Daily Archives: October 4, 2020

Front Hazcam image showing the current workspace with the two Mary Anning drill holes on the bedrock slab (just left of centre), and Mount Sharp in the distance. The rover arm is extended out in the top left of the image, with the APXS sensor head pointing to the right. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image

The first order of business for this three-sol plan is to continue with arm diagnostic activities that could give Curiosity the all clear to bump to the next drill target at this location in the coming week. This still leaves plenty of time, power and data volume to plan a number of science activities. These include continued characterization of the composition of the rock and soil at this location, with ChemCam LIBS on Skaw Beach (soil target), Wart (resistant features in the bedrock) and Balallan (bedrock), accompanied by Mastcam documentation imaging. ChemCam will also capture some more RMI frames to add to the ongoing mosaic of the distant Housedon Hill area on Mount Sharp. The RMI mosaic will help the geologists on the team discern structures and textures within the rocks exposed in this area of Mount Sharp, which in turn might help us better understand their geological history.

As well as studying the ancient processes that formed the rocks in Gale crater, Curiosity also monitors the current environment. Such activities in this plan include Mastcam imaging of the nearby Upper Ollach sand and pebble target as part of an ongoing change detection campaign to monitor movement of loose material by the wind. Mastcam will also image the crater rim, and along with Navcam, the sky, to monitor dust and opacity of the atmosphere. A Navcam movie will also be acquired to record any dust devil activity.

Finally, there is a CheMin empty cell and clean up activity on the last sol, in preparation for our next drill campaign. Standard REMS, RAD and DAN passive and active measurements are also planned.

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Sols 2901-2903: Warts and All! - NASA Mars Exploration

CHEVY CHASE, Md., Oct. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Throughout the month of October, youth from across the country will apply their knowledge, creativity, and innovation in learning about STEM topics during the 13th annual 4-H STEM Challenge. Formerly known as 4-H National Youth Science Day, this year's STEM Challenge, Mars Base Camp, will explore the theme of sending humans on a mission to Mars.

With this year's launch of the NASA Perseverance Rover to Mars, the 4-H STEM Challenge will encourage young people to take an interest in STEM through fundamental concepts in space exploration and beyond. The National 4-H Council and Virginia Cooperative Extension, with support from Google, designed four unique hands-on activities to get kids and teens to explore computer science, space agriculture, and more.

"The Mars Base Camp theme is the perfect topic to engage young people and encourage them to explore a wide range of exciting subject areas related to STEM, in addition to the theme of outer space" said Erika Bonnett from Virginia Cooperative Extension. "Cooperative Extension and the nation's land grant universities are perfectly positioned to develop researched backed curriculum and activities that help young people learn in creative ways. These activities inspire kids to get hands-on and think about the big problems that today's top scientists and engineers are working on."

As young people, parents, and educators continue to look for new and creative ways to stay engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 4-H STEM Challenge has adapted to ensure that young people everywhere, regardless of internet connectivity or family resources, have access to STEM Challenge kits which includes online and offline activities.

Today, fifty-five million kids face a widening opportunity gap in America, hindering them from having equal access to reach their full potential. In addition, 12 million kids lack access to reliable broadband internet resources. Through the 4-H STEM Challenge, young people will gain invaluable access to STEM learning opportunities supporting the organization's efforts to eliminate the opportunity gap and create better, brighter futures for all youth today.

"For more than a decade, we've engaged young people in STEM opportunities through our 4-H STEM Challenge initiative because early exposure and access can lead to a brighter future academically and professionally. Today, our efforts are even more important due to the continued impact of the pandemic, digital divide, and widening opportunity gap affecting young people," said Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO, National 4H Council. "With the support of our partners, kids can continue gaining essential STEM skills despite these challenging times. We believe STEM education plays a critical role in preparing young people for future success and through the STEM Challenge young people are exposed to a new world of possibilities."

To kick off this year's 4-H STEM Challenge, Bill Nye (popularly known as the Science Guy), CEO of The Planetary Society,will serve as the 4-H STEM Challenge Ambassador, encouraging millions of young people across the U.S. to explore STEM and hands-on learning opportunities, no matter the circumstances they face.

"I'm working to get people, especially students, excited about science and engineering. Science is how we have come to know nature. It's how we've built the amazing technology we have today, and it's how we feed 7.7 billion people," said Bill Nye. "This year's STEM Challenge will expose young people to fundamental ideas in science in hopes of encouraging a lifetime of exploration. I'm delighted to partner with 4-H and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders and decision-makers who will ultimately shape our future." Nye also had the opportunity to surprise four 4-H youth as the special guest host for a virtual Mars Base Camp Trivia Challenge. The 4-H youth, who are STEM leaders in their communities, were each awarded a $2,000 grant to support their 4-H Club's STEM programming.

Beginning October 1st, youth are invited to participate in the STEM Challenge, as well as other planned virtual events. For information about how to get involved, visit https://4-h.org/parents/4-h-stem-challenge/.

