An illustration of a concept for a possible wind-powered Venus rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under a grant from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, is running a public challenge to develop an obstacle avoidance sensor for a possible future Venus rover.
The "Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover" challenge is seeking the public's designs for a sensor that could be incorporated into the design concept.
Venus is an extreme world. With a surface temperature in excess of 840 degrees Fahrenheit and a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth, Venus can turn lead into a puddle and crush a nuclear-powered submarine with ease.
While many missions have visited our sister planet, only about a dozen have made contact with the surface of Venus before quickly succumbing to the oppressive heat and pressure.
The last spacecraft to touch the planet's surface, the Soviet Vega 2, landed in 1985. Now, engineers and scientists at JPL are studying mission designs that can survive the hellish landscape.
"Earth and Venus are basically sibling planets, but Venus took a turn at one point and became inhospitable to life as we know it," said Jonathan Sauder, a senior mechatronics engineer at JPL and principal investigator for the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE) concept. "By getting on the ground and exploring Venus, we can understand what caused Earth and Venus to diverge on wildly different paths and can explore a foreign world right in our own backyard."
Exploring and studying different geologic units across the surface of Venus could help us understand the planet's evolution, and could contribute to a better understanding of Earth's climate.
Powered by wind, AREE is intended to spend months, not minutes, exploring the Venus landscape. AREE could collect valuable, long-term longitudinal scientific data. As the rover explores the planet, it must also detect obstacles in its path, such as rocks, crevices and steep terrain.
And NASA is crowdsourcing help for that sensor design. The challenge's winning sensor will be incorporated into the rover concept and could potentially one day be the mechanism by which a rover detects and navigates around obstructions.
The difficulty of this challenge is in designing a sensor that does not rely on electronic systems. Current state-of-the-art electronics fail at just over 250 degrees Fahrenheit and would easily succumb to the extreme Venus environment. That is why NASA is turning to the global community of innovators and inventors for a solution.
"This is an exciting opportunity for the public to design a component that could one day end up on another celestial body," said Ryon Stewart, challenge coordinator for the NASA Tournament Lab at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "NASA recognizes that good ideas can come from anywhere and that prize competitions are a great way to engage the public's interest and ingenuity and make space exploration possible for everyone."
Participants will have an opportunity to win a first-place prize of $15,000. Second place wins $10,000; and third place, $5,000. JPL is working with the NASA Tournament Lab to execute the challenge on the heroX crowdsourcing platform. Submissions will be accepted through May 29, 2020.
"When faced with navigating one of the most challenging terrestrial environments in the solar system, we need to think outside the box," Sauder said. "That is why we need the creativity of makers and garage inventors to help solve this challenge."
AREE is an early-stage research study funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, program within the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate, or STMD.
NIAC is a visionary and far-reaching aerospace program, one that has the potential to create breakthrough technologies for possible future space missions; however, such early-stage technology developments may never become actual NASA missions.
NASA Tournament Lab is part of NASA's Prizes and Challenges program within STMD. The program supports the use of public competitions and crowdsourcing as tools to advance NASA R&D and other mission needs.
Learn more about opportunities to participate in your space program at www.nasa.gov/solve.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A woman arrested nearly two years ago along with her husband in a human trafficking case involving the prostitution of teenage girls has been sentenced to felony probation in a plea agreement reached with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Shanda Harry sentenced Krystina Marie Pickersgill, 29, to three years’ felony probation in a court appearance last week, said District Attorney Susan Krones.
Krones said Pickersgill was sentenced for one human trafficking count, depriving a female victim, Jane Doe No. 1, of her personal liberty with the intent to obtain forced labor or services.
The case had a total of five victims, but the plea agreement involved just one of them. Seven other charges for human trafficking and prostitution dropped were dropped as part of the agreement, Krones said.
In June 2018, at the end of a two-month-long investigation by the District Attorney’s Office, Pickersgill and her husband Sam Massette were arrested and charged with human trafficking after investigators concluded the couple had been selling local girls into prostitution in the Bay Area, as Lake County News has reported.
That spring, a young woman who has been the victim of a human trafficking operation run by Massette and Pickersgill approached a California Highway Patrol officer Krones was with at a production of “Jane Doe in Wonderland,” a play about human trafficking presented at the Soper Reese Theater in Lakeport.
“So that just basically fell into our laps,” Krones said of the case.
The victim came to the District Attorney’s Office the following week to speak to investigators, and that began the case, Krones said.
District Attorney’s Office offers same plea agreement twice
That original agreement offered Pickersgill – who had no previous criminal record – three years of probation, credit for the four months previously served in the Lake County Jail following her arrest and mental health treatment. Anderson said at the time that if she failed to complete the probation terms, she faced up to 12 years in prison.
