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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Planning for a Large Space Weather Event: Preparation for and Lessons Learned from the 2024 Space Weather Interagency Tabletop Exercise

On May 8-9 2024, the Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) at NASA/Johnson Space Center participated in a joint exercise with DoD, FEMA, OSTP, DOE and other agencies to assess their ability to respond to a large hypothetical space weather event. SRAG is a uniquely skilled group of scientists and engineers tasked with mitigating impacts of radiation exposure to the astronaut crew aboard the International Space Station and upcoming missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In meeting this objective, the team has developed expertise in both modeling the impacts of an enhanced space environment and in the real-time operational support of the Flight Control Team when assessing a response to the environment. Several members of SRAG worked with the Tabletop Exercise (TTX) planners to define a realistic large event and to model the resulting radiation exposure on an Artemis crew. SRAG members participating in the TTX were blinded to the results of this analysis. As the event unfolded during the TTX, SRAG provided their assessment of the likely impact on the crew and recommendations for crew actions. During the exercise, the team tracked lessons learned for their own planning, currently in work, for Artemis-II and subsequent missions.

Janet Barzilla↗
NASA NTRS1999

X-Ray Fingerprinting Techniques for Recognizing A Hydrological Role in the Formation of Minerals on the Surface of Mars

Previous work has demonstrated the ability of a miniaturized XRD-XRF instrument to perform in-situ analyses without sample preparation or acquisition. Deployment of this instrument on a Martian rover will allow a large number of rapid qualitative analyses, which will maximize the diversity of samples studied and selected for possible return. As a first step in designing a decision tree for recognizing minerals in complex mixtures, d spacings were plotted against intensity for several mineral groups comprising rock and soil types inferred for the surface of Mars (weathered basalt, playa and hydrothermal deposits, clay-rich soils). In all groups, d spacings cluster in a range from about 1-4 angstroms, which can under certain circumstances obscure patterns for individual phases. However, within the silicate family, minerals containing either bound OH- or molecules of H20 (clays, micas, amphiboles, zeolites) are characterized by a shift of peaks to higher d spacings. Large d spacings (greater than about 7 angstroms) thus act as a first-order filter for distinguishing hydrous from anhydrous silicates. The ability to quickly verify the presence of silicates that have interacted with water has important implications for using mineral chemistry and structure to help decipher the hydrologic and atmospheric history of Mars. This represents a beginning for developing more sophisticated methods of pattern recognition. These will combine XRD and XRF analyses with optical data to rapidly7 discern environmentally diagnostic assemblages without the necessity of identifying every peak individual mineral phase.

Metzger, Ellen P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Biological Discovery Through Biospecimen Sharing: The Nasa Biological Institutional Scientific Collection

Understanding biological impacts from spaceflight hazards and the subsequent development of countermeasures are a high priority to enable humanity to venture back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond. Experiments have been conducted with model organisms flown to space and analogous investigations terrestrially, to identify biological mechanistic impacts from spaceflight hazards and to develop mitigation countermeasures, thus contributing towards basic and applied science goals. However, sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor. To maximize scientific return, all biospecimens not required by spaceflight-relevant Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved, and archived in the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). Biospecimens are collected and preserved according to well-established standard operating procedures to maintain scientific quality and are available on-request by the international scientific community. NBISC currently stores over 32,000 biospecimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based space analog investigations. Tissue sharing has resulted in at least 33 publications since 2011 and 51 requests since 2016. Many requests for NBISC biospecimens come from first-time investigators who subsequently submit grants as their point-of-entry into the field of spaceflight biology and health. The NBISC biorepository is part of the NASA ‘Open Science for Life in Space’ collaborative group of projects, which includes NASA Genelab, the Space Biology Program’s Biospecimen Sharing Program, Physical Sciences Informatics, and the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive. NBISC biospecimens have been awarded to NASA Genelab, who then generated various open access science ‘omics datasets through the GeneLab Sample Processing laboratory, with resulting data widely used for biological study. Other NBISC biospecimen awards have led to studies on fecal microbiome analysis, DNA damage analysis using single-cell DNA sequencing, enzymatic-pathway identification involved in spaceflight muscle atrophy, and characterization of ocular morphological changes. Of note, NBISC is expanded to include a new Space Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC) for the collection, identification, documentation, long-term preservation, and distribution of space-related microbial isolates.

Biospecimens↗
NASA NTRS1989

Ariane-related debris in deep-space orbit

A group of data bases for deep-space artificial satellites has been analyzed for orbital element sets exhibiting mean motions within 1.5 rev/day of 2.2 rev/day, eccentricity within 0.3 of 0.73, and inclination within 3 deg of 6.2 deg, as would be expected of Ariane upper stage explosion debris. The rapid growth of objects in these Ariane-type orbits is consistent with the two recorded explosions of Ariane launch vehicle upper stage elements. About 250 objects are currently being tracked.

Taff, L. G.↗
NASA NTRS2002

NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center's Contributions to Space Plasma Physics

Since the mid-l970's, the Space Plasma Physics Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has contributed critical instrumentation to numerous satellite and sounding rocket missions exploring the plasmas of near-Earth space. This talk will review major discoveries in Earth's ionosphere, plasmasphere, and magnetosphere directly attributable to the researchers of the Space Plasma Physics Group and the significance of these discoveries to the field of plasma physics.

Adrian, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Comparing the effects of two in-flight aerobic exercise protocols on standing heart rates and VO(2peak) before and after space flight

The effects of regular aerobic exercise on orthostatic tolerance have been the subject of a long-standing controversy that will influence the use of exercise during space flight. To examine these effects, astronauts performed continuous (CE) aerobic exercise (n = 8), interval (IE) aerobic exercise (n = 4), or no (NE) exercise (n = 5) during flights of 7 to 11 days. Heart rate (HR) responses to an orthostatic challenge (stand test) were measured 10 days before flight and on landing day. VO(2peak) (graded treadmill exercise) was measured 7 to 21 days before and 2 days after flight. No significant differences across the groups were observed in standing HRs before or after flight. However, the within-group mean HRs significantly increased in the NE (71-89 beats/min) and CE (60-85 beats/min) groups after space flight. The HRs for the IE group did not significantly increase (75-86 beats/min) after space flight. VO(2peak) decreased (P < .05) in the NE (-9.5%) group, but did not change in the CE (-2.4%) and IE (1%) groups. The relationship (r = 0.237) between the delta HR and delta VO(2peak) was not significant. These preliminary results indicate that: (1) continuous exercise does not affect the orthostatic HR response after space flight; (2) interval exercise may minimize an increase in the postflight orthostatic HR; and (3) both exercise protocols can maintain VO(2peak).

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗
NASA NTRS2013

Future In-Space Operations (FISO): A Working Group and Community Engagement

Long-duration human capabilities beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), either in support of or as an alternative to lunar surface operations, have been assessed at least since the late 1960s. Over the next few months, we will present short histories of concepts for long-duration, free-space human habitation beyond LEO from the end of the Apollo program to the Decadal Planning Team (DPT)/NASA Exploration Team (NExT), which was active in 1999 2000 (see Forging a vision: NASA s Decadal Planning Team and the origins of the Vision for Space Exploration , The Space Review, December 19, 2005). Here we summarize the brief existence of the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group in 2005 2006 and its successor, a telecon-based colloquium series, which we co-moderate.

Thronson, Harley↗
NASA NTRS2006

Space Activism as an Epiphanic Belief System

Years of interaction with young people in the space industry and in space activists groups led to my observation that many such individuals can cite a quite specific life event that triggered a life-long interest in or commitment to creating a space future. I am particularly intrigued by parallels between such experiences and the phenomenon of epiphanic experiences among committed Christians. I see analogies between the puzzlement among space activists and among Christian groups as to the reasons for so many people being "unbelievers." At a small international meeting on lunar exploration in 2003, I heard two separate lunch speakers cite such personal experiences. At the beginning of a break in that meeting, I grabbed the microphone from the chairman and asked each person to write down on a pad by his chair whether or not he (or she) had experienced a specific event that led to their involvement in space. If the answer was positive, I asked for a brief narrative, for their age at the time, and for their current age. I received 53 submissions, 20% of which simply stated that their involvement in space exploration was happenstance. (Apollo astronaut John Young was among these.) The other 80% of the submissions had specific stories. The ages at the time of the epiphany ranged from 4 to 47; and their current ages ranged from 22 to 78. I will present a high-level characterization of these inputs. Interest in space exploration as a form of belief system is consistent with choosing NASA goals for the purpose of inspiration and with phenomena such as the "Overview Effect". More research might explore what form the transcendent experience takes and whether it might be associated with feelings of universal connection such as the noosphere or "The Force". From a pragmatic point of view, outreach strategies for exploration should focus on giving individuals access to personal, potentially transformational experiences as opposed to astronaut talks at civic clubs.