The 2020 4H STEM Challenge was developed with support from Google and our national partners Bayer, Toyota, and the United States Air Force.

SOURCE National 4-H Council

4‑H Home Page

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300000 Young People Explore STEM Through A "Mission to Mars" In the 2020 4-H STEM Challenge - PRNewswire

American space journalist and historian James Oberg provides some interesting accounts from Western astronauts who had experiences of training with the TOZ-81 as part of the space survival courses after the fall of the Soviet Union. These drills included firing practice from a boat in the Black Sea.

It was amazing how many wine, beer, and vodka bottles the crew of the ship could come up with for us to shoot at, astronaut James Voss told Oberg. It [the TP-82] was very accurate. We threw the bottles as far as possible, probably 20 or 30 meters, then shot them. It was trivial to hit the bottles with the shotgun shells, and relatively easy to hit them with the rifle bullets on the first shot.

Oberg recalls another astronaut, David Wolf, who spent time onboard Russias Mir space station in 1997-98, describing the weapon as a wonderful gun. Wolf added: I found it to be well-balanced, highly accurate, and convenient to use.

A rival to the TP-82 was the TOZ-81 appropriately named Mars a space revolver that didnt make it into large-scale production. Similarly emerging from the small arms factory at Tula, it seems only one example of this weapon was ever completed for use in trials.

Exactly why the TOZ-81 revolver was rejected in favor of the TP-82 is unclear, but it might have been down to the additional complexity of the design, or perhaps the less-popular .410-bore chambering. The TOZ-81 featured a five-shot cylinder and the trigger mechanism was double-action-only.

Unusually, the cylinder was located above the grip, with the gun firing from the bottom chamber. In typical revolvers, the cylinder is further forward and the top chamber in the top position is the one that gets fired with every shot. A different configuration seems to have been selected for the Mars to reduce the overall length of the weapon (useful for space capsule stowage), lower the bore-axis, and to improve balance for accuracy.

Two types of barrels were ultimately provided with the gun and these could be changed manually. There was a rifled barrel for use with 5.45x39mm ammunition and a smoothbore .410-bore one that could be loaded with cartridges filled with buckshot or a single dart-like flechette.

As with the TP-82, a folding knife was also incorporated in the TOZ-81, with it being housed over the barrel. In addition, a compact radio transmitter with a folding antenna was built into the detachable aluminum stock.

While the TOZ-81 design was destined to be discarded, the TP-82 space shotgun provided space crews with a survival weapon into the early 21st century, by which time American and civilian astronauts had trained to use it for missions in Soyuz spacecraft headed to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The TP-82 seems to have been used until 2007 when it was announced that the remaining ammunition stocks had become unusable and the weapon was withdrawn.

In its place, a standard pistol of unconfirmed type is again available to include in Russian space travelers survival kits.

However, it seems not all cosmonauts, or foreign spacefarers who travel in Russian space capsules during international missions, choose to take guns with them. Its unclear why. The Russians do have significantly improved capabilities to tell where spacecraft, even ones flying off course, will come down today than they did 40 years ago.

In October 2007, it was reported that cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko launched into space aboard a Soyuz capsule armed with a simple pistol rather than the bespoke TP-82. Flying with him, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson took a traditional Kazakh horse-whip. This was symbolic of her commanders role and not to keep wild animals at bay.

The issue of weapons in space even if they are ultimately intended to defend against bears on Earth is a controversial one. James Oberg wrote in 2014 that for years he was needling and teasing the Russians about the presence of the guns while they were campaigning for no other weapons in space.

According to Oberg, writing in 2014, a traditional gun remains on the Russian space agencys official list of personal kit, but crews make a vote before each mission and choose to remove it. That, at least, suggests that those flying aboard Russian spacecraft reserve the option to take a firearm with them.

While a standard pistol might not be a bear-stopping weapon like the TP-82, its presence might just make the difference in the most extreme survival situations. On the other hand, it certainly lacks the science-fiction-like looks and features of the Soviet-era space guns.

Hat Tip to the fantastic @Sovietvisuals, make sure to follow them here.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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The TOZ-81 'Mars' Gun Was The Soviet Union's Ultimate Space Revolver - The Drive

In Arizona's badlands, not far from the Grand Canyon and located mostly within the Petrified Forest National Park, lies the Painted Desert. Different types of rock, including siltstone, mudstone and shale, characterize the stratified layers (known as horizons in geologic terms) of the Painted Desert. Each horizon is a beautiful shade of red, orange, beige, or purple. A new research paper recently published inIcarusshows a similarly stratified region of Mawrth Vallis, one of the oldest valleys on Mars.

A team of researchers led by Janice Bishop of the SETI Institute has analyzed data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express, combining images from theCRISM,HiRISE, andHRSCinstruments, and made some exciting discoveries:

We are excited to discover how dynamic the ancient environment was at Mawrth Vallis, said Bishop, lead author of the paper. The transitions from ferric to ferrous iron and from neutral clays to salty sulfates imply changing water chemistry that on Earth are found together with microbial life.

While its unknown specifically what caused the changing chemistry in the ancient martian environment over time, it poses some possibilities for habitability. For example, was the changing environment caused by release of cations and anions from dissolution of rock, producing, an energy source that could have potentially been used by microbial life? And conversely, is it possible that microbial life itself was responsible for the chemical changes in the environment? In some salty terrestrial analog sites, including the Painted Desert, along with Western Australia and the Atacama Desert in Chile, microbial life has distinctive impacts on those areas' chemistry and geology.

While we don't know the answers to these questions with regard to Mars, no doubt, additional research and exploration will yield more clues about the dynamic nature of the ancient Martian environment and climate.

You can learn more by reading the full paperhere.

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Is There a Painted Desert on Mars? - SETI Institute

Evidence of Mars watery past is written all over the surface of the planet. Between dried-up river valleys, outflow channels, and sedimentary deposits, it is clear that Mars was once a much different place. But until recently, the mystery of where this water went has remained unsolved. This changed in 2018 when data obtained by the ESAs Mars Express probe indicated the existence of water beneath the south pole of the planet.

According to the Mars Express probes Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), this body of water is in a 20 km (~12.5 mi) wide area about 1.5 km (~1 mi) beneath the surface. And now, further analysis of the data by a team led by the Roma Tre University has revealed the existence of three new ponds, the largest of which measures about 20 x 30 km (~12.5 x 18.5 mi) and is surrounded by many smaller ponds.

A research paper that describes the discovery was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The study was led by Dr. Sebastian Emanuel Lauro (a researcher with the Dept. of Mathematics and Physics at the Roma Tre University) and included researchers from the University of Southern Queensland, Jacobs University Bremen, the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), and the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

Based on decades worth of surface and atmospheric data, scientists have determined that over three billion years ago, Mars had standing bodies of water, rivers, and ocean an ocean that covered much of its northern hemisphere. Today, it is impossible for water to remain stable on the surface owing to the extremely thin atmosphere. However, there is considerable amounts of water frozen in its polar regions.

Furthermore, the radar investigation conducted by the Mars Express probe showed that beneath the southern polar ice cap, the subsurface is made of many layers of ice and dust down to a depth of about 1.5 km in the 200 km-wide area analyzed in this study. The MARSIS data also found a particularly bright radar reflection beneath the layered deposits that measured roughly 20 km (~12.5 mi) in area.

The techniques used to analyze the MARSIS radar data are similar to those used to investigate subglacial lakes in Antarctica, Canada, and Greenland. A good example is Lake Vostok, which is located beneath 4 km (mi) of ice in Antarctica. Since its discovery, scientists have speculated that this lake (and others like it) might harbor unique ecosystems, which makes them a useful analogy for astrobiologists how life can survive in extreme environments.

The latest analysis of this data indicated that there are at least more ponds in the 200 km (125 mi) region scanned by Mars Express, which the team believes are the kind of hypersaline perchlorate brines (aka. very salty water) that are known to form in the Martian polar region. These results open the possibility that an entire system of ancient salty lakes might exist underground that date back millions (or even billions) of years.

While they would be difficult to reach, these would be the ideal spots to search for evidence of present-day life on Mars. Much like the existence of liquid water on the surface, scientists speculate that the only place where life could still exist on Mars is underground, most likely in patches of briny water. The existence of life in subsurface ponds also raises ethical questions about humans living on Mars in the future.

Several proposals for establishing a permanent human presence on Mars depend upon the availability of subsurface aquifers. But if in fact these are home to simple life forms or entire biospheres, then harvesting the water would be an ecological disaster and tantamount to genocide, and could even harmful for human beings consuming it.

This, among other recent discoveries, highlights the need for more research on Mars before we attempt to send regular missions there.

Further Reading: ESA

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Mars Express Finds Even More Ponds of Water Under the Ground on Mars - Universe Today

A POPULAR pub has been put up for sale with a guide price of 125,000.

Th Mars Inn, in Loftus, will go under the hammer later this month, along with 90 other properties and plots of land.

Auction house Pugh will be selling the pub, which has two bedrooms and is set on a third of an acre with beer gardens and car parking on Deepdale Road.

Pugh managing director Paul Thompson said: The Mars Inn is in a fantastic location in Loftus, which is close to the Yorkshire coast and midway between Saltburn and Staithes, both of which attract large crowds of visitors, especially right now, when a UK staycation has become the holiday of choice for almost everyone.

He added: The pub could represent an attractive development opportunity for an investor, subject to gaining the necessary planning consent, and whether that was residential of commercial it would be tremendous to see it continue to be an asset to the Loftus community, in whatever form.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Pugh has sold more than 190 lots totalling over 20m at its auctions, which have been held on the firms online platform.

The firms next auction, featuring properties and land across the UK, including the Mars Inn, will be held on 21 October.

For more details and to view the full auction catalogue, go to http://www.pugh-auctions.com.

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The Mars Inn, Loftus, to be sold at auction - The Northern Echo