A new study using the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has pieced together the first detailed, wide-area map of water distribution on the Moon. The new map covers about one-quarter of the Earth-facing side of the lunar surface below 60 degrees latitude and extends to the Moon’s South Pole. In this data visualization, SOFIA’s lunar water observations are indicated using color, with blue representing areas of higher water signal, and brown lower.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright
Over the past few years, machine learning techniques have been increasingly used to analyze the vast amount of data collected by the Landsat mission, which has been circling the globe for over 50 years. The data has been used to classify different types of land cover, detect changes to landscapes over time, and map the impact of human activity on the environment. With the field constantly evolving, researchers are developing new deep learning models to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the analysis and extract even more information from the data. Here are just a few examples of how the combination of Landsat data and machine learning is providing a better understanding of our planet’s past, present, and future.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/Chris Burns [KBRWyle]: Lead Producer/Chris Burns [KBRWyle]: Lead Writer
Ingenuity, also called Ginny, is a small robotic helicopter operating on Mars. It is part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, along with the Perseverance rover, which landed with Ingenuity attached to its underside on February 18, 2021. The helicopter was deployed to the surface on April 3, 2021. On April 19, it successfully made the first powered controlled extraterrestrial flight by an aircraft, taking off vertically, hovering, and landing for a flight duration of 39.1 seconds. As of its 51st flight on April 23, 2023, the helicopter has been flightworthy for 734 days.
Ingenuity was designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with AeroVironment, NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center. Other prominent contributors were Lockheed Martin Space, Qualcomm, and SolAero. Its rotors measure 4 ft (121 cm), and its entire body is 49 cm (19 in) tall. Its rectangular fuselage measures 136 mm × 195 mm × 163 mm (5.4 in × 7.7 in × 6.4 in), with four landing legs of 384 mm (15.1 in) each. It is operated by solar-charged batteries that power dual counter-rotating rotors mounted coaxially one above the other.
The helicopter was intended to perform a 30-day technology demonstration, making five flights at altitudes ranging 3–5 m (10–16 ft) for up to 90 seconds each. The expected lateral range was exceeded in the third flight, and the flight duration was exceeded in the fourth. The flights demonstrated the helicopter’s ability to fly in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, over a hundred million miles from Earth, without direct human control. Because radio signals take 5 to 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars depending on planetary positions, Ingenuity must operate autonomously, performing maneuvers planned, scripted and transmitted to it by JPL.
After the brief demonstration phase, JPL began more operational flights, showing how aerial scouting could aid in the exploration of Mars and other worlds. In its operational role, Ingenuity is observing areas of interest for possible examination by Perseverance. The helicopter’s performance and resilience greatly exceeded expectations, enabling it to make flights for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022. In March 2022, NASA announced that it would continue to fly Ingenuity through at least September.
The spacecraft arrived on Mars at the Octavia E. Butler Landing site in the 28 mi (45 km) wide Jezero crater. Before Ingenuity’s first flight, Perseverance drove approximately 100 m (330 ft) away to create a safe flying zone. Flight success was confirmed three hours later by JPL, which livestreamed a view of mission control receiving the data. On its fourth flight, on April 30, 2021, Ingenuity became the first interplanetary spacecraft whose sound was recorded by another interplanetary spacecraft, Perseverance.
Subscribe to blog posts using RSS
