NASA Invests in Shapeshifters, Biobots, Other Visionary Technology

NASA is investing in technology concepts that include meteoroid impact detection, space telescope swarms and small orbital debris mapping technologies that may one day be used for future space exploration missions. Five of the concepts are from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
The agency is investing in 25 early-stage technology proposals that have the potential to transform future human and robotic exploration missions, introduce new exploration capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.
The 2018 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I concepts cover a wide range of innovations selected for their potential to revolutionize future space exploration. Phase I awards are valued at approximately $125,000, over nine months, to support initial definition and analysis of their concepts. If these basic feasibility studies are successful, awardees can apply for Phase II awards.
"The NIAC program gives NASA the opportunity to explore visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions by creating radically better or entirely new concepts while engaging America's innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey," said Jim Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. "The concepts can then be evaluated for potential inclusion into our early stage technology portfolio."
The selected 2018 Phase I proposals are:
Shapeshifters from Science Fiction to Science Fact: Globetrotting from Titan's Rugged Cliffs to its Deep Seafloors
Aliakbar Aghamohammadi, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Biobot: Innovative Offloading of Astronauts for More Effective Exploration
David Akin,University of Maryland, College Park
Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (LEAVES)
Jeffrey Balcerski,Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland
Meteoroid Impact Detection for Exploration of Asteroids (MIDEA)
Sigrid Close,Stanford University, California
On-Orbit, Collision-Free Mapping of Small Orbital Debris
Christine Hartzell,University of Maryland, College Park
Marsbee - Swarm of Flapping Wing Flyers for Enhanced Mars Exploration
Chang-kwon Kang,University of Alabama, Huntsville
Rotary Motion Extended Array Synthesis (R-MXAS)
John Kendra,Leidos, Inc., Reston, Virginia
PROCSIMA: Diffractionless Beamed Propulsion for Breakthrough Interstellar Missions Chris Limbach, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station
SPARROW: Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds
Gareth Meirion-Griffith, JPL
BALLET: Balloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain
Hari Nayar, JPL
Myco-Architecture off Planet: Growing Surface Structures at Destination
Lynn Rothscild, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
Modular Active Self-Assembling Space Telescope Swarms
Dmitry Savransky, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Astrophysics and Technical Study of a Solar Neutrino Spacecraft
Nickolas Solomey, Wichita State University, Kansas
Advanced Diffractive MetaFilm Sailcraft
Grover Swartzlander, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York
Spectrally-Resolved Synthetic Imaging Interferometer
Jordan Wachs, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colorado
Radioisotope Positron Propulsion
Ryan Weed, Positron Dynamics, Livermore, California
"The 2018 Phase I competition was especially fierce, with over 230 proposals and only 25 winners," said Jason Derleth, NIAC program executive. "I can't wait to see what the new NIAC Fellows can do for NASA!"
Phase II studies allow awardees time to refine their designs and explore aspects of implementing the new technology. This year's Phase II portfolio addresses a range of leading-edge concepts, including a breakthrough propulsion architecture for interstellar precursor missions, a large scale space telescope, novel exploration tools for Triton, and Mach effect gravity assist drive propulsion.
Awards under Phase II of the NIAC program can be worth as much as $500,000 for two-year studies, and allow proposers to further develop Phase I concepts that successfully demonstrated initial feasibility and benefit.
The selected 2018 Phase II proposals are:
Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) Propulsion Concept
Robert Adams, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
A Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions
John Brophy, JPL
Kilometer Space Telescope (KST)
Devon Crowe, Raytheon, El Segundo, California
Dismantling Rubble Pile Asteroids with AoES (Area-of-Effect Soft-bots)
Jay McMahon, University of Colorado, Boulder
Triton Hopper: Exploring Neptune's Captured Kuiper Belt Object
Steven Oleson, NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
Spacecraft Scale Magnetospheric Protection from Galactic Cosmic Radiation
John Slough, MSNW, LLC, Redmond, Washington
Direct Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravity Lens Mission
Slava Turyshev, JPL
NIMPH: Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester
Michael VanWoerkom, ExoTerra Resource, Littleton, Colorado
Mach Effect for in space propulsion: Interstellar mission
James Woodward, Space Studies Institute, Inc., Mojave, California
"Phase II studies are given to the most successful Phase I fellows, whose ideas have the best possibility of changing the possible," said Derleth. "Their two-year timeframe and larger budget allow them to really get going on the business of creating the future."
NASA selected these projects through a peer-review process that evaluated innovativeness and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, most requiring 10 or more years of concept maturation and technology development before use on a NASA mission.
NIAC partners with forward-thinking scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation to help maintain America's leadership in air and space. NIAC is funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for developing the cross-cutting, pioneering new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.
For more information about NIAC, and a complete list of the selected proposals, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/niac
For more information about NASA's investments in space technology, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/spacetech
News Media Contact
Gina Anderson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1160
gina.n.anderson@nasa.gov
Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0880
jane.platt@jpl.nasa.gov
2018-066

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NASA Invests in Shapeshifters, Biobots, Other Visionary Technology

NASA is investing in technology concepts that includes meteoroid impact detection, space telescope swarms and small orbital debris mapping technologies that may one day be used for future space exploration missions.

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Online Tickets to 'Explore JPL' Available Soon

WHAT: Tickets to this year's "Explore JPL" event at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will be available to the public online on April 7, 2018. Tickets are free, but very limited, and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of five tickets per requestor.

No one will be admitted without a ticket. Visitors to JPL during the event -- to be held June 9-10 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.-must have their tickets in hand, and anyone age 18 or over must show a matching legal ID. Tickets are not transferable and cannot be sold.

The tickets -- which will be for specific time slots -- will be available onlineat 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) on Saturday, April 7. The maximum number oftickets per requestor is five, and orders for more than five tickets may besubject to cancellation. In addition, tickets must be reserved for specificnames.

At "Explore JPL," visitors will have the opportunity to see, among other things, a life-sized model of InSight -- the next mission to Mars, scheduled to launch in May -- and Mars rovers, plus JPL's machine shop, where precise parts are made for spacecraft. This event coincides with the 60^th anniversary of NASA. The agency was created in 1958.

Although children under two do not require a ticket, experiences at the event are not intended for very young guests.

Vehicles entering NASA/JPL property are subject to inspection. Visitors cannot bring these items to NASA/JPL: weapons, explosives, incendiary devices, dangerous instruments, alcohol, illegal drugs, pets and all types of skates, skateboards and Segways. Bicycling to NASA/JPL is welcomed, but not inside the event, as the venues are crowded with pedestrians. Bike racks will be provided near the main entrance. No bags, backpacks or ice chests are allowed, except small purses and diaper bags. Drones are not allowed to fly over NASA/JPL under any circumstances.

Follow @NASAJPL on Twitter and Instagram, and join the conversation by using the hashtag #ExploreJPL.

WHEN: Online ticket registration isSaturday, April 7, 2018 at 9 a.m. PDT

WHERE: For more information, visit:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/special-events.php

News Media Contact

Esprit Smith / Jane Platt

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-6215 / 354-0880

esprit.smith@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.platt@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-065

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NASA is Ready to Study the Heart of Mars

A regional dust storm currently swelling on Mars follows unusually closely on one that blossomed less than two weeks earlier and is now dissipating, as seen in daily global weather monitoring by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Images from the orbiter's wide-angle Mars Color Imager (MARCI) show each storm growing in the Acidalia area of northern Mars, then blowing southward and exploding to sizes bigger than the United States after reaching the southern hemisphere.

That development path is a common pattern for generating regional dust storms during spring and summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, where it is now mid-summer.

"What's unusual is we're seeing a second one so soon after the first one," said Mars meteorologist Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, which built and operates MARCI. "We've had orbiters watching weather patterns on Mars continuously for nearly two decades now, and many patterns are getting predictable, but just when we think we have Mars figured out, it throws us another surprise."

Weekly Martian weather reports including animated sequences of MARCI observations are available at:

http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html

Weather updates from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter science team provide operators of Mars rovers advance notice both for taking precautions and for planning observations of storms, particularly in case a regional storm grows to encircle the whole planet. A planet-encircling Martian storm last occurred in 2007.

The orbiter monitors storms with its Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) instrument as well as with MARCI. MCS measurements of high-altitude atmospheric warming associated with dust storms have revealed an annual pattern in the occurrence of large regional storms, and the first of these back-to-back storms fits into the identified pattern for this time of the Martian year.

Researchers have watched effects of the latest storms closely. "We hope for a chance to learn more about how dust storms become global, if that were to happen," said David Kass of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Even if it does not become a global storm, the temperature effects due to thin dust hazes will last for several weeks."

Cantor reported the second of the current back-to-back regional storms on March 5 to the team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The earlier storm, which had become regional in late February, was dissipating by then but still causing high-altitude haziness and warming.

"There's still a chance the second one could become a planet-encircling storm, but it's unlikely because we're getting so late in the season," Cantor said this week. All previously observed planet-encircling dust storms on Mars occurred earlier in the southern summer.

Opportunity Project Manager John Callas, at JPL, credits MARCI weather reports with helping his team protect rovers when sudden increases in atmospheric dust decrease sunlight reaching the rover solar arrays. For example, Cantor's warning about a regional storm approaching the rover Spirit in November 2008 prompted JPL to send an emergency weekend command to conserve energy by deleting a planned radio transmission by Spirit. That saved enough charge in Spirit's batteries to prevent "what would likely have been a very serious situation," Callas said.

During the most recent global dust storm on Mars, in 2007, both of the rovers then operating on the planet -- Spirit and Opportunity -- were put into a power-saving mode for more than a week with minimal communication. The early-2010 ending of Spirit's mission was not related to a dust storm.

The same winds that raise Martian dust into the atmosphere can clear some of the dust that accumulates on the rovers. On Feb. 25, as the first back-to-back was spreading regionally, Opportunity experienced a significant cleaning of its solar panels that increased their energy output by more than 10 percent, adjusted for the clarity of the atmosphere. Dust-removing events typically clean the panels by only one or two percent. The Opportunity operations team has noticed over the years that a large dust-cleaning event often precedes dusty skies. Since Feb. 25, the atmosphere over Opportunity has become dustier, and some of the dust has already fallen back onto the solar panels.

"Before the first regional dust storm, the solar panels were cleaner than they were during the last four Martian summers, so the panels generated more energy," said JPL rover-power engineer Jennifer Herman. "It remains to be seen whether the outcome of these storms will be a cleaner or dirtier Opportunity. We have seen both results from dust storms in the past."

NASA's Curiosity rover, on Mars since 2012, uses a radioisotope thermoelectric generator for power instead of solar panels, so it doesn't face the same hazard from dust storms as Opportunity does. The possibility of observing the growth and life cycle of a regional or global storm offers a research opportunity for both missions, though. Scientists temporarily modified Curiosity's weather-monitoring regime last week in response to learning that a regional dust storm was growing.

"We'll keep studying this for weeks as the dust clears from the sky," said atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. Sky observations at multiple lighting angles can provide information about changes in the size distribution of suspended dust particles as additional dust is lifted into the sky and larger particles drop more quickly than smaller ones.

News Media Contact

Guy Webster

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6278

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726

laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2017-064

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NASA Ready to Study Heart of Mars

NASA is about to go on a journey to study the interior of Mars. The space agency held a news conference today at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, detailing the next mission to the Red Planet.

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NASA to Host News Conference Announcing New Supersonic Test Aircraft

NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 3, to announce the agency's plans for its next experimental aircraft, or X-plane, called the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD).

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NASA Visualizes the Dance of a Melting Snowflake

A new video features a visualization of the first three-dimensional numerical model of melting snowflakes in the atmosphere, developed by scientist Jussi Leinonen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A better understanding of how snow melts can help scientists recognize the signature in radar signals of heavier, wetter snow -- the kind that breaks power lines and tree limbs -- and could be a step toward improving predictions of this hazard.

Snowflake research is one of many ways that NASA studies the frozen regions of Earth, collectively known as the cryosphere.

This visualization is based on the first three-dimensional numerical model of melting snowflakes in the atmosphere, developed by scientist Jussi Leinonen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A better understanding of how snow melts can help scientists recognize the signature in radar signals of heavier, wetter snow -- the kind that breaks power lines and tree limbs -- and could be a step toward improving predictions of this hazard.

Leinonen's model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature. First, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake's surface. These liquid-water regions then merge to form a shell of liquid around an ice core, and finally develop into a water drop. The modeled snowflake shown in the video is less than half an inch (one centimeter) long and composed of many individual ice crystals whose arms became entangled when they collided in midair.

Some of the most remote places on Earth are showing signs of change, with potentially global impacts. In 2018, NASA is scheduled to launch two new satellite missions and conduct an array of field research that will enhance our view of Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, snow cover and permafrost. Collectively, these frozen regions are known as the cryosphere. Over the course of the year NASA will share an inside look at what the agency is doing to better understand this critical component of our home planet.

Leinonen said he became interested in modeling melting snow because of the way it affects observations with remote sensing instruments. A radar "profile" of the atmosphere from top to bottom shows a very bright, prominent layer at the altitude where falling snow and hail melt -- much brighter than atmospheric layers above and below it. "The reasons for this layer are still not particularly clear, and there has been a bit of debate in the community," Leinonen said.

Simpler models can reproduce the bright melt layer, but a more detailed model like this one can help scientists understand it better, particularly how the layer is related to the type of melting snow and the radar wavelengths used to observe it.

A paper on the numerical model, titled "Snowflake melting simulation using smoothed particle hydrodynamics," recently appeared in the Journal of Geophysical Research -Atmospheres.

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

818-354-0474

Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Carol Rasmussen

NASA's Earth Science News Team

2018-063

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'Marsquakes' Could Shake Up Planetary Science

Starting next year, scientists will get their first look deep below the surface of Mars.

That's when NASA will send the first robotic lander dedicated to exploring the planet's subsurface. InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, will study marsquakes to learn about the Martian crust, mantle and core.

Are there earthquakes on Mars? Or rather, "marsquakes?" And what could they teach us about the Red Planet? Find out more in this 60-second video and by visiting mars.nasa.gov/insight .

Doing so could help answer a big question: how are planets born?

Seismology, the study of quakes, has already revealed some of the answers here on Earth, said Bruce Banerdt, Insight's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. But Earth has been churning its geologic record for billions of years, hiding its most ancient history. Mars, at half the size of Earth, churns far less: it's a fossil planet, preserving the history of its early birth.

"During formation, this ball of featureless rock metamorphosed into a diverse and fascinating planet, almost like caterpillar to a butterfly," Banerdt said. "We want to use seismology to learn why Mars formed the way it did, and how planets take shape in general."

A Planetary CT Scan

When rocks crack or shift, they give off seismic waves that bounce throughout a planet. These waves, better known as quakes, travel at different speeds depending on the geologic material they travel through.

