A Starry View

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has infrared vision that lets us peer through the dusty veil of nearby star-forming region NGC 1333. We can see planetary mass objects, newborn stars, and brown dwarfs; some of the faintest ‘stars’ in this mosaic image are in fact newly born free-floating brown dwarfs with masses comparable to those of giant planets. The images were captured as part of a Webb observation program to survey a large portion of NGC 1333. These data constitute the first deep spectroscopic survey of the young cluster.

See Hubble’s view of the same nebula.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana

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Monika Luabeya

Voyager 1 Team Accomplishes Tricky Thruster Swap

The spacecraft uses its thrusters to stay pointed at Earth, but after 47 years in space some of the fuel tubes have become clogged.

Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters, which keep the distant explorer pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands, send engineering data, and provide the unique science data it is gathering.

After 47 years, a fuel tube inside the thrusters has become clogged with silicon dioxide, a byproduct that appears with age from a rubber diaphragm in the spacecraft’s fuel tank. The clogging reduces how efficiently the thrusters can generate force. After weeks of careful planning, the team switched the spacecraft to a different set of thrusters.

The thrusters are fueled by liquid hydrazine, which is turned into gases and released in tens-of-milliseconds-long puffs to gently tilt the spacecraft’s antenna toward Earth. If the clogged thruster were healthy it would need to conduct about 40 of these short pulses per day.

Both Voyager probes feature three sets, or branches, of thrusters: two sets of attitude propulsion thrusters and one set of trajectory correction maneuver thrusters. During the mission’s planetary flybys, both types of thrusters were used for different purposes. But as Voyager 1 travels on an unchanging path out of the solar system, its thruster needs are simpler, and either thruster branch can be used to point the spacecraft at Earth.

In 2002 the mission’s engineering team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, noticed some fuel tubes in the attitude propulsion thruster branch being used for pointing were clogging, so the team switched to the second branch. When that branch showed signs of clogging in 2018, the team switched to the trajectory correction maneuver thrusters and have been using that branch since then.

Now those trajectory correction thruster tubes are even more clogged than the original branches were when the team swapped them in 2018. The clogged tubes are located inside the thrusters and direct fuel to the catalyst beds, where it is turned into gases. (These are different than the fuel tubes that send hydrazine to the thrusters.) Where the tube opening was originally only 0.01 inches (0.25 millimeters) in diameter, the clogging has reduced it to 0.0015 inches (0.035 mm), or about half the width of a human hair. As a result, the team needed to switch back to one of the attitude propulsion thruster branches.

Warming Up the Thrusters

Switching to different thrusters would have been a relatively simple operation for the mission in 1980 or even 2002. But the spacecraft’s age has introduced new challenges, primarily related to power supply and temperature. The mission has turned off all non-essential onboard systems, including some heaters, on both spacecraft to conserve their gradually shrinking electrical power supply, which is generated by decaying plutonium.

While those steps have worked to reduce power, they have also led to the spacecraft growing colder, an effect compounded by the loss of other non-essential systems that produced heat. Consequently, the attitude propulsion thruster branches have grown cold, and turning them on in that state could damage them, making the thrusters unusable.

The team determined that the best option would be to warm the thrusters before the switch by turning on what had been deemed non-essential heaters. However, as with so many challenges the Voyager team has faced, this presented a puzzle: The spacecraft’s power supply is so low that turning on non-essential heaters would require the mission to turn off something else to provide the heaters adequate electricity, and everything that’s currently operating is considered essential.

Studying the issue, they ruled out turning off one of the still-operating science instruments for a limited time because there’s a risk that the instrument would not come back online. After additional study and planning, the engineering team determined they could safely turn off one of the spacecraft’s main heaters for up to an hour, freeing up enough power to turn on the thruster heaters.

It worked. On Aug. 27, they confirmed that the needed thruster branch was back in action, helping point Voyager 1 toward Earth.

“All the decisions we will have to make going forward are going to require a lot more analysis and caution than they once did,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory which manages Voyager for NASA.

The spacecraft are exploring interstellar space, the region outside the bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun, where no other spacecraft are likely to visit for a long time. The mission science team is working to keep the Voyagers going for as long as possible, so they can continue to reveal what the interstellar environment is like.

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

2024-121

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Childhood Snow Days Transformed Linette Boisvert into a Sea Ice Scientist

Linette Boisvert turned a childhood love of snow into a career as a sea ice scientist studying climate change.

Name: Linette Boisvert
Title: Assistant Lab Chief, Cryospheric Sciences Branch, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Aqua Satellite
Formal Job Classification: Sea Ice Scientist
Organization: Cryospheric Science Branch, Science Directorate (Code 615)

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? 

As a sea ice scientist, I study interactions between the sea ice and the atmosphere. I’m interested in how the changing sea ice conditions and loss of Arctic ice are affecting the atmospheric conditions in the Artic. 

Why did you become a sea ice scientist? What is your educational background?  

I grew up in Maryland. When it snowed, school was cancelled so I loved winter weather, and I was fascinated how weather could impact our daily lives. One of my undergraduate classes had a guest lecturer talk about the Arctic and that is when decided that I wanted to become an Arctic scientist. This also coincided with the Arctic sea ice minimum in 2007, at the time, a record low.

In 2008, I got a B.S. in environmental science with a minor in math from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I received my master’s and, in 2013, got a Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park.

How did you come to Goddard?

My doctorate advisor worked at Goddard. In 2009, he brought me into Goddard’s lab to do my Ph.D. research. I became a post-doctorate in 2013, an assistant research scientist in 2016 (employed by UMD/ESSIC) and, in 2018, a civil servant.

What is the most interesting field work you do as the assistant lab chief of Goddard’s Cryospheric Sciences Branch?

From 2018 to 2020, I was the deputy project scientist for NASA’s largest and longest running airborne campaign, Operation IceBridge. This involved flying aircraft with scientific instruments over both land ice and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every spring, we would set up a base camp in a U.S. Air Force base in Greenland and fly over parts of the sea ice over Greenland and the Arctic, and in the fall we would base out of places like Punta Arenas, Chile, and Hobart, Australia, to fly over the Antarctic. 

We would fly low, at 1,500 feet above the surface. It is very, very cool to see the ice firsthand. It is so pretty, so vast, and complex. We would spend 12 hours a day on a plane just surveying the ice.

Being based out of Greenland is very remote. Everything is white. Everything looks like it is closer than it is. You do not have a point of reference for any perspective. It is very quiet. There is no background ambient noise. You do not hear bugs, birds, or cars, just quiet. 

Our team was about 20 people. Other people live at the base. The campaigns lasted six to eight weeks. I was there about three to four weeks each time. Many of the group had been doing these campaigns for a decade. I felt like I had joined a family. In the evenings, we would often cook dinner together and play games. On days we could not fly, we would go on adventures together like visiting a glacier or hiking. We saw musk ox, Arctic fox, Arctic hares, and seals. 

How did it feel to become the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which provided most of the data you used for your doctorate and publications?

In January 2023, I became the deputy project scientist for the Aqua satellite, which launched in 2002. Aqua measures the Earth’s atmospheric temperature, humidity, and trace gases. Most of my doctorate and publications used data from Aqua to look at how the sea ice loss in the Arctic is allowing for excess heat and moisture from the ocean to move into the atmosphere resulting in a warmer and wetter Arctic. 

I am honored. I feel like I have come full circle. The team welcomed me into the mission and taught me a lot of things. I am grateful to be working with such a brilliant, hardworking team.

Who is your science hero?

My father encouraged me to get a doctorate in science. My father has a doctorate in computer science and math. He works at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I wanted to be like him when I was growing up. I came close, working at NASA, another part of the federal government. My mother, a French pastry chef, always kept me well fed.

