Friday, June 17, 2022

Last Rays of an Orbital Sunset | International Space Station

Last Rays of an Orbital Sunset | International Space Station

The last rays of an orbital sunset burst through Earth's horizon as the International Space Station flew 258 miles above Brazil.


Expedition 67 Crew

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)


An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: June 10, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #Earth #Sun #Orbital #Sunset #Planet #Atmosphere #Astronauts #FlightEngineers #HumanSpaceflight #Art #Science #Photography #Technology #Engineering #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #Italy #Italia #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #International #STEM #Education

NASA's Mars Perseverance & Curiosity Rovers—New June 2022 Images | JPL

NASA's Mars Perseverance & Curiosity Rovers—New June 2022 Images | JPL

MSL - Sol 3491 - MAHLI
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill


Mars2020 - Sol 470 - Watson

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

Mars2020 - MastCam-Z - SOL 467 - PanoramaB 

(4 images combined)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/PipploIMP


Mars2020 - MastCam-Z - SOL 466 - Panorama B (from 2 images)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/PipploIMP

Mars2020 - MastCam-Z - SOL 467 - Panorama C (from 6 images)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/PipploIMP

Perseverance Rover Update:

Perseverance has continued into Hawksbill Gap, making remote sensing observations of small portions of outcropping rock layers in search of a good place to collect a sample. Since Perseverance is in the Shenandoah quadrangle, we are using target names from Shenandoah National Park. Some of the names this past week included “Bald_Face_Mountain,” “Little_Devil_Stairs,” “Sunset_Hill,” “Luck_Hollow,” and “Moody_Creek.” Perseverance logged nearly 400 meters of driving progress for the week of May 15-21, accumulating a total distance since landing of over 11.8 km as of Sol 446.

Caption Credit: Eleni Ravanis, Student Collaborator at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Release Date: June 2, 2022


Curiosity Rover Update: Sols 3493-3495

"Everywhere you look in the Navcam mosaic (above) there's something interesting to see!

We're up close to a nifty layered outcrop, which is getting lots of imaging including ChemCam LIBS on targets 'Rukumata' and 'Guarico,' a ChemCam mosaic on 'Kamakusa,' MAHLI dogs-eye imaging of 'Tabaco' and the DRT location 'Issano,' which will also have APXS on it.

Mastcam will also be imaging Issano pre- and post-DRT for comparison, and taking a mosaic of the outcrop as a whole. Off the outcrop, ChemCam is also doing LIBS on 'Sisipelin,' which Mastcam will also image, and ChemCam and Mastcam are both taking mosaics further afield towards the Gediz Vallis Ridge.

I . . . was very excited to see the great view we have of the north crater rim, especially since we've been spending so much time recently in among lots of terrain blocking this view. Imaging the crater rim can help us to characterise the amount of dust in the atmosphere, which is especially important in the dusty season.

Aside from the crater rim observations, we are also trying to catch dust devils with a dust devil survey and movie, keeping an eye on the clouds with a few cloud movies, and taking Mastcam tau observations as an additional way to quantify the amount of dust in the atmosphere.

After this marathon of observations, we'll drive about 30 m further and finish up the weekend with a morning ENV block with our weekly AM cloud and dust observations."

Caption Credit: Alex Innanen/JPL

Release Date: June 7, 2022


Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars


Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: November 6, 2011

Landing: August 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars


For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit mars.nasa.gov


Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Dates: June 13-16, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #Jezero #Crater #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Perseverance #Curiosity #Rovers #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

China’s Chang’e 5 Lunar Lander Finds Water on Moon | South China Morning Post

China’s Chang’e 5 Lunar Lander Finds Water on Moon | South China Morning Post

Soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander have determined that much of the water on the lunar surface likely comes from within the Moon itself, not solar winds as previously hypothesized. The discovery comes from the first-ever water survey conducted on the surface of the Moon and is an important step in China’s ambitions to build a Moonbase by 2027. However, while Chinese scientists discovered water, they found far less of it than initially predicted—a minuscule 30 grams per ton of soil so far.

Chang'e 5 is the fifth lunar exploration mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, and China's first lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e. It launched in November 23, 2020 from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, landed on the Moon December 1, 2020, collected ~1,731 g (61.1 oz) of lunar samples (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned samples to the Earth on December 16, 2020. The Chang'e 5 landing site is at 43.1°N (in latitude), 51.8°W (in longitude) in the Northern Oceanus Procellarum near a huge volcanic complex, Mons Rümker, located in the northwest lunar near side.

Related story:

Chinese scientists find clues to the origins of water on the moon https://sc.mp/z6lw

Chang'e-5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. The mission made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union.


Support the South China Morning Post (SCMP):

https://subscribe.scmp.com


Video Credit: South China Morning Post (SCMP)

Duration: 1 minute, 41 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2022


#China #Space #Moon #SampleReturn #Spacecraft #Lander #Robotics #Change5 #嫦娥五号 #Science #Technology #Engineering #Water #SolarSystem #Exploration #中国 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

European Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Works on U.S. Spacesuits

European Space Agency Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Works on U.S. Spacesuits


European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy works on U.S. spacesuits inside the International Space Station's Quest airlock. Samantha is also a mechanical engineer and a former fighter pilot in the Italian Air Force. She has flown six types of military aircraft: SF-260, T-37, T-38, MB-339A, MB-339CD and AM-X. Cristoforetti can speak Italian, English, German, French, and Russian, and she has studied Mandarin.

Samantha Cristoforetti's Biography (ESA)

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/Samantha_Cristoforetti

Expedition 67 Crew

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: May 11, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #Earth #Planet #Spacesuits #EVA #Spacewalk #Science #Technology #Engineering #ESA #Astronaut #SamanthaCristoforetti #Pilot #FlightEngineer #MechanicalEngineer #Minerva #Italy #Italia #ASI #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition67 #Europe #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: One Million Hours | Week of June 17, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground: One Million Hours Week of June 17, 2022

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. 

On Thursday, June 16, 2022, the International Space Station’s Progress 81 thrusters fired for 4 minutes, 34 seconds in a Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) to provide the complex and extra measure of distance away from the predicted track of a fragment of Russian Cosmos 1408 debris. The thruster firing occurred at 2:03 p.m. Central time. The crew was never in any danger and the maneuver had no impact on station operations. Without the maneuver, it was predicted that the fragment could have passed within around a half mile from the station.

The PDAM increased the station’s altitude by 3/10 of a mile at apogee and 7/10 of a mile at perigee and left the station in an orbit of 261.2 x 257.3 statute miles.

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 2 minutes, 59 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #Astronauts #FlightEngineers #HumanSpaceflight #Science #Technology #Engineering #Research #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #Italy #Italia #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #International #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Thursday, June 16, 2022

NASA Espacio a Tierra | La lista de pendientes: 10 de junio 2022

NASA Espacio a Tierra | La lista de pendientes: 10 de junio 2022

Espacio a Tierra, la versión en español de las cápsulas Space to Ground de la NASA, te informa semanalmente de lo que está sucediendo en la Estación Espacial Internacional.

Duration: 3 minutes, 26 seconds

Release Date: June 15, 2022

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)


#NASA #Space #ISS #Astronauts #FlightEngineers #HumanSpaceflight #Science #Technology #Engineering #Research #UnitedStates #Canada #Europe #Italy #Italia #Japan #日本 #Russia #Россия #International #STEM #Education #Español #HD #Video

NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy: Adapting to the International Space Station

 NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy: Adapting to the International Space Station

In this episode of Down to Earth: Conversations, former NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg explore what it's like to adapt to life on the International Space Station. Season 2, Episode 4.

Chris Cassidy's Spaceflight Experience:

STS‐127 (July 15 through July 31, 2009)

ISS Expedition 35 (March 28 through September 10, 2013)

Expedition 63 (April 9 through October 21, 2020)

Astronaut Chris Cassidy Official NASA Biography:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/christopher-j-cassidy/biography

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/cassidy-cj.pdf

Astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg Official NASA Biography:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/warren-hoburg/biography

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/hoburg-w.pdf

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 4 minutes

Record Date: October 27, 2020

Release Date: June 10, 2022


#NASA #Space #ISS #Earth #Astronaut #ChrisCassidy #Astronauts #FlightEngineers #USNavy #SEAL #SpaceShuttle #WarrenHoburg #Engineer #Microgravity #Adaptation #HumanSpaceflight #Expedition63 #JSC #Houston #Texas #UnitedStates #International #STEM #Education #HD #Video

