Happy Halloween, Everyone! InSight Makes Another Big Discovery Before It Soon Falls Silent Forever...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona

NASA's InSight Lander Detects Stunning Meteoroid Impact on Mars (News Release - October 27)

The agency’s lander felt the ground shake during the impact while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the yawning new crater from space.

NASA’s InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake last December 24, but scientists learned only later the cause of that quake: a meteoroid strike estimated to be one of the biggest seen on Mars since NASA began exploring the cosmos. What’s more, the meteoroid excavated boulder-size chunks of ice buried closer to the Martian equator than ever found before – a discovery with implications for NASA’s future plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet.

Scientists determined the quake resulted from a meteoroid impact when they looked at before-and-after images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and spotted a new, yawning crater. Offering a rare opportunity to see how a large impact shook the ground on Mars, the event and its effects are detailed in two papers published Thursday, October 27, in the journal Science.

The meteoroid is estimated to have spanned 16 to 39 feet (5 to 12 meters) – small enough that it would have burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, but not in Mars’ thin atmosphere, which is just 1% as dense as our planet’s. The impact, in a region called Amazonis Planitia, blasted a crater roughly 492 feet (150 meters) across and 70 feet (21 meters) deep. Some of the ejecta thrown by the impact flew as far as 23 miles (37 kilometers) away.

With images and seismic data documenting the event, this is believed to be one of the largest craters ever witnessed forming at any place in the solar system. Many larger craters exist on the Red Planet, but they are significantly older and predate any Mars mission.

“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, who leads InSight’s Impact Science Working Group. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”

InSight has seen its power drastically decline in recent months due to dust settling on its solar panels. The spacecraft is now expected to shut down within the next six weeks, bringing the mission’s science to an end.

InSight is studying the planet’s crust, mantle and core. Seismic waves are key to the mission and have revealed the size, depth and composition of Mars’ inner layers. Since landing in November 2018, InSight has detected 1,318 marsquakes, including several caused by smaller meteoroid impacts.

But the quake resulting from last December’s impact was the first observed to have surface waves – a kind of seismic wave that ripples along the top of a planet’s crust. The second of the two Science papers related to the big impact describes how scientists use these waves to study the structure of Mars’ crust.

Crater Hunters

In late 2021, InSight scientists reported to the rest of the team they had detected a major marsquake on December 24. The crater was first spotted on February 11, 2022, by scientists working at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), which built and operates two cameras aboard MRO. The Context Camera (CTX) provides black-and-white, medium-resolution images, while the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) produces daily maps of the entire planet, allowing scientists to track large-scale weather changes like the recent regional dust storm that further diminished InSight’s solar power.

The impact’s blast zone was visible in MARCI data that allowed the team to pin down a 24-hour period within which the impact occurred. These observations correlated with the seismic epicenter, conclusively demonstrating that a meteoroid impact caused the large December 24 marsquake.

“The image of the impact was unlike any I had seen before, with the massive crater, the exposed ice and the dramatic blast zone preserved in the Martian dust,” said Liliya Posiolova, who leads the Orbital Science and Operations Group at MSSS. “I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to witness the impact, the atmospheric blast and debris ejected miles downrange.”

Establishing the rate at which craters appear on Mars is critical for refining the planet’s geological timeline. On older surfaces, such as those of Mars and our Moon, there are more craters than on Earth; on our planet, the processes of erosion and plate tectonics erase older features from the surface.

New craters also expose materials below the surface. In this case, large chunks of ice scattered by the impact were viewed by MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) color camera.

Subsurface ice will be a vital resource for astronauts, who could use it for a variety of needs, including drinking water, agriculture and rocket propellant. Buried ice has never been spotted this close to the Martian equator, which, as the warmest part of Mars, is an appealing location for astronauts.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

The Perseverance Rover Is About to Reach a Big Mission Milestone at Jezero Crater...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA and ESA Agree on Next Steps to Return Mars Samples to Earth (News Release - October 28)

The agency’s Perseverance rover will establish the first sample depot on Mars.

