Tag: Mars

NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map

NeRD

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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Mars was shaken by its strongest marsquake ever in 2022. Now we know what caused it

NeRD

The strongest-ever quake to violently shake Mars arose not because of a crashing asteroid but rather the tectonic forces within the planet itself, scientists reported on Tuesday (Oct. 17). The new findings show the Red Planet is more seismically active than previously thought. On May 4, 2022, NASA‘s now-retired InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4.7 quake, five times stronger than the previous record holder of magnitude 4.2 that InSight measured in 2021. Unlike most marsquakes that cease within an hour, the reverberations from the summer quake continued for a record…

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Future Mars astronauts may chomp on Earth’s tiniest flowering plant to survive

NeRD

The smallest flowering plant on Earth could have a huge role to play in humanity’s exploration of space. Watermeal, or Wolffia, is found floating on the surfaces of lakes and ponds in Asia, gathering in pinhead-sized clumps on our planet. When carried to space, watermeal could provide both food and oxygen for astronauts.  As humanity prepares for the next era of human-crewed space exploration, which will focus on longer missions and sojourns to the moon’s surface (and even Mars’), sustainability is key. That means a small sort of foodstuff that…

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