NASA Deputy Administrator Strengthens Ties in Japan, Republic of Korea

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will visit Japan and the Republic of Korea beginning Thursday, July 11, to underscore the critical role of international cooperation in advancing space exploration and technology development.

During her week-long visit to the region, Melroy will engage with ministers and other senior government officials in both countries, including leaders from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and KASA (Korea AeroSpace Administration) to strengthen partnerships and highlight civil space cooperation.

In Tokyo, Melroy will participate in the Secure World Foundation’s 6th Summit for Space Sustainability, highlighting NASA’s leadership in responsible and sustainable operations amid rapid technological advancements, many of them championed by the agency.

NASA and JAXA are working to advance sustainable human exploration of the Moon. NASA announced in April that Japan will design, develop, and operate a pressurized rover for exploration of the lunar surface. The activity is part of a shared goal for a Japanese national to be the first non-American to land on the Moon as part of a future Artemis mission, assuming important benchmarks are achieved. In addition, NASA and JAXA are advancing goals in climate research and space science missions to benefit humanity.

Melroy also will speak alongside other space agency leaders at the 45th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research in Busan, Korea, emphasizing opportunities for international and commercial collaboration in space research.

The visit to Korea coincides with the recent establishment of KASA and builds upon decades of collaboration with NASA in exploration, Earth and space science, and aeronautics.

For more information about NASA’s international partnerships, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/oiir

-end-

Amber Jacobson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov

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Tiernan P. Doyle

Sols 4239-4240: ‘Vuggin’ Out’

Earth planning date: Monday, July 8, 2024

And just like we planned, Curiosity successfully drove about 11 meters (about 36 feet) after a 27-sol drill campaign at Mammoth Lakes! Not so fast, though, these rocks are just too interesting to leave behind so quickly. Instead of high-tailing it uphill like we usually do after a drill campaign, we’re staying put for another plan to get as much contact science on these diversely-toned rocks with mysterious origins and vugs (geologic term for the cavities in the rock) galore. It’s been a high priority to get as much color documentation of the clasts in the area, so a plan like this has kept my team busy commanding the Mastcams!

The first sol of this plan includes a long, 90-minute remote science block including about 50 minutes of ChemCam LIBS and RMI, about 32 minutes of Mastcam images, and a six-minute dust devil movie taken by Navcam. ChemCam is using its one-LIBS-per-sol on a conglomeratic block target named “Mount  Baxter,” and an RMI of Echo Ridge to the south. Mastcam is taking a 12-image mosaic of Mount Baxter after the LIBS work is done, and a huge 54-image mosaic to the east of Echo Ridge called “Stubblefield Canyon.” After the mast instruments are done, our rover will take about a four-hour long nap and wake up to unstow our arm. Arm activities this plan include two vug-tastic targets named “Lake Dorothy” and “Palisade Glacier,” both imaged by MAHLI and investigated by APXS. Curiosity is back to sleep by about 22:50, which sounds like my perfect sleep schedule.

The second sol of this plan includes a 60-minute remote science block containing about 45 minutes of ChemCam LIBS and RMI, only about six minutes of Mastcam images, and a whopping two hours of dust devil and environmental monitoring by Navcam. With 27 sols at our last location, we noticed significant wind motion between repeated images, and Navcam monitoring helps us keep track of how windy it is. Our rover will take another midday nap and wake up in the evening for a bonus APXS integration on Lake Dorothy, helping raise the signal-to-noise ratio and uncover more secrets (and questions) these Martian rocks have been keeping for millions of years.

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

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NASA’s Hubble Finds Strong Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri

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NASA’s Hubble Finds Strong Evidence for Intermediate-Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri

Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the Sun. Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are scarce, however, and are considered rare “missing links” in black hole evolution.

Now, an international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope — spanning two decades of observations — to search for evidence of an intermediate-mass black hole by following the motion of seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of the globular star cluster Omega Centauri.

These stars provide new compelling evidence for the presence of the gravitational pull from an intermediate-mass black hole tugging on them. Only a few other IMBH candidates have been found to date.

Omega Centauri consists of roughly 10 million stars that are gravitationally bound. The cluster is about 10 times as massive as other big globular clusters — almost as massive as a small galaxy.

Among the many questions scientists want to answer: Are there any IMBHs, and if so, how common are they? Does a supermassive black hole grow from an IMBH? How do IMBHs themselves form? Are dense star clusters their favored home?

The astronomers have now created an enormous catalog for the motions of these stars, measuring the velocities for 1.4 million stars gleaned from the Hubble images of the cluster. Most of these observations were intended to calibrate Hubble’s instruments rather than for scientific use, but they turned out to be an ideal database for the team’s research efforts.

