JPL<\/a> at the time when somebody suggested it, it said it\u2019s a crazy idea, but it\u2019s the right kind of crazy.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>And the cool thing was it had a sky crane, had cameras on it as well. So it was a there was a really good video of it being lowered.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>down to guess what they call the seven minutes of terror, which is basically during the entry descent and landing, otherwise known as EDL, it takes about seven minutes to get down to the surface. And there\u2019s nothing that people back on Earth can do about it. It\u2019s going to go, it\u2019s going to do its thing and it will land or it won\u2019t. And you\u2019ll just have to hope. And this was the first time that somebody thought to put on some cameras that could\u2026 well I say \u201cthey thought\u201d. It was the first time that we had the technology capability to sort of have these cameras going in full time, real time and transmitting back. And it\u2019s absolutely brilliant. And I highly suggest you look up the videos of that. And so it landed and everything went really well. Skycrane is particularly good because it means you can really pinpoint your landing, which meant that they managed to get a Perseverance much closer to this this river delta, these cliffs that they want to investigate then they might have been able to do if they were just, you know, throwing down something and hope it landing in the right place. And it landed, unfolded and spent its first couple of days kind of checking out all of its systems whilst it was on the surface making sure everything was working. And then on the 4th March 2021, it went for its first ever drive. This was just, you know, going a couple of metres to test that everything was working. But on the date that we were recording this, it is sol number 200 for Perseverance.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>So that\u2019s, that\u2019s the two hundred days or so.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Two hundred Martian days.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Martian days. Slightly longer days longer than Earth days aren\u2019t they?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Martian days are 24 hours and thirty seven minutes, I think, which causes quite a few problems if you\u2019re working on a 24 hour schedule back on Earth but people do manage it. And so today is number 200 for us. And in that time it has gone 2.42km, which compared to how far and how fast the rovers beforehand went, is absolutely astounding. So Curiosity could manage about 20 metres per hour, kind of on average. It could it did have a much higher top speed, but that was actually kind of like its average speed. Perseverance, it\u2019s more like one hundred and twenty metres per hour, so that\u2019s six times as much.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>That\u2019s pretty pacy isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>It\u2019s motoring along. And one of the reasons why it\u2019s so much faster is because it\u2019s pretty much autonomous. So what that means is that the people back at NASA, the people controlling it, rather than getting all of these pictures in of the rover of what it\u2019s looking at and telling it exactly where it needs to go and how it\u2019s going to get there, they just say, I want Mr. Rover, I want you\u2026. Sorry, Mrs. Rover. All Martian rovers are all female. That was set by Donna Shirley back in the 1990s with Sojourner. And so they tell the rover that I want you to go over here. And then the rover just works out how it\u2019s going to get there and it will make its own route and drive its own path and work out where the obstacles and how to go round them. And so it\u2019s a very intelligent rover.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Presumably that\u2019s why it\u2019s got so many cameras. It\u2019s using those it\u2019s using the those images to as the basis for the for it\u2019s kind of autonomous decision making.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Mm hmm. So yes. And. It\u2019s it that that\u2019s how it\u2019s managing to go, quite such a clip. Also, you know, we\u2019ve just got better at making things go faster. Yeah, that was one of the things that sort of when Perseverance first started appearing, I didn\u2019t quite realise. But it\u2019s basically it\u2019s like Curiosity Plus. It has all of the things that Curiosity had on board of it, as well as this kind of thing to create these caches of rocks that it\u2019s going to be getting anyway. Currently at the minute Perseverance is it arrived at somewhere where it\u2019s relatively nice and flat and easy to land on, but nice and easy to land on is quite often very boring. When you\u2019re coming to talk about science, you want to be looking at cliffs and boulders and rocks and all of those big, spiky, dangerous things that you don\u2019t want to land on. So it is currently making its way over to the cliffs that mark the edge of that delta. And it\u2019s currently going around sort of a big area of rough terrain. It\u2019s sort of skirting along the edge of another cliff that is probably a bit too steep for the rover to go down and heading towards these cliffs. And so hopefully should be going towards those. I think it\u2019s sometime next year, 2022.