Tag: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Mars Fleet Will Still Conduct Science While Lying Low

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NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this view of the location where it will be parked for several weeks during Mars solar conjunction, a period when engineers stop sending commands to spacecraft at the Red Planet because the Sun may interfere with radio signals. NASA/JPL-Caltech Rovers and orbiters will continue collecting limited data during a two-week communications pause due to the position of Earth, the Sun, and the Red Planet. NASA will hold off sending commands to its Mars fleet for two weeks, from Nov. 11 to 25, while Earth and the…

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NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map

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The blue areas on this map of Mars are regions where NASA missions have detected subsurface water ice (from the equator to 60 degrees north latitude). Scientists can use the map – part of the Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project – to decide where the first astronauts to set foot on the Red Planet should land. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Planetary Science Institute These Mars global maps show the likely distribution of water ice buried within the upper 3 feet (1 meter) of the planet’s surface and represent the latest data from the SWIM…

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Readying a Little Rover

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NASA/JPL-Caltech An engineer prepares a small rover for testing in a thermal vacuum chamber on Oct. 24, 2023, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. This rover is part of the agency’s Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) technology demonstration that’s headed to the Moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. CADRE is designed to demonstrate that multiple robots can cooperate and explore together autonomously – without direct input from human mission controllers. Learn more about these miniature rovers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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How NASA Is Protecting Europa Clipper From Space Radiation

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5 min read How NASA Is Protecting Europa Clipper From Space Radiation Engineers and technicians are seen closing the vault of NASA’s Europa Clipper in the main clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL on Oct. 7. The vault will protect the electronics of the spacecraft as it orbits Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech To explore the mysterious ice-encrusted moon Europa, the mission will need to endure bombardment by radiation and high-energy particles surrounding Jupiter. When NASA’s Europa Clipper begins orbiting Jupiter to investigate whether its ice-encased moon, Europa, has conditions…

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NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters

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NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist’s concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between stars, which it entered in 2012. Traveling on a different trajectory, its twin, Voyager 2, entered interstellar space in 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech The efforts should help extend the lifetimes of the agency’s interstellar explorers. Engineers for NASA’s Voyager mission are taking steps to help make sure both spacecraft, launched in 1977, continue to explore interstellar space for years to come. One effort addresses fuel residue that seems to be accumulating inside narrow tubes…

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