The next step in the unprecedented campaign to return scientifically-selected samples from Mars was made on October 19 with a formal agreement between NASA and its partner ESA (European Space Agency). The two agencies will proceed with the creation of a sample tube depot on Mars. The sample depot, or cache, will be at “Three Forks,” an area located near the base of an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater.

This cache will contain samples from carefully-selected rocks on the surface of Mars – samples that can help tell the story of Jezero Crater’s history and how Mars evolved, and could perhaps even contain signs of ancient life. Scientists believe the cored samples from the delta’s fine-grained sedimentary rocks – deposited in a lake billions of years ago – are the mostly likely to contain indicators of whether microbial life existed when Mars’ climate was much different than what it is today.

“Never before has a scientifically-curated collection of samples from another planet been collected and placed for return to Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA and ESA have reviewed the proposed site and the Mars samples that will be deployed for this cache as soon as next month. When that first tube is positioned on the surface, it will be a historic moment in space exploration.”

The cache of samples – a duplicate set of the collection that Perseverance will retain on board – is one part of a robust plan to ensure mission success. The Perseverance rover will be the primary means to convey the collected samples to the Mars launch vehicle as part of the campaign. The Three Forks depot will serve as a backup, hosting the duplicate set.

“Choosing the first depot on Mars makes this exploration campaign very real and tangible. Now we have a place to revisit with samples waiting for us there,” said David Parker, ESA director of Human and Robotic Exploration. “That we can implement this plan so early in the campaign is a testament to the skill of the international team of engineers and scientists working on Perseverance and Mars Sample Return. The first depot of Mars samples can be considered a major de-risking step for the Mars Sample Return Campaign.”

The first step in the campaign is already in progress. Since Perseverance landed at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, the rover has explored 8.2 miles (13.2 kilometers) of Martian surface and collected 14 rock-core samples during its first two science campaigns. In the course of its first science campaign, the rover explored the crater’s floor – a former lakebed – finding igneous rock, which forms deep underground from magma or during volcanic activity at the surface. The second science campaign has been highlighted by the investigation of sedimentary rocks, formed when particles of various sizes settled in the once-watery environment.

The rover has also collected one atmospheric sample and three witness tubes. Witness tubes contain material that helps identify potential terrestrial contamination in the tubes that may have come from the rover during sampling operations.

“While a significant mission milestone will have taken place once those tubes are dropped, it doesn’t mean Perseverance explorations or sample collection has concluded – not by a long shot,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “Next, we’ll be headed up to the top of the delta to an area that from satellite imagery appears geologically rich, performing science investigations and collecting more rock cores. Mars Sample Return is going to have a lot of great stuff to choose from.”

In another important milestone, the Mars Sample Return Program entered the Preliminary Design and Technology Completion Phase, known as Phase B, on October 1. During this phase, the campaign focuses on completing technology development, engineering prototyping, assessments of software and heritage hardware, and other risk-mitigation activities.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

Hubble's Successor Takes Another Snapshot of an Iconic Celestial Region...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Haunting Portrait: NASA’s Webb Reveals Dust, Structure in Pillars of Creation (News Release - October 28)

This is not an ethereal landscape of time-forgotten tombs. Nor are these soot-tinged fingers reaching out. These pillars, flush with gas and dust, enshroud stars that are slowly forming over many millennia. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has snapped this eerie, extremely dusty view of the Pillars of Creation in mid-infrared light – showing us a new view of a familiar landscape.

Why does mid-infrared light set such a somber, chilling mood in Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image? Interstellar dust cloaks the scene. And while mid-infrared light specializes in detailing where dust is, the stars aren’t bright enough at these wavelengths to appear. Instead, these looming, leaden-hued pillars of gas and dust gleam at their edges, hinting at the activity within.

