How a NASA Engineer Supports the Commercialization of Space

Chris Barnett-Woods’ favorite movie growing up – Back to the Future – led him to dream of one day building a DeLorean automobile. Instead, the electrical engineer is doing something never imagined as he helps NASA support the commercialization of space for the benefit of all.

“If there is any interest, always apply to work at a place like NASA because you never know where it will take you,” said Barnett-Woods, who is approaching two decades of work at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. “In college, I never thought I would work for NASA. I thought it was a far-off fantasy and could not be a reality. Turns out, it was closer than I thought.”

The Diamondhead, Mississippi, resident is in his 10^th year as a NASA engineer and 17^th overall at NASA Stennis, following seven years as a contractor before joining NASA.

Barnett-Woods is the electrical lead and instrumentation engineer at the E-1 Test Stand. It has four test cell positions and is a part of the versatile four-stand E Test Complex at NASA Stennis. Overall, the complex includes 12 active test cell positions capable of various component, engine, and stage test activities. 

He describes the customer-focused approach at E-1 as a fast-paced workflow in a constant phase of testing while always keeping safety at the forefront.

“Safety is priority number one, followed by collecting data to help our customers,” said Barnett-Woods. “We ensure everyone goes home in the condition they entered. There is no hesitation that if we are entering an unsafe process or configuration, we will stop right there and make sure we are doing it the right way.”

A typical day for the engineer includes running a system calibration, which ensures all sensors on the facility and test article are reading accurately, followed by red line checks.

The red line checks help maintain a safe work environment in the event a pressure or temperature goes too high. If that were to happen, this process will safely shut down the engine.

Once checks are complete, the hot fire test begins with flowing fuel and oxidizer through the test article to facilitate firing and record data. The data tells the story of performance and allows for design analysis as engineers determine the most optimal way to run the test article.

“It is a fun environment,” the NASA engineer said. “We have a lot of very dedicated people that know the job, love the job, and would do nearly anything for it. We are one big, happy team, like family.”

A hot fire can range between one second to 200 seconds, depending on what is tested. The 2023 NASA Silver Achievement Medal recipient has supported hundreds of hot fires for commercial customers, including companies brand new to the aerospace industry and those more experienced that are looking for specific parameters.

“NASA Stennis is a one-of-a-kind facility in the world,” Barnett-Woods said. “This is the only place where we can do a ground level test of an actual engine hot fire and if you like rockets, this is the place to be.”

For information about NASA’s Stennis Space Center, visit:
Stennis Space Center – NASA

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LaToya Dean

Interview with Xinchuan Huang

Let’s start with your childhood, where you were born, where you’re from, your young years, your family at the time, what your parents did, and how early it was in your life that you decided you’d like to pursue a career like the one you’re pursuing now?

I was born in a small town in Sichuan, China. It is not far from the famous Emei Mountain, and the beautiful Qingyi river runs through it. At the beginning, I lived with my grandmother’s family in a small village on the riverbank, called “Pond in heaven”. After I left there at four years old, I lived with my parents in Sichuan and Xinjiang provinces, alternatively, as my parents had been working apart. Luckily their reunion came after three years, and finally there was a real “home” for us. My parents were both high school teachers, they worked in the school system opened by a research institute for the children of their employees. It has elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. That’s where I grew up and received my pre-college education.

Since I was young, my mother has taught me enlightenment and urged my study. While my father was not quite involved in my academics, he valued the importance of reading and cultivated my interest in books. Every time we walked into a bookstore together, I was just purely happy because it simply meant one or two new books were coming home with me. He encouraged me to keep expanding my knowledge and horizons by also subscribing to many educational magazines and newspapers for kids, among which I remember two of my most favorite magazines. Before elementary school it was the “Children’s Science Pictorial”, and in elementary school it was the “Youth Science”.  Those magazines started and nurtured my interest in science and the universe.

