NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Dec 22, 2023

183 Days in the Sun

A single 183 day exposure with a pinhole camera and photographic paper resulted in this long-duration solargraph. Recorded from solstice to solstice, June 21 to December 21, in 2022, it follows the Sun's daily arcing path through planet Earth's skies from Mertola, Portugal. On June 21, the Sun's highest point and longest arc represents the longest day and the astronomical beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere. The solstice date with the fewest hours of daylight is at the beginning of winter in the north, corresponding to the Sun's shortest and lowest arc in the 2022 solargraph. For 2023, the northern winter solstice was on December 22 at 3:27 UTC. That's December 21 for North America time zones.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Artemis II Crew Visits White House

DEC 21, 2023

Artemis II crew members (from left) CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman pose for a group photograph after their meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Dec. 14, 2023.

The crew will travel aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on a 10-day mission around the Moon, testing spacecraft systems for the first time with astronauts for long-term exploration and scientific discovery.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-crew-visits-white-house/

NASA, Joby Pave the Way for Air Taxis in Busy Airports

DEC 20, 2023

Researchers are one step closer to integrating air taxis and other electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles into the country’s busiest airports, thanks to a new air traffic simulation developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and Joby Aviation.

These zero-operating-emission aircraft use electric power to take off, cruise, and land, and provide an appealing option for commercial industry interested in more sustainable transportation.

NASA and Joby researchers recently invited representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, and stakeholders to view the simulation in the Ames’ air traffic control simulation facility, called FutureFlight Central. The two-story facility offers a 360-degree, full-scale simulation of an airport, where controllers, pilots and airport personnel can test operating procedures and evaluate new technologies.

“We’re trying to enable a better quality of life,” said Savvy Verma, urban air mobility researcher at NASA Ames. “Some people are stuck in traffic for hours on the way to the airport. A 12-mile trip can take 45 minutes. Imagine being able to do that same trip in 15 minutes.”

In preparation for air taxis and other aircraft flying passengers in and out of airports, NASA and industry partners are working with the FAA to demonstrate how creative use of existing tools and airspace procedures can support safe integration of air taxi operations into the national airspace.

The groups are also exploring potential changes to the current airspace system to enable an even greater scale of flights. The recent air traffic management integration simulation developed by NASA with Joby will provide useful air traffic controller data to the FAA and industry for integrating these aircraft into operations.

“There is so much momentum across the world for advanced air mobility,” Verma said. “We’ve been talking about integrating these kinds of vehicles into the airspace, but to be able to show it in high-fidelity simulation is very promising.”

Inside the facility, visitors saw eVTOL pilots flying safely along NASA-developed, predetermined routes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport. The eVTOL pilots operated seamlessly through the airports, with the facility simulating weather conditions, live flight data, and airport operational data. The simulation showed how NASA-developed air traffic control procedures and airspace concepts would significantly reduce the workload on air traffic controllers for eVTOL operations in airports.

“This simulation validates the idea that we can find a way to safely integrate these vehicles into the airspace at scale,” said NASA researcher Ken Freeman.

The human-in-the-loop simulation, which featured active and retired air traffic controllers, evaluated a series of traffic schedules developed by Joby based on the company’s market analysis and expectations of future demand.

NASA’s initial analysis of the simulation indicates that researchers could scale these procedures for operating eVTOLs in other airports throughout the country, which could reduce the associated workload on air traffic controllers. NASA plans to publish a complete analysis of the simulation results in 2024. The brand-new data will be provided to the FAA, commercial industry, and airports to help identify the air traffic controller tools and procedures could enable high-tempo integration of eVTOLs into near-term and future operations in airports. Enabling eVTOLs as a taxi service for passengers to and from airports in the future could begin to reduce carbon emissions and greatly improve the commute experience for passengers. This project work supports NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility mission, which focuses on air taxi and drone research with industry and government partners

https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/nasa-joby-pave-the-way-for-air-taxis-in-busy-airports/

Dragon, Cygnus Cargo Missions Nearing End This Week

December 21, 2023

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is targeting its undocking from the International Space Station for 5:05 p.m. EST today. The Expedition 70 crew finished packing Dragon on Wednesday with a variety of research samples and lab hardware for retrieval and analysis on Earth.

