Perseverance Seen From Space by ESA’s ExoMars Orbiter - Universe Today

A little over a week ago (February 18^th, 2021), NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on the surface of Mars. In what was truly a media circus, people from all over the world tuned to watch the live coverage of the rover landing. When Perseverance touched down, it wasn’t just the mission controllers at NASA who triumphantly jumped to their feet to cheer and applaud.

In the days that followed, the world was treated to all kinds of media that showed the surface of Mars and the descent. The most recent comes from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program. From its vantage point, high above the Martian skies, the TGO caught sight of Perseverance in the Jezero crater and acquired images that show the rover and other elements of its landing vehicle.

Since 2016, the TGO has orbited Mars and gathered vital data on the composition of its atmosphere. Specifically, TGO has been looking for traces of atmospheric methane and other gases that could be the result of geological or biological activity. These efforts are part of a larger effort to determine if life existed on Mars billions of years ago (and whether or not it still does).

Image of Perseverance and mission elements, as captured by the orbiter’s CaSSIS camera on Feb. 23rd, 2021. Credit: ESA

In addition, the orbiter has conducted other important scientific operations, like relaying data from robotic missions on the surface and acquiring images of space. On February 23^rd, the TGO took advantage of its orbit to snap pictures with its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) that showed the Perseverance rover – as well as its parachute, heat shield, and descent stage elements – within the Jezero crater.

In the first image (above), the elements are discernible as a series of dark and bright pixels, which are indicated in the second image (below). As you can see, the descent stage and heatshield are dark spots spaced around two smaller craters while the parachute and backshell are visibly bright spots in close proximity to each other. The Perseverance rover, near the bottom center, is a relatively faint spot by a small ridge leading from one crater.

It is here that Perseverance will spend the next two years (which will likely be extended) searching for signs of past microbial life. Based on its features, which include a preserved river delta and clay-rich sedimentary deposits, the Jezero crater is known to have hosted a standing body of water billions of years ago. For this reason, it was selected as the landing site for the mission, since it is believed to be a good place to find evidence of past life.

Perseverance will also conduct an ambitious and unprecedented operation, where it will collect samples of Martian rocks and soil and set them aside in a cache. These will be returned to Earth by a separate ESA-NASA Mars Sample Return mission that will consist of a lander, a rover (to retrieve the samples), and small launcher (for launching them to orbit). Once there, an orbiter will pick them up and bring them home for analysis.

Close-up of the images taken by the TGO of Perseverance and mission elements in the Jezero crater. Credit: ESA

The ExoMars TGO also provided a significant amount of assistance for the Perseverance rover during its landing, such as data relay services. Videos of the landing, as well as imagery and sound recordings, were captured by instruments aboard the rover’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) vehicle. These were sent back to Earth with the assistance of the TGO, as well as NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The orbiter will continue to provide data relay support between Earth and Mars for future missions to the surface, particularly the the next ExoMars mission. Known as ExoMars 2022, this mission will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sept. 20^th, 2022, and arrive at the Red Planet by June 10^th, 2023. It will consist of the Russian Kazachok surface platform and the Rosalind Franklin rover.

Meanwhile, the Trace Gas Orbiter will continue to orbit Mars and conduct its own science operations, focusing on the analysis of Mars’ atmosphere and the search for gases that point the way towards past (or present) life. Recently, the orbiter detected traces of hydrogen chloride gas leaving the planet’s atmosphere, indicating that this salt exists on the surface which made it to orbit.

On Earth, this process has been observed with sodium chloride salts, where salt water evaporates from our oceans and is pushed into the upper atmosphere by strong winds. The TGO has also monitored water vapor leaving the Martian atmosphere and escaping to space. Together, these findings have provided new clues as to where the abundant surface water Mars had billions of years ago escaped to.

Orbital picture of the Jezero crater, showing its fossil river delta. Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/BROWN UNIVERSITY

Further Reading: ESA

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Spacewalking astronauts prep station for new solar wings - Phys.org

In this image taken from NASA video, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, top, and Victor Glover work outside the International Space Station Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. The spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year. (NASA via AP)

Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year.

NASA's Kate Rubins and Victor Glover put the mounting brackets and struts together, then bolted them into place next to the station's oldest and most degraded solar wings.

They had to lug out the hundreds of pounds of mounting brackets and struts in 8-foot (2.5-meter) duffle-style bags. The equipment was so big and awkward that it had to be taken apart like furniture, just to get through the hatch.

Some of the attachment locations required extra turns of the power drill and still weren't snug enough, as indicated by black lines. The astronauts had to use a ratchet wrench to deal with the more stubborn bolts, which slowed them down. At one point, they were almost an hour behind.

"Whoever painted this black line painted outside the lines a little bit," Glover said at one particularly troublesome spot.

"We'll work on our kindergarten skills over here," Mission Control replied, urging him to move on.

With more people and experiments flying on the space station, more power will be needed to keep everything running, according to NASA. The six new solar panels—to be delivered in pairs by SpaceX over the coming year or so—should boost the station's electrical capability by as much as 30%.