In middle school, there was an advertisement for a simple and cheap monocular telescope.  I told my dad about it and he helped me order one, even though all it could show was the craters on the moon. But I was so excited, I could lay on the cold ground, watching the moon for hours, as if a new world was unfolding in front of me. Seeing how much I enjoyed it, my father later ordered for me the astronomy volume of the Chinese Encyclopedia. It cost 20 Yuan, which was not a small amount at that time. I was so thrilled to have the book. Holding that hardcover book, I felt that I was holding the universe in my arms.

I can imagine!

But most contents in that encyclopedia were still too advanced for me at the time, so I was more obsessed with the colorful photos in the book. Along with my interest in space and the universe, I was also interested in the topics of UFOs and extraterrestrial civilizations. For example, I read a book called “The Mystery of Flying Saucers”, which was a collection of reports and discussions translated from French. In that book, it mentioned the Drake equation for estimating the likelihood of civilizations in the universe. It deeply impressed me. In 2009, after my postdoc at Ames, I had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Drake. He’s the author of the equation and the founder of the SETI Institute. I must say that not everyone has the opportunity or the luck to meet an idol from their childhood and truly chat with him.

Good luck indeed!

However, when I told Dr. Drake that my first time reading about his equation was in a book of UFOs, he laughed and said “(it) was in a wrong story!” (laughs)

When I graduated from high school, I did consider a major in astronomy, but there were very few undergraduate astronomy majors in China universities. The only few available that year were either not recruiting in Sichuan or in a city I didn’t like. The famous Peking University did have astrophysics major, but each year they only recruited about 10 undergraduate students from the whole country, and few from Sichuan. Otherwise, I could have enrolled there thirty years ago.

Any idea why they didn’t place more emphasis on astronomy?  China, as you know, has a strong reputation in space exploration.

There is tradition for astronomy in China, and people know of ancient records and scientists, but it likely wasn’t the focus at that time. The astronomy and astrophysics research of Peking university and other China institutions have expanded significantly in last 30 years.

That’s for sure.

Anyway, I was admitted to the Fudan University in Shanghai, to major in Applied Chemistry II. That’s an interesting name. Usually you see chemistry, applied chemistry, materials chemistry, etc. What does the “II” mean? Previously, it was the Radiochemistry major, but people adjusted its content to keep up with the growth of economy, and to make it easier for their students to find jobs.  There was already a major of “Applied Chemistry” in the Chemistry department, so it became “Applied Chemistry II”.  My undergraduate thesis was done in the Institute of Laser Chemistry at Fudan, on the UV dissociation of a small organic molecule under cryogenic matrix isolation conditions. 

Well, you certainly were well served by both your parents, as they helped direct your focus and your education. I also looked it up because I had not remembered that you came to Ames as a postdoc when I was associated with the NPP program as the Ames representative.

Yes.

I don’t remember all of them of course as there were quite a few over that period of time, but I hope that was a good experience for you. You were working with Tim Lee as your advisor and I’d known him for a very long time.

I appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity of doing my postdoc at Ames. I had been thinking of other career choices right before Tim sent an email to Joel (my PhD advisor) asking if there was any student suited for a research project at Ames, about ammonia’s Infrared spectrum calculations. The target was to generate a complete IR line list which people can utilize to characterize the NH₃ related celestial environments and eliminate all the NH₃ features from the astronomical observations, such as those in Titan’s atmosphere.  It was a very good match to my Ph.D. background on the potential energy surface and vibrational dynamics of water cluster ions.

You had another postdoc before you came to Ames?  At Emory University?

Yes, that was more like a one-year extension after the thesis defense, to finish up my Ph.D. projects.

How did you get from China to the United States?  Was it because of your educational pursuits?

During my undergraduate study, I had some interest in laser chemistry and spectroscopy. For example, photodissociation products were detected and characterized by their infrared spectrum, and we know the spectroscopic fingerprints of molecules are determined by their nature, or internal properties. After college, I became a graduate student at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, in Beijing. Supposedly I should learn how to use a femtosecond laser system to investigate some ultra-fast processes in chemical reactions, but my supervisor left the institute unexpectedly.

So, I applied to some graduate programs in United States, and later enrolled in the chemistry department of Emory University in Atlanta. The admission could be related to my background in laser chemistry labs, but I didn’t continue that path. Instead, I changed to theoretical chemistry and vibrational dynamics studies. But I always admired our colleague experimental spectroscopists working in the laboratories, perhaps because I have myself witnessed how difficult an experimental study could become. It may include sample preparation, optical path platform construction, vacuum pumps, laser tuning, circuit of detectors, hardware interface and software development, etc., so requiring a variety of knowledge and skills from chemistry, physics, to mechanics, electronics, and even materials and computer science. Compared to that, it is relatively simpler to do theoretical spectroscopic studies. But from our perspective, our work still belongs to the laboratory astrophysics. Our lab is set up inside computers, and our equipment and devices are computing programs and algorithms.

Did you come to Emory because of a connection or a contact with them? Or did they just have a good program in what you were studying?

I applied to several graduate programs in the US, and received admissions including Emory, but I had no connections with them before. I chose the physical chemistry graduate program at Emory, for their reputation in both experimental and theoretical research.

So, you applied to several programs and you chose and got admitted to Emory. And then what was your route to Ames? Was it your postdoc? You got a postdoc here and then you stayed?

Yes.

That’s very straightforward.  

Straight and simple.

Did you know Tim at all beforehand? From a conference or something like that?

Not personally, except that he was an expert in Coupled Cluster theory. After Tim contacted my advisor in the summer of 2005, I met him later that year in the ACS meeting at D.C.

You were going to tell us something about the work that you are doing, which I found very complicated. It had to do with something called a “potential energy surface” and some other things which I don’t even know what they are, but let’s go ahead because one of the reasons we asked this question is because we want to know why it is important enough that taxpayers should fund research into it.

Our research focuses on the Infrared and microwave spectrum ranges, provides high quality spectroscopic constants, or highly accurate Infrared line list predictions for small molecules in outer space. Those molecules play important roles in the interstellar medium, atmospheres of solar system objects, like Venus and Titan, and atmospheres of brown dwarfs and exoplanets. The IR spectroscopic constants and line lists will facilitate the detection of those molecules, help characterize the physical conditions of related environments, determine column densities or atmospheric concentrations, and improve the chemistry evolution models.  Since a large part of the astronomical research involves spectrum data analysis and modeling, naturally more reliable and more accurate reference data will be needed to better support NASA strategic goals, help maximize the scientific output of various NASA missions, and eventually help us better understand what’s going on in the universe.

In the last two decades, the generation of more accurate reference data and predictions has required us to combine the advantages of experiments and theories. Our colleagues in Europe adopted similar strategies. For example, the latest Infrared line list we computed for hot carbon dioxide up to 3000 K has several components: high quality ab initio potential energy surface refined using reliable, high resolution experimental data or models, and the best dipole moment surfaces with accuracy already verified by recent highly accurate experiment IR intensities, and the most accurate line positions from the experiment based effective Hamiltonian models. In this way, the spectral line position and intensity accuracy from existing experiment data are integrated with the completeness, reliability and consistency from theoretical predictions. We hope the line list can improve the accuracy of CO₂ analysis and modeling for brown dwarf and hot exoplanet atmospheres, which include, but not limited to the recent CO₂ discoveries that JWST made on exoplanets.

On the other hand, like I mentioned earlier, some molecules, like methyl cyanide, SO₂, and ammonia, generate a plethora of spectral lines, appearing like wild grasses. That’s why some molecules were called “weeds”. They’re the “weeds” in the field of spectrum and may overshadow other important signals. Once I looked at a small segment of SOFIA EXES spectrum at 20 mm. Although I already knew it contained hundreds of sulfur dioxide bending mode transitions, I did not expect that so many very weak oscillations and tiny bumps in the observed spectrum could be excellently explained and reproduced until I ran the simulations by myself using SO₂ line lists.  Without a reliable and complete line list, many weak features may go unnoticed and treated as noises.  But when you have a good line list, you can identify all the features of a specific molecule, then try to remove them, like removing weeds, so more interesting features or molecules can be found. We may call them the “flowers”. From this angle, we are like farmers in the spectroscopy field, or treasure hunters in the jungle of spectrum.

