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Z is for Zoozve

Erin Penn Leave a comment

ZOOZVE ON A SOLAR SYSTEM POSTER The children’s Solar System that features Zoozve, Venus’s quasi-moon.

Image: Alex Foster / Latif Nasser (from the interweb – space.com)

Did you know that Venus has a moon? Well, sort-of, not really, but kind-of. Venus has a “quasi-moon”, something that had been predicted, but never spotted out in the universe until 2002. How quasi-moons work: they are an asteroid that stays within a planetary body’s orbit instead of fully orbiting the local star. Instead they develop a complex orbit where the planet’s and the star’s gravity fields interact.

Below – Blue is earth, Green is mercury, the center is the sun, white is Venus and the purple is 524522 Zoozve. (Source: Data source: HORIZONS System, JPL, NASA, Heavily influenced by the work of Phoenix7777  — This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. (Wikipedia))

524522 Zoozve rotating frame planets

The quasi-moon also doubles as a near-Earth asteroid, since it crosses Earth’s path, and because of its size, “Zoozve is considered a potentially hazardous object, although it is not predicted to impact the Earth.” (Howells)

How Zoozve got its name is truly delightful. The astronomer, Brian Skiff, discovered the quasi-moon in 2002 – and the designation of “2002VE68” was applied. Later (I can’t find when, google failed me, but later than 2002 and before 2024), Alex Foster was hired to draw a Solar System poster. During research preparing for the poster trying to get the names of all the moons of the solar system, he ran across the mention of a moon for Venus and wrote 2002VE 68 in his notes. I guess his handwriting isn’t as good as his drawing – because when he went back through, he copied the name as Zoozve and put the object beside Venus marked like the other full moons had been marked.

Latif Nasser, a co-host of the science podcast Radiolab, saw the poster in his young son’s room and noticed what seemed to be an error and after confirming Venus did not have a moon with NASA because he knew a gal … and then finding out about the quasi-moon situation, he contacted Brian Skiff and proposed a name switch. The discoverer said “sure” and sent it off to the naming body for celestial objects on October 12, 2023. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) okayed the change in February 2024. (Ravisetti)

Zoozve was the first quasi-moon to be discovered. Others have been discovered and joined the category since then, including several in Earth’s plane.

Well, that ends this year’s A-to-Z blog tour. Thanks to everyone for visiting and y’all have a great year.

#AtoZChallenge 2025 letter Z

Bibliography

Howells, Kate. “What is Venus’ quasi-moon Zoozve?” The Planetary Society. 2024 February 12. (https://www.planetary.org/articles/venus-quasi-moon-zoozve – last viewed 5/21/2024)

Ravisetti, Monisha. “Zoozve – the strange ‘moon’ of Venus that earned its name by accident.” Space.com. 2024 February 6. (https://www.space.com/venus-quasi-moon-zoozve-radiolab-nasa – last viewed 5/21/2024)

Wikipedia. “524522 Zoozve.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/524522_Zoozve – last viewed 5/21/2024)

 

X is for eXposure (just work with me on this one)

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind 

When it is okay not to be paid:

  1. Creating your own marketing (such as a blog).
  2. Deciding to write fanfic in an existing universe because it is fun. Singing for the joy of it. Painting to paint, instead of working on cover art.
  3. Helping friends / others grow (because you want to).
  4. Exchange of skill sets in a de minimis manner (example: trading critique reads) – legal definition of de minimis applies – watch out doing stuff as “make a cover for a developmental edit”; trading the larger stuff is a Tax Event, and while such exchanges are legal, the actions need to be recorded under both income and expenses.
  5. Anything else creative you decide of your own free will with no coercion to so, while being able to keep a roof over your head and food on your table.

When it is not okay not to be paid:

  1. The person is using you for marketing to produce money or enjoyment for THEM without an EQUAL (or appropriate trade – not all trades need to be equal, they do need to be equitable) benefit for you.
  2. The company is using you as a draw to increase income (without giving you the opportunity to earn appropriate income to services given) – example, paneling at a con is a TRADE of exposure as marketing and networking; this would be fine; a bookstore asking you to do a reading without being willing to carry your books, not so much. A coffee shop asking you to sing (and, oh, you can put out a hat), not good; YouTube providing a platform to upload your songs to show the world, while they collect adverting money – acceptable.
  3. Family expecting you to do things requiring a lot of prep time, without recompense. Example: showing up at a potluck, everyone brings something is fair; expected to sing at every wedding – to a special chosen song which you have to learn, practice, show up for at rehearsal, and arrive early at the wedding in a special outfit does not equal a rehearsal dinner (maybe) and the reception.
  4. People thinking general “exposure” meets the requirement of targeted marketing.
  5. When you are exhausted, don’t have time, and feel guilted for “not helping”. In this case, no one is taking advantage of you but you. STOP IT! (Creativity takes energy, it needs to be renewed by taking a break!)

When someone asks you to do something for “exposure”, stop a moment and change the word to “marketing”. Does it meet your marketing plan? Does it take you off in an unexpected direction for marketing you hadn’t thought of? Then, yes, good exposure. Otherwise, the answer is no.

T is for Toyota RV Lunar Life

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota working together – picture from the Interweb

Since 2019, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota have been working together to create an recreational vehicle (RV) knockoff for off-roading on the moon, not that the moon has a lot of roads. Named “Lunar Cruiser” after the Toyota famous Land Cruiser, the pressurized rover (a glorified camper van crossed with a mobile lab unit) will allow astronauts to spend several days on the surface of the moon at a time exploring and experimenting. (Note: All the American and scientific websites are saying “days”, the Toyota website says “approximately a month”. That is some ambitious goals they got there.)

America and Japan have signed treaties (which hopefully future presidents will not renege on) to bring the rover to the moon. America is also developing a smaller, non-pressurized rover, similar to the beach buggy used in the past where spacesuits will be required to ride. The plan is to have all of these vehicles on-line for the later Artemis moon landings – around 2030.

The really cool part is the Lunar Cruiser is expected to have a ten-year life span. Once it has touched down on the moon, it will be reused for multiple missions. (And we know how long Toyota products usually last beyond their intended lifespan!)

Solar panels in the tubes stored on its side will allow the vehicle to charge when not in motion and between missions.

Now to get into all the technology being developed for the moon Land Cruiser which will also benefit us here on earth:

  1. Not directly mentioned on the Toyota website but clearly shown on the videos are the new ever-inflated tires used in construction, only metal version instead of rubber since rubber doesn’t do well in moon temperature extremes and airless surface. Air pressurized wheels aren’t the best for a moon environment. (Bridgestone Corporation is helping with these.)
  2. Reducing strain on the astronauts working by making most of the driving automated. Yep, an automated “car” specifically build for off-the-road consideration (and 1/6 gravity). The astronauts will only need to intervene for the hardest parts. – technologies feeding into this include “radio signal navigation, safe driving route generation, an intuitive driving control, <and> driving assistance with a superimposed display.” (Toyota)
  3. With the cruiser being automated (for the most part), when astronauts aren’t in residence, the vehicle can still explore the surface whenever the cruiser is on the sunlight side of the moon. – For earth technology benefits: “remote and automated scanning of disaster areas or goods transportation in dangerous zones.” (Toyota)
  4. Rollover prevention.
  5. The deployable solar panels can also help make Earth-side vehicles more sustainable for remote villages and refugee camps.

Are you reading to go on some serious off-the-road RV-ing? I know I am.

Bibliography 

Nevistanegocios. “Lunar Cruiser’: El Vehiculo de Exploracion Espacial Tripulado de Toyota y Jaxa ya Tiene Nombre.” 2020 September 7. (https://revistanegocios.es/lunar-cruiser-el-vehiculo-de-exploracion-espacial-tripulado-de-toyota-y-jaxa-ya-tiene-nombre/ – last viewed 5/22/2024)

Pearlman, Robert Z. “Japanese astronauts will join NASA moon landings in return for lunar rover.” space.com. 2024 April 11. (https://www.space.com/japan-astronauts-moon-rover-artemis-agreement – last viewed 5/22/2024)

Smith, Marcia. “Biden and Kishida: First Non-US Astronaut on the Moon will be Japanese.” SpacePolicyOnline.com. Updated 2024 April 11. (https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/biden-and-kishida-first-non-us-astronaut-on-the-moon-will-be-japanese/ – last viewed 5/22/2024)

Toyota. “Toyota’s Lunar Cruiser from Earth to the moon and back.” 2023 August 30. (https://www.toyota-europe.com/news/2023/lunar-cruiser – last viewed 5/22/2024)

Toyota Motor Corporation. “Pressurized Rover (New Image) Movie.” 2023 October 30. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkJv3ciCf3M – embedded link above)

ZigWheels. “Meet Toyota Lunar Cruiser, the one built for the moon.” 2020 August 21. (https://www.zigwheels.my/car-news/meet-toyota-lunar-cruiser-the-one-built-for-the-moon – last viewed 5/22/2024) – I think the author of the article is Purva Jain.