Today is #stateofNASA day!!! Buckle your seatbelts friends because you’re in for some SPACE SCIENCE content!! I’ll be heading to @NASAGoddard shortly and will bring you along for the ride! (Actual gif of my face attached) #NASASocial
About to get our badges and learn some science. 
I’m official! #StateOfNASA I’ll be adding to this tweet thread throughout the day, so I can unroll it at the end. The original tweet is pinned so it’ll be easy to find!
I’m standing next to a mirror segment like the ones that will comprise the mirror of the James Webb telescope. One of these is almost as tall as me, and there will be 18 of them all together to make one massive mirror 100x more powerful than Hubble. #NASA #JamesWebbTelescope
Primary focus @NASAGoddard is science. For those who are interested in working here, engineering and other STEM fields are areas to study (although a range of expertise is needed to support the mission).
Astronaut training program began @NASAGoddard, and communications for all of @NASA are maintained here to this day. #StateOfNASA @NASASocial
Launch ready date for the #JamesWebbTelescope is March 30, 2021! #StateOfNASA
@NASAGoddard is named for Robert Goddard, one of the first rocketry pioneers in the US. He was the first person to create and launch a liquid fuel rocket (March 1926), and many of those patents are still in use in rockets today. #StateOfNASA @NASASocial
Astrobiology analytical lab: chemists trying to understand the distribution of amino acids throughout the universe to see where life might be supported. Samples from the solar system can actually be handled in this lab! This is a piece of asteroid 4.6b years old!!!
They make meteorite tea... literally... to purify out the soluble materials in the meteorite to study. Coolest chemistry ever? Yes. #StateofNASA
Apollo next generation sample analysis - NASA stored Apollo samples until technology was able to crack them open. NASA will now be able to start analyzing them at Johnson space center. #stateofNASA
Here’s an example of sample prep for meteorites.
Yoooo I’m holding bits of a comet’s tail!!!
@NASA scientists go on a field trip to Antarctica every summer to collect meteorites that have fallen to earth. They can pick up several hundred every season. #StateOfNASA
The astrobio analytical lab can do tests that can help inform test conditions the Mars rover needs to complete sample analysis on the planet. @NASAGoddard
@NASAGoddard also studies noble gasses from lunar samples. They’re lunar detectives.
Argon dating can be used to tell what the sample is made of and how old it is. Lunar samples are ~3b years old. We can learn about the early solar system from the surface of the moon. #StateOfNASA
They’re trying to develop argon samplers that can go on a rover or with an astronaut. #StateOfNASA
So those four tiny rocks in the center are from an Apollo 16 drill core! #StateOfNASA
These are samples from the moon, around the solar system, and the core of an asteroid. The striations are two different elements that cooled differently. #StateOfNASA
Hey so THAT’S MARS.
How is an asteroid chosen for a there and back mission: 1) must be able to get to and back within span of science team’s lifespan.
2)Must be able to get there and back with the available propulsion/duel systems (1/2)
2)Must be able to get there and back with the available propulsion/duel systems (1/2)
3)Needed to be larger than 25m in diameter, so that the revolution of the asteroid could be matched by the OSIRIS robot for landing, it
4)Needed to be primitive (a class B asteroid in this case). This is why asteroid Bennu was chosen from over 500M asteroids known at the time.
4)Needed to be primitive (a class B asteroid in this case). This is why asteroid Bennu was chosen from over 500M asteroids known at the time.
OSIRIS-REX has 21cm per pixel resolution - next flyby is <0.5cm per pixel. Collects 60g-2kg of surface regolith. Samples being ejected from robot in September of 2023. #StateOfNASA
Here are 3D printed versions of asteroid Bennu at low and high resolution.
Features on the moon are named after (typically) dead (usually) scientists, and all are approved by the international astronomical union. They have to be large or scientifically interesting. This is the South Pole, where the Artemis mission will explore. #StateofNASA
Shackleton is a crater 20km in diameter that will be a target of the Artemis mission, and the astronauts can go into the crater basin and sample areas in permanent darkness, to see what the cold trap contains. #StateOfNASA
Hubble is celebrating its 30th birthday this April! Check out NASA.gov/hubble or follow @NASAHubble #StateOfNASA @NASAGoddard @NASASocial
Hubble has one processor and 1Mb of storage. The upgraded computer was installed in 1999 which allowed for automated control of @NASAHubble.
Hubble can take photos in visible spectrum and infrared. This is the Pillars of Creation in both wavelengths. @NASAGoddard @NASAHubble
@NASAHubble has an app. 😂 Mission scientists don’t usually have to sit at mission control, because all telemetry data comes via a secure app to their phones. Sorry everyone, it’s not for you. #StateOfNASA
This is the original battery for @NASAHubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer which had to be replaced in 2009. A power converter failed due to air bowing the lid and ruining the solder after 7 years.
This tape recorder (literal tape) from @NASAHubble that helped store data has been replaced with a solid state flash drive that stores 10x more data! #StateOfNASA
Mission pins @NASAGoddard
This is the @NASAGoddard network integration center which has been in operation since the Apollo era. This is where launch communications are tested and verified. It was in use just yesterday for the Solar Orbiter launch. #StateOfNASA
The NIC is actually rooted in the Navy, since they supported communications for Sputnik, before @NASA was created. Much of the NAVY services then came to @NASAGoddard. Now the NIC gets ~90% of data for NASA. #StateOfNASA
Edit: 98% of data @NASAGoddard, which is from roughly 23 launches annually, which is the equivalent of 1200 Blu-rays daily. Check out scan-now.gsfc.nasa.gov #StateOfNASA
Unsurprisingly, the communications folks have helpful slides with information so I don’t have to butcher it. #StateOfNASA @NASAGoddard @NASASocial
Huh. So @NASAGoddard helps support search and rescue. That’s pretty cool.
Proof that I’m actually here. 😛
@threadreaderapp unroll please!
