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NASA Ames Astrogram – September 2018

The headshot image of Astrid Albaugh

Astrid Albaugh

Oct 01, 2018
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NASA Administrator Meets Agency’s Innovators in Silicon Valley

On Aug. 30, 2018, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine toured NASA Ames for the first time, recognizing the workforce for its contributions as the center prepares to celebrate its 80th birthday next year.

“You’re going to be a part of making history, as your predecessors were a part of making history, and the United States of America is going to be better for it,” Bridenstein stated during his visit. 

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks with the Astrobee team at NASA Ames on Aug. 30, 2018.
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

Bridenstine, who was sworn into office April 23, 2018, as the agency’s 13th administrator, has been touring the ten NASA field centers across the country, meeting the workforce that’s making NASA’s missions happen – from early-stage innovation to day-to-day operations of exploration.

While here, he saw a variety of research and facilities supporting every element of NASA’s portfolio, from aeronautics to space technology, human exploration and science.

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks during the Town Hall at NASA Ames on Aug. 30, 2018.
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

For full story, see: AdministratorVisitsAmes

For additional photos, contact Lynn Albaugh at: lynn.albaugh@nasa.gov

Exploring the Solar System? You May Need to Pack an Umbrella

by Kimberly Minafra and Gianine Figliozzi

Gearing up for its first flight test, NASA’s Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology, or ADEPT, is no ordinary umbrella. ADEPT is a foldable device that opens to make a round, rigid heat shield, called an aeroshell. This game-changing technology could squeeze a heat shield into a rocket with a diameter larger than the rocket itself. The design may someday deliver much larger payloads to planetary surfaces than is currently possible. 

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ADEPT model inside NASA Ames Research Center’s wind tunnel
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

For full story, see: ADEPT

JPL’s Mars InSight Roadshow Visits Ames

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The Mars InSight roadshow, at Ames on Sept 20-21, 2018, brings family-friendly science activities, exhibits and public talks to communities throughout California, making comparisons between earthquakes and the marsquakes that InSight will try to detect. Kids and adults alike could make their own Marsquake on an interactive demo (center right photo above), see models of the InSight spacecraft and Mars globe cutaways, take selfies with colorful backdrops (lower left photo) and try out virtual reality headsets to see panoramas of Mars.
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

Scientists and engineers working on NASA’s InSight Mission came to Ames with their Mars InSight Roadshow on Sept. 20 – Sept. 21, 2018, in the NASA Ames Conference Center Showroom. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. InSight is the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments.

InSight launched on May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base — the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. Leading up to the landing on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018, the Mars InSight Roadshow is visiting cities throughout quake-prone California to explain how the robotic lander will study Mars’ deep interior using seismology and other geophysical measurements.

Learn more about future dates and details at: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/participate/roadshow/

InSight is managed for NASA by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. JPL is a division of Caltech.

History of Airborne Astronomy at NASA

Sixty years ago, in 1958, NASA was founded as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency has a long history of using airplanes to study space. Flying at high altitudes puts telescopes above the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere that blocks certain types of light, like infrared, from reaching ground-based telescopes. Airborne observatories can also go anywhere to conduct observations, enabling researchers to study transient events, such as the eclipse-like events called occultations to learn about distant planets and objects

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Left: The Kuiper Airborne Observatory flies with its telescope door open in 1980. The converted C-141 aircraft had a 36-inch telescope just in front of the wing. Right: Inside the KAO, where the mission crew sat during flight. These consoles were positioned along the side of the aircraft’s cabin. The portion of the telescope system that was inside the cabin can be seen at the back of the image. The open telescope cavity was separate from the pressurized cabin.
Credit: NASA

For full story, see: HistoryAirborneAstronomy

Delicious Bread Bowls, Good Music and Ice Cream Make for a Fine Fall Festival

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In celebration of NASA’s 60th Anniversary, the Ames Exchange hosted a Fall Festival, instead of the Chili Cook-off, on Sept. 27, 2018. The festival included awesome music from the ReknRoad Ban (left, center photo), warm goodness in a bread bowl, tasty Dippin Dots ice cream, beer for sale and also the usual NASA swag in the form of an Apollo 50th Anniversary/Back to the Moon, on to Mars, coffee mug. The festival included the Car and Motorcycle Show and prizes were awarded in several categories. The Chili Cook-off was cancelled this year as too few teams registered to compete.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don Richey and JP Wiens

Ames Veterans Committee Holds Art Therapy Session Designed to Relieve Stress

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The Ames Veterans Committee (AVC) sponsored an Art Therapy session for employees on Sept. 21, 2018 onsite. Such a session is designed to explore how art can heal and reduce stress. September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness month and is intended to help promote awareness and identify resources related to suicide prevention and how you can help others have the conversation without increasing the risk of harm. Suicidal thoughts can affect anyone regardless of age, gender or socio-economic background. Suicide is a national public health concern and is the third leading cause of death among young people. People may experience mental or emotional crisis as the result of a wide range of situations or environmental conditions when they are most vulnerable.
Credit: NASA Ames/Donald Richey

