Harnessing the 2024 Eclipse for Ionospheric Discovery with HamSCI
3 min read
Harnessing the 2024 Eclipse for Ionospheric Discovery with HamSCI
As the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, draws closer, a vibrant community of enthusiastic amateur radio operators, known as “hams,” is gearing up for an exciting project with the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) group. Our goal is clear and ambitious: to use the Moon’s shadow as a natural laboratory to uncover the intricacies of the ionosphere, a layer of Earth’s atmosphere crucial for radio communication.
This rare event offers an unmatched opportunity to observe the ionosphere’s response to the temporary absence of solar radiation during the eclipse. HamSCI, a collective of citizen scientists and professional researchers, plans to seize this opportunity by conducting radio experiments across North America.
This image captures the Moon passing in front of the Sun during an eclipse on Jan. 30, 2014, seen in space by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
NASA/SDO
Our mission centers on two main activities: the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) and the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge. For the SEQP, amateur radio operators across the continent will aim to establish as many radio contacts (called QSOs) as possible before, during, and after the eclipse, creating a lively scene filled with radio signals. This effort will generate a vast network of observations on radio wave behavior under the eclipse’s unique conditions. The SEQP, a competitive yet friendly event, encourages wide participation and adds an element of excitement.
The Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge, named in honor of ham radio operator Philip Gladstone for his significant contributions to radio science, adopts a focused approach. Participants will use special equipment to monitor select radio frequencies, aiding in our observation of the ionosphere’s reaction to the eclipse. This crucial aspect of our project validates scientific models of the ionosphere and enriches our understanding of its interaction with solar radiation.
Amateur radio enthusiasts of all backgrounds and skill levels are invited to join these events, united by a shared enthusiasm for scientific exploration and a collective curiosity about the upper atmosphere. Through the support of the amateur radio community, HamSCI demonstrates the profound impact of citizen science in contributing to our scientific knowledge.
As the eclipse ends, our analytical work begins. We will delve into the collected data, interpret it, and publish our findings. These efforts are expected to significantly advance our understanding of the ionosphere and showcase the value of community involvement in scientific discovery.
HamSCI is an organization that aims to inspire wonder and encourage people to participate in scientific discovery. The community of citizen scientists associated with HamSCI believe that the seamless fusion of science and amateur radio is an excellent example of what can be achieved when people come together, driven by curiosity and a passion for exploration.
For more information about HamSCI and details on the SEQP and the Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge, please visit:
How NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Measure Ages of Stars
Guessing your age might be a popular carnival game, but for astronomers it’s a real challenge to determine the ages of stars. Once a star like our Sun has settled into steady nuclear fusion, or the mature phase of its life, it changes little for billions of years. One exception to that rule is the star’s rotation period – how quickly it spins. By measuring the rotation periods of hundreds of thousands of stars, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope promises to bring new understandings of stellar populations in our Milky Way galaxy after it launches by May 2027.
Stars are born spinning rapidly. However, stars of our Sun’s mass or smaller will gradually slow down over billions of years. That slowdown is caused by interactions between a stream of charged particles known as the stellar wind and the star’s own magnetic field. The interactions remove angular momentum, causing the star to spin more slowly, much like an ice skater will slow down when they extend their arms.
This effect, called magnetic braking, varies depending on the strength of the star’s magnetic field. Faster-spinning stars have stronger magnetic fields, which causes them to slow down more rapidly. Due to the influence of these magnetic fields, after about one billion years stars of the same mass and age will spin at the same rate. Therefore, if you know a star’s mass and rotation rate, you potentially can estimate its age. By knowing the ages of a large population of stars, we can study how our galaxy formed and evolved over time.
Measuring Stellar Rotation
How do astronomers measure the rotation rate of a distant star? They look for changes in the star’s brightness due to starspots. Starspots, like sunspots on our Sun, are cooler, darker patches on a star’s surface. When a starspot is in view, the star will be slightly dimmer than when the spot is on the far side of the star.
This image of our Sun was taken in August 2012 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It shows a number of sunspots. Other stars also experience starspots, which cause the star’s observed brightness to vary as the spots rotate in and out of view. By measuring those changes in brightness, astronomers can infer the star’s rotation period. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will collect brightness measurements for hundreds of thousands of stars located in the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, yielding information about their rotation rates.
Credit: NASA
If a star has a single, large spot on it, it would experience a regular pattern of dimming and brightening as the spot rotated in and out of view. (This dimming can be differentiated from a similar effect caused by a transiting exoplanet.) But a star can have dozens of spots scattered across its surface at any one time, and those spots vary over time, making it much more difficult to tease out periodic signals of dimming from the star’s rotation.
Applying Artificial Intelligence
A team of astronomers at the University of Florida is developing new techniques to extract a rotation period from measurements of a star’s brightness over time, through a program funded by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope project.
They are using a type of artificial intelligence known as a convolutional neural network to analyze light curves, or plots of a star’s brightness over time. To do this, the neural network first must be trained on simulated light curves. University of Florida postdoctoral associate Zachary Claytor, the science principal investigator on the project, wrote a program called “butterpy” to generate such light curves.
A star can have dozens of spots scattered across its surface at any one time, causing irregular brightness fluctuations that make it difficult to tease out periodic signals of dimming due to the star’s rotation. This graph of data from the butterpy program shows how the observed brightness of a simulated star would vary over a single rotation period. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will be able to measure the light curves, and therefore rotation rates, of hundreds of thousands of stars, bringing new insights into stellar populations in our galaxy.
Credit: NASA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
“This program lets the user set a number of variables, like the star’s rotation rate, the number of spots, and spot lifetimes. Then it will calculate how spots emerge, evolve, and decay as the star rotates and convert that spot evolution to a light curve – what we would measure from a distance,” explained Claytor.
