Daily Archives: August 25, 2022

Interplanetary mission by China to place an orbiter, lander and rover on Mars

Tianwen-1 (TW-1; simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; lit. Heavenly Questions) is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecrafts: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, remote camera, and the Zhurong rover.[19] The spacecraft, with a total mass of nearly five tons, is one of the heaviest probes launched to Mars and carries 14 scientific instruments. It is the first in a series of planned missions undertaken by CNSA as part of its Planetary Exploration of China program.

The mission's scientific objectives include: investigation of Martian surface geology and internal structure, search for indications of current and past presence of water, and characterization of the space environment and the atmosphere of Mars.

The mission was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on 23 July 2020[20] on a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. After seven months of transit through the inner Solar System, the spacecraft entered Martian orbit on 10 February 2021.[21][7] For the next three months the probe studied the target landing sites from a reconnaissance orbit. On 14 May 2021, the lander/rover portion of the mission successfully touched down on Mars,[19] making China the third nation to make a soft landing on and establish communication from the Martian surface, after the Soviet Union and the United States.[22][23][a]

On 22 May 2021, the Zhurong rover drove onto the Martian surface via the descent ramps on its landing platform.[25][26] With the successful deployment of the rover, China became the second nation to accomplish this feat, after the United States.[4][27][28][29] In addition, China is the first nation to carry out an orbiting, landing and rovering mission on Mars successfully on its maiden attempt.[30] Tianwen-1 is also the second mission to capture audio recordings on the Martian surface, after United States' Perseverance rover. The "smallsat" deployed by the Zhurong rover on the Martian surface consists of a "drop camera" which photographed both the rover itself as well as the Tianwen-1 lander.[31] With a mass of less than 1kg, the Tianwen-1 remote camera is the lightest artificial object on Mars as of May 2021. On December 31, 2021, the Tianwen-1 orbiter deployed a second deployable camera (TDC-2) into Mars orbit which captured photographs of the Tianwen-1 in orbit to celebrate its achievement of the year[18] and a selfie stick payload was deployed to its working position on orbiter to take images of the orbiter's components and Chinese flag on 30 January 2022 to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Tianwen-1 mission was the second of three Martian exploration missions launched during the July 2020 window, after the United Arab Emirates Space Agency's Hope orbiter, and before NASA's Mars 2020 mission, which landed the Perseverance rover with the attached Ingenuity helicopter drone.

China's planetary exploration program is officially dubbed the "Tianwen Series". "Tianwen-1" (Chinese: ) is the program's first mission, and subsequent planetary missions will be numbered sequentially.[32] The name Tianwen means "questions to heaven" or "quest for heavenly truth", from the same classical poem written by Qu Yuan (c.340278 BC), an ancient Chinese poet.[33][34] Tianwen-1's rover is named Zhurong (Chinese: ), after a Chinese mytho-historical figure usually associated with fire and light.[35] The name was chosen through an online poll held from January to February 2021.[36]

China's Mars program started in partnership with Russia. In November 2011, the Russian spacecraft Fobos-Grunt, destined for Mars and Phobos, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Russian spacecraft carried with it an attached secondary spacecraft, the Yinghuo-1, which was intended to become China's first Mars orbiter (Fobos-Grunt also carried experiments from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the American Planetary Society). However, Fobos-Grunt's main propulsion unit failed to boost the Mars-bound stack from its initial Earth parking orbit and the combined multinational spacecraft and experiments eventually reentered the atmosphere of Earth in January 2012.[37] China subsequently began an independent Mars project.[38]

The new Mars spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter and a lander with an attached rover, was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and is managed by the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing.[39] The mission was formally approved in 2016.[40]

On 14 November 2019, CNSA invited some foreign embassies and international organizations to witness hovering and obstacle avoidance test for the Mars Lander of China's first Mars exploration mission at the extraterrestrial celestial landing test site. It was the first public appearance of China's Mars exploration mission.[41]

As the mission preparation proceeded, in April 2020, the mission was formally named "Tianwen-1".[42]

On 23 July 2020, Tianwen-1 was launched from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the island of Hainan atop a Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle.[20]

In September 2020, the Tianwen-1 orbiter deployed the Tianwen-1 First Deployable Camera (TDC-1), a small satellite with two cameras that took photos of and tested a radio connection with Tianwen-1.[8] Its mission was to photograph the Tianwen-1 orbiter and the lander's heat shield.[8] Due to the time when it was deployed, it trajectory predicted to do a flyby of Mars with that happening around the orbit insertion date.

During its cruise to Mars, the spacecraft completed four trajectory correction maneuvers plus an additional maneuver to alter its heliocentric orbital inclination; it also performed self diagnostics on multiple payloads.[43][44] After payload checkouts, the spacecraft began scientific operations with the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer, mounted on the orbiter, which transmitted initial data back to ground control.[45]

The lander/rover portion of the mission began its Martian landing attempt on 14 May 2021. About nine minutes after the aeroshell housing the lander/rover combination entered the Martian atmosphere, the lander (carrying the rover) safely touched down in the Utopia Planitia region on Mars.[46][47][48] After a period spent conducting system checkouts and other planning activities (including taking engineering images of itself), the lander deployed the Zhurong rover for independent surface operations.[49] This rover is powered by solar panels and will probe the Martian surface with radar and conduct chemical analyses on the soil; it will also look for biomolecules and biosignatures.[4]

This is the CNSA's first interplanetary mission, as well as its first independent probe to Mars. The primary goal is therefore to validate China's deep space communications and control technologies, as well as the Administration's ability to successfully orbit and land spacecraft.

