Jun 27 2018

From The Space Library

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Current revision

MEDIA ADVISORY M18-101 NASA to Hold Teleconference for Media, Industry on Unmanned Aircraft Flight in Public Airspace

NASA will host a teleconference for members of the media and aviation industry at 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 28, to discuss the details and preliminary results of the agency’s first large-scale, remotely piloted aircraft flight in the national airspace using detect and avoid technology to fly without a safety chase aircraft.

NASA’s Ikhana MQ-9 remotely-piloted aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, flew for 2.5 hours on June 12.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), under the authority of a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization, granted NASA in March special permission to conduct a demonstration flight of its unmanned aircraft system that included transitioning through multiple airspace classes (various altitudes) and requiring communications with several air traffic control centers while employing a detect and avoid system from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and an air-to-air radar system as an alternate means of compliance for flights without chase.

Remotely piloted aircraft that transition through these airspaces normally require a piloted chase aircraft to accompany them. But, given the maturity of the developmental systems and the particular route agreed upon with the FAA, NASA and its partners were able to successfully plan and perform this flight as scheduled without the use of a chase plane. The results from this effort will inform potential changes to procedures, rules and regulations involving unmanned aircraft operation in the national airspace. This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations across the U.S.

Participants will include:

• Sam Kim, technical lead, UAS-NAS Project, Integrated Test and Evaluation (NASA)
• Randy Willis, manager, Emerging Technologies Team (FAA)
• Fabrice Kunzi, detect and avoid lead (General Atomics - Aeronautical Systems, Inc.)

The teleconference will include a 15-minute briefing by the panelists, followed by a question-and-answer session.

NASA Completes Webb Telescope Review, Commits to Launch in Early 2021

The Independent Review Board (IRB) established by NASA to assess progress on its James Webb Space Telescope has unanimously recommended that development on the world’s premier science observatory should continue; NASA has established a new launch date for Webb of March 30, 2021.

A report issued by the review board addresses a range of factors influencing Webb’s schedule and performance, including the technical challenges and tasks remaining by primary contractor Northrop Grumman before launch.

Read the full report and NASA’s response at: James Webb Space Telescope IRB Report and NASA Response

“Webb should continue based on its extraordinary scientific potential and critical role in maintaining U.S. leadership in astronomy and astrophysics,” said Tom Young, the chair of the review board. “Ensuring every element of Webb functions properly before it gets to space is critical to its success.”

The board also reaffirmed Webb’s significant complexity, incredible scientific potential, and importance to astrophysics. The report includes several recommendations for moving forward, some of which NASA has already initiated. The agency agrees with the review board’s expert guidance on decisive steps necessary to safeguard and complete the telescope’s development.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sent a message to the NASA workforce Wednesday about the report. “Webb is vital to the next generation of research beyond NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. It’s going to do amazing things – things we’ve never been able to do before – as we peer into other galaxies and see light from the very dawn of time,” said Administrator Bridenstine. “Despite major challenges, the board and NASA unanimously agree that Webb will achieve mission success with the implementation of the board’s recommendations, many of which already are underway.”

“The more we learn more about our universe, the more we realize that Webb is critical to answering questions we didn’t even know how to ask when the spacecraft was first designed,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Webb is poised to answer those questions, and is worth the wait. The valuable recommendations of the IRB support our efforts towards mission success; we expect spectacular scientific advances from NASA’s highest science priority.”

In its report, the IRB found that technical issues, including human errors, have greatly impacted the development schedule.

The agency previously had estimated an earlier launch date, but awaited findings from the IRB before making a final determination and considered data from Webb’s Standing Review Board. The agency established the new launch date estimate to accommodate changes in the schedule due to environmental testing and work performance challenges by Northrop Grumman on the spacecraft’s sunshield and propulsion system. The telescope’s new total lifecycle cost, to support the revised launch date, is estimated at $9.66 billion; its new development cost estimate is $8.8 billion.

