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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now closing out Sol 3285 duties.

Reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland, Curiosity performed a weekend drive, chalking up some 20 feet (6 meters) in elevation. “Not bad for a weekend hike!”

Looking at images of the terrain, it is probably not surprising that the rover is looking uphill into the tilted bedrock slabs and thin resistant veins jutting up in all directions.

That makes it hard to plan the robot’s next move, Minitti says. Indeed, a scripted drive will take Curiosity close to the area where researchers want to drill next, but not necessarily the exact spot.

Looking left…and right

“We hope to be able to look around us after the next drive – looking left and right across the tops of these bedrock slabs and veins – and pick a sweet spot to drill,” Minitti adds. “Given the variety of features around us right now, surely sweet spots will not be in short supply!”

Before the rover’s drive, scientists had time to gather data from its surroundings.

The rover’s workspace was considerably less rocky than the last one, but the sand ripples cutting through made an intriguing target.

Sand chemistry

The robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) are set to image and measure one ripple, “Dornoch Beach,” the first purely sand target Mars scientists have studied in quite awhile.

“It is good to keep track of sand chemistry, as sand is a mixture of rock components near and far, and changes in sand chemistry can indicate changes how much local rocks are contributing to the sand,” Minitti says.

The rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is scheduled to measure the chemistry of one of the roughly centimeter-sized resistant nodules, “Aztec Tower,” in bedrock out of reach of the arm instrument.

Spectacular slabs

Curiosity’s Mastcam is also on task to acquire a mosaic of one of the spectacular slabs nearby. It is dubbed “Coylton Rocking Stone.”

Minitti reports that before and after the drive, Mastcam will support measurement of the amount of dust in the atmosphere with an image aimed at the sun, using a big filter keeping the camera safe while doing so.

Curiosity’s Navcam is scheduled to look for dust devils and clouds.

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) run throughout the plan.

DAN will run in passive mode for nearly 8 hours before, during, and after the drive while adding an active measurement after the drive is complete, Minitti concludes.

Like the swirl of Venus clouds, there is a whirlwind of ongoing discussion centered on the claimed detection of phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere – a possible finding that might be produced by life.

Indeed, phosphine on Venus sparks a constant buzz that the acidic clouds of that hellish globe could be an extraterrestrial address for life. The claimed detection of phosphine, a biomarker in an oxidizing environment, would be an enticing argument in favor of life – if it can be confirmed.

But how best to tackle the controversy about possible life in the Venusian cloud deck?

Extreme conditions

Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch has outlined the next steps to gather further insights on the life on Venus question. The research scientist is from the Technical University Berlin and the School of the Environment at Washington State University.

“While many in the scientific community are convinced that the environmental conditions are too harsh for life to exist, others point to the assertion that early Venus was habitable and that microbial life on Venus could have adapted to the currently extreme conditions by natural selection,” Schulze-Makuch explains in a paper to be presented at an upcoming 19^th Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) meeting.

Favorable/unfavorable arguments

Schulze-Makuch outlines arguments in favor of and against possible life in the Venusian clouds.

Arguments on the favorable side:

• habitable temperatures and pressures exist in a continuous, stable cloud environment
• there is sufficiently available energy that makes photosynthesis in the clouds possible as a metabolic strategy
• life could have evolved from a early surface habitat (ocean) to a cloud habitat, and
• critical elements such as carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus are thought to be available in the atmosphere

Arguments against life include:

• the extremely low water activity which appears to require unknown biochemical pathways to overcome
• sulfuric acid concentrations that are extrapolated to be in a range that life on Earth could not cope with, and
• the likely lack of trace metals and hydrogen

Next steps

Schulze-Makuch points to next steps and questions to be answered.

“The first question to be answered is whether the phosphine detection is real or whether perhaps sulfur dioxide was misidentified as phosphine.  To test, we should try to detect phosphine in the infrared range and confirming it by Large Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer (LNMS) mass spectra. We should also search for diphosphine, because it would be an expected intermediate in the photolysis reaction of phosphine to phosphorus and hydrogen,” he suggests.

Another step is to investigate what kind of mechanisms could be envisioned as an adaptation to hyperacidity and extreme lack of liquid water?

“For example, in some hyperarid environments on Earth,” Schulze-Makuch adds, “life can obtain all of its needed water through deliquescence. Could there be similar ‘tricks’ to meet the challenge of living in an hyperarid environment like the Venusian atmosphere?”

Adaptation mechanisms

The astrobiologist notes that while there is no organism on Earth that could live in the Venusian clouds, “that may not mean that possible adaptation mechanisms cannot exist.”

Hyperacidic low-water activity environments are rare on Earth, says Schulze-Makuch, and there may have not been enough selection pressure on Earth to develop adaptations to these conditions.

