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  -

Aurora Called Steve, A Rover On Mars, A Map Of Venus, And Farewell, Professor

I think the cosmos has a great sense of synchronicity or something - 'pi' day, which marks the birth anniversary of Einstein, was the day that the great astrophysicist Steven Hawking died.
He was a role model to many, a great thinker and humanitarian, he championed the search for knowledge and refused to be limited by physical or mental restraints.
He said that religion was for people who were scared of the dark.
He also said that there were an infinite number of universes...
I like to think that he is coninuing his work in one of those universes.
"My life goal is simple - to understand the universe - why it is the way it is, and why it exists at all "

 Meanwhile, elsewhere on Earth

This article warns of the effect that human greed is having on the S.E.T.I. project , and the greed of algorithms feeding insatiable databases that is actually hindering the development of A.I : apparently, we should not fear a 'robot singularity' as current technological systems are  subject to random weirdness...

Apparently, the universe is expanding faster than it should be, giving cause for headaches to physicists around the globe.

Having reached the record breaking 5000 sols ( Mars days), NASAs  Opportunity Rover continues to surprise, currently examining Endeavour Valley for what may be evidence of a previously watery environment - speakng of which, it appears that Ceres once had an ocean that covered the surface, and the little dwarf world is still very geologically active with rock falls and ice-flows constantly revealing new material .
Here on Earth, four hundred miles beneath the surface, we find a rare form of water never encountered - until recently, it was only considered possible in outer space - speaking of which, did you ever wonder what Venus would look like if it were terraformed ?
No ?

Venus terraformed - tricky really, as the average surface temperature is 467 C, so presumably the blue oceans would be boiling...

Apparently the asteroid Bennu may strike the Earth in 2135. As I wearily added another pin to my wall map of Endtimes Predictions, I paused , because the name seemed familiar - yes, Bennu is the very asteroid chosen for the Osiris - Rex mission to collect and  return a sample to Earth.
The mission is scheduled to reach Bennu in December 2018. returning with its sample in 2023.
Thank goodness that we are ahead of the game, and will know the precise chemical composition of the asteroid long before it allegedly wipes us out.
So there's that...

As I mentioned briefly, back in April last year, there is a new aurora by the name of Steve. The name was initially a joke, but was given scientific gravitas with the official designation 'Strong Thermal Emissions Venting Enhancement'
Discovered by citizen scientists , the display of green and purple lights is primarily visible in the Calgary skies in Southern Canada.
More data and images can be found at this site.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty - I didn't know we had a National Quantum Technology Hub, but apparently such a thing exists, and from its base in Birmingham, it exports Quantum Gravimeters for the measuring of underground gravitational forces...just the thing for using on the lunar lava tubes...

Please excuse the random nature of this little blog.. I'm trying to dodge unwanted interest from a little smattering of trolls who seem to have ' adopted' my writings, with a view to ripping them off.

Thanks for bearing with me, though !