Mendell, Wendell↗
NASA NTRS1987

LEO and GEO missions

The occurrence of the Challenger disaster in early 1986 caused a severe reevaluation of the space program. Plans already established had to be drastically revised and new plans had to be made. NASA created the Space Leadership Planning Group (SLPG) to formulate space mission plans covering a 50 year period based on Agency goals and objectives responsive to the National Commission on Space recommendations. An interim view of the status of SLPG plans for low altitude and geosynchronous missions is presented.

Mercanti, Enrico↗
NASA NTRS2011

Study of Scattered Light from Known Debris Disks

Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, a group of edge on debris disks, surrounding main-sequence shell stars have been discovered in the infrared. These disks are of high interest because they not only have dust, but an observed amount of circumstellar gas. HD158352 was an ideal target to try and image the disk because it was one of the closest stars in this group. Using the Hubble Space Telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), we attempted to take a direct image of the light scattered from the known disk in a broad optical bandpass. Studying these particular type of disks in high detail will allow us to learn more about gas-dust interactions. In particular, this will allow us to learn how the circumstellar gas evolves during the planet-forming phase. Even though it was predicted that the disk should have a magnitude of 20.5 at 3", no disk was seen in any of the optical images. This suggests that the parameters used to predict the brightness of the disk are not what we first anticipated and adjustments to the model must be performed. We also present the blue visible light spectrum of the scattered light from the debris disk surrounding Beta Pictoris. We are analyzing archival observations taken by Heap, using Hubble Space Telescope's STIS instrument. A long slit with a bar was used to occult Beta Pictoris as well as the PSF star. This was done because it is necessary to subtract a PSF observed the same way at the target to detect the disk. It appears that we have detected light from the disk but the work was in progress at the time of the abstract deadline.

Rodriguez, Joseph E.↗
NASA NTRS2019

ISEP: A Joint SRAG/CCMC Collaboration to Improve Mitigation of Space Weather Effects on Crew Health in the Exo-LEO Era

The Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) is tasked with monitoring changes to space weather and mitigating any resultant impacts to crew health and safety. As human spaceflight goals extend from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) missions like the International Space Station (ISS) to the moon, Mars and beyond, SRAG will need to update their current approach for crew monitoring of and protection from radiation exposure due to energetic Solar Particle Events (ESPEs). Challenges faced in planning exo-LEO missions include the lack of protection from the Earth’s geomagnetic field employed by the ISS in addition to limited communication capability between the crew and the ground. In the event of an ESPE, the current ISS trajectory ensures that the vehicle is only traveling through fields of higher radiation exposure for a brief period of time; the Earth’s geomagnetic field prevents the penetration of the high-energy particles of concern throughout the majority of the orbit. Exo-LEO missions, on the other hand, require that the vehicle travel through free space, exposing vehicle and crew to the full impact of the ESPE. NASA has combined multiple approaches to resolve this radiation exposure issue. New vehicles are designed to take advantage of advances in particle transport modeling capabilities and shielding technology, allowing redistribution of mass throughout the vehicle to areas of thinner shielding when the energetic particle flux has increased to levels of concern. Although vehicle shielding is an important aspect of radiation exposure protection, there is a continued requirement to monitor and predict the space weather environment. To this end, SRAG maintains a console position in Mission Control with 24/7 mission support capability. In the event of increased solar activity, SRAG collaborates with the Flight Control Team (FCT) to determine if crew action (i.e., shelter) is required. During any increase in solar activity, the FCT needs three pieces of information to effectively decide the crew response in light of other required mission tasks: if an event (ESPE) will occur, how ‘intense’ an observed event will be, and how long will an observed event will last. An ideal alert system limits false alarms, therefore causing the crew to take action unnecessarily, without ignoring events that pose a hazard to the crew. SRAG’s current operational concept for ISS missions focuses on short-term forecasts, best described as ‘now-casting’. Console operators are in daily communication with the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) for situational awareness purposes. When conditions exist that may lead to increased solar activity, operators receive notifications from SWPC. In the case of a well-connected ESPE, the console operator may only have on the order of minutes to several hours to notify the FCT of the event and provide a recommendation for crew action. As NASA shifts to exo-LEO missions, the increased time in free space as well as the reduced ability to communicate with the crew will force a transition in crew protection strategy that emphasizes improvments to both the accuracy and the lead time in forecasting capabilities.