My father is very proud of me. He thinks I am more of a superstar than he was at my age, but I do not believe it. My mother is also proud and continues to keep me well fed.

Who is your Goddard mentor?

Claire Parkinson, now an emeritus, was the project scientist for Aqua since its inception. When she retired, she encouraged me to apply for the deputy position. She had confidence in me which gave me the confidence to apply for the position. She is still always available to answer any questions. I am very thankful that she has been there for me throughout my career.

What advice do you give to those you mentor?

I recently began advising young scientists; one undergraduate student, two graduate students, and one post-doctoral scientist. We meet weekly as a group and have one-on-one meetings when appropriate. They share their progress on their work. Sometimes we practice presentations they are about to give. 

It is sometimes hard starting out to think that you are smart because Goddard is full of so many smart people. I tell them that they are just as capable when it comes to their research topic. I tell them that they fit in well with the Goddard community. I want to create a comfortable, respectful, and inclusive environment so that they remain in science. 

What do you do for fun?

I enjoy running and paddle boarding with my dog Remi, my long-haired dachshund. I enjoy reading. I love to travel and be around friends and family. But I do not enjoy cooking, so I do not bake French pastries like my mom. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I hope to continue doing research including field work. It would be great if some of my students finished their studies and joined my lab. I hope that I am still making people proud of me. 

What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.

Hard-working. Smart. Inquisitive. Adventurous. Kind. Happy. 

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

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15 Years Ago: Japan launches HTV-1, its First Resupply Mission to the Space Station

On Sept. 10, 2009, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched its first cargo delivery spacecraft, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-1 (HTV-1), to the International Space Station. The HTV cargo vehicles, also called Kounotori, meaning white stork in Japanese, not only maintained the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo but also resupplied the space station in general with pressurized and unpressurized cargo and payloads. Following its rendezvous with the space station, Expedition 20 astronauts grappled and berthed HTV-1 on Sept. 17, and spent the next month transferring its 9,900 pounds of internal and external cargo to the space station and filling the HTV-1 with trash and unneeded equipment. They released the craft on Oct. 30 and ground controllers commanded it to a destructive reentry on Nov. 1.

Left and middle: Two views of the HTV-1 Kounotori cargo spacecraft during prelaunch processing at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Right: Schematic illustration showing the HTV’s major components. Image credits: courtesy JAXA.

The HTV formed part of a fleet of cargo vehicles that at the time included NASA’s space shuttle until its retirement in 2011, Roscosmos’ Progress, and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle that flew five missions between 2008 and 2015. The SpaceX Cargo Dragon and Orbital (later Northrup Grumman) Cygnus commercial cargo vehicles supplemented the fleet starting in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The HTV weighed 23,000 pounds empty and could carry up to 13,000 pounds of cargo, although on this first flight carried only 9,900 pounds. The vehicle included both a pressurized and an unpressurized logistics carrier. Following its rendezvous with the space station, it approached to within 33 feet, at which point astronauts grappled it with the station’s robotic arm and berthed it to the Harmony Node 2 module’s Earth facing port. Space station managers added two flights to the originally planned seven, with the last HTV flying in 2020. An upgraded HTV-X vehicle will soon make its debut to carry cargo to the space station, incorporating the lessons learned from the nine-mission HTV program.

Left: Technicians place HTV-1 inside its launch protective shroud at the Tanegashima Space Center. Middle left: Workers truck the HTV-1 to Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Middle right: The HTV-1 atop its H-II rolls out of the VAB on its way to the launch pad. Right: The HTV-1 mission patch. Image credits: courtesy JAXA.

