Heliophysics Sentinels 2018

August 1972, as NASA scientist Ian Richardson remembers it, was hot. In Surrey, England, where he grew up, the fields were brown and dry, and people tried to stay out of the Sun, indoors and televisions on. But for several days that month, his TV picture kept breaking up. “Do not adjust your set,” he recalls the BBC announcing. “Heat isn’t causing the interference. It’s sunspots.”The same sunspots that disrupted the television signals led to enormous solar flares — powerful bursts of radiation from the Sun — Aug. 4-7 that year. Between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, the solar eruptions were a near miss for lunar explorers. Had they been in orbit or on the Moon’s surface, they would have sustained dangerous levels of solar radiation sparked by the eruptions. Today, the Apollo-era flares serve as a reminder of the threat of radiation exposure for technology and astronauts in space. Understanding and predicting solar eruptions is crucial for safe space exploration. Almost 50 years since those 1972 storms, the data, technology and resources available to NASA have improved, enabling advancements towards space weather forecasts and astronaut protection — key to NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon.Read more on NASA.gov. Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.Music credits: “Boreal Moment” by Benoit Scarwell [SACEM]; “Sensory Questioning”, “Natural Time Cycles”, “Emerging Designer”, and “Experimental Design” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Superluminal” by Lee Groves [PRS], Peter George Marett [PRS] from Killer Tracks GIFApollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell prepare to plant the American flag on the Moon s surface. Credit: NASA GIFThe Aug. 7, 1972, solar flare was captured by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California. This particular flare — known as the seahorse flare for the shape of the bright regions — sparked a strong SEP event that could have been harmful to astronauts if an Apollo mission had been in progress at the time.Credit: NASA The lunar rover vehicle during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972. The lunar roving vehicle -- which was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center -- was used for collecting rocks and data on the lunar highlands. Credit: NASA For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays)

NASA’s probe to understand a mysterious region around Earth is coming to an end. After a six and a half year long journey, the Van Allen Probes are going on one last mission. THIS WEEK NASA will move its twin Van Allen Probe satellites into a lower orbit as they begins their swan song — their last year to explore the hazardous radiation belts that surround Earth. In addition to providing non-stop observations of this little-explored region, it will act as a real-time experiment of how elements in the atmosphere can cause instruments to degrade in space.The Van Allen Probes launched in 2012 to explore the twin radiation belts around Earth; their mission had been expected to end in 2018. Unexpectedly resistant to the high-energy radiation coursing through the region, the spacecraft were hardy enough that — with some savvy fuel conservation — the mission could be extended another year. By studying the doughnut-shaped rings of radiation and how well spacecraft can survive there, NASA can better understand how radiation affects astronauts and technology sent into space. Join NASA scientists from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, February 12, to learn about the Van Allen Probes’ final operation.** To schedule an interview, fill out THIS FORM** satellite coordinates HD Satellite Coordinates for G17-K24/Lower: Galaxy 17 Ku-band Xp 24 Slot Lower| 91.0 ° W Longitude | DL 12171.0 MHz | Vertical Polarity | QPSK/DVB-S | FEC 3/4 | SR 13.235 Mbps | DR 18.2954 MHz | HD 720p | Format MPEG2 | Chroma Level 4:2:0 | Audio EmbeddedInterview Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Questions? Contact michelle.z.handleman@nasa.gov or 301-286-0918. B-roll for Van Allen Probe Live Shot. Answers the following suggested questions: You may think space is empty, but there is a lot there that we can’t see. What are space weather and radiation belts?How do you observe the radiation belts?A new radiation belt was discovered several years ago. Tell us about that discovery.Can you tell us about the final mission that the Van Allen probes are going on?How do radiation belts affect space travel, astronauts and the space station?Where can we learn more? Canned interview with NASA scientist Dr. Nicky Fox looking off camera. Soundbites are separated by slates. Canned interview with NASA scientist Dr. David Sibeck. Soundbites are separated by slates. Canned interview with Dr. Nelli Mosavi, project manager for the Van Allen Probes at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Soundbites are separated by slates. Van Allen Probes animation For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/van-allen-probes](https://www.nasa.gov/van-allen-probes)