NASA launched CAPSTONE to pave the way to the moon
A small spacecraft launched on June 28 from New Zealand as part of the CAPSTONE mission. It contained a CubeSat satellite about the size of a microwave oven. Its goal is to reduce the risk to future spacecraft by testing innovative navigation technologies and a new halo-shaped orbit that could be used by a space station orbiting the moon in the future. The mission carries a dedicated payload flight computer and radio that will perform calculations to determine whether the CubeSat is on its intended orbital path. It will be NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as a reference point. The idea here is that it will communicate directly with LRO and use the data received from this crossing to measure how far it is from LRO and how fast the distance between the two is changing, helping it determine its position in space . The CAPSTONE mission will test a new trajectory. (Image: NASA) NASA will use it to evaluate CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software called the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS). Once successfully tested, the software could potentially allow future spacecraft to determine their position without having to rely solely on ground tracking. The orbit it is testing, called a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), is very elongated and its position is at a precise point of balance between the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. This orbit could provide stability for long-term missions like Gateway, a planned space station that would orbit the moon and require minimal energy to maintain. Once deployed, Gateway will serve as an ideal staging post for missions to the Moon and beyond.
An unusual impact site on the Moon by an unknown rocket
NASA’s LRO had spotted an unusual “double crater” on the Moon: an 18-meter-diameter eastern crater on top of a 16-meter-diameter western crater. The unexpected double crater formation indicates that whatever rocket caused it had large masses at each end, which is unusual because used rockets typically have the mass concentrated at the motor end with the rest of the rocket stage consisting of an empty fuel tank. No other rocket impact on the Moon has created double craters as far as NASA scientists know. The four craters created by the third stage of Saturn’s rockets (from Apollo 13, 14, 15, and 17) were irregular in outline and significantly larger, with most measuring more than 35 meters in diameter. The unexpected double crater formation indicates that the rocket body had large masses at each end, which is unusual. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University) Researchers at the University of Arizona’s Space Domain Awareness Laboratory at the Lunar and Planetary Observatory believe the double crater was caused by a Chinese booster from a rocket launch in 2014. But NASA is still referring to the impact crater’s butt as being created by a “mysterious rocket.” .
Using Curiosity rover data to measure key ingredient of life on Mars
Using data from NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists measure total organic carbon in Martian rocks for the first time. There is evidence that the red planet’s climate was similar to Earth’s climate billions of years ago. with a denser atmosphere and liquid water that flowed into rivers and seas. If there ever was life on Mars, scientists believe the sites of these ancient bodies of water would be the best place to look for signs. Organic carbon is an important component of living molecules. The Curiosity rover went to the Yellowknife Bay Formation in Gale Crater on Mars, which is the site of an ancient Martian lake, and drilled samples of 3.5-billion-year-old mudstone rocks. Curiosity then delivered the sample to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, in which a furnace heated powdered rock to progressively higher temperatures. It used oxygen and heat to convert organic carbon into carbon dioxide. View of Gale Crater’s Yellowknife Bay formation, where the Curiosity rover collected samples for analysis. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) After that, it measured the amount of carbon dioxide, so scientists could later use that data to measure the amount of organic carbon in the rock. This experiment was actually performed in 2014, but it took years of analysis for scientists to understand the data and put the results in context with the expedition’s other discoveries in Gale Crater. The resource-intensive experiment was performed only once during the Curiosity rover’s 10 years on Mars. Also, the presence of organic carbon does not necessarily indicate extraterrestrial life as there are many non-biological processes that can create it.
NASA is asking for the public’s help to spot Martian clouds
The space agency has organized a project called “Cloudspotting on Mars” that uses the citizen science platform Zooniverse. NASA scientists are inviting the public to spot clouds on the red planet as part of the project, which they hope will help solve a fundamental mystery about Mars’ atmosphere. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying the red planet since 2006, and its Mars Climate Sounder instrument has studied the planet’s atmosphere in infrared light. NASA teams turn to public to mark ‘arches’ in sixteen years of infrared data. Clouds appear as arcs in the data and can reportedly be detected by human eyes more easily than algorithms. Of course, NASA plans to use the crowdsourced work to train better algorithms that can do this job in the future.
‘Enchanted Lake’ on Mars could be the best spot to look for life on Mars
NASA had shared images of an ‘Enchanted Lake’ on Mars where scientists believe the persistence rover could find the first evidence of alien life. Enchanted Lake is a rocky outcrop where scientists believe water once existed. The image was captured by the rover’s hazard avoidance cameras (Hazcams) on April 30 this year. The image was taken near the base of the Jezero crater delta and provided scientists with the first close-up of sedimentary rocks on Mars. These rocks are usually formed when fine particles carried by water or wind are deposited in layers that turn into stone over time. Scientists believe that in the past there was water in the Enchanted Lake and that there is a possibility that it harbored life when it did.