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Wow that\u2019s quite a long journey isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>So there are about two kilometres away. But that\u2019s by my estimation, by looking at the maps.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>How is you know, you I could travel it 100\u2026<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>120 metres per hour.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>I mean, how is it what does it power? What\u2019s powering it? What\u2019s giving it that it the juice? It\u2019s not petrol is it.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>I know it has something called a radio thermal generator, which is basically you\u2019ve got a big lump of radioactive material that is basically acting like a hot brick.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>A hot potato!<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>And then you have something called a thermocouple device, which is basically, it\u2019s a device that can turn heat directly into electricity. But they\u2019re not the most efficient thing in the world. But it works. And I think with Perseverence, this is definitely the case with Curiosity. But it\u2019s it doesn\u2019t generate enough power to completely power the rover as it\u2019s going. So it has to sort of stop at night and charge up its batteries and then go again.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Right. OK, so it\u2019s like a nuclear powered robot.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>I always when you say it\u2019s like a nuclear power robot, I\u2019m sort of like imagining, you know, like sort of like Back to the Future thing of like there\u2019s a fusion reactor or something on the front. But no, it\u2019s just a hot brick.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Yeah it\u2019s basically. Yeah. That\u2019s the process that\u2019s producing the electricity.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah, exactly. They also learnt a couple of other things from, from building the Curiosity rover mainly to come down to making Perseverance is wheels better. Curiosity has had some terrible, terrible problems.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>It really got some damage didn\u2019t it?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah, they started falling apart a lot faster than people were expecting them to. And it\u2019s OK. It can still go, but they have to be a bit careful about exactly what terrain they go over. And it\u2019s slowing things down a bit. Yeah. So Perseverance has larger wheels in terms of their diameter, but they\u2019re much narrower and they also have a wavier tread pattern, which apparently helps it get grip more.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>And isn\u2019t part of the tread pattern. Isn\u2019t it made of titanium?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yes. Well, yeah, there\u2019s lots of titanium bits on Perseverance. It\u2019s currently driving up towards the cliffs at the base of this delta. It\u2019s then going to drive along those cliffs until it gets to an ancient shoreline and it will be taking, you know, rocks and creating these caches of the entire way as it goes along. And then finally it will come up over the crater rim and explore the surrounding plains. And I think the idea is to leave the sort of the main cache that a future mission is going to come along and pick up on that plane, because it\u2019s a bit easier to sort of get there. But, yeah, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve quite announced to those plans. They\u2019ve probably started thinking about those sorts of things at NASA, but they haven\u2019t announced anything yet.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>When I first read about the plan for the for the for the caches and retrieving them, you know, there were these diagrams of\u2026 I think they\u2019re like titanium tubes aren\u2019t they? and this is like priceless collections of soil samples that are you kind. Come back to Earth, you know, I\u2019m a 30 year timescale, and yet they just they just leave them strewn around them around the Martian surface. Hang on a sec? Shouldn\u2019t you be a bit more\u2026 put them away, hide them somewhere or something. Put a flag there or something.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah, I think they are going to be a bit more\u2026 It\u2019s not just like ahh we\u2019re just going to throw this over there\u2026 I think the idea is to like leave them sort of grouped together. I think they are going to have more than one caching site. So dropping them off en route just in case something goes wrong with Perseverance, because as good of a track record as JPL and NASA have with their rovers, it\u2019s not perfect. And they do sometimes get stuck.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Yeah, that\u2019s right. And it\u2019s a long way from home, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. You can\u2019t you can\u2019t send an engineer to go and fiddle with it, basically.