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

[Gabe]

Hi all,
 I’ve been trying to get this out for a few days…in case any astronomers don’t know about this opportunity…I am not an astronomer but I know so many who are fascinated with it…I remember the first time I looked through a telescope to see another planet…I thought it was amazing…everything going excellent…sorting out visits to schools in Oklahoma the beginning of April, the end of April heading to Brazil for three weeks…it has been an interesting start to the year…trips to Pakistan, Brazil, and Australia all got postponed…I have been super busy at home so it is all great…I have been getting a lot done, which has been fun, have also had visitors stopping by KSC and my house…which is so awesome…we have launches every week…it never gets old…I love sharing them with visitors...
   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 and smiles. STAY SAFE, TAKE CARE, Love ya, Gabe
  
5 planets will align on March 27 and you won't want to miss it. Here's where to look.

The moon and star cluster M35 will also be getting in on the action.


On Mar. 27, a planetary parade made up of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Uranus will march across the sky. (Image credit: brightstars via Getty Images)
On March 27, a planetary parade made up of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Uranus will march across the sky.

At this particular time of the year, amateur astronomers are participating in the Messier Marathon. Originally conceived by the late comet hunter, Don Machholz <https://www.space.com/comet-observer-don-macholz-tribute>, it takes place around the time of the new moon <https://www.space.com/17561-new-moon-explained-lunar-phases.html>, and within a week or so of the Vernal Equinox <https://www.space.com/what-is-an-equinox.html>. 

It is during this particular time of year, that all 110 of the various deep sky objects cataloged by the French astronomer, Charles Messier, come into view. Those with telescopes and a good knowledge of the sky, will stay up from dusk to dawn, looking for and logging as many Messier objects as they can. Sometimes, there are organized marathons scheduled, such as at the recent International Star Party <https://tinyurl.com/yucwzmbx> in Flagstaff, Arizona. Even for assiduous amateur astronomers, the Messier Marathon poses a significant observing challenge 



Relativity Space's 3D-printed rocket fails to reach orbit
 <https://r.smartbrief.com/resp/qdniCKojllDvtMALCifPauBWcNkVaK?format=multipart>
 <https://r.smartbrief.com/resp/qdniCKojllDvtMALCifPauBWcNkVaK>
(Relativity Space)
Relativity Space made history late Wednesday with the launch of Terran 1, the world's first 3D-printed rocket. But something went wrong with the rocket's upper stage. Still, the company is thrilled to have made it through Max-Q. "We just completed a major step in proving to the world that 3D-printed rockets are structurally viable," the company's Arwa Tizani Kelly said.
NASA, Canadian Space Agency to Assign Artemis II Moon Astronauts
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/artemis_ii_graphics.jpg>
Artemis II is the first crewed flight test on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.
Credits: NASA
NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) will announce during an event at 11 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. CDT) on Monday, April 3, from NASA Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon. Traveling aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft during Artemis II <https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii/>, the mission is the first crewed flight test on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface.

The event will air on NASA Television, the NASA app <https://www.nasa.gov/connect/apps.html>, and the agency’s website <https://www.nasa.gov/live>.

Media are invited to attend the event and speak with the astronauts about their assignments. Other experts working on Artemis missions also will be available. Additional opportunities to interview crew remotely will be available on Tuesday, April 4.

International media wishing to attend must contact NASA no later than 5 p.m. CDT Friday, March 17. U.S. media must contact NASA no later than 5 p.m. Monday, March 27. Media can RSVP to the Johnson newsroom by calling 281-483-5111 or emailing: jsccommu at mail.nasa.gov <mailto:jsccommu at mail.nasa.gov>.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission aboard NASA’s foundational human deep space capabilities: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the ground systems needed to launch them. The approximately 10-day mission will test and stress the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and work in deep space in ways only humans can do.

The crew will include three NASA astronauts and one CSA astronaut, demonstrating the agency’s commitment to international partnerships through the Artemis program. Artemis II builds on the successful <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/analysis-confirms-successful-artemis-i-moon-mission-reviews-continue> Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion, atop the SLS rocket, on a 1.4 million-mile journey beyond the Moon to test systems before astronauts fly aboard the systems on a mission to the Moon.

Learn more about Artemis at:

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


NASA’s Dragonfly Team Soars through Major Design Review 
Before it can fly its revolutionary rotorcraft over the organic dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan, NASA’s Dragonfly mission team needs to navigate a series of independent reviews to demonstrate the flight project is on track.  

 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/dragonfly-onsurface_c_0.jpg>
Artist’s impression of the Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and a major target in NASA’s quest to assess habitability and search for potential signs of life beyond Earth on worlds across the solar system.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
Led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, the team recently crossed a major milestone on that path, successfully passing all the technical requirements and standards of the weeklong Preliminary Design Review (PDR) that wrapped up on March 3.  

“I am very proud of the entire Dragonfly team,” said Bobby Braun, head of APL’s Space Exploration Sector. “APL, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Lockheed Martin, and all of our partners really came together to deliver a credible technical baseline. The fidelity and thought that went into each decision was clearly communicated and forms a solid foundation upon which the team can build.” 

The PDR – a requirement for all NASA missions – covers topics such as spacecraft design, mission requirements, science plans, schedule, cost, and risk. Held at APL, which manages the mission and will build and operate the Dragonfly lander, the PDR included more than 60 presentations to a panel of external experts tasked with evaluating and assessing mission progress for NASA.

“I’m excited to see all of the Dragonfly mission's design components coming together,” said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission team's hard work has resulted in the technical design for a spacecraft that can conduct compelling science to increase our understanding of Titan.”  

NASA will consider the board’s findings in a confirmation review later this year, examining Dragonfly’s cost, schedule, and the recommended baseline plan forward. 

Learn more about the mission at www.nasa.gov/dragonfly <http://www.nasa.gov/dragonfly>. 



NASA’s Perseverance Rover Completes Mars Sample Depot
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia25681-figure-a-selfie-1-1041.jpg>
NASA’s Perseverance took this selfie of itself looking down at one of 10 sample tubes deposited at the sample depot it created in an area nicknamed “Three Forks.” This image was taken by the WATSON camera on the rover’s robotic arm on Jan. 22, 2023, the 684th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Ten sample tubes, capturing an amazing variety of Martian geology, have been deposited on Mars’ surface so they could be studied on Earth in the future.

Watch a video about Mars Sample Return  <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-completes-mars-sample-depot/https>
Get details on the rock samples Perseverance has collected  <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-completes-mars-sample-depot/https>
Listen to JPL’s ‘On a Mission’ podcast season about Mars rovers  <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-completes-mars-sample-depot/https>
Explore Mars with Perseverance in 3D  <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-completes-mars-sample-depot/https>
Less than six weeks after it began <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9323/nasas-perseverance-rover-deposits-first-sample-on-mars-surface/>, construction of the first sample depot on another world is complete. Confirmation that NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover successfully dropped the 10th and final tube planned for the depot was received around 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST) Sunday, Jan. 29, by mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. This major milestone involved precision planning and navigation to ensure the tubes could be safely recovered in the future by the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign <https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/>, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study.

Throughout its science campaigns, the rover has been taking a pair of samples <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-rock-samples/> from rocks the mission team deems scientifically significant. One sample from each pair taken so far now sits in the carefully arranged depot in the “Three Forks” region of Jezero Crater. The depot samples will serve as a backup set while the other half remain inside Perseverance, which would be the primary means to convey samples to a Sample Retrieval Lander <https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/spacecraft/sample-retrieval-lander/> as part of the campaign.

