Thursday, August 19, 2021

Curisoity's 9 years on Mars

Curiosity will always be the little rover that could and did.  One breakthrough after another on Mars.  The latest?  From NASA:


NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this 360-degree view on July 3, 2021, the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Curiosity Looks Uphill Past 'Rafael Navarro Mountain': NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this 360-degree view on July 3, 2021, the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Full image and caption ›


A new video rings in the rover’s ninth year on Mars, letting viewers tour Curiosity’s location on a Martian mountain.


Images of knobbly rocks and rounded hills are delighting scientists as NASA’s Curiosity rover climbs Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer-tall) mountain within the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) basin of Mars’ Gale Crater. The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, highlights those features in a panorama captured on July 3, 2021 (the 3,167th Martian day, or sol, of the mission).

This location is particularly exciting: Spacecraft orbiting Mars show that Curiosity is now somewhere between a region enriched with clay minerals and one dominated by salty minerals called sulfates. The mountain’s layers in this area may reveal how the ancient environment within Gale Crater dried up over time. Similar changes are seen across the planet, and studying this region up close has been a major long-term goal for the mission.

“The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened,” said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Tour Mount Sharp With Curiosity: This video tour highlights a new panorama from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, captured on July 3, 2021 (the 3,167th Martian day, or sol of the mission). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Download video ›

Nine Years on Mars

Curiosity landed nine years ago, on Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (Aug. 6, 2012 EDT), to study whether different Martian environments could have supported microbial life in the planet’s ancient past, when lakes and groundwater existed within Gale Crater.

The rover pulverizes rock samples with a drill on its robotic arm, then sprinkles the powder into the rover’s chassis, where a pair of instruments determines which chemicals and minerals are present. Curiosity recently drilled its 32nd rock sample from a target nicknamed “Pontours” that will help detail the transition from the region of clay minerals to the one dominated by sulfates.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has used the drill on its robotic arm to take 32 rock samples to date. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the robotic arm, provided the images in this mosaic.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has used the drill on its robotic arm to take 32 rock samples to date. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the robotic arm, provided the images in this mosaic. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Full image and caption ›

Because it’s winter at Curiosity’s location, the skies in the new panorama are relatively dust-free, providing a clear view all the way down to Gale Crater’s floor. It’s provided an opportunity for the mission team to reflect on the 16 miles (26 kilometers) Curiosity has driven during the mission.

“Landing day is still one of the happiest days of my professional career,” said the mission’s new project manager, Megan Richardson Lin of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Lin started working on Curiosity just before it launched, joining the surface operations team shortly afterward. She’s held several roles on the mission since then. “We’re driving a robot as it explores another planet. Seeing how new discoveries and scientific results guide each day’s activities is extremely rewarding.”

There’s more to discover on the road ahead. Curiosity has already started up a path winding between “Rafael Navarro Mountain,” recently nicknamed to honor a deceased mission scientist, and a towering butte that’s taller than a four-story building. In the coming year, the rover will drive past these two features into a narrow canyon before revisiting the “Greenheugh Pediment,” a slope with a sandstone cap that the rover briefly summited last year.

More about Curiosity is at:

mars.nasa.gov/msl/

nasa.gov/msl/

News Media Contacts

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Joshua Handal
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-2307
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / joshua.a.handal@nasa.gov


This is from the official NASA Twitter feed:


Look at the interesting rocks and hills I’ve seen while climbing Mount Sharp. It’s winter here, so skies aren't as dusty and I get a clear view down to Gale Crater's floor. The changing landscape may give insight into how this ancient lake dried up. go.nasa.gov/3B3NJ3J
Image

 

 And let me add something, this month was Curiosity's ninth year on Mars.  I didn't realize that until I saw this Tweet:

I'm celebrating my 9th landiversary on Mars. In 2012, I hit the ground running. I've traveled a total of 16.3 mi (26.3 km), climbed 1,509 ft (460 m) in elevation & collected 32 drilled samples. Time flies when you’re doing science. Thanks for riding along! go.nasa.gov/3xs89RE
Image


9 years?  Can it be?  Yes, I have been covering Curiosity since 2012.  That's nine years.  Where does the time go?  I had no idea it had been nine years.  Seems like it was a blink of an eye ago. 

 

We know so much more about the ''red planet'' as a result of Curiosity.  

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

 Thursday, August 19, 2021.  The financial costs (burden) continue to increase for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Turkish government slaughters again . . . 


The great and mighty and pure and innocent Turkish government has killed more deadly, evil people.  Oh wait, they killed civilians.  Again.  Like they do over and over.  


AL-ARABIYA Tweets:


An airstrike staged by #Turkey’s military hits a clinic in northern #Iraq, resulting in fatalities and injuries, local officials and an Iraqi military officer say.


Amberin Zaman (AL-MONITOR) reports:

At least five people were killed and numerous others wounded in Turkish airstrikes on a makeshift hospital in the predominantly Yazidi Sinjar region of Iraq on Tuesday, according to local and diplomatic sources on the ground. The attacks are part of Ankara’s broader military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) across Iraqi Kurdistan that has displaced thousands of villagers and claimed dozens of civilian lives.

The clinic in the village of Skiniya at the southwestern foot of Sinjar Mountain was totally destroyed in the airstrikes, according to medical workers cited by Agence France-Presse. They initially placed the death toll at three. Several of the victims were reportedly civilians and the rest members of a Yazidi militia known as the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), which received training from the PKK and is on the Iraqi government’s payroll.

 
MEE notes, "Images shared online by purported residents showed a basement and clinic reduced to rubble and black smoke rising into the air."  As usual, the government of Turkey is claiming (lying) that they "neutralized" "terrorists.AFP notes the death toll has risen to at least eight.  XINHUA reports:

Iraq on Wednesday condemned the airstrikes by Turkish aircraft in Sinjar area in the northern province of Nineveh, stressing its rejection to the violation of sovereignty.

The Iraqi Ministerial Council for National Security, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, held a meeting to discuss situation in the Sinjar area and the measures taken to maintain security there, according to a statement by al-Kadhimi's office.

"The council condemned the unilateral military actions that offend the principles of good neighborliness, and rejected the use of Iraqi territory to settle scores from any party," the statement said, referring to the recent airstrikes by Turkish aircraft on positions believed to be used by the outlawed Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members in Sinjar.

Condemned did they?  Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received an official invitation to visit Baghdad later this month to attend the Baghdad summit, Iraq’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on Saturday met with Erdogan in Istanbul.

“The minister delivered an invitation letter from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to the Turkish President to attend the summit meeting scheduled at the end of this month in Baghdad at the level of leaders of Iraq’s neighboring countries,” reads a statement from the Iraqi foreign ministry. 


Well what a rebuke to Recep! (That was sarcasm.)  The inept Mustafa al-Kadhimi is a joke and this is how he looks with elections supposedly mere weeks away.  What an embarrassment.  

He's the Marilyn Monroe of prime ministers -- Marilyn trained her dog -- or tried to -- by 'striking' him with a Kleenex when he pooped on the carpet.  That's Mustafa for you.


ARAB WEEKLY explains:


Iraq regularly decries violations of its sovereignty and has repeatedly summoned the Turkish ambassador over Ankara’s cross-border military campaign.

But Iraq, which counts on Turkey as an important commercial partner, has refrained from taking punitive measures.



Aliya Tweets:


Cry of a #Yazidi woman aftermath of Turkish air strikes targeting a hospital in Sinjar today #TurkeyAttacksYazidis #YazidiGenocide
From
Bahtiyar Umut

In response to the latest murder of Iraqi civilians carried out by the Turkish government, the US State Dept Tweeted yesterday:


We are aware of the press reports concerning the Turkish operations in northern Iraq. We reaffirm our view that military action in Iraq should respect Iraqi sovereignty.


No surprise, the Tweet led to many responses.  We'll note two.  First, this is from Tim Hogan:


You are aware the al-Qaeda affiliated Turks bombed a hospital serving a population that has suffered a genocide. That's not just an issue of Iraqi sovereignty. It's an issue of US weapons being used to commit what is clearly a war crime. It's better to say nothing.


Second, journalist Seth Frantzman Tweets:


How about respecting human rights. Aren’t people more than “sovereignty”.


INTELOMARION offers:


U.S. embassy in Turkey showed support for Turkish operations in Iraq a few days ago.. & now it says “military action ( by Turkey, a foreign power) should respect Iraqi sovereignty. Like what?


In other reported violence, MEHR NEWS AGENCY notes:


Iraqi sources reported Thursday morning that a US military logistics convoy was targeted in Iraq's Saladin province.

According to the Saberin News, the convoy was targeted in the city of Siniya , north of the Iraqi capital.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.


Staying with the topic of the US military, Leo Shane III (MILITARY TIMES) reports:


The cost of caring for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan could top $2.5 trillion by 2050, creating tough financial decisions for both the veterans community and the entire country, according to a new analysis by the Costs of War Project released Wednesday.


And that's just the veterans' care aspect.  Rachel Layne (CBS NEWS) reports:


Although the U.S. is trying to turn the page on two decades of war in the Middle East, American taxpayers can expect to pay for those conflicts for decades to come.  

The ultimate cost of the nation's engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of the incalculable personal toll on combatants and civilians, reflects a shift in how war has typically been financed. From the American Civil War through the Korean War, the U.S. government has mostly paid for its conflicts through taxes and war bonds. But in the post-September 11 era, U.S. military spending has been financed almost entirely through debt.

Since the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government has spent $2.2 trillion to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from Brown University's Costs of War Project. Yet that sum — which amounts to roughly 10% of the the country's total gross domestic product — only reflects upfront costs. 

 “The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a veterans care crisis, with disability rates soaring past those seen in previous wars,” said Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes, lead author of the new estimates.

“This will take a long-term toll not only on veterans, but the U.S. taxpayers that will bear these costs for decades to come.”

The latest analysis of the costs of veteran care in coming decades is roughly $1 trillion over previous estimates by the group. Researchers cited “more frequent and longer deployments, higher levels of exposure to combat, higher rates of survival from injuries, higher incidence of serious disability, and more complex medical treatments” as the reasons for the higher price tag.


As we were noting yesterday:


This discussion/debate should not be dominated by the military -- current or ex.


'I have skin in the game.'


Sorry, have you seen the bill that future generations will be paying down?  Everyone has skin in the game -- whether they realize it or not.  We also have another debt -- call it karmic.


Moving to the topic of events in Afghanistan, Gary Leupp (COUNTERPUNCH) notes::


All the cable anchors join in depicting the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan (which is to say, the defeat of the U.S. in the war) as a tragedy. Is it not heartbreaking that the U.S. spent $800 billion in military expenditures in Afghanistan during the war, and another $200,000 billion in Pakistan? And that it spent $ 5 billion a year on economic aid? And that it created a force (on paper) of 300,000 troops, and provided them with the most up-to-date weapons and training for 20 years, only to see them buckle under the advance of a rag-tap bunch of militants with Kalashinovs? And that it built schools for girls (like the Soviets did) only to see them burned down?

And that in achieving all this it lost 2372 soldiers, and its allies lost 1147 soldiers? Is it not a waste?

Experts like former DHS secretary Juliette Kayyem appear on CNN and try to explain. Asked why the Afghan “national” forces have performed so poorly, she asks whether “corruption” was responsible, or “lack of pay.” Secretary of State Tony Blinken keeps reiterating that the Afghans have been well trained for 20 years and they have to want their freedom enough to fight for it. One feels that in the end Afghans will be blamed for their inability to take directions, unwillingness to accept U.S. tutelage, intrinsic religious conservatism and xenophobia. Blinken’s spin is: we won the war when we achieved “our one overriding purpose” in crushing al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. That was always the motive—not the remaking of Afghanistan. But the war continued long after this goal was obtained in mid-December 2001; the U.N. estimates over 5000 civilian casualties in that war just in the first five months of this year. But according to Blinken, these last two decades of war have been mere spin-offs of that purpose realized early on.

That surge to 100,000 troops under Obama? Absolutely nothing to do with al-Qaeda. The point was to prevent the Taliban from regaining power. The Afghan forces after a decade of training weren’t up to the task to fighting their ill-armed countrymen. If Blinken insists that transforming Afghanistan was not the “overriding purpose” of the imperialist invasion of 2001, why did the U.S. stay so long?

The news anchors cry crocodile tears about the possible fate of translators left behind. They don’t ask why anyone would want to punish them. All they did, after all, was facilitate the U.S. occupation of their country. But no Afghans had invited the U.S. to invade their country and teach them about democracy, women’s rights or anything else. The interpreters were working with people that a substantial portion of the population viewed with hostility and fear. They made a wager about the future and lost, although I suspect most will wind up abroad living in relative comfort.

And the talking heads grieve for the women and girls. Women’s education was a priority of the Soviet-backed government of the 1980s, and a key target of the Mujahadeen whose Afghan component fragmented into warlords’ private armies and the Taliban, and whose foreign component spawned al-Qaeda and ISIL. The U.S. willingly encouraged a jihad by such people against the modern, secular regime. It was part of its amoral Cold War strategy to combat “communism” everywhere. The communists’ education of girls was seen not as a good thing but as a tool of the enemy to control girls’ minds. In other words, the U.S. has a mixed record on promoting women’s rights and education in Afghanistan.


And Caitlin Johnstone shares her thoughts at INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE:


I love how everyone’s just pretending the Afghanistan Papers never happened and the Taliban takeover is some kind of shocking tragedy instead of the thing everyone knew would happen because they’ve been knowingly lying about working to create a stable government this entire time.

If the US had a free press and was anything like a democracy, the government wouldn’t be getting away with squandering thousands of lives and trillions of dollars on a twenty-year war which accomplished literally nothing besides making assholes obscenely wealthy.

Thousands of human lives. Trillions of dollars. If western mass media were anything remotely resembling what they purport to be, they would be making sure the public understands how badly their government just fucked them. Instead it’s just “Oh no, those poor Afghan women.”

War apologists talk about “doing nothing” like that’s somehow worse than creating mountains of human corpses for power and profit. “We’ve got to DO SOMETHING about the Taliban! We can’t just do NOTHING!”

Uhh, yes you can. Please for the love of God do nothing. Doing nothing would be infinitely better than more military interventionism in a nation you’ve already tortured for twenty years for no valid reason.

People who think US interventionism solves problems just haven’t gone through the mountains upon mountains of evidence that it definitely definitely does not at all. Nobody honestly believes the US needs to invade every nation in the world with illiberal cultural values; they only think that way with Afghanistan due to war propaganda. And women’s lives in Afghanistan have still been shit under the occupation.

They had twenty years to build a stable nation in Afghanistan. Twenty years. If you believe that’s what they were really trying to do there, or that results would be any different if you gave them twenty more, you’re a f**king moron.

If you think the US needs to be in Afghanistan so the Taliban doesn’t take over then have some integrity and intellectual honesty and admit you want perpetual occupation. In which case you should be arguing for Afghan annexation so they get votes and congressional representation.





The following sites updated: