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A European Mars rover built in partnership with Russia will not launch to the Red Planet this year as the European Space Agency suspends cooperation with its Russian counterpart in the wake of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. European Space Agency (ESA) officials announced the decision Thursday (March 15) following a two-day meeting of representatives … Read more
Modular moon rovers could reduce the costs of surface exploration of the moon and, potentially, human Mars excursions, a California-based space-tech startup envisions. The start-up, called Venturi Astrolab, announced the development of its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (Flex) rover on March 10. The rover, the company said in a statement will “enhance lunar and planetary … Read more
NASA’s top-notch Red Planet geology rover is moving on to explore an ancient river delta now that its eighth rock sample is secured for future analysis. “Stashing my latest rock core sample (#8!) and finishing up at this location. I’m packing up and making my way to the dry river delta. Off we go,” the … Read more
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS—After a year exploring the floor of Mars’s Jezero crater, where it gathered seven—soon to be eight—chalk-size rock samples for return to Earth, NASA’s Perseverance rover is set to speed toward its longstanding target at the crater’s edge: the remnants of a delta, deposited by water billions of years ago, that may contain … Read more
Organic molecules and clay minerals found in Gale Crater could be a sign of ancient Martian life, but it isn’t possible yet to rule out that they are products of inorganic processes Space 10 March 2022 By Alex Wilkins The Gale Crater as viewed through a camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The Curiosity … Read more
China’s first Mars rover reveals how weather and ancient water changed the surface of the largest impact basin on Mars. China’s Zhurong rover landed in the Utopia Planitia, a 2,000-miles-wide (3,300 kilometers) basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, in May 2021. Since then, the rover has been studying local geology, chemical composition of rocks, … Read more
Using a laser to strike rocks and a built-in microphone, NASA’s Perseverance rover has measured changes in the speed of sound on Mars due to temperature affecting the atmosphere Space 9 March 2022 By Alex Wilkins An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover NASA/JPL-Caltech The speed of sound on Mars has been measured for the first … Read more
NASA’s Perseverance rover now has seven Mars rock samples in its collection. The car-sized robot drilled into another Martian rock and socked away the resulting core, mission team members announced via Twitter today (March 8). It’s the seventh drilled sample that Perseverance has collected since touching down on the floor of the Red Planet’s Jezero … Read more
Time-lapse imaging of Yutu 2 progress across the lunar landscape. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University) China’s Yutu 2 rover has returned a view of its path over three years of travels across the harsh environment of the moon’s far side. The new images — released by Ourspace, a Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with … Read more
The first reported findings from China’s Mars rover suggest the plain it is exploring was shaped by winds – and perhaps also by water Space 7 March 2022 By Chen Ly China’s first Mars rover Zhurong with the landing platform Xinhua / Alamy China’s Zhurong Mars rover landed at Utopia Planitia – a large plain … Read more