H2M interview with Jim Green , NASA

Poster Chosen For Mars Society Convention

MARS SOCIETY ANNOUNCEMENT View this email in your browser

First Place for 2017 Mars Society Poster Contest Announced A committee of Mars Society staff members took a close look at nearly two dozen creative designs submitted to the 2017 Mars Society Poster Contest. After a longer than expected review period, the winner of the annual competition was selected – Violaine Bourgeais (France). Graphic artists were asked to submit a poster using the theme “Mars: From Imagination to Reality” for the 20th Annual International Mars Society Convention, set to take placeSeptember 7-10 at the University of California Irvine. As usual, the winning design will be used by the Mars Society to help promote its four-day space conference. With submissions received from around the globe, the organization also announced the second and third place winners of the contest – Jennifer Claudio (U.S.) and Ed Sludden (U.K.) respectively. The Mars Society would like to express its appreciation to all of the talented participants in this year’s contest. For more information about the 2017 International Mars Society Convention, including registration details, please visit our web site. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15bb2c5cc3ff5b7a?projector=1

H2M Summit interview with Clementine Poidatz

The Best Map Yet Of What Could Be NASA's Next Mars Landing Site

The Best Map Yet of What Could Be NASA’s Next Mars Landing Site

Bramble and his colleagues used high-resolution photographs from NASA’s HiRISE camera and geomorphic data from the agency’s CRISM instrument (both in Mars orbit, aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) to produce the highest resolution, most complete map ever produced of Northeast Syrtis, a popular candidate landing site for NASA’s 2020 Mars rover.

ON THE NIGHT of November 28, 1659, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens aimed toward the sky a 22-foot telescope of his own invention, peered through its compound eyepiece, and drew the first known illustration—the first map, really—of Mars. His sketch, though crude, captured a dark, distinctive surface feature. Today, astronomers know it as Syrtis Major.

And they’re about to get to know it a lot better.

At Syrtis Major’s northeastern edge you’ll find one of the most intriguing crops of geology ever observed on another planet. Its terrain—sandwiched between a large volcano and one of the biggest, oldest craters on Mars—preserves a chapter of the planet’s early history marked by warm, watery environments where microbial life might have flourished. Now, 358 years after Hyugens first described Syrtis Major’s outlines, planetary geologists have charted its fascinating northeasterly province at higher resolution, and in finer geological detail, than ever before.

“People have explored the mineralogy and geology of the larger area before, but nobody has put down the magnifying glass and looked at this one region up close,” says Michael Bramble, the planetary geologist at Brown University who led the mapping effort.

His team’s map, which appears in the latest issue of the planetary science journal Icarus, recounts the history of Northeast Syrtis. “It’s a big step for the planetary science community,” says UT Austin geoscientist Tim Goudge. “It helps us understand what happened here, why it’s unique, why it’s so mineralogically diverse.” That’s a big endorsement: Not only is Goudge unaffiliated with Bramble’s project, he’s something of a rival.

See, Northeast Syrtis is one of the two most promising landing sites currently under consideration for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover. The competing landing site is Jezero crater, home to an ancient lake whose sediments might now carry traces of past life—and Goudge is its lead mapper.

The locations of the three most popular sites of exploration, as proposed by attendees at the most recent landing site workshop.NASA

Planetary scientists have been deliberating over where to land NASA’s rover for several years now. And with good reason: The site’s composition will have a major impact on the agency’s research. NASA’s next rover, which is slated to launch in 2020, will investigate Mars’ geological history, evaluate the planet’s past habitability, and hunt for signs of ancient life. Crucially, it will also be the first rover to cache samples of Martian soil and rock—samples which NASA hopes to retrieve on a future mission and analyze here on Earth.

NASA is getting closer to a verdict. Northeast Syrtis and Jezero rose to the top of the pack just in February, when some 200 planetary scientists convened at a workshop in Monrovia, California to trim the list of recommended candidates from eight to three. (Columbia Hills, a site previously explored by NASA’s Spirit Rover, also made the cut, though the other sites seem more promising).

You can think of Bramble’s new imagery as a treasure map: The black and white image depicts the Martian terrain NASA’s rover would have to traverse to access samples of the region’s geology, while the colored overlay describes the geological layers the rover can expect to find throughout its travels. The blue indicates the oldest, lowest layers in the region—a “basement,” Bramble says, created by an impact event nearly 4-billion years ago. The clay minerals in this region suggest the presence of two one-time habitable, aqueous environments. The green overlay demarcates the next geographic layer, a terrain where the mineral olivine has weathered to become carbonate. That reaction liberates hydrogen—a known energy source for microbial communities here on Earth. The upper layers of the region, indicated in peach, are rich in sulfates thought to have formed when water percolated through these layers. An Earthly analog to this unit is the Rio Tinto in Spain, a river whose acidic waters are known to host microbial life.

Though only one bears its name, both sites reside in the northeasterly reaches of Syrtis Major. (They look close on a map, but to NASA’s next rover, which, on a good day, might travel a couple hundred meters, they might as well be a million miles apart.) Jezero was once home to a river delta that every scientist I spoke with described as either beautiful, spectacular, or both—oh, and its minerals may once have supported microbial life. “To the extent that ancient lakes and deltas were habitable environments, and that we believe them to now preserve traces of ancient life, Jezero is absolutely the best choice among the remaining sites,” says John Mustard, a planetary geologist at Brown. (Mustard is the bridge between the two sites; he is a coauthor on Bramble’s Northeast Syrtis paper, but once served as Goudge’s thesis advisor—small world, no?)

Northeast Syrtis on the other hand, is more likely to provide NASA’s rover easy access to lots of geologic environments—something the new map of the region confirms. Of particular interest are the clay minerals in the bottommost geological layers, sulfate-bearing terrains in the uppermost strata, and carbonated olivine minerals in between—all of which hint at one-time habitable, aqueous environments. What’s more, they’re all readily accessible. “The regions of interest are more clustered in Northeast Syrtis,” Goudge says. That means NASA’s rover could conceivably start doing science there as soon as it lands, drilling and caching samples from a range of geologic periods in a relatively small window of time.

A geologic map of Jezero crater, its watershed, and the surrounding area. The crater basin itself appears at the bottom righthand corner of the image, and is outlined in white. The thick black lines outline the two adjacent watersheds, from which water would have flowed into the impact crater.

That clustering will almost certainly factor into NASA’s final decision. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab has already used the map to run thousands of potential landing and exploration scenarios throughout the region. “You know, if you dropped the rover at this latitude and longitude where would it go, what route would it traverse, what obstacles would it have to avoid,” Mustard says. Goudge has produced similar maps of Jezero, though at slightly larger scales and lower resolution. He says he and his colleagues will be collecting more detailed imagery of the crater in the months ahead, which NASA will also use to model landing and traverse scenarios.

NASA will choose a landing site for its rover in the next couple of years, based largely on the research and guidance of planetary geologists like Bramble, Mustard, and Goudge. Barring any surprises, it will very likely be one of the sites in Syrtis Major.

Which is pretty poetic, if you think about it. Christiaan Huygens surely knew, as he was drawing his rudimentary map more than three centuries ago, that future generations would go on to chart the surface of Mars and other planets in increasingly fine detail. He might even have guessed we’d seek them out in search of life. (Like many of his contemporaries, Huygens was a big believer in extraterrestrials.) But what he couldn’t have known that November night was that more than 350 years later, astronomers would direct their attentions back to Syrtis Major—to the fringes of the dark mark he so carefully described for the first time.

Some Stunning Views Of Saturn's Rings

Cosmic Speck: 

See Earth Through Saturn's Rings in Amazing Cassini Photo

The Cassini spacecraft spotted Earth as a bright speck (and the moon as a smaller speck) between Saturn's broad rings as the craft prepares for its final dive into the ringed planet's atmosphere.

Cassini was 870 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from Earth the night of April 12-13 when it snapped this photo, which shows Earth — and the even tinier moon, a faint dot to its left — framed between the icy rings of Saturn. At the time the photo was taken, the southern Atlantic Ocean was facing the spacecraft's lens, NASA officials said in a statement.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this photo of Earth from Saturn at 1:41 a.m. EDT April 13 (0541 GMT, or 10:41 p.m. PDT on April 12) from 870 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away. At the time, the part of Earth facing Cassini was the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Cassini has been exploring Saturn's system for 13 years, gathering data about the rings' structure and composition as well as investigating the moons in Saturn's neighborhood and the planet itself. Tonight (April 21-22) the spacecraft will swing past Saturn's largest moon, Titan, for a final time to prepare for its Grand Finale maneuver — 22 dives in between Saturn and its rings, and a final plunge into the depths of the gas giant itself.

A zoomed-in view of the previous image helps reveal the moon as a faint speck to the left of Earth in this view of our planetary system between the rings of Saturn.