The team has already applied their trained neural network to data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). Systematic effects make it more challenging to accurately measure longer stellar rotation periods, yet the team’s trained neural network was able to accurately measure these longer rotation periods using the TESS data.
Roman’s Star Survey
The upcoming Roman Space Telescope will gather data from hundreds of millions of stars through its Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey, one of three core community surveys it will conduct. Roman will look toward our galaxy’s center – a region crowded with stars – to measure how many of these stars change in brightness over time. These measurements will enable multiple science investigations, from searching for distant exoplanets to determining the stars’ rotation rates.
The specific survey design is still being developed by the astronomical community. The NASA-funded study on stellar rotation promises to help inform potential survey strategies.
“We can test which things matter and what we can pull out of the Roman data depending on different survey strategies. So when we actually get the data, we’ll already have a plan,” said Jamie Tayar, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Florida and the program’s principal investigator.
“We have a lot of the tools already, and we think they can be adapted to Roman,” she added.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Christine Pulliam Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
NASA Achieves Milestone for Engines to Power Future Artemis Missions
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA conducted a full-duration RS-25 hot fire April 3 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, achieving a major milestone for future Artemis flights of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. It marked the final test of a 12-test series to certify production of new RS-25 engines by lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, to help power NASA’s SLS rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, beginning with Artemis V.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Crews transport RS-25 developmental engine E0525 to the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Aug. 30, 2023, for the second and final certification test series.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
A crane lifts developmental engine E0525 onto the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Aug. 30, 2023, in preparation for a series of 12 tests to collect performance data for lead SLS (Space Launch System) engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, to produce engines that will help power the SLS rocket, beginning with Artemis V.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Crews prepare to place RS-25 engine E0525 on the engine vertical installer on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Aug. 30, 2023.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Team members ready RS-25 engine E0525 for full installation on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Aug. 30, 2023, for a second certification test series to collect data for the final RS-25 design certification review.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
The second – and final – RS-25 certification test series begins Oct. 17, 2023. When the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants mix and ignite, an extremely high temperature exhaust, of up to 6,000-degrees Fahrenheit, mixes with water to form steam that exits the flame deflector and rises into the atmosphere, forming a cloud that subsequently cools.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
A cloud of steam is visible at NASA’s Stennis Space Center during an Oct. 17, 2023, hot fire that marks the first test in the critical series to support future SLS (Space Launch System) missions to deep space.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
An RS-25 hot fire at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Nov. 15, 2023, marks the second test of a 12-test engine certification series. The NASA Stennis test team typically fires the certification engine for 500 seconds, the same amount of time engines must fire to help launch the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket to space with astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Operators fire the RS-25 engine at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Nov. 15, 2023, up to the 113% power level. The first four Artemis missions are using modified space shuttle main engines that can power up to 109% of their rated level. New RS-25 engines will power up to the 111% level to provide additional thrust, so testing up to the 113% power level provides a margin of operational safety.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
NASA demonstrates a key RS-25 engine capability necessary for flight of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket during a hot fire on Nov. 29, 2023. Crews gimbaled, or pivoted, the RS-25 engine around a central point during the almost 11-minute (650 seconds) hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
The first RS-25 engine test of 2024 takes place on Jan. 17, 2024, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center as crews complete a 500-second hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
A remote field camera offers a head-on view of an RS-25 engine hot fire on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Jan. 23, 2024.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
NASA marks the halfway point of its second RS-25 certification series on Jan. 27, 2024, with the sixth test of the series on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. For each Artemis mission, four RS-25 engines, along with a pair of solid rocket boosters, power the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, producing more than 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center install a second production nozzle, left, on Feb. 6, 2024, to gather additional performance data on the RS-25 certification engine at the Fred Haise Test Stand.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
A new RS-25 engine production nozzle is lifted on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Feb. 6, 2024. Crews used specially adapted procedures and tools to swap out the nozzles with the engine in place on the stand.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
Operators fire RS-25 engine E0525 for 550 seconds and up to a power level of 113% on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Feb. 23, 2024. The hot fire test was the first featuring a new engine nozzle, allowing engineers to collect and compare performance data on a second production unit.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
The third RS-25 hot fire of 600 seconds or more is conducted March 6, 2024, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The full-duration test on the Fred Haise Test Stand marked the ninth in a 12-test certification series for production of new engines to help power NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, beginning with Artemis V.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
The test team at NASA’s Stennis Space Center conduct the first RS-25 hot fire of spring 2024 on March 22, powering the engine for a full duration 500 seconds and up to a power level of 113%.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
NASA closes in on a milestone for production of new RS-25 engines to help power future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond following a successful full duration test on March 27, 2024, at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The hot fire marked the 11th test of a 12-test series.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
NASA conducted a full-duration RS-25 hot fire April 3 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
NASA/Danny Nowlin
NASA achieved a major milestone April 3 for production of new RS-25 engines to help power its Artemis campaign to the Moon and beyond with completion of a critical engine certification test series at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The 12-test series represents a key step for lead engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, to build new RS-25 engines, using modern processes and manufacturing techniques, for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rockets that will power future lunar missions, beginning with Artemis V.
“The conclusion of the certification test series at NASA Stennis is just the beginning for the next generation of RS-25 engines that will help power human spaceflight for Artemis,” said Johnny Heflin, SLS liquid engines manager. “The newly produced engines on future SLS rockets will maintain the high reliability and safe flight operational legacy the RS-25 is known for while enabling more affordable high-performance engines for the next era of deep space exploration.”
Through Artemis, NASA will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon; land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface; and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.
Contributing to that effort, the NASA Stennis test team conducted a full-duration, 500-second hot fire to complete the 12-test series on developmental engine E0525, providing critical performance data for the final RS-25 design certification review. The April 3 hot fire completed a test series that began in October 2023.