That’s a good way of putting it. And this leads to a greater understanding of what elements of the NASA mission? How does this fit in with what NASA is trying to accomplish, which could be just exploration, or the search for life, or some of the other great questions that NASA is trying to help answer?

There are several potential impacts from the basic scientific research we have been doing. One is to identify those molecules for their existence in the universe, where they are, and how many they are. Second is to figure out what their environment looks like, e.g., the pressure and temperature. An accurate reference line list can help to extract that information from observed spectrum data. The third impact is about some potential biosignature molecules for habitable exoplanets. Like the one we worked on recently, the nitrous oxide or laughing gas, N₂O, it is one of those molecules contributing to the transit spectrum of Earth. Another impact is on chemical evolution models. Because our reliable predictions have very high consistency across isotopologues, higher than experiments, we can help to determine more accurate isotopic ratios and evolution history in outer space. In summary, and in the larger picture, we are contributing to the exploration of the universe and the search for habitable planets by providing basic reference data and tools for all NASA missions related to Infrared astronomy, from past Herschel, SOFIA, to JWST, and future ARIEL and other missions.

You mentioned biosignatures, which caught my attention because we’re hoping to find some evidence that we’re not alone in the universe, that there is other biology going on somewhere out there. Almost all of our research focuses on trying to address that, at some level. And it has a lot of popular support, taxpayer support, because they want the answer to that question perhaps most of all.

The IR spectra based astronomical research involves many models and datasets from different sources, like the spectra modeling on the JWST observations of exoplanet atmospheres. Every piece of work has its own uncertainties, which will add up model by model, database by database. A recent study published in Nature Astronomy revealed that the abundance errors resulting from the opacity inaccuracies can be about one order of magnitude larger than those brought on from JWST-quality observations. This is a bottleneck. From this perspective, our study can help to reduce, or to minimize those uncertainties and errors associated with the opacity data. Compared to experimental measurements under certain conditions, we are trying to provide a complete picture for molecules in the full range of IR and MW spectra. The computed line lists can be used to generate more reliable opacity data at different target temperatures.  Having more accurate opacity data with uncertainty reduced or minimized, scientists can determine more accurate properties for exoplanets and other objects in the universe. 

Have there been any surprising or breakthrough findings or discoveries or something not expected that has come from your work?

Not expected? Let me think.  We should be careful about the claims on the strengths and limitations of our work.  On one side we should have enough confidence, but every molecule is unique, we also need to properly estimate the limitation of our line list predictions.  With the synergy between experimental data and high-quality theoretical calculations, many improvements actually can be expected. If we know clearly what we can do and what our limits are, they are not real surprises. Some predictions may look surprising, but they need verifications from future experiments. If verified, the agreement is still expected. If rejected, it means something we need to explain or fix, not real breakthrough or findings.

If we really want to talk about “surprises”, I can name two kinds of them. One is that we find surprisingly good agreement or high accuracy verification between predictions and experiments. For example, our room temperature CO₂ line list. The IR intensity agreement with the best experiment measurement has reached the level of sub-half percent, for both accuracy and uncertainty, and towards 0.1 %, or permille level, 1‰. It was the best level ever achieved for CO₂.  That’s kind of a surprise because we were targeting a major upgrade, we knew we were doing better, but we didn’t know the improvements would be so good. That is a good surprise, but there could also be an opposite kind of surprise: a similar molecule or band, similar studies following the same track, so we had assumed it should come out as satisfactory as other molecules or bands, but it did not work out. Then we must figure out what’s going on, what we forgot or missed, or what’s the difference. For example, is that due to some unknown electronic state interference, sensitive resonances, potential defects in potential energy surface, or program bugs, etc.?

That is the science part of it.