Prelaunch processing of HTV-1 took place at the Tanegashima Space Center, where engineers inspected and assembled the spacecraft’s components. Workers installed the internal cargo into the pressurized logistics carrier and external payloads onto the External Pallet that they installed into the unpressurized logistics carrier. HTV-1 carried two external payloads, the Japanese Superconducting submillimeter-wave Limb Emission Sounder (SMILES) and the U.S. Hyperspectral Imager for Coastal Ocean (HICO)-Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric detection System (RAIDS) Experiment Payload (HREP). On Aug. 23, 2009, workers encapsulated the assembled HTV into its payload shroud and a week later moved it into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where they mounted it atop the H-IIB rocket. Rollout from the VAB to the pad took place on the day of launch.

Liftoff of HTV-1 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Image credit: courtesy JAXA.

Left: The launch control center at the Tanegahsima Space Center in Japan. Middle: The mission control room at the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan. Image credits: courtesy JAXA. Right: The HTV-1 control team in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

On Sept. 10 – Sept. 11 Japan time – HTV-1 lifted off its pad at Tanegashima on the maiden flight of the H-IIB rocket. Controllers in Tanegashima’s launch control center monitored the flight until HTV-1 separated from the booster’s second stage. At that point, HTV-1 automatically activated its systems and established communications with NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Control of the flight shifted to the mission control room at the Tsukuba Space Center outside Tokyo. Controllers in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston also monitored the mission’s progress.

Left: HTV-1 approaches the space station. Middle: NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott grapples HTV-1 with the station’s robotic arm and prepares to berth it to the Node 2 module. Right: European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne, left, Stott, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk in the Destiny module following the robotic operations to capture and berth HTV-1.

Following several days of systems checks, HTV-1 approached the space station on Sept. 17. Members of Expedition 20 monitored its approach, as it stopped within 33 feet of the orbiting laboratory. Using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, Expedition 20 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott grappled HTV-1. Fellow crew member Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk berthed the vehicle on the Harmony Node 2 module’s Earth-facing port. The following day, the Expedition 20 crew opened the hatch to HTV-1 to begin the cargo transfers.

Left: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk inside HTV-1. Middle: NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott transferring cargo from HTV-1 to the space station. Right: Stott in HTV-1 after completion of much of the cargo transfer.

Over the next several weeks, the Expedition 20 and 21 crews transferred more than 7,900 pounds of cargo from the pressurized logistics carrier to the space station. The items included food, science experiments, robotic arm and other hardware for the Kibo module, crew supplies including clothing, toiletries, and personal items, fluorescent lights, and other supplies. They then loaded the module with trash and unneeded equipment, altogether weighing 3,580 pounds.

Left: The space station’s robotic arm grapples the Exposed Pallet (EP) to transfer it to the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). Right: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk and NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott operate the station’s robotic arm to temporarily transfer the EP and its payloads to the JEM-EF.

Left: The Japanese robotic arm grapples one of the payloads from the Exposed Pallet (EP) to transfer it to the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). Right: European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne, left, and NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott operate the Japanese robotic arm from inside the JEM.

Working as a team, NASA astronauts Stott and Michael R. Barratt along with Thirsk and ESA astronaut Frank DeWinne performed the transfer of the external payloads. On Sept. 23, using the station’s robotic arm, they grappled the Exposed Pallet (EP) and removed it from HTV-1’s unpressurized logistics carrier, handing it off to the Japanese remote manipulator system arm that temporarily stowed it on the JEM’s Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). The next day, using the Japanese arm, DeWinne and Stott transferred the SMILES and HREP experiments to their designated locations on the JEM-EF. On Sept. 25, they grappled the now empty EP and placed it back into HTV-1’s unpressurized logistics carrier.

Left: Astronauts transfer the empty Exposed Pallet back to HTV-1. Middle: NASA astronaut Nicole P. Stott poses in front of the now-closed hatch to HTV-1. Right: European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne, left, and Stott operate the station’s robotic arm to grapple HTV-1 for release.

Left: The space station’s robotic arm grapples HTV-1 in preparation for its unberthing. Middle: The station’s robotic arm has unberthed HTV-1 in preparation for its release. Right: The arm has released HTV-1 and it begins its separation from the space station.

