ames research center

NASA’s Artemis missions, aimed at extending lunar exploration, face new challenges with larger landers that pose greater operational risks. These missions must navigate complex lunar landings and liftoffs in an environment with unique challenges, such as low gravity and a dusty surface. Credit: Patrick Moran, NASA Ames Research Center/Andrew Weaver, NASA Marshall Space Flight CenterNASA’s Artemis missions, using larger lunar landers, face increased landing and liftoff risks. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center developed…

The Moon is about to be a busy place, with a series of crewed missions planned by NASA as part of its Artemis program, as well as an influx of upcoming commercial landers eyeing a spot on the lunar surface. Before it sends a fleet of spacecraft to the Moon, however, NASA first wants to understand the impact these future landers might have on the lunar surface.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonUsing the Pleaides supercomputer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, engineers at the space…

The next-generation James Webb Space Telescope has found no significant atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b, mission officials said. An international team of researchers used Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to measure the temperature of the TRAPPIST-1 b, based on the exoplanet's thermal emission -- heat energy given off in the form of infrared light.The result indicates that the planet's dayside has a temperature of about 500 kelvins (roughly 450 degrees Fahrenheit) and suggests that it has no significant…