Bepi Colombo selfie (with insulation , because - cold) ESA
On October 20th, the Ariane V rocket containing Bepi - Colombo blasted off on its mission to unravel the mysteries of Mercury. The next day, we received a selfie from space...
I don't know about you, but the vast, dark expanse of space gives me odd feelings (shivers, decides to add photoshopped stars...)It is hoped that the strange world closest to the sun will reveal more of itself to the joint ESA / Jaxa mission , helping us to understand its mysteries, like why it has such a large iron core and a surface composed of highly flammable sulphur, without being already burned away...
The mission will make great use of gravity assists from Venus and Earth - but in this case, the aim is to slow down, not speed up - the tremendous pull of gravity near the sun would otherwise send the mission to a high-speed fiery death.
At this point I thought I'd make a scurrilous comparison to holding marshmallows too close to a bonfire -
but that would be silly, wouldn't it ?
Despite the lengthy travel time , the mission should greatly increase our understanding of Mercury.
Meanwhile, back on Mars
Deafening silence from the Opportunity rover which was encased during the vast dust storm that swept across Mars earlier this year.
Attempts are being made to listen for any signal from the stricken rover - ironically, seasonal winds on Mars which begin in November, may blow dust away from those delicate solar panels, so it's time to cross fingers and hope.
The original remit for Opportunity and its sister rover ,Spirit *, was to last 90 days - the years of time we've had since then (2004) has been a bonus
There is also evidence of electrified dust - devils on Mars, which are credited with the mysterious cleaning of solar panels on the rovers...
Personally, I'm stunned that in our solar system we now have a world peopled entirely by robotic explorers...
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| Pinpointing collection sites on Mars NASA/JPL |
The future sample collecting mission scheduled for 2020 is narrowing down the potential sites to a couple which may provide the biosignatures hoped for.
In terms of astrophysics, I am a luddite , but it seems unnecessarily complex that three missions are required to collect and return the samples to Earth.
It's frustrating like the Mercury mission which will take seven years to arrive...
Correction, I am not a ' luddite' - just impatient.
In the meantime, don't forget that the Insight mission is next to land on Mars , ( November 26th) complete with robotic 'grabber' arm (officially, it's the Instrument Deployment Arm)
Insight is designed to stay put , taking delicate seismic and other measurements.
Soon to be launched from a jet is the Icon, an orbiting device designed to monitor the interaction of Earth and Space, weather - wise. The actual launch will be from a ' Stargazer' jet, the only 'moving' launchpad of its type**.
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| Stargazer L101 with Pegasus NASA |
It appears that ambitious plans are afoot to launch a giant 'fake sun' into space.
The satellite would act as a mirror, reflecting the suns light onto an area covering some 80 km .
Lack of available information on this ambitious plan makes me wonder whether it is just an internet nonsense - but there has been a precedent ; back in 1993 , the Russian project Znamya 2 briefly cast a light upon Europe before burning up on re-entry.
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| Znamya 2 mirrored sunlight back to Earth MIR/ CSS |
'Till Next We Meet
G
** I almost said 'the only moving launchpad ..in the world', but of course -
