Computational Facility Named After Langley "Human Computer" Katherine Johnson
Computational Facility Named After Langley "Human Computer" Katherine Johnson
A smiling Katherine Johnson returned Thursday to the NASA center where, for decades, she used her mathematical smarts to help shape history.
This time she was in the spotlight, not behind a desk making complex calculations and searching for the truth in numbers.
Katherine Johnson worked at NASA's Langley Research Center from 1953 to 1986. Since her retirement, she's been a strong advocate for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman
The mathematician and 97-year-old Newport News resident visited NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to attend a ceremony where a $30 million, 40,000-square-foot Computational Research Facility was named in her honor.
As part of the event, Johnson also received a Silver Snoopy award from Leland Melvin, an astronaut and former NASA associate administrator for education. Often called the astronaut’s award, the Silver Snoopy goes to people who have made outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success.
“I do thank you so much for your attention, for your kindness, but more than that, I’m so happy to see you giving more recognition to women for the work that they have done,” Johnson said. “I have always done my best … At the time it was just another day’s work.”
Johnson needn’t have been modest. She’s a Presidential Medal of Freedom winnerwhose sharp mind gave NASA an edge in mankind’s quest to explore space.
She first made her mark at a time when women and African-Americans were regularly marginalized.
Working at Langley from 1953 until her retirement in 1986, Johnson made a long list of critical contributions. She calculated the trajectory of the 1961 flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Thursday’s ceremony was held on the 55th anniversary of that historic flight.
Johnson is also credited for verifying the calculations made by early electronic computers of John Glenn’s 1962 launch to orbit and the 1969 Apollo 11 trajectory to the moon.
Margot Lee Shetterly, author of a forthcoming book about Johnson and other women whose calculations were integral to America’s space program, gave the keynote address at Thursday’s event.
Her book, “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped NASA and the United States Win the Space Race,” is scheduled to be published in September by William Morrow.
Shetterly noted that Johnson eagerly credits others who share her passion for what’s now called STEM, short for science, technology, engineering and math.
In that spirit, Shetterly reviewed contributions of other notable NASA Langley women: Dorothy Vaughan, Margery Hannah and Christine Darden.
“This is one of the reasons why Mrs. Johnson’s story has captivated us,” Shetterly said. “She has such a towering talent but she has gone out of her way to recognize talent in other people.”
Hollywood is preparing to tell Johnson’s story. A film version of “Hidden Figures” starring Kirsten Dunst, Kevin Costner and Taraji P. Henson is now being produced by 20th Century Fox.
“I want to congratulate you, Mrs. Katherine Goble Johnson, Mrs. Queen Johnson, the brilliant mind, Mrs. Johnson, for the naming of the building, rightfully deserved,” said actress Henson, in a recorded video message played during the ceremony. Henson will portray Johnson in the film.
“You deserve it. They should name NASA after you! Thank you for your service.”
The Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility under construction at NASA Langley is nearly one-fourth complete and is expected to open in 2017. The third new building in the center’s 20-year revitalization plan, it will allow the center to consolidate the majority of its data centers in one location.
Rep. Bobby Scott and Hampton Mayor George Wallace spoke at Thursday’s naming ceremony. Rep. Scott Rigell sent a representative who offered his congratulations. Sen. Tim Kaine sent a video greeting. A letter from NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was read aloud.
“I am told you once remarked that, even though you grew up in the height of segregation, you did not have time to think about your place in history and that you never had a feeling of inferiority,” Bolden wrote. “Instead you considered yourself, as you described it, ‘as good as anybody, but no better.’
“The truth of the matter is that you are better. You are one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country and because of your mind, heart, and soul, my own granddaughters and young Americans like them can pursue their own dreams without a feeling of inferiority."
Rep. Scott said he's happy that Johnson's remarkable contributions are finally getting the exposure they deserve. He's looking forward to seeing them splashed across the big screen.
"I enjoy comedies and thrillers like anybody else," he said, "but Dr. Johnson's story is one that we ought to be telling our children."
See a video on Katherine Johnson's legacy.
See more photos from Thursday's event at a Flickr gallery.
More Posts from Nasalangley and Others
See what goes on behind the gates of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)!
The Hunt for New Worlds Continues with TESS
We’re getting ready to start our next mission to find new worlds! The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will find thousands of planets beyond our solar system for us to study in more detail. It’s preparing to launch from our Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Once it launches, TESS will look for new planets that orbit bright stars relatively close to Earth. We’re expecting to find giant planets, like Jupiter, but we’re also predicting we’ll find Earth-sized planets. Most of those planets will be within 300 light-years of Earth, which will make follow-up studies easier for other observatories.
TESS will find these new exoplanets by looking for their transits. A transit is a temporary dip in a star’s brightness that happens with predictable timing when a planet crosses between us and the star. The information we get from transits can tell us about the size of the planet relative to the size of its star. We’ve found nearly 3,000 planets using the transit method, many with our Kepler space telescope. That’s over 75% of all the exoplanets we’ve found so far!
TESS will look at nearly the entire sky (about 85%) over two years. The mission divides the sky into 26 sectors. TESS will look at 13 of them in the southern sky during its first year before scanning the northern sky the year after.
What makes TESS different from the other planet-hunting missions that have come before it? The Kepler mission (yellow) looked continually at one small patch of sky, spotting dim stars and their planets that are between 300 and 3,000 light-years away. TESS (blue) will look at almost the whole sky in sections, finding bright stars and their planets that are between 30 and 300 light-years away.
TESS will also have a brand new kind of orbit (visualized below). Once it reaches its final trajectory, TESS will finish one pass around Earth every 13.7 days (blue), which is half the time it takes for the Moon (gray) to orbit. This position maximizes the amount of time TESS can stare at each sector, and the satellite will transmit its data back to us each time its orbit takes it closest to Earth (orange).
Kepler’s goal was to figure out how common Earth-size planets might be. TESS’s mission is to find exoplanets around bright, nearby stars so future missions, like our James Webb Space Telescope, and ground-based observatories can learn what they’re made of and potentially even study their atmospheres. TESS will provide a catalog of thousands of new subjects for us to learn about and explore.
The TESS mission is led by MIT and came together with the help of many different partners. Learn more about TESS and how it will further our knowledge of exoplanets, or check out some more awesome images and videos of the spacecraft. And stay tuned for more exciting TESS news as the spacecraft launches!
Watch the Launch + More!
Sunday, April 15 11 a.m. EDT - NASA Social Mission Overview
Join mission experts to learn more about TESS, how it will search for worlds beyond our solar system and what scientists hope to find! Have questions? Use #askNASA to have them answered live during the broadcast.
Watch HERE.
1 p.m. EDT - Prelaunch News Conference
Get an update on the spacecraft, the rocket and the liftoff operations ahead of the April 16 launch! Have questions? Use #askNASA to have them answered live during the broadcast.
Watch HERE.
3 p.m. EDT - Science News Conference
Hear from mission scientists and experts about the science behind the TESS mission. Have questions? Use #askNASA to have them answered live during the broadcast.
Watch HERE.
4 p.m. EDT - TESS Facebook Live
This live show will dive into the science behind the TESS spacecraft, explain how we search for planets outside our solar system and will allow you to ask your questions to members of the TESS team.
Watch HERE.
Monday, April 16 10 a.m. EDT - NASA EDGE: TESS Facebook Live
This half-hour live show will discuss the TESS spacecraft, the science of searching for planets outside our solar system, and the launch from Cape Canaveral.
Watch HERE.
1 p.m. EDT - Reddit AMA
Join us live on Reddit for a Science AMA to discuss the hunt for exoplanets and the upcoming launch of TESS!
Join in HERE.
6 p.m. EDT - Launch Coverage!
TESS is slated to launch at 6:32 p.m. EDT on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Watch HERE.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Thanks for the shoutout!
I will be taking a short photography break to attend to a few long-neglected projects. I’ll be back with bone-yard pictures in time for Halloween, or sooner if something interesting crops up first.
Until then, here’s a completely irrelevant parting shot of the vacuum chambers on a hypersonic aeroelasticity wind tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Later, y'all.
Seven Reasons Why Rover Challenge is Serious Business
Prizes, awards and a year’s worth of bragging rights are at stake during our annual Human Exploration Rover Challenge. Year after year, student teams from across the world design, build and race rovers against the clock and each other.
With a space-themed obstacle course, unique rovers, competitive racing, our exhibits and dozens of international teams… it’s everything cool about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and space exploration.
Here are the “must-know” details for this year’s event:
1. Bumps, Bruises and Battle Scars
Our space-themed obstacle course often brings racers to their knees, literally. This daunting three-quarter-mile long course is difficult to traverse and isn’t for the faint of heart. It uses both lunar and Mars-themed obstacles to simulate the types of terrain found on distant planets, asteroids or moons.
Plus, teams must race their rovers in, on and around full-scale rockets and space vehicle exhibits on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center – the official visitor center for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, both in Huntsville, Alabama. See just how difficult and wild the course can be in our Flickr gallery.
2. Homemade Wheels Only
Rover teams must design and fabricate their own original, or “homemade” wheels. In-Situ Resource Utilization is an important component for our future missions to Mars, asteroids or other planets.
Astronauts can never simply purchase wheels at the store… and neither can our rover teams. Teams must not use any “off-the-shelf” wheels on their rover. By wheels, this means any component used for contact, traction or mobility on the surface of the obstacle course, including, but not limited to wheels, tracks, treads or belts.
And, as in years past, teams are not allowed to incorporate inflated (or un-inflated) pneumatic tires. Inflated tires would be considered an off-the-shelf product, not eligible under the current rules.
3. New “Sample Retrieval” Component Added
Teams may choose to compete in this optional challenge, collecting four samples (liquid, small pebbles, large rocks and soil) using a mechanical arm or a grabber they design and build. Teams must collect a soil sample and liquid sample while driving their rover, as well as collect rock samples (both large and small) while off the rover, all within a 25-minute time limit. The “Sample Retrieval” challenge highlights our deep-space exploration goals. Teams competing are eligible for the $250 prize awarded to the winner of each high school and college/university division.
4. Caution: Real STEM @work
The sights and sounds of welding, grinding and computer programming are prevalent in this hands-on, experiential activity where students solve similar problems faced by our workforce. Rover Challenge provides a unique test-bed to get students involved in real-world research and development. Their progress and success may glean potential technologies for future exploration of Mars and beyond.
5. Draws Inspiration from Apollo and Journey to Mars
Rover Challenge was inspired by the historic success of the lunar rovers from the Apollo missions, each one built by engineers and scientists at NASA Marshall. While we continue to honor our past achievements, we now highlight future accomplishments on deep-space exploration missions to Mars, asteroids or other planets. The addition of the “Sample Return” component and the Martian obstacles emphasize our commitment toward space exploration.
6. Our International Spirit is Alive and Well
Just like the International Space Station; we bring the best of several nations together to promote and celebrate space exploration. Nearly 80 teams are coming from as far away as Italy, Germany, India, Mexico, Columbia and Russia, as well as more “local” talent from the United States and Puerto Rico. View this year’s registered teams HERE.
7. Real-time Racing on Social Media
From start to finish, each racing rover team will be broadcast, live, on the Marshall Center’s Ustream channel. Plus, enjoy real-time race updates, results and awards by following Rover Challenge Twitter: @RoverChallenge
NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge will take place at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, April 8-9. For event details, rules, course information and more, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/roverchallenge
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
At Langley, Admiration and Gratitude Multiply on Katherine Johnson’s 100th Birthday
When Jasmine Byrd started her job at NASA about two years ago, she knew nothing about Katherine Johnson, the mathematician and “human computer” whose achievements helped inspire the book and movie “Hidden Figures.”
Jasmine Byrd, who works as a project coordinator at NASA's Langley Research Center, looks at an image of Katherine G. Johnson in the lobby of the building named in Johnson's honor. "I was just enthralled with her story," Byrd said.
Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman
At that point, the release of the film was still months away. But excitement was building — particularly at Byrd’s new workplace. She’d arrived at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where Johnson spent her entire, 33-year NACA and NASA career.
Soon, Byrd felt a strong connection to a woman she’d never met, nearly 70 years her senior.