Complimentary to the proposed theoretical work, Schulze-Makuch emphasizes that laboratory experiments should be conducted to test selected acidophilic microorganisms on their limit to sulfuric acid concentrations.

“Can this limit be enhanced from generation to generation as was shown for the gradual adaptation of microbes to perchlorates? Trace metals are critical for life on our planet as well,” Schulze-Makuch explains. “How could putative life at Venus compensate for the lack of important trace metals?”

Laboratory experiments to find out should ideally be conducted in very acidic environments.

“This is not only important for possible life on Venus but would also be useful information to have when exploring other extraterrestrial locations,” Schulze-Makuch says.

Exploration target

Lastly, Venus as the “go to” exploration target is on the horizon.

Three missions to Venus have been green-lighted: two by NASA — DAVINCI+ and VERITAS — and EnVision, led by the European Space Agency.

 

“These missions are well-suited to find answers to some critical questions,” Schulze-Makuch says, “especially how Venus became the planet it is today. Did Venus have plate tectonics during its natural history and are there still active volcanoes on Venus, which may release water vapor and influence its habitability?”

Upcoming spacecraft missions will advance our knowledge of the Venusian environment tremendously. Without understanding the planet’s environment, researchers cannot possibly hope to understand any life thriving in it. Even if there is no current nor past life on Venus, it is still critical to appreciate the extreme greenhouse effect that encompassed Venus, Schulze-Makuch concludes. “Earth may have a very similar fate in the future.”

 

The successful 14th flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took place shortly after 1:18 a.m. PDT on October 24 within Jezero Crater.

According to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

As planned, the helicopter executed its first 2,700 rpm flight, proving that Ingenuity is capable of flying in the weeks and months ahead on Mars, during which seasonal changes on the surface will result in decreases in air density.

The short 23-second flight included a peak altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) above ground level, with a small sideways translation of 7 feet (2 meters) to avoid a nearby sand ripple.

 

 

This most recent flight was also the first time Ingenuity recorded black-and-white navigation camera images at the high-rate of about seven frames a second.

 

It is billed as the world’s first Moon concept motorcycle.

Introducing the “Tardigrade,” designed to explore the lunar surface and beyond.

A rider on the Moon vehicle can carry different types of equipment and with a speed limit of 9 mph (15km/h) it has a battery range for over 65 miles (110 kilometers).

Tardigrade is a combination of ultra lightweight materials and changeable airless tire pieces that allows Moon expeditionary crews to tackle any obstacle on its mission.

“It was a vision with hurdles. But we proofed it,” explains Hookie Co. – a moto design company for motorcycle refinement and accessories, based in Dresden, Germany.

Adventure and departure

According to Hookie, this off-world motorcycle was visualized by Russian senior designer, Andrew Fabishevskiy back in 2020. That sparked an exploration vision that Nico Mueller (CEO, Hookie Co.) and his crew pursued.

“The Tardigrade represents an atmosphere of adventure and departure,” the firm explains on their website. “Daring to question the status quo, our small but highly motivated team has created something truly unique. Everyone is proud of that, for a reason.”

Through the imagination of Hookie “we are much closer to a cosmic driving experience between lunar craters and space stations.”

True survivors

Why adopt the name Tardigrade?

“They have been found everywhere in Earth’s biosphere. From mountaintops to the deep sea and mud volcanoes, and from tropical rainforests to the Antarctic. Tardigrades are among the most resilient animals known, with individual species able to survive extreme conditions of any kind. Tardigrades are true survivors who have also endured the rigors of outer space,” the company explains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a video of the concept motorcycle, go to:

https://youtu.be/Ad6cd4eJSu8

Also, go to the Hookie company here at:

https://hookie.co/

BTW: The world premiere of Hookie’s Tardigrade will take place mid-this month as part of the ADV:Overland exhibition in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.

Go to: https://www.petersen.org/

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3280 duties.

A pre-drive contact science target is “Rhue,” a bright white vein – one of the largest seen, reports Ashley Stroupe, a mission operations engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

On tap is taking short Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) integrations as well as Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imaging of the vein.

“Unlike the really tiny veins that we normally see, this is one is so large enough that we should be able to target it well and accurately,” Stroupe adds.

With and without veins

After robotic arm activities, Mars researchers have a series of targeted science observations.

They are looking at the target “Bludgers Revelation,” a typical bedrock target, with both the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) and the robot’s Mastcam.

“We are also taking multispectral mosaics of some nearby features, including a regolith fracture, a laminated rock, and additional bedrock targets (both with and without veins). We are also taking a Navcam suprahorizon movie, looking off to the south,” Stroupe explains.

