Photos of the Day: A Journey to Pirate's Cave in SoCal...

Just thought I'd end this month with these images that I took at Dana Point in Orange County, California ten days ago. Using my Nikon D3300 camera, I first drove up to a hilltop hiking trail to shoot some high-angle snapshots of Dana Point Harbor...and afterwards, parked near the Ocean Institute next to the beach to begin a 1.2-mile (round-trip) hike to Pirate's Cave. Initially, it was me and a couple of cute, random women who ventured along the side of a cliff as we made our way to the small cavern. But as the journey continued, the coastline got rockier...with the thin trail of dirt that we were carefully treading on disappearing into a vast field of slippery rocks and large boulders. Within a few minutes, I found myself alone on the path as the women decided to call it quits since the trail to Pirate's Cave became too rocky to traverse any further. I briefly turned to look back at the women as they stood on large rocks and apparently continued to watch as I made my way towards the hollow destination. I'll admit that being the last man standing, so to speak, was a confidence and testosterone-booster!



So as the photos at the bottom of this entry show, I made sure to get as many cool pics that I could before I headed back to the main beach (I had no interest to be inside the cave once the tide rose back up). Will I return to Pirate's Cave, you ask? Nah... No need to tempt fate as there were a few times when I was afraid that I might lose my footing and twist my ankle on the rock-filled journey to and from the cave. However, I do intend on heading back to Dana Point in a matter of weeks to go whale watching! Carry on.

Hayabusa2 Update: Asteroid Ryugu Has a New Man-made Crater...

JAXA, The University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, The University of Aizu, AIST

Successful Operation of Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2's SCI (Press Release - April 25)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) separated the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor), which had been onboard the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, on April 5, 2019, for deployment to Ryugu, and then put the SCI into operation.

As a result of checking the images captured by the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) onboard the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, we have concluded that a crater was created by the SCI.

Hayabusa2 is operating normally.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

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This video shows the descent of the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor) made from images captured at 2 second intervals just after separation from Hayabusa2 by the onboard TIR (Thermal Infrared Camera). In the background, you can see the surface of Ryugu 500m away. pic.twitter.com/O5niPDb2XI

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) April 21, 2019

Batman Rises as GOTHAM Comes to an End...

Farewell, Gotham. The series finale for the DC comic book show—which lasted for 5 years on FOX TV—aired tonight. In the span of an hour, we saw the definitive rise of Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), Catwoman (played by Camren Bicondova during the show's 5-year run; portrayed by Lili Simmons in today's episode) and the Joker (or J, played by Cameron Monaghan)...as well as the Caped Crusader himself (David Mazouz donned the Batcowl even though a taller actor wore the Batsuit in that memorable last shot of the finale).

I enjoyed how this final season of Gotham was inspired by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy...with the Bane subplot paying homage to The Dark Knight Rises, and the opening scene of tonight's finale borrowing from Hans Zimmer's memorable music score for The Dark Knight films. And of course, Cameron Monaghan's take on Jerome Valeska in the previous seasons was an awesome echo of Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance as the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight. I also watched the series finale of the Superman TV series Smallville in 2011, and Gotham blew it out of the water with a much more satisfying introduction of an iconic DC superhero.

The only other comic book show that I watch on TV is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll see how that series ends. With Avengers: Endgame opening in theaters tomorrow (I'm watching it at a 10 AM matinee), the producers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. should get a clearer picture on what direction this series should take as it heads toward its inevitable finale. Anyways, to get back to topic: I'll miss you, Gotham! Glad to see Batman begin again—on the small screen, at least. That is all.

Photo of the Day #2: Bringin' Da Noise to America's Next Mars Rover...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Mars 2020 is Wired for Sound (News Release)

Engineers and technicians working on NASA's Mars 2020 mission prepare spacecraft components for acoustic testing in the Environmental Test Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The spacecraft is being tested in the same configuration it will be in when sitting atop the Atlas rocket that will launch the latest rover towards Mars in July 2020.

