IceBridge Field Work - A Project Manager's Perspective

Field work in the Arctic is a unique and challenging experience. It takes an experienced and tough team to complete mission objectives from start to finish despite the biting cold, long days and noisy environment. Early morning temperatures are often in the negative single digits, and the IceBridge team powers through it preparing for flight each day. A typical day’s work can range 12 to 14 hours, a schedule that is repeated daily until the airport is closed or until the flight crew reaches a required hard down day.
My project management perspective allows me to take a step back and appreciate not only the technical expertise of our instrument and flight crew teams, but the masterful choreography that unwinds each day to ensure the P-3B aircraft is prepped and ready, the instruments are powered on and in working condition, and the weather and corresponding science flight plan has been assessed and defined. Being actively involved in all phases of Operation IceBridge makes for a stronger and well-versed leader better able to assist any part of the team at any time. By doing this, I can ensure we are on track to meet our mission and science requirements, assist with troubleshooting in and out of the field, better manage project milestones, and ensure streamlined communication across all IceBridge disciplines with a common goal. 

IceBridge project manager Christy Hansen on the stairway to NASA's P-3B. Credit: NASA / Christy Hansen

But why do we do this? How do we do this? 

We do all of this in the name of science, collecting polar geophysical data that will help characterize the health of the Arctic and Antarctic. The in-field data and derived data products IceBridge produces are helping to show annual changes in the ice. These data can be entered into models that can more accurately predict what might happen in the future in terms of ice sheet, glacier, and sea ice dynamics, and ultimately sea level rise; all of which have serious consequences for climate change. 

But how do we reach these science goals? The steps and teamwork required are simply astounding. Each part of our team is like a puzzle piece and everyone is needed to complete the puzzle. All teams must clearly know their individual responsibilities, but also be able to work together and mesh where their job ends and another begins. 

The choreography starts in the beginning, or planning phase where the science team establishes targets of interest on the ice in accordance with our level 1 science requirements. Then our flight planner designs survey flights, having a unique ability to efficiently mesh the science targets with the range and flight dynamic capabilities of the P-3B aircraft. 

Next the aircraft office at NASA's Wallop’s Flight Facility prepares the P-3B for deployment to some of the harshest environments on Earth and supplies the flight crew that executes the specific flight paths over our required science targets. The instrument teams provide the instrumentation—laser altimeters, radars, cameras and a gravimeter and magnetometer—and expertise in operating equipment and processing data during and after flights. Our logistics team deploys to the field ahead of time, establishing security clearances, local transportation and accommodations, and internet and airport utilities. 


Finally, our data center ingests and stores the data that our team collects, ensuring it's useable and available to the wider community. Our data is not only used by polar scientists and other researchers around the world, it is also used to help satellite missions like the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 and NASA's ICESat-2 calibrate and validate satellite instrumentation.

A view of ice from NASA's P-3B airborne laboratory. Credit: NASA / Christy Hansen

And finally, a day in the field …

Assuming a standard 8 a.m. local takeoff and eight hour mission duration, we generally have three major groups who follow different schedules pre-flight each morning.

The P-3 maintenance and flight engineer crew typically starts the earliest, heading to the airport about three hours before takeoff. They prep and warm up the plane, conduct some tests and fuel it, all in preparation for the instrument team arrivals and flight operations.

In parallel with aircraft prep, IceBridge's project scientist, project manager and flight planner team head to the weather office. The team works with local meteorologists, reviewing satellite imagery and weather models to determine the optimal weather patterns that support our flight requirements—clear below 1500 feet, the altitude we typically fly—and final target selection.

In the meantime, the instrument teams arrive at the aircraft to power up and check their systems prior to takeoff. By 7:30 a.m., the aircraft doors close, and we take off by 8. Our eight-hour flights range between flying high and fast, to low and slow over our targets, which include geophysical scans of ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice.


We typically land around 4 p.m., close out the plane, check data and meet at 5:30 for a science meeting. Many folks continue to work for a few hours afterward, processing data or writing mission reports. All of this is repeated daily, for up to 6 days in a row, which can be exhausting, but in the name of important scientific research, an amazing team, and majestic polar landscapes, I could not imagine anything else.

