“Here’s some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!”
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden joined other leaders of the world’s space agencies to
discuss the latest technological breakthroughs and developments in space exploration at the
67th International Astronautical Congress, Sept. 26-30th in Guadalajara, Mexico.
At the event, NASA discussed new elements to its multi-phase Journey to Mars to extend
the human footprint all the way to the Red Planet.
NASA will continue operations aboard the International Space Station through 2024.
Work currently underway aboard the station to encourage commercial development of low-Earth
orbit, develop deep space systems, life support and human health is part of the Earth Reliant
phase of the Journey to Mars.
In the 2020s, during the Proving Ground phase when NASA steps out farther, the agency now
plans to send an astronaut crew on a yearlong mission to a deep space destination near the
moon.
They will conduct activities to verify habitation and test our readiness for Mars.
A round-trip robotic Mars sample return mission is being targeted for the 2020s, as part of
the Earth Independent phase before finally sending humans on a mission to orbit Mars
in the early 2030s.
On Sept. 27, NASA Administrator Bolden named Thomas Zurbuchen as the agency’s new associate
administrator for the Science Mission Directorate.
Zurbuchen is a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
His experience includes research in solar and heliospheric physics, experimental space
research, space systems, and innovation and entrepreneurship.
Zurbuchen’s new role at NASA officially begins on Oct. 3.
Astronomer’s using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be high-altitude
water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
The plumes are estimated to rise about 125 miles before presumably raining material back
down onto the surface.
This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the existence of the water vapor
plumes.
It also might provide opportunities to gather samples originating from the moon’s sub-surface
ocean without having to land a spacecraft or drill through Europa’s icy surface.
Following its launch in 2018, NASA may also use the infrared vision of the James Webb
Space Telescope to confirm venting or plume activity on Europa.
The agency also is formulating a mission to Europa with a payload that could confirm the
presence of the plumes and study them from close range during multiple flybys.
On Sept. 30, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission concluded with a planned,
controlled decent of the spacecraft from its orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,
onto the comet’s surface.
The mission, which launched in 2004 and included several NASA science instruments, is the first
in history to rendezvous with a comet and escort it as it orbits the sun.
In Nov. 2014, Philae, a small lander deployed from the Rosetta spacecraft, obtained the
first images taken from a comet's surface and sent back valuable scientific data to
Earth.
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California, is celebrating 70
years of atmospheric flight research operations for the agency.
Armstrong, which began its storied history in September 1946, initially focused on experimental
aircraft called X-planes.
In the decades that have followed, the center’s mission expanded to include roles in the Space
Shuttle Program, aviation safety, and airborne science and technology advancement.
Armstrong is returning to the age of X-planes with NASA's first electric propulsion aircraft,
named the X-57.
The aircraft could lead to advances in fuel efficiency and reductions in noise and emissions.
And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …
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