This rather creepy photo is Artemis II’s heat shield underwater, as taken by the U.S. Navy. This is the first photo we have of the heat shield, and upon initial examination it doesn’t seem to have the char loss that Artemis I’s had.
Enhanced color image shows a close-up of extensive, large dunes in the north polar region of Mars. There is seasonal, bright ice on the slipface of many of the dunes, and dark patches between the dunes as well.
HiPOD: Translucent Ice on Dunes
At the time of year we took the image, the whole scene was probably covered in carbon dioxide ice. Some of this ice is translucent, so you can see the dark dunes through it.
https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_076844_2550
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars
An astronomical image featuring the backdrop of the dark night sky with a faint grey-blue speckle at the centre. The nebulous cloud has the shape of a four-leaf flower. Four orange laser beams are pointing to it.
This isn't a scene from #StarWars.
What you're looking at is the Tarantula Nebula. While those beams come from the lasers installed on the telescopes that comprise our VLTI.
But why are we sending lasers into the sky? Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2616a/
🔭 🧪
📷 A. Berdeu/ESO
The Vera Rubin observatory has already discovered 11,000 *previously unknown* asteroids... and the proper observing sessions haven't even begun yet!
badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/rubin-bags...
🧪 🔭
Close-up photo of circular patterns and dust on a reddish stone surface.
Alien markings on Mars.
(We're the aliens. The Curiosity rover has been using its drill. Image taken yesterday.) science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-...
I didn't realize this is due to glass spherules!
It will be interesting to see how the color in the images changed as the astronauts flew around the moon and the phase angle of the sun changed.
I can't wait for the NEFs to be published to really play around with the white balance.
Also looking forward to the audio recordings from the Astronauts describing their actual impressions.
It's really striking how brownish the moon looks compared to the grey window frame from Orion.
Wait for it to focus...
Sound up...
Earthset, recorded by Reid Wiseman during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
The initial imperfect composition, and the phone hunting for focus makes this so much more human and familiar.
A celestial scene witnessed by only 28 of us in history...more
scene from project hail mary showing a metal box with tube like container inside that has a lid with some intricate machining.
Figure 4 from Edgett et. al. 2012, showing a very similar looking tube like assembly with a machined lid. In this case it's the dust cover from the MAHLI camera. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-012-9910-4/figures/4
The scene has been found, it's in the beginning where Grace opens the astrophage sample.
Now... it's not a perfect match (I was hoping for a flight spare), but this can't be a coincidence, right? RIGHT?? #ProjectHailMary
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The #moon is very close to the #Pleiades today. With strong #Earthshine too. Here's a #timelapse as it sets.
If you pay close attention you can see the relative motion of the moon against the stars.
🔭 🧪 #astrophotography
It caught me by surprise, so need to find a picture of the movie scene and make sure, but I think I know my Mars rover camera hardware...
Am I the only one who spotted what looked like the MAHLI camera cover in #ProjectHailMary?
The drone video shows pretty clearly that the orange smoke only started when the plume really impinged on the deck, that seems to speak for your paint explanation.
Yeah, that would make sense
I'm surprised it looked so extremely yellow. No hypergolics should be involved with NG, so is this all just soot?
an image showing moon creaters with some of the hard edges duplicated or blurred.
I don't think so, here is a crop of art002e020904 showing quite significant "double vision" of the edges like you get when photographing through windows at an angle.
I can see similar effects but only slightly in the Earth Moon images. They are not quite as sharp as the lenses should be capable of.
Detail of a teapot featuring Earthset over the Moon's cratered landscape.
Plate featuring Earthset over the Moon's cratered surface.
Planter with violet flowers wrapping around the side featuring Earth amongst the stars.
Pair of cups featuring Earth and the Moon.
Artemis II Restock preview is up!
Amyraehill.com
#sciart #bsnm
It's unfortunate, but good to have written confirmation of their planned publication.
I didn't expect NASA to release the NEFs right immediately anyway.
Are you familiar with this document?
forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?ac...
If that information is correct, the CMA and OpNav cameras should be based on the PixeLINK PL-D725 camera using an onsemi Vita 5000 sensor.
www.navitar.com/-/media/proj...
