Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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August 18th, 2022
Image traces a small segment of Curiosity’s path traversing obstacles that guard the pass – over one of the large ripples, around several large boulders – leading the robot to a point where it is nearly through the pass.
This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera on Sol 3564 August 16, 2022
Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3566 duties.
Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland, reports that the robot is imaging “the wonders around and ahead of us as we pick our way through ‘Paraitepuy Pass.’”
The towering buttes, geologic relationships, and layers at that location have drawn research attention for a literal decade.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3565, August 17, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“But it is also fun to look back on how we got to where we are,” Minitti adds, as Curiosity traverses the obstacles that guard the pass – over one of the large ripples, around several large boulders, “leading us to a point where we are nearly through the pass.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 3566, August 18, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ripple crossing
“I particularly enjoy seeing the choice of diverting the drive oh-so-close to the towering ‘Bolivar’ butte to our starboard side so our wheels could cross the (presumably!) shallowest part of the large ripple. It is great to see yet another successful ripple crossing, hearkening back to the first big one way back on Sol 535 at ‘Dingo Gap.’”
Before the rover crosses yet one more ripple, researchers planned imaging from the scale of vistas to small bedrock blocks.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3566, August 18, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Rubbly ridge
On tap, the robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is to image the spectacular “Kukenan” butte, and team up with Mastcam to image an intriguing rubbly ridge extending from the north side of Bolivar.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3566, August 18, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity’s Mastcam will add to the coverage of the “Orinoco” butte, and Bolivar butte with mosaics along its base including the “Karia Island” and “Ayanganna” targets.
“The interesting texture and color of the former target also made it a target for Mastcam multispectral analysis,” Minitti reports. “We will acquire one Mastcam image of ‘Antonio,’ the lone rock poking out of the ripple in front of the rover which has a lumpy texture.”
On the plan is use of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) to make passive runs in parallel with all these geologic observations and punctuated by a DAN active post-drive.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3565, August 17, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Rover Environmental are slated to keep their regular tabs on our environment throughout the sol (Sol 3565), Minitti concludes.
Posted in 
Curiosity Right Navigation Camera Sol 3560
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3564 duties.
For the robot, it’s slow and steady does it, reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
“We are making slow but steady progress through the ‘Paraitepuy pass,’ having passed the approximate halfway point over the weekend,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.
Curiosity Left Navigation Camera image showing Orninoco and Kukenán buttes. Image taken on Sol 3563, August 15, 2022. “Chenapua” is just visible on the right hand side of the image.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Path forward
A recent one sol plan (Sol 3564) found researchers staring around the corner at the neck of the pass and considering a rover drive path forward.
“Sometimes, our drive forward is smooth and flat,” O’Connell-Cooper, notes, “neither word can be used here! Our drive forward has abundant sand and sharp rocks, so finding a safe path is providing our intrepid rover planners with some interesting times!”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A newly scripted planned drive is roughly 95 feet (29 meters).
Extraordinary view
O’Connell-Cooper points out: “The view from here is quite extraordinary — we are looking at several large buttes, which lie along the side of the pass and in front of us — and it is hard to resist the urge to photograph everything in sight, just like any tourist or traveler!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mastcam is hard at work again as a result, imaging the butte Orinoco and “Kukenán,” along with two mosaics on the Bolivar butte. Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is using its long distance imager, the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) to look at the butte “Chenapua.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
“We parked next to some sand in this plan, so we are spending time to look at grain sizes within the sand patch,” O’Connell-Cooper reports.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The robot’s Mastcam will image the nicely developed ripple crest (“Blackwater Creek”). The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) target “Sand Creek” and the Mastcam target “Karowrieng” look at the flanks, away from the ripple crest.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Intriguing sand flow patterns
This sandy patch has a few float (i.e., loose on the surface) rocks in it, O’Connell-Cooper reports.
MAHLI will analyze “Nascente,” which is a small rock in the middle of the sand patch, right in front of the rover.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3564, August 16, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Mastcam is imaging a large float rock “Plantain Island,” off to the left of the rover, and the float “Pairuwa Islands” within the sand patch, which has some intriguing sand flow patterns.
Mars researchers can compare these float targets to the bedrock ChemCam . Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) target “Corocito” – this may help them determine the origin of the float rocks.
“Once our imaging and contact science is complete here today, we will move forward, picking our way along the pass, O’Connell-Cooper concludes.