Thousands and thousands of stars have formed in this region. This is made plain when examining Webb’s recent Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. In MIRI’s view, the majority of the stars appear missing. Why? Many newly-formed stars are no longer surrounded by enough dust to be detected in mid-infrared light. Instead, MIRI observes young stars that have not yet cast off their dusty “cloaks.” These are the crimson orbs toward the fringes of the pillars. In contrast, the blue stars that dot the scene are aging, which means they have shed most of their layers of gas and dust.

Mid-infrared light excels at observing gas and dust in extreme detail. This is also unmistakable throughout the background. The densest areas of dust are the darkest shades of gray. The red region toward the top, which forms an uncanny V, like an owl with outstretched wings, is where the dust is diffuse and cooler. Notice that no background galaxies make an appearance – the interstellar medium in the densest part of the Milky Way’s disk is too swollen with gas and dust to allow their distant light to penetrate.

How vast is this landscape? Trace the topmost pillar, landing on the bright red star jutting out of its lower edge like a broomstick. This star and its dusty shroud are larger than the size of our entire solar system.

This scene was first captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories, like NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, have also gazed deeply at the Pillars of Creation. With every observation, astronomers gain new information, and through their ongoing research build a deeper understanding of this star-forming region. Each wavelength of light and advanced instrument delivers far more precise counts of the gas, dust, and stars, which inform researchers’ models of how stars form. As a result of the new MIRI image, astronomers now have higher resolution data in mid-infrared light than ever before, and will analyze its far more precise dust measurements to create a more complete three-dimensional landscape of this distant region.

The Pillars of Creation is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Scared of the dark? We didn’t turn the lights out! The baby stars in Webb’s near-infrared view (L) just aren’t easy to see in mid-infrared light (R). Instead, MIRI sees young stars with dusty cloaks — the red orbs at the pillars’ fringes — as well as scattered, aging blue stars. pic.twitter.com/4USUCrt2yF

— NASA Hallo-Webb Telescope 🕸🕷🎃 (@NASAWebb) October 28, 2022

Near-infrared 🤝 Mid-infrared

These Hubble and @NASAWebb views of the Pillars of Creation demonstrate how looking at the same cosmic object in different wavelengths of light can unveil different features: https://t.co/WgWBtmsyFn

More ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/quVjvE8fDx

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 28, 2022

The Launch of America's Next Asteroid Explorer Has Officially Been Rescheduled for Late 2023...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU

NASA Continues Psyche Asteroid Mission (News Release)

NASA announced Friday the agency decided its Psyche mission will go forward, targeting a launch period opening on October 10, 2023.

Earlier this year, Psyche missed its planned 2022 launch period as a result of mission development problems, leading to an internal review of whether the mission would be able to overcome these issues to successfully launch in 2023.

This continuation/termination review was informed by a project-proposed mission replan and a separate independent review, commissioned in June by NASA and the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, that investigated causes for the delay.

“I appreciate the hard work of the independent review board and the JPL-led team toward mission success,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The lessons learned from Psyche will be implemented across our entire mission portfolio. I am excited about the science insights Psyche will provide during its lifetime and its promise to contribute to our understanding of our own planet’s core.”

The independent review board is still finalizing its report, which, along with NASA’s response, will be shared publicly once complete.

The mission team continues to complete testing of the spacecraft’s flight software in preparation for the 2023 launch date. The new flight profile is similar to the one originally planned for August 2022, using a Mars gravity assist in 2026 to send the spacecraft on its way to the asteroid Psyche. With an October 2023 launch date, the Psyche spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid in August 2029.

“I’m extremely proud of the Psyche team,” said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “During this review, they have demonstrated significant progress already made toward the future launch date. I am confident in the plan moving forward and excited by the unique and important science this mission will return.”

NASA selected Psyche in 2017 to investigate a previously-unexplored metal-rich asteroid of the same name. It is part of the agency’s Discovery Program, a line of low-cost, competitive missions led by a single principal investigator.

NASA continues to assess options for its Janus mission exploring twin binary asteroid systems, which was originally scheduled to launch on the same SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as Psyche. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, is integrated into the Psyche spacecraft and will continue as planned on the new launch date.

Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is managing the launch. Psyche is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Source: NASA.Gov

On This Day in 2002: The Halos Emerge Victorious in the Fall Classic...

Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

It was 20 years ago today that the Anaheim Angels won the World Series after defeating Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants, 4-1, in Game 7 of that year's Fall Classic. This was the Angels' first and only championship in their 42-year history as of 2002...

The Angels would then be purchased by future Trump supporter Arte Moreno in early 2003 and unfortunately change their name to the ridiculous Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim two years after that...

Sell the team, Moreno. Anaheim isn't even located in Los Angeles County.

Photos of the Day: Snapshots of the MAGTF Demo and Blue Angels at Last Month's Miramar Air Show...

Richard T. Par

I'm over two weeks late based on what I mentioned in this Blog entry, but here are images that I took of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) demo and Blue Angels during last month's Miramar Air Show.

I've been taking snapshots of these two exciting exhibitions ever since I went to the Miramar Air Show for the first time back in 2016, but I never get tired of checking out amazing acrobatic maneuvers by the U.S. Navy's elite aerial demonstration team, as well as regular F/A-18 Hornets, F-35B Lightning IIs, an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter, V-22 Ospreys and other aircraft simulating a major combat operation in the middle of the airfield at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

With these pics now posted, I will now focus my efforts on editing more images from the Aerospace Valley Air Show that occurred five days ago! Happy Thursday.

LINK: Click here for more photos that I took at the 2022 Miramar Air Show


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

A Classic Photo by Hubble Is Given a Stellar Update by Its Successor...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA’s Webb Takes Star-Filled Portrait of Pillars of Creation (News Release)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly-detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation, which were first made famous when imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly-formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region. Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.

Newly-formed stars are the scene-stealers in this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). These are the bright red orbs that typically have diffraction spikes and lie outside one of the dusty pillars. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.

What about those wavy lines that look like lava at the edges of some pillars? These are ejections from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top – the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the clouds to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, there are no galaxies in this view. Instead, a mix of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium in the densest part of our Milky Way galaxy’s disk blocks our view of the deeper universe.

This scene was first imaged by Hubble in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories have also stared deeply at this region. Each advanced instrument offers researchers new details about this region, which is practically overflowing with stars.

This tightly-cropped image is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Source: NASA.Gov

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What better way to mark #NewFriendsDay than with this new view?

One of Hubble’s most iconic shots now has a complementary companion from our friend @NASAWebb!

This star-forming region is known as the Pillars of Creation, and shows a small region of the Eagle Nebula. pic.twitter.com/3FMoH0ro0P

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 19, 2022

If this majestic landscape looks familiar, you may recognize the original. Here, @NASAHubble’s iconic view, taken in visible light, is on the left. Webb “sees” in infrared light invisible to our eyes, allowing it to pierce through the dust and reveal stars galore (right). pic.twitter.com/iZVXOhcuRH

— NASA Hallo-Webb Telescope 🕸🕷🎃 (@NASAWebb) October 19, 2022

On This Day in 1997: I Earned the Right to Cruise the Road!

It was 25 years ago today that I passed my driving test at the Pomona DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles, for y'all non-Yanks reading this entry)! Obviously, I was totally excited considering the fact that this was my third attempt since my first exam in August of 1996.

Had I passed my driving test in the summer of Independence Day, I would've watched that sci-fi mega blockbuster at least two or three more times at the theater!

(Thinking more about it, I think August of 1996 was when I had my second driving test. Whatever. Either way, I would've watched ID4 at the multiplex as many times as I did the new Star Wars movies and Batman flicks like The Dark Knight if I had my license...and was able to borrow the family car.)

But I passed my driving test in the fall of 1997...during the first semester of my senior year in high school. That was definitely a memorable time for me.

Today also marks 20 years since I shot my student film version of The Broken Table! Click here for more details.

Hubble's Successor Captures an Image of Cosmic 'Tree Rings' Located 5,000 Light-Years Away...