RS-25 engines are evolved space shuttle main engines, upgraded with new components to produce the additional power needed to help launch NASA’s SLS rocket. The first four Artemis missions are using modified space shuttle main engines also tested at NASA Stennis. For each Artemis mission, four RS-25 engines, along with a pair of solid rocket boosters, power the SLS rocket, producing more than 8.8 million pounds of total combined thrust at liftoff.
“This was a critical test series, and credit goes to the entire test team for their dedication and unique skills that allowed us to meet the schedule and provide the needed performance data,” said Chip Ellis, project manager for RS-25 testing at NASA Stennis. “The tests conducted at NASA Stennis help ensure the safety of our astronauts and their future mission success. We are proud to be part of the Artemis mission.”
The E0525 developmental engine featured new key components – including a nozzle, hydraulic actuators, flex ducts, and turbopumps – that matched design features of those used during an initial certification test series completed at NASA Stennis last summer.
The two certification test series helped verify the new engine components meet all Artemis flight requirements moving forward. Aerojet Rocketdyne is using techniques such as 3D printing to produce new RS-25 engines more efficiently, while maintaining high performance and reliability. NASA has awarded the company contracts to provide 24 new engines, supporting SLS launches for Artemis V through Artemis IX.
“Successfully completing this rigorous test series is a testament to the outstanding work done by the team to design, implement and test this upgraded version of the RS-25 that reduces the cost by 30% from the space shuttle program,” said Mike Lauer, RS-25 program director at Aerojet Rocketdyne. “We tested the new RS-25 engines to the extreme limits of operation to ensure the engines can operate at a higher power level needed for SLS and complete the mission with margin.”
All RS-25 engines are tested and proven flightworthy at NASA Stennis prior to use on Artemis missions. RS-25 tests at the center are conducted by a diverse team of operators from NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Syncom Space Services, prime contractor for site facilities and operations.
On April 8, 2024, North America will witness its last total solar eclipse for more than twenty years. Other parts of the world will experience the rare celestial event in the coming decade. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, blocking its disk from view but making its corona visible in a dazzling display. Although spectacular when seen from the ground, observed from space, solar eclipses appear as large shadows moving across the face of the Earth. The unique geometry of the Earth-Sun-Moon system allows total solar eclipses to occur. Eclipses also occur outside the Earth-Moon system, although the geometries of those worlds rarely if ever produce the stunning display visible on Earth. Spacecraft exploring other worlds have documented these extraterrestrial eclipses.
Left: Schematic geometry of a solar eclipse; sizes and distances not to scale. Right: Path of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse. Image credit: courtesy Sky & Telescope.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, with the Moon casting its shadow on its home planet. Although the Sun is much larger than the Moon, it is also much farther away. As seen from Earth, the Sun and Moon have roughly the same angular diameter and appear roughly the same size in the sky. A total eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks out the Sun’s disk entirely. Because the Moon does not orbit in a perfect circle around the Earth, it appears smaller at its farthest point thus creating annular eclipses. Moons around other planets can also create eclipses although their different sizes relative to the Sun do not create our familiar eclipses. Planets with multiple moons can have more than one eclipse occur at the same time.
Left: Gemini XII astronauts photograph the total solar eclipse from Earth orbit in November 1966. Middle: Surveyor 3 observes a solar eclipse from the Moon in April 1967. Right: In November 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts returning from Moon experienced a solar eclipse as the Earth blocked the Sun shortly before splashdown.
Gemini XII astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin for the first time photographed a solar eclipse from Earth orbit on Nov. 12, 1966. Sixteen hours into their flight, the nearly total eclipse came into view as they flew over the Galapagos Islands and Aldrin took several photographs and a short film clip. Calculations showed that Gemini XII passed within 3.4 miles of the center of the eclipse’s path that traversed South America. The Surveyor 3 spacecraft observed the first solar eclipse from the Moon on April 24, 1967. Unlike solar eclipses observed on Earth, this time the Earth itself blocked the Sun – observers on Earth saw the event as a lunar eclipse as the Moon passed through the Earth’s shadow. In November 1969, as Apollo 12 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean neared Earth on their return from the second lunar landing – during which they visited Surveyor 3 – orbital mechanics had a show in store for them. Their trajectory passed through Earth’s shadow, treating them to a total solar eclipse. From their perspective, the Earth appeared about 15 times larger than the Sun. Gordon radioed Mission Control, “We’re getting a spectacular view at eclipse,” and Bean proclaimed it a “fantastic sight.” Conrad reported on the rapidly changing scenery, with the Sun illuminating the Earth’s atmosphere in a 360-degree ring with ever-changing colors while the planet remained pitch black. In the darkness, they could see flashes of lightning in thunderstorms appearing as fireflies. As their eyes adapted to the dark portion of the Earth, they saw landmasses such as India and even city lights. In the center of the Earth’s dark disc they reported seeing a large bright circle that turned out to be the glint of the full Moon reflecting off the Indian Ocean.
Left: The Moon’s shadow photographed from Mir during the August 1999 eclipse. Image credit: courtesy French space agency CNES. Middle: NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit observed the first solar eclipse from the International Space Station during Expedition 6 in December 2002. Right: Pettit’s second eclipse during Expedition 31 in May 2012.
The credit belongs to French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré for taking the first photograph from Earth orbit of the Moon’s shadow during a solar eclipse. He photographed the Aug. 11, 1999, total eclipse pass over England while onboard the Russian space station Mir as an Expedition 27 flight engineer. NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit claims the title as the first person to photograph an eclipse from the International Space Station when he observed the Dec. 2, 2002, total eclipse during Expedition 6. As an additional claim, on May 20, 2012, Pettit observed his second eclipse from the space station during Expedition 31, this one an annular eclipse over the Western Pacific Ocean.
