The Marshall Star for December 6, 2023

Marshall Kicks Off Holiday Season with Tree-Lighting Ceremony

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center commemorated its yearly tree-lighting event in the yard of Building 4221 on Nov 30.

Marshall group members and their kids collected for the lighting of the 32-foot synthetic tree embellished with blue lights and a 10-pointed star representing each NASA.

Joseph Pelfrey, acting center director, opened the event by inviting employee and reviewing a few of the achievements at Marshall in 2023.

“On behalf of the whole management group, I wish to thank you a lot for all the effort and the achievements we’ve had,” Pelfrey stated. “The incredible objectives we’ve worked will lead us to the future. We wish to ensure that everyone has a terrific holiday where everybody spends some time to rest for next year. It’s going to be a terrific year for Marshall and NASA.”

Back to Top

Marshall Team Members March in 9th Annual Huntsville Christmas Parade

By Celine Smith

Staff member from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center came together to spread out vacation cheer with thousands on Dec. 5 throughout the 9th yearly Huntsville Christmas Parade.

The Marshall float showed a test variation of the RS-25 engine– the workhorse engine that powered the area shuttle bus for more than 3 years and is now utilized to power NASA’s SLS (Area Launch Systemrocket for Artemis objectives. The engine was equipped with a handmade Santa Claus sleigh filled with Christmas provides, crafted by Marshall’s Model and Exhibits Shop.

Kids wowed and cheered as the sleigh travelled through the city streets. Marshall volunteers worn enjoyable vacation equipment strolled together with the float losing consciousness sweet and sticker labels to participants.

The Marshall group was granted 3rd location for Best Float Design by the parade committee. Winning top place was the City of Huntsville Landscape Management, while 2nd location went to the Ice Queen Alabama float.

“It’s fantastic to see Huntsville’s development through all the companies that took part by making a float,” stated Chad Emerson, grand marshal of the parade and handling director of Huntsville’s City Football Club.

The parade existed by Bank Independent and hosted by radio station Mix 96.9, in addition to the VBC (Von Braun Center). This year, the parade’s style was Christmas through the years. More than 80 companies embellished their drifts to show Christmas in the past.

The parade had a lot of exciting activities for kids in the VIP FunZone, sponsored by Lander’s McLarty Chevrolet. There, kids took photos with Santa Claus, fulfilled Elsa and Anna from Frozen, developed gingerbread homes, and consumed hot chocolate. The ticket likewise supplied access to bleachers in the VBC’s Saturn Ballroom parking area, where households might take pleasure in the parade. A contribution of clothes for Kids to Love was all that was required for tickets to the VIP FunZone.

Smith, a Media Fusion staff member, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

Back to Top

Julie Bassler Named Manager of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office

Julie Bassler has actually been called as the supervisor in the Science and Technology Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, upon the retirement of Dave Burns at the end of December.

Bassler will lead the company accountable for checking out worlds, carrying out science research study, and establishing brand-new innovations. This consists of developing and handling scholastic and commercial collaborations; handling and carrying out standard clinical research study, information science, and instrument advancement; handling innovation advancement; hosting significant firm programs in Planetary Missions and Technology Demonstration Mission workplaces; and running science and innovation jobs.

Bassler has actually led various jobs and programs throughout the previous 34 years in assistance of NASA’s objectives, which have actually covered the locations of human area flight, robotic objectives, science payloads, and innovation advancements.

Considering that 2018, Bassler has actually been the supervisor of the Stages Office of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Program at Marshall. She led the SLS core phase group through the style, advancement, test, and effective inaugural launch of the 212-foot core phase on the Artemis 1 objective. Prior to that choice, Bassler was deputy component supervisor of the SLS Stages Office for 5 years and combination supervisor for one year.

In 2008, Bassler was called job supervisor for the International Lunar Network Anchor Nodes objective and the Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project in the Lunar Quest Program in the Science Mission Directorate at Marshall.

From 2006 to 2008, she was deputy program supervisor of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program and manager of Marshall’s Lunar Precursor Robotic Office. In 2004, Bassler developed and led Marshall’s very first Technology and Capability Development Projects Office in assistance of the NASA Exploration Mission.

From 2002 to 2004, she was program supervisor of the International Space Station Materials Science Research Rack. Prior to that function, Bassler was service supervisor for all microgravity science racks and payload for the spaceport station. She signed up with Marshall as a security engineer for the spaceport station in 1997 after working for a number of years at Johnson Space Center on both the International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs.

Her honors consist of a Meritorious Presidential Rank award, 2 NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals, Exceptional Achievement Medal, Space Flight Awareness award, Silver Achievement Medal, a Redstone Leadership Women Rocks award, and many other specific and group accomplishment awards.

A local of Breese, Illinois, Bassler got a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Parks College of St. Louis University in Cahokia, Illinois, and a master’s in area science from the University of Houston in Clear Lake, Texas.

She and her partner of 35 years, Brad, reside in New Market. They have 4 kids.

Back to Top

6 Finalists Advance in NASA’s $3.5 Million Lunar Regolith Challenge

By Savannah Bullard

The phase is set for the ending of NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.

Developed in 2020, Break the Ice charged innovators with producing robotic systems that can pass through the unpredictable surface of the Lunar South Pole. These robotics should have the ability to go into the Moon’s regolith– the dirty, icy “dirt” that comprises the lunar surface area– and transfer it to a secondary place for in-situ resource usage processing.

If released on a NASA objective, these systems would run in the completely watched areas of the Moon, a location that gets no sunshine. These innovations need to endure ice-cold conditions and can not count on solar energy regrowth. If effective, NASA can excavate the regolith from this location and utilize the resources originated from the products, like frozen water, to help astronauts surviving on the Moon.

“Our objective is to offer options to make residing on the Moon a truth, and Break the Ice straight adds to that objective,” stated Denise Morris, program supervisor for NASA’s Centennial Challenges. “Excavating lunar regolith before human beings show up on the Moon will permit us to discover usages for that product before they arrive– if we might develop a lunar environment out of the regolith or extract the water for our astronauts to consume, that suggests less mass on our cars and less work for our teams.”

Stage 1 of the competitors concentrated on creating systems that might accomplish 3 parts: excavation, travel, and shipment. Of the 31 groups who sent qualified propositions, 13 won prize money varying from $25,000 to $125,000.

Stage 2, Level 1 opened in June 2022. Including Phase 1 winners and newbies, 25 groups established their preliminary styles into models with technical reports, engineering styles, and test strategies. 6 months later on, 13 U.S. semifinalists were called, each making an equivalent share of $500,000. 2 worldwide groups were likewise acknowledged as semifinalists, though they were not qualified to get financial rewards f