Rubins and Glover worked on the struts for the first two solar panels, due to launch in June.

The eight solar panels up there now are 12 to 20 years old—most of them past their design lifetime and deteriorating. Each panel is 112 feet (34 meters) long by 39 feet (12 meters) wide. Tip to tip counting the center framework, each pair stretches 240 feet (73 meters), longer than a Boeing 777′s wingspan.

Boeing is supplying the new roll-up panels, about half the size of the old ones but just as powerful thanks to the latest solar cell technology. They'll be placed at an angle above the old ones, which will continue to operate.

A prototype was tested at the space station in 2017.

Rubins' helmet featured a new high-definition camera that provided stunning views, particularly those showing the vivid blue Earth 270 miles (435 kilometers) below. "Pretty fantastic," observed Mission Control.

Sunday's spacewalk was the third for infectious disease specialist Rubins and Navy pilot Glover—both of whom could end up flying to the moon.

They're among 18 astronauts newly assigned to NASA's Artemis moon-landing program. The next moonwalkers will come from this group.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris put in a congratulatory call to Glover, the first African American astronaut to live full time at the space station. NASA released the video exchange Saturday.

"The history making that you are doing, we are so proud of you," Harris said. Like other firsts, Glover replied, it won't be the last. "We want to make sure that we can continue to do new things," he said.

Rubins will float back out Friday with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to wrap up the solar panel prep work, and to vent and relocate ammonia coolant hoses.

Glover and Noguchi were among four astronauts arriving via SpaceX in November. Rubins launched from Kazakhstan in October alongside two Russians. They're all scheduled to return to Earth this spring.

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Spacewalkers complete 4 years of power upgrades for station (Update)

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All the Easter Eggs NASA Engineers Left on the Mars Rover - Futurism

Here's what it — and all the other Easter Eggs they left — said.

Cosmic Codes

We already heard a little about the Easter Eggs that NASA left on the Perseverance Mars rover. This weekend, we’re learning a little bit more.

“Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find for that purpose. So we invite you all to give it a shot and show your work.”

That was the call to action issued by Allen Chen, engineer of Perseverance’s landing system, at a press conference last week, according to The New York Times. Chen was narrating a video of the rover as it deployed its distinct orange and white patterned parachute, and spoke of his hope that the mission would inspire others. 

Though Chen made the remark nonchalantly, many watching picked up on what he was actually saying: The pattern on the parachute was actually a secret code. 

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Dare Mighty Things

The code came courtesy of Ian Clark, a systems engineer for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Clark spent three years helping design the parachute for Perseverance. His team knew that the parachute’s design needed a pattern to help engineers recognize its orientation as it fell. 

So, for fun, they decided to embed a secret message in it. 

“DARE MIGHTY THINGS” is what they encoded on each layer of the parachute’s inner rings using binary. It’s a motto borrowed from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Strenuous Life” speech, and it’s often used in buildings throughout JPL’s campus. The outer rings also include the coordinates for JPL’s headquarters in Pasadena, California. 

NASA/JPL

“Week after week, I definitely never got tired of reading ‘Dare Mighty Things,'” Clark told CNN. “And it’s not just the phrase, but it’s even the broader context of the speech. This great inspirational message really represented the culture of JPL and NASA as a whole.”

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More Easter Eggs

The motto on the parachute isn’t the only Easter egg included on the Perseverance mission. The rover also includes a small “family portrait” of all the Mars rovers to date on it. 

NASA has a history of including fun Easter eggs for folks to uncover over the course of their Mars missions. For example, they included small holes in the wheels of The Curiosity rover that left “JPL” in Morse code as it drove around the Martian surface. 

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Fingers crossed that we’ll uncover more during Perseverance’s tenure on the Red Planet. They’re fun, stimulating, and inspiring — everything you could want from a NASA mission. 

READ MORE: ‘Dare mighty things’: The man behind the secret message in the Mars rover’s parachute [CNN]

More on Perseverance: NASA Scientists Spot Strangely Shaped Rock in Latest Mars Panorama

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SpaceX aborts launch of Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites - Space.com

A veteran SpaceX rocket suffered a launch abort just minutes before liftoff Sunday night (Feb. 28) while attempting to launch a new fleet of the company's Starlink internet satellites. 

The Falcon 9 rocket was less than 90 seconds away from launching 60 Starlink satellites into orbit from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida when it experienced the automatic abort, SpaceX said. 

"Overall, the vehicle and payload are healthy and remain in good health," SpaceX production supervisor Andy Tran said during live launch commentary. "The next launch opportunity is tomorrow, March 1, at 8:15 Eastern time."

You can watch the launch live here and on Space.com, beginning at about 8 p.m. EST (0100 March 2 GMT), courtesy of SpaceX. You can also watch the launch directly from SpaceX here. 

