Sometimes half measures can be a good thing – especially on a journey this long. The agency's latest rover only has about 146 million miles left to reach its destination.
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission has logged a lot of flight miles since being lofted skyward on July 30 – 146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) to be exact. Turns out that is exactly the same distance it has to go before the spacecraft hits the Red Planet's atmosphere like a 11,900 mph (19,000 kph) freight train on Feb. 18, 2021.
Quite a lot has been going on:
China chooses landing site for its Tianwen-1 Mars rover | Space
China has apparently chosen a primary landing site for its Tianwen-1 Mars rover ahead of the spacecraft's arrival at the Red Planet in February 2021.
Tianwen-1, consisting of an orbiter and a lander-rover duo, is currently on its way to Mars following launch on a Long March 5 rocket on July 23. Mission team members have already tested its science instruments .
China has already stated that the rover will attempt to land in a designated area of Utopia Planitia, a huge basin formed by a large impact far back in Mars' history. The area is to the south of NASA's Viking 2 landing site and northwest of the spot where the American space agency's Mars InSight lander touched down in November 2018.
Planet Mars is at its 'biggest and brightest' - BBC News
Mars is at its biggest and brightest right now as the Red Planet lines up with Earth on the same side of the Sun.
Every 26 months, the pair take up this arrangement, moving close together, before then diverging again on their separate orbits around our star.
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"But you don't have to wait until the middle of the night; even now, at nine or 10 o'clock in the evening, you'll easily see it over in the southeast," says astrophotographer, Damian Peach. "You can't miss it, it's the brightest star-like object in that part of the sky," he told BBC News.
Sensors on Mars 2020 Spacecraft Answer Long Distance Call from Earth | NASA
Were you following this:
NASA's Perseverance Rover Bringing 3D-Printed Metal Parts to Mars – NASA's Mars Exploration
For hobbyists and makers, 3D printing expands creative possibilities; for specialized engineers, it's also key to next-generation spacecraft design.
If you want to see science fiction at work, visit a modern machine shop, where 3D printers create materials in just about any shape you can imagine. NASA is exploring the technique – known as additive manufacturing when used by specialized engineers – to build rocket engines as well as potential outposts on the Moon and Mars. Nearer in the future is a different milestone: NASA's Perseverance rover, which lands on the Red Planet on Feb.
SpaceX Will Make Its Own Laws on Mars: Elon Musk Colonizing Mars
Earthlight goes on to say that as long as people don’t interfere with each other’s property, the foundation believes space is “free by all, for all, and to all.” Unlike the international outer space treaties, the Earthlight Foundation dates back to just 2012.
What it's describing isn’t freedom, though—at least not for everyone. It’s just colonization.
Maybe what Musk imagines is something more militaristic. Maybe he’ll immediately declare himself president of Mars. But when the rubber hits the road, it seems unlikely he’d do very much to upset the people on Earth—who will still have to greenlight his supply ships.
Artificial intelligence helps classify new craters on Mars | Space
An innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed by NASA has helped identify a cluster of craters on Mars that formed within the last decade.
The new machine-learning algorithm, an automated fresh impact crater classifier, was created by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California — and represents the first time artificial intelligence has been used to identify previously unknown craters on the Red Planet , according to a statement from NASA .
NASA's Perseverance Rover Will Peer Beneath Mars' Surface – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
RIMFAX at Work on NASA's Perseverance (Illustration): Perseverance's Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) uses radar waves to probe the ground, revealing the unexplored world that lies beneath the Martian surface. Full image and caption ›
Unlike similar instruments aboard Mars orbiters, which study the planet from space, RIMFAX will be the first ground-penetrating radar set on the surface of Mars. This will give scientists much higher-resolution data than space-borne radars can provide while focusing on the specific areas that Perseverance will explore. Taking a more focused look at this terrain will help the rover's team understand how features in Jezero Crater formed over time.
Happening on Twitter
A "Blue" Moon will rise on Halloween🎃 It's named not for its color, but for its rarity. About every 2.5 years, a m… https://t.co/lzEmoiccxF NASAJPL (from Pasadena, Calif.) Fri Oct 30 20:26:32 +0000 2020
Happy #Halloween from Hubble! 💀 These interacting galaxies create a creepy "face" in space. There's no sound in s… https://t.co/K03EjUZOZZ NASAHubble (from Goddard Space Flight Center) Sat Oct 31 15:37:42 +0000 2020
Y'all Don't Be Listening To My lyrics Till @NASA Be Like Nah That's Facts jaden Thu Oct 29 22:11:37 +0000 2020
This week... 🌔 An agreement with @ESA to collaborate on #Artemis 💧 Our @SOFIATelescope finds water molecules on th… https://t.co/eURfSrodES NASA Sat Oct 31 02:01:27 +0000 2020
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