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New Post: NASA to Measure Moonquakes With Help From InSight Mars Mission - https://lnkd.in/ehtFJqfG Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS) aboard NASA’s Mars InSight is within the copper-colored hexagonal enclosure in this photo taken by a camera on the lander’s robotic arm on Dec. 4, 2018. The SEIS technology is being used on Farside Seismic Suite, bound for the Moon. NASA/JPL-Caltech Up to 30 times more sensitive than its Apollo predecessors, the suite will record the Moon’s seismic “background” vibration, which is driven by micrometeorites the size of small pebbles that pelt the surface. This will help NASA better understand the current impact environment as the agency prepares to send?Artemis?astronauts to explore […]

NASA is revising its approach to returning Mars samples to Earth, aiming to reduce costs and expedite the process. The original plan, estimated at $11 billion, faced delays, prompting a search for more efficient alternatives. Two new options, costing between $6 billion and $7 billion, are under consideration. These involve innovative designs by commercial partners while maintaining the same number of spacecraft and launches. The mission's goal is to return 30 titanium tubes collected by the Perseverance rover by the 2030s. A final decision will be made next year after detailed engineering studies.

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New Post: NASA to Measure Moonquakes With Help From InSight Mars Mission - https://lnkd.in/ehtFJqfG Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS) aboard NASA’s Mars InSight is within the copper-colored hexagonal enclosure in this photo taken by a camera on the lander’s robotic arm on Dec. 4, 2018. The SEIS technology is being used on Farside Seismic Suite, bound for the Moon. NASA/JPL-Caltech Up to 30 times more sensitive than its Apollo predecessors, the suite will record the Moon’s seismic “background” vibration, which is driven by micrometeorites the size of small pebbles that pelt the surface. This will help NASA better understand the current impact environment as the agency prepares to send?Artemis?astronauts to explore […]

New Post: NASA to Measure Moonquakes With Help From InSight Mars Mission - https://lnkd.in/eg6nS9aA Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS) aboard NASA’s Mars InSight is within the copper-colored hexagonal enclosure in this photo taken by a camera on the lander’s robotic arm on Dec. 4, 2018. The SEIS technology is being used on Farside Seismic Suite, bound for the Moon. NASA/JPL-Caltech Up to 30 times more sensitive than its Apollo predecessors, the suite will record the Moon’s seismic “background” vibration, which is driven by micrometeorites the size of small pebbles that pelt the surface. This will help NASA better understand the current impact environment as the agency prepares to send?Artemis?astronauts to explore […]

In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense radiation created by Jupiter’s magnetic field, the Clipper spacecraft can’t orbit the moon itself. Instead, it will slide into an eccentric orbit around Jupiter and gather data by repeatedly swinging by Europa — 53 times in total — before retreating from the worst of the radiation. Every time the spacecraft rounds Jupiter, its path will be slightly different, ensuring that it can take pictures and gather data from Europa’s poles to its equator. To plan convoluted tours like this one, trajectory planners use computer models that meticulously calculate the trajectory one step at a time. The planning takes hundreds of mission requirements into account, and it’s bolstered by decades of mathematical research into orbits and how to join them into complicated tours. Mathematicians are now developing tools which they hope can be used to create a more systematic understanding of how orbits relate to one another. Read the full story at the link in our bio: https://lnkd.in/e_uSCmeQ

Why attention to details matters. A multi-million dollar mistake due to a unit conversion error! Although it is an old case happened in 1998, it surely is an interesting one. The Mars Climate Orbiter, built at a cost of $125 million, was a 638-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA? lost it's trajectory and failed to achieve the result because some of the most brilliant engineers on earth made a human mistake, they missed to convert imperial system into metric system. The navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet, and pounds. JPL engineers did not take into consideration that the units had been. converted, i.e., the acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds^2 for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds^2. For supply chain professionals unit conversion is highly significant as some products have manufacturing lead-time in days, transportation lead-time in weeks, sales planning in months. A tiny mistake can lead to a unimaginable disaster.

28 Days to Launch: #EuropaClipper Mission Objectives- Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa that could support life - that is, conditions for habitability (although not signs of life, or biosignatures). The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition, and its geology. NASA's Europa Clipper Mission spacecraft, built by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory will do this by performing nearly 50 flybys, with closest-approach altitudes as low as 16 miles above the surface, soaring over a different location each time, scanning and gathering measurements to investigate the entire moon. The spacecraft's instruments include cameras and spectrometers to produce high-resolution images and composition maps of Europa's surface and thin atmosphere, an ice-penetrating radar to search for subsurface water, along with a magnetometer and gravity measurements to unlock clues about its ocean and deep interior. The spacecraft will also carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and perhaps recent eruptions of water, and instruments to measure the composition of tiny particles in the moon's thin atmosphere and surrounding space environment. Image credit: NASA

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun, skimming just 3.8 million miles from the surface at speeds of 430,000 mph. A signal received at Johns Hopkins APL confirms the spacecraft is healthy and operating normally. Telemetry data expected Jan. 1. Parker’s mission provides groundbreaking insights into the Sun's processes, from the birth of the solar wind to the rapid acceleration of energetic particles. This milestone mission, managed and built by APL for NASA, is advancing our understanding of the Sun’s influence on our solar system and beyond. Learn more about Parker Solar Probe’s historic journey: https://jhuapl.link/9ob #JHUAPL | NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration | #ParkerSolarProbe | #SpaceScience | #SolarExploration | #NASA

Mars' Geyser Activity Observed by NASA Martian Geysers: A Spectacular Springtime Phenomenon In a striking image captured on October 29, 2018, by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we observe a fascinating natural event taking place on Mars. This image highlights geysers of gas and dust erupting in the South Polar region of the Red Planet. Such occurrences are common during the Martian springtime, offering a glimpse into the dynamic processes at work on Mars. As the Martian winter comes to an end and spring begins, the Sun climbs higher in the sky, initiating a warming process. This transformation leads to the sublimation of […] https://lnkd.in/dWmPeRmB https://lnkd.in/dXaSf2dQ