Volume 16 Issue 3 Spring 2020

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Continued on page 3

About the Cover

2-12 Special Report: The Technology We Take to Get Here

 2 ISRU Team Maps Lunar Resource Harvesting Strategy 

 5 ISRU Technologies Offer Cross-Disciplinary Uses

 6 Goddard Leverages Multi-Disciplinary Expertise to Create LunaNet

 7 First-of-its-Kind In-Space Manufacturing Technique to be Demonstrated

 9 Scientists Tapped to Mature More Rugged Seismometer System

 11 Artificial Intelligence Applications Soar at Goddard

 12 Goddard R&D Supports Intelligent Machines for Lunar Exploration

13 Pathfinding CubeSat Mission to Pick Up Where Dynamics Explorer Left Off

16 Twelfth Mission and Counting

17 Novel Technology Sets the Stage for a New Way to Monitor Earth

19 Another Blacker-than-Black Technology Pursued for Planet-Finding Missions

Spring

2020

in this issue:

The Apollo 17 crew stayed on the Moon for slightly 

more than three days. Artemis mission planners 

envision a long-term base to build experience for a 

potential Mars landing by humans. 

The scale and mass of long-term living arrangements, however, means NASA can’t take everyTaken on April 7, 2020, this photo shows the “Super Pink Moon” that appeared larger and brighter than usual because the Moon was at its perigee, or

the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit. Earth’s natural satellite was just

221,772 miles (356,907 kilometers) from Earth, compared with its average

distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers). 

(Photo Credit: Ernest T. Wright/NASA)

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thing it needs. Goddard scientists and engineers 

are working together, finding ways to identify, 

characterize, and use the resources that could sustain human habitation in these remote, inhospitable 

places. Their involvement spans the spectrum, everything from developing the needed technologies 

and working on special study teams, to housing 

In Situ Resource Utilization Team Maps Lunar 

Harvesting Strategy

Under the Artemis banner, NASA will land the 

first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024, 

using innovative technologies to explore more of 

the lunar surface than ever before. Along with the 

agency’s commercial and international partners, 

Goddard, too, is playing a role developing crosscutting technologies that will support a more 

sustainable human presence on the Moon while 

enabling scientific measurements.

These crosscutting technologies span NASA’s 

reach and include everything from in situ resource 

utilization and advanced communications, to 

more autonomous and intelligent instruments and 

in-space manufacturing techniques. Here, CuttingEdge highlights some of those technologies 

that could contribute to NASA’s ultimate quest to 

land humans on Mars. 
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies

This European Space Agency visualization imagines a human habitat on the Moon shielded with lunar regolith. 

important research-based databases of current or 

past planetary and lunar missions.

“Instead of having to bring all those physical resources with you, you can bring the technology to 

extract the resources. It’s a massive savings to be 

able to derive some key resources you need from 

lunar materials,” said Amy McAdam, research space 

scientist with Goddard’s Planetary Environments 

Laboratory and co-leader of the agency’s Lunar 

Water ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) Measurement Study (LWIMS), which she is leading with Julie 

Kleinhenz from the Glenn Research Center.

For Artemis, ISRU involves harvesting available 

materials on the Moon, such as ice to produce 

spacecraft fuel and drinking water, regolith to help 

build astronaut living quarters, and metals and 

oxides for construction materials. Scientists have 

identified signs of water in lunar polar regions, but 

the nature and extent of these resources are not 

fully understood.

Enabling Long-Term Presence

Producing usable resources from lunar materials 

will be an important milestone to enable a long-term 

presence, McAdam said. 

The LWIMS team, a collaborative effort also involving the Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space 

Center, the University of Maryland, the University of 

Arizona, North Star Imaging, Honeybee Robotics, 

and Silicon Audio, formed last summer. Chartered 

by the NASA ISRU System Capability Leadership 

Team, with support from three NASA mission

directorates, the study group is charged with recommending an exploration plan. 

The LWIMS team is divided into three groups, 

each tackling a different area of the project. The 

first group is defining the specific measurements 

needed to design ISRU systems. The second is 

evaluating information needed to create a predictive 

model of lunar water formation and distribution to 

determine if enough resources are available on the 

Moon for ISRU requirements. The third is identifying possible instruments and platforms to obtain 

lunar measurements to ultimately determine the 

quantity of resources available on the Moon. 

The larger LWIMS team is currently synthesizing 

the findings of each group into a series of recommendations. The ultimate goal of LWIMS is to 

recommend an exploration plan that would provide 

Continued on page 4Image Credit: ESA
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This is an ISRU system concept for autonomous extraction of water from the Martian soil. 

enough information about available 

resources so that NASA can select a 

site on the Moon and design hardware 

for a pilot lunar ISRU plant in 2028.

Using funding from Goddard’s Internal 

Research and Development program 

and other NASA sources, Goddard 

and its partners, meanwhile, have 

been at the forefront of developing 

many technologies needed to collect 

information on these resources (see 

related story, page 5).

“Goddard is really in a unique position because we have a tremendous 

amount of experience in space missions. We’re the largest collection of 

scientists engaged in Earth science, astrophysics, 

heliophysics, and planetary science,” said Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator of the Curiosity rover’s 

Sample Analysis at Mars experiment. “And so, the 

depth of our engineering and scientific skills is just 

tremendous.”

In April 2020, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, 

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate 

had planned a three-day Lunar Surface Science 

Workshop to help determine which science could 

be done by human crews on the lunar surface and 

how it could be achieved. McAdam, Mahaffy, and 

Goddard planetary scientists were set to attend 

to discuss possible Artemis approaches and lunar 

science in general. The workshop has since been 

postponed due to the mandatory telework status 

across NASA. The idea is to receive early community input on mission architectures. In many cases, 

data collected to address lunar science questions 

can also help inform ISRU needs. 

“NASA decisionmakers will be listening very 

carefully to all of the advice because they have to 

decide where the funding is going to go to make 

some of these things happen,” Mahaffy said. “So, 

they’d be looking at whom they think might be capable of pulling off some of these ambitious things, 

whether it’s commercial entities, NASA centers, or 

universities. Then, they’ll be trying to put together 

a program that will help us get to the goals of both 

science and exploration.”

Cross-Disciplinary Efforts

For Mahaffy, preparation for the Artemis mission 

through ISRU is a great platform to enhance scientists’ understanding of the Moon. Along with taking 

measurements that will indicate the availability 

and quality of lunar resources, the team will also 

measure the Moon’s internal processes by sensing its response to impacts, monitoring geologic 

activity and temperature swings, studying dust and 

its charging, and tracking atmospheric radiation. All 

of these components factor into the preparation for 

placing humans on the Moon.

