Johnson Celebrates AA and NHPI Heritage Month: Anima Patil-Sabale

Anima Patil-Sabale has been shooting for the stars since she was a little girl growing up in India. Inspired by books about the Apollo-era space program, Patil-Sabale decided she would be an astronaut one day.

For the first step on her journey to space, Patil-Sabale hoped to become a fighter pilot, but India did not allow women to serve in these combat roles at the time. (The Indian Air Force began accepting female candidates in 2015.) Instead, Patil-Sabale pursued degrees in physics and computer applications and worked as a software engineer in Mumbai before getting a job as a software consultant in San Jose, California. Her proximity to NASA’s Ames Research Center inspired her to pursue another master’s degree, in aerospace engineering, and to apply for opportunities with the agency. Her first job with NASA was working as a software and operations engineer supporting the Kepler space telescope at Ames. She has held a variety of positions at Ames and Johnson since then.

Patil-Sabale currently serves as a private astronaut mission (PAM) integrator for the International Space Station Program’s Avionics and Software Office. In that role, she works closely with Axiom Space team members to understand and integrate requirements for their PAMs into the space station’s onboard computers, laptops, and networking systems. It is a relatively new position, meaning Patil-Sabale is often charting new territory in her day-to-day work. “The challenges of working on something new that has not been done before on the International Space Station and the possibilities it creates for future commercialization – being a part of that all makes the job rewarding and fun,” she said.

Patil-Sabale’s time at NASA has also provided opportunities to sample the dreamed-of astronaut experience. In 2015, she was selected to serve as commander for the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) Campaign 2 Mission 3. The mission marked her first trip to Johnson. “Coming to the home of astronauts was exciting and emotional for me,” she said, adding that she has participated in several research projects and missions since HERA.  “I love the fact that in addition to the amazing work I do at NASA, I get to contribute to the human spaceflight program as a human test subject. Time will tell if I get to fly to space, but meanwhile I am happy to contribute – even if a tiny bit – to an active area of research that will help us live and thrive on Mars and eventually become a space-faring species.”

Patil-Sabale first engaged with Johnson’s ASIA ERG in 2019, when the group invited her to give a presentation about her personal and professional journey. She currently serves as the group’s Social/Culture Committee lead. “I love bringing people together,” she said. “I believe people enjoy not just talking about each other’s cultures and traditions, but also  being a part of them.”

That belief inspired her to spearhead a Johnson-based Diwali celebration in 2023, in addition to participating in the agencywide event organized by NASA Headquarters. Johnson’s celebration included several dance and musical performances, a fashion show, and delicious food.

“These cultural events give us an opportunity to bond in a very different way,” she said. “We get to know many sides of each other that we wouldn’t discover as strictly work colleagues.” ERG events also help people from different teams connect. “For my Diwali dance performance, I had seven people from seven different teams who did not know each other or about their work, and they got to connect during our practice sessions.”

Patil-Sabale hopes to see more cultural celebrations hosted at Johnson in the future and encouraged others to take the initiative to organize events and involve as many colleagues as possible. She also believes it is important for ERGs to continue offering these social and cultural opportunities, in addition to professional development programs. “Giving us these opportunities means so much to people like me,” she said.

Patil-Sabale appreciates any event that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well. She regularly meets with high school girls to encourage their interest in STEM careers and often speaks at International Women’s Day celebrations, where she urges women of all ages to pursue their dreams. “It’s never too late to pursue your interests, your passions,” she said.

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Linda E. Grimm

Readying Apollo 10 for Launch

The Apollo 10 spacecraft stands, illuminated by launch pad spotlights, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photo from May 4, 1969. It launched on May 18, 1969, with astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan, and John W. Young aboard.

The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon. Pertinent data to be gathered in this landing rehearsal dealt with the lunar potential, or gravitational effect, to refine the Earth-based crewed spaceflight network tracking techniques, and to check out lunar module programmed trajectories and radar, and lunar flight control systems. Twelve television transmissions to Earth were planned. All mission objectives were achieved.

See more photos from the Apollo 10 mission.

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Monika Luabeya

Tech Today: From Spacesuits to Racing Suits

For spacewalks to even be possible, spacesuits need insulation and temperature controls to withstand temperature swings between 250 and minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. This extreme environment made NASA innovators look beyond everyday materials to find something unique to keep explorers comfortable and safe. 

In the 1980s, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston entered into a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Triangle Research and Development Corporation. The objective was to develop spacesuit glove material that could maintain a consistent, comfortable temperature. The thermal secret was found in phase-change materials, which absorb and release heat through basic characteristics of matter. 

