GW
]]>Unfortunately the signal we thought it could be IM1 Int_Machines is in fact from COSMOS 2518. Too proof it, we moved our 20m antenna to COSMOS 2518 and found it to be very strong.. thus, we were receiving it through a side lobe.
]]>Some think they can return samples from Saturn's Moon Titan
imagine how crazy of an idea to get a Titan Sample Return or Jupiter's Moon a Europa Sample Return...before Mars and how did MSR project mess up so badly?
QUOTE
'what we need is... A TITAN SAMPLE RETURN MISSION! Ralph Lorenz #JpGU2023 suggests that the near-impossible fuel load required for the 17 year return trip to Saturn could be avoided by refuelling from methane & water on Titan itself.'
https://twitter.com/girlandkat/status/1 … 7963471873
lots of topics already on Methane rockets
]]>Physicist Claims Universe Has No Dark Matter and Is Twice As Old As We Thought
https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/0 … we-thought
Right off the top, we have a company with the appropriate name ... founded in 2016 ... It has a web site:
https://www.asteroidminingcorporation.co.uk/contact-9
Contact
3 Pan Peninsula Square,Canary Wharf, London, UK
E14 9HQ
enquire@asteroidminingcorporation.co.uk
I filled out the contact form and will let you know if I hear anything back.
(th)
]]>https://www.nasa.gov/moontomarsarchitecture/
The first phase of Mars Sample Return has already begun. In February 2021, the rover Perseverance landed on Mars tasked with collecting air, rock cores and soil that would ultimately be returned to Earth. Equipped with a sophisticated sampling system, Perseverance has already filled 23 of its collection tubes and has 15 more.
The envisioned next phase is sending a Sample Retrieval Lander to rendezvous with Perseverance, transfering the samples and then launching them into space, to be picked up by an Earth Return Orbiter furnished by ESA.
Yet how, when, or even if those next phases will happen is far from certain.
Faced with rising costs, NASA commissioned an independent review of the entire program in 2023. The review didn't pull punches, finding that the likely cost of the project had ballooned, its organizational structure wasn’t working, and that NASA hadn’t effectively communicated to the science community or the public why the massive effort was worthwhile in the first place. Despite that, the review emphasized that the scientific and geopolitical value of Mars Sample Return couldn’t be overstated, and that the project could be made affordable.
Still, the Senate threatened to reduce the project’s budget substantially and even cancel it outright, which starkly contrasted with the House’s proposal to support the program fully. Congress now proposes to fund it at some level, but this uncertainty has driven NASA to “ramp back” its Mars Sample Return-related activities. As a result, Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s lead center for the project, laid off more than 600 staff members last month — highly skilled expertise that NASA can no longer access.Now Congress has a choice: It can turn its back on Mars Sample Return or commit to funding the boldest robotic planetary science effort humanity has yet undertaken.
The sample project must be put on a financially affordable path as part of NASA’s overall program of U.S. planetary exploration — returning samples from Mars cannot happen at the expense of every other planetary science enterprise at the agency. A team began developing a cost-effective path forward last year, in response to the independent review’s criticisms. Its proposals are expected later in March.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIfLkcFaFQY
Things You Didn't Know About NASA's Mars Rovers
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-mars-rovers-fa … 1851221481
first on-site evidence of water on moon’s surface
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science … ence-water
They already shared Moon samples with France and with Russia
A new type of Basalt, higher than expected Titanium, Water and Prescence of Rare Earth Minerals
video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_1kwlXzfl8
The Chang’e-5 (CE-5) mission, the first return of lunar samples to Earth since the Apollo and Luna missions more than 44 years ago, landed on one of the youngest mare basalt units (1.0-3.0 Ga, based on superposed crater counts), located at middle latitude (~43°N) far from previous landing sites. On December 17, 2020, the sample capsule returned to Earth with 1731 grams of lunar soil collected from the upper few centimeters of the surface and from an ~1 meter-long core drilled into the lunar regolith.
