NASA Goddard Archives

Alexandra Matiella Novak uses a hand-held spectrometer in the field. -- NASA/Caela Barry

NASA Goddard Instrument Field Team at Long Valley Caldera

by Keith CowingJanuary 18, 2026July 19, 2026

Editor’s note: This blog entry is adapted from NASA social media content originally published September 12-15, 2023.

Imaginary depiction of an astrobiologist using a future STELLA device on a distant habitable world -- Astrobiology.com/Grok INSET: An example STELLA is shown here during a summer 2023 field-testing session outside the lab in a meadow on the campus of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Sophia Rentschler

Analog Studies, Artemis & Lunar Exploration, Astrobiology (general), Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Courses, Education and Outreach, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Space Life Science, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech For Everyone: NASA’s STELLA Open Science Instrument

by Keith CowingJanuary 5, 2026June 26, 2026

Editor’s note: NASA has just authored a paper on a new way for people with a wide variety of interests to use – and build – sensor technology that is […]

Stephen Scheidt and Zach Morse of NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team photograph the inside of a cave in ultraviolet light, Hawaii, September 2022. NASA/Caela Barry

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, Sample Return, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: NASA Goddard Instrument Away Team On Hawaii

by Keith CowingDecember 23, 2025December 23, 2025

Editor’s note: This story is adapted from content originally published on NASA social media accounts in September 2022.

Apps - Games, Away Teams & Field Reports, Education and Outreach, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Status Report

NASA Mars Explorer App

by Keith CowingJuly 28, 2025July 28, 2025

NASA Goddard is actively preparing for the future human exploration of Mars.

NASA’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 23. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Europa Clipper Astrobiology Probe Arrives At Kennedy Space Center

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2024May 27, 2024

NASA’s Europa Clipper, a spacecraft designed to investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and its potential to support life, arrived in Florida on Thursday, May 23. The spacecraft, assembled at NASA’s […]

Goddard engineer Murzy Jhabvala holds the heart of his Compact Thermal Imager camera technology – a high-resolution, high-spectral range infrared sensor suitable for small satellites and missions to other solar-system objects. -- NASA

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: NASA’s Compact Infrared Cameras Enable New Science

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2024May 23, 2024

Editor’s note: as we develop sensors for the spacecraft we will send to fly by, orbit, and land upon other worlds, packing as much capability into the smallest, rugged, lowest […]

At JPL on May 17, members of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument team use a crane to lift the top portion of the shipping container that the instrument was stored in for its journey to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Planet Hunting Coronagraph Update

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2024May 22, 2024

A technology demo on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help increase the variety of distant planets scientists can directly image.

Filled with briny lakes, the Quisquiro salt flat in South America's Altiplano represents the kind of landscape that scientists think may have existed in Gale Crater, which NASA's Curiosity rover is exploring. This salt flat is located in Chile, though the Altiplano sprawls across countries. Streams and rivers flowing from mountain ranges into this arid, high-altitude plateau lead to closed basins similar to Mars' ancient Gale Crater. Lakes on the Altiplano are heavily influenced by climate in the same way as Gale. -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Why Is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas

by Keith CowingApril 23, 2024April 23, 2024

A recent paper may help explain why a portable chemistry lab on NASA’s Curiosity rover has continually sniffed out traces of the gas near the surface of Gale Crater.

Jared Ralleta and Alice Baldridge at work in Kilbourne Hole, Potrillo Volcanic Field. -- NASA Note: Jared is using a Malvern Panalytical ASD FieldSpec 4 Hi-Res: High Resolution Spectroradiometer with a contact probe.

Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

NASA Goddard Geochemistry Group Away Team Practices Tricorder Use On Volcanic Deposits

by Keith CowingFebruary 20, 2024February 20, 2024

Location: Kilbourne Hole, Potrillo Volcanic Field, New Mexico

Astrobiology (general), Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Icy Worlds, Press Release

AAS Awards Laboratory Astrophysics Prize to NASA Goddard Extraterrestrial Ice Scientist

by Keith CowingJanuary 20, 2023January 20, 2023

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has awarded the 2023 Laboratory Astrophysics Prize to Dr. Reggie Hudson of the Cosmic Ice Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.