Tag: Mars
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NASA loses contact with its dust-choked Opportunity rover on Mars, but stay tuned
This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the sun from the Opportunity rover’s point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity’s current view in the current dust storm. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / TAMU) News Brief: NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars has lost touch with its handlers back…
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Opportunity hunkers down as dust storm descends over the intrepid little rover
For the second time in its career, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is hunkering down on the Red Planet and foregoing scientific operations as a dust storm whirls around the intrepid little rover. Opportunity weathered – with some difficulty – a massive, global dust storm in 2007, remarkably surviving despite extremely low power levels generated…
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More signs of past — and possibly present — habitability of Mars
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Credit: NASA/GSFC NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, slowly making its way up the side of a towering mountain of sedimentary rock at the center of its Gale Crater landing site, has found fresh evidence for the red planet’s past — and possibly present — habitability, scientists reported Thursday. The…
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NASA’s Curiosity rover tracks down organic molecules and methane on Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover snaps a self-portrait on Mars’ Vera Rubin Ridge in February. The rover used a camera mounted on its robotic arm to take the pictures that went into this mosaic. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS Photo) The latest evidence for methane and other organic chemicals on Mars isn’t the smoking gun for life…
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Scientists resume use of Curiosity rover’s drill and internal lab instruments
NASA’s Curiosity rover successfully drilled a 2-inch-deep hole in a target called “Duluth” on May 20. It was the first rock sample captured by the drill since October 2016. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Using new drilling techniques after a stalled electrical motor halted sampling operations on Mars, the Curiosity rover has delivered rock powder to one of…
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Five ‘Martian’ miscues to fix in space flicks
Astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) climbs through a hatch in his pressurized rover in a scene from “The Martian.” (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.) LOS ANGELES — Planetary scientist Pascal Lee could give astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson a good run for his money when it comes to truth-squadding movie depictions of space missions.…
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First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
Artist’s concept of the MarCO CubeSats. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Two CubeSats developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon. The twin spacecraft have already set a distance record for CubeSats, and they…
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Smallest interplanetary probe snaps a picture of our Pale Blue Dot (and the moon)
The nanosatellite known as MarCO-B or WALL-E took this picture of Earth and the moon from a distance of more than 620,000 miles. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Photo) You don’t have to fly beyond the orbit of Neptune to see our home planet as a Pale Blue Dot. One of the first nanosatellites to travel beyond…
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Helicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet
Artist’s concept of the Mars Helicopter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday. Promising results from recent ground testing and a funding boost provided by a new NASA budget passed by Congress…
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NASA adds a drone to its 2020 Mars rover
An artist’s conception shows the Mars Helicopter. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Illustration) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has given the thumbs-up to putting a helicopter on Mars. The Mars Helicopter, which is actually more of an autonomous drone, will be packed into the belly pan of a Red Planet rover that’s due for launch in 2020. For…