October 19, 2020

Become a Planetary Defender Today

On 10 September 2020 an asteroid missed our planet by 40 million kilometers, more than 100 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
It was detected only very recently by amateur astronomer Leonardo Amaral of the Campo dos Amarais observatory in Brazil.

To quote Planetary Society’s Chief scientist Bruce Betts: “the fact that this relatively large near-Earth object, or NEO, wasn’t detected until now serves as a reminder that there’s much work to be done when it comes to defending our planet from dangerous asteroids”.

Leonardo Amaral’s important discovery was supported by the members of The Planetary Society, which awarded Amaral an $8,500 Shoemaker NEO grant to purchase a more stable telescope mount for better tracking and longer camera exposures.
You, too, can become a Planetary Defender by donating. Every dollar will power our crucial planetary defense initiatives.

Photo © Chris Small. Downloaded from ESA.
Find more of Chris’ photography on his website, Ocean And Earth Photography.

Become a Planetary Defender

As a Planetary Society supporter, you’re part of the solution in our mission to save humankind from the only large-scale natural disaster that can one day be prevented—potentially dangerous asteroids and comets or Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)

Planetary Defender

ESA on Planetary Defense

Read more about what ESA does for Planetary Defense

Planetary Defense

January 14, 2020

Mars Missions 2020

gmulder Mars exomars, hope mars mission, Huoxing-1, mars2020, Tianwen-1

Mars Missions 2020

This year will see four missions launching to Mars. The timing is of course dictated by the orbits of Mars and Earth in relation to another, which open a good launch window every two years. But the number also shows how space exploration has become a global affaire instead of one conducted only by a few nations.

(Titel image ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO )

ExoMars

[themify_box color=”yellow” icon=”announcement”]Update: the launch has been moved to 2022 because “tests necessary to make all components of the spacecraft fit for the Mars adventure need more time to complete” [themify_icon icon=”ti-hand-point-right” link=”http://”] see the ESA website for more details [/themify_box]

This is part two of a mission that started in 2016. Part one brought the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) into Mars orbit and released the Schiaparelli EDM lander. The TGO has since produced some interesting science. The lander did not land successfully, proving that a) space is hard, and b) you test to learn from your failures.

Part two will now deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover, named after the X-Ray cristallographer so instrumental in the discovery of the structure of DNA. It will land using the Kazachok lander and descent stage.

One of the main instruments will be a drill to “retrieve samples from up to 2 m below the surface, delivering them to the onboard science laboratory for detailed analysis to sniff out signs of biological signatures.” (see this ESA-post for more details)

The entire mission is dedicated to help answer the question whether life has ever existed on Mars.

Launch

Launch window starts September 20th, 2022.

The launch will be from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a Proton M Rocket.

ESA-Post on details for the path

Landing

The ExoMars Lander and Rover is expected to land 264 days after launch, so maybe on 10 June 2023.

Oxia Planum was chosen as the preferred landing site for the rover, with Aram Dorsum and Mawrth Vallis as backup options.

Here is an ESA-post about the selection.

Space Agency

European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos

Stay up to date

Here area few accounts to follow on Twitter

ESA ExoMars Mission account.
Most instruments or components have their accounts, for example:
Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)
RAMAN Laser Spectrometer
Rosalind Rover

Mars 2020 / Perseverance

Mars map showing Jezero Crater in relation to the touch-down locations of NASA’s other successful Mars missions. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The mission will bring a rover to Mars now named Perseverance, that is based on the Curiosity rover but with all new instruments.

It will also have a drill. And it will also be about bio-signatures – to quote Wikipedia: “It will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars and investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.”

Here is an overview of all instruments on board the rover.

It is also the first step for the proposed Mars sample return mission – which now looks like it could actually happen, as both ESA and NASA have been given budget to perform part of this complex mission.

There is also a NASA JPL fact sheet for the mission (PDF).

Here is the launch:

And here is the landing