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James T. Kirk is going to Mars or better said, the actor, who famously portrayed Capt. James T. Kirk in the original "Star Trek" TV series and a number of movies, is one of more than 2.4 million people who have signed up to send their names to Mars aboard NASA's InSight lander.
The signatures will ride aboard two microchips affixed to InSight, which is scheduled to launch toward the Red Planet in May 2018. The first microchip is already aboard; it has been engraved with 827,000 names, which were collected in 2015.
The ExoMars 2016 mission, a colaboration between the ESA and Russian Roscosmos space agency, will enter Martian orbit on October 19 2016. The previously released Schiaparelli lander will begin its descent to the Martian surface.
ExoMars comprises the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator.
TGO will make a detailed inventory of Mars’ atmospheric gases, with particular interest in rare gases like methane, which may indicate that there once was or is now implies that there is an active, and or current source. TGO aims to measure methane’s geographical and seasonal dependence and help to determine whether it stems from a geological or biological source.
TGO will start its science mission at the end of 2017, following a year of complex aerobraking manoeuvres to circularise its orbit. It will also act as a relay for ESA’s ExoMars 2020 rover.
Schiaparelli will separate from TGO on 16 October, entering the atmosphere for a six-minute descent to a region in Meridiani Planum, on 19 October.
Recently, NASA had asked private industry to present concepts of a future Moon lander. NASA has revealed that three of the landers have been chosen for further consideration. The three companies that made the cut were: Astrobotic Technology Inc's Griffin lander, Masten Space Systems Inc's XEUS lander and Moon Express Inc's MX-1 Lander. These three companies concept landers will move on to the "Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown initiative" or the "Lunar CATALYST".
NASA is not providing any funding, however the agency is prepared to offer assistance in technical matters, access to test facilities, equipment loans and software for three years.
Both Astrobotic and Moon Express are competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize awarded to a private team that can land and perform activities on the surface of the moon by Dec. 31, 2015.
NASA's "Mighty Eagle". Was very successful in its latest mission in which it completed a short flight of 40 or so feet in the air, with a small translation after which it identified a target on the surface and landed, according to NASA / Goddard:
up to 100 feet, (identify) an on-the-ground target with its onboard cameras, and then autonomously landed itself at the chosen spot.
NASA describes this sort flight as a was to slowly mature a new system of small landers..
Why a new lander you ask? Well unlike the system we saw on Curiosity, this robotic lander?:
Go here for the short demo vedio of this lander's latest success.
Listener Dan sent in some info on NASA's next planned mission to Mars. Called InSight, the lander's misson will involve - drilling 16 feet into the crust of Mars. The mission, set to launch in 2016,
will provide detailed information about the planet’s core, in particular determining whether it is liquid or solid.
InSight's landing will be no where near as complex as Curiosity's and in fact more closely resemble Phoenix's "beach ball / airbag" system. Its' complement of scientific gear will consist of
a robotic arm and two black-and-white cameras as well as instruments to measure Martian seismic activity and the planet’s rotation axis. A small drill-like instrument that will drill several feet into the Martian soil to make temperature measurements.
InSight is part of NASA's Discovery program which is designed to do as much science as it can for as small a price-tag possible. In that vein, the InSight probe was topped at no more than 425 million. Far cheaper than Curiosity, but still able to carry out significant research. Discovery missions must also compete for with other missions of its' class for selection. Other projects being considered were:
the Comet Hopper, which would have explored the body of a comet, and the Titan Mare Explorer, which planned to land a small boat-like probe on a methane lake on Saturn’s moon Titan.
If all goes well, InSight will launch sometime in 2016
Hey, check out what 89 large gets ya! Oh yeah, it IS a model. So why does a model cost 89000? It's a 1 to 1 model of the Apollo era Luna Excursion Module all 20.9 feet of it! Available from Spacetoys.com it comes with or without a complete interior oh and no you can't rent it! lol.
