Silkworms On The Moon, The Asteroid That Broke The Bank, And A Hybrid Called Denny

Radar image Bennu   Goldstone / JPL

What has a small chance of impacting the Earth, but we're going there to collect samples anyway ?
Asteroid Bennu, of course !

Asteroid Bennu  first pic      NASA/Goddard /University of Arizona

The first image of asteroid Bennu is both exciting and underwhelming, but let's not forget that this mission to return with a sample of material from an asteroid is a first - and the photogaphic subject is 1.4 million miles away from the lens...
The spacecraft Osiris -Rex will first  'encounter' Bennu on Dec 3rd, and fall into orbit around the asteroid on Dec 31
This will (almost) coincide with New Horizons  flypast of object MU69, (January 1st 2019) to which it has been travelling since the historic flypast of Pluto and its moons in July 2015
The actual sampling (a robotic arm will scoop a sample* from Bennu) is planned for 2020, with the returning sample recovery capsule of Osiris REx making landfall in Utah in 2023.
As for the impact with our world, it is not a possibility until 2175, according to the very useful Near Earth scale from NASA, so breath a sigh of relief !

In Other News - there's still time to name the ESA ExoMars rover...it is scheduled for a spring 2021 landing.

ExoMars rover needs a name !

 The James Webb Telescope has now slid to a launch date in 2022 - making it 11 years late and seven billion dollars overbudget...being an old cynic, my personal theory is that it will be obsolete by the time it actually launches, as cutting edge lenses on smartphones will allow us to see into deep space...

China have a communication satellite already in place for Chang'e-4

China promise a mission involving two robot explorers for the dark side of the moon , launching in December 2018. Named Chang e 4. it will conduct numerous experiments including examining the immediate aftermath of the ' big bang', and the feasibility of growing potatoes and nurturing silkworms !

Aeolus recently launched (23rd August) from Guiana with the remit of gathering information on wind speeds around the globe.
Extremes of weather can have both good and bad effects...the recent heatwave here in the u.k., has resulted in the imprints of  previously hidden ancient settlements being visible from the air.-on the other hand,The Northern Arctic Sea route is becoming ' feasible' again, as a shortcut due to global warming.
At this point, I take a deep sigh, and return to space news...


The unique all-metal asteroid 16 Psyche is to get a NASA deep space mission heading its way soon.
 The jaw-dropping evaluation of its assets ( I saw a figure of 10 quadrillion dollars ), puts it way out there- and I don't mean its position in the Asteroid Belt.  My dogged attempts to research credible sources for more information on this, however, were met with media hysteria, paywalls and dodgy links.  I suppose the idea that one asteroid could potentially trigger a new 'goldrush' and cause the global finance markets to flatline, has triggered mass hysteria already.
At this point, I take a deep sigh, and return to Earth news...

  A 90,000 year old bone fragment found in a Russian cave comes  from the only known first generation hybrid hominid. now known as Denny...



* Apparently the sample will weigh 4.4lbs, which is quite hefty...