Nearly done with the ink/gold portion of the #osirisrex#wip. Next up, decorative precious stone inlay (in paint, both figuratively and LITERALLY thanks to my Daniel Smith PrimaTek #watercolors), a golden center, and finally, asteroid samples!
#NASA’s #Mars Exploration Lab Lays Off 570 Workers Because #Congress Can’t Get It Together
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory put robots on Mars, but Congressional foot-dragging is forcing the #space agency to lay off hundreds of workers. “After exhausting all other measures to adjust to a lower budget from NASA, and in the absence of an #FY24 appropriation from Congress, we have had to make the difficult decision to reduce the #JPL workforce through #layoffs.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjyb5/nasa-jpl-layoff-workers-congress-cant-get-it-together
The Ingenuity team has nicknamed the spot where the helicopter completed its final flight “Valinor Hills” after the fictional location in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, which include “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
As much as we love our science and tech, the nature of human politics is such that we can ill afford to dwell on just our interests. The layoffs at NASA/JPL are why we should always pay attention to our daily politics, and be prepared to participate in it when the situation calls for it.
In the most direct sense, people are losing their jobs because Congress is fighting over the budget of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) project.
Those waters brought fine-grained sand and mud known for preserving fossilized life in comparable environments on Earth. The Martian crater's lake grew as wide as 35 km in diameter and as deep as 30 m.
The little rotorcraft that could, Ingenuity, has completed its last flight after an emergency landing caused damage to its rotors. 😥
Having far exceeded expectations—5 flights over 30 days turned into 72 flights over 3 years—it will now go down in history, albeit only the history remembered by space fans.
"Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days, more than 33 times longer than originally planned, Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter."
Ingenuity is no more; I was a JPL scientist when Percy & Ginny launched and landed, so they have a special place in my heart. I'm not generally sentimental about missions, but this one hurts.
This was taken on Ingenuity's 70th flight which was on Sol-1009 (December 22, 2023). The camera was pointing south-west looking through the center of the Neretva Vallis river flow channel which carried rushing flows of liquid water and sediment that ultimately formed the Jezero Crater river delta billions of years ago. #Ingenuity#MarsHelicopter#JPL#Mars2020#NASA#Mars#Space#PerseveranceRover
That sounds interesting but is quite risky, as the terrain is difficult and the rover would have to drive up into the Neretva riverbed, and across the regolith megaripple field to get a good visual of the heli, and that's assuming the #MarsHelicopter is still on the top of one of those megaripples.
The maps show visibility and terrain. Contours are 1m.
Perseverance rover is checking out the condition of its systems after solar conjunction. In this image we can see the rover's 'Bit Carousel' (image center). The rover acquired this photo using its SHERLOC WATSON camera, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The raw image was acquired on December 2, 2023 (Sol 990) at the local mean solar time of 11:45. NASA/JPL-Caltech #PerseveranceRover#Marsrover#Mars#NASA#JPL