Copernical Team
Where are the best places to land humans on Mars?
Want to go to Mars? Great, now all you need to do is plan a mission. Figure out where to land, what to bring, and how you're going to live there in the months (or years) between favorable return windows. All this will be determined by the availability of crucial resources you'll need to survive.
This is going to sound like a travel brochure, but the red planet offers so much to check out for a first human mission. There are canyons, plains, craters, volcanoes, and polar regions. So, where do you start first? It'll depend on what sort of mission you want to accomplish. A simple "plant boots and the flag" trip won't require a lot of infrastructure.
A more complex mission is going to need more infrastructure for habitats and science stations. Essentially, you'll land, build a habitat, explore the near neighborhood, establish a science outpost, and survive the radiation and environmental challenges of Mars.
NASA's Perseverance rover to begin building Martian sample depot
In the coming days, NASA's Perseverance rover is expected to begin building the first sample depot on another world. This will mark a crucial milestone in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign, which aims to bring Mars samples to Earth for closer study.
The depot-building process starts when the rover drops one of its titanium sample tubes carrying a chalk-size core of rock from its belly 2.9 feet (88.8 centimeters) onto the ground at an area within Jezero Crater nicknamed "Three Forks.
Temperature rising on Soyuz, crew not in danger
On Thursday, Russia's space agency Roscosmos and the US space agency NASA said a coolant leak had been detected on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The leak forced the last-minute cancellation of a spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts on Wednesday.
Roscosmos said that a number of tests had been conducted on Soyuz on Friday, and the temperature in the capsule increased to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
"This is a slight change in temperature," the space agency said in a statement.
The development was for now "not critical" for the operation of the equipment and the comfort of the crew, Roscosmos said.
The coolant leak could potentially affect a return flight to Earth by three crew members.
Sergei Krikalev, a former cosmonaut who heads the crewed space flight programme for Roscosmos, said the leak may have been caused by a tiny meteorite striking Soyuz.
Space has been a rare avenue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of Moscow's intervention in Ukraine in February and ensuing Western sanctions on Russia that shredded ties between the two countries.
Snowy Lapland and the white balloon
At this time of the year, the mention of Lapland conjures up visions of Santa getting his gift-laden sleigh and nine reindeer ready to take to the skies for the most important deliveries of all. However, the skies of Lapland have witnessed something rather different recently – a big white balloon, which may not provide the immediate gratification of a much-wanted Christmas present, but nonetheless plays a role in helping to safeguard our children’s future.
Week in images: 12-16 December 2022
Week in images: 12-16 December 2022
Discover our week through the lens
ESA Highlights 2022
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2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female ISS commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, Solar Orbiter’s first close encounter with our home star, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Let’s take a look at the highlights and accomplishments of the European Space Agency during 2022.
Advanced Air Mobility makes travel more accessible
Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2022
Imagine requesting an air taxi by app, like you do now with Uber or Lyft, to travel to your local airport - you could be soaring above road traffic and arrive much faster than driving.
Aviation industry creatives are already designing rideshare air services between home and the airport. New remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft will make air travel mor ZEP-RE and Planet collaborate on drought insurance program in Africa
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, have announced a new contract with ZEP-RE, a reinsurance company based in Nairobi, Kenya, to leverage Planet's Basemaps products to enhance drought risk protection in the Horn of Africa (HOA).
ZEP-RE aims to leverage PlanetScope 3-5 meter resolution imagery through Planet's analysis-ready, Surface Reflec Airbus delivers first Sentinel-4 air-monitoring instrument to ESA
Airbus Defence and Space has successfully delivered the first Sentinel-4/UVN (Ultraviolet, Visible and Near Infra-Red) multispectral instrument flight model to the European Space Agency (ESA). It will be integrated onto the Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite next year.
The instrument will continuously monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols from geostationary orb Airbus delivers MicroCarb instrument, the first European mission to measure atmospheric CO2
A special passenger crossed under the Channel this week: the MicroCarb instrument, en-route to be integrated with its satellite platform at RAL Space (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) in Oxfordshire, England.
MicroCarb is a small satellite designed to map sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2)-the most important greenhouse gas - on a global scale, to better understand the impact of CO2 p 
