National Aeronautics and Space Administration Volume 9 Issue 15 November 2013 MAVEN TAKES FLIGHT www.nasa.gov GoddardView The Weekly – 2 MAVEN Launches on Ten-Month Journey to Mars – 3 Historic Demonstration Proves Laser Communication Possible – 4 High Energy Prairie View A&M Interns Collaborate with NASA Goddard on Radiation Effects Research – 6 NASA-led Firefly Mission to Study Lightning – 8 A Year of Accolades and Now Behind the Badge Another – 9 To ensure that all employees are One Last Look at GPM – 10 familiar with the NASA Goddard Code Outside Goddard: Param Nair – 12 MAVEN LAUNCHES ON TEN- of Conduct, Goddard’s Office of Com- munications is rolling out the Behind On the cover: The United Launch the Badge campaign. Click the image Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s to learn more. Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolu- MONTH JOURNEY to MARS tion spacecraft launches on Monday, By: Dwayne Brown Nancy Neal Jones and George Diller Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Sun Sends Out X-Class Solar Flare Florida. NASA’s Mars-bound space- NASA mission that will investigate how Mars lost its and Space Physics in Boulder, Colo. “But the real excite- An X1-class flare erupts from the right craft, MAVEN, is the first spacecraft atmosphere and abundant liquid water launched into ment will come in 10 months, when we go into orbit around side of the sun, captured by Solar Dy- devoted to exploring and understand- space at 1:28 p.m. EST Monday from Cape Canaveral Mars and can start getting the science results we planned.” namics Observatory on Nov. 19, 2013. ing the Martian upper atmosphere. AAir Force Station in Florida. The flare erupted from a region that Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls MAVEN is traveling to Mars to explore how the Red Planet produced many flares in its two-week The agency’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution may have lost its atmosphere over billions of years. By ana- journey across the face of the sun. spacecraft separated from an Atlas V Centaur rocket’s lyzing the planet’s upper atmosphere and measuring current Click on the image to learn more. second stage 53 minutes after launch. The solar arrays rates of atmospheric loss, MAVEN scientists hope to under- deployed approximately one hour after launch and cur- stand how Mars transitioned from a warm, wet planet to the rently power the spacecraft. MAVEN now is embarking on a dry desert world we see today. 10-month interplanetary cruise before arriving at Mars next Goddard View Webb Super Eye Arrives at Goddard is an official publication September. “The team overcame every challenge it encountered and The Webb Telescope NIRSpec instru- of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. still kept MAVEN on schedule and on budget,” said Da- ment arrived at NASA Goddard and Goddard View showcases people and “MAVEN joins our orbiters and rovers already at Mars to vid Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard NASA videographers documented it. achievements in the Goddard community explore yet another facet of the Red Planet and prepare for Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “The government, The video shows NIRSpec after its that support Goddard’s mission to explore, human missions there by the 2030s,” NASA Administrator industry and university partnership was determined and delivery as it was unloaded off a truck, discover, and understand our dynamic uni- Charles Bolden said. “This mission is part of an integrated focused to return to Mars sooner, not later.” moved into a clean room and situated by verse. Goddard View is published weekly by and strategic exploration program that is uncovering the engineers for inspection. To learn more the Office of Communications. mysteries of the solar system and enabling us to reach far- MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at CU/LASP. The and see the video, click on the picture. ther destinations.” university provided science instruments and leads science News items for publication in Goddard View operations, as well as education and public outreach, for must be received by noon Wednesday of In the next four weeks, MAVEN will power on and check the mission. Goddard manages the project and provided Airborne Campaign to Map each week. You may submit contributions Greenland Ice Sheet Summer Melt out each of its eight instruments. Upon arrival at Mars in two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed to the editor via e-mail at john.m.putman@ September, the spacecraft will execute an orbit insertion Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission With winter closing in, a new NASA nasa.gov. Ideas for new stories are welcome airborne campaign got under way in maneuver, firing six thrusters that will allow it to be cap- operations. The University of California at Berkeley’s Space but will be published as space allows. All tured by Mars’ orbit. In the following five weeks, MAVEN Sciences Laboratory provided science instruments for the Greenland. For the first time, the