#Dragonfly Titan Mission

[mindblowingscience]

NASA's delayed Dragonfly drone mission to Saturn's largest moon Titan is on track to launch in July 2028, the space agency confirmed late Tuesday (April 16). The highly anticipated decision greenlights the mission team to proceed to final mission design and testing in preparation for the revised launch date. The car-sized Dragonfly, which is being built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will reach Titan in 2034. For the next 2.5 years, the nuclear-powered drone is expected to perform one hop every Titan day — 16 days to us Earthlings — hunting for prebiotic chemical processes at various pre-selected locations on the frigid moon, which is known to contain organic materials. 

Continue Reading.

[spacenutspod]

This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you with the support of NordVPN. For our special discount deal and 30 day money back guarantee, visit nordvpn.com/spacenuts ...You'll be glad you did! Embark on a cosmic exploration with your favorite interstellar enthusiasts, Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson, in this latest episode of Space Nuts. Today's celestial journey takes us to Saturn's moon, Titan, where new research casts a shadow on the prospects of finding life in its sub-ice oceans. Despite the rich hydrocarbons on Titan's surface, the study by astrobiologist Catherine Neish suggests that the transfer of essential organic materials to the ocean below is far too slow to foster life as we know it. The implications of this finding could extend to other icy moons, potentially dampening hopes for habitability across our solar system. Then, we pivot to Earthly matters as we join the United Nations' cosmic conversation. The UN has finally agreed to tackle the burgeoning issue of satellite constellations cluttering our orbit. With over 8,000 satellites circling our planet and plans for many more, astronomers are increasingly concerned about light pollution and radio interference. But can the UN's agenda lead to effective regulation, or will it be a case of too little, too late in the fast-paced space industry? From the icy depths of Titan to the crowded skies of Earth, this episode of Space Nuts is a testament to the ever-evolving quest for knowledge and the challenges of preserving our cosmic frontiers. So, sit back, tune in, and let your imagination take flight as we unravel these astronomical enigmas. For the full spectrum of space-time adventures and to keep your astronomical curiosity quenched, subscribe to Space Nuts on your preferred podcast platform. And don't forget to tune in to our Space Nuts Q&A episodes every Monday for more cosmic queries and celestial insights. Until next time, keep your eyes to the stars and your passion for discovery burning bright! 📋 Episode Chapters (00:00) Professor Fred Watson joins us on this episode of Space Nuts (02:02) New study suggests Titan's subsurface ocean could be right for potential life (10:35) There have been speculations that Titan could have a different basis of life (13:47) Andrew Dunkley says there will be methane and ethane rainbows on Titan (15:32) United nations to meet later this year to discuss concentrations of satellites (25:38) Space company SpaceX to deorbit 100 older starlink satellites to reduce satellite interference

[michaelgabrill]

NASAs Dragonfly Rotorcraft Mission to Saturns Moon Titan Confirmed

NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments. “Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next […] from NASA https://ift.tt/86UhxDR

[lonestarflight]

The Ingenuity Rover's Helicopter, nicknamed Ginny, is broken and alone

"In this most recent photo of Ingenuity, the dual-rotor 'copter can be seen motionless on a sandy dune in the background, as a barren, rocky Mars landscape fills the foreground.

The photo was taken on Feb. 4, 2024, at 1:05 p.m. local mean solar time, a little over two weeks since it suffered its mission-ending damage.

NASA and JPL's Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars as seen by the Perseverance rover's Mastcam-Z camera on Feb. 4, 2024.

Ingenuity suffered damage to its rotors during a flight on Jan. 18 as it made a landing on a featureless, "bland" patch of sandy Martian landscape. The helicopter usually makes use of landscape features such as rocks to help it navigate, but its 72nd flight found the drone without visual cues.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is still analyzing the damage to Ingenuity's blades, but regardless of what JPL finds, the helicopter's mission has officially come to an end now that it's no longer capable of flight.

Ingenuity landed alongside its robotic companion, the Perseverance rover, on Feb. 18, 2021. When it took to the Martian skies in April 2021, Ingenuity made history by conducting the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet.

