Tag: JPL
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Perseverance rover operating nominally in preparation for surface operations
After successfully touching down on the Martian surface on February 18, 2021, NASA teams have started the many checkouts required to begin operating the Perseverance rover. The mission touched down within five meters of their landing target (the landing target that was chosen by the terrain relative navigation system, not the pre-planned estimation), and several…
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First possible “survivor” planet orbiting a white dwarf seen via NASA telescopes
A potential planet… where no planet should be. An international team of astronomers utilizing NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and data obtained from the now-retired Spitzer space telescope have reported an astounding potential discovery of a surviving planet closely orbiting a white dwarf. So what’s the big deal? Scientists have found many exoplanets in close…
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Rust on the Moon. How is that possible without oxygen and liquid water?
Humanity’s fleet of robotic explorers peppered throughout the solar system continue to reveal new and exciting pieces of information regarding other members of the Sun’s stellar family. New research from India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission shows the Moon is rusting. The baffling discovery led scientists on an intriguing search for the answer to how this seemingly…
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Perseverance, Ingenuity begin seven month journey to Mars
United Launch Alliance has launched NASA’s latest mission to Mars: the Perseverance rover and accompanying Ingenuity helicopter. Liftoff of the third of our world’s three missions to Mars during the current interplanetary transfer window occurred Thursday, 30 July 2020 at the start of a two hour launch window that opens at 07:50 EDT. Mission history…
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Station marks milestone with creation of fifth state of matter in space
Aboard the International Space Station, Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken are preparing for two spacewalks that will finish a multi-year battery replacement operation outside the ISS. The new batteries will increase the outpost’s overall electrical efficiency and aid Station science utilization, which recently allowed scientists to create the fifth element of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate,…
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Year In Review (I): Planetary orbit successes mark inner solar system returns
Throughout the inner solar system in 2016, NASA, ESA, JAXA, Roscosmos, and ISRO built upon their prior year successes and demonstrated a coordinated and cooperative approach toward advancing scientific returns from around Earth’s immediate neighbors. For these agencies, non-Earth orbital exploration yielded surprising and dramatic changes to our views of the Sun, Venus, the Moon,…
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NASA eyes ion engines for Mars orbiter launching in 2022
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission captured this image of the red planet soon after arriving in September 2014. Credit: ISRO NASA officials want the agency’s next Mars orbiter to pull double duty as a communications relay station for a fleet of surface landers and as a trailblazer for a future round-trip sample return mission and human…
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Rover data suggest Mars crater once contained long-lived lake
This illustration depicts a lake of water partially filling Mars’ Gale Crater, receiving runoff from snow melting on the crater’s northern rim. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS Scientists analyzing imagery from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover believe sediments left by an ancient lake more than three billion years ago formed a towering mountain that is set to be…
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Curiosity marks completion of first Martian year of operations
Tuesday marks a milestone anniversary for NASA’s Curiosity rover – one full Martian year on the surface of the red planet. In the span of just 687 short Earth-days, Curiosity has marked several firsts and important scientific discoveries on Mars as she heads toward her primary scientific target of Mount Sharp in the Gale Crater.…
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InSight into NASA’s next Mars lander
This past week, NASA announced the approval of construction of the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander. Set to launch in 2016, InSight will study Mars’ interior structure and pave the way for an eventual manned mission to the Red Planet. Following Phoenix:InSight, to be constructed by Lockheed Martin, features…