[Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov/index.html; https://spaceflightnow.com

Mon Aug 9 22:00:58 CDT 2021

hi all,
  good evening from Florida….it is beyond comprehension that kids are back in school this week…it is very strange here, in Florida, the debate over wearing masks…we are not doing well with keeping new cases down, it seems to be at its worst ever…with more kids getting affected…that is what CDC is saying, of course others see it so differently…I know it is so difficult for teachers who must protect themselves as well as the kids…

 I know I don’t say it enough but I believe teachers have the most important, most challenging, and certainly now, the most demanding job in the world….contending with administrators, state tests, parents, COVID, and now, even politics…but I also believe you have the most rewarding…I am eternally thankful to all of you for what you do…even more so when visit school, the effort you make to support the visits…so flexible and I know you care about your students in very special ways…also, teachers influence kids for life…from my heart to yours…thank you so much…

in the last email we talked about the Space Apps challenge...NASA’s 10th Space Apps Challenge Increases Global Participation…it is wonderful when international  participation is encouraged as I know so many around the world love to participate in NASA events…I hope, for those interested, you are able to enjoy this opportunity….

we also spoke about the Starliner Launch…NASA Updates Coverage, Invites Public to Virtually Join…the launch was scrubbed and has not been rescheduled…this is kind of a set each for Boeing as this is a test of the capsule, the next flight is supposed to take astronauts to the ISS similar to what Space X is doing….there have been other issues so this test is critical to the future of Boeing….

We have to stay positive and always be thankful… remembering to do our best, enjoy everything we do, believe in ourselves, and let those we care about most know (I always say this, we all need to take it to heart) …hugs & smiles… :-) :-)  STAY SAFE, TAKE CARE, Love ya, Gabe

NASA’s Perseverance Team Assessing First Mars Sampling Attempt
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/1_-_pia24795a_-_front_left_hazcam_borehole_closeup_-_flf_0164_0681506341_857cws_n0060000fhaz00209_0m00llj01-stretched.png>
This image taken by one the hazard cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on Aug. 6, 2021, shows the hole drilled in what the rover’s science team calls a “paver rock” in preparation for the mission’s first attempt to collect a sample from Mars.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Data sent to Earth by NASA’s Perseverance rover after its first attempt to collect a rock sample on Mars and seal it in a sample tube indicate that no rock was collected during the initial sampling activity. The rover carries 43 titanium sample tubes <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/a-martian-roundtrip-nasas-perseverance-rover-sample-tubes>, and is exploring Jezero Crater, where it will be gathering samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) for future analysis on Earth. “While this is not the ‘hole-in-one’ we hoped for, there is always risk with breaking new ground,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “I’m confident we have the right team working this, and we will persevere toward a solution to ensure future success.” Perseverance’s Sampling and Caching System uses a hollow coring bit and a percussive drill at the end of its 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-2020-rovers-7-foot-long-robotic-arm-installed> to extract samples. Telemetry from the rover indicates that during its first coring attempt, the drill and bit were engaged as planned, and post-coring the sample tube was processed as intended. “The sampling process is autonomous from beginning to end,” said Jessica Samuels, the surface mission manager for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “One of the steps that occurs after placing a probe into the collection tube is to measure the volume of the sample. The probe did not encounter the expected resistance that would be there if a sample were inside the tube.” The Perseverance mission is assembling a response team to analyze the data. One early step will be to use the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) imager – located at the end of the robotic arm – to take close-up pictures of the borehole. Once the team has a better understanding of what happened, it will be able to ascertain when to schedule the next sample collection attempt. “The initial thinking is that the empty tube is more likely a result of the rock target not reacting the way we expected during coring, and less likely a hardware issue with the Sampling and Caching System,” said Jennifer Trosper, project manager for Perseverance at JPL. “Over the next few days, the team will be spending more time analyzing the data we have, and also acquiring some additional diagnostic data to support understanding the root cause for the empty tube.” Previous NASA missions on Mars have also encountered surprising rock and regolith properties during sample collection and other activities. In 2008, the Phoenix mission sampled soil that was "sticky" and difficult to move into onboard science instruments, resulting in multiple tries before achieving success. Curiosity has drilled into rocks that turned out to be harder and more brittle than expected. Most recently, the heat probe on the InSight lander, known as the “mole,” was unable to penetrate the Martian surface as planned. “I have been on every Mars rover mission since the beginning, and this planet is always teaching us what we don’t know about it,” said Trosper. “One thing I’ve found is, it’s not unusual to have complications during complex, first-time activities.

First Science Campaign 

Perseverance is currently exploring two geologic units containing Jezero Crater’s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock and other intriguing geologic features. The first unit, called the “Crater Floor Fractured Rough,” is the floor of Jezero. The adjacent unit, named “Séítah” (meaning “amidst the sand” in the Navajo language), has Mars bedrock as well, and is also home to ridges, layered rocks, and sand dunes. Recently, the Perseverance science team began using color images from the Ingenuity <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-helicopter-reveals-intriguing-terrain-for-rover-team> Mars Helicopter to help scout for areas of potential scientific interest and to look for potential hazards. Ingenuity completed its 11th flight Wednesday, Aug. 4, traveling about 1,250 feet (380 meters) downrange of its current location so that it could provide the project aerial reconnaissance of the southern Séítah area. The rover’s initial science foray, which spans hundreds of sols (or Martian days), will be complete when Perseverance returns to its landing site. At that point, Perseverance will have traveled between 1.6 and 3.1 miles (2.5 and 5 kilometers) and may have filled up to eight of its sample tubes. Next, Perseverance will travel north, then west, toward the location of its second science campaign: Jezero Crater’s delta region. The delta is the fan-shaped remains of the confluence of an ancient river and a lake within Jezero Crater. The region may be especially rich in carbonate minerals. On Earth, such minerals can preserve fossilized signs of ancient microscopic life and are associated with biological processes.