The outer part of Saturn's A ring is visible at the top of the photo, with its Keeler and Encke gaps, and its F ring is seen at the bottom. The Encke gap marks the path of Saturn's ravioli-shaped moon Pan, and the moon Daphnis kicks up waves in the A ring's narrower Keeler gap. The entire ring system spans 40,800 miles (65,700 km), although this photo reveals only some of the outermost ring — Saturn is far above the top of the image.

This rare image taken on July 19, 2013, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft has shows Saturn's rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame. At the time, Cassini was 2013 from a distance of about 898.414 million miles (1.445858 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is only one footprint in a mosaic of 33 footprints covering the entire Saturn ring system (including Saturn itself) taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera.

This isn't the first time Cassini has paused to peer at Earth during its travels: In July 2013, it grabbed a panoramic view of Saturn and its rings that featured Mars, Venus and the Earth and moon as pinpricks (here's a closer view of the Earth and moon). A "Wave at Saturn" initiative encouraged people on Earth to wave toward the ringed planet at the right moment for the image — although of course the speck looked the same regardless. Another view of Earth from Cassini appears in this gallery of experts' favorite space photos.

As Cassini edges toward its Sept, 15 dive into the planet's atmosphere, it will build detailed maps of the planet's gravitational and magnetic fields to learn more about its composition, and will measure the material in the space between the planet's D ring and its atmosphere during the 22 dives — sending its final data about the majestic ring system.

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Star Trek Discovery in Trouble? Rumor Rundown

The Space Review: Review: The Long Space Age

The Space Review: Review: The Long Space Age

The Space Review: Fifty years later: Soyuz-1 revisited (part 1) (page 1)

The Space Review: Fifty years later: Soyuz-1 revisited (part 1) (page 1)

The Space Review: International and commercial interest in the Moon

The Space Review: International and commercial interest in the Moon

The Space Review: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids

The Space Review: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids

Casini Completes Final And Fateful Titan Flyby

DAY IN REVIEW Cassini Completes Final -- and Fateful -- Titan FlybyNASA's Cassini spacecraft has had its last close brush with Saturn's hazy moon Titan and is now beginning its final set of 22 orbits around the ringed planet. The spacecraft made its 127th and final close approach to Titan on April 21 at 11:08 p.m. PDT (2:08 a.m. EDT on April 22), passing at an altitude of about 608 miles (979 kilometers) above the moon's surface. Cassini transmitted its images and other data to Earth following the encounter. Scientists with Cassini's radar investigation will be looking this week at their final set of new radar images of the hydrocarbon seas and lakes that spread across Titan's north polar region. The planned imaging coverage includes a region previously seen by Cassini's imaging cameras, but not by radar. The radar team also plans to use the new data to probe the depths and compositions of some of Titan's small lakes for the first (and last) time, and look for further evidence of the evolving feature researchers have dubbed the "magic island." "Cassini's up-close exploration of Titan is now behind us, but the rich volume of data the spacecraft has collected will fuel scientific study for decades to come," said Linda Spilker, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Gateway to the Grand Finale The flyby also put Cassini on course for its dramatic last act, known as the Grand Finale. As the spacecraft passed over Titan, the moon's gravity bent its path, reshaping the robotic probe's orbit slightly so that instead of passing just outside Saturn's main rings, Cassini will begin a series of 22 dives between the rings and the planet on April 26. The mission will conclude with a science-rich plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15. "With this flyby we're committed to the Grand Finale," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL. "The spacecraft is now on a ballistic path, so that even if we were to forgo future small course adjustments using thrusters, we would still enter Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15 no matter what." Cassini received a large increase in velocity of approximately 1,925 mph (precisely 860.5 meters per second) with respect to Saturn from the close encounter with Titan. After buzzing Titan, Cassini coasted onward, reaching the farthest point in its orbital path around Saturn at 8:46 p.m. PDT (11:46 p.m. EDT) on April 22. This point, called apoapse, is where each new Cassini lap around Saturn begins. Technically, Cassini began its Grand Finale orbits at this time, but since the excitement of the finale begins in earnest on April 26 with the first ultra-close dive past Saturn, the mission is celebrating the latter milestone as the formal beginning of the finale. The spacecraft's first finale dive will take place on April 26 at 2 a.m. PDT (5 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft will be out of contact during the dive and for about a day afterward while it makes science observations from close to the planet. The earliest time Cassini is scheduled to make radio contact with Earth is 12:05 a.m. PDT (3:05 a.m. EDT) on April 27. Images and other data are expected to begin flowing in shortly after communication is established. A new narrated, 360-degree animated video gives viewers a sense of what it might be like to fly alongside Cassini as it makes one of its Grand Finale dives. More information about Cassini's Grand Finale, including image and video resources, is available at: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/grandfinale More information about Cassini's final Titan flyby is available at: https://go.nasa.gov/2nFHaTo The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. More information about the Cassini mission: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

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The Cassini Spacecraft Will Go Out With A Bang

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/science/cassini-nasa-saturn.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Cassini Heads Toward Final Close Encounter with Titan

Cassini Heads Toward Final Close Encounter with Titan: NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its final close flyby of Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan this weekend.

