Tunnels on the Moon, Martian Landscapes, and the Storms of Jupiter

Investigations have revealed a network of tubes beneath the lunar surface , and arguments abound on whether to explore / inhabit them.
Personally, I think that moment has gone, as all eyes appear to be on Mars...speaking of which -

The diligent Mars explorer Curiosity still rumbles on, but is now showing signs of significant wear and tear on one of its wheels.
Fortunately we can view Mars from afar - this incredible animation was painstakingly pieced together from  available images.
Images from Hubble bring us two distant, interwoven galaxies
Juno is on its fifth Jovian flyby , with some  stunning results

Image from Juno , details here

Recent images from ESA show the many changes on comet 67P, indicating an active geology, surprising for a lump of icy rock in space..
I'm constantly impressed by the quality of images from space, and it's about to get better-
Nasa are working on a system of  ' broadband' for information packets from space.

 ESA have shared this , for those who might want to imagine themselves in the area of a black hole...




A Rant About The New Religion of Atheism

This week, I found myself debating atheism on social media, and being surprised at the arrogance on display -let's not forget that, when connected to the 'Big Bang' , atheism is nothing more than a faith - based belief system - i.e. you have faith that one day, someone will prove the theory.
I'm not impressed by the current wave of 'populism' , short on thinking and long on memes and soundbites, which allows people to parade half - truths as fact.
Ultimately, it harms the very mindset that claims to be advancing the 'clear light' of science,
and it smacks of  'the one true path ', a form of delusion which is normally found in religious zealots.
Science is meant to be a questing thing, a continual search for fact - based evidence, not an endgame.
For instance - has anyone actually managed to replicate a black hole under laboratory conditions ?
No ?
Their existence, then, is a matter of belief / faith...
The whole point of my rant (and thank you for bearing with me), is that quantum  mechanics looms larger by the day, bringing with it a whole new realm of chaos to upset science - from the very notion of 'entanglement' , which Einstein called ' spooky action at a distance', to a  theory that there was no big bang and the universe is eternal.
Regardless of its validity (further debate / testing needed) , it's a new idea, born of quantum science, not an extrapolation of extant physics.

'...nothing is written in stone.'                     pic:    Charlton Heston as Moses

I think the fractious, defensive noise we hear from some corners is insecurity - after all , there are people who have dedicated their lives to proving theories like the big bang.

Those who are genuinely curious either way, await the revelations from the James Webb telescope, which should be able to see as far back in space/time as the afterglow of the alleged Big Bang.
The telescope will be launched into orbit in October 2018.
At least until then, nothing is written in stone.
Including the Ten Commandments and the Big Bang Theory.*


G

* In this universe, it is equally true that The Big Bang Theory is a comedy show about a group of geeks , and The Ten Commandments  is a film by Cecil B DeMille.

The Whole Earth Telescope, Snarky Submersibles, and Actual Spaceports

Further proof that we are living in the future with the normalisation of the sci-fi phrase ' spaceport '.
Not quite on a par with Mos Eisley, but slowly...
Canada is working towards its first ever spaceport , to be created in Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile NASA is re-purposing Cape Kennedy as a commercial spaceport , capable of supporting multiple launches from private companies .

Messier 87 imaged by Chandra xray observatory

The origins and appearance of black holes beyond supposition and CGI are totally unknown , but soon, we may have an actual image of one.

Using a group of ten telescopes known as EHT, scientists plan to finally get a look at the black hole at the centre of our galaxy .

They are so confident that they predict any image will be in the top ten of all time.
Whether that's the top ten of black hole images, I'm not sure - after all , there's no competition.
Enough of my cynicism , though - if that's not enough, they also aim to image the supermassive black hole (don't you just love these superlatives) at the centre of galaxy M87 .
This monstrosity is equal to 6.6 billion of our sun , and has eaten another galaxy in the last billion years.
Luckily, it's 50 million light years away, although, on a cosmic scale, that's probably too close.
The Event Horizon Telescopes should be functional from next month, April 2017, as soon as telescopes in the Antarctic and the Altacama desert are added to the circuit .

High in the Atacama desert, Chile, a lone rover scours the scorched plains in search of life.
With an average rainfall of less than 1mm a year, the Atacama is the driest place on Earth.
The intrepid rover has to drill into the surface to find those elusive microbes...
The signs are good for the probe KREX 2 , but will it be superceded by PUFFER ?
The rather nippy little ' puffer ' drones would surely be ideal foils for Krex2, or the slow, lumbering, Curiosity rover on Mars...
...speaking of Mars, it appears there may be health problems for humans travelling there.
Scientists are worried about the potential danger of long distance, deep space flight.
Even ' locally ' there could be health issues. 
Esa have started looking into the creation of living units for Mars...
By the way, if you are in the 'Twitter-sphere', a good source of images and entirely spurious / snarky comments is The Sarcastic Rover

Mars - a barren wasteland, or prime real estate ?

High above Mars, the joint ESA / Roskosmos endeavour , the Exomars Orbiter, has commenced its year long aerobraking which will enable it to settle into a circular orbit , some 400 km above the surface.

On the icy Saturnian moon Enceladus, there is evidence of heat beneath the surface in the South Pole - possibly an ocean which interacts with the moons core.
The obvious exploration candidate would be an AUV, possibly working with a surface - based probe as a signal relay.
Perhaps a different name though, eh ?

FUN FACT
Apparently, in naval terms, a submersible is also considered a boat, so the name Boaty McBoatface is perfectly acceptable, although I personally prefer ' Big Metal Floaty Thingy'