Left: Expedition 12 image of the March 2006 total eclipse over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Middle: Expedition 52 image of the August 2017 total eclipse over North America. Right: Expedition 63 image of the June 2020 annular eclipse.
Left and middle: Two views of the eclipse over Antarctica in December 2021, from the Expedition 66 crew aboard the space station, left, and from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. Right: DSCOVR image of the October 2023 annular solar eclipse over North America.
Space station crews have observed and documented a number of solar eclipses in addition to Pettit’s two sightings, their ability to see the Moon’s shadow as it traverses the Earth’s surface determined by their orbital trajectory. Expedition 12 observed the total eclipse on March 29, 2006, Expedition 43 documented the total eclipse on March 25, 2015, Expedition 52 observed the most recent total eclipse visible from North America on Aug. 21, 2017, Expedition 61 observed the annular eclipse on Dec. 26, 2019, Expedition 63 saw the annular eclipse on June 21, 2020, Expedition 66 imaged the total eclipse over Antarctica on Dec. 4, 2021, and Expedition 70 viewed the annular eclipse visible in North America on Oct. 14, 2023. Positioned nearly one million miles away at the L1 Earth-Sun Lagrange point, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite keeps a watchful eye on Earth’s climate. NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a camera and telescope aboard DSCOVR, has taken stunning images of the Moon’s shadow during eclipses as well as the Moon transiting across the face of the Earth.
Mars
Beyond the Earth-Moon system, eclipses do not occur on Mercury and Venus since they lack natural satellites to block out the Sun. Mars has two small satellites, Phobos and Deimos, both too small to fully eclipse the Sun, even though it appears only half as big as on Earth. Several rovers have captured Phobos and Deimos as they form annular eclipses. Some astronomers contend that due to the small sizes of the Martian satellites, especially Deimos, compared to the Sun, these are technically transits, not eclipses, but no formal definition exists. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity imaged the first eclipses from the surface of Mars shortly after its arrival on the planet, first of Deimos on March 4, 2004, followed by Phobos three days later. More recently, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover imaged the annular eclipse of Phobos on April 20, 2022, and the eclipse (or transit) of Deimos on Jan. 22, 2024.
Left: Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity images of Deimos, left, and Phobos crossing in front of the Sun. Middle: Perseverance image of a Phobos annular eclipse in April 2022. Right: Perseverance image of a Deimos eclipse (or transit) in January 2024.
Jupiter
Left: Hubble Space Telescope infrared image of a triple eclipse on Jupiter on March 28, 2004, with moons Ganymede, Io, and Callisto casting shadows on the planet. Middle: Hubble Space Telescope image of the Jan. 24, 2015, multiple eclipse on Jupiter, with five of its moons – Callisto, Io, Europa, Amalthea, and Thebe – casting shadows on the planet. Right: Europa eclipses Io in December 2014, as observed through an Earth-based telescope. Image credit: courtesy Jen Miller and Joy Chavez, Gemini Observatory.
Since the outer gas giant planets do not have solid surfaces, no spacecraft has imaged an actual eclipse by one of the multitude of moons orbiting these worlds. What we can observe, through ground-based and orbiting telescopes and spacecraft are the shadows cast by the moons on their home planets. Eclipses on Jupiter are not exceptionally rare given the planet’s large size compared to its many moons and greater distance from the Sun. Only five of Jupiter’s moons, Amalthea, Io, Europe, Ganymede, and Callisto are either large enough or close enough to the planet to completely occult the Sun. And given the low tilts of the moons’ orbits, they cast a shadow on every revolution. Double, triple and multiple simultaneous eclipses are not uncommon. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed numerous such events. Given the number of Jupiter’s moons, especially the four large Galilean moons, and that their orbits all lie very close to Jupiter’s equatorial plane, they occasionally eclipse each other, with the outer moons passing between the Sun and the inner moons. When Earth passes through Jupiter’s equatorial plane, fortunate observers can capture these rare events using ground-based telescopes, sometimes accidentally as they observe the Galilean moons for other reasons.
Left: Juno image of Io’s shadow on Jupiter in September 2019. Right: Juno image of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede casting its shadow on the planet in February 2022.
The Juno spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, has returned stunning images of Jupiter’s cloud patterns. On Sept. 11, 2019, it captured a spectacular image of Io’s shadow on Jupiter’s colorful cloud tops. On Feb. 25, 2022, Juno imaged the largest moon Ganymede’s shadow.
Saturn and beyond
Left: As it orbited Saturn, in November 2009 Cassini imaged eclipses of moons Titan, center, and Enceladus, lower right of Titan, and the planet’s rings. Middle: Titan casts its shadow, elongated by the planet’s curvature, on Saturn in this November 2009 image from the Cassini orbiter. Right: Sequential Hubble Space Telescope February 2009 images of a quadruple eclipse, as Saturn’s moons Enceladus, Dione, Titan, and Mimas cast their shadows on the planet.
Like Jupiter, dozens of moons orbit around the ringed planet Saturn, providing ample opportunities for telescopes and spacecraft to observe them passing in front of and casting their shadows onto the planet. The Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn between 2004 and 2017, captured thousands of images of the planet, its rings, and its moons. On many occasions, Cassini passed behind the planet and its moons, creating artificial eclipses, while at other times the spacecraft imaged the moons’ shadows on the planet’s cloud tops. The Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of images of a rare quadruple eclipse on Feb. 24, 2009, as Saturn’s moons Enceladus, Dione, Titan, and Mimas transited across the planet, casting their shadows on the cloud tops.
The Cassini spacecraft created this artificial eclipse of Saturn in November 2013 as it traveled beyond Saturn during one of its orbits, with many objects, including Earth, made visible.
On July 19, 2013, Cassini took a series of images from a distance of about 750,000 miles as Saturn eclipsed the Sun. In the event dubbed The Day the Earth Smiled, people on Earth received notification in advance that Cassini would be taking their picture from 900 million miles away, and were encouraged to smile at its camera. In addition to the Earth and Moon, Cassini captured Venus, Mars, and seven of Saturn’s satellites in the photograph.
Left: Composite image showing the relative apparent sizes of the Sun and a selection of planetary moons. Image credit: courtesy sdoisgo.blogspot.com. Middle: July 2006 Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus and its moon Ariel casting a shadow on the planet. Right: The New Horizons spacecraft created an artificial eclipse as it flew behind Pluto during its July 2015 flyby, the Sun’s rays highlighting its tenuous atmosphere.
The Earth occupies a unique position with the nearly equal apparent diameters of the Moon and the Sun, providing opportunities for annular and total solar eclipses. As viewed from planets farther in the solar system, the Sun’s apparent diameter diminishes, with the apparent sizes of the moons orbiting those planets either larger or smaller than the Sun. Eclipses as we know them do not exist elsewhere in the solar system. Spacecraft exploring those remote worlds easily create artificial eclipses by passing through the planets’ shadows, often revealing important information, such as New Horizons imaging the tenuous atmosphere surrounding Pluto.
Paths of solar eclipses between 2021 and 2030. Image credit: courtesy Greatamericaneclipse.com.
The next total solar eclipse visible in North America will not occur until 2044, but over the next few years, several eclipses visible in other parts of the world will no doubt be targets of opportunity for astronauts’ cameras aboard the space station. And spacecraft exploring planets in the solar system will continue to document eclipses in those faraway places.
Huntsville, Marshall Preparing to Celebrate Total Solar Eclipse
By Celine Smith
On April 8 between 1 and 3 p.m., the Moon will pass between the Sun and Earth to create a total solar eclipse for 15 states. While Alabama will experience a partial eclipse, area residents can enjoy some fun-filled festivities to celebrate the event.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, in collaboration with the Alabama Space Grant Consortium and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, will host a family-friendly eclipse watch party. There will be children’s activities in the Spark!Lab, starting at 10 a.m. Dennis Gallagher, a plasma physicist within the Heliophysics and Planetary Science branch at Marshall, will give eclipse presentations at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in the National Geographic Theater at the center. Those attending the eclipse watch party will receive a pair of eclipse glasses with their ticket, which is included in the price of general admission to the rocket center. Civil servants can receive free admission for themselves and family members with their ID badge, while Marshall contractors can gain admission with their badge.
Joe Matus, an engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, captured this image of the total solar eclipse Aug. 21, 2017, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
NASA/Joe Matus
Marshall team members don’t have to leave the arsenal to enjoy the solar eclipse. Food trucks will be staying at the food corral during the eclipse, so viewers can enjoy lunch while witnessing the natural phenomenon.
Meanwhile, experts from NASA and Marshall have collaborated with the city of Russellville, Arkansas, to provide educational outreach opportunities and panel discussions. The public is invited to this free event, with more than 100,000 tourists expected to visit Russellville for the rare experience.
Due to the length of the eclipse totality in Russellville, NASA is planning to host part of the agency’s live television broadcast from the city, as well as conduct several scientific presentations and public events for visitors. There, the total eclipse will last for four minute and 11 seconds.
Everyone is invited to experience the eclipse through NASA’s live coverage on NASA+ and the NASA app. NASA also will stream the broadcast live on its Facebook, X, YouTube, and Twitch social media accounts, as well as a telescope-only feed of eclipse views on the NASA TV media channel and YouTube.
Those viewing the eclipse should take proper precautions to protect their eyes. Without protective eyewear during a partial eclipse, viewers are susceptible to eye damage. It’s also highly recommended that eclipse viewers wear a hat, use sunscreen, and avoid exposing a lot of skin.
According to Gallagher, the Sun’s magnetic field is affected by its rotation. When the Sun rotates enough, the magnetic field can no longer hold its energy releasing solar flares. There are even some instances where bundles of the Sun’s magnetic field and ionized gas are ejected together from the Sun’s surface, creating a coronal mass ejection. These arches and arcs may be visible during the eclipse.
“Luminous tendrils of ionized gas reaching two to three solar radii in all directions away from the Sun’s surface will be revealed in graceful loops and sweeping arches off into the distance,” Gallagher said.
“Coronal mass ejections and solar flare emissions are a direct hazard to humans and human made systems. Coronal mass ejections specifically interact with Earth’s magnetic field to create additional hazards in space and on Earth’s surface. While the Sun seems a steady life-giving companion, uninvolved with Earthly travails, a total solar eclipse offers everyone, including scientists, the chance to get a closer look at what goes on at the Sun behind the blinding glare of its nuclear heart.”
Hi-C Rocket Experiment Could Provide New Look at Solar Flares
By Jessica Barnett
For a brief moment in April, team members with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center could get their best opportunity yet to study a solar flare using a combination of new technologies in the first-ever Solar Flare Sounding Rocket Campaign.
Teams are planning to launch two rocket experiments within a minute of each other during an active solar flare. The High-resolution Coronal Flare mission (Hi-C Flare) led by Marshall and the fourth Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager mission (FOXSI-4), led by the University of Minnesota, have complementary instrumentation designed to study the extreme energies involved with solar flares.
From left, NASA test engineer William Hogue, Hi-C principal investigator Sabrina Savage, and NASA systems scientist Ken Kobayashi stand in front of the Hi-C flare instrument section after it has been packaged and prepared for shipping from White Sands to Alaska.
NASA
“This is a pioneering campaign,” said Sabrina Savage, principal investigator for Hi-C Flare. “Launching sounding rockets to observe the Sun to test new technologies optimized for flare observations has not even been an option until now.”
