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Exploring the Moon: Episode Previews
JUL 19, 2024
NASA’s video series, Exploring the Moon, takes a “behind-the-scenes” look at humanity’s next steps on the Moon. Here is your first look at some of the key moments from the upcoming series! Scroll down or navigate through CONTENTS, to the side, to explore!
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How…
How many small steps equal a giant leap? Find out what it takes to plan our next great voyage to the Moon, what exactly we plan to do there, and what may come next.
Next-Generation Spacesuits
Explore the special technologies and improvements NASA has made to its spacesuits since the International Space Station (ISS), and how they will be used to make Artemis mission possible​.
Lunar Rovers
Buckle up and roll out! Learn all about the different capabilities crewed and uncrewed rovers have. Plus, find out how these technologies will be used to explore the lunar surface.
Lunar Geology Tools
How does NASA collect surface samples from the Moon? The answer may surprise you! Explore the challenges of designing the geology sampling equipment for the Artemis missions and how geology sampling technology has changed since Apollo missions.​
Special Lunar Challenges
Learn how NASA engineers are working to prepare for the unique challenges astronauts will face when exploring the Lunar South Pole for the first time ever.
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/exploring-the-moon-episode-previews/
https://www.nasa.gov/extravehicular-activity-and-human-surface-mobility/exploring-the-moon/
NASA Sets Briefings for Crew-9 Mission to Space Station
JUL 19, 2024
NASA will host a pair of news conferences Friday, July 26, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station.
NASA will host a mission overview news conference at 12 p.m. EDT and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
The news conference will cover NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the microgravity laboratory and Expeditions 71 and 72.
NASA also will host a crew news conference at 2 p.m., and provide coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website, followed by individual astronaut interviews at 3 p.m.
Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The Crew-9 mission, targeted to launch in mid-August, will carry NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos to the orbiting laboratory.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA.
These events will be the final media opportunity to speak to the Crew-9 astronauts before they travel to NASA Kennedy for launch.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-briefings-for-crew-9-mission-to-space-station/
United Nations marks Apollo 11 55th with international moon missions stamps
July 20, 2024
Photos of the moon captured by American, Russian, European, Japanese, Indian, Korean and Chinese spacecraft are the subject of new United Nations (UN) postage stamps commemorating the 55th anniversary of the NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.
The UN Postal Administration (UNPA) will release six se-tenant postage stamps and three souvenir sheets on Saturday (July 20) to celebrate International Moon Day. Since 2021, the UN has recognized the day that astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon "to raise awareness about the commitment to sustainable lunar exploration on the part of national and international space programs worldwide."
"Today's moon exploration is wreathed with ambitious plans but the expansion of our so-far pristine horizons must take place sustainably," said Aarti Holla-Maini, director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, in a statement that appears on the souvenir sheets. "The United Nations will leverage its unique convening power to foster the necessary dialogue on the way forward."
The stamps and sheets will be issued in three denominations corresponding with the UNPA offices in New York (U.S. dollars), Geneva (Swiss francs) and Vienna (euros).
Designed by Rorie Katz with the UN, the stamps reproduce imagery from six different moon missions, with three more represented on the souvenir sheets. The se-tenants' subjects include:
Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), South Korea's first moon mission launched in 2022;
Surveyor 1, the United States' first soft lunar lander, which preceded the Apollo missions in 1966;
Chandrayaan-3, India's first probe to land on the moon in 2023;
SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, Japan's first spacecraft to reach the surface in 2024;
SMART-1, the European Space Agency's (ESA) first mission to the moon in 2003; and
Chang'e-5, China's first lunar sample-return mission, launched in 2020.
The souvenir sheets further commemorate the United States' Apollo 11 mission, which landed on July 20, 1969; the former Soviet Union's Luna 2 robotic probe, which achieved the world's first moon landing on Sep. 14, 1959; and China's Change'e-4, the world's first probe to touch down on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.
