Issue 19: 'Yellow' signal to ExoMars launch, Earth-like clouds in Martian skys, Two different auroras occurred both at a time & much more
Good day readers, I'm extremely sorry for the huge delay in publishing this issue! But I was out of station and there was literally very less network at the place! Hope you understand and once again apologies for the same…
Missions
A 'yellow' signal for ExoMars launch: European ministers agreed to revamp the ExoMars mission & passed a budget of €360M as asked. Although now the team won't face any financial issues, it may face some technical issues!
ExoMars team need specific thrusters for Kazachok lander, only designed by US manufacturer, Aerojet Rocketdyne. And the team have also asked NASA to provide Radioisotope Heating Units, which in turn require US launcher. Therefore, the launch timeline isn't finalised yet & still depends on NASA's interest & next year's budget.
Percy to collect two sediment-rich samples: This month, rover will collect one sandstone sample from “Yori Pass” area, located near base of river delta. It is hypothesized that the water has carried the fine grains which later settled to form a sandstone. Also, Percy will collect its first regolith sample from a mega sand ripple “Observation Mountain.”
Ingenuity can now land on rockier terrains: Ingenuity received a major software upgrade which will allow the copter to use digital elevation maps for navigation, eliminating the 'flat-ground assumption'. After the upgrade, copter has taken one test flight & one repositioning flight.
South Korea to land on Mars: South Korea's President pledges to establish a National Space Agency, land on the Moon in 2032 & send a robotic explorer to Mars in 2045. President is going to double the country's space sector budget & may reveal more details in the 4th revision of Basic Plan for Promotion of Space development.
What will MMX do on Phobos? : In a science meet, JAXA scientists discussed the “100 day operations” that the MMX rover will perform just after landing.
Meanwhile, wheels of the rover are under testing in microgravity environment of Uematsu Electric company's 50 m drop tower.
InSight's declining power: Compared to last month, InSight's power levels have reduced from 310 watt hours to 290 watt hours!
Research & Observations
Two different auroras both at a time! : MAVEN's ultraviolet spectrograph observed two auroras - diffuse and proton aurora - associated with two different phenomena!
Proton aurora occurs when solar rays hit the Martian dust storm, releasing Hydrogen to proton. At the other, interaction of highly energetic solar particles with the Mars' upper atmospheric particles, create diffuse aurora. Fortunately, Mars' dust storm season coincided with the Sun's peak activity period, resulting into this incredible duo!
Earth-like clouds in Martian skys! : MEX's and MRO's cameras observed two dust storms in Martian north pole that created regularly spaced, spiral shaped clouds arranged-like pebbles. Such small cloud cells form on Earth during the extratropical cyclones in the polar & mid-latitudes.
Martian winds blowing at 140 km/h elongates the dust clouds to 20-40 km of horizontal sizes, spanned across 1000-2000km. But on Mars, rising air column contain dust rather than water, and therefore this cloud cell convection is known as Mars dry convection.
Imagery
On November 18, NASA's Perseverance rover captured a partial solar eclipse using its MastCam-Z
On December 7, our Moon occulted the Red Planet! Public captured this incredible phenomena - Mars rising above the lunar crater, Abel.
A perfect depiction of NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return mission which involves a lander; two backup helicopters; a rocket - Mars Ascent Vehicle; Capture, Containment & Return System; Earth Return Orbiter & Earth Entry System
Recommendation
Listen to the Podcast “The Ancient Floods of Mars” by Planetary Scientist Tim Goudge who talks about how onec Mars was flooded with liquid water & how it dried to such dusty, rocky ball!
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