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Indeed. Yes. I think it\u2019s one of the things that that Perseverance has really helped with this time is the helicopter, Ingenuity. Because after its initial test flight, it\u2019s now it\u2019s now passed all its tests with flying colours. And it\u2019s now an essential part of the mission. It\u2019s providing a scouting facility for Perseverance. Looking ahead, seeing any dangerous patches of terrain that\u2019s coming up. Spiky rocks, sand traps, for instance, like that that could bog it down. And that\u2019s perhaps why progress is being quite so fast, because it\u2019s got these extra eyes in the sky able to look around and feedback to Perseverance and\u00a0 the mission team back on Earth to help and plan ahead a little bit more.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah, because that\u2019s one of the big advantages of something like Ingenuity, which is that the helicopter scout. Beforehand, the only sort of reconnaissance we have is these orbiters, with very low resolution images or what the rover can see and it can only see a short way in front of it. And Ingenuity is kind of like bridging the gap between the two and helping fill in some of the gaps.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>That\u2019s right. Yeah. I mean, it\u2019s an amazing story, ingenuity and historic achievement as well, because it\u2019s the first powered flight on another on another planet. That happened back in April, didn\u2019t it? On the 19th April was its first take off and successful flight. The first powered flight on another planet lasted 40 seconds. Since then, it\u2019s done 13 other flights, individual flights have covered hundreds of metres. So it flies about 200 metres each time. Most times it was about that. I think the longest one was 600 metres when it did. And you said we thought Percy\u2019s speed is quite good. This Ingenuity flies around 10 mph. So it\u2019s even more rapid still. Which is pretty good. So the flights, the individual flights last around three minutes so far has logged about 25 minutes of flight time and travelled a total distance of 3km, which is, you know, a huge achievement for this. But it\u2019s the very first time. It\u2019s a proof of concept. Designed so well, even if it was going to work.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. So that means it\u2019s faster than a person. I think.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>It\u2019s about the speed of running.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>I couldn\u2019t go three kilometres in 25 minutes! That\u2019s quite interesting because it\u2019s like if there was a person on Mars, they\u2019d be faster than a rover but they wouldn\u2019t be faster than Ingenuity.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Yeah. I mean you think of what is this thing like? I mean, I always think it\u2019s like a drone. It\u2019s like a drone, basically. If you have ever been out at a beauty spot and you\u2019ve heard that slight buzzing and looked up and there\u2019s a drone there taking getting some awesome video shots. That\u2019s the kind of thing to picture in your head. If you\u2019re thinking \u201cwhat does this thing look like\u201d, it\u2019s about that size. It\u2019s pretty tiny. It weighs 1.8kg. And the body of it is about 15 by 20 centimetres in size. It was the one crucial difference is because the Martian atmosphere is so rarified and thin, it\u2019s only about one percent of Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Basically the thickness of Earth\u2019s atmosphere or density, I should say, of Earth\u2019s atmosphere. That means that Ingenuity\u2019s rotors have to be that much bigger. So they\u2019re about 1.2m in diameter and it\u2019s got two sets of rotors that spin in opposite directions. And the spin is ten times faster than helicopter rotors need to spin on Earth to give it that lift in the very rarified atmosphere of Mars. And it\u2019s similar to Perseverance in another way in that it\u2019s largely independent. So it makes its decisions by itself, guides its own flights. And that\u2019s obviously very necessary because otherwise there would be a 15 minute lag in communications between the helicopter and Earth. And when you\u2019re flying it, even flying at 10 miles an hour, you need to make decisions. You need to decide where you\u2019re going and pretty much instantaneously. So that helps it. And it has an array of sensors as well that help it. That give it the data to base decisions on. But no other scientific instruments, obviously, because it was a test bed really. But now with its success, NASA engineers have the data from the flights and, you know, proof of concept. And they\u2019re already working on next generation successors. They\u2019re looking to make something that\u2019s much more functional and considering a craft that is significantly larger something, you know, around the weight of 20 to 30kg range, perhaps, and which will be able to carry sizeable payloads. So, yeah, this could be this could be the last or, you know, we could see any other kind of lander mission to a suitable planet with a with enough atmosphere would have would have a kind of you know, this would be a it would have a scout flying as part of it, you know, as kind of a matter of course.