Once a mere tchotchke, Ingenuity has matured into Perseverance's advance scout

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Thursday September 09, 2021 · 4:51 PM PDT

2021/09/09 · 16:51

Mars helicopter Ingenuity, which weighs a mere 4 pounds on Earth

It was a late addition to Mars 2020, not even part of the original plans. It was supposed to be a mere prototype, a knickknack, a tchotchke, a gizmo. A machine that would, if all went well, make a few hesitating, delicate flights over the course of one Earth month in the thin air near the surface of Mars, just to demonstrate that such a thing could actually be done.

But things have gone far beyond expectations, so much so that NASA has determined that the mission of Ingenuity — The Little Helicopter That Could — will be extended indefinitely.

Just this past Sunday, Ingenuity made its 13th flight to examine in detail an area called South Séítah:

Happy Flight the 13th!🚁
Ingenuity has achieved its 13th successful flight on Mars. It traveled at 7.3 mph (3.3 m/s) taking images pointing southwest of the South Seítah region. This aerial scouting continues to aid in planning @NASAPersevere’s next moves. https://t.co/tboEcnLvx3 pic.twitter.com/QIp8QSVxbq
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) September 5, 2021

But what convinced NASA once and for all that Ingenuity — the proverbial undrafted rookie free agent — should make the team was its 12th flight, taken on August 16. Prior to that, here were the paths of Perseverance and Ingenuity:

Ground tracks of NASA's Perseverance rover (white) and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (green) since arriving on Mars February 18. Ingenuity scouted the "Raised Ridges" geologic feature during its 10th flight and the "South Séítah" region during its 12th

Originally, the landscape near Jezero Crater had been known primarily from Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO) images like this:

Perseverance’s two projected paths were originally the blue (top) path and the purple (bottom) path. It has taken the latter, and right now it sits about where the arrow is pointing

If you look just above the arrow in the image above, you can make out the V-shaped ridge that Perseverance is on. Inside that “V” is the South Séítah region. The MRO images made it appear that the region might be full of interesting geological features like sedimentary rocks, the kind that maybe could have been deposited by flowing water. That could mean past life, and thus good sampling regions for Perseverance. So Ingenuity went ahead to check it out.

Here’s a couple of images it took while flying above the region at an altitude of 33 feet:

The shadow of Ingenuity is visible in this one

Perseverance project scientist and Caltech geochemistry professor Ken Farley had this to say about the images:

“From a science perspective, these images of South Seítah are the most valuable Ingenuity has taken to date. And part of their value may be in what they are not showing. Sedimentary layers in rocks are not readily apparent in the image, and there may be areas that could be difficult to negotiate with the rover. [...]

“What this image may be saying is, we don’t need to drive further west to obtain the best geologic variety of this first science campaign. If we decide to make the trip to South Seítah, we’ve got some valuable intel on what we’ll encounter. And if the decision is to stick around ‘Artuby Ridge,’ the rover’s current location, we’ll have saved valuable time. It’s a win-win.”

Ingenuity has been fortunate so far not to encounter major dust storms or other unexpected hazards, and as long as that is true, it’s going to stay in service, looking out for its big buddy Perseverance.

You’ve come a long, long way, Ingenuity!

Lockheed Martin engineers work on a lightweight deployment system for Ingenuity in 2019

I’m sure you know by now that Perseverance has successfully drilled its first rock core sample for eventual return to Earth. In fact, NASA will hold a briefing for the public on this topic tomorrow (Friday) at noon.

But I hope that one day we can bring Ingenuity back to Earth as well, so that it can take its place in the pantheon of historic aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum.

Frontal view from below of the Wright 1903 Flyer hanging on public display in Gallery 100, Milestones of Flight, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 2002. To the left, the Goddard rockets are visible and to the right, the Viking Lander display. Two individuals stand in front of the Apollo 11 capsule in lower center. The gallery's skylight ceiling is visible above the Wright Flyer. — The 1903 Wright Flyer hanging on public display in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC

Or maybe it should go into the first museum on Mars!

But let’s not talk about fare-thee-wells now. The night is a starry dome, and Ingenuity isn’t nearly done yet...

Looks like we have our second visitor from outside the Solar System

skralyx

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Thursday September 12, 2019 · 12:10 AM PDT

2019/09/12 · 00:10

Our best guess at the orbit of the new visitor (the green hyperbola)

An amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov of Crimea (so I’m calling him Ukrainian), just discovered what is likely (but not yet certainly) the second known visitor to our Solar System from outside of it. The first one, as you might recall, was ‘Oumuamua.

Here is the first animation of our new visitor:

A GIF animation of what is likely our second known interstellar visitor — What appears to be our second known interstellar visitor

The object is now called C/2019 Q4 (Borisov). If it’s confirmed to be interstellar (from outside the Solar System), then the “C” in its name (for “comet”) will change to “2I”, for “second interstellar” object.

Here’s its position relative to us today:

Where the interstellar object is now — Where the interstellar object Borisov is today

The Earth is behind the Sun right now, so Borisov is visible through strong telescopes only for a short time before dawn. But in the picture above, Earth is moving into the frame (while Borisov is moving downward), so the Sun will slide aside for us over the next few weeks and there’ll be better viewing. Borisov is in Cancer through September, then moves into Leo for October.

You can run an orbital simulation right in your browser just by clicking HERE. It’s pretty fun because you can play with lots of different viewpoints. You’ll see that it will get pretty close to Mars, so much so that if you lived there, you might even be able to see it with the naked eye.

You may remember that ‘Oumuamua caused a big but brief splash in 2017. It had an odd elongated shape and seemed to use its thinness to get accelerated by solar radiation. Some knowledgeable people even suggested it was a spaceship of some sort (it wasn’t).

But Borisov is different from ‘Oumuamua in some important ways:

It’s about 10 km across, so at least 1,000 times as massive as ‘Oumuamua
It’s a comet and not some sort of asteroid; it has a tail and a coma
We have a much longer time (through 2021) to view it and learn about it

How did Borisov discover this object? With a barrel of a telescope he built himself:

Gennady Borisov and the telescope he built himself — Yipe! That’s some astronomical artillery

Where did Borisov’s object come from? The current trajectory says from the direction of the lovely W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia:

The constellation Cassiopeia — Cassiopeia

We’ll certainly learn more about the origin of Borisov in the days and weeks to come, but we’ll learn a lot more over the next year.

There could be some great observations ahead!

Nate Silver Just Changed Missouri to BLUE; 60% Chance of Kander Win

Glic

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Monday October 17, 2016 · 9:57 PM PDT

2016/10/17 · 21:57

Nate Silver at 538.com has just changed the Missouri Senate race to BLUE, giving Jason Kander a 60.1% chance of defeating incumbent, Roy Blunt.

Chance of winning Senate seat:

Jason Kander — 60.1%

Roy Blunt — 39.9%

The promise of NewSpace

Steven Andrew for Daily Kos

Community

Sunday May 24, 2015 · 5:47 PM PDT

2015/05/24 · 17:47

no image description available — Ceres as revealed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers). The bright spots may be water ice.

Ceres as revealed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers). The bright spots may be water ice.

We throw a lot of terms around here on Daily Kos, mostly in politics, sometimes in science. One of the latter is NewSpace, which can mean different things to different people:

NewSpace—formerly alt.space; also "new space", and entrepreneurial space—are umbrella terms for a movement and philosophy often affiliated with, but not synonymous with, an emergent private spaceflight industry. Specifically, the terms are used to refer to a community of relatively new aerospace companies working to develop low-cost access to space or spaceflight technologies and advocates of low-cost spaceflight technology and policy.

But NewSapce means more than just space exploration, it also means using resources in space back here on Earth, where we are likely to run low on key elements and other substances in the forseeable future.