The Ingenuity-Perseverance duo has been exploring an area known as Jezero Crater ever since, discovering signs of ancient bodies of water on the Red Planet that may have once harbored life billions of years ago. Ingenuity served as a scout for Perseverance, identifying areas of interest for the rover to explore.

In recent weeks as NASA and JPL have been coming to terms with the end of Ingenuity's groundbreaking mission, agency leaders have praised the helicopter and the teams behind it.

'We couldn't be prouder or happier with how our little baby has done,' said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity Project Manager at JPL, during a livestreamed tribute to the helicopter on Jan. 31. 'It's been the mission of a lifetime for all of us. And I wanted to say thank you to all of the people here that gave their weekends, their late nights. All the engineers, the aerodynamic scientists, the technicians who hand-crafted this aircraft.'

Tiffany Morgan, NASA's Mars Exploration Program Deputy Director, added that Ingenuity leaves behind a legacy that could pave the way for future aerial missions on other worlds.

This image, which shows the shadow of a damaged rotor on NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity, was taken after its 72nd and final flight on Jan. 18, 2024 on the Red Planet.

'The NASA JPL team didn't just demonstrate the technology, they demonstrated an approach that if we use in the future will really help us to explore other planets and be as awe-inspiring, as amazing, as Ingenuity has been,' Morgan said during the livestream.

NASA is already developing another drone destined for another world, the nuclear-powered Dragonfly, to someday explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The agency expects Dragonfly to launch no earlier than 2028."

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Saturn’s moon Titan has insulating methane-rich crust up to six miles thick

Saturn’s largest moon Titan is the only place other than Earth known to have an atmosphere and liquids in the form of rivers, lakes and seas on its surface. Because of its extremely cold temperature, the liquids on Titan are made of hydrocarbons like methane and ethane, and the surface is made of solid water ice. A new study, led by planetary scientists at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, revealed that methane gas may also be trapped within the ice, forming a distinct crust up to six miles thick, which warms the underlying ice shell and may also explain Titan's methane-rich atmosphere.

The research team, led by research associate Lauren Schurmeier, that also includes Gwendolyn Brouwer, doctoral candidate, and Sarah Fagents, associate director and researcher, in the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), observed in NASA data that Titan’s impact craters are hundreds of meters shallower than expected and only 90 craters have been identified on this moon. 

“This was very surprising because, based on other moons, we expect to see many more impact craters on the surface and craters that are much deeper than what we observe on Titan,” said Schurmeier. “We realized something unique to Titan must be making them become shallower and disappear relatively quickly.”

To investigate what might be beneath this mystery, the researchers tested in a computer model how the topography of Titan might relax or rebound after an impact if the ice shell was covered with a layer of insulating methane clathrate ice, a kind of solid water ice with methane gas trapped within the crystal structure. Since the initial shape of Titan's craters is unknown, the researchers modeled and compared two plausible initial depths, based on fresh-looking craters of similar size on a similar-size icy moon, Ganymede.

“Using this modeling approach, we were able to constrain the methane clathrate crust thickness to five to ten kilometers [about three to six miles] because simulations using that thickness produced crater depths that best matched the observed craters,” said Schurmeier. “The methane clathrate crust warms Titan's interior and causes surprisingly rapid topographic relaxation, which results in crater shallowing at a rate that is close to that of fast-moving warm glaciers on Earth.”

Methane-rich atmosphere 

Estimating the thickness of the methane ice shell is important because it may explain the origin of Titan's methane-rich atmosphere and helps researchers understand Titan's carbon cycle, liquid methane-based "hydrological cycle," and changing climate. 

“Titan is a natural laboratory to study how the greenhouse gas methane warms and cycles through the atmosphere,” said Schurmeier. “Earth's methane clathrate hydrates, found in the permafrost of Siberia and below the arctic seafloor, are currently destabilizing and releasing methane. So, lessons from Titan can provide important insights into processes happening on Earth.”

Structure of Titan

The topography seen on Titan makes sense in light of these new findings. And constraining the thickness of the methane clathrate ice crust indicates that Titan's interior is likely warm--not cold, rigid, and inactive as previously thought.

“Methane clathrate is stronger and more insulating than regular water ice,” said Schurmeier. “A clathrate crust insulates Titan's interior, makes the water ice shell very warm and ductile, and implies that Titan's ice shell is or was slowly convecting.”

“If life exists in Titan's ocean under the thick ice shell, any signs of life (biomarkers) would need to be transported up Titan's ice shell to where we could more easily access or view them with future missions,” Schurmeier added. “This is more likely to occur if Titan's ice shell is warm and convecting.”

With the NASA Dragonfly mission to Titan scheduled to launch in July 2028 and arrive in 2034, researchers will have an opportunity to make up-close observations of this moon and further investigate the icy surface, including a crater named Selk.  

IMAGE: Proposed diagram of Titan's interior (not to scale), showing a methane clathrate crust over a convecting ice shell.  Credit Schurmeier, et al., 2024

[veryobsessedchild]

(Old) Intro Post:)

So I finally decided to create an intro post:) Maybe I’ll add art of me at some point, who knows.

First of all, what can you call me? So, I’m not really comfortable having my actual name out here on the internet, idk why, maybe so that people I know in real life don’t find me🫣 Anyway I still want my internet friends to have a name to call me, so just call me Amber or Am (I honestly really like the nickname😣) Idk why I explained all of that, but I’d feel bad if I didn’t clarify that Amber isn’t like, my legal name lol😅

Pronouns:) My pronouns are they/she. I think that I prefer they, but if it’s easier for you, I’m ok with she too.

INTERESTS!!!! So my main two overall interests are theatre and space, but I will get into shows and books sometimes too, but they usually have some kind of connection to theatre or space that gets me into them😅

Here’s the theatre part:3 Some musicals that I like are bmc, rtc, beetlejuice, heathers, hamilton, once upon a mattress, the lightning thief as well as literally any Starkid or tcb musical:) If you like theatre you should totally be my friend🤭

Space part!!! So I really need to emphasize just how much I love space. It’s so cool to me, and I could probably talk about it for hours!!! My favorite thing to learn about is probably the different moons in our solar system. Some of my favorite moons are: Titan (absolute favorite<3 please talk to me about the Dragonfly mission🙏), Luna (our moon, please talk to me about the Artemis Missions🙏) Io😻, Triton, Phobos, Deimos, Europa, Enceladus and Charon<3333 Also, it’s not just moons I like, it’s literally ANYTHING space related (like the Voyager Missions too, I loveeee those😻😻😻) so if you like space at all pleaseeeeeeee talk to me🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Some other general interests now:) I really like Percy Jackson so I’m also into mythology, I like dinosaurs and learning about evolution and animals and basically anything cool in science😽 I also like history and geography, and I think that it’s worth mentioning that I memorized all of the country flags of the world as well as where all the countries are on a map just to prove that I could because I’m just oh so normal😅

Erm…so I’ve seen people put their mental disorders on these so yeah, I’ll just say. I’m not diagnosed with anything nor has anyone told me that I should try to seek a diagnosis, but I don’t think that I would be horribly surprised if not everything was working correctly up there😅 Anyway, putting this here so that you guys can educate me if I say something stupid.

Random things now:3 I make art (mostly fanart), and I’d love you forever if you interacted with it🫣 I also wanna start writing fanfiction but I’ve had some trouble being motivated so if I do make anything, it may end up being on the shorter side. I’m also open to my mutuals messaging me so if you wanna be my friend (that’d be so cool😣) please message me!!! I love friends!!!

If you read all of that, I am thoroughly impressed. Ik that I have too much to say about myself but it’s my blog so yeah😅

[plegdoctor]

Happy astromonday!!

Ending the Saturn asks I wanted to talk about the Cassini-Huygens mission.

Named for the two 17th century astronomers who adored him, it launched in 1997, arriving at Saturn in 2003, and ended in 2017, a month shy of 20 years. It was the first mission reaching Saturn since Voyager in the 1980s, to learn more about him and gain understanding about the solar system and the beginnings of life.

This mission has given us so much information, including the discovery of six new moons, landing a probe on Titan and sending us pictures of his surface (the first ever), finding evidence of water on Enceladus, and more information on the rings; plus so many stunning pictures. All the beautiful photos of Saturn in the last 20 years have been thanks to this mission. But the ending was for me the most emotional thing to learn.