From a scientific point of view, the mission must meet five objectives:

The aims of the mission include searching for evidence of current and past life, producing surface maps, characterizing soil composition and water ice distribution, and examining the Martian atmosphere, particularly its ionosphere.[27]

The mission also serves as a technology demonstration that will be needed for an anticipated Mars sample-return mission proposed for the 2030s.[51] Zhurong will also cache rock and soil samples for retrieval by the later sample-return mission, and the orbiter will make it possible to locate a caching site.[52]

In late 2019, the Xi'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute, a subsidiary of CASC, stated that the performance and control of the future spacecraft's propulsion system has been verified and had passed all requisite pre-flight tests, including tests for hovering, hazard avoidance, deceleration and landing. The main component of the lander's propulsion system consists of a single engine that provides 7,500N (1,700lbf) of thrust. The spacecraft's supersonic parachute system had also been successfully tested.[40]

CNSA initially focused on the Chryse Planitia and Elysium Mons regions of Mars in its search for possible landing sites. However, in September 2019 during a joint meeting in Geneva, in Switzerland, of the European Planetary Science Congress-Division for Planetary Sciences, the presenters announced that two preliminary sites in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars have instead been chosen for the anticipated landing attempt, with each site having a landing ellipse of approximately 100 by 40 kilometres.[40]

In July 2020, CNSA provided landing coordinates of 110.318 East longitude and 24.748 North latitude, within the southern portion of Utopia Planitia, as the specific primary landing site. The area was chosen for being both of scientific interest and being safe enough for landing attempts.[12][14] Simulated landings have been performed as part of mission preparations by the Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electricity.[53]

By 23 January 2020, the Long March 5 Y4 rocket's hydrogen-oxygen engine had completed a 100-seconds test, which was the last engine test prior to the final assembly of the launch vehicle. It successfully launched on 23 July 2020.[20]

The three Tianwen-1 spacecraft were launched by Long March 5 Heavy-lift launch vehicle on 23 July 2020. Having traveled for about seven months, it entered Mars orbit on 10 February 2021 by performing a burn of its engines to slow down just enough to be captured by Mars' gravitational pull. The orbiter spent several months scanning and imaging the surface of Mars to refine the target landing zone for the lander/rover.[54][55][34] It approached at about 265km (165mi) (periareion, or periapse) to Mars' surface, allowing a high-resolution camera to return images to Earth and to map the landing site in Utopia Planitia, and to prepare for landing.[44]

The landing area selection was based on two major criteria:[57]

Three initial areas were selected by the site selection team after a global survey of Mars; the three areas were: Amazonis Planitia, Chryse Planitia, and Utopia Planitia.[58] All three candidate landing areas were between five degrees North and thirty degrees North latitude.

According to the site selection team, Amazonis Planitia was dropped from consideration upon further analysis due to the area's small thermal inertias and the possible presence of thick dust in the region; Chryse Planitia was eliminated next due to its rough terrain in terms of elevations, slopes, crater densities, and rock abundances. Finally, a region measuring approximately 180km (110mi) x 70km (43mi) in Utopia Planitia and centered on 244453N 1101905E / 24.748N 110.318E / 24.748; 110.318 was selected as the primary target for further analysis (a backup target with about the same total area and centered on 262801N 1313734E / 26.467N 131.626E / 26.467; 131.626 was also selected at that time.)[58] The target landing regions in Utopia Planitia were favored by the selection team also because they present higher chances of finding evidence for the possible presence of ancient ocean on the northern lowlands of Mars.[57]

The primary target region was further constrained in extent using the high-resolution camera (HiRIC) on board the Tianwen-1 orbiter after it entered Martian orbit in February 2021. The HiRIC camera collected high resolution stereo images of the primary landing region; these images were built into mosaics of varying resolutions (e.g. digital elevation models with a resolution of 5 meters per pixel, and maps for automatic crater detection with a resolution of 0.7 meters per pixel.) The accuracy of some of the HiRIC image results were evaluated by comparing them with images generated by the cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.[58]

Using the HiRIC mosaics, the selection team conducted various terrain analyses on potential candidate landing ellipses within the primary target region in an iterative manner; these analyses included the determination of the candidate ellipse's average slope, the percentage of slope with an angle greater than 8%, average rock abundance, the percentage of area within the candidate ellipse with a rock abundance greater than 10%, and the percentage of cratered area. A 'hazard index' is then distilled from the analyses for each candidate ellipse. Cadidate ellipse 16, with the lowest hazard index, emerged as the paimary target (candidate ellipse 128, with the next lowest hazard index, was the backup).[58] See the following figure produced by the landing selection team intended to illustrate the calculation of the hazard indices for candidate ellipses 16 and 128.

Ellipse 16 was selected for the attempted landing in May 2021; it is centered on 250708N 1095550E / 25.1188N 109.9305E / 25.1188; 109.9305 with major and minor axes of 55km (34mi) and 22km (14mi) respectively (the boundary of the ellipse is defined by a landing probability uncertainty of 3 sigmas); also, the major axis of the landing ellipse is tilted with respect to the Martian north by 1.35 degrees to the west, this is a consequence of the planned orbital descent path. On 14 May 2021 (UTC), the Zhurong rover and its landing platform touched down at 250358N 1095530E / 25.066N 109.925E / 25.066; 109.925, at an elevation of 4,099.4m (13,449ft), about 3.1km (1.9mi) south of the center of landing ellipse 16.[58]

At 23:18 UTC, on 14 May 2021, the Tianwen-1 lander successfully landed in the preselected landing area in the southern part of the Mars Utopia Planitia.[9][59][60][61][62] The landing phase began with the release of the protective capsule containing the lander/rover. The capsule made an atmospheric entry followed by a descent phase under parachute, after which the lander used retro-propulsion to soft-land on Mars.[10][11][60]

On 19 May 2021, CNSA released for the first time images showing the preparation of the final transfer of the Zhurong rover from the platform of the lander to the Martian soil. The photographs show the solar panels of Zhurong already deployed while Zhurong is still perched on the lander along with two circular windows on the deck under which n-undecane wad stored in 10 containers that absorbs heat and melts during the daytime and solidifies and releases heat at night.[63][47][48] The long delay for the publication of the first images is explained by the short periods of time when the Zhurong rover and the orbiter are in radio contact and can effectively communicate and transfer data.[64]

On 11 June 2021, CNSA released the first batch of scientific images from the surface of Mars including a panoramic image taken by Zhurong and a group photo of Zhurong and the Tianwen-1 lander taken by the drop camera. The panoramic image is composed of 24 single shots taken by the NaTeCam before the rover was deployed to the Martian surface. The image reveals that the topography and rock abundance near the landing site was consistent with previous anticipations from the scientist on typical south Utopia Planitia features with small but widespread rocks, white wave patterns, and mud volcanoes.[17]

On 22 May 2021 (02:40 UTC), the Zhurong rover descended from its lander onto the Martian surface to begin its scientific mission. The first images received on Earth after the rover deployment showed the empty landing platform and the extended rover-descent ramps.[25][26] During its deployment, the Rover's instrument, Mars Climatic Station, recorded the sound, acting as the second martian sound instrument to record Martian sounds successfully after Mars 2020 Perseverance rover's microphones.

