Langley Research Center Centennial Event

The Future of Monitoring Air Quality from Space

TEMPO’s measurements from geostationary orbit (GEO) will create a revolutionary dataset that provides understanding and improves prediction of air quality (AQ) and climate forcing.

The KORUS-AQ airborne science experiment taking to the field in South Korea this spring is part of a long-term, international project to take air quality observations from space to the next level and better inform decisions on how to protect the air we breathe.

Before a new generation of satellite sensors settle into orbit, field missions like KORUS-AQ provide opportunities to test and improve the instruments using simulators that measure above and below aircraft, while helping to infer what people breathe at the surface.

These geostationary instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation to analyze their respective regions.Credits: Image Courtesy of Andreas Richter (University of Bremen) and Jhoon Kim (Yonsei University)

“We want to move beyond forecasting air pollution, we want to influence strategies to improve it,” said Jim Crawford, a lead scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “This is where satellite observations can play an important role.”

Existing low Earth orbit (LEO) instruments have established the benefit of space-based views of air pollution. From space, large areas can be viewed consistently, whereas from the ground only discrete (often single) points can be measured. As Dave Flittner, TEMPO project scientist, explains, a geostationary (GEO) air-quality constellation can accurately track the import and export of air pollution as it is transported by large-scale weather patterns.

TEMPO, or Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, is one instrument on the road to improving air quality from space. According to Flittner, hardware has recently begun development and TEMPO is on track to be finished no later than fall of 2017, and available for launch on a to be selected commercial communications satellite.

For the first time, TEMPO will make accurate hourly daytime measurements of tropospheric pollutants (specifically ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and aerosols) with high resolution over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. With help from related international missions, these observations provide a complete picture of pollution sources in the northern hemisphere and how they influence air quality from local to global scales.

These geostationary instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation to analyze their respective regions.

Credits: Image Courtesy of Andreas Richter (University of Bremen) and Jhoon Kim (Yonsei University)

About 22,000 miles above the equator, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute’s GEMS (The Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer), the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-4/UVN, and NASA’s TEMPO, will maintain their positions in orbit as the Earth rotates, covering a majority of the area from East Asia through greater North America and Europe. Together, these instruments will make up a northern hemisphere air quality constellation.. All three of these instruments analyze the same pollutant concentrations in their respective region, from the morning to evening.

Another critical part of the global air quality constellation are the LEO instruments, such as TROPOMI (a.k.a. Sentinel-5P), which will launch in late 2016 and provide a common reference for the three GEO sensors, allowing for a more accurate assessment of air quality within each region. 

Denise Lineberry

NASA Langley Research Center

Just me meeting my hero Katherine Johnson after interviewing her in the newsroom for another article I’m writing. nbd ((VERY BIG DEAL)) •🚀•🚀• Katherine G. Johnson is a pioneer in American space history. A NASA mathematician, Johnson’s computations have influenced every major space program from Mercury through the Shuttle. She even calculated the flight path for the first American mission space. In 1953, Johnson was contracted as a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the agency that preceded NASA. She worked in a pool of women performing math calculations until she was temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team, and wound up staying there. Johnson’s specialty was calculating the trajectories for space shots which determined the timing for launches, including the Mercury mission and Apollo 11, the mission to the moon. (at NASA Langley Research Center)

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

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

Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage 101

We need the biggest rocket stage ever built for the bold missions in deep space that NASA's Space Launch System rocket will give us the capability to achieve. This infographic sums up everything you need to know about the SLS core stage, the 212-foot-tall stage that serves as the backbone of the most powerful rocket in the world. The core stage includes the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank that hold 733,000 gallons of propellant to power the stage’s four RS-25 engines needed for liftoff and the journey to Mars. 

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC

Brothers Bring Curious Minds, Sharp Questions to Langley

One brother is a facts-and-figures guy, the other an adventurer.

They're both deeply fascinated by all things space.

Mikey and Robbie Rouse, 15 and 16, are from Salem, Virginia, and both have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive condition that affects nearly all their voluntary muscles.

On a recent trip to Hampton, Virginia, they visited one of the birthplaces of the American space program — NASA's Langley Research Center.

