Tag: Mars
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How NASA plans to melt the Moon—and build on Mars
In June a four-person crew will enter a hangar at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and spend one year inside a 3D-printed building. Made of a slurry that—before it dried—looked like neatly laid lines of soft-serve ice cream, Mars Dune Alpha has crew quarters, shared living space, and dedicated areas for administering medical…
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Perseverance finds Mars river could have been ‘wilder,’ Mars Express takes new volcano images
May has been a big month for scientific discoveries on Mars, as NASA’s Perseverance rover has continued to find more convincing evidence of what could have once been a “deeper and faster-moving” river than data initially suggested. New images taken by the rover’s main camera show two mosaics of course sediment grains and tall, curving…
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Perseverance finds Mars river could have been ‘wilder,’ Mars Express takes new volcano images
May has been a big month for scientific discoveries on Mars, as NASA’s Perseverance rover has continued to find more convincing evidence of what could have once been a “deeper and faster-moving” river than data initially suggested. New images taken by the rover’s main camera show two mosaics of course sediment grains and tall, curving…
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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has now flown more than 50 times
NASA’s Perseverance rover glimpsed the Ingenuity helicopter earlier this month after the rotorcraft’s 50th flight. This view shows dust accumulation on the vehicle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter Ingenuity continues to outperform its design specifications, having now notched up more than 50 record-breaking forays across the Red Planet’s surface, 10 times as many flights…
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Emirati orbiter captures up-close view of Martian moon Deimos
The Martian moon Deimos, with the Red Planet in the background, was captured in imagery by the UAE’s Hope orbiter March 10. Credit: Emirates Mars Mission / MBRSC The United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe has seen the far side of the Martian moon Deimos up close for the first time, collecting compositional data suggesting it…
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Japanese space science missions facing delays after H3 rocket failure
The spacecraft for the Japanese-led X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, undergoes acoustic testing in Japan in December 2022. Credit: JAXA The launch of a Japanese X-ray telescope and robotic lunar lander has been delayed to no earlier than August, and the launch schedule for another Japanese mission to return samples from a moon…
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Blue Origin wins an order from NASA for launch of Mars magnetosphere mission
An artist’s conception shows ESCAPADE probes at Mars. (Rocket Lab / UC-Berkeley Illustration) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has won its first NASA order for a New Glenn rocket launch, with Mars as the mission’s ultimate destination. The task order calls on Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin to provide launch service for NASA’s Escape and…
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Perseverance completes sample return depot, Ingenuity continues flights
As the two-year landing anniversary of NASA’s Perseverance rover and its small scouting helicopter Ingenuity draws near, the pair continue to explore Jezero Crater and unlock the many secrets of the red planet. Perseverance recently completed a significant milestone as part of an effort to one day return Martian samples to Earth. Meanwhile, Ingenuity continues to defy all expectations as it flies…
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Arriving at Titan: How Dragonfly’s Entry, Descent, and Landing will differ from Mars missions
Since the focus on Martian exploration ramped up in the mid-1990s, most of the familiarity with the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) sequence of landers and rovers to the surface of other planets has taken place against the backdrop of Mars. But when NASA‘s upcoming Dragonfly mission arrives at Titan for its own EDL, it…
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InSight’s importance: Seismic measurements, new terrain highlight ground-breaking mission
NASA’s InSight lander, formally known as the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport mission, wrapped a four-year scientific expedition on Mars in December 2022 after the lander succumbed to low power levels. Throughout its mission, InSight studied Mars extensively, collecting a plethora of ground-breaking science on the planet’s interior and exterior geologic…