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3563. Distance driven to this sol: 17.7 miles/28.49 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Artemis I Rollout: August 16, 2022
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The rollout of NASA’s powerful Space Launch System, topped by the Orion capsule, is crawling testament to the space agency’s ambitious plan to “reboot” the Moon, and then push humans onward to Mars.
On this moonward and momentous occasion, I’m reminded of that quip during coverage by Chet Huntley/David Brinkley of a roaring Saturn V liftoff that it was hard to tell if the rocket was going up…or Florida was going down.
A projected 100,000 people are reportedly showing up to get an eye-full of the Space Launch System’s (SLS) ascension into Florida skies.
Long and winding road
For sure, it has been a long and winding road, and not without a lot of high-tech, dollar-fueled political hullabaloo.
Meanwhile, in the space community of chit-chat, there are those that rail against the SLS and even wish that this giant of a booster falls flat on its tail section at liftoff.
Personally, I can’t think of a Space Age time when there were those wishing NASA to fail.
Artist concept of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) 70-metric-ton configuration launching to space. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to Mars.
Credit: NASA
For those hopeful for an SLS/Artemis 1 malfunction, a default position is reliance on Elon Musk and his Starship enterprise.
I asked several leading space policy experts to help scrutinize what’s afoot here.
Waste of money
“I don’t think it’s about ‘wanting NASA to fail.’ It’s about anger at NASA being forced to fail by Congress…because being forced to use SLS is another dead-end approach,” says Rand Simberg, an analyst and consultant in space policy, technology, and business.
From Simberg’s point of view, it’s infuriation at the waste of money. “It makes me angry as a taxpayer, but it makes me even angrier as a space enthusiast, that NASA is being forced by Congress to waste money on something that is not needed to get back to the Moon. It will be just as unsustainable as Apollo was, for the same reasons, while lying to us about how we can’t get back to the Moon without it, and all the while not spending money on things we actually do need to get back to the Moon in a sustainable way,” he adds.
Au natural: Earth’s Moon as seen from the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/ESA
What SLS opponents want, such as Simberg, is for NASA to be allowed to get back to the Moon in a sustainable and scalable way, without Congress being involved in the design of the architecture, and this implies that neither SLS or Orion are necessary, he suggests.
“It should simply be allowed to purchase transportation services from the private sector, just as it is doing to get to and from low Earth orbit. Selecting Starship for the lander program was a good start, but the logical conclusion is that SpaceX should be used for all phases of the trip, and not just the landing,” believes Simberg.
“Using 1970s technology to send a handful of astronauts to the Moon a few times, at best, in this decade, at billions of dollars per flight,” Simberg concludes, “is a pathetic lack of vision compared to what the billionaires want to do, and will do.”
Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar south pole carrying out early work to establish an Artemis Base Camp. Will placing Artemis astronauts on the moon become a stepping stone to a sustained presence on Earth’s celestial next door neighbor? Credit: NASA
Trust in government
Space history expert, Roger Launius of Launius Historical Services, portrays SLS as no small part a reflection of a larger situation. And that is the U.S. Public trust in government in decline since the Nixon administration.
Launius spotlights public trust in government polling from 1958-2022 by the Pew Research Center that shows trust in government has been below 40 percent when asked the question if Washington would do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time” since the 1970s, and in the 21st century it has declined precipitously to the low 20th percentiles, he says.
“Conversely, there is a belief, buttressed by talking points from one of the major parties that has embraced neoliberalism, that the private sector may be relied on to accomplish all that is necessary,” Launius told Inside Outer Space. “Of course, it doesn’t help that NASA’s SLS program has been expensive and has yet to show much in the way of results,” he points out.
SpaceX Starship human lander design to carry NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis program.
Credit: SpaceX
Shiny new thing
“I don’t think people want NASA to fail in the sense that SLS blows up. They just want SLS to go away because they think it’s a dinosaur and Starship is the shiny new thing,” responds Marcia Smith, Founder and Editor of Space Policy Online.
Critics skip over the fact that Starship didn’t exist when SLS began, Smith points out. “There was no SLS versus Starship contest. It was SLS or no “Moon rocket” at all because President Obama had just killed Ares V. Falcon 9 barely existed then, never mind Starship. It had one test flight in 2010, the year Congress directed NASA to build SLS. Demonstrating reusability was 7 years in the future.”
Smith adds that SLS critics talk as though Starship is an alternative to SLS right now. “Starship hasn’t flown either. And they ignore the fact that Starship can’t get to the Moon directly like SLS. It has to stop for fuel in Earth orbit at a fuel depot that doesn’t exist yet,” she explains.
“I think the antagonism to SLS is mostly from people who think Musk has all the answers,” says Smith. “They overlook Starship’s own schedule delays, cheerfully excusing Musk’s over-optimism…not to mention the lack of transparency about how much Starship costs. There are no budget requests to Congress to keep track. No NASA Inspector General or Government Accountability Office reports.”
Credit: NASA
Up in flames?
How can SLS costs be compared to Starship when Starship data is proprietary, questions Smith.
“One hopes it’s not as eye-poppingly expensive as SLS, but only Musk and his inner circle know,” Smith says. “How much did each of those Starship prototype failures cost? Musk supporters cheered when they blew up because he’s taking risks, but would they feel the same if it was their tax dollars going up in flames?”
It will be interesting to see if any attitudes change now that Musk is using $3 billion of our tax dollars for Starship development, Smith adds. “Small compared to the billions for SLS, but still a lot of money.”
Smith gives Musk a lot of credit for thanking NASA at every opportunity he gets for having faith in him and funding SpaceX especially in those difficult early years.
“It seems a lot of people don’t realize how much taxpayer money he’s gotten through NASA for development of Falcon, Dragon, and now the Human Landing System and in-space propellant transfer. Why his supporters often seem contemptuous of NASA is a mystery to me,” Smith says.
Having said all that, NASA doesn’t do itself any favors with unending cost overruns and schedule delays. And they certainly are behind the times when it comes to reusability, Smith adds.
NASA leaders have often said it is ‘and, not or’ SLS and Starship, and other new rockets, too, like Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn launcher, Smith concludes. “It is not one or the other. All of them will be needed to support sustainable lunar and Mars exploration. I think that’s right.”
Credit: NASA
Giant boondoggles
“I am rooting for NASA to succeed,” says Howard Bloom, founder and chair of the Space Development Steering Committee. “But its focus on the SLS and Orion has been killing NASA’s manned and womanned space program.”
In Bloom’s view, the SLS and Orion are giant boondoggles for the space military industrial complex. “A single launch of the SLS and Orion will cost $4.1 billion. For that price, you could buy as many as 2,000 launches of Elon Musk’s Starship. You could take 200,000 people to space,” he says.
The SLS is being advertised as the rocket that will return Americans to the Moon, Bloom notes.
“But the SLS and Orion can’t land on the Moon…they can simply orbit it and watch the Chinese and Russians build their research station where it counts, down below on the Moon’s surface. And even this Moon-gazing privilege will be for roughly three passengers. SpaceX’s starship can carry 100 passengers in luxury, can land on the Moon’s surface, then can take off and come back to Earth again…all things the SLS and Orion can’t do,” says Bloom.
NASA has to stop wasting $3 billion a year on a “frankenrocket,” buy launch services from private industry, Bloom suggests, and create the cargos the Starship and its competitors can take to destinations in space, 100 ton payloads in the case of the Starship, he says.
Credit: Aerospace Corporation
Bloom says that there’s desperate need to develop space infrastructure: Moon and Mars bases, construction equipment, robotic mining equipment for water, and on-the-spot hardware to turn lunar or Martian water into breathable oxygen and drinkable water. We need to make human homes on the Moon and Mars permanent.
“NASA could do that with the $3 billion it is wasting each year on the SLS and Orion…wasting on a rocket that can’t even land on the Moon, Mars, or back down here on Earth,” Bloom concludes.
Juicy target
Space historian John Logsdon is Professor Emeritus at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was the founder and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. As for people hating the SLS, he can’t recall any space project that has generated that kind of emotion.
As for why, Logsdon suggests because “it is the epitome of the old style of doing things.”
“SLS was forced on NASA leadership by the Congress, reflecting the views of the heritage, traditional aerospace contractors and NASA workforce. All of that makes it a very juicy target for those that think the old way of doing business is wrong. It’s a way of bringing together a lot of critics of NASA focused on one thing,” Logsdon says.
Artemis 1 flight profile.
