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NASA Ames “Astrogram – August 2018

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NASA’s Laser Communications Small Satellite Mission Demonstrates Technology First

by Danielle Carmichael

For the first time, a free-flying CubeSat has successfully completed space-to-ground optical communications. The Optical Communication and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) mission, designed and built by The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, sent a laser signal from low-Earth orbit to a ground station at the company’s facilities. 

The small satellite transmitted at a data rate of 100 megabits per second – 50 times greater than typical communication systems for this size spacecraft. Lasers mounted aboard the OCSD spacecraft communicated high-quality, error-free signals for short periods of time to the ground. 

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The Optical Communication and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) integration.
Credit: NanoRacks

For full story, see: SmallSat

Ice Confirmed at the Moon’s Poles

by Abigail Tabor

In the darkest and coldest parts of its polar regions, a team of scientists has directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon’s surface. These ice deposits are patchily distributed and could possibly be ancient. At the southern pole, most of the ice is concentrated at lunar craters, while the northern pole’s ice is more widely, but sparsely spread.

A team of scientists, led by Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii and Brown University and including Richard Elphic from NASA Ames, used data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument to identify three specific signatures that definitively prove there is water ice at the surface of the Moon.

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The image shows the distribution of surface ice at the Moon’s south pole (left) and north pole (right), detected by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument. Blue represents the ice locations, plotted over an image of the lunar surface, where the gray scale corresponds to surface temperature (darker representing colder areas and lighter shades indicating warmer zones). The ice is concentrated at the darkest and coldest locations, in the shadows of craters. This is the first time scientists have directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon’s surface.
Credit: NASA

For full story, see: IceMoonsPoles

Underwater Robots Help NASA Plan Future Deep-Space Missions

by Abigail Tabor

Photo of two remotely operated vehicles for deep sea exploration, seen aboard a ship, one being lifted by a crane into the water
For the SUBSEA research program, NASA is teaming up with ocean exploration partners to study an underwater volcano near Hawaii. Two robotic explorers, the remotely operated vehicles Hercules and Argus, pictured here, will descend more than 3,000 feet below the surface to take samples and make measurements of the conditions in this extreme environment. The SUBSEA team will spend three weeks at sea, both studying the volcano and simulating human-robotic exploration for future deep-space missions.
Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust/Nautilus Live

An expedition that will help NASA search for life in deep space launched Aug. 29, 2018 – not with a rocket’s roar, but with a gentle splash into the deep Pacific Ocean. The project, called the Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog, or SUBSEA, will use underwater robots to explore the biology, geology and chemistry of the environment around a deep-sea volcano off the coast of Hawaii.

For full story, see: UnderwaterArgusMission

Mapping Record-Setting Wildfire from 65,000 Feet

by Abigail Tabor

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The Mendocino Complex Fire is now the largest wildfire in California history with well over 350,000 acres burned. This false-color image was captured on Aug. 9, 2018 by an instrument installed aboard a NASA research aircraft that flew over both fires making up the complex in the area around Clear Lake (the central, black feature) in northern California. Active fire zones are seen in yellow, with warm, burned areas in orange. Unburned vegetation appears in blue and green. The flames of small, active fires can be seen at the leading edges of the fire perimeter.
Credit: NASA/USRA