#01

One of the greatest hazards for explorers is medical treatment when someone gets sick or injured. This hypothetical situation became real on the space station when an astronaut was successfully treated for a blood clot in space. Although the exact details are being kept confidential to protect privacy, the blood clot was discovered when "the astronaut was taking ultrasounds of their neck for a research study on how body fluid is redistributed in zero gravity." The condition was successfully treating using blood thinners on hand and additional supplies delivered during a cargo missions. "The biggest question that remains is how would we deal with this on an exploration class mission to Mars? How would we prepare ourselves medically?"

On the front lines of this problem will be 13 new NASA astronaut graduates, the first to be eligible for NASA's planned Artemis mission to the moon and future missions to Mars. Keep an eye on this group, one of them may be the first woman to set foot on the moon and the first man to do so in over 50 years!

#02

If you're tired of pesky humans getting in the way of your space exploration, recall that there are four robotic spacecraft sent to explore the red planet this year! Most well known will be NASA's 2020 rover, a follow on to the enormously successful Curiosity mission and the first step in a future sample return mission. A combined European/Russian effort called Exomars will use a Russian lander to deposit a European rover on the Martian surface. An ambitious Chinese mission will attempt to place a spacecraft in orbit as well as land a rover in a first for the nation. And not to be outdone by the more traditional space powers, the upstart United Arab Emirates is funding the launch of it's own Martian Orbiter.

In other good news for robotic exploration, India has approved a 3rd lunar mission despite the failure of it's most recent attempt to land a robot on the lunar surface.

#03

NASA's budget numbers for 2020 are in. "The final legislation rejected every major cut proposed by the Trump Administration, increased funding for popular congressional projects such as the Space Launch System, and underfunded several key administration proposals, including a human-qualified lunar lander and low-Earth orbit commercialization projects." The Planetary Society has the full rundown.

#04

"At this very moment, you're a participant in one of the things that makes us human: the telling and consumption of stories. It's impossible to say when our species began telling each other stories—or when we first evolved the ability to use language to communicate not only simple, practical concepts but to share vivid accounts of events real or imagined. But by 43,900 years ago, people on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi had started painting some of their stories in images on cave walls." This story abut the recent discovery of nearly 44,000 year old paintings in an Indonesian cave is worth the read!

#05

"An international team of scientists has reached the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica and is preparing to drill through more than half a kilometre of ice into the dark waters beneath," allowing researchers to researchers to lower down a submarine and explore the underside of the ice. The vehicle will have a suite of instruments that can determine how much fresh water is melting into the sea. An ambitious mission from a remote outpost. This research is part of the Thwaites project, eight multi-disciplinary research programs to better understand the important antarctic glaciers worth knowing about.

If you've ever wondered what is living in the deep sea, you should check out this interactive webpage by Neal Agarwal. Just keep scrolling!

#06

Lastly for today, Vox has a good look at some of the coolest space exploration photos from the last decade. Enjoy!

What to Read Next

Reading material that I've found worthwhile, often related to exploration, sometimes just a good book worth picking up!

Have you ever considered what it might be like to go cave diving into an iceberg? Neither had I until I real Jill Heinerth's Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver. Jill is part of an elite group of cave divers who explore deep into the underwater caves, and this firsthand account of her dangerous exploits and near superhuman courage as an underwater explorer is well worth the read. You might also check out this interview with the author on NPR's Fresh Air

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This newsletter was produced as a private venture and not in the author's capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology or of Griffith Observatory. Any views and opinions expressed herein or on exploreandobserve.com are his own and not those of his employers.

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