Anderson made the agreement based on the conclusion that Massette had taken Pickersgill off of medication for mental health issues and coerced her into prostitution. Later, Anderson said she became a willing participant in recruiting high school girls who were taken to the Bay Area, where they were coerced and threatened to perform acts of prostitution.
Anderson also made a plea deal with Massette, who Judge Michael Lunas sentenced in December 2018 to 20 years in prison for human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and two counts of pimping women in prostitution, along with ordering him to register as a sex offender for life. With credits and time served, Massette is expected to serve a total of nine years in prison.
In January 2019, however, Judge J. David Markham refused to accept Pickersgill’s plea, which she later withdrew.
What followed last year was a series of rescheduled hearings and ongoing consideration of the defense request for mental health diversion, which Krones said the court ultimately denied.
Krones said she had reviewed the entire case file because of previous court proceedings in regard to the mental health diversion program. Judge Harry also reviewed the file.
“We offered the same previous offer that we had made,” Krones said, referring to the original plea agreement that Anderson had offered Pickersgill about a year and a half ago.
At the Feb. 14 court appearance, Pickersgill accepted the offer by pleading to one charge of Penal Code 236.1(a), depriving Jane Doe No. 1 of her personal liberty with the intent to obtain forced labor or services. It was the same charge she had pleaded to previously, Krones said.
As a result of that plea, Krones said the other seven counts were dismissed.
Krones said Judge Harry used a sentencing report that had previously been completed by the Lake County Probation Department as the basis of the sentencing, since there had been no changes in the case.
That report – as well as the investigative report on the case – indicated that Pickersgill had started out as a victim. Krones said that even though Pickersgill later had begun participating in the crimes, she was under Massette’s control.
“He really manipulated her in many different ways,” Krones said, noting Massette was profiting from and directing the human trafficking.
Krones said Pickersgill gets no credit in the probation for the 240 days of time served in the jail. Pickersgill’s probation began on Feb. 14, the day of the sentencing.
Pickersgill has to follow numerous probation terms, Krones said, and as such is subject to search and seizure, has to go to counseling as ordered by the Probation Department, has to get services they determine she needs, she can be drug tested and she has to fill out monthly reports about where she is living and if her situation has changed, among other requirements.
Lake County News spoke with one of the five victims in the case, Jane Doe No. 2, about the outcome of Pickersgill’s case.
“I really don't have much to say when it comes to her involvement. I know people that are the best of friends with her and portray her really as a naive victim with a heart of gold. Personally I feel there is no way that you don't understand what you're convincing these young women to do, even if you feel it's their free will choice,” she said of Pickersgill.
The young woman, who had opposed Massette’s sentencing agreement, said her “true feelings of disgust with the justice system, or better yet injustice, lie solely” with Massette’s sentencing.
Krones said her office continues to track human trafficking cases, with her investigators constantly following up on leads.
She said it’s sometimes not easy to get individuals to come forward, change their lives and get out from under the main perpetrator.
The District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating several human trafficking cases, but Krones said none are ready to charge yet.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Firefighters, Caltrans workers and law enforcement officials at the scene of a four-car crash near Hopland, California, that injured three people on Thursday, February 20, 2020. Photo courtesy of the California Highway Patrol’s Ukiah Area office. NORTH COAST, Calif. – An Upper Lake man sustained major injuries on Thursday morning when his car was hit by three different vehicles during a crash on Highway 101.
Edgar Moso, 26, was injured in the wreck that occurred just after 8 a.m. Thursday on Highway 101 north of Old River Road near Hopland, the California Highway Patrol’s Ukiah Area office reported.
Also injured in the crash were drivers Michelle Galindo, 22, of Arcata, who sustained moderate injuries, and Jonathan Balderas, 28, of Pittsburg, who had minor injuries, the CHP said.
The CHP said that David Tankersley, 35, of Santa Rosa was driving a 2005 Ford F-150 pickup northbound on Highway 101 near the Green Bridge at approximately 55 to 60 miles per hour when, for an unknown reason, he let the Ford veer to the left and cross over the solid-double yellow lines and partially enter the highway’s southbound traffic lane.
Moso was driving his 2019 Volkswagen Jetta at an unknown speed southbound and was struck head-on by Tankersley’s pickup, the CHP said.
After being hit, Moso’s Volkswagen went out of control and entered the northbound lane where it was struck head-on again, this time by a 2016 Freightliner tow truck driven by Balderas, the CHP said.
The CHP reported that Moso’s vehicle was hit a third time by Galindo’s 2020 Ford Fusion, who was driving southbound.