The image was taken on April 11, 2019, at JPL.

JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The InSight Mars Lander Has Detected Its First Quake on the Red Planet! Possibly...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA's InSight Detects First Likely 'Quake' on Mars (News Release)

NASA's Mars InSight lander has measured and recorded for the first time ever a likely "marsquake."

The faint seismic signal, detected by the lander's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, was recorded on April 6, the lander's 128th Martian day, or sol. This is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by forces above the surface, such as wind. Scientists still are examining the data to determine the exact cause of the signal.

"InSight's first readings carry on the science that began with NASA's Apollo missions," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!"

The new seismic event was too small to provide solid data on the Martian interior, which is one of InSight's main objectives. The Martian surface is extremely quiet, allowing SEIS, InSight's specially designed seismometer, to pick up faint rumbles. In contrast, Earth's surface is quivering constantly from seismic noise created by oceans and weather. An event of this size in Southern California would be lost among dozens of tiny crackles that occur every day.

"The Martian Sol 128 event is exciting because its size and longer duration fit the profile of moonquakes detected on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions," said Lori Glaze, Planetary Science Division director at NASA Headquarters.

NASA's Apollo astronauts installed five seismometers that measured thousands of quakes while operating on the Moon between 1969 and 1977, revealing seismic activity on the Moon. Different materials can change the speed of seismic waves or reflect them, allowing scientists to use these waves to learn about the interior of the Moon and model its formation. NASA currently is planning to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024, laying the foundation that will eventually enable human exploration of Mars.

InSight's seismometer, which the lander placed on the planet's surface on Dec. 19, 2018, will enable scientists to gather similar data about Mars. By studying the deep interior of Mars, they hope to learn how other rocky worlds, including Earth and the Moon, formed.

Three other seismic signals occurred on March 14 (Sol 105), April 10 (Sol 132) and April 11 (Sol 133). Detected by SEIS' more sensitive Very Broad Band sensors, these signals were even smaller than the Sol 128 event and more ambiguous in origin. The team will continue to study these events to try to determine their cause.

Regardless of its cause, the Sol 128 signal is an exciting milestone for the team.

"We've been waiting months for a signal like this," said Philippe Lognonné, SEIS team lead at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) in France. "It's so exciting to finally have proof that Mars is still seismically active. We're looking forward to sharing detailed results once we've had a chance to analyze them."

Most people are familiar with quakes on Earth, which occur on faults created by the motion of tectonic plates. Mars and the Moon do not have tectonic plates, but they still experience quakes – in their cases, caused by a continual process of cooling and contraction that creates stress. This stress builds over time, until it is strong enough to break the crust, causing a quake.

Detecting these tiny quakes required a huge feat of engineering. On Earth, high-quality seismometers often are sealed in underground vaults to isolate them from changes in temperature and weather. InSight's instrument has several ingenious insulating barriers, including a cover built by JPL called the Wind and Thermal Shield, to protect it from the planet's extreme temperature changes and high winds.

SEIS has surpassed the team's expectations in terms of its sensitivity. The instrument was provided for InSight by the French space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), while these first seismic events were identified by InSight's Marsquake Service team, led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

"We are delighted about this first achievement and are eager to make many similar measurements with SEIS in the years to come," said Charles Yana, SEIS mission operations manager at CNES.

JPL manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including CNES and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), support the InSight mission. CNES provided the SEIS instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP. Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP₃) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain's Centro de Astrobiología supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

Source: NASA.Gov

Photo of the Day: The Mars 2020 Spacecraft Begins to Take Shape...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Taking Mars 2020 Integration Head-on (News Release - April 11)

A member of NASA's Mars 2020 project checks connections between the spacecraft's backshell and cruise stage. The image was taken on March 26, 2019, in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility's High Bay 1 clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California.