Those are really the surprises.

You’re a very impressive and accomplished NASA research scientist, that’s obvious. And you’ve pursued that from youth, really, that line of work. Have you ever given any thought to, if you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, is there another dream job that you might like to have pursued if you had gone another way?

When people talk about a dream job, it usually means something that cannot be realized, except in our dreams.  Maybe a contractor scientist without the need to worry about funding?

But still a scientist? OK, that’s good too.  But what things would interest you if you couldn’t be a research scientist anymore? This is just to get into your personality and find out more about you.

Oh, if I forget the astronomer or scientist dream from childhood? My dream job has changed several times. Right now, I think it would be interesting to be a local tourist guide.

It would indeed. I like that.

It is also good for me, not only helps to get familiar with my neighborhood, community, the natural environment, but also gives me some good exercise! (laughs)

Right!

What advice might you give to a young aspiring student who would like to have a career like yours?

When I graduated from high school and went to Fudan University to study chemistry, I had never thought that one day I could still have the opportunity to work for NASA and become a scientist at SETI, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute. I also met Dr. Drake and talked to him. In a way this was already infinitely close to my childhood dreams. In this life, I could not become a real astronomer, the most I can do is some basic and auxiliary research work in the field of astrochemistry and theoretical spectroscopy. But looking back from my childhood and my college, I can’t help thinking of a phrase that I read from Steve Jobs, the Apple founder. What he said was something like: “many seemingly unrelated and even useless points in your life may someday eventually connect together to form a path to your dreams. Every piece of past experience will have its meaning and function and role in your career. It Is only then that we can realize their meaning and their role”. This statement roughly applies to me, though of course my experience has been much simpler.

I like that quote because we don’t always realize as we’re living and moving forward, the significance of various things that happen. Something that’s just a coincidence can have quite an impact on one’s life or direction.

Yes. The universe is infinite, and all the Earth’s science and technology can be found useful in space explorations, sooner or later.  If you are interested in the universe, in space sciences, but at the moment you cannot see how your specialty skills or major can be connected to space, don’t worry and don’t give up. Work hard on what you are doing now, whether it’s learning, research, or work, so that when the opportunity comes, you will be ready.

My second piece of advice was borrowed from Professor Yuan-Tseh Lee, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. About 20 years ago I met him at a conference. At that time, people were talking about innovations everywhere, but I could not find out how to innovate at all, no matter where I looked, so I asked him for advice. Professor Lee said innovation is not like that; innovation comes from years of continuous accumulation and improvements. He said first you need to get very familiar with what you have at hand, get to the bottom, fully understand principles and techniques of what you are doing, and then try to make improvements. There is always room for improvements, and even a tiny improvement will count and will help. Keep improving, a little bit here, a little bit there. Over time, this will eventually lead to real innovation and breakthroughs. My understanding or take away from his replies, is just like the ancient Chinese saying: “No accumulation of steps, no distance to thousands of miles; no accumulation of small streams, there will be no rivers and seas.” That’s it.

Very good answer, thought provoking and true. Thank you for sharing that.  Would you like to tell us anything about your family? Are you married?  Do you have children?

Yeah, I’m married, and my wife was also from the Chemistry Department of Emory.  But she works in the field of organic chemistry, which I could never figure out since my college years. (laughs) And we have two daughters, one in elementary school and the older one in high school. Our daily lives are kind of routine. Like driving the kids to school, back home doing my work, sometimes accompanying kids doing their homework, taking them to extra-curricular activities, cooking, etc.

We have a favorite travel destination, the Kauai Island in Hawai’i. Our first visit to Kauai was in 2007, and we really, really like it. I went there more often than my family: I have been there seven times! (laughs) I enjoyed looking out to the west of Pacific Ocean at the end of the Waimea canyon and walking on the Ke’e beach at the east end of the Na Pali Trail. If there is a chance, I may think about living there after retirement.

You could do worse than that! In fact, that might be the answer to the next question, which is: with all your work and family responsibilities, and everything that you are involved in, what do you do for fun?

