NASA's Science Mission Directorate Research Articles

NASA'S NEURODIVERSITY NETWORK (N3)

NASA's Neurodiversity Network (N3) is a five-year program that has been funded as part of NASA's Science Activation Network. N3's main goal is to provide a pathway to NASA participation and STEM employment for neurodiverse learners, with a focus on those on the autism spectrum. Through the N3 program, we are enabling STEM education for a segment of the population that is significantly underserved through a process in which existing NASA education resources are redesigned with significant input from autistic learners and their instructors. The co-design process occurs primarily in informal environments, including high school summer programs, and camps and activity sessions for middle school students sponsored by the New York Hall of Science. N3 also offers a mentored summer internship program for at least ten neurodiverse high school students each year. Mentoring is provided by NASA Subject Matter Experts, individuals who collectively possess expertise that spans NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Advancing Space Science Requires NASA Support for Coordination Between the Science Mission Directorate Communities

We outline specific steps that NASA and the space science community can take to advance collaboration and coordination between the communities represented by the four NASA Science Mission Directorate Divisions. It is important to note that the only way that this effort can succeed is if NASA initiates and supports it through directed resources.

The CubeSat Mission to Study Solar Particles

The CubeSat Mission for studying Solar Particles is a NASA Science Mission Directorate and Heliophysics Division funded 6U Interplanetary CubeSat Science Mission. CuSP is scheduled to launch in mid-2020 as a secondary payload on the SLS EM -1 (Exploratory Mission One) flight. CuSP is a pathfinder mission for Space Weather Research as it will be the first heliophysics science mission to be placed in heliocentric orbit outside the influence of the Earth's magnetosphere. CuSP features three complementary, miniaturized sensors to address two science objectives: study the sources and acceleration mechanisms of solar and IP particles in near-Earth orbit, and support space weather research by determining proton radiation levels during SEP events and identifying properties of ST ions that could help predict the arrival of strong CME-driven IP shock waves that produce geomagnetic storms.

The Integrated Product Team Educational Experience

The Integrated Product Team (IPT) is a multidisciplinary and multi-university STEM educational project whose goal is to provide the opportunity for undergraduate scientists and engineers to translate stakeholder needs and requirements into viable science and engineering design solutions via a distributed multidisciplinary team environment in a Pre-Phase A design activity. The core of the project is a two-semester senior design sequence where science, engineering, and liberal arts undergraduate students form multidisciplinary competitive teams to develop system concepts of interest for NASA Science Mission Directorate. The two-semester design sequence for the IPT project emphasizes four key principles that are critical for any new scientist/engineer in the competitive environment of today: systems thinking, communication, teamwork, and design. These four principles are taught over four phases in the two-semester sequence: requirements development, team formation and mission architecture development, system definition and development, and system design. Replicating the real world of spacecraft design, the science team members determine the science requirements for the mission, develop the science traceability matrix, select the correct instrumentation to meet the science requirements, and develop the science operations plan. The engineering team members design and develop the spacecraft(s) necessary to accomplish the science requirements and provide computer-aided design models of each spacecraft.

The Instruments and Capabilities of the Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSats

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat is the first solar science oriented CubeSat mission flown for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, with the main objective of measuring the solar soft X-ray (SXR) flux and a science goal of determining its influence on Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere. These observations can also be used to investigate solar quiescent, active region, and flare properties. The MinXSS X-ray instruments consist of a spectrometer, called X123, with a nominal 0.15 keV full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) resolution at 5.9 keV and a broadband X-ray photometer, called XP. Both instruments are designed to obtain measurements from 0.5 – 30 keV at a nominal time cadence of 10 s. A description of the MinXSS instruments, performance capabilities, and relation to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 0.1 – 0.8 nm flux is given in this article. Early MinXSS results demonstrate the capability of measuring variations of the solar spectral soft X-ray (SXR) flux between 0.8 – 12 keV from at least GOES A5–M5 (5 times 10^{-8},mbox{--},5 times10^{-5}~mbox{W},mbox{m}^{-2}) levels and of inferring physical properties (temperature and emission measure) from the MinXSS data alone. Moreover, coronal elemental abundances can be inferred, specifically for Fe, Ca, Si, Mg, S, Ar, and Ni, when the count rate is sufficiently high at each elemental spectral feature. Additionally, temperature response curves and emission measure loci demonstrate the MinXSS sensitivity to plasma emission at different temperatures. MinXSS observations coupled with those from other solar observatories can help address some of the most compelling questions in solar coronal physics. Finally, simultaneous observations by MinXSS and the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) can provide the most spectrally complete soft X-ray solar flare photon flux measurements to date.