In 2017, recognising that the craft was running out of fuel, but also not wanting it to interfere with his intricate moon and ring systems, it was decided to send Cassini on one final mission: directly into Saturn's atmosphere. This mission was done with the view of gaining information about his atmosphere until Cassini stopped responding, as it would have destroyed Cassini from heat and pressure. The picture today is one of the last from the craft.

I can't help thinking of the engineers, putting love and hard work and craftsmanship into a machine which they know they will never see again, something that gave us so much information but can't ever return and there is no physical keepsake of, except in Saturn. I found it kind of haunting to think about, the love these people have for their missions, sending them to space knowing they will never get them back.

The next planned mission around Saturn is called Dragonfly. Due to launch in 2027 it will go to Titan, to learn more about his biochemistry and gain understanding on life.

I hope you've liked this little mini series on Saturn!! Have a fantastic day!! 🪐

This is the most gorgeous and heartbreaking astromonday ever

“Named for the two 17th century astronomers who adored him” stop im already too soft over planets

The engineers sending off their projects that they poured so much love into and it’s all just on Saturn and they can never see it again I just

[mindblowingscience]

NASA has set a provisional launch date of July 2028 for its Dragonfly mission, meant to explore Saturn’s largest moon Titan, with budgetary uncertainty cited as the reason for the project’s one-year delay. The Dragonfly team can now move forward with the next stage of development  —  Phase C  —  for the car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft drone that will fly above and land on the sands of Titan, a world planetary scientists believe is rich in organic molecules. "The Dragonfly team has successfully overcome a number of technical and programmatic challenges in this daring endeavor to gather new science on Titan," NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicola Fox said in a statement. "I am proud of this team and their ability to keep all aspects of the mission moving." At NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting on Nov. 28, the director of the agency's planetary science division, Lori Glaze, revealed the reason for the launch delay  —  originally set to head to Titan in 2027. She said that formal confirmation of Dragonfly and the official costing and scheduling of the mission by NASA’s Agency Program Management Council (APMC) had been postponed due to uncertainty about how much money would be available for the project.

Continue Reading.

[spacenutspod]

Join us for SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 89, where we explore the latest cosmic events and advancements in space exploration. - Titan's Tiny Waves: Astronomers have determined that the seas of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, exhibit very tiny waves, only a few millimetres high. The findings, based on data from the Cassini spacecraft, reveal tidal currents and provide fresh insights into Titan's liquid hydrocarbon seas. - Moon Caves as Future Lunar Dwellings: New research suggests that underground cave networks on the Moon could offer safe dwellings for future astronauts. Detected through NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, these caverns could provide shelter from radiation and extreme temperatures. - Increased Fire Risk on Space Missions: A new study warns of an increased risk of fire on future long-distance interplanetary space missions. The unique conditions of microgravity and lower ambient air pressure could make fires spread more quickly and burn more intensely, posing significant dangers for space travellers. - 00:00:00 - New research shows moon caves could provide future lunar dwellings for astronauts - 00:00:47 - Scientists find evidence of tidal currents in seas of Saturn's largest moon Titan - 00:07:57 - Astronomers find evidence of potentially accessible underground cave networks on the moon - 00:10:31 - New research warns fires will provide increased risk for space travellers on future missions - 00:15:31 - New study claims some bugs could be linked with autism spectrum disorder - 00:18:06 - Apple's new vision pro augmented goggles have grabbed heaps of attention Follow our cosmic conversations on X @stuartgary, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Join us as we unravel the mysteries of the universe, one episode at a time. Sponsor Offer: This episode is proudly supported by NordVPN. Secure your digital journey across the cosmos with a VPN service you can trust. Find your stellar security solution at https://www.bitesz.com/nordvpn. Listen to SpaceTime on your favourite podcast app including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[glittertrail]

Happy astromonday!!

Ending the Saturn asks I wanted to talk about the Cassini-Huygens mission.

Named for the two 17th century astronomers who adored him, it launched in 1997, arriving at Saturn in 2003, and ended in 2017, a month shy of 20 years. It was the first mission reaching Saturn since Voyager in the 1980s, to learn more about him and gain understanding about the solar system and the beginnings of life.

