Everything that has a Beginning has an Ending.

 

NASA said that its InSight Mars mission has ended.  The robotic spacecraft after a more than six-month journey landed on Mars, Nov. 26, 2018. Since then, InSight has been studying the planet's interior and seismic activity.  It detected more than 1,300 quakes with a 4.7 quake that shook the planet for six hours. On De. 21, 2022 NASA announced that two attempts to contact the spacecraft failed, likely because its batteries had lost power after dust accumulated on its solar panels and the rover fell silent thus its mission has ended.

This blog was a byproduct of a mission to transport the car of my friend the late Milos from Florida to his son in San Francisco.  My son John decided that it was risky to me to drive alone so we drove the three thousand miles together.  From San Francisco we returned to Chicago ( 2000 miles) by train and then by bus (400 miles) to Columbus, Ohio for a total of 5,000 miles.  My intend at that time was to stop posting but on advice of a friend, I continue posting mostly on my travels.

The most memorable posts were from an epic journey when together with my brother and two friends brought a sailboat from Spain to Greece a 1,400 nautical miles journey. It was our Odyssey and I described it as such on posts from Aug.15, 2015 to July 16, 2016. 

In the past 10 years, I uploaded 228 posts in my blog Cross Country Chronicles but as Jack Kornfield said in his Buddha book "everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well" 

There are many individuals from my immediate family, and those who love and care about me who encouraged and inspired me to write.  I want to thank and express my gratitude to seventy thousand plus individuals who followed my musings. I wish them all a good a pleasant trip in their lives. 

DART

 

The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) was NASA's successful test on September 26, 2022 of its plan to defend Earth from an asteroid's on collision course with our planet.

DART spacecraft zeroed in on Dimorphos, Didymos little moon which is 160 m in diameter and at a distance of 6.8 million miles or 11 million kilometers from Earth.  It stroke the little asteroid at a speed of 14,000 miles per hour hoping to divert from its orbit.

A picture of the little asteroid Dimorphos taken 2 min before the impact shows in great detail rocks on its surface.

Images from James Webb telescope showed a vast cloud of dust indicating a much larger force of the impact that it was expected.  The images were similar to those obtained by the Italian Space agency LICIAcube the little craft that separated from DART moments before its impact on Dimorphos.  NASA announced on Oct 11, 2022 DART's mission proved successful in adjusting the trajectory of Dimorphos, suggesting that a deadly space rock could be deflected in the future.  Before DART's impact it took the little asteroid 11 hours and 55 min to orbit its Didymos.  The spacecraft's impact changed the smaller asteroid's orbit by 32 min. 

Artemis I

 

Artemis I is NASA's first step to returning to moon after 50 years since astronauts landed there for the last time.  The giant moon rocket at the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule will take off on Sept 2nd.

The SLS rocket will attempt to send the Orion capsule around the moon and back with no one aboard. Astronauts could circle the moon in 2024 and attempt a lunar landing in 2025.  Artemis exploration programs was named after God Apollo's twin sister Artemis in Greek mythology.

NASA official said that the moon missions will be central to its human spaceflight program which aims to establish ultimately a long-term presence on Moon's surface and prepare for future missions to Mars. 

NASA called off moon launch twice due to a hydrogen leak.  NASA said that Artemis I is now scheduled to launch on Sept 27 or Oct 2. 

James Webb; looking into the Genesis of our Universe

 

The James Webb telescope is on its month-long journey to Lagrange point L2 after its successful launch on December 25, 2021.  Point L2 is almost 1 million miles away from the Earth.

The Webb will look beyond to what the Hubble has already looked at.  As more distant objects are more redshifted and their light is in the near-infrared their observation requires an infrared telescope this is why the Webb was designed for.

The Webb will be able to look at the first galaxies and the first stars after the Big Bang, at the Genesis of our Universe .

View of the Andromeda galaxy taken by the Herschel Space Observatory an infrared telescope built by the European Space Agency.  The primary difference between the Webb and Herschel is their wavelength range and also the diameter of Webb's mirror is 6.5 meters and the Herschel's 3.5 meters.  The Hubble, the Webb and the Herschel will provide information that will allow astronomers to look and understand the early phases of our Universe.