My interests include reading, like history, literature, and sci-fi books. I like sci-fi fictions and TV shows, such as “The Expanse” series, “The Peripheral” from last year, and the “Three-Body” TV series from China. For fun, I like Chinese Crosstalk, which is a comic dialogue between two people.  Every year I also like to pick cherries and nectarines from farms in Brentwood.

Because I use my phone or camera like a recorder, I took too many photos here and there, far more than truly memorable moments.  Those photos are a big headache when compiling a family yearbook. After our first child was born, it’s great fun to make annual photobooks for each year.

It’s wonderful that you do that. That will pay dividends in the future, for sure.

Before the pandemic, I also liked to have lunch together with a few colleagues every couple of weeks in some Chinese restaurants nearby, and most of the time we order spicy Chinese food.

You like that? I like that too, although not too spicy!  What has been a prime inspiration for you in your life? Something that motivated you to accomplish all that you’ve accomplished so far. Is there a person that you particularly liked? Drake, for example, and his work, that helped to inspire you going forward?

A major motivation has been my curiosity about  nature and stars. For inspirational figures, there were many – yes, Dr. Drake was one, because his work inspired people to think more seriously about the relation between life and the universe, and motivated me to make my own contributions. There was also inspiration from Professor Lee. After he won the chemistry Nobel Prize in 1986, there was a lot of laser chemistry related research going on in China. That’s what inspired me too, and why I asked him for advice.

This has been wonderful. I’ve learned a lot about you and that is the whole purpose of this series. Thank you very much. We’ve enjoyed chatting with you.

Thank you. It is great to have this opportunity to chat with you, I enjoyed it too.

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Ciara C. Fitzpatrick

NASA’s Boeing Test Flight Crew to Discuss Starliner Mission from Space

Media are invited to hear from NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts discussing their mission during an Earth to space call at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 10. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will participate in the news conference from aboard the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.

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

Media interested in participating must RSVP no later than 5 p.m., Tuesday, July 9, to the newsroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions, reporters must dial into the news conference no later than 10 minutes before the start of the call.

Wilmore and Williams have been living and working aboard the station since docking on June 6, contributing to the expedition crew’s research and maintenance activities, while helping ground teams collect critical data for long-duration Starliner flights to the orbiting complex.
Learn more about space station operations at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Courtney Beasley
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov

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Abbey A. Donaldson

What’s Up: July 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA

What to Look for in July

The scorpion’s star clusters, and Mars reveals elusive Uranus

Follow the tail of Scorpius to locate star clusters M6 and M7, let Mars guide you to observe planet Uranus, and see the Moon gather a group of planets in the morning.

Highlights

• All month – Two easy-to-spot star clusters – M7, aka Ptolemy’s Cluster, and M6, the Butterfly Cluster – are both located about 5 degrees east of the the bright stars that mark the “stinger” end of the scorpion’s tail. They reach their highest point in the sky around 10 or 11 pm local time. 
• July 2 & 3 – The crescent Moon will join Jupiter and Mars in the east before sunrise. Looking for them before the sky starts to brighten, you’ll also find the Pleiades star cluster above Jupiter, and bright stars Capella and Aldebaran nearby.
• July 5 – New moon
• July 7 & 8 – Those with an unobstructed view of the western horizon can spot Mercury shining brightly, low in the sky with a slim crescent Moon. Look for them starting 30 to 45 minutes after the Sun sets.
• July 13 – For the first few hours after dark, look to the southwest to find the first-quarter Moon snuggled up to bright bluish-white star Spica. For much of the lower 48 U.S. and most of Mexico, the Moon will appear to pass in front of Spica – an event called an occultation. Check your favorite skywatching app for the view from your location.
• July 14-16 – Grab your binoculars and have a look at Mars in the early morning before the sky starts to brighten, and you’ll find the distant planet Uranus quite close by.
• July 21 – Full moon
• July 30 – Look for a close gathering of Jupiter, Mars, and the Moon with the bright stars of the constellation Taurus in the a.m. sky before dawn.