Seismometers, like InSight's SEIS instrument, measure the size, frequency and speed of these quakes, offering scientists a snapshot of the material they pass through.

"A seismometer is like a camera that takes an image of a planet's interior," Banerdt said. "It's a bit like taking a CT scan of a planet."

Mars' geologic record includes lighter rocks and minerals -- which rose from the planet's interior to form the Martian crust -- and heavier rocks and minerals that sank to form the Martian mantle and core. By learning about the layering of these materials, scientists can explain why some rocky planets turn into an "Earth" rather than a "Mars" or "Venus" -- a factor that is essential to understanding where life can appear in the universe.

A Fuzzy Picture

Each time a quake happens on Mars, it will give InSight a "snapshot" of the planet's interior. The InSight team estimates the spacecraft will see between a couple dozen to several hundred quakes over the course of the mission. Small meteorites, which pass through the thin Martian atmosphere on a regular basis, will also serve as seismic "snapshots."

"It will be a fuzzy picture at first, but the more quakes we see, the sharper it will get," Banerdt said.

One challenge will be getting a complete look at Mars using only one location. Most seismology on Earth takes measurements from multiple stations. InSight will have the planet's only seismometer, requiring scientists to parse the data in creative ways.

"We have to get clever," Banerdt said. "We can measure how various waves from the same quake bounce off things and hit the station at different times."

Moonquakes and Marsquakes

InSight won't be the first NASA mission to do seismology.

The Apollo missions included four seismometers for the Moon. Astronauts exploded mortar rounds to create vibrations, offering a peek about 328 feet (100 meters) under the surface. They crashed the upper stages of rockets into the Moon, producing waves that enabled them to probe its crust. They also detected thousands of genuine moonquakes and meteorite impacts.

The Viking landers attempted to conduct seismology on Mars in the late 1970s. But those seismometers were located on top of the landers, which swayed in the wind on legs equipped with shock absorbers.

"It was a handicapped experiment," Banerdt said. "I joke that we didn't do seismology on Mars -- we did it three feet above Mars."

InSight will measure more than seismology. The Doppler shift from a radio signal on the lander can reveal whether the planet's core is still molten; a self-burrowing probe is designed to measure heat from the interior. Wind, pressure and temperature sensors will allow scientists to subtract vibrational "noise" caused by weather. Combining all this data will give us the most complete picture of Mars yet.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the InSight Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, built and tested the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

For more information about InSight:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-062

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NASA Prepares to Launch Next Mission to Search Sky for New Worlds

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is undergoing final preparations in Florida for its April 16 launch to find undiscovered worlds around nearby stars, providing targets where future studies will assess their capacity to harbor life.

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NASA Awards Contract for Environmental Compliance, Operation Services

NASA has awarded a contract to Navarro Research and Engineering, Inc., of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for continued environmental compliance and operation services at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

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Be a Flight Director: NASA Accepting Applications for Mission Control Leaders

How would you like to sit at the helm of human spaceflight, responsible for the success of missions and the highly trained teams of engineers and scientists that make them possible? NASA is hiring new flight directors for just this job at its mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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NASA’s Webb Observatory Requires More Time for Testing and Evaluation; New Launch Window Under Review

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope currently is undergoing final integration and test phases that will require more time to ensure a successful mission. After an independent assessment of remaining tasks for the highly complex space observatory, Webb’s previously revised 2019 launch window now is targeted for approximately May 2020.

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NASA Renews Focus on Earth's Frozen Regions

In 2018, NASA will intensify its focus on one of the most critical but remote parts of our changing planet with the launch of two new satellite missions and an array of airborne campaigns.

The space agency is launching these missions at a time when decades of observations from the ground, air, and space have revealed signs of change in Earth's ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, snow cover and permafrost. Collectively, scientists call these frozen regions of our planet the "cryosphere."

In 2018, NASA will intensify its focus on one of the most critical but remote parts of our changing planet with the launch of two new satellite missions and an array of airborne campaigns. GRACE-FO and ICESat-2 will use radically different techniques to observe how the massive ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are changing over time and how much they are contributing to sea level rise. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/ LK Ward

While it is often occurring in remote regions, ongoing change with the cryosphere has impacts on people all around the world: sea level rise affects coastlines globally, billions of people rely on water from snowpack, and the diminishing sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean plays a significant role in Earth's climate and weather patterns.

This spring, NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences are scheduled to launch the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission, twin satellites that will continue the original GRACE mission's legacy of tracking fluctuations in Earth's gravity field in order to detect changes in mass, including the mass of ice sheets and aquifers. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Some of the most remote places on Earth are showing signs of change, with potentially global impacts.

In 2018, NASA is scheduled to launch two new satellite missions and conduct an array of field research that will enhance our view of Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, snow cover, and permafrost. Collectively, these frozen regions are known as the "cryosphere." Over the course of the year NASA will share an inside look at what the agency is doing to better understand this critical component of our home planet.

This fall, NASA will launch the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), which will use a highly advanced laser instrument to measure the changing elevation of ice around the world, providing a view of the height of Earth's ice with greater detail than previously possible.

Together the two missions will make critical, complementary measurements of Earth's glaciers and ice sheets. Both missions will also make other key observations: for instance, GRACE-FO will measure groundwater reserves and deep ocean currents; ICESat-2 will measure sea ice thickness and vegetation height.

This year will also see the continuation of two major cryosphere airborne and field campaigns: Operation IceBridge, which has provided a multi-dimensional view of Greenland, Antarctica, and sea ice since 2009, and the JPL-managed Oceans Melting Greenland, which is focused on the interaction between ocean waters and Greenland's glaciers that terminate in the ocean. Both campaigns began Greenland deployments in March.

Parts of Earth's cryosphere supply life-sustaining water to more than one billion people around the world, and NASA observations will help people manage that natural resource. NASA airborne science instruments such as the JPL-managed Airborne Snow Observatory and the SnowEx field campaign in the western United States, which includes JPL participation, seek to better understand and better measure how much water is held in snow cover, a critical fact for this region where one in six people rely on snowpack for water. NASA is also involved in an international effort called the High Mountain Asia Project, which seeks to understand how climate change is affecting glaciers in the Himalayas and water resources for more than 1 billion people in that region.

GRACE-FO and ICESat-2 will use radically different techniques to observe how the massive ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are changing over time and how much they are contributing to sea level rise. Long thought to be slow-moving and stable, certain regions of both ice sheets rapidly lost ice in recent decades, contributing to a recently detected acceleration in global sea level rise relative to 20^th century rates. Based on computer simulations, global sea level could be anywhere from 1 to 4 feet higher by 2100 than in the first decade of this century.

GRACE-FO detects changes in Earth's gravity over time to reveal how the distribution of mass in the Earth system is changing. These observations provide crucial information about how large regions of ice are behaving, such as the accelerating loss of mass from West Antarctica and the slower gains in East Antarctica. ICESat-2's laser instrument can measure the rate of ice sheet elevation change over the course of a year to within two-tenths of an inch (0.4 centimeters), allowing scientists to see when and where ice is growing thicker as snow accumulates, or getting thinner from melting.

NASA's mission in researching our home planet is to use the vantage point of space to understand how Earth works as a system, and how the different components -- ocean, land, atmosphere, biosphere and cryosphere -- interact and affect one another. NASA's diverse airborne and ground research is also aiming to provide a more detailed view of not only the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica but also the other components of the cryosphere: sea ice, snow cover, permafrost and glaciers.

Over decades, NASA and other researchers have pieced together a picture of how these different aspects of the Earth system interact. Decades of observation and analysis reveal significant trends of change.

Summertime sea ice in the Arctic Ocean now routinely covers about 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s, when continuous satellite observations began. This kind of significant change could increase the rate of warming already in progress, affect further sea ice loss in the Arctic and alter shipping access to the Arctic Ocean. ICESat-2 will add to our understanding of Arctic sea ice by measuring sea ice thickness from space, providing scientists more complete information about the volume of sea ice in the Arctic and Southern oceans.

NASA research shows that permafrost -- permanently frozen ground in the Arctic that contains heat-trapping gases such as methane and carbon dioxide -- is thawing at faster rates now than scientists have observed before. Through airborne and field research on missions such as the JPL-managed Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) and the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), which includes JPL participation, NASA scientists are trying to improve measurements of this trend in order to better predict its impact globally. Both CARVE and certain aspects of ABoVE are focused on improving measurements of how much carbon dioxide and methane is being released from Arctic soils.

For more on GRACE-FO, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/gracefo

and

https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/

For more information on Oceans Melting Greenland, Airborne Snow Observatory and CARVE, visit:

https://omg.jpl.nasa.gov/portal/

https://aso.jpl.nasa.gov/

https://carve.jpl.nasa.gov/

News Media Contact

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

818-354-0474

Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Patrick Lynch

NASA's Earth Science News Team

2018-061

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NASA Hosts Media Teleconference on Status of James Webb Space Telescope

NASA will host a media teleconference at 11:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, March 27, to provide an update on the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope – what will be the world’s premier infrared space observatory and the biggest astronomical science telescope ever built. Audio of the call will stream live on NASA’s website.

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NASA Television to Air Launch of Next Space Station Resupply Mission

NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX now is targeting its 14th resupply mission to the International Space Station for no earlier than 4:30 p.m. EDT Monday, April 2.

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Kepler Beyond Planets: Finding Exploding Stars

Fast Facts:

› The Kepler space telescope, famous for finding exoplanets, has also been valuable in tracking exploding stars known as supernovae

› Supernovae forge heavy elements -- materials that make up the world in which we live -- and distribute them

› Through creative engineering, Kepler has had a second life in finding both exoplanets and other astrophysical phenomena

› Kepler's current observing campaign is a rare opportunity to coordinate with ground-based telescopes to look for supernovae

Astronomer Ed Shaya was in his office looking at data from NASA's Kepler space telescope in 2012 when he noticed something unusual: The light from a galaxy had quickly brightened by 10 percent. The sudden bump in light got Shaya instantly excited, but also nervous. The effect could be explained by the massive explosion of a star -- a supernova! -- or, more troublingly, a computer error.

"I just remember on that day, not knowing whether I should believe it or not," he remembers. Rather than celebrate, he thought, "Did I make a mistake? Am I doing this all wrong?"

This animation shows a kind of stellar explosion called a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient. In this case, a giant star "burps" out a shell of gas and dust about a year before exploding. Most of the energy from the supernova turns into light when it hits this previously ejected material, resulting in a short, but brilliant burst of radiation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Stellar explosions forge and distribute materials that make up the world in which we live, and also hold clues to how fast the universe is expanding. By understanding supernovae, scientists can unlock mysteries that are key to what we are made of and the fate of our universe. But to get the full picture, scientists must observe supernovae from a variety of perspectives, especially in the first moments of the explosion. That's really difficult -- there's no telling when or where a supernova might happen next.

A small group of astronomers, including Shaya, realized Kepler could offer a new technique for supernova-hunting. Launched in 2009, Kepler is best known for having discovered thousands of exoplanets. But as a telescope that stares at single patches of space for long periods of time, it can capture a vast trove of other cosmic treasures --especially the kind that change rapidly or pop in and out of view, like supernovae.

"Kepler opened up a new way of looking at the sky," said Jessie Dotson, Kepler's project scientist, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "It was designed to do one thing really well, which was to find planets around other stars. In order to do that, it had to deliver high-precision, continuous data, which has been valuable for other areas of astronomy."

Originally, Shaya and colleagues were looking for active galactic nuclei in their Kepler data. An active galactic nucleus is an extremely bright area at the center of a galaxy where a voracious black hole is surrounded by a disk of hot gas. They had thought about searching for supernovae, but since supernovae are such rare events, they didn't mention it in their proposal. "It was too iffy," Shaya said.

Unsure if the supernova signal he found was real, Shaya and his University of Maryland colleague Robert Olling spent months developing software to better calibrate Kepler data, taking into account variations in temperature and pointing of the instrument. Still, the supernova signal persisted. In fact, they found five more supernovae in their Kepler sample of more than 400 galaxies. When Olling showed one of the signals to Armin Rest, who is now an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltlimore, Rest's jaw dropped. "I started to drool," he said. The door had opened to a new way of tracking and understanding stellar explosions.

Today, these astronomers are part of the Kepler Extra-Galactic Survey, a collaboration between seven scientists in the United States, Australia and Chile looking for supernovae and active galactic nuclei to explore the physics of our universe. To date, they have found more than 20 supernovae using data from the Kepler spacecraft, including an exotic type reported by Rest in a new study in Nature Astronomy. Many more are currently being recorded by Kepler's ongoing observations.

"We have some of the best-understood supernovae," said Brad Tucker, astronomer at the Mt. Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University, who is part of the Kepler Extra-Galactic Survey.

This animation shows the explosion of a white dwarf, an extremely dense remnant of a star that can no longer burn nuclear fuel at its core. In this "type Ia" supernova, white dwarf's gravity steals material away from a nearby stellar companion. When the white dwarf reaches an estimated 1.4 times the current mass of the Sun, it can no longer sustain its own weight, and blows up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Why do we care about supernovae?

A longstanding mystery in astrophysics is how and why stars explode in different ways. One kind of supernova happens when a dense, dead star called a white dwarf explodes. A second kind happens when a single gigantic star nears the end of its life, and its core can no longer withstand the gravitational forces acting on it. The details of these general categories are still being worked out.

The first kind, called "type Ia" (pronounced as "one a") is special because the intrinsic brightness of each of these supernovae is almost the same. Astronomers have used this standard property to measure the expansion of the universe and found the more distant supernovae were less bright than expected. This indicated they were farther away than scientists had thought, as the light had become stretched out over expanding space. This proved that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate and earned those researchers the Nobel Prize in 2011. The leading theory is that a mysterious force called "dark energy" is pushing everything in the universe apart from everything else, faster and faster.

But as astronomers find more and more examples of type Ia explosions, including with Kepler, they realize not all are created equal. While some of these supernovae happen when a white dwarf robs its companion of too much matter, others are the result of two white dwarfs merging. In fact, the white dwarf mergers may be more common. More supernova research with Kepler will help astronomers on a quest to find out if different type Ia mechanisms result in some supernovae being brighter than others -- which would throw a wrench into how they are used to measure the universe's expansion.

"To get a better idea of constraining dark energy, we have to understand better how these type Ia supernovae are formed," Rest said.