NASA's Mars Perseverance & Curiosity Rovers—New June 2022 Images | JPL

NASA's Mars Perseverance & Curiosity Rovers—New June 2022 Images | JPL   

Mars2020 - Sol 467 - Mastcam-Z

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill

MSL - Sol 3503 - MAHLI

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

MSL - Sol 3483 - Mastcam
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill


Mars2020 - Sol 467 - Mastcam-Z (another view of landing debris)

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/Kevin M. Gill


Perseverance Rover Update:

Perseverance has continued into Hawksbill Gap, making remote sensing observations of small portions of outcropping rock layers in search of a good place to collect a sample. Since Perseverance is in the Shenandoah quadrangle, we are using target names from Shenandoah National Park. Some of the names this past week included “Bald_Face_Mountain,” “Little_Devil_Stairs,” “Sunset_Hill,” “Luck_Hollow,” and “Moody_Creek.” Perseverance logged nearly 400 meters of driving progress for the week of May 15-21, accumulating a total distance since landing of over 11.8 km as of Sol 446.

Caption Credit: Eleni Ravanis, Student Collaborator at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Release Date: June 2, 2022


Curiosity Rover Update: Sols 3493-3495

"Everywhere you look in the Navcam mosaic (above) there's something interesting to see!

We're up close to a nifty layered outcrop, which is getting lots of imaging including ChemCam LIBS on targets 'Rukumata' and 'Guarico,' a ChemCam mosaic on 'Kamakusa,' MAHLI dogs-eye imaging of 'Tabaco' and the DRT location 'Issano,' which will also have APXS on it.

Mastcam will also be imaging Issano pre- and post-DRT for comparison, and taking a mosaic of the outcrop as a whole. Off the outcrop, ChemCam is also doing LIBS on 'Sisipelin,' which Mastcam will also image, and ChemCam and Mastcam are both taking mosaics further afield towards the Gediz Vallis Ridge.

I . . . was very excited to see the great view we have of the north crater rim, especially since we've been spending so much time recently in among lots of terrain blocking this view. Imaging the crater rim can help us to characterise the amount of dust in the atmosphere, which is especially important in the dusty season.

Aside from the crater rim observations, we are also trying to catch dust devils with a dust devil survey and movie, keeping an eye on the clouds with a few cloud movies, and taking Mastcam tau observations as an additional way to quantify the amount of dust in the atmosphere.

After this marathon of observations, we'll drive about 30 m further and finish up the weekend with a morning ENV block with our weekly AM cloud and dust observations."

Caption Credit: Alex Innanen/JPL

Release Date: June 7, 2022


Mission Name: Mars 2020

Rover Name: Perseverance

Main Job: Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.

Launch: July 30, 2020    

Landing: Feb. 18, 2021, Jezero Crater, Mars


Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: November 6, 2011

Landing: August 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars


For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit mars.nasa.gov


Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Dates: June 14-15, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #Jezero #Crater #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Perseverance #Curiosity #Rovers #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

Autumn Milky Way at Wellington Dam, Western Australia

Autumn Milky Way at Wellington Dam, Western Australia


This is an 11 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above a quarry near Wellington Dam about 2 hours south of Perth in Western Australia.

Technical details: 

Nikon d810a, 50mm, ISO 6400, f/2.8

Foreground: 5 x 30 seconds

Sky: 6 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter


The Fading Milky Way

Light pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase the night sky before its time. A recent study revealed that perhaps two-thirds of the world's population can no longer look upwards at night and see the Milky Way—a hazy swath of stars that on warm summer nights spans the sky from horizon to horizon.

The Milky Way is dimming, not because the end of the Universe is near, but rather as a result of light pollution: the inadvertent illumination of the atmosphere from street lights, outdoor advertising, homes, schools, airports and other sources. Every night billions of bulbs send their energy skyward where microscopic bits of matter—air molecules, airborne dust, and water vapor droplets—reflect much of the wasted light back to Earth. 

(Source: NASA)

Learn more:

International Dark-Sky Association

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution

Globe at Night

https://www.globeatnight.org

Night Sky Network (NASA JPL)

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Tourism Australia: https://www.australia.com


Image Credit: Trevor Dobson

Image Date: May 6, 2022

 

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #MilkyWay #Stars #LightPollution #CitizenScience #Astrophotographer #TrevorDobson #Astrophotography #Skywatching #Cosmos #Universe #SolarSystem #Earth #WellingtonDam #Perth #Australia #STEM #Education

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The Cosmic Reef: A Guided Tour | Hubble

 The Cosmic Reef: A Guided Tour | Hubble

This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has observed. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163,000 light-years away. The image is nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef," because NGC 2014 resembles part of a coral reef floating in a vast sea of stars. 

Hubble's senior project scientist, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, takes us on a tour of this stunning image, describes the telescope's health, and summarizes some of Hubble's contributions to astronomy.

In April 2020, NASA celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope's 30 year anniversary of unlocking the beauty and mystery of space by unveiling this stunning new portrait of a firestorm of starbirth in a neighboring galaxy.

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope and its images, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble


Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Paul R. Morris (USRA): Lead Producer

Jennifer Wiseman (NASA/GSFC): Narrator

Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support

Music credits:

“Perpetual Twilight” by Christophe La Pinta [SACEM], Koka Media [SACEM], Universal Publishing Production Music France [SACEM], and Universal Production Music.

Duration: 3 minutes, 30 seconds

Release Date: April 24, 2020


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Nebula #NGC2014 #NGC2020 #CosmicReef #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Galaxy #Dorado #Constellation #Science #Astrophysics #Physics #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Cosmic Reef | Hubble

The Cosmic Reef | Hubble

This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has observed. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163,000 light-years away. The image is nicknamed the "Cosmic Reef," because NGC 2014 resembles part of a coral reef floating in a vast sea of stars.

Some of the stars in NGC 2014 are "monster-sized." The sparkling centerpiece of NGC 2014 is a grouping of bright, hefty stars, each 10 to 20 times more massive than our Sun. The stars' ultraviolet radiation heats the surrounding dense gas. The massive stars also unleash fierce winds of charged particles that blast away lower-density gas, forming the bubble-like structures seen on the right. The stars' powerful stellar winds are pushing gas and dust to the denser left side of the nebula, where it is piling up, creating a series of dark ridges bathed in starlight.

The blue areas in NGC 2014 reveal the glow of oxygen, heated to nearly 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit (11,000 degrees Celsius) by the blast of ultraviolet light. The cooler, red gas indicates the presence of hydrogen and nitrogen.

By contrast, the seemingly isolated blue nebula at lower left (NGC 2020) has been created by a solitary mammoth star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun. The blue gas was ejected by the star through a series of eruptive events during which it lost part of its outer envelope of material.

In April 2020, NASA celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope's 30 year anniversary of unlocking the beauty and mystery of space by unveiling this stunning new portrait of a firestorm of starbirth in a neighboring galaxy.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Release Date: April 24, 2020


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Nebula #NGC2014 #NGC2020 #CosmicReef #LargeMagellanicCloud #LMC #Galaxy #Dorado #Constellation #Science #Astrophysics #Physics #Cosmos #Universe #Telescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #STEM #Education

'Engineer of the Future': Star Trek's 'Scotty,' James Doohan at NASA Goddard

'Engineer of the Future': Star Trek's 'Scotty,' James Doohan at NASA Goddard

Note: Poor audio and video quality (and camerawork) in this 1992 video.

Famous for his portrayal of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott—"Scotty"—on the original Star Trek TV series (1966-1969), Canadian actor James Doohan visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in March 1992.

Doohan gave his presentation (entitled "Engineer of the Future") to a standing-room-only crowd in Goddard's Building 8 auditorium before answering questions from the audience.

Doohan's appearance was not quite four months after "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" hit theaters, and little more than half-a-year before he reprised his role in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Tom Huber, then Goddard's director of engineering, introduced Doohan, whose lecture was presented under the auspices of the Goddard Engineering Colloquium.

This video recording of the presentation was digitized in June 2022 from a Betacam cassette copy found in the archives of the Office of Communications at Goddard.


