President Biden vs. President Musk...

This photo speaks for itself...

In regards to the debacle that occurred between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, convicted felon Donald Trump and alleged couch molester JD Vance in the White House today, all I have to say is: Slava Ukraini!

Athena and the MAPP Rover Are Now Headed to the Moon!

SpaceX

Liftoff! NASA Tech, Science En Route to Moon with Intuitive Machines (News Release)

The next set of NASA science and technology demonstrations is on its way to the lunar surface, where they will gather data about Earth’s nearest neighbor and help pave the way for American astronauts to explore the Moon and beyond, for the benefit of all.

Carrying NASA instruments as part of the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission launched at 7:16 p.m. EST, February 26, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander is scheduled to touch down on Thursday, March 6, in Mons Mouton, a plateau at the Moon’s South Pole.

“With each CLPS mission, the United States is leading the way in expanding our reach and refining our capabilities, turning what was once dreams into reality,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. “These science and technology demonstrations are more than payloads – they represent the foundation for future explorers who will live and work on the Moon. By partnering with American industry, we are driving innovation, strengthening our leadership in space, and preparing for sending humans farther into the Solar System, including Mars.”

Once on the Moon, the NASA CLPS investigations will aim to measure the potential presence of volatiles or gases from lunar soil – one of the first on-site demonstrations of resource use on the Moon. In addition, a passive Laser Retroreflector Array on the top deck of the lander will bounce laser light back at any future orbiting or incoming spacecraft to give them a permanent reference point on the lunar surface. Other technology instruments on this delivery will demonstrate a robust surface communications system and deploy a propulsive drone designed to hop across the lunar surface.

NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, which launched as a rideshare with the IM-2 mission, also began its journey to lunar orbit, where it will map the distribution of the different forms of water on the Moon. Lunar Trailblazer will discover where the Moon’s water is, what form it is in, and how it changes over time. Observations gathered during its two-year prime mission will contribute to the understanding of water cycles on airless bodies throughout the Solar System while also supporting future human and robotic missions to the Moon by identifying where water is located.

NASA’s Artemis campaign includes conducting more science to better understand planetary processes and evolution, to search for evidence of water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration.

The NASA science and technology instruments that launched aboard the IM-2 mission are:

-- Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1): This experiment will explore the Moon’s subsurface and analyze where lunar resources may reside. The experiment’s two key instruments will demonstrate the ability to extract and analyze lunar soil to detect volatile chemical compounds that turn into gas. The two instruments will work in tandem: The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrains will drill into the Moon’s surface to collect samples, while the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations will analyze these samples to determine the gas composition released across the sampling depth.

The PRIME-1 technology will provide valuable data to better understand the Moon’s surface and how to work with and on it.

-- Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA): This collection of eight retroreflectors will enable precision laser ranging, which is a measurement of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft to the reflector on the lander. The LRA is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come.

-- Micro Nova Hopper: Funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Tipping Point initiative, Intuitive Machines’ Micro Nova hopper, Grace, is designed to enable high-resolution surveying of the lunar surface under its flight path. This autonomous propulsive drone aims to deploy to the surface and hop into a nearby crater to survey the lunar surface and send science data back to the lander. It’s designed to hop in and out of a permanently shadowed region, providing a first look into undiscovered regions that may provide critical information to sustain a human presence on the Moon.

-- Nokia Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS): Also developed with funding from NASA’s Tipping Point initiative, Nokia’s LSCS 4G/LTE communications system will demonstrate cellular communications between the Intuitive Machines lander, Lunar Outpost's MAPP rover, and the Micro Nova hopper. Engineered to transmit high-definition video, command-and-control messages, and sensor and telemetry data, the LSCS aims to demonstrate an ultra-compact advanced communication solution for future infrastructure on the Moon and beyond.

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Lunar Outpost


Intuitive Machines


Intuitive Machines

America's Newest Jupiter-bound Orbiter Will Soon Fly Past the Red Planet for a Gravity Assist...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s Europa Clipper Uses Mars to Go the Distance (News Release)

The orbiter bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa will investigate whether the moon is habitable, but it first will get the help of Mars’ gravitational force to get to deep space.

