In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Week of June 12 - June 16, 2023.
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NASA Crews Spray Foam Insulation on Artemis III Rocket Hardware
Teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have completed applying a spray-on foam insulation to the launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) for the Artemis III mission. The LVSA is a cone-shaped piece of hardware that connects the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s upper and lower stages and partially encloses the engine of the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. The spray-on foam insulation is a type of thermal protection system that is used to protect the Moon rocket’s hardware from the extreme temperatures, forces, and sounds it’ll experience during launch and ascent. Unlike other parts of the mega rocket, the thermal protection system for the LVSA is applied entirely by hand using a tool similar to a spray gun. It is the largest piece of SLS hardware to be hand sprayed. Teams started applying the thermal protection system in March.
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NASA’s Webb Proves Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe
In the early universe, the gas between stars and galaxies was opaque – energetic starlight could not penetrate it. But 1 billion years after the big bang, the gas had become completely transparent. Why? New data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has pinpointed the reason: The galaxies’ stars emitted enough light to heat and ionize the gas around them, clearing our collective view over hundreds of millions of years. The results, from a research team led by Simon Lilly of ETH Zürich in Switzerland, are the newest insights about a time period known as the Era of Reionization, when the universe underwent dramatic changes. After the big bang, gas in the universe was incredibly hot and dense. Over hundreds of millions of years, the gas cooled. Then, the universe hit “repeat.” The gas again became hot and ionized – likely due to the formation of early stars in galaxies, and over millions of years, became transparent.
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I Am Artemis: Kristin Morgan
Art history, a travel agent’s advice, and inspiration from a tragedy were all part of NASA engineer Kristin Morgan’s journey to her role today of helping supply rocket engines for NASA’s powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The super heavy lift rocket – along with the Orion spacecraft, human landing systems, and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon – is part of the backbone of the agency’s Artemis deep space exploration program. Morgan is the Contracting Officer’s Representative in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Since 2019, Morgan has managed contracts for the RS-25 and RL10 liquid-fueled engines. SLS is powered by a core stage with four RS-25 engines, as well as two solid-propellant boosters and an in-space stage powered by an RL10 engine, and will launch Orion, its crew, and large cargo into Earth orbit and on to the Moon.
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NASA Cassini Data Reveals Building Block for Life in Enceladus’ Ocean
Phosphorus, a key chemical element for many biological processes, has been found in icy grains emitted by the small moon and is likely abundant in its subsurface ocean. Using data collected by NASA’s Cassini mission, an international team of scientists has discovered phosphorus – an essential chemical element for life – locked inside salt-rich ice grains ejected into space from Enceladus. The small moon is known to possess a subsurface ocean, and water from that ocean erupts through cracks in Enceladus’ icy crust as geysers at its south pole, creating a plume. The plume then feeds Saturn’s E ring (a faint ring outside of the brighter main rings) with icy particles. During its mission at the gas giant from 2004 to 2017, Cassini flew through the plume and E ring numerous times. Scientists found that Enceladus’ ice grains contain a rich array of minerals and organic compounds – including the ingredients for amino acids – associated with life as we know it.
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Hubble Observes a Cosmic Sea Creature
The jellyfish galaxy JO206 trails across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, showcasing a colorful star-forming disk surrounded by a pale, luminous cloud of dust. A handful of foreground bright stars with crisscross diffraction spikes stands out against an inky black backdrop at the bottom of the image. JO206 lies over 700 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Jellyfish galaxies are so-called because of their resemblance to their aquatic namesakes. In the bottom right of this image, long tendrils of bright star formation trail the disk of JO206, just as jellyfish trail tentacles behind them.
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