NASA Awards Spaceflight Development, Operations Contract
NASA has selected Sierra Lobo Inc. of Fremont, Ohio, to support spaceflight hardware design, development, testing, and operations at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
The Space Flight Systems Development and Operations Contract III is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract featuring a cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity provision with a maximum potential value of approximately $282.1 million. The 90-day phase-in period is anticipated to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 27, followed by a three-year base period and two two-year option periods.
The systems development and operations contract encompasses the development and delivery of technology development hardware and software, space flight hardware and software, ground support equipment, spares, as well as mission integration and operations, and sustaining engineering. The contractor will be responsible for the definition, design, development, analysis, fabrication, assembly, test, verification, delivery, and operation of space flight systems, associated support systems and equipment, and related ground activities, including research, science, and technology development and demonstrations.
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Meet the Creators, Part 4: Two New 2024 Total Eclipse Posters
4 min read
Meet the Creators, Part 4: Two New 2024 Total Eclipse Posters
Total solar eclipses reveal the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the corona – a white, wispy halo of solar material that flows out from around the Sun. This atmosphere is breathtaking as it glows in the sky for viewers on Earth, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon. In addition to revealing this normally hidden part of our Sun, the eclipse also darkens the sky, changes shadows, and cools the air. It can feel like living inside a piece of art.
Artists have captured the magical appearance of eclipses for over a thousand years. For the upcoming total solar eclipse crossing North America on April 8, 2024, two artists have contributed new posters to NASA’s eclipse poster series.
Dongjae “Krystofer” Kim
Download the poster here.
NASA/Dongjae “Krystofer” Kim
Dongjae “Krystofer” Kim is a Senior Science Animator at the Conceptual Image Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts from the Design Leadership program at the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He combines various art and design disciplines, including fine arts, graphic design, creative coding, animation, and design research to help tell NASA’s story.
“I was contemplating how the eclipse is an event that is beyond human scale physically and chronologically. It will look differently outside of my myopic view from this planet and it will occur after I am gone for many years to come. With this perspective, I thought of how future space explorations with permanent settlements on the Moon will view this event. While searching for scientific references, I remembered a video piece by our own NASA Goddard media team ‘An EPIC View of the Moon’s Shadow During the June 10 Solar Eclipse’ in 2021 and used it as a visual reference.”
What inspired you to become an artist?
“My inspiration came via Pixar and Ghibli animated films and shows I watched as a child. Despite being a little dyslexic Korean kid, I was welcomed into the world of each story. I found it magical that artists could seemingly create everything from nothing or something fantastical from mundane ideas and objects. And I loved that art enables you to communicate your own ideas as well as learn about others creating common ground.”
Want to explore this artwork more? An animated version of this poster is available to download.
Genna Duberstein
Download the poster here.
NASA/Genna Duberstein
Genna Duberstein is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated multimedia producer and graphic designer who specializes in both making and marketing content. Her work has been shown internationally, aired on PBS, and has been featured in many outlets, including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, WIRED, The Atlantic, and National Geographic. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from American University and a Bachelor of Arts from The Ohio State University.
“During the 2017 total solar eclipse, my parents sent me a picture of themselves, smiling in eclipse glasses and sitting on their front stoop with their dog. It was such a goofy, happy picture, I wanted to capture that same spirit for the poster. I have a dog of my own now – a goofy, happy American foxhound mix – and he proved to be the perfect model for the total eclipse poster. There’s no denying an eclipse can be an awe-inspiring event, but it can be just plain fun too!”
What inspired you to become an artist?
“I can’t help it! I’ve always made things, and I’ve been very fortunate to have had support along the way. My parents enrolled me in my first art class at four, and they encouraged me to submit work to art contests all through elementary and high school. Portfolio-based scholarships and commissioned portrait work helped me pay for college. To this day, I’m incredibly lucky to have had a career where I can be creative, and I am thankful for all the people who have made it possible.”
Have an idea for how to put your own spin on this poster? This artwork is also available as a downloadable coloring sheet.
By Abbey Interrante NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NASA Invites Media to Speak with Artemis II Moon Crew, Recovery Team
Naval helicopters fly over a test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and personnel involved in training activities in the Pacific Ocean in July 2023, in preparation for Artemis II. Teams from NASA, including the Artemis II crew, and the Department of Defense are training this month off the coast of San Diego to prepare to recover the astronauts and Orion when they return to Earth.
Credits: NASA/Kenny Allen
Media are invited to speak with the four Artemis II astronauts on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at Naval Base San Diego in California. The crew will fly around the Moon next year as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, marking the first astronauts to make the journey in more than 50 years.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense are conducting training with the crew in the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the procedures and hardware needed to retrieve NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen after their approximately 10-day, 685,000-mile journey beyond the lunar far side and back.
The flight is the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign and will test the agency’s Orion spacecraft life support systems needed for future lunar missions.
Attendees will be able to view hardware associated with the training, including a test version of Orion aboard the USS San Diego, and speak with other personnel from the agency and the Defense Department who are responsible for bringing the crew and the capsule to safety after the mission.
Media interested in attending must RSVP by 4 p.m. PST, Monday, Feb. 26, to Naval Base San Diego Public Affairs at nbsd.pao@us.navy.mil or 619-556-7359. The exact time of the planned afternoon Feb. 28 event is subject to the conclusion of testing activities.