In addition to the stamps and sheets, the UNPA has also designed pictorial International Moon Day postmarks (one for each office) and are offering for sale first day covers (stamped envelopes postmarked for the day the stamps are issued). The se-tenant postage stamps are limited to 12,000 per pair; 17,000 for the Apollo 11 souvenir sheet and 18,000 for each of the other two sheets.
Previous UNPA space stamps include a 2007 collection of eight stamps marking 50 years since the start of the Space Age; a 2011 release for the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight; a 2013 pair of nebula-theme stamps for World Space Week; a 2018 set commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first UN conference on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space; and a 2022 collection of six stamps and six souvenir sheets for Mars missions launched by the U.S., China and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
https://www.space.com/united-nations-international-moon-day-postage-stamps
'Space can unite a troubled country in troubled times': NASA chief calls for unity 55 years after Apollo 11 moon landing
July 19, 2024
NASA administrator Bill Nelson is calling for unity among both major U.S. political parties amid the 55th anniversary of the first human moon landing on Saturday (July 20).
The former Democratic politician's new speech was released on YouTube; in it, he says "historic times, even what feels like divided times" that the United States feels today seems to echo much of the troubled climate of the 1960s, when the Apollo program was at its height.
While Nelson portrayed the 1960s as difficult for many Americans, he also emphasized that Apollo 11's landing on July 20, 1969 with NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin "was a triumph that came in the shape of a bootprint" in the speech, referring to a famous photo of Aldrin's boot impression in the moon's Sea of Tranquility region.
"Space can unite a troubled country in troubled times. And no moment united the country quite like when the Eagle [spacecraft] landed, as all of planet Earth watched from below," said Nelson, who at age 81 was in his mid-20s when the landing took place.
The year 2024 will conclude the latest federal election campaign in the United States.
The non-partisan Pew Research Center has noted several unique features of the campaign between Republican nominee Donald Trump (also the former president between 2017 and 2021) and current President Joe Biden, a Democrat elected to the Oval Office in 2020.
Pew's research suggests a number of fissions among voters. There are disputes, for example, about whether Trump broke the law during his time in office due to his role in an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden's mental and physical fitness for office is also a common topic of debate. Overall, there exists a lack of confidence in both leaders, with Pew tracking "large divides in voters' candidate preference by age, education, and race and ethnicity."
On Saturday (July 13), Trump was injured by gunfire during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. An investigation into the attempt is complex and at an early stage.
Nelson is a former Democratic senator and long-time politician of space matters; he also flew on the space shuttle with NASA in 1986 while part of a space committee. Biden appointed Nelson to the position of NASA administrator in 2021.
Saying this year has "politically divided times" as well as "unacceptable political violence," Nelson asked for the anniversary of Apollo 11 to "be a time of reflection and, I hope, of healing" as NASA aims to put boots on the moon again as soon as 2026 with moon-landing mission Artemis 3.
"Some may say that our brightest days are behind us," added Nelson. "But what will happen when humanity gathers once again, in shared reverence, to watch a crew of Artemis astronauts take to the heavens — and then when humanity sets foot, once again, on the surface of the moon? The day will be a triumph for all."
Nelson also alluded to the Artemis Accords, in which dozens of nations are committing to peaceful exploration norms led by NASA with a subset participating directly in moon exploration under the agreement.
"When we can work together up there, we can live together down here — in the name of peace," he said.
The other major world groups aiming for human moon landings are Russia and China; both have been called out repeatedly in Congress and by the Pentagon in recent years for security concerns.
Saying this year has "politically divided times" as well as "unacceptable political violence," Nelson asked for the anniversary of Apollo 11 to "be a time of reflection and, I hope, of healing" as NASA aims to put boots on the moon again as soon as 2026 with moon-landing mission Artemis 3.
"Some may say that our brightest days are behind us," added Nelson.
"But what will happen when humanity gathers once again, in shared reverence, to watch a crew of Artemis astronauts take to the heavens — and then when humanity sets foot, once again, on the surface of the moon? The day will be a triumph for all."
