Tag: Mars

NASA’s Mars exploration plans need ‘paradigm shifts’ to succeed, report finds

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NASA has released a new document that highlights planned programmatic paradigm shifts in Mars exploration over the next 20 years. This plan was prepared for the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP). The report is titled “Expanding the Horizons of Mars Science: A Plan for a Sustainable Science Program at Mars — Mars Exploration Program 2024-2044.” Core questions Highlighted in the document are several “paradigm shift” prospects to further address several core questions, which include: You may like How has the habitability of Mars evolved over the history…

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater Rim

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5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its right-front navigation camera to capture this first view over the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10, 2024, the 1,354th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The camera is facing west from a location nicknamed “Lookout Hill.” NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this scene showing the slippery terrain that’s made its climb up to the rim of Jezero Crater challenging. Rover tracks can be seen trailing off into the distance, back…

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NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another World

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5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, 2024, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (at left in image). NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS The review takes a close look the final flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the first aircraft to fly on another…

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Mars may have made its 2 moons by ripping an asteroid apart

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Computer simulations suggest that Mars’ puzzling moons, Phobos and Deimos, may have been formed from debris created when a large asteroid wandered dangerously close to the Red Planet. This new model proposes that Phobos and Deimos resulted from the wreckage of a larger asteroid that wandered too close to Mars and crossed its Roche limit — the distance at which gravitational tidal forces emanating from the planet became too great and tore the asteroid apart.  “It’s exciting to explore a new option for the making of Phobos and Deimos —…

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Can Rocket Lab come to NASA’s rescue with new Mars sample-return plan?

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NASA’s troubled Mars sample-return program may have a new lifeline, in the form of a proposal from private space company Rocket Lab to help save the mission. When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021, the plan was to follow up with a mission in the early 2030s that would retrieve the canisters containing samples of Martian dirt, rocks and atmosphere collected by the rover, and bring them to Earth for detailed study. The hope is that the samples will be able to tell researchers about conditions on Mars…

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Mars leaks faster when closer to the sun

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Seasonal changes can have a dramatic effect on how quickly Mars loses its water to space, a joint study between the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has shown. Over three billion years ago, Mars was warm and wet, with large bodies of water on its surface and a thicker atmosphere. Today, however, Mars is desolate, cold and dry. So, what happened to all the water? “There’s only two places water can go,” John Clarke of the University of Boston said in a statement.…

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Mars Express orbiter takes a deep dive into ancient Red Planet lake (images)

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 A Mars orbiter has just taken a “deep dive” into an ancient Martian lake, figuratively, at least.  Larger than any lake currently on Earth, the dried-up remnants of this ancient lakebed were just captured in incredible detail by the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003. “This patch of Mars — shown in a new view from Mars Express’s High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) — is known as Caralis Chaos,” ESA scientists wrote in a statement. “We believe that water, and a…

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Here’s How Curiosity’s Sky Crane Changed the Way NASA Explores Mars

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5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This artist’s concept shows how NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover was lowered to the planet’s surface using the sky crane maneuver. NASA / JPL-Caltech The rocket-powered descent stage that lowered NASA’s Curiosity onto the Martian surface is guided over the rover by technicians at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in September 2011, two months before the mission’s launch. NASA/Kim Shiflett Twelve years ago, NASA landed its six-wheeled science lab using a daring new technology that lowers the rover using a…

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NASA Invites Media, Public to Attend Deep Space Food Challenge Finale

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NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge directly supports the agency’s Moon to Mars initiatives. Credit: NASA NASA invites the media and public to explore the nexus of space and food innovation at the agency’s Deep Space Food Challenge symposium and winners’ announcement at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Aug. 16.  In 2019, NASA and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) started the Deep Space Food Challenge, a multi-year international effort to develop sustainable food systems for long-duration habitation in space including the Moon and Mars.…

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Scientists Find Intriguing Mars Rock

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7 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered “leopard spots” on a reddish rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in Mars’ Jezero Crater in July 2024. Scientists think the spots may indicate that, billions of years ago, the chemical reactions in this rock could have supported microbial life; other explanations are being considered. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS An annotated version of the image of “Cheyava Falls” indicates the markings akin to leopard spots, which have particularly captivated scientists, and the olivine in the rock. The image was captured…

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