University High School Wins Regional Science Bowl at NASA’s JPL
The 2024 National Science Bowl regional competition hosted by JPL included 21 schools, with this team from Irvine’s University High School taking first place. From left, coach David Knight, Feodor Yevtushenko, Yufei Chen, Nathan Ouyang, Wendy Cao, and Julianne Wu.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
After months of preparation, more than 100 students competed at the fast-paced annual academic competition hosted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For the second year in a row, a team from Irvine’s University High School claimed victory at a regional competition of the National Science Bowl, hosted Saturday, Feb. 3, by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
More than 100 students from 21 schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties competed in the academic challenge, which marked JPL’s 32nd year as host. Fullerton’s Troy High won second place, and Arcadia High placed third.
Teams from University High have triumphed at the event several times in recent years. The school also won this year’s regional Ocean Sciences Bowl, hosted last month by JPL.
In National Science Bowl competitions, students have mere seconds to answer multiple-choice questions on topics including biology, chemistry, Earth science, physics, energy, and math. Four students and one alternate compose each team, with a teacher serving as coach.
Student teams spend months preparing, both studying and practicing their technique with the bowl’s “Jeopardy!”-style buzzers. Dozens of volunteers from JPL help make sure the contest runs smoothly. It all comes down to a surprisingly intense event.
“There’s so much energy, it’s a thrill to watch,” said JPL Public Services Office manager Kim Lievense, who’s been coordinating the competition for the lab since 1993. “I just love seeing the students’ concentration and commitment, and knowing how rewarding it is for volunteers as well.”
University High is now eligible to compete against winners from dozens of other regional competitions across the country at the national finals tournament, held in Washington April 25-29.
Run by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the National Science Bowl is one of the nation’s largest academic science competitions. More than 344,000 students have participated since the competition began in 1991.
Navigation Doppler Lidar is a guidance system that uses laser pulses to precisely measure velocity and distance. NASA will demonstrate NDL’s capabilities in the lunar environment during the IM-1 mission.
Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman
Later this month, NASA’s commercial lunar delivery services provider Intuitive Machines will launch its Nova-C lunar lander carrying several NASA science and technology payloads, including the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL). This innovative guidance system, developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, under the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), can potentially revolutionize landing spacecraft on extraterrestrial worlds.
The NDL technology is a NASA payload for this Intuitive Machines Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) delivery, meaning NASA will demonstrate NDL’s capabilities in the lunar environment during the mission but the data is not considered mission-critical for the successful landing of Nova-C, as Intuitive Machines has its own navigation and landing systems.
The Artemis mission will take humans back to the Moon and Navigation Doppler Lidar will ensure a safe landing for everyone onboard. NDL Chief Engineer Glenn Hines explains how lasers will relieve astronauts of some of the burdens of making safe, precise landings on the Moon.
The NDL story started almost 20 years ago when Dr. Farzin Amzajerdian, NDL project manager at NASA Langley, made a breakthrough and successfully found a precise way to land rovers on Mars. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several attempts at landing rovers on the surface of Mars were met with several significant challenges.
Radar was inherently imprecise for this application. Radio waves cover a large area on the ground, meaning smaller craters and boulders that are commonly found on the Martian surface could ‘hide’ from detection and cause unexpected hazards for landers.
“The landers needed the radar sensor to tell them how far they were off the ground and how fast they were moving so they could time their parachute deployment,” said Amzajerdian. “Too early or too late, the lander would miss its target or crash into the surface.”
Radio waves also couldn’t measure velocity and range independently of one another, which is important, according to Aram Gragossian, electro-optics lead for NDL at NASA Langley, who joined the team about six years ago.
“If you go over a steep slope, the range changes very quickly, but that doesn’t mean your velocity has changed,” he said. “So if you just feed that information back to your system, it may cause catastrophic reactions.”
Amzajerdian knew about this problem, and he knew how to fix it.
“Why not use a lidar instead of a radar?” he asked.
LiDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, is a technology that uses visible or infrared light the same way radar uses radio waves. Lidar sends laser pulses to a target, which reflects some of that light back onto a detector. As the instrument moves in relation to its target, the change in frequency of the returning signal – also known as the Doppler effect – allows the lidar to measure velocity directly and precisely. Distance is measured based on the travel time of the light to the target and back.
Lidar offered several advantages over radar, notably the fact that a laser transmits a pencil beam of light that can give a more precise and accurate measurement.
In 2004, Amzajerdian proposed NDL as a concept to the Mars Science Laboratory team. In 2005, he and his team received funding from Langley to put together a proof of concept. Then, in 2007, they received funding for building and testing a prototype of a helicopter. This is when Langley’s Dr. Glenn Hines joined NDL — first as electronic lead and now as chief engineer.
Since then, Amzajerdian, Hines, and numerous other team members have worked tirelessly to ensure NDL’s success.