Strategic route

Curiosity’s drive is taking scientists back toward the planned strategic route, and gets them closer to the area they are targeting for the next drill campaign.

“This drive should leave us with bedrock in the workspace for additional contact science on the weekend. This terrain continues to be very challenging, with large boulders, sharp rocks that are wheel hazards, and sand ripples, Stroupe adds. “These drives take a while to plan to make sure we are avoiding all the hazards while getting to where science wants to go. Our paths end up looking a little ‘drunk’ as we weave our way around obstacles.”

On the second sol of the plan (Sol 3281), another methane experiment with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite is planned.

“This is part of our periodic campaign to monitor atmospheric methane and understand seasonal variations. We don’t have anything else on this sol of the plan to preserve power for the weekend plan.”

Southward drive

Reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan, it is “so long, Rafael Navarro Mountain.”

“Since the early part of 2021, Curiosity has been continuing her drive up Mt. Sharp with the roughly 460 foot (140 meters) tall Rafael Navarro Mountain as a familiar reference point,” Salvatore explains.

“Now that we have ascended a significant portion of Mt. Sharp and have started a southward drive to approach the Greenheugh Pediment, we are about to lose sight of parts of Rafael Navarro Mountain behind some other hills for the foreseeable future,” Salvatore adds. “Before we lose this view, however, Curiosity is prioritizing some long-distance imaging of Rafael Navarro Mountain to make sure that we don’t miss out on any interesting and valuable observations.”

Heavily fractured

Curiosity operations include science operations with some arm activities, including MAHLI imaging and APXS chemistry measurements of the “Ashlar” target, which is a finely laminated sedimentary rock that is heavily fractured with veins and potential nodules.

Following arm activities, Curiosity was set to conduct a handful of remote sensing activities, including acquiring a multispectral image of the “Denburn” float rock target, a ChemCam Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) measurement of the Ashlar bedrock target, and several Mastcam mosaics of targets including near-field layering, the Greenheugh Pediment, and Siccar Point.

Fleeting vantage point

Lastly, ChemCam will be used to acquire a high-resolution imaging mosaic of Rafael Navarro Mountain from the robot’s fleeting vantage point.

After another drive to the south, Salvatore concludes, Curiosity was scheduled to acquire a standard suite of post-drive imaging before standing down for the evening and recharging before the next sol’s science activities.

 

 

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 3279 duties.

A few new images from the robot show its surroundings:

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now carrying out Sol 3278 tasks.

Looking at the rocks currently near the rover’s workspace, they look like “piles of tortilla chips,” notes Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

From a geological perspective, however, the “incredibly thin and fragile layers indicate that the rocks were laid down in a sedimentary environment,” reports Guzewich. Those “tortilla chip-like” fins indicate later water flowed through fractures in the rocks.

“Both the thin layers and fins can be seen along the bottom edge of the nearby Siccar Point, and it’s likely that the dark overlying material that’s still present on Siccar Point was eroded away at the location we’re parked, leaving the “tortilla chip terrain” (my term, not an official MSL feature term) exposed on the surface,” Guzewich adds.

 

 

Workplace science

The rover recently was scheduled to carry out a standard touch-and-go plan, with contact science on a large block (tortilla chip pile) in the workspace termed “Wardie.”

Also on tap was using the Chemistry and Camera Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) device on another such block off to the rover’s right and take a series of Mastcam images of the various surface textures around the rover.

 

 

 

“Farther afield, we’ll take a large Mastcam mosaic of Rafael Navarro mountain and search for dust devils with Navcam,” Guzewich concludes.

 

Firefly Aerospace, Inc., headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, has announced it reached a major milestone with the successful completion of the Critical Design Review of their Blue Ghost lunar lander, paving the way for construction of the lander, scheduled to touch down in the Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises) lunar basin in September of 2023.

Blue Ghost is slated to carry ten NASA payloads as part of the $93.3-million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract secured by Firefly earlier this year.

Yearly outings

The robotic lunar lander will also take several commercial payloads to the Moon’s surface. The lander is the first of what is expected to be yearly lunar surface jaunts for Firefly.

Blue Ghost will operate a variety of payloads through lunar transit and orbit, as well as from the lunar surface. These payloads will explore the region’s regolith properties, geophysical characteristics, and interaction of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field.

There are also several key technology demonstrations related to navigation and sample collection.

The lander is to be equipped with a camera that will provide never before seen views relayed from the Moon back to Earth, including video.

Lunar economy

In a Firefly press statement, Tom Markusic, Firefly’s CEO, said: “This mission is a forerunner of what we see as a growing cadence of recurring data and payload service missions in cis-lunar space that will kick-start a lunar economy.”