This mission has given us so much information, including the discovery of six new moons, landing a probe on Titan and sending us pictures of his surface (the first ever), finding evidence of water on Enceladus, and more information on the rings; plus so many stunning pictures. All the beautiful photos of Saturn in the last 20 years have been thanks to this mission. But the ending was for me the most emotional thing to learn.

In 2017, recognising that the craft was running out of fuel, but also not wanting it to interfere with his intricate moon and ring systems, it was decided to send Cassini on one final mission: directly into Saturn's atmosphere. This mission was done with the view of gaining information about his atmosphere until Cassini stopped responding, as it would have destroyed Cassini from heat and pressure. The picture today is one of the last from the craft.

I can't help thinking of the engineers, putting love and hard work and craftsmanship into a machine which they know they will never see again, something that gave us so much information but can't ever return and there is no physical keepsake of, except in Saturn. I found it kind of haunting to think about, the love these people have for their missions, sending them to space knowing they will never get them back.

The next planned mission around Saturn is called Dragonfly. Due to launch in 2027 it will go to Titan, to learn more about his biochemistry and gain understanding on life.

I hope you've liked this little mini series on Saturn!! Have a fantastic day!! 🪐

happy astromonday juno 💖

20 years!! that's so impressive!! the ending of every mission that is sent but can't be recovered is very heartbreaking in a way, they are definitely like the sons of these engineers

I've loved the Saturn series ���� thank you so much for sharing with us🪐

[kepler77]

The robots in question are Perseverance, and Ingenuity, which where actually a joint mission. Ingenuity is a drone and is the first to take flight not on earth. Hopefully it won't be the last, NASA currently has plans for a mission called Dragonfly, that would land a autonomous drone on Saturns most mysterious moon Titan. Anyways, Perseverance is the sequel to Curiosity, and both rovers intended on finding signs of life on the red planet. Perseverance has actually left samples on the surface for a return mission to earth later.

LOVE WINS???!?!??!?!

[sunaleisocial]

After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True - NASA Science

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/after-60-years-nuclear-power-for-spaceflight-is-still-tried-and-true-nasa-science/

After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True - NASA Science

Editor’s Note: Originally published on June 21, 2021.

Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space.

“Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant planetary bodies that would otherwise be unreachable. And we’re just getting started,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Future nuclear power and propulsion systems will help revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and beyond and play a crucial role in enabling long-term human missions to the Moon and Mars.”

From Humble Beginnings: Nuclear Power Spawns an Age of Scientific Discovery

On June 29, 1961, the John’s Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory launched the Transit IV-A Spacecraft. It was a U.S. Navy navigational satellite with a SNAP-3B radioisotope powered generator producing 2.7 watts of electrical power — about enough to light an LED bulb. Transit IV-A broke an APL mission-duration record and confirmed the Earth’s equator is elliptical. It also set the stage for ground-breaking missions that have extended humanity’s reach across the solar system.

Since 1961, NASA has flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system through a successful partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), which provides the power systems and plutonium-238 fuel.

“The department and our national laboratory partners are honored to play a role in powering NASA’s space exploration activities,” said Tracey Bishop, deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “Radioisotope Power Systems are a natural extension of our core mission to create technological solutions that meet the complex energy needs of space research, exploration, and innovation.”

There are only two practical ways to provide long-term electrical power in space: the light of the sun or heat from a nuclear source.

We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.

“As missions move farther away from the Sun to dark, dusty, and harsh environments, like Jupiter, Pluto, and Titan, they become impossible or extremely limited without nuclear power,” said Leonard Dudzinski, chief technologist for NASA’s Planetary Science Division and program executive for Radioisotope Power.

That’s where Radioisotope Power Systems, or RPS, come in. They are a category of power systems that convert heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 fuel into electricity.

“These systems are reliable and efficient,” said June Zakrajsek, manager for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “They operate continuously over long-duration space missions regardless of sunlight, temperature, charged particle radiation, or surface conditions like thick clouds or dust. They’ve allowed us to explore from the Sun to Pluto and beyond.”

“The RTG was and still is crucial to New Horizons,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute. “We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.”

Great Things to Come: Science and Human Exploration

Dragonfly, which is set to launch in 2028, is the next mission with plans to use an MMRTG. Part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to explore and collect samples on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, an ocean world with a dense, hazy atmosphere.

“RPS is really an enabling technology,” said APL’s Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for the upcoming Dragonfly mission. “Early missions like Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini that relied on RPS have completely changed our understanding and given us a geography of the distant solar system…Cassini gave us our first close-up look at the surface of Titan.”

According to Turtle, the MMRTG serves two purposes on Dragonfly: power output to charge the lander’s battery and waste heat to keep its instruments and electronics warm.

“Flight is a very high-power activity. We’ll use a battery for flight and science activities and recharge the battery using the MMRTG,” said Turtle. “The waste heat from the power system is a key aspect of our thermal design. The surface of Titan is very cold, but we can keep the interior of the lander warm and cozy using the heat from the MMRTG.”

As the scientific community continues to benefit from RPS, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is investing in new technology using reactors and low-enriched uranium fuel to enable a robust human presence on the Moon and eventually human missions to Mars.

Astronauts will need plentiful and continuous power to survive the long lunar nights and explore the dark craters on the Moon’s South Pole. A fission surface power system could provide enough juice to power robust operations. NASA is leading an effort, working with the DOE and industry to design a fission power system for a future lunar demonstration that will pave the way for base camps on the Moon and Mars.

NASA has also thought about viable ways to reduce the time it takes to travel to Mars, including nuclear propulsion systems.

As NASA advances its bold vision of exploration and scientific discovery in space, it benefits from 60 years of the safe use of nuclear power during spaceflight. Sixty years of enlightenment that all started with a little satellite called Transit IV-A.

News Media Contact Jan Wittry NASA’s Glenn Research Center

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Sandia tests heat shields for space

For decades, Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility has harnessed the power of the sun to expose aerospace materials to intense heat, replicating the harsh conditions of faster-than-sound flight and atmospheric reentry to ensure the materials’ ability to protect the rest of the vehicle. The most recent of these tests is in support of two exciting NASA missions.

The ambitious Mars Sample Return campaign, which is under a complete program review, is a NASA and European Space Agency mission that seeks to deliver Martian rocks to eager Earth-bound scientists. These samples could provide clues as to whether the Red Planet ever hosted life and help prepare for human exploration of Mars. If selected, the Sample Retrieval Lander segment of this mission would land the heaviest payload ever on Mars, including a rocket designed to launch a container of carefully selected samples into Mars’ orbit. Recently, NASA engineers tested heat shield materials for the Mars Lander at Sandia.

“This would be the first mission to return rocks from Mars to Earth; it’s got a bigger payload,” said Ken Armijo, a Sandia engineer and test director for the NASA tests. “The heavier the payload and the bigger the entry vehicle, the hotter the vehicle gets during atmospheric entry, and the better the heat shield needs to be.”

What makes Sandia’s solar testing facility special is its ability to test samples of material up to 3 feet wide with different gases blowing over the samples to mimic the atmosphere of different worlds, Armijo said. This is done using sunlight focused by hundreds of mirror-like heliostats — rather than using energy guzzling arc jets or lasers, which are two other methods for testing materials for reentry. This could save between 15 to 60,000 kW per test, the equivalent of running 5 to 20,000 clothes dryers for the length of the test.

Sandia’s singular facilities

Sandia’s solar testing facility includes a 200-foot-tall power tower with a field of 212 mirrored heliostats.

“We have high flux and high flux distribution on the Solar Tower,” Armijo said. “We can basically fit whole pieces of planes up there if we wanted to and blast them with concentrated sun beams. The high flux you experience during reentry and hypersonic flight is only part of what we can simulate.”

Flux represents the amount of light or energy hitting a certain area, often compared to the amount of sunlight that would hit a beach towel on a sunny day. Acting like a massive magnifying glass, Sandia’s solar test facility can focus sunlight up to 3,500 times this amount of light.

Arc jet testing costs up to $100,000 per day, while laser testing is similar at approximately $150,000 per day, while testing on the Solar Tower costs about $25,000 per day, Armijo explained. Another benefit is the ability to focus more heliostats upon the test material, changing the intensity of sunlight to mimic the stages of reentry or even the conditions of reentry on different celestial bodies, he added.