Related: SpaceX's Starlink satellite megaconstellation in photos

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, seen here in a still from a launch webcast, suffered a launch abort just before an attempted liftoff carrying 60 Starlink internet satellites on Feb. 28, 2021. (Image credit: SpaceX)

Sunday night's launch abort is the latest delay for this particular Starlink mission. It was originally scheduled to fly earlier in February, but was delayed due to hardware issues and poor weather. 

The mission, called Starlink 17, will now be SpaceX's 20th Starlink mission and the company's sixth launch of 2021. SpaceX currently has more than 1,000 Starlink satellites in orbit as it builds a megaconstellation capable of providing global high-speed internet coverage, particularly to remote or underserved locales. 

The Falcon 9 rocket for Starlink 17 includes a first stage booster that has flown seven times so far. It launched the Iridium-8 and Telstar 18 Vantage satellite missions, as well as five separate Starlink flights. 

The booster is poised to be the third Falcon 9 booster to fly eight times and, if all goes well, will land on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean so it can be recovered. SpaceX's current Block 5 Falcon 9 rockets are designed to fly up to 10 times as part of the company's reusability program to lower launch costs. 

In addition to the booster, the Starlink 17 mission also includes reused payload fairings (its clamshell-like nosecone). One half is making its fourth flight while the other is on its third. Two SpaceX recovery ships, the GO Searcher and GO Navigator, are stationed off shore to recovery the fairings for later reuse as well.

According to the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron, there is a 70% chance of good weather for a SpaceX launch on Monday night. 

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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Vice President Kamala Harris calls NASA astronaut on International Space Station - Space.com

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made a cosmic call to the International Space Station last week to celebrate the milestone spaceflight of NASA astronaut Victor Glover in orbit.

The call, which NASA and the White House released on YouTube Saturday (Feb. 27), came amid Black History Month, as Glover is midway through a six-month flight to the space station. He is the first Black astronaut to fly a long-duration mission to the station. 

"Victor, it is so great to see you," an excited Harris said in the 3-minute video. "The history-making you are doing, we are so proud of you."

Related: Astronaut Victor Glover explains why we can't always just stick to space

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with NASA astronaut Victor Glover to celebrate his mission to the International Space Station in a February 2021 video call.  (Image credit: NASA)

Glover, 44, launched to the space station in November alongside three other astronauts as part of SpaceX's Crew-1 mission for NASA. He is part of the station's seven-person Expedition 64 crew and is making his first spaceflight since joining NASA's astronaut corps in 2013. 

Harris, who is the first woman and woman of color elected as vice president, asked Glover what he thought about his own achievement as the first African-American astronaut to fly a long-duration mission to the space station. The astronaut said his flight was only possible because of the astronauts and cosmonauts who came before him to bring humanity to its current point in space exploration. 

On April 12, the world will mark 60 years of human spaceflight. The first person to fly in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, launched on that day in 1961.

"I really appreciate that legacy and I try to do my best to honor it," Glover said. "I think about right now, it is a time that we should celebrate and be appreciative of the current state of human spaceflight."

"But really what I'm most excited about is the future of human spaceflight and the fact that this is going to be the future, this is what we're going to do for the foreseeable future," Glover added. "So yeah, that was a first. but it won't be the only time that that's happened."

Harris agreed. 

"My mother would say to me, 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last,'" she said. 

Harris asked Glover about his recent spacewalks on Jan. 27 and Feb. 1 (he took another one today, Feb. 28) to upgrade the International Space Station, as well as how his view of Earth from space allows a glimpse at the challenges of our planet. 

"It is just a spectacular thing to see from here, and it's very obvious to see from up here how thin our atmosphere is, just how special it is for there to be human life on this planet," Glover said of the view. "And so, it makes me want to do all that I can to protect that."

"You inspiring us and you reminding us of what is possible when we dream big and when we think big," Harris said.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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She came to the U.S. with $300. Now she's part of NASA's Mars mission. - Yahoo News

When NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars last week, aerospace engineer Diana Trujillo, who is a flight director on the mission, said in an interview with CBS News that it took her some time to process that it had arrived on the red planet.

"I was very much on the mindset of 'What's happening?'" she said. Then as pictures and videos from Perseverance started to beam back, it became real.

"Are we safe? I think that watching the image was when I actually processed that we had actually landed," she added.

The landing only marked the beginning of Perseverance's stop on Mars, but playing a leadership role in the historic mission to find life there was decades in the making for Trujillo. Her dreams of reaching space and wanting to understand the universe came as a young person in Cali, Colombia. Her parents were divorcing and as a 17-year-old, she decided to go to the United States, arriving with only $300 and not speaking any English. She worked housekeeping jobs to pay for her studies and later joined NASA in 2007.

Trujillo is now part of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and worked on the team that created the robotic arm that will collect rock samples on Mars. "Understanding if we're alone in the universe is the ultimate question," she said. "I hope that within the one year of surface operations on Mars, we can answer that question soon."

Diana Trujillo is seen Thursday, February 7, 2019. / Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

She said her experience early on as an immigrant motivates her to give her best always, especially when coming from a country that had limited opportunities.

"I saw everything coming my way as an opportunity," she said. "I didn't see it as, 'I can't believe I'm doing this job at night,' or 'I can't believe that I'm cleaning. I can't believe that I'm cleaning a bathroom right now.' It was just more like, 'I'm glad that I have a job and I can buy food and and have a house to sleep.' And so, I think that all of those things make me, and even today, helps me see life differently. I see it more as every instant I need to be present because every instance matters."

Part of the reason she wanted to get into the space field was to prove some family members wrong.

"I wanted my — especially the males of my own family — to recognize that women add value," she said, adding, "it came from wanting to prove to them that we matter."

However, her motivations would later evolve as a college student. She remembered being on the line to declare her major at the University of Florida and not knowing what she wanted to do. When Trujillo reached the dean, she saw a magazine that had images of female astronauts, a space shuttle and Earth — and that was when she picked aerospace engineering as her major. She also noticed the line was filled with people who didn't speak Spanish nor looked Hispanic, and she was one of the few women on the queue.

"It was very petrifying because you're doing this ginormously long line and every step of the way, you're [thinking] like, 'You shouldn't be here ... why are you here,'" she said.

Throughout her career, a similar theme followed: She'd be one of the few Latinas working in science. Now, she knows whenever she's working as one of the surface flight directors for Perseverance, she's representing more than just herself.

"I know I'm not walking in there alone," she said. "I'm walking in there and every single thing that I do, I'm representing my country, my culture, my heritage, my people, and I have to give my best every single time."

"I get to elevate and amplify my culture and all the countries that speak Spanish by sending a message to everybody that we're here, we're present," she added.

According to the Student Research Foundation, Hispanics hold only 8% of the STEM workforce — of which Hispanic women only comprise 2%. Trujillo believes the way to break the glass ceiling is to have more role models. That influenced her decision to be host of NASA's first-ever Spanish language broadcast for a planetary landing last Thursday. The show was called "Juntos perseveramos," or "Together we persevere," and it garnered more than 2.5 million views on YouTube. She's even gotten the attention of fellow countrywoman and global music star Shakira.

"The more hers there are, the more engineers and scientists that are Latin are out there, the more chances we have for those kids to have la chispa, where they say, 'I want to be that," she said.

She believes more visibility of Latinos in STEM will allow families to encourage younger members to follow in those steps, rather than stereotypical roles men and women have been told to follow.

"The abuelas, the moms or dads, the uncles, los primos, like everyone has to see this," she said. "And they have to see a woman in there, too. So, that they can turn around to the younger generation and say she can do it, you can do it."

Trujillo hopes to one day reach space, but she feels a special calling in helping bring more women in science and engineering.

"Life has always given me the opportunities that are the right ones for me, so we'll see what comes next," she said.

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Watch live: Astronauts begin spacewalk to prep for station power system upgrades – Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station early Sunday for the first in a series of spacewalks needed to upgrade the lab’s aging solar power system, working to install one and possibly two support fixtures that eventually will hold new solar blankets.

Floating in the Quest airlock, Kate Rubins and Victor Glover switched their spacesuits to battery power at 6:12 a.m. EST to officially kick off the 235th station spacewalk since assembly began in 1998, the third so far this year and the third overall for both astronauts.

For identification, Rubins, call sign EV-1, is wearing a suit with red stripes and using helmet camera No. 22, along with a new high-definition camera that provides razor-sharp views. Glover, EV-2, is wearing an unmarked suit and using helmet cam 20.

The goal of the excursion is to begin work to install struts at the far left end of the station’s power truss to support new roll-out solar array blankets scheduled for delivery later this year and next. Additional spacewalks will be needed to installed additional support fixtures and, eventually, new solar array blankets.

The space station is equipped with four huge solar array wings, two on each side of the lab’s power truss. Each wing is made up of two 39-foot-wide blankets extending 112 feet in opposite directions. The first two-blanket wing was launched in December 2000 with additional pairs delivered in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

The arrays feed power into eight electrical circuits, two per wing. When the station is in daylight, the arrays charge batteries and deliver power to the lab’s myriad systems. During night passes, the batteries feed stored power to the station.

Solar cells degrade over time and NASA is adding six new blankets, at a cost of $103 million, to the existing power system. Each one of the new ISS roll-out solar arrays, or IROSA, blankets measure 20 feet wide by 63 feet long when fully extended, generating more than 20 kilowatts.

Combined with the 95 kilowatt output of the original eight panels, the station’s upgraded system will provide about 215,000 kilowatts of power.

“Commercial users are coming on board that are looking for power that that we didn’t even dream of back in the mid 90s,” said Kenny Todd, deputy manager of the station program at the Johnson Space Center.

“The technology really has gotten to the point that we can do something like these roll out solar arrays. They’re not as big as the ones that we previous deployed, and yet we can we can get even more power out of them.”

Six of the space station’s eight large solar arrays will be augmented with new solar panels. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

Rubins and Glover planned to spend the day Sunday working at the base of the far left, or port six, set of solar arrays, which provide power to electrical channels 2B and 4B.