“I was just enthralled with her story,” said Byrd, a project coordinator for NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project. Today, she works inside Langley’s Building 1244, the same hangar-side location where Johnson crunched numbers for the Flight Research Division in the 1950s.
View images of Katherine G. Johnson through the years at this photo gallery: https://go.nasa.gov/2MskBOq
Credits: NASA via Flickr
“I am thankful for the bridge that Katherine built for someone like myself to easily walk across,” Byrd said. “It helps me to not take this opportunity for granted. I know there were people before me who put in a lot of work and went through a lot of turmoil at times to make sure it was easier for people like myself.”
Fountain of gratitude
As Katherine G. Johnson’s 100th birthday — Aug. 26 — approached, many Langley employees expressed admiration for the woman whose math powered some of America’s first triumphs in human space exploration.
Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s May 1961 mission Freedom 7, America’s first human spaceflight. At a time when digital computers were relatively new and untested, she famously checked the computer’s math for John Glenn’s historic first orbital spaceflight by an American in February of 1962.
Those are just two bullet points in a brilliant career that stretched from 1953 to 1986.
Her 100th birthday was recognized throughout NASA and around the world. But at Langley, the milestone created an extra measure of pride and joy.
Graduate research assistant Cecilia Stoner, stopped on her way to Langley’s cafeteria, said she admires how Johnson remained humble — even when showered with accolades ranging from the Presidential Medal of Freedom to toys made in her likeness.
Stoner’s lunch companion, Erin Krist, chimed in. “It’s incredible what she managed to do,” said Krist, a summer intern. “She paved the way for women. We couldn’t work here today if that hadn’t happened.”
Langley’s acting chief technologist, Julie Williams-Byrd, echoed that thought.
Julie Williams-Byrd, acting chief technologist at NASA's Langley Research Center, said she admires Katherine Johnson's technical excellence and support of STEM education.
Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman
“She opened the doors for the rest of us,” Williams-Byrd said. “Between her and Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson and all the women who were at Langley at the time. It didn’t matter if they were called computers in skirts. They were here to do a job.
“It’s typical NASA culture, right?” Williams-Byrd said. “We have a mission. Everybody’s going to jump in and do what they can to make that mission successful.”
She also admires Johnson’s devotion to promoting science, technology, engineering and math studies among young people.
“While she was very focused on the technical work and really did great things there, her balance of life and responsibilities to those who would come up behind her, that really resonates with me,” Williams-Byrd said.
A modest mentor
Remarkably, a handful of current Langley employees worked side by side with Johnson. Among them is research mathematician Daniel Giesy, who started at the center in 1977.
“On my first job here, I was teamed with Katherine Johnson,” Giesy said. “She mentored me.”
Johnson showed Giesy the ropes as he and Johnson both provided mathematical and computer programming support for researchers working to find new tools for designing aircraft control systems. They eventually coauthored papers including “Application of Multiobjective Optimization in Aircraft Control Systems Design” from 1979, written with Dan Tabak.
“I would describe her as a good colleague, competent, courteous,” Giesy said. “She had her moments. If you slopped coffee on the way back from the break room, you bloody well better clean up after yourself. You don’t leave it for the janitor staff to work on.
“But she was focused on getting the job done,” Giesy said. “At that point in time, she wasn’t resting on laurels.” Only later would Giesy learn of her historic contributions to early space missions. “She did not brag on herself particularly.”
Regina Johns, who today recruits participants for tests related to crew systems, aviation operations and acoustics, arrived at Langley in 1968 as a high school intern. She returned as a contract employee in 1973 and has worked at Langley ever since.
This 1985 photo shows Katherine G. Johnson — front row, blue dress — posing with the Langley team she worked with at the time. Her coworker Dan Giesy is the bearded man two rows behind her on the far right.
Credits: NASA
In those early days, she remembers running into Johnson on campus occasionally. Johnson would often stop and talk, asking about her plans and what she was working on. Johns would eventually get to know Mary Jackson, another Langley researcher central to the “Hidden Figures” story.
“There weren’t a lot of minorities here at that time,” Johns said. “To know that they were engineers and mathematicians, it just gave me hope that, if they can do it, it can be done. If you work hard, you can do it.”
She, like many across the agency, said she’d like to send Johnson a birthday message.
“If I had a chance, I would say, thank you for setting the pathway for young people. Thank you for showing us that we can do anything.”
Enduring legacy
In terms of lives touched, Johnson’s work with youth stands alongside her impact as a world-class mathematician. Langley’s Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, which opened in September 2017, offers a physical reminder of her contributions.
“The Katherine Johnson building is near where I work, so I think about her often,” said Kimberly Bloom, director of Langley’s Child Development Center. Johnson’s life and accomplishments would have deserved attention even if Hollywood hadn’t come calling, she suggests.
Kimberly Bloom, director of Langley's Child Development Center, said Katherine Johnson made a positive impact on NASA culture and on America as a whole.
Credits: NASA/Sam McDonald
“It’s an important story — how she empowered women of all races,” Bloom said. “And she encouraged kids to learn. She influenced culture here at NASA, but also beyond and made an impact. She certainly is a role model.
“I’d like to thank her for all she’s done not only for NASA but also for this country,” Bloom said.
Learn more about Katherine G. Johnson's life and contributions to NASA at this link.
Sam McDonald NASA Langley Research Center
A Like for NASA
Hi everyone!
I’m participating in the NASA Aerospace Scholars program at @nasa‘s Langley Research Center ( @nasalangley ). I wanted to share my team’s Facebook page with you, so you can see what we’ve been up to! It would really help my team out if you liked the page on Facebook!
If you’re interested in the opportunity, you can apply here until June 1st! Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the program and I’ll do my best to answer.
Retired Major General Finds Balance as NASA Engineer
In many ways, the military and NASA couldn’t be different. Frank Batts has managed to navigate both worlds with precision, grace and just a bit of humor. After serving as a major general in the Army National Guard, he made the transition to working on computers as an engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
“They’re opposites, but that keeps me balanced,” Batts said. “In the Army, you’re out there blowing things up in the field. Here, you’re trying to build electronic computer components.”
Batts is a senior data-systems engineer with the Advanced Measurement and Data Systems Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He has been at Langley for 34 years and has seen the tools of the job change.
“Technology has changed tremendously,” said the 63-year-old Batts. “When we started out in the eighties, we were all using proprietary operating systems on real-time computers that were not widely used or understood. Now we’re pretty much using PCs for our work.”
In addition to his NASA career, Batts served his country with distinction in the armed forces – and made history along the way. He retired from the Army National Guard in 2012 as a major general and commander of the 29th Infantry Division in Fort Belvoir, Virginia - the first African-American to hold that post. He also served in the West Virginia and Tennessee national guards.
The adventure begins
Batts’ journey started in 1976, when he was accepted at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro and joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) there.
While at the university, Batts entered a cooperative program with the Union Carbide Corp., working in a gaseous diffusion plant in the nuclear division. After graduating from North Carolina A&T, Batts worked fulltime as an electrical engineer with Union Carbide, and as an engineering officer in the West Virginia National Guard.
“Initially when you get out of college, you’re competing with engineers from other schools,” Batts said. “I found out pretty soon that regardless of what school you came from, it got down to who can really deliver projects on time and on budget.”
Batts was pursuing a master’s degree in electronics engineering at North Carolina A&T around the time IBM introduced personal computers. He was told PCs were a fad and not worth investing in, but he glimpsed the future and got on board.
“It looked like to me it was the way to go,” he said.
But then in 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania experienced a partial core meltdown, releasing radioactive gas into the atmosphere.
The incident changed his professional trajectory, as the Union Carbide-run K-25 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Batts was working, enriched uranium for nuclear power plants.
“Prior to Three Mile Island there were plans to construct nuclear plants all over the country, and K-25’s future was secure,” Batts said. “After Three Mile Island, all of those plans were dropped; we had more enriched uranium than was needed and K-25 was slated for closure.”
That meant he needed another job. While looking to move on, Batts found that NASA Langley was using a computing system similar to the one he used while he was with Union Carbide. He sets his sights on Langley, and has been on center as an electronic engineer since 1984 .