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. I think one of the really big advantages that something like Ingenuity or a helicopter will have is that it doesn\u2019t care about how rough the terrain is. So for instance, I was looking at\u2026 because there\u2019s loads of these really cool visualizations maps showing you exactly where Perseverance is and where it\u2019s gone, and there\u2019s one called the Mars 2020 Mission Tracker, which shows you where Ingenuity has gone. And there was one of the flights that it did sort of crossed over this triangular patch of rough terrain. And that was like one three minute flight. And it has taken Perseverance 70 sols to go around that.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Goodness.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. So and also, if you know, this was a dedicated mission, you could have landed ingenuity in that that rough patch where a rover couldn\u2019t have gone. And I think that\u2019s what makes it really exciting is they can get into the bits where a rover can\u2019t. So that\u2019s going to be really exciting. And I do hope they actually, you know, get one of those missions off the ground at some point.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Yeah. And hope so. Yeah.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. There\u2019s currently I know there\u2019s one a similar mission that\u2019s currently planned to go to Titan called Dragonfly.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>That would be good there.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>And that\u2019s coming up within the next\u2026 Titan being one of the moons of Saturn. So that\u2019s coming in the next decade. And there\u2019s also been various people saying similar things about in the atmosphere of Venus, which has been getting a bit more traction in the last year with the potential sighting of phosphine in the atmosphere.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Trying to work out exactly where that\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Maybe rovers are done. Maybe it\u2019s now the age of the helicopter.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Indeed. Indeed, yeah.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>However, the rover still is currently still reigning over on Mars and perseverance has been hard at work whilst it\u2019s been over there. So whilst it\u2019s been doing it\u2019s 2.4kilometre long drive, it has started taking some of these samples and catching them or at least attempting to. So Perseverance only has 43 sample tubes. That\u2019s as many as it\u2019s got. And again, these are the titanium sample tubes. They\u2019re about 10cmlong, I think, and that they\u2019re white and gold and they look very, very sophisticated. But actually, the white has a very practical purpose. It\u2019s to stop them getting heated by the sun and potentially changing the composition of what\u2019s inside. So it\u2019s basically trying to keep what\u2019s inside as hermetically sealed as possible away from the atmosphere where it can be\u2026 As it goes into the tube. Is it how they want it to come out again at the other end when we eventually pick these up. However, first you need to get the sample into the tube. And this is where, unfortunately, Perseverance has come a-cropper. So the first attempt to take one of these samples happened back in August. And at first everybody was very excited. It seemed everything had gone to plan. The the procedure is all automated and it all seemed to have gone according to plan. It said, yes, I\u2019ve taken the sample, I\u2019ve put it in there, and I\u2019ve now stored this tube perfectly fine. And then the next day, Perseverance set back a bit more data after have been investigating exactly how much sample had it taken, how much of rock had it taken from the surface to Mars. And unfortunately, the answer was zero. So, yeah, there was there was nothing in the tube. And this led to a lot of people wondering, like what\u2019s happened? Did it not go in the sample tube in the first place? Did it get lost somewhere on the rover? Has an alien come along and stolen it? I think that one was a bit unlikely, but some people did wonder. But actually what had happened was it turned out the rock\u2026 They drilled into the rock that had all gone to plan, like they could see the hole, but the place where they decided to drill was just way too crumbly. And instead of grabbing a lump of rock, it just crumbled to dust. And there hadn\u2019t been anything in the sort of sample arm when it picked up. And so it hadn\u2019t transferred anything into the tube. There was no checks like that at that point. There is now.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>So it wasn\u2019t it wasn\u2019t Perseverance fault. It was Mars\u2019s fault! It was the rock.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>It was Mars\u2019s fault. It was Mars has a has a long and storied history of being very uncooperative when it comes to rocks. So back in the early 2000s, there was the Phoenix Lander which tried to scoop up some of the dust off the surface and basically the ground kept sticking to the scoop rather than going where it wanted to go, and they couldn\u2019t clean it off properly. And more recently, the Insight Lander, which it had a heat probe that was supposed to drill itself into the surface of Mars. But again, Mars was too crumbly. It couldn\u2019t get decent purchase. And so they have. Now officially given up on trying to get that in, that is one of those things that sort of gives you a case for sending humans to Mars.