The Zhurong rover deployed a drop camera to the surface which was able to photograph both the Zhurong rover and the Tianwen-1 lander.[31]

The rover is designed to explore the surface for 90sols; its height is about 1.85m (6.1ft) and it has a mass of about 240kg (530lb). After the rover deployment, the orbiter would serve as a telecommunications relay for the rover while continuing to conduct its own orbital observations of Mars.[65]

On 12 July 2021, Zhurong visited the parachute and backshell dropped onto the Martian surface during its landing on 14 May.[66][67]

From mid-September to late October 2021, both the Tianwen-1 orbiter and Zhurong rover entered safe mode due to a communications blackout around solar conjunction.[68] Both devices were back to active mode after the ending of the blackout.[69]

To achieve the scientific objectives of the mission, the Tianwen-1 orbiter is equipped with eight scientific instruments, while the Zhurong rover is equipped with six, which include:[57]

The lander did not have a scientific payload, but carried a Mars Emergency Beacon designed to survive the force of a catastrophic crash. The beacon would have allowed critical engineering data to be collected to aid future design.[76] The lander also carried the Chinese flag and 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics mascots with it like the orbiter.

Argentina's Comisin Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) is collaborating on Tianwen-1 by way of the Espacio Lejano tracking station installed in Las Lajas, Neuqun. The facility played a previous role in China's landing of the Chang'e 4 spacecraft on the far side of the Moon in January 2019.[78]

France's Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Plantologie (IRAP) in Toulouse, in France, is collaborating on the Zhurong rover. Sylvestre Maurice[fr] of IRAP said:

For their Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument, we have delivered a calibration target that is a French duplicate of a target which is on [NASA's] Curiosity [Mars rover]. The idea is to see how the two datasets compare.[78]

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) aided in the development of a magnetometer installed on the Tianwen-1 orbiter. The Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz has confirmed the group's contribution to the Tianwen-1 magnetometer and helped with the calibration of the flight instrument.[78]

While the Tianwen-1 orbiter will dispense commands to the Zhurong rover, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency could serve as a backup.[79]

Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping stated in response to the landing:

You were brave enough for the challenge, pursued excellence and placed our country in the advanced ranks of planetary exploration. Your outstanding achievement will forever be etched in the memories of the motherland and the people.[29]

In the US, NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted his congratulations:

Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity's understanding of the Red Planet.[80]

Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos of Russia, praised China's successful mission:

The landing of China's spacecraft on the surface of Mars is "a great success" of China's fundamental space research program [and] welcome[d] the resumption of exploration of the planets of the solar system by the leading space powers.[81]

Links to related articles

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Tianwen-1 - Wikipedia

A new map of mineral deposits on Mars could not only change our understanding of past water distribution on the Red Planet but also help create a roadmap for future Mars exploration including crewed missions.

The new map has revealed an unexpected abundance of minerals created by the interaction of rock and water, with hundreds of thousands formerly water-rich areas discovered in some of Mars' most ancient regions.

The map could lead to a more detailed investigation of Martian geology that could reveal what happened when Mars changed from a planet quite like Earth to the dry and arid world we see today, and whether the planet was ever capable of supporting life.

"I think we have collectively oversimplified Mars," John Carter, assistant professor of planetary science at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Paris-Saclay University, who was part of the team behind the map,said in a statement. (opens in new tab) "The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn't just stop overnight."

Related: Mars was always too small to hold onto its oceans, rivers and lakes

Carter also explained that Mars' more complex geology may be more similar to that of our planet than previously thought.

"We see a huge diversity of geological contexts so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars," the researcher continued. "If you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does."

The map has been created using over a decade worth of data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) OMEGA (Mars Express Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activit) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft, and the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Of particular interest on the map are the traces of water-rich minerals and rocks that were changed into clays and salts through interactions with water in the Red Planet's distant past.

Different water-rich clays and minerals are created when water interacts with rocks in a variety of conditions.

When small amounts of water interact with volcanic rock, clay minerals such as smectite and vermiculite form. These retain many of the same chemical elements particularly iron and magnesium as the volcanic rocks that birthed them.

When large amounts of water interact with rocks, however, the clays that are formed are less like the progenitor rocks as soluble elements are washed away. This leaves aluminum-rich clays like kaolin in their wake.

Up to a decade ago, researchers were only aware of around 1,000 such clay-rich outcrops on Mars. This meant aqueous clays were considered geological oddities and suggested that there were limitations to how much water had been on Mars in the past and for how long it had been preserved.

The new map shows that, surprisingly, these minerals are more prevalent than scientists thought, indicating that water played a much bigger role in shaping the geology of Mars.

"This work has now established that when you are studying the ancient terrains in detail, not seeing these minerals is actually the oddity," Carter added.

Not only do these results suggest that water was prevalent and important in shaping Mars, but that the formation of clays and salts on the Red Planet is more complicated than previously suspected.

In the past scientists thought that just a few clay types were formed when Mars was in its wet period estimated to have been as long as 4 billion years ago and when the water dried up, the planet transitioned to the dry and arid world we see today, and salts were left behind.

The newly created map shows that while salts did form after clays in many areas, in some locations across the Martian surface there is a mixing of salts and clays, and there are also salts that predate the production of clay.

The team behind the Mars mineral map didn't stop at the basic detection of minerals. They also quantified the concentrations of these aqueous minerals present in a variety of locations.

