National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NRP 

A Publication of NASA Research Park

POST

THE

2021 Issue 2

h 
NRP Post

2 www.nasa.gov

IN THIS ISSUE

3 | Farewell to Lauren Ladwig, 

NASA Attorney

Mejghan Haider and the NRP Team wish great 

success to an amazing colleague and friend.

4 | California Air National Guard 129th 

Rescue Wing – Ribbon Cutting 

Ceremony at Moffett

Ribbon cutting for new facility on the Center.

6 | CMU Orbital Edge Computing

CMU creating the computing systems to get us to 

outer space.

8 |USGS Now has Earthquake Early 

Warning System

Entire U.S. west coast now has access to 

ShakeAlert® earthquake early warning.

10 |Breakthrough Initiatives Finding Low 

Mass Planets

Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable 

zone of Centauri.

COVER

(from left to right) Dr. Eugene Tu, Ames Center Director, 

Steve Jurczyk Acting Administrator, Bhavya Lal Acting 

Chief of Staff and Mejghan Haider Director, NASA Research Park
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NRP Post

Lauren Ladwig, Leaving the NASA 

Team, and Will be Missed.

Our esteemed colleague and Ames Associate Chief Counsel, Lauren Ladwig, will depart from NASA on 

June 11, 2021. Ladwig began her career at NASA Ames’ Office of the Chief 

Counsel in 2009 and took on the role 

of Real Estate Counsel for the NASA 

Research Park in 2013. Ladwig’s work 

and contributions are recognized not 

only at Ames, but also in real estate at 

large -- as an agency expert. During her 

time at NASA, she was the recipient of 

the Agencies most prestigious awards 

including the early career achievement 

medal. Ladwig led NASA’s real estate 

legal team through negotiations on 

long-term lease transactions with Planetary Ventures, Mountain View Housing 

Ventures, and the University of California. She was instrumental to U.S. Geological Survey’s relocation from Menlo 

Park to Moffett. Her successful execution of these agreements, and more, 

solidify Lauren’s legacy at NASA Research Park for years to come.

“It has been an honor and privilege to 

work with Lauren for the past 8 years.

Her work ethic, dedication and pleasant and professional demeanor will be 

sorely missed,” said Mejghan Haider, 

Director of NRP. We wish her all the 

best!

(from left to right) Sumara Thompson-King (NASA General Counsel), Lauren Ladwig (NASA ARC Associate Chief 

Counsel), and Thomas Berndt (NASA ARC Chief Counsel) touring the USGS offices in Building 19.
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4 www.nasa.gov
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The California Air National Guard 

129th Rescue Wing, a NASA Research Park (NRP) partner at Moffett 

Federal Airfield, held a ribbon cutting 

ceremony on March 25, 2021 for their 

new facility on the Center. This was 

a joyous occasion as it officially signified opening its brand new Operations, 

Small Air Terminal and Maintenance 

Building. 

This is a perfect example of how the 

NRP’s location in the Silicon Valley contributes towards the world-class and 

shared-use Center. It provides a place 

for connections and collaborations for 

extraordinary opportunities. In this 

case, collaborations with private entities led up to the construction of this 

new building! This is not only a benefit 

to our community but to the world - as 

it will enhance the 129th Rescue Wing’s 

ability to perform critical missions locally and anywhere in the world.

Maj. Gen. Gregory Jones, Commander, 

California Air National Guard and Col. 

Jeffrey Waldman, Commander, 129th 

Rescue Wing were in attendance at the 

ribbon cutting ceremony and thanked 

all partners involved in the process.

California Air National Guard 

129th Ribbon Cutting at Moffett

By Elena Serna, NRP Account Manager, May 10, 2021
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6 www.nasa.gov

CMU 

Orbital Edge 

Computing

Moffett Field, California – April 13, 2020

As humanity moves into outer 

space, scientists and engineers 

must come up with innovative technology to get them there. In a recently published paper, Brandon Lucia, 

assistant professor of electrical and 

computer engineering, and Bradley 

Denby, a Ph.D. student, explore one 

such innovative idea: orbital edge 

computing with nanosatellite constellations. 

The paper recently received the Best 

Paper Award at the 2020 Conference on Architectural Support for 

Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS).

