Competition has always been at the heart of our efforts to reach the stars. Space exploration began as a kind of adjunct of the Cold War, and now we have three spacecraft from three different countries on their way to Mars. It’s less like the space race and more like a chill space party around the red planet. Here’s more from Astronomy Now:
The United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars probe, China’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft and NASA’s Perseverance rover are on the doorstep of Mars seven months after launch, all arriving within about a week of each other to open a new era in the exploration of the red planet.
UAE’s Hope orbiter is the first planetary probe launched by an Arab nation. It was on course to brake into orbit around Mars on 9 February, firing its thrusters for 27 minutes to slow down enough to slip into an elliptical “capture” orbit around the planet’s equator.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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