Learn more about the original Star Trek TV Series:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028


Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Duration: 52 minutes

Release Date: June 15, 2022


#NASA #Space #Science #ScienceFiction #TV #Film #StarTrek #Scotty #MontgomeryScott #JamesDoohan #Actor #Canadian #Soldier #Veteran #WWIIVeteran #Canada #Scotland #Scottish #Technology #Engineering #Engineer #Greenbelt #Maryland #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #History #HD #Video

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Landscape Panorama | JPL

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Landscape Panorama | JPL

This newly-processed panorama was originally captured by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover on Sol 1099 on September 9, 2015. The rover landed on Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity Rover Update: Sols 3493-3495

"Everywhere you look in the Navcam mosaic (above) there's something interesting to see!

We're up close to a nifty layered outcrop, which is getting lots of imaging including ChemCam LIBS on targets 'Rukumata' and 'Guarico,' a ChemCam mosaic on 'Kamakusa,' MAHLI dogs-eye imaging of 'Tabaco' and the DRT location 'Issano,' which will also have APXS on it.

Mastcam will also be imaging Issano pre- and post-DRT for comparison, and taking a mosaic of the outcrop as a whole. Off the outcrop, ChemCam is also doing LIBS on 'Sisipelin,' which Mastcam will also image, and ChemCam and Mastcam are both taking mosaics further afield towards the Gediz Vallis Ridge.

I . . . was very excited to see the great view we have of the north crater rim, especially since we've been spending so much time recently in among lots of terrain blocking this view. Imaging the crater rim can help us to characterise the amount of dust in the atmosphere, which is especially important in the dusty season.

Aside from the crater rim observations, we are also trying to catch dust devils with a dust devil survey and movie, keeping an eye on the clouds with a few cloud movies, and taking Mastcam tau observations as an additional way to quantify the amount of dust in the atmosphere.

After this marathon of observations, we'll drive about 30 m further and finish up the weekend with a morning ENV block with our weekly AM cloud and dust observations."

Caption Credit: Alex Innanen/JPL

Release Date: June 7, 2022


Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)

Rover Name: Curiosity

Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 

Launch: November 6, 2011

Landing: August 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars


For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit mars.nasa.gov


Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Release Date: June 13, 2022


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #RedPlanet #Planet #Astrobiology #Geology #Crater #MountSharp #GaleCrater #Curiosity #Rover #Robotics #Technology #Engineering #JPL #Pasadena #California #UnitedStates #JourneyToMars #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: "Fly Me to The Moon" | Kennedy Space Center

NASA's Artemis I Moon Rocket: "Fly Me to The Moon" | Kennedy Space Center

Image Credit: NASA/Cory Huston


Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

A full Moon is in view from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher, are being prepared for a wet dress rehearsal to practice timelines and procedures for launch. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and using the Moon as a steppingstone on the way to Mars. 

Artemis I launch is currently scheduled for 2022.

"Fly Me to the Moon", originally titled "In Other Words", is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. Kaye Ballard made the first recording of the song the year it was written. Frank Sinatra's 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon. [Wikipedia]

Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.  It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

Learn more about Artemis I at:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

Read the Artemis Plan (74-page PDF Free Download): 

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/artemis_plan-20200921.pdf

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

NASA's Orion Spacecraft

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html


Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Image Date: June 14, 2022


#NASA #ESA #Space #Moon #Artemis #ArtemisI #SLS #Boeing #Rocket #DeepSpace #LockheedMartin #Orion #Spacecraft #Astronauts #Mars #JourneyToMars #Science #Engineering #Technology #Exploration #SolarSystem #LaunchComplex39B #KSC #Kennedy #Florida #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Expedition 67 Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Answers European Student Questions

Expedition 67 Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti Answers European Student Questions

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) discussed living and working in space during an in-flight interview as part of a multi-site educational event June 14, 2022. Cristoforetti launched in April 2022 on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom for a long-duration science mission to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. 

Expedition 67 Crew

Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)

Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)

NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)

European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.


Credit: NASA Video

Duration: 21 minutes

Release Date: June 14, 2022


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The Waxing Gibbous Moon Above Earth's Horizon | International Space Station

The Waxing Gibbous Moon Above Earth's Horizon | International Space Station

The waxing gibbous Moon is photographed above Earth's horizon from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above Turkey.


Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Image Date: June 12, 2022


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