Mars

Mars water: Spots at south pole thought to be lakes could be volcanic rock

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Radar images of Mars’s southern ice cap indicated that there could be a lake there – but a new set of simulations hints that it could be volcanic rock instead Space 24 January 2022 By Leah Crane The icy cap over Mars’s south pole, photographed by Mars Express ESA/DLR/FU Berlin / Bill Dunford There may … Read more

Watch Perseverance Mars rover spit out a stuck rock after choking on sample

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NASA’s Perseverance rover managed to spit out pieces of rock that had been blocking its Mars-sampling gear since late December.  Although the un-choking procedure hadn’t been previously tested, the engineers on the Mars mission found it was rather “straightforward,” the team said in an earlier blog post. It involved pointing the drill containing a clogged … Read more

Historic Mars weather delay pushes Ingenuity helicopter’s next flight to Sunday

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NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has notched yet another milestone — the first weather-related flight delay on another planet. Ingenuity was scheduled to make its 19th Red Planet hop on Jan. 5. On New Year’s Day, however, a strong dust storm kicked up near Jezero Crater, which the helicopter and its robotic partner, NASA’s life-hunting Perseverance rover, … Read more

NASA’s InSight Mars lander awakens from ‘safe mode’ after Red Planet dust storm

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A NASA spacecraft has safely emerged from a precautionary “safe mode” after an intense Martian dust storm. The solar-powered InSight lander, which is designed to study the interior of Mars, entered safe mode to save power on Jan. 7; it went back to “more normal operations” by Jan. 19, the mission said in a Twitter … Read more

How long does it take to get to Mars?

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If you wanted to travel to Mars, how long would it take? The answer depends on several factors, ranging from the position of the planets to the technology that would propel you there.  According to NASA, a one-way trip to Mars would take about nine months. If you wanted to make it a round-trip, all … Read more

NASA wants your ideas to reuse trash and waste on a Mars mission

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NASA just opened a challenge seeking ways to go to Mars and back with a minimum of wasted materials. The agency’s tournament lab, along with crowdsourcing platform HeroX, have launched a “Waste to Base” challenge looking for ideas to recycle trash, waste, carbon dioxide and foam packaging materials during a two- to three-year crewed Red … Read more

The Mars rover Perseverance has pebbles stuck in its drill. NASA has a plan to fix it.

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NASA’s Perseverance rover will dump its latest Mars sample to unclog pebbles from its drill.  Perseverance mission managers made the unexpected announcement that they had to dump out Percy’s latest sample via a blog post on Friday (Jan. 14). The team even shared in the post that they never thought they would have to do … Read more

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Drilled Holes Into Mars, And Found Something Very Strange

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As it’s the foundation for all life on Earth, discovering carbon on other planets always gets scientists excited – and the Curiosity Rover on Mars has found an unusual mix of the chemical element that could hypothetically point to the existence of alien life.   That’s by no means certain, but it’s a possibility. It’s … Read more

Possible sign of Mars life? Curiosity rover finds ‘tantalizing’ Red Planet organics

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NASA’s Curiosity rover has found some interesting organic compounds on the Red Planet that could be signs of ancient Mars life, but it will take a lot more work to test that hypothesis. Some of the powdered rock samples that Curiosity has collected over the years contain organics rich in a type of carbon that … Read more