From detecting the light of the first stars and galaxies in the distant universe, to probing the atmospheres of exoplanets for possible signs of habitability, Webb’s world-class science not only will shed light on the many mysteries of the universe, it also will complement and further enhance the discoveries of other astrophysics projects.

The first telescope of its kind, and an unprecedented feat of engineering, Webb is at the very leading edge of technological innovation and development. At its conception, challenges were anticipated for such a unique observatory of its size and magnitude. Webb was designed with highly sophisticated instruments to accomplish the ambitious scientific goals outlined in the National Academy of Sciences 2000 Decadal Survey – to answer the most fundamental questions about our cosmic origins.

Webb will be folded, origami-style, for launch inside Arianespace’s Ariane 5 launch vehicle fairing – about 16 feet (5 meters) wide. After its launch, the observatory will complete an intricate and technically-challenging series of deployments – one of the most critical parts of Webb’s journey to its final orbit, about one million miles from Earth. When completely unfurled, Webb’s primary mirror will span more than 21 feet (6.5 meters) and its sunshield will be about the size of a tennis court.

Because of its size and complexity, the process of integrating and testing parts is more complicated than that of an average science mission. Once the spacecraft element has completed its battery of testing, it will be integrated with the telescope and science instrument element, which passed its tests last year. The fully-assembled observatory then will undergo a series of challenging environmental tests and a final deployment test before it is shipped to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.

Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

RELEASE 18-056 Our Solar System’s First Known Interstellar Object Gets Unexpected Speed Boost

Using observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, an international team of scientists have confirmed ′Oumuamua (oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah), the first known interstellar object to travel through our solar system, got an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year.

“Our high-precision measurements of ′Oumuamua’s position revealed that there was something affecting its motion other than the gravitational forces of the Sun and planets," said Marco Micheli of ESA’s (European Space Agency) Space Situational Awareness Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Frascati, Italy, and lead author of a paper describing the team's findings.

Analyzing the trajectory of the interstellar visitor, co-author Davide Farnocchia of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) found that the speed boost was consistent with the behavior of a comet.

“This additional subtle force on ′Oumuamua likely is caused by jets of gaseous material expelled from its surface,” said Farnocchia. “This same kind of outgassing affects the motion of many comets in our solar system.”

Comets normally eject large amounts of dust and gas when warmed by the Sun. But according to team scientist Olivier Hainaut of the European Southern Observatory, “there were no visible signs of outgassing from ′Oumuamua, so these forces were not expected.”

The team estimates that ′Oumuamua’s outgassing may have produced a very small amount of dust particles – enough to give the object a little kick in speed, but not enough to be detected.

Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy and co-author of the study, speculated that small dust grains, present on the surface of most comets, eroded away during ′Oumuamua's long journey through interstellar space.

"The more we study ′Oumuamua, the more exciting it gets," Meech said. "I'm amazed at how much we have learned from a short, intense observing campaign. I can hardly wait for the next interstellar object!"

′Oumuamua, less than half a mile in length, now is farther away from our Sun than Jupiter and traveling away from the Sun at about 70,000 mph as it heads toward the outskirts of the solar system. In only another four years, it will pass Neptune’s orbit on its way back into interstellar space.

Because ′Oumuamua is the first interstellar object ever observed in our solar system, researchers caution that it’s difficult to draw general conclusions about this newly-discovered class of celestial bodies. However, observations point to the possibility that other star systems regularly eject small comet-like objects and there should be more of them drifting among the stars. Future ground- and space-based surveys could detect more of these interstellar vagabonds, providing a larger sample for scientists to analyze.

NASA will host a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) about the ′Oumuamua observations from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 28. To participate, go to: https://reddit.com/r/IAMA

The international team of astronomers used observations from Hubble, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, and the Gemini South Telescope and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

The paper with the team’s findings will appear in the June 27 issue of the journal Nature.

JPL hosts CNEOS for the agency’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program, an element of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Hubble. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations.