In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
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Ultracold Bubbles on Space Station Open New Paths for Quantum Research
Since the days of NASA’s Apollo program, astronauts have documented – and contended with – how liquids behave differently in microgravity than they do on Earth – coalescing into floating spheres instead of bottom-heavy droplets. Now, researchers have demonstrated this effect with a much more exotic material: gas cooled to nearly absolute zero (minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest temperature matter can reach.
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When Are the Launch Opportunities for Artemis?
To determine potential Artemis I launch dates, engineers identified key constraints required to accomplish the mission and keep the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft safe. These launch periods account for the complex orbital mechanics involved in launching on a precise trajectory toward the Moon while the Earth is rotating on its axis and the Moon is orbiting Earth each month in its lunar cycle.
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Starliner Launches to Space Station on Uncrewed Flight Test for NASA
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station on May 19. The mission is designed to test the end-to-end capabilities of the crew-capable system as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
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NASA’s InSight Still Hunting Marsquakes as Power Levels Diminish
NASA’s InSight Mars lander is gradually losing power and is anticipated to end science operations later this summer. By December, InSight’s team expects the lander to have become inoperative, concluding a mission that has thus far detected more than 1,300 marsquakes – most recently, a magnitude 5 that occurred May 4 – and located quake-prone regions of the Red Planet.
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Hubble Reveals a River of Star Formation
A newly revised NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Hickson Compact Group 31 of galaxies highlights streams of star formation as four dwarf galaxies interact. Dwarf galaxy encounters are normally seen billions of light-years away, and therefore occurred billions of years ago, but Hickson Compact Group 31 is located some 166 million light-years from Earth, relatively close by cosmic standards.
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NASA Seeks Input on Moon to Mars Objectives
As NASA moves forward with plans to send astronauts to the Moon under Artemis missions to prepare for human exploration of Mars, the agency is calling on U.S. industry, academia, international communities, and other stakeholders to provide input on its deep space exploration objectives. NASA released a draft set of high-level objectives May 17, identifying 50 points falling under four overarching categories of exploration.
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