This Week @NASA: A More Powerful Space Station, More Fuel-Efficient Aircraft & Solar Flashes

The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place on November 8, 2021. Credit: NASA

Preparing for a more powerful space station …

Building a more fuel-efficient aircraft …

And a way to possibly predict solar flares …

A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

Preparing the Space Station for a More Powerful Future

On January 20, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to prepare for future upgrades to the station’s power system. The station’s existing power channels are being augmented with new roll-out solar arrays.

Artist concept of commercial aircraft families with a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing configuration from the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. Credit: Boeing

NASA, Boeing to Build a Greener, More Fuel-Efficient Airliner

On January 18, NASA announced a partnership with Boeing to build, test, and fly an experimental full-scale Sustainable Flight Demonstrator aircraft aimed at lowering emissions.

“And Boeing’s concept is a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing single-aisle aircraft.” — Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator

Learn more about NASA’s work in aeronautics research at nasa.gov/flight.

Two images of a solar active region (NOAA AR 2109) taken by SDO/AIA show extreme-ultraviolet light produced by million-degree-hot coronal gas (top images) on the day before the region flared (left) and the day before it stayed quiet and did not flare (right). The changes in brightness (bottom images) at these two times show different patterns, with patches of intense variation (black & white areas) before the flare (bottom left) and mostly gray (indicating low variability) before the quiet period (bottom right). Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/Dissauer et al. 2022

Flashes on the Sun Could Help Predict Solar Flares

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has identified small-scale flashes in the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, the corona, that could help us predict solar flares, which, in turn, could help us anticipate the disruptive impacts of space weather storms here on Earth.

Teams completed the welding of the Artemis III core stage liquid oxygen tank dome at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

Welding of Artemis III Core Stage Tank Dome Completed

Teams at our Michoud Assembly Facility recently completed welding of the Space Launch System, or SLS core stage liquid oxygen tank dome for Artemis III. The liquid oxygen and the liquid hydrogen tanks hold the propellant used to launch the SLS and the Orion spacecraft into space.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA

Author: systems