Radiation belt probes launched

Storms on Earth delayed by only a few days the launch of NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), which blasted off on 30 August for a 2‐year tour to explore the Van Allen radiation belts. The two satellites will help scientists learn about the processes that affect electrons and ions in the donut‐shaped belts and how the belts change in the context of geomagnetic storms. “The information collected from these probes will benefit the public by allowing us to better protect our satellites and understand how space weather affects communications and technology on Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Each probe carries an identical suite of instruments, including an Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma Suite; Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science; Electric Field and Waves Suite; Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment; and Relativistic Proton Spectrometer. RBSP is part of NASA's Living With a Star program and is managed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. For more information, see http://rbsp.jhuapl.edu.

NASA's Spacefaring Science Chief Sets a New Course for Mars

Science spoke to John Grunsfeld, head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, days before what he calls the science event of the decade: the 5 August (PDT) landing of Curiosity on the martian surface.

Chandra Observatory marks 10 years in space

NASA's Chandra X‐ray Observatory, originally envisioned as a 5‐year mission, was deployed into an elliptical orbit around Earth 10 years ago, on 23 July 1999. The most powerful X‐ray telescope yet, Chandra has provided a peak into the high‐energy universe and has independently confirmed the existence of dark energy. Martin Weisskopf, Chandra project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., said discoveries made possible by the observatory “have made dramatic changes to our understanding of the universe and its constituents.”“The Great Observatories program—of which Chandra is a major part—shows how astronomers need as many tools as possible to tackle the big questions out there,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Hubble Space Telescope, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope are NASA's other Great Observatories.

MOVERS

Robert Strain has been named the new director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Strain has led the space department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, since 2006 and has worked as a manager for the defense and space industries for more than 25 years. He succeeds Edward Weiler, who was appointed associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in May.

Lunar science research proposals sought

NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in cooperation with the agencys Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, is seeking research projects for the NASA Lunar Science Institute. According to the notice, proposals “should include broadly based investigations of the highest quality that address lunar science objectives” and also should align with the institute's goals and objectives. Notices of intent are due 27 June 2008, and proposals are due 29 August 2008.

NASA's lunar planning

NASA announced plans on 30 October to establish the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). To be managed from the Ames Research Center, the institute is expected to begin operations on 1 March 2008 and will augment other agency‐funded lunar science investigations by encouraging the formation of interdisciplinary research teams. “NLSI will help us coordinate and expand a number of in‐depth research efforts in lunar science and other fields that can benefit from human and robotic missions that are part of NASA's exploration plans,” said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

NASA science problems deeper than dollars

With little increase in funding at NASA over the last few years and a presidential mandate to go to the Moon and Mars, NASA science has suffered as funds have been redirected to the manned space program. However, the agency could make better use of its existing science funds, according to several witnesses who testified on 2 May before the U.S. House of Representatives Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.About $3–4 billion was removed from future spending plans for NASA's Science Mission Directorate following the implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration, which was announced in 2004. The recent hearing focused on how this loss of funding could be better managed by three of NASA's four science divisions.

Recent advances in solar sail propulsion systems at NASA

Supporting NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the In-Space Propulsion Technology (ISPT) Program is developing solar sail propulsion (SSP) for use in robotic science and exploration of the solar system. SSP will provide longer on-station operation, increased scientific payload mass fraction, and access to previously inaccessible orbits for multiple potential science missions. Two different 20-m solar sail systems were produced and successfully completed functional vacuum testing last year in NASA Glenn's Space Power Facility at Plum Brook Station, Ohio. The sails were designed and developed by ATK Space Systems and L’Garde, respectively. These sail systems consist of a central structure with four deployable booms that support the sails. These sail designs are robust enough for deployments in a one atmosphere, one gravity environment, and are scalable to much larger solar sails—perhaps as much as 150 m on a side. In addition, computation modeling and analytical simulations have been performed to assess the scalability of the technology to the large sizes ( > 150 m) required for first generation solar sail missions. Life and space environmental effects testing of sail and component materials are also nearly complete. This paper will summarize recent technology advancements in solar sails and their successful ambient and vacuum testing.

Panel reviews NASA science plan

The draft science plan of the NASA Science Mission Directorate lacks a clear strategy, and the agency may need to either abandon flagship missions or the ability to execute a balanced program due to rising costs, according to a 15 September report by the U.S. National Research Council.Carl Wunsch, a member of the committee that authored the report and an oceanographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that cutbacks and mission cancellations announced by NASA have led to “a general worry that the plan might be just a paper document. [The plan] does not really talk in any way about what implementation would cost or what has been dropped from earlier such plans.”