Want to become my colleague? #ESA is looking for a planetary scientist to fill the role of the archives scientist for the planetary science archive, initially assigned to #Mars missions:
(OK, almost my colleague, same agency, different location - you'd be based in Villanueva de la Cañada close to Madrid, Spain, while I'm in Noordwijk, NL).
I'm more of a reader than a writer in 'Mastodon Space' but today I bring you something that those people I follow may not have heard of: what's likely to be the first attempt at a space suit, designed as early as 1936 in Spain. It was to be tested with a hot air balloon but unfortunately the whole thing had to be scrapped due to the Civil War. One piece of the original suit has now been found. In Spanish but Google Translate does the trick.
On Sol 1037 (three days ago) the Perseverance rover observerved this transit of Mars' smallest moon Deimos.
This timelapse shows the event at 10x speed.
Their consumers need to be the ones to show them that staying in russia will hurt them much more than leaving ever would
B4Ukraine, has called on them to exit russia and for the #US government to issue a business advisory, warning US businesses of the growing legal, reputational and financial risks of doing business russia
Earlier today, the Perseverance rover captured a high resolution image of the Ingenuity using the SuperCam RMI instrument.
One rotor blade is broken off completely, the others have damaged tips.
#PPOD: Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the Solar System, as captured by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The volcano is about 620 km across and 21 km tall. The textured landscape at the bottom is made up of giant landslide deposits.
Credit: ESA/Mars Express; Processing: Jacint Roger Perez
Well this is fun! A #meteorite that slammed into #Mars in September 2021 has rewritten what we know about the planet’s interior. Analyzing the seismic vibrations caused by the impact has led to the discovery of a small active layer of molten rock that envelops Mars’s liquid-metal core. #geology#planetarysciencehttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03271-4
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."
#PPOD: This stunning photo was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. Phobos is the larger and closer of Mars's two moons, the other being Deimos. One hypothesis of their origin involves the possible capture of primitive asteroids. Unfortunately, Phobos is being pulled apart and closer by Mars's tidal forces and gravity. Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/ @andrealuck CC BY (https://www.flickr.com/photos/192271236@N03/53635851891/)
She was the first woman on Mars. As she was landing, she ignored the original plan and headed straight for the Jezero crater, Mission Control would need to live with it. Once she stepped out she didn't hesitate. It took her a while but she finally reached the device. She opened her toolbox and got to work. After 20 minutes, she had replaced the rotor. She cleaned the dust with a cloth and said "fly baby, fly". It was 2054 and Ingenuity could fly once again.
This is a mosaic using data from #ESA'S Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It highlights variation across Mars’s surface by enhancing local colour and contrast - the different colors actually highlight different geology on Mars!
During a short up and down Flight 72, Mars helicopter Ingenuity lost its comm link with rover Perseverance. NASA engineers are working on restoring it.
This follows Flight 71 on Jan 6 which made an emergency landing 35 seconds into a 125 sec flight; apparently the relatively featureless sandy terrain proved difficult for its navigation system.
Meanwhile, Voyager 1 is still sending garbled data.
Good news from JPL - the Mars helicopter team managed to reestablish contact with Ingenuity after its comm loss since the middle of Flight 72. The team is reviewing data to better understand the root cause of the comm outage.
This was accomplished by "instructing Mars rover Perseverance to perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity’s signal."