The James Webb on Jan 24, 2022 reached its orbit 1 million miles from Earth and will begin looking back to the time the first starts and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago and provide information about the origin of our Universe. 

                                     Credit to all images is due to NASA and ESA.

The Hurricane Season Starts

The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and ends November 30.  NOAA's National Hurricane Center predicts and tracks these massive storm systems, which occur, on average, 12 times a year in the Atlantic basin.  One of the most destructive hurricanes was Katrina that made landfall in the Gulf States in 2005.  Picture by NASA

Tropical cyclones are called either Typhoons or Hurricanes and are rotating rotating low-pressure weather systems that form over tropical waters. “Cyclone" refers to their winds moving in a circle,whirling round their central clear eye with their winds blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.  Tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of less than 39 mph are called tropical depressions. Those with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph or higher are called tropical storms. When a storm's maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph, it is called a Hurricane or Typhoon or Medicanes based on its location. Picture by NASA on BBC

Tropical cyclones out at sea cause large waves and high winds, disrupting international shipping and, at times, causing shipwrecks.

On land, strong winds can damage vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly projectiles. The storm surge,or the increase in sea level due to the cyclone, is typically the worst effect from its land fall and historically resulting in 90% of tropical cyclone deaths. Over the past two centuries, tropical cyclones have been responsible for the deaths of about 2 million people worldwide. 

The word typhoon, is likely derived from the Greek Typhon (Τυφών) a feared monster in Greek mythology that had the head of a man and a lower body of thousands serpents and was associated with storms. 

The word Hurricane, is likely derived from huracán, the Spanish word for storm god, Juracan. This god is likely the Mayan creator god Huracan  who the Mayans believed created dry land out of the turbulent waters. The god was also credited with later destroying the "wooden people", the precursors to the “maize people”, with an immense storm and flood. 

The pale blue dot

The Earth is a very small dot in a vast cosmos.  Think of the rivers of blood spilled by generals and emperors so that, in triumph, they could become the temporary masters of a fraction of the dot.  There is no better demonstration of our folly than the distant image of our world.  It underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with one another and to preserve out the pale blue dot, the only home we will ever know.  The Earth is where we will make our last stand.  (Picture by NASA, narrative modified from Carl Sagan, 1986)

An Epic Journey

Voyager I & II are celebrating 40 years of exploration this August and September. Image from NASA.

Amazing planetary encounters in Voyagers’ journey includes discovering the first active volcanoes beyond Earth, on Jupiter’s moon Io and hints of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Voyager I (top) launched on September 5, 1977, has traveled beyond our solar bubble into interstellar space almost 13 billion miles from Earth. Voyager II (bottom) launched on August 20, 1977, is still exploring the outer layer of the solar bubble, is almost 11 billion miles from Earth. Image NASA/JPL-Caltech

Now that Voyager I has left the solar system, its next big spaceflight milestone comes with a flyby of a star called AC +79 3888, which lies 17.6 light-years from Earth, in 40,000 years from now.  Although the spacecrafts’ science instruments will be turned off by 2030, they’ll continue their journeys at their speed of more than 30,000 mph, completing an orbit within our Milky Way galaxy every 225 million years. 

Each spacecraft carries a Golden Record of Earth sounds, pictures and messages. Since the spacecraft journey could last for millions of years, these time capsules could one day tell the story of human civilization on planet Earth. 

και αν μας βρητε ακομα ζωντανους, εδω στη Ιθακη             

θα σας καλοσωρισουμε, με δωρο αντι δωρου                

και θα γλεντησουμε μαζυ, διοτι ετσι ειναι το εθιμο μας, 

με αυτους που ειναι ποντοποροι

but if you found him alive, here in Ithaca

we would have replied in kind, gift for gift,

and entertained you warmly..

that’s the old custom, when one has led the way

                                                                               from Homer’s Odyssey 24.315-18