Credit: NASA
“We have never before had an alternative like the SpaceX Starship Heavy launcher to rally around. But it hasn’t worked yet. In the Artemis architecture, NASA is using the Starship upper stage for the lunar lander. It requires 5-6 launches to get enough fuel in the thing to operate. Kind of crazy,” Logsdon adds. “SLS may be far from ideal, but it’s about to be rolled out to the launch pad and hopefully is basically ready to go. To say ‘don’t do that’ and wait for Starship Heavy instead, too me, that doesn’t make sense. I think it’s prudent to take what you’ve got, not what you wish you had.”
The Artemis architecture, based on SLS, Orion, and Starship as the Moon lander, Logsdon feels that in an ideal world it’s not the way to reignite a humans-on-the Moon-and-beyond effort.
“But it is there and we’re pretty well down that route,” Logsdon adds. “The consequences of backing off now, if America cancels SLS, the thought of immediately transferring funds to Starship, I don’t think NASA would be allowed to do that. For the initial return to the Moon, it’s the Artemis architecture or nothing,” he feels.
Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-14 astronauts are readying hardware for a spacewalk, venturing out of the in-construction space station through the airlock cabin of the Wentian lab module for the first time.
The Wentian module was launched and docked with the Tianhe core module of China’s space station in July.
This lab module functions both as a backup of the core module and as a scientific experiment platform. The Wentian module, the largest and heaviest spacecraft China ever launched, is nearly 60 feet long (17.9 meters) and has a maximum diameter of 13.8 (4.2 meters).
Shenzhou-14 crew enters new lab module. Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Outfitted module
Wentian consists of a work cabin, an airlock cabin and a resource cabin. In the work cabin, there are three sleeping areas and one sanitary area. The Wentian module is also outfitted with a small, flexible mechanical arm can perform precision operations, and flexible solar wings, which can provide sufficient energy for the operation of the space station.
The Shenzhou-14 crew consists of Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe. The taikonaut trio has stayed in orbit for 70 days as of Saturday since they were sent into space in June.
The current composition of China’s space station is formed by the Tianhe core module, the Wentian lab module, the Shenzhou-14 spaceship and the Tianzhou-4 cargo craft.
A video is available at: https://youtu.be/pEv7fJdwW0Q
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China Manned Space Agency on Friday published a video that gives a glimpse at the space life of Chinese astronauts aboard the country’s space station, showing how the crew are performing scientific tasks and working out to keep fit in the Wentian lab module.
First spacewalk for this crew coming up! Go to video at: https://youtu.be/310j0Rcw3Xo
Credit: White House/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3561 duties.
Curiosity is continuing to press on through Paraitepuy Pass reports Alex Innanen, an atmospheric scientist at York University; Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“The terrain continues to be tricky, with lots of sand and rocks…and the rover planners are working hard to determine the best and safest way forward,” Innanen adds. “In between carefully creeping along, we’re pausing to take in the views – by which I mean do a lot of science!”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Best path
Before the robot departs its current location, researchers have packed in a whole host of observations. These start with Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) on the nearby Dust Removal Tool (DRT) target “Annai,” and two Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics looking further afield at the lower part of “Kukenan” and the marker band near the top of “Deepdale.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3560, August 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3560, August 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity’s Mastcam is also documenting Annai, as well as looking at the side of Deepdale in order to study the processes of its formation, Innanen explains. To round out a recent morning of imaging, Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is getting up close with two targets, Annai and “Mirizal.”
The plan called for finishing a recent sol with a drive and post-drive imaging to help find the best path onwards, Innanen notes.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Extra-long targeted movie
The plan for the current sol (3561) was relatively calm in comparison, with a ChemCam Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) – using a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As always, on the plan is keeping tabs on the environment of Gale Crater not only with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instruments, which maintain their standard monitoring, but also with some observations of dust and clouds.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“We have a suprahorizon movie, looking just above the horizon for clouds, followed by a line of sight and basic tau to measure atmospheric dust. We are also casting a wide net in hopes of spotting dust devils, with a 360 degree survey and extra-long targeted movie,” Innanen concludes.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3560, August 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
DiskSat prototypes — a novel, thin circular satellite standard — in the lab.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Over the years, there has been an explosion of CubeSat capability.
But make room for an alternate approach – DiskSat.
The Aerospace Corporation is looking into this novel, thin circular satellite. For launch, several DiskSats can be stacked to fit within a launch vehicle’s fairing and deployed one at a time after the launch vehicle reaches orbit — an ideal approach to building large constellations of small spacecraft, allowing 20 or more satellites to be containerized in a single small launch vehicle.