Hines credits the various NASA personnel who have continued to advocate for NDL. “In almost everything in life, you’ve got to have a champion,” Hines said, “somebody in your corner saying, ‘Look, what you’re doing is good. This has credibility.’ ”
The Intuitive Machines delivery is just the beginning of the NDL story; a next-generation system is already in the works. The team has developed a companion sensor to NDL, a multi-functional Flash Lidar camera. Flash Lidar is a 3D camera technology that surveys the surrounding terrain — even in complete darkness. When combined with NDL, Flash Lidar will allow you to go “anywhere, anytime.”
Other future versions of NDL could have uses outside the tricky business of landing on extraterrestrial surfaces. In fact, they may have uses in a very terrestrial setting, like helping self-driving cars navigate local streets and highways.
Looking at the history and trajectory of NDL, one thing is certain: The initial journey to the Moon will be the culmination of decades of hard work, perseverance, determination, and a steadfast belief in the project across the team, but held most fervently by NDL’s champions, Amzajerdian and Hines.
NASA is working with multiple CLPS vendors to establish a regular cadence of payload deliveries to the Moon to perform experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the lunar surface. Payloads delivered through CLPS will help NASA advance capabilities for science, technology, and exploration on the Moon.
The Iconic Photos from STS-41B: Documenting the First Untethered Spacewalk
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The Iconic Photos from STS-41B: Documenting the First Untethered Spacewalk
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, STS-41B mission specialist, reaches his maximum distance from space shuttle Challenger before returning to the spacecraft using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
Credits: NASA
As astronaut Bruce McCandless II flew the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) out of the space shuttle Challenger’s payload bay for the first time on February 7, 1984, many in the agency were fearful about the use of a self-propelled and untethered backpack in space. (Previous spacewalkers remained connected to the vehicle with tethers. This jet-pack allowed crews to move outside of the cargo bay and perform activities away from the safety of the spacecraft.) He remembered trying to ease the tension for his wife and the flight controllers in Mission Control, saying something similar to Neil Armstrong’s declaration as he first stepped on the Moon in 1969. “It may have been one small step for Neil,” he proclaimed, “but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.”
It may have been one small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.
Bruce McCandless II
NASA Astronaut
The crew of STS-41B take an informal portrait on the mid-deck of the Earth-orbiting Challenger. Counter clockwise from the top right are astronauts Vance D. Brand commander; Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson, pilot; and Dr. Ronald E. McNair, Bruce McCandless II, and Robert L. Stewart, all mission specialists.
NASA
The MMU was the highlight of the STS-41B mission as demonstrated by the stunning mission photographs that graced the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology, not once, not twice, but three times.
“Hoot” Gibson, the flight’s pilot, shot the photograph featured on the February 20, 1984, issue of the magazine from the crew cabin. Gibson remembered he was the only one on the crew that “had absolutely nothing to do” as McCandless made his way out into space, so he picked up a Hasselblad camera and began documenting the events. When he first looked through the camera’s viewfinder, he could not believe what an incredible sight it was to see McCandless untethered, floating above the Earth. Gibson wanted to capture what he was seeing and remembered how meticulous he was. For each photograph he took three light meter readings and checked the focus four times. In the crew’s photography training he learned that an off-kilter horizon looked wrong and was not pleasing to the eye. That presented a slight problem because Challenger was at a 28.5-degree inclination, so he “tilted the camera to put the horizon level in the pictures.”
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II is a few meters away from the cabin of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger in this iconic photo taken by Hoot Gibson, which was featured on the February 20, 1984 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.
NASA
The result was one of NASA’s most iconic and requested images. McCandless called the photograph “beautiful, partly because the sun is shining directly on me.” His son, Bruce McCandless III, said his father “appears to be glowing.” Because the sun was in his eyes, he closed the helmet visor, which made it difficult to identify who exactly was inside the spacesuit. “My anonymity means people can imagine themselves doing the same thing,” he said. And, he added, “at visitor centres [sic], they often have life-sized cardboard versions with the visor cut out, so people can peep through.” Perhaps more importantly, as expressed by United States Senator John McCain, the photo “inspired generations of Americans to believe that there is no limit to the human potential.”
A second, but less recognized image, appeared on the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology the following week: February 27, 1984. Also taken by Gibson, the image featured McCandless on the Manipulator Foot Restraint or “cherry picker” device at end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The restraint was a platform where spacewalkers could work outside the vehicle but remain anchored at the end of the RMS to repair a satellite or other activities. STS-41B marked the first test of the new apparatus. Gibson explained how he chose to capture McCandless on the device. “What I did was I shifted the camera so that he wasn’t right in the center of the picture. I put him on the edge and the orbiter’s rudder on the other edge of the picture. That made a really cool photo.”
The feet of Bruce McCandless II are anchored in the Mobile Foot Restraint (MFR) and moved around by the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The aft portion of the Challenger, to which the RMS is connected, is seen in lower left corner.