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JPL-Caltech

Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space, NASA’s Webb Finds (News Release - October 12)

A new image shows at least 17 dust rings created by a rare type of star and its companion locked in a celestial dance.

A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over 5,000 light-years from Earth, the duo is collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140.

Each ring was created when the two stars came close together and their stellar winds (streams of gas they blow into space) met, compressing the gas and forming dust. The stars’ orbits bring them together about once every eight years; like the growth of rings on a tree’s trunk, the dust loops mark the passage of time.

“We’re looking at over a century of dust production from this system,” said Ryan Lau, an astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab and lead author of a new study about the system, published today in the journal Nature Astronomy. “The image also illustrates just how sensitive this telescope is. Before, we were only able to see two dust rings, using ground-based telescopes. Now we see at least 17 of them.”

In addition to Webb’s overall sensitivity, its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is uniquely qualified to study the dust rings – or what Lau and his colleagues call shells, because they are thicker and wider than they appear in the image. Webb’s science instruments detect infrared light, a range of wavelengths invisible to the human eye. MIRI detects the longest infrared wavelengths, which means it can often see cooler objects – including the dust rings – than Webb’s other instruments can. MIRI’s spectrometer also revealed the composition of the dust, formed mostly from material ejected by a type of star known as a Wolf-Rayet star.

MIRI was developed through a 50-50 partnership between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California led the effort for NASA, and a multinational consortium of European astronomical institutes contributed for ESA.

A Wolf-Rayet star is an O-type star, born with at least 25 times more mass than our Sun, that is nearing the end of its life, when it will likely collapse and form a black hole. Burning hotter than in its youth, a Wolf-Rayet star generates powerful winds that push huge amounts of gas into space. The Wolf-Rayet star in this particular pair may have shed more than half its original mass via this process.

Forming Dust in the Wind

Transforming gas into dust is somewhat like turning flour into bread: It requires specific conditions and ingredients. The most common element found in stars, hydrogen, can’t form dust on its own. But because Wolf-Rayet stars shed so much mass, they also eject more complex elements typically found deep in a star’s interior, including carbon. The heavy elements in the wind cool as they travel into space and are then compressed where the winds from both stars meet, like when two hands knead dough.

Some other Wolf-Rayet systems form dust, but none is known to make rings like Wolf-Rayet 140 does. The unique ring pattern forms because the orbit of the Wolf-Rayet star in WR 140 is elongated, not circular. Only when the stars come close together – about the same distance between Earth and the Sun – and their winds collide is the gas under sufficient pressure to form dust. With circular orbits, Wolf-Rayet binaries can produce dust continuously.

Lau and his co-authors think WR 140’s winds also swept the surrounding area clear of residual material they might otherwise collide with, which may be why the rings remain so pristine rather than smeared or dispersed. There are likely even more rings that have become so faint and dispersed, not even Webb can see them in the data.

Wolf-Rayet stars may seem exotic compared to our Sun, but they may have played a role in star and planet formation. When a Wolf-Rayet star clears an area, the swept-up material can pile up at the outskirts and become dense enough for new stars to form. There is some evidence the Sun formed in such a scenario.

Using data from MIRI’s Medium Resolution Spectroscopy mode, the new study provides the best evidence yet that Wolf-Rayet stars produce carbon-rich dust molecules. What’s more, the preservation of the dust shells indicates that this dust can survive in the hostile environment between stars, going on to supply material for future stars and planets.

The catch is that while astronomers estimate that there should be at least a few thousand Wolf-Rayet stars in our galaxy, only about 600 have been found to date.

“Even though Wolf-Rayet stars are rare in our galaxy because they are short-lived as far as stars go, it’s possible they’ve been producing lots of dust throughout the history of the galaxy before they explode and/or form black holes,” said Patrick Morris, an astrophysicist at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the new study. “I think with NASA’s new space telescope we’re going to learn a lot more about how these stars shape the material between stars and trigger new star formation in galaxies.”

