Five Things to Know About InSight’s Upcoming Mars Landing
Every Mars landing is a knuckle-whitening feat of engineering. But each attempt has its own quirks based on where a spacecraft is going and what…
Mars
Mars 2020 Parachute a Go, Third ASPIRE Test Sets Record
In the early hours of September 7, NASA broke a world record. Less than 2 minutes after the launch of a 58-foot-tall (17.7-meter) Black Brant…
Mars Express Observes the Evolution of a Cloud Formation Hovering Over Arsia Mons
Since 13 September, ESA’s Mars Express has been observing the evolution of an elongated cloud formation hovering in the vicinity of the 20 km-high Arsia…
NASA CubeSat Captures Its First Image of Mars
NASA’s MarCO mission was designed to find out if briefcase-sized spacecraft called CubeSats could survive the journey to deep space. Now, MarCO – which stands…
Scientists to Debate Mars 2020 Landing Site for Next Rover
Hundreds of scientists and Mars-exploration enthusiasts will convene in a hotel ballroom just north of Los Angeles later this week to present, discuss and deliberate…
Latest Update on Opportunity Rover after Martian Dust Storm
Updated at 2:15 p.m. PDT on Oct. 11, 2018 One month since increasing their commanding frequency, engineers have yet to hear from NASA’s Opportunity rover. NASA…
HiRISE Spots Opportunity Rover on the Slopes of Perseverance Valley
NASA still hasn’t heard from the Opportunity rover, but at least we can see it again. A new image produced by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera…
Martian Moon Phobos May Have Formed From Impact With Home Planet
The weird shapes and colors of the tiny Martian moons Phobos and Deimos have inspired a long-standing debate about their origins. The dark faces of…
Study Shows Ancient Mars Had The Right Conditions For Underground Life
A new study shows evidence that ancient Mars probably had an ample supply of chemical energy for microbes to thrive underground. “We showed, based on…
Curiosity Surveys Fading Global Dust Storm From Vera Rubin Ridge
After snagging a new rock sample on August 9, NASA’s Curiosity rover surveyed its surroundings on Mars, producing a 360-degree panorama of its current location…
With The Clearing Skies Opportunity Rover Could Automatically Initiate Recovery Procedures
A planet-encircling dust storm on Mars, which was first detected May 30 and halted operations for the Opportunity rover, continues to abate. With clearing skies…
Mars Has Some of the Tallest Mountains in the Solar System
Ambitious climbers, forget Mt. Everest. Dream about Mars. The Red Planet has some of the tallest mountains in the solar system. They include Olympus Mons,…
Six Things You Need To Know About Opportunity’s Recovery Efforts
NASA’s Opportunity rover has been silent since June 10, when a planet-encircling dust storm cut off solar power for the nearly-15-year-old rover. Now that scientists…
NASA Releases Statement on Possible Subsurface Martian Lake
A new paper published in Science this week suggests that liquid water may be sitting under a layer of ice at Mars’ south pole. The finding…
Radar Probe Reveals Huge Reservoir of Liquid Water Under Mars’ Surface
Using radar to probe the polar ice caps of Mars, scientists have detected an underground reservoir of liquid that may be saltwater and that extends…
Is the Soil on Mars Too Dry to Sustain Life?
Life as we know it needs water to thrive. Even so, we see life persist in the driest environments on Earth. But how dry is…
Scientists Search for Dust Storm Secrets on Mars
Side-by-side movies shows how dust has enveloped the Red Planet, courtesy of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The…
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Views ‘Spiders’ from Mars
This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, acquired May 13, 2018 during winter at the South Pole of Mars, shows a carbon dioxide ice cap…