Following a month of integration and testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the Hi-C Flare team is completing two weeks of launch site integration at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The planned campaign window will be open for two weeks, beginning April 5. Each morning, the teams will spend about five hours preparing the experiment for launch, followed by up to four hours of monitoring solar data for the right flare that meets the mission study criteria. If none occurs, the rockets will be restowed in shelters overnight, and the launch will be reattempted the next day.
But if the right one does appear, the experiments will launch on Black Brant IX sounding rockets. Hi-C Flare is equipped with the third iteration of the High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C 3. This will be the fourth flight for Hi-C, but its first with such ride-along instruments as COOL-AID (COronal OverLapagram – Ancillary Imaging Diagnostics), CAPRI-SUN (high-Cadence low-energy Passband x-Ray detector with Integrated full-SUN field of view), and SSAXI (Swift Solar Activity X-ray Imager). With these new tools, the team hopes to further solar research by capturing data at flare energies in higher-than-ever resolution and cadence.
Austin Bumbalough, an electronics engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, waves from behind the Hi-C payload in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building in White Sands, New Mexico, in February 2024. The payload will be used in the Hi-C rocket experiment planned to take place sometime in April.
NASA
“It’s a different wavelength from previous Hi-C flights, there are different features that we expect to see on the Sun’s corona, and there’s a slightly different temperature range of features that we expect to see,” said Adam Kobelski, institutional principal investigator for the SSAXI instrument.
The Sun is currently experiencing the “solar maximum” phase of its activity cycle, which increases the chances of a solar flare occurring during the campaign window. The study requires a specific type of flare, one that registers as a C5-class or higher with a duration longer than the rocket flight. While it isn’t yet possible to precisely predict when a solar flare will occur or how long it will be, the team has developed algorithms to provide alerts and predictive diagnostics using data from solar telescopes in orbit, factoring in the complexity of active regions and real-time changes to X-ray and extreme ultraviolet solar output.
The alert won’t be instant, however. In fact, it could take several minutes for the information to get from a telescope in space to the team on the ground to the team members who launch the rocket – and even then, due to the science requirements for the two missions, Hi-C Flare is planning to launch after FOXSI-4 takes flight. The flare may have progressed by up to 10 minutes by the time Hi-C Flare begins making observations.
The Hi-C flare instrument sits inside a clean tent for integration testing at White Sands Missile Range in February 2024.
NASA
“That’s why we’re requiring a long-duration flare, so we can guarantee ourselves that we will see it,” said Genevieve Vigil, technical and camera lead for Hi-C and COOL-AID.
Once in air, sensors on the rocket will point the cameras toward the Sun and stabilize the instrumentation. Then, a shutter door will open and allow the cameras to acquire data for about five minutes before the door closes and the rocket falls back to Earth. Vigil said the rocket will land somewhere in the Alaskan tundra, where it will stay until weather conditions are safe enough for it to be retrieved via helicopter and for the team to begin fully processing the data.
Kobelski is hoping to see small-scale heating in the corona.
“It’s a very unique thing that only this set of instrumentation can do, since it has the high resolution and can see very hot things,” he said. “I would like to see actual structure in the heating that occurs in the corona.”
The Hi-C Flare experiment and rocket subsystems are staged on the launch rail and prepared for integration with the rocket motors in April 2024.
NASA
For Vigil, it’s about testing the equipment and the process.
“I want to show that this method – of catching a flare in action, then launching a rocket to go take pictures of it – is an effective way to study flares,” she said. “That would open a lot of doors to a lot of other kinds of instruments that you could build and specifically design for flare studies, that you could then test.”
Marshall Space Flight Center leads the Hi-C Flare experiment in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Montana State University in Bozeman. Launch support is provided at Poker Flat Research Range by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, which is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.
‘Hooray for SLS!’ Children’s Book Launches on NASA.gov
“Hooray for SLS!” – the first in a series of illustrated children’s books designed to introduce the youngest members of the Artemis Generation ages 3 to 8 to the unique elements that make NASA’s Artemis campaign possible – is now publicly available on NASA’s website.
“Hooray for SLS!” is a NASA product written by Lane Polak and illustrated by Heather Legge-Click.
NASA
In addition to a downloadable version of the book, coloring sheets, and student activities online, parents and educators can also watch and listen to a read aloud version of the book on YouTube.
“Hooray for SLS!”is a NASA product written by Lane Polak and illustrated by Heather Legge-Click. Learn more about SLS (Space Launch System) and check out the book here.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program.
Significant events in history keep finding Mat Bevill. As the associate chief engineer for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program, Bevill assists the program chief engineer by interfacing with each of the element chief engineers and helping make critical decisions for the development and flight of the SLS mega rocket that will power NASA’s Artemis campaign. With the launch of Artemis II, the first crewed test flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft, Bevill’s technical leadership and support for the SLS Chief Engineer’s Office will place him, once again, at a notable moment in time.
Mat Bevill, the associate chief engineer for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program, stands in front of a four-segment solid rocket booster that powered the space shuttle at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA/Brandon Hancock
“Think of me as the assistant coach. While the head coach is on the front line leading the team, I’m on the sidelines providing feedback and advising those efforts,” said Bevill. As a jack-of-all-trades, he enables progress in any way that he can, something he’s familiar with after 37 years with NASA. And, on Nov. 16, 2022, as the SLS rocket roared to life for the first time with the Artemis I test flight, Bevill couldn’t help but reflect on a lifetime of experiences and lessons that led to that moment.
