FROM: NASA
CCP Industry Partners Work Toward Space Station
NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager and three aerospace industry partner representatives discuss America's efforts to regain a domestic crew launch capability to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station.
FROM: NASA
An Astronaut's View from Station
A view of Earth as seen from the Cupola on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station. Visible in the top left foreground is a Russian Soyuz crew capsule. In the lower right corner, a solar array panel can be seen.
This photo was taken from the ISS on June 12, 2013. Image Credit: NASA
FROM: NASA
NASA'S Hubble Uncovers Evidence of Farthest Planet Forming From Its Star
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation.
Of the almost 900 planets outside our solar system that have been confirmed to date, this is the first to be found at such a great distance from its star. The suspected planet is orbiting the diminutive red dwarf TW Hydrae, a popular astronomy target located 176 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Hydra the Sea Serpent.
Hubble's keen vision detected a mysterious gap in a vast protoplanetary disk of gas and dust swirling around TW Hydrae. The gap is 1.9 billion miles wide and the disk is 41 billion miles wide. The gap's presence likely was caused by a growing, unseen planet that is gravitationally sweeping up material and carving out a lane in the disk, like a snow plow.
The planet is estimated to be relatively small, at 6 to 28 times more massive than Earth. Its wide orbit means it is moving slowly around its host star. If the suspected planet were orbiting in our solar system, it would be roughly twice Pluto's distance from the sun.
Planets are thought to form over tens of millions of years. The buildup is slow, but persistent as a budding planet picks up dust, rocks, and gas from the protoplanetary disk. A planet 7.5 billion miles from its star should take more than 200 times longer to form than Jupiter did at its distance from the sun because of its much slower orbital speed and the deficiency of material in the disk. Jupiter is 500 million miles from the sun and it formed in about 10 million years.
TW Hydrae is only 8 million years old, making it an unlikely star to host a planet, according to this theory. There has not been enough time for a planet to grow through the slow accumulation of smaller debris. Complicating the story further is that TW Hydrae is only 55 percent as massive as our sun.
"It's so intriguing to see a system like this," said John Debes of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. Debes leads a research team that identified the gap. "This is the lowest-mass star for which we've observed a gap so far out."
An alternative planet-formation theory suggests that a piece of the disk becomes gravitationally unstable and collapses on itself. In this scenario, a planet could form more quickly, in just a few thousand years.
"If we can actually confirm that there's a planet there, we can connect its characteristics to measurements of the gap properties," Debes said. "That might add to planet formation theories as to how you can actually form a planet very far out."
The TW Hydrae disk also lacks large dust grains in its outer regions. Observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile show dust grains roughly the size of a grain of sand are not present beyond about 5.5 billion miles from the star, just short of the gap.
"Typically, you need pebbles before you can have a planet. So, if there is a planet and there is no dust larger than a grain of sand farther out, that would be a huge challenge to traditional planet formation models," Debes said.
The team used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to observe the star in near-infrared light. The researchers then compared the NICMOS images with archival Hubble data and optical and spectroscopic observations from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Debes said researchers see the gap at all wavelengths, which indicates it is a structural feature and not an illusion caused by the instruments or scattered light.
The team's paper will appear online June 14 in The Astrophysical Journal.
FROM: NASA
We were looking at these strange features on Mars. They're what we call, "linear gullies," because they're long troughs. They can extend up to two kilometers, which is just over a mile and they're really strange because they go down and then they end abruptly in a pit.
A lot of features on the Earth that are similar do end in a debris apron because stuff has been moved from the top to the bottom. But these don't have the apron. They just have a pit at the end. And so we were wondering how they could form.
Frozen carbon dioxide accumulates on the surface and we think that some of this accumulation will compress down and actually form ice slabs and ice blocks.
We bought some frozen carbon dioxide dry ice blocks and we took it out to a dune slope, and we put it down and we saw what happened.
Most dune slopes will be at 33 degrees and that's a nice steep slope. And so we did it with a water ice block and the sand got wet and it didn't move. And we did it with a wooden block and, you know, it moved three inches and then it stopped.
