NASA Archives

January 18, 2025January 18, 2025 by Matt Williams

NASA is Building a Space Telescope to Observe Exoplanet Atmospheres

Artist's impression of the Pandora mission observing a transiting exoplanet. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

The exoplanet census continues to grow. Currently, 5,819 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,346 star systems, while thousands more await confirmation. The vast majority of these planets were detected in the past twenty years, owing to missions like the Kepler Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the venerable Hubble, the Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits (CoRoT) mission, and more. Thousands more are expected as the James Webb Space Telescope continues its mission and is joined by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST).

In the meantime, astronomers will soon have another advanced observatory to help search for potentially habitable exoplanets. It’s called Pandora, a small satellite that was selected in 2021 as part of NASA’s call for Pioneer mission concepts. This observatory is designed to study planets detected by other missions by studying these planets’ atmospheres of exoplanets and the activity of their host stars with long-duration multiwavelength observations. The mission is one step closer to launch with the completion of the spacecraft bus, which provides the structure, power, and other systems.

January 17, 2025January 17, 2025 by Andy Tomaswick

The Los Angeles Fires Got Extremely Close to NASA’s JPL Facility

The wildfires raging around Los Angeles have made plenty of headlines lately, though they are slowly starting to get under control. NASA was a part of that effort, tracking the fire’s evolution via the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3 (AVIRIS-3) as they raged through southern California. As they were doing so, they likely realized that these fires posed an extreme risk to one vital part of NASA itself – the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches the Top Rim of the Jezero Crater

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its right-front navigation camera to capture this first view over the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10th, 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 2018, NASA mission planners selected the Jezero Crater as the future landing site of the Perseverance rover. This crater was a natural choice, as it was once an ancient lake bed, as evidenced by the delta fan at its western edge. On Earth, these features form in the presence of flowing water that gradually deposits sediment over time. Combined with the fact that the Jezero Crater’s delta feature is rich in clays, this makes the region a prime target to search for biosignatures – evidence of past (and maybe present) life on Mars!

In recent news, NASA announced that the Perseverance rover had reached the top of Jezero Crater’s rim at a location the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” The rover spent the previous three and a half months climbing the rim, covering a distance of 500 vertical meters (1,640 vertical feet) and making science observations along the way. Now that it has crested the rim, Perseverance can begin what the mission team calls its “Northern Rim” campaign. Over the next year, the rover is expected to drive 6.4 km (4 mi) and visit up to four sites of interest where it will obtain geological samples.

December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA has Plans for More Cargo Deliveries to the Moon

Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from NASA’s providers SpaceX, left, and Blue Origin, right. Credit: SpaceX/Blue Origin

Through the Artemis Program, NASA hopes to lay the foundations for a program of “sustained lunar exploration and development.” This will include regular missions to the surface, the creation of infrastructure and habitats, and a long-term human presence. To facilitate this, NASA is teaming up with industry and international partners to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) that can transport crews to and from the lunar surface and landers that can deliver payloads of equipment, vehicles, and supplies to the lunar surface.

In a recent statement, NASA indicated that it intends to award Blue Origin and SpaceX additional work under their existing contracts to develop landers that will deliver equipment and infrastructure to the lunar surface. NASA also plans to assign demonstration missions to these companies, in addition to design certification reviews, which will validate their concepts. This decision builds on NASA’s earlier request, made in 2023, that the two companies develop cargo versions of their HLS concepts, which are currently in development for the Artemis III, Artemis IV, and Artemis V missions.

December 6, 2024December 6, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Jared Isaacman is Trump’s Choice for NASA Administrator

As a new President of the United States is elected, the NASA administrator role is usually reviewed. With the election of Trump, a new administrator has been chosen, Jared Isaacman. He is a billionaire entrepreneur, an experienced jet pilot and has himself completed to private flights to space. He was also the first to complete a spacewalk during the Polaris Dawn mission. Isaacman replaces the outgoing administrator Bill Nelson, a former space shuttle astronaut and senator.

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

NASA Wants Students’ Help Designing Missions to Other Moons

One of NASA’s primary missions is to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to join the STEM field. It does so by producing inspirational and educational content on various platforms. But sometimes, it takes a more direct approach by rewarding students for their contributions to solving a particular problem NASA is facing. Recently, the organization announced such a challenge – the Power to Explore Challenge, which is open to submission from K-12 students until the end of January.

November 27, 2024November 27, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Holiday Fireplace Video We Needed

This holiday season, sit back and enjoy the warming glow of the SLS's rocket engines. Image Credit: NASA

There’s a new contender for your holiday fireplace video. This one comes from NASA, and features rocket engines and boosters to light up your days with Space Launch System holiday cheer.

November 25, 2024November 24, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA, SpaceX Illustrate Key Moments of Artemis Lunar Lander Mission

Artist's rendering of the Starship HLS on the lunar surface. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to provide the lunar landing system. Credit: SpaceX — Artist's rendering of the Starship HLS on the Moon's surface. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to provide the lunar landing system. Credit: SpaceX

Before the decade is out, as part of the Artemis Program, NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. To realize this goal, they have contracted with commercial space industries to develop all the necessary components. This includes the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft that will take the Artemis astronauts to the Moon. There’s also the Lunar Gateway and the Artemis Base Camp, the infrastructure that will facilitate regular missions to the Moon after 2028.

In between, NASA has also partnered with companies to develop the Human Landing Systems (HLS) that will transport the Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface and back. This includes the Starship HLS SpaceX is currently developing for NASA, which will rendezvous with the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit and allow the Artemis III astronauts to land on the Moon (which will take place no sooner than September 2026). In a series of newly-updated images, SpaceX has provided artistic renders of what key moments in this mission will look like.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA’s JPL Lays Off Another 325 People

NASA's JPL announced a reduction in its workforce for the second time in 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has announced a second round of layoffs for 2024, this time laying off 325 people – about 5% of its workforce. The announcement was made on Nov. 12 in a memo sent to employees, which notes the layoffs could have been even larger. The last cut was made this past February, when 530 employees were let go. Part of the issues which forced the layoffs comes from the the possible cancelation of the Mars Sample Return mission. With the October 2024 launch of Europa Clipper, JPL doesn’t have a flagship mission in the pipeline right now.

October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA Wants to Move Heavy Cargo on the Moon

Illustration of logistics elements on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA

While new rockets and human missions to the Moon are in the press, NASA is quietly thinking through the nuts and bolts of a long-term presence on the Moon. They have already released two white papers about the lunar logistics they’ll require in the future and are now requesting proposals from companies to supply some serious cargo transportation. But this isn’t just for space transport; NASA is also looking for ground transportation on the Moon that can move cargo weighing as much as 2,000 to 6,000 kg (4,400 to 13,000 pounds.)