Issue22: India & Russia developing 'Marsoplane'?, AI can find microbial habitats, Tool to melt/sublimate Martian ice cores, Dust storms decomposing chloride salts & much more
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Missions
Indian & Russian scientists are developing 'Marsoplane' ? : Since April, 2022, scientists from India and Russia are working on a UAV concept to study Mars' atmosphere & surface. A team from IIT Kharagpur is working on Martian fluid dynamics & a technology demonstrator is being engineered by an international team. Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences is busy figuring out what science the helicopter can perform on the red planet. Note: Though evidences point towards this mission concept, there's no official release yet!
Observing Phobos! : MMX scientists join hands with Twinkle Space Telescope team to observe the moon, Phobos in infrared wavelengths. These observations will help MMX spacecraft select the landing site and choose the best samples within just 3 years of time on and around the Phobos!
Percy receives new software upgrade: NASA's JPL developed new AI software, AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) to enhance rover's capabilities. For example, SuperCam can now autonomously identify & 'zap' rocks on Mars using VISIR & LIBS techniques, rover can now 'see' upto 5 rocks once at a time, etc…
Currently, Perseverance is at the top of Jezero river delta as part of its third science campaign.
Ingenuity is now closer to Percy: Mars helicopter is flying frequently - taken Flight 44, 45, 46 and 47 - to reposition itself.
ESCAPADE will launch on Blue Origin's rocket: NASA has signed contract with Blue Origin to launch Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission on the company's New Glenn rocket. Two small satellites will be launched around the Mars to study Mars' magnetosphere. Rob Lillis, principal investigator for ESCAPADE says,
“With simultaneous two-point observations, ESCAPADE will bring us the first ‘stereo’ picture of this highly dynamic environment.”
Research & Observations
AI can find microbial habitats! : Using Convolutional Neural Networks & Deep Learning, Astrobiologists identified potential habitable sites & biosignature patterns in Atacama desert, a Mars analog site. They fed the relevant data, applied AI-based algorithms & reduced their search area by 97% ! These advanced AI tools can reduce our search time from months to just minutes & help fetch most pertinent samples!
Martian dust storms can decompose chloride salts: A recent study measured electrical property of dust activity by analysing 26 heterogeneous electrochemical experiments. A not-so-strong dust storm can produce chlorates, perchlorates & carbonates in the following way:
Due to increased frictional electrification, highly energetic electrons are produced during dust storms.
These electrons collide with the atmospheric molecules and generate free radicals.
Free radicals further react with chloride salts (present in Martian regolith) to produce those species!
Scientists believe that the Martian dust activity was only responsible for global chlorine-cycle in the Amazonian period. Also, this atmosphere-surface interaction is affecting geochemical processes in many ways!
Melt/ Sublimate Martian ice cores: A 4-inch compact tool, Mars Melter-Sublimator for Ice Science (MSIS), has two components - Melter on the top and Sublimator at the bottom to melt or sublimate Martian ice samples. Outermost surface is discarded by heating the ice core, to remove the contaminated layer and then we left with just 30-40 % of ice sample for analysis.
Imagery
On February 2, just before the sunset, Curiosity photographs the sun rays illuminating the high-altitude clouds, made of dry ice!
Recommendation
Check out the simplest-yet-detailed maps of Olympus Mons region, Aeolis Dorsa region & Athabasca Valles region by the Astrogeology Science Centre of US.
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