A toaster-sized scientific instrument attached to NASA’s Perseverance rover just sucked up a bit of carbon dioxide from the surrounding Martian atmosphere and converted it into oxygen. It’s a groundbreaking first that could lead to a future in which space travelers are not only able to generate air to breathe, but rocket fuel to get…
NASA’s $800 million Mars lander is in an energy crisis. InSight, which landed in a Martian plain called Elysium Planitia in 2018, has detected more than 500 Mars quakes, felt more than 10,000 dust devils pass by, and started to measure the planet’s core. But over the past few months, InSight has been fighting for…
Humanity’s future on Mars may depend on a golden box about the size of a car battery. On February 18, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars with this box, called MOXIE, nestled in its belly. MOXIE was designed to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars, and NASA plans to put it to the test…
We introduce you to two members of our mission SMOPS (www.smops.space) at MDRS: Paolo Guardabasso and Benjamin Pothier.
China’s first interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, successfully entered today Mars orbit. Tianwen-1 will gradually lower its orbit to allow for observations of Mars. It will also begin preparations for the entry, descent and landing attempt of a 240-kilogram solar powered rover, an event expected to take place around May or June, according to the China Aerospace…
by marsdaily The first Arab space mission, the UAE’s “Hope” probe, is expected to reach Mars’ orbit on Tuesday, making it the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month. The United Arab Emirates, China and the United States all launched projects to Mars last July, taking advantage of a period…
A second prototype of SpaceX’s Starship reusable launch vehicle performed a suborbital flight Feb. SpaceX planned to fly the vehicle to an altitude of 10 kilometers before landing on a pad at the test site. The liftoff and ascent of the vehicle went as expected, according to commentary on the SpaceX webcast by company engineer John Insprucker. The vehicle…
After nearly 300 million miles (470 million kilometers), NASA’s Perseverance rover completes its journey to Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. But, to reach the surface of the Red Planet, it has to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and LandingThe goal of the Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to…
Only one week to the Mars To Earth Conference 2021. Here the program of the conference. Registration free at https://marstoearth.org/register/Included in the event the the Mars To Earth Award, a challenge for students with a deadline for the submission of their projects January 15th .
Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars’ surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes. These eight scarps, with slopes as steep as 55 degrees, reveal new information about the internal layered structure of previously detected underground ice sheets in Mars’ middle latitudes. Credit NASA