<\/p>\nChris Bramley<\/strong> Because it would be so much easier.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah. You know, like if \u201coh, the Heat probe won\u2019t go in, I\u2019ll hit it with my hammer,\u201d, you know, and or \u201cI\u2019ll just like, oh, I\u2019ll just clean off that scoop\u201d. There we go. Nice and clean\u201d. Yeah. So there is like a JPL and NASA have done some amazing work with getting these machines to do some amazing things. But there is some stuff that humans are just better at doing. Yes. But anyway, so after this this kind of they worked out exactly what had happened. They\u2019ve added some new steps to the automated procedure of creating a sample. So now the rover visually confirms that there is a sample in the tube before it gets stored, because once it gets stored, it\u2019s not coming out again until it\u2019s being cached and then it\u2019s not getting opened again until it\u2019s back on Earth. And you\u2019ve only got 43 shots. So they really want to make sure that it counts. The mission goals is to get at least ten samples. Right. But obviously they want to get more than that. Mm hmm. But currently four of the sample tubes that have been have been stored away. Two of them are soil samples, in inverted commas. One of them was the one that happened at the beginning of August, and the other one was the one that happened on the 10th September, which was much more successful. So that one, they did manage to confirm that there was\u2026 And so on the 10th September, they went to a much more solid looking rock, one that they were pretty sure was going to be hard enough that the drill would work and get the sample and everything would work. And that was a rock named Rochette. Right, because they always named their rocks. And usually when you look into it, it\u2019s something terribly nerdy. I don\u2019t know where Rochette comes from.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Well, I thought, you know what I thought because it\u2019s a briefcase sized rock. I thought Rochette sounds like the model name of a briefcase. You can just imaging \u201cthe new Rochette, perfect for your business wear\u201d. I reckon if it was that kind of thing, if you look if you like, if you Google Rochette, it\u2019ll be Mars rock. And then the results will also be types of briefcase.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Other briefcases are available. But yes. So on the 10th September, it should take its first sample. It\u2019s all been stowed away. Everything looks like it\u2019s groovy. There was also two of the samples have been taken, something slightly different. One was a gas tube, which was literally just sampling gases from the air. And the other one was a what\u2019s called a witness tube, which sounds very sinister. But actually what it is, is it\u2019s got a certain material inside the tube and it\u2019s designed to capture the particulates in the air. So so it\u2019s designed to get the dust that\u2019s already in the air so they can see what\u2019s in the atmosphere. And those are the sort there\u2019s five of these witness tubes on Perseverance and it\u2019ll take them at various points. And that\u2019s to help calibrate and give a full picture. So you\u2019re not just looking at the rocks. You\u2019re also looking at the atmosphere and what\u2019s going on around it. And actually, probably generally we\u2019ve seen in the history of missions that have failed, in an inverted commas, failed to take samples even when they do come back to Earth, people have managed to get something out of them. So the first Hayabusa mission went to an asteroid. It was supposed to return samples, but everything went wrong with Hayabusa. It did manage to get home, but it had like sort of nanograms of dust on board. But still, you know, there\u2019s been dozens of papers that have been done on that. And I\u2019m sure the same will happen with this so-called empty tube. There\u2019ll be something in it that\u2019s highly useful, or they managed to get a couple of grains of dust or something. So hopefully that will still come home and still hopefully help us get a better picture of what\u2019s going on Mars. So, yes, the plan is now it\u2019s going to spend the next couple of years going around Mars, creating these caches of rock and leaving them around the surface. What the people at NASA and ESA and JAXA, which is the Japanese Space Exploration Agency, are working on the follow up mission, which is to send a fetch rover, it\u2019s called, that will run around the surface, collect up the caches and then launch it into orbit where a third mission will come, a long scoop up this and return it to Earth and somehow return that in a way that. It will deal with something called planetary protection.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>This is all going to be autonomous, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s all going to be robotic. Um, the so when you say when we\u2019re talking about Mars ascent vehicles, we\u2019re talking about fairly small sounding rocket sized. Yeah. Spacecraft. I\u2019m not talking about massive, human sized\u2026 You know, rockets big enough to launch a human.