Mars

Curiosity Drills 2nd Hole into Ancient Mars Rocks Searching for the Ingredients of Life

May 21, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter NASA’s Curiosity rover has just successfully bored inside ancient rocks on Mars for only the 2nd time since her nail biting landing in August 2012 inside Gale Crater as she searches for the ingredients of life. On Sunday, May 20, the [...]

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Drill, Baby, Drill! – How Does Curiosity ‘Do It’

May 19, 2013

Video Caption: This JPL video shows the complicated choreography to get drill samples to Curiosity’s instruments as she prepares for 2nd drilling at “Cumberland.” See where “Cumberland” is located in our panoramic photo mosaic below. It’s time at last for “Drill, Baby, Drill!” – Martian Style. Ever wonder how Curiosity “Does It” Well, check out [...]

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Opportunity Mars Rover Blazes Past 40 Year Old Space Driving Record

May 18, 2013

Now more than 9 years and counting into her planned mere 90 day mission to Mars, NASA’s legendary Opportunity rover has smashed past another space milestone and established a new distance driving record for an American vehicle on another world this week. On Thursday, May 16, the long-lived Opportunity drove another 263 feet (80 meters) [...]

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Mars Gets Bombarded by 200 Small Asteroids and Comets Every Year

May 15, 2013

One of the benefits of having a spacecraft in orbit around another planet for several years is the ability to make long-term observations and interpretations. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been orbiting Mars for over seven years now, and by studying before-and-after images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, scientists have been [...]

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How to Plant a Garden on Mars — With a Robot

May 14, 2013

Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Louisa Preston, an Astrobiologist and Planetary Geologist. She is a TED Fellow, and Postdoctoral Research Associate at The Open University, UK. In the last century humanity has taken gigantic leaps forward in the robotic exploration of the cosmos — not least in the search for habitable worlds [...]

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