China Shenzhou-14 Crew's First Week at Tiangong Space Station

China Shenzhou-14 Crew's First Week at Tiangong Space Station

Three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, successfully arrived at the core module of China's Tiangong Space Station on June 5, 2022. Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe are adapting to microgravity at the start of their six-month long duration mission to complete the construction of the facility. Liu became the first Chinese woman in space during the Shenzhou-9 Mission in 2012. Shenzhou-14 represents the second space mission for Chen Dong and Liu Yang. Cai Xuzhe is on his first. 

The astronauts first needed to fetch living necessities from the Tianzhou-4 cargo craft, said Liu Weibo, deputy chief designer of the astronaut system of China's manned space project. "They need to transfer things such as food, water, air filters and set them up in the core module."

Setting up all the equipment and moving around the supplies were the astronauts' main tasks during the first week of their stay. Tianzhou-4, which holds supplies for the Shenzhou-14 crewed mission, docked with the combination of Tianhe core module and Tianzhou-3 cargo vessel in May 2022.

With a length of 10.6 meters and a maximum diameter of 3.35 meters, the Tianzhou-4 cargo ship carried about 6 tons of goods and 750 kg of propellant for the space station complex. Colored tags were put on parcels with different goods, so that the astronauts can quickly identify and find the goods they need. 

The lab module Wentian is scheduled to arrive in July 2022, the lab module Mengtian in October, and then the Tianzhou-5 cargo craft and the Shenzhou-15 crew mission spacecraft later this year. The Wentian and Mengtian lab modules will provide larger platforms for scientific experiments in microgravity. Nearly 100 experiments are planned during the construction phase of China's space station. After operations are normalized, larger-scale scientific research will be conducted. This is expected to effectively promote breakthroughs in major frontier scientific fields, such as dark matter and dark energy, galaxy formation and evolution, laws about the nature of matter, as well as in sustainable development on Earth. 

Credit: China Global Television Network (CGTN)

Duration: 2 minutes, 40 seconds

Release Date: June 15, 2022

#NASA #Space #China #中国 #Shenzhou14 #神舟十四号 #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ChenDong #LiuYang #刘洋 #Women #Pilots #Pioneers #CaiXuzhe #王亚平 #Tiangong #天宫 #SpaceStation #CNSA #CMSA #国家航天局 #Science #Technology #Engineering #STEM #Education #International #UNOOSA #UnitedNations #HDVideo #Video

SpaceX Starlink Mission: June 17, 2022

SpaceX Starlink Mission: June 17, 2022

53 Starlink satellites successfully deployed.

SpaceX is targeting Sunday, June 19, 2022 at 12:27 a.m. ET for a Falcon 9 launch of Globalstar FM15 to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Learn more about Starlink: https://www.starlink.com

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

Image Date: June 17, 2022

#NASA #Space #SpaceX #Falcon9 #Rocket #Satellites #Starlink #Broadband #Internet #Earth #Orbit #ElonMusk #GwynneShotwell #Spaceflight #Technology #Engineering #Commerce #Spaceport #CapeCanaveral #Florida #FAA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover—New June 2022 Images | JPL

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover—New June 2022 Images | JPL

MSL - Sol 1819 - Mastcam

MSL - Sol 1555 - Mastcam

MSL - Sol 3504 - Mastcam

MSL - Sol 3504 - Mastcam

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/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)/Kevin M. Gill

Image Release Date: June 17, 2022

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

NASA Astronauts on American Tour

NASA Astronauts on American Tour

NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson, left, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Tom Marshburn, along with Vice President Kamala Harris watch a video screen as NASA astronauts onboard the International Space Station give remarks prior to the screening of the movie Lightyear on the grounds of the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory, Friday, June 17, 2022, in Washington. 

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn gives remarks prior to the screening of the movie Lightyear on the grounds of the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory, Friday, June 17, 2022, in Washington.

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli works with students during a hands-on STEM activity on the grounds of the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory, Friday, June 17, 2022, in Washington. 

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 NASA astronaut Megan McArthur speaks to students during a visit to Arlington Science Focus Elementary School, Friday, June 10, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia.

Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough speaks to students during a visit to Arlington Science Focus Elementary School, Friday, June 10, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia. 

Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Astronaut Stephanie Wilson Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/stephanie-d-wilson/biography/

Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jasmin-moghbeli

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jasmin-moghbeli/biography

Astronaut Thomas Marshburn Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/thomas-h-marshburn

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/thomas-h-marshburn/biography

Astronaut Megan McArthur Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/k-megan-mcarthur

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/k-megan-mcarthur/biography

Astronaut Shane Kimbrough Official NASA Biography

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/robert-shane-kimbrough

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/robert-shane-kimbrough/biography

#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Moon #Artemis #Children #Students #ElementarySchool #Events #Astronauts #Astronaut #StephanieWilson #JasminMoghbeli #ThomasMarshburn #MeganMcArthur #ShaneKimbrough #HumanSpaceflight #Washington #DC #Arlington #Virginia #STEM #Education

Next Prelaunch Rehearsal Before Artemis I Moon Mission | This Week @NASA

Next Prelaunch Rehearsal Before Artemis I Moon Mission | This Week @NASA

The next prelaunch rehearsal before launch of our Artemis I Moon mission, news about some NASA astronomy missions, and a critical milestone for an Earth-observing satellite . . . a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!

Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Producer: Andre Valentine

Editor: Lacey Young

Music: Universal Production Music

Duration: 3 minutes, 35 seconds

Release Date: June 17, 2022

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

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

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

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

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