NASA’s Global Science Hackathon Attracts Thousands of Participants

More than 50,000 participants have registered for the 2023 NASA Space Apps Challenge Saturday, Oct. 7, to Sunday, Oct. 8, which is the largest annual worldwide hackathon.

During the two-day event, participants form teams and use software development, engineering, art, storytelling, science, and other skills to solve science-related challenges written by NASA personnel. Teams can be in-person at local events held around the world, or participate virtually.

This year’s theme celebrates the benefits and successes created through sharing open data: Explore Open Science Together.

“NASA has a 60-year legacy of pushing the limits of how science is used to understand our universe,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This year’s Space Apps challenge supports one of our key goals to expand those limits: Spark a culture that ensures and insists our data is easily accessible for everyone. Open science produces research that is transparent, reproducible, and replicable – while increasing diversity and inclusion.”  

The Space Apps Challenge experience provides a platform to network locally and globally, develop new skills, and identify pathways to pursue academic and professional opportunities.

Here is a list of hackathon activities online:

• Follow activities on Space Apps X, Space Apps Facebook, and Space Apps Instagram accounts. Use #SpaceApps on social posts.
• 5 p.m. EDT on Friday: “Welcome to Space Apps” kick-off video premieres on the Space Apps YouTube page
• 2:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday: Instagram Live on the Space Apps account featuring four local events from around the world (Italy, Australia, and two from across the United States)

Once the hackathon concludes, projects are submitted for judging to NASA and other space agency experts. Participants compete for one of 10 global awards. Winners are expected to be announced in January 2024, followed by a winners’ celebration in June.

Thirteen space agencies, as well as community partners and volunteers from around the world, collaborate with NASA to host a successful hackathon. Since its inception in 2021, the challenge has engaged more than 260,000 registrants from nearly 200 countries/territories around the world to build innovative solutions to challenges faced on Earth and in space. There is no cost to participate.

Learn more about NASA’s Space Apps Challenge online:

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/challenges/

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Cheryl Warner

Navigating Tomorrow’s Opportunities

Help Improve Federal Agency Forecasts of Procurement Opportunities 

Help Improve Federal Agency Forecasts of Procurement Opportunities 

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management & Budget, Executive Office of the President, is hosting a three-week crowdsourcing campaign to seek feedback and preview changes under consideration for agency forecasts of procurement opportunities. 

Click HERE to participate in this campaign 

All are welcome to participate. We are especially interested in private sector input, including feedback from current and prospective vendors, to understand: 

• How well do the changes that the Federal Government is considering for agency forecasts of procurement opportunities resonate with your business needs? 

Participate in the campaign any time October 3 – 31, 2023 to share your feedback on the changes under consideration. 

Your contributions will help shape plans and activities to ensure that Federal agency forecasts of procurement opportunities are strategic tools for business success. 

Thank you and we look forward to your feedback! 

Christine Harada 

Senior Advisor
Office of Federal Procurement Policy
Office of Management & Budget
Executive Office of the President

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Garrett Shea

NASA to Welcome Visitors, Media to Johnson Space Center Open House

MEDIA ADVISORY: J23-006
Oct. 6, 2023

NASA will open its gates to the public Saturday, Oct. 14, celebrating the agency’s 65th anniversary, the International Space Station’s 25th anniversary, and upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon.

Media interested in participating in the event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston must request credentials from the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov, no later than 12 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13. Media must check in upon arrival at the Johnson newsroom in Building 2N, where additional background materials will be available, and interviews may be requested.

To help ensure an enjoyable visit for everyone when they drive through the center’s main gate from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT, NASA Johnson is asking visitors to abide by the following guidelines:

• Small, clear bags are allowed
• No backpacks, drones, coolers, food, or beverages (including alcohol) are permitted
• No pets (unless certified service dog)
• No firearms, weapons, or ammunition (includes license to carry)
• Motorcycle helmets are required on NASA property
• Entry into, continued presence on, or exit from the facility is contingent upon your consent to inspection of person or property
• Download the NASA SAFE app for information on parking, entry process, policies, maps, frequently asked questions, and emergency response

During the open house, visitors will get a free, behind-the-scenes look at some of the agency’s most historic accomplishments, and the exciting work happening right now as NASA returns humans to the Moon and ultimately prepares for exploration of Mars. The incoming gate will close at 2:30 p.m. and visitors will be allowed to remain on site until 3 p.m.

See a full list of what will be open and a map that includes parking, at:

https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/open-house/

Visitors will have access to a variety of exhibits and hardware, ranging from Moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions, to full-size mockups of the International Space Station, NASA’s Orion spacecraft, and Gateway lunar space station. Guests also will have opportunities to meet astronauts and learn more about how human spaceflight missions are managed from Mission Control, Houston.