Bevill began his NASA career while he was still attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. During his sophomore year as a mechanical engineer student, he applied for the agency’s internship program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Just a few months before Bevill began his journey with NASA, the Challenger accident occurred, taking the lives of all seven crewmembers in January 1986. Bevill joined the Solid Motor Branch at Marshall as teams across the agency worked to understand the cause of the accident. It was a fast-paced environment, and Bevill had to learn quickly about the solid rocket boosters.
“It was a surreal experience, but I was privileged to work with those people. We were figuring out tough lessons together and working toward a common goal,” Bevill recalls.
Those tough lessons provided Bevill with tremendous hands-on experience related to the solid rocket booster hardware that would not only shape his career, but, later, the SLS rocket. The five-segment solid rocket boosters that provide more than 75% of thrust for SLS to go to the Moon are based on the same four-segment design that powered 135 shuttle missions to low Earth orbit. His experience from his time with the shuttle led him to deputy chief engineer for the SLS Boosters Office.
Just as for Artemis I, Bevill will be standing by and serving as the “assistant coach” for Artemis II as the SLS rocket, once again, takes flight and sends the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon. “SLS has been the crowning jewel of my career, and I consider myself blessed to be a part of NASA’s history,” Bevill said.
SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
NASA Names Finalists to Help Deal with Dust in Human Lander Challenge
NASA selected 12 finalist teams to compete in the next round of the Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) competition. In 2023, NASA invited undergraduate and graduate students from accredited colleges and universities in the United States to propose innovative solutions to manage the lunar dust a spacecraft stirs up when landing on the Moon.
NASA’s Artemis campaign will establish a long-term human presence on and around the Moon for the benefit of all, and one of the challenges the agency and its partners must address is the particularly dusty aspect of landing on the lunar surface. These university-level teams will spend the next several months continuing to develop their concepts for managing or preventing the cloud of dust created when using rocket engines to land on unprepared surfaces like the Moon. This effect is called plume surface interaction and can damage assets NASA plans to establish on the Moon’s surface, like habitats and scientific experiments.
“Each team brings a unique perspective and I’m excited to see the cumulation of each team’s extensive research and concept development at the 2024 Forum,” said Jamshid Samareh, lead for the technology identification and assessment team at NASA’s Langley Research Center. “Their proposed system-level designs showcase the brilliance and dedication of the Artemis Generation to our collective mission. I am confident their work will propel us closer to the Moon and hopefully inspire future advancements in space exploration.”
The 2024 HuLC Finalist Teams are:
Colorado School of Mines
“Prudent Landers – FAST”
Advisor: Mark Florida, Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, David Purcell
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
“Plume Additive for Reducing Surface Ejecta and Cratering (PARSEC)”
Advisor: Dr. Siwei Fan
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
“Ceramic Research Advancement Technology at Embry-Riddle (C.R.A.T.E.R.)”
“Synthetic Orbital Landing Area for Crater Elimination (SOLACE)”
Advisor: Dr. Helen Reed
Texas State University
“Numerical Simulation and Physical Validation of Regolith Ejecta During Plume Surface Interaction”
Advisor: Dr. Bin Xiao
The College of New Jersey
“TCNJ Adaptable Regolith Retention Program (TARRP)”
Advisor: Mohammed Alabsi
University of California San Diego
“Microwave Lunar Sintering of Nanophase Iron Enriched Lunar Regolith for the Creation of a Lunar Landing Pad”
Advisor: Dr. Amy Eguchi, Dr. Zahra Sadeghizadeh, Dr. Ross Turner
University of Colorado Boulder (Graduate Team)
“Lunar Surface Assessment Tool (LSAT): A Simulation of Lunar Dust Dynamics for Risk Analysis”
Advisor: James Nabity
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
“HINDER: Holistic Integration of Navigational Dynamics for Erosion Reduction”
Advisor: Laura Villafane Roca
University of Michigan
“ARC-LIGHT: Algorithm for Robust Characterization of Lunar surface Imaging for Ground Hazards and Trajectory”
Advisor: Mirko Gamba, Chris Ruf
The finalist selection process involved a rigorous assessment of each team’s proposal package submission, consisting of a 5–7-page concept proposal and a two-minute summary video. The judging panel made up of subject matter experts from NASA’s Human Landing System Program considered factors such as feasibility, innovation, and adherence to NASA’s safety standards. Each team will receive a $7,000 stipend award to facilitate further development of their proposed concept and their full participation in the 2024 HuLC Forum in Huntsville in June. The 12 finalists will make final presentations to a panel of NASA and industry experts at the onsite HuLC Forum. The top three winning teams will share a prize purse of $18,000.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Human Landing System Program.
Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare for future astronaut missions to Mars.
In the year 1181 a rare supernova explosion appeared in the night sky, staying visible for 185 consecutive days. Historical records show that the supernova looked like a temporary ‘star’ in the constellation Cassiopeia shining as bright as Saturn.
Ever since, scientists have tried to find the supernova’s remnant. At first it was thought that this could be the nebula around the pulsar – the dense core of a collapse star – named 3C 58. However closer investigations revealed that the pulsar is older than supernova 1181.
Pa 30 is a nearly circular nebula with a central star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is pictured here combining images from several telescopes. This composite image uses data across the electromagnetic spectrum and shows a spectacular new view of the supernova remnant.
X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/U. Manitoba/C. Treyturik, (XMM-Newton) ESA/C. Treyturik; Optical: (Pan-STARRS) NOIRLab/MDM/Dartmouth/R. Fesen; Infrared: (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech/; Image Processing: Univ. of Manitoba/Gilles Ferrand and Jayanne English
In the last decade, another contender was discovered; Pa 30 is a nearly circular nebula with a central star in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is pictured here combining images from several telescopes. This composite image uses data across the electromagnetic spectrum and shows a spectacular new view of the supernova remnant. This allows us to marvel at the same object that appeared in our ancestors’ night sky more than 800 years ago.
X-ray observations by ESA’s XMM-Newton (blue) show the full extent of the nebula and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (cyan) pinpoints its central source. The nebula is barely visible in optical light but shines bright in infrared light, collected by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer (red and pink). Interestingly, the radial structure in the image consists of heated sulfur that glows in visible light, observed with the ground-based Hiltner 2.4 m telescope at the MDM Observatory (green) in Arizona, USA, as do the stars in the background by Pan-STARRS (white) in Hawaii, USA.
Studies of the composition of the different parts of the remnant have led scientists to believe that it was formed in a thermonuclear explosion, and more precisely a special kind of supernova called a sub-luminous Type Iax event. During this event two white dwarf stars merged, and typically no remnant is expected for this kind of explosion. But incomplete explosions can leave a kind of ‘zombie’ star, such as the massive white dwarf star in this system. This very hot star, one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way (about 200 000 degrees Celsius), has a fast stellar wind with speeds up to 16,000 km/h. The combination of the star and the nebula makes it a unique opportunity for studying such rare explosions.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Europa Clipper Survives and Thrives in ‘Outer Space’ on Earth
In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on a 1.6-billion-mile voyage to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa. From the wild vibrations of the rocket ride to the intense heat and cold of space to the punishing radiation of Jupiter, it will be a journey of extremes. The spacecraft was recently put through a series of hard-core tests at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to ensure it’s up to the challenge.
Called environmental testing, the battery of trials simulates the environment that the spacecraft will face, subjecting it to shaking, chilling, airlessness, electromagnetic fields, and more.
Europa Clipper is seen in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at JPL in February, before the start of thermal vacuum testing. A battery of tests ensures that the NASA spacecraft can withstand the extreme hot, cold, and airless environment of space.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
“These were the last big tests to find any flaws,” said JPL’s Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager. “Our engineers executed a well-designed and challenging set of tests that put the system through its paces. What we found is that the spacecraft can handle the environments that it will see during and after launch. The system performed very well and operates as expected.”
The most recent environmental test for Europa Clipper was also one of the most elaborate, requiring 16 days to complete. The spacecraft is the largest NASA has ever built for a planetary mission and one of the largest ever to squeeze into JPL’s historic 85-foot-tall, 25-foot-wide thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC). Known as the 25-foot Space Simulator, the chamber creates a near-perfect vacuum inside to mimic the airless environment of space.
At the same time, engineers subjected the hardware to the high temperatures it will experience on the side of Europa Clipper that faces the Sun while the spacecraft is close to Earth. Beams from powerful lamps at the base of the Space Simulator bounced off a massive mirror at its top to mimic the heat the spacecraft will endure.
To simulate the journey away from the Sun, the lamps were dimmed and liquid nitrogen filled tubes in the chamber walls to chill them to temperatures replicating space. The team then gauged whether the spacecraft could warm itself, monitoring it with about 500 temperature sensors, each of which had been attached by hand.
TVAC marked the culmination of environmental testing, which included a regimen of tests to ensure the electrical and magnetic components that make up the spacecraft don’t interfere with one another.
NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen being lifted into the Space Simulator at JPL in February. Thermal vacuum testing, which lasted 16 days, ensures that the spacecraft will withstand the harsh conditions of space.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The orbiter also underwent vibration, shock, and acoustics testing. During vibration testing, the spacecraft was shaken repeatedly – up and down and side to side – the same way it will be jostled aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during liftoff. Shock testing involved pyrotechnics to mimic the explosive jolt the spacecraft will get when it separates from the rocket to fly its mission. Finally, acoustic testing ensured that Europa Clipper can withstand the noise of launch, when the rumbling of the rocket is so loud it can damage the spacecraft if it’s not sturdy enough.
“There still is work to be done, but we’re on track for an on-time launch,” Evans said. “And the fact that this testing was so successful is a huge positive and helps us rest more easily.”
Later this spring, the spacecraft will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. There, teams of engineers and technicians will carry out final preparations with eyes on the clock. Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10.
After liftoff, the spacecraft will zip toward Mars, and in late February 2025, it will be close enough to use the Red Planet’s gravitational force for added momentum. From there, the solar-powered spacecraft will swing back toward Earth to get another slingshot boost – from our own planet’s gravitational field – in December 2026.
Then it’s on to the outer solar system, where Europa Clipper is set to arrive at Jupiter in 2030. The spacecraft will orbit the gas giant while it flies by Europa 49 times, dipping as close as 16 miles from the moon’s surface to gather data with its powerful suite of science instruments. The information gathered will tell scientists more about the moon’s watery interior.
A timelapse video shows engineers and technicians moving NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft into the 85-foot-tall Space Simulator at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The spacecraft underwent thermal vacuum testing in the chamber in February 2024 and passed with flying colors. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA Sets Coverage for Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Crewmates Return
Three crew members are scheduled to begin their return to Earth on April 5, from the International Space Station. NASA will provide live coverage of their departure from the orbital complex and landing.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara uses a portable glovebag to replace components on a biological printer, the BioFabrication Facility, that is testing the printing of organ-like tissues in microgravity.
NASA
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus will depart from the station’s Rassvet module in the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 10:55 p.m. CDT April 5, and will head for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, at 2:18 a.m. April 6.
Coverage will begin at 7 p.m. on April 5 with farewells and the Soyuz hatch closure 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.
O’Hara is completing a mission spanning 204 days in space that covered 3,264 orbits of the Earth and 86.5 million miles. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to the station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on March 23. Dyson will remain aboard the station for a six-month research mission.
After landing, the three crew members will fly on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O’Hara then will depart back to Houston.
The HOSC (Huntsville Operations Support Center) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, the Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis missions, as well as science and technology demonstration missions. The Payload Operations Integration Center within the HOSC operates, plans, and coordinates the science experiments onboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