“Typically, NASA missions test their heat shield materials at several different facilities with different capabilities before certifying the material for flight,” said Brandon Smith, the lead engineer for heat shield materials for the Sample Retrieval Lander at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Sandia’s ability to test at this size nicely complements our other test facilities.”

Materials testing for Mars and beyond

During NASA’s tests in the fall and winter of 2023, engineers tested 2-foot-wide samples of a material developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The heat shields for both the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander and a Titan-bound mission, Dragonfly, are designed to be made from this material, called Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator. This material has been successfully used as heat shields for NASA’s missions Stardust, Mars Science Laboratory, Mars 2020 and OSIRIS-REx.

The tests were led by Keith Peterson, a materials scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. He said that other methods of testing materials for reentry are limited to smaller samples, only 8 inches in diameter. Since the solar test facility can test larger samples of material, NASA could test material samples that were slightly bent to simulate the physical strain a spacecraft would feel entering the atmosphere, and study mechanisms that show up only at larger length scales, Peterson added.

Dragonfly is a helicopter-like robot bound for Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in development at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The rotorcraft is designed to fly multiple sorties once it reaches Titan, searching for chemical processes common to both Titan and very early Earth, prior to the formation of life. Titan could hold clues to how life may have arisen on our planet. However, with an atmosphere four times as dense as Earth, Titan poses its own challenges especially when it comes to designing a heat shield for the spacecraft to fly through the methane-rich atmosphere and deliver the rotorcraft.

To mimic the thermal processes of atmospheric entry in the oxygen-less atmospheres of Mars and Titan, the researchers blow nitrogen gas across the heat shield sample. Recently, Sandia added a gas line from the base of the power tower to the top, Armijo said. A gas line is somewhat like a garden hose, providing high-pressure gas where materials testing occurs.

Sandia mechanical technologist Daniel Ray was responsible for installing the gas line and for fixing problems on the tests as they arise. He is the main welder and fabricator for the solar testing facility.

“My role on every project is to make it work,” Ray said. “During their first test, NASA had an issue with the protective carbon felt catching fire. The following morning, I made some ceramic shields to better channel the nitrogen and protect the test system, and it worked.”

Scorching solar slingshot

In 2022, researchers from the Applied Physics Laboratory tested a heat exchanger prototype designed to propel a rocket around the sun. They subjected the prototype to high solar flux on the Solar Tower.

The purpose of these new types of aerospace heat exchanger heat shields is to protect and propel future Voyager-type spacecraft as they slingshot around the sun to zip out into interstellar space, Armijo said. By flying closer to the sun, spacecraft could reach speeds three or four times those of Voyager 1, said Jessica Harsono, an APL mechanical engineer and leader of this project.

The APL researchers were able to test their heat exchanger prototype under the light of 2,000 suns for 10 minutes. During the test, the prototype reached over 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit and remained intact and operational, demonstrating the ability of the heat exchanger to survive its intended use, Harsono said. The researchers also tested several possible coatings for heat shield materials.

This was not the first time APL researchers tested aerospace subsystems at Sandia’s solar test facility, Armijo said. In fact, the first test for APL started in May 1979, when the solar test facility — designed and commissioned for energy research — was less than a year old.

APL researchers came back in 2000 to test radar protection domes called radomes. Previously, NASA researchers have tested space shuttle tiles, sensors and communication systems to see if they would work during reentry. The facility has also been involved in testing nose cones for space shuttles and Air Force planes, and aerospace materials’ resilience to rapid temperature changes.

“This has blossomed into a lot of neat projects because, fundamentally, we have figured out a way to adjust our ability to focus heliostats on and off and adjust the spread of focused beams so we can tailor the flux profile over time to mimic real-world flight conditions,” Armijo said. “Because we can dial-in the profiles, we have more confidence that it’s going to survive and function well during a mission. Having confidence that it will make it to Mars, land and pick up the rocks safely is important.”

IMAGE: Smoke billowing off NASA’s heat shield material during a recent test at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility. Credit Photo by Craig Fritz/Sandia National Laboratories