OrbitalHub

NASA dicit:

Inspired by the Renaissance vision of Leonardo da Vinci, NASA is presently preparing its scientific return to Venus’ atmosphere and surface with a mission known as the “Deep Atmosphere of Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging” (DAVINCI).

The DAVINCI mission will “take the plunge” into Venus’ enigmatic history using an instrumented deep atmosphere probe spacecraft that will carry five instruments for measuring the chemistry and environments throughout the clouds and to the surface, while also conducting the first descent imaging of a mountain system on Venus known as Alpha Regio, which may represent an ancient continent. In addition, the DAVINCI mission includes two science flybys of Venus during which it will search for clues to mystery molecules in the upper cloud deck while also measuring the rock types in some of Venus highland regions.

All of these new and unique measurements will make the ‘exoplanet next door’ into a key place for understanding Earth and Venus sized exoplanets that may have similar histories to our sister planet. DAVINCI will pave the way for a series of missions by NASA and ESA in the 2030’s by opening the frontier as it searches for clues to whether Venus harbored oceans and how its atmosphere-climate system evolved over billions of years. DAVINCI’s science will address questions about habitability and how it could be “lost” as rocky planets evolve over time. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight center leads the DAVINCI Mission as the PI institution.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer, Lead Editor/Giada Arney (NASA): Narrator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator/Michael Lentz (KBRwyle): Animator/Krystofer Kim (KBRwyle): Animator/James Garvin (NASA, Chief Scientist Goddard): Scientist/Music: “Blackened Skies” by Enrico Cacace and Lorenzo Castellarin of Universal Production Music

Wikipedia dicit:

Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17:57 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover’s touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.

Mission goals include an investigation of the Martian climate and geology, assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale has ever offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life (including investigation of the role of water), and planetary habitability studies in preparation for human exploration.

In December 2012, Curiosity’s two-year mission was extended indefinitely, and on August 5, 2017, NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Curiosity rover landing. On August 6, 2022, a detailed overview of accomplishments by the Curiosity rover for the last ten years was reported. The rover is still operational, and as of 11 February 2023, Curiosity has been active on Mars for 3739 sols (3841 total days; 10 years, 189 days) since its landing.

Credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA JPL dicit:

NASA and the European Space Agency are developing plans for one of the most ambitious campaigns ever attempted in space: bringing the first samples of Mars material safely back to Earth for detailed study. The diverse set of scientifically curated samples now being collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover could help scientists answer the question of whether ancient life ever arose on the Red Planet.

Bringing samples of Mars to Earth for future study would happen in several steps with multiple spacecraft, and in some ways, in a synchronized manner. This short animation features key moments of the Mars Sample Return campaign: from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth.

Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/MSFC

NASA dicit:

The DART mission deployed a kinetic impactor to smack the small moon Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos on the evening of September 26. This was an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection, a key test of NASA’s kinetic impactor technology, designed to impact an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. This particular asteroid moon is NOT a threat to Earth, but is technology being explored to use for when we DO find a potentially hazardous asteroid.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured these extraordinary views of the asteroid moon soon after the successful impact.

Credit: NASA Langley Research Center

NASA dicit:

Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is a rubble pile of rocks and boulders left over from the formation of the solar system. On October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on Bennu and collected a sample for return to Earth. During this “TAG event,” the spacecraft’s arm sank far deeper into the asteroid than expected, confirming that Bennu’s surface is incredibly weak. Now, scientists have used data from OSIRIS-REx to revisit the TAG event and better understand how Bennu’s loose upper layers are held together.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab/SVS/Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle): Producer/Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Lead Animator/Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Data Visualizer/Alexander Bodnar (AIMM): Animator/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Lisa Poje (Freelance): Animator/Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle): Narrator/Dante Lauretta (The University of Arizona): Lead Scientist/Kevin Walsh (SwRI): Scientist/Ronald Ballouz (JHUAPL): Scientist/Olivier Barnouin (JHUAPL): Scientist/Rani Gran (NASA/GSFC): Public Affairs Officer/Nancy Neal-Jones (NASA/GSFC): Public Affairs Officer/James Tralie (ADNET): Support/Ernie Wright (USRA): Support/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support

NASA dicit:

This year, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) celebrates its 13th anniversary orbiting the Moon. This mission has given scientists the largest volume of data ever collected by a planetary science mission at NASA. Considering that success and the continuing functionality of the spacecraft and its instruments, NASA has awarded the mission an extended mission phase to continue operations. This is LRO’s 5th extended science mission (ESM5), and during this time there will be 4 major areas of focus.

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Produced and Edited by: David Ladd (AIMM)/Data Visualizations by: Ernie Wright (USRA)/Spacecraft Animations by: Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle)