NASA Selects Winners of the 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge

NASA has chosen three winners out of nine finalists in the fourth annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the enabling power of radioisotopes for space exploration.

Congratulations to the amazing champions and all of the participants!

Carl Sandifer II

Program Manager, NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program

The essay competition asked students to learn about NASA’s radioisotope power systems (RPS), likened to “nuclear batteries,” which the agency has used discover moonquakes on Earth’s Moon and study some of the most extreme of the more than 891 moons in the solar system. In 275 words or less, students dreamed up a unique exploration mission of one of these moons and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.

“I’m so impressed by the creativity and knowledge of our Power to Explore winners,” said Carl Sandifer II, program manager of the Radioisotope Power Systems Program at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “Congratulations to the amazing champions and all of the participants! You inspire me and make me even more optimistic about the future of America’s leadership in space.” 

Entries were split into three groups based on grade level, and a winner was chosen from each. The three winners, each accompanied by a guardian, are invited to NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for a VIP tour of its world-class research facilities this summer.

The winners are:

• Terry Xu, Arcadia, California, kindergarten through fourth grade
• Maggie Hou, Snohomish, Washington, fifth through eighth grade
• Kairat Otorov, Trumbull, Connecticut, ninth through 12th grade

The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn about space power, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA’s workforce. This year’s contest received nearly 2,051 submitted entries from all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity overseas.

Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate and an invitation to the Power Up virtual event held on March 21. There, NASA announced the 45 national semifinalists, and students learned about what powers the NASA workforce. Additionally, the national semifinalists received a NASA RPS prize pack.

NASA announced three finalists in each age group (nine total) on April 23. Finalists were invited to discuss their mission concepts with a NASA scientist or engineer during an exclusive virtual event.

The challenge is funded by the Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and administered by Future Engineers under a Small Business Innovation Research phase III contract. This task is managed by the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

For more information on radioisotope power systems visit:

https://nasa.gov/rps

Karen Fox / Molly Wasser

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1600

karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov

Kristin Jansen

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland

216-296-2203

kristin.m.jansen@nasa.gov

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…

NASA Live Coverage, Original Content Now Streaming on Prime Video

NASA’s on-demand streaming service, NASA+, launched a FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television) channel on Prime Video Tuesday, giving viewers another way to watch the agency’s aeronautics, human spaceflight, science, and technology missions unfold on screen.

As the agency continues to improve life on Earth and inspire new generations through innovation, exploration, and discovery, NASA+ is dedicated to sharing stories through live launch coverage, original documentaries, family-friendly content, and more.

“Streaming NASA+ on multiple platforms allows the agency to more efficiently share its missions, from launching astronauts to the International Space Station, to going behind the scenes with the team that defends Earth against asteroids, to showcasing new, high-definition images of the cosmos,” said Wes Brown, acting associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA provides an up-close look at how the agency explores the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all by ensuring content is easily accessible and widely available to the public.”

In addition to the FAST channel, NASA+ is available to download without a subscription on most major platforms via the NASA App on iOS and Android mobile and tablet devices, as well as streaming media players like Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV. Users also may stream online at:

https://plus.nasa.gov

-end-

Jennifer Dooren / Jessica Taveau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
jennifer.m.dooren@nasa.gov / jessica.c.taveau@nasa.gov

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Jessica Taveau

NASA’s IXPE Reveals X-ray-Generating Particles in Black Hole Jets

The blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to answer a longstanding question: How are X-rays generated in extreme environments like this?

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) collaborated with radio and optical telescopes to find answers. The results (preprint available here), to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, show that interactions between fast-moving electrons and particles of light, called photons, must lead to this X-ray emission. 

Scientists had two competing possible explanations for the X-rays, one involving protons and one involving electrons. Each of these mechanisms would have a different signature in the polarization of X-ray light. Polarization is a property of light that describes the average direction of the electromagnetic waves that make up light.

If the X-rays in a black hole’s jets are highly polarized, that would mean that the X-rays are produced by protons gyrating in the magnetic field of the jet or protons interacting with jet’s photons. If the X-rays have a lower polarization degree, it would suggest that electron-photons interactions lead to X-ray production.  

IXPE, which launched Dec. 9, 2021, is the only satellite flying today that can make such a polarization measurement. 

“This was one of the biggest mysteries about supermassive black hole jets” said Iván Agudo, lead author of the study and astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía – CSIC in Spain. “And IXPE, with the help of a number of supporting ground-based telescopes, finally provided us with the tools to solve it.”

Astronomers found that electrons must be the culprits through a process called Compton Scattering. Compton scattering (or the Compton effect) happens when a photon loses or gains energy after interacting with a charged particle, usually an electron. Within jets from supermassive black holes, electrons move near the speed of light. IXPE helped scientists learn that, in the case of a blazar jet, the electrons have enough energy to scatter photons of infrared light up to X-ray wavelengths. 

BL Lacertae (BL Lac for short) is one of the first blazars ever discovered, originally thought to be a variable star in the Lacerta constellation. IXPE observed BL Lac at the end of November 2023 for seven days along with several ground-based telescopes measuring optical and radio polarization at the same time. While IXPE observed BL Lac in the past, this observation was special. Coincidentally, during the X-ray polarization observations, the optical polarization of BL Lac reached a high number: 47.5%. 

“This was not only the most polarized BL Lac has been in the past 30 years, this is the most polarized any blazar has ever been observed!” said Ioannis Liodakis, one of the primary authors of the study and astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics – FORTH in Greece. 

IXPE found the X-rays were far less polarized than the optical light. The team was not able to measure a strong polarization signal and determined that the X-rays cannot be more polarized than 7.6%. This proved that electrons interacting with photons, via the Compton effect, must explain the X-rays. 