Source: NASA.Gov

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Snapshots from the 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show!

Earlier today, I drove to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California to attend the Aerospace Valley Air Show...an event that hasn't taken place at the Mojave Desert-based military installation since 2009!

I stated in this previous Blog entry that I'd share more photos from last month's Miramar Air Show, but I didn't want to wait till I finally made that post to talk about today's exhibition.

While it was obviously cool to see the F-22 Raptor perform in San Diego last month, it was just as awesome that I got to see it on the ground today...along with all three variants of the F-35 Lightning II: The Air Force's F-35A, the Marine Corps' F-35B and the Navy's F-35C. As shown below, I only took images of the F-35A and 'C aircraft—since I already have plenty of photos of the F-35B from the three Miramar Air Shows I went to since 2016!

I was also able to see up close NASA's now-retired SOFIA airborne observatory, as well as the full-size Darkstar model used in this year's highest-grossing film, Top Gun: Maverick. So cool!

I'll eventually create a webpage dedicated to the AV Air Show, just like I did with this section that's devoted to last month's Miramar Air Show. Hope you guys are having a great weekend!

Peregrine Update #2: Astrobotic's Moon-bound Robotic Spacecraft Continues to Take Form...

Astrobotic

Earlier today, Astrobotic released the last two photos below showing that its Peregrine Moon lander continues to make progress as it will soon complete assembly in Pittsburgh, PA. Once construction is finished, the lunar spacecraft will begin pre-flight tests before heading out to Florida for its launch aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year.

Based on the illustration above, it appears that the last major components to be added are the front and rear enclosure decks, as well as the four legs to be reinstalled.

However, the five main engines and altitude control system thrusters aren't visible at the bottom of the lander in the two new images, so it seems like they might be a work in progress as well.

With that being said, it's still great to see the Peregrine lander take shape! And visible in the very last pic below is the student-built Iris Rover after it was attached to one of Peregrine's payload decks almost a year ago. This definitely has to be exciting news for Carnegie Mellon University...which constructed the four-wheeled lunar explorer!

Happy Friday.


Astrobotic / Keystone Space Collaborative


Astrobotic


Astrobotic

Peregrine's Ride to the Moon Will Soon be Completed and Ready for Launch Early Next Year...

United Launch Alliance

ULA Sets Path Forward for Inaugural Vulcan Flight Test (News Release - October 12)

Next generation rocket to transform the future of space launch

Centennial, Colo. – United Launch Alliance (ULA) is nearing completion of the development of the next-generation Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle and sets path for its first launch early next year.

“We could not be more excited to be this close to seeing Vulcan lift off on its inaugural flight,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “Vulcan’s high-energy design coupled with innovative technology provides one scalable system for all missions and will transform the future of space launch.”

ULA is proceeding to a first flight of Vulcan 1st quarter 2023 to align with a request from its payload customer Astrobotic, who will be flying its Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

This commercial mission is part of ULA’s requirement to meet the U.S. Space Force certification of its new launch vehicle. Mark Peller, vice president of Major Development, stated “We are committed to ensuring we fly the first certification mission and stay on schedule to achieve U.S. Space Force certification of Vulcan in advance of our first national security space mission in 4th quarter 2023.”

In addition to the Astrobotic and Celestis payloads, Vulcan will carry two demonstration satellites for Amazon as part of its Project Kuiper.

The first Vulcan launch vehicle is nearing completion in ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama and is awaiting installation of its BE-4 engines. We expect to ship the completed vehicle to the launch site in November.

Once at the Cape, Vulcan will undergo a final series of tests to verify its readiness for flight consisting of multiple tanking tests and a wet dress rehearsal, culminating in a flight readiness firing in December, which will be the final step prior to launch. Following the successful final testing, Astrobotic and the other payloads will be installed on the launch vehicle.

“This has been an incredible journey to get to this point and I am so proud of the development team,” said Bruno. “We look forward to the first flight as Vulcan offers all customers higher performance and greater affordability while continuing to deliver our unmatched reliability.”

