This Week in Space: Maven Back Online, Perseverance Perseveres, and the Stars Align

Hello folks, and welcome to your Friday briefing on space news great and small. Mercifully, it’s been quiet this week. We’ve got the usual slate of NASA updates, but this week is special. NASA has finally revealed when the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope will land. We’ll also hear from the Canadian Space Agency and the ESA. Last but not least, we’ll preview skywatching opportunities for the month of June.

NASA News

MAVEN Mission Team Saves The Day

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission has returned to normal operations, after recovering from an “extended safe mode event.”

Back in February, the orbiter started reporting problems with its Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). First, a botched reboot left the spacecraft running on its backup computer. Then, steering dropped out altogether. As Jim Butcher would say, MAVEN was “in the hands of God and Sir Isaac Newton.”

“This was a situation that no one initially anticipated, but the spacecraft performed as designed,” said Micheal Haggard, the Lockheed Martin MAVEN spacecraft team lead in Littleton, Colorado. “By the time we ended up on the backup computer, the spacecraft had been attempting to fix the problem with IMU-1 for about 78 minutes. We ended up on IMU-2, and the pressure was on to get the all-stellar mode ready as quickly as possible.”

The mission team successfully diagnosed the issue with the IMUs, and developed a system for the spacecraft to navigate by the stars. So far, so good. However, MAVEN typically needs to query its IMUs a few times a year. Hopefully, the all-stellar navigation system will complement the IMUs, allowing MAVEN to fulfill its mission.

Coming Soon: First Full-Color Images From James Webb Telescope

NASA announced this week that they’ll release the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.

Once Webb’s instruments have been thoroughly calibrated, project scientists will point the telescope at a series of pre-selected targets. The shortlist is designed to show off what Webb can do with its instruments working in harmony.

If you’re getting a little impatient with all this calibration, you’re not alone. Webb is booked out for the entire next calendar year, with scientists queuing up to best use the telescope’s time.

Two Companies Win Bid to Make Spacesuits for NASA’s Lunar Mission

NASA has announced that they’ll partner with Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to build space suits for missions to the ISS, Mars and the Moon.

“The previous suit has been the workhorse for 40 years,” said Vanessa Wyche, the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in a press conference. “These new capabilities will allow us to continue on the ISS and allows us to do the Artemis program and continue on to Mars.”

Perseverance Rover Turns its Collar to the Martian Wind

Late last month, NASA’s InSight lander shut down, maybe for good. A thick layer of dust blankets the lander’s solar panels, starving it of power. But Perseverance is having no such problems where it currently sits in the Jezero Crater. In fact, Jezero is one of the windiest places on Mars. Perseverance and its companion space copter, Ingenuity, watch daily dust devils weaving through clouds of grit blown in the ceaseless wind.

NASA scientists double-coated the wires on Perseverance, after Curiosity took so much damage from the regolith. But the Perseverance rover’s weather sensor array, MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer), has still lost some hit points. Windblown dust has damaged the delicate wires of MEDA’s wind sensors.

“We collected a lot of great science data,” said Manuel de la Torre Juarez, MEDA’s deputy principal investigator at JPL. “The wind sensors are seriously impacted, ironically, because we got what we wanted to measure.” Sent to Mars to measure the wind, Perseverance must now live up to its name.

ESO Observatories Reopen to the Public

After two years of pandemic-related closures, ESO’s observatory sites in Chile are once again opening their doors to the public. Visitors who brave the Atacama will be able to take free tours of the ESO sites in Paranal and La Silla. If you’re in the neighborhood, you should go! These observatories participated in the research behind the awe-inspiring first images of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

“We hope to once again amaze people with ESO’s impressive telescopes, immersed in the most incredible landscapes of the Atacama Desert,” ESO Representative Luis Chavarría said in a statement. “The reopening of our sites to the public marks a small but significant step for ESO.”

If you can’t make the trek to Chile, don’t worry. The ESO does guided virtual tours of La Silla and Paranal every Saturday at 9AM Eastern (3PM CEST), streaming via their YouTube channel.

Gaia Project Teases Most Accurate 3D Map of the Milky Way

Later this month, the Gaia Project plans to release the most accurate multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way ever made. The new 3D map contains an exhaustive catalogue of spectroscopic information on more than two billion objects. Entries for the objects include “chemical compositions, stellar temperatures, colours, masses, ages, and the speed at which stars move towards or away from us.”

Skywatchers Corner: the Planets Align

Once again, the night sky presents a host of lovely things to look at. In this video, NASA experts give an overview of skywatching opportunities for June.