 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia25340-e1-last-tube-1041.jpg>
The Perseverance rover’s WATSON camera took this image of the 10th and last tube to be deployed during the creation of the first sample depot on another world, on Jan. 28, 2023, the 690th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Full image and caption <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia25340-watson-documents-final-tube-dropped-at-three-forks-sample-depot>
Mission scientists believe the igneous <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9252/nasas-perseverance-makes-new-discoveries-in-mars-jezero-crater/> and sedimentary rock <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9261/nasas-perseverance-rover-investigates-geologically-rich-mars-terrain/> cores provide an excellent cross section of the geologic processes that took place in Jezero shortly after the crater’s formation almost 4 billion years ago. The rover also deposited an atmospheric sample and what’s called a “ <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/sample-handling/#Witness-Tubes>witness” tube <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/sample-handling/#Witness-Tubes>, which is used to determine if samples being collected might be contaminated with materials that traveled with the rover from Earth.

The titanium tubes were deposited on the surface in an intricate zigzag pattern, with each sample about 15 to 50 feet (5 to 15 meters) apart from one another to ensure they could be safely recovered. Adding time to the depot-creation process, the team needed to precisely map the location of each 7-inch-long (18.6-centimeter-long) tube and glove (adapter) combination so that the samples could be found even if covered with dust. The depot is on flat ground near the base of the raised, fan-shaped ancient river delta that formed long ago when a river flowed into a lake there.

“With the Three Forks depot in our rearview mirror, Perseverance is now headed up the delta,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at JPL. “We’ll make our ascent via the ‘Hawksbill Gap’ route we previously explored. Once we pass the geologic unit the science team calls ‘Rocky Top,’ we will be in new territory and begin exploring the Delta Top.”

Next Science Campaign

Passing the Rocky Top outcrop represents the end of the rover’s Delta Front Campaign <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9170/nasas-perseverance-rover-arrives-at-delta-for-new-science-campaign/> and the beginning of the rover’s Delta Top Campaign because of the geologic transition that takes place at that level.

“We found that from the base of the delta up to the level where Rocky Top is located, the rocks appear to have been deposited in a lake environment,” said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at Caltech. “And those just above Rocky Top appear to have been created in or at the end of a Martian river flowing into the lake. As we ascend the delta into a river setting, we expect to move into rocks that are composed of larger grains – from sand to large boulders. Those materials likely originated in rocks outside of Jezero, eroded and then washed into the crater.”

One of the first stops the rover will make during the new science campaign is at a location the science team calls the “Curvilinear Unit.” Essentially a Martian sandbar, the unit is made of sediment that eons ago was deposited in a bend in one of Jezero’s inflowing river channels. The science team believes the Curvilinear Unit will be an excellent location to hunt for intriguing outcrops of sandstone and perhaps mudstone, and to get a glimpse at the geological processes beyond the walls of Jezero Crater.



First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
The dawn of a new era in astronomy has begun as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data were released during a televised broadcast at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. These listed targets below represent the first wave of full-color scientific images and spectra the observatory has gathered, and the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations. They were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

These first images from the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope demonstrate Webb at its full power, ready to begin its mission to unfold the infrared universe <https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/first-science-images-packet>.

Press release: NASA Reveals Webb Telescope’s First Images of Unseen Universe <https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-reveals-webb-telescope-s-first-images-of-unseen-universe/>
For more about Webb’s current status, visit the “Where Is Webb?” tracker. <https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html>
Carina Nebula
 <https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/#tab1-1>Stephan's Quintet
 <https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/#tab1-2>Southern Ring Nebula
 <https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/#tab1-3>WASP-96 b
 <https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/#tab1-4>SMACS 0723
 <https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/#tab1-5>
 <https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth>
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
View larger version of this image <https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth>
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

Learn more about this image <https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth>
Download the full-resolution, uncompressed version and supporting visuals from the Space Telescope Science Institute <https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-031>
View a Hubble Space Telescope image of Carina Nebula NGC 3324 (Hubblesite.org) <http://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2008/34/2405-Image.html> 
En español <https://ciencia.nasa.gov/webb-de-la-nasa-revela-precipicios-cosmicos-y-paisajes-resplandecientes-de-nacimiento-estelar>

 




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