A Sense of Doubt blog post #2202 - First Sounds ever Recorded on MARS, PERSEVERANCE, and weekly PANDEMIC report
Filed in WEEKLY HODGE PODGE but not really a Weekly Hodge Podge.
I am essentially taking a week off from the HODGE PODGE because I am very busy with work. I did add the weekly pandemic report with the new numbers well over 500K dead in a year's time from the pandemic with the World Meter numbers at 523K over the Johns Hopkins numbers at 510K even though it has been less than a week since the news media announced surpassing the 500K milestone in deaths.
I can think of like a dozen jokes to make here, but I am letting it slide.
HAPPY SPACE SATURDAY.
MARS ROVER - Perseverance
I’m safe on Mars. Perseverance will get you anywhere.
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021
#CountdownToMars
Touchdown confirmed. The #CountdownToMars is complete, but the mission is just beginning. pic.twitter.com/UvOyXQhhN9
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
Here goes! Lighting the engines on my “jetpack” for final descent. Wheels down in less than a minute.#CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/AQKPEBGr0o
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021
Behold! @NASAPersevere's first image after completing her #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/pBFNk62zfi
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
https://www.motherjones.com/recharge/2021/02/catch-the-first-sounds-ever-recorded-on-the-surface-of-mars/
Catch the First Sounds Ever Recorded on the Surface of Mars
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| The first high-resolution color image sent back from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on February 18, 2021NASA via Getty |
Since Mar-a-Lago isn’t going anywhere, let’s skip town for Mars. Far away, on a planet less warped than one that elected Donald Trump and invented American cheese product, NASA has given us the first sounds ever recorded from the planet’s surface. Just as impressive is the first panorama from the rover.
A recap of Mars music is in order: Mars Breslow, the jazz photographer, has a classic portrait of Ornette Coleman, and Mars Volta, the rock band, has a song fit for Mars. Bruno Mars, the singer, has one. And John Coltrane’s “Mars,” from Interstellar Space, is transcendent. Here’s one from Branford Marsalis, who makes the cut because “Mars” is right there in his name and he’s got a riveting live one of “Giant Steps.”
It’s been a big time for the planet generally. Scientists recently cracked a mystery. Glaciers on Mars reveal many ice ages, offering a glimpse into its past and settling whether the planet has had just one ice age or multiple. Not that ice ages are paradise, but expanding our understanding of what’s beyond us—beyond our news cycles, election cycles, supply chains, bicycle chains, chains of favorite restaurants—can sharpen our perspective by scaling our sense of space. And a new study finds that Earthly organisms could temporarily survive there.
Mars, you know, is named after the Roman god of war, so, on that subject, heed this warning from astronomer Carl Sagan: “Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears.” Careful where you plant your hopes and fears. And take my colleague Jackie Flynn Mogensen’s advice: “Stop Building a Spaceship to Mars and Just Plant Some Damn Trees.”
Lastly, recall H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, in which Martians try to escape their dying planet by invading Earth. They appear to have succeeded.
Welcome back to Earth. Sorry for the turbulent landing. Mar-a-Lago is on your right. Say hello at recharge@motherjones.com.
https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-panorama-mars
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/23/1019488/listen-to-the-first-sounds-recorded-from-the-surface-of-mars/
Listen to the first sounds recorded from the surface of Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover delivered footage of its nail-biting landing on Mars, as well as the first ever sounds recorded from the planet’s surface.
NASA has just released the first videos and images taken by the Perseverance rover as it landed—as well as the first sounds ever recorded from the surface of Mars.
What happened: On February 18, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars, the end of a journey that began last July. The spacecraft survived its “seven minutes of terror”—its entry through the Martian atmosphere and descent to the surface. On the way down, the rover’s cameras snapped images and recorded a wealth of video footage that has given us a historic view of the nail-biting moment it touched down.
The landing footage: On February 22, NASA released a three-and-a-half-minute video that stitched together footage of the rover’s landing recorded by five different cameras (three on the spacecraft’s back shell, one on the descent stage used to drop the rover on the ground, and two on the rover itself; one camera on the back shell failed).
The video begins after the spacecraft has withstood the 1,300 °C entrance into the Martian atmosphere. Sky-facing cameras on the back shell show the deployment of the 150-pound parachute in less than a second, which slowed the spacecraft down as it raced toward the surface. Then ground-facing cameras from the rover’s bottom show the heat shield separating and falling to the ground, from about 9.5 kilometers above the surface.
The red landscape is shown in exquisite detail, dotted hills and ledges as well as craters and small valleys, coming into closer focus as the rover continues to descend. When the rover gets close to the ground, the video shifts to sky-facing cameras from the rover and ground-facing cameras from the descent stage as the descent stage drops the rover down from its cords and slows the descent using its reverse thrusters. Finally, after the rover touches down on the surface, we see the descent vehicle detach and fly offscreen, to crash someplace nearby. Perseverance has landed.
Sounding off: Perseverance also made history by taking the first audio recording of sound on Mars. A snippet of noise was made available that includes the sound of 5-mile-per-hour winds blowing through the Martian landscape. (This is distinct from what was released from the InSight lander a couple of years ago, which measured vibrations coming from the Martian ground and converted those signals into audio.)
The rover is fitted with two microphones—one designed to take audio of the rover’s landing last week, and one fitted in the rover’s SuperCam instrument. The former microphone unfortunately failed to collect data properly. It does not seem to be a hardware issue, and NASA officials speculate there was a communication error between the system that converts sound from analog to digital and the onboard computer.
What’s next: Perseverance will be transferring to new software optimized for its surface mission (to look for signs of ancient life on Mars), and NASA officials will spend a few weeks testing instruments and preparing for the deployment of the Ingenuity helicopter.
Your front-row seat to my Mars landing is here. Watch how we did it.#CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/Avv13dSVmQ
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 22, 2021
PANDEMIC
THE WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT
If you prefer your data in a visual format, here's the current map from COVID Exit Strategy, using data from the CDC and the COVID Tracking Project.
I want to add this link to the weekly report. It's important to remember:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1983 - Is Coronavirus more contagious and more deadly than the flu? YES.
ALSO... I am seeing a big discrepancy between the Johns Hopkins data in death totals and WORLDOMETER data, which aggregates data from many more sources. Could this be the slow down due to the change in how the CDC obtains the data, having it filter first through Health and Human Services department.
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
Deaths:
Recovered:
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2102.27 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2066 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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