The Next Generation Of “Martian Helicopters” Are Taking Shape — At JPL | NASA | Goddard…

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As I often remind, we will almost certainly have very scant need for boots on Mars much before 2050 — because our largely autonomous exo-planetary robotics programs are progressing so rapidly.

Here’s that next tech advancing / installment — on the SkyFall choppers, bound for Barsoom — around 2030:

…When the trio of NASA’s SkyFall helicopters takes to the Martian skies, one of their tasks will be to hunt for frozen water — a critical resource for future astronauts — using ground-penetrating radar. For that radar to work, each rotorcraft will carry a flexible, fabric-based antenna that will need to extend below the aircraft without interfering with landings, or breaking upon impact. It is a specialized design for the mission, and it recently cleared a round of testing at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Although orbiting spacecraft can map the thick Martian ice deposits tens of yards below the surface, they’re effectively blind to the top several yards of regolith, or broken rock and dust. This shallow zone is what will matter most for future astronauts, who will need to easily reach and process ice for water, oxygen, and fuel.

“The only way to detect shallow subsurface ice remotely is to fly close to the ground,” said Adrian Tang, SkyFall’s ground-penetrating radar lead instrument scientist at JPL. “By flying low and slow, a SkyFall helicopter could capture radar images that resolve the fine layering where dry soil gives way to ice, detecting its presence and mapping its extent….”

To peer beneath the Martian surface, SkyFall’s ground-penetrating radar will use an ultra-wide frequency range — from 500 to 2,500 megahertz — corresponding to wavelengths of about 24 to 5 inches (60 to 12 centimeters). The longest wavelengths can penetrate several yards below the surface. The shorter wavelengths provide finer detail about the uppermost layers and surface texture.

This is where the unique antenna design comes in. A traditional antenna operating in that part of the electromagnetic spectrum would need to be 19 inches (48.3 centimeters) long and have a clear view of the ground, but the minimum clearance between Mars’ surface and the base of the helicopter’s fuselage is only about 6 inches (15.2 centimeters). The team needed an antenna that wouldn’t interfere with or be damaged by landing….

So it is essentially “a sheet of cloth” formed into a fabric / antenna — flexible and forgiving. And here’s that YouTube video demonstrator:

Onward, smiling….

नमस्ते

Very Young Kids Are STILL Being Held For Extremely Long Periods, Against The Flores Consent Decree — In Border Detention By Stephen Miller’s ICE.

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When the flatulating octogenarian in charge is little more than a poorly-organized mobster, the presumptions of good faith and fair dealing (inside federal agencies) break down — and, inside the walls of his federal agencies — the minions tasked with day-today operations are running amok. That disgusting state of affairs is now the “new normal“, at ICE — and Border Patrol.

This is simply unacceptable. The law is clear — and it is time to jail these federal scofflaws, at Chula Vista. Here’s a bit of the seven pages of it:

…[A] mother, father, and seven-year-old boy with a severe cough, had been detained since July 8, 2026. The online ICE Locator database listed the family as being in CBP custody until at least August 5, 2026, after twenty-eight days of detention.

On July 21, 2026, I contacted counsel for Defendants to alert them and to alert the Juvenile Coordinator, through counsel, to these prolonged detentions. On August 3, 2026, Defendants’ counsel responded by email confirming that two of the three families identified by counsel were no longer in CBP custody and that the third family remained in CBP custody….

Onward, resolutely just the same.

नमस्ते

The First Ever FDA-Approved mRNA Flu Vaccine (From Moderna) Will Arrive For Seniors, This Fall: Good News

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This new vaccine will be both about 25% more effective than the old vaccine stocks, and will be capable of being sythesized much more rapidly. A double win! Excellent.

The vaccine builds on all the lessons learned during COVID-19 [and we all owe Dr. Fauci a debt of gratitude for the lives spared then and there. This GOP witch hunt is. . . deplorable.] But today’s news is exciting, for all who actually accept the truths of bio-science in public health outreach efforts.

Here’s that, from NBC:

…The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the U.S.’ first flu shot that uses mRNA technology: mFlusiva, from drugmaker Moderna.

The FDA granted approval for two age groups, adults 50 to 65 and adults 65 and up, on the condition that Moderna run an additional clinical trial in the older group, the company said in a release. In a late-stage trial, mFlusiva was found to be about 27% more effective than a standard flu shot.

Many scientists and public health experts have touted the idea of an mRNA-based flu vaccine, which uses the same messenger RNA platform as the Covid vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. That’s because mRNA vaccines can be manufactured much faster than traditional vaccines, allowing scientists to better match circulating influenza strains….

Now you know — with Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, under the stars tonight at Pritzker… smile.

नमस्ते

Yeah John, People Sometimes Ridiculed The Amish, Too. You Sir, Are A L0ser.

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This one is barely worth the time it takes to type it.

Tonight John would ridicule people for their religious garb.

He makes zero showing that anyone is being oppressed — in his picture — from Michigan. These are apparently devout Muslims. [He relies, as ever, on pernicious prejudice, exclusively.]

But he decides to link his image (without a shred of evidence, mind you) to “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

Because he is just that kind of extra-special stupid.

Yikes.

I don’t really care that much — but it seems John has missed the entire chapter of the MAGA-cultists’ land called “tradwife” — which is by most accounts — exactly what those red bonnets and capes were mostly all about.

So — as ever, projection: thy name is… Hinderaker.

Out.

Much More Nice Progress, On Katalyst / LINK Recovery Efforts — But Still A Fair Distance To Traverse… With Software Updates, Coming Next Week…

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This is an excellent team effort: NASA and Katalyst. But the road ahead will not be easy. The teams need to completely reconfigure the way the craft navigates, and orients itself, autonomously, in the “no up direction; no down, either” of… outer space.

It has been tumbling, without two of its three gyros, insofar as I understand the problem. But that multi-axis tumble has been slowed to about 1.5 degrees per second — so it is manageable, and will maintain comms, and more importantly — full solar battery power. But now it must right itself with all new software, before it might approach the aging Swift ‘space ‘scope. Here’s the latest NASA authored blog entry:

…Teams are preparing to take the next major recovery steps for Katalyst Space’s robotic spacecraft LINK in orbit. During the last week, they’ve successfully reduced the spin of LINK, which is designed to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher orbital altitude.

LINK originally was in a multi-axis spin rotating at about 9 degrees per second, which resulted in sporadic communications and impeded LINK’s progress toward Swift. Using a series of burns from one of LINK’s electric propulsion thrusters, the Katalyst team now has slowed that spin to about 1.47 degrees per second. Katalyst plans to keep LINK at that spin rate as it proceeds with next steps for the mission. This includes uploading a flight software update in the coming days with new attitude controllers designed to maintain LINK’s stability in its current configuration. These updates would allow LINK to begin maneuvering to align with Swift’s orbit….

Now you know — grinning, and keeping a good thought — for all.

नमस्ते

Corrupt Tangerine 2.0-World, Example 2047… Who Is This Vapid Clown, Jennifer Mascott?!

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Federal judges are supposed to avoid even the “appearance” of any impropriety, or conflicted interests.

Yet, Trump appointed and the GOP Senate confirmed a Third Cir. Judge — a former hard right law professor — and she kept running a PR firm, as a “side-gig” — moonlighting, on the federal bench… until her PR firm (ultimately) went under. That is simply… unlawful. She ought to be removed, by impeachment — but the MAGA/GOP lacks any functioning moral compass (so too the MAGA Wing of the Supremes, I am afraid).

This is expressly prohibited by Canons 2A and 2B of the federal judicial code of ethics: “…An appearance of impropriety occurs when reasonable minds, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances disclosed by a reasonable inquiry, would conclude that the judge’s honesty, integrity, impartiality, temperament, or fitness to serve as a judge is impaired…. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. This prohibition applies to both professional and personal conduct. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny and accept freely and willingly restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen….”

Damn — here is that story:

…A Trump-appointed federal appeals judge spent months running a Washington public affairs firm after being appointed to the bench last year, an arrangement that contributed to an exodus among the firm’s staff and clients and only ended when the firm went out of business at the end of June.

Jennifer Mascott, a former conservative law professor who sits on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, was deeply involved in daily operations at the firm, Adfero, for at least six months after she was confirmed as a judge in October 2025, according to 14 former employees and clients granted anonymity to discuss internal details of the firm’s final months….

And Hinderaker and Otis have the temerity to complain about some professor, appointed at Cambridge — in England?! This is a jurist deciding US cases while moonlighting/PR gigging, for hard right causes. Holy sh!t.

What a complete and utter… dumb-show that guy runs. And of course, she was a professor at the Scalia Law School — after she clerked for Kavanaugh.

नमस्ते

Well. This Is Just… Precious! Hinderaker Is All In A Lather, Over Some “Maybe” Prof. At Cambridge…

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The guy is just too cute. By half. As is the Mirengoff/Otis hive-mind.

Both of them whine on and on — in multiple posts, each — over a supposed professor’s seat at a university in… yep, England.

A teacher, in England. [Not their country.]

This is a US inter-national emergency, to their tiny mind-space?! Yikes.

Meanwhile, their preznit was forcing a Faux-TV news talking head to indict a US Olympian oarsman, for the fact that his own grafted cronie completely botched his “renovation” of the reflecting pool in DC… INDICT, for felonies?!

An Olympian?!

