Scientists are sure that Mars once had an atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. Scientists have known since very early in the mission of Curiosity in 2012 that Gale Crater once contained lakes. The image below shows a feature found on Mars called desiccation cracks which form when mud is exposed to air, dries, and cracks.
Following information revealed in a document published in mid-March, Los Angeles officials have confirmed that SpaceX will be leasing space at the Port of Los Angeles to work on its Mars rocket. The plans must be approved by the board of harbor commissioners, however that approval is expected this upcoming Thursday. The city is offering extensive perks to SpaceX for its work there.
Scientists working in the Antarctic have announced that the very first crop of vegetables has been harvested in a new greenhouse that doesn't use any earth, daylight, or pesticides. The project is part of research that is designed to help astronauts to cultivate fresh foods on other planets. The greenhouse is at the German Neumeyer-Station III.
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has achieved yet another milestone: 2,000 Martian days ("sols") of service. The rover has been rolling around the Red Planet since landing in August 2012. Since then, Curiosity has traveled more than 11 miles, revealing evidence of ancient freshwater, the basic ingredients for microbial life, and more.
Back in the summer of 2003, NASA launched a pair of Mars rovers named Opportunity and Spirit. Both landed on the Martian surface in January 2004, each designed for a mission that would last 90 Martian days (which are called sols). Both rovers managed to drastically outlive that 90-sol mission. Though Spirit became stuck in 2009, eventually losing communication with NASA, Opportunity lived on.
NASA's Curiosity rover has called Mars home for years and it's work isn't done yet. The rover will soon start yet another investigative mission, this time climbing the Red Planet's Mount Sharp, a mountain located in the Gale Crater. Ahead of starting its climb, though, Curiosity paused in the crater's rim to snap a selfie with the mountain featured in the background.
We have no shortage of pictures taken on Mars thanks to NASA's hard work. You've no doubt seen many of them by now, possibly even large panoramas created by stitching many images together. Those images probably all looked similar: dusty and rocky with a distinct orange hue and, maybe, reddish soil. That's what makes Curiosity rover's latest panorama so stunning -- it looks nothing like the others.
Every so often, Mars experiences a dust storm that spans the entire planet -- a global dust storm, one that may contribute to the loss of gas from the Red Planet's atmosphere. The possibility was discussed in a newly published study, which looked at data gathered by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, also known as the MRO. The most recent global dust storm happened on Mars back in 2007.
The US Department of Energy and NASA have teamed up to test a compact nuclear power system that may one day sustain human energy needs on Mars. The system is being tested in the Nevada desert, where initial tests have proven successful. According to US officials, a full-power test will be performed in March under the NASA Kilopower project.
NASA's Curiosity rover has discover an unusual -- an quite tiny -- feature on the Mars landscape, one with a strange shape and an unknown explanation. The features, which may be related to minerals, were found in an area so interesting that researchers had sent the rover back for a second look. The features' strange appearance have raised questions about whether NASA has discovered trace fossils on the Red Planet, and researchers aren't ruling that out yet.
The past few years have been kind to space science in general and especially to NASA. Advancements in technology, monumental achievements, and historic phenomena has made being an astronaut and even a space scientist or engineer cool again. When Trump took the helm of the world’s largest superpower, there were worries that the outspoken president would de-emphasize the country’s space program. With a little indirect help from a rival, however, Trump signed a directive that would put Americans back on the moon and, in the future, on Mars as well.
NASA's Mars rover has provided humans with a slew of images from the Red Planet and you can freely search through them if you have the free time. That's exactly what some people do, analyzing hundreds of Mars images in search of oddities. Some of those oddities have resulted in big conspiracy theories, but perhaps none are so intriguing as the "metal balls" spotted in some Mars photos.