Exiting the airlock, the astronauts carried out two eight-foot-long bags containing struts what will be assembled into triangular support fixtures at the bases of the P6 arrays.

Depending on how easily the first fixture go together for the 2B array, Rubins and Glover will either complete the second support structure or defer some of the task to another spacewalk next Friday. That spacewalk will be carried out by Rubins and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

“We’ll start with the 2-Bravo side, complete the installation of that structure, and then we’ll pick up with the 4-Bravo side and get as far as we can on that one,” said spacewalk officer Art Thomason.

Additional spacewalks will be needed later to install the four additional solar blanket supports and the blankets themselves. The new arrays will be delivered aboard three SpaceX Dragon cargo ships staring later this year. Two spacewalks will be required to install each new blanket.

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Russia launches satellite to monitor climate in Arctic - CNN

The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average over the last three decades and Moscow is seeking to develop the energy-rich region, investing in the Northern Sea Route for shipping across its long northern flank as ice melts.

The satellite successfully reached its intended orbit after being launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome by a Soyuz rocket, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, said in a post on Twitter.

Russia plans to send up a second satellite in 2023 and, combined, the two will offer round-the-clock, all-weather monitoring of the Arctic Ocean and the surface of the Earth, Roscosmos said.

The Arktika-M will have a highly elliptical orbit that passes high over northern latitudes allowing it to monitor northern regions for lengthy periods before it loops back down under Earth.

At the right orbit, the satellite will be able to monitor and take images every 15-30 minutes of the Arctic, which can't be continuously observed by satellites that orbit above the Earth's equator, Roscosmos said.

The satellite will also be able to retransmit distress signals from ships, aircraft or people in remote areas as part of the international Cospas-Sarsat satellite-based search and rescue programme, Roscosmos said.

"As more activity takes place in the Arctic and as it moves into higher latitudes, improving weather and ice forecasting abilities is crucial," said Mia Bennett, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong.

"There is also an element of data nationalism that is feeding into all this. Countries, especially those that see themselves as space powers, want to be able to rely on their own satellites and data to inform their activities, whether commercial or military in nature," she said.

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Listen to the First-Ever Audio From Mars Thanks to Perseverance Rover - The Daily Beast

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1. Listen to the First-Ever Audio From Mars Thanks to Perseverance Rover  The Daily Beast
2. NASA's Perseverance Rover Transmits to Earth from the Surface of Mars  UPI.com
3. View Full Coverage on Google News

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NASA spacewalk: Watch astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover outside the space station - CNN

Astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover Jr. began their spacewalk outside of the International Space Station at 6:12 a.m. ET Sunday.

The spacewalk will assist with a continuation of upgrades for the space station orbiting Earth. The activity is expected to last about six-and-a-half hours, and you can watch it live on NASA's website and the NASA TV channel.

Both NASA crew members are veteran spacewalkers at this point. Glover has already conducted two spacewalks since arriving at the space station in November. This will be his third.

Rubins previously conducted spacewalks during her first rotation on the space station in 2016, so this will be her third as well.

If this Sunday's spacewalk seems earlier than previous spacewalks -- especially given that it's occurring on the weekend -- well, it is. But "it's not really a Monday through Friday kind of program," reminded Kenny Todd, deputy manager for the International Space Station program, during a press conference Wednesday.

Rubins and Glover will prepare for upcoming solar array upgrades by assembling and installing modification kits.

While the station's current solar arrays are still functioning well, they are degrading. This degradation is expected because they only have about a 15-year life and were installed in December 2000 -- so they've outlasted the warranty, so to speak.

Brand-new solar arrays will be placed in front of six of the arrays currently on the station later this year, boosting the station's power from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts, according to NASA. The solar arrays will begin launching to the space station on a SpaceX vehicle in June.

During the spacewalk, Rubins will be crew member 1 in the suit bearing red stripes, and Glover will be crew member 2 in a suit with no stripes.

Rubins will also pair up with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi for a spacewalk on March 5 to complete a number of tasks, including venting ammonia from the Early Ammonia System, replacement of a wireless video transceiver assembly, and installation of a "stiffener" on the Quest airlock thermal cover. This will prevent the cover from blowing out when atmosphere escapes whenever the hatch is opened.

This will be the 235th spacewalk in the history of the station.

From Earth to space

Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris called and spoke with Glover on the space station.

"Victor, it is so good to see you, the history-making you are doing, we are so proud of you," Harris said.

Glover is the first African American to fly a long-term mission on the space station in the history of the orbiting laboratory.

During their conversation, Harris and Glover discussed those who came before Glover and inspired him.

"I think about that piece often," Glover said. "All seven of us up here are a part of an amazing legacy of human spaceflight. It is a time we should celebrate and that we should be appreciative of, but really what I am most excited about is the future of human spaceflight and the fact that this is going to be the future. This is what we're going to do. We want to make sure we can continue to do new things."

