NASA Online Guide (2021)
NASA Mission Online:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is responsible for unique scientific and technological achievements in human spaceflight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications. NAsa’s activities have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. Established as a direct response to early Soviet space achievements, NASA was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government organizations, as the locus of United States civil aerospace research and development. Now that the mission is clear, let’s turn to a general historical overview of NASA.
NASA Online Historical Overview:
When NASA opened for business on October 1, 1958, it accelerated the work already started in the United States and worldwide on human and robotic spaceflight. NASA’s first high profile program was Project Mercury. Project Mercury was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. Mercury was followed by Project Gemini which used spacecraft built for two astronauts to perfect the capabilities needed for the national objective of a human trip to the Moon by the end of the 1960s. Project Apollo achieved that objective in July 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission and expanded on it with five more successful lunar landing missions through 1972. After the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Projects of the mid-1970s, NASA’s human spaceflight efforts again resumed in 1981 with the Space Shuttle program that continued for 30 years. The Shuttle was not only a breakthrough technology, but was essential to our next major step in space, the construction of the International Space Station.Here is a general historical overview of NASA: NASA History Overview | NASA
Over the last 60 years NASA has continued to push the boundaries with cutting edge aeronautics research that has dramatically changed the way we build and fly airplanes. NASA has also completed the reconnaissance of our solar system, with intense investigation of all the planets. Using orbital spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has also dramatically changed our understanding of the universe around us as well as our own planet. NASA’s early work on launch vehicles, communication satellites, and weather satellites has fundamentally changed daily life and created whole new industries. As a catalyst for international cooperation, NASA has also changed how and why humanity conducts space exploration. Now, NASA is preparing to take humankind farther than ever before as it helps to foster a robust commercial space economy near Earth, and pioneers further human and robotic exploration as we venture into deep space.
The NASA History Office Program publishes a quarterly newsletter, as well as an array of books both print and digital, hosts social media, provides fellowships, and runs the Historical Reference Collection, which is NASA’s version of an archive, to assist the public in finding more information on aeronautical and space history.The staff also produces the Aeronautics and Space Report of the President. The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 directs NASA to produce an annual report that includes a “comprehensive description of the programmed activities and the accomplishments of all agencies of the United States in the field of aeronautics and space activities” during the preceding year. NASA staff also assists the public, media, researchers, NASA employees and Congressional staff to find resources within and outside the NASA History Office’s Historical Reference Collection. Here is a more specific detailed chronology of NASA’s historical project achievements: Historical Timeline | NASA
NASA Gateway Online:
The Gateway will be an outpost orbiting the Moon. The Gateway provides vital support for a sustainable, long-term human return to the lunar surface, as well as a staging point for deep space exploration. The Gateway is a critical component of NASA’s Artemis program.
The Gateway is a vital part of NASA’s deep space exploration plans along with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Orion spacecraft, and human landing system sending astronauts to the Moon. Gaining new experiences on and around the Moon prepares NASA to send the first humans to Mars in the coming years. The Gateway will play a vital role in that process. The Gateway is a destination for astronaut expeditions and science investigations. It is also a port for deep space transportation including sending landers en route to the lunar surface or for launching spacecraft embarking for destinations beyond the Moon inluding asteroids, the Moon, and inner planets.
NASA has focused Gateway development on the initial critical elements required to support the 2024 landing. These developments are the Power and Propulsion Element, the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), and general logistics capabilities.
The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) is a high-power, 60-kilowatt solar electric propulsion spacecraft which will provide power, high-rate communications, attitude control, and orbital transfer capabilities for the Gateway. In May 2019, NASA selected Maxar Technologies of Westminster, Colorado, to develop, build, and support an in-space demonstration of the element. The PPE is managed out of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio.
