NASA to launch ‘Mars mission’ on Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
Nasa, the American space agency, awarded a significant contract to Jeff Bezos` Blue Origin to launch a trip to Mars. The mission to explore the magnetic field surrounding the Red Planet was offered by NASA to the private space corporation as its first interplanetary contract. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2024.
The mission, dubbed the dual-spacecraft ESCAPADE, will be launched next year on Blue Origin’s recently developed New Glenn heavy-lift rocket. The mission will lift off in late 2024 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is part of Nasa’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
New Glenn, with a reusable first stage designed to be flown on at least 25 missions, is named for pioneering NASA astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962. Blue Origin has flown previous NASA missions with its smaller, suborbital New Shepard rocket, which can carry research payloads on short, microgravity trips to the edge of space and back.
ESCAPADE is a twin-spacecraft Class D mission that will study solar wind energy transfer through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere. “Blue Origin was on-ramped to the NASA VADR launch services Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract on January 26, 2022, with a five-year period of performance,” the Bezos-led company said in a statement.
It will take the identical twin ESCAPADEs, short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, about 11 months to reach Mars orbit.
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WHO confirms outbreak of Deadly Marburg Virus: Know details about the Virus
A WHO emergency conference is called in response to the Marburg virus outbreak in Equatorial Guinea. See more information on the deadly Marburg virus below.
All about Marburg Virus:
Marburg virus disease (MVD), formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, is severe, often fatal in humans.
The virus causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever in humans.
The average fatality rate is around 50%.
Rehydration, and symptomatic treatment improves survival.
There is no licensed treatment against the virus, but a range of blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are currently under development.
Rousettus aegyptiacus, fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, are considered to be natural hosts of Marburg virus.
The Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through human-to-human transmission.
Marburg and Ebola viruses are both members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus).
Two large outbreaks that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, led to the initial recognition of the disease.
Symptoms of Marburg virus are high fever, severe headache and severe malaise. Muscle aches and pains are a common feature. Severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramping, nausea and vomiting can begin on the third day. Diarrhoea can persist for a week.
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