The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is collecting samples in search of signs of ancient microbial life, which would advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The samples are set to return to Earth no earlier than 2031, as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency. Before the rover went to space, NASA and its engineers worked hard to prevent Earth's microbes from contaminating Mars. Now, before the samples collected by the rover return to Earth, Florida Atlantic University is helping NASA design protocols for sterilizing Mars material and protecting our biosphere.

Gregg Fields, Ph.D., executive director of FAU's Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-HEALTH) and a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, is working in collaboration with a team of scientists to ensure a "microbe-free" return of Mars samples in a vessel with multiple layers of protection.

At about 8:48 a.m. EST, a specialized radiator assembly necessary for Webb's science instruments to reach their required low and stable operating temperatures deployed successfully. The Aft Deployable Instrument Radiator, or ADIR, is a large, rectangular, 4- by 8-foot panel, consisting of high-purity aluminum subpanels covered in painted honeycomb cells to create an ultra-black surface. The ADIR, which swings away from the backside of the telescope like a trap door on hinges, is connected to the instruments via flexible straps made of high-purity aluminum foil. The radiator draws heat out of the instruments and dumps it overboard to the extreme cold background of deep space.

The deployment of the ADIR—a process that released a lock to allow the panel to spring into position—took about 15 minutes.

Webb's final series of major deployments is planned to start tomorrow, Jan. 7, with the rotation into position of the first of two primary mirror wings. The second primary mirror wing—Webb's final major spacecraft deployment—is planned for Saturday, Jan. 8.

"Space now," was what Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to tweet for years. He finally really did it, from the International Space Station.

"The space market holds so much potential," he said Friday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo, his first news conference in Japan after returning to earth before Christmas.

Maezawa, who heads a company called Start Today, is preparing to invest in various businesses which may develop from the ongoing research by NASA, the Japanese equivalent called JAXA and others.