Lifeboat Foundation

The Zhurong rover has quite an eye for landscape photography.

On August 9 2021, the joint ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft performed a flyby of Venus, coming within 7,995 km of the Venusian surface. Just 33 hours later, on August 10 the joint ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft flew by the planet, coming within 552 km of the surface.

The historic double flyby was a result of the two spacecraft attempting to reduce their orbital energy while en route to their respective destinations. BepiColombo is traveling to Mercury, where it will study the planet in-depth, while Solar Orbiter is finishing its last flybys before entering the correct orbital inclination to best observe the Sun.

Continue reading “BepiColombo, Solar Orbiter collect data on Venus during historic double flyby” »

NASA’s MOXIE could make breathing in Mars a reality. The space agency’s new invention can turn Martian air into oxygen, making it a game-changer for future Mars explorations.

According to Popular Mechanics’ latest report, it is impossible to breathe on Mars since its atmosphere is around 1% the density of Earth’s. Will this be beneficial for Elon Musk’s planned ‘Mars City?’. NASA’s MOXIE experiment will soon have an answer for us to thrive longer on the red planet. This weekend, the space agency hopes that the automated system could be the saving grace for humans to live on Mars if a time comes that the Earth becomes unsuitable for living.

The device called Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment could supply humans with oxygen through extracting from the atmosphere of the red planet which is composed of 96% of carbon dioxide. The process will be made possible through electrolysis which involves the device being run through an electrical current. Since the Perseverance rover’s touchdown in February, MOXIE will conduct the third oxygen-extraction procedure. Moreover, what it produces could supply enough oxygen for humans that is good for 10 to 15 minutes.

There are many strange things happening on Venus. Among them is a recognizable weather pattern that scientists now realize has persisted in the atmosphere for at least 30 years.

# nasa # space # Jupiter # Juno # astronomy.

Now, the robot geologist reached an exciting area with mountain layers that may reveal how the ancient environment within Gale Crater dried up over time. More: https://go.nasa.gov/2W48e0U

Join Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry’s son and Roddenberry Entertainment CEO, George Takei, actor and activist, Administrator Bill Nelson and some of NASA’s best and brightest as they honor Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday with a conversation about diversity and inspiration. NASA panelists include: Hortense Diggs, Director of the Office of Communication and Public Engagement at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Tracy Drain, Europa Clipper Flight Systems Engineer, astronaut Jonny Kim, and Swati Mohan, Mars2020Guidance and Controls Operations Lead.

Producer/Editor: Lacey Young