This animation shows the merger of two white dwarfs. A white dwarf is an extremely dense remnant of a star that can no longer burn nuclear fuel at its core. This is another way that a "type Ia" supernova occurs. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Another kind of supernova, the "core collapse" variety, happens when a massive star ends its life in an explosion. This includes "Type II" supernovae. These supernovae have a characteristic shockwave called the "shock breakout," which was captured for the first time in optical light by Kepler. The Kepler Extra-Galactic Survey team, led by team member Peter Garnavich, an astrophysics professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, spotted this shock breakout in 2011 Kepler data from a supernova called KSN 2011d, an explosion from a star roughly 500 times the size of our Sun. Surprisingly, the team did not find a shock breakout in a smaller type II supernova called KSN 2011a, whose star was 300 times the size of the Sun -- but instead found the supernova nestled in a layer of dust, suggesting that there is diversity in type II stellar explosions, too.

Kepler data have revealed other mysteries about supernovae. The new study led by Rest in Nature Astronomy describes a supernova from data captured by Kepler's extended mission, called K2, that reaches its peak brightness in just a little over two days, about 10 times less than others take. It is the most extreme known example of a "fast-evolving luminous transient" (FELT) supernova. FELTs are about as bright as the type Ia variety, but rise in less than 10 days and fade in about 30. It is possible that the star spewed out a dense shell of gas about a year before the explosion, and when the supernova happened, ejected material hit the shell. The energy released in that collision would explain the quick brightening.

Why Kepler?

Telescopes on Earth offer a lot of information about exploding stars, but only over short periods of time -- and only when the Sun goes down and the sky is clear - so it's hard to document the "before" and "after" effects of these explosions. Kepler, on the other hand, offers astronomers the rare opportunity to monitor single patches of sky continuously for months, like a car's dashboard camera that is always recording. In fact, the primary Kepler mission, which ran from 2009 to 2013, delivered four years of observations of the same field of view, snapping a picture about every 30 minutes. In the extended K2 mission, the telescope is holding its gaze steady for up to about three months.

This animation shows a gigantic star exploding in a "core collapse" supernova. As molecules fuse inside the star, eventually the star can't support its own weight anymore. Gravity makes the star collapse on itself. Core collapse supernovae are called type Ib, Ic, or II depending on the chemical elements present. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

With ground-based telescopes, astronomers can tell the supernova's color and how it changes with time, which lets them figure out what chemicals are present in the explosion. The supernova's composition helps determine the type of star that exploded. Kepler, on the other hand, reveals how and why the star explodes, and the details of how the explosion progresses. Using the two datasets together, astronomers can get fuller pictures of supernovae behavior than ever before.

Kepler mission planners revived the telescope in 2013, after the malfunction of the second of its four reaction wheels -- devices that help control the orientation of the spacecraft. In the configuration called K2, it needs to rotate every three months or so -- marking observing "campaigns." Members of the Kepler Extra-Galactic Survey made the case that in the K2 mission, Kepler could still monitor supernovae and other exotic, distant astrophysical objects, in addition to exoplanets.

The possibilities were so exciting that the Kepler team devised two K2 observing campaigns especially useful for coordinating supernovae studies with ground-based telescopes. Campaign 16, which began on Dec. 7, 2017, and ended Feb. 25, 2018,included 9,000 galaxies. There are about 14,000 in Campaign 17, which is just beginning now. In both campaigns, Kepler faces in the direction of Earth so that observers on the ground can see the same patch of sky as the spacecraft. The campaigns have excited a community of researchers who can advantage of this rare coordination between Kepler and telescopes on the ground.

Infographic
› Larger view

A recent possible sighting got astronomers riled up on Super Bowl Sunday this year, even if they weren't into the game. On that "super" day, the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASASSN) reported a supernova in the same nearby galaxy Kepler was monitoring. This is just one of many candidate events that scientists are excited to follow up on and perhaps use to better understand the secrets of the universe.

A few more supernovae may come from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, (TESS) which is expected to launch on April 16. In the meantime, scientists will have a lot of work ahead of them once they receive the full dataset from K2's supernova-focused campaigns.

"It will be a treasure trove of supernova information for years to come," Tucker said.

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/kepler

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-1821

calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

Alison Hawkes

Ames Research Center, California's Silicon Valley

650-604-0281

alison.j.hawkesbak@nasa.gov

Written by Elizabeth Landau

NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program

2018-060

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NASA Invites Media to View Launch of InSight Mars Lander from West Coast

Media accreditation is open for the launch of NASA's next mission to Mars - the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport spacecraft (InSight) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

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NASA Awards Contract for Aerospace Systems Modeling, Simulation

NASA has awarded an 8(a) small business set-aside contract to Metis Flight Research Associates LLC of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for support of aerospace systems modeling and simulation facilities at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

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NASA Invites Media to Discuss First Mission to Study Mars Interior

First Interplanetary Launch from West Coast

NASA's next mission to the Red Planet will be the topic of a media briefing at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) Thursday, March 29, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander will study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all rocky planets formed, including Earth and its moon. The lander's instruments include a seismometer to detect marsquakes and a probe that will monitor the flow of heat in the planet's subsurface.

Briefing participants will be:

• Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington
• Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at JPL
• Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL
• Jaime Singer, InSight instrument deployment lead at JPL

Media and the public may ask questions on social media during the briefing using #asknasa.

InSight will be the first planetary spacecraft to take off from the West Coast. It's scheduled to launch May 5 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. If pre-dawn skies are clear, the launch will be visible from Santa Maria to San Diego, California.

Follow the mission on Twitter at:

https://twitter.com/nasainsight

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2018-057b

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Mars Curiosity Celebrates Sol 2,000

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover just hit a new milestone: its two-thousandth Martian day, or sol, on the Red Planet. An image mosaic taken by the rover in January offers a preview of what comes next.

Looming over the image is Mount Sharp, the mound Curiosity has been climbing since September 2014. In the center of the image is the rover's next big, scientific target: an area scientists have studied from orbit and have determined contains clay minerals.

The formation of clay minerals requires water. Scientists have already determined that the lower layers of Mount Sharp formed within lakes that once spanned Gale Crater's floor. The area ahead could offer additional insight into the presence of water, how long it may have persisted, and whether the ancient environment may have been suitable for life.

Curiosity's science team is eager to analyze rock samples pulled from the clay-bearing rocks seen in the center of the image. The rover recently started testing its drill again on Mars for the first time since December 2016. A new process for drilling rock samples and delivering them to the rover's onboard laboratories is still being refined in preparation for scientific targets like the area with clay minerals.

Curiosity landed in August 2012 and has traveled 11.6 miles (18.7 kilometers) in that time. In 2013, the mission found evidence of an ancient freshwater-lake environment that offered all the basic chemical ingredients for microbial life. Since reaching Mount Sharp in 2014, Curiosity has examined environments where both waterand wind have left their marks. Having studied more than 600 vertical feet of rock with signs of lakes and groundwater, Curiosity's international science team concluded that habitable conditions lasted for at leastmillions of years.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built the project's Curiosity rover.

More information about Curiosity is available at:

http://ift.tt/2mPIDkN

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-058

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NASA Invites Media to Discuss First Mission to Study Mars Interior, First Interplanetary Launch from West Coast

NASA's next mission to the Red Planet will be the topic of a media briefing at 5 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. PDT) Thursday, March 29, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

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Two NASA Astronauts Among Crew Heading to International Space Station

Three crew members, including NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT Wednesday (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time).

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Media Invited to View NASA Spacecraft That Will Touch the Sun

Media are invited to view NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 28, at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft will embark this summer on a daring trek, traveling closer to the Sun than any spacecraft in history.

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Media Preview of Final Voyage of NASA's Around-the-World Atmospheric Mission

Media are invited to preview the final deployment of one of NASA's most ambitious airborne studies of Earth's atmosphere on Friday, April 13, at Building 703 of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, located in Palmdale, California.

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FIRST Robotics LA Regionals Celebrate Teamwork, Innovation

Two JPL-sponsored teams took top honors at the 18^th annual FIRST Robotics Competition's Los Angeles Regional event over the weekend.

In the throes of the high-energy event at Pomona's Fairplex, with a crowd of spectators cheering wildly, 54 high school-aged teams competed for the opportunity to advance to the world championship next month. Those advancing will include JPL-sponsored Team 330, the Beach Bots, which was part of the winning alliance. In addition, Team 980, the ThunderBots, won the event's coveted Chairman's Award and also will advance.

The L.A. Regional event, with 1,600 student competitors, is one of more than 160 events worldwide that lead up to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, held April 18-21 in Houston and April 25-28 in Detroit.

JPL, along with higher-education institutes, aerospace companies and others, support and mentor teams. The goal of the international hands-on engineering contest is to immerse high school students in the world of engineering. In January, student teams across the country received the same game challenge and were given six weeks to design, build, program and test their robot. The video-gamed theme for 2018 was "Power Up."

Although teams are focused on the nuts and bolts, the major lessons learned are how to collaborate successfully with teammates. They also learn to share their firsthand experiences with each other.

"I was mentored and then became a mentor," said Emme Spero, an 11^th-grade competitor from Crescenta Valley High School.

More information about the FIRST Los Angeles regional is at:

http://firstlaregional.com

Detailed match results and the complete list of award winners are available at:

http://thebluealliance.com

More information about NASA's Robotics Alliance Project is at:

https://robotics.nasa.gov/

JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California.

News Media Contact

Gretchen McCartney

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-6215

gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-056

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NASA to Launch Parachute Test off Virginia Coast March 27

NASA will test a parachute for possible future missions to Mars from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Tuesday, March 27. Live coverage of the test is scheduled to begin at 6:15 a.m. EDT on the Wallops Ustream site.

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NASA to Preview Upcoming US Spacewalk, Provide Live Coverage

Two American astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station on Thursday, March 29, for a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk. Experts from NASA will preview this work in a briefing at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, March 27, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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New 'AR' Mobile App Features 3-D NASA Spacecraft

NASA spacecraft travel to far-off destinations in space, but a new mobile app produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, brings spacecraft to users. The new app, called Spacecraft AR, uses the latest augmented reality (AR) technology to put virtual 3-D models of NASA's robotic space explorers into any environment with a flat surface.

JPL developed the Spacecraft AR app in collaboration with Google. The app uses Google's ARCore technology to bring 3-D spacecraft into users' devices using native mobile augmented reality. ("Native mobile" AR uses the built-in capabilities of a mobile device to interact with 3-D environments and objects.)

The initial version of the app works with Android devices that support ARCore, with plans to add additional device compatibility in the near future, including iOS devices.

To create the experience of having virtual spacecraft in your space, Spacecraft AR uses the same high-quality 3-D models as a previously released NASA app called Spacecraft 3-D, but with a breakthrough new capability. Whereas Spacecraft 3-D works best with a printed image called a target or marker, Spacecraft AR works with a flat surface -- no target required.

"The Spacecraft AR app is an exciting new way to get up close and personal with NASA's robotic missions," said Kevin Hussey, manager of JPL's visualization team, which developed Spacecraft 3-D and worked on the new app with Google. "We can't wait for people to try it, and we're looking forward to adding many more spacecraft to the app in the future."

Within the Spacecraft AR app, users swipe to select among missions that observe and explore Earth, Mars and the other planets, and choose the spacecraft they would like to see. Once the app detects a flat surface, users simply tap the screen to place the spacecraft into the scene in front of them. They can take and share photos directly from the app and view in-depth information about each mission. And for those using the app in spaces that are large enough, there's even a button to view the spacecraft at their actual sizes.

At launch, the app includes: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, Juno, Cassini and Voyager. Users can also check out the giant, 70-meter NASA Deep Space Network dish. More spacecraft are planned in future updates to the app.

JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena, which manages the laboratory for NASA.

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Preston Dyches

JPL Media Relations Office

2018-055

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Media Invited to View NASA's Mission to Study Mars Interior

Media are invited to view NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander Friday, April 6, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where it's currently undergoing final tests for its May launch.

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NASA Statement on Confirmation of New Agency Chief Financial Officer

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on the Senate’s March 14 confirmation of Jeff DeWit to serve as agency’s Chief Financial Officer.

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NASA Dawn Reveals Recent Changes in Ceres' Surface

Observations of Ceres have detected recent variations in its surface, revealing that the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system is a dynamic body that continues to evolve and change.

NASA's Dawn mission has found recently exposed deposits that give us new information on the materials in the crust and how they are changing, according to two papers published March 14 in Science Advances that document the new findings.

Observations obtained by the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) on the Dawn spacecraft previously found water ice in a dozen sites on Ceres. The new study revealed the abundance of ice on the northern wall of Juling Crater, a crater 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter. The new observations, conducted from April through October 2016, show an increase in the amount of ice on the crater wall.

This view from NASA's Dawn mission shows Ceres' tallest mountain, Ahuna Mons, 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high and 11 miles (17 kilometers) wide. This is one of the few sites on Ceres at which a significant amount of sodium carbonate has been found, shown in green and red colors in the lower right image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/ASI/INAF
› Full image and caption

"This is the first direct detection of change on the surface of Ceres," said Andrea Raponi of the Institute of Astrophysics and Planetary Science in Rome.

Raponi led the new study, which found changes in the amount of ice exposed on the dwarf planet. "The combination of Ceres moving closer to the sun in its orbit, along with seasonal change, triggers the release of water vapor from the subsurface, which then condenses on the cold crater wall. This causes an increase in the amount of exposed ice. The warming might also cause landslides on the crater walls that expose fresh ice patches."

By combining chemical, geological and geophysical observations, the Dawn mission is producing a comprehensive view of Ceres. Previous data had shown Ceres has a crust about 25 miles (40 kilometers) thick and rich in water, salts and, possibly, organics.

In a second study, VIR observations also reveal new information about the variability of Ceres' crust, and suggest recent surface changes, in the form of newly exposed material.

Dawn previously found carbonates, common on the planet's surface, that formed within an ocean. Sodium carbonates, for example, dominate the bright regions in Occator Crater, and material of similar composition has been found at Oxo Crater and Ahuna Mons.

This study, led by Giacomo Carrozzo of the Institute of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, identified 12 sites rich in sodium carbonates and examined in detail several areas of a few square miles that show where water is present as part of the carbonate structure. The study marks the first time hydrated carbonate has been found on the surface of Ceres, or any other planetary body besides Earth, giving us new information about the dwarf planet's chemical evolution.

Water ice is not stable on the surface of Ceres over long time periods unless it is hidden in shadows, as in the case of Juling. Similarly, hydrated carbonate would dehydrate, although over a longer timescale of a few million years.

"This implies that the sites rich in hydrated carbonates have been exposed due to recent activity on the surface," Carrozzo said.

The great diversity of material, ice and carbonates, exposed via impacts, landslides and cryovolcanism suggests Ceres' crust is not uniform in composition. These heterogeneities were either produced during the freezing of Ceres' original ocean - which formed the crust - or later on as a consequence of large impacts or cryovolcanic intrusions.

"Changes in the abundance of water ice on a short timescale, as well as the presence of hydrated sodium carbonates, are further evidence that Ceres is a geologically and chemically active body," said Cristina De Sanctis, VIR team leader at the Institute of Astrophysics and Planetary Science.

The Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. JPL is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.

For a complete list of mission participants, visit:

https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission

More information about Dawn is available at the following sites:

https://www.nasa.gov/dawn

https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

News Media Contact

Gretchen McCartney

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-6215

Gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-052

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NASA Mars Mission Tours California

Scientists and engineers with NASA's next mission to Mars will be touring California cities starting this month.

NASA's InSight mission will be the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. In preparation for its May launch, the Mars InSight Roadshow is stopping at cities along the earthquake-prone California coast to explain how the robotic lander will study Mars' deep interior using seismology and other geophysical measurements.

The Roadshow brings family-friendly science activities, exhibits and public talks to communities throughout California, making comparisons between earthquakes and the marsquakes that InSight will try to detect. The Roadshow will also partner with local and national organizations along the way, promoting planetary science and showing the benefits of NASA earthquake data gathered by Earth-observing satellites. All the museums are members of the NASA Museum Alliance.

InSight's launch window opens May 5 at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, northwest of Santa Barbara. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. It will be the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments. InSight is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

What to Expect:

• "Make Your Own Marsquake" demo, in which members of the public jump and see seismometer readings on a screen
• Interviews with NASA scientists and engineers
• Colorful backdrops and selfie stations
• Models of the InSight spacecraft
• Mars globe "cutaways" showing the interior of Mars
• Virtual reality headsets used to see panoramas of Mars

Who to Expect:

• Members of InSight's mission and science teams
• JPL's Mars public engagement team
• NASA Solar System Ambassadors

Tour Dates:

March 30-31, Redding, CA
Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Exhibit

March 30, Redding, CA
Shasta Union High School District's David Marr Theater, Public Talk

April 13-15, Sacramento, CA
Powerhouse Science Center, Exhibit

April 18-22, San Francisco, CA
Exploratorium, Exhibits and Public Talks

April 27-29, San Luis Obispo, CA
San Luis Obispo Children's Museum, Exhibit

April 28, San Luis Obispo, CA
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Public Talk

May 2-3, Santa Maria, CA
Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum, Exhibit

May 2, Lompoc, CA
Dick DeWees Community & Senior Center, Exhibit

May 3, Lompoc, CA
Lompoc Public Library, Public Talk

May 4, Santa Maria, CA
Allan Hancock College, Exhibit and Public Talk

May 19, Santa Barbara, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Exhibit

And more to come! Find future dates and details at:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/participate/roadshow/

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-051

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NASA to Highlight Science Launching on Next Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT Monday, March 19, to discuss a number of science investigations and instruments launching in April to the International Space Station on the next SpaceX commercial resupply mission. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on NASA’s website.

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NASA Honors Legacy of Renowned Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on the passing of visionary physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at his home in Cambridge, England, early Wednesday morning.

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NASA Television Coverage Set for Space Station Crew Launch, Docking

Two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut are ready for their journey to the International Space Station that begins on Wednesday, March 21.

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Next NASA Mars Rover Reaches Key Manufacturing Milestone

NASA's Mars 2020 mission has begun the assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase of its development, on track for a July 2020 launch to Mars.

The first planned ATLO activities will involve electrical integration of flight hardware into the mission's descent stage. The Mars 2020 rover, as well as its cruise stage, aeroshell and descent stage -- a rocket-powered "sky crane" that will lower the rover to the planet's surface -- will undergo final assembly at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility High Bay 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"No better place in the world to assemble NASA's next Mars rover than JPL's High Bay 1," said Mars 2020 Project Manager John McNamee at JPL. "On the floor you'll see the components of our spacecraft taking shape -- put together by people who are the best in the world at what they do. And on the wall behind them you will see all the logos of the historic missions of exploration that have also been assembled in High Bay 1 in the past."

Those missions include the Ranger missions to the moon (the first time America reached out and touched the moon), the Mariner mission to Venus (the first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet) and Mars rovers.

Over the next year-and-a-half, engineers and technicians will add subsystems such as avionics, power, telecommunications, mechanisms, thermal systems and navigation systems onto the spacecraft. The propulsion systems were installed earlier this year on the cruise and descent stage main structures.

"Parts of this mission are coming from the other side of the world, and some are coming from just 'down the street' in Pasadena, and some are coming from literally down the street - a couple of buildings away," said David Gruel, ATLO Manager for Mars 2020 at JPL. "Right now we are working the descent stage, and by fall we expect to be working on the rover itself."

Mars 2020 is targeted for launch in July 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. Additionally, scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes, and leave them on the surface of Mars for potential return to Earth by a future mission to the Red Planet.

The mission will build on the achievements of the Curiosity rover and other Mars Exploration Program missions, and offer opportunities to deploy new capabilities developed through investments by NASA's Space Technology Program and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, as well as contributions from international partners.

The Mars 2020 Project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 spacecraft development for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage and oversee the Atlas V launch service for Mars 2020.

More information about the Mars 2020 mission is at:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

For more information about Mars missions:

https://www.nasa.gov/mars

News Media Contact

DC Agle / Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011 / 393-2433

agle@jpl.nasa.gov / Andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2018-050

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NASA Awards Contract for Safety, Health, Mission Assurance Services

NASA has awarded a contract to Leidos, Incorporated in Reston, Virginia, for safety, health and mission assurance services at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

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Witness First Mars Launch from West Coast

Are you a digital creator, citizen journalist or active on social media? Do you have an idea for a unique way to share the story of the West Coast's first interplanetary rocket launch? Apply now to attend launch activities for NASA's InSight mission, May 3-5, at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California.

InSight's launch begins a six-month journey to Mars, where the lander will deploy the first seismometer to the surface of another planet. By measuring marsquakes, InSight will map the deep interior of Mars to help us better understand how rocky planets, including Earth, are formed.

NASA will grant up to 75 NASA Social credentials, which give access similar to news media. Participants will go behind the scenes, meet mission personnel and share their experiences online.

NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to:

• Witness the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast of the United States
• Speak with InSight mission scientists and engineers
• Participate in a special televised pre-launch briefing
• View and take photographs of the Atlas V-401 rocket on the launch pad
• Tour facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base
• Interact with NASA social media managers and fellow space enthusiasts

NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver. A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission.

Social media accreditation for the InSight Launch NASA Social is open on this page. The deadline to apply is 8:59 p.m. PDT (11:59 p.m. EDT) on March 19. All social media accreditation applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

For more information on InSight, visit:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

Interact with the InSight mission on social media via:

https://twitter.com/NASAInSight

https://facebook.com/NASAInSight

News Media Contact

Stephanie L. Smith

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-5463

slsmith@jpl.nasa.gov

Jason Townsend

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0359

jason.c.townsend@nasa.gov

2018-048

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Science Teachers at National Conference to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Atlanta will speak with NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, currently living and working aboard the International Space Station, at 10:40 a.m. EDT Friday, March 16.

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360 Video: Tour a Mars Robot Test Lab

NASA's InSight lander looks a bit like an oversized crane game: when it lands on Mars this November, its robotic arm will be used to grasp and move objects on another planet for the first time.

And like any crane game, practice makes it easier to capture the prize.

Virtually explore a Mars simulation facility used by engineers to practice operating NASA's InSight lander, slated to launch in May 2018. Hear from engineer Marleen Martinez Sundgaard as you explore the In-Situ Instrument Lab at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and see how the spacecraft will deploy its seismometer. Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos. YouTube supports their playback on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers. Use the YouTube app to view it on a smart phone.

Engineers and scientists have a replica of InSight at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They use this testbed to simulate all the functions of the spacecraft, preparing for any scenario it might meet once it touches down on the Red Planet.

InSight is unique in that it's a lander rather than a rover; once it touches down, it can't reposition itself. Its job is to stay very still and collect high-precision data. JPL's testbed for the lander sits on piles of crushed garnet in a facility called the In-Situ Instrument Lab. This garnet simulates a mix of sand and gravel found on the Martian surface but has the benefit of being dust-free. The testbed's legs are raised or lowered to test operations in an uneven landing area with up to 15 degrees of tilt.

Engineers also pile garnet at different tilts in the testbed's "workspace" -- the area in front of the lander where it practices setting down three science tools: an ultra-sensitive seismometer; a shield that isolates the seismometer from wind and temperature swings; and a heat-flow probe. These three objects are formally called the Science Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS); the Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS); and the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3).

All this practice ensures InSight can set these objects down safely no matter what surprises its landing site has in store.

One challenge lies in the tethers that supply power to each science instrument, said Marleen Sundgaard of JPL, InSight's testbed lead. Each tether unspools as the arm lifts an instrument off the lander.

"We have multiple places where we could put each instrument down," Sundgaard said. "There are scenarios where the tethers would cross each other, so we need to make sure they don't snag."

Besides robotic operations, the testbed has to recreate Martian light. Special lights are also used to calibrate InSight's cameras to the brightness and color of Martian sunlight.

All this practice should pay off with some incredible new science. InSight will be the first mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars, including its core and mantle. The data it collects could help scientists understand how all rocky planets -- including Mars and Earth -- first formed.

InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. The launch window opens on May 5.

For more information about InSight, go to:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2018-045

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NASA Awards $96 Million to U.S. Small Businesses for Tech Research, Development

NASA has selected 128 proposals from American small businesses to advance research and technology in Phase II of its 2017 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. These selections support NASA's future space exploration missions, while also benefiting the U.S. economy.

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NASA Juno Findings - Jupiter's Jet-Streams Are Unearthly

Data collected by NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter indicate that the atmospheric winds of the gas-giant planet run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes found here on Earth. The findings will improve understanding of Jupiter's interior structure, core mass and, eventually, its origin.

Other Juno science results released today include that the massive cyclones that surround Jupiter's north and south poles are enduring atmospheric features and unlike anything else encountered in our solar system. The findings are part of a four-article collection on Juno science results being published in the March 8 edition of the journal Nature.

"These astonishing science results are yet another example of Jupiter's curve balls, and a testimony to the value of exploring the unknown from a new perspective with next-generation instruments.Juno's unique orbit and evolutionary high-precision radio science and infrared technologies enabled these paradigm-shifting discoveries," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "Juno is only about one third the way through its primary mission, and already we are seeing the beginnings of a new Jupiter."

The depth to which the roots of Jupiter's famous zones and belts extend has been a mystery for decades. Gravity measurements collected by Juno during its close flybys of the planet have now provided an answer.

"Juno's measurement of Jupiter's gravity field indicates a north-south asymmetry, similar to the asymmetry observed in its zones and belts," said Luciano Iess, Juno co-investigator from Sapienza University of Rome, and lead author on a Nature paper on Jupiter's gravity field.

On a gas planet, such an asymmetry can only come from flows deep within the planet; and on Jupiter, the visible eastward and westward jet streams are likewise asymmetric north and south. The deeper the jets, the more mass they contain, leading to a stronger signal expressed in the gravity field. Thus, the magnitude of the asymmetry in gravity determines how deep the jet streams extend.

"Galileo viewed the stripes on Jupiter more than 400 years ago," said Yohai Kaspi, Juno co-investigator from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel,and lead author of a Nature paper on Jupiter's deep weather layer. "Until now, we only had a superficial understanding of them and have been able to relate these stripes to cloud features along Jupiter's jets. Now, following the Juno gravity measurements, we know how deep the jets extend and what their structure is beneath the visible clouds. It's like going from a 2-D picture to a 3-D version in high definition."

The result was a surprise for the Juno science team because it indicated that the weather layer of Jupiter was more massive, extending much deeper than previously expected. The Jovian weather layer, from its very top to a depth of 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers), contains about one percent of Jupiter's mass (about 3 Earth masses).

"By contrast, Earth's atmosphere is less than one millionth of the total mass of Earth," said Kaspi "The fact that Jupiter has such a massive region rotating in separate east-west bands is definitely a surprise."

The finding is important for understanding the nature and possible mechanisms driving these strong jet streams. In addition, the gravity signature of the jets is entangled with the gravity signal of Jupiter's core.

Another Juno result released today suggests that beneath the weather layer, the planet rotates nearly as a rigid body."This is really an amazing result, and future measurements by Juno will help us understand how the transition works between the weather layer and the rigid body below," said Tristan Guillot, a Juno co-investigator from the Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France, and lead author of the paper on Jupiter's deep interior. "Juno's discovery has implications for other worlds in our solar system and beyond. Our results imply that the outer differentially-rotating region should be at least three times deeper in Saturn and shallower in massive giant planets and brown dwarf stars."

A truly striking result released in the Nature papers is the beautiful new imagery of Jupiter's poles captured by Juno's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument. Imaging in the infrared part of the spectrum, JIRAM captures images of light emerging from deep inside Jupiter equally well, night or day. JIRAM probes the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below Jupiter's cloud tops.

"Prior to Juno we did not know what the weather was like near Jupiter's poles. Now, we have been able to observe the polar weather up-close every two months," said Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, and lead author of the paper. "Each one of the northern cyclones is almost as wide as the distance between Naples, Italy and New York City -- and the southern ones are even larger than that. They have very violent winds, reaching, in some cases, speeds as great as 220 mph (350 kph). Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, they are very close together and enduring. There is nothing else like it that we know of in the solar system."

Jupiter's poles are a stark contrast to the more familiar orange and white belts and zones encircling the planet at lower latitudes. Its north pole is dominated by a central cyclone surrounded by eight circumpolar cyclones with diameters ranging from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,600 kilometers) across. Jupiter's south pole also contains a central cyclone, but it is surrounded by five cyclones with diameters ranging from 3,500 to 4,300 miles (5,600 to 7,000 kilometers) in diameter. Almost all the polar cyclones, at both poles, are so densely packed that their spiral arms come in contact with adjacent cyclones. However, as tightly spaced as the cyclones are, they have remained distinct, with individual morphologies over the seven months of observations detailed in the paper.

"The question is, why do they not merge?" said Adriani. "We know with Cassini data that Saturn has a single cyclonic vortex at each pole. We are beginning to realize that not all gas giants are created equal."

Abstracts of the March 8 Juno papers can be found online:

The measurement of Jupiter's asymmetric gravity field:

http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25776

Jupiter's atmospheric jet-streams extending thousands of kilometers deep:

http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25793

A suppression of differential rotation in Jupiter's deep interior:

http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25775

Clusters of Cyclones Encircling Jupiter's Poles:

http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25491

To date, Juno has completed 10 science passes over Jupiter and logged almost 122 million miles (200 million kilometers), since entering Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016. Juno's 11th science pass will be on April 1.

Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet's cloud tops -- as close as about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, weather layer and magnetosphere.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Italian Space Agency (ASI), contributed two instruments, a Ka-band frequency translator (KaT) and the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM). Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, built the spacecraft.

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

https://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

https://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

More information on Jupiter can be found at:

https://www.nasa.gov/jupiter

News Media Contact

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

2018-044

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