Transcript

What’s Up for July? The Moon gets the band back together, find planet Uranus with some help from Mars, and the star clusters that feel the Scorpion’s sting.

All month in July, as in June, the planetary action is in the a.m. sky. Find Saturn rising around midnight, and climbing high into the south by sunrise. Mars rises a couple of hours later, with Jupiter trailing behind it, and shifting higher in the sky each day.

On July 2nd and 3rd before sunrise, the crescent Moon will join Jupiter and Mars in the east. Looking for them before the sky starts to brighten, you’ll also find the Pleiades star cluster above Jupiter, as well as bright stars Capella and Aldebaran.

As the Moon swings around the planet in its orbit, this same group gets back together at the end of the month, but as a much tighter gathering of Jupiter, Mars, and the Moon with the bright stars of the constellation Taurus.

Then on the evening of July 7th and 8th, those with an unobstructed view of the western horizon can spot Mercury shining brightly, low in the sky with a slim crescent Moon. Look for them starting 30 to 45 minutes after the Sun sets. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere will find Mercury a good bit higher in the northwest sky all month after sunset.

On July 13, for the first few hours after dark, look to the southwest to find the first quarter Moon snuggled up to bright bluish-white star Spica. For much of the lower 48 United States and most of Mexico, the Moon will appear to pass in front of Spica – an event called an occultation.

Next, over three days in mid-July, grab your binoculars and have a look at Mars in the early morning before the sky starts to brighten, and you’ll find the distant planet Uranus quite close by. Uranus is not too difficult to see with binoculars or a small telescope anytime it’s reasonably high above the horizon at night, but you really need to know where to look for it, or use an auto-guided telescope. But occasionally the Moon or one of the brighter planets will pass close to Uranus in the sky, making for a great opportunity to find it with ease.

The winding form of constellation Scorpius, adorned with the bright red star Antares, is a feature of the night sky around the world this time of year. And at the tip of the scorpion’s tail are two well-known star clusters that are well placed for viewing at this time of year.

M7, aka Ptolemy’s Cluster, and M6, the Butterfly Cluster, are both located about 5 degrees east of the the bright stars that mark the “stinger” end of the scorpion’s tail. They reach their highest point in the sky around 10 or 11 pm local time.

To find M7, imagine a line toward the east through the “stinger stars,” Lesath and Shaula, and it will lead you straight to the star cluster. M6 is just a couple of degrees above M7. Both are “open star clusters,” meaning they’re loose groupings of stars that formed together, in the same region of space, and they’re only loosely bound together by gravity, so they’ll eventually go their separate ways.

M7 is just visible to the unaided eye under dark skies as a hazy patch just left of the tip of the scorpion’s tail. But it’s best seen with binoculars or a telescope with a wide field of view. Its stars are located at a distance of about 1000 light years from us, and they formed about 200 million years ago. The cluster was discovered by Greek-Roman astronomer Ptolemy in the year 130, hence its other name.

M6 is about half the apparent size of M7, and contains fewer stars. It’s also a bit farther away from us, at around 1600 light years. It’s estimated to be about half as old as M7, at an age of around 100 million years. It was discovered by Italian astronomer and contemporary of Galileo, Giovanni Battista Hodierna, in 1654.

These two clusters are easy to observe in July, and their location in Scorpius makes them pretty straightforward to locate on a clear night.

So there’s no reason to fear of this scorpion’s sting. Instead, let it guide you to two distant star clusters, and see for yourself two little families of stars in the process of spreading out into the Milky Way.

Here are the phases of the Moon for July.

Stay up to date on NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.

Skywatching Resources​

• NASA’s Night Sky Network
• NASA’s Watch the Skies Blog
• Daily Moon Observing Guide

About the ‘What’s Up’ Production Team

“What’s Up” is NASA’s longest running web video series. It had its first episode in April 2007 with original host Jane Houston Jones. Today, Preston Dyches, Christopher Harris, and Lisa Poje are the space enthusiasts who produce this monthly video series at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Additional astronomy subject matter guidance is provided by JPL’s Bill Dunford, Gary Spiers, Lyle Tavernier, and the Night Sky Network’s Kat Troche.

