Tag: Mars
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Year In Review, 2017 (Part II): Rovers, orbiters peel away Mars’ secrets & reveal new mysteries
For solar and space weather science, 2017 was a major boon to understanding how Coronal Mass Ejections form, travel through space, and affect Earth. But Earth wasn’t the only planet this year that gave scientists a front row seat to solar storms. Thanks to the fleet of orbiters and rovers at Mars, the Red Planet…
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A car for Mars: Elon Musk shows Tesla Roadster revving up for Falcon Heavy liftoff
Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster is nestled within the payload shroud for a Falcon Heavy rocket. (Elon Musk via Instagram) After a flurry of speculation, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is showing off his midnight cherry-red Tesla Roadster sports car as it’s being prepared for its ride atop a Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff from Launch Complex…
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Moon, Mars and jobs: Trump puts his spin on space policy, with details to come
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt gives an astronaut figurine to President Donald Trump after the signing of Space Policy Directive 1. Among the onlookers at far right are Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the U.S. record for cumulative time spent in space. A sample of lunar rock collected…
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Yes, Elon Musk will launch Tesla Roadster to Mars orbit on SpaceX Falcon Heavy
An artist’s conception shows the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. (SpaceX via YouTube) Update: After a bit of back and forth, SpaceX is confirming that the Roadster to Mars is a real payload, and that it intends to comply with all launch licensing regulations. Previously: Billionaire CEO Elon Musk tweeted out the idea of putting a cherry-red…
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Elon Musk says SpaceX will try to launch his Tesla Roadster on new heavy-lift rocket
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Dec. 2 with further confirmation, and details about the Roadster’s target orbit. The interstage of SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket pictured inside the company’s factory last year in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his red Tesla Roadster will head for deep space on…
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Scientists suggest streaks on Martian hillsides are dry flows
This inner slope of a Martian crater has several of the seasonal dark streaks called “recurrent slope lineae,” or RSL, that a November 2017 report interprets as granular flows, rather than darkening due to flowing water. The image is from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS Intermittent flows that appear on…
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Mars InSight mission passes TVAC testing ahead of 2018 launch
NASA’s “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight)” mission has received another boost ahead of launch, as the spacecraft passed its Thermal vacuum (TVAC) milestone in Colorado. The mission remains on track for May of next year, which will involve the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast. InSight Mission: The latest battery…
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NASA confirms contribution to Japanese-led Mars mission
Artist’s concept of the MMX spacecraft at Phobos. Credit: JAXA/NASA NASA announced Thursday it will fund development of a scientific instrument that will fly on Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration mission, a robotic probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars’ largest moon Phobos. A neutron and gamma-ray spectrograph developed…
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Trickles of water on Mars? Scientists say they’re more likely to be trickles of sand
Recurring slope lineae appear as dark streaks in this picture from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona / Lujendra Ojha et al. / Geophysical Research Letters) Scientists have long been intrigued by what seem to be wet streaks that appear on the slopes of Martian craters…
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Moon vs. Mars and asteroids: Watch space advocates debate where we should go
Moon Express chairman Naveen Jain gestures during a debate with Planetary Resources’ Chris Lewicki and space policy analyst John Logsdon, at right. The Economist’s deputy editor, Tom Standage, stands in as moderator at left. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) SpaceX founder Elon Musk has famously said he’d like to die on Mars — “just not on…