DiskSats shown stacked within a small launch vehicle fairing. DiskSats are high-power and high-aperture alternatives to CubeSats, launched in tight stacks but deployed individually to ensure no recontact between satellites.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
“The key challenge with the DiskSat is developing a dispenser that will contain the satellites during launch and then release them one at a time on orbit,” explains Richard Welle, an Aerospace Senior Scientist. “We are still working out the details of the dispensing system, but we expect that the satellites will be released one at a time from the top of the stack with sufficient speed to ensure that each satellite is well clear of the dispenser before the next satellite is released. The design of the dispensing system will be finalized and tested in the laboratory over the next few months.”
Demonstration mission
Welle adds that the Small Spacecraft Technology Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is supporting Aerospace to build and fly a demonstration mission.
The DiskSat next to a 1.5U Cubesat.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Four spacecraft will be deployed in low Earth orbit to verify baseline DiskSat performance and validate the launch dispenser.
“The four demonstration satellites will have electric propulsion and operate in pairs: one pair will fly at low altitude, and the other will demonstrate high-altitude operations, showcasing DiskSat’s maneuverability. This demonstration mission is expected to be ready to fly by the end of 2023 and will fly as soon thereafter as a launch opportunity can be identified,” Welle explains.
Are discs the future of small satellites?
For more details on DiskSat, go to:
https://aerospacecorp.medium.com/are-discs-the-future-of-small-satellites-b95ade76d2b5
Also, go to this informative video at:
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is busy at work, on a roll to find evidence of past microbial life on the Red Planet. This rover’s selfie also captures Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Since its wheels-down landing in February of last year, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been busily at work, on the prowl steering itself across the Jezero Crater landscape.
Perseverance is on a roll, a collectible outing to stash core samples in sealed tubes that are to eventually find their way to Earth via the Mars Sample Return program.
Depiction shows Jezero Crater — the landing locale of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover — as it might have appeared billions of years ago when it was perhaps a life-sustaining lake. An inlet and outlet are also visible on either side of the lake.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
But how tough is it to spot and sample potential past life on Mars? Perhaps the rover already has?
Then there’s the question of do we need the samples back on Earth to find signs of past life, or can Perseverance, on-location, detect past, or even present life with its suite of instruments?
Newly revised Mars Sample Return campaign makes use of a set of machines, including use of helicopters, to collect Martian soil, rock and atmospheric specimens for return to Earth.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Above all, just how hard might it be to have a consensus among scientists that, yes, signs of life, be it past or present has been observed by the rover? What’s a slam dunk finding look like?
For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “Probing the Red Planet: Finding past life at Jezero Crater” – at:
https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-jezero-crater-past-life-on-mars
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s next space station segment – the Mengtian lab module – is now at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province.
The Mengtian lab module means “Dreaming of Heavens,” and will be assembled at the launch site and go through relevant tests with launch later this year, in October.
Station complete is set for year’s end.
Credit: CNAS/CCTV Video News Agency/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The construction of China’s Tiangong space station is expected to be completed by year’s end with the launch of Mengtian lab module. It will then evolve from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules – the core module Tianhe, and lab modules Wentian and Mengtian.
China’s first lab module of its space station Wentian was launched on July 24 from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site.
For a video of the arrival of Mengtian at the launch site, go to:
Alan Stern (left), principal investigator for the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
You would think plunging into deep space, to the outer banks of our solar system, would be a person’s career ascension.
But for Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission that explored Pluto and now the Kuiper Belt, he also recently descended in a deep sea submersible to view the sunken remains of the RMS Titanic.
Titanic-bound, an attentive Alan Stern ran voice com and was mission scientist.
Image credit: Alan Stern
For planetary scientist Stern, purging deep space of its secrets in the 21st century, or witnessing the 20th century deep sea sarcophagus that is the Titanic serves up analogies to spaceflight.
Out the porthole, a view of the Titanic.
Image credit: Alan Stern
But there are lots of differences too.
For more details on this dive to the Titanic, go to my new Space.com story – “Pluto explorer deep dives to the Titanic – For planetary scientist Alan Stern, witnessing the 20th century deep sea sarcophagus that is the Titanic serves up analogies to spaceflight” – go to:
https://www.space.com/pluto-explorer-dive-titanic?utm_campaign=socialflow
