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Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

Possible collisions between orbital debris and satellites can be detected at an early stage and evasive maneuvers can be initiated – that’s the promise of a new ability to spot space clutter during the day.

According to researchers at the University of Bern’s Zimmerwald Observatory they are the first in the world to succeed in determining the distance to a space debris object using a geodetic laser in daylight.

Geodetic laser systems are at least one order of magnitude less powerful than highly specialized space debris lasers.

The orbits of disused satellites, rocket upper stages or fragments of collisions and explosions are not known with sufficient accuracy, i.e. only to a few hundred meters.

The measurement of distances to such objects using the satellite laser ranging method is an effective technology to improve the trajectory accuracy to a few meters, say university specialists.

Reflected photons

“We have been using the technology at the Zimmerwald Observatory for years to measure objects equipped with special laser retroreflectors. Only a few observatories worldwide have succeeded in determining distances to space debris using special, powerful lasers to date,” explains Thomas Schildknecht, head of the Zimmerwald Observatory and deputy director of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Bern. “These measurements were also previously only possible at night,” he adds.

The success at Zimmerwald Observatory was made possible using a combination of active tracking of the debris using a highly sensitive scientific CMOS (short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) camera with real-time image processing and a real-time digital filter to detect the photons reflected by the object.

Schildknecht told Inside Outer Space that the observation was an abandoned launcher upper stage. “Pretty large, of the order of [26 feet] 8 meters long. Precise orbits of such large objects are particularly important to avoid catastrophic collisions (laser ranging allows for higher accuracy orbits than, e.g., radars).”

During night time objects with sizes of the order of 1 meter have been tracked with lasers, Schildknecht says.

Network of stations

In 2018, two additional domes extended the observatory ultimately making it the world’s largest observation station for space debris.

“The possibility of observing during the day allows for the number of measures to be multiplied. There is a whole network of stations with geodetic lasers, which could in future help build up a highly precise space debris orbit catalog,” Schildknecht points out. “More accurate orbits will be essential in [the] future to avoid collisions and improve safety and sustainability in space.”

The clouds of Venus may be a depot for life.

New research has looked into the prospect that microbial life could reside inside protective cloud droplets (sulfuric acid mixed with water) hovering high above that hellish world.

The new work is led by Sara Seager in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published in the journal, Astrobiology.

Challenges

The scientific team reassessed the severe and unique environmental challenges that life in the aerial biosphere of Venus would have to overcome. “The challenges include: an extremely acidic environment, far more so than any known environment on Earth; very low water content; and nutrient scarcity,” they write.

The main new point of the work is to present a life cycle concept – albeit hypothetical.

Leaky depot

“Assuming that life must reside inside cloud droplets,” the researchers report, “we resolve the subsequent conundrum of gravitationally settling droplets reaching hotter, uninhabitable regions by proposing a Venusian life cycle where a critical step is microbes drying out to become spores on reaching the relatively stagnant lower haze layer, which we call a leaky ‘‘depot.’’ The dried out spores would reside there until some of them can be transported back up to the temperate, habitable cloud layers, where they would act as CCN [cloud condensation nuclei are ‘‘cloud seeds,’’ a small solid surface needed for vapor to condense] to promote cloud formation, becoming enveloped in cloud droplets to continue the life cycle.”

“We argue that life, if it exists in Venus’ atmosphere, must reside inside cloud liquid droplets for the majority of its life cycle,” the scientists report.

Go to the paper — “The Venusian Lower Atmosphere Haze as a Depot for Desiccated Microbial Life: A Proposed Life Cycle for Persistence of the Venusian Aerial Biosphere” – at:

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2020.2244

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2865 duties.

“Mars is often a very dynamic place due to its atmosphere and how it interacts with the surface,” explains Claire Newman, Atmospheric Scientist at Aeolis Research in Pasadena, California. “At present, we’re in the “windy season” in Gale crater.”

This means, continues Newman, “that we’re seeing increased aeolian (meaning “related to the wind”) activity at the surface. In recent sols, we’ve taken Mastcam images of the same surface ripples on multiple sols. We’ve been able to see the ripples moving from sol to sol, due to wind moving the sand grains that make up the ripples, which tells us both the dominant wind direction and how strong the wind is.”

Surface, rover deck changes

A recent plan scripted for Curiosity included more observations designed to look for changes on the surface and rover deck: a Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) image of the region below the rover, to prepare for making more images of that location over the next few sols so Mars researchers can look for changes, and a Navcam deck pan, to look for changes to dust and sand grains on the rover deck.

“It’s almost summer in Gale crater, which puts us in a period of strong surface heating that lasts from early spring through mid-summer,” Newman adds. “Stronger surface heating tends to produce stronger convection and convective vortices, which consist of fast winds whipping around low pressure cores. If those vortices are strong enough, they can raise dust from the surface and become visible as “dust devils” that we can image with our cameras.”

Dust devil movie

A recent plan has added both a short and a long Navcam dust devil movie, which take lots of images of the same region over, respectively, a five or 30 minute period.

“These give us the most information about dust devils, such as where they initiate, how they evolve, and how much variety there is in size, dust-content, and duration. Looking at how fast they’re moving and in what direction also tells us about the background wind speed and direction at their location,” Newman explains.

Combining images

Also taken, meteorological measurements with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) throughout each movie, in case the robot images a vortex that’s close enough for scientists to also measure its pressure drop, impact on local temperatures, or even ultraviolet radiation if it’s dusty enough to partially block out the Sun.

“Combining imaging with other observations can tell us more about the size and dust content of a dust devil and how far it is from us,” Newman points out. “We also added a five-minute Navcam dust devil survey. This takes three images in eight directions, covering the whole 360° around the rover, and helps us gather statistics on when and where dust devils occur.”

Not in position

Also continuing is exploration of the clay-bearing unit, where the primary goal at present is to drill and sample material for SAM’s “wet chemistry” experiment. This involves transforming less volatile organics into forms that can be detected using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer.

Newman notes that it turned out that the robot was not positioned perfectly to drill at the “Mary Anning 2” target, so the rover is slated to take a short drive or “bump” to put it in the right place by the next plan.

Regional dust activity

In the meantime, added to the plan were three ChemCam observations of the nodular layers in the “Howwood,” “Maligar,” and “North Fearns” targets, plus a Mastcam image to document those targets. Also added was a ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) long-distance mosaic and a Mastcam workspace image.

Finally, the plan included usual Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)  passive and active measurements, and REMS cadence of observations, plus cloud movies and measurements of how much dust is above the robot and across the crater.

“The dust measurements will help us to track the regional dust activity on Mars that has been seen from the surface and orbit in recent sols,” Newman concludes.

As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

 

There is a multi-country Moon rush in progress. Case in point is NASA orchestrating the Artemis program of robotic and human lunar exploration. Then there’s China, preparing this year to hurl a go-getting return sample mission to the Moon, joining still-active Chinese lander/rover machinery on the lunar farside. Other nations, such as Japan and India, including private firms, have cross-hairs on future lunar exploration.

Now, enter a new “old-timer” that’s joining the celestial fray.

Russian re-build

Russia is rebuilding a multi-pronged return to the Moon program, one that kick-starts a 21st century round of outreach to Earth’s extraterrestrial neighbor.

But as Russian space scientists script a “this then that” plan to reconnect with the Moon, how best to gauge their chances of revitalizing a lunar look-see agenda?

For more information, go to my new Scientific American story:

Luna-25 Lander Renews Russian Moon Rush

The former front-runner in the lunar space race aims to rekindle its exploration after nearly half a century

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/luna-25-lander-renews-russian-moon-rush/

 

Extraterrestrials by Wade Roush; The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series; Cambridge, Massachusetts; 224 pages; published April 2020; $15.95.

This is an engaging and an excellent tutorial on life elsewhere – always anchored in that are we alone in the universe, and if we are not, where are they?