On March 1, NASA’s Europa Clipper will streak just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface of Mars for what’s known as a gravity assist — a maneuver to bend the spacecraft’s trajectory and position it for a critical leg of its long voyage to the Jupiter system. The close flyby offers a bonus opportunity for mission scientists, who will test their radar instrument and thermal imager.

Europa Clipper will be closest to the Red Planet at 12:57 p.m. EST, approaching it at about 15.2 miles per second (24.5 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun. For about 12 hours prior and 12 hours after that time, the spacecraft will use the gravitational pull of Mars to pump the brakes and reshape its orbit around the Sun. As the orbiter leaves Mars behind, it will be traveling at a speed of about 14 miles per second (22.5 kilometers per second).

The flyby sets up Europa Clipper for its second gravity assist — a close encounter with Earth in December 2026 that will act as a slingshot and give the spacecraft a velocity boost. After that, it’s a straightforward trek to the outer Solar System; the probe is set to arrive at Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030.

“We come in very fast, and the gravity from Mars acts on the spacecraft to bend its path,” said Brett Smith, a mission systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Meanwhile, we’re exchanging a small amount of energy with the planet, so we leave on a path that will bring us back past Earth.”

Harnessing Gravity

Europa Clipper launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024, via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, embarking on a 1.8-billion-mile (2.9-billion-kilometer) trip to Jupiter, which is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Without the assists from Mars in 2025 and from Earth in 2026, the 12,750-pound (6,000-kilogram) spacecraft would require additional propellant, which adds weight and cost, or it would take much longer to get to Jupiter.

Gravity assists are baked into NASA’s mission planning, as engineers figure out early on how to make the most of the momentum in our Solar System. Famously, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which launched in 1977, took advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary lineup to fly by the gas giants, harnessing their gravity and capturing data about them.

While navigators at JPL, which manages Europa Clipper and Voyager, have been designing flight paths and using gravity assists for decades, the process of calculating a spacecraft’s trajectory in relation to planets that are constantly on the move is never simple.

“It’s like a game of billiards around the Solar System, flying by a couple of planets at just the right angle and timing to build up the energy we need to get to Jupiter and Europa,” said JPL’s Ben Bradley, Europa Clipper mission planner. “Everything has to line up — the geometry of the Solar System has to be just right to pull it off.”

Refining the Path

Navigators sent the spacecraft on an initial trajectory that left some buffer around Mars so that if anything were to go wrong in the weeks after launch, Europa Clipper wouldn’t risk impacting the planet. Then the team used the spacecraft’s engines to veer closer to Mars’ orbit in what are called trajectory correction maneuvers, or TCMs.

Mission controllers have performed three TCMs to set the stage for the Mars gravity assist — in early November, late January and on February 14. They will conduct another TCM about 15 days after the Mars flyby to ensure that the spacecraft is on track and are likely to conduct additional ones — upwards of 200 — throughout the mission, which is set to last until 2034.

Opportunity for Science

While navigators are relying on the gravity assist for fuel efficiency and to keep the spacecraft on their planned path, scientists are looking forward to the event to take advantage of the close proximity to the Red Planet and test two of the mission’s science instruments.

About a day prior to the closest approach, the mission will calibrate the thermal imager, resulting in a multicolored image of Mars in the months following as the data is returned and scientists process the data. And near closest approach, they’ll have the radar instrument perform a test of its operations — the first time that all of its components will be tested together. The radar antennas are so massive, and the wavelengths they produce so long that it wasn’t possible for engineers to test them on Earth before launch.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Firefly Looks Ahead to the March 2 Lunar Touchdown of its Robotic Lander...

Firefly Aerospace

Blue Ghost Prepares for Landing, NASA Instrument Breaks Record (News Release)

Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 is nearly one week away from its Moon landing on Sunday, March 2, after launching on January 15. In preparation for landing, Blue Ghost will complete its final lunar orbit maneuver scheduled for Monday, February 24. This maneuver will insert Blue Ghost into a near-circular low lunar orbit, bringing the lander closer to the lunar surface.

