The promised "video fly-by" of Mars, or Barsoom if you prefer -- is now up, at NASA's YouTube page.
I thought we'd have seen it by end of May, but here it is -- finally, in mid-July. Pretty cool, either way:
. . .NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and slightly tilt its trajectory. The flyby also gave the team an opportunity to prep for the science they will be conducting when they reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029.
Using Mars as a stand-in for the asteroid during the flyby, they could test the spacecraft’s science instruments. The results, downlinked and analyzed over the subsequent weeks, were impressive. Not only did the instruments operate precisely as designed, delivering data that matches what NASA already knows about Mars, they also provided a few new insights about the planet along the way.
“The mission’s imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to make full use of this planetary encounter, and all instruments delivered great results,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley. “We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective. . . .”
Oh. And Musk's next Starship attempt for launch will be no earlier than this Thursday or Friday. Musk seemed rather. . . unclear. . . and updated: SpaceX closed below $120 a share tonight. Hilarious. Out.
नमस्ते
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