Looking up at bright planets, asteroids, and burning trash

When you see a streak of light through the night sky, it’s usually a meteor. Sometimes, it’s just garbage. This past Tuesday an uncrewed Japanese cargo ship filled with trash (pictured) left the International Space Station and headed into Earth’s atmosphere for destructive re-entry, burning up before reaching the surface. It was the final station departure for the series of spacecraft named Kounotori, which means “white stork.” Japan’s space agency JAXA plans to replace it with a new line of cargo vehicles that will debut in 2022. Image credit: NASA

NASA’s Perseverance rover and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter successfully made small adjustments to their trajectories to keep them on target for Mars. Both vehicles launched in July as part of a Mars-filled month and will arrive in February 2021. NASA also said the Ingenuity helicopter attached to Perseverance successfully charged its batteries. Ingenuity’s goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of flying vehicles on other worlds. In 2034, NASA’s Dragonfly spacecraft, an 8-bladed craft called a quadcopter, will explore Saturn’s largest moon Titan.

The next flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle is scheduled for 23 October 2020 and will carry 4 astronauts to the ISS. NASA’s Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, as well as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will join 3 crew members already aboard the station, maxing out the station’s personnel complement at 7. NASA has long hoped to increase the number of people on the station at any given time to conduct more science; thanks to the agency’s commercial crew program that’s now possible.

NASA is setting up a review board to analyze its ambitious plan to return samples from Mars to Earth. The first step of that plan is already in progress, with the Perseverance rover currently coasting to Mars to collect samples. Despite advances in space technology, certain science questions—including whether or not a Mars rock sample contains signs of ancient life—can only be answered in Earth-based laboratories.

Thanks to Planetary Society members and supporters, our Shoemaker NEO Grant program is able to fund advanced amateur astronomers around the world who find, track, and characterize potentially dangerous space rocks. Learn what our grant winners have accomplished so far this year, and find out how you can help defend our planet. Pictured: Recent observations by the Observatório Campo dos Amarais in Brazil, which received a Shoemaker NEO Grant in 2019. These observations fill an important gap in observations below the equator. Image credit: Leonardo Scanferla Amaral

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