Roscosmos and ESA test “Rosalind Franklin” Mars rover, Hubble telescope explains a mystery and near collision crisis averted in space

Testing “Rosalind Franklin” Mars rover

On November 26th, Roscosmos (the Russian federal space agency) announced that the ExoMars 2022 rover named “Rosalind Franklin” is undergoing a test in the “Rover Operations Control Center” in Italy. The test is done using a duplicate model of the original rover, and is targeting the tasks done by the rover immediately after landing on Mars.

Image Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The ExoMars 2020 is a collaboration mission between Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA), and is a part of a larger partnership between the two agencies to explore the red planet and study its subsurface. The rover itself is designed and built by ESA, while Roscosmos is responsible for building the descent module which helps the rover land safely and smoothly.

Hubble explains a mystery

NASA announced on the 27th of November that the Hubble Space Telescope has participated in solving the mystery of missing dark matter in two previously observed galaxies: “NGC 1052-DF2” back in 2018, and “NGC 1052-DF4” back in 2019.

The missing dark matter was such a surprise giving how important of an element it is in galaxy formation. Scientists used observations from Hubble alongside the “Gran Telescopio Canarias” telescope and the “IAC80” telescope and found that one of the galaxies under study (NGC 1052-DF4) is affected and torn apart by the gravity of another nearby galaxy in a process called “tidal disruption” which results in the removal of dark matter.

Crisis averted in space - near collision of Russian and Indian satellites

Roscosmos announced on the 27th of November that an Indian remote sensing satellite called “CARTOSAT 2F” came as close as 224 meters (almost 735 feet) to the Russian “Kanopus-V” spacecraft that’s also designed for remote sensing.

Roscosmos and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) are both monitoring the situation of the satellites and so far there is no danger of collision. Additionally, ISRO chairman stated that Interfering using space maneuvers will only be considered in case of a 150-meter approach between the two satellites.