NASA

chronicle of a collapse announced and recorded almost live by NASA

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Mexico City faces one of the most complex geological challenges that exist and it is not earthquakes: it is subsidence accelerated by human activity. What’s that? The slow and progressive sinking of the soil. One of the causes is the extraction of too much water from the subsoil because that water partly holds the ground from within. If there is no water, the sediments are compacted by gravity and as a result, the surface sinks. Mexico City has been sinking for more than a century for this reason and the recent NISAR satellite mission, a collaboration between NASA and its Indian counterpart ISRO, has launched unprecedented surveillance that is already bearing fruit: the most detailed and recent cartography of this phenomenon in the Mexican capital to monitor its sinking almost in real time. It is more than a map: it is a survival tool for a city inhabited by more than 20 million people. Mexico City sinks. The first time subsidence was reported in Mexico was in 1925. The data from 1898 to 2005 show a constant subsidence throughout the period, with a maximum rate of 40 centimeters per year between 1998 and 2002. It is neither new nor something small and, furthermore, it is a cumulative and mostly irreversible process. So Mexico City is deforming. Sentinel-1 data they showed that the soil surface sinks at a rate of 35 cm per year within the city, while the peripheral areas suffer a slight rise of about two centimeters per year as an elastic response to this loss of water mass. The new NISAR data barely covers three months (from October 2025 to January 2026) and is as easy to read as it is alarming: the dark blue tone marks those areas that sink more than 2 centimeters per month due to subsidence. Map of the subsidence of Mexico City. POT Why is it important. The problem is one of public safety and economics. The Economist echoes from a Water Engineering and Management study that quantifies the structural damage derived from subsidence: about 67,926 million pesos per year (about 3,312 million euros) in pipes, breakdowns, building fractures, among others. It might seem that the fact of sinking itself is the worst, but what is truly destructive is the difference in speed between those areas that go down faster than others, which causes progressive damage to infrastructure while generating structural tensions. criticisms for infrastructure design. In addition to material damage, subsidence alters the seismic response of the soil, increases the risk of serious flooding by modifying the natural drainage of the basin and favors the migration of salts and contaminants into aquifers, which affects water quality. In short, it raises alarm bells about a future water crisis. Context. The origin of the problem is a combination of natural geological factors and historical urban planning decisions. Mexico City was built on the ancient bed of Lake Texcoco, drained by the Spanish conquistadors. When the lake was drained, the city was settled on its old bed, formed by lacustrine clays of volcanic and organic origin. Under natural conditions these clays supported the lake ecosystem without collapsing. However, the development of the city and water extraction has caused the balance to be broken: the silt is compacted and causes the soil to contract and sink. The urban growth of Mexico City prevents rain from recharging the aquifers because more and more soil is covered by impermeable surfaces such as asphalt. It is a vicious circle: there is less natural recharge of the aquifer, which forces more water to be pumped, compaction accelerates and aggravates the subsidence, damaging infrastructure. There is no turning back. When the effort of supporting the city on its shoulders exceeds the pre-consolidation stress (the resistance limit of the clay), the mineral sheets collapse and rearrange themselves definitively. It’s a path of no return: Even if water were stopped being extracted tomorrow, a good part of the accumulated sinking cannot be reversed. The city has literally lost meters of height that it will never recover. What can be controlled is the damage, which involves a change in water management where reducing dependence on aquifers is essential. Of course, it implies looking for other water resources such as transfers or recycling water, in addition to facilitating the penetration of water into the subsoil. These measures will not reverse the damage caused, but at least they would slow down the sinking and offer an alternative access to water for a megacity. The technology behind the map. The satellite NISAR It is the first to carry two synthetic aperture radar instruments at different wavelengths and is capable of monitoring the Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days thanks to a huge 12-meter diameter antenna reflector. The technique used is called SAR interferometry (InSAR) and consists of comparing two radar images taken at different times: by measuring the phase changes of the signal, ground displacements of just millimeters can be detected. The great advantage of NISAR over its predecessors is its L band (wavelength of about 24 centimeters), which allows it to work even in terrain with dense vegetation or high humidity where other radars such as the Sentinel-1 lost quality. This tool turns NISAR into a global early warning system for cities facing similar risks. In Xataka | Mexico touches the sky with a new and elegant skyscraper of 484 meters and 99 floors: it will be the tallest in all of Latin America In Xataka | Cancun has a huge bottleneck in its tourist area: Mexico is going to solve it with a megabridge Cover | POT and Alexis Tostado

NASA wants to head to Mars in December 2028. To achieve this, it is going to use something: nuclear reactors

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Virtually all major space companies They agree that the future of space exploration involves feeding ships with nuclear energy. For this reason, NASA has already set a date for its first interplanetary trip with nuclear-electric propulsion. It will be possible thanks to Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom, which will be launched in December 2028 heading to Mars. Destination: the red planet. NASA has long shown interest in carrying out this launch in 2028. Now, the company has assured that everything is going at a good pace and that, if it continues like this, the date could be closed around the last month of this year. In order to meet deadlines, technologies previously tested by NASA are being used. Some, for example, come from the Lunar Gateway Station, whose development is currently paralyzed. With these technologies, together with a new nuclear reactor system, a trio of helicopters similar to Ingenuity, baptized as Skyfall, will be taken to Mars. The classic and the new. The SR-1 actually runs on a closed Brayton system, which is very common for power. Normally, in these types of systems A combustion reaction takes place, which produces energy in the form of heat. This is used to heat a gas, which expands and drives a turbine. The result is mechanical energy that can be used, for example, to obtain electricity. Then, when the gas cools, a new cycle begins, which is why it is said to be a closed cycle. In the case of the SR-1, everything is almost identical. The only difference is that, instead of a fuel, a nuclear fission reaction is used to obtain the heat. Thus it is not necessary to transport large quantities of fuel into space. Just a chain reaction like those used in nuclear power plants. electric motors. The electricity obtained in this closed cycle is used to power electric motors in a process that is activated 48 hours after launch. Afterwards, you can stay active during the entire year of the trip to Mars. On the other hand, this same electricity can also be used for other purposes, such as communications with Earth. Also on the Moon. The main application of nuclear energy in space will be in very long-distance travel, where the ships are so far from the Sun that solar panels are no longer useful. However, it can also be useful at much shorter distances. If this trip to Mars goes well, NASA plans to be able to use these technologies at a lunar base installed in Shackleton Crater. Strategically it is a good locationbut it has the disadvantage of being continually in shadow, so solar energy cannot be used. Nuclear fission could be much more useful. 60 years of research. In reality, the SR-1 is the result of 60 years of research, with an investment of 20 billion dollars. Although it may seem like something new, there is a lot of work behind it. Still, if NASA’s projects go as planned, they will be time and money well spent. Image | POT In Xataka | The West stopped building nuclear power plants because they were too expensive: China is teaching it a lesson

the forgotten story of the 11 deaf men of NASA

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In the late 1950s, NASA was very clear that it wanted to send astronauts into space and that that would be the beginning of a new era. Therefore, it was very important to thoroughly study how microgravity could affect the health of human beings. The first step would be to see how sick these travelers would get. And what better way to study it than with a group of people incapable of getting dizzy? Yes, although it may not seem like it, that makes sense. The Gallaudet 11. Gallaudet College, now known as Gallaudet University, was the first school in the world dedicated to the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing. That’s why it was there where NASA recruited 11 men between 25 and 48 years oldwhose deafness came mostly from damage to the vestibular system. 10 of them had lost hearing at an early age due to spinal meningitis that had deteriorated this system involved in balance. Having it affected they couldn’t get dizzy. Therefore, by studying their cases, NASA scientists hoped to better understand how seasickness occurs, in order to find the best methods to prevent it. A question of contradictions. motion sickness, also known as motion sicknessis a mechanism of the brain to react when faced with something it detects as contradictory. While the eyes detect that we are still, in a car, for example, the vestibular system, located in the ear, detects that we are moving. Faced with this contradiction, the brain tries to defend itself from danger, causing that feeling of dizziness that alerts us that something is supposedly going wrong. In the case of space travel, the vestibular system loses the reference influenced by gravity that it normally interprets as being in balance. Therefore, a similar effect is produced. But of course, if someone has damaged the vestibular system, it is impossible for them to perceive this type of dizziness. 11 men at the limit. The 11 volunteers recruited for this study They were divided into several groupswho underwent different experiments related to motion sickness and the absence of microgravity. For example, several of them spent 12 days in a slow-rotating room, which rotated 10 times per minute. Many others climbed into centrifugal capsules that they spin at high speed to simulate hypergravity. And possibly those who took it most to the extreme were those who went on microgravity simulation flights in which the aircraft flies upward quickly, stops and drops abruptly. One of these planes is known as the Vomit Comet for reasons that leave little room for the imagination. Unaffected by seasickness. Participants did not feel dizzy in any of these experiments. In fact, in the fourth exercise, in which they had to travel on a ferry in the rough seas of Nova Scotia, the researchers had to cancel the test due to the terrible dizziness they experienced. The 11 volunteers, on the other hand, were playing cards calmly. The benefits for the future. Thanks to these experiments, it was understood that space motion sickness is something temporary and manageable, linked to the vestibular system. Better training was also designed so that astronauts would be ready to avoid getting sick on their trips to space. For all this, although they never traveled to space, they were crucial for the well-being of all those astronauts who did. Their contributions were key in milestones as important as the one we just experienced with Artemis II. Image | POT In Xataka | We knew that Mars has gravity. Now we have just discovered the unexpected effect it has on the Earth’s climate