NASA
A third image from the mission appeared on the March 12, 1984, cover of the magazine. The photograph, taken by a fixed camera on McCandless’s helmet, captured Challenger in its entirety, which included the payload bay with the Shuttle Pallet Satellite and a glimpse of astronaut Robert Stewart standing just beneath the spacecraft’s RMS.
This photo of Challenger was the third from the STS-41B mission to be featured on the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology.
NASA
These photographs from STS-41B, from the tenth flight of the space shuttle, illustrate just how engaging and exciting shuttle missions were. While flying in space became more routine in the 1980s, no one, not even the crew, “appreciated how spectacular” the first MMU flight “was going to be.” The STS-41B photos demonstrated that human spaceflight remained just as captivating, breathtaking, and inspiring as it had always been.
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal is the NASA Human Spaceflight Historian. She is the author of Winning the West for Women: The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe and Making Space for Women: Stories from Trailblazing Women of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Meet the Creators, Part 3: NASA’s 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Posters
3 min read
Meet the Creators, Part 3: NASA’s 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Posters
A total solar eclipse is a captivating experience – evoking feelings of awe and wonder that are sometimes best expressed through art.
Inspired by the upcoming total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, artists Tyler Nordgren and Kristen Perrin have designed two posters for NASA that present the magic of the eclipse in unique ways.
Tyler Nordgren
Download the poster here.
NASA/Tyler Nordgren
In “The Sun and Moon Align with You” poster for NASA, Nordgren – who is a professional astronomer as well as an artist – said that his goal was to capture the experience that can be had by millions of people in cities across the United States in April, while reflecting on the last total solar eclipse that crossed the country in August 2017.
“For 2017, the total solar eclipse passed over so many national parks and natural landscapes with very few cities in the path. So I created a poster modeled after the 1930s ‘See America’ national parks posters produced by the Works Progress Administration to educate Americans about the parks. I figured I was doing the same thing. Now, seven years later in 2024, this time the total solar eclipse is passing over major metropolitan areas. Over 30 million people will be living directly in the path of totality – that’s almost three times the total in 2017. So I wanted to make a poster that emphasized what it would be like to see it in one of these cities.
“The poster shows a figure standing before a representative skyline where I used elements of different cities (like certain buildings and bridges) all across the path of totality. Along the underpass that sweeps overhead of our central figure are the names of major cities from every state along totality. It truly is stunning how many people in so many cities will get to see this.
“Think about being in a sports or concert stadium when the crowd erupts in joy all at once. Now imagine, not just a stadium, but every single person in an entire city all at once at the instant the Sun goes black. This will be a day people will remember and talk about with awe for the rest of their lives. I hope I captured some small part of that.”
Kristen Perrin
Download the poster here.
NASA/Kristen Perrin
For her “Through the Eyes of NASA” poster, Perrin – who is an African American woman, mother of four, and the Senior Multimedia and Graphic Specialist on the NASA Heliophysics communications team – said she wanted to show that the eclipse is an experience for everyone.
“Designing the poster to commemorate the total solar eclipse happening on April 8 was an honor. I wanted to highlight the event using people that represented all demographics. This was done so that the eclipse could be recognized as an event for ALL. Using the spherical elements to represent the Moon and some of the planets within our solar system encouraged the overall visual to help the audience see where the eclipse takes place and understand, by the coloring, what would happen. The look of the skyline from the audience point of view was also designed to resemble an eye. This visual honed in on the tagline ‘Through the eyes of NASA’.”
California, Massachusetts Students to Hear from NASA, ESA Astronauts
NASA astronauts and Expedition 70 Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli, left, and Loral O’Hara in the Destiny laboratory celebrate the successful docking of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.
NASA
Students from California and Massachusetts will have separate opportunities next week to hear from NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The two Earth-to-space calls will air live Monday, Feb. 5, and Friday, Feb. 9, on NASA+ and agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
At 12:15 p.m. EST Feb. 5, NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will answer prerecorded questions from students at Emblem Academy in Santa Clarita, California, a public transitional kindergarten through sixth-grade school. In preparation for the event, students and their families will participate in an engineering family night where they will participate in STEM design challenges related to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics conducted on the space station.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, to Katie Demsher at kdemsher@saugususd.org or 661-294-5315.
At 10:40 a.m. Feb. 9, O’Hara and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen will answer prerecorded questions from students at Central Tree Middle, part of the Wachusett Regional School District in Massachusetts. The day of the event, 13 schools from five cities will watch live from their classrooms.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, to Dave Cornacchioli at david_cornacchioli@wrsd.net or 508-886-0073.
For more than 23 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts living in space aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the International Space Station benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future exploration. As part of Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars. Inspiring the next generation of explorers – the Artemis Generation – ensures America will continue to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the space station at:
