(CNN) NASA may have a multi-billion dollar budget and some of the most advanced technology in the world, but when the Mars InSight lander got into a spot of bother, scientists came up with a charmingly rudimentary fix for its space technology: Hit it with a shovel.
Were you following this:
Mars and Jupiter Will Have a Rare Meeting in the Sky on Friday Morning - Thrillist
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have been a focal point for morning stargazers throughout March. They've been hanging around in the same area and even had a little grouping with the moon earlier this week. Now, Mars and Jupiter are going to keep things exciting with a rare conjunction in the morning hours of Friday, March 20.
Unlike conjunctions between the moon and planets, conjunctions between Mars and Jupiter are relatively rare. The last one occurred on January 7, 2018, and prior to that, you'd have to go back to November 17, 2015, according to EarthSky.
"Overstressed" NASA Mars exploration budget threatens missions - SpaceNews.com
WASHINGTON — Cost overruns on a major rover mission and proposals for both sample return missions and a new orbiter are straining NASA's Mars exploration program and threatening the future of two ongoing missions.
In a series of recent town hall and advisory committee meetings, NASA officials laid out their plans for current and proposed missions while facing questions from scientists about proposals in the agency's fiscal year 2021 budget request that could effectively end the Mars Odyssey orbiter mission and curtail operations of the Curiosity rover.
You can see Jupiter and Mars snuggle up in the predawn sky Friday. Here's how. | Space
Early Friday morning (March 20), Jupiter and Mars will make a close approach, and you can catch them together with Saturn and the crescent moon.
Jupiter and Mars will be in conjunction, meaning they share the same celestial longitude, at 2:21 a.m. EDT (0621 GMT), according to In-the-Sky.org . The two planets will make their closest approach, also known as an "appulse," 4 hours later, at 6:33 a.m. EDT (1033 GMT). At that time, they will be less than 1 degree apart. (For reference, your fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees wide.)
Not to change the topic here:
What's cool about Curiosity's discovery of organic molecules on Mars | Space | EarthSky
This is Mars, the planet next door, as seen through the robot eyes of the Curiosity rover. This is where the Curiosity rover found ancient organic molecules in Martian mudstones. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech .
We identified several biological pathways for thiophenes that seem more likely than chemical ones, but we still need proof. If you find thiophenes on Earth, then you would think they are biological, but on Mars, of course, the bar to prove that has to be quite a bit higher.
At long last, NASA's probe finally digs in on Mars | Popular Science
Scientists Found Oil on Mars. Or Truffles.
Technically speaking, Dirk Schulze‑Makuch and Jacob Heinz didn't find oil. Rather, they found organic compounds called "thiophenes" that are also present in crude oil, coal, and truffles.
Big Red Taking On the Red Planet: The History of Cornell's Mars Exploration | The Cornell
For over 50 years, Cornell has made astronomical contributions in the ongoing efforts to explore and understand the mysterious inner workings of Earth's rust-colored neighbor, Mars. In honor of these decades of research and discovery, The Sun illuminates the achievements of Cornellians past, present and future in their tireless expedition towards revealing the secrets of the Red Planet.
Why do scientists want to explore Mars? Proximity is a major reason, Prof. Jonathan Lunine, astronomy, said in an interview with The Sun.
Happening on Twitter
NASA fixes Mars lander by telling it to hit itself with a shovel https://t.co/0Jrgfr6IAr via @getongab getongab (from The United States Of America) Thu Mar 19 16:00:57 +0000 2020
NASA fixes probe on Mars by hitting it with a shovel https://t.co/eaAnOcW3yK https://t.co/HIGuJEszLc Jalopnik Fri Mar 20 01:02:18 +0000 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment