Mars: Insight landing on Nov.26, ESA ExoMars landing site selected, + Pits and Caves

NASA’s Insight lander is set to settled down on the Mars surface on November 26th. Emily Lakdawalla gives a preview of the event from : What to Expect When InSight Lands on Mars | The Planetary Society

InSight’s will be a throwback landing, simpler than Curiosity’s and identical to Phoenix’s. It will employ heat shield, parachute, and landing rockets, but no fancy entry guidance or Skycrane maneuver. Even if it’s simpler, it’s still terrifying, a period during which decades of work comes down to minutes of automated maneuvers that’ll transform a space-faring flying saucer into a sessile lander.

More at

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The European Space Agency recently announced the decision on where the ExoMars rover will land in 2021:

ExoMars is to land at Oxia Planum.

Bob Zimmerman explains the reasons for the site selection: The ExoMars 2020 landing site | Behind The Black

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Bob also discusses pits and lava tube caves on the Red Planet: More Pits on Mars! | Behind The Black

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Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto

 

Carnival of Space #586 – Urban Astronomer

The Urban Astronomer hosts the latest Carnival of Space.

Runaway star … Universe Today

Student CubeSat projects roundup – Nov.12.2018

A sampling of recent stories about student CubeSat projects and programs:

** IRVINE01 CubeSat built by students in the Irvine CubeSat STEM Program (ICSP) in Irvine, California reached orbit on Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched over the weekend:

See also

** First Jordanian-made satellite to launch! | Roya News

Jordanian history will be made on November 19, 2018, as the first local made nano-satellite, dubbed “JY1-SAT”, will launch into space to take pictures of Jordan’s historical and touristic places.

The ‘Masar’ (Path) initiative, was launched by the Crown Prince’s Foundation, Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah II, in partnership with NASA who trained 22 Jordanian engineering students from around the Kingdom, in scientific and practical research at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, the United States.

The team of students explored satellite engineering and related knowledge, and developed their skills in aviation and space science through an intensive program over a period of 10 weeks, under the supervision of NASA experts. This partnership training aims to give Jordanian youth an opportunity to demonstrate capabilities and innovativeness in the field of space, and came to establish the CubeSat.

** AMSAT’s Fox-1Cliff CubeSat Set to Launch on November 19 – ARRL.org

AMSAT is counting down to the launch of the next Fox-1 satellite, Fox-1Cliff. According to Spaceflight Now, the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base of Spaceflight’s SSO-A SmallSat Express mission, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle, is currently scheduled for November 19 at 1832 UTC.

Fox-1Cliff carries the Fox-1 U/v FM repeater, AMSAT’s L-Band Downshifter, the flight spare of the AO-85 Vanderbilt University Low Energy Proton (LEP) radiation experiment, and the standard Fox-1 Penn State University-Erie MEMS gyroscope experiment. Virginia Tech provided a video graphics array camera that’s similar to the one on AO-92 but which will provide images at a higher 640 × 480 resolution.

See also

**  More about the Kyrgyzstan women’s CubeSat project mentioned in previous CubeSat roundup:

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-313 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Fox-1Cliff Launch Date Announced
  • Fox-1Cliff Launch Membership Drive
  • “Fox-In-A-Box” SD Cards Now Available
  • Can You Capture a Double Hop APRS Packet?
  • European MetOp-C Weather Satellite Launch
  • Collision Avoidance for SSO-A Mission
  • Identifying Newly Launched Objects
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News & FundRazr
  • Correction: AMSAT Senior Leadership
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat info:

The Space Show this week – Nov.12.2018

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Nov. 12, 2018; 2-3:30 pm PST (4-5:30 pm CST, 5-6:30 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. Roger Launius regarding his new Smithsonian History book, Space Exploration From the Ancient World to the Extraterrestrial Future.

2. Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018: 7-8:30 pm PST; 9-10:30 pm CST; 10-11:30 pm EST: We welcome back Dr. Doug Plata for advocacy and lunar updates.

3. Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018: Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.

4. Friday, Nov. 16, 2018; 9:30 am -11 am PST, (12:30 -2 pm EST; 11:30 am -1 pm CDT. We welcome back Dr. Ken Davidian for NewSpace business and related research news and updates.

5. The Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018 program from 12-1:30 pm PST, (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 pm CST): No show today for family get together.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston

A couple of recent programs:

Videos: Rocket Lab successfully launches Electron rocket with commercial payloads

Rocket Lab successfully launched an Electron rocket last night (US time) and put 7 small satellites into low earth orbit (see also earlier posting): Rocket Lab reaches orbit again, deploys more satellites | Rocket Lab

The satellites included:

A clip from the webcast when the satellites were being deployed:

Here is the complete Rocket Lab webcast of the launch through spacecraft deployment:

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Telescopes and Binoculars at Amazon