“There’s still a lot to learn about the Moon,” Mahaffy 

said. “If we’re looking at a technology that might 

be telling us where resources are or understanding whether a particular area is good for resources, 

then also using that technology to learn as much 

as we can about the Moon is really important to us. 

Basically, we’re trying to advance lunar science, not 

just going to the Moon to mine it, because it’s really 

a place that we don’t understand as well as we 

understand Earth.”

“It’s exciting times with the lunar exploration program being planned, and on the horizon, we’re

seeing the potential for substantial advances in 

lunar science as well,” Mahaffy said. “So, understanding how exploration and science play together 

is critical. We’re intending to support that from

Goddard with the expertise that we have here.” v

Paul.R.Mahaffy@nasa.gov or 301.614.6379

Amy.Mcadam-1@nasa.gov or 301.614.6020

CONTACTS

Image Credit: NASA
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ISRU Technologies Offer Cross-Disciplinary Uses 

Many technologies pioneered by Goddard 

scientists and engineers for Earth science 

and planetary missions — some through the 

center’s Internal Research and Development 

(IRAD) program — could become crucial components of NASA’s Artemis program and in situ 

resource utilization. They are listed below: 

Mass spectrometers, such as the instruments developed for the Sample Analysis at 

Mars experiment and the Lunar Atmosphere 

and Dust Environment Explorer, measure 

relevant species released from samples such 

as water, hydrogen, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, 

and organic molecules. 

Pulsed Neutron Generator/GammaRay Spectrometer, developed initially 

through IRAD funding more than a decade ago, 

are nearly ready for flight. For example, the Bulk 

Elemental Composition Analyzer (BECA) conceived by Goddard scientist Ann Parsons (CuttingEdge, Winter 2019, Page 6), sends a pulse 

of neutrons into the lunar surface to identify 

which elements are present. BECA is currently 

being funded by NASA’s Development 

and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation. Parsons is also contributing electronics and a pulsed neutron generator to the 

Dragonfly mission to Titan (CuttingEdge,

Spring 2018, Page 16).

Lidar-based ranging and imaging,

such as that implemented on Goddard’s 

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, 

maps the Moon’s topography. Physical 

properties such as textures and grain 

sizes can also be inferred with these 

techniques and multi-wavelength laser 

systems can search for surface water.

Infrared spectrometers, like the 

Broadband Infrared Compact High-Resolution Explorer Spectrometer involving 

Goddard scientists (CuttingEdge, Summer 2015, Page 2), will measure liquid 

and vapor forms of water in ice, or those 

bound in minerals and other volatiles. These 

volatiles can be processed for use as rocket fuel 

or to support lunar habitats. 

X-ray computed tomography, a technique that Goddard scientists are employing 

for different research efforts (CuttingEdge,

Fall 2017, Page 16), images 3D structure and 

textures of lunar materials with a non-destructive 

method of analysis.

Raman spectroscopy is an IRAD-funded 

technology that scatters light off of a sample 

to measure the chemical composition. It uses 

lasers to take measurements without vaporizing 

the target. 

Subsurface radars, such as the one 

advanced by Goddard engineer Rafael Rincon 

originally for Earth-science applications (CuttingEdge, Summer 2016, Page 9), can help 

scientists understand the likelihood that water is 

present in the first few meters of the surface. v
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Continued on page 7

Goddard Leverages Multi-Disciplinary Expertise to 

Create LunaNet

Lunar Communications and Navigation Architecture Designed for Flexibility

As NASA’s crewed exploration missions 

journey to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, 

creating a robust communications and 

navigation architecture becomes paramount. 

Goddard is leveraging the expertise of 

communications, navigation, science, and 

search and rescue engineers to develop a 

flexible and extensible lunar communications and navigation architecture called 

LunaNet.

“With the LunaNet architecture in place, 

space communications and navigation 

will be transformed, revolutionizing the 

network services that enable internetworked science and exploration at the 

Moon, while also paving the way for a future solar 

system internet,” said Kendall Mauldin, a representative on the LunaNet System Engineering

and Integration Task Force.

LunaNet serves as an open architecture network 

suite of services that could be hosted on any available platform. Individual companies, universities, 

businesses, and government partners could provide, expand, and build services for this network.

Internet Services in Space

Based on linked network assets, or nodes, LunaNet 

will enable networking services anywhere in the 

solar system, first at the Moon and then on planets farther in space. Each node will be capable of 

providing a combination of three standard service 

types: networking; positioning, navigation, and 

timing (PNT); and science utilization. Networking 

services will transfer data between nodes and the 

end user. PNT will offer velocity and position information, time synchronization, and astronaut search 

and rescue location services. Science utilization 

services will provide science measurements for 

situational alerts to ensure human and asset safety. 

For example, if NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory witnessed a solar flare — harsh, life-threatening 

radiation released from the Sun — LunaNet could 

send astronauts a warning and also direct them to 

the nearest shelter before the radiation reached 

them. This process will be transparent to end users, 

providing interconnectivity or opportunities for interconnectivity that were not previously available.

DTN Tapped

LunaNet will get this data to the end user through a 

networking capability known as Disruption Tolerant 

Networking (DTN), which will extend internet capabilities such as those on Earth to the harsh environment of space (CuttingEdge, Summer 2018, Page 

16). Space communications are subject to frequent 

delays and the unavailability of contemporaneous 

end-to-end links results in the need for additional 

networking protocols. To mitigate this, DTN uses 

a store-and-forward approach. In the event of a 

disruption in communications between nodes, each 

node is capable of storing data until the next node 

becomes available, assuring delivery of data to the 

end user. 

The LunaNet team has been refining the architecture since the proposal received positive responses 

in June 2019. In early 2020, the LunaNet team 

received Goddard Internal Research and Development (IRAD) funding. Image Credit: Reese Patillo

With LunaNet in place, astronauts exploring the Moon will always have reliable access to 

critical network data.
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IRAD Program Supports NetSI

Under the IRAD, the team is developing a prototype 

payload called the Network Services Instrument, or 

NetSI. Through DTN bundle protocol router functionality, NetSI will demonstrate LunaNet’s networking services by storing and forwarding DTN bundles 

between a user platform component and available 

links, between two or more platform communications links, or by generating the bundles itself. The 

concept will initially be demonstrated in a Goddard 

lab prior to a flight demonstration, possibly on a 

high-altitude balloon.