Under Artemis, NASA 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.
Webb Finds Evidence for Neutron Star at Heart of Young Supernova Remnant
5 Min Read
Webb Finds Evidence for Neutron Star at Heart of Young Supernova Remnant
The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, C. Fransson (Stockholm University), M. Matsuura (Cardiff University), M. J. Barlow (University College London), P. J. Kavanagh (Maynooth University), J. Larsson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has found the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star at the site of a recently observed supernova. The supernova, known as SN 1987A, was a core-collapse supernova, meaning the compacted remains at its core formed either a neutron star or a black hole. Evidence for such a compact object has long been sought, and while indirect evidence for the presence of a neutron star has previously been found, this is the first time that the effects of high-energy emission from the probable young neutron star have been detected.
Supernovae – the explosive final death throes of some massive stars – blast out within hours, and the brightness of the explosion peaks within a few months. The remains of the exploding star will continue to evolve at a rapid rate over the following decades, offering a rare opportunity for astronomers to study a key astronomical process in real time.
Supernova 1987A
The supernova SN 1987A occurred 160,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was first observed on Earth in February 1987, and its brightness peaked in May of that year. It was the first supernova that could be seen with the naked eye since Kepler’s Supernova was observed in 1604.
About two hours prior to the first visible-light observation of SN 1987A, three observatories around the world detected a burst of neutrinos lasting only a few seconds. The two different types of observations were linked to the same supernova event, and provided important evidence to inform the theory of how core-collapse supernovae take place. This theory included the expectation that this type of supernova would form a neutron star or a black hole. Astronomers have searched for evidence for one or the other of these compact objects at the center of the expanding remnant material ever since.
Indirect evidence for the presence of a neutron star at the center of the remnant has been found in the past few years, and observations of much older supernova remnants –such as the Crab Nebula – confirm that neutron stars are found in many supernova remnants. However, no direct evidence of a neutron star in the aftermath of SN 1987A (or any other such recent supernova explosion) had been observed, until now.
Image: Supernova 1987A
The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star at the site of a well-known and recently-observed supernova known as SN 1987A. At left is a NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image released in 2023. The image at top right shows light from singly ionized argon (Argon II) captured by the Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS) mode of MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). The image at bottom right shows light from multiply ionized argon captured by the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph). Both instruments show a strong signal from the center of the supernova remnant. This indicated to the science team that there is a source of high-energy radiation there, most likely a neutron star.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, C. Fransson (Stockholm University), M. Matsuura (Cardiff University), M. J. Barlow (University College London), P. J. Kavanagh (Maynooth University), J. Larsson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Claes Fransson of Stockholm University, and the lead author on this study, explained: “From theoretical models of SN 1987A, the 10-second burst of neutrinos observed just before the supernova implied that a neutron star or black hole was formed in the explosion. But we have not observed any compelling signature of such a newborn object from any supernova explosion. With this observatory, we have now found direct evidence for emission triggered by the newborn compact object, most likely a neutron star.”
Webb’s Observations of SN 1987A
Webb began science observations in July 2022, and the Webb observations behind this work were taken on July 16, making the SN 1987A remnant one of the first objects observed by Webb. The team used the Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS) mode of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which members of the same team helped to develop. The MRS is a type of instrument known as an Integral Field Unit (IFU).
IFUs are able to image an object and take a spectrum of it at the same time. An IFU forms a spectrum at each pixel, allowing observers to see spectroscopic differences across the object. Analysis of the Doppler shift of each spectrum also permits the evaluation of the velocity at each position.
Spectral analysis of the results showed a strong signal due to ionized argon from the center of the ejected material that surrounds the original site of SN 1987A. Subsequent observations using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) IFU at shorter wavelengths found even more heavily ionized chemical elements, particularly five times ionized argon (meaning argon atoms that have lost five of their 18 electrons). Such ions require highly energetic photons to form, and those photons have to come from somewhere.
“To create these ions that we observed in the ejecta, it was clear that there had to be a source of high-energy radiation in the center of the SN 1987A remnant,” Fransson said. “In the paper we discuss different possibilities, finding that only a few scenarios are likely, and all of these involve a newly born neutron star.”
More observations are planned this year, with Webb and ground-based telescopes. The research team hopes ongoing study will provide more clarity about exactly what is happening in the heart of the SN 1987A remnant. These observations will hopefully stimulate the development of more detailed models, ultimately enabling astronomers to better understand not just SN 1987A, but all core-collapse supernovae.
These findings were published in the journal Science.
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 the Canadian Space Agency.
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While the International Space Station orbited 260 miles above the East China Sea, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli snapped this photo of Shanghai’s city lights and the Huangpu River flowing through downtown. Shanghai is the most populous city in China with a population of about 24.9 million.
The space station serves as a unique platform for observing Earth with both hands-on and automated equipment. Station crew members have produced hundreds of thousands of images, recording phenomena such as storms in real time, observing natural events such as volcanic eruptions as they happen, and providing input to ground personnel for programming automated Earth-sensing systems. Having a crew on board provides flexibility, a significant advantage over sensors on robotic spacecraft. Astronauts take images using handheld digital cameras, usually through windows in the station’s cupola, for Crew Earth Observations.
