Mars
Washington (AFP) - NASA said Monday it was looking for ways to bring Martian rocks collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth earlier and at a lower cost than planned after facing criticism for going massively over budget. The effort comes as China is making progress towards a simpler "grab-and-go" sample return mission to the red planet "around 2030," according to state media, which would make it the first nation to achieve the feat. "The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive, and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long," the US space agency's chief Bill Ne...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which made history by achieving the first powered flight on another world, has officially ended its nearly three-year mission after sustaining rotor damage during its last outing, the space agency said Thursday. The tissue-box sized aircraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet under the belly of the Perseverance rover, first lifted off the surface on April 19, 2021. Originally intended only to prove flight was possible in the ultra-thin Martian atmosphere through five test runs, Ingenuity went on to be deployed a total of 72 times, loggi...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which made history by achieving the first powered flight on another world, has officially ended its nearly three-year mission after sustaining rotor damage during its last outing, the space agency said Thursday. The tissue-box sized aircraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet under the belly of the Perseverance rover, first lifted off the surface on April 19, 2021. Originally intended only to prove flight was possible in the ultra-thin Martian atmosphere through five test runs, Ingenuity went on to be deployed a total of 72 times, actin...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Long time, no speak: NASA has re-established contact with the intrepid Ingenuity Mars Helicopter after more than two months of radio silence, the space agency said Friday. The mini rotorcraft, which hitched a ride to the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover in early 2021, has already survived well beyond its initial 30-day mission to prove the feasibility of its technology in five test flights. Since then, it has been deployed dozens of times, acting as an aerial scout to assist its wheeled companion in searching for signs of ancient microbial life from billions of years a...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA's Curiosity rover has found wave-rippled rocks -- evidence of an ancient lake -- in an area of the planet expected to be drier, the US space agency said Wednesday. "This is the best evidence of water and waves that we've seen in the entire mission," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2012, beamed back stunning pictures of rippled patterns on the surface of rocks caused by the waves of a shallow lake billions of years ago. Curiosity had previously found evid...
AFP
Los Angeles (AFP) - Yogi, Paddington and Winnie the Pooh, move over. There's a new bear in town. Or on Mars, anyway. The beaming face of a cute-looking teddy bear appears to have been carved into the surface of our nearest planetary neighbor, waiting for a passing satellite to discover it. And when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed over last month, carrying aboard the most powerful camera ever to venture into the Solar System, that's exactly what happened. Scientists operating the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), which has been circling Mars since 2006, crunched the da...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA said farewell on Wednesday to the InSight lander that spent four years probing the interior of Mars. The US space agency said mission control had been unable to contact the spacecraft on two consecutive attempts, leading to the conclusion that its solar-powered batteries have run out of energy. "InSight may be retiring, but its legacy -- and its findings from the deep interior of Mars -- will live on," NASA said. The space agency said it will continue to listen for a signal from the lander, which last communicated with Earth a week ago, but it is considered unlikely aft...
AFP
Cape Canaveral (AFP) - The Artemis program is NASA's plan to return humans to the Moon as a stepping stone for an eventual voyage to Mars. Twelve men walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 and one of the goals of Artemis is to put the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface. The first test flight of an uncrewed Artemis rocket is to take place on Monday. The name Artemis was chosen to echo that of the Apollo program. Artemis, in Greek mythology, was the twin sister of Apollo and a goddess associated with the Moon. Here is an overview of the Artemis program: Artemis 1: test flig...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA confirmed Monday that its Perseverance Mars rover succeeded in collecting its first rock sample for scientists to pore over when a future mission eventually brings it back to Earth. "I've got it!" the space agency tweeted, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube. The sample was collected on September 1, but NASA was initially unsure whether the rover had successfully held onto its precious cargo, because initial images taken in poor light were unclear. After taking a new photo so mission control could verify its content...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - NASA's Perseverance rover succeeded in its second attempt to scoop up a piece of Martian rock for future analysis by scientists on Earth -- probably. Its first effort last month (August 5) failed after the rock was too crumbly to withstand the robot's drill, but data received late on September 1 indicates the process worked this time around. The US space agency said Thursday it remains a little uncertain, because images taken after the rover's arm completed sample acquisition were inconclusive due to poor sunlight conditions. More images taken under better lighting are expec...
AFP
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