NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s MoonFall mission will blaze a path for future science and human exploration of the Moon by sending four JPL-built propulsive drones to survey the lunar surface at potential Artemis landing sites in unprecedented detail. Building on the success of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, particularly its autonomous takeoffs and landings, MoonFall will leverage commercial electronics that enable low-cost future production by industry. The mission is part of the initial phase of NASA’s Moon Base initiative: a rapid series of robotic missions to scout, experiment, and prepare for astronaut surface operations Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gaj7wcjt

The initial reports are in: NASA's Psyche mission aced its Mars flyby. ☑️ The Psyche spacecraft is headed for the asteroid belt to explore a mysterious, metal-rich asteroid, also called Psyche. On May 15, mission planners at JPL used a gravity assist from Mars to provide a critical boost in speed and to adjust the spacecraft’s trajectory without using any onboard propellant. After the flyby, the flight team analyzed radio signals between the spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) – the global system managed by JPL that is used for communicating with interplanetary spacecraft – to confirm that Psyche was on the correct trajectory. “Although we were confident in our calculations and flight plan, monitoring the DSN’s Doppler signal in real time during the flyby was still exciting,” said Don Han, Psyche’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We’ve confirmed that Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000 mile‑per‑hour boost and shifted its orbital plane by about 1 degree relative to the Sun. We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029.” As part of a practice run for the asteroid, the team also captured some striking postcards from the Red Planet. See more: https://lnkd.in/gj2N89Er

NASA is testing a new radiation-hardened, high-performance processor that could enable future spacecraft to “think” for themselves. So far, testing indicates the processor is working as designed and operating at 500 times the performance of chips currently in use. The processor is being developed as part of a commercial partnership between JPL and Microchip Technology, Inc. Samples have been provided to early access partners in the broader defense and commercial aerospace industry. The technology will enable autonomous spacecraft to use artificial intelligence to respond in real time to complex situations and environments where human input isn’t possible. It will help deep space missions analyze, store, and transmit troves of data to Earth, accelerating the rate of science discoveries. It could also support future human missions to the Moon and Mars. The project is managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program based at NASA Langley Research Center. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gDwbAs2d

Perseverance in the Wild Martian West 🤠 Our Perseverance Mars rover snapped some photos beyond the western rim of Jezero Crater—the farthest west the rover has ever gone on the Red Planet. See what we found there: https://lnkd.in/epzXBHmm

Engineers at JPL are pushing the limits of flight on Mars – by spinning helicopter rotor blades so fast they break the sound barrier. In recent tests, the rotor tips reached the supersonic speed of Mach 1.08. “If Chuck Yeager were here, he’d tell you things can get squirrely around Mach 1,” said JPL’s Jaakko Karras, the rotor test lead. “With that in mind, we planned Ingenuity’s flights to keep the rotor blade tips at Mach 0.7. But we want more performance from our next-gen Mars aircraft. We needed to know that our rotors could go faster safely.” The faster a Mars helicopter’s rotors spin, the more science instruments it can carry and the farther it can fly. Future concepts, including NASA’s SkyFall project, are being designed to carry small payloads — like instruments and sensors — to collect data in support of future human and robotic missions, paving the way for the next era of exploration. To carry out this new test, the team mounted a three-bladed rotor that could be used in future Mars helicopter designs inside the historic 25-Foot Space Simulator at JPL. They evacuated the air and replaced it with just enough carbon dioxide to match the Martian atmosphere, then blasted the rotor with wind as it spun at increasing speeds. Read more about the tests: https://lnkd.in/eu7asbSt

Powering the next giant leap. A novel electromagnetic thruster that runs on lithium metal vapor was successfully fired up for the first time during initial tests at JPL. The prototype achieved power levels more than 25 times that of the highest-power electric thrusters on any current NASA spacecraft. Fully developed and paired with a nuclear power source, lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters could reduce launch mass and support payloads required for human Mars missions. The MPD thruster work, in development for the past 2½ years, is led by JPL in collaboration with Princeton University and NASA Glenn Research Center. It is funded by NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project, based at the agency’s NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, under the Space Technology Mission Directorate. More on the test: https://lnkd.in/g3VY4R5X

From launch to splashdown, JPL is proud to have supported the agency’s historic Artemis II mission alongside colleagues across the country and around the world. Our dedicated teams have helped support astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen as they’ve Dared Mighty Things over the past 10 days. Along with our Deep Space Network (DSN) team at ground stations at Canberra, Australia; Madrid, Spain; and Goldstone, California, we’ve kept the crew connected with Earth as they travel around the Moon. A special thank you to our colleagues at NASA’s Near Space Network and the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation Program for seamless coordination and collaboration across NASA’s networks. The DSN also conducted a bi-static radar experiment, transmitting radio signals from Deep Space Station 13 in Goldstone while the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia received the reflected signals. This experimental radar helped provide precision tracking of the Orion capsule. This interagency collaboration with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory demonstrates the power of partnership in advancing deep space capabilities. While the DSN steadfastly supported Artemis II with radio frequency communications and tracking, our optical communications experts helped support the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Optical-to-Orion (O2O) project. At JPL’s Table Mountain Facility, engineers of the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) used the uplink laser and a sensitive downlink detector to support O2O throughout the mission, exchanging gigabits of video, telemetry, and other data with the Orion spacecraft. We look forward to continued collaboration as we drive toward a sustained human presence at the Moon!

What’s up for April? ☄️ Don’t miss Mercury at its brightest for the year, the Lyrid meteor shower, and your best chance to see comet c/2025 R3! 

How is the Perseverance rover helping keep the Artemis II crew safe? As they journey outside Earth’s protective magnetic field on their way to the Moon, NASA’s Artemis II crew will be subject to potentially dangerous particles from solar flares. Artemis mission planners will keep a close eye on solar activity before and during the flight, and now they have a vantage point that Apollo missions didn’t — Mars. The Perseverance rover is watching sunspot activity from the surface of the Red Planet, which is currently on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. Having this additional eye on the Sun could mean up to 2 weeks’ advance notice of solar storm activity. Learn more: go.nasa.gov/4rvmclj  

The deadline is approaching to apply for NASA’s 38th annual Planetary Science Summer School program, a three-month-long career development program for doctoral students, recent Ph.D.s, postdocs, and junior faculty who have a strong interest in science-driven robotic space exploration missions. Participants learn the process of developing a hypothesis-driven robotic space mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule and the trade-offs inherent in each. View details and eligibility requirements, and submit your application by March 23: https://lnkd.in/eRiabxGC