Blue Ghost’s targeting of Mare Crisium has been the area of exploration of previous lunar missions including the former Soviet Union’s Moon landers, Luna 15 (failure), Luna 23, and Luna 24.

In 2012, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) project — a dual-spacecraft mission that involved placing two identical spacecraft in orbit around the Moon — used high-quality gravitational field mapping to determine its internal structure. The GRAIL mission confirmed and mapped a mass-concentration at the center of the Crisium basin.

For more information on Firefly, go to: https://firefly.com/

 

China is forging ahead on making use of its still-in-construction space station to carry out a range of experiments, both in-country investigations and though international partnerships.

Last week, retrieved space experimental samples gathered by China’s Shenzhou-12 crew were transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A handover ceremony was held in Beijing on Friday while the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization delivered the experimental materials to relevant research institutions, including the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS).

Retrieved samples

Researchers will now carry out dissection, analysis and study of the retrieved samples for more scientific results.

China’s space application department has established two major research facilities, the container-free laboratory cabinet and high microgravity laboratory cabinet on the station’s core module. Those in-orbit facilities have finished basic function test and acquired in-orbit test and application data.

According to China Central Television (CCTV), samples retrieved include container-free materials gleaned by the Shenzhou-12 astronauts, which will be used for further scientific research and analysis on the ground, according to the expert.

China’s Shenzhou-12 mission returned to Earth on September 17. That trio of taikonauts, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo, completed a three-month stay on the Tianhe core module.

Container-free materials

“We are the second in the world to have facilities for researches of container-free materials, following the International Space Station. The samples retrieved include two kinds which are metal zirconium and non-metal zirconium oxide of nine sets,” Zhong Hongen, the deputy chief engineer of space application system of China’s Manned Space Flight Project, told CCTV.

Yu Jianding, a researcher with SICCAS, also told CCTV that the retrieval of the samples exemplified the sound and comprehensive functions of our space facilities.

“In the future, we will carry out in-depth research on more valuable materials, like some glassy alloy and vitreous oxide with high refraction, and apply them in the photology field,” Yu said. Photology is a branch of physics that deals with the properties and phenomena of light.

Multi-nation opportunities

Looking out into the future, the first round of China space station opportunity opened in 2018.

China space station awardees have been picked under the United Nations/China Cooperation on the Utilization of the China Space Station program – jointly implemented by UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency. It provided scientists from around the world with an opportunity to conduct their own experiments onboard China’s space station.

As a final outcome from the application and selection process, nine experiment projects were selected for entering the preparation and implementation process.

Projects selected

Those nine projects involve 23 institutions from 17 Member States of the United Nations in Asian-pacific, European, African, North American and South American regions, including governmental organizations, private sectors, and international associations.

The projects selected are:

• “POLAR-2: Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry on the China Space Station” was applied and will be implemented by four institutions from four countries, which are: The University of Geneva from Switzerland, the National Center for Nuclear Research of Poland, the Max Plank Institute for Extra-terrestrial Physics of Germany, and the Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
• “Spectroscopic Investigations of Nebular Gas (SING)” was applied and will be implemented by two institutions from two countries, which are: The Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
• “Behavior of Partially Miscible Fluid in Microgravity” was applied and will be implemented by two organizations from two countries, namely the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium.
• “Flame Instabilities Affected by Vortices and Acoustic Waves (FIAVAW)” was jointly applied and will be jointly implemented by two institutions from two countries, which are: Tsinghua University from China and the University of Tokyo from Japan.
• “Tumors in Space” was jointly applied and will be jointly implemented by four institutions from four countries, namely the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, International Space University, Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and the Belgium Nuclear Research Center.
• “Effect of Microgravity on the Growth and Biofilm Production of Disease-Causing Bacteria” was jointly applied and will be jointly implemented by the Mars Society – Peru Chapter, and the Mars Society – Spain Chapter.
• “Mid-infrared platform for Earth observations” was jointly applied and will be jointly implemented by two organizations from one country, which are: the National Institute of Astrophysics Optics and Electronics (INAOE), and Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) from Mexico.
• “Development of Multi-Junction GaAs Solar Cells for Space Applications” was jointly applied and will be jointly implemented by two institutions from one country, which are: the National Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) from Saudi Arabia.
• “BARIDI SANA – High-Performance Micro 2-Phase Cooling System for Space Applications” was applied and will be implemented by three institutions from two countries, which are: the Sapienza University of Rome in Italy, In Quattro s.r.l. in Italy, and the Machakos University in Kenya.

For a video on the Shenzhou-12 handover of samples, go to:

https://youtu.be/HjE_hFmqNds

To view a video on the tumors in space experiment, go to:

https://vimeo.com/389231913

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 3276 duties exploring Gale Crater.

Here are several just-released images showing the robot’s current surroundings: