Scientists are studying Mars intently and know that in its distant past, the planet had water. The question the scientists want to answer is was the water that was present on the Red Planted frozen in ice, or was it liquid and flowing. Warm conditions would make life more likely.
NASA continues work on its Mars 2020 rover, a vehicle that will be launched on its mission to the Red Planet next summer. Ahead of that launch, the space agency says its scientists are working hard to ensure the rover is ready to land and acquire samples from the planet's surface that'll eventually be returned to Earth. A key part of that sampling system has been installed on the rover.
NASA's Curiosity rover, the machine that landed on Mars seven years ago, has sent back to Earth a series of images compiled into a bright high-resolution panorama. Prominently featured in the 360-degree image, which NASA recently shared as an interactive video, is the Red Planet's Teal Ridge surrounded by the dusty, barren Mars landscape.
NASA has shared a new video of its Mars 2020 rover, one showing off the machine's large arm and its ability to lift heavy payloads. According to the space agency, which shared the video on Friday, the robotic arm was able to lift, curl, and otherwise maneuver a sensor-filled turret that weighed 88lbs. The movement was made possible by five electrical motors working with five mechanical joints.
NASA is studying Mars from data gathered by multiple rovers and spacecraft in orbit in an attempt to determine if the Red Planet could have been home to life billions of years ago. Recent photos taken by the Curiosity Rover show a rocky and desolate landscape to most who look at them, but to scientist Christopher House the images show something else.
NASA has run into an issue on the surface of Mars with one of the instruments on the InSight probe. The instrument is part of a tool called the "Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package" but is informally known as the mole. Mole possibly hit rock shortly after deployment in March and has been sitting unable to dig since then.
The Mars 2020 rover has gained its robotic arm, with NASA fitting the SUV-sized robotic explorer with the primary tool with which it will perform experiments on the red planet. The new milestone comes shortly after the rover was shod with its six wheels for the first time, as the countdown to its 2020 launch nears.
NASA has announced that it is running a contest that will allow K-12 students the opportunity to name the rover that will be part of the Mars 2020 mission. NASA has selected two partner organizations to run the nationwide contest and is now asking for applications for judges to decide on the name.
We take for granted a lot of gases here on Earth, including our precious oxygen. Even less so gases like methane, which is mostly a waste product of certain living organisms. But when you find unusually high levels of that substances in a planet bereft of life but believed to have once hosted life, it's a pretty big deal. That's the reason why scientists at NASA were more than happy to spend their weekend at work to analyze and do more tests with the data that the Curiosity Rover just sent them from Mars.
NASA's new Mars 2020 rover has finally got its wheels, with the countdown to blast-off now only twelve months out. Handiwork of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the Mars rover is expected to join Curiosity on the red planet and pave the way for an eventual manned mission there.
Scientists may have unraveled the mystery of how clouds form over Mars and it involves obliterated meteors. The study focused on the clouds that form in Mars' middle atmosphere starting around 18 miles above the planet's surface. According to the new study, these clouds may be the result of meteors that slammed into the Martian atmosphere, resulting in a dusty, icy mess.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been circling the Red Planet and looking for interesting things for over a decade now. One of the most recent discoveries that the MRO has made is a new crater formed by a meteorite impact on the surface of Mars. The image below was snapped on the surface of Mars using the MRO HiRISE camera in April and posted on June 6.