NASA Glenn, this is Houston.
NASA Now is cleared for launch.
Data systems are optimal.
Video streaming is at go.
Roger Houston!
Mission countdown to new show launch in 5, 4, 3, 2
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This is a program for you.
It's a window into NASA labs, launches, research,
and testing, and more.
Each week a new show will focus on a new topic
and give you a new Inside NASA experience.
There will be contests, games, guests, ways for you to connect
and share your projects and ideas, and lots more.
Hi, I'm Chris and this is what's happening at NASA now.
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NASA has achieved another first
by placing a communication satellite called Artemis P1
into a unique kidney-shaped orbit around a precise point
in space where the gravities of the sun, earth,
and moon are in perfect balance.
This type of orbit is called a libration orbit.
The National Institutes of Health is taking advantage
of the unique microgravity environment aboard the
International Space Station to explore questions
about important health issues like how bones
and the immune systems are affected by space travel.
More information on these stories can be found
on the NASA Now homepage.
That was NASA now, now, let's flash forward to the past.
In July of 1971the Apollo 15 mission was the first
to employ a lunar rover allowing the astronauts
to travel much farther from their landing site
and collect a wider variety of lunar samples.
Before that mission, the astronauts traveled on foot
by walking, hopping, jumping, and falling.
And expending a great deal of effort
and oxygen in the process.
Now that we're back at the Now.
Now, let's see what's up?
Or going down, at the slope!
Hi I'm Steve Bauman and this is a simulated lunar, oh wait,
this is the simulated lunar operations facility here
at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
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I'm standing in what could be called a giant sandbox.
This is no ordinary sand.
The sand we have in here isn't just
like any sand like at the beach.
It's a special blend of three different kinds of sand.
Behind me you see a hill that we've created in this big room.
And this hill is, really what it is, is like a dumptruck bed.
As a matter of fact, we had a dumptruck manufacturer make this
big steel bed for us and provide us with the hydraulic cylinders
that are underneath it that allow us to lift it
up to forty-five degrees.
The moon's surface has a lot of very fine sand in it, moon dust,
as well as heavy sand, so we've blended different sands
that we've been able to buy
into what we think is a good lunar simulant.
We're experimenting with all kinds of tires,
and in particular in here we're trying to figure
out how good they are at traction
for helping the vehicle climb hills or pull things.
This is one of the early wheels we made, and it's very plain.
You can see it's just like a big old round circle
and there's nothing much to it.
But that's what we wanted for research
so we could compare other wheels
that have better traction ability
and better construction to this plain wheel.
And one of the tires that was developed back
in the sixties was a lot like this.
You can see how springy it is.
And that's what this spiral provides,
so the vehicle itself gets a lot of springiness from this tire,
even though it's not a bouncy rubber tire like we're used to.
It provides a lot of bounce to the vehicle.
It was decided there was a better design than this
for the actual Apollo rovers that actually went
to the moon back in 1970, 71, and 72.
There were three rovers actually put on the moon.
They are still there.
This is a very precise replica of those Apollo rover wheels,
and you can see that it's bouncy and it's made out of,
totally out of metal, and it actually has very good traction
and load-carrying capability too.
But yet the wheel itself is very lightweight, which is important
for anything we send into space.
Because in the future we are going
to have different sized vehicles.
We expect to have a lot larger, heavier vehicles, and so we need
to be able to design and develop our own wheels.
This is a prototype of a wheel that we've been developing.
It's actually called a spring tire and that's
because it's made up of coil springs.
We are looking at all kinds of these kinds of wheels
for our research here in the slope facility here
at NASA Glenn Research Center.
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Did you know that in January of 2009 the newest version
of a pressurized lunar rover appeared
in the Presidential Inauguration Parade?
Now from the moon to the Milky Way, let's see what's up?
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Take a look at this cool picture taken
from the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer.
This is the rosette nebula in the constellation Monoceros,
also called the unicorn.
So this is the unicorn's rose.
You can take a look at this and other great pictures
from the sky, right from this website.
We've shown you some cool stuff, now it's your turn.
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NASA's hosting two national science challenges for teams
to develop and prepare weightless experiments.
Winning teams will be able to test their projects
in a microgravity drop tower at NASA Glenn Research Center.
Get your entries in by November first.
Something else you might like is the Earth Science Week
Photography Contest.
The deadline is October 15.
Check out these contests right here at the NASA Now homepage.
That's it for NASA Now, be sure to tune in next week
when we take a look at flight testing.
See you then on NASA Now.
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