Nelson also alluded to the Artemis Accords, in which dozens of nations are committing to peaceful exploration norms led by NASA with a subset participating directly in moon exploration under the agreement.
"When we can work together up there, we can live together down here — in the name of peace," he said.
The other major world groups aiming for human moon landings are Russia and China; both have been called out repeatedly in Congress and by the Pentagon in recent years for security concerns.
https://www.space.com/nasa-chief-calls-for-unity-55-years-after-apollo-11-moon-landing
Polaris Dawn crew shows off new SpaceX spacesuits for 1st private spacewalk
July 19, 2024
This first ever private spacewalk will be bringing some serious style to outer space.
SpaceX's privately-funded crewed mission, Polaris Dawn, is moving toward a launch sometime this summer.
The four-person crew, which includes the mission's funder, billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman, recently completed acceptance testing for SpaceX's new extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, which they will wear as they become the first private citizens to perform a spacewalk on orbit.
In addition to Isaacman, the crew includes two lead operations engineers at SpaceX, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, serving as mission specialists, and the mission pilot, retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott "Kidd" Poteet.
Training for their upcoming mission has included hands-on work developing SpaceX's new EVA suit, which recently reached its last major developmental milestone test as the crew donned their suits in a vacuum for the first time.
"The Polaris Dawn crew recently completed a series of spacesuit acceptance tests in preparation for the mission's extravehicular activity," reads an update on the mission website.
Wearing their EVA suits in a vacuum for the first time allowed SpaceX to collect a number of different data ahead of the crew's upcoming mission, when they will wear the suits in the vacuum of space.
According to the Polaris website, the vacuum environment allowed SpaceX to collect a number of data on what to expect during an actual EVA:
"Familiarization with how the spacesuit performs in a vacuum;
Collection of spacesuit and biometric data to assess the overall system’s performance in a flight-like environment;
Understanding of general impacts of pressure changes on their body during pressurized operations;
Insight into the various thermal states expected throughout the spacewalk; and
An elevated metabolic period for the crew to simulate the expected workload during the spacewalk, as well as a reduced-activity period to understand the trend of body temperatures throughout the operation"
A number of photos from the test were posted to the Polaris Porgram's Flickr account, showing off SpaceX's sleek new, albeit familiar, spacesuit design. Polaris Dawn is a follow-up mission to SpaceX's first private astronaut launch, Inspiration4, aslo funded by Isaacman, and the first of three potential missions for the Polaris Program. Each will help raise money for the pediatric cancer research center St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The first images of SpaceX's EVA suit, which, on the outside, looks like a bulkier version of their intravehucliar actitivy (IVA) suits — pressure suits worn during launch and landing of a spacecraft, but not designed to operate in the exposed vacuum of space — were revealed on the company's website May 4.
But Polaris Dawn's new images from the recent tests highlight some of the differences between the IVA and EVA suits.
The suit's helmet, particularly, has received some upgrades, including a new heads-up display for astronauts to view data such as their suits' internal pressure, temperature and humidity.
SpaceX's EVA suits also contain new insulation materials and joint improvements for increased mobility and temperature control.
Polaris Dawn is scheduled to last five days, and will involve almost 40 different science experiments for the crew to conduct while in space, including testing the new EVA suits and the capabilities of their Crew Dragon spacecraft while exposed to the vacuum.
The Polaris team had been targeting no earlier than July 31 for the launch of their historic mission, according to a July 3 post on X, but that date may be highly tentative after a recent incident during the launch of a set of SpaceX Starlink satellites.
A July 11 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 additions to the company's satellite internet megaconstellation ended in failure, with the second stage experiencing a phenomon that led to a catestrophic loss of the entire payload.
As a result, all Falcon 9 launches have been put on hold, pending the results of investigations from SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The grounding of the Falcon 9 may also have implications for NASA's upcoming missions to the International Space Station (ISS), which was slated to launch both a cargo mission and a crewed mission to the space station in the coming months.
https://www.space.com/spacex-polaris-dawn-eva-suit-acceptance-testing-photos