Harris agreed. "My mother would say to me, 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you're not the last.' "

When Harris asked Glover about his first two spacewalks and his perspective of the Earth, Glover said he took the advice of his fellow crew members to "keep your world small, keep your focus on the thing right in front of you and slowly widen out that world-view."

The first time he saw Earth during a spacewalk, he wanted to revel in it for hours, Glover said. But he focused on the many tasks ahead and the spacewalk was "busy and beautiful."

Glover also talked about how fragile Earth looks from space, especially our thin atmosphere and "just how special it is for there to be human life on this planet."

"It makes me want to do all that I can to protect that," Glover said.

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NASA's "Perseverance" team led by women and minority scientists - Yahoo! Voices

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover mission was led by a diverse group of scientists, many of them women and minorities. Adriana Diaz has more on their stories.

Video Transcript

ADRIANA DIAZ: We end tonight with this incredible panorama of Mars captured by NASA's newest robotic explorer, the Perseverance rover. But what also caught our eye wasn't on Mars, it was inside Mission Control.

SWATI MOHAN: Touchdown confirmed.

- It was the voice heard around the world.

SWATI MOHAN: Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars.

- NASA's Swati Mohan wasn't just a commentator.

SWATI MOHAN: About to conduct the SkyCrane maneuver.

- She leads the space controls team.

How did you feel when you said the words "touchdown confirmed"?

SWATI MOHAN: I was still in a little bit of shock.

- Mohan moved to the US from India when she was one. She's among more than a dozen women of color on the core Perseverance team of roughly 300.

- What was it like for you, Christina, when you were watching, and listening to Swati?

CHRISTINA HERNANDEZ: I was like, yes, girl! I was so excited to see a woman who, A, is not only giving so much to the community, but she is a technical beast.

- Engineer Christina Hernandez, who's first-generation Mexican-American helped develop the rover's scientific instruments.

- And Moogega Cooper, who's half Black and half Korean, leads the team that ensures no contaminants are left on Mars.

- There's no perfect team out there, you know? Diversity can always be improved. But man, when I look around and I see women leaders and engineers, it just warms my heart.

- What do you gals do for NASA?

- Calculate your launch and landing site.

- NASA's historic struggles with diversity are documented in "Hidden Figures", the true story of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in the Space Race.

- It's not so far away generationally. My father tells me about how he served in a segregated unit in the Navy. Of all groups of people, I have the most faith that scientists can think beyond the construct of whatever society says and be more inclusive to others.

- Diversity is all about different viewpoints. And when you're trying to solve these complex problems, we need to be able to think outside of the box.

- Did any of you ever encounter someone who said you can't be an engineer, or you can't work for NASA?

- There are always moments where it's like, inside, you question, oh, is it because I'm young? Is it because I'm a young female? Is it because I'm a young Black female? But you just got to keep pushing toward the stars.

- Growing up, they couldn't all afford luxuries like space camp. But their families found a way.

- If there was not a local library, if we didn't have PBS, which is free, those things make it accessible no matter what your income is.

- Those struggles just made us even better at our jobs. Like my grandma says, she says, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]. So like, you know, "give it your all." And that's, I think, what all of us do on Mars Perseverance.

ADRIANA DIAZ: They say their greatest passion is helping the next generation.

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Vice President Kamala Harris Calls NASA Astronaut Victor Glover - NASA

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Vice President Kamala Harris Calls NASA Astronaut Victor Glover  NASAView Full Coverage on Google News Article From & Read More ( Vice President Kamala Harris Calls NASA Astronaut Victor Glover - NASA )
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How it Looks to Land on Mars on This Week @NASA – February 27, 2021 - NASA

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1. How it Looks to Land on Mars on This Week @NASA – February 27, 2021  NASA
2. 'Dare mighty things': The man behind the secret message in the Mars rover's parachute  CNN
3. Opinion: Like that Mars landing? Here's how UC San Diego scientists are involved in exoplanet exploration  The San Diego Union-Tribune
4. Perseverance’s eyes see a different Mars  Ars Technica
5. Here's what the Space.com Forum is discussing this week: Mars, memories, and more!  Space.com
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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'Dare mighty things': The man behind the secret message in the Mars rover's parachute - CNN

The footage gave the world a glimpse of an often entirely invisible process, including the deployment of the parachute to slow down the spacecraft after entering the atmosphere.

The 70.5-foot supersonic parachute was an extraordinary engineering challenge, said Ian Clark, systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Clark, who has been at JPL since 2009, worked on the parachute for years. He led three tests of it on Earth to ensure that the parachute could survive inflating in wind that would be twice the speed of sound, or Mach 2.

"We did testing that hadn't been done really since the Viking program (in the '70s and '80s), which was supersonic parachute testing of scale parachutes," Clark said.

The parachute testing was carried out at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in 2017 and 2018. The testing team replicated the Martian environment by using sounding rockets to reach halfway to the edge of space at twice the speed of sound and deploying the parachute.

Nylon, Technora and Kevlar were used to make the largest parachute ever sent to Mars, material that was three times stronger than what was used for the Curiosity rover landing in 2012.

