NASA offers up to $500,000 to develop technology for tracking atmospheric drag

Representative Image (AI-generated) Earth's atmosphere does not simply end where airplanes stop flying. Far above the planet, in a region known as the thermosphere, an extremely thin layer of gas continues to interact with satellites orbiting Earth. Changes in this region may seem insignificant, but they can alter atmospheric drag and gradually affect the paths of spacecraft. These changes become particularly important when activity from the Sun causes the upper atmosphere to heat up and expand. As the number of satellites operating in low Earth orbit continues to increase, predicting these changes has become an increasingly important challenge. NASA is now looking for new, affordable technologies that could help provide a clearer picture of this difficult-to-measure region. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the agency is offering up to $500,000 through its Orbital Clarity Challenge to support new technologies that can measure these changing conditions and improve predictions of their impact on satellite orbits.Why the upper atmosphere mattersThe thermosphere is an extremely thin region of Earth's atmosphere, but it still creates drag for satellites...