NASA, Salisbury U. Enact Agreement for Workforce Development  

NASA and Salisbury University (SU) in Maryland signed a collaborative Space Act Agreement Thursday, March 28, 2024, opening new opportunities at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The agreement forges a formal partnership to identify research and engineering projects and activities at Wallops designed to provide SU students and professors with experiential, hands-on activities. 

“Our success at NASA, now and in the future, depends on a dynamic network of partnerships focused on our mission operations and growing the next generation of innovators,” said Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, center director at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “NASA’s partnership with Salisbury University expands our workforce development ecosystem and provides students with real-world experience in critical aerospace career fields.” NASA Goddard manages Wallops Flight Facility for the agency.

The agreement also lays a framework for expanding internship opportunities at Wallops, mentoring, technical expertise to faculty, and support for job fairs and other career development programs aimed to expand awareness of careers in the aerospace industry. 

“NASA Wallops has long been at the forefront of space exploration, pioneering breakthroughs that have expanded our understanding of the universe and inspired generations of scientists, engineers, and dreamers,” said Dr. Carolyn Ringer Lepre, SU president. “Together, we will leverage our collective expertise, resources, and ingenuity to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing our world today.” 

Wallops’ conducts upwards of 50 operational science and technology missions worldwide annually launching on orbital and suborbital rockets, scientific balloons, and flying on airborne science platforms. In addition, NASA’s commercial partners like Rocket Lab are increasing launch operations on the facility.  

“Our operations are growing at Wallops underscoring the need for an innovative, skilled workforce to advance our science and technology missions,” said Lystrup. “This agreement is helping us fill a critical workforce need to propel us into the future.”  

For more information on programs at Wallops, visit: 

www.nasa.gov/wallops  

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Jamie Adkins

MEDIA ADVISORY: NASA Invites Media to Milestone RS-25 Engine Certification Test

NASA will host media to view a milestone RS-25 engine test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Wednesday, April 3, to certify full production of new engines to help power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

As NASA explores the universe for the benefit of all, NASA Stennis is testing engines and systems that will help launch the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on future deep space missions. The April 3 test will mark completion of a 12-test series to certify production of RS-25 engines by lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, to help power missions beginning with Artemis V.

In addition to the engine hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand, media will have an opportunity to tour the Aerojet Rocketdyne Engine Assembly Facility onsite, to receive a briefing at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2) about upcoming exploration upper stage testing, and to interview NASA officials and others.

The RS-25 hot fire viewing is targeted for early- to mid-afternoon.

Following the hot fire, media also will have a chance to gather onsite to view and participate in the NASA news conference announcing the company, or companies, selected to move forward in development of the lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) that will help Artemis astronauts explore more of the Moon’s surface on future missions. The news conference will be broadcast at 3 p.m. CDT from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Media members interested in attending should:

• Be a U.S. citizen.
• Contact Lacy Thompson at calvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov no later than 12 p.m. on Monday, April 1.
• Provide name as it appears on driver’s license.
• Identify state issuing the license.
• Provide a mobile contact number.

Please note NASA’s media accreditation policy online.

Media members must arrive from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 3, at INFINITY Science Center, the official visitors center for NASA Stennis, and produce valid driver’s license for transport on site. INFINITY is located at 1 Discovery Circle in Pearlington, Mississippi. Long pants and closed-toe shoes are required attire.

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LaToya Dean

Mariner 7 Goes to Mars

55 years ago, on March 27, 1969, an Atlas-Centaur rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending Mariner 7 on its way to study Mars. Mariner 7 was the second Mars probe; Mariner 6 launched Feb. 24, 1969, to investigate Mars’ equator. Mariner 7 made a close flyby of Mars just five days after Mariner 6. Scientists were able to instruct it to take additional pictures of the south pole, which had piqued their interest during Mariner 6’s flyby.

The Mariner program launched 10 missions to explore Mercury, Venus, and Mars through flybys or orbits. These missions proved that interplanetary exploration was workable with small, low-cost spacecraft, laying the groundwork for all the deep space exploration missions that followed.

Image Credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

NASA, Partners Select Universities for CubeSat Summer Program

Eight university teams have been selected to work with NASA and the U.S. military to improve their small satellite proposals, ultimately increasing the possibility of flying their technology in space, and potentially launching their own careers in the space industry.

NASA’s CSLI (CubeSat Launch Initiative) is partnering with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force for the 2024 Mission Concept Program. Running from May through August, the program will provide students with systems engineering training for spacecraft development. The partnership aims to prepare students to work in the space industry while simultaneously enhancing small satellite expertise among faculty at U.S. universities.