The team felt confident in their testing, but it all came down to the parachute's main performance on Mars.

A secret code

Easter eggs have a history of being part of the missions NASA sends to Mars. For example, thanks to tiny holes in its wheels, the Curiosity rover -- which has been exploring Gale Crater -- leaves "JPL" tracks in Morse code as it makes its way around the Martian landscape.

While working on the parachute design, Clark knew there would be a lot of utility in creating a pattern. Patterns on parachutes help convey its orientation, how it inflates and whether there is any damage after inflation. Checkerboard patterns can be confusing, so Clark wanted to use something less uniform and more distinct.

Then, Clark and some of his fellow team members decided to have a little bit of fun.

Clark is a puzzle enthusiast. He does the New York Times crossword each morning. His mother also saves the puzzles from the Sunday edition in a manila envelope that she gives him every time he visits her.

He thought about encoding words using binary code. But what would the message be? While he has never been one to look at a motivational poster and derive much meaning from it, three words stood out to Clark: "Dare mighty things."

The motto, taken from a Theodore Roosevelt speech, is in buildings all across the JPL campus.

"Week after week, I definitely never got tired of reading 'Dare Mighty Things,'" Clark said. "And it's not just the phrase, but it's even the broader context of the speech. This great inspirational message really represented the culture of JPL and NASA as a whole."

He also included the GPS coordinates for JPL on the outer ring of the parachute.

When the parachute inflated on Mars, only about six people, including Clark, knew about the existence of the message.

During a press conference where the video was shared with the public on Monday, entry, descent and landing lead Allen Chen teased that there might be something to decipher in the orange-and-white parachute.

Within hours, space fans began posting what they deciphered on Reddit and Twitter. Clark was excited to see others engaging in this kind of puzzle solving, especially so quickly, as well as the joy that spread after the video from Mars was shared.

Clark hopes that the images and videos from the Perseverance will inspire people and help them get through the challenges of their days.

Inspiration becomes reality

Missions exploring the solar system, like Voyager, Galileo and Cassini, have long inspired Clark.

As a child, Clark watch Carl Sagan's "Cosmos," the 1980 PBS show, recorded by his dad. Clark watched Sagan talk about the billions of stars in the universe and share initial images being returned by the Voyager probes as they flew by Jupiter and Neptune. It piqued his curiosity and made him want to become involved in aerospace engineering.

On February 18, landing day for the rover, Clark sat in the entry, descent and landing war room at JPL in Pasadena. He watched data come in over the computer screens and listened to the callouts of Swati Mohan, the guidance, navigation and controls operations lead for the Perseverance mission, describing what was happening.

Even the slightest thing can cause damage to the parachute "and ultimately lead to a bad day because of the chaos of the environment," Clark said.

Wind moving in the wrong direction could have a catastrophic effect, causing the parachute to inflate inside out and destroy itself. Those who work in entry, descent and landing often point to the parachute as one of the aspects of a mission that scares them the most, because it's one of the least predictable of the mission.

When Mohan said the parachute had deployed, Clark kept an eye on the speed of the spacecraft as it dropped down through the atmosphere. At first, it seemed a little too fast, given the distance between the rover and the ground.

But the parachute did its job, slowing the rover down, and it gently landed in a picture-perfect way.

When images and video from the descent began to come back, Clark finally knew the team's efforts had paid off and the parachute inflated beautifully.

"The realization of what happened started bubbling up to the surface," Clark said. "I told the person who sent me the images, 'I think for the first time today, I feel happy.'"

Exploring Mars

With every mission, NASA builds on its previous successes. This first video of a spacecraft landing on Mars will be used by teams planning other missions for decades, Clark said.

The importance of this kind of footage can't be overstated.

Some of the first parachute tests done for a Mars mission happened during the Viking program, almost 50 years ago. Footage of the tests on 16-millimeter film was thought to be lost to history, Clark said. But they were able to track it down to someone who donated it to a small museum in Bradenton, Florida.

Clark flew from Los Angeles to retrieve the film and have it restored and digitized. Now the footage is used to compare with their recent parachute testing.

Clark continues to work on the Perseverance mission in different ways. He was the assistant project systems engineer for sample cleanliness, ensuring that the samples the Perseverance rover collects on Mars in its search for ancient life won't be contaminated by anything from Earth.

Those samples will be returned to Earth in the 2030s by follow-up missions, called Mars Sample Return. Clark will be the phase lead for the mission that retrieves those samples from the surface of Mars and back into orbit before they return to Earth.

"We've been wanting to do this kind of mission for nearly six decades now," Clark said. "When we dare mighty things, we actually can accomplish phenomenal successes."

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NASA honors 'Hidden Figure' Mary Jackson during Washington headquarters naming ceremony - Fox News

NASA officially named its Washington, D.C., headquarters building after pioneering engineer Mary Winston Jackson during a ceremony on Friday.

Members of Jackson's family and other prominent guests attended the small ceremony, including NASA Langley Center Director Clayton Turner, retired NASA engineer and "Hidden Figure" Christine Darden, artist Tenbeete Solomon, and Jackson's grandchildren Wanda and Bryan Jackson.