Moso and Galindo were both transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of their injuries. Tankersley and Balderas were treated and released at the scene; the CHP said Tankersley was uninjured and Balderas had minor injuries and sought his own medical care.
All four drivers were wearing their seat belts, the CHP reported.
The CHP had issued alerts on Thursday morning about the crash. The roadway was under one-way controlled traffic for about three hours.
None of the vehicles could be driven after the crash and had to be towed from the scene, the CHP said.
After the collision, there was a minor fuel spill that the CHP said was handled by Caltrans and Mendocino County Environmental Health.
Other agencies the CHP said also responded to the scene included the Hopland Fire District, Cloverdale Fire District, Ukiah Valley Fire District, Medstar Ambulance, Cloverdale Ambulance and REACH helicopter.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lucerne Elementary School District is seeking community members interested in serving on a committee to oversee the expenditures of a 2016 bond.
Voters approved the $4 million Measure A bond to improve Lucerne Elementary facilities in November 2016.
On Dec. 3, 2019, the district issued a bond sale, series A 2019, in the amount of $2,920,000, leaving approximately $1.1 million for future sales under the measure A authorization.
The district is presently accepting applications from interested persons, on a voluntary basis, to serve on the committee, which will oversee the bond expenditures.
The committee will consist of seven members which meet and review reports prepared by district staff relating to bond fund expenditures to ensure money is used on voter-approved projects.
In addition to two members of the community at large, there must be at least one member from each of the following groups:
• One member who is active in a business organization representing the business community located within the school district; • One member who is active in a senior citizen's organization; • One member who is the parent or guardian of a child enrolled in the school district; • One member who is the parent or guardian of a child enrolled in the school district and is active in a parent-teacher organization; • One member who is active in a bona-fide taxpayer's organization.
Maintaining a committee to review expenditures is required by law and was promised to district voters as part of the transparency and accountability provisions in the bond measures.
Interested persons may obtain an application from the superintendent’s office, located at 3351 Country Club Drive, Lucerne, or download the application from the district’s website at www.lucerne.k12.ca.us.
Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2020, at the office of the superintendent.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has three horses that are in need of new homes.
The horses were taken in from the Lower Lake area in early November and were later cleared for adoption.
The following horses are being offered to new homes. Call the shelter for more information.
This quarter horse mare is in corral No. 2, ID No. 13222. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Adult female quarter horse
This quarter horse mare has a short bay coat and black mane, with white markings.
She is in corral No. 2, ID No. 13222.
This quarter horse colt is in corral No. 2b, ID No. 13223. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Quarter horse colt
This quarter horse colt has a short red coat, blond mane and white markings.
He is in corral No. 2b, ID No. 13223.
This quarter horse filly is in corral No. 3, ID No. 13211. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Quarter horse filly
This quarter horse filly has a bay and black coat, a black mane and white markings.
She is in corral No. 3, ID No. 13211.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A second candidate has joined the race for Lake County Superior Court judge.
On Tuesday, Lisa M. Proffitt-O'Brien, a felony prosecutor with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office, officially joined the race.
She submitted the necessary paperwork and signatures to run as a write-in candidate in the March 3 primary, according to interim Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley.
Proffitt-O'Brien joins incumbent Judge J. David Markham, who is running to retain his seat, also as a write-in candidate.
Markham, who was appointed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown and took office in February 2018, missed the December filing deadline that was months earlier due to the presidential primary taking place in March, rather than June, as Lake County News has reported.
The deadline to sign up to be a qualified write-in candidate was 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Proffitt-O’Brien said she submitted the needed signatures on Tuesday while on her lunch break that day.
Fridley said that Proffitt-O’Brien submitted more than the necessary number of signatures but elections staff – busy on Tuesday with the last name of voter registration for the primary – didn’t have time to verify them that day.
On Wednesday, Fridley told Lake County News that elections staff had completed the process to verify the signatures, which confirms Proffitt-O’Brien as a qualified write-in candidate.
In addition to the other necessary paperwork, Fridley said Proffitt-O'Brien submitted a bar certificate proving she’s worked as a lawyer for at least 10 years, a requirement to run for judge in California.
No other candidates have filed paperwork to be write-in candidates, Fridley said.
District Attorney Susan Krones told Lake County News that Proffitt-O'Brien has worked for her office since about the spring of last year. Proffitt-O'Brien previously worked as a contract public defender for the county.
The State Bar of California’s records show that Proffitt-O’Brien studied law at the Empire College School of Law in Santa Rosa.
While write-in candidates can join the race far later than other candidates, their names will not appear on the printed ballots, as Lake County News has reported.
Fridley said write-in candidates must educate voters about the need to write in the candidate’s name in the blank box next to the office of Lake County Superior Court judge on the ballot and then check the box next to the name.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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