Because these minerals still contain water molecules, they could be used by future crewed missions to extract water for both astronauts and for the production of fuel, lightening the load future space missions need to haul to the Red Planet as well as the cost of such missions.

The clays and salts could even be utilized as building materials to establish bases and other facilities on the Martian surface.

Even before crewed missions head to Mars, areas rich in aqueous minerals could prove excellent locations for robotic Mars missions to conduct geological research.

As a prime example of this, the Oxia Planum a clay-rich site discovered during the creation of this map has been suggested as a potential landing site for the ESA-operated Rosalind Franklin rover.

"If we know where, and in which percentage each mineral is present, it gives us a better idea of how those minerals could have been formed," Lucie Riu, an ESA research fellow and co-author of the study, said in the statement. "This is what I am interested in, and I think this kind of mapping work will help open up those studies going forward."

Two papers (opens in new tab) detailing the creation of this new Mars map are published in the journal Icarus. (opens in new tab)

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New Mars water map reveals history of Red Planet - Space.com

A decades worth of data has been used to create the most detailed and up-to-date map of the mineral deposits across Mars surface.

Mars history, and the role water plays in it, have always been somewhat unclear. But new research comes to show that even what we assumed we knew may not, in fact, be true.

The map was created using data from ESAs Mars Express Observatoire pour la Minralogie, lEau, les Glaces et lActivit (OMEGA) instrument and NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiters Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). One of its most important features is that it shows the location and abundance of aqueous mineral deposits on the planet. Aqueous minerals typically consist of salts or clays and are formed through the action of water in other words, the location and nature of these deposits can tell us a lot about the history of Mars liquid water.

This work has now established that when you are studying the ancient terrains in detail, not seeing these minerals is actually the oddity, says John Carter, Assistant Astronomer at the Institut dAstrophysique Spatiale (IAS) and Laboratoire dAstrophysique de Marseille (LAM), France, and lead author of the paper describing the findings.

On Earth, clays form when water interacts with preexisting rocks. Different types of clay form based on the mineral composition of these rocks, and on the environmental conditions where the interaction takes place. Two types in particular, smectite and vermiculite, form when only small quantities of water react with a base of volcanic rock; due to the limited amount of water involved, the clays retain mainly the same chemical compounds as the rock they derive from. As such, both smectite and vermiculite are characterized by high levels of iron and magnesium.

However, when more water goes into the reaction, the initial volcanic rock can be altered to a much higher degree. Soluble elements are drained away, which leads to the creation of aluminum-rich minerals such as kaolin clay.

So, judging by the disposition of these clays and salt deposits, researchers can map the history of liquid water on the surface of Mars.

One of the most surprising elements highlighted by the finished map was just how prevalent these minerals seem to be across the face of the planet. While these were considered to mostly be geological oddities, the current map reveals that they are far from such. Previously known only in around 1000 outcrops on Mars, the map shows that there are upwards of hundreds of thousands of such areas strewn all over Mars. A large number of these deposits are found on some of the oldest areas of the planets surface.

These findings rewrite our current assumptions regarding Mars lost water. The previous train of thought was that, since aqueous minerals are rare on the Martian surface, it was likely that the planet only harbored limited amounts of the liquid and for a relatively short period of time. The main hypothesis was that the limited amounts of clay on Mars were formed during this short window of time before water gradually dried up across the planet. Its deposit of salts formed during this drying period.

Faced with the current data, it is obvious and beyond a shadow of a doubt that water had a central role to play in shaping Martian geology. The only question remaining now is whether this greater quantity of water had a constant, long-term presence, or if it was only found on Mars surface for shorter periods of time.

While its probable that many of the salt deposits on Mars were formed after the clays, the map suggests that there were many exceptions to this rule and that the two types of minerals often formed and mixed together.

I think we have collectively oversimplified Mars, Carter concludes.

The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didnt just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. Thats the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does.

The paper A Mars Orbital Catalog of Aqueous Alteration Signatures (MOCAAS) has been published in the journal Icarus.

Continue reading here:

Stunning new map of Mars geology shows that it harbored much more water than previously assumed - ZME Science

NASA next week plans to launch the first of several Artemis missions, which collectively aim to land astronauts on the Moon again for the first time in more than half a century, explore the lunar surface more extensively, and establish a long-term presence on the Moon. Controversy lingers over both the launch system selected for these missions and the next step of human spaceflight to Mars.

David Priess spoke with science journalist Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today and co-host of Astronomy Cast, about why exploring the moon matters, what to expect from the launch and voyage of Artemis-I, and the challenges of missions to Mars. They also chatted about international space competition vs. cooperation during the Cold War and now, NASA's rollout of initial images from the James Webb Space Telescope, space-based threats ranging from gamma ray bursts and rogue black holes to near-Earth objects and coronal mass ejections, Cain's evolution in communicating science both online and through podcasts, the downward spiral of engaging conspiracy theorists, frustrations with popular culture's association of unidentified aerial phenomena with "aliens," and the interaction of science fiction and real-world space exploration.

Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Among the works mentioned in this episode:

The book The Martian by Andy Weir

The movie The Martian

The movie Don't Look Up

The Alien film franchise

The movie Avatar

The book Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The book Death from the Skies by Phil Plait

The podcast The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

The TV show For All Mankind

The Foundation book series by Issac Asimov

Read more here:

The Chatter Podcast: The Moon, Mars, and National Security with Fraser Cain - Lawfare

Once we've overcome all the challenges involved in getting to Mars, we'll then have to figure out how to make life sustainable there and growing and cultivating crops is going to be a major part of that.

As you'll know if you've seen Matt Damon's struggles in the movie The Martian, the landscape of the red planet could in theory grow crops, a possibility backed by NASA experiments.

But it would be far from straightforward. Not only is the grit and dust devoid of organic matter and helpful microbes, it's also full of salts and minerals that make most plants struggle for survival.

Now a new study suggests a way forward: alfalfa plants. This forage crop would be capable of surviving in tough volcanic soil like that which covers Mars, researchers have determined, and could be then used as fertilizer to grow food like turnips, radishes and lettuce.