It's interesting that one of the people who first glimpsed that looming shortfall half a century ago had nothing to do with space exploration or aerospace technology in general. His bailiwick was the oil business. Follow us below and we'll briefly review the frightening immediate future.

Susan Grigsby for Daily Kos

Community

Sunday April 12, 2015 · 7:53 PM PDT

2015/04/12 · 19:53

I don't read much science fiction anymore, but it was the stuff of my teens. Perhaps it was geared to 13-year-old boys, but it still allowed me journeys to the Ringworld or to Rendezvous with Rama, worlds so vast and detailed that leaving them and coming back to earth in the 1960s was jarring. I grokked Michael Valentine Smith (or would have liked to) and studied psychohistory under Hari Seldon.

Today I mostly read mysteries for the Monday Murder Mystery series, and sadly my sci-fi reading is limited to cross-genre novels like John Scalzi's Lock-In, Matt Haig's The Humans or Max Barry's Lexicon. But when I have the time, I confess that I look to the Nebula and Hugo award winners and nominees for titles to add to my TBR list.

The Nebulas are awarded by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The Hugos are nominated and awarded by fans of the genre who are members of Worldcon, making them basically a popularity contest. Which is fine with me as those voters are avid readers of science fiction and fantasy who are dedicated enough to attend the conventions or at least to pay the $40 fee to join. And over the years, the fans have managed to select some pretty good reading.

Until now. This year a right-wing minority of science-fiction writers and publishers have decided which nominees the fans will be allowed to vote for. Nothing that they have done is illegal, although the word unethical could be applied if it held any meaning for them. It doesn't however, because within their bubble they are the oppressed minority who are being censored and put upon by the "social justice warriors." Sigh.

Grab your popcorn and meet me below the fold for the sad and rabid story of the puppies.

annieli

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Wednesday March 18, 2015 · 1:35 AM PDT

2015/03/18 · 01:35

Even the FSM used Kickstarter.com. "HCN is abundant in comets, which rained down steadily for nearly the first several hundred million years of Earth’s history. The impacts would also have produced enough energy to synthesize HCN from hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen"

Researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum
The origin of life on Earth is a set of paradoxes. In order for life to have gotten started, there must have been a genetic molecule—something like DNA or RNA—capable of passing along blueprints for making proteins, the workhorse molecules of life. But modern cells can’t copy DNA and RNA without the help of proteins themselves. To make matters more vexing, none of these molecules can do their jobs without fatty lipids, which provide the membranes that cells need to hold their contents inside. And in yet another chicken-and-egg complication, protein-based enzymes (encoded by genetic molecules) are needed to synthesize lipids.

Now, researchers say they may have solved these paradoxes. Chemists report today that a pair of simple compounds, which would have been abundant on early Earth, can give rise to a network of simple reactions that produce the three major classes of biomolecules—nucleic acids, amino acids, and lipids—needed for the earliest form of life to get its start. Although the new work does not prove that this is how life started, it may eventually help explain one of the deepest mysteries in modern science.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aab0325

Hubble marks 25 years with exquisite image

Steven Andrew for Daily Kos

Community

Monday January 12, 2015 · 6:57 AM PST

2015/01/12 · 06:57

It's hard to believe it's been almost 25 years since the Hubble Space Telescope went up on Shuttle Mission 31. NASA is gearing up for the official April 24 anniversary and released a stunning new image of an old favorite: The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. Be prepared to wait if you click on that image, it's linked to the huge NASA billboard version. This image at Bad Astronomy is a little easier to digest:

The pillars are these towers. The tops are pointing toward the onslaught of stellar radiation and are slowly being dissolved by the light. You can see small knots, clumps of material here and there; these are where stars are being formed and are being uncovered as the dust dissolves. You can see numerous finger-shaped blobs all over the region, too, being eroded by the same process. There’s also a near-infrared image, which detects light that can get through some of the otherwise-opaque dust, showing even more details, including baby stars.