The Habitation and Logistics Outpost will be the initial crew cabin for astronauts visiting the Gateway. HALO’s primary purpose is to provide basic life support needed for the visiting astronauts after they arrive in the Orion and prepare for their trip to the lunar surface. HALO will provide command, control, and data handling capabilities, energy storage and power distribution, thermal control, communications and tracking capabilities as well as environmental control and life support systems to augment the Orion spacecraft and support crew members. HALO will also have several docking ports for visiting vehicles and future modules as well as space for science and stowage. The HALO is being developed by Northrop Grumman and is managed out of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
As astronauts prepare for missions to the lunar surface, they will need deliveries of critical pressurized and unpressurized cargo, science experiments and supplies, such as sample collection materials and other items. In March 2020, NASA announced SpaceX as the first U.S. commercial provider under the Gateway Logistics Services contract to deliver cargo and other supplies to the Gateway. One logistics services delivery is anticipated for each crewed Artemis mission to the Gateway. Gateway Logistics is based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For more on deep space logistics, click here: Deep Space Logistics
In February 2021, NASA selected SpaceX to provide launch services for PPE and HALO. After integration on Earth, the PPE and HALO are targeted to launch together no earlier than May 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.
Gateway international partners will provide important contributions to the lunar outpost. These NASA partners will be involved in work on external robotics, additional habitation, refueling capability, and possibly other enhancements. Canada announced in February 2019 its intention to participate in the Gateway and contribute advanced external robotics. In December 2020, the Canadian Space Agency awarded a contract to MDA to build the Canadarm3 for Artemis deep space missions. In October 2019, Japan announced plans to join the United States on the Gateway with contributions of habitation components and logistics resupply. In November 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) received authorization and funding to support its contributions to the Gateway including habitation and refueling. In October 2020, ESA signed an agreement with NASA to contribute habitation and refueling modules and enhanced lunar communications to the Gateway. ESA also provides two additional European Service Modules for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. In November 2020, Canada signed a Gateway agreement to contribute external robotics and in December 2020, Japan signed an agreement to partner with NASA on the Gateway as well. The NASA Gateway from the Moon to Mars can be contacted here:
Mars Perseverence Rover Online:
The Mars Perseverance rover mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars Perseverance mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself. The Mars Perseverance rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside in a “cache” on the surface of Mars.
The mission also provides opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources (such as subsurface water), improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.
The landed on Mars in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. Learn more about the rover’s entry, descent and landing and tune in to watch the landing online here: Mars Perseverance Rover | NASA
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Online:
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a unique national research facility carrying out robotic space and Earth science missions. JPL helped open the Space Age by developing America’s first Earth-orbiting science satellite, creating the first successful interplanetary spacecraft, and sending robotic missions to study all the planets in the solar system as well as asteroids, comets and Earth’s moon. In addition to its missions, JPL developed and still manages NASA’s Deep Space Network, a worldwide system of antennas communicating with interplanetary spacecraft.
JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech. From the long history of leaders drawn from the university’s faculty to joint programs and appointments, JPL’s intellectual environment and identity are profoundly shaped by its role as part of Caltech.
Today JPL continues its world-leading innovatio. JPL is still implementing programs in planetary exploration, Earth science, space-based astronomy and technology development, while applying its capabilities to technical and scientific problems of national significance. JPL technology developed to enable new missions is also applied on Earth to benefit our everyday lives.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, California 91109 (818) 354–4321
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory | NASA
NASA TV Online:
Directly beamed from America’s space program to YouTube, you can watch NASA TV live streaming here. You can get the latest from NASA’s exploration of the universe and learn how we discover our home planet. NASA TV broadcasts a variety of regularly scheduled, pre-recorded educational and public relations programming 24 hours a day on its variety of channels. The network also provides an array of live programming including coverage of missions, events like spacewalks, media interviews, educational and broadcasts, press conferences and rocket launches. In the United States, NASA Television’s Public and Media channels are MPEG-2 digital C-band signals which is carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation on satellite AMC-3, transponder 15C, at 87 degrees west longitude. Downlink frequency is 4000 MHz, horizontal polarization, with a data rate of 38.86 Mhz, symbol rate of 28.1115 Ms/s, and ¾ FEC. A Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) is needed for reception. NASA offically streams its main public channel here:
NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV — YouTube
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Virtual Space Camp: Online Space Education
You and students can bring home a galaxy of fun and learning with Virtual Camp KSC. The KSC Virtual Space Camp offers hands-on science, technology, engineering and math activities for elementary school age students. From the safety and comfort of the student’s home, campers can complete engaging and fun activities centered on NASA-based science and engineering.
Virtual Camp KSC is a 3-day online camp. Each space camp session lasts three hours. Campers connect in real-time via Zoom video conference to a member of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex education staff. Campers complete activities focused on STEM learning. The online learing activities are hosted from a variety of locations at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex just like you were there in person whether there is a pandemic or not