And these two bitter old jerks are mad — about some English professor’s (maybe?) seat?!

Give me a break, you butt-heads. And all that is BEFORE we consider that he wants to pay out a $2.2 billion slush fund to the violent thugs who tried to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power on 01.06.2021. Or a million other banal, evil affronts to our hard-earned, liberty loving, way of life. Damnation.

Out.

Tangent: Still No New Q2 Losses Disclosure Date, For Hapless Riot Platforms?!

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We will know in a few days whether Starboard Value has exited this position.

In truth, it was one of the smaller positions that the hedge fund had taken, as an activist.

But if the activist Jeff Smith still holds shares of Riot, he cannot be remotely happy that on essentially no notice the company tanked its Q2 results call.

And that it hasn’t scheduled a new date. Trust that if they are still a holder over 3%, they are pressing Mr. Jason Les — for a new date (soon he will be out of compliance with SEC disclosure rules anyway).

No sensible hedgie wants to hold — without end — while staring glumly, into a black box.

Out.

नमस्ते

It Is Probable That A Long Ago Slow-Motion Collision Created “The Heart” We Now See On Pluto — And That Liquid Nitrogen Flowed There Quite Recently, As A Consequence…

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I understand the argument — really, I do — but for my money, Pluto should not have demoted from planet status. Look at all this mystery and wonder, just now being revealed. We had no idea that all this slushy geology was underway, well beyond our Earth bound telescopes’ power of resolution.

No, it took both the power of New Horizon’s grand piano-sized close fly-by, shutters whirring, and the JWST space ‘scope coming online, to fully appreciate all the diversity that is buried just under the surface of this waifish, icy world. The latest is that liquid nitogen flows like long slushy rivers, near the northern edges of the heart feature. Wow. Here’s that, from NASA:

…A new analysis of imagery collected during NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s 2015 encounter with Pluto provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto’s surface through cracks in the northern edge of the Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the first evidence of recently flowing liquid on Pluto….

“Pluto never stops surprising us,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator of New Horizons and lead study author from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “In addition to suggesting that liquids have recently expressed themselves on Pluto’s surface, this result also suggests a new kind of time-variable feature on Pluto.”

The Sputnik Planitia is a vast, frozen nitrogen glacier on Pluto, larger than the U.S. states of Texas and Oklahoma combined. In 2015, New Horizons’ images of the northernmost portions of this region revealed city-sized geologic convection cells on Sputnik Planitia separated by both thin dark linear and more diffuse dark features, suggesting historical liquid flows.

Now the new research, published July 31 in the Planetary Science Journal, indicates that these dark linear and diffuse features may be occasionally and temporarily wetted, perhaps from time to time, by a liquid, most likely liquid nitrogen. The journal paper’s authors include both planetary science experts in Pluto and experts in terrestrial glaciology.

Surface patterns on northern Sputnik Planitia have been darkened in ways that resemble glacial features on Earth that have been wetted by rain or by the subsurface emergence of liquids to the surface. Pluto’s atmospheric and thermal conditions make liquid nitrogen rain physically impossible, suggesting that liquid nitrogen is flowing up from underneath the glacier….

Now you know — on a warm gray morning here… smile — off, to sunny, hot Northern Cali in a week.

नमस्ते

Voyager 2 Goes Into A Deeper “Power-Saving” Mode — May Last A Year Or Two Longer, Yet… Over 15 Billion Miles Out In Interstellar Space.

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We mentioned this effort last, in April of this year. The whole idea is to minimize the power consumption footprint of the remaining science packages on each of the two Voyagers, now .

In that way, it is hoped that each of the twin crafts, now well over 50 years old — will operate for another year or two — before falling silent forever. Here’s the latest, from NASA | JPL | Goddard:

…Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have successfully freed up power on Voyager 2, extending how long the spacecraft can continue to do science.

Nicknamed the “Big Bang,” the effort involved simultaneously turning off certain powered devices and substituting them with lower-power alternatives while ensuring the spacecraft remains warm enough to operate.

The Voyagers get their power from radioisotope thermoelectric generators, devices that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. Due to the plutonium supply continually depleting, both probes lose about 4 watts of power each year. After almost a half-century since launch, the spacecraft power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off non-essential devices and systems.

Since 2024, the dwindling power supply has forced the mission to turn off two science instruments on each of the Voyager spacecraft (each spacecraft has 10 instruments; others had been turned off previously because they were only used for the mission’s planetary encounters). Without the Big Bang activity, the mission would have had to turn off another instrument on Voyager 2 before the end of 2026. The savings should provide power to keep its three instruments operating for at least an extra year.

The mission team plans to perform the same swap on Voyager 1, which is farther from Earth than Voyager 2, and to complete the effort in the coming months….

Now you know. Onward, grinning — resolutely.

नमस्ते