Listen to the Martian Winds

One of two Mars InSight's 7-foot (2.2 meter) wide solar panels was imaged by the lander's Instrument Deployment Camera, which is fixed to the elbow of its robotic arm.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander touched down on the planet Mars last month, November 26, 2018 and has captured the first ever recorded sounds on the Red Planet.

The sound is the wind on Mars and is described as “a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the wind, estimated to blowing between 10 to 15 mph on Dec. 1, from northwest to southeast.”

The Mars 2020 Rover will “will continue the agency’s efforts to search for evidence of life and prepare for human arrival.”

Find more details at NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-insight-lander-hears-martian-winds

The data were sped up by a factor of 100, shortening the duration of the recording and shifting it up in frequency 100 times (a little more than six octaves).

Listen to raw, unprocessed data from the seismometer on NASA's InSight spacecraft of vibrations caused by wind moving over the solar panels on Mars. A subwoofer or earphones are needed to hear this clip.

Saturn moon Enceladus has ingredients for life

Enceladus—a Saturn moon—is not the only ocean world in our solar system, but it is a top candidate for hosting life. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft team have not found microbes, but they have found their food, according to the article “Food for microbes abundant on Enceladus,” in the journal Science.

Beneath Enceladus’s icy surface is a salty ocean, as evidenced by jets of water ice and vapor erupting from its fissures. Cassini’s first pass found organic molecules like formaldehyde and methane. But it was not until the final pass in October 2015 that abundant hydrogen gas was found, likely from hydrothermal activity on the ocean floor. The activity is similar to the seafloor vents on Earth.

In the 2020s, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper mission to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa to investigate whether the icy moon harbors conditions for life.

This graphic illustrates how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of the ocean of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, producing hydrogen gas. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Large asteroid and comet to fly safely past Earth April 19

A large near-Earth asteroid will fly safely past Earth on April 19, reports NASA. It is roughly 2,000 feet in size and has a reflective surface, causing it to become visible in the night sky after April 19.

Discovered May 2014, the asteroid known as 2014 JO25will approach Earth from the direction of the sun. The last time a large asteroid passed by Earth was Toutatis, a 3.1-mile asteroid. The next close encounter of a comparably sized asteroid will occur in 2027.

The comet PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61) will also make its closest approach to Earth. It is now visible in the dawn sky with binoculars or a small telescope.

Use Pi to solve NASA’s Pi Day Challenge

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for the fourth year in a row, has created an illustrated Pi Day Challenge. It features four math problems that scientists and engineers must solve using the mathematical constant pi.

Students in grade six through high school can have fun solving the problem set which includes:

• Solve a Martian crater mystery
• Measure the size of the moon’s shadow during a total solar eclipse
• Plot the trajectory for Cassini’s daring orbit around Saturn
• Discover potentially habitable worlds outside our solar system

Answers to the problems will be released March 16.

Huge ocean underneath icy Europa

Scenario for getting water to Europa’s surface. Artist's conception of ridges and fractures on Europa  Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Hubble space telescope has imaged what may be plumes of water vapor on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Underneath its ice, there could be a global ocean of water. Future missions to Europa may be able to sample its ocean without having to drill through miles of ice.

Europa’s ocean is believed to be one of the most promising places in our solar system that could potentially harbor life. The ocean contains twice as much water as Earth’s oceans but lies beneath hard ice of unknown thickness.

Read the full article NASA’s Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Jupiter's Moon Europa.

Hubble Directly Images Possible Plumes on Europa

Learning to live off the land on Mars

A recent article by NASA explains how they are preparing for the Journey to Mars. They are expanding beyond the spacecraft and propulsion systems to developing systems that use resources available in the solar system; it is called  in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). It focuses on turning a planet’s atmosphere and soil into building materials for shelters to rocket fuel for the trip back to Earth.

The ISRU process

1. Prospect before mining to see if anything of value is there. NASA is planning an orbital mission with instruments on board to look for water in the soil using remote sensing. 
2. Use rovers on the surface to confirm the presence of needed resources. Resources such as water ice, metals and regolith will be available in great supplies whether planning to work on the moon, Mars or other destinations.
3. A first step is the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatiles Extraction (RESOLVE), currently in development. It will feature a rover that would map lunar volatiles, drill to extract samples and process water and other volatiles. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. These elements can be separated to operate fuel cells to create electricity; creating a power plant on a distant destination. 

Mars basics

Near the poles of Mars, temperatures can plummet to minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit. However, near the Red Planet’s equator, a summer day could be a pleasant 70 degrees. The atmosphere on Mars is about 95 percent carbon dioxide.

A mission to the Red Planet would be about six to nine months each way, plus the time spent on the surface, making it important to use available resources.

Read the full article Pioneering Space Requires Living Off the Land in the Solar System.

This artist's concepts depicts an example of a construction strategy from Contour Crafting and University of Southern California. The approach was selected by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Project. Contour Crafting technology has potential for building safe, reliable and affordable lunar and Martian structures, habitats, laboratories and other facilities. Contour Crafting construction systems are being developed that exploit in-situ resources and can utilize regolith as construction material. Credits: Contour Crafting and University of Southern California

Rosetta’s image of comet during controlled descent

The OSIRIS narrow-angle camera aboard the Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 30, 2016, from an altitude of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) above the surface during the spacecraft’s controlled descent. The image scale is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) per pixel and the image itself measures about 2,000 feet (614 meters) across. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft captured a new image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shortly before its controlled impact into the comet’s surface on Sept. 30, 2016. High-resolution images, gas, dust, and the comet’s plasma environment were taken during the final descent.

Rosetta’s mission to rendezvous with the comet, escort it as it orbits the Sun, and deploy a lander to its surface began with its launch in 2004. It reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. The mission ended September 30, 2016 when Spacecraft Operations Manager Sylvain Lodiot confirmed loss of signal (LOS).

Philae, the lander deployed from the Rosetta mothership, touched down on the comet and obtained the first images taken from a comet’s surface. Over several days it sent back valuable scientific data.

Read the full article Final Descent Image from Rosetta Spacecraft.