Live Twitter chat with Operation IceBridge

Have you ever wondered what it's like to fly over the Arctic while doing scientific research? On April 8, you can follow NASA's Operation IceBridge and ask questions about how polar researchers work and the science of polar ice as NASA's P-3B airborne laboratory flies 1500 feet above Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers.


IceBridge will post live in-flight highlights on Twitter @NASA_ICE from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 8 (weather delay date April 9). Follow along during the flight and hear from the scientists, engineers and guest high school science teachers onboard. We'll also be taking your questions. Just use the hashtag #askNASA.

Rock, Ice and Fire: Volcanoes of Greenland's Past

By George Hale, IceBridge Science Outreach Coordinator, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

During one of IceBridge's online educational chats we had an interesting question from a fifth grade class in Hanover, N.H. "Are you flying near any volcanoes?" Nearby Iceland is famed for its geothermal activity, with hot springs and geysers, and volcanoes like the one that disrupted European air travel for weeks in 2010 (and caused minor concern for IceBridge mission planners at the same time) by spewing a large cloud of ash into the air.

Satellite image of the ash plume from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Apr. 17, 2010. Credit: NASA / MODIS Rapid Response Team

But unlike Antarctica, which has dozens of active and extinct volcanoes, Greenland is not known for having volcanic activity. Getting a handle on Greenland's geology is hampered by the fact that the majority of the island is covered with hundreds or thousands of meters of ice. But geologists in the field who have studied the exposed rock along the coasts and on mountains above the ice found evidence of volcanoes in Greenland's past.

About half of Greenland's exposed surface is made up of rock ranging between 1.5 billion and just over 3 billion years old, making them some of the oldest on Earth. This rock is part of a large formation that spans from Greenland, through the Canadian Shield down to the Hudson Bay. The majority of Greenland's bedrock is thought to be made up of this ancient rock, with portions of it bent and folded by motion of Earth's tectonic plates much like how the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States and the Rockies out west were formed.

Flight path for Apr. 11 survey of Greenland's Geikie Peninsula. Credit: NASA

Evidence of past volcanic activity can be seen in sediments carried by Greenland's glaciers and in one of the most visually striking geologic features in Greenland, the Geikie Peninsula on Greenland's east coast. And it turns out that this region's characteristic geology has something in common with present-day volcanic activity in Iceland. Both come from molten rock welling up through a ridge in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a boundary where the North American and Eurasian plates are moving apart.

About 60 million years ago, lava from the mid-ocean ridge flooded out over the landscape, creating a rock formation known as a flood basalt. Repeated floods of lava over the years are what give Geikie's jagged peaks their distinctive layer cake appearance. Similar geologic structures can be seen in other parts of the world, like the Columbia River Basalt Group in the western United States.

A glacier between mountains on Greenland's Geikie Peninsula. The mountains on the Geikie Peninsula in Greenland consist mostly of flood basalts formed during the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean millions of years ago. Credit: NASA / Michael Studinger

The answer for those students was no, we weren't flying near any volcanoes. But we did get to relate our previous experience with the Iceland volcano (and learn that their teacher had a flight delayed because of the same event), and tell them about volcanoes in Greenland's past.

Grounded in Truth

Measuring polar ice from the air calls for the kind of precision flying made possible by GPS, but the usefulness of those satellites doesn't end there. GPS information like latitude, longitude and altitude make up a crucial part of IceBridge's instrument data, showing where each data point was collected, and ground-based GPS gives researchers a benchmark useful for checking instrument accuracy.
One of IceBridge's instruments, the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), uses a laser altimeter to build what is essentially a topographic map of the surface. On each flight IceBridge will pass over the airport's ramp to make sure that the laser altimeter, or LiDAR, is properly calibrated. Because the airport ramps are large, flat and obstruction free areas of known elevation they act as a sort of Rosetta stone, giving the ATM team something to compare their elevation measurements against.