The fact that optical polarization was so much higher than in the X-rays can only be explained by Compton scattering.

Steven Ehlert

Project Scientist for IXPE at Marshall Space Flight Center

“The fact that optical polarization was so much higher than in the X-rays can only be explained by Compton scattering”, said Steven Ehlert, project scientist for IXPE and astronomer at the Marshall Space Flight Center. 

“IXPE has managed to solve another black hole mystery” said Enrico Costa, astrophysicist in Rome at the Istituto di Astrofísica e Planetologia Spaziali of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofísica. Costa is one of the scientists who conceived this experiment and proposed it to NASA 10 years ago, under the leadership of Martin Weisskopf, IXPE’s first principal investigator. “IXPE’s polarized X-ray vision has solved several long lasting mysteries, and this is one of the most important. In some other cases, IXPE results have challenged consolidated opinions and opened new enigmas, but this is how science works and, for sure, IXPE is doing very good science.”

What’s next for the blazar research?

“One thing we’ll want to do is try to find as many of these as possible,” Ehlert said. “Blazars change quite a bit with time and are full of surprises.”

More about IXPE

IXPE, which continues to provide unprecedented data enabling groundbreaking discoveries about celestial objects across the universe, is a joint NASA and Italian Space Agency mission with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. Learn more about IXPE’s ongoing mission here:

https://www.nasa.gov/ixpe

Elizabeth Landau
NASA Headquarters
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov
202-358-0845

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
256.544.0034 

Explore More

4 min read

NASA’s Chandra Diagnoses Cause of Fracture in Galactic “Bone”

Article


5 days ago

4 min read

NASA Marshall Fires Up Hybrid Rocket Motor to Prep for Moon Landings

Article


2 weeks ago

6 min read

NASA’s Chandra Releases New 3D Models of Cosmic Objects

Article


3 weeks ago

Keep Exploring

Discover Related Topics

IXPE

About Marshall Science

Marshall Space Flight Center

Black Holes

Black Holes Black holes are among the most mysterious cosmic objects, much studied but not fully understood. These objects aren’t…

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Beth Ridgeway

NASA Progresses Toward Crewed Moon Mission with Spacecraft, Rocket Milestones

Engineers, technicians, mission planners, and the four astronauts set to fly around the Moon next year on Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission, are rapidly progressing toward launch.

At the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, teams are working around the clock to move into integration and final testing of all SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft elements. Recently they completed two key milestones – connecting the SLS upper stage with the rest of the assembled rocket and moving Orion from its assembly facility to be fueled for flight.

“We’re extremely focused on preparing for Artemis II, and the mission is nearly here,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Moon to Mars Program, who also will chair the mission management team during Artemis II. “This crewed test flight, which will send four humans around the Moon, will inform our future missions to the Moon and Mars.”

On May 1, technicians successfully attached the interim cryogenic propulsion stage to the SLS rocket elements already poised atop mobile launcher 1, including its twin solid rocket boosters and core stage, inside the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). This portion of the rocket produces 24,750 pounds of thrust for Orion after the rest of the rocket has completed its job. Teams soon will move into a series of integrated tests to ensure all the rocket’s elements are communicating with each other and the Launch Control Center as expected. The tests include verifying interfaces and ensuring SLS systems work properly with the ground systems.

Meanwhile, on May 3, Orion left its metaphorical nest, the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Facility at Kennedy, where it was assembled and underwent initial testing. There the crew module was outfitted with thousands of parts including critical life support systems for flight and integrated with the service module and crew module adapter. Its next stop on the road to the launch pad is the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, where it will be carefully fueled with propellants, high pressure gases, coolant, and other fluids the spacecraft and its crew need to maneuver in space and carry out the mission.

After fueling is complete, the four astronauts flying on the mission around the Moon and back over the course of approximately 10 days, will board the spacecraft in their Orion Crew Survival System spacesuits to test all the equipment interfaces they will need to operate during the mission. This will mark the first time NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will board their actual spacecraft while wearing their spacesuits. After the crewed testing is complete, technicians will move Orion to Kennedy’s Launch Abort System Facility, where the critical escape system will be added. From there, Orion will move to the VAB to be integrated with the fully assembled rocket.

NASA also announced its second agreement with an international space agency to fly a CubeSat on the mission. The collaborations provide opportunities for other countries to work alongside NASA to integrate and fly technology and experiments as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign.

While engineers at Kennedy integrate and test hardware with their eyes on final preparations for the mission, teams responsible for launching and flying the mission have been busy preparing for a variety of scenarios they could face.

The launch team at Kennedy has completed more than 30 simulations across cryogenic propellant loading and terminal countdown scenarios. The crew has been taking part in simulations for mission scenarios, including with teams in mission control. In April, the crew and the flight control team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston simulated liftoff through a planned manual piloting test together for the first time. The crew also recently conducted long-duration fit checks for their spacesuits and seats, practicing several operations while under various suit pressures.

Teams are heading into a busy summer of mission preparations. While hardware checkouts and integration continue, in coming months the crew, flight controllers, and launch controllers will begin practicing their roles in the mission together as part of integrated simulations. In May, the crew will begin participating pre-launch operations and training for emergency scenarios during launch operations at Kennedy and observe a simulation by the launch control team of the terminal countdown portion of launch. In June, recovery teams will rehearse procedures they would use in the case of a pad or ascent abort off the coast of Florida, with launch and flight control teams supporting. The mission management team, responsible for reviewing mission status and risk assessments for issues that arise and making decisions about them, also will begin practicing their roles in simulations. Later this summer, the Orion stage adapter will arrive at the VAB from NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and stacked on top of the rocket.

Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Rachel H. Kraft