The long-term goal is to provide a flight-instrument 

design based on commercially available components. This would assure that multiple flight platforms could take advantage of the technology and 

participate in the LunaNet architecture as either a 

network user or a network-services provider. NetSI 

provides the core functionality of a LunaNet Network node, and could be hosted on any available 

platform or location regardless of which organizaCONTACTS

Kendall.D.Mauldin@nasa.gov or 301.286.8231

David.J.Israel@nasa.gov or 301.286.5294

tion provides the platform, whether it be NASA, a 

commercial partner, or academia.

NASA’s push for commercialization encourages 

industry to cultivate the next round of LunaNet 

lunar-relay payloads, building up the interoperable 

system after the initial NetSI prototype.

“Internet” on the Moon

“Less than a year ago, LunaNet was a simple 

but powerful idea, brought forth by a small group 

of engineers,” Mauldin said. “Now this idea has 

blossomed into a tangible architecture under the 

leadership of the Space Communications and 

Navigation program office at NASA Headquarters.” 

Over the next few years, as NASA gears up to land 

astronauts on the Moon, the LunaNet team will create a terrestrial-like internet for the Moon, connecting assets and astronauts to home. v

First-of-its-Kind In-Space Manufacturing Technique

to be Demonstrated

Large telescopes necessary for detecting and 

analyzing Earth-like planets in orbit around other 

stars or for peering back in time to observe the very 

early universe may not necessarily be built and assembled on the ground. In the future, NASA could 

construct them in space. 

A Goddard engineer won a flight opportunity to 

show that an advanced thin-film manufacturing 

technique called atomic layer deposition, or ALD, 

could apply wavelength-specific reflective coatings 

on a sample — one of many steps in ultimately 

realizing the vision of constructing and assembling 

large telescopes in space. 

“We think next-generation telescopes larger than 

20 meters in diameter will be built and assembled 

in orbit,” said Goddard engineer Vivek Dwivedi, an 

expert in ALD technology. “Instead of manufacturing the mirrors on the ground, why not print them 

in space? But you don’t have a telescope mirror 

unless you coat it with a highly reflective material 

ideal for a particular wavelength. Our idea is to 

show that we could coat an optic in space using 

this technique, which we’ve used on the ground 

and understand the processes.” 

He and his collaborator, University of Maryland 

professor Raymond Adomaitis, will now have a 

chance to demonstrate the concept in space for 

the first time.

Blue Origins Flight Scheduled

Recently, NASA’s Space Technology Mission 

Directorate’s Flight Opportunities Program selected 

Dwivedi and Adomaitis to fly a football-sized ALD 

chamber aboard a Blue Origins New Shepard 

launch vehicle. The launch will provide three 

minutes of microgravity, long enough for the team 

to apply a thin film of a well-known ALD material, 

alumina, on a two-inch silicon wafer. “Alumina is 

a bread-and-butter material in ALD applications,” 

Dwivedi said. “It’s been extensively researched.”

Continued on page 8
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Used ubiquitously by industry, ALD involves placing 

a substrate or sample inside an oven-like reactor 

chamber and pulsing different types of gases to 

create a smooth, highly uniform film whose layers 

are no thicker than a single atom. The beauty of 

ALD is that it can apply coatings to virtually anything, including three-dimensional objects.

ALD-Coated Samples in Space

Currently, ALD-coated samples are being exposed 

to plasma from an experiment pallet aboard the 

International Space Station. Dwivedi and Goddard technologist Mark Hasegawa created these 

samples to test whether indium tin oxide — an effective compound for dissipating electrical charges 

— might be applied to paints and other materials to 

prevent lunar dust from adhering to rovers, instruments, and spacesuits (CuttingEdge, Fall 2019, 

Page 8).

Moon dust adheres to virtually everything it touches 

due to its electrostatic charge and interactions with 

plasma. Mitigating this complicated interplay is considered one of NASA’s thorniest challenges as the 

agency plans to establish a sustainable presence 

on the Moon under its Artemis program.

Goddard engineer Vivek Dwivedi won a flight opportunity to show that an advanced thin-film manufacturing technique called atomic layer deposition, or ALD, 

could apply wavelength-specific reflective coatings on a sample — the first time ALD will be tried in space. 

CONTACT

Vivek.H.Dwivedi@nasa.gov or 301.286.3180

For in-space manufacturing, ALD offers a distinct 

advantage, Dwivedi said. ALD chambers scale to 

any size and can consistently apply smooth layers 

over very large areas. 

Although Dwivedi and Adomaitis have built several 

ALD chambers using Goddard Internal Research 

and Development program funding, they decided 

to fly a chamber made of commercial off-the-shelf 

parts during the upcoming flight. 

Dwivedi said he and Adomaitis conceived the idea 

about two years ago. A Goddard colleague, Franklin Robinson, secured a flight opportunity, also on a 

New Shepard launch vehicle, and proved a groundbreaking technology for effectively cooling tightly 

packed instrument electronics (CuttingEdge, Fall 

2019, page 5).

“We worked very hard to get this opportunity,” 

Dwivedi said. “Technologists like me spend 25 

percent of the time advancing our technologies; the 

rest of the time we spend selling it. We can’t wait to 

get the payload launched.” v

Photo Credit: Bill Hrybyk/NASA
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NASA hasn’t measured moonquakes since Apollo 

astronauts deployed a handful of measuring stations at various locations on the lunar surface and 

discovered, unexpectedly, that Earth’s only natural 

satellite was far from seismically inactive. 

If Goddard geophysicist Terry Hurford has his way, 

a next-generation, highly rugged seismometer 

that he is now developing with an Arizona State 

University partner will be one of the innovative 

new technologies and systems that NASA uses to 

explore the Moon in greater detail under its Artemis 

program. Called the Subsurface Lunar Investigation and Monitoring Experiment, or SUBLIME, the 

system’s data will not only map the Moon’s interior, 

from its regolith to its core, but also alert astronauts 

to seismic events. 

NASA’s Development and Advancement of Lunar 

Instrumentation, or DALI, is supporting the effort.

Rudimentary Understanding

Before Apollo, scientists were unaware of the 

Moon’s quaking. From 1969 to 1977, instruments 

deployed as part of NASA’s Apollo Lunar Surface 

Experiment Package, or ALSEP, recorded 12,000 

seismic events, including meteor impacts and deep 

and shallow moonquakes, whose intensities ranged 

in magnitude from less than three to as high as 

five. In 1977, NASA turned off the ALSEP array. 