Mikey, the adventurer, wants to be the first wheelchair astronaut. "And I want to go to Mars," he said during his visit.

Robbie, the facts-and-figures guy, is always thinking of safety first — a quality held sacred by all at NASA.

The brothers' visit to Langley included a tour of the center's hangar, a stop at the Flight Mission Support Center for the ozone-monitoring Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III, and presentations on the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, autonomous technologies, and tests at the Landing and Impact Research Facility.

Deputy Center Director Clayton Turner and Associate Director Cathy Mangum presented Mikey and Robbie with commemorative coins and copies of "A Century at Langley," a pictoral history of the center.

No subject raised during the visit failed to spark the boys' curiosity.

Steve Velotas, associate director for intelligent flight systems, talked with Mikey and Robbie about the ways in which Langley researchers are studying autonmous technologies. Autonomous systems could be used in unmanned aerial vehicles, in-space assembly robots, or even wheelchairs to help those with disabilities navigate more easily.

"I don't trust robots completely," Mikey said.

"We don't either," said Velotas, who then explained that part of the reason Langley scientists are studying autonomous systems is to make sure they work like people want them to.

Evan Horowitz, structures and mechanical systems airworthiness engineer, showed the brothers Langley's historic hangar and talked about some of the past and present missions the facility has supported.

Gemini and Apollo astronauts trained in the hangar's Rendezvous Docking Simulator, and aircraft used for airborne science studies and autonomous flight research are based there.

Mikey and Robbie peppered Horowitz, who often takes tour groups through the hangar, with questions about air pollution and habitable exoplanets.

"This is great," said Horowitz. "Best interaction I've had in months."

The previous day, Mikey and Robbie visited the Virginia Air & Space Center, Langley's official visitors center.

The brothers live with their great-grandmother in Salem and receive daily assistance from a nonprofit called Lutheran Family Services of Virginia. The trip to Hampton was organized by Julie's Abundance Project, a program of Lutheran Family Services of Virginia.

Image Credits: NASA/David C. Bowman

Joe AtkinsonJoe Atkinson NASA Langley Research Center

The State of Our NASA is Strong

~*~

“When you experience all of the work that is going on here at Langley today, tell people how you feel.” – Charles Bolden, Jr. (Maj. Gen. USMC-Ret), NASA Administrator

~*~

On February 9, 2016 I was offered the opportunity to tour NASA’s Langley Research Center (LRC) facilities and attend the State of NASA Address as a social media press correspondent with NASA Social.

Keep reading

NASA Invites Public to Send Artwork to an Asteroid

NASA is calling all space enthusiasts to send their artistic endeavors on a journey aboard NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft. This will be the first U.S. mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth for study.

OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in September and travel to the asteroid Bennu. The #WeTheExplorers campaign invites the public to take part in this mission by expressing, through art, how the mission’s spirit of exploration is reflected in their own lives. Submitted works of art will be saved on a chip on the spacecraft. The spacecraft already carries a chip with more than 442,000 names submitted through the 2014 “Messages to Bennu” campaign.

“The development of the spacecraft and instruments has been a hugely creative process, where ultimately the canvas is the machined metal and composites preparing for launch in September,” said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It is fitting that this endeavor can inspire the public to express their creativity to be carried by OSIRIS-REx into space.”

A submission may take the form of a sketch, photograph, graphic, poem, song, short video or other creative or artistic expression that reflects what it means to be an explorer. Submissions will be accepted via Twitter and Instagram until March 20. For details on how to include your submission on the mission to Bennu, go to:

http://www.asteroidmission.org/WeTheExplorers

“Space exploration is an inherently creative activity,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “We are inviting the world to join us on this great adventure by placing their art work on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, where it will stay in space for millennia.”

The spacecraft will voyage to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) and return it to Earth for study. Scientists expect Bennu may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of the water and organic molecules that may have made their way to Earth.

Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. The University of Arizona, Tucson leads the science team and observation planning and processing. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is building the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program.  NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on OSIRIS-Rex, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

Stunning Aurora from Space

This video is a compilation of ultra-high definition time-lapses of the aurora shot from the space station. Auroras are a space weather phenomenon that occur when electrically-charged electrons and protons collide with neutral atoms in the upper atmosphere. The dancing lights of the aurora provide a spectacular show for those on the ground, but also capture the imaginations of scientists who study the aurora and the complex processes that create them.