We thought that Voyager 1 had already given everything it could. NASA continues to turn off parts to keep it alive

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to some 25,000 million kilometers from Earth, Voyager 1 continues to send us data from interstellar space, Farther than any other ship built by humanity. The probe was launched in 1977 and, almost half a century later, it remains operational with an increasingly delicate condition: to keep it alive, the mission team is shutting down parts of the ship itself. That is exactly what has just happened with one of its scientific instruments, in a maneuver that reveals the delicate moment the mission is going through. The maneuver. On April 17, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California they sent the order to turn off the experiment Low-energy Charged Particlesbetter known as LECP. It is an instrument dedicated to measuring low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons and cosmic rays from both our solar system and the galaxy. The decision was not improvised. According to NASA, this instrument was next in the order agreed upon years ago by the scientific and engineering teams to cut consumption without terminating the mission. There are no solar panels. To understand why NASA has reached this point, we have to look at how Voyager 1 is powered. The probe does not work with solar panels, but with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that converts the heat generated by the decay of plutonium into electricity. This system has allowed the mission to be sustained for decades, but its capacity is not infinite. According to NASA, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 They lose about 4 watts of power per yeara small loss on paper, but decisive when you have been managing each watt with extreme care for almost half a century. The scare that accelerated the decision. Although the shutdown of the LECP was part of a previously defined roadmap, there was a recent episode that forced the team to move more carefully. During a routine turn maneuver on February 27, Voyager 1’s power levels dropped unexpectedly. The US agency explains that any additional descent could activate the ship’s undervoltage protection system, designed to disconnect components on its own and protect it. A calculated “pruning”. The shutdown sequence was decided a long time ago, in joint conversations between those who design the scientific part of the mission and those who technically keep it alive. Of the 10 instruments each Voyager had, seven have already been turned off. In addition, the LECP will not be completely disconnected: the small motor that allows the sensor to rotate to scan in all directions will remain on, because it barely consumes 0.5 watts and keeps a remote option open to reactivate it later. The plan that comes now. With this shutdown, NASA does not consider the issue closed, but rather gains time to attempt a deeper intervention. According to the agency, switching off the LECP should give Voyager 1 about a year of respite. During that time, engineers want to complete a more ambitious energy adjustment for the two probes, dubbed “big Bang“The idea is to change several energy-consuming devices at once, turning off some and replacing others with lower consumption alternatives, to conserve the necessary heat and continue operating scientific instruments for as long as possible. When will the maneuver be attempted?. NASA will first test this setting on Voyager 2, which is closer to Earth and has slightly more power. The tests are planned for May and June 2026 and, if they go well, the team will try to apply the same maneuver on Voyager 1 no earlier than July. Images | POT In Xataka | The paradox of artificial gravity: Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it is almost impossible

NASA says Artemis II’s Nutella jar is not advertising, but it is not the first brand to benefit from its missions