More About the Mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology <https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/>, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis <https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/> missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/> and https://nasa.gov/perseverance <https://nasa.gov/perseverance>

Mysterious dimming of bright star Betelgeuse possibly explained
By Elizabeth Howell - Live Science Contributor <https://www.livescience.com/author/elizabeth-howell> about 13 hours ago

An artist’s illustration of the red supergiant Betelgeuse. Its surface in this view is covered by large starspots, which reduce its brightness. During their pulsations, such stars regularly release gas into their surroundings, which condenses into dust. (Image credit: Graphics Department/MPIA)
The mysterious strange dimming seen last year in the huge star Betelgeuse <https://www.space.com/22009-betelgeuse.html> may be from giant sunspots and temperature fluctuations. A new study suggests a "large dark spot" led to Betelgeuse's surface temperature dropping, which in turn contributed to a temporary dimming in the red giant's luminosity <https://www.space.com/21640-star-luminosity-and-magnitude.html> or inherent brightness. The stark fading generated headlines around the world in 2020 as speculation mounted about what was going on. The science is still unclear, but astronomers are blaming everything from gas cloud emissions, to dust, to stellar fluctuations before Betelgeuse eventually explodes as a supernova <https://www.space.com/what-betelgeuse-star-supernova-explosion-will-look-like.html>.

Download NASA E-Books on National Book Lovers Day
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/1-hst_overview-2019.png>
Happy #NationalBookLoversDay!

NASA not only explores the universe, we also publish books on our discoveries!

Learn about Hubble and other science <https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/science_ebooks_archive_1.html> discoveries, NASA history <https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/history_ebooks_archive_1.html>, aeronautics <https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aeronautics_ebooks_archive_1.html>, engineering, and so much more. Find them all in our e-books archive <https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/ebooks_archive_1.html>.

And so you know, we publish in all the most popular formats <https://www.nasa.gov/content/guide-to-e-book-formats>.

Image Credit: NASA

My Favorite Martian Image: Helicopter Scouts Ridge Area for Perseverance
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This 3D view of geologic feature the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Raised Ridges” was generated from data collected by Ingenuity during its 10th flight at Mars, on July 24, 2021.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ask any space explorer, and they’ll have a favorite photo or two from their mission. For Kevin Hand, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and co-lead of the Perseverance rover’s first science campaign <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8963/nasas-perseverance-rover-begins-its-first-science-campaign-on-mars/>, his latest favorite is a 3D image of low-lying wrinkles in the surface of Jezero Crater <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8549/nasas-mars-2020-will-hunt-for-microscopic-fossils/>. The science team calls this area “Raised Ridges.” NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured the two shots for this stereo image on July 24 during its 10th flight.

 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/e1-pia24689-rte-image.jpg>
The Return to Earth camera on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter snapped this picture of geologic feature the Mars Perseverance rover team calls “Raised Ridges” during its 10th flight at Mars, on July 24, 2021.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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“If you look closely, you can see some curious lines across the surfaces of several rocks.”

–Perseverance science team member Kevin Hand

Ingenuity captured the images during its most complex flight yet. After taking off from its seventh airfield, it climbed to a new record altitude of 40 feet (12 meters). The helicopter then made four heading changes and took 10 images with the rotorcraft’s color camera before landing at a new airfield. The 3D image was created by combining two of those images, offering the rover team a richer perspective as they plan the next steps in their science campaign.

“In 3D it almost feels like you can reach out and touch the Raised Ridges,” said Hand. “But along with its immersive beauty, the image provides great detail. If you look closely, you can see some curious lines across the surfaces of several rocks. Are these just made by eons of wind and dust blowing over the rocks, or might those features tell the story of water? We just don’t know yet.” Those details are important. In their search for signs of ancient life on Mars, the team is considering drilling a rock or sediment sample in the Raised Ridges, which would take several Martian days, or sols, of driving to reach. With Ingenuity’s images, the rover team now has a much better idea of what to expect if they were to go there and the science value of doing so. In the weeks to come, the science team will pour over this and other 3D images from Ingenuity and debate the merits of such a visit. “Since landing at Jezero Crater, it’s clear to all of us that there is an abundance of geologic riches for us to explore. It’s a good problem to have,” said Ken Williford, deputy project scientist for Perseverance at JPL. “These aerial previews from Ingenuity provide the kind of actionable data that allow us to whittle down our options and get on with the business of exploring our corner of Mars.”  

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology <https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/>, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis <https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/> missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/> and nasa.gov/perseverance <https://nasa.gov/perseverance>

A view of the rings of Saturn

A View of the Rings of Saturn

 <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html#> <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html#> <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html#> <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html#> <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html#> <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia22766-nasa.jpg>
This artist's illustration shows the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.

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