Plus helpful robots, sample collection on Mars, a helicopter, an aviator, and an abnormally large penguin. 

#01 TOURIST SEASON

+ The first fully private spaceflight, dubbed Inspiration 4, has come to a successful conclusion as the four crew members splashed down off the coast of Florida yesterday afternoon after spending three days in space. While in orbit the crew performed a few experiments on the effects of weightlessness on their bodies, talked with children at St. Jude's Hospital, and generally seemed to be having a good time of it all. 

#02 A HELPING HAND

+ Sometimes you just need a little help from your friends. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's submersible Jason came to the rescue of another pair of remotely operated vehicles, Hercules and Argus, after a tether connecting the submersibles to a surface ship was severed and they were left stranded on the ocean floor.

#03 LOST & FOUND

+ "He’d been lost for five days in the White Mountains when he limped to the top of a hill, pointing his toes outward to relieve the pressure on his bloody heels. Ron Bolen hoped to catch sight of a U.S. Forest Service road. That night, when the midsummer sun relented, he planned to make one last attempt at escaping Boundary Peak Wilderness." It's easy to get lost out there, folks. The San Francisco Chronicle with a remarkable search and rescue effort in a remote Californian mountain range. This is your friendly reminder to be prepared when entering the wilderness and always tell someone where you're going! 

#04 MARS

+The Perseverance rover has now collected two rock samples from the surface of Mars for eventual return to Earth. Go Percy, go!

+ Meanwhile, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter continues to exceed all expectations. Although the initial mission was only planned to include 5 flights over about a month, the little helicopter that could is now up to 13. Flights are becoming more challenging though. Unlike Earth, Mars experiences significant seasonal changes in atmospheric pressure, and the air is starting to get uncomfortably thin in Gusev Crater (even by Mars's standards). The operation team is now experimenting with spinning the rotors at faster speeds to try and keep Ingenuity aloft.

#05 AVIATOR

+ Are you bored of your desk job yet? Perhaps it's time to walk out the door and become a pioneering aviator like Amy Johnson did.

#06 KIDS THESE DAYS

+ A number of years ago a group of kids in New Zealand discovered a nearly intact bird skeleton encased in stone while on a field trip. Thanks to 3D scanning techniques, the bird has now been identified as a previously unknown species of giant penguin. The species, now known as Kairuku waewaeroa (“long-legged” in the Maori language), would have stood about 4.5 feet tall, appropriately about the same height as the kids that found it.

#07 CONSERVATION

+ The northern hairy-nosed wombat has been brought back from the brink of extinction largely thanks to a 30-year conservation effort.

+ "Old coal mines and quarries have been repurposed as parks and nature reserves - and 5,000 jobs have been created" as part of an effort to reforest the heart of England.

#08 A GOOD BOOK

+ Last week I visited the Time Travel Mart in Las Angeles which is one of the most entertaining places I've been in some time. They stock everything you might need for your explorations of space and time ranging from Mammoth Meat to Robot Milk! I personally picked up a delightful little volume called "Self Defense for the Time Travellers" by Mike Capozzola. I now know how to fight off Velicoraptors, medieval knights, and more! This one is not available online so you'll have to take a trip to the Time Travel Mart yourself to find it. The storefront is run by 862LA, a writing, tutoring, and mentoring organization. For those of you outside Los Angeles, there are various branches of 826 mentoring centers around the country with similarly quirky fronts.

"Time Travelers who face confrontation must be able to disarm an opponent without using lethal force. It is imperative that the timeline is not disturbed as the consequences are unknowable and possibly wide ranging."

That's all for this week! You can respond to this email to tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, tell me about a project you're working on, or suggest a story. You might also forward this email to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann