Brown carbon, emitted by wildland fires and tracked over the span of a week in July 2026, worsened air quality in parts of the U.S. and Canada.

Description Data from the Earth-orbiting U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite’s L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica — poking out amid a stream of ice flowing northeast to…

Media are invited to join NASA for a virtual news conference at 2 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, July 29, to preview the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission, scheduled to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday,…

Biomedical research to keep the Expedition 74 crew healthy and advance health on Earth packed Tuesday’s schedule aboard the International Space Station. The orbital residents are also handing over their mission responsibilities as three crewmates prepare to return to Earth…

As of July 20, the public can access data from the two powerful radar instruments aboard the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite. Teams in the United States and India will release files processed from the satellite’s L-band and S-band…

NASA Langley’s “Stars, Stripes, and Supernovas – Symphony Under the Stars” event brought employees, families, and community members together for an evening filled with music, connection, and celebration.   Organizers planned the event, which took place July 16, to mark the 250th anniversary of…

Phase I Saptarshi BandyopadhyayDimming the Sun (DimSun) Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar InsolationNASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryPasadena, CA 91109-80012026 Phase I David BugbyCombinatory Architecture offering Neomobility, on-Venus Adaptability, and Survivability (CANVAS)NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryPasadena, CA 91109-80012026 Phase I Anish…

Paul StankusBrookhaven Science Associates  The scientific goal is to enable a new method for observing gravitational waves at low frequencies, based on the astrometric GW signature — gravitational waves passing by the Earth will cause a (very small) coordinated apparent…

Paul StankusBrookhaven Science Associates The scientific goal of the proposed work will be reconstructing the image, ie resolving surface features, of an Earth-like exoplanet around a nearby star as seen in visible light. The innovation is in two stages. First, the…

Pablo Sobron SanchezSETI Institute This proposal explores a new class of reconnaissance spacecraft that map minerals from orbit using Raman spectroscopy during high-speed flybys–without landing, sample return, or extended dwell. If feasible, this concept would enable NASA to evaluate ice…

David SmithDuke University  The increasing population of spacefaring vehicles and satellites motivates increasingly powerful technologies for space situational awareness (SSA). While the US space surveillance network (SSN) is able to monitor objects down to about four inches in size using, for…

Benjamin SchaferRarified Technologies, Inc. We propose a new approach to atmospheric sensing at 30-100 km altitudes using photophoretically levitating tracers. These lightweight structures harness sunlight to remain suspended for up to months at controlled altitudes and can be remotely tracked by…

Michael RubensteinNorthwestern University, Chicago We propose a mission to use ~10,000 actively steerable femtosats to map the ring composition, atmospheric composition and density, and the magnetic field distribution of Saturn. Conducting in-situ surveys of Saturn’s rings with a single flagship…

Marco QuadrelliNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Humanity has never touched the particles of a planetary ring, but if we were able to get close enough and sample them, it will transform understanding of ring structure and origins for Saturn (dense), Uranus and…

Austin Phoenix Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State A disaggregated lunar infrastructure requires novel thermal management methods to enable future lunar operations. While thermal management solutions exist for large infrastructure, the smaller mobile systems that operate independently require improved temperature regulation devices…

Keunhan ParkUniversity of Utah This proposal seeks to develop a transformative energy system — the plasmon-enhanced radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (PRTPV) generator — that significantly surpasses the performance of current radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) in both specific power and efficiency. Designed to…

Jeff Nosanov Orbital Velocity, LLC The OBLIVION Phase I study will assess the feasibility of a novel, intensity-only interferometer architecture for direct geometric measurement of a supermassive black hole’s photon ring at gigaparsec distance. We will use Hanbury Brown–Twiss intensity correlations…

Zhaoyan Liu NASA Ames Research Center This concept proposes a revolutionary approach to wind measurement using compact photonic integrated chips (PICs) that incorporate second-order interferometers for space-based lidar missions as shown in Fig. 1. By leveraging phase-squeezed light source, quantum…

Gilly Elor Stone Aerospace, Inc. Lava tubes are one of the most interesting and entirely uncharted targets for lunar science and exploration. The Mare Tranquillitatis lunar skylight measures approximately 100m by 88m across and is 133m deep. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter…

Daniel Drew University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI While karst terrain and subsurface caves are sites of immense scientific value on bodies like Titan, they are difficult or impossible to safely explore using current methods. In this proposal, we seek to develop…

A.C. Charania Zeno Power Systems, Inc.  EARENDIL addresses a critical barrier to sustained human operations on the lunar surface: the extreme cold of permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and the two-week lunar night. These environments impose severe thermal constraints on astronauts,…

Artur Davoyan University of California, Los Angeles The goal of the proposed program is to enable the next generation of solar sails featuring very high characteristic acceleration–potentially up to 2 mm/s²–and large effective areas exceeding 10,000 m², to support future…

Anish Damodaran University of Central Florida LWe propose the Photonic Submillimeter Space Interferometer (PS2I) — a ~50-element array of spacecraft, each carrying a 4-meter deployable reflector and a heterodyne receiver. With baselines of 1-2 km and ~100 GHz of bandwidth, PS2I…

David Bugby NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory INNOVATION: Venus surface missions have typically targeted short stays in fixed locations due to the extremely harsh conditions there and the lifetime limitations imposed by typical power, thermal, and structural solutions. We propose three key…

Saptarshi BandyopadhyayNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory DimSun mission concept focuses on geoengineering using space-based solar radiation management. DimSun will reduce solar insolation by 1.16% using a controlled dust cloud, made with 0.3 micro-meter radius 90%-hollow spherical particles, at the Sun–Earth Lagrangian…