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When a good part of the people of a country or several countries are in front of the television united by the same interest, they become the most coveted audience for brands. Therefore, Nutella appeared casually in the NASA live broadcastjust when the Artemis II astronauts broke the record for the distance from Earth reached by humans, it seems like the best advertising in history. NASA denies that it was such a thing, but it is undeniable that brands will do whatever it takes to appear in their images and transmissions. The place, the moment and the perfect moment. It was 2 pm ET when a jar of Nutella passed in front of the cameras inside the Orion capsule, in which the four crew members of Artemis II had just broken a record. At 1:56 pm ET, the spacecraft was 406,771 kilometers from Earth, more than 6,000 kilometers further than Apollo 13 had reached in 1970. NASA broke a record, while the Nutella jar floated with its label perfectly visible. The publications on networks and memes did not take long to arrive, as did the responses from Nutella and NASA itself. NASA denies advertising. The press secretary of the US space agency, Bethany Stevens, denied that it was advertising in statements to Futurism: “NASA does not select crew meals or food in association with brands.” A legal loophole. NASA does not advertise brands on its space missions. However, there have been companies that have found a way to advertise themselves. For example, in 1984 Coca Cola designed a can that worked in weightlessness in such a way that the drink remained bubbly without leaving the container. When it became aware of this idea, Pepsi also wanted to get on the bandwagon. Both received approval from NASA to test their cans aboard the STS 51-F mission. Its astronauts tested the effectiveness of the dispenser and the taste of the drinks with results that the space agency did not consider optimal. Therefore, the decision was made that carbonated drinks are not part of the astronauts’ menu. Nowadays They can drink coffee, tea, orange juice, lemonade or flavored breakfast drinks, but not these types of soft drinks. space pizza. As if the soft drinks weren’t enough, in 2001 there was another brand that wanted its moment of space glory. Since the issue of drinks turned out to be complicated, at this time it was a pizzeria that wanted to adapt its products to the space. Pizza Hut’s marketing people figured that if that didn’t propel their brand to stardom, nothing would. For this reason, they prepared a lighter space pizza, to facilitate its transportation, which was also made in airtight containers. The ingredients were carefully chosen so that they could be preserved longer and were as nutritious as possible. The final result was sent to the International Space Station on Russia’s Progress spacecraftso in this case it is true that it was not a NASA thing. It is also true that the pizzeria itself did not deny at the time that, beyond looking for new food options for the astronauts, what they were mainly looking for was advertising. Eat in space. The task of eating in space is increasingly pleasant. While it is true that fresh foods should still be avoided and priority is given to dehydrated and vacuum-packaged options, astronauts have many options to choose from. They can even bring treats or foods that remind them of home, as in the case of Jeremy Hansen, who has taken the Orion capsule. various traditional Canadian dishes and ingredients. Therefore, it could be that some member of the crew chose to bring Nutella as a sweet treat. The decision of a Mexican astronaut from carrying tortillas for fajitas in its day has led to them being one of the most used ingredients in space today. A whim or craving can have a great future in space food. Although in the case of Nutella it seems that it has been more useful for the brand than for the future of the space. An uncertain future. Space missions like Artemis II are exceptional today, but the goal of space agencies is for them to be part of their routine in the future. Therefore, it would not be unusual for brands to find a way to include advertising in their broadcasts. If they become a routine, there won’t be as many people on the other side of the screen, but it will still be very profitable for them. As it has been for Nutella; Well, deliberately or by chance, it has possibly had the best publicity in its history. Image | NASA | Nutella In Xataka | A study has tried to find out why space food is so bad: it’s not the food, it’s the astronauts

how to use the NASA website and app to know where you are like on Google Maps

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Let’s explain to you how to know where the capsule is Orion of the Artemis II mission, something that you will be able to do with a special website launched by NASA, or through its official website. This portal will allow you to see the exact point where the Artemis II capsule is in real time, as if it were Google Maps. The mission Artemis II has been the first to reach the Moon from orbiting around the Moon since the Apollo missions, and has even managed to reach further which is orbiting our satellite and being able to see its hidden side. The astronauts on this mission will not set foot on the Moon, that should happen with Artemis IV, but it is a vital mission to check the operation of our current technology so far from Earth. See where Artemis II is in real time To enter the website created by NASA to find out where Artemis II is in real time, you have to enter the website nasa.gov/missions/artemis-ii/arow. In it, at the bottom you will have the main data of the mission such as the time the astronauts have been away from our planet, the speed of Artemis II, and how far it is from the Earth and the Moon. On the left side you will have the Zoom controls, and you will also have three small icons to position yourself on the map. One button will be to put you on the Moon, another for Earth, and another for the mission’s Orion capsule. At all times you will be able to see the trajectory they are going to take. Besides, If you click on the icon Mission View You will access a visualization where the capsule and the views around it are represented. This way, you can rotate to find where the Moon is in relation to them. You can also access this visualization from the NASA appavailable for free both for Android as for iOS. In it, on the main page you will find the AROW tool to access these visualizations. The mobile app has an augmented reality viewer that does not have the website. When you activate it, you can point your phone towards the sky (or the ground) to know the exact point in relation to you where the Orion capsule of the Artemis II mission is located. The NASA app also has streaming in real time in case the views are not enough and you want to see what is happening through one of the agency’s official broadcasts. In Xataka | Artemis II is not just a victory for NASA: without the support of Europe it would have been impossible, literally