Barzilla, Janet E.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Radiation Operations Sources, Models, and Standards

Space radiation is one of the major challenges of spaceflight. Astronauts spending time in low Earth orbit, the lunar surface, deep space, and elsewhere will all be exposed to multiple space radiation sources. These sources include trapped radiation in Earth’s upper atmosphere, solar energetic particles, and the omnipresent galactic cosmic radiation, as well as non-ionizing radiation from inside and outside a vehicle or habitat. The Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) at Johnson Space Center is responsible for ensuring astronauts are protected from short- and long-term risks of radiation exposure. This talk details the radiation operational standards employed by NASA.

space radiation↗
NASA NTRS1997

Current Activities and Capabilities of the Terrestrial Environment Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designated Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) the center of excellence for space transportation. The Aerospace Environments and Effects (AEE) team of the Electromagnetics and Aerospace Environments Branch (EL23) in the Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory at MSFC, supports the center of excellence designation by providing near-Earth space, deep space, planetary, and terrestrial environments expertise to projects as required. The Terrestrial Environment (TE) group within the AEE team maintains an extensive TE data base. Statistics and models derived from this data are applied to the design and development of new aerospace vehicles, as well as performance enhancement of operational vehicles such as the Space Shuttle. The TE is defined as the Earth's atmospheric environment extending from the surface to orbital insertion altitudes (approximately 90 km).

Roberts, Barry C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Increasing accessibility to deep learning-based analytics for space biology: pretrained models, transfer learning, and analytics platform development

Biological systems react in complex ways to the stressors of spaceflight, and the data capturing these relationships is concomitantly high-dimensional and complex. Deep learning and machine learning approaches are increasingly popular as an analytical approach for space biosciences, due to their ability to model complex relationships in complex data. However, such approaches often require large datasets and extensive computational resources. New approaches that minimize data sizes and computational power needed to leverage machine learning, and resources that make these approaches accessible, are needed to increase accessibility and adoption of machine learning in the space biosciences. Transfer learning, in which a pretrained model of broad utility is trained on a large dataset, and subsequently reused on downstream applications for which data is more limited, is one approach to minimizing data and computational intensity of deep learning applications. This transfer learning approach results in more performant models in high-dimensional, low-sample-size settings such as space biology, as compared to training models on limited data from scratch. This presentation will outline efforts to generate pretrained models for the space biology community, and highlight transfer learning applications modeling microbial antibiotic resistance during spaceflight. Finally, in order to increase accessibility of these models and tools, as well as others, for the broader space biology community, we present a modeling and analysis platform facilitating machine learning applications in space biology. This platform streamlines machine learning training and analysis in a notebook format, facilitates download and use of space biology data from the NASA GeneLab database, and can be utilized on NASA-hosted servers or downloaded and hosted locally. This effort, as part of the AI4LS (Artificial Intelligence for Life in Space) working group, will increase accessibility, feasibility, and performance of machine learning approaches for the space biology community.

Adrienne Hoarfrost↗
NASA NTRS2016

Analysis of Adult Female Mouse (Mus musculus) Group Behavior on the International Space Station (ISS)

As interest in long duration effects of space habitation increases, understanding the behavior of model organisms living within the habitats engineered to fly them is vital for designing, validating, and interpreting future spaceflight studies. A handful of papers have previously reported behavior of mice and rats in the weightless environment of space. The Rodent Research Hardware and Operations Validation (Rodent Research-1; RR1) utilized the Rodent Habitat (RH) developed at NASA Ames Research Center to fly mice on the ISS (International Space Station). Ten adult (16-week-old) female C57BL/6 mice were launched on September 21st, 2014 in an unmanned Dragon Capsule, and spent 37 days in microgravity. Here we report group behavioral phenotypes of the RR1 Flight (FLT) and environment-matched Ground Control (GC) mice in the Rodent Habitat (RH) during this long-duration flight. Video was recorded for 33 days on the ISS, permitting daily assessments of overall health and well-being of the mice, and providing a valuable repository for detailed behavioral analysis. We previously reported that, as compared to GC mice, RR1 FLT mice exhibited the same range of behaviors, including eating, drinking, exploration, self- and allo-grooming, and social interactions at similar or greater levels of occurrence. Overall activity was greater in FLT as compared to GC mice, with spontaneous ambulatory behavior, including organized 'circling' or 'race-tracking' behavior that emerged within the first few days of flight following a common developmental sequence, and comprised the primary dark cycle activity persisting throughout the remainder of the experiment. Participation by individual mice increased dramatically over the course of the flight. Here we present a detailed analysis of 'race-tracking' behavior in which we quantified: (1) Complete lap rotations by individual mice; (2) Numbers of collisions between circling mice; (3) Lap directionality; and (4) Recruitment of mice into a group phenotype. This analysis contributes to the first NASA long-duration study of rodent behavior, providing evidence for the emergence of a distinctive, organized group behavior unique to the weightless space environment.

Behavior in Space↗