“We discovered seven stars that should not be there,” explained Maximilian Häberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, who led this investigation. “They are moving so fast that they would escape the cluster and never come back. The most likely explanation is that a very massive object is gravitationally pulling on these stars and keeping them close to the center. The only object that can be so massive is a black hole, with a mass at least 8,200 times that of our Sun.”

Several studies have suggested the presence of an IMBH in Omega Centauri. However, other studies proposed the mass could be contributed by a central cluster of stellar-mass black holes, and had suggested the lack of fast-moving stars above the necessary escape velocity made an IMBH less likely in comparison.

“This discovery is the most direct evidence so far of an IMBH in Omega Centauri,” added team lead Nadine Neumayer of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, who initiated the study, together with Anil Seth from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. “This is exciting because there are only very few other black holes known with a similar mass. The black hole in Omega Centauri may be the best example of an IMBH in our cosmic neighborhood.”

If confirmed, at a distance of 17,700 light-years the candidate black hole resides closer to Earth than the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole in the center of the Milky Way, located 26,000 light-years away.

Omega Centauri is visible from Earth with the naked eye and is one of the favorite celestial objects for stargazers living in the southern hemisphere. Located just above the plane of the Milky Way, the cluster appears almost as large as the full Moon when seen from a dark rural area. It was first listed in Ptolemy’s catalog nearly 2,000 years ago as a single star. Edmond Halley reported it as a nebula in 1677. In the 1830s the English astronomer John Herschel was the first to recognize it as a globular cluster.

The discovery paper led by Häberle et al. is published online today in the journal Nature.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Media Contacts:

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

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble.org

Science Contact:
Maximilian Häberle
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany

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NASA Administrator, Leaders to Discuss Space-Based Cancer Research

As part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot, NASA will virtually host an event at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 11, to highlight how the agency is working to end cancer for the benefit of humanity by conducting research aboard the International Space Station.

The event will stream on NASA Television and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Additional participants include:

• Dr. Michael Roberts, chief scientific officer, International Space Station National Laboratory
• Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director, Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego

As a member of the Cancer Cabinet, NASA is working with agencies and researchers across the federal government to reduce the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, one of the ambitious but achievable goals of the Cancer Moonshot.

Learn more about the Biden Cancer Moonshot at:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot/

-end-

Faith McKie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov

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Tiernan P. Doyle

First Mars Crew Completes Yearlong Simulated Red Planet NASA Mission

The inaugural CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) crew is “back on Earth” after walking out of their simulated Martian habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on July 6. The first of three simulated missions, CHAPEA Mission 1 was designed to help scientists, engineers, and mission planners better understand how living on another world could affect human health and performance.

Kelly Haston, commander, Ross Brockwell, flight engineer, Nathan Jones, medical officer, and Anca Selariu, science officer, lived and worked in an isolated 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat to support human health and performance research to prepare for future missions to Mars.

“Congratulations to the crew of CHAPEA Mission 1 on their completion of a year in a Mars-simulated environment,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Through the Artemis missions, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars. The CHAPEA missions are critical to developing the knowledge and tools needed for humans to one day live and work on the Red Planet.”

The crew stepped out of the habitat and back into the arms of family and friends after a 378-day simulated Mars surface mission that began June 25, 2023.

This high-fidelity simulation involved the crew carrying out different types of mission objectives, including simulated “marswalks,” robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth. The crew also faced intentional environmental stressors in their habitat such as resource limitations, isolation, and confinement. For the next two weeks, the volunteers will complete post-mission data collection activities before returning home.

“We planned the last 378 days with many of the challenges crews could face on Mars and this crew dedicated their lives over that time to achieve these unprecedented operational objectives,” said CHAPEA Principal Investigator Grace Douglas. “I am looking forward to diving into the data we have gathered, preparing for CHAPEA Mission 2 and eventually, a human presence on Mars.”

As NASA works to establish a long-term presence for scientific discovery and exploration on the Moon through the Artemis campaign, analog missions like CHAPEA provide scientific data to validate systems and develop technological solutions for future missions to Mars.

Two additional one-year CHAPEA missions are planned, with the next targeted to begin in 2025. The subsequent missions will be nearly identical, allowing researchers to collect data from more participants to expand the dataset and provide a broader perspective on the impacts of Mars-realistic resource limitations, isolation and confinement on human health and performance.

NASA has several other avenues for gathering isolation research, including the Human Exploration Research Analog, Antarctica, and other analogs, as well as human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station to ensure key research goals can be completed to inform future human missions to the Moon and Mars.

The CHAPEA simulated missions are unique because they test the impacts of extended isolation and confinement with the addition of Mars-realistic time delays of communicating to Earth – up to 44-minutes roundtrip – along with resource limitations relevant to Mars, including a more limited food system that can be supported on the space station and in other analogs.

To view the ceremony of crew exiting their habitat, visit here.

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.

Learn more about CHAPEA at:

www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/chapea/

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Kelli Mars