A total of 34 universities applied for the 2024 session. A mix of NASA, Air Force, and contractor personnel reviewed the proposals, selecting universities based on the educational impact, university program impact and development, minority outreach and support, and relevance to NASA or the Department of Defense. Three of this year’s awardees – University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University, and Tarleton State University – are Minority Serving Institutions. This year’s selections are:

• University of Central Florida, Orlando
• University of Mississippi, Oxford
• Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
• University of North Dakota, Grand Forks
• Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana
• Northeastern University, Boston
• West Virginia University, Morgantown
• Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas

The teams will meet at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a four-day kickoff meeting in May, followed by seven weeks at the Air Force’s University Nanosatellite Program facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where three students will serve as interns with the Space Dynamics Laboratory.

During the program, the students will work with small satellite experts for continuous feedback and guidance to help improve university proposals and increase those teams’ potential of being selected to fly to space as part of NASA’s CSLI or the Air Force’s nanosatellite opportunities.

Final presentations will take place in Albuquerque and, although not required, participants are encouraged to attend the Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah, in August. Both programs will make final selections for future flights in 2025.

The 2024 Mission Concept Program provides funding for all travel, including kickoff, final event, and in-person reviews, allowing faculty and students to formulate teams without straining university resources.

NASA uses CSLI as one if its ways to attract retain students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. This strengthens NASA’s and the nation’s future workforce. The initiative promotes and develops innovative technology partnerships among NASA, U.S. industry, and other sectors for the benefit of all.

Visit NASA’s CSLI website for more information:

https://go.nasa.gov/3PEP2Q6

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Laura Aguiar

Don’t Make Me Wait for April 8!

Can’t wait to see the Moon block the Sun on April 8? Neither can we. But we have good news – if you want to see an incredible cosmic alignment, you can catch one right now! Exoplanets, asteroids, and other objects regularly pass in front of stars and block their light. Observing these events is easier than you might think – and it can be a fantastic way to contribute to NASA science.

There are three main kinds of cosmic alignments that temporarily block our view of a star. Each one can help us pick out fine details about astronomical objects that can’t be observed any other way.

Eclipse – when one object blocks another that’s apparently similar in size.

Occultation – when a relatively big object completely blocks an apparently smaller object.

Transit – when an apparently small object passes in front of a larger star, blocking some but not all of its light.

You’ll notice that we use the word “apparently” in each of those definitions. That’s because what matters is how big the object looks from our perspective, not how big it actually is.

Now let’s look at some science projects you can get involved in that observe these phenomena.

Eclipses help scientists see faint objects next to bright objects. Just like you might raise your hand to block light from your car’s headlight while you search the ground for your keys, eclipses block the overpowering light from a star so objects around it can be viewed more easily. This is what the Eclipse Megamovie project, the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative, and Citizen CATE 2024 are doing: taking advantage of the Moon blocking the fierce sunlight so they can see what’s happening right around the Sun. These projects invite you to help them use this method to study the Sun’s faint corona. Eclipses and occultations can also tell us about the relative sizes and shapes of objects. This is how Sunsketcher will harness the April 8 eclipse. With your help, they will use our precise knowledge of the size and topography of the Moon to vastly improve estimates of the shape of the Sun. At the very beginning and end of totality, viewers will see Baily’s Beads – bright spots of light around the Moon’s edge where rays of sunlight slip through the valleys between the mountains on the Moon’s surface just before and after totality. The SunSketcher app will capture images of these beads along with precise time and location data of each observation. Following the eclipse, the SunSketcher team will use the collected observations to calculate the shape of the Sun.

When an object transits – or passes in front of – a star, the star’s light dims. Measuring changes in starlight to search for these transits has revealed thousands of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) in recent years. You can join the search today! Three NASA citizen science projects are focused on investigating exoplanets using transits.

• Planet Hunters TESS invites everyone to look for traces of transiting planets in the changing light of distant stars. The most promising of these signals indicate “exoplanet candidates” to be confirmed through additional observations. This project, hosted on the Zooniverse platform, can be done on a smartphone or a computer.
• Exoplanet Watch is a community of people who use their own telescopes or a shared community robotic telescope to observe exoplanet candidates to better predict the next time the objects will transit. This project requires an internet-connected computer.
• UNITE, like Exoplanet Watch, is a community of folks using their telescopes to observe exoplanet candidates. This community uses Unistellar telescopes, which operate on a standard, user-friendly system. The UNITE and Exoplanet Watch teams often share data and collaborate!

Whichever events you observe, or whichever projects you choose to contribute to, we’re sure you’ll find yourself marveling at our presence on this wonderful planet in this mysterious universe. You don’t have to wait until April 8!

by Sarah Kirn and Marc J. Kuchner
NASA Citizen Science

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