It’s hard to tell, but behind the beautiful, glimmering greens and blues of the Northern Lights hides a world of violence. The colorful glow of the Auroras (also known as the aurora borealis or polar lights) is the result of particles from the sun releasing energy as they bombard Earth’s atmosphere. Most frequently seen in the skies of high-latitude regions around the Arctic and Antarctic, the auroras appear as a diffuse glow or as a luminous curtain-like shape, sometimes forming relatively static arcs or flowing, nebulous shapes known as “active aurora.” …

The Perseverance rover will spend a year rolling across Mars. Behind the scenes, a team of scientists specialize in helping spacecraft withstand whatever space throws at them.

Satellites and space vehicles are required to survive extreme environments. Scientists at The Aerospace Corporation specialize in creating and evaluating lubricants that help spacecraft withstand whatever space throws at them.

Every vehicle, from the International Space Station to interstellar probes, runs on many moving parts. Preventing wear and tear on these mechanisms is the job of tribologists, who specialize in the study of interacting surfaces and friction.

“There are mechanical systems in space…

NASA used a daring spacecraft maneuver to collect a sample from an ancient asteroid that may offer insights into the making of the solar system and life on Earth.

The clues to understanding the origin of the solar system and life on Earth are flying 63,000 mph through space, embedded in asteroids.

Asteroid sampling stands to divulge a wealth of scientific information regarding the natural world, and its increasing feasibility may portend a new era of industry and commercial possibilities. Recently, NASA collected a sample from one of the estimated 1 million asteroids in our solar system. …

Engineers take to the skies to measure the environmental and atmospheric effects of wildfires and the smoke they generate.

As the world’s climate heats up, many states in the western United States are experiencing increasingly larger and more devastating wildfires, along with a corresponding increase in dangerous air quality from wildfire smoke. A team of engineers at The Aerospace Corporation recently took to the skies to capture valuable data related to the environmental and atmospheric effects of these wildfires and the smoke they generate.

Conducted in late September, the FIRESTORM 2020 mission involved the flight of a Twin Otter Aircraft…

Experts are harnessing the peculiar features of quantum physics to establish secure communications with orbiting spacecraft.

Space-based technologies have rapidly transformed the modern world yet the systems themselves are surprisingly vulnerable. As more entrants to the space enterprise emerge, new threats and risks must be accounted for to ensure the infrastructure can respond to any potential threats.

A key aspect in outpacing the threat is the need to strengthen the cybersecurity of space assets to ensure the integrity of communication. …

Deep inside a laboratory at The Aerospace Corporation’s El Segundo campus, scientists are recreating the vacuum of space here on Earth.

Aerospace’s electric propulsion lab specializes in testing electric thrusters in space-like conditions, and they recently installed a new vacuum chamber that will enable them to test the newer, high-powered thrusters needed for future space exploration.

“This chamber adds not just to Aerospace’s testing capability, but adds to the world’s testing capability,” said Rostislav Spektor, Laboratory Manager in Electric Propulsion and Plasma Science. “When it becomes operational, it will be the best electric propulsion testing facility in the world.”

Why Electric Propulsion?

…

Creating unique shapes for rocket motors with 3D printing could lead to less expensive and more efficient rocket propellants.

Solid, liquid, or gas? That might sound like a question on your high school physics test, but it’s an important consideration when powering a rocket into space.

A team from Aerospace successfully tested a new type of 3-D printed rocket motor that could potentially lead to less expensive and more efficient rocket propellants.

“The Aerospace Corporation created and has led the field of 3-D printed propellant from its beginning, but we’ve never flown any of the technologies we created in this…

How do you teach a satellite to park? As spacecraft transition from standalone vehicles to swarms of “self-driving” robots that interact and dock on their own in space, engineers need a way to test those maneuvers here on Earth. An Aerospace team found a possible solution on Sunday Night Football ™.

For this team, the action was not on the field, but in the sky, where a camera sailed through the air on a system of cables and pulleys, capturing the game from above. …