Although scientists are still mining ALSEP data, 

“our understanding of the Moon’s interior remains 

rudimentary and is limited,” Hurford said.

Learning more about the Moon’s internal structure 

and providing an early-warning system for astronauts, therefore, are high priorities. “One of the key 

instruments would be a seismometer,” he added, 

particularly one that is easily deployable, rugged, 

and relatively less expensive to build — performance criteria that SUBLIME is expected

to satisfy. 

Hurford and his team are specifically designing 

SUBLIME so that any NASA or commercial lander 

or rover system could deploy it, regardless of terrain and mission duration. The long-term goal is 

establishing a network of seismic stations.

Already relatively mature due to past investments 

from several NASA technology-development 

programs as well as Goddard’s Internal Research 

and Development (IRAD) program, the pathfinding SUBLIME is expected to be nearly ready 

for deployment once its DALI funding ends in three 

years. Five other teams involving Goddard experts 

received DALI funding to advance other instruments, assuring that the center has a role to play in 

the agency’s next era of exploration (CuttingEdge,

Winter 2019, Page 5).

System Improvements

SUBLIME offers improvements over other systems, 

Hurford said. “There were several efforts to build 

planetary seismometers following the full deployment of the Apollo lunar network,” he said. NASA 

eventually flew them on the Mars Viking mission, 

Venus Venera 13 and 14 missions, and now the 

Mars InSight mission, the agency’s first mission 

dedicated to looking beneath the Martian surface. 

The Apollo-era instruments were sensitive to tilt; 

therefore, astronauts had to position them. And 

while the Mars InSight instrument is the best-performing planetary seismometer to date, its sensor 

system is very large. A complex robotic arm must 

deploy the instrument. 

SUBLIME is based on the Molecular Electronic 

Transducer, or MET, a technology Arizona State 

University is contributing. Used in terrestrial seismology, MET relies on a fluid that responds to seismic accelerations. The fluid flows through a sensing element that generates a measurable current, 

which provides highly precise ground-motion data. 

The beauty of MET technology is that it’s rugged 

and easily deployable. The SUBLIME unit will 

include three sensors oriented in different directions inside the instrument’s housing. If the package tumbles and ends up on its side, for example, 

the orientation won’t diminish SUBLIME’s ability to 

gather data and locate the source of seismic activity. In other words, the instrument package doesn’t 

Scientists Tapped to Mature More Rugged

Seismometer System

Continued on page 10
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A next-generation seismometer could be deployed autonomously, unlike the systems shown here. Main photo: Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean

carries the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package to its deployment site on the Moon. The inset image on the left shows the deployment arm placing MarsInsight’s seismometer system.

have to be positioned precisely to do its job. In addition, it has no moving parts and is easy to fabricate, 

Hurford said. 

Goddard technologists helped improve the sensor’s 

design to include additional seals and a better way 

to mount the sensors, Hurford said, adding that the 

goal under the DALI award is to mature the sensor’s technology readiness level so that it can be 

proposed for flight. 

But the center’s most important contribution are the 

readout electronics, which feature an advanced, 

radiation-hardened application-specific integrated 

circuit, or ASIC, that minimizes the instrument’s 

mass and power requirements. Developed by 

technologist Gerard Quilligan under multiple IRAD 

awards, the ASIC provides all housekeeping functions and converts the current detected by the MET 

sensor to a voltage reading and then digitizes it.

IRAD History

“That chip has a lot of history from past IRAD 

awards,” Hurford said. “The sensor is vital, but it’s 

not an instrument until you put it all together.”

As a first-generation seismometer, SUBLIME will 

likely be used initially on short-duration deployments. But its design, which could be adapted for 

use on other planets and moons due to its ruggedness and sensitivity, enables long-term deployments needed to create a network of monitoring 

stations. 

“Someday, I want to detect seismic activity on 

Europa, and SUBLIME is the first small step toward 

that goal,” Hurford said. v

CONTACT

Terry.A.Hurford@nasa.gov or 301.286.4249Photo Credit: NASA

Photo Credit: NASA
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Applications for artificial intelligence (AI) 

and machine learning 

are soaring at Goddard, just in time to 

power a new era of 

scientific discovery 

and human exploration 

beyond Earth orbit. 

“A few years ago, 

we had only a few 

projects in this area,” 

said Goddard Chief 

Technologist Peter 

Hughes. “This year, it 

just exploded. We had 

more than five times 

as many AI proposals 

through IRAD (Internal 

Reserch and Development). The capacity to 

do amazing science 

by applying these 

algorithms to scientific data is what really makes 

this exciting.”

In addition to enhancing the analysis of scientific data, AI will power human exploration under 

NASA’s Artemis program. Establishing a presence 

on the Moon, Mars, and other planets and their 

moons will require more advanced and intelligent 

technology to provide the greatest return. The 

new wave of robotic Moon landers, for example, 

will benefit from intelligent systems to analyze and 

prioritize data collection, navigate the lunar terrain, 

and assist astronauts. AI is also expected to power 

docking with the International Space Station, Lunar 

Gateway, and even other satellites.

Goddard leaders like Hughes and Mark Clampin, director of Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration Directorate, are encouraging developers and scientists to 

share information to grow strategically in this area.

“A lot of what we’re doing at Goddard is organic. It 

grew up on its own,” Clampin said. “What’s exciting 

is how we’re using science to drive the development 

of computer code rather than using computers to 

try to do science. We have more grad students and 

Artificial Intelligence Applications Soar at Goddard

post doctorates coming in now who are doing this in 

school and want to do it here, and that’s good.”

Machine learning, a big part of AI, involves teaching a computer to recognize patterns to perform 

a specific task or categorize data autonomously. 

Rather than performing a task or categorizing data 

based on explicit rules defined by a programmer, 

the machine learning model automatically learns 

rules or relationships from input data that are useful 

for the given task.

Pushing the Envelope

The more ambitious NASA’s plans to explore the 

solar system, the more NASA’s systems can benefit 

from artificial intelligence and machine learning, said 

Hanna Kerner, who researches machine learning applications for remote sensing and planetary exploration with the University of Maryland’s Department of 

Geographical Sciences. 

Kerner works on software the Mars Curiosity Rover 

uses to identify targets for follow-up analysis. Humans on Earth call the shots, she said, but AI 

Continued on page 12

This is a simulated output from a deep learning algorithm. It shows craters detected near the Lowell Crater on 

the Moon. The algorithm was trained on terrain data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Photo Credit: Matthew Brandt/NASA
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When NASA returns to the Moon, intelligent 

machines will give astronauts advantages in 

harsh new environments, and Goddard’s Internal 

Research and Development (IRAD) program is 

helping to pave the way for these smart systems 

(see related story, page 11).

Investigator Matthew Brandt, for example, is 

advancing a project called “Machine Learning for 

3D Lunar Data Analysis.” Under this effort, Brandt 

is developing a program capable of autonomously 

analyzing lunar terrain data and detecting hazards, 

much like how Waymo — a technology initially 

begun as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 

2009 — uses lidar to guide vehicles. Lidar generates a map of 3D data points on the terrain 

surface. This group of 3D data points is known as 

a “point cloud.” 

Specifically, Brandt fed 3D point cloud terrain 

data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to 

a neural network to teach his algorithm to identify 

features on the Moon’s surface. “The program can 

quickly tell you where the craters are or where 

drastic slopes are,” Brandt said, “or other scientific 

targets we want to investigate.”

Another IRAD Principal Investigator James MacKinnon works with a mass spectrometer similar to 

MOMA, the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, which 

can study materials and assess their chemical 

composition. Expected to launch with Perseverance (formerly known as Mars 2020) in July 2020, 

MOMA will look for organic compounds on Mars. 

His project, “Towards Scientific Autonomy: Applying 

Machine Learning to MOMA Science Data,” could 

teach rovers to independently choose which targets 

to analyze. The Perseverance version of MOMA 

needs a human to interpret data and adjust the 

position and intensity of the laser and provide other 

fine tuning. 

“If we wanted to actually send a MOMA-like instrument to the outer worlds, such as Jupiter or Saturn, you just can’t have a human in the loop,” said 

MacKinnon. “The bandwidth is so much smaller 

that you can’t get enough data back to make decisions about it, let alone control it.” v

Goddard R&D Supports Smart Machines for

Lunar Exploration

CONTACTS

Matthew.A.Brandt@nasa.gov or 301.286.1479

James.Mackinnon@nasa.gov or 301.286.4785

CONTACT

Hkerner@umd.edu or 704.778.8648

streamlines the decision making in the approximately 

12 hours available between receiving images from 

the rover and uploading new instructions. With the 

Perseverance rover, formerly Mars 2020, that window 

narrows to five hours.

“We want to prioritize the targets for science planners that are most interesting to them based on what 

we’ve already seen on the surface,” Kerner said. “A 

meteorite, for instance, might have a different shape, 

texture, and multispectral reflectance than native 

Mars rocks.” 

As NASA pushes into deep space, intelligent systems

will be needed to prioritize which data they return to 

Earth and to guide in situ measurements and navigation. Radio communications lose efficiency over 

distance the same way a cellphone’s signal loses 

bandwidth as it strays from the tower.

Capacity for the Future – Today

Goddard stands ready to accommodate artificial intelligence growth, said Dan Duffy, lead for the National 

Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) at Goddard. 

“We’re looking to support AI applications at all levels,” 

he said. “You don’t need to have a supercomputersized project. We are essentially the infrastructure for 

science.”

In addition to higher computational capacity, the 

NCCS offers a curated collection of datasets, some 

with decades of observational data. v
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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Continued on page 14

Pathfinding CubeSat Mission to Pick Up Where

Dynamics Explorer Left Off

NASA has selected a new pathfinding CubeSat mission to gather data not collected since the agency 

flew the Dynamics Explorer in the early 1980s. 

The new mission, called Dione after the ancient 

Greek goddess of the oracles, will carry four miniaturized instruments to study how Earth’s upper 

atmospheric layers react to the ever-changing flow 

of solar energy into the magnetosphere — the 

magnetic field around Earth that deflects most of the 

particles that erupt from the Sun. The Earth’s upper 

atmosphere is where most low-Earth-orbiting satellites reside, and their orbits are strongly affected by 

sudden density changes created by space weather.

Expected to launch in 2022, Dione will help give 

scientists insights into these physical processes — 

which contribute to atmospheric drag that causes 

low-Earth-orbiting satellites to prematurely reenter 

the atmosphere — and provide data needed to 

improve space weather forecasts.

“As more aspects of everyday lives depend on the 

predictable functioning of satellites in low-Earth orbit, the understanding and ability to forecast the impact of space weather on these assets has become 

a national security need,” said mission Principal 

Investigator Eftyhia Zesta. “Measurements traditionally done by larger, more costly satellites must now 

be accomplished by thinking out of the box — or 

rather inside a CubeSat box. Dione will open the 

way for accomplishing exactly that.”

The pathfinding Dione spacecraft is a prototype. 

It would complement the conceptual Geospace 

Dynamics Constellation, a mission proposed by 

the 2013 Heliophysics Decadal Survey, which, if 

developed, would gather similar data from multiple 

similarly equipped spacecraft, Zesta said. “Our team 

wants to show we can do this type of measurement 

with a CubeSat and eventually fly Dione-type spacecraft in a constellation,” Zesta said.

Principal Investigator Efthyia Zesta and her team will study how Earth’s upper atmospheric layers react to the ever-changing flow of solar energy into the 

magnetosphere with the Dione CubeSat mission. Goddard technologist Todd Bonalsky is providing the magnetometer system. 

Photo Credit: Bill Hrybyk/NASA
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies

PAGE 14 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology

With a constellation, 

scientists could collect 

simultaneous, multipoint observations of 

Earth’s ionosphere and 

thermosphere to learn 

more particularly how 

these upper atmospheric layers respond 

to energy dumped from 

the magnetosphere.

First Data Since 

the Dynamics 

Explorer

“It will provide the first 

set of energy input data 

and ionosphericthermospheric responses measured from 

the same platform. We 

haven’t gathered this 

type of specific data 

since NASA launched 

the Dynamics Explorer in 1981,” said Zesta, whose 

team includes Deputy Principal Investigator Marilia 

Samara and Dione System Engineer Jaime Esper as 

well as a number of Goddard and university scientists 

providing the instruments. The Dynamics Explorer 

consisted of two satellites that investigated interactions between plasmas in the magnetosphere and 

those in Earth’s ionosphere.

Dione will accomplish these goals with distinct differences. Where the Dynamics Explorer gathered 

data maybe once every three orbits, Dione will collect 

measurements from successive orbits due to Dione’s 

lower power requirements and miniaturized systems. 