Leveraging a legacy of 100 percent mission success launching more than 150 missions to explore, protect and enhance our world, ULA is the nation’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider with world-leading reliability, schedule confidence and mission optimization. We deliver value unmatched by any launch services company in the industry, a tireless drive to improve and commitment to the extraordinary.

Source: United Launch Alliance

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Astrobotic

Ok. By popular demand, here is the Vulcan first flight booster being fitted out in Decatur for it’s trip to space later this year. #VulcanRocket pic.twitter.com/GFFqj5OF9J

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) June 9, 2022

By popular demand, a clearer view. #VulcanRocket
(that "small' tank next to it is a Delta IV...) pic.twitter.com/AMn3Doy0ft

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) May 5, 2022

We’ll ok then. Here it is. The first flight payload fairing. #VulcanRocket! . @Astrobotic how does it look? #CountdowntoVulcan pic.twitter.com/roGp5JwYnT

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) August 25, 2022

I had to step in for Standard Brian today. He was busy building rockets elsewhere in the plant. (And, I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that I was seen hugging this ⁦@blueorigin⁩ BE4 flight engine in Decatur moments before). #VulcanRocket #CountdowntoVulcan pic.twitter.com/BQc9DYtrR6

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) October 12, 2022

On This Day in 2012: Endeavour Begins Her 3-Day Parade Through the Streets of Los Angeles...

Just thought I'd share these photos I took 10 years ago when Endeavour—NASA's youngest retired space shuttle orbiter—began her 3-day move from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center near downtown L.A.!

I didn't go to the science center when Endeavour finally arrived at the museum on Sunday, October 14, 2012...but I was lucky enough to head to the cities of Westchester and Inglewood on October 12 to see the orbiter sitting at a parking lot; while engineers prepared to resume her move down the 12-mile route taking Endeavour to her final retirement home in Exposition Park.

And it was awesome to see Endeavour sitting outside the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and a nearby Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop on the night of October 13 a decade ago. A $1.8 billion (in 1987 U.S. dollars) reusable spacecraft parked outside a shopping mall... You'll never witness that again!

Click here to see more photos from Endeavour's parade.

SUCCESS! Humanity Has ONE LESS Way of Becoming Extinct (Presumably)...

NASA / ESA / STScI / Hubble

NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space (Press Release)

Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft's kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid-deflection technology.

“All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us. NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA's exceptional team and partners from around the world.”

Prior to DART’s impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. Since DART’s intentional collision with Dimorphos on September 26, astronomers have been using telescopes on Earth to measure how much that time has changed. Now, the investigation team has confirmed the spacecraft’s impact altered Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening the 11 hour and 55-minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes. This measurement has a margin of uncertainty of approximately plus or minus 2 minutes.

Before its encounter, NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. This early data show DART surpassed this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times.

“This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART’s impact with its target asteroid” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.”

The investigation team is still acquiring data with ground-based observatories around the world – as well as with radar facilities at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone planetary radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. They are updating the period measurement with frequent observations to improve its precision.

Focus now is shifting toward measuring the efficiency of momentum transfer from DART’s roughly 14,000-mile (22,530-kilometer) per hour collision with its target. This includes further analysis of the "ejecta” – the many tons of asteroidal rock displaced and launched into space by the impact. The recoil from this blast of debris substantially enhanced DART’s push against Dimorphos – a little like a jet of air streaming out of a balloon sends the balloon in the opposite direction.

To successfully understand the effect of the recoil from the ejecta, more information of the asteroid’s physical properties, such as the characteristics of its surface and how strong or weak it is, is needed. These issues are still being investigated.

“DART has given us some fascinating data about both asteroid properties and the effectiveness of a kinetic impactor as a planetary defense technology,” said Nancy Chabot, the DART coordination lead from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The DART team is continuing to work on this rich dataset to fully understand this first planetary defense test of asteroid deflection.”

