ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Martian Dust Storm Sends NASA’s Opportunity Rover into Hibernation Mode

A massive dust storm on Mars has forced NASA to temporarily suspend operations of its Opportunity rover. NASA first caught wind of the dust storm when its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected traces of the emerging weather system on June 1. Within a few days, the storm exploded in size, and it now covers an area … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Curiosity Rover Finds 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Organic Compounds and Strange Methane on Mars

No, NASA hasn’t discovered life on Mars yet—but a new result makes it seem like maybe, at some point in the planet’s history, the conditions were ripe for some extraterrestrial beings. Maybe. The scientists behind experiments conducted by the Curiosity rover are today reporting two results that make the Red Planet’s story even more interesting. … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Is Able to Drill Holes Into Rocks Again

That’s one small hole for a probe, but one giant leap for NASA. This past weekend, the space agency jerry-rigged Curiosity’s malfunctioning drill, allowing the rover to bore into Martian rock for the first time in over a year. Curiosity’s drill has been giving NASA fits for quite some time now. Electrical issues caused problems … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Curiosity Rover’s Busted Jackhammer Could Soon Get a Fix

In late 2016, the drill used by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity began to malfunction due to an apparent mechanical failure. This Saturday, NASA will test a new method that could restore the drill’s critical jackhammering capability, and by consequence, the rover’s ability to analyze Martian rock samples. To bore into Martian rock, Curiosity’s drill uses … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Here’s Why NASA Is Sending a Miniature Helicopter to Mars

NASA will be testing heavier-than-air flight on Mars by sending miniature robot helicopter with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover. The four-pound helicopter’s rotors will spin at 3,000 rpms, 10 times faster than helicopters here on Earth, according to a NASA release. That’s because the Martian atmosphere is only about 1 percent the density of Earth’s. … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Infuriating Fog and Exhilarating Geophysics: Behind the Scenes of NASA’s InSight Launch to Mars

On Saturday, for the first time, a rocket blasted off from the US West Coast to fling its payload on an interplanetary trajectory. Despite being at Vandenberg Air Force Base for Mars InSight’s historic launch atop an Atlas V rocket, I never saw the spacecraft before it tore free from Earth’s greedy grasp. I’ve been … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA’s Tiny, Mars-Bound Satellites Have Successfully Signaled Home

NASA’s InSight lander is on its way to Mars following Saturday’s successful launch of an Atlas V rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But the lander is not alone—it has a pair of twin communication CubeSats in tow. Called MarCO-A and MarCO-B, the tiny machines have already passed the first important milestone … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

How Engineers Tested the Super-Sensitive Seismometer That Will Detect Quakes on Mars

If all goes according to plan, NASA’s Mars InSight mission will launch this weekend from California. Onboard the Atlas V-401 rocket is the InSight lander, a nearly 800-pound machine loaded up with cameras, a robotic arm, a heat probe, and a seismometer that, for the first time, will allow us to examine the inner structure … Continued

SciencePhysics & Chemistry

NASA’s Mini Fission Reactor Could Help Humans Survive on Mars, and It Just Cleared Early Tests

NASA announced today that it has completed tests of its Kilopower portable nuclear fission reactor, a device designed to one day power bases on Mars or the moon. The tests met or exceeded expectations on all metrics, which means the device can now go on to more serious flight testing. The Kilopower device is still … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Why NASA’s Next Mars Lander Will Launch from California Instead of Florida

NASA is set to launch its next Mars lander, InSight, early Saturday morning. But something’s different about this launch. It’s taking place on the West Coast, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Rockets typically launch from NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Earth’s rotation can give them a velocity boost … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Gorgeous Photo of Martian Landscape Is Just the Beginning for ExoMars Mission

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has released the first images from its new orbit, taken on April 15 from 400 kilometers above the Martian surface. Here’s the uncropped composite image: The image reveals 40 kilometers of dust, dirt, and ice (seen in white) along the Korolev impact crater in the planet’s Northern Hemisphere, according to … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA and ESA Are Getting Serious About Bringing Martian Soil to Earth

Earlier today, officials with NASA and the European Space Agency signed a statement of intent to explore the various ways in which Martian soil samples can be collected and delivered back to Earth. Sounds great, but a complex project of this nature won’t be easy, as it would involve the first-ever rocket launch from the surface … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Europe’s Gas-Sniffing Spacecraft Set to Science the Shit Out of Mars

After a year of steadily slowing down, the ExoMars spacecraft has finally reached its target orbit around Mars. In about two weeks, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos orbiter will begin to scan the Martian atmosphere in search of trace gases, including those potentially linked to life. This week, the spacecraft transitioned from a highly … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

These Superb Antarctic Veggies Are a Tasty Preview for a Menu on Mars

As temperatures outside dipped to well below freezing, and as blizzards pounded the Antarctic research station, German scientists were carefully tending to a remarkable veggie garden—one requiring no soil or natural sunlight. The success of their first harvest, which produced vibrant-looking lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, and other treats, represents a promising test run for similar greenhouses … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Buzz Buzz, NASA Funds Project to Put Bee Robots on Mars

I can’t beelieve it! Maybe one day there will be bee-like robots buzzing around the surface of Mars. NASA has selected 25 proposals to receive funding as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Each award amounts to around $125,000. But as a website that’s always been a fan of small ideas, we quite … Continued

EartherEarth Science

There’s Life on the Closest Thing We Have to Mars

A new study has documented for the first time how certain microorganisms are able to survive the extreme aridity of Chile’s Atacama Desert—the world’s driest—by going dormant for decades. To survive years without even a drop of rain, the microbes bide their time in a suspended state. When the rain finally arrives, they reactivate and … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Martian Sand Is Swallowing the Phoenix Lander and Nothing Beside Remains

The Phoenix Lander detected water on Mars during its three-month mission in 2008, and now it is being swallowed by the planet’s dust. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped the above two images, one in 2008 and the other in December of 2017. If Percy Bysshe Shelley … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Today Was the NASA Opportunity Rover’s 5,000th Martian Dawn

Saturday, February 17th marks the 5,000th local day (sol) of operations for NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover, which was originally designed to last for just 90 sols after its January 2004 landing date, but has instead continued to set milestones like completing a marathon-length tour of its surroundings and taking huge composite photos of its new … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Captures Breathtaking Panorama of Martian Landscape

After months of steady progress, NASA’s Curiosity rover has reached the top of Vera Rubin Ridge. And like the good mountain climber that it is, the rover took the opportunity to look around and bask in the view from up high. The resulting panorama—stitched together from 16 individual photos—is one of the most spectacular and … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Water Might Be Easier to Find on Mars Than We Thought

Mars likely held flowing water during its ancient past, possibly even vast oceans of it. Most of this precious liquid escaped into space, but some of it stayed behind, transforming into ice and settling beneath the rocky surface. New research shows that a sizable portion of this water ice is surprisingly near the surface—in some … Continued