Pic of the Week: Crescent Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Mars as captured on May 15, 2026 by NASA’s Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

This week’s image comes from the Psyche spacecraft that is utilizing Martian gravity for its flight plan on its way to the asteroid Psyche in the asteroid belt. This image of a crescent Mars is one of many drive-by photos for both science and our enjoyment.

Here is more on this Martian part of the mission from NASA:

Because Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent in the days running up to the close approach, lit by sunlight reflecting off its surface. In observations from the spacecraft’s multispectral imager, the crescent appeared brighter and extended farther around the planet’s disk than anticipated because of the strong scattering of sunlight through the planet’s dusty atmosphere. As Psyche passed from Mars’ nighttime skies to daytime, it took a rapid series of pictures of the surface around the time of closest approach.

“We’ve captured thousands of images of the approach to Mars and of the planet’s surface and atmosphere at close approach. This dataset provides unique and important opportunities for us to calibrate and characterize the performance of the cameras, as well as test the early versions of our image processing tools being developed for use at the asteroid Psyche,” said Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. “As the spacecraft continues its journey after the flyby, we’ll continue calibration imaging of Mars for the rest of the month as it recedes into the distance.”

Videos: Fungi Homes and More About Life On and Beyond Earth

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Aeon.co

If you need to stretch your mind, I recommend you check out some of the articles and videos available on the Aeon website. As the website states about its purpose:

We ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology, society and culture.

One recently posted video with US astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild is a fascinating discussion about the difficulties in humans surviving on another planet or moon, and some of the problems and potential solutions that need to be considered. The video ends with a Q&A where Dr. Rothschild goes into a variety of related topics.

The talk itself comes from The Long Now Foundation, which has this statement about Dr. Rothschild’s talk titled “Nature’s Hardware Store”:

In her Long Now Talk, Dr. Rothschild will open the doors to “Nature’s hardware store” — a vast, largely untapped reservoir of biological strategies available to scientists, engineers, and innovators. Dr. Rothschild’s own work in recent years has included 3D-printing trees, designing fungal-based housing fit for the moon, and building synthetic cells de novo in the lab. In doing so, she has connected theoretical insights about the very nature of life on this planet with practical applications and future directions for innovation on the hardest problems facing our civilization.

The foundation has many other other great talks, including science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson and public policy expert Stephen Heintz talking about geopolitics here on Earth.

But getting back to Aeon, some other videos for you to explore include:

With the news seemingly on a doom loop these days, it is worth contemplating some new ideas, if only to give your mind a rest. For that reason, you need Aeon and The Long Now Foundation in your mental medicine cabinet.

Enjoy.

Space Stories: Martian Contract Questions, French Spacesuit Travels to ISS, and China Readies Next Space Station Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): View of Mars from the NASA Mars Global Surveyor MOC wide angle cameras. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories.

—Ars Technica: “One Mars Spacecraft, Two Senators, and a Cloud of Questions“

NASA released a much-anticipated contract solicitation for a Mars-orbiting spacecraft late last week, kicking off what is sure to be a hotly contested and potentially controversial procurement. At issue is $700 million, already appropriated by Congress, to build a spacecraft, launch it to Mars, and once there to serve as a vehicle to relay communications between the red planet and Earth. But the stakes may be even bigger than this, including the possible resurrection of the recently canceled Mars Sample Return mission. As part of the new solicitation, NASA says it will conduct the acquisition “as a full and open competition.” But will it? That’s the question that several people involved with this procurement process are asking. And it could turn messy, quickly.

—European Spaceflight: “French Spacesuit Prototype Delivered to the International Space Station“

A European intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit prototype developed under a CNES-initiated programme was transported to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacesuit will be tested aboard the station by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot. The EuroSuit project was initiated by CNES in December 2023 as part of the agency’s Spaceship FR programme, which aims to foster the development of core technologies required for future crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit.

—China Global Television Network: “China to Launch Shenzhou-23 Crewed Mission to Space Station in Coming Days“

The combination of the Shenzhou-23 crewed spacecraft and the Long March-2F Y23 carrier rocket was transferred to the launchpad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. All facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition. Various pre-launch functional inspections and joint tests will be carried out as scheduled in the coming days. The launch is planned to take place in the coming days.

Update: Here is a podcast version of this story if you sometimes prefer to digest the news in this way. It is created by AI. To note, it’s not replacing anything or anyone. It’s simply offering an option if listening while driving is preferable to you. I do not use AI in the written articles. I will also start posting the latest podcasts in the sidebar.

Martian Rover Worksite Problems

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Curiosity Mars rover arm with a piece of rock attached. (NASA)

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover had some issues two weeks ago while drilling on the Martian surface. On April 25th, the drill became stuck on a piece of rock that would not drop off of the robotic arm. The 28.6 pound rock, nicknamed “Atacama,” was fully attached to the rover. NASA stated this is the first time this has happened.

NASA scientists did not panic, yet this was not an easy issue to resolve. The rock remained attached to the arm after several days of attempts to dislodge it. Remember, it takes 40 minutes for a round trip message to go from the rover to the scientists and then back to the rover. It was not until May 1 that the rock was safely removed from the arm after a lot of rotating, vibrating, and spinning.

The rover has been busy on the Martian surface since 2012, so it has already had plenty of time to become entangled with the rocks on the surface. Fortunately, patience prevailed and the search for water and life on Mars continues.

Television: Star City

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Apple TV

We are only one month away from the premiere of Apple TV’s Star City.

Premiering on May 29th, the series is a spin-off from For All Mankind, which is an alternative history showing the race to the Moon and then Mars among the Americans, Soviet, and North Koreans. Star City will focus on the Soviet program, just as For All Mankind focused primarily on the American program.

Apple TV describes the new series in this way:

A bold new chapter inspired by the critically acclaimed space-race drama, “For All Mankind,” “Star City” is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humankind forward.

While For All Mankind was mostly a bombastic show with plenty of American daredevil fun, the Star City promises to be a much darker view of another space program that we only saw in quick glimpses during the first series. Keeping the show interesting and not too bleak may be a challenge.

Will we ever see another spin-off covering the North Korean version of the space race? It is doubtful, yet it would be both fascinating and bleak as well.

I imagine Star City can be a stand-alone series for those who missed For All Mankind, but I think half the fun in watching the new series will be watching where the two stories interweave and discovering what was really happening on the Soviet side.

If history has multiple perspectives, even alternative history, then I look forward to understanding more of the story through more voices.

Credit: Apple TV