to locate the tubes in the event of the samples becoming covered by dust or sand before they are collected.

Perseverance’s Extended Mission

Perseverance’s prime mission will conclude on January 6, 2023 – one Mars year (about 687 Earth days) after its February 18, 2021, landing.

“We will still be working the sample depot deployment when our extended mission begins on January 7, so nothing changes from that perspective,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance’s project manager at JPL. “However, once the table is set at Three Forks, we’ll head to the top of the delta. The science team wants to take a good look around up there.”

Called the Delta Top Campaign, this new science phase will begin when Perseverance finishes its ascent of the delta’s steep embankment and arrives at the expanse that forms the upper surface of the Jezero delta, probably sometime in February. During this approximately eight-month campaign, the science team will be on the lookout for boulders and other materials that were carried from elsewhere on Mars and deposited by the ancient river that formed this delta.

“The Delta Top Campaign is our opportunity to get a glimpse at the geological process beyond the walls of Jezero Crater,” said JPL’s Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist for Perseverance. “Billions of years ago a raging river carried debris and boulders from miles beyond the walls of Jezero. We are going to explore these ancient river deposits and obtain samples from their long-traveled boulders and rocks.”

Source: NASA.Gov

****


NASA / ESA / JPL - Caltech / GSFC / MSFC

Hubble's Successor Continues to Hum Along Like a Well-Oiled Machine...

NASA / Chris Gunn

NASA Awards Contract to Maintain Webb Telescope Operations (Press Release)

NASA has selected Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Redondo Beach, California, to support the James Webb Space Telescope Phase E – Operations and Sustainment contract.

The contract is a sole source cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with a value of $31,186,099. The period of performance is from December 25 to June 24, 2027.

The contractor will provide the products and services required to monitor and maintain Webb spacecraft systems including the spacecraft bus, optics/telescope, and sunshield; maintain and update the spacecraft flight software; and trend spacecraft performance and recommend corrections and updates required for spacecraft health and safety.

The work will be performed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and at the contractor’s facility.

NASA’s Webb telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb is helping solve mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

****


NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Astrobotic's Moon Lander Makes Major Progress on Its Journey to the Launch Pad Early Next Year...

Peregrine Aces Vibration, Acoustics Testing for Upcoming Lunar Journey (Press Release)

Pittsburgh, PA – Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander has successfully passed its first two acceptance tests, a critical milestone on its path to flight.

Acceptance testing was conducted at the Dayton T. Brown, Inc. commercial test facility in Bohemia, NY. The campaign included sine vibration and acoustics testing, and proved that Peregrine can withstand the flight environment of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, the launch vehicle for Peregrine Mission One.

“The completion of environmental testing marks a critical step forward in our program. This testing ensured the spacecraft is fully capable of meeting the rough environments it will feel during launch, transit and landing on the Moon. Successfully completing this harsh testing shows how much preparation, hard work and perseverance our team has put into this mission. It takes a great team to complete the testing, let alone to do it without a single issue arising,” says Pete Frye, Mechanical and Fluid Systems Manager at Astrobotic.

Sine vibration testing replicates the low frequency vibrations the lander will be subjected to through its mounting adapter inside the Vulcan Centaur fairing during liftoff and as Vulcan leaves Earth’s atmosphere. Acoustic testing subjects the lander to the sound pressure waves it will encounter within the fairing during those same phases.

These industry-standard tests confirm the lander’s structure and propulsion system along with the lander’s many sensitive avionics, optics and payloads will survive this intense loading environment as Vulcan delivers it to space.

“The Astrobotic team is working tirelessly to an aggressive schedule for delivery to the launch site, and in fact these recent tests were completed ahead of schedule. The momentum to launch is apparent in the team’s excitement,” says Sharad Bhaskaran, Mission Director for Peregrine Mission One.

Peregrine is currently undergoing electromagnetic interference (EMI/EMC) testing. Then, the spacecraft will be sent to thermal vacuum testing before it arrives in Cape Canaveral, Florida for integration with ULA’s Vulcan Centaur.

Launch is scheduled for Q1 2023.

Source: Astrobotic

****


Jimmy Kelly / Flight On Entertainment


Jimmy Kelly / Flight On Entertainment

America's Newest Stealth Bomber Is Unveiled in California's Mojave Desert...

U.S. Air Force

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force Introduce the B-21 Raider, the World’s First Sixth-Generation Aircraft (Press Release)

PALMDALE, Calif. – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) and the U.S. Air Force unveiled the B-21 Raider to the world today. The B-21 joins the nuclear triad as a visible and flexible deterrent designed for the U.S. Air Force to meet its most complex missions.

“The Northrop Grumman team develops and delivers technology that advances science, looks into the future and brings it to the here and now,” said Kathy Warden, chair, chief executive officer and president, Northrop Grumman. “The B-21 Raider defines a new era in technology and strengthens America’s role of delivering peace through deterrence.”

The B-21 Raider forms the backbone of the future for U.S. air power, leading a powerful family of systems that deliver a new era of capability and flexibility through advanced integration of data, sensors and weapons. Its sixth-generation capabilities include stealth, information advantage and open architecture.

“The B-21 Raider is a testament to America’s enduring advantages in ingenuity and innovation. And it’s proof of the Department’s long-term commitment to building advanced capabilities that will fortify America’s ability to deter aggression, today and into the future. Now, strengthening and sustaining U.S. deterrence is at the heart of our National Defense Strategy,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. “This bomber was built on a foundation of strong, bipartisan support in Congress. And because of that support, we will soon fly this aircraft, test it and then move into production.”

The B-21 is capable of networking across the battlespace to multiple systems, and into all domains. Supported by a digital ecosystem throughout its lifecycle, the B-21 can quickly evolve through rapid technology upgrades that provide new capabilities to outpace future threats.

“With the B-21, the U.S. Air Force will be able to deter or defeat threats anywhere in the world,” said Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems. “The B-21 exemplifies how Northrop Grumman is leading the industry in digital transformation and digital engineering, ultimately delivering more value to our customers.”

The B-21 Raider is named in honor of the Doolittle Raids of World War II when 80 men, led by Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, and 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers set off on a mission that changed the course of World War II. The designation B-21 recognizes the Raider as the first bomber of the 21st century.

Northrop Grumman is a technology company, focused on global security and human discovery. Our pioneering solutions equip our customers with capabilities they need to connect, advance and protect the U.S. and its allies. Driven by a shared purpose to solve our customers’ toughest problems, our 90,000 employees define possible every day.

Source: Northrop Grumman

****


Northrop Grumman


Christopher Payne / TIME


U.S. Air Force