Benjamin Wu Discusses the Impact of Cloud Collisions on Star Formation

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On Sept. 26, 2018, Benjamin Wu presented, “The Impact of Cloud Collisions on Star Formation.” Most stars form in clusters within giant molecular clouds (GMCs). However, the processes that induce the collapse and fragmentation of GMCs into star-forming clumps are poorly understood. One potential driver of star formation activity in galactic disks may be triggering via converging molecular flows, i.e., GMC-GMC collisions. The list of cloud collision candidates is growing rapidly, but they remain difficult to observationally verify. The presentation examined the expected frequency and nature of such collisions and then investigated their role in forming dense filaments, clumps and star clusters via numerical simulations.
Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart

NASA Researchers Share Ideas to Address Most Pressing Issues in Civil Aviation

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The Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Showcase was held in the Ames Conference Center Building 152 on Sept. 18-19, 2018. The showcase provided researchers from the four NASA Aeronautics Centers the opportunity to share information about revolutionary new technologies and provide NASA management and staff the opportunity to receive a status update on the feasibility studies being conducted under CAS sponsorship. It feature TED-talk style presentations by CAS principal investigators on Sept. 18 (Natalia Alexandrov from Langley Research Center is seen presenting in the above photo) and a poster session highlighting each activity on Sept. 19.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don Richey

Akbar Sultan Speaks About the Airspace Operations and Safety Program

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Akbar Sultan, Director of ARMD Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) visited Ames on Sept. 11, 2018 and hosted a center town hall for the resident staff in the Space Science Auditorium. He presented a brief talk about the Airspace Operations and Safety Program and had a question-and-answer session from the audience after the town hall. AOSP works with the Federal Aviation Administration, industry and academic partners to conceive and develop Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) technologies to further improve the safety of current and future aircraft. As radar-based air traffic control transitions to a NextGen satellite-based system to enhance safety, capacity and efficiency on runways and in flight, AOSP-developed NextGen methods and means will provide advanced automated support to air navigation service providers and aircraft operators to reduce air-travel times and delays, and to ensure greater safety in all weather conditions.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don Richey

Carbone Focuses on Applied Ethics of Using Animals as Experimental Subjects

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Dr. Lawrence Carbone of University of California, San Francisco delivered a lecture on Sept. 4, 2018, entitled, “Animals in NASA Research: Ethical, Regulatory and Biological Challenges.” The lecture focused on the applied ethics of using animals as experimental subjects. Regulatory requirements in animal use have grown over the years, and are now quite detailed and extensive. The rules and regulations largely reflect shifts in societal concerns for animals, some of which were driven by early exposes of how scientists use animals in labs. Ethical concerns relate largely to the principle that any harm inflicted on animals must be justified, while at the same time allowing experimental studies on animals that would not be permitted with human subjects and volunteers. Scientists must explore ways to replace animals with cells, simulations or even human volunteers when possible, and to use the fewest animals possible. Responsible use of animals requires the best knowledge of their welfare so that scientists and veterinarians can refine experiments and reduce the potential for pain and suffering. In many instances, efforts to maximize animal welfare can also lead to more robust research data. This is the Office of the Chief Scientist’s is fourth lecture in the Research Ethics and Integrity Series. More information regarding the lecture series, including the slides from the previous three lectures, can be found at: www.nasa.gov/ames/ocs/researchethics
Credit: NASA Ames/Donald Richey

Lightning Talks, Poster Session are Highlights at Research and Technology Showcase (ARTS)

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This year’s event held on Sept. 6, 2018, was co-sponsored by the Ames Center Chief Technologist and Ames Office of Chief Scientist. The showcase highlighted the recipients of FY18 Center Innovation Fund (CIF), Internal Research and Development (IRAD), Ames Research Innovation Award (ARIA), Early Career Innovators (ECI) and the Innovation Fair awards. The researchers and technologists presented posters and a several presented three-five minute lightning talks to Ames colleagues while enjoying happy hour, munchies and networking.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don Richey

Freeman Shares Endophyte Enhanced Poplar Tree Phytoremediation Studies

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John Freeman presented, “Native Bacterial Endophyte Inoculated Poplar Trees for Effective Phytoremediation of TCE in Groundwater,” on Sept. 20, 2018. He is a plant biogeochemist and the Chief Science Officer for Intrinsyx Technologies Corporation headquartered at NASA Ames Research Park. A bacterial endophyte living inside poplar trees was isolated characterized and used at many groundwater plume sites for the phytoremediation of chlorinated solvent Trichloroethylene (TCE) and its associated derivatives. Freeman presented information about studies conducted at NASA Ames Research Park over a five-year field trial of endophyte enhanced poplar tree phytoremediation of TCE-contaminated groundwater at the MEW Superfund site.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don Richey

Cavolowsky Gives Overview of Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program

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Dr. John Cavolowsky, Director of ARMD Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program (TACP) and Dr. Nateri Madavan, Acting Deputy Director ARMD TACP visited Ames on Sept. 20, 2018. They hosted a center town hall for the resident staff in Building N245 in the Space Science Auditorium that afternoon. Cavolowsky gave a brief overview (above photo) about the TACP, discussed the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) project and answered questions from the audience. The TACP cultivates multi-disciplinary, revolutionary concepts to enable aviation transformation. Although TACP’s focus is on sharply focused research, the program provides flexibility for innovators to explore technology feasibility and provide the knowledge base for radical transformation.
Credit: NASA Ames/Don RIchey