May 5, 2024

This Week @NASA: Critical Preflight Test for Artemis I, DART Planetary Defense, New Webb Images

On September 21, groups at NASAs Kennedy Space Center conducted a cryogenic demonstration test with the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket for NASAs upcoming uncrewed Artemis I flight test around the Moon. NASAs Webb Space Telescopes very first image of Neptune includes the clearest view of Neptunes rings given that the images Voyager 2 captured throughout its 1989 flyby of the remote planet. The Webb Space Telescope recently used its infrared capability to catch its first images and spectra of Mars. InSight Detects an Impact for the First Time: These craters were formed by a September 5, 2021, meteoroid impact on Mars, the very first to be detected by NASAs InSight. Taken by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this enhanced-color image highlights the dust and soil disturbed by the effect in blue in order to make information more noticeable to the human eye.

And new Webb Space Telescope images of next-door neighbors in our solar system … a few of the stories to inform you about– This Week at NASA!

A Critical Preflight Artemis I Demonstration Test
On September 21, groups at NASAs Kennedy Space Center conducted a cryogenic presentation test with the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket for NASAs upcoming uncrewed Artemis I flight test around the Moon. The presentation test was designed to allow teams to confirm the repair work of a hydrogen leakage that turned up throughout a previous launch effort in early September, examine upgraded procedures for loading the rocket with propellant, and carry out extra assessments. Stay up to date with the most recent Artemis I updates on NASAs Artemis blog site.
At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio performs preflight checkouts in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Rubio released with crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin on September 21 for a six-month objective on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Launches to the Space Station
On September 21, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio released to the International Space Station (ISS) from Kazakhstan with 2 other members of the stations Expedition 68 crew. Later on that very same day, they docked to the stations Rassvet module and were welcomed aboard by the Expedition 67 team, including NASAs Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins. This is Rubios first spaceflight.
Webbs Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) picture of Neptune, taken on July 12, 2022, brings the worlds rings into full focus for the very first time in more than three decades. Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI).
Webb Image Captures Clearest View of Neptunes Rings in Decades.
NASAs Webb Space Telescopes very first image of Neptune includes the clearest view of Neptunes rings because the images Voyager 2 caught during its 1989 flyby of the remote world. Webb likewise captured seven of Neptunes 14 known moons consisting of Triton, which orbits Neptune in an unusual retrograde, or backward instructions. Extra studies by Webb of both Triton and Neptune are planned in the coming year.
Left: Reference map of the observed hemisphere of Mars from NASA and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Bottom right: Simultaneous NIRCam image revealing ~ 4.3-micron (F430M filter) emitted light that reveals temperature differences with latitude and time of day, as well as darkening of the Hellas Basin caused by atmospheric impacts. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST/GTO teamWebbs First Observations of The Red Planet.
The Webb Space Telescope recently used its infrared capability to record its very first images and spectra of Mars. Images of the planets eastern hemisphere recorded by Webbs Near-Infrared Camera reveal surface functions, such as craters and dust layers, in addition to thermal emission, or light provided off by the world as it loses heat. Information from the telescopes very first near-infrared spectrum of Mars might offer astronomers extra information about the planets surface area and about its atmosphere.
InSight Detects an Impact for the First Time: These craters were formed by a September 5, 2021, meteoroid impact on Mars, the very first to be detected by NASAs InSight. Taken by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this enhanced-color image highlights the dust and soil interrupted by the effect in blue in order to make information more noticeable to the human eye. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
InSight “Hears” Its First Meteoroid Impacts on Mars.
That strange sound is what a space rock crashing into Mars seems like to NASAs InSight lander. InSight detected seismic waves from 4 meteoroid influence on the Red Planet in 2020 and 2021. This includes an influence on September 5, 2021, that made these craters (see image above). Not only are these the very first impacts detected by InSights seismometer since the spacecraft landed in 2018, however they also mark the very first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact have actually been spotted on Mars.
A cropped composite of a DRACO image focused on Jupiter taken during among SMART Navs tests. DART was approximately 16 million miles (26 million km) from Earth when the image was taken, with Jupiter approximately 435 million miles (700 million km) far from the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL.
DART Uses Jupiter and Europa to Test Navigation System.
NASAs DART spacecraft is on track to intentionally crash into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on September 26. The views in this composite image of the Jupiter system were caught throughout current screening with the spacecrafts imager and guidance systems to target and track Jupiters moon Europa as it emerged from behind the world, comparable to how Dimorphos will aesthetically separate from Didymos, the bigger asteroid it orbits. DART, the worlds very first planetary defense test objective, is designed to change the course and deflect of an asteroid must one ever be discovered that is a threat to Earth. Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos is a danger to Earth.
Thats whats up today @NASA …

A crucial preflight test for Artemis I …
The very first journey to space for a NASA astronaut …