"The low nutrient content of Martian soil and high salinity of water render them unfit for direct use for propagating food crops on Mars," write the researchers in their published paper.

"It is therefore essential to develop strategies to enhance nutrient content in Mars soil and to desalinate briny water for long-term missions."

Previous research has indicated that plants are going to have a real struggle growing on the Martian surface without extra nutrients being added to the soil (or regolith) they're placed in. That's where alfalfa plays a part.

Getting an exact match for the regolith on Mars is tricky, but the researchers put together the best approximation they could, before testing different seeds in it.

They found that alfalfa was able to grow as healthily as it does in Earth soil, without any additional fertilizer.

Simulated Martian regolith was then tested with alfalfa added as a fertilizer. Turnips, radishes and lettuces three plants that require little in the way of maintenance, grow quickly, and don't need much water were all grown successfully.

There is a catch though: fresh water was also needed. Based on further experiments, the team thinks the briny water available on Mars could be treated with a type of marine bacteria and then filtered through volcanic rock in order to produce the fresh water needed for crop growth.

"For the first time, we report an integrated use of a biofertilizer and microbe for effective treatment of basaltic regolith soil and briny water simulants, respectively, for suitable resources that sustain plant growth," write the researchers.

There are lots of questions still to answer, not least how accurately we can mimic the Martian soil down here on Earth. It's likely that when we do finally make it to the red planet, the surface regolith won't be exactly as we supposed it to be.

The simulated soil was also missing some of the toxic perchlorate salts, which would need to be somehow washed out of Martian soil by the desalinated water.

However, the experiments outlined in this study give scientists and astronauts some more promising options to explore. The approaches the researchers have described are simple to put into practice and efficient in operation.

Growing alfalfa on Mars to use as a fertilizer would certainly cost less than transporting vast refrigerators of food across millions of kilometers to the red planet and it's not the only source of nutrients we might be able to produce away from Earth.

"This study signifies that for long-term purposes, it is possible to treat in situ soil and water resources for farming on Mars to sustain human missions and permanent settlements," write the researchers.

The research has been published in PLOS One.

See the original post here:

This Is The First Plant We Should Grow on Mars, New Study Finds - ScienceAlert

In a recent study published in Space Physics, an international team of researchers discuss an in-depth study examining the long-term physiological effects of solar radiation on astronauts with emphasis on future astronauts traveling to Mars, to include steps we can take to help mitigate the risk of such solar radiation exposure. The researchers hailed from the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, India, United States, Italy, Greece, and Germany, and their study helps us better understand the in-depth, long-term health impacts of astronauts during long-term space missions, specifically to Mars and beyond.

Exposure to ionizing radiation is one of the main health risks to astronauts in crewed missions to Mars, said Dr. Dimitra Atri, a Research Scientist at New York University Abu Dhabi, and lead author of the study. Going to Mars is going to be humanitys ultimate adventure in the 21st century it would be unfortunate if the mission is successful, but astronauts suffer major health issues or even die because of radiation exposure. So, we need to estimate radiation exposure in a very careful way and study its overall impact on human health. It will also help us develop mitigation strategies to keep our astronauts safe.

To conduct their study, the researchers utilized a computer simulation known as Geant4 with a model human phantom to calculate how each organ of the human body is affected by radiation doses from exposure to energetic charged particles for prolonged periods. These include impacts on an astronauts health such as Acute Radiation Syndrome, nervous system damage, and a higher risk of cancer. The CDC defines Acute Radiation Syndrome, also known as radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, as an acute illness caused by irradiation of the entire human body (or most of the body) by a high dose of penetrating radiation in a very short period of time (usually a matter of minutes).

Combining their data from the model human phantom with dozens of past medical studies, the researchers discuss the underlying impacts of ionizing radiation on physiological systems, to include the nervous, immune, and skeletal systems, and behavioral effects, along with impacts on genetic material and risk of cancer. They considered a crewed mission to Mars comprising of 600 days in cruise phase to and from the Red Planet and spending 400 days on the Martian surface. While they noted a knowledge gap regarding past medical studies and their own study, they stated radiation limits set by the European Space Agency, Roscosmos, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA would be surpassed during a crewed mission to Mars.

It is a comprehensive study modeling the impact of charged particles protons, alpha particles, heavier species on a human phantom by using CERNs chargedparticle interaction code, said Dr. Atri. We were able to calculate radiation dose deposited in various organs of the human body. We then compared our calculations with medical literature to assess the health risks to astronauts. We also discussed various mitigation strategies which will enable us to reduce this risk.

The mitigation strategies include medicine and dietary strategies, along with active and passive shielding and potential types of Martian habitats to help further mitigate solar radiation exposure. Such habitats include using the Martian regolith as shielding material, along with the potential for habitats inside lava tubes and caves that currently exist on Mars. One previous study discussed a candidate lava tube southwest of Hadriacus Mons on Mars that could constitute an ~82% decrease in a crews radiation exposure.

Dr. Atri considers the best strategy to maintain cumulative low doses of radiation on the crew would be to send astronauts to Mars who have received the least amount of radiation exposure throughout their careers to reduce the chances of long-term health effects.

What kinds of long-term health effects could future astronauts to Mars experience during their time in space? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

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Astronauts Going to Mars Will Receive Many Lifetimes Worth of Radiation - Universe Today

While the James Webb space telescope has been delivering unprecedented images of deep space, the Mars rover Curiosity continues to cover the Red Planet and recently reached a milestone.

Aug. 5 marked the 10-year-anniversary of Curiositys landing on Mars. Thats when a jetpack lowered NASAs Curiosity rover onto the Red Planet, beginning the SUV-size explorers pursuit of evidence that, billions of years ago, Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life, according to NASA.

And according to New Scientist, a software update will give Curiosity a 50% speed boost, bolstering a rover that has already greatly outlived its planned two-year lifespan.

According to NASA, Curiosity has:

Weve spent the last basically 10 years Martian mountain climbing, said Abigail Fraeman, Curiositys deputy project scientist.

Fraeman told Space.com this month that Curiosity has discovered that one, Mars was habitable, and two, that those habitable environments persisted for tens of millions of years, most likely, maybe even hundreds of millions of years, which was surprising and exciting.

Images from Curiositys mission can be found on NASAs Mars Exploration Program website.

Curiositys location is tracked on a map that shows its path through the Gale Crater.

The latest mission update from NASA shows Curiosity struggling to get through a sand ripple in Paraitepuy pass.

A poster celebrating the 10th anniversary of Curiositys deployment.

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Is Mars Curiosity rover still working? Yes, and it just turned 10 - Deseret News

New KINGSHIP Video 'Rider - Chapter 2' Available HERE

Captain, KING, Arnell, Hud and 10:22PM will pay homage to M&M'S place in Rock'N'Roll Lore with TODAY'S release of three limited collectible packages

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --KINGSHIP, the NFT supergroup created by 10:22PM, consisting of three Bored Apes and one Mutant Ape, today announced they will appear on limited edition boxes of M&M'S in honor of KINGSHIP's mythological tour rider containing required backstage items, which always includes M&M'S candies of all colors.

The fundamental inspiration for this first-of-its-kind collaboration with M&M'S is rooted in rock 'n' roll lore and legend. For decades, rock bands notoriously insisted on tour riders to satisfy talent requests for specific backstage beverages, snacks and accommodations. Mars' iconic candies including world famous M&M'S, have been included in some of the most discerning requests from some of rock n' roll's most illustrious legends.

Music critics and operations experts have debated the rationale for decades was it rock n' roll extravagance? Or were the clauses a brilliant way for artists to quickly check if they were playing a buttoned-up venue with detail-oriented management?

In all cases, M&M'S were involved and necessary accessories to some of the greatest moments in rock history. KINGSHIP Captain, KING, Arnell and Hud are seriously smart and of discerning taste, making sure to request bowls of colorful M&M'S within their precious show rider. But were they checking to see if the venue can follow directions? Or did they just need the taste of delicious morsels of fun ahead of their concert?

These physical collectible boxes have been created for fans of both KINGSHIP and M&M'S and are only available for a limited time. Just 4000 have been created in total: The Gold edition, the rarest version, comes in a white and gold foil gift box and includes custom printed candies with KINGSHIP group members Captain, KING, Arnell and Hud in individually numbered boxes from 1 to 100. M&M'S will also produce only 3,900 exclusive celebratory gift boxes in Brown. Additionally, there will be 6,000 gift jars of the candies, available TODAY to fans in the U.S. for a limited time at https://mms.com/kingship.

Holders of KINGSHIP Key Card NFTs were the first to know about this exclusive collaboration and were given an early opportunity to access the products on mms.com.

"Consumers' expectations for what they want from their favorite brands has shifted, and at Mars, we know we need to be more innovative than ever with such a culturally famous brand like M&M'S," said Jane Hwang, Global Vice President at Mars Wrigley. "We're excited to continue our Mars foray into the metaverse through this partnership with 10:22PM and KINGSHIP, as a way to engage our fans in a new and exciting space."

"KINGSHIP is a group dedicated to the art of storytelling, so it was a great opportunity for us to both pay homage to rock'n'roll history, and one of the greatest bands of all time, but also create a unique fan experience for those that have joined this community at the start of their journey," said Celine Joshua, founder of 10:22PM and the creator of KINGSHIP. "We are grateful to Mars and team at M&M'S for this incredible partnership to help introduce KINGSHIP and NFT culture to the masses, alongside M&M'S, a true icon of pop culture."

In one of the most well-known tour rider requests, a rock band asked venue operators to provide a bowl of M&M'S with a certain candy color removed as a way to check that all of their instructions were followed. But what happened to those missing M&M'S? At last, that mystery has been solved. KINGSHIP has all of them.

As KINGSHIP grew in stature and began playing larger venues, Hud convinced the rest of the group to join him during the downtime between sound check and the show: A search through the labyrinthine backstage areas of each venue for these legendary M&M'S to make each concert sweeter. They found several crates of M&M'S in a broom closet at one of New York's most historic arenas, a buried cache at a rustic Amphitheater in Colorado and a few strays in the Queen's Royal box in London. The members of KINGSHIP knew the key to living in the present is inclusion and bringing people of all backgrounds together. So, they resisted the temptation to consume the candy and instead united all the colors of the M&M'S family. The result of this incredible feat of dedication is today's M&M'S collaboration with KINGSHIP becoming the first Bored Ape characters to do so.

In addition, M&M'S will play a key role in KINGSHIP's story, with the group traveling to a mysterious island stacked with what appears to be boulders that are later revealed to be a sky-high pile of M&M'S in all six colors.

Since launching in November, the KINGSHIP team has quickly grown to include celebrity animator Jack Lanza, Grammy Award-winning music producers and well-respected NFT collector Jimmy McNelis, a.k.a. J1mmy.eth. KINGSHIP, whose Bored Ape characters include rare Golden Fur and Blue Beams Apes, was created by Celine Joshua, who recruited the members of the group from McNelis. In February, 10:22PM announced Manager Not All (Bored Ape #5537) as KINGSHIP's manager.

Last month, KINGSHIP sold out their entire collection of 5,000 access-enabled Key Cards in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Key Cards sold out 24 hours after the start of the mint on Thursday, July 14. The collection ranked No. 1 on OpenSea's Music Chart and ranked as the marketplace's No. 1 Trending NFT collection across all categories on release day. As of today, KINGSHIP ranks #1 on OpenSea's Music NFT chart.

The collectible Key Cards feature different members of KINGSHIP and contain unique attributes, some more rare than others. In addition to membership to the group's virtual world, located on an island far away from the swamp where Captain, KING, Arnell and Hud were born, the Key Cards will also unlock exclusive access to music, content, products, and a token-gated community. Only Key Card holders can access a special token-gated channel recently launched in the group's Discord.

For more information on the story behind KINGSHIP's rider and to learn more about the group, visit KINGSHIP.io.

For Editors:

Images, animation, logos and other KINGSHIP and M&M'visual assets can be found here.

KINGSHIP, stylized in all uppercase capital letters, consists of three rare Bored Apes and a rare Mutant Ape: Captain (vocals, bass), KING (lead vocals), Arnell (beats, producer, drums) and Hud (guitar, keyboards, vocals)

For more information on KINGSHIP:Web: KINGSHIP.io and https://www.MMS.com/KingshipDiscord: https://discord.gg/kingshipTwitter: https://twitter.com/therealkingship

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATEDMars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a global, family-owned business, Mars is transforming, innovating, and evolving to make a positive impact on the world.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of quality confectionery, food, and pet care products and services, we employ 140,000+ dedicated Associates. With almost $45 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands including Ben's Original, CESAR, Cocoavia, DOVE, EXTRA, KIND, M&M'S, SNICKERS, PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, and WHISKAS. We are creating a better world for pets through our global network of pet hospitals and diagnostic services including AniCura, BANFIELD, BLUEPEARL, Linnaeus and VCA using cutting edge technology to develop breakthrough programs in genetic health screening and DNA testing. For more information about Mars, please visit http://www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About 10:22PM10:22PM is Universal Music Group's next-gen label, 10:22PM has been discovering, developing and empowering artists, digital creators and brands since 2018. Providing an innovative framework with a team of industry endemics, 10:22PM enables boundary-pushing talent to operate as fast and fluidly as the space requires. Using new technology and platforms, alongside first-of-their-kind strategies and execution, 10:22PM keeps its talent & IP at the forefront of entertainment and commerce. Leading the charge toward a web3 future, the label sits at the intersection of music, gaming, NFTs, blockchain and the metaverse.

SOURCE 10:22PM

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KINGSHIP and Mars Partner on Limited Edition M&M'S Featuring the World's First NFT Supergroup - PR Newswire

August 24, 2022: Sand is constantly being formed on Earth as a result of the slow erosion of rocks. On Mars, however, powerful asteroid impacts may play an essential role in the formation of fresh sand.According to a new study, up to a quarter of Martian sand is made up of spherical fragments of glass formed under the tremendous heat of impacts. Because windblown sand sculpts the Martian landscape, this finding illustrates how asteroid impacts shape Mars even after the collisions occur, according to Purdue University planetary scientist Briony Horgan and colleagues. The researchers will discuss its findings on August 18 at the Meteoritical Society's 85th Annual Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Horgan and colleagues examined different wavelengths of visible and infrared light reflected from the planet's surface employing data acquired by satellites circling Mars to identify the minerals found in Martian sand. The team discovered glass signals all around the world, especially at higher latitudes.

Volcanic eruptions, which are known to create glass when magma blends with water, is a reasoning for all that glass. However, the researchers point out that the most glass-rich region of Mars the planet's northern plains is devoid of volcanoes. This eliminates volcanic eruptions as the cause in that location, implying that considerably more apocalyptic occurrences asteroid strikes may be at work.

When an asteroid traveling at several kilometers per second collides with a rocky planet like Mars, the energy released melts adjacent rocks and sends them into space. This molten shrapnel fractures into sand grain-sized, approximately spherical pieces. These shards of glass, known as impact spherules, ultimately fall back to Mars.

Asteroid impacts could have covered the surface of Mars in a coating of impact spherules nearly half a meter deep over the previous 3 billion years, according to Horgan and her colleagues. All of the stuff was added to the sand on Mars created by natural erosion. Horgan believes, impacts helped supply sand to the surface continuously over time.

This article is written by Diya Mukherjee

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Sand on Mars maybe created due to asteroid impacts, study finds - Times Now

Percy could return to Earth bearing good news. But, there may be more areas with past signs of life on Mars than just river deltas.

Scientists have predicted that massive volcanic caves could exist beneath thesurfaces of Mars, Venus, and even our Moon, formed by flowing lava and covered in tiny crystals.

Beyond zeroing in on the best spots to search for life, these lava tubes could bring us closer to developing permanent homes on the Moon and Mars.

Back on Earth, these caves can support complex ecosystems.Scientists with NASAsBiologic and Resource Analog Investigations in Low Light Environments project (BRAILLE) believe such life could exist or have once existed in Martian caves.

Navigating these surfaces is imperative, with significant geological and astrobiological interest in these caves. However, the current generation of robotic devices cannot venture into this type of uncharted terrain.

ReachBot could change all that. The mobile manipulation platform leverages lightweight, extendable booms to achieve extensive reach with a small footprint, giving it distinct access to steep, vertical, and overhanging surfaces in Martian caves.

While the Mars rovers aregreat at rolling along the surface and collecting data, ReachBot would be capable of climbing on cliffs and through caves,anchoring itself to rock walls.

Marco Pavone, associate professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University and the lead researcher on ReachBot, was among the five researchers who receivedPhase II grants in 2022 for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC).

IEspoke to Ph.D. students Stephanie Scheiderand Tony Chen, who are working with Pavone on the concept. They gave us an enhanced picture of how ReachBot was developed, and how it could impact space exploration.

Excerpts.

SS: I'm a Ph.D. student at the Autonomous Systems Laboratory that's run by Marco. I was interested in space robotics - motion planning, trajectory optimization, controls and was trying to find a project when Andrew Bylard, a student who has since graduated, came up with the idea for ReachBot. I jumped on it in the development phase itself. He, Tony, and I proposed it to Marco who thought it was a great idea.

TC: I'm a fifth-year Ph.D. student at the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab, and my PI is Mark Cutkosky. We look for bio-inspired robots and build grippers based on their features. For example, we built grippers based on the adhesive that allows geckos to climb a window. In my lab, we look at nature and the animals that can crawl on rock surfaces, like arthropods. They have sharp hair called spikes that aid them to grab onto the rock surface. Based on that, we use needles and fishing hooks to manufacture micro grippers equipped with these spikes that can claw onto uneven surfaces so that we can assist the robot climb.

Andrew had asked if we could use these structures that we used to deploy space booms as limbs of robots and then have these grippers at the end of each arm to be able to reach out to rock surfaces. The result would be a much faster rock climbing robot. So my research mainly focuses on designing grippers and prototyping the system architecture for ReachBot.