A satellite constellation is a large 

group of satellites that work together. Constellations are widely used 

today with various applications including GPS. Today, however, satellites are not managed as a constellation, instead being individually 

remotely controlled by a human operator. Satellites are directed by 

an operator to collect information 
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For media inquiries: 

Krista Burns 

kristab@cmu.edu

using sensors (like taking pictures of 

Earth) and they then send their sensor 

data back to a radio base station somewhere on Earth. Sending data to Earth 

from a satellite costs a huge amount of 

time and energy, and the model of manual control and sending all of the data 

collected on orbit makes today’s satellite operations extremely expensive. 

The cost goes up as satellites – now 

appropriately called nanosatellites – 

become smaller. Smaller satellites are 

cheaper and we can send more of them 

into space. As we create ever-larger and 

more promising constellations, we also 

increase the human cost to manually 

control the satellites and the time and 

energy cost to beam their sensor data 

back down to Earth. Growing constellations create a problem on Earth, too. 

Together, the satellites of a constellation 

collect and send down an enormous 

amount of raw data. As the number of 

satellites increases, eventually, ground 

stations can’t keep up. The problem is in 

the operating model of satellites, which, 

today, expect data to be processed 

by computers in computing clouds on 

Earth. As constellations hit the limit of 

data downlinking, Lucia and Denby propose that the relationship between satellites and computers must change.

Lucia and his group propose that, instead of sending the data back to Earth, 

satellites in a constellation process their 

sensor data in orbit, a new model that 

they call “orbital edge computing”. With 

orbital edge computing, the satellites 

don’t send large amounts of raw data 

to Earth. Equipped with machine learning capabilities, they analyze the sensor 

data, looking for signals of interest to 

any number of different applications and 

send down only the data that are actually valuable. Lucia’s team’s new software and hardware satellite control system supports orbital edge computing 

and ensures that a constellation avoids 

collecting redundant data. Using these 

techniques, the data size can be considerably reduced, and the data that’s 

left can be sent much faster and cheaper. A constellation of thousands can be 

supported by a single operator and a 

few small radio ground stations on Earth 

to collect sensed data.

According to the paper, Lucia expects 

to see tens or hundreds of thousands 

of small, sensor-equipped satellites 

launched in the near future, which he 

says will be a perfect fit for the new orbital edge computing, and might even 

need it.
8 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Entire U.S. West Coast Now 

Has Access to ShakeAlert® 

Earthquake Early Warning

Today’s debut of ShakeAlert-powered public alerting to mobile 

phones in Washington completes 

the U.S. Geological Survey and partners’ West Coast roll-out of this mode 

of alert delivery to the public that began 

with California in 2019 and expanded to 

Oregon in March 2021. People in these 

three states can now receive alerts from 

FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alert system, third-party phone apps, and other 

technologies. 

“USGS science is the backbone of 

hazard assessment, notification, and 

response capabilities for communities 

nationwide so they can plan for, and 

bounce back from natural disasters,” 

said David Applegate, Associate Director for Natural Hazards Exercising the 

Delegated Authority of the USGS Director. “Systems powered by ShakeAlert 

can turn mere seconds into opportunities for people to take life-saving 

protective actions or for applications 

to trigger automated actions that protect critical infrastructure. An effort like 

this takes the dedication, ingenuity 

and hard work of dozens of partners 

with the same vision, and the USGS is 

proud to have been part of a collaborative team that made this robust public 

safety system available for millions of 

citizens on the West Coast.”

The ShakeAlert system relies on sensor 

data from the USGS Advanced National Seismic System. ANSS is a USGS 

facilitated collection of regional earthquake monitoring networks operated 

by partner universities and state geological surveys on the West Coast and 

throughout the nation. USGS works 

closely with ANSS partners and state 

emergency management agencies on 

the system’s development as well as 

public communication, education and 

outreach. ShakeAlert is a new ANSS 

tool in the USGS risk reduction toolbox.

The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system can save lives and reduce 

injuries by giving people time to take 

protective actions like drop, cover and 

hold on before potentially dangerous 

earthquake shaking arrives at their loRelease Date: May 4, 2021

After 15 years of planning and development, the ShakeAlert 

earthquake early warning system is now available to more 

than 50 million people in California, Oregon, and Washington, 

the most earthquake-prone region in the conterminous U.S.
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NRP Post

cation. In addition to supporting public alerts to mobile phones, ShakeAlert 

system data has, since late 2018, been 

used to develop applications that trigger automated actions. Automatic actions can be used to slow down trains 

to prevent derailments, open firehouse 

doors so they don’t jam shut and close 

valves to protect water and gas systems.

This innovative technology will continue to improve over time with the addition of more seismometers to the network, by expanding alert delivery area 

and by improving messaging speeds.

To learn more about the ShakeAlert system, read this feature story.

For more information about ShakeAlert 

in your state, visit the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, 

Oregon Emergency Management, and 

Washington’s Emergency Management 

Division.

Image shows the chance of damaging earthquake shaking in 100 years from the 2018 National Seismic Hazard 

Map. Earthquakes are a national problem with more than 143 million people as risk of potentially damaging 

shaking in the United States. Fifty million of those people are on the West Coast of the United States in California, Oregon, and Washington. (Public domain.)
10 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Imaging Low-mass Planets 

Within The Habitable Zone of 

α Centauri Source: astro-ph.EP

Posted February 11, 2021
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 11

NRP Post

Giant exoplanets on wide orbits have 

been directly imaged around young 

stars. If the thermal background in 

the mid-infrared can be mitigated, then exoplanets with lower masses can also be imaged.

Here we present a ground-based mid-infrared observing approach that enables imaging low-mass temperate exoplanets around 

nearby stars, and in particular within the 

closest stellar system, alpha Centauri. 

Based on 75-80% of the best quality images 

from 100 hours of cumulative observations, 

we demonstrate sensitivity to warm subNeptune-sized planets throughout much of 

the habitable zone of alpha Centauri A.

This is an order of magnitude more sensitive than state-of-the-art exoplanet imaging 

mass detection limits. We also discuss a 

possible exoplanet or exozodiacal disk detection around alpha Centauri A. However, 

an instrumental artifact of unknown origin 

cannot be ruled out. These results demonstrate the feasibility of imaging rocky habitable-zone exoplanets with current and upcoming telescopes.

Contributors:

K. Wagner, A. Boehle, P. Pathak, M. Kasper, 

R. Arsenault, G. Jakob, U. Kaufl, S. Leveratto, 

A.-L. Maire, E. Pantin, R. Siebenmorgen, G. 

Zins, O. Absil, N. Ageorges, D. Apai, A. Carlotti, É. Choquet, C. Delacroix, K. Dohlen, P. 

Duhoux, P. Forsberg, E. Fuenteseca, S. Gutruf, 

O. Guyon, E. Huby, D. Kampf, M. Karlsson, P. 

Kervella, J.-P. Kirchbauer, P. Klupar, J. Kolb, 

D. Mawet, M. N’Diaye, G. Orban de Xivry, S. P. 

Quanz, A. Reutlinger, G. Ruane, M. Riquelme, 

C. Soenke, M. Sterzik, A. Vigan, T. de Zeeuw

Simulated planet brightness and basic properties of the α Centauri system. a N-band (10–12.5 μm) contrast vs. angular separation of planets around α Centauri A (blue) and B (green), assuming face-on circular orbits, a Bond albedo of 0.3 and internal 

heating that provides an additional 10% of the planets’ equilibrium temperatures. The curves correspond from bottom to top 

to planetary radii equivalent to that of Earth, a Super-Earth (1.7×Earth’s radius, R⊕), Neptune, and Jupiter. The blue and green 

shaded regions show the location of the classical habitable zones around α Centauri A and B, respectively (13). b Diagram of the 

orbital properties and approximate habitable zones of the α Centauri AB system. Note that this diagram does not show the 79o 

inclination of the orbit as seen from Earth, or the tertiary dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, at ~104 au.
12 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NRP 

A Publication of NASA Research Park

POST

NP-2021-06-02-ARC

NASA Research Park

Editor, Layout and Design: TED TRIANO

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-nrp-post@mail.nasa.gov

Website: www.nasa.gov/researchpark