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Yeah it is. It is it is quite fortunate that if you\u2019re just launching a couple of tubes of rock, you need a much smaller rocket than if you\u2019re trying to launch. A big, heavy human with all of their\u2026.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Life support,.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>Life support, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s called.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Interesting as well that in that same stage is when the so when these ascent vehicles are sent into orbit around Mars, then that they have to be picked up by a\u2026 What\u2019s it? Like a very ferry satellite or something. Don\u2019t they.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>So if there\u2019s a third mission, which is basically the idea is, it\u2019s partly it\u2019s just easier to separate these two things out rather than putting it trying to work out everything with your weight allowance on one mission. And also it means that you\u2019ve got two parts which are completely separated. So you\u2019ve got the rocket coming up from the surface of Mars. And then it will be completely enclosed by this third mission, which means that anything that comes back to Earth won\u2019t have any Mars on the outside. Because apparently Perseverance is the cleanest thing that\u2019s ever gone into space. They had scrubbed every inch of this because you don\u2019t want to be going looking for signs of life on Mars.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Well, actually\u2026<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>You go through all of this and find out that what you found are signs of life on earth that have been to Mars. That will be interesting to see. So probably it will be at least another decade before these samples actually make their way home. But it is an exciting time to me to be looking towards Mars and the Red Planet.<\/p>\nChris Bramley <\/strong>Now it\u2019s time for the stargazing tip of the month. This October, Jupiter will be out shining in the night sky every evening. The planet is an easy spot, even from light polluted skies, as it\u2019s one of the brightest things to see after dark to find it in the evening skies look to the south. It\u2019ll already be above the horizon as the sun sets throughout the month. On the first, it\u2019ll reach its highest point at around 10 p.m. when it\u2019s 22 degrees above the horizon. Jupiter reaches its highest point or culminates to use the astronomical term slightly lower as the month progresses and reaches the highest point slightly earlier each night. The planet is clearly visible to the naked eye. But if you\u2019ve got a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you should be able to make out the round disc of the planet and might even catch a glimpse of the four Galilean moons. Jupiter is also currently come to by another planet Saturn. Although Considerably dimmer than Jupiter, Saturn is still a bright magnitude 0.5. And on the 1st of October it\u2019ll also be in the south around 18 degrees above the horizon and about three degrees to the right of Jupiter. Though the pair will be visible throughout the month, You might want to put the 14th October into your diary. As on that date, they\u2019ll skirt close to the waxing gibbous moon for a great photo opportunity.<\/p>\nEzzy Pearson <\/strong>So that\u2019s it from us this month. You can read about the Perseverance mission or see the winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards in the October issue of BBC Sky Night Magazine, where we also learn what astronomy can be done even from light Polluted Skies, investigate the current condition of the Hubble Space Telescope and take a tour around the highlights of the autumn sky. And that\u2019s not forgetting our regular sections that will help you unlock the wonders of the night sky, find the right equipment to observe it with and discover the best things to see after dark this month. From all of us here at BBC Sky Night Magazine, goodbye.<\/p>\nChris Bramley<\/strong> Thank you for listening to this episode of the radio astronomy podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, which was produced in our Bristol studio by Brittany Colley. For more of our podcast, visit our website at www.skyatnightmagazine.com or head to ACast, iTunes or Spotify.<\/p>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ezzy Pearson Published: Friday, 17 September 2021 at 12:00 am NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has been on Mars for 200 sols (Martian days). In that time, it has driven across the surface of Mars, taken its first sample of Mars rock and even set down the Ingenuity helicopter scout. We take a look at what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"31"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ezzy Pearson Published: Friday, 17 September 2021 at 12:00 am NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover has been on Mars for 200 sols (Martian days). In that time, it has driven across the surface of Mars, taken its first sample of Mars rock and even set down the Ingenuity helicopter scout. We take a look at what…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}