Then about one hour before touchdown, Blue Ghost will complete its Descent Orbit Insertion burn, which will initiate the lander’s descent trajectory towards its landing site, Mare Crisium, on the near side of the Moon.

Live coverage of the landing, jointly hosted by NASA and Firefly, will air on NASA+ starting at 2:30 a.m. EST, approximately 75 minutes before Blue Ghost touches down on the Moon’s surface. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. The broadcast will also stream on Firefly’s YouTube channel.

Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates as the descent milestones occur.

All 10 NASA instruments on this flight are currently healthy and ready to operate on the lunar surface. The payloads that are able to power on and operate have also collected some noteworthy data during lunar transit. Two highlights include:

The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for the first time in lunar orbit – a new record! This achievement, peaking at 246,000 miles, suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation in transit to, around, and potentially on the Moon. It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation.

After lunar landing, LuGRE will operate for 14 days and attempt to break another record – first reception of GNSS signals on the lunar surface.

The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or LEXI, telescope was successfully turned on shortly after launch on January 15. The instrument has operated for several hours every day conducting checkouts and initial commissioning, operating for a total of more than 50 hours so far in preparation for collecting images from the lunar surface.

Follow along on NASA’s Artemis Blog as Blue Ghost Mission 1 continues its journey to the Moon. Additional mission updates can also be found on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page.

Source: NASA.Gov

The Latest Update on the Orbital Test Vehicle...

U.S. Space Force

Novel Space Maneuver Conducted by X-37B (Photo Release)

An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in a highly-elliptical orbit in 2024.

As part of the X-37B's seventh mission, the vehicle executed a series of first-of-its-kind maneuvers, called aerobraking, to safely change its orbit using minimal fuel.

Source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service

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Boeing

Looking Ahead to Blue Ghost's Big Day on March 2...

Firefly Aerospace

NASA Sets Coverage of Firefly’s First Robotic Commercial Moon Landing (News Release - February 14)

With a suite of NASA science and technology on board, Firefly Aerospace is targeting no earlier than 3:45 a.m. EST on Sunday, March 2, to land the Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon. Blue Ghost is slated to touch down near Mare Crisium, a plain in the northeast quadrant on the near side of the Moon, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign to establish a long-term lunar presence.

Live coverage of the landing, jointly hosted by NASA and Firefly, will air on NASA+ starting at 2:30 a.m. EST, approximately 75 minutes before touchdown on the Moon’s surface. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. The broadcast will also stream on Firefly’s YouTube channel.

Landing coverage will include live streaming and blog updates as the descent milestones occur.

Accredited media interested in attending the in-person landing event hosted by Firefly in the Austin, Texas, area may request media credentials through this form by Monday, February 24.

Following the landing, NASA and Firefly will host a news conference to discuss the mission and science opportunities that lie ahead as they begin lunar surface operations. The time of the briefing will be shared after touchdown.

Blue Ghost launched January 15, at 1:11 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander is carrying a suite of 10 NASA scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, which will provide insights into the Moon’s environment and test technologies to support future astronauts landing safely on the lunar surface, as well as Mars.

NASA continues to work with multiple American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface through the agency’s CLPS initiative. This pool of companies may bid on contracts for end-to-end lunar delivery services, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth, and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA’s CLPS contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum value of $2.6 billion through 2028.

In February 2021, the agency awarded Firefly this delivery of 10 NASA science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon using its American-designed and -manufactured lunar lander for approximately $93.3 million (modified to $101.5 million).

Through the Artemis campaign, commercial robotic deliveries will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities on and around the Moon to help NASA explore in advance of Artemis Generation astronaut missions to the lunar surface, and ultimately crewed missions to Mars.

Source: NASA.Gov

Firefly's Robotic Lander Has Arrived at the Moon!

Firefly Aerospace

Blue Ghost Remains on Track, Lunar Orbit Insertion Burn Complete (News Release)

After about a month in transit to the Moon, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully completed a four-minute lunar orbit insertion burn on Thursday – the longest and most challenging burn conducted to date by the lander’s main engine and reaction control system thrusters.

Now that the lander is in lunar trajectory, over the next 16 days, additional maneuvers will take the lander from an elliptical orbit to a circular orbit around the Moon. Blue Ghost Mission 1 is targeted to land on Sunday, March 2, at 3:45 a.m. EST. During the lunar orbit insertion burn, Blue Ghost captured a picture of the Moon’s South Pole (below).

NASA instrument and Firefly mission updates will continue to be shared here on NASA’s Artemis Blog and Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Firefly Aerospace

I love you to the Moon, but not back - I'm staying there," 💙 Blue Ghost. We captured our first shots of the Moon following a successful Lunar Orbit Insertion. The lander will soon begin to circularize its orbit in preparation for landing on March 2. #BGM1 pic.twitter.com/2FclZ1hnvb

— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) February 14, 2025

The Latest Discovery by the Webb Space Telescope...

NASA, ESA, CSA, Kristen McQuinn & Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This Tiny Galaxy Is Answering Some Big Questions (Press Release)

Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal patterns of star formation in an isolated dwarf galaxy.

Sometimes little galaxies hold big clues to star formation over cosmic time. An STScI-led team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope to study Leo P, a dwarf galaxy located about 5.3 million light-years from Earth that was discovered in 2013. Leo P is relatively isolated from other, larger galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda, which means that it has been unaffected by their influence.

The team found that Leo P formed stars early on but then stopped making them shortly after a period known as the Epoch of Reionization, which brought an end to the Universe’s “dark ages.” After a few billion years, the galaxy reignited and started forming new stars again. This is unusual because most dwarf galaxies whose star formation shut down never restarted.

Over cosmic time, galaxies start small and grow larger by accumulating gas and merging with each other. Many small “seed” galaxies persist into the present day, and astronomers study these dwarf galaxies to learn how they have evolved over time. Of particular interest, isolated dwarf galaxies that have been unaffected by mergers can provide a window into processes that function on a cosmic scale.

A team of researchers has found that a nearby, isolated dwarf galaxy whose star formation had largely ceased early in the Universe later “reignited,” experiencing a rebirth that many other small galaxies didn’t. The results were presented in a press conference at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland. They were also published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Principal investigator Kristen McQuinn, of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, and her team studied Leo P, a dwarf galaxy some 5.3 million light-years from Earth that was discovered in 2013. Leo P is far enough away from the Local Group, a gathering of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, to be a neighbor without being affected by them. The “P” in Leo P refers to “pristine,” because the galaxy has so few chemical elements besides hydrogen and helium.

“Leo P provides a unique laboratory to explore the early evolution of a low-mass galaxy in detail,” said McQuinn, who is also the mission head of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Science Operations Center at STScI.

McQuinn and her team studied Leo P using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. They imaged Leo P using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to determine the brightness and colors of thousands of stars within the dwarf galaxy. That data yielded information about the star formation history within the galaxy.

The team found that Leo P formed stars early on but then stopped making them shortly after a period known as the Epoch of Reionization, a significant period in the early history of the Universe. After a few billion years, the galaxy reignited and started forming new stars again.

“We have a measurement like this for only three other galaxies that are all isolated from the Milky Way, and they all show a similar pattern,” McQuinn said. Observations of dwarf galaxies within the Local Group, however, show that star production within them ceased after the Epoch of Reionization and never resumed.

The contrast between the star production of isolated dwarf galaxies versus those in the Local Group provides compelling evidence that it isn’t just the mass of a galaxy at the time of reionization that determines whether its star formation will be shut down, or quenched. Its environment — meaning whether it is isolated or functioning as a satellite of a larger system — is an important factor.

McQuinn said that the observations will help pin down not only when little galaxies formed their stars, but also how the reionization of the Universe may have impacted how small structures form. “If the trend holds, it provides insights about the growth of low-mass structures that are not only a fundamental constraint for structure formation but a benchmark for cosmological simulations,” she said.

The researchers also found that Leo P is metal-poor, possessing 3% of the Sun’s heavy elements (which astronomers call metals). This makes Leo P similar to the primordial galaxies of the early Universe. The researchers plan to use Webb to study four additional isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxies to determine if similar trends in star formation rates are common among them.

Source: Space Telescope Science Institute

Blue Ghost Is Officially on its Way to the Moon!

Ansys STK / LSAS Tec

More NASA Science Received During Earth Orbit, Firefly Begins Lunar Transit Phase (News Release)

After a successful Trans-Lunar Injection burn on Saturday, February 8, Firefly’s spacecraft carrying NASA science and tech to the Moon has departed Earth’s orbit and begun its four-day transit to the Moon’s orbit. Blue Ghost will then spend approximately 16 days in lunar orbit before beginning its descent operations.

Since launching more than three weeks ago, Blue Ghost has performed dozens of health tests generating 13 gigabytes of data. All 10 NASA payloads onboard are currently healthy and ready for surface operations on the Moon.

NASA’s Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC), developed by Montana State University, successfully operated while passing through the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, providing insight on how to mitigate the effects of radiation on computers. This helps improve our understanding of the radiation environment that future astronauts may experience on Artemis missions.

During an on-orbit health check, NASA’s Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS), developed by the Southwest Research Institute, accurately detected a change in magnetic fields. This is a positive sign that LMS will be able to measure the Moon’s magnetic and electrical fields, shedding light on the Moon’s interior temperature and composition on the lunar surface.

Also during a health check, Firefly and NASA teams captured data and an interior image of the sample container from NASA’s Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), indicating that the payload is operational in advance of surface operations on the Moon. The LPV payload is a technology demonstration that is designed to efficiently collect and transfer lunar soil from the surface to other science instruments or sample return containers without reliance on gravity.

Follow along on NASA’s Artemis blog as Blue Ghost Mission 1, carrying the agency’s science and technology, continues its journey to the Moon. Additional mission updates can also be found on Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 page.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Firefly Aerospace

A Mars Lander Continues to Make Discoveries Years After It Permanently Fell Silent...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona

NASA’s InSight Finds Marsquakes From Meteoroids Go Deeper Than Expected (News Release - February 3)

With help from AI, scientists discovered a fresh crater made by an impact that shook material as deep as the Red Planet’s mantle.

Meteoroids striking Mars produce seismic signals that can reach deeper into the planet than previously known. That’s the finding of a pair of new papers comparing marsquake data collected by NASA’s InSight lander with impact craters spotted by the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The papers, published on Monday, February 3, in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), highlight how scientists continue to learn from InSight, which NASA retired in 2022 after a successful extended mission. InSight set the first seismometer on Mars, detecting more than 1,300 marsquakes, which are produced by shaking deep inside the planet (caused by rocks cracking under heat and pressure) and by space rocks striking the surface.

By observing how seismic waves from those quakes change as they travel through the planet’s crust, mantle and core, scientists get a glimpse into Mars’ interior, as well as a better understanding of how all rocky worlds form, including Earth and its Moon.

Researchers have in the past taken images of new impact craters and found seismic data that matches the date and location of the craters’ formation. But the two new studies represent the first time that a fresh impact has been correlated with shaking detected in Cerberus Fossae, an especially quake-prone region of Mars that is 1,019 miles (1,640 kilometers) from InSight.

The impact crater is 71 feet (21.5 meters) in diameter and much farther from InSight than scientists expected, based on the quake’s seismic energy. The Martian crust has unique properties thought to dampen seismic waves produced by impacts, and researchers’ analysis of the Cerberus Fossae impact led them to conclude that the waves it produced took a more direct route through the planet’s mantle.

InSight’s team will now have to reassess their models of the composition and structure of Mars’ interior to explain how impact-generated seismic signals can go that deep.

“We used to think the energy detected from the vast majority of seismic events was stuck traveling within the Martian crust,” said InSight team member Constantinos Charalambous of Imperial College London. “This finding shows a deeper, faster path — call it a seismic highway — through the mantle, allowing quakes to reach more distant regions of the planet.”

