THIS WEEK @NASA: Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test Series Continues, Preparing for First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids

By  //  August 7, 2021

latest happenings around NASA

ABOVE VIDEO: The engine for our Artemis Moon rocket is all fired up, final launch preparations for an historic mission, and how you can hear back billions of years into the past … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

(NASA) – Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test Series Continues

On Aug. 5, engineers at our Stennis Space Center conducted the sixth RS-25 engine hot fire test of the current seven-part test series. Four RS-25s will help power the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on future Moon missions, including Artemis I targeted for later this year. For more details, visit: nasa.gov/SLS.

Preparing for the First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids

Our Lucy spacecraft arrived recently at our Kennedy Space Center and was transported to nearby Astrotech for final prelaunch preparations. Lucy’s 23-day launch window opens Oct. 16. It will be the first space mission to the Trojan asteroids, a diverse population of small bodies believed to be remnants of our early solar system that are trapped in stable orbits associated with the planet Jupiter. Learn more at: nasa.gov/lucy.

Sonification of Hubble Ultra Deep Field

From Aug. 2-6, we celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope’s iconic “Deep Field” images that have revolutionized our understanding of the universe. This sonification of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image plays a note as the captured light emitted by each galaxy shows up in the image.

The farther away the galaxy is, the longer its light traveled before reaching Hubble. In the sonification, which is just under a minute long, we can hear back nearly 13 billion years to the farthest galaxies in the image.

The “SUITS” Student Challenge

NASA’s Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students or (SUITS) challenge is looking for college students to create graphical spacesuit information displays within augmented reality (AR) environments for a simulated mission to the Moon. Technologies like this could help astronauts on future Artemis lunar surface exploration missions. For more about this and other ways you can be part of the Artemis mission, check out stem.nasa.gov/artemis.

NASA Tools Could Help Fight Fires from the Sky and the Ground

We demonstrated our Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations or STEReO project during a recent wildfire simulation in Northern California, to show how the technology can help emergency responders work more safely and effectively. STEReO uses NASA’s expertise in drone traffic management to provide a way to coordinate an emergency response effort that keeps assets in the air and on the ground in close contact, but safely out of each other’s way.

X-57 Maxwell Concludes High-Voltage Testing

NASA’s all-electric X- 57 Maxwell experimental aircraft has completed high-voltage testing – another milestone toward first flight. High-voltage testing powers the aircraft from an auxiliary power supply to test the functionality of the integrated systems under full power. Next up, the X-57 will undergo verification and validation testing.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA