Aug 19 2015
From The Space Library
Release 15-173 NASA Begins to Build Satellite Mission to Improve Hurricane Forecasting
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina formed in the Atlantic, construction of NASA’s next-generation hurricane-observing satellite mission now is underway in Texas.
NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission, a constellation of eight microsatellites, will improve hurricane forecasting by making measurements of ocean surface winds in and near the eye wall of tropical cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes throughout their life cycle.
CYGNSS will allow scientists to probe the inner core of hurricanes from space frequently for the first time, using both direct and reflected signals from existing GPS satellites to obtain estimates of surface wind speeds over the ocean. These measurements will advance forecasting methods by providing data that can lead to better predictions of hurricane tracks, intensities and storm surges.
As the CYGNSS and GPS satellites circle Earth, their interaction will provide a new image of wind speeds over the entire tropics every few hours, whereas a single satellite supplies a new image every few days. The ability to better monitor and predict the rapid changes in hurricane intensity, such as those observed with Hurricane Katrina, is critical to hurricane forecasters and U.S. coastal communities.
Earlier this summer, the CYGNSS mission successfully passed two major NASA reviews, clearing the way for integration, testing and preparation of the microsatellites for flight.
“These reviews were a major milestone for CYGNSS, marking the end of the detailed design and planning stages of the mission and the beginning of flight hardware assembly,” said Chris Ruf, CYGNSS principal investigator at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “We are now in the last phase of the mission prior to launch and the beginning of a new era in hurricane observations.”
The University of Michigan is directing the CYGNSS mission for NASA, including satellite design and production and science data processing. The CYGNSS constellation will be deployed into low-Earth orbit with successive satellites passing over the same region approximately every 12 minutes. The Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio is building and testing the CYGNSS microsatellites and will host the mission operations center at its Boulder, Colorado location.
Assembly of the first microsatellite began Aug. 14, with the other seven to follow in the next few weeks. The body of each satellite measures roughly 20-by-25-by-11 inches, slightly larger than a standard carry-on suitcase. When fully assembled, the satellites will each weigh about 64 pounds. With the solar panels deployed, each microsatellite will have a wingspan of 5.5 feet. The satellites will be stacked for testing in early 2016.
The mission is scheduled to launch in late 2016 on an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL expendable rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with science operations beginning in the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season.
CYGNSS is a NASA Earth Venture mission in the Earth System Science Pathfinder program, managed by the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Other projects in the program include developing high-return Earth science missions with advanced remote-sensing instruments and frequently involve partnerships with other U.S. agencies or international science and space organizations.
NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
NASA Ames Celebrates Employee’s 90th Birthday, Rich Aviation History
Founded in 1939 as the second laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), what is now NASA’s Ames Research Center has been a large part of the rich aviation history of the United States, and one of Ames’ employees is celebrating twice over on August 19, 2015, it’s both National Aviation Day and his 90th birthday.
John W. “Jack” Boyd has been part of Ames’ aviation legacy since nearly the beginning of the center’s history. He began working at Ames in January 1947 as an aeronautical engineer. Boyd’s work involved wind tunnel research of supersonic and subsonic aircraft and conducted early research on unpiloted planetary probe designs.
When asked about the future of aviation, Boyd said he hopes research with solve the sonic boom issue to enable development of an affordable supersonic transporter, allowing travelers to fly from New York to London in an hour at Mach 2.
Boyd shares his birthday with Orville Wright, and the day was chosen to honor all aviation history as the United States’ National Aviation Day.
In this, the 100th anniversary of the NACA, and the year after Ames’ 75th anniversary, the research contributions over the decades developed into the depth of aviation knowledge we have today. Before computer simulations were possible, all aerodynamic testing happened in wind tunnels. Ames constructed wind tunnels to learn about complex aerodynamics processes such as shock waves and excessive heating. Some wind tunnels have test sections big enough for a 737, and some capable of simulating hypersonic flight, with air moving over aircraft models at several times the speed of sound. Some of Ames' greatest contributions to America's aeronautics and space program include the swept-back wing concept that is used on all high-speed aircraft today, and the blunt body concept for space vehicles, which increases drag, reduces shock waves and prevents spacecraft from burning upon planetary entry. Ames research later expanded into computational fluid dynamics, simulation technology, information technology, air traffic management research, tilt rotorcraft and life sciences.
Ames continues to move aviation forward after recently hosting the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Convention. Ames Exploration Technology Intelligent Systems is researching Sense and Avoid technology to develop UAS minimum operational performance standards. Ames UTM is conducting field tests to safely enable low altitude UAS operations. We look forward to the next 100 years of aviation advancements. NASA is with you when you fly!
Drilling for Data: Simulating the Search for Life on Mars
Toiling in barren rock fields in southern Spain under temperatures as high as 108 degrees Fahrenheit, a team from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Honeybee Robotics, and Spain’s Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB, INTA-CSIC) is changing dirt into data in a way that could one day be replicated on Mars.
Working in early July at a site at Rio Tinto, Spain -- identified as a good analog to certain conditions on Mars -- the team used a computerized 35-inch drill to successfully obtain samples from the region’s barren acidic hardened soil. A robotic arm, developed and built at Ames, then transferred the drilled samples to CAB’s Signs of Life Detector (SOLID) instrument, mounted on a full-scale mock-up of a Mars lander’s deck platform.
“We chose Rio Tinto for our tests because of its extreme, organic-depleted subsurface conditions,” said Ames scientist Brian Glass, principal investigator of the Life-detection Mars Analog Project (LMAP) team. “Any present life there would be subsisting primarily on stored energy in the rocks themselves. It’s a bio-analog site rather than a mechanical or textural one.”
Once the samples were in place, the SOLID instrument examined them for specific organic compounds that could be present. The LMAP team chose the drill site for its soil characteristics, a soil that is processed by an acid stream in which microbes grow in extreme acidic environments.
“These are the kinds of microbes most likely of known Earth types to survive and grow in similar environments on Mars,” said Victor Parro, a co-investigator and lead for the SOLID instrument.
Chris McKay, LMAP co-investigator noted, “It’s critical for us to demonstrate and test the acquisition of subsurface material into instruments on a lander deck, so-called ‘dirt-to-data’, under both laboratory and field conditions.”
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is funding the LMAP field study through its Planetary Science and Technology through Analog Research (PSTAR) program. The field study includes testing of the many prototype components required for future missions: its drill, a full-scale mockup lander platform, a robot arm for transferring samples, cameras on the deck and arm, and the primary Signs of Life Detector from the CAB in Spain. NASA and the CAB have an agreement for shared astrobiology research through 2019, kicking off with the LMAP teams’ first joint field test.
“We want to know if there is Mars life and if we have the appropriate instrumentation,” said Parro. “This collaboration with NASA Ames to participate in development of these technologies drives our possibilities of detecting life outside the Earth.”
“The search for evidence of ancient climates, extinct life and potential habitats for existing life on Mars, given the desiccated and irradiated conditions near the surface, will require drilling or some other form of subsurface access,” said Glass. “The LMAP tests in Rio Tinto are an important first step, by testing robotic drill and sampling systems along with prototype life-detection instruments to assess the ‘ground truth’ of organics and biomarkers found underground at an easily-accessible Mars analog site.”
The methods utilized by the LMAP team in Spain may become standard operating procedure for future NASA space exploration. “This month’s LMAP tests demonstrated the utilization of realistic field simulation and biomarker detection technologies that will be a candidate method for deployment in flight on future Mars missions,” said McKay.
