In Case You Missed It: A Weekly Summary of Top Content from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Week of August 21 - August 25, 2023.
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SLS Hardware for Artemis III Mission Arrives in Florida
The upper stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will power the agency’s Artemis III mission and send astronauts on to the Moon for a lunar landing arrived at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Poseidon Wharf in Florida, Aug. 9. It will undergo final checkouts by contractors Boeing and ULA (United Launch Alliance) at ULA’s facilities before it is delivered to NASA’ s nearby Kennedy Space Center. The SLS rocket’s ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) with its single RL10 engine is responsible for giving NASA’s Orion spacecraft and astronauts inside the big push needed to journey to the Moon in a precise trajectory during Artemis III. The ICPS for the mission is the last of its kind as Artemis missions beginning with Artemis IV will use the SLS Block 1B configuration with its more powerful exploration upper stage for launch and flight. Manufactured by ULA, the ICPS left Decatur, Alabama, Aug. 1, traveling down the Mississippi River and along the Gulf Coast toward ULA’s Florida facility via ULA’s RocketShip. The RL10 engine is produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, the SLS engines lead contractor, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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I Am Artemis: Cody Jones
When Cody Jones graduated with a degree in communication arts from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) in 2011, he had no idea what he was supposed to do next. “I graduated with my degree in a place named the Rocket City, but I never imagined myself as someone who would work with rockets,” Jones said. However, a professor saw Cody’s potential and suggested he apply for an internship working as a payload communicator in the International Space Station Payload Operations and Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Although the position was intended for someone with a technical background, Jones’ communication skills, persistence, and willingness to learn about the aerospace industry got him the job and helped make him successful in that initial role. It led him to his current one as project manager for the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program, which is managed by Marshall, and will help NASA land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis.
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Chandra: A Giant Black Hole Destroys a Massive Star
Astronomers have made a thorough forensic study of a star that was torn apart when it ventured too close to a giant black hole and then had its insides tossed out into space. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton studied the amount of nitrogen and carbon near a black hole known to have torn apart a star. Astronomers think these elements were created inside the star before it was ripped apart as it neared the black hole. “We are seeing the guts of what used to be a star,” said Jon Miller of the University of Michigan who led the study. “The elements left behind are clues we can follow to figure out what sort of star met its demise.” Astronomers have found many examples of “tidal disruption events” in recent years, where the gravitational forces from a massive black hole destroy a star. This causes a flare, often seen in optical and ultraviolet light and X-rays, as the star’s debris is heated up. This event, called ASASSN-14li, stands out for several reasons.
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New Video Series Reveals What Drives NASA’s Psyche Mission Team
These short videos offer glimpses of the people who’ve helped make this upcoming journey to a metal-rich asteroid possible. What motivates someone to labor for years to help build something that will be rocketed into space, never to be seen again on our planet? For the scientists, engineers, and technicians behind NASA’s Psyche mission to a metal-rich asteroid, the answers are wide-ranging but share a common thread: a passion to explore the unknown. That inspiration is highlighted in the new “Behind the Spacecraft” video series, in which five members of the Psyche team tell the story of how they ended up on a mission designed to answer questions about the mysterious asteroid Psyche.
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Webb Reveals Intricate Details in the Remains of a Dying Star
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope obtained images of the Ring Nebula, one of the best-known examples of a planetary nebula. Much like the Southern Ring Nebula, one of Webb’s first images, the Ring Nebula displays intricate structures of the final stages of a dying star. Roger Wesson from Cardiff University tells us more about this phase of a Sun-like star’s stellar lifecycle and how Webb observations have given him and his colleagues valuable insights into the formation and evolution of these objects, hinting at a key role for binary companions. “Planetary nebulae were once thought to be simple, round objects with a single dying star at the center. They were named for their fuzzy, planet-like appearance through small telescopes. Only a few thousand years ago, that star was still a red giant that was shedding most of its mass. As a last farewell, the hot core now ionizes, or heats up, this expelled gas, and the nebula responds with colorful emission of light. Modern observations, though, show that most planetary nebulae display breathtaking complexity. It begs the question: how does a spherical star create such intricate and delicate non-spherical structures?”
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