OrbitalHub

Wikipedia dicit:

Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program with a planned launch on 17 July 2020, and touch down in Jezero crater on Mars on 18 February 2021. It will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars and investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials. It will cache sample containers along its route for a potential future Mars sample-return mission.

The currently unnamed Mars 2020 mission was announced by NASA on 4 December 2012 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The rover’s design is derived from the Curiosity rover, and will use many components already fabricated and tested, including different scientific instruments and a core drill.

Video Credit: NASA

Wikipedia dicit:

The Artemis program is an ongoing crewed spaceflight program carried out by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as ESA, with the goal of landing “the first woman and the next man” on the lunar south pole region by 2024. Artemis would be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars.

In 2017, the lunar campaign was authorized by Space Policy Directive 1, utilizing various ongoing spacecraft programs such as Orion, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway space station, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, and a yet-to-be-developed crewed lander. The Space Launch System will serve as the primary launch vehicle for Orion, while commercial launch vehicles are planned for use to launch various other elements of the campaign. NASA requested $1.6 billion in additional funding for Artemis for fiscal year 2020, and full funding has yet to be approved by Congress.

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

During the successful test of Orion’s launch abort system, known as Ascent Abort-2, a camera mounted on a ring connecting the crew module and launch abort system to its booster captured a view of Orion escaping the booster. After the booster separated, its motor continued to burn for several seconds and maintained stability, which allowed for a clear, mid-air view of the Orion elements continuing to execute the abort test. About 27 seconds after the abort is initiated and the Orion elements separate from the booster, the launch abort system’s jettison motor is seen firing, releasing the capsule.

The July 2 test demonstrated the Orion’s launch abort system works during high-stress aerodynamic conditions and can pull the capsule to safety if an emergency ever arises during launch. The test was a critical milestone needed to help pave the way for Artemis missions with astronauts.

Video Credit: NASA Johnson

NASA dicit:

A team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, install the legs and wheels — otherwise known as the mobility suspension — on the Mars 2020 rover. The imagery for this accelerated time-lapse was taken on June 13, 2019, from a camera above the Spacecraft Assembly Facility’s High Bay 1 clean room.

Video Credit: NASA JPL

NASA dicit:

NASA’s Orion, Space Launch System (SLS), and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) programs are continuing work on one of the most complex and sophisticated space systems ever built. Across America and in Europe, teams are developing and building the spacecraft, rocket, and infrastructure necessary to send humans to deep space destinations including the surface of the Moon and beyond.

Some major recent milestones include: Orion – Crew Module Uprighting System Test at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina; European Service Module Solar Array Expanded; Fit Check in the Super Guppy Aircraft; Ascent Abort-2 Launch Abort System Stacking and Integration at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Test in Elkton, Maryland. SLS – Liquid Oxygen Tank and Forward Skirt join at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Liquid Hydrogen Tank Structural Test Article Unload from Pegasus Barge at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; RS-25 Engine Testing at Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Core Stage-1 Engine Section and Boat Tail Completed and Mated at Michoud. EGS – at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center: Core Stage Intertank Umbilical Swing Testing; Launch Pad 39B Upgrades; Crawler Engine Maintenance.

Video Credit: NASA Johnson

Wikipedia dicit:

A marsquake is a quake which, much like an earthquake, would be a shaking of the surface or interior of the planet Mars as a result of the sudden release of energy in the planet’s interior, such as the result of plate tectonics, which most quakes on Earth originate from, or possibly from hotspots such as Olympus Mons or the Tharsis Montes. The detection and analysis of marsquakes could be informative to probing the interior structure of Mars, as well as identifying whether any of Mars’s many volcanoes continue to be volcanically active or not.

Quakes have been observed and well-documented on the Moon, and there is evidence of quakes on Venus, but very little is known about the current seismic activity of Mars, with some estimations suggesting that marsquakes occur as rarely as once every million years or more. Nevertheless, compelling evidence has been found that Mars has in the past been seismically active, with clear magnetic striping over a large region of southern Mars. Magnetic striping on Earth is often a sign of a region of particularly thin crust splitting and spreading, forming new land in the slowly separating rifts; a prime example of this being the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. However, no clear spreading ridge has been found in this region, suggesting that another, possibly non-seismic explanation may be needed.

The 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) long canyon system, Valles Marineris, has been suggested to be the remnant of an ancient Martian strike-slip fault. However, even if it was at some point an active fault, it is unknown whether the fault is still active, or if it has “frozen” into place.

Video Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory