Listen to:
Nasa Mars rover: The clanking sound of Perseverance's wheels
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56443915

Astounding!!!!!
Roger

Make of this what you will - I think I'd give it a miss. I'd rather go down a cave in a submarine!

Nasa has chosen Elon Musk's company SpaceX to build a lander that will return humans to the Moon this decade.
This vehicle will carry the next man and the first woman down to the lunar surface under the space agency's Artemis programme.

Nasa chooses SpaceX to build Moon lander
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56781556

Roger

Nasa successfully flies small helicopter on Mars
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56799755

Watched it live - amazing!

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Watch-Online

Roger

https://spaceweather.com/images2021/20apr21/m1_anim.gif 

https://spaceweather.com/ 

Roger

https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ 

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING: A CME is heading for Earth and it could spark a geomagnetic storm when it arrives on April 25th. NOAA forecasters say moderately strong G2-class storms are possible...

More information:

https://spaceweather.com/ 

Roger

Ingenuity is a stunning achievement - but isn't it time some whining denier said this was filmed in Colorado or some such place?

Ingenuity Mars helicopter has now made its third successful flight ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56882257

Roger

Michael Collins, the astronaut who orbited the Moon whilst the Apollo landings took place, dies aged 90:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56921562

Sad news. It's touch and go whether there will be any of the original Apollo astronauts left by the time we get back to the moon with humans.

News from "off the beaten track" planet:-

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/Parker-Discovers-Natural-Radio-Emission-in-Venus-Atmosphere.

A Chinese rocket weighing a massive 18 tonnes is expected to crash back to Earth tomorrow (Sunday).  Because of the uncertainties about the rate of decay of the orbit the exact point of impact is uncertain.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57013540

A useful site here, with a prediction based on latest information:

https://aerospace.org/reentries/cz-5b-rocket-body-id-48275

Some large chunks are going to hit the ground or the sea somewhere.

Down it comes....

China rocket debris 'disintegrates over Indian Ocean' - Chinese media

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57045058

Can take off my tinfoil hat now!

R.

😂

Must have been very thick tin foil, Roger. 🤔

What amazed me was the initial statement that it could hit the ground anywhere between 41N & 41S, New York to South Island of New Zealand.  Not a lot of help, I thought...!

I caught an interesting clip on the problem of space junk today, Peter, and the comment that a chunk the size of a £ coin could land one in real trouble!

See the ESA's Space Debris site:

http://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris

Also:

Space debris removal demonstration launches

"This debris - of which there is roughly 9,000 tonnes up there - is a potential collision risk to the operational systems that deliver much-needed services, such as weather forecasting and telecommunications."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56482726

Usual human pattern - dump the junk and run. It is someone else's problem.

Roger

Once again, Scott Manley explains that. Basically too many variables...

https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/ 

For more info on the CME see:

https://www.spaceweather.com/ 

Roger

Watch...
Winchcombe meteorite goes on display in Natural History Museum
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-57104319

Roger

China prepares to land its Zhurong rover on Mars

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57122914 

Roger

Wouldn't it be a nice touch the US could fly over and film this?

China lands its Zhurong rover on Mars
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57122914

R.

Are you keeping well AIMSIR?

R.

p.s. in case you missed it....

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Watch-Online

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57122914

Have they claimed territorial sovereignty yet? And set up concentration/extermination camps for the native Martians? 

Solar Flares May 26th? See: Spaceweather.com

https://spaceweather.com/

"SOLAR FLARE FRENZY: Yesterday, the sun produced a sequence of solar flares unlike anything we've seen in years. Earth-orbiting satellites detected a dozen explosions in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2824. One of them emitted a radio burst so strong, it drowned out static from lightning storms on Earth and was recorded at midnight by listening stations in the Arctic. NOAA forecast models suggest that a CME might hit Earth's magnetic field on May 26th.

For Aurora Alerts see the Aurorawatch plots:

https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/

Roger

2 missions to 'off the beaten track' planet announced by NASA.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-2-missions-to-study-lost-habitable-world-of-venus.

About time too!