It will also do this from a much smaller platform — a 

shoebox-sized, 6U platform that leverages experience gained from the Goddard-developed Dellingr 

spacecraft. A team of Goddard engineers and scientists specifically developed Dellingr to improve the 

reliability and robustness of these tiny spacecraft, but 

at a dramatically reduced cost (CuttingEdge, Summer 2017, Page 2).

Dellingr debuted in late 2017 when it deployed from 

the International Space Station. The platform has 

been baselined for other CubeSat missions and Goddard engineers have begun developing a new smallsatellite architecture called MARES, short for Modular 

Architecture for Resilient Extensible SmallSat. This 

architecture would allow scientists to more reliably 

deploy smaller spacecraft in more distant, more 

hostile regions of space 

(CuttingEdge, Winter 

2020, Page 10).

Densely Packed 

Platform

“This will be perhaps the 

most densely packed 

CubeSat ever flown,” 

Esper added. “We’re 

flying four science instruments and one engineering experiment in a 

6U CubeSat. That’s very 

unusual.”

Three of the instruments 

will be provided by Goddard; all were developed 

with support from Goddard’s Internal Research 

and Development program and all have either 

flown or are slated to fly 

during upcoming CubeSat or suborbital missions. 

They include a flight-proven fluxgate magnetometer, 

which debuted on Dellingr’s maiden flight, and the 

Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), another instrument that flew on Dellingr as well as on a National 

Science Foundation-funded mission called ExoCube. 

On both Dellingr and ExoCube, the INMS was slated 

to measure the matter that creates atmospheric 

drag on satellites. Goddard’s third contribution, the 

Dual Electrostatic Analyzer, will fly on Endurance, a 

pioneering CubeSat mission that will directly measure a particular component of Earth’s electrical field 

generated in the ionosphere (CuttingEdge, Summer 

2019, Page 5).

Utah State University and Virginia Tech are providing the fourth instrument, the Gridded Retarding Ion 

Distribution Sensor (GRIDS). GRIDS is designed 

to measure the distribution, motion, and velocity of 

ions and will fly on the Goddard-developed PetitSat 

mission scheduled to launch in 2021 (CuttingEdge,

Spring 2017, page 22).

Zesta said she conceived the Dione concept several 

years ago while still working with the U.S. Air Force. 

“I came to NASA (in 2012) and the dream didn’t die,” 

Zesta said. v

CONTACT

Eftyhia.Zesta@nasa.gov or 301.286.6492

Dione will gather data not collected since NASA’s dual-spacecraft Dynamics

Explorer mission launched in the early 1980s. 

Image Credit: NASA
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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PROFILE IN EXCELLENCE

Twelfth Mission and Counting

Goddard Scientist Flies Technology on a Dozen High-Profile Missions

Scientists and engineers can spend their 

entire careers developing technologies 

and maybe, if they’re lucky, fly them on 

a handful of missions. Goddard scientist 

and innovator Nikolaos Paschalidis must 

be an extraordinarily lucky man.

With the launch of the European Space 

Agency’s Solar Orbiter in February, Paschalidis has contributed mission-enabling 

instruments, instrument subsystems, 

and spacecraft avionics to 12 high-profile 

missions — a number that doesn’t include 

the three CubeSat missions for which he 

contributed instruments. And that number 

is still climbing, with additional missions in 

the development pipeline.

Paschalidis’s technological innovations 

are set to fly on two large satellites and 

four CubeSat missions in the future. Even 

NASA’s Gateway, a proposed outpost in 

lunar orbit, could benefit from Paschalidis’s handiwork.

Difficult, Unusual Achievement

“Nick’s achievement is very unusual and 

difficult, especially when you consider that 

these missions span the solar system,” 

said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter 

Hughes, who recognized Paschalidis as 

his office’s IRAD (Internal Research and 

Development) Innovator of the Year in 

2015 (CuttingEdge, Winter 2016, Page 

14). He also received the agency’s Exceptional 

Technology Achievement Medal in 2016 for his contributions conceiving, building, and flying important 

technologies and instruments on both CubeSat and 

flagship missions. “I’m awed by his achievement,” 

Hughes said.

The native of Greece, who worked for the Johns 

Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 

before joining Goddard in 2011, made the study of 

the Sun and its influence on the solar system his 

life’s work. But the 10 application-specific integrated 

circuits he created to measure time-of-flight, look 

angles, and energy down to a single photon have 

been used on a plethora of missions, including 

NASA’s New Horizons, Juno, Van Allen Probes, 

Cassini, Parker Solar Probe, and Magnetospheric 

Multiscale missions, to name just a few. The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace 

Exploration Agency also employed his highly specialized computer chips to enable instruments on 

BepiColombo, which launched in 2018 to study the 

planet Mercury.

“What heartens me is that these technologies have 

been used continuously across the solar system: 

Sun, Earth, Moon, and all the planets, except 

Neptune, as well as the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto,” 

Paschalidis said. “This is a huge variation in extreme 

environments, literally fire, ice, and killing radiation.” 

It also attests to their staying power during longContinued on page 16
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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PAGE 16 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology

The Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer, an instrument created by Nikolaos Paschalidis, and flight spare are shown here before they were delivered in 

preparation for the Dellingr launch. 

duration missions. Cassini was active for nearly 20 

years and New Horizons to Pluto is expected to 

remain active until 2021.

Paschalidis hasn’t rested on his laurels since 

designing these integrated circuits more than 20 

years ago. He’s kept pace with new fabrication 

techniques, resulting in circuits that process data 

faster and consume less power and mass. He’s also 

developed other system technologies, including detectors and collimators, which adjust the line-of-sight 

in telescopes, as well as other components that 

have resulted in more precise measurements.

Instruments NASA Needs

Following the tradition of conceiving and building 

technologies that NASA needs, Paschalidis more 

recently used IRAD support to create the miniaturized Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer, or INMS — the 

smallest instrument of its kind — which employs 

his ubiquitously used time-of-flight circuit. He and 

his team developed the instrument in less than a 

year — in of itself an accomplishment — to sample 

the densities of neutral and ionized gas species in 

Earth’s upper atmosphere. 

Paschalidis, who serves as the chief technologist 

for Goddard’s Heliophysics Division, initially flew 

the instrument on the National Science Foundation’s ExoCube, a CubeSat mission, and then again 

on the maiden flight of Goddard’s Dellingr mission 

in 2017. He has since secured flight opportunities 

on the follow-on ExoCube 2 and PetitSat missions 

expected to launch in 2021, and more recently on 

Dione slated for a 2023 launch (see related story, 

page 13). This instrument offers important capabilities for other small satellite missions, particularly 

those involving a constellation of spacecraft, to 

study the structure and dynamics of Earth’s ionosphere, he said.