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Leaves 'Tribulation'

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Leaves 'Tribulation': NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is departing 'Cape Tribulation,' a crater-rim segment it has explored since late 2014, and is heading for 'Perseverance Valley.'

The Space Review: Attempting a landing there: the case for a Europa lander

The Space Review: Attempting a landing there: the case for a Europa lander

The First Colony On Mars Could Be 3D Printed From Red Planet Dust

he First Mars Colony Could Be 3D Printed From Red Planet Dust

A new method has used simulated Martian and lunar dust to 3D print flexible, tough rubber tools. The method could one day be used by Martian colonists to print their own tools using local materials on the Red Planet.

A new technique could allow the first humans on Mars to 3D print everything from tools to temporary housing out of a tough rubber-like material — using only Martian dust.

The method could enable the first humans who set foot on the Red Planet to print the tools and housing they need to survive without having to lug all the supplies aboard their spaceship.

"For places like other planets and moons, where resources are limited, people would need to use what is available on that planet in order to live," Ramille Shah, a materials scientist at Northwestern University in Illinois, said in a statement. "Our 3D paints  really open up the ability to print different functional or structural objects to make habitats beyond Earth."

Any trip to Mars would require spaceships big enough to carry much more fuel and supplies than past spacecraft could, but care packages from Mother Earth won't be enough for humans to make it on an alien planet. Almost all schemes for colonizing the Red Planet (or for colonizing the moon) require that at least some of the supplies for the expeditions come from the local environment.

One step toward that goal would be to develop a supertool that could be used to quickly manufacture any other desired tool or object, using local resources. To that end, Shah and her colleagues wanted to see what could be made with some of the most abundant material on Mars and the moon: dust. The researchers used simulated dusts based on real lunar and Martian samples. The synthetic dust contains mixtures of aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, iron oxide and other compounds. The hard particles simulating the lunar surface often have jagged, sharp edges, while Martian simulated dust is made up of rounder, less irregular particles, according to the researchers.

The team developed a process that combines simulated lunar and Martian dust with solvents and a biopolymer to create these extraterrestrial inks. The inks were then 3D printed into different shapes using an extruder. In the end, the objects — which were composed of about 90 percent dust — were tough and flexible, and could withstand the rolling, cutting and folding needed to print almost any 3D shape, Shah and her colleagues reported online March 20 in the journal Scientific Reports.

"We even 3D-printed interlocking bricks, similar to Legos, that can be used as building blocks," Shah said.

While rubbery materials could have their uses, as a next step, Shah and her colleague David Dunand, a materials scientist at Northwestern University, are now trying to figure out ways to heat these rubbery polymers so they harden like ceramics.

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Anoush Ansari To Give Keynote Address At 2017 Mars Society Convention

MARS SOCIETY ANNOUNCEMENT View this email in your browser

Anousheh Ansari to Give Keynote Address at 2017 Mars Society Convention Banquet The Mars Society is pleased to announce that Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer, businesswoman and the first female private space explorer, will serve as the keynote speaker at the Saturdayevening banquet of the 20th Annual International Mars Society Conventionon September 9th at the University of California Irvine. Making history more than a decade ago and fulfilling a life-long dream, Mrs. Ansari became the first self-funded female astronaut and first astronaut of Iranian descent to go to space, blasting into orbit on September 18, 2006 and spending eight days aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 14 crew of Soyuz TMA-9. Since Mrs. Ansari’s experience in space, she has been a leading advocate for human space exploration, including a mission to the planet Mars, working to stimulate grassroots enthusiasm for space among the world’s youth population. She also supports and promotes STEM education, especially for girls. A successful entrepreneur, Mrs. Ansari and her family sponsored the X Prize that kicked off the private space race that is now on the verge of opening the final frontier to all humankind. In addition, Mrs. Ansari is the co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems, as well as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies Inc. She also authored, with Homer Hickam, the book, “My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer.” To learn more about the 2017 International Mars Society Convention, including how to register for the four-day conference and purchase tickets for the Saturday evening banquet, please visit our web site or contact Carie Fay at: cfay@marssociety.org.   Anousheh Ansari Facebook Twitter Website YouTube Share Tweet

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