Tag: Mars
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Launch of European Mars mission delayed two months
Artist’s concept of the Schiaparelli lander separating from the Trace Gas Orbiter on final approach to Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab Officials expect to delay next year’s launch of a European Mars orbiter and lander about two months — from January to March — to remove faulty pressure transducers from the landing craft’s braking system, the…
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Mountain-climbing Mars rover sends back low-angle selfie
This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover from Aug. 5 shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called “Buckskin” on lower Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has recorded itself in another of its famous self-portraits as the mobile robot analyzes bore…
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NASA to rely on Mars program’s silent workhorse for years to come
Artist’s concept of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, aging and arthritic a decade after its launch, remains productive and is expected to be the primary pipeline for high-resolution maps of Mars for scientists and mission planners over the next decade. Scientists who want to study Mars’ enigmatic history, tenuous water…
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Three years after Mars landing, Curiosity rover faces new mysteries
Ashwin Vasavada became the project scientist for NASA’s Curiosity rover mission in January. His role is to coordinate efforts of an international team of nearly 500 scientists. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech) Three years after NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars, scientists are celebrating a curious milestone: Although the six-wheeled, plutonium-powered robot has lasted a year…
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Mission to Phobos – The precursor to human Mars landing
The next great adventures for human space exploration have been touted as missions to asteroids and to the Martian surface. But a new presentation by NASA has revealed a line of thought within the agency regarding a potential human or robotic mission to Mars’ largest moon Phobos as the key precursor mission to the Red Planet. A phased approach: Part…
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NEEMO 20 to build knowledge base on delayed deep space communications
An international effort to work on the challenges associated with deep space communications is continuing on the ground, in space and underwater – with the upcoming NEEMO 20 mission set to simulate the time-delays associated with sending and receiving commands between controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars. NEEMO: The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations…
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Two ‘microprobes’ to accompany InSight lander to Mars
Mechanical engineer Joel Steinkraus and systems engineer Farah Alibay hold a full-scale mechanical mock-up of a MarCO CubeSat. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA managers have formally approved the launch of two small CubeSat-based satellites with the InSight Mars lander next year, adding an experimental data relay capability to give ground controllers news about the landing’s outcome. Hundreds…
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NASA confident in finding fix for test parachute failure
Two frames from a video camera on-board NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator test vehicle show the craft’s supersonic parachute inflate, then begin to tear apart. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech One day after a supersonic parachute crafted to land robots on Mars failed on a test flight high above Hawaii, NASA officials said Tuesday a jackpot of high-resolution video…
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Huge parachute shredded during Mars entry experiment
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION After dropping from a high-altitude ballon, the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator’s Star 48 rocket motor fired (left) to propel the craft to an altitude of 180,000 feet. The vehicle’s supersonic parachute ripped apart (right) as it deployed. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Flying more than twice the speed of sound…
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LDSD test of Mars landing technology suffers chute failure
NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project conducted its second test on Monday – a major demonstration of technology that is being baselined into NASA’s ambitions for landing payloads on Mars. The test once again suffered from a parachute failure, although the other test objectives all went to plan. LDSD Test: NASA’s plans for landing human…