As surrounding temperatures rise, the heat the material absorbs melts it from solid to liquid. This also works in the opposite direction, releasing heat as the material solidifies. No matter what phase it’s in, the temperature stays around the melting point in either hot or cold environments. Triangle’s work for NASA successfully incorporated phase-change materials into insulation for a spacesuit glove insert. 

While the spacesuit glove inserts developed by Triangle didn’t make it to space, their pioneering work paved the way for a new application of phase-change materials. In the 1990s, Gateway Technologies, now known as Outlast Technologies, acquired exclusive patent rights to incorporate phase-change microcapsules into fabrics. This innovative technology has been embraced by various industries. 

For instance, the United Kingdom-based Walero Motorsports utilizes Outlast material in the specialized undergarments worn by race car drivers – like those driving in this weekend’s Indianapolis 500 – providing a comfortable and safe experience, even in the extreme heat of the race. The interiors of race cars can reach 120º F, so ways to keep drivers cool are critical. By bonding the Outlast to a layer of a fire-retardant material, Walero was able to conform to all the necessary race wear regulations set by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), the sanctioning body of international motorsport, as well as the safety standards laid out by the U.S.-based SFI Foundation.

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Andrew Wagner

NASA Study Provides New Look at Orbital Debris, Potential Solutions 

New data analysis indicates that NASA and its partners could have more cost-effective methods for dealing with the growing issue of orbital debris than previously thought. 

A new report from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy provides agency leadership with new insight about how to measure the risks presented by orbital debris.  

“Growing activity in Earth’s orbit has brought us everything from faster terrestrial communications to a better understanding of our changing climate,” said Charity Weeden who leads NASA’s OTPS. “These blossoming opportunities are resulting in a more crowded space environment. This study is part of NASA’s work to rapidly improve our understanding of that environment as outlined in NASA’s recently released Space Sustainability Strategy, by applying an economic lens to this critical issue.” 

The report, Cost and Benefit Analysis of Mitigating, Tracking, and Remediating Orbital Debris, is Phase 2 of OTPS’ work to address the technical and economic uncertainties associated with orbital debris.  

The OTPS Phase 1 report, released in 2023, provided initial information for policymakers looking for cost-benefit analyses of remediation measures for orbital debris including moving, removing, or reusing objects. The new report has improved the quality of the estimates of the risks posed to spacecraft by orbital debris. These new estimates cover everything from the largest debris in space down to millimeter-size fragments. The report also expands the OTPS teams’ focus to include actions that can mitigate the creation of new debris and track existing debris. 

“This study allows us to start to answer the question: What are the most cost-effective actions we can take to address the growing problem of orbital debris?” said NASA analyst Jericho Locke, the lead author of the report. “By measuring everything in dollars, we can directly compare shielding spacecraft to tracking smaller debris or removing 50 large pieces of debris to removing 50,000 smaller ones.” 

The new OTPS report differs from previous orbital debris studies in that it directly estimates the risk posed by space debris, instead of risk proxies like the number of pieces of debris in orbit. Additionally, it measures the risks in dollars – modeling the costs that operators would incur from maneuvering spacecraft to avoid debris, from dealing with close approaches, and from damage or loss due to debris impact. The study simulates how the orbital debris environment will evolve over 30 years. 

In total, the study compares the cost-effectiveness of more than 10 different actions that can be taken to reduce the risk from orbital debris, such as shielding, tracking small debris, or remediating large debris. Eventually, the team hopes to assess the cost-effectiveness of combinations of different actions, known as portfolios. 

The report’s analysis reexamines common wisdom actions the space community has historically considered cost-effective methods for supporting space sustainability. For example, the report estimates that some methods of debris remediation may be just as valuable as debris mitigation. It also estimates that quickly deorbiting defunct spacecraft is a cost-effective method of reducing risk. Such findings could provide new considerations for NASA leaders and the space community when approaching the issue of orbital debris. 

OTPS plans to publicly release the research code used to produce the study. The research team plans to continue its work understanding orbital debris and the various approaches to it and will work to share its knowledge with stakeholders. 

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Bill Keeter

Webb Cracks Case of Inflated Exoplanet

7 Min Read

Webb Cracks Case of Inflated Exoplanet

Why is the warm gas-giant exoplanet WASP-107 b so puffy? Two independent teams of researchers have an answer.

Data collected using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, combined with prior observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, show surprisingly little methane (CH₄) in the planet’s atmosphere, indicating that the interior of WASP-107 b must be significantly hotter and the core much more massive than previously estimated.

The unexpectedly high temperature is thought to be a result of tidal heating caused by the planet’s slightly non-circular orbit, and can explain how WASP-107 b can be so inflated without resorting to extreme theories of how it formed.

The results, which were made possible by Webb’s extraordinary sensitivity and accompanying ability to measure light passing through exoplanet atmospheres, may explain the puffiness of dozens of low-density exoplanets, helping solve a long-standing mystery in exoplanet science.