The dry ice block, we expected it to see a bit more activity, but we didn't expect it to just move and move and move and move and keep moving all the way to the bottom. But even on the other side of the dune, which is more like six degrees -- it's very shallow -- we put the block on and we pushed it and it would just slide right down and the only reason it stopped was because it hit the bushes at the bottom.
Dry ice, as it heats up, turns into gas that pushes against the sand as it comes out. After a few hours, it's scooped out a nice little area. And so you have a feature that looks like what we see on Mars. They will move down that dune slope and carve out a shallow trough.
When the block of ice is on the sand surface, that sand is just a little bit warmer. And so it causes a cushion of air to form. And that lifts that block just a little bit so when it moves forward, it's like its lubricated and it can just slide very easily.
And when it got to the bottom, instead of just sitting there, it would disappear as the area heated up and then that could possibly leave a pit.
I'm looking forward to the day when astronauts can engage in a whole new area of extreme sports. They could snowboard down these carbon dioxide covered dunes on a cushion of carbon dioxide. They would just shoot right down those slopes. It would be amazing.
FROM: NASA
The Butterfly Nebula
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.
This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble
FROM: NASA
NASA Selects New Suborbital Payloads, Total Tops 100 Experiments
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected 21 space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, balloons, and a commercial parabolic aircraft.
This latest selection represents the sixth cycle of NASA's continuing call for payloads through an announcement of opportunity. More than 100 technologies with test flights now have been facilitated through NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate's Flight Opportunities Program.
"This new group of payloads, ranging from systems that support cubesats to new sensors technology for planetary exploration, represent the sorts of cutting-edge technologies that are naturally suited for testing during returnable flights to near-space," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "NASA's Flight Opportunities Program continues to mature this key technology development pipeline link, thanks to America's commercial suborbital reusable vehicles providers."
Fourteen of these new payloads will ride on parabolic aircraft flights, which provide brief periods of weightlessness. Two will fly on suborbital reusable launch vehicle test flights. Three will ride on high-altitude balloons that fly above 65,000 feet. An additional payload will fly on both a parabolic flight and a suborbital launch vehicle, and another will fly on both a suborbital launch vehicle and a high-altitude balloon platform. These payload flights are expected to take place now through 2015.
Flight opportunities currently include the Zero-G Corporation parabolic airplane under contract with the Reduced Gravity Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston; Near Space Corp. high-altitude balloons; and reusable launch vehicles from Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, UP Aerospace and Virgin Galactic. Additional commercial suborbital flight vendors under contract to NASA, including XCOR and Whittinghill, also will provide flight services.
Payloads selected for flight on a parabolic aircraft are:
-- "Technology Maturation of a Dual-Spinning Cubesat Bus," Kerri Cahoy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
-- "Testing Near-Infrared Neuromonitoring Devices for Detecting Cerebral Hemodynamic Changes in Parabolic Flight," Gary Strangman, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
-- "Resilient Thermal Panel: Microgravity Effects on Isothermality of Structurally Embedded Two Dimensional Heat Pipes," Andrew Williams, Air Force Research Laboratory, Albuquerque, N.M.
-- "Wireless Strain Sensing System for Space Structural Health Monitoring," Haiying Huang, University of Texas, Austin
-- "Monitoring tissue oxygen saturation in microgravity," Thomas Smith, Oxford University, United Kingdom
-- "Testing the deployment and rollout of the DragEN electrodynamic tether for Cubesats," Jason Held, Saber Astronautics Australia Pty Ltd., Australia
-- "Creation of Titanium-Based Nanofoams in Reduced Gravity for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Production," Kristen Scotti, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
-- "Testing a Cubesat Attitude Control System in Microgravity Conditions," Eric Bradley, University of Central Florida, Orlando
-- "Demonstration of Adjustable Fluidic Lens in Microgravity," James Schwiegerling, University of Arizona, Tucson
-- "Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in Microgravity," Douglas Ebert, Wyle Laboratories, Houston
-- "DYMAFLEX: DYnamic MAnipulation FLight Experiment," David Akin of University, Maryland, College Park
-- "Characterizing Cubesat Deployer Dynamics in a Microgravity Environment," Kira Abercromby, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
-- "Demonstration of Food Processing Equipment," Susana Carranza, Makel Engineering Inc., Chino, Calif.
-- "Advanced Optical Mass Measurement System," Jason Reimuller, Mass Dynamix Inc., Longwood, Fla.
Payloads selected for flight on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle are:
-- "Precision Formation Flying Sensor," Webster Cash, University of Colorado, Boulder
-- "Navigation Doppler Lidar Sensor Demonstration for Precision Landing on Solar System Bodies," Farzin Amzajerdian, NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Payloads selected for flight on a high altitude balloon are:
-- "Planetary Atmosphere Minor Species Sensor," Robert Peale, University of Central Florida, Orlando
-- "Satellite-Based ADS-B Operations Flight Test," Russell Dewey, GSSL Inc., Tillamook, Ore.
-- "Low-Cost Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (sRLV) Surrogate," Timothy Lachenmeier, GSSL Inc.
One payload will be manifested on a parabolic aircraft and a suborbital reusable launch vehicle:
-- "Real Time Conformational Analysis of Rhodopsin using Plasmon Waveguide Resonance Spectroscopy," Victor Hruby, University of Arizona, Tucson.
One payload will be manifested on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle and a high altitude balloon:
-- "Test of Satellite Communications Systems on-board Suborbital Platforms to provide low-cost data communications for Research Payloads, Payload Operators, and Space Vehicle Operators," Brian Barnett, Satwest Consulting, Albuquerque, N.M.
NASA manages the Flight Opportunities manifest, matching payloads with flights, and will pay for payload integration and the flight costs for the selected payloads. No funds are provided for the development of the payloads.
FROM: NASA
Radiation Measured by NASA's Curiosity on Voyage to Mars has Implications for Future Human Missions
WASHINGTON -- Measurements taken by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission as it delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs to design systems to protect human explorers from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions in the future.
MSL's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft. The findings will reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of radiation shielding and provide vital information to space mission designers who will need to build in protection for spacecraft occupants in the future.
"As this nation strives to reach an asteroid and Mars in our lifetimes, we're working to solve every puzzle nature poses to keep astronauts safe so they can explore the unknown and return home," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations in Washington. "We learn more about the human body's ability to adapt to space every day aboard the International Space Station. As we build the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket to carry and shelter us in deep space, we'll continue to make the advances we need in life sciences to reduce risks for our explorers. Curiosity's RAD instrument is giving us critical data we need so that we humans, like the rover, can dare mighty things to reach the Red Planet."
The findings, which are published in the May 31 edition of the journal Science, indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.
Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun.
Radiation exposure is measured in units of Sievert (Sv) or milliSievert (one one-thousandth Sv). Long-term population studies have shown exposure to radiation increases a person's lifetime cancer risk. Exposure to a dose of 1 Sv, accumulated over time, is associated with a 5 percent increase in risk for developing fatal cancer.
NASA has established a 3 percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit. The RAD data showed the Curiosity rover was exposed to an average of 1.8 milliSieverts of GCR per day on its journey to Mars. Only about 5 percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft.
The RAD data will help inform current discussions in the United States medical community, which is working to establish exposure limits for deep-space explorers in the future.
"In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days," said Cary Zeitlin, a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio and lead author of the paper on the findings. "Understanding the radiation environment inside a spacecraft carrying humans to Mars or other deep space destinations is critical for planning future crewed missions."
Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures. GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.
"Scientists need to validate theories and models with actual measurements, which RAD is now providing," said Donald M. Hassler, a program director at SwRI and principal investigator of the RAD investigation. "These measurements will be used to better understand how radiation travels through deep space and how it is affected and changed by the spacecraft structure itself. The spacecraft protects somewhat against lower energy particles, but others can propagate through the structure unchanged or break down into secondary particles."