Following completion of all the transfers, Expedition 21 astronauts aboard the space station closed the hatch to HTV-1 on Oct. 29. The next day, Stott and DeWinne grappled the vehicle and unberthed it from Node 2. While passing over the Pacific Ocean, they released HTV-1 and it began its departure maneuvers from the station. On Nov. 1, the flight control team in Tsukuba sent commands to HTV-1 to execute three deorbit burns. The vehicle reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up off the coast of New Zealand, having completed the highly successful 52-day first HTV resupply mission. Eight more HTV missions followed, all successful, with HTV-9 completing its mission in August 2020.

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Sols 4300-4301: Rippled Pages

Earth planning date: Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

With today’s plan, Curiosity completes its most southerly planned exploration of the Gediz Vallis channel. From here, our rover will head north and climb out of the channel to explore terrain to the west. Our planned drive to the “Tungsten Hills” rocks, named for a famous mining district near Bishop, California, completed successfully over the weekend, placing a pile of unusual dark rocks within our workspace. Curiosity is currently in the “Bishop” quadrangle on our map, so all targets in this area of Mount Sharp are named after places in the Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley of California. On sols 4300-4301, Curiosity will perform a thorough examination of these rugged boulders, which are covered in paper-thin sedimentary layers like the pages of a book (see image). Some layers have intriguing ripple structures that may have formed in running water or windblown sand. These features are the prime targets for contact science and remote observation at this location.

On Sol 4300, Curiosity will obtain ChemCam laser spectra and Mastcam imagery on a part of the closest plate-like rock called “Bonita Flat,” after a high valley above the southern Kern River canyon in Sequoia National Forest. ChemCam will also obtain telescopic views of a section of the Gediz Vallis channel banks with its RMI camera. Mastcam will take a mosaic of the upper reaches of the channel, then turn its cameras on the interesting bedrock of “Coffeepot Canyon,” honoring a ravine along the precipitous East Fork of the Kaweah River canyon in Sequoia National Park, unfortunately now engulfed in a huge wildfire.

The first science block ends with atmospheric observations, including a dust-devil movie, supra-horizon cloud imaging, and Mastcam measurement of dust in the air across the crater. Curiosity will then use its arm to brush the dust from the closest block in an area dubbed “Pond Lily Lake,” for a petite meadow lake atop the canyon wall of the San Joaquin River, downstream of Devil’s Postpile National Monument. This cleared spot will then be imaged by MAHLI and Mastcam, and its composition will be measured by APXS spectroscopy. MAHLI will perform an intricate “dog’s eye” maneuver to obtain detailed images of ripples in “Window Cliffs,” named after sheer walls above the spectacular fault-controlled Kern River canyon west of 14,505-foot Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states. MAHLI wraps up a very full day of work by imaging the scalloped edge of the largest nearby block, dubbed “Boneyard Meadow” for a wetland in the western Sierra foothills where many sheep sadly perished due to a late spring snowstorm in 1877.

Early on sol 4301, Curiosity will use Mastcam to thoroughly document the Tungsten Hills in pre-sunrise morning light. Later in the day, a second science block starts with ChemCam spectroscopy and Mastcam imagery of “Castle Domes,” honoring the granite domes of Castle Valley, acclaimed as some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in Kings Canyon National Park. ChemCam RMI will perform telescopic observations of the channel floor. Mastcam will look for possible sulfur rocks at the base of the Tungsten Hills blocks in a target named “Hummingbird Lake,” for an alpine lake at 10,000 feet between Bloody and Lundy Canyons near Mono Lake. This science block of the plan ends with Navcam deck monitoring, dust measurement, and a large dust-devil survey. Curiosity will then drive north, taking a MARDI “sidewalk” video of the terrain under the rover during the drive.

Written by Deborah Padgett, OPGS Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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