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Cuttingedge-Vol.16 Issue 2 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Volume 16 Issue 2 Winter 2020 www.nasa.gov Volume 16 • Issue 2 • Winter 2020 Better than Reality Goddard Scientists Tap Virtual Reality to Make a Scientific Discovery Many are familiar with virtual reality (VR) to experi- place, from the same cosmic event. However, their ence out-of-this-world video gaming, but few may interpretations of which stars belonged together be aware that it can be used to make scientific varied. By animating those same stars in virtual discoveries. reality, they found stars that may have been classi- fied in the wrong groups as well as star groups that Using a customized, Goddard-developed 3-D simu- could belong to larger groupings. lation that animated the speed and direction of four million stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood, “Rather than look up one database and then an- Goddard astronomer Marc Kuchner and researcher other database, why not fly there and look at them Susan Higashio obtained a new perspective on all together,” Higashio said. She watched these their motions, which helped them classify star simulations hundreds, maybe thousands of times, groupings. and said the associations between the groups of stars became more intuitive inside the artificial cos- goddard’s emerging technologies goddard’s Kuchner presented the findings at the annual • mos found within the VR headset. Observing stars American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in VR will redefine astronomer’s understanding of in early December 2019. Kuchner, Higashio, and some individual stars as well as star groupings. Goddard engineer Tom Grubb also plan to publish edge a paper on their findings next year. The 3-D visualization helped her and Kuchner understand how the local stellar neighborhood Astronomers have studied the same groups of formed, opening a window into the past, Kuchner cutting stars in six dimensions using graphs, Higashio said. said. “We often find groups of young stars mov- Groups of stars moving together indicate to as- ing together, suggesting that they all formed at the tronomers that they originated at the same time and same time,” Kuchner said. “The thinking is they Continued on page 3 in this issue: 2 Better than Reality: Scientific Discovery Enabled by 3-D Simulations 3 Proposed SETH Mission Could Pave the Way for Many SmallSat Firsts Winter 5 Great Observatory Science from a Balloon? 6 NASA Launches In-Depth Snow Study — First in 30 Years 2020 8 Goddard’s Contributions to Snow Study 10 An Architecture for SmallSat Off Roading 11 A Tiny New Instrument to Monitor Flora from Space 13 X-ray Navigation is Ready for the Next Level About the Cover Goddard engineer Matthew Brandt, a member of Tom Grubb’s AR/VR team, created a 3-D simulation that animated the speed and direction of four mil- lion stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood. Goddard astronomer Marc Kuchner and researcher Susan Higashio used the virtual reality program to obtain a new perspective on their motions, which helped them classify star groupings. They reported their findings at a recent scientific conference and an additional paper is planned. Photo Credit: Chris Gunn/NASA You can now share this issue with your friends and colleagues via your own social-media channels. Click the Share button to begin. PAGE 2 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology Volume 16 • Issue 2 • Winter 2020 said, explaining that VR puts the viewer inside a simulated world, while AR overlays com- puter-generated information onto the real world. Since the first “viable” headsets came on the market in 2016, Grubb said his team began develop- ing solutions, like the star- tracking world Kuchner and Higashio explored, as well as virtual hands-on applications for engineers working on next- generation exploration and satellite servicing missions. Engineering Applications goddard’s emerging technologies goddard’s goddard’s emerging technologies goddard’s • • Grubb’s VR/AR team is now working to realize the first edge intra-agency virtual reality edge meetups, or design reviews, Photo Credit: Chris Gunn/NASA Photo Credit: as well as supporting missions directly. His clients include the Virtual reality technologies developed under Goddard and NASA R&D programs have allowed scientists to cutting cutting make a scientific discovery involving star groupings. The findings were reported during a recent scientific Satellite Servicing Capabilities conference. Division’s Restore-L mission, a robotic spacecraft equipped represent a star-formation event. They were all with tools, technologies, and techniques needed to formed in the same place at the same time and so extend satellites’ lifespans, the Wide Field Infrared they move together.” Survey Telescope mission, and various planetary science projects. “Planetariums are uploading all the databases they can get their hands on, and they take people “The hardware is here; the support is here,” Grubb through the cosmos,” Kuchner added. “Well, I’m not said. “The software is lagging, as well as conven- going