Tag: Mars
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Perseverance rover will go to Mars with a monument to COVID-19 medical teams
An engineer attaches a plaque paying tribute to medical workers on the chassis of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is due for launch to Mars as early as next month. (NASA via YouTube) When NASA’s Perseverance rover lands in Mars’ Jezero Crater next February, it’ll be carrying a tribute to the medical community and their work…
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Photos: NASA’s Perseverance rover buttoned up for launch
The Perseverance rover is enclosed within its aeroshell for launch. Credit: NASA/Christian Mangano NASA’s Perseverance rover has been closed up inside its protective aeroshell, the structure that will protect the spacecraft when it plunges into the Martian atmosphere, in preparation for launch no earlier than July 20 from Cape Canaveral. The six-wheeled Mars rover was…
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Fitted with super-clean sample tubes, NASA’s next Mars rover nears launch date
Technicians installed sample collection tubes into NASA’s Perseverance rover May 21 before launch to Mars in July. Credit: NASA/JPL The Perseverance rover’s sterilized sample tubes — designed to seal Martian rock and sediment for eventual return to Earth — are installed on the spacecraft as teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center prepare to enclose the…
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After crane problem, ULA caps build-up of Atlas 5 rocket for Mars rover launch
The first stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, seen here with its RD-180 engine, is lifted into position on a mobile launch platform inside ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: Kim Shiflett/NASA United Launch Alliance has completed stacking of the major elements of the Atlas 5 rocket…
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Launch preparations continue for NASA’s next Mars rover
NASA’s Perseverance rover is seen underneath its back shell inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29. Credit: NASA JPL/Christian Mangano On track for launch from Cape Canaveral in July, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been secured to its rocket-powered descent stage and back shell, part of the…
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NASA takes high-school student’s suggestion and gives Mars Helicopter a new name: Ingenuity
Picking up on a suggestion from an Alabama high-school junior, NASA has given an ingenious name to the first helicopter due to take flight on Mars. The new name, Ingenuity, was submitted by Vaneeza Rupani of Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Ala., for NASA’s “Name the Rover” essay contest. NASA went with a different…
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UAE-built Mars orbiter arrives at launch site ahead of July liftoff
An Emirati-built Mars explorer, named Al Amal (“Hope” in English) and developed by engineers at the Mohammed bin Rashed Space Centre, has been shipped to the JAXA-run Tanegashima Space Center for final checkouts and preparations ahead of its launch aboard an H-IIA rocket. The launch window for this mission is currently scheduled to open July…
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NASA narrows design for rocket to launch samples off of Mars
This illustration shows a concept of how the NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle, carrying tubes containing rock and soil samples, could be launched from the surface of Mars in one step of the Mars sample return mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Catlech After years of studies, test-firings and a survey of U.S. industry in preparation for launch of a…
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Ground teams fuel Perseverance rover landing system, attach Mars Helicopter
The Mars Helicopter was installed on NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover April 6 inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/JPL Working under the cloud of the global coronavirus pandemic, technicians and engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center have installed a rotor-driven drone on the agency’s next Mars rover…
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Perseverance Mars rover in critical pre-launch testing at Kennedy
With its launch just over three months away, NASA’s Perseverance rover is undergoing final critical pre-launch testing and checkouts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The series of verification and validation activities not only occurred on the rover itself but also on the helicopter it will take with it to the Red Planet. Presently,…