Image: Warm Gas-Giant Exoplanet WASP-107 b (Artist’s Concept)

The Problem with WASP-107 b

At more than three-quarters the volume of Jupiter but less than one-tenth the mass, the “warm Neptune” exoplanet WASP-107 b is one of the least dense planets known. While puffy planets are not uncommon, most are hotter and more massive, and therefore easier to explain.

“Based on its radius, mass, age, and assumed internal temperature, we thought WASP-107 b had a very small, rocky core surrounded by a huge mass of hydrogen and helium,” explained Luis Welbanks from Arizona State University (ASU), lead author on a paper published today in Nature. “But it was hard to understand how such a small core could sweep up so much gas, and then stop short of growing fully into a Jupiter-mass planet.”

If WASP-107 b instead has more of its mass in the core, the atmosphere should have contracted as the planet cooled over time since it formed. Without a source of heat to re-expand the gas, the planet should be much smaller. Although WASP-107 b has an orbital distance of just 5 million miles (one-seventh the distance between Mercury and the Sun), it doesn’t receive enough energy from its star to be so inflated.

“WASP-107 b is such an interesting target for Webb because it’s significantly cooler and more Neptune-like in mass than many of the other low-density planets, the hot Jupiters, we’ve been studying,” said David Sing from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), lead author on a parallel study also published today in Nature. “As a result, we should be able to detect methane and other molecules that can give us information about its chemistry and internal dynamics that we can’t get from a hotter planet.”

A Wealth of Previously Undetectable Molecules

WASP-107 b’s giant radius, extended atmosphere, and edge-on orbit make it ideal for transmission spectroscopy, a method used to identify the various gases in an exoplanet atmosphere based on how they affect starlight.

Combining observations from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), and Hubble’s WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3), Welbanks’ team was able to build a broad spectrum of 0.8- to 12.2-micron light absorbed by WASP-107 b’s atmosphere. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), Sing’s team built an independent spectrum covering 2.7 to 5.2 microns.

The precision of the data makes it possible to not just detect, but actually measure the abundances of a wealth of molecules, including water vapor (H₂O), methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and ammonia (NH₃). 

Image:Warm Gas-Giant Exoplanet WASP-107 b Transmission Spectrum (Hubble WFC3, Webb NIRCam, and Webb MIRI

Image:Warm Gas-Giant Exoplanet WASP-107 b (Transmission Spectrum: Webb NIRSpec)

Roiling Gas, Hot Interior, and Massive Core

Both spectra show a surprising lack of methane in WASP-107 b’s atmosphere: one-thousandth the amount expected based on its assumed temperature.

“This is evidence that hot gas from deep in the planet must be mixing vigorously with the cooler layers higher up,” explained Sing. “Methane is unstable at high temperatures. The fact that we detected so little, even though we did detect other carbon-bearing molecules, tells us that the interior of the planet must be significantly hotter than we thought.”

A likely source of WASP-107 b’s extra internal energy is tidal heating caused by its slightly elliptical orbit. With the distance between the star and planet changing continuously over the 5.7-day orbit, the gravitational pull is also changing, stretching the planet and heating it up.

Researchers had previously proposed that tidal heating could be the cause of WASP-107 b’s puffiness, but until the Webb results were in, there was no evidence.

Once they established that the planet has enough internal heat to thoroughly churn up the atmosphere, the teams realized that the spectra could also provide a new way to estimate the size of the core.

“If we know how much energy is in the planet, and we know what proportion of the planet is heavier elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, versus how much is hydrogen and helium, we can calculate how much mass must be in the core,” explained Daniel Thorngren from JHU.

It turns out that the core is at least twice as massive as originally estimated, which makes more sense in terms of how planets form.

All together, WASP-107 b is not as mysterious as it once appeared.

“The Webb data tells us that planets like WASP-107 b didn’t have to form in some odd way with a super small core and a huge gassy envelope,” explained Mike Line from ASU. “Instead, we can take something more like Neptune, with a lot of rock and not as much gas, just dial up the temperature, and poof it up to look the way it does.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

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Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The research results are published in Nature.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Margaret Carruthers mcarruthers@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

Research Paper: “A high internal heat flux and large core in a warm Neptune exoplanet” by L. Welbanks, et al

Research Paper: “A warm Neptune’s methane reveals core mass and vigorous atmospheric mixing” by D. Sing, et al

Research Paper: “MIRI observation of WASP-107 b: SO2, silicate clouds, but no CH4 detected in a warm Neptune” by A. Dyrek, et al

What is an Exoplanet?

VIDEO: How do we learn about a planets Atmosphere?

Webb’s Impact on Exoplanet Research

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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