Vehicle equipped with a GPS antenna (on roof) before a ground survey of the ramp at Thule Air Base, Greenland. Credit: NASA / Michael Studinger

Having up-to-date elevation data for the entire ramp is the key to these ramp passes. And although IceBridge is an airborne mission this data is collected on the ground by a GPS antenna-equipped car. By driving this car in a grid pattern over the entire ramp and processing the GPS data in specialized software researchers are able to build an elevation map for the entire ramp. This map gives something researchers can use to check instrument readings, and it also reveals something that many people may not expect.

Airport ramps may appear perfectly level and unchanging, but reality is different. First, the elevation of a ramp varies somewhat from one end to the other. "There is a relief of about 3 or 4 meters across the ramp," said John Sonntag, ATM senior scientist. This relief gives an added benefit though because the slope gives more data to use for calibration. "If the survey shows a tilt of x degrees and the LiDAR shows a tilt of x plus 1, you know you need to make an adjustment," Sonntag said.      

Elevation map from a ground survey of the Kangerlussuaq airport ramp. Credit: NASA / ATM team

In addition to sloping, the ramps in Thule and Kangerlussuaq are changing slightly in elevation over time. Obviously any construction or repaving would change elevation slightly, but even the ground itself is rising. Although solid, Greenland's bedrock has been pushed down and deformed over the years by the weight of the ice sheet. As Greenland's ice sheet loses mass this downward force lessens and the bedrock starts rising—a process known as isostatic rebound. "In Thule, we're seeing a rise of about two centimeters per year," said Sonntag.

Two centimeters may not seem like much, but even that small of a change could affect instrument accuracy. To avoid this IceBridge does ground surveys of the ramps every year or two. Thanks to these regular surveys and continual checking of instrument calibration IceBridge researchers are able to provide the scientific community with accurate measurements of changing polar ice.

CubeSat Launch Tests Satellite Innovations

A series of tiny satellites equipped with an array of sensors will take a jarring ride above the California desert on a small rocket June 15 and tell designers whether they are on track to launch into orbit next year.

Built by several different organizations, including a university, a NASA field center and a high school, the spacecraft are 4-inch cubes designed to fly on their own eventually, but will remain firmly attached to the rocket during the upcoming mission. Each of the CubeSats, as they are called, is focused on a specific experiment related to spaceflight.

Success at this point could clear the way for more such spacecraft missions that scientists say could have a big impact on how satellites are designed in the future and what kind of stresses they actually face during the climb into space. 

The flight also is being watched closely as a model for trying out new or off-the-shelf technologies quickly before putting them in the pipeline for use on NASA's largest launchers.

"Overall it's a very exciting mission because we're looking at new things, developing new things that are going to benefit us in the future," said Garrett Skrobot, project manager for the effort under NASA's Launch Services Program. "We can test the environments, and then we know when we put it onto a flight system, we have confidence the system's going to work confidently."

The rocket will carry four CubeSats and conduct a test of a lightweight, nano-launcher and carrier. 

The new launcher weighs one-third as much as the standard rack that held three CubeSats. With the same size and capacity as the previous design known as a poly-picosat orbital deployer or P-POD, the lower-weight carrier and launcher will give satellite designers about two more pounds to work with.

"An extra two pounds for a nanosatellite is huge," said Roland Coelho, program lead at CalPoly, the California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo. The extra allowance provides designers significantly more versatility in their designs and widens the CubeSat's abilities. 

For this mission, the prototype carrier will hold CubeSats loaded with instruments that will measure vibration, heat and other conditions. Those readings will be used to find out whether the lightweight carrier is as strong as the previous model.

"We've had the P-POD design for over a decade and we have a lot of lessons-learned," Coelho said. "In this instance we could design something from scratch and see how it works."

Engineers at Kennedy working through Rocket University designed and built a CubeSat called RUBICS-1 that will test a low-cost avionics system Garvey could use on its rocket for future launches. The RUBICS-1, which is short for Rocket University Broad Initiatives CubeSat, is one of the measurement satellites that will ride in the new, lightweight carrier.