https://www.the-innovation.org/geoscien … 23.100014/
This paper summarizes the main discoveries of the CE-5 samples allocated since July 12, 2021, and measured with state-of-the-art analytical techniques. Physical property studies indicate that the CE-5 soil is mature, with a peak particle size of ~50 µm (in volume), and a particle size distribution similar to the sub-mature and mature Apollo lunar soils (<1 cm). The soil sample contains basalt and mineral fragments, impact melt breccia, agglutinates, and glasses. The basalt fragments can be divided into several petrographic types, likely crystallized from the same lava flow at different depths and cooling rates. The CE-5 basalt Pb/Pb SIMS analyses yielded a crystallization age of 2.030 ± 0.004 Ga, extending the duration of lunar volcanic activity by ~1.0~0.8 Ga. This age, in turn, has helped to calibrate the widely applied lunar crater chronology model. The isotopic ratios of Pb, Nd and Sr indicate that the contribution of a KREEP component in forming CE-5 basalt is limited (<0.5%), excluding high concentrations of heat-producing radioactive elements in their mantle source. The isotope analyses of H, Cl, and S reveal that the mantle source is dry, which cannot account for the prolonged volcanism observed in the CE-5 landing region. A possible explanation is that the CE-5 mantle source contains enhanced clinopyroxene-ilmenite cumulate (~20%), which reduces the melting temperature by ~80°C. The REE-, FeO-enrichment of the CE-5 basalt can be attributed to a low degree of partial melting followed by extensive fractional crystallization. The CE-5 soil has also recorded a two-billion-year history of meteorite impact and solar wind irradiation. A few exotic fragments have been recognized (some with high-pressure silica phases) and are likely ejected from distant lunar highlands. The U-Pb dating of impact glass beads reveals at least 17 main impact events. New space weathering effects, especially the formation of Fe3+, have been found. In situ reflectance spectra and laboratory analyses of CE-5 soil show the presence of water (in the form of H, OH, and/or H2O). The solar wind hydrogen was implanted and concentrated in the outermost rims (<100 nm) of soil grains, with a temperature (hence latitude)-dependent maximum water concentration of up to ~2 wt%.
Day 62
https://twitter.com/SegerYu/status/1764605778152116465
Rover Tracks
Yutu-2 broke the lunar longevity record, of 322 earth days, previously held by the Soviet Union
]]>perhaps answer that 'Alien Life' question? but others say the stone and dust and rocks are from a long dead lake
JPL has already laid off one hundred contractors
One MSR they now state is equally expensive as 3 in-situ Robot Lab Rover exploration missions which studies samples on Mars without going back to Earth.
Some people have raised political issues like cross planet contamination. There is also supposed to be a Lab ready that is sealed on levels for Smallpox, Anthrax, bacteriology, virus and other agents of bioterror disease etc The International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR) is an advocacy group led by Barry DiGregorio, that campaigns against a Mars sample-return mission, DiGregorio also supports a view or conspiracy that several pathogens – such as common viruses – originate in space and probably caused some mass extinctions and pandemics.
https://web.archive.org/web/20021029170 … rs.sample/
Can NASA save this mission? China also has a mission and maybe if NASA does not go first but maybe the Chinese will get there first...and NASA might cancel the current mission anyways, any European state might pull funding. ESA is a bit lost and could be of no help, French were friendly with Russia's launch vehicles arriving in South America, Rosalind Franklin ExoMars Aurora Program, they had lander failures but looking good during Mars Express 20 years + in orbit and other missions Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) but ESA now seems lost. Working with ESA Russia was to build a robotic Mars lander, Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused an indefinite delay of the programme, as the member states of the ESA voted to suspend the joint mission with Russia. A proposed mission is a proposed mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and return them to Earth has been around a long time.
One social media guy does education science videos, Simon Whistler makes a lot of video content, an English YouTube personality who currently resides in Prague, he runs sixteen social media channels at the same time and uploads lots of news, history and science content, he also does podcasts and made books on narration and audio production, he might also have mirror or sister websites and blogs.
'What’s Wrong with the Mars Sample Return Mission?'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_EjLTvhVrw
Final NASA 2024 spending bill defers decision on MSR funding
https://spacenews.com/final-nasa-2024-s … r-funding/
Congressional appropriators have released a final fiscal year 2024 spending bill that cuts NASA funding from what the agency received in 2023 while deferring a decision on spending for Mars Sample Return (MSR).
House and Senate appropriators released March 3 the bill text and report language for 6 of 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2024, including the commerce, justice and science (CJS) spending bill that funds NASA. Congress is expected to pass the bills before the continuing resolution funding the agencies covered by the bill expires March 8.
The bill provides $24.875 billion for NASA, 2% less than what the agency received in 2023 and 8.5% less than the $27.185 billion NASA requested for 2024. The final figure is also below the levels in the separate House and Senate bills of $25.367 billion and $25 billion, respectively.
On MSR, where the House and Senate offered vastly different figures, the final bill instead gives NASA flexibility. Uncertainty about spending on the program prompted NASA to reduce spending on MSR in November while under a continuing resolution, and that extended uncertainty led the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lead center for MSR, to lay off 8% of its staff in February.
In the report accompanying the bill, appropriators noted NASA is reassessing the architecture of MSR through a group called the MSR Independent Review Board Response Team, or MIRT. “The agreement directs NASA to report no later than 60 days following completion of the MIRT report on the recommended path forward for MSR, within a balanced Science portfolio,” the report stated, including a year-by-year funding profile for MSR.
The report directs NASA to spend no less than $300 million, the amount in the Senate bill, on MSR, and up to the request of $949.3 million, the amount in the House bill. It also directs NASA to not lay off any more people in the MSR program until the agency provides Congress with the report on the future of MSR.
What seems to be the case is the Money does not add up, it is limited now so MSR isn't cut something else in planetary needs to be, the Moon, Europa Clipper, Titan Dragon Fly, Commercial Moon missions, possible future Enceladus mission, Ceres sample return.
maybe they can quickly re-design, its not dead yet
]]>There are rumors of Interstellar Express on news site a Chinese mission targeting for a type of Interstellar Heliosphere Probe-1 (IHP-1) or for Interstellar Heliosphere Probe-2 (IHP-2). It might only be a study or concept but Mission objectives include exploration of the heliosphere and interstellar space, perhaps named 'Shensuo'
Tianwen-3 mission is expected to be a return samples from Mars
A space telescope Japan's Hitomi mission, also known as ASTRO-H and New X-ray Telescope (NeXT), was an X-ray astronomy satellite commissioned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for studying extremely energetic processes in the Universe. Measurements by Hitomi have allowed scientists to track the motion of X-ray-emitting gas at the heart of the Perseus cluster of galaxies for the first time, JAXA reported that communication with Hitomi had "failed from the start of its operation". A follow on mission the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM, pronounced "crism"), formerly the X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM), is an X-ray space telescope mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in partnership with NASA to provide breakthroughs in the study of structure formation of the universe, outflows from galaxy nuclei, and dark matter
International, HERACLES (Human-Enhanced Robotic Architecture and Capability for Lunar Exploration and Science) is a planned robotic transport system to and from the Moon by Europe (ESA), Japan (JAXA) and Canada (CSA)
NASA will have Europa Clipper join Juno
NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan
Although there have been complaints about funding in news media, talk of election and lay offs coming I do not see Titan or Europa getting cancelled, the MSR however is becoming troublesome and expensive.
Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered nine new "hot Jupiter" exoplanets.
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-tess-hot-jupiters.html
Concept studies
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-scie … documents/
ESA Mars Sample Return and European Rover, possibly with NASA, working with Russians has been cancelled after the invasion of Ukraine, will ESA get something done with Space-X or NASA.
LISA, gravity wave – the first dedicated gravitational wave space observatory mission.
JUICE, ESA mission an orbital insertion in July 2031 will observe Jupiter along with NASA's Europa Clipper
Russia unknown hit by sanctions after Ukraine invasion, they have planned a Venera-D Venus lander since the break of of the USSR but Russia seems starved of investment, possibly some cargo ships and other ISS involvement
South Korea more robotic probes, India possible cargo that might link with ambitions for manned flights
South Korea looks to the USA and Europe and will travel to U.S. and discuss space cooperation
Vice science minister to visit U.S., Europe to discuss cooperation between space agencies
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240118008100320
The Mars helicopter is now in its final resting place on a dune inside Mars’ Jezero Crater. But while most people have been thinking that it’s mission accomplished for the helicopter, it turns out that it’s actually still operating and in touch with its team at JPL.
As per NASA: “The team continues to run vehicle health checks while snapping images of the martian surface. Though we mostly see the sand below us with the color camera, martian scientists can learn about geological processes by having a series of images taken from one spot to see how dust, sand, and rock particles move in response to martian weather and wind.”
It’s not clear how for much longer Ingenuity will be able to operate. Much will depend on the time it takes for martian sand to cover its solar panels. When that happens, as it did it with NASA’s stationary InSight Mars lander in 2022, it will be well and truly game over for the Mars helicopter.