During the mission's voyage to Mars, the cruise stage houses the hardware that steers and provides power to the spacecraft. The backshell, along with the heatshield (not pictured), protects the 2020 rover and the sky crane landing system during Mars atmospheric entry.

JPL will build and manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Source: NASA.Gov

Mars 2020 Update: America's Next Rover Continues to be Built at JPL...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Things Are Stacking up for NASA's Mars 2020 Spacecraft (News Release - April 18)

For the past few months, the clean room floor in High Bay 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been covered in parts, components and test equipment for the Mars 2020 spacecraft, scheduled for launch toward the Red Planet in July of 2020. But over the past few weeks, some of these components — the spacecraft-rocket-laden landing system and even the stand-in for the rover (christened "surrogate-rover") — have seemingly disappeared.

In reality, they are still there, tucked neatly into the entry capsule, as they will be when it's time for launch. The procedure is known as vehicle stacking and involves a hyper-detailed plan for what goes where and when.

"One of our main jobs is to make sure the rover and all the hardware that is required to get the rover from here on Earth to the surface of Mars fits inside the payload fairing of an Atlas V rocket, which gives us about 15 feet [5 meters] of width to work with," said David Gruel, assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) manager for Mars 2020 at JPL.

The first step is to place the rocket-powered descent stage on top of the surrogate rover (the real rover is being integrated and tested in tandem with the spacecraft stack). Then, when all the holes line up and everything is attached, checked and re-checked again, the back shell is lowered over them via gantry crane.

"That crane has lifted almost every spacecraft that's come through JPL since Mariner," said Gruel. "To safely lift the large pieces of the Mars 2020 spacecraft, we utilize a dozen technicians and engineers."

After the back shell is in place and everything is determined to be fitting properly, the team puts on the parachute nose cone, which protects the parachute during atmospheric entry, followed by the massive doughnut-shaped cruise stage, which will power the Mars 2020 spacecraft on its seven-month voyage to the Red Planet. Then the vehicle stack is turned on its side so technicians and engineers have access to the mating points between the cruise and descent stages to make connections. The stack is then returned to its original position (cruise stage on top) so the heat shield can be raised into position and attached.

"Stacking is an important milestone in mission development, because as good as our computer models are, we still need to put it together to show that the bolt holes line up and everything fits together," said Gruel. "It is a great feeling for the entire project when we see the stack sitting there waiting to go for the next part of its journey, which will eventually lead to a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in July of next year."

After three weeks, stacking is finished on April 3, and the spacecraft is transported to JPL's Environmental Test Facility to undergo acoustic testing. During this testing the stack will be bombarded with a thundering wall of sound designed to imitate the sound waves generated during launch. Then, after a check to make sure no bolts have rattled loose or attachment points have become unstuck, the stack heads to the thermal vacuum chamber for a week-long test that simulates the harsh environment of space to assess how the Mars-bound craft and its instruments operate under flightlike conditions.

"Nothing is static with this mission," said Gruel. "After the acoustic and thermal vac tests, the stacked spacecraft is returned to the assembly building for de-stack, then more testing and more work. Until the hold-down bolts on the Atlas rocket blow and our rover is headed to Mars in July of 2020, there is almost always something being assembled, tested or modified."

The Mars 2020 rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. Scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes and leave them on the planet's surface for potential return to Earth on a future Mars mission.

The Mars 2020 Project at JPL manages rover development for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.

Source: NASA.Gov

The (Partially-Redacted) Mueller Report Is Finally Released...

"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."
- Donald J. Trump

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Here are 'some' takeaways from the Special Counsel's document, which is 448 pages-long:

- Contrary to what Attorney General William Barr stated in his 4-page summary of the Mueller Report a few weeks ago, the report explicitly states that the Russia investigation did not clear Donald Trump.

- There were 10 episodes of obstruction by Trump according to the report.

- The Special Counsel sought to interview Trump for over a year (since December 2017), but he refused to do so voluntarily.

- Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election through two operations: 1.) A Russian entity who created a social media campaign that favored Trump and "disparaged" his presidential rival Hillary Clinton. And 2.) A Russian intelligence service that hacked into computers used by members of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign.

- An example of the previous note: The Internet Research Agency, a team of Russian operatives, congratulated Trump when he tweeted about an event in Miami, Florida.

- On November 9, 2016 (the day after the presidential election), someone wrote to the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, that "Putin has won." The person who wrote this is unknown because their name is redacted.

- Erik Prince, the former CEO of Blackwater (an American private military company) and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, financed efforts to obtain Hillary Clinton's deleted e-mails.

- Though phone provider records show that former White House advisor Steve Bannon and Erik Prince "exchanged dozens" of text messages around the time of a secret meeting in the Seychelles islands (around January 11, 2017), there were no messages available for investigators to read on their phones. Both men said they didn't know why that was.

- Former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, lied to FBI Agents—as well as Trump Administration officials themselves—about his contact with Sergey Kislyak, a Russian ambassador.

- Michael Flynn reached out to the late Peter Smith, a GOP activist and fundraiser, to help in the search for Clinton's e-mails.

- Sections discussing the Trump campaign's communications with Wikileaks are heavily redacted in the report.

- The report indicates that Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump were also at the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016.

- Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks wanted to disclose that the Russians had offered Donald Trump Jr. information helpful to the Trump Campaign. But the president nixed that idea...directly ordering Hicks to release a statement that falsified the true intent of the Trump Tower meeting.

- Donald Trump Jr. wasn't indicted by the Special Counsel because he supposedly wasn't smart enough (to put it politely) to collude.

- On June 17, 2017, Trump asked then-White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller, which McGahn refused to do.

- The report claims that Russia's GRU intelligence agency compromised an unnamed Florida county in 2016—baffling Florida officials, who never heard of such a thing.

- Trump lied to the public about telling McGahn to fire Mueller once it was reported by the media.

- Trump didn't succeed in committing obstruction because the officials he ordered to do it (such as McGahn and then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus) refused to carry out his requests.

- Trump ordered his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to ask former attorney general Jeff Sessions to comment that the Russia investigation was "very unfair."

- At the direction of Trump, Don McGahn and other aides made extensive and repeated attempts to prevent Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

- Trump publicly floated pardons for former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former attorney Michael Cohen—both already indicted by Mueller—to deter them from cooperating with the Special Counsel.

- Trump and Michael Cohen continued to work on the Trump Tower Moscow deal while actively deceiving the American public as to whether Trump had business ties in Russia. He knowingly lied to the public while his former attorney worked with people who supposedly thought that the hotel and election were entwined.

- White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted to the Special Counsel that she lied to the press about the nature of FBI director James Comey's firing.

- On Page 157 of the report, it is stated that Trump tried to exert "undue influence over law enforcement investigations"...by carrying out "one-on-one meetings in which (Trump) sought to use his official power outside of usual channels."

- Mueller says that Trump's power means that his public comments (re: his tweets) could be considered obstruction.

- Mueller concluded that the U.S. Constitution does not shield Trump from obstruction of justice charges.

- Mueller declined to indict Trump because the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the executive branch, claimed that the Special Counsel could not.

- The Special Counsel "declined" several prosecutions due to a number of individuals making the investigation difficult for Mueller's office.

- The Mueller Report conveys that criminal allegations against a sitting president should be considered by Congress, not the Department of Justice.

- There is sufficient evidence that Trump obstructed justice to merit impeachment hearings.

And lastly:

- The Mueller Report is essentially a roadmap for Congress to hold impeachment proceedings against Trump.

An impeachment trial begins in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Democrats... (Unfortunately, Trump probably wouldn't be convicted by the Senate since it's controlled by GOP lackwit Mitch McConnell, and filled with complicit Republican senators like Lindsey Graham.)

So in other words, William Barr is sooo full of crap. You can read the entire Mueller Report HERE. That is all.

Photo of the Day: Beresheet's Final Moon Photo and the Likely Cause of Its Lunar Landing Failure...

SpaceIL

Earlier today, SpaceIL released the photo above that was the last-ever image that the Beresheet lander took (from an altitude of 15 kilometers, or 9 miles) during its ill-fated attempt to touch down on the Moon last Thursday. According to these tweets by SpaceIL and a Planetary Society staff member below, a likely cause of the spacecraft's main engine shutting down prematurely was an errant command that was transmitted to it from the flight team during the landing maneuver. A software glitch caused by an attempt to fix a sensor problem aboard Beresheet led to a chain reaction that eventually led to its main engine deactivating during the descent towards the lunar surface. By the time the engine was finally reactivated, Beresheet was traveling at a velocity of 500 kilometers per hour (311 miles per hour)...making a collision with the Moon's surface unavoidable.

If it was indeed a software issue that prevented Beresheet from landing on the Moon safely almost a week ago, then this is good news! This shows that Beresheet itself was physically healthy (apart from that sensor issue)...and that no significant upgrades would need to be made to the Beresheet 2.0 spacecraft to increase its chances of mission success next time. The only real thing that would need to be corrected is the flight team's vigilance towards transmitting the wrong command at the worst possible moment to the lunar lander. The same thing that befell NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 (Google this spacecraft and read about what happened to it) is the same thing that befell Beresheet: Human error. Correct this oversight next time, and Israel will finally become the fourth nation (behind the United States, Russia and China) to soft-land on the Moon. Happy Hump Day!

Here are the findings of the preliminary investigation of #Beresheet’s landing maneuver: ⁰It appears that during the landing process a command was entered that led to a chain reaction, which caused the main engine to switch off and prevented it from being reactivated.

— Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) April 17, 2019

We now know why Beresheet crashed: A software command uploaded to fix a sensor problem inadvertently started a chain reaction that shut down the main engines, dooming the lander. https://t.co/5P3D37c10J pic.twitter.com/dazeM4nT3k

— Jason Davis (@jasonrdavis) April 17, 2019

The USAF's Joint Strike Fighter Is Ready for Combat in the Persian Gulf...

U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Chris Thornbury

U.S. Air Force’s F-35A Lightning II Arrives for First Middle East Deployment (News Release - April 15)

AL DHAFRA AIR BASE, United Arab Emirates -- The U.S. Air Force’s fifth generation multi-role aircraft arrived for its first deployment to the Middle East on April 15, 2019. The F-35A Lightning IIs are from active duty 388th and reserve 419th Fighter Wings at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

As the first deployment to the U.S. Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility, crews are prepared and trained for the AFCENT mission. The F-35A, the conventional takeoff and landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, provides greater operational capability by combining advanced stealth capabilities with the latest weapons technology.

“We are adding a cutting edge weapons system to our arsenal that significantly enhances the capability of the coalition,” said Lt. Gen. Joseph T. Guastella, commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command. “The sensor fusion and survivability this aircraft provides to the joint force will enhance security and stability across the theater and deter aggressors.”

The F-35A is designed with the entire battlespace in mind, and is intended to fuse, integrate and share data with other battlefield assets. It has one of the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor packages. It improves lethality, survivability and adaptability against emerging threats in order to maintain air superiority.

“The F-35A provides our nation air dominance in any threat,” said Gen. David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the Air Force. “When it comes to having a ‘quarterback’ for the coalition joint force, the inter-operable F-35A is clearly the aircraft for the leadership role,” he stated.

The F-35A has previously deployed to Royal Air Force Lakenheath in April 2017, as well as the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility in the fall of 2017.

“We look forward to demonstrating the full range of the F-35A’s capabilities while it increases the interoperability of our forces throughout the region,” said Guastella.

Source: U.S. Air Forces Central Command

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U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mya M. Crosby