La- submissions are subject to editing. ser Vegetation Imaging Sensor is fly- will establish itself in an orbit where it can conduct science mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, ing aboard NASA’s new C-130 aircraft operations, deploy science appendages, and commission Calif., provides navigation support, Deep Space Network all instruments before starting its one-Earth-year scientific support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware to measure the island’s ice following a n summer’s melt. For more information, primary mission. and operations. click the photo. “After 10 years of developing the mission concept and then Above: The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off the hardware, it’s incredibly exciting to see MAVEN on from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air its way,” said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator at the Force Station carrying MAVEN. Photo credit: NASA University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric 2 Volume 9 Issue 15 • November 2013 3 Historic Demonstration PROVES LASEr Communication POSSIBLE By: Dewayne Washington n the early morning hours of Oct. 18, NASA’s Lunar Laser The tests also confirmed LLCD’s capability of providing continu- Communication Demonstration made history, transmitting ous measurements of the distance from the Earth to the LADEE data from lunar orbit to Earth at a rate of 622 Megabits-per- spacecraft with an unprecedented accuracy of less than half an Isecond. That download rate is more than six times faster than inch. “We hope this demonstration validates the capabilities and previous state-of-the-art radio systems flown to the moon. builds confidence in laser communication technology for consid- eration on future missions,” said Cornwell. “It was amazing how quickly we were able to acquire the first signals, especially from such a distance,” said Don Cornwell, LLCD has also transmitted large data files from the LADEE LLCD manager. “I attribute this success to the great work spacecraft computer to Earth. “These first results have far accomplished over the years by the Massachusetts Institute exceeded our expectation,” said Cornwell. “Just imagine the “...the longest of Technology Lincoln Laboratory and their partnership with ability to transmit huge amounts of data that would take days in NASA.” a matter of minutes. We believe laser-based communications is the next paradigm shift in future space communications.” two-way laser LLCD is being flown aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer satellite known as LADEE, currently orbit- Future testing will include how well the system operates in opti- communication ing the moon. LADEE is a 100-day robotic mission designed, cally stressed conditions such as daytime (all operations have built, tested and operated by a team from NASA’s Ames re- been at night), full moon verses new moon, and different point- search Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Its primary science mission ing positions for the ground terminals. “These series of tests ever demonstrated.” is to investigate the tenuous and exotic atmosphere that exists will allow us to sample different conditions to demonstrate the around the moon. flexibility of the technology,” said Cornwell. LADEE, with LLCD onboard, reached lunar orbit 30 days after The LLCD system was designed, built and is being operated by launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, the MIT/LL team in Lexington, Mass. NASA’s Goddard Space Va., on Sept. 6. During the trip, the LADEE team provided an Flight Center manages LLCD. The LADEE spacecraft was built opportunity for LLCD to make post-flight calibrations of its point- and is operated by NASA’s Ames research Center in Moffett ing knowledge. “Being able to make those calibrations allowed Field, Calif. Additional ground terminals have been provided by us to lock onto our signal almost instantaneously when we NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and ESA turned on the laser at the moon,” said Cornwell. “A critical part in Darmstadt, Germany. of laser communication is being able to point the narrow laser beam at a very small target over a great distance.” NASA’s laser communications between LLCD and Earth ground stations is the longest two-way laser communication ever dem- LLCD not only demonstrated a record-breaking download rate onstrated. It is the first step and part of the agency’s Technology but also an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps. The laser Demonstration Missions Program, which is working to develop beam was transmitted 239,000 miles from the primary ground crosscutting technology capable of operating in the rigors of station at NASA’s White Sands Complex in Las Cruces N.M., to space. the LADEE spacecraft in lunar orbit. This breakthrough technol- ogy has a laser-based space terminal that is half the weight of The Laser Communications relay Demonstration is the follow- a comparable radio-based terminal while using 25 percent less on mission, scheduled for launch in 2017.