New Gravity Map Gives Best View Yet Inside Mars

A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet.

"Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient," said Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts. "The new gravity map will be helpful for future Mars exploration, because better knowledge of the planet's gravity anomalies helps mission controllers insert spacecraft more precisely into orbit about Mars. Furthermore, the improved resolution of our gravity map will help us understand the still-mysterious formation of specific regions of the planet." Genova, who is affiliated with MIT but is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the lead author of a paper on this research published online March 5 in the journal Icarus.

The improved resolution of the new gravity map suggests a new explanation for how some features formed across the boundary that divides the relatively smooth northern lowlands from heavily cratered southern highlands. Also, the team confirmed that Mars has a liquid outer core of molten rock by analyzing tides in the Martian crust and mantle caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the two moons of Mars. Finally, by observing how Mars' gravity changed over 11 years – the period of an entire cycle of solar activity -- the team inferred the massive amount of carbon dioxide that freezes out of the atmosphere onto a Martian polar ice cap when it experiences winter. They also observed how that mass moves between the south pole and the north pole with the change of season in each hemisphere.

The map was derived using Doppler and range tracking data collected by NASA's Deep Space Network from three NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars: Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Odyssey (ODY), and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Like all planets, Mars is lumpy, which causes the gravitational pull felt by spacecraft in orbit around it to change. For example, the pull will be a bit stronger over a mountain, and slightly weaker over a canyon.

Slight differences in Mars' gravity changed the trajectory of the NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet, which altered the signal being sent from the spacecraft to the Deep Space Network. These small fluctuations in the orbital data were used to build a map of the Martian gravity field.

The gravity field was recovered using about 16 years of data that were continuously collected in orbit around Mars. However, orbital changes from uneven gravity are tiny, and other forces that can perturb the motion of the spacecraft had to be carefully accounted for, such as the force of sunlight on the spacecraft's solar panels and drag from the Red Planet's thin upper atmosphere. It took two years of analysis and computer modeling to remove the motion not caused by gravity.

"With this new map, we've been able to see gravity anomalies as small as about 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) across, and we've determined the crustal thickness of Mars with a resolution of around 120 kilometers (almost 75 miles)," said Genova. "The better resolution of the new map helps interpret how the crust of the planet changed over Mars' history in many regions."

For example, an area of lower gravity between Acidalia Planitia and Tempe Terra was interpreted before as a system of buried channels that delivered water and sediments from Mars' southern highlands into the northern lowlands billions of years ago when the Martian climate was wetter than it is today. The new map reveals that this low gravity anomaly is definitely larger and follows the boundary between the highlands and the lowlands. This system of gravity troughs is unlikely to be only due to buried channels because in places the region is elevated above the surrounding plains. The new gravity map shows that some of these features run perpendicular to the local topography slope, against what would have been the natural downhill flow of water.

An alternative explanation is that this anomaly may be a consequence of a flexure or bending of the lithosphere -- the strong, outermost layer of the planet -- due to the formation of the Tharsis region. Tharsis is a volcanic plateau on Mars thousands of miles across with the largest volcanoes in the solar system. As the Tharsis volcanoes grew, the surrounding lithosphere buckled under their immense weight.

The new gravity field also allowed the team to confirm indications from previous gravity solutions that Mars has a liquid outer core of molten rock. The new gravity solution improved the measurement of the Martian tides, which will be used by geophysicists to improve the model of Mars' interior.

Changes in Martian gravity over time have been previously measured using the MGS and ODY missions to monitor the polar ice caps. For the first time, the team used MRO data to continue monitoring their mass. The team has determined that when one hemisphere experiences winter, approximately 3 trillion to 4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide freezes out of the atmosphere onto the northern and southern polar caps, respectively. This is about 12 to 16 percent of the mass of the entire Martian atmosphere. NASA's Viking missions first observed this massive seasonal precipitation of carbon dioxide. The new observation confirms numerical predictions from the Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model – 2010.

The research was funded by grants from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and NASA's Mars Data Analysis Program.

Bill Steigerwald