Containing 5 chapters, the book is very straightforward in its details: “Alien Dreams”; “Making SETI into Science”; “Extremophiles and Exoplanets”; “Answering Fermi”; and “Joining the Conversation.”

“Why the search connects us to the cosmos,” is the one driver of this volume, explains Roush, a freelance science and technology writer, columnist at Scientific American, and host and producer of the tech-and-culture podcast Soonish.

For starters, as one subtitle explains, we need to organize our ignorance.

So where is everybody? The author dives in on that Fermi Paradox with a first-rate number of scenarios, from the Drake equation to intelligent life is rare to the possibility that technological civilizations are uncommunicative.

If they are “out there” how best to prepare for contact? Roush responds by saying “let’s not spend too much time speculating about an inherently unknowable event.” But he suggests, prior to potential contact, we Earthlings should ask ourselves what we would contribute to an interstellar society and what we should do to prepare for that occasion.

This nicely written, reader-friendly book ends with a glossary of terms and a very useful notes section for the entire volume.

Again, this is an easy-to-read 101-explanation of the mind-bending excursion to contemplate the often asked, are we alone question…or perhaps start grappling with just how crowded is it in the universe.

For more information on this book, go to:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/extraterrestrials

Also, go to “Life as We Don’t Know It – If we’re going to find extraterrestrials, we need to stop assuming they’ll think like humans,” by Wade Roush at:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/life-as-we-dont-know-it/

as well as a podcast featuring Roush at:

https://mitpress.podbean.com/e/extraterrestrials-with-wade-roush/

The lander and rover of China’s Chang’e-4 lunar farside mission have resumed operations for the 21st lunar day. A lunar day is equal to 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length.

Chinese news groups note that the lander woke up at 14:54 Thursday (Beijing Time) while the rover awoke at 20:34 Wednesday. Both are in normal working order, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The Chang’e-4 mission was launched on December 8, 2018. It made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the farside of the Moon on January 3, 2019.

The Yutu-2 rover will continue to move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity, according to the center.

 

Ambitious venture

If all goes according to plan, China is preparing the Chang’e-5 lunar mission by year’s end. This ambitious venture is focused on collecting and returning lunar specimens back to Earth by robotic means – a task last done in 1976 by the former Soviet Union.

 

The former Soviet Union successfully executed three robotic sample return missions: Luna 16 returned a small sample (101 grams) from Mare Fecunditatis in September of 1970; February 1972, Luna 20 returned 55 grams of soil from the Apollonius highlands region; Luna 24 retrieved 170.1 grams of lunar samples from the Moon’s Mare Crisium (Sea of Crisis) for return to Earth in August 1976.

Apollo-like architecture

Reportedly, the Chinese mission will retrieve and return to Earth up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar surface and subsurface samples.

The Chang’e-5 mission is comprised of four parts: the orbiter, lander, ascender, and Earth reentry module containing the lunar collectibles.

In many ways, but on a smaller scale, Chang’e-5’s step-by-step trek mirror those of the Apollo human landing program architecture– suggesting a scalable approach to planting Chinese footprints on the Moon.

 

 

Landing region

The reported preferred candidate landing region for China’s Chang’e‐5 lunar sample return mission is the Rümker region, located in the northern Oceanus Procellarum. The touchdown area is geologically complex and known for its volcanic activity.

Detailed study of the Chang’e-5 landing region has narrowed down to four potential candidate landing sites within that region that would maximize the scientific return of the mission.

If successful, China would become the third nation to grab, stash, and haul back to Earth select lunar samples.

 

 

Welcome to the crowded and cluttered space skies above Earth…congested, contested, competitive, inspected, and dejected.  

Orbiting riff-raff continues be a daunting problem – with a new study released on August 20 focused on space traffic management, or STM for short.

