Space exploration news

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Sample from asteroid Bennu will be landing on Sunday.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finalizes-coverage-for-first-us-asteroid-sample-landing

Samples being collected on Mars by the Perseverance rover are intended to eventually be delivered to Earth. The latest concept involved using "2 Ingenuity-class helicopters" but the proposed budget and schedule have been determined to be unrealistic.

Yep I have been following OSIRIS-REx for a long time; FYI the last update of the MSR plans see the possibility of descope to 1 Ingenuity-class sample retrieval helicopter but even that's been superseded by the Independent Review Board assessment of the current MSR plans (the public report was released on Thursday).

Funnily enough I am wearing the MSR project polo shirt I got from JPL right now.

AoD

 

[SubHuman]

Ottawa signs agreement with U.S. to send Canadian astronaut around the moon

A lunar milestone: Canada will send an astronaut around the moon in deal with U.S.

A Canadian will join Artemis II, a NASA-led mission that is set to fling a capsule carrying four astronauts around the moon and back

www.theglobeandmail.com

The Canadian astronaut who has been assigned to that flight, Jeremy Hansen, was at the Science Centre earlier today.
https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca.../to-the-moon-with-csa-astronaut-jeremy-hansen

CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen at the Ontario Science Centre

CSA Jeremy Hansen speaks about his mission with families at the Ontario Science Centre during a visit to Toronto.

www.asc-csa.gc.ca

 

[kEiThZ]

The Canadian astronaut who has been assigned to that flight, Jeremy Hansen, was at the Science Centre earlier today.

I met Col. Hansen when he came to Toronto to update his centrifuge training. Such a stand-up dude. Truly, a great representative of Canada.

 

[Admiral Beez]

It’s noteworthy that humans have not left low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in Dec 1972, when I was an infant.