to build a planetarium in my office, but I can tions on how to interact with the virtual world. You put on a headset and I’m there.” don’t have simple conventions like pinch and zoom or how every mouse works the same when you Realizing a Vision right click or left click.” The discovery realized a vision for Goddard Chief That’s where Grubb’s team comes in, he said. To Technologist Peter Hughes, who saw the potential overcome these usability issues, the team created of VR to aid in scientific discovery when he began a framework called the Mixed Reality Engineer- supporting Grubb’s VR project more than three ing Toolkit (MRET) and is training groups on how years ago under the center’s Internal Research to work with it. Funded by IRAD, MRET assists in and Development (IRAD) program and NASA’s science-data analysis and is enabling VR-based Center Innovation Fund (CuttingEdge, Summer engineering design, from concept designs for Cube- 2017, Page 18). “All of our technologies enable the Sats to simulated hardware integration and testing scientific exploration of our universe in some way,” for full-fledged missions and in-orbit visualizations Hughes said. “For us, scientific discovery is one like the one for Restore-L. of the most compelling reasons to develop an AR/VR capability.” For engineers and mission and spacecraft design- ers, VR offers cost savings in the design/build Scientific discovery, however, isn’t the only benefi- phase before they build physical mockups, Grubb ciary, Grubb stressed. said. “You still have to build mockups, but you can work out a lot of the iterations before you move to The VR and augmented reality (AR) worlds can help engineers across NASA and beyond, Grubb Continued on page 16 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology PAGE 3 Volume 16 • Issue 2 • Winter 2020 Proposed SETH Mission Could Pave the Way for SmallSat Firsts NASA to Announce Winner of Mission Competition by End of 2020 goddard’s emerging technologies goddard’s • edge cutting Photo Credit: Chris Gunn/NASA Photo Credit: Principal Investigator Antti Pulkkinen (right) won Phase-A funding to advance a new SmallSat concept that would demonstrate optical communications technologies and an instrument, now being developed by scientist Nikolaos Paschalidis (left), that could serve as a harmful-radiation, early-warning system for astronauts. NASA already has big plans for transmitting giga- that also received Phase-A funding, SETH would bytes of data using lasers, but so far that ambition fly as a secondary payload on NASA’s Interstel- has been confined to near-Earth or larger deep- lar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) set space missions. to launch in 2024. NASA is expected to choose between the two by the end of 2020. That could change with a proposed small-satellite mission specifically designed to demonstrate “We’re very excited,” said SETH Principal Investiga- miniaturized optical communications technologies tor Antti Pulkkinen, who is leading a team com- capable of handling large data rates from deep prised of experts from Goddard, the Jet Propulsion space and a new instrument that could serve as Laboratory (JPL), Lowell Observatory, Fibertek Inc., a harmful-radiation, early-warning system for and City University of New York. “We will demon- astronauts. strate unprecedented high data rates using optical communications and a novel science capability The agency’s Heliophysics Division chose the that could also potentially save the lives of astro- Science-Enabling Technologies for Heliophysics, nauts living beyond low-Earth orbit — all from one or SETH, for Phase-A funding under its first-ever small-satellite platform. This solicitation is a first for mission solicitation dedicated exclusively to demon- NASA’s Heliophysics Division. I think SETH is also strating and maturing technologies needed in the paving the way for a number of firsts.” future. If selected over another mission concept Continued on page 5 PAGE 4 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology Volume 16 • Issue 2 • Winter 2020 Optical Communications via is with Goddard Internal Research and Development a Small Satellite program funding, HELENA would provide the first- ever, unambiguous detection of solar energetic neu- Although NASA is now developing the Laser Com- tral atoms (ENAs) erupting from the Sun. ENAs are munications Relay Demonstration to validate an a key component in a sequence of space weather optical or laser communications system in geosyn- events that can be life-threatening to humans living chronous orbit, SETH would be the first deep-space and working beyond Earth’s protective magnetic mission equipped with miniaturized, less-complex shield and disruptive to terrestrial power grids and space and ground terminals capable of a hundred- communications systems. fold increase in data rates over traditional radio communications. The demonstration would occur During coronal mass ejections (CMEs), for example, well past geosynchronous orbit at a distance of the Sun ejects large clouds of plasma and accom- about 10-20 million miles from Earth.
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