The orbital residents now turn their attention to the departure of a second U.S. resupply ship set for 8:05 a.m. on Friday. Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter was grappled with the Canadarm2 robotic arm and will soon be detached from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port before being released into Earth orbit completing a four-and-a-half month stay at the orbiting lab. Cygnus will stay in space until early January when it will enter the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean for a fiery, but safe demise.

NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams now are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, Jan. 17, to launch Axiom Mission-3 to the space station from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A due to recent unfavorable weather conditions and changes in SpaceX’s launch manifest.

Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Satoshi Furukawa completed preparations for Cygnus’ departure today closing the hatch and configuring the vehicle to end its mission. NASA’s Moghbeli earlier installed the SAFFIRE-VI experiment inside Cygnus that will be remotely activated to explore spacecraft fire safety. Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) ensured the disposable cargo was securely strapped inside the departing spacecraft.

Science and maintenance activities were still ongoing throughout Thursday advancing knowledge and keeping the orbital outpost in tip-top shape. Scientists use the microgravity environment to discover new phenomena impossible to observe in Earth’s gravity.

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara opened up the Combustion Integrated Rack and configured research components supporting an experiment that is observing how fuel temperatures affect material flammability. Results from the study may improve fire safety techniques on Earth and in space. Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) activated a series of coding studies to interest students in science, swapped out optical fiber samples for a manufacturing experiment, then replaced filters in the Advanced Plant Habitat for a new space botany investigation.

Working in the orbital lab’s Roscosmos segment, veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko once again tested the 3D printing of tools and supplies in weightlessness then set up an Earth atmosphere monitoring experiment. Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov installed a secondary atmospheric study that is observing Earth’s nighttime environment in near-ultraviolet wavelengths. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub attached sensors to his chest monitoring how his heart is adapting to the lack of gravity.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2023/12/21/dragon-cygnus-cargo-missions-nearing-end-this-week/

Amazon Devices Leader Dave Limp Named CEO of Bezos’ Blue Origin

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Amazon veteran Dave Limp is going from Alexa to outer space.

Limp, who led the company’s devices unit, was chosen by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to be CEO of his aerospace firm, Blue Origin, Reuters reported Thursday (Dec. 21).

Limp’s priorities include boosting the development of the company’s New Glenn rocket and its BE-4 engine as it looks to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources who attended a company-wide Blue Origin meeting this month.

At that meeting, the report said, Limp emphasized the importance of meeting scheduled deadlines and discussed focusing more on integrating software and artificial intelligence in manufacturing.

Limp will also supervise plans to construct a moon lander for NASA, as well as an orbital space station and a business based on maneuverable servicing and refueling satellites, per the report.

In addition, he will also oversee the relaunch of Blue Origin’s suborbital space tourism and research business as its only active rocket, the small, reusable New Shepard, takes to the skies after being grounded for more than a year, the report said.

Limp announced in August that he planned to retire from Amazon, saying simply: “It’s time.”

He oversaw products like the company’s Alexa assistant.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite initiative took a step earlier this month toward establishing a globally connected optical mesh network driven by a space lasers system.

Amazon launched and deployed two prototype satellites with optical inter-satellite link (OISL) capabilities in October and has since been attempting to build an OISL ecosystem that can move and land data anywhere through a mesh network in space, “creating an end-to-end communications payload and network,” PYMNTS reported.

The two satellites have successfully transferred data at 100 gigabits per second over a distance of more than 600 miles via infrared lasers in space.

“Amazon’s optical mesh network will provide multiple paths to route data through space, creating resiliency and redundancy for customers who need to securely transport information around the world,” Ricky Freeman, vice president of Kuiper Government Solutions, a dedicated division within Project Kuiper, said in a statement.

https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2023/revolut-reports-revenue-of-1-1-billion-in-2022/