Study Confirms Biofuels Reduce Jet Engine Pollution

Findings published March 15 in the journal Nature from a series of flight tests in 2013 and 2014 near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California indicate that using biofuels helps jet engines reduce particle emissions in exhaust by as much as 50 to 70 percent. That’s both an economic and an environmental benefit. The findings were based on data from the Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions Study, or ACCESS. The international research program led by NASA and involving agencies from Germany and Canada, studied the effects of alternative fuels on aircraft-generated contrails, engine performance and emissions.

NASA @SXSW Interactive Festival

NASA was represented at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival, March 13-18, in Austin, Texas. There were NASA exhibits, activities, and speakers on hand to help festival attendees experience and understand the agency’s wide-ranging activities in science, aeronautics, technology, human spaceflight, Mars exploration and more.

Satellites See Winter Storm from Space

On March 13, NASA and NOAA satellites captured views of the major winter storm that spawned winter storm and blizzard warnings throughout the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast U.S. NASA’s Aqua satellite gathered infrared data from the system, which provides temperature information to help scientists understand the strength of a storm. NOAA’s GOES-East satellite provided visible and infrared imagery that showed the extent and the movement of the system.

CST-100 Starliner Parachute Testing

During a recent test near the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, a flight-sized boilerplate of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft was carried by a helium balloon to about 40,000 feet and dropped. The exercise is part of a test series to prove the design of the parachutes the spacecraft will use to safely return to Earth during upcoming NASA missions. Boeing is developing the Starliner in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and the agency will use it to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

NASA’s Pi Day Challenge

For the fourth year in a row, NASA helped space fans celebrate Pi Day with an online Pi Day Challenge featuring four math problems NASA scientists and engineers must solve to explore space. Pi Day, is the March 14 holiday created in honor of the mathematical constant, pi, which starts with the numbers 3.14. The challenge is designed to get students excited about pi and its applications beyond the classroom. This year’s problem set features Mars craters, a total solar eclipse, a close encounter with Saturn, and the search for habitable worlds.

And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …