Tag: Mars Rovers

NASA’s Perseverance rover gets stunning view of big Mars crater from slippery slope (video, photos)

NeRD

NASA’s Perseverance rover took a break from its Mars mountaineering expedition recently to survey its old stomping grounds. The car-sized Perseverance landed on the floor of the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) Jezero Crater in February 2021 to hunt for signs of past Mars life and collect dozens of samples for future return to Earth. Perseverance has finished its work in Jezero’s flats and is now scaling the crater’s western rim, on its way to explore new and disparate Mars landscapes. Late last month, however, the rover paused to take in the grand…

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Europe’s Mars ‘fetch rover’ nails sample pick-up test in the field (video)

NeRD

European aerospace giant Airbus has taken two of its Mars rovers out for field tests in a quarry near London, showcasing for the first time a new robotic arm for autonomous sample collection on alien planets. The company also experimented with a model of its ExoMars rover, hoping to improve its navigation system to enable the robot to travel faster and explore more terrain once it reaches the Red Planet in 2028.  During the tests, the Mars Sample Fetch Rover demonstrator model named Codi received coordinates from a simulated ground…

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Will NASA be able to return Mars samples to Earth? New audit raises doubts

NeRD

NASA’s bold plan to get pristine samples of Mars to Earth for analysis is facing major challenges, according to a new report. Design, cost and scheduling are all significant obstacles, an audit report of NASA’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program by the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds. MSR aims to return Martian geological samples to Earth for scientific study. It involves landing on Mars to collect samples taken by the Perseverance rover and launching those samples to rendezvous with an orbiter, which will haul them to Earth.  Related: NASA’s…

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Ingenuity Mars helicopter snapped rotor blade during hard landing last month (video, photo)

NeRD

There’s no way Ingenuity could fly through this. Ingenuity, the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) helicopter that journeyed to Mars with NASA’s Perseverance rover, was grounded for good after suffering a hard landing during a Jan. 18 flight. New observations by Perseverance show just how rough that touchdown was and make it easy to understand why Ingenuity is now a frozen feature of the Martian landscape. Related: NASA to ‘wiggle’ broken Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s blades to analyze damage Zoomed-in view of NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter, captured by the SuperCam remote imager aboard…

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NASA Ingenuity Mars helicopter, broken and alone, spotted by Perseverance rover on Martian dune (photo, video)

NeRD

NASA’s Perseverance Rover took a photo of its broken companion, the Ingenuity helicopter, as it sat alone on a dune. In this most recent photo of Ingenuity, the dual-rotor ‘copter can be seen motionless on a sandy dune in the background, as a barren, rocky Mars landscape fills the foreground.  The photo was taken on Feb. 4, 2024, at 1:05 p.m. local mean solar time, a little over two weeks since it suffered its mission-ending damage. Related: NASA to ‘wiggle’ broken Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s blades to analyze damage NASA and…

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Watch NASA celebrate (and mourn) its Mars helicopter Ingenuity in this free livestream today

NeRD

With NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter Ingenuity grounded forever after a hard landing, the time has come to mourn the first flying machine every to soar on another world and you can watch it live online today (Jan. 31).  NASA will hold a free livestream at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) today to honor the achievements and legacy of Ingenuity, which ended its mission last week after suffering rotor damage during its 72nd flight on Jan. 18. The livestream will be webcast live on NASA’s YouTube channel and you can watch…

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NASA restores contact with Mars helicopter Ingenuity after communications dropout on latest flight

NeRD

I held my breath for a moment on Jan. 18, when scientists announced they’d lost contact with the Perseverance Mars rover’s helicopter friend, Ingenuity.  Ingenuity had been nearing completion of its 72nd flight — a liftoff far past the threshold of “borrowed time” in this case, as the mighty craft was originally built for a mere maximum of five flights. The fate of Ingenuity was pretty uncertain for a short while. However, I’m pleased to report that Ingenuity has officially regained communication with ground control and continues to surpass the…

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NASA’s Perseverance rover captures 360-degree view of Mars’ Jezero Crater (video)

NeRD

On Dec. 12, 2023, NASA’s Perseverance rover reached a milestone — 1,000 Martian days, or sols, on Mars. To celebrate, NASA released a 360-degree mosaic of the rover’s current location, as well as a video walkthrough of the scene narrated by Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley. The composite image comprises 993 individual images taken with Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument last year on Nov. 3, Nov. 4 and Nov. 6, and includes a whopping 2.38 billion pixels.  You might notice there’s a big difference in color between the team’s image included in this…

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NASA’s Curiosity rover films from dawn to dusk on Mars during downtime (video)

NeRD

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity had some downtime during November. But rather than resting on its laurels, the robot filmed stunning footage of dawn to dusk on Earth’s neighboring planet. Curiosity filmed two black-and-white videos on Nov. 8 during what was the 4,002nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (A sol is a little longer than Earth’s day of 24 hours.) The downtime for Curiosity during its search for life was necessitated by Mars passing around the opposite side of the sun to Earth. During these periods, called Mars solar…

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