Two worlds in one
Batts’ military and NASA worlds were peacefully cohabitating until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Batts was soon activated and from May 2004 through April 2005, served with the 54th Field Artillery Brigade Headquarters as the mobile liaison team chief in Kabul, Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“With the Army comes the leadership responsibilities. I managed a few thousand troops, and that’s no fun. I make an effort in my career at NASA to stay on the technical side rather than on the administrative side of things,” he said with a laugh.
What is fun for Batts, besides getting in more rounds at the golf course in his spare time, is serving as an example for engineering students though NASA’s outreach programs.
Batts, as the first engineer in his family, said he realizes the importance of recognizing those who blazed the trail for others.
“I have to pay homage to the people who came before me,” he said. “Before I was able to command a battalion, there was some else who commanded one, and did a credible enough job so that I had an opportunity.”
Batts also enjoys the reaction of people when they learn he works for NASA.
“There’s a lot of prestige that goes with working at NASA,” he said. “When people find out you work at NASA, they seem to look at you a bit differently.”
Eric Gillard NASA Langley Research Center
Solar System: Things to Know This Week
Get the latest on women making history at NASA, our Juno mission, the Curiosity rover and move!
1. Women at NASA Making History, Creating the Future
Throughout Women’s History Month, we’ve been presenting profiles of the women who are leading the way in deep space exploration.
+ Meet some of them
2. Juno and the Giant
Our Juno spacecraft made its fifth close flyby over giant Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops.
+ See the latest from the King of Planets
3. When the Road Gets Rough, the Tough Keep Rolling
A routine check of the aluminum wheels on our Curiosity Mars rover has found two small breaks on the rover’s left middle wheel tread–the latest sign of wear and tear as the rover continues its journey, now approaching the 10-mile (16 kilometer) mark. But there’s no sign the robotic geologist won’t keep roving right through its ongoing mission.
+ Get the full report
4. What Do Mars and Dinosaurs Have in Common?
Our research reveals that volcanic activity at the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons ceased about 50 million years ago, around the time of Earth’s Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, when large numbers of plant and animal species (including dinosaurs) went extinct. However, there’s no reason to think the two events were more than a cosmic coincidence.
+ Learn how scientists pieced together the past
5. A Comet in Commotion
Images returned from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission indicate that during its most recent trip through the inner solar system, the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was a very active place – full of growing fractures, collapsing cliffs and massive rolling boulders.
+ See the many faces of Comet #67P
6. Next Generation Space Robot is Ingenious, Versatile–and Cute
The next rovers to explore another planet might bring along a scout. The Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER) in development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was inspired by origami. Its lightweight design is capable of flattening itself, tucking in its wheels and crawling into places rovers can’t fit.
+ Meet PUFFER
7. Shadowy Dawn
According to data from our Dawn mission to Ceres, shadowed craters on the dwarf planet may be linked to the history of how the small world has been tilted over time by the gravity of planets like Jupiter.
+ Find out how understanding “cycles of obliquity” might solve solar system mysteries
8. On Orbit and Online
We’re developing a long-term technology demonstration project of what could become the high-speed internet of the sky. The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will help engineers understand the best ways to operate laser communications systems, which could enable much higher data rates for connections between spacecraft and Earth, such as scientific data downlink and astronaut communications.
+ See how it will work
9. A Big Role for Small Sats in Deep Space Exploration
We selected 10 studies to develop mission concepts using CubeSats and other kinds of very small satellites to investigate Venus, Earth’s moon, asteroids, Mars and the outer planets. “These small but mighty satellites have the potential to enable transformational science,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.
+ Get the small details
10. Rings Around the Red Planet?
It’s possible that one of our closest neighbors had rings at one point – and may have them again someday. At least, that’s the theory put forth by NASA-funded scientists at Purdue University.
+ See more details about the once and future rings of Mars
Discover more lists of 10 things to know about our solar system HERE.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
Curiosity Self-Portrait at Martian Sand Dune
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis.
The scene combines 57 images taken on Jan. 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
The location of Namib Dune is show on a map of Curiosity's route athttp://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7640. The relationship of Bagnold Dune Field to the lower portion of Mount Sharp is shown in a map at PIA16064.
The view does not include the rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites, including "Rocknest" (PIA16468), "Windjana" (PIA18390) and "Buckskin" (PIA19807).
For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide.
MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.
More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl andhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.
