Tag: Mars
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Return engagement? NASA picks its three favorite landing spots for 2020 Mars rover
An artist’s conception shows the 2020 Mars rover with its robotic arm extended. (NASA / JPL Graphic) NASA has whittled down its choices for its next Mars landing site to three spots, including the hills where the space agency’s Spirit rover roamed a decade ago. The Columbia Hills are among the three finalists because the…
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Volunteer crew begins an eight-month mission on Hawaii’s make-believe Mars
The terrain surrounding the HI-SEAS habitat on Mauna Loa looks like Mars. (Univ. of Hawaii Photo) Six volunteers – including two with connections to Washington state – have begun eight months of being cooped up in a Hawaii habitat that’s meant to simulate life on Mars. The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation project, known as HI-SEAS, is…
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Planet Earth observed through telescope orbiting Mars
Here is a view of Earth and its moon, as seen from Mars. It combines two images acquired on Nov. 20, 2016, by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with brightness adjusted separately for Earth and the moon to show details on both bodies. Relative sizes and distance are correct. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of…
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NASA shows off robots, a VR trip to Mars, and more at CES
LAS VEGAS — NASA doesn’t make consumer electronics per say, but it does enough geeky stuff that it was right at home during last week’s CES. Maria Bualat, a robotics engineer, was manning the NASA booth to show visitors a prototype robot the space agency uses to develop autonomy software. Bualat and her team test…
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There’s no place like home: New image shows Earth and moon from Mars orbiter
The Earth and moon as seen from Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Photo) There’s a lot of talk in our modern space race about getting to Mars, so every once in a while it’s nice to see what we’d be leaving behind if we did eventually make it to the Red Planet. Thankfully, images from the High Resolution…
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Internal debris may be causing problem with Mars rover’s drill
File photo of Curiosity’s drill bit from Feb. 24, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Engineers suspect a piece of foreign object debris may be intermittently stalling a motor needed to place the Curiosity Mars rover’s drill bit onto rocks, and the robot’s ground team is assessing the source of the potential contamination. More importantly, Curiosity project manager…
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YIR II: Curiosity & Opportunity – Revelations, pushing the limits of longevity
From the orbits of the inner solar system to the surface of Mars. For Curiosity and Opportunity, 2016 continued the rovers’ revelations of the mysteries of the Martian surface – providing scientists with confirmation of long-held theories while also revealing surprises about Mars’ geologic past and providing new research for the eventual push of human exploration…
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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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Who would you fly to Mars with? Who would you drop off? We’ve got a little list
Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence star in the movie “Passengers,” which tells the tale of a space journey far beyond Mars. (Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures) A just-for-fun survey suggests that three out of every 10 Americans have thought about going to Mars, and almost half of them have thought about it more seriously…
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Mars rover’s drill out of action
The mast camera on the Curiosity rover captured this view of a butte standing about 16 feet (5 meters) above the vehicle Sept. 1, 2016, while the spacecraft was driving through the scenic “Murray Buttes” region on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The rock-coring drill fixed to the end of the Curiosity rover’s robot arm has suspended…