60 years ago, NASA took a look at the Sahara from space and found a very strange “perfect eye”

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Although we tend to think that the unknown is in space and we focus our exploration on what is outside the Earth, our planet continues to surprise us: from the 50,000 volcanoes hidden in the seabed to shapes and constructions that seem too curious to have appeared out of nowhere… especially when we see them from space. It is the case of Great Dam of Zimbabwe (which by the way, is not a dam). We are not leaving the African continent because there is another scar of land with a shape so precise that it is disconcerting. It can’t be seen from the ground, but as you gain height it can be seen better. However, it is from space where it is best appreciated, as NASA has already photographed. There it is simply shocking: it is the inexplicable eye of the Sahara. It is a kind of giant eye that looks at the sky engraved in the rock of the Sahara, it is actually called Richat structure. As says French astronaut Thomas Pesquetalmost all astronauts have taken a photo of it from space simply because it can’t be missed. The Britannica Encyclopedia assures that World War II pilots used it as a reference point. Tap to go to the post After all, they are almost 50 kilometers in diameter. To get an idea, if we moved it to Madrid, it would cover the entire city and reach surrounding municipalities. However, it is in Mauritania, at the western end of the Sahara. More specifically, it sits on the Adrar plateau, on the northwestern edge of the Taoudenni basin, about 500 meters above sea level and in an inhospitable area. As a curiosity, the closest town is Ouadane, it is about 17 kilometers from the edge of the structure and it is not just any city: it was founded in 1147 by the Idalwa el Hadj Berber tribe and its old part has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. The first time we “discovered” it (that is to say, because it was already there) was in the 1930s and 1940s and the person who studied it in depth at that time was the French geographer Jacques Richard-Molard. Later, astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White, aboard the Gemini IV mission, were the first to photograph it from space in 1965. However, the image that illustrates the cover was taken on July 10, 2020 by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, during the Expedition 63 mission, with a Nikon D5 camera with a 50 millimeter lens. Richat’s structure from the inside. Clemens Schmillen What is the Richard Structure and how was it formed? From that orbital height the image shows something that would be impossible to capture from the ground: a series of perfect concentric rings, like the waves left by a stone when it falls into water, but petrified in the desert. The tones of that figure range from ocher to bluish gray, from almost pristine white to rusty red. Each color is a different rock and belongs to a different era. Surrounding the structure, a sea of ​​dunes: on the right, longitudinal dunes that stretch in long parallel tongues and on the left, transverse dunes, wider and more arched. The set is truly strange to have formed naturally. POT Because it is not a lake that has dried up over time. It is neither a volcano nor the crater of a meteorite (the hypothesis which was most popular initially). It’s something much slower but just as violent: is the result of millions of years of geological forces working silently beneath the planet’s surface. And although the group as such was formed about 100 million years ago, those rocks are up to 2.5 billion years old. Or in other words, the Eye of the Sahara was forged in the Cretaceous, but the rocks belong to the time when there were no animals, only bacteria and algae. The Richat Structure is a deeply eroded geological anticline dome that was formed by a subsurface igneous intrusion, which deformed the overlying sedimentary rock layers, exposing concentric rings with the oldest rocks in the center. In a simplified way, a bubble of rock that never burst: the magma from inside the Earth pushed up the layers of rock above it and cooled without reaching the surface. The passage of time eroded that bubble as if it were an onion, exposing the rings of each layer. The hardest rocks resisted and formed the relief, the soft ones disappeared. Hence the circles. The most recent studies They confirm that there was also hot water circulating inside the structure, which accelerated and modeled the final shape. In Xataka | A 2.5 billion-year-old geological wonder: Zimbabwe’s Great Dam seen by NASA from space In Xataka | This is the impressive interactive map to see the Earth in 4K live from space and monitor satellites Cover | POT

A crew member of the International Space Station lost his speech and NASA does not know why

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Last January, four astronauts had to leave the International Space Station early due to a medical emergency. At the time it was pointed out that it was due to the health problems of one of the astronauts. However, at no time was it clarified which of them it was, in order to preserve their privacy. Over time, NASA has dropped some new data in dribs and drabs. Now, we know who it was and why, but the cause of his illness remains a mystery. The facts: At the beginning of January, NASA announced the cancellation of a space walk that astronauts Michael Fincke and Zena Cardman should have done. Just a few hours later, the imminent return to Earth of the entire Crew 11 was announced. That included both Fincke and Cardman as well as Kimiya Yui, from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platanov, from the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). The return trip was planned to take place in February, but it finally took place on January 15. At that time, NASA had not yet announced which of the crew members was sick. It was only noted that he was stable and that he would have to undergo more tests. Without words in space. Shortly after that mysterious medical emergency, NASA announced that the sick astronaut was Mike Fincke. However, at that time he still did not provide information about the illness that led him and his companions to return home early. Now, finally, we know what happened. As stated by Fincke himself in statements to the mediaon January 7, while eating with his companions, he realized that he could not speak. Thanks to the quick intervention of his colleagues and the remote support of NASA doctors, he was immediately stabilized. However, it was urgent to return to Earth to perform the relevant tests. The episode has not been repeated and it has been ruled out that it was a heart attack or stroke. More tests. Fincke will possibly have to undergo more tests so we can find out why he temporarily lost his speech. However, he himself has reported that NASA suspects that it could be an effect of his stay in space. For this reason, the medical records of other astronauts are being reviewed, looking for an episode similar to theirs. space brain. Living in space can affect your health in many different ways. All organs are susceptible to the effects of microgravity. In the case of the brain, It has been proven that it can even move inside the skull. It is not known for sure what could have happened to this NASA astronaut. However, it seems quite likely that his medical emergency was for this reason. And now what? If all goes well with Artemis II, NASA hopes to travel to the Moon more and more regularly and even build a space base there at some point. Other companies, like SpaceX, have the same dream. Therefore, it is vital to study how microgravity or cosmic radiation can affect the health of future colonizers. All astronauts of Crew 11 Astronauts on the International Space Station have been testing these types of events for a long time. What has happened to Fincke at the moment is a mystery, but logically it is something that must be taken into account. What happened to him will have to be investigated to prevent it from happening again, whether on the International Space Station, on the Moon or at any other point in outer space that humans reach. Image | NASA | Unsplash In Xataka | Spanish technology in the return to the Moon: the system designed in Madrid that NASA will use in Artemis II

NASA chose 34 points around the world to track its lunar mission and only one in Spain. It is in Seville, on a rooftop

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If the weather behaves well and no problemsnext April 1 (early morning on April 2 in Spain) NASA will launch Artemis II. It will be the first manned mission of the Artemis programand in it four astronauts will travel aboard the Orion capsule to orbit around the Moon. during the mission 34 locations spread around the world will track the spacecraft’s radio signals and send their data to NASA. One of these headquarters will be in a special location: the roof of the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville. A NASA antenna in Seville. In August 2025, NASA published an open call for third-party organizations to demonstrate their tracking capabilities during an actual manned mission. All types of organizations, agencies and institutions showed up, and even private radio amateurs also did so. Of the 34 selected around the world, the ETSi is the only Spanish center that will participate in this monitoring. The Orbisat system in operation. Source: Integrasys. space roof. It will do so in collaboration with Integrasys, a Spanish company specialized in this field and which has installed its platform on the roof of the ETSi building. Orbisat. This 2.5 meter high system has been developed at its Luxembourg subsidiary and is designed to track space vehicles both during launch and during subsequent operations. Plan B. The ETSi and the Orbisat system will receive the radio signals that the Orion spacecraft emits during its trip, process them and send them in real time to NASA for analysis. The key data they will measure is the Doppler effect of the signal: the variation in frequency of the waves depending on the relative speed between the ship and the antenna. It is a key parameter to determine both the position of the ship and to calculate its trajectory. It should be noted here that this system will not be responsible for the main monitoring, which will be done from the network Deep Space Network from NASA. This monitoring will be complementary and will help the agency evaluate what monitoring capabilities it can use outside of its own infrastructure. It’s a plan B. Why 34 antennas?. This support program responds to a very clear strategy of the space agency: build a public-private space tracking ecosystem that does not depend on its own network. Kevin Coggins, deputy director of the NASA SCaN programhe explained in the official announcement that “it is not about tracking a mission, but rather about building a resilient ecosystem that supports future exploration.” The initiative is an evolution of what was already done in 2022 with Artemis I, when ten volunteers tracked the unmanned mission. On that occasion, data format and quality problems were detected, and for Artemis II, participants have been forced to meet certain standards. An opportunity for Seville and for Integrasys. The Orbisat platform will be installed in Seville permanently, which turns the ETSi into a real monitoring infrastructure and not a one-off collaboration. For the company Integrasys, based in Las Rozas (Madrid), this first direct collaboration with NASA adds to those it already had with the Space Force and the US Space Command. Now it remains to be seen if this serves as a gateway to its participation also in future space missions such as Artemis III, which will land on the lunar surface. The Aerospace Technology Group of the University of Vigo will also participate in monitoring the mission. The students are in luck. The Master in Space Systems Operation at the University of Seville is taught for the first time in this 2025-26 academic year. Students will have direct access to the data generated by Orbisat during the Artemis II missionand with them they will be able to apply orbital determination and trajectory analysis techniques in that real scenario. For them this occasion is special, since they will be able to go beyond the books and have access to the telemetry of a manned spacecraft orbiting the Moon. A much more powerful way to learn, without a doubt. Spain on space map. The network of the 34 selected includes organizations such as the Canadian Space Agency, the German DLR, companies such as Telespazio and universities from Switzerland, Japan and the United States. Seville is on that list along with individual radio amateurs from California or South Dakota, amateur radio organizations such as AMSAT in Argentina or Germany, research centers in Cameroon or New Zealand and professional stations in Norway and the United Kingdom. The conclusion is clear: NASA has here the beginning of what can be a heterogeneous and decentralized network with monitoring capabilities. The Spanish participation on the Artemis II mission, by the way, goes a little furtherbut could go much further even. Image | NASA | ETSi In Xataka | In 2018, Elon Musk put his own car into orbit. Eight years later it is still circling the Earth

NASA has put a Spaniard in charge of the project for its future lunar base: Carlos García-Galán from Malaga

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Dressed in a jacket, light blue shirt and gold tie, Carlos García-Galán He did not occupy another chair at the NASA conference held in Washington. Escorted by the administrator Jared Isaacman and other top-level officials, the engineer from Malaga spoke before the press in the middle of the presentation of the agency’s new lunar turn. His presence at that time placed him at the forefront of a roadmap that redefines NASA’s priorities on the Moon. The context of that scene helps understand its relevance. Hours before,Isaacman had presented a roadmap that changes the focus of the agency. It is no longer just about returning to the Moon, but about establishing a sustained presence on its surface. The proposal involves deploying in three phases the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, with stable infrastructure and a logic that is more industrial than experimental. The man from Malaga who now pilots the Moon Base program This change of course also redefines the role of those who must execute it. In this context appears García-Galán, whose official position within NASA is “executive program” at the lunar base. This is a high-level management position, responsible for coordinate and guide program development, not an operational role on the ground. His role will be to lead the project from the agency structure, not to direct a facility on the lunar surface. García-Galán, remember, is not a newcomer, but an engineer who has developed his career within NASA and has been assuming responsibilities for years to get to this point. His presence in the announcement is linked to that trajectory, which now places him in one of the great bets of the US space agency at this stage. His career within NASA helps to understand why he has come this far. Before this appointment, García-Galán, according to LinkedInheld the position of “deputy manager” of the Gateway program, until now a relevant piece in the agency’s lunar architecture. With more than 27 years of experience In manned space flights, he has worked on the design, integration and operation of complex systems, participating in programs such as the International Space Station and the Orion spacecraft. His experience at Gateway also helps explain this appointment. In that program, García-Galán was involved in integration and management tasks within an environment with multiple partners and components. The new approach towards a lunar base requires precisely this ability to order diverse pieces, from missions to infrastructure, something that fits with the profile that has been developed within the agency in recent years. The program that he will now supervise is divided into several phases with a common objective: establishing a sustained presence on the lunar surface. NASA proposes a sequence of missions that will go deploying infrastructurefrom mobility and energy systems to communications networks and habitats. The idea is to advance progressively towards a base capable of sustaining longer-term human stays. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

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