After Curiosity landed on Mars in August, the RAD instrument continued operating, measuring the radiation environment on the planet's surface. RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.
SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project. The NASA Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington manages the Mars Exploration Program.
FROM: NASA
CubeSats, Launcher to Test Satellite Innovations
Launching June 15 from Mojave, Calif., a Prospector-18D liquid-fueled rocket is to carry a set of small satellites high into the air to test how well they handle the shock, heat and vibration of launch. The satellites, each a 4-inch cube, are packed with sensors and equipment for the test flight that is expected to lead to an orbital mission next year. Advances in the small satellites' design could be used in the future in other spacecraft.
FROM: NASA
John Wargo, lead technician at NASA Glenn's Propulsion System Laboratory (PSL) is performing an inspection on the inlet ducting, upstream of the Honeywell ALF 502 engine that was recently used for the NASA Engine Icing Validation test. This test allows engine manufacturers to simulate flying through the upper atmosphere where large amounts of icing particles can be ingested and cause flame outs or a loss of engine power on aircraft. This test was the first of its kind in the world and was highly successful in validating PSL's new capability. No other engine test facility has this capability. Glenn is working with industry to address this aviation issue by establishing a capability that will allow engines to be operated at the same temperature and pressure conditions experienced in flight, with ice particles being ingested into full scale engines to simulate flight through a deep convective cloud. The information gained through performing these tests will also be used to establish test methods and techniques for the study of engine icing in new and existing commercial engines, and to develop data required for advanced computer codes that can be specifically applied to assess an engine's susceptibility to icing in terms of its safety, performance and operability. Image Credit: NASA Bridget R. Caswell (Wyle Information Systems, LLC)
FROM: NASA
Water on the Moon
Since the 1960s, scientists have suspected that frozen water could survive in cold, dark craters at the moon's poles. While previous lunar missions have detected hints of water on the moon, new data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter pinpoints areas near the south pole where water is likely to exist. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
FROM: NASA
The sun is captured in a "starburst" mode over Earth's horizon by one of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station, as the orbital outpost was above a point in southwestern Minnesota on May 21, 2013. Image Credit: NASA
FROM: NASA
This artist's rendering shows what capturing an asteroid could look like. NASA's FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. Performing these elements for the proposed asteroid initiative integrates the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draws on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers. It uses current and developing capabilities to find both large asteroids that pose a hazard to Earth and small asteroids that could be candidates for the initiative, accelerates our technology development activities in high-powered solar electric propulsion and takes advantage of our hard work on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, helping to keep NASA on target to reach the President's goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. Image Credit: NASA/Advanced Concepts Lab
FROM: NASA
Landsat 8 Satellite Begins Watch
WASHINGTON -- NASA transferred operational control of the Landsat 8 satellite to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in a ceremony in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The event marks the beginning of the satellite's mission to extend an unparalleled four-decade record of monitoring Earth's landscape from space. Landsat 8 is the latest in the Landsat series of remote-sensing satellites, which have been providing global coverage of landscape changes on Earth since 1972. The Landsat program is a joint effort between NASA and USGS.
NASA launched the satellite Feb. 11 as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). Since then, NASA mission engineers and scientists, with USGS collaboration, have been putting the satellite through its paces -- steering it into its orbit, calibrating the detectors, and collecting test images. Now fully mission-certified, the satellite is under USGS operational control.
"Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA's Earth Science program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in Washington. "Landsat 8 carries on a long tradition of Landsat satellites that for more than 40 years have helped us learn how Earth works, to understand how humans are affecting it and to make wiser decisions as stewards of this planet."
Beginning Thursday, USGS specialists will collect at least 400 Landsat 8 scenes every day from around the world to be processed and archived at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls. The newest satellite joins Landsat 7, which launched in 1999 and continues to collect images. Since 2008, USGS has provided more than 11 million current and historical Landsat images free of charge to users over the Internet.
"We are very pleased to work with NASA for the good of science and the American people," said U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in Washington. "The Landsat program allows us all to have a common, easily accessible view of our planet. This is the starting point for a shared understanding of the environmental challenges we face."