The structure and components of the satellite, are built modularly, so a cube can be adapted easily to specific missions. 

The RUBICS-1 includes, for example, a GPS, radio unit and antenna, plus a small suite of sensors.

Designing and building a functioning spacecraft that can power itself, communicate with ground stations on Earth and still collect useful information while keeping to the strict 4-inch requirement is a great challenge to satellite designers and teaches them how to adapt, the CubeSat managers said.

"We're seeing big satellites and now we're seeing guys drive down the size," Skrobot said. "They think about all the different ways they can get smaller and smaller to fit in that cube. We're a 4-inch cube and you're trying to get power, instrument and all that stuff into that package, they get very creative. It's fascinating what they come up with."

There also are high hopes for the rocket itself, which was designed with CubeSats in mind. Built by Long Beach, Calif.-based Garvey Spacecraft Corp., the Prospector-18 rocket, as it's called, flew several test flights starting in 2011 and completed a successful operational mission in December 2012. It is powered by a single engine burning liquid oxygen and ethanol.

The flight will take the satellites between 15,000 and 20,000 feet into the air before a parachute releases, and the launch vehicle and its payloads float back to Earth. 

Skrobot said his excitement is no less than it would be for a mission to another world.

"I'm excited about all launches," he said. "This is no different, even though we're only going to 15,000 feet. We're launching a vehicle, we're educating young engineers, and they get to see the fruits of their efforts as well."

Though short, the mission is expected to show engineers exactly how much vibration, heat and other conditions to expect on future launches.

"It's a testbed to launch in a launch-like environment," said Shaun Daly, the lead mentor for the StangSat, which is the cube designed and assembled by high school students. "It should be a harsher shock environment than what we will have on a launch."

One of the CubeSats, called PhoneSat, was built by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. As its name implies, the satellite is made from a smartphone to utilize the sophisticated features and high-powered memory and power systems, not to mention the phone's camera.

A PhoneSat recently flew into space on an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket that was making a test flight. Since that mission, designers made a couple changes to the satellite and now can test the effects before placing another model in orbit.

"The smartphone today has more power than a desktop computer did five years ago. You can leverage that into a system that can do meaningful science in space for a fraction of the cost of a large satellite," said Scott Higginbotham, a veteran of space shuttle era processing. 

The changes and testing highlight the main advantage of being a primary payload on a small rocket rather than a secondary payload on a huge rocket: engineers can make changes and experiment with them in much shorter time.

Higginbotham also is the project manager for another of the CubeSats, this one built by CalPoly, the California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo.

The PolySat spacecraft will work in conjunction with the StangSat to gather and record data from inside the rocket during the flight. Housed inside a container designed specifically for the CubeSats, the PolySat and StangSat will transmit information between each other over a Wi-Fi network, a first for CubeSats. 

About a month before heading to California's Mojave desert for the launch, Daly and the high school students who had been working on StangSat tested their systems with the PolySat. Sitting on a bench in a lab at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the two satellites were put through startup sequences, communication patterns and other tests. 

It was a final exam of sorts for the satellites and the builders before the mission.

"We've been coasts apart, we've been sharing information, but you're operating in a bubble on that kind of stuff," Daly said. "Both systems have to get a sense that there's a launch and they have to wake up. For us, we turn on very quickly but we can't send them anything until we have a Wi-Fi network established. You have to prevent yourself from burning through your battery." 

The hope is that a successful test of the ability will allow future CubeSat networks to gather data and send it to a specialized, central cube that will downlink data to the ground.

With that promise still on the horizon, researchers say there will be near-term tangible benefits for this flight.

"The first benefit that we get is an actual flight data collection experiment," Higginbotham said. "We have an interest in understanding what the true environment is so we can perhaps relax some of the criteria for design on our spacecraft so that might let them do more things."

This flight will not spell the end of the mission for the satellites. The PolySat is to be refurbished and a new StangSat will be built to fly together into orbit in 2014 as a secondary payload on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Riding together into space, the satellites will be ejected into space soon after launch to put their data collection and recording system to their highest test. 

"If we're fortunate and the future holds like we think it will, there will be many, many more in the years to come," Higginbotham said. "It would not surprise me to see 100 to 150 a year launched in the not too distant future."

Designers say the tests can show new ways to improve satellite designs of all sizes from then on.

"From a technical perspective, you can move down a magnitude to build a satellite and test a satellite," Daly said. "You can drastically reduce the cost of testing and developing a satellite." 

Students ‘Dig Deep’ in Mining Competition

Overcoming challenges, displaying teamwork and sharing team spirit were all part of NASA’s Fourth Annual Robotic Mining Competition, coordinated by Kennedy Space Center’s Education Office and held May 20-24 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. 

Fifty college and university teams from the U.S., Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, India, Mexico and Poland brought their unique robotic miners to the visitor complex. During four days of intense competition, the teams placed their robots in the mining arena to dig in the rocky terrain of simulated extraterrestrial regolith and deposit at least the minimum amount of 10 kilograms in the hopper. 

Teams also prepared and presented a systems engineering paper and slide presentation, demonstrated their robotic miners to a panel of judges, displayed team spirit, performed outreach education projects and worked to display efficient use of communications power during robotic operations. 

When the “dust” settled May 24, several teams were recognized at the awards ceremony held in one of the visitor complex's IMAX theaters. 

The grand prize, the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence, was awarded to Iowa State University Team LunaCY for accumulating the most points during the competition. The team also received the First Place On-Site Mining Award for collecting the most regolith. 

“We weren’t sure how it was going to work out,” said Katie Goebel, the project director. “It was amazing and very nice that our hard work as a team paid off like we wanted it to.” 

Iowa State has competed in all four mining competitions and has about 30 team members. 

“It was another successful competition,” said Rob Mueller, lead technical expert and mining judge. “We appreciate all of their efforts. We learn from their efforts. We saw a new level of friendship here this year.” 

Teamwork and team spirit were especially evident when first-time competitors Team HUSAR from the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland arrived, but only half of their robot arrived. With a “Failure is not an option” banner displayed on the wall above their “pit” area, they rose to the challenge. 

“We had to build a new robot,” said team leader Lukasz Godziejewski. “Other teams helped out by donating parts and tools.” 

They persevered and were able to compete in the mining area on the final day of competition. For their efforts they received a special recognition, the Perseverance Award. 

Team EKUSH from the Military Institute of Science and Technology in Bangladesh received first place in the Luna Worldwide Campaign and the Outreach Project categories. Team ROBOCOL from the Universidad de Los Andes in Columbia received first place in the Best Use of Social Media category. 

Another first-time team, KU Moonabotics, from the University Institute of Engineering and Technology at Kurukshetra University in India, needed help rebuilding an electronics package because their original was lost in transit. Devon Peck, from the Florida Institute of Technology’s Team Persistence, stepped forward to help them out. This helped earn FIT the top Team Spirit Award. 

West Virginia University’s team Mountaineers received second place in the Joe Kosmo Award of Excellence. In their third year of competition, the team met the challenge of building two robots, one for this competition and another for the RASC-AL competition coming up in Houston. 

“The challenge was to start early enough so we weren’t rushed at the end,” said Tim Godisart, team leader. “It takes about eight months from design to build complete. We had two teams working almost simultaneously.” 

“It was fun. Every year gets more interesting,” said Justin Headley, a systems engineer from the University of Alabama’s team LUnAH. In their fourth year of competition, the team received third place in the Joe Kosmo Award of Excellence. 

No stranger to the competition, the University of North Dakota’s Team RAPTOR placed second in the On-Site Mining category. The university won the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence in 2011 and has competed all four years. This year they were able to collect nearly 200 kilograms of regolith during two separate runs in the mining arena. 

Team LunarEX from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, developed a novel locomotion system that features active suspension, independent steering and 3D-printed wheels that adjusted traction as the robot mined the regolith. 

“One of the challenges we had this year was failure of the electrical components, but we were able to successfully replace them so we could compete,” said Nick Speal, the project leader. 

“It’s been really exciting to be here, compete for the first time and see the other teams’ robots,” said Daniel Linton, the University of Sydney, Australia team leader. 

“It was a labor of love, and even with the challenges, we were able to have an exciting and inspiring competition,” said Gloria Murphy, mining competition project manager. “Reading about the teams and their dedication to this competition energized me and all of the event coordinators and volunteers.” 

“I hope you learned what inspires you and what challenges you,” said Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana during the awards ceremony. “It’s our destiny to go beyond Earth. We are explorers.” 

The competition garnered interest from government representatives. Patrick Gavin from U.S. Rep. Bill Posey’s office and Susan Fernandez from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s office toured the competition area and viewed the robotic miners in action.

NASA's Hubble Uncovers Evidence of Farthest Planet Forming From its Star

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation.

Of the almost 900 planets outside our solar system that have been confirmed to date, this is the first to be found at such a great distance from its star. The suspected planet is orbiting the diminutive red dwarf TW Hydrae, a popular astronomy target located 176 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Hydra the Sea Serpent.

This graphic shows a gap in a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas whirling around the nearby red dwarf star TW Hydrae, which resides 176 light-years away in the constellation Hydra, sometimes called the Sea Serpent. The gap's presence is best explained as due to the effects of a growing, unseen planet that is gravitationally sweeping up material and carving out a lane in the disk, like a snow plow. In the left image, astronomers used a masking device on the Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer to block out the star's bright light so that the disk's structure could be seen. The Hubble observations reveal that the gap, which is 1.9 billion miles wide, is not completely cleared out. The illustration at right shows the gap relative to the star. The Hubble observations were taken on June 17, 2005.

Hubble's keen vision detected a mysterious gap in a vast protoplanetary disk of gas and dust swirling around TW Hydrae. The gap is 1.9 billion miles wide and the disk is 41 billion miles wide. The gap's presence likely was caused by a growing, unseen planet that is gravitationally sweeping up material and carving out a lane in the disk, like a snow plow. 

The planet is estimated to be relatively small, at 6 to 28 times more massive than Earth. Its wide orbit means it is moving slowly around its host star. If the suspected planet were orbiting in our solar system, it would be roughly twice Pluto's distance from the sun.

Planets are thought to form over tens of millions of years. The buildup is slow, but persistent as a budding planet picks up dust, rocks, and gas from the protoplanetary disk. A planet 7.5 billion miles from its star should take more than 200 times longer to form than Jupiter did at its distance from the sun because of its much slower orbital speed and the deficiency of material in the disk. Jupiter is 500 million miles from the sun and it formed in about 10 million years.

TW Hydrae is only 8 million years old, making it an unlikely star to host a planet, according to this theory. There has not been enough time for a planet to grow through the slow accumulation of smaller debris. Complicating the story further is that TW Hydrae is only 55 percent as massive as our sun. 

"It's so intriguing to see a system like this," said John Debes of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. Debes leads a research team that identified the gap. "This is the lowest-mass star for which we've observed a gap so far out."

An alternative planet-formation theory suggests that a piece of the disk becomes gravitationally unstable and collapses on itself. In this scenario, a planet could form more quickly, in just a few thousand years. 

"If we can actually confirm that there's a planet there, we can connect its characteristics to measurements of the gap properties," Debes said. "That might add to planet formation theories as to how you can actually form a planet very far out."

The TW Hydrae disk also lacks large dust grains in its outer regions. Observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile show dust grains roughly the size of a grain of sand are not present beyond about 5.5 billion miles from the star, just short of the gap. 

"Typically, you need pebbles before you can have a planet. So, if there is a planet and there is no dust larger than a grain of sand farther out, that would be a huge challenge to traditional planet formation models," Debes said.


The team used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to observe the star in near-infrared light. The researchers then compared the NICMOS images with archival Hubble data and optical and spectroscopic observations from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Debes said researchers see the gap at all wavelengths, which indicates it is a structural feature and not an illusion caused by the instruments or scattered light.