Spotting Mars Craters With MRO

A machine-learning algorithm developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to detect meteoroid impacts on Mars played a key role in discovering the Cerberus Fossae crater. In a matter of hours, the artificial intelligence tool can sift through tens of thousands of black-and-white images captured by MRO’s Context Camera, detecting the blast zones around craters. The tool selects candidate images for examination by scientists practiced at telling which subtle colorations on Mars deserve more detailed imaging by MRO’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

“Done manually, this would be years of work,” said InSight team member Valentin Bickel of the University of Bern in Switzerland. “Using this tool, we went from tens of thousands of images to just a handful in a matter of days. It’s not quite as good as a human, but it’s super fast.”

Bickel and his colleagues searched for craters within roughly 1,864 miles (3,000 kilometers) of InSight’s location, hoping to find some that formed while the lander’s seismometer was recording. By comparing before-and-after images from the Context Camera over a range of time, they found 123 fresh craters to cross-reference with InSight’s data; 49 of those were potential matches with quakes detected by the lander’s seismometer. Charalambous and other seismologists filtered that pool further to identify the 71-foot Cerberus Fossae impact crater.

Deciphering More, Faster

The more scientists study InSight’s data, the better they become at distinguishing signals originating inside the planet from those caused by meteoroid strikes. The impact found in Cerberus Fossae will help them further refine how they tell these signals apart.

“We thought Cerberus Fossae produced lots of high-frequency seismic signals associated with internally-generated quakes, but this suggests some of the activity does not originate there and could actually be from impacts instead,” Charalambous said.

The findings also highlight how researchers are harnessing AI to improve planetary science by making better use of all the data gathered by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) missions. In addition to studying Martian craters, Bickel has used AI to search for landslides, dust devils and seasonal dark features that appear on steep slopes, called slope streaks or recurring slope linae. AI tools have been used to find craters and landslides on Earth’s Moon as well.

“Now we have so many images from the Moon and Mars that the struggle is to process and analyze the data,” Bickel said. “We’ve finally arrived in the big data era of planetary science.”

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

America's Newest Jupiter-bound Orbiter Has Taken Its First Glimpse of Space...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

En Route to Jupiter, NASA’s Europa Clipper Captures Images of Stars (News Release)

The spacecraft’s star trackers help engineers orient the orbiter throughout its long journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

Three months after its launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Europa Clipper has another 1.6 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to go before it reaches Jupiter’s orbit in 2030 to take close-up images of the icy moon Europa with science cameras.

Meanwhile, a set of cameras serving a different purpose is snapping photos in the space between Earth and Jupiter. Called star trackers, the two imagers look for stars and use them like a compass to help mission controllers know the exact orientation of the spacecraft — information critical for pointing telecommunications antennas toward Earth and sending data back and forth smoothly.

In early December, the pair of star trackers (formally known as the stellar reference units) captured and transmitted Europa Clipper’s first imagery of space. The picture, composed of three shots, shows tiny pinpricks of light from stars 150 to 300 light-years away. The starfield represents only about 0.1% of the full sky around the spacecraft, but by mapping the stars in just that small slice of sky, the orbiter is able to determine where it is pointed and orient itself correctly.

The starfield includes the four brightest stars — Gienah, Algorab, Kraz and Alchiba — of the constellation Corvus, which is Latin for “crow,” a bird in Greek mythology that was associated with Apollo.

Hardware Checkout

Besides being interesting to stargazers, the photos signal the successful checkout of the star trackers. The spacecraft checkout phase has been going on since Europa Clipper launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on October 14, 2024.

“The star trackers are engineering hardware and are always taking images, which are processed on board,” said Joanie Noonan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who leads the mission’s guidance, navigation and control operations. “We usually don’t downlink photos from the trackers, but we did in this case because it’s a really good way to make sure the hardware — including the cameras and their lenses — made it safely through launch.”

Pointing the spacecraft correctly is not about navigation, which is a separate operation. But orientation using the star trackers is critical for telecommunications as well as for the science operations of the mission. Engineers need to know where the science instruments are pointed.

These science instruments include the sophisticated Europa Imaging System (EIS), which will collect images that will help scientists map and examine the moon’s mysterious fractures, ridges and valleys. For at least the next three years, EIS has its protective covers closed.

