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THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2019 VOLUME 39, NUMBER 2 Planetary.Org THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2019 VOLUME 39, NUMBER 2 planetary.org SMALL-BODY RENDEZVOUS JAGGED LITTLE WORLDS HOLD CLUES TO EARTH’S ORIGINS BUT YIELD NEW PUZZLES DEFENDING EARTH C SAMPLING AN ASTEROID C ADVOCATING FOR SPACE SPACE ON EARTH Precise Movements Earth-Bound Tracking Devices Help Manage Spacecraft DEEP-SPACE EXPLORATION by robotic space- maintenance and installation on pump and craft requires the support of thousands of oil-flow fittings. The hydrostatic bearing liter- workers back on Earth in facilities around ally floats the moving structure of the antenna, the world. Canberra, Australia hosts one of which weighs about 4 million kilograms (8 NASA’s 3 Deep Space Network (DSN) stations, million pounds), on a film of oil only 0.1 mil- operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and limeter (4 thousandths of an inch) thick, per- Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Each mitting the gigantic antenna to smoothly track Doran Eichstädt/Seán NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald DSN station hosts one 70-meter and multiple spacecraft as Earth rotates. 34-meter dishes that receive data from space- craft across the solar system. Here, mechanical “Space on Earth” seeks to highlight all kinds engineer Rachel Twomey (apprentice), servo of ground-based facilities worldwide that systems engineer Paul Richter, and mechanical are involved in planetary exploration. If engineer Clayton Locke discuss maintenance you’d like to make a suggestion for a facility on the hydrostatic azimuth bearing on the to feature in “Space on Earth,” please CSIRO 70-meter antenna. The team is performing email [email protected]. 2 THE PLANETARY REPORT C JUNE SOLSTICE 2019 SNAPSHOTS FROM SPACE Contents JUNE SOLSTICE 2019 12 Apollo 11 Little West Crater Panorama Mike Constantine looks back at humans’ first landing on the Moon. 14 Rosetta’s Ancient Comet Martin Rubin and Cecilia Tubiana report some of the fascinating science returned by ESA’s flagship mission. 19 19 Treasure Hunting With Hayabusa2 Makoto Yoshikawa and Elizabeth Tasker explain the unexpected challenges of Hayabusa2’s multiple asteroid landings. DEPARTMENTS 2 Space on Earth We highlight the human workers who make robotic space missions succeed. 3 Snapshots From Space Emily Lakdawalla admires a new view of Jupiter’s swirling storms. 4 Your Place in Space Bill Nye invites us to help defend the planet from a huge rock. 5 Your Impact The first of two new columns rounds up all the ways Society members are making a difference for space. JUNO CAPTURED a swirling region of bright clouds in the wake of a cyclonic storm as it dove toward its 18th close encounter with Jupiter on 12 8 Get Involved February 2019. At left is the turbulent, blue-tinted pole; at right, the polar Do you want to participate in clouds give way to the pinker belts and zones of Jupiter’s midlatitudes. space exploration? Get involved NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran Eichstädt/Seán NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald The Juno team posts their images in raw, relatively unprocessed form on with The Planetary Society! the web as soon as they land on Earth—and wait for members of the public 10 What’s Up? to process them. This image is the result of an automated processing Bruce Betts looks forward pipeline developed by Gerald Eichstädt of Germany, followed by further to solar and lunar eclipses enhancement by Seán Doran of Ireland. plus a meteor shower. —Emily Stewart Lakdawalla 10 Where We Are Emily Lakdawalla brings us SEE MORE AMATEUR-PROCESSED SPACE IMAGES PLANETARY.ORG/AMATEUR CSIRO up to date with all the robots SEE MORE EVERY DAY! PLANETARY.ORG/BLOGS traveling beyond Earth. YOUR PLACE IN SPACE BILL NYE is chief executive officer of The Planetary Society. BILL NYE Chief Executive Officer JENNIFER VAUGHN Chief Operating Officer COFOUNDERS CARL SAGAN 1934–1996 BRUCE MURRAY 1931–2013 LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN Space Defense for Us All Executive Director Emeritus BOARD OF DIRECTORS Your Membership Dollars at Work to Save the Planet Chairman of the Board DANIEL T. GERACI Managing Partner & Director, Cygnus Investment Partners, Inc. President JAMES BELL LIFE IS UNCERTAIN, but you can be sure of this: idea for a spacecraft so massive that its gravity Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Earth will be hit by a huge rock some day—or could act like a tow rope, pulling the potential Arizona State University Vice President night. The chance is 100 percent. The thing we impactor aside. The kinetic impactor concept HEIDI HAMMEL Executive Vice President, don’t know is when. It could happen tomorrow, would slam one or more spacecraft into a dan- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy or it could be 2,356 years from this afternoon, gerous asteroid to alter its course. You might Secretary C. WALLACE HOOSER but it will happen. If you’re a member, you are think a nuclear weapon would do the trick. Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Texas doing something about it. Thank you. It might, but it might cause other problems. Southwestern Medical School Looking for a typical asteroid is like looking Blasting an object in deep space far enough in Treasurer LON LEVIN for a typical charcoal briquette…in the dark. I advance to deflect it might turn it into inter- President and CEO, GEOshare LLC mean the absolute pitch-black, sooty-jet, tar-pit planetary buckshot, which would hit Earth Society; Planetary Betts/The PDC: Bruce BETHANY EHLMANN Professor, California Institute of dark. However, dark as they are, asteroids just as hard as the original unshattered object Technology; Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory glow in the infrared because they’re warmer would have, only more spread out. Ouch. JOHN LOGSDON Professor Emeritus, Space than space. They’re at about 150 Kelvins (150 I hope you’re familiar with the Laser Bees idea. Policy Institute, The George Washington University degrees Celsius above absolute zero or minus We supported some early lab research at the Uni- ROBERT PICARDO 190 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s why we at The versity of Strathclyde in Scotland. The idea is that Actor BRITNEY SCHMIDT Planetary Society provide our Gene Shoemaker we’d build spacecraft outfitted with lasers driven Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Near-Earth Object grants to amateur astrono- by solar panels. We’d concentrate laser beams Atmospheric Sciences, Radio Planetary Georgia Institute of Technology mers who keep a lookout, and we advocate onto a promising area of an asteroid. The ablating BIJAL “BEE” THAKORE Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, strongly to ensure governments continue to (burning off) material would have momentum, Space Generation Advisory Council invest in more observations and more space which would nudge the asteroid onto an ever-so- FILLMORE WOOD Survey Sky Oukaïmeden Morocco photo: Grant Shoemaker Society; Planetary Perance/The : Antonio Vice President and Regional Counsel, missions to near-Earth asteroids and comets. slightly different course. As an engineer, this is BP, retired ADVISORY COUNCIL Thanks again for your support. my favorite plan. BUZZ ALDRIN ROBERT D. BRAUN Let’s say we found an asteroid headed for In any scheme, the key is early detection. A DAVID BRIN G. SCOTT HUBBARD us, crossing Earth’s orbit on a collision course. timely nudge could save us all. I cannot help GARRY E. HUNT BRUCE JAKOSKY What would we do about it? We have to think but recall the last line in the movie The Thing RYAN JOHNSON CHARLES E. KOHLHASE JR. about a hands-free course correction—a gentle From Another World. The journalist warns us: BEN LAMM LAURIE LESHIN JON LOMBERG tug or nudge from a spacecraft just big enough “Keep looking. Keep watching the sky.” ROSALY LOPES BOB MCDONALD to ensure the object crosses our orbit when PETE SLOSBERG TIM SPAHR we’re not there. DIPAK SRINIVASAN KEVIN STUBE Several far-out but reasonable schemes LORNE TROTTIER NEIL DeGRASSE TYSON have been proposed. The gravity tractor is an CONTACT US: The Planetary Society, ON THE COVER: Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s surface has been ravaged by close passages around the Sun. 60 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA Pits mark the sources of dusty comet jets, and scalloped cliffs have receded and collapsed to generate dusty ponds of 91101-2016; General calls: 626-793-5100; comet material. Bluer areas in this false-color image hint at the presence of frozen water and other volatile compounds. Email: [email protected]; Internet: Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; Jacint Roger C The Planetary planetary.org; Editor EMILY LAKDAWALLA; Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published quarterly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 60 South Los Robles Art Director LOREN A. ROBERTS Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-2016, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues for HEARKEN CREATIVE; are $50 (U.S. dollars) for members in the United States as well as in Canada and other countries. Printed in USA. Third- Copy Editors NICOLE YUGOVICH, class postage at Pasadena, California and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. C KELLY BEATTY, and JASON DAVIS; Viewpoints expressed in articles and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of Technical Editor JAMES D. BURKE; The Planetary Society, its officers, or its advisers. © 2019 by The Planetary Society. All Rights Reserved. The Planetary Science Editor BRUCE BETTS Society and The Planetary Report: Registered Trademarks ® The Planetary Society. Planetfest™ The Planetary Society. 4 THE PLANETARY REPORT C JUNE SOLSTICE 2019 More on each story can be found online! Use the link provided. YOUR IMPACT New Planetary You’re a Planetary Defender Mission Webpages Helping Observers WE’RE EXPLORING more! Search the Skies Planetary exploration has PLANETARY SOCIETY members play a direct kept a brisk pace over the role in planetary defense through the Shoemaker past several years.
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