With IRAD funding he has started developing a 

new instrument, called the HELio Energetic Neutral 

Atom, or HELENA, detector. It would provide the 

first-ever, unambiguous detection of solar energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) erupting from the Sun. 

ENAs are a key component in the sequence of 

space weather events that can be life threatening 

to humans living and working in space and disruptive to terrestrial power grids and communications 

systems.

Currently baselined for a proposed CubeSat mission 

called the Science-Enabling Technologies for Heliophysics, or SETH (CuttingEdge, Winter 2020, Page 

4), HELENA offers stand-alone applications — particularly for astronauts living on the Moon and those 

traveling to Mars. A HELENA-type detector could be 

used to warn astronauts of potential space-radiation 

threats, giving them time to take cover.

“In a time of rapid technological change, it’s difficult 

keeping certain technologies, unless they have 

something unique to offer,” Paschalidis said, reflecting on his decades-long career as a scientist with a 

background in electrical engineering. “Providing new 

science measurements through cross-disciplinary capabilities is how I want to define my work at NASA.” vPhoto Credit: NASA
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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The team creating a first-of-its-kind lidar capability include (from left to right): Erwan Mazarico, Jeffrey Chen, Guangning Yang, Hui Li, Travis Wise,

David Harding, Jon Ranson, and Mark Stephen.

Novel Technology Sets the Stage for a New

Way to Monitor Earth

Goddard engineers and scientists partnered to create a small satellite concept — believed to be the 

first of its kind — that would employ just one lidar, a 

miniaturized spectrometer, and artificial intelligence 

to strategically monitor changes on Earth. 

The Concurrent Artificially Intelligent Spectrometry 

and Adaptive Lidar System, or CASALS for short, 

would use a space-based lidar system to create 3D 

images that would help monitor, for the first time 

from one tiny satellite, the heights of forests, ice on 

land and sea, and clouds and aerosols. Equipped 

with machine-learning algorithms, CASALS would 

be able to identify when it’s over a forest or ice sheet 

and autonomously adjust its lidar to obtain relevant, 

detailed information. 

The idea was conceived about a year ago when 

Goddard engineers Guangning Yang and Jeffrey 

Chen walked into scientist David Harding’s office 

and said, “Hey, we have this idea and wonder if 

it would help Earth sciences,” they recalled. After 

elaborating on their plans, “a light bulb went off in 

my head,” Harding said. “It’s a ‘Swiss army knife’ to 

solve many science needs.”

In addition to its advanced lidar technologies, 

CASALS is expected to fly a miniaturized spectrometer, MiniSpec, developed with funding from both 

Goddard’s Internal Research and Development 

program and NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (CuttingEdge, Winter 2020, Page 12). MiniSpec 

combines and miniaturizes two sensors to monitor 

the health of trees, among other vegetation.

Lidar and Spectrometry

CASALS combines hyperspectral imaging with capabilities inspired by NASA’s two current lidar missions — the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) and the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation 

Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). With GEDI, scientists can 

measure the height of trees to better understand 

how they absorb and emit carbon dioxide into the 

atmosphere (CuttingEdge, Winter 2019, Page 14).

With ICESat-2, scientists can see how quickly ice 

sheets melt and investigate how this affects sealevel rise. 

Lidar is a surveying method that measures distance 

to a target by illuminating the target with laser light 

and measuring the reflected light with a sensor. 

Differences in laser return times and wavelengths 

can then be used to make digital three-dimensional 

representations of the target.

However, CASALS aims to combine, shrink, and 

even improve GEDI and ICESat-2’s lidar capabilities 

Continued on page 18Photo Credit: Paul Padgett/NASA
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies

PAGE 18 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology

and fly them on a single spacecraft. 

Its advanced lidar system and spectrometer not only determine changes 

in forest and ice heights, but also 

gleans information about forest health 

and what causes ice sheets to grow or 

shrink in thickness. 

Though CASALS borrows elements 

from both ICESat-2 and GEDI’s lidar, 

its lidar beams aren’t in fixed positions. Instead, by rapidly tuning the 

wavelength of the laser and using a 

grating, the beams can be directed 

to different locations. As a result, by 

scanning a narrow range of wavelengths, the instrument can map a 

whole swath on the ground in three 

dimensions. 

“The CASALS effort is an intriguing approach to 

high-spatial resolution, multi-beam altimetry,” said 

Matt McGill, deputy director of Goddard’s Earth Science Division. “The CASALS approach is a very different way to address the measurement and holds 

great promise for measurements of surface topography, vegetation canopy, and ice sheet altimetry.” 

With support from various technology-funding 

programs, Yang and his team proved their scanning 

concept in laboratory testing. The team is now building a brassboard, or experimental version of the 

instrument, to be tested outside the laboratory and 

eventually in space. 

“We think the ecology and polar science communities will be excited by the opportunity to continue and improve upon ICESat-2 and GEDI in a 

single mission,” Harding said. GEDI and ICESat-2 

launched in the latter half of 2018.

Making Decisions in Orbit

CASALS will analyze MiniSpec data while in orbit to 

make autonomous decisions about where to point 

the trailing laser footprint and how to process the 

data based on artificial-intelligence machine-learning training. 

First, MiniSpec uses visible and shortwave infrared 

detectors to image a 55-mile-wide swath of Earth’s 

surface. It locates clouds and then the system 

steers the beam to cloud-free areas. MiniSpec 

images help target the lidar beams, using the 

wavelength tuning, on features of interest such as 

locations of foliage loss due to insect infestations or 

rapid ice sheet melting indicated by telltale features CONTACT

Guangning.Yang-1@nasa.gov or 301.614.6806

like melt ponds and lakes. Over time, CASALS 

could see if forest growth is stunted by insect damage and could measure how much the ice sheet 

shrinks due to melting. 

CASALS relies on machine-learning algorithms to 

make decisions based on a set of hierarchical rules. 

These rules consider how important the feature is 

for scientific research, how much data was previously collected in the area, and if there are any 

special demands for the area, such as a wildfire, 

flood, or other events. 

The team is training CASALS’s software using data 

gathered from the Land, Vegetation and Ice Sensor 

(LVIS) campaigns. LVIS, developed at Goddard, is 

an airborne wide-swath imaging lidar that collects 

surface topography and 3D structure data. LVIS 

collects data over many types of vegetation and ice 

sheets. “Incorporating machine learning will help 

the system make smart decisions while operating,” 

Harding said.