For this analysis, astronomers will continue to study imagery of Dimorphos from DART’s terminal approach and from the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), provided by the Italian Space Agency, to approximate the asteroid’s mass and shape. Roughly four years from now, the European Space Agency’s Hera project is also planned to conduct detailed surveys of both Dimorphos and Didymos, with a particular focus on the crater left by DART’s collision and a precise measurement of Dimorphos’ mass.

Johns Hopkins APL built and operated the DART spacecraft and manages the DART mission for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency's Planetary Missions Program Office. Telescopic facilities contributing to the observations used by the DART team to determine this result include: Goldstone, Green Bank Observatory, Swope Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the Danish Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network facilities in Chile and in South Africa.

Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos poses any hazard to Earth before or after DART’s controlled collision with Dimorphos.

****

CONFIRMED: Analysis of data obtained over the past 2 weeks by the #DARTMission team shows impact with Dimorphos has successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit by 32 minutes - marking the 1st time humans have changed the orbit of a celestial object in space! https://t.co/MjmUAFwVSO pic.twitter.com/4Qiy1mC4gK

— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) October 11, 2022

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that DART changed Dimorphos' orbit around its parent asteroid, Didymos, by about 32 minutes. The team would have considered even a 10-minute change a success.https://t.co/hbNTvJA9W6

— Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) October 11, 2022

Now we know we can stop an asteroid impact, we need to find any threats early enough to take action.

NASA's NEO Surveyor mission is designed to do that. It's facing a 75% cut this year, but there's still time for Congress to reverse that. https://t.co/K8LdoEMfik

— Casey Dreier (@CaseyDreier) October 11, 2022

💫 Nuove immagini dell'impatto della #DARTmission sull'asteroide #Dimorphos, che variato la sua traiettoria attorno a #Didymos di oltre 30 minuti.
✨ New images of DART's impact on #Dimorphos asteroid, which caused a deviation of its trajectory around #Didymos by over 30 minutes. pic.twitter.com/wA8z9bQZnB

— LICIACube (@LICIACube) October 11, 2022

I think it's fair to say that NASA's #DART mission was a...smashing...success. When the spacecraft slammed into Dimorphos, it only needed to change the asteroid's orbit by 73 seconds. Instead, it slowed the little space rock by a whopping 32 minutes. https://t.co/aoCz1mpE6D

— Dr. Nadia Drake (@nadiamdrake) October 11, 2022

Photos of the Day #2: Images from the Warner Bros. Studio Lot...

Just thought I'd share these pictures that I took when I worked at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank yesterday!

I can't tell you what show I appeared on as a background actor last night, but I will tell you that it was great to be at this historic North Hollywood locale for the first time since 2018.

Along with Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, this is one of my favorite movie studios to set foot in ever since I began working in the entertainment industry 18 years ago.

I would also include Fox Studios in Century City among my list of favorite showbiz worksites, but it's not as historic as the two lots mentioned above.

However, Fox Studios was the very first lot I visited when I was a film school student at Cal State Long Beach back in 2003! My classmates shot a short film called Fellini's Donut (posted below) inside one of the soundstages there. I was the caterer on this shoot, heh.

Happy Saturday!

I have time to kill before I start work. 🙂#SetLife #BigBangTheory pic.twitter.com/eLPaUtMAqR

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) October 8, 2022

Photos of the Day: More Snapshots of the Raptor and Mustang During Their Heritage Flight Demo at the Miramar Air Show...

Richard T. Par

As previously mentioned in this Blog entry last weekend, here are more images that I took of the F-22 Raptor and P-51 Mustang during their U.S. Air Force Heritage Flight demonstration at the Miramar Air Show on September 24.

These seven images were taken with my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera. Having posted enough pics of the Raptor since this initial entry last month, I think it's time to start editing photos from other exhibitions at the San Diego-based air show...including a U.S. Marine Corps combat demo featuring F/A-18 Hornets, F-35 Lightning IIs, AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and V-22 Ospreys, and the Blue Angels themselves!

Stay tuned, and Happy Hump Day.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par