Space and astronomy news
Perseverance found its parachute, JWST cooling down its experiments, Standard Model once again in danger, Space Force releasing data to scientists, yet another approach for expensive space tourism and more top news stories of this week.
Curiosity rover recently encountered “gator-back terrain,” the sharp rocks that caused the first breaks in its wheels back in 2017.
It seems like only months ago that the Perseverance Rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars. But in fact, it’s been there longer than a year. Perseverance has had company during this time; its sidekick, the Ingenuity helicopter, completed 23 flights in Mars’ thin atmosphere so far. The HiRISE camera on the MRO has captured …
Continue reading “What a Feat! Ingenuity Photographed From Space”
With the recent termination of cooperation between the ESA and Roscosmos, the Rosalind Franklin rover will need another way to get to Mars
NASA’s Perseverance Rover is busy exploring Jezero Crater on Mars. Part of its mission is to collect samples for retrieval by a future mission. NASA and the ESA haven’t determined where the sample return mission will land yet. That depends on the Perseverance mission and how it spends the rest of its time on Mars. …
Continue reading “This is Where the Mars Sample Return Mission Could be Landing”
We’re still in the early days of searching for life elsewhere. The Perseverance rover is on its way to a paleo-delta on Mars to look for fossilized signs of ancient bacterial life. SETI’s been watching the sky with radio dishes, listening for signals from distant worlds. Our telescopes are beginning to scan the atmospheres of …
Continue reading “Next Generation Telescopes Could Search for Intelligent Civilizations Directly”
Ingenuity, the helicopter currently zipping its way around Mars, has been a hotly watched topic here at UT. After completing its 21st mission and being on the planet for a little over a year, Ingenuity’s handlers have officially extended its mission in the hopes that it will continue its stellar, groundbreaking performances.
China’s Tianwen-1 lander and Zhurong rover touched down on the Martian plain Utopia Planitia on May 14, 2021 after spending about three months orbiting the Red Planet. While the Chinese Space Agency has shared images of the rover and lander (including a cute family portrait taken by a wireless remote camera), NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
Continue reading “Mars Orbiter Captures Images of China’s Rover From Space”
If we’ve learned anything about Mars the past 2-3 decades from the various rovers, landers and orbiters we’ve sent to the Red Planet, it’s that the planet’s geologic history is much more complicated and diverse than what we thought. This picture from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter …
Continue reading “Strange Terraces on Mars are a Clear Signal of Sedimentary Rock”
In situ resource utilization (ISRU) is still a very early science. Therefore, the technology utilized in it could be improved upon. One such technology that created one of the most useful materials for ISRU (oxygen) is MOXIE – the Mars OXygen In-situ Resource Utilization Experiment. A small-scale model of a MOXIE was recently tested on …