NASA plans to get a close-up look at water ice located near the Moon's South Pole, the space agency announced on Friday. The mission will involve the VIPER lunar rover, a new 'mobile robot' scheduled to arrive in 2022 ahead of the manned Artemis Moon landing. In addition to observing this water at a close distance, the rover will also take the first sample of ice from the Moon.
Starting today, kindergarten through high school students located in the United States can submit essays to NASA's 'Name the Rover' contest. The space agency is soliciting name suggestions for its Mars 2020 rover, which will be launched for its mission to Mars next year. The contest will be open to students until November 1 and the final selection will be revealed early next year.
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 has announced that its Curiosity rover confirmed the presence of clay in the Martian region it is exploring. That area, which is called the 'clay-bearing unit,' is the rover's latest point of interest due to what researchers say were signs hinting at the presence of clay minerals. The 'clay cache,' as NASA calls it, was confirmed in a pair of drilling sites called Kilmarie and Aberlady.
After more than a year spent in the region, NASA's Curiosity rover has departed from the Red Planet's Vera Rubin Ridge and is now making its way toward Mount Sharp. The departure was marked by a selfie at Vera Rubin Ridge's "Rock Hall" drill site, according to NASA, which published an image of the area on Monday. The upcoming new project will help shed light on Mars' history.
Multiple European space agencies recently deployed Mars rovers in Morocco for field tests conducted in a Mars-like environment. According to the European Space Agency, the tests took place on the Sahara Desert's northern edge, which the Europlanet Research Infrastructure designated as a site that is very similar to the Martian landscape. The tests involved three Mars rovers and more than 40 engineers.
Humanity has been provided with a recording of winds on Mars for the first time ever thanks to NASA's newly deployed InSight rover. The vehicle arrived on Mars in November, successfully landing after months of travel to the Red Planet. NASA shared two copies of the wind recording, one as it was captured and another adjusted for playback on phones and laptops.
The United Kingdom has announced a new deal with Airbus that will have it develop a special Mars rover for the European Space Agency (ESA). Unlike the two rovers NASA currently has operating on Mars, Airbus' rover will be able to ship samples back to Earth, giving scientists physical access to soil and rock dust from the Red Planet. This will mark the first time Mars samples have been delivered to our own planet.
NASA has published its latest update on the Mars dust storm, saying it is now spanning the entire Red Planet. The storm has been underway for about two weeks, blotting out the Sun and forcing the solar-powered Opportunity rover into a deep sleep mode as it clings to the last of its energy reservers. The Curiosity rover, meanwhile, remains unaffected by the event.
NASA researchers fear the space agency's Opportunity rover may soon reach the end of its life as a major Mars dust storm continues to blot out the sun. As we reported last week, a Martian dust storm bigger than North America is currently interfering with the rover's ability to operate on the Red Planet, and the rover has now put itself into a deep sleep mode.
When you hear or read about off-planet rovers, you probably think of unmanned, somewhat smaller vehicles built for exploration and scientific missions. This concept Mars rover, in contrast, looks like something the Dark Knight himself would ride into battle. More armored car than mobile lab, this Rover Concept from NASA’s “Summer of Mars” promotion isn’t meant to actually roam the Red Planet. It serves more as a seedbed for actual rover technologies, as well as an inspiration to those visiting the Kennedy Space Center complex.
There is only so much you can launch into space, much less land on planets like Mars. Space, weight, and budget all conspire against having more rolling laboratories roving the planet. Not that you'd want to depend solely on a rover either. Big and expensive, they are hardly qualified for cramped spaces and more treacherous terrain. Which is why NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories or JPL has been developing a companion robot for rovers that would serve as research scouts. But to make them compact and lightweight, the engineers and scientists took inspiration from the foldable properties of paper.