Europa Clipper carries nine science instruments, plus the telecommunications equipment that will be used for a gravity science investigation. During the mission’s 49 flybys of Europa, the suite will gather data that will tell scientists if the icy moon and its internal ocean have the conditions to harbor life.

The spacecraft is already 53 million miles (85 million kilometers) from Earth, zipping along at 17 miles per second (27 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun, and will soon fly by Mars. On March 1, engineers will steer the craft in a loop around the Red Planet, using its gravity to gain speed.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA's Mothballed Lunar Rover May Fly, After All...

NASA

NASA Presses Forward Search for VIPER Moon Rover Partner (News Release)

To advance plans of securing a public/private partnership and land and operate NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission on the Moon in collaboration with industry, the agency announced on Monday that it is seeking U.S. proposals. As part of the agency’s Artemis campaign, instruments on VIPER will demonstrate U.S. industry’s ability to search for ice on the lunar surface and collect science data.

The Announcement for Partnership Proposal contains proposal instructions and evaluation criteria for a new Lunar Volatiles Science Partnership. Responses are due on Thursday, February 20. After evaluating submissions, any selections by the agency will require respondents to submit a second, more detailed, proposal.

NASA is expected to make a decision on the VIPER mission this summer.

“Moving forward with a VIPER partnership offers NASA a unique opportunity to engage with the private sector,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Such a partnership provides the opportunity for NASA to collect VIPER science that could tell us more about water on the Moon, while advancing commercial lunar landing capabilities and resource prospecting possibilities.”

This new announcement comes after NASA issued a Request for Information on August 9, 2024, to seek interest from American companies and institutions in conducting a mission using the agency’s VIPER Moon rover after the program was cancelled in July 2024.

Any partnership would work under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. This type of partnership allows both NASA and an industry partner to contribute services, technology and hardware to the collaboration.

As part of an agreement, NASA would contribute the existing VIPER rover as-is. Potential partners would need to arrange for the integration and successful landing of the rover on the Moon, conduct a science/exploration campaign, and disseminate VIPER-generated science data. The partner may not disassemble the rover and use its instruments or parts separately from the VIPER mission.

NASA’s selection approach will favor proposals that enable data from the mission’s science instruments to be shared openly with anyone who wishes to use it.

“Being selected for the VIPER partnership would benefit any company interested in advancing their lunar landing and surface operations capabilities,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the Science Mission Directorate. “This solicitation seeks proposals that clearly describe what is needed to successfully land and operate the rover, and invites industry to propose their own complementary science goals and approaches. NASA is looking forward to partnering with U.S. industry to meet the challenges of performing volatiles science in the lunar environment.”

The Moon is a cornerstone for Solar System science and exoplanet studies. In addition to helping inform where ice exists on the Moon for potential future astronauts, understanding our nearest neighbor helps us understand how it has evolved and what processes shaped its surface.

Source: NASA.Gov

Farewell, AD... Welcome to the Lakers, Luka!

So late last night, I joined most of the sports world in being shocked upon reading the news that the Los Angeles Lakers were trading Anthony Davis (AD) to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Doncic!

This trade comes less than a year after Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals (where they lost to the Boston Celtics in five games), and almost five years after Davis helped LeBron James secure a 17th NBA championship for the Lakers.

I'm excited that Luka is coming to L.A.! Granted— I'm well aware that he's not a great defender like AD is, but Luka is only 25 years old (while AD turns 32 next month), and has lots of time to hone in his defensive skills. Lakers fans were expecting that Doncic would one day play in the City of Angels (presumably when he was no longer in his prime); they didn't expect this scenario to happen after the Slovenian point guard had only been in the NBA for less than 7 years!

Anyways, the Lakers also got forwards Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris in this trade, while the Mavericks added shooting guard Max Christie (who played well in the Lakers' victory against the New York Knicks last night) and a 2029 first-round pick to their lineup. The Utah Jazz was also part of this blockbuster deal, and got point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and this year's second-round picks from the Mavericks and Los Angeles Clippers, respectively.

This NBA season just got much more interesting! Thanks for bringing another championship to Los Angeles, AD... Your jersey will obviously be displayed on the rafters at Crypto.com Arena someday.