Explanation: On sol 1943 of its journey of exploration across the surface of Mars, the Curiosity Rover recorded this selfie at the south rim of Vera Rubin Ridge. Of course a sol is a Martian solar day, about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Curiosity's sol 1943 corresponds to Earth date January 23, 2018. Also composed as an interactive 360 degree VR, the mosaicked panorama combines 61 exposures taken by the car-sized rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Frames containing the imager's arm have been edited out while the extended background used was taken by the rover's Mastcam on sol 1903. At the top of the rover's mast, sitting above the Mastcam, the laser-firing ChemCam housing blocks out the distant peak of Mount Sharp.
***
For instance, they find interesting and fun ways to involve the public in their adventures in space exploration.
Case in point, waaaaay back in 1995 or so, I came across, and no, I don't remember how, signature postcards addressed to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) located almost locally, mid-way between here and LA, at the California Institute of Technology, that if they were returned in a timely manner would become part of a golden disc of collected signatures that would be included onboard the Cassini spacecraft on its journey to Saturn.
This golden disc, along with its over 205,000.engraved signatures, would eventually meet its demise by plunging into the planet itself. In some far off and distant future, I could barely imagined, the signatures of my mom, who actually died just before Cassini launched in 1997, my dad, who died ten years later, and me and my then husband of 10 years, 30 now, would all burn up in Saturn's atmosphere thereby, in my mind, allowing us to become a part of the very composition of Saturn itself.
After its highly successful 20 year journey, Cassini is now orbiting between Saturn's inner-most ring and the planet’s surface and will tomorrow, Friday September 15, 2017, meet its demise with a slow and controlled descent into Saturn's atmosphere. For me, this is bittersweet because I have been able to imagine all this time, my parents signatures traveling through space. Mine and David's too, and tomorrow that ends.
Still, tomorrow we become, in a way, a part of Saturn and that is pretty, pretty cool too. So, thank you NASA for allowing us to journey along with you in such a personal way. I am in your gratitude .And Cassini, you will be missed.
If you want more info, follow the link to The Grand Finale Tool Kit and do a bit of exploring yourself.
***
From: YouTube NASA Johnson_The International Space Station is a one-of-a-kind spot for scientists who want to do experiments where there’s no gravity, to find out how other natural forces function without gravity’s influence. In this “SpeedyTime” segment, Expedition 52 flight engineer Jack Fischer uses a few simple tools to demonstrate what happens to water in space when there’s no pull of gravity.
From: YouTube NASA Johnson_Doing groundbreaking science can mean working with dangerous materials; how do the astronauts on the International Space Station protect themselves and their ship in those cases? They use the Microgravity Science Glovebox: in this “SpeedyTime” segment Expedition 52 flight engineer Peggy Whitson pulls a rack out of the wall of the Destiny Laboratory to show us how astronauts access a sealed environment for science and technology experiments that involve potentially hazardous From: YouTube NASA Johnson_When you live in a place where your heart doesn’t even have to work against the pull of gravity, you need help with exercise: the astronauts on the International Space Station have a suite of exercise equipment at their disposal, including a treadmill. In this “SpeedyTime” segment Expedition 52 flight engineer Jack Fischer runs through the workout they get on the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) in the station’s Tranquility module. 
From YouTube: NASA Johnson 
***
FROM: NASA Johnson The image combines two separate exposures taken on Nov. 20, 2016, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. For presentation, the exposures were processed separately to optimize detail visible on both Earth and the moon. The moon is much darker than Earth and would barely be visible if shown at the same brightness scale as Earth.
The combined view retains the correct positions and sizes of the two bodies relative to each other. The distance between Earth and the moon is about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Earth and the moon appear closer than they actually are in this image because the observation was planned for a time at which the moon was almost directly behind Earth, from Mars' point of view, to see the Earth-facing side of the moon. 
In the image, the reddish feature near the middle of the face of Earth is Australia. When the component images were taken, Mars was about 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) from Earth.
***
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarken