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NASA Asteroid Experts Create Hypothetical Impact Scenario for Exercise

The fifth Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise focused on an asteroid impact scenario designed by NASA JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

A large asteroid impacting Earth is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. But because the damage from such an event could be great, NASA leads hypothetical asteroid impact “tabletop” exercises every two years with experts and decision-makers from federal and international agencies to address the many uncertainties of an impact scenario. The most recent exercise took place this past April, with a preliminary report being issued on June 20.

Making such a scenario realistic and useful for all involved is no small task. Scientists from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which specializes in the tracking and orbital determination of asteroids and comets and finding out if any are hazards to Earth, have played a major role in designing these exercises since the first 11 years ago.

“These hypothetical scenarios are complex and take significant effort to design, so our purpose is to make them useful and challenging for exercise participants and decision-makers to hone their processes and procedures to quickly come to a plan of action while addressing gaps in the planetary defense community’s knowledge,” said JPL’s Paul Chodas, the director of CNEOS.

The Impact Scenario

This year’s scenario: A hypothetical asteroid, possibly several hundred yards across, has been discovered, with an estimated 72% chance of impacting Earth in 14 years. Potential impact locations include heavily populated areas in North America, Southern Europe, and North Africa, but there is still a 28% chance the asteroid will miss Earth. After several months of being tracked, the asteroid moves too close to the Sun, making further observations impossible for another seven months. Decision-makers must figure out what to do.

Leading the exercise was NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), the Federal Emergency Management Agency Response Directorate, and the Department of State Office of Space Affairs. Over the course of two days in April, participants gathered at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which hosted the event, to consider the potential national and global responses to the scenario.

“This was a very successful tabletop exercise, with nearly 100 participants from U.S. government agencies and, for the first time, international planetary defense experts,” said Terik Daly from APL, who coordinated the exercise. “An asteroid impact would have severe national and international ramifications, so should this scenario play out for real, we’d need international collaboration.”

Reality Informs Fiction

In real life, CNEOS calculates the orbit of every known near-Earth object to provide assessments of future potential impact hazards in support of NASA’s planetary defense program. To make this scenario realistic, the CNEOS team simulated all the observations in the months leading up to the exercise and used orbital determination calculations to simulate the probability of impact.

“At this point in time, the impact was likely but not yet certain, and there were significant uncertainties in the object’s size and the impact location,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL and CNEOS, who led the design of the asteroid’s orbit. “It was interesting to see how this affected the decision-makers’ choices and how the international community might respond to a real-world threat 14 years out.”

Options to Deflect

Preparation, planning, and decision-making have been key focal points of all five exercises that have taken place over the past 11 years. For instance, could a reconnaissance spacecraft be sent to the asteroid to gather additional data on its orbit and better determine its size and mass? Would it also be feasible to attempt deflecting the asteroid so that it would miss Earth? The viability of this method was recently demonstrated by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which impacted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022, slightly changing its trajectory. Other methods of deflection have also been considered during the exercises.

But any deflection or reconnaissance mission would need many years of preparation, requiring the use of advanced observatories capable of finding hazardous asteroids as early as possible. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor, or NEO Surveyor, is one such observatory. Managed by JPL and planned for launch in late 2027, the infrared space telescope will detect light and dark asteroids, including those that orbit near the Sun. In doing so, NEO Surveyor will support PDCO’s objectives to discover any hazardous asteroids as early as possible so that there would be more time to launch a deflection mission to potential threats.  

To find out the outcome of the exercise, read NASA’s preliminary summary.

For more information about CNEOS, visit:

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/

News Media Contacts

Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Charles Blue
NASA Headquarters
202-358-1600 / 202-802-5345
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / charles.e.blue@nasa.gov

2024-095

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Anthony Greicius