Mars
Ingenuity ready for historic first flight on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has just snapped her first-ever selfie on Mars this week on April 6, or Sol 46 — as well as its also being the first joint selfie with the experimental Ingenuity Mars helicopter on the Red Planet — and it is truly spectacular. Ahead of humanity’s history-making first controlled test flight by …
Keeping Earth’s germs from contaminating Mars
While Nasa’s Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars last month, another, China’s Tianwen rover is expected to follow in May. Both missions intend to search the planet for signs of life. But how do we make sure when our landers touch down on the Red Planet’s surface, nothing unwanted is landing with them? If we aren’t careful, …
Wheels in motion for NASA’s newest Mars rover
NASA’s Perseverance rover performed its first test drive on Martain terrain on March 4, or Sol 14, the mission team announced with the release of a batch of dramatic new images captured at the landing site now bearing the name “Octavia E. Butler Landing” where the six-wheeled robot touched down safely two weeks ago on …
Perseverance beams back incredible video of landing on Mars
New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover chronicles major milestones during the final minutes of its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on the Red Planet on Feb. 18 as the spacecraft plummeted, parachuted, and rocketed toward the surface of Mars. A microphone on the rover also has provided the first audio recording of sounds …
What medicines should we take to Mars?
Mars has garnered a bunch of headlines recently with the arrival of the first probes from the United Arab Emirates and China in orbit around the planet, along with the arrival of NASA’s Perseverance rover mere days later. It also was a hot topic previously when NASA revealed it had discovered water on the Red …
Perseverance pinpoints landing inside Jezero Crater
After enduring the harrowing ‘Seven Minutes of Terror’ plunge through the Martian atmosphere following a seven-month interplanetary journey NASA’s Perseverance rover nailed her nail-biting landing on Mars Thursday afternoon, Feb. 18, and transmitted the first two images just moments later from the floor of the Jezero Crater landing site to reveal an alien but scientifically …
American scientist collaborates on UAE’s Mars mission
Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) aboard spacecraft developed to create first holistic picture of Martian atmosphere A veteran of multiple NASA missions to Mars, Northern Arizona University planetary scientist Christopher Edwards will closely watch the launch of a space probe to Mars that carries a unique new instrument he co-designed in collaboration with engineers from the United …
USGS astrogeology maps are guiding Mars 2020 mission
When you’re planning to explore someplace new, it’s always a good idea to bring a map so you can avoid dangerous terrain. This is true whether you’re heading out for a hike on Earth or you’re landing a rover on Mars. When NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars this week, it will be equipped with some of …
Bringing Mars rocks to Earth; scientist explains the tech, goals
In one week, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will be arriving at the red planet, and hopefully will place the Perseverance Rover on the surface. Jim Bell is the primary investigator leading a team in charge of one of the camera systems on Perseverance. Bell is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration …
UAE and China place missions into Mars orbit mere hours apart
Arab world’s first mission to Mars achieves orbit The Arab world’s history-making first interplanetary mission to Mars – the United Arab Emirates Hope Probe – successfully achieved orbit today, Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 10:57 a.m. ET (19:57 UAE time, 1557 GMT),” after a seven-month journey bound for the Red Planet and designed to study the …