Plus sunken submarines, space rock and roll, fun maps, and a picture of China's Mars rover after driving off its landing platform.

#01 TWILIGHT ZONE

+ Ingenuity's 6th flight on Mars was more of an adventure than had been intended. Halfway through the flight, the helicopter's navigation camera fed some inaccurate information to the computer causing dangerous oscillations in pitch and roll. Fortunately, the helicopter control system has a number of safety features that allowed it to land safely and survive the in-flight anomaly. What's impressive to me is that the helicopter handled the situation entirely autonomously, unlike the rovers which have the luxury of stopping and calling back to Earth whenever things start to go awry.

+ The recently arrived Chinese Mars rover, Zhurong, rolled off its landing platform last week and sent back its first pictures from the surface. 

#02 SPACE ROCKS

+ Brendan Chamberlain-Simon is rover driver for the Mars rover Curiosity, a helicopter operator for the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, and to top it all off, is about to release a secretive music project based on his experiences in the driver's seat. Brendan was actually my first instructor when I joined the Curiosity team. He's a talented engineer and a great person to work with so I'm excited to see him get this sort of recognition and hear his music!

#03 SUNKEN SUBS

+ Ocean explorer Tim Taylor received the US Navy's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service Award, for his role in discovering and identifying seven US Navy submarine wrecks. After a career working on autonomous submersibles, Taylor transitioned to searching for historic military shipwrecks full time in 2010 and founded the Lost 52 Project, an effort to find all 52 US submarines lost during World War II. For Taylor, the joy in his work comes not just from that moment of discovery, but also from the closure it brings to families of submariners who died in the wrecks. "It's not about finding ships. The importance of our work is to connect families and bring some type of closure and peace even generations later."

#04 MASTER NAVIGATOR

+ Chad Kalepa Baybayan, captain and master navigator of the famed replica Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule’a, died recently at the age of 64. In 1976 the vessel was sailed from Hawai'i to Tahiti without any navigational instruments in an effort to prove that native Polynesian islanders were skilled navigators capable of accurately traveling vast distances across the open ocean. Although Baybayan was too young to participate in that historic voyage, he worked on the boat for over 40 years and is credited with bringing ancient navigational wisdom to thousands of young students across the world. "There are only a few people in the world who can really navigate properly, and Kalepa was one of them. But where Kalepa separates himself is how far he took things with education. He broke the rules."

#05 ELSEWHERE IN SPACE

+ Do you want to go to space? Thanks to the commercial spaceflight boon all you have to do now is win a reality TV show.

+ If the idea of sending reality TV stars to space makes you a bit queasy, how about sending up some more of these glow-in-the-dark baby squid and tardigrades to the space station instead. Researchers are studying the squid to learn more about their symbiotic relationship with bacteria, while the microscopic and nearly indestructible tardigrades will provide lessons on surviving in an extreme environment.

#06 OWLS, MONKEYS, AND DINOSAURS

+  The rare Bornean Rajah owl was spotted for the first time in 125 years by researchers performing an unrelated field study on birds in the Bornean forest. Despite the fact we know this animal exists, researchers don't have any DNA specimens, don't know its distinctive call, and have no idea how widespread they are. I find it remarkable that a fairly large vertebrate can still live in such obscurity in today's scientific age.

+ The population of an endangered primate called Delacour’s langur has quadrupled inside of Vietnam’s Van Long Nature Reserve, raising hopes for the recovery of the species in the region.

+ Although big attractive animals generally get all the press, science is not always about aesthetics. An Ode to the World’s Most Average Dinosaurs.

#07 FUN WITH MAPS

+ Use River Runner to place a drop of water anywhere in the lower 48 and watch where it will flow to.

+ It's memorial day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. Explore the Shadowmap and find a nice shady spot to spend those lazy afternoons in.

#08 A GOOD BOOK

This week we continue a short series of children's books reviewed by Kirsten H., our resident librarian here at Explore and Observe world headquarters.   

+ Perhaps you’ve seen moths before. Perhaps you’ve seen them fluttering around a porch light at night or (gulp) in your closet or pantry. Perhaps you think of them as the duller, less pretty cousin of the butterfly. You’ve probably never seen moths as portrayed by the stunning photography in You’re invited to a Moth Ball: A Nighttime Insect Celebration by Loree Griffith Burns. Burns speaks directly to the reader, inviting them to a nighttime “moth ball” and explaining that it is “a special kind of party…we’re honoring a spectacular insect.” The book then acts as both a how-to guide for setting up your moth viewing evening and an introduction to moths as insects. With some adult assistance, children can use this book to set up their own evening of moth viewing, complete with ultraviolet light, sheet, and moth bait made from bananas and brown sugar and learn how to gently observe moths late into the night. Ellen Harasimowicz’s photography shines throughout: in the backmatter, she discusses the difficulties of making photos outside at night and goes into detail about both close-up moth photos and larger scenes which will be of interest to budding photographers. Most children don’t need an excuse to stay up late, but a moth ball is a compelling reason for people of all ages. (Not up for setting up your own moth ball? The book mentions that many nature centers hold moth-watching events during National Moth Week in July.)   

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