Third of July

DAISY DEW: Summer weather seems to be on hiatus the past couple of days. The dozens of daisies all along our driveway were covered with dew this morning.

The good news is, our waterways and forests can use the rain, and it might even help keep some Fourth of July fireworks fires at bay.

GRAND DESIGN: Here and there, I see stories about Detective Cookie's Chess Park, and I'm still blown away seeing so many people wear shirts with Annabelle's design on them. They look great (said the unbiased mother)!
https://southseattleemerald.com/2019/06/24/kids-take-home-the-win-at-chess-competition-against-seattle-police/?fbclid=IwAR1xqCm_5wpgJXlvmFVBF65nNKA6efyOF7jxspiqa0OHcNj9Yns1jku5NCU

NASA NEARBY: News from NASA - our nation's space agency has launched a new website where you can find NASA connections close to home.

Called NASA in the 50 States, the site allows you to click on any state on a map of the U.S. to see how that state is important to the study of space and Earth science.

From it, we learned that at least seven NASA astronauts have been born in the state of Washington. They are: Michael Barratt, Bonnie Dunbar, Richard Gordon, Gregory Johnson, Anne McClain, Stephen Oswald and Dick Scobee.

You can check out the site here: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/nasainthe50states/

HOLEY MOLEY: There's trouble on Mars. Specifically, with the "mole," or digging instrument on  NASA's InSight lander. 

(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)n Mars.

The "mole" started digging back in late February of this year. However, it soon appeared to be stuck, which forced the mission team to command the mole to sit idly by while engineers worked toward a solution. 

To that goal, on June 28, InSight's robotic arm was used to remove the mole's surrounding support structure, giving the team a look at the mole, which they hope will help them figure out what the technical difficulties are. 

To date, the "mole" has only been able to dig down about 12 inches (30 centimeters), nowhere near the depth it was designed to dig.

Meanwhile, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has speculated that the Martian soil may be posing problems. Specifically, the material where the lander is may not be giving the necessary kind of friction that would allow it to balance the recoil from the mole's self-hammering motion. Instead, it might be bouncing in place rather than digging, said a NASA expert.  If that's the case, that could be a formidable challenge to overcome.