Pugmum1 - A Bit Of Everything

This wet microburst, a torrential downpour akin to a bursting water balloon, was caught by Bryan Snider as it touched down in Arizona.

Exciting NASA news

… as if there’s not been some of that already this week.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL)

It seems that NASA’s slated to select two proposals for their Discovery program missions.

A “Discovery” mission at NASA is generally a smaller mission that happens very quickly. Something like the Curiosity rover or the Cassini-Huygens mission aren’t Discovery program missions, those are called “Flagship” missions.

NASA’s incredible Dawn mission is a Discovery mission.

Right now the five missions under consideration are:

- VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR Topography and Spectroscopy): Basically a mission that would orbit Venus (a planet deserving to be visited again) and map its surface with high resolution radar.

- Psyche: This mission would explore a huge, metal-rich asteroid in the asteroid belt. Important and potentially influential mission (there are lots of entrepreneurs looking for metal-rich asteroids to mine in the near future).

- Lucy: This mission would explore a series of “Trojan” asteroids, basically asteroids that trail behind Jupiter.

- NEOCam: This would search for dangerous near-Earth asteroids.

- DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging): As you might guess from its name, this spacecraft would descend through the Venusian atmosphere, studying it as it goes down.

If the rumors I’ve heard are true, it’s possible NASA might be able to select two missions from this excellent pile.

What are your picks?

DAUGHTER GOALS!💯💯💯

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No chill 😂

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