Mars Welcomes Careful Explorers, Rovers On The Dark Side Of The Moon, And Asteroid Missions

Launched in August, the amazing Parker Solar Probe has already traveled twice as close to the sun as the previous Helios probe, and is now sending close - up views of the sun, whilst peeking from behind its heat shield. However, most of the images will be downloaded  next year, as the sun is now between us and the probe...
As well as taking unique images from such close proximity, it has also broken speed records , travelling at 375,000 kmh . The Parker Solar Probe will eventually break both those records again, hopefully attaining a speed of 160 km/s, and a distance of 6 million kilometres from the sun during the mission
Whilst thinking of the Parker mission, I suddenly had a recollection of how to pass a hand through the flames of a fire (quick, or get burned * )...a piece of childhood enacted beside a bonfire being used to toast marshmallows...ahem

* A very unscientific explanation for how a fast-moving object near a flame can escape the ' heat- transfer', which causes the burn.

Insight goes teal...

After  a text-book landing, Mars now has a new robot resident. As the dust settles and the solar panels unfurl, we have begun to receive data from Insight . It will be a few months before all experiments are active..in the meantime, here is a first - the ambient winds of Mars , recorded by microphone on the Insight lander, on December 1 . I was oddly entranced by the recording - it may not be dynamic, but - it's the gentle wind on another world...

Esa Mars rover scheduled for 2020

 The ExoMars Orbiter is being used to relay signals data to Earth from the latest arrival - don't forget that this is a static mission, and the joint European / Russian  'rover' will launch in 2020, aiming for an equatorial region of Mars, which holds great potential for samples of ancient or even current life - fingers crossed that this new European initiative does not go the way of ill-fated Schiaparelli lander .
Also launching in 2020, the planned NASA rover, based on the design of Curiosity, will target the Jezero Crater, which also has great potential for the discovery of ancient, or even current life.
With the inclusion of Curiosity, Insight, and the Chinese orbiter / rover scheduled for 2020,  that would give us five active** ground-based probes on Mars: looks like the race is on for the first discovery of alien life on Mars. May the best rover win...

** Not including Opportunity, presumed MIA, following planetary dust- storm

Osiris - Rex has arrived at asteroid Bennu
The whole sample return mission will take another 5 years, and is already pipped at the post by the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission , with its ' hopping' robots which were deployed some time ago ...in a gesture of magnaminity, the Director of Hayabusa2 graciously sent a message of congratulations

3-D Ryugu !             Image Jaxa ?

China has launched Chang 'e-4 , first ever mission to land a rover on the 'dark side' of the moon , with a view to exploration and collection of soil samples for a future return mission to Earth.

Yuri Milner is aiming to  search for life in the oceans of the Saturnian moon Enceladus , and NASA have contributed to the project- I hope that we see more of this kind of cross-over, with private initiatives  and public bodies co-operating on mutual goals. It's a win-win, with more exploration happening faster...

Enceladus  Image                  NASA/ JPL/ Caltech

BACK ON EARTH...

Apparently the decline of giant herbivores in prehistory was not linked to human predators , but was in tandem with a decrease in forest / jungle environments and the resultant expansion of grasslands- so don't feel angry about early hominids: their discovery of tool-making and slow-cooking was not to blame for the extinction of large mammals.