Specks from Heaven for St Nicholas' Day

 Hayabusa 2  is about to land a small capsule

 with samples of rock and dust from asteroid Ryugu

 near Woomera in South Australia

on December 6th (local time).

Link to: article from "newscientist.com"

Link to: "Japan’s Journey to an Asteroid Ends With a Hunt in Australia’s Outback"

Up for grabs at 200 million miles from Earth

 

OSIRIS-REx's robotic arm

has had a first go at collecting a sample 

from Asteroid BENNU's rugged surface.

Link to: "NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid"

Off to Mars in July 2020

This summer, Mars will not be 401 million km (maximum distance)

nor 225 million km (average distance)

but only about 55 million km away from Earth

on their respective elliptic paths,

which is a good reason for three nations 

to try and send probes to the Red Planet at this time.

Link to: Mike Wall's related article for SPACE.COM

Aiming for a comprehensive picture of the Martian climate

The "Hope Probe" of the United Arab Emirates' Mars Mission

is expected to be launched soon

and should start to orbit the Red Planet in 2021.

Link to: Emirates Mars Mission

ASTROBOTIC soon to go to the Moon

NASA's water-seeking mobile VIPER

(Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover)

is scheduled to be delivered to the Moon's South Pole

by ASTROBOTIC of Pittsburgh

in about three years' time.

Link to: "NASA Selects Astrobotic to Fly Water-Hunting Rover to the Moon"

The Artemis Accords: Discipline and Fair Play

Will these noble principles genuinely help nations

to behave less erratically beyond the limits of our planet

than they all too often do on Earth?

Link to: NASA - The Artemis Accords

Vaguely reminiscent of ballpoint pens?

After Douglas Adams's  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

there has now been the initial release of

 SpaceX's Starship User's Guide.

Link to: "Starship User's Guide"

May Update - New Link to: "vehicles/ starship"

Names for Asteroid Bennu's surface features

11 of Bennu's "saxa" (i.e. rocks and boulders)

have now been given mythological names

by the OSIRIS-Rex team.

Link to: NASA "First Official Names Given to Features on Asteroid Bennu"