Conceptual pictures of ReachBot

SS: The International Space Station has a free-flying robot system called the Astrobee, which is a test platform for a bunch of things. They've tested their gecko gripper on Astrobee on ISS. But tasks like servicing and maintenance involved require forceful manipulation. Andrew wondered if we could anchor on the opposite wall and use that to pull strongly. So, I think ReachBot was mainly born out of station maintenance, microgravity applications, and things like that. Then we started brainstorming - oh, this is a cool robot; it is good for environments where it needs to anchor onto things or overhanging surfaces where anchor points can be sparse. Additionally, in these caves, lava tubes, and other places, you don't know how often you're going to get a good hold.

TC: We had this cool robot concept. But to make it useful, we had to come up with a scenario or environment that it can succeed in. So we brought in Mathieu Laptre, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences at Stanford, and asked him about the environment he could picture the robot being useful to explore. Mathieu talked about these rovers on Mars and how NASA has always been looking for life. He mentioned these underground caves, where a lot of the signs of past water are, and the presence of potential bio-organisms inside the cracks of lava tubes, which is a rich environment. So we were like, okay, that's a good concept. Because right now, there are no rovers or robots that can go into the cave and explore essentially beneath the surface of Mars. I think that's sort of where we came from. We're currently using Mars as the flagship concept, but the same idea could be used in a lava cave exploration on the Moon or even on Europa.

SS: Initially, we applied for NIAC's Phase I in 2019 but did not get it. We then tailored the mission to be more aligned with what NASA is interested in looking at. We received the Phase I grant for 2021, during which we looked at a lot of the feasibility concepts - we claimed that this robot is beneficial because it has a large reachable workspace, but was it possible to use these booms to get that reachability? Questions like that. And so we did a lot of modeling and simulation that showed that these booms exist and they can reach out this far. We wondered if we could come up with a control strategy to use that technology to move down a cave or a lava tube. I work on those controls in my lab.

TC: ReachBot is a complicated concept. For it to work in 3D, it needs to have many arms, potentially, to be able to secure itself. And that was too complicated of a problem to start [with] because we don't even know the design space in 3D. So we considered simplifying the model from 3D to 2D - a planar ReachBot. So essentially, we found a piece of really large flat ground and built a planer prototype of ReachBot, a square robot, and we put a bunch of ball bearings on the bottom so that it could fly around on the flat ground. The prototype has these forearms at each corner made of motorized tape measures, as 3D space booms are too expensive to use as arms. We then mounted a gripper that could grab onto rocks. An environment with lava rocks was simulated for the prototype wherein it was able to pull at a heavy object while anchored to the lava rock. That's how we proved the concept and knew that it would work in 2D.

We learned a bunch of lessons from the 2D prototype - like needing to minimize the weight of the gripper that will be extended. So that's mainly what I focused on during Phase I. We gained enough confidence, and we're sure it will work as a three-dimensional robot.

SS: There are still a lot of feasibility questions that need to be answered, which will be done in Phase II. For example, we're using tape measures on this prototype, which have much lower fidelity than you would have in the real thing. If you've ever held up [an extended] tape measure, it's going to flop over. The buckling and the bending are problems that will take place with these space booms too. We need to consider that.

Also, in this simulation, ReachBot is crawling down a cave. We've made assumptions about the booms being strong enough. But what does strong enough mean? How can we use intelligent control strategies to leverage the booms' strengths, and overcome their weaknesses? These finer details are important to prove the feasibility of the concept.

TC: On my part, I need to look into optimizing the microscopic grippers and understanding the design principle. Now we have built a lightweight, robust microspikes gripper for 3D rock surfaces, the potential interesting surface that we want to grasp. And at the end, we want to be able to build at least one prototype of an arm. And we're hoping to field test it in a lava cave in New Mexico or Hawaii. Another issue that we did not deal with in Phase I was selecting a grasp site. In Phase II, we're investigating the selection of a good grasping site.

SS: Another thing that we'll be examining in Phase II, is the perception and localization of ReachBot. Again, we're looking at the perception of the gripper, looking at a rock, and figuring out where it's good to grab.

TC: No one knows what these caves on Mars look like, though we can have a pretty good guess at it. So a big limitation would be the difference in rock surface - what if it isn't ideal for our microspikes? It's hard for us to separate the limitation of the concept and the limitation of the technology right now.

SS: One thing that comes up a fair amount is the tether, which is essential when a question regarding power and data comes up. Our answer so far has been, well, we'll have a tether to something on the surface. We're kind of assuming and hoping that is a viable solution. But again, not knowing the geometry of these caves could complicate that a lot. And I know that other people have looked into that, but we haven't.

Robots are widely deployed in space environments because of their versatility and robustness. However, adverse gravity conditions and challenging terrain geometry expose the limitations of traditional robot designs, which are often forced to sacrifice one of mobility or manipulation capabilities to attain the other. Prospective climbing operations in these environments reveal a need for small, compact robots capable of versatile mobility and manipulation. We propose a novel robotic concept called ReachBot that fills this need by combining two existing technologies: extendable booms and mobile manipulation. ReachBot leverages the reach and tensile strength of extendable booms to achieve an outsized reachable workspace and wrench capability. Through their lightweight, compactable structure, these booms also reduce mass and complexity compared to traditional rigid-link articulated-arm designs. Using these advantages, ReachBot excels in mobile manipulation missions in low gravity or that require climbing, particularly when anchor points are sparse. After introducing the ReachBot concept, we discuss modeling approaches and strategies for increasing stability and robustness. We then develop a 2D analytical model for ReachBots dynamics inspired by grasp models for dexterous manipulators. Next, we introduce a waypoint-tracking controller for a planar ReachBot in microgravity. Our simulation results demonstrate the controllers robustness to disturbances and modeling error. Finally, we briefly discuss the next steps that build on these initially promising results to realize the full potential of ReachBot.

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Up, close and personal with Mars: ReachBot and the future of space missions - Interesting Engineering