Space Traffic Management: Assessment of the Feasibility, Expected Effectiveness, and Funding Implications of a Transfer of Space Traffic Management – has been issued by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

 

Complex issues

“There is general agreement within the space community on actions that can address the complex underlying space traffic management issues facing the world of stakeholders deploying orbital assets. However, there are questions regarding where the responsibility for space traffic management should ultimately reside,” explains NAPA’s Teresa W. Gerton, President and Chief Executive Officer in a foreword to the report.

And the winner is…

The NAPA appraisal focused on four agency candidates “best suited” to take on the STM task: (1) the Office of Space Commerce (OSC), a part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inside the Department of Commerce (DOC); (2) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inside the Department of Transportation (DOT); (3) NASA; or (4) the Department of Defense (DoD).

The NAPA report utilized an evaluative criteria with an expert panel determining that the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) — a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inside the Department of Commerce – is “best suited” to perform STM tasks within the federal government.

Other agencies must continue to work collaboratively now, and in the future, to achieve a safer space domain, the NAPA study explains.

Actionable safety data

“The report contains a lot of good information about why Space Traffic Management (STM) matters, and why it is important for Congress to designate a Lead Agency for STM,” said George Nield, formerly the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation from 2008-2018.  He is President of Commercial Space Technologies, LLC, which was founded to encourage, facilitate, and promote commercial space activities.

“In my opinion, the primary responsibility of the Lead Agency will be to develop a system that can provide timely and actionable safety data to all space operators,” Nield told Inside Outer Space. “The report doesn’t describe in detail how the Department of Commerce (DOC) would accomplish that, so Congress may have some questions for them along those lines.” 

According to the report, Nield flags the fact that “OSC [the Office of Space Commerce] views its STM responsibilities as a data management function, rather than principally as a task of managing space traffic.” The report goes on to say that “OSC must find ways to leverage DoD [Department of Defense] data and capabilities.” 

“Having access to DoD data and capabilities will certainly be helpful, but it will be crucial for DOC to collect and incorporate additional observations, and to use them to improve the quality of the products and services it provides,” Nield adds. “After all, it is important to recognize that the current DoD system no longer meets the needs of the user community in terms of completeness of the data, accuracy of the catalog, timeliness of the information, and the excessive number of false alarms.”

 

Deploy  fewer satellites

“I believe that space debris is a serious problem. But it is not a disaster, nor will it ever render space unusable or cascade into oblivion. Proving this is straightforward and irrefutable,” suggests Dave Finkleman, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Permanent Committee on Space Debris and other expert communities.

“But a community has grown that relies on debris funding. They continuously cite the Kessler Syndrome [a theoretical, self-sustaining cascading collision of space debris in low Earth orbit]. Deploying fewer satellites is the only assured approach to minimizing debris,” says Finkleman.

Mission impacts and cost

“Space traffic cannot be managed. No regulatory authority can force an operator to move his satellite, even if that operator is within its jurisdiction. Although many maneuvers consume little energy, there will be mission impacts and cost.  Conjunction avoidance is notoriously and perhaps irretrievably imprecise and unreliable. The Air Force wishes not to be blamed for the consequences of the deficiencies,” Finkleman says.

Finkleman’s bottom line: “DoC does not have the skills for traffic management.”

Note: To read the full report — Space Traffic Management: Assessment of the Feasibility, Expected Effectiveness, and Funding Implications of a Transfer of Space Traffic Management — go to:

https://www.napawash.org/uploads/NAPA_OSC_Final_Report.pdf

Also, go to “The Dilemma of Space Debris,” by Dave Finkleman at:

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-dilemma-of-space-debris

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2862 tasks.

“Curiosity is still at the “Mary Anning” drill location, investigating the chemistry and sedimentary structures in this vicinity,” reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

“As we continue to dig into the science at this location, the team is having some fun with naming targets. Today the team decided to name a nearby ChemCam target ‘Tray,’ after paleontologist Mary Anning’s faithful dog who helped her with fossil hunting,” Edgar adds.