Guests may also take advantage of an exciting opportunity to view an annular eclipse — also known as a “ring of fire” eclipse — of the Sun.

In addition to facilities and exhibits, the center’s Teague Auditorium will feature programs and speakers from 9:30 a.m. through 3 p.m.

NASA opened for business Oct. 1, 1958, following the signing of the agency’s founding legislation on July 29, 1958. After four decades that saw dozens of short-duration missions to the Moon and low Earth orbit, NASA and its international partners launched the first element of the International Space Station on Nov. 20, 1998, setting the stage for continuous human presence in space, which began in 2000.

Visitors are welcomed year-round through Johnson’s official visitor center, Space Center Houston, which provides tram tours and visits inside several key facilities. However, this open house will allow visitors to have access to several locations not accessible during visitor center tours.

Connect with Johnson Space Center on social media at:

https://x.com/NASA_Johnson

and

https://www.facebook.com/NASAJSC

-end-

Kelly Humphries / Dylan Connell

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

dylan.b.connell@nasa.gov

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Wendy K. Avedisian

NASA Concludes Significant Technical Challenge: In-Time Terminal Area Risk Management

Operations within the National Airspace System continue to grow in scale and complexity. As a result, causal factors of risks and hazards are increasingly complex and drive the need to transform the way we conduct risk management and safety assurance.

NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) project recently commemorated the completion of a major step towards that transformation with an engaging hybrid event reflecting on the completion of its Technical Challenge 1 (TC-1): In-Time Terminal Area Risk Management.

The event highlighted key takeaways, provided technology demonstrations, and engaged stakeholders and partners in conversations around the myriad of capabilities and opportunities made possible by the tools, techniques, and processes developed under the technical challenge.

Speakers from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airlines, and the aviation industry at large discussed how to best leverage TC-1 capabilities as the safety foundation of this new era of commercial aviation.

New technologies developed in TC-1 identify emerging risks and monitor safety margins before an accident occurs – not after. Powered by prognostic and predictive risk assessment algorithms and human factors research, TC-1 work will both improve today’s safety management systems and help us shape future operational systems.

Through TC-1, NASA and its partners have developed and demonstrated:

• Methods to improve risk management and safety assurance processes by proactively identifying risks and causal factors before an accident/incident occurs.
• Integrated risk assessment capabilities to monitor and assess terminal area operations based on advanced data analytics methods and predictive model development.
• Machine Learning Analytics Tools, in collaboration with our partners, that identify and characterize operational risks, monitor, and integrate data, evaluate risk mitigation strategies, and determine causal and contributing factors.

TC-1’s findings are the bedrock of the rest of the SWS technical challenges. They pave the way for a new technical challenge (TC-6) that seeks to expand on the work completed thus far and address the call to action set forth by the FAA to address safety challenges facing the transforming aviation industry.

SWS extends sincere appreciation to TC-1’s subproject managers, Nikunj Oza and Chad Stephens, and to Abigail Glenn-Chase for coordinating such an impactful event.

A recording of the event is available below.

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Hubble’s Multi-Wavelength View of Recently-Released Webb Image

Hubble is sharing a brand new galaxy image every day through October 7, 2023!
Visit our website daily, or follow along on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

Patches of bright pink and wisps of dark red paint the foreground of this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 5068 is a barred spiral galaxy with thousands of star-forming regions and large quantities of interstellar dust. First discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1785, NGC 5068 sits in the southern region of the constellation Virgo and is around 20 million light-years away. Astronomers estimate the galaxy is 45,000 light-years in diameter.

At the top center of this image lies NGC 5068’s bright central bar, a densely packed region of mature stars. A black hole lurks behind the bar, tugging the stars together with its intense gravitational pull. The bright pinkish-red splotches along the bottom and sides of the image are regions of ionized hydrogen gas where young star clusters lie. Though not very clear from this angle, these splotches are along the galaxy’s spiral arms, where new stars typically form.

Astronomers also found at least 110 Wolf-Rayet stars in NGC 5068. Wolf-Rayet stars are a type of old, massive star that loses mass at a very high rate. They are typically more than 25 times the mass of our Sun and up to a million times more luminous. There are about 220 Wolf-Rayet stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

NGC 5068 is difficult to see with human eyes because it has relatively low surface brightness. Luckily, Hubble’s ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared capabilities helped capture the beauty and intrigue of this galaxy. Different cosmic objects emit different wavelengths of light; young and hot stars emit ultraviolet light, so Hubble uses ultraviolet observations to find them.

In June of 2023, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released its own infrared image of NGC 5068 as part of a science campaign to learn more about star formation in gaseous regions of nearby galaxies. Many of Webb’s observations are building on earlier Hubble observations, specifically a collection of 10,000 images of star clusters.

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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