NASA's SkyFall helicopters will 'show us parts of Mars we've never seen before', scientists say - Space

Three helicopters NASA is preparing to send to Mars will be able to fly hundreds of kilometers across the planet. The data they collect should help prepare for human landings. Scientists are getting ready to select the location where the helicopters will begin their work. Their focus is on plains that may contain deposits of frozen water beneath the surface. Artist’s illustration of NASA’s planned SkyFall helicopters descending toward the Martian surface. Credit: AeroVironment

NASA is accelerating the development of three SkyFall Mars helicopters, which are to depart for the Red Planet in 2028 aboard the Space Reactor-1 Freedom spacecraft. The vehicle, equipped with a nuclear power system, is expected to deliver a capsule containing the aircraft to Mars’ northern hemisphere in spring, when the risk of dust storms is lower, Space.com reports. Independent landingThe three identical helicopters are planned to be released into the Martian atmosphere at an altitude of approximately 1,000 meters. After separation, they are expected to deploy, descend and land on the planet’s surface independently. This deployment method does not involve a single-use lander or a rover carrier, as was the case with Ingenuity, which operated alongside Perseverance. SkyFall is being developed based on the experience of Ingenuity, which completed 72 flights in Jezero Crater, although it was initially designed for only five. The new vehicles will be slightly larger but will operate according to the same principle. They are being designed for six months of operation, with the goal of extending this to one Earth year. More current news is available on the UA.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. Credit: Blaise Douros/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth.

Milky Way’s first microblazar candidate sits 12,000 light-years away, offering a rare ground-level lab for studying relativistic jetsA black hole 12,000 light-years away is firing a jet of plasma almost directly toward Earth. At that distance, no known or expected danger to Earth has been identified by the researchers or the institutions involved. What astronomers have actually found is rarer and more interesting than a threat. Researchers have identified IRAS 18293-0941 as a compelling candidate for the Milky Way’s first microblazar, a class of object that gives astrophysicists a close-up laboratory for studying some of the most violent physics in the galaxy. What Astronomers FoundThe discovery centers on a binary system whose black hole expels plasma jets at close to three-quarters the speed of light, pointed almost directly toward Earth. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a black hole that completes a full orbit roughly every 11.38 days. Material drawn from the companion star feeds the black hole, and some of that matter gets expelled outward as opposing jets traveling at approximately three-quarters the speed of light. Terminology matters here.

Forests that stood on Mozambique's coast thousands of years ago now lie beneath shallow seas, and they have become fish-filled "peat reefs" with marine life comparable to coral reefs, researchers report in Scientific Reports. A team from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory, led by Mario Lebrato, documented the submerged peat in the Bazaruto Archipelago in the Western Indian Ocean. BCSS, founded in 2017, describes itself as Africa's first permanent ocean observatory. Working with universities and institutions in the U. K., U. S. and Canada, the team believes it has carried out the first ecological study of peat reefs anywhere in the tropics. Old forests, new seafloorRadiocarbon dating shows the peat formed between about 300 and 5,000 years ago, and chemical analysis indicates it came mostly from coastal land plants and trees. Some samples contain up to 40% organic carbon by dry weight. Lebrato said the coastline has very little natural hard seabed, mostly shifting sand. As rising seas expose the old peat layers, they create rare solid habitat where marine life can settle, hide and feed.