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INSIGHT: August 2024

Home/INSIGHT: August 2024
The Dream Chaser spacecraft glides to a landing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California, following a successful free flight demonstration in 2017. Photo Credit: NASA
Work Continues at KSC on New Spaceplane
August 29, 2024 // by

Dream Chaser, with roots in a NASA project from the 1990s, will take lifting body design to new heights.

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PIXL, the white instrument mounted on the robotic arm of NASA’s Perseverance Rover, uses a form of artificial intelligence known as adaptive sampling to examine rocks on the surface of Mars. Photo Credit: NASA
Using AI to Advance NASA Missions
August 22, 2024 // by

Teams are creating AI tools to find new craters on Mars, forecast algae blooms, estimate hurricane intensity, improve weather and climate models, and track the smoke from wildfires.

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In Langley’s makerspace lab, researchers are developing a series of soft robot actuators to investigate the viability of soft robotics in space exploration and assembly.
Podcast Episode 136: Soft Robotics
August 21, 2024 // by

Robots inspired by nature? A novel realm of engineering called soft robotics is being studied at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Engineers are working to understand how soft robotics could one day support space exploration, including missions to the Moon’s surface.

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The surface of the Moon captured by Lunar Orbiter 3. The Lunar Orbiter program took more than 3,000 images of the Moon, which helped NASA program managers, scientists, and mission managers identify the landing sites for Apollo lunar landings. Credit: NASA
This Month in NASA History: The Lunar Orbiter Missions
August 8, 2024 // by

A young geologist catalogs thousands of photos of the lunar surface and helps to identify key landing zones for the Apollo program.

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On the left third of the image is the podcast logo which features an illustrated astronaut leaping from the Moon to Mars. The rest of the graphic is taken up by an image of fungal spores arranged in a scientific tray. At the right is the image of the island. Above it in white text it reads #135: Biofilm - Dealing with the Scum off the Earth
Podcast Episode 135: Biofilm – Dealing with the Scum off the Earth
August 7, 2024 // by

Cleaning scum from bathtubs and pipes can be a costly chore. It’s even more challenging aboard spacecraft. NASA researchers are looking at ways to keep astronauts from having to deal with fungal or bacterial buildup, known as biofilm. 

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Featured Video: Meet Europa Clipper’s Solar Array ‘Wings’
August 1, 2024 // by

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is getting ready for launch, and its massive solar arrays were recently installed.

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