Remote-sensing satellites such as the Landsat series help scientists observe the world beyond the power of human sight, monitor changes to the land that may have natural or human causes, and detect critical trends in the conditions of natural resources.
The 41-year Landsat record provides global coverage at a scale that impartially documents natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, glacial retreat and forest fires and shows large-scale human activities such as expanding cities, crop irrigation and forest clear-cuts. The Landsat Program is a sustained effort by the United States to provide direct societal benefits across a wide range of human endeavors including human and environmental health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and agriculture.
With Landsat 8 circling Earth 14 times a day, and in combination with Landsat 7, researchers will be able to use an improved frequency of data from both satellites. The two observation instruments aboard Landsat 8 feature improvements over their earlier counterparts while collecting information that is compatible with 41 years of land images from previous Landsat satellites.
FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE
Astronauts attend Maxwell Leadership Reaction Course
By Tech. Sgt. Sarah Loicano
Air University Public Affairs
5/31/2013 - MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) -- In a collaborative training effort, a group of six American and international astronauts participated in an abbreviated version of the Air University Leadership Reaction Course here May 22-23.
Designed to develop leadership skills, the LRC is a field exercise consisting of a series of obstacle course challenges that students navigate as teams during Officer Training School and Reserve Officer Training Corps courses. The astronauts visited the course to evaluate its potential usefulness for future leadership development.
"There are many different types of training and requirements for NASA astronauts, and we are looking at new ways to fulfill leadership obligations," said Peggy Whitson, the training lead for astronaut expeditionary skills at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The department is responsible for finding leadership opportunities for astronauts.
Whitson joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1996 and served as the chief of the Astronaut Office from 2009-2012. She was the first woman to lead the U.S. Astronaut Corps, as well as the first female commander of the International Space Station.
"This training provides us different scenarios and different ways of meeting core leadership training requirements. It allows us to practice teamwork, leadership, decision making," she said, adding that the test run of the training course might be something NASA would consider sending additional astronauts to attend.
During the course, students, or in this case, astronauts, were given a specific obstacle goal, rules and time limit, with a different team leader selected to take charge for each obstacle.
"This is an opportunity for mentors to see folks thrust into leadership situations and watch how they respond. The situations may change when you're out in the operational Air Force or even at the space station, but the issues don't change," said Maj. Rick Kallstrom, the director of operations for the Academy of Military Science at OTS. "You still need to lead, follow, problem-solve, communicate and build teamwork, and those are the same principles they are learning here."
Although there is a textbook solution for each obstacle, instructors don't necessarily care how students develop a solution. During their time on the course, the astronauts solved several obstacles in a different way than instructors had seen previously.
"It's more about how well did they lead, maintain control of their team and communicate," Kallstrom explained. "It's a good chance to take classroom lessons and apply to real-world scenarios."
Takuya Onishi, an astronaut from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, attended the course.
"I think this LRC is very good for our leadership and followership skills as well as team building. As we went through the first few tasks, I trusted my teammates very strongly, without any doubt," Onishi said.
That sense of trust and cooperation is essential, he said, for working in environments like the International Space Station, where different cultures and languages come together.
"This is more of a realistic situation that we may be in, and this training is really beneficial for us and for me, especially," he said. "When we have to work in a team in which crew members have different backgrounds, these obstacle courses help us build our relationship."
FROM: NASA
Curiosity at 'Cumberland'
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its front left Hazard-Avoidance Camera for this image of the rover's arm over the drilling target "Cumberland" during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 15, 2013).
The rover team plans to use Curiosity's drill to collect a powdered sample from the interior of the rock for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the rover. This is the mission's second rock-drilling target. The rover drove from its position beside the first drilling target, "John Klein," to its position beside Cumberland with drives of 121 inches (308 centimeters) on Sol 273 (May 13) and 26.6 inches (67.5 centimeters) on Sol 275. Curiosity's total odometry on Mars is now 2,385 feet (727 meters). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
FROM: NASA
The Engine Burns Blue
This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt.
This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