DSN support

It is actually the dog days of spring for Curiosity in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

A big last weekend plan involved 4 sols instead of the usual 3, due to Deep Space Network (DSN) support the Mars 2020 and Emirates Mars orbiter missions that are en route to Mars.

The first sol of a 4-sol plan — Sols 2860-2863 – was to kick off with a midday science block for Mastcam deck monitoring, a change detection observation of some nearby ripples, and a Mastcam mosaic to document local troughs and patterned ground.

In the evening, the rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) was on tap to do a planned dark spectra experiment, which is a nighttime test for the CCD dark level.

Atmospheric opacity

“The second sol includes a ChemCam passive observation of the sky to assess water vapor and dust in the atmosphere, along with several other environmental monitoring activities to characterize atmospheric opacity, search for clouds, and constrain aerosol scattering,” Edgar explains.

The third sol starts with a big science block, including a Mastcam multispectral observation of the second site that scientists plan to drill at Mary Anning, a few different change detection observations of ripples and troughs, ChemCam observations of bedrock targets “Tain” and “Tray,” and additional environmental observations.

Dark nodules

Also planned is use of the robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to image some dark nodules at the target “Falkirk Wheel” and the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will investigate its chemistry.

Early in the morning of Sol 2863 Curiosity will conduct more atmospheric monitoring with Mastcam and Navcam, and then most of the 4th sol will be devoted to Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) observations, Edgar reports.

Throughout the plan there are also a number of Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) change detection activities, Edgar concludes, to try to better constrain when the wind is moving sand grains around.

Back in 1976, the dual NASA Viking landers came to full stop on the Red Planet.

The assignment: Is there life on Mars?

Gilbert Levin was the principal investigator of the Viking Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment and he maintains the investigation at both landing locales got positive responses.

That said, a consensus of scientists did not agree his results were proof of life. In 1997 Levin concluded that the experiment had, indeed, detected life on Mars – and he’s stuck to his guns ever since.

Strong evidence

In a recent issue of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Magazine, Levin once again championed his belief that the Viking LR experiment found strong evidence for extant microbial life on the Red Planet.

 

Evidence

In an eLetters communiqué, tied to his review comments on a new book —The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World — Levin assembled the following evidence supporting life on Mars:

— Amino acids and many other organics have been found all over the reachable cosmos.

— Biological fossils have been found in meteorites by many scientists.

— Liquid water, biologically complex organic compounds, all key elements of life, including CHNOPS [the six essential elements of life–carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur] have been found on Mars.

— Terrestrial microorganisms have been grown under Martian environmental conditions, and even harsher, even in naked space.

— Microbes on Earth could be impelled to Mars in bolides launched by meteoric impact, and land in viable form (all the parameters have been verified).

— The Viking 1 Mission LR test and a series of increasingly decisive controls exceeded NASA’s pre-mission requirements for the detection of extant life.

— Then, as dictated by the scientific method, the Viking 1 LR repeated the test and imposed even more restrictive controls. This duplication verified the first test and its controls, thereby establishing the grounds for scientific proof.

 

 

— In a separate mission, Viking 2 replicated the LR experiment and also duplicated it. All its results confirmed the presence of extant microbes.

— Viking 2 detected greenish patches on some rocks. Analyzed with the six channel Viking Imaging System, the spectrum of the patches completely matched that of terrestrial lichen when analyzed in the same system.

— Precise replicate images of the patches on the rocks taken at yearly intervals for three Martian years showed the shapes had changed, with no changes in the surrounding field, thereby eliminating wind and dust as an explanation.

— Chlorophyll was reported by spectral analysis of the Martian surface and on newly-appearing material on the lander deck. Although the respected scientist who made this claim withdrew the published peer-reviewed publication, coercion is suspected.

— Ultraviolet (UV) activation of the Martian surface material did not, as initially proposed by some, cause the LR reaction: a sample taken from under a UV-shielding rock was as LR-active as surface samples.

— Among complex organics reported on Mars by Curiosity’s scientists, kerogen, which is only of biological origin, was mentioned as possibly included.

