Solar System By Breath Art

http://m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Call_for_Media_The_next_flight_to_Mars_is_departing_soon

ESA's first step to Mars

Whisps of the Orion nebula

Source: https://imgur.com/t8ylC

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1

Today is the anniversary of Apollo 1' accident. January 27, 1967 three astronauts gave their lifes for development of space travel. Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Robert B. Chaffee - the bravest men in the world. Thank you for your sacrifice. Rest in peace, Guys!

In memory of the crew of Apollo 1, January 27, 1967.

The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3 satellite, launched this week, is seen crossing the sky not long after launch with a jettisoned rocket stage right behind it, all amidst the beautiful northern lights display in northern Finland.

Breathtaking.

The Milky Way and Andromeda above Yosemite’s Valley and Half Dome

Source: https://imgur.com/Y64D076

Today marks 30 years since the world watched in horror as space shuttle Challenger broke apart on live TV just 73 seconds after takeoff. Seven crewmembers were killed, including high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, who had been selected as the first civilian to fly into space.

Apollo 12 astronauts train for the Moon, September 1969.

The 49th Anniversary of the Apollo 1 Fire begins today as it happened on January 27th, 1967  

Mars Pathfinder & Sojourner Rover (360 View) Explained

Thanks to new technology, we can take a 360-degree tour of the 1997 Pathfinder mission landing site, including Sojourner, the first Mars rover. Check out this interactive YouTube panorama, and then…

…keep scrolling to find out more about each point of interest, how the Pathfinder mission compares to “The Martian” and NASA’s real Journey to Mars.

Yogi

“Yogi” is a meter-size rock about 5 meters northwest of the Mars Pathfinder lander and the second rock visited by the Sojourner Rover’s alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) instrument. This mosaic shows super resolution techniques applied to help to address questions about the texture of this rock and what it might tell us about how it came to be.

Twin Peaks

The Twin Peaks are modest-size hills to the southwest of the Mars Pathfinder landing site. They were discovered on the first panoramas taken by the IMP camera on the July 4, 1997, and subsequently identified in Viking Orbiter images taken over 20 years ago. They’re about 30-35 meters tall.

Barnacle Bill

“Barnacle Bill” is a small rock immediately west-northwest of the Mars Pathfinder lander and was the first rock visited by the Sojourner Rover’s alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) instrument. If you have some old-school red-cyan glasses, put them on and see this pic in eye-popping 3-D.

Rock Garden

The Rock Garden is a cluster of large, angular rocks tilted in a downstream direction from ancient floods on Mars. The rocky surface is comprised of materials washed down from the highlands and deposited in this ancient outflow channel.

MOAR INFO

Pathfinder Lander & Sojourner Rover 

Mission Facts [PDF]

Science Results

Rock & Soil Types

This vista was stitched together from many images taken in 1997 by Pathfinder.

Pathfinder and Sojourner figure into Mark Watney’s quest for survival on the Red Planet in the book and movie, “The Martian.” See JPL’s role in making “The Martian” a reality: http://go.nasa.gov/1McRrXw and discover nine real NASA technologies depicted in “The Martian”: http://go.nasa.gov/1QiyUiC.

So what about the real-life “Journey to Mars”? NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. Discover more at http://nasa.gov/journeytomars and don’t forget to visit me when you make it to the Red Planet. Until then, stay curious and I’ll see you online.