Mysterious Mercury , Moving LaunchPads, Foraging On Mars And Fake Suns

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...

                                    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**.

Stargazer L101 with Pegasus              NASA

Meanwhile, in the upper atmosphere...

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.

Znamya 2 mirrored sunlight back  to Earth          MIR/ CSS

'Till Next We Meet


G

* Just a brief vid of Opportunity trying to free itself from a sand trap back in 2010

  ** I almost said 'the only moving launchpad ..in the world', but of course  -

Skycranes Above Mars, Lunar Lava Tubes, Symbiotic Stars and Junocam

Sky-crane being assembled for next Mars mission     NASA/ JPL

After a slight delay, the next Mars mission, InSight, is due to be launched in May 2018.
Its landing will be via 'skycrane', the alternative to impractical and outdated airbags.
The last use of a skycrane was the tense, fraught landing of Curiosity on Mars. At the time it was a  new thing, and given the many previous unsuccessful landings, it was a long shot.
I found myself rooting for the thing to land safely, having heard of the incredible new method - mainly because faulty airbags had been blamed for previous failed landings, including Beagle2, which had that great eccentricity about it - I always root for the underdog, after all.
Fortunately, eleven years after its landing, Beagle2 was spotted on Mars, (and the airbags were not at fault - the solar panels failed to open properly).
So near, yet so far.
For me, the greatest tragedy here was that the inventor of Beagle2,
Professor Colin Pillinger , died in 2014, the year before the rediscovery of his lost lander..

A self tapping probe will plant itself beneath Mars    NASA/JPL/Caltech

I am looking forward to the launch of InSight , which is scheduled for May 2018.
For those who wonder, Insight will be a stationary lander, tasked with drilling beneath the surface, seeking knowledge on the internal geology of Mars .


On the subject of 'beneath the surface' there has been a lot of noise surrounding the recent discovery of lava tubes on the moon, one of which is estimated to be large enough to sustain a city.

Lunar lava tube large enough to contain Philadelphia...                  pic by D. Blair

The illustration uses Philadelphia as an example, but there is clearly enough room for at least one more city, possibly two.
I think there should be an artificial sun powered by nuclear fusion, suspended in the centre

Which gets me wondering-is the whole world contained in a giant lava tube?

In a distant constellation, a pair of stars are permanently entwined in a symbiotic relationship, R Aquarii is an unusual combination of white dwarf and red giant stars.
First recognised a thousand years ago (with the naked eye, apparently).
They have been most recently imaged by Hubble, trapped in their orbiting cycle of 44 years, with the red giant sun being stripped of energy by the hungry white dwarf.
I was going to wax lyrical about a cosmic waltz, but instead, here's the Hubble image , which has been processed by citizen astronomer Judy Schmidt 

                                                        credit: Hubble/Judy Schmidt

Anyone who wishes to try their hand at processing images, here is a link to Juno cam, which has a slew of raw, Jovian imagery for processing !