What with lousy weather and terrible news all week, it's good to remember we live in a gorgeous universe and the HST showcase site might well be worth visiting this weekend.

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2014 in review)

Neon Vincent for Overnight News Digest

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Saturday December 27, 2014 · 9:30 PM PST

2014/12/27 · 21:30

Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, jlms qkw, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, health, energy, and the environment.

This week, Science Saturday takes a look back at the year in science.

This week's featured story comes from Science Magazine on YouTube.

Science's Breakthrough of the Year 2014!

Each year, Science chooses a singular scientific development as Breakthrough of the Year. This year, the Rosetta mission took the crown! Meet this yearâs Breakthrough and check out our nine amazing runners-up!

More stories after the jump.

Neon Vincent for Overnight News Digest

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Saturday December 20, 2014 · 9:11 PM PST

2014/12/20 · 21:11

With the general election concluded, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in cities and states with runoff elections and unresolved contests. Vermont has an unresolved race for Governor and Austin, Texas, had a runoff election for Mayor on December 16th. Also, between now and the first NCAA Division 1-A College Football Championship decided by playoff, OND will feature the research stories from universities with teams in post-season play. This week, stories will come from schools involved in bowl games held between December 22nd and December 27th.

This week's featured story comes from The Huffington Post.

Winter Solstice 2014: Shortest Day Of The Year Marked By Pagan Celebrations
By HuffPost Religion Editors
December 20, 2014

In 2014, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere will begin on Dec. 21 at 6:03 p.m. EST. To calculate the turning point in your time zone, click here.
Officially the first day of winter, the winter solstice occurs when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This is the longest night of the year, meaning that despite the cold winter, the days get progressively longer after the winter solstice until the summer solstice in 2015.

More stories after the jump.

Neon Vincent for Overnight News Digest

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Saturday December 13, 2014 · 9:22 PM PST

2014/12/13 · 21:22

With the general election concluded, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in cities and states with runoff elections and unresolved contests. Vermont has an unresolved race for Governor and Austin, Texas, has a runoff election for Mayor on December 16th. Also, between now and the first NCAA Division 1-A College Football Championship decided by playoff, OND will feature the research stories from universities with teams in post-season play. This week, stories will come from schools involved in bowl games held on December 20th.

This week's featured story comes from Jessica Contrera of The Washington Post and Victoria Jaggard of Smithsonian Magazine.

On 12/13/14 one last chance to indulge in sequential date frenzy — this century, anyway

It’s the very last sequential day of the century. We are already out of triple dates, the 11/11/11s and 12/12/12s, and Saturday we run out of 1/2/03s and 4/5/06s.
There is no 13/14/15! And there won’t be anything like it until the year 2101!
...
Journalists have been reporting on these special dates — calling wedding planners and casinos and numerologists and “scientists” — and maybe exaggerating the details of the situation a bit, but we’ll get to that — for 14 years.

So to celebrate this century’s last hurrah, this final quirk of the calendar, let us compile all the essential ingredients for the ultimate 12/13/14 sequential date story.

After 12/13/14, What Are the Next Fun Dates for Math Lovers?

[N]umberphiles need not despair. Counting from one to 365 is just the simplest form of a mathematical tool called an integer sequence, says Neil J. A. Sloane, a visiting scientist at Rutgers University and founder of the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, or OEIS. "Our days are numbered," Sloane quips. So what other types of sequences can we look forward to celebrating this century?
Primes (11/13/17) and Mersenne Primes (07/13/17) [sic--the next Mersenne Prime date should be 3/7/31, not 07/13/17--NV.]
...
Fibonacci Numbers (08/13/21)
...
Recamán's Sequence (07/13/20 and 08/25/43)

There's also Pi Day next year, 3/14/15.

Stories originally included in 12-13-14, the last sequential day of the century on Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

More stories after the jump.

Neon Vincent for Overnight News Digest

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Saturday December 06, 2014 · 9:03 PM PST

2014/12/06 · 21:03

With the general election concluded, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in cities and states with runoff elections and unresolved contests. Louisiana held a runoff for U.S. Senator today, Vermont has an unresolved race for Governor, and Austin, Texas, has a runoff election for Mayor on December 16th. Also, between now and the first NCAA Division 1-A College Football Championship decided by playoff, OND will feature the research stories from universities with teams in post-season play. This week, stories will come from schools involved in conference championships.

This week's featured story comes from NASA and Space.com.

Orion Flight Test

After years of design, fabrication and testing Orion completed a perfect launch into Earth's orbit. After returning to Earth NASA's Orion spacecraft is seen from an unpiloted aircraft descending under three massive red and white main parachutes and then shortly after its bullseye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of San Diego. During the uncrewed test, Orion traveled twice through the Van Allen belt, where it experienced periods of intense radiation, and reached an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth. The spacecraft hit speeds of 20,000 mph and weathered temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.

Orion’s first flight on This Week @NASA

The successful first flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Dec. 5 not only was a historic moment for the agency – but also was a critical step on NASA’s Journey to Mars. Orion rode to space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a Delta IV heavy rocket with no crew, but loaded with about 1,200 sensors. The flight test basically was a compilation of the riskiest events that will happen when astronauts fly on Orion on deep space missions. Also, Journey to Mars briefing, 1st SLS flight barrel and Commercial crew milestone.

NASA's Orion Spaceship Test a 'Textbook Spaceflight'
by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer
December 06, 2014 09:49am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's first capsule built to take humans to Mars aced a seemingly flawless first test flight on Friday (Dec. 5), with the space agency overjoyed with the spacecraft's performance.
The Orion spacecraft appeared to function spectacularly during the risky unmanned test flight in space, and also as it came back through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Some people are comparing this historic capsule to the capsules flown during the Apollo program that brought NASA astronauts to the moon for the first time.

"It was just such a textbook spaceflight," said NASA astronaut Rex Walheim, who worked with the Orion team to develop the spacecraft. "That's what we want for our first flight."

More videos and articles about this and other stories after the jump.

Neon Vincent for Overnight News Digest

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Saturday November 29, 2014 · 8:59 PM PST

2014/11/29 · 20:59

With the general election concluded, Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday will highlight the research stories from the public universities in states with runoff elections, other unresolved races for U.S. Senator or Governor, and Democratic victories for U.S. Senator or Governor, in addition to universities in cities with runoff or special elections. Louisiana is holding a runoff for U.S. Senator, Vermont has an unresolved race for Governor, and Austin, Texas, has a runoff election for Mayor. Democrats won elections for U.S. Senator in Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Democrats won elections for Governor in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

Tonight's edition features the research and outreach stories from the states of Louisiana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia and the city of Austin.

This week's featured story comes from io9.

Everything You Need To Know About NASA's Next Deep Space Mission
Charlie Jane Anders
November 28, 2014

NASA is dreaming big and working hard. Orion is the result, the first step in opening up deep space exploration to humans — and hopefully, bringing people to Mars. The spacecraft undergoes its first test flight next week, and here's everything you need to know about it.
Meet Orion, NASA's New Deep Space Explorer

The largest rocket on the planet is about to carry NASA's dreams into a highly inclined orbit around the Earth. Exploration Test Flight-1, the first uncrewed full-system test flight for the new Orion spacecraft is December 4th. Here's what it is, why it's awesome, and how it's the first step in NASA's Next Giant Leap.

More stories after the jump.

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Once a mere tchotchke, Ingenuity has matured into Perseverance's advance scout

Looks like we have our second visitor from outside the Solar System

Nate Silver Just Changed Missouri to BLUE; 60% Chance of Kander Win

The promise of NewSpace

Freeping the Hugo Awards

No primordial 7 day soup for you, FSM! Researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum

Hubble marks 25 years with exquisite image

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2014 in review)

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Winter Solstice 2014)

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (last sequential day of century)

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Orion test mission)

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Orion test flight next week)