Yeah, the presentation is from 2023, so those plans didn't exist yet.
JNCE_2021105_33C00029_V01 NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Jupiter - PJ33-29 - Detail - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kUSbzw
Oh, neat! Finer sampling along track with a push broom sensor!
I need to know more about this technique!
Did they do something like dithering?
Figure 1: The overview page houses a 2D map showing spatial relationship between all requested targets and the Big 15, with the additional capability to view shift-specific overviews.
Another #LPSC2026 abstract by Boyer et. al. details the software used to manage the Lunar Targeting Plan. We've seen screenshots of this during the mission. #Artemis
www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lps...
Table listing the various Artemis II data products to be archived in the PDS
There is also a new LPSC abstract by Baker et. al. about the archiving plan of the imagery collected during the mission.
Both handheld and Engineering camera imagery, as well as audio will be archived six months after the mission.
www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lps...
Flight Day Major Imagery-Related (or supporting) Events 1 Pre-launch vehicle inspections, Crew ingress, Liftoff/ascent (LAS & SAJ jettison, SAW deploy, ICPS sep), RPO demo, Optical Comm activation 2 TLI burn, PAO event(s), NatGeo payload activation, CSM external inspection 3 NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s) 4 NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s) 5 Lunar approach, NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s) 6 Lunar flyby, NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s), CSM external inspection 7 PAO event(s) 8 NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s) 9 NatGeo payload opportunity, PAO event(s) 10 CM/SM Sep, Entry, Descent, Landing, Recovery
The presentation also confirmed that imaging of the CM/ESM was planned, unfortnunately no details whether higher resolution video of the event would have been downlinked.
powerpoint slide Artemis II Challenges Comm • RF bandwidth limitations make s-band downlink pipe a limited and shared resource • Optical Comm DTO may allow up to ~20-30 Mbps burst downlink mode for short times, depending on vehicle attitude Onboard Storage • Vehicle camera imagery storage is very limited – camera controllers are already nearing max capacity • For Nikon D5, 10 256 GB compact flash cards should (hopefully) provide ample storage but timeline downlink remains a challenge • If in-flight downlink of Nikon video files is desired, strongly recommend limiting to HD (1080 or 720) format; large 4K/UHD video will most likely need to remain onboard for post-flight retrieval Windows • Orion requirements officially call for Cat B window optical quality (suitable for “Large Lens Photography” with focal lengths > 400 mm) • Officially verified to at least “Cat D” (suitable for “Piloting Tasks and Small Lens Photography”) – basically point-and shoot type cameras with lens focal lengths <100mm • Orion imagery team is pressing for full-frame DSLR characterization photography of windows in full flight-like (triple-pane) stack – at a minimum, in-flight crew photography on FD1,2 should help inform options for camera configuration and window choice for lunar flyby later in the mission
The presentation also talks about the challenge of photographing through the three-pane windows of the Orion spacecraft. They were not sure in whether photography at 400mm would be possible, but it seems like they indeed went for it in the end.
I did notice some blurring in the 400mm images though.
power point slide showing the camera locations on the orion spacecraft. For Artemis II, the vehicle-mounted OIS comprises: • 4 Solar Array Wing (SAW) cameras • 3 in-cabin wireless cameras • 3 external wired cameras • 2 human-health monitoring cameras • 2 camera controllers • 1 Fwd Bay high speed camera Other optical systems: • 4 wireless cameras for NatGeo payload (proprietary data) • 4 Portable computing devices (tablets) with webcams • 2 Nikon D5 DSLR camera bodies (+ lenses, batteries, etc.) • 2 ZCube video encoders (prime + spare) • 1 Docking Camera (DCAM) • 1 Optical Navigation (OPNAV) camera • 1 drag-on temp-mount camera to monitor crew ingress (KSC system)
Of course I only found this post-flight, but there is a good presentation of all the camera systems installed on the Artemis II Orion spacecraft. #Artemis
Recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJzU...
PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20...
Newest release of #Jupiter aurora from program 17408. Observation date 2025-10-17, but released a few days ago.
www.planetarylightshow.com/jupiter/prop...
Credit: Planetary Light Show