— Phoenix and Curiosity concluded that the ancient Martian environment was habitable. They did not conclude that it was still not so.

 

— The excess of carbon-13 over carbon-12 in the Martian atmosphere is strongly indicative of biological activity, which prefers ingesting the latter.

— The presence of O2 in the Martian atmosphere is also indicative of a disequilibrium, requiring constant replacement. This may be regarded as an indication of photosynthetic life as is the source of O2 on Earth.

— The seasonal cycle of O2 requires a rapid sink, which could be supplied by microorganisms.

— Methane has been measured in the Martian atmosphere both cyclically and locally; microbial methanogens could be the source.

— The rapid disappearance of methane from the Martian atmosphere requires a sink, possibly supplied by methanotrophs that could co-exist with methanogens on the Martian surface.

— Ghost-like moving lights, resembling will-O’-the-wisps on Earth that are formed by spontaneous ignition of methane, have been video-recorded on the Martian surface.

— Formaldehyde and ammonia, each possibly indicative of biology, are claimed to be in the Martian atmosphere.

— An independent complexity analysis of the positive LR signal identified it as biological.

— A worm-like feature was in an image taken by Curiosity.

— Large structures resembling terrestrial stromatolites (formed only by microorganisms) were found by Curiosity; a statistical analysis of their complex features showed the probability was less than 0.004 that the similarity could be caused by chance alone.

— Images sent by Curiosity bear strong resemblances to metazoans (multiple-celled organisms) as assessed by experts.

— Images sent by Curiosity also bear features resembling mushrooms as assessed by experts. The “mushrooms” are seen to expand, and new ones pop up out of the ground in images taken several days apart.

— Nothing inimical to life, even as we know it on Earth, has been found on Mars.

Astonishing fact

In summarizing his point-by-point case for life on Mars, Levin emphasized the Viking positive result, from a test adapted from a standard test used by public health departments daily to test for microbial contamination of drinking water for billions of people in cities around the world.

Those tests, Levin continued, confirmed by strong and varied controls; duplication of the LR results at each of the two Viking sites; replication of the experiment at the two Viking sites; with the above copious additional hard and circumstantial evidence for life on Mars – “and the failure for over 44 years of any experiment or theory to provide a scientifically supportable non-biological explanation of the Viking LR results.”

In a final thought, Levin asked: What is the evidence against the possibility of life on Mars?

“The astonishing fact is that there is none,” Levin concluded.

When China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe settles down on the Red Planet next year, Chinese scientists will use a virtual reality system to monitor its movement on the planet.

The system can simulate the operation of the rover on Mars, including unfolding its aerials and solar array wings, climbing and changing directions.

“It mainly simulates the postures of the Mars rover, including its displacement, angles, information of upload and download, the rate of its signal, and temperature. We can upgrade our model according to the data we gain via remote sensing,” said Zhao Lingfeng, deputy director of the Information Center of China Academy of Space Technology in a recent China Central Television (CCTV-Plus) interview.

 

Layout of parts

The virtual reality system was also used to assemble the Tianwen-1 probe.

Chinese space engineers utilized the system to see the spacecraft’s interior design and layout of parts and to simulate the assembling process beforehand to reduce the risks during the actual assembly process.

“It can simulate various scenarios, including whether it is convenient for the workers to assemble or whether they can reach wherever they want,” Zhao said in the CCTV-plus interview. “There is a sensor inside the glasses they wear, and the sensor can locate the position of the users. For example, when he squats, he will automatically see the components in the lower parts,” said Zhao

VR and Mars

Similar simulative systems have also been applied to other major space missions, including China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and the upcoming Chang’e-5 lunar probe, expected to be launched later this year.

The use of VR and Mars is widespread. For example, when NASA scientists want to follow the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars, they can don a mixed-reality headset and virtually explore the Martian landscape.

For more information on the U.S. approach, go to:

https://youtu.be/0DvF5J6Evx4?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZqsp7on1ErHOTweF5eHzOTt