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The Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) An enormous dust deposit on Mars shows the power of Martian wind in a new image snapped from orbit. Standing on the surface of Mars is possibly the largest single dust source on the Red Planet: the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF). … Read more
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Seán Doran) NASA’s Perseverance rover has now been exploring Mars for a full year, and it has captured some amazing photos during that stretch. The car-sized Perseverance rover touched down inside the Red Planet’s 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The rover is searching for signs of past Mars life … Read more
NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity was supposed to be a museum piece by now. The little chopper landed with NASA’s Perseverance rover on the floor of Jezero Crater one year ago today (Feb. 18), tasked with showing that aerial exploration is possible on Mars despite the planet’s thin atmosphere. Ingenuity did just that over the course … Read more
The Perseverance rover’s second year on Mars should be even more action-packed than the first. The car-sized Perseverance rover landed inside the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, tasked with searching for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting dozens of samples for future return to Earth. The 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero is … Read more
NASA’s Curiosity rover just aced a bit of atmospheric science on Mars. The Curiosity rover, now nearing its 10th year of exploring the Red Planet, took imagery of clouds drifting over its exploration site on Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons) with an aim to measuring their speed. But it wasn’t an easy task, NASA’s Jet Propulsion … Read more
Of the many “firsts” from NASA’s Apollo program of lunar exploration, one often overlooked is that the Apollo missions included the first—and so far only—times that humans have driven on another world. Presaging today’s eco-conscious market for carbon-neutral transportation, Apollo’s battery-powered lunar roving vehicles were all-electric as well. Astronaut David Scott, who was the first … Read more
One year ago NASA’s Perseverance rover plunged through the Martian atmosphere and safely landed in Jezero Crater, a 45-kilometer-wide gouge that scientists suspect once hosted a deep, long-lived lake. The rover’s ultimate target is near Jezero’s western edge: a large, fan-shaped pile of sediments that washed into the basin through a notch in the crater … Read more
NASA’s InSight Mars lander has shaken off the effects of a recent dust storm, likely allowing the spacecraft to collect science data for a few more months. InSight went into a protective safe mode on Jan. 7, temporarily shutting down its instruments after a huge dust storm prevented the solar-powered lander from soaking up enough … Read more
NASA and China plan to mount crewed missions to Mars in the next decade. While this represents a tremendous leap in terms of space exploration, it also presents significant logistical and technological challenges. For starters, missions can only launch for Mars every 26 months when our two planets are at the closest points in … Read more
Ever wonder if it’d be possible to play football on Mars? The short answer is yes! In a new video from NBCLX, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno and NBC sports producer Brad Fosler explain what Super Bowl LVI would look like on Mars as Los Angeles Rams face off against the Cincinnati Bengals at … Read more