The current launch date of June 1 seems to be holding. The NASA/Boeing/ULA team will hold a flight readiness review today to ensure that the spacecraft and launch vehicle are ready, and there will likely be a media telecon tomorrow.
If you’ve been looking at everything NASA is doing and wondering “ok but when are we ACTUALLY going back to the moon, and what’s the plan here?” this video is for you.
Here’s a rough timeline of the Artemis program, along with context:
#Perseverance's location in the middle of the Neretva Vallis riverbed offers a unique perspective of the ancient river and its riverbanks. A 360° panorama captured from this location would be epic.
This view also offers a nice background for drawing possible future drive paths; here is one going west to Bright Angel, the rover's next target.
Processed, undistorted, leveled NAVCAM_RIGHT mosaic
looking WNW (288°) from RMC 52.4312
Sol 1162, LMST: 14:39:15
Up there is where #Perseverance took some of the best shots of #Ingenuity at its final landing location. It was there two months ago, around Sol 1100. Tosol is Sol 1163 of the mission.
MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 79mm
looking ESE (109°) from RMC 52.3158
Sol 1161, LMST: 13:00:02
An assortment of rocks with some very interesting colors at the new location of #Perseverance (the "hill" at present, but we need an official name for this mound).
Processed, cropped MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 63mm
looking NE (45°) from RMC 52.4312
Sol 1162, LMST: 15:16:36
This Memorial Day added an interesting twist to the daily grind of #Perseverance 🙂 Not only did it clear the rest of the rego-ripples it had to the north, but took advantage of the holiday to go on a picnic at a nice hill to the northeast 😀 🙃. Apparently the hill has a geological story to tell and the team's geologists are eager to hear it.
Boeing’s 1st astronaut flight now set for June after a review of small leak on new capsule.
AP reports: "Officials for the company and NASA said Friday that intensive reviews indicate the Starliner capsule can safely fly two test pilots to the International Space Station, despite a propulsion system leak."
If the moon is the final frontier for humankind, we need to figure out what we’re going to eat up there. In the next two years, NASA plans to send astronauts back to the moon, which provides some insight into what our lunar lunches will look and taste like. “Food is something that keeps astronauts sane,” says Dr. Sonja Brungs of the European Space Agency. BBC Travel has more on what astronauts eat — and what the rest of us might one day consume there. https://flip.it/Xp352- #Science#Food#NASA#Moon
#Perseverance's MastcamZ is ~1.9m above ground level. The tilt of the image may be indicative of (but is not equal to) the inclination of the ground where the rover was located when it captured the image.
Processed, leveled MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 63mm
looking W (273°) from RMC 52.3018
Sol 1159, LMST: 09:13:53
My office at work currently has 4 women and 1 man.
I have been the “only” woman in an office full of men so many times - this is the first time it’s been reversed! And I’m having so much fun! (Sorry, Thomas, for all of the silliness!)
Gliese 12 b is an Earth-size planet orbiting in the temperate zone around a nearby, stable red dwarf star. It's a Rosetta Stone world that will tell us a lot about how many superficially earthlike planets actually have the right conditions for life.
The NASA Europa Clipper spacecraft is getting ready to be shipped to KSC in FL. The spacecraft was moved in the clean room at JPL next to the container which will be used for transport to KSC.
At KSC, solar panels will be attached before installation in the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for launch around Oct 10, 2024. It will be inserted into orbit around Jupiter on April 11, 2030, from where it will make close passes of Europa over 4 years.
This was the celebratory scene outside JPL at midnight a few nights ago, as the Europa Clipper, in its environmentally-controlled shipping container, was trucked out on its way to the airport (probably Edwards Air Force Base).
Source: Video posted by Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper Project Scientist at JPL. #EuropaClipper#NASA
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