Beyond Earth

CASALS technology is driven by science applications that even extend beyond Earth. The system 

could be adapted to study the surface of the Moon 

or Mars, said Erwan Mazarico, a planetary scientist 

on the Goddard-based team. In fact, the instrument 

might be able to obtain even higher-resolution data 

of the Moon or other planets since they lack Earth’s 

atmosphere, Mazarico said. 

“CASALS will allow us to do so much more than 

before,” Mazarico said. v

The CASALS concept is expected to use machine learning to allow it to autonomously scan 

Earth with a laser beam to study elevations of both ice and forests. Photo Credit: Alek Petty/NASA

Photo Credit: Unsplash
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

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More than a work of art, the etched black silicon pupil masks are designed to absorb straylight in coronagraphs.

Continued on page 20

Having already pioneered the use of carbon nanotubes as a promising light-suppression technology 

needed to detect and image Earth-like planets in orbit around nearby stars, Goddard technologists are 

now experimenting with another emerging, equally 

effective technique for absorbing straylight.

Led by scientist Ron Shiri, the team is investigating 

patterned, etched black silicon for use in next-generation pupil masks, important components in internal 

coronagraphs that block bright starlight to create a 

dark zone to reveal the relatively faint planets in orbit 

around their host stars. Even with multiple coronagraphic masks, starlight can still diffract off the edges 

of the instrument’s optical components, making it 

difficult to completely block the light.

Honing Light-Suppression Capabilities

To overcome the challenge — likened to trying to 

photograph a firefly circling a streetlight from thousands of miles away — Goddard engineers have 

advanced carbon-nanotube coatings. They are now 

honing their expertise in etched black silicon — a 

development that could assure Goddard’s role in 

providing light-suppression solutions for next-generation planet-finding observatories. 

Both carbon nanotubes and etched black silicon 

work the same way, but are created with completely different manufacturing processes. Both, for 

example, rely on very black, tightly packed nanosized tubes or spikes. The color black is important 

because it naturally absorbs light. However, the tiny 

gaps between the structures make these technologies particularly effective because they literally trap 

light. Once ensnared, the light cannot escape or 

continue reflecting off surfaces and interfering with 

the light that scientists want to measure.

“We know the carbon-nanotube technology. That 

technique is unique to Goddard,” Shiri said.

Another Blacker-than-Black Technology Pursued for 

Planet-Finding Missions

Goddard Technologists Develop Pupil Mask for a Testbed

Photo Credit: Chris Gunn/NASA
Volume 16 • Issue 3 • Spring 2020

cuttingedge • goddard’s emerging technologies

PAGE 20 www.nasa.gov/gsfctechnology

CuttingEdge is published quarterly by the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA’s Goddard Space 

Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The publication covers emerging technologies that Goddard is pursuing to help NASA 

achieve its mission and goals. Editor: Lori Keesey, ljkeesey@reagan.com; contributors: Karl Hille, Karl.B.Hille@nasa.gov;

Elizabeth Goldbaum, Elizabeth.F.Goldbaum@nasa.gov; Katherine Schauer, Katherine.E.Schauer@nasa.gov; Madison Arnold, 

Madison.C.Arnold@nasa.gov; and Mariah Cox, Mariah.Cox@nasa.gov.

However, he learned about 

the black silicon technology nearly a decade ago 

in a paper published by 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

researchers who are also 

advancing the technique. 

“We’re working on nanometer-scale technologies 

and black silicon is one 

such capability.”

Samples Created

for Testing

With support from Goddard’s Internal Research 

and Development program, Shiri and detector 

engineer Christine Jhabvala produced a patterned 

black silicon mask for the 

High-contrast Imager for 

Complex Aperture Telescope, a testbed at the Space Telescope Science 

Institute in Baltimore. This facility is designed to 

evaluate different coronagraphic approaches primarily 

for the conceptual Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared 

Surveyor. 

In addition, Shiri and his team prepared four, one-inch 

black silicon masks and three sets of carbon-nanotubecoated metallic wafers for testing aboard the International Space Station. These samples launched in early 

March 2020 as part of MISSE-13 (Materials International Space Station Experiment), which investigates 

the effects of long-term exposure of materials in the 

harsh space environment. While in low-Earth orbit, 

these wafers will be exposed to atomic oxygen to assess the wafers’ degradation and optical performance. 

Although both carbon-nanotube coatings and etched 

black silicon work similarly, they are developed with 

different processes. Carbon-nanotube coatings, 

which under a microscope look like a black shag 

rug, are grown on substrates through various deposition processes requiring high heat. The snowflakelike patterns on black silicon are etched and require 

a cryogenic environment to be produced. 

The first step in the 

process is determining 

which snowflake-like design would work best at 

capturing wayward light. 

Once designed, Jhabvala uses a laser-based 

lithography system to 

apply a layer of highly 

reflective aluminum to 

create the pattern on a 

precisely polished silicon 

wafer. With another machine, called the Cryogenic Deep Reactive Ion 

Etcher, Jhabvala then 

etches tiny spikes in 

the non-reflective areas 

where the straylight will 

be absorbed. The etcher 

operates at a frosty -184 

degrees Fahrenheit — 

the temperature at which 

the etching process turns the silicon black.

Same Performance in Visible Light

The end result is a mask that absorbs the unwanted 

light and transmits the wanted light ultimately to its 

final destination — a detector.

Initial tests indicate that the patterned, etched silicon 

wafers perform as well as carbon nanotubes in 

absorbing visible light — the targeted wavelength. 

However, “the team is investigating the cryogenic 

etching process to optimize black silicon for infrared 

and submillimeter wavelengths,” Shiri said. “Carbon-nanotube coatings aren’t as effective in these 

regimes,” Jhabvala said.

“The maturation of black silicon etching has a broad 

impact on many instrument and components,” Shiri 

said, adding that research is continuing. “Having the 

ability to absorb light from the visible to the submillimeter wavelengths will certainly be useful for nextgeneration astrophysics and other sciences.” v

This image, taken with a scanning electron microscope, shows the shag-like 

structures that trap stray light in etched black silicon wafers. Goddard technologists are pursuing this technology for next-generation telescopes. 

Christine.A.Jhabvala@nasa.gov or 301.286.8694

Ron.Shiri@nasa.gov or 301.286.3383

CONTACTS

Publication Number: NP-2020-3-530-GSFC Photo Credit: NASA