NASA LEAVES HIDDEN MESSAGE ON PARACHUTE OF MARS ROVER

In addition to unveiling a building sign with Jackson's name, the agency screened video tributes with reflections on her career at NASA, featuring family, friends, colleagues, astronauts, celebrities, elected officials and Hampton University President William R. Harvey.

In opening statements, Jurczyk commended Jackson's work and discussed the significance of her role at the agency. 

"Jackson's story is one of incredible determination," he said. "She personified NASA's spirit of persevering against all odds, providing inspiration, and advancing science and exploration." 

"My hope is that when we are safely able to return to work in person, walking through the doors of the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters each morning will inspire us all to push forward and continue to break barriers," added Jurczyk.

Wanda Jackson said her grandmother never gloated or bragged about her accomplishments. 

"She was special to us. She was always our hero. She was always our star. So, I would like to thank NASA ... again for showing the world what the Winston and Jackson family always knew about her," she said. 

NASA'S PERSEVERANCE ROVER SENDS BACK FIRST HD MARS PANORAMA

"There's no words that can explain how I'm feeling right now," Bryan said. "I'm overwhelmed with joy and honor."

Jackson was the first Black female engineer at NASA and her story was popularized with the release of both Margot Shetterly’s "Hidden Figures" book and the movie based on the lives of her and colleagues Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Darden.

Jackson was born in 1921 in Hampton, Virginia, and attended Hampton University, graduating in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and physical sciences.

After attending college, she worked as a teacher, receptionist and bookkeeper arriving at NASA's precursor organization, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA). Jackson was a teacher, receptionist and bookkeeper before joining the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computing unit in 1951. 

NASA to Honor ‘Hidden Figure’ Mary W. Jackson During Headquarters Naming Ceremony (NASA)

NASA ASTRONAUTS 'VERY BUSY' AHEAD OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SPACEWALK SUNDAY

Two years later, she was offered a job working with engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki in the 4-foot by 4-foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel and was encouraged to train to become an aerospace engineer. 

In order to do so, however, Jackson needed to complete graduate-level classes in math and physics which were held at the still-segregated Hampton High School. After obtaining permission from the city to do so, she earned the promotion and in 1958 became an engineer. 

Her specialty was the field of boundary layer effects on aerospace vehicle configurations at supersonic speeds.

Also in 1958, Johnson co-authored the report: "Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on Cones at Supersonic Speeds."

Seventeen years later, Johnson had authored or co-authored 12 NACA and NASA technical publications.

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In 1979, Jackson -- frustrated by the lack of management opportunities for women in her field -- left engineering to become NASA Langley’s Federal Women’s Program manager, where she committed to promoting equal opportunities in the workplace for NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists.

In 1985, Jackson retired from Langley, but her legacy continued long past her career at NASA. 

She helped out at the Hampton King Street Community Center, was a Girl Scout troop leader for more than 30 years, served as the chairperson for one of the center’s annual United Way campaigns and was a member of the National Technical Association.

Jackson received an Apollo Group Achievement Award and was named Langley’s Volunteer of the Year in 1976.

The NASA icon died in Hampton on Feb. 11, 2005, at the age of 83.

In 2019, Jackson posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal.

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NASA Scientists Spot Strangely Shaped Rock in Latest Mars Panorama - Futurism

What is that thing?

Eye-Searing Detail

NASA is embarking on its next exciting adventure on the Martian surface — and lucky for us, the agency’s taking us along for the ride.

Earlier this week, NASA released a stunning high-res panorama taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z camera and later stitched together by engineers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

The image shows an incredible amount of detail. It allows you to get an unprecedented look at the surrounding Jezero Crater, a region on Mars that’s suspected to be a dried-up ancient river delta. Suspected.

Harbor Seal Rock

Among the countless rocks, the scientists spotted a rather strange outcropping. A dark, unusually tall stone stands out in the rocky landscape. Thanks to its aquatic mammal-like shape, the team has already nicknamed it “Harbor Seal Rock,” according to Mastcam-Z principal investigator Jim Bell, who spoke during a Thursday webcast, as quoted by Space.com.

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The rock was likely formed over countless years of harsh winds battering down on the crater.

Setting the Stage

The panorama also showed an area near the rover where the dust was blown away by Perseverance’s “sky crane,” a rocket-powered descent stage that the rover used to gently glide down to the surface below on February 18.

Other areas just like it showed scarred rocks the scientists believe may the result of volcanic activity — but investigations have yet to begin so they’re not quite ready to hazard a guess yet.

Luckily, we will soon get an even closer look at Perseverance’s surroundings. Once the rover switches to surface-optimized software, a four day process that has already kicked off, Perseverance will enable panoramas that are three times as sharp.

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READ MORE: ‘Harbor Seal Rock’ on Mars and other new sights intrigue Perseverance rover scientists [Space.com]

More on Perseverance: Scientists Grow Microbes on Actual Mars Rocks

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