Curiosity, the Mars rover that's been tooling around the red planet since 2012 normally has a meticulously planned route. There is no "go where the wind takes you" attitude among Rover Planners at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Quite the opposite. The route is planned to maximize the rover's power capacity, and research as many of the topographical features of Mars as possible. Last year the rover reached the bottom of Mount Sharp. The planned route was to explore that area, as well as an adjacent area known as "Pahrump Hills." From there scientists had set its course to head for an area known as "Logan Pass." It's this area where the rover's long robotic arm will be used to deposit science instruments (a first for the rover) on an area it's not able to reach, so that data can be collected from the surface where the instruments come in contact with the soil.Recently however the team decided to have the rover make a detour from it's appointed rounds. What was the attraction? Images from the rover's MastCam caught the eye of some of the scientists. To the northwest of the mapped route that the rover was following, there was a small rise, known as Mount Shields. There were some unusual characteristics on this rise that scientists had not seen before. Based on the images and after a careful study of the everything the detour would involve, the team decided that late April would be a good time to divert the rover to the area. In a statement issued by the JPL, Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada said, "In pictures we took on the way from Pahrump Hills toward Logan Pass, some of the geologists on the team noticed a feature that looked like what's called an 'incised valley fill,' which is where a valley has been cut into bedrock and then filled in with other sediment.""It's exciting to see this on Mars for the first time," he continued. "Features like this on Earth capture evidence of change. What in the environment changed to go from depositing one kind of sediment, to eroding it away in a valley, to then depositing a different kind of sediment? It's a fascinating puzzle that Mars has left for us."While it was an unplanned detour, scientists did still carefully consider where, and for how long the rover would deviate from the route. The decision to send the rover over on a specific course is one that takes months of study. Deciding in a matter of days to vary the route is not something that happens every day, but Curiosity has always been a pioneering project. Since it's studying the multi-layered surfaces of the planet, they felt the opportunity to look at this kind of filled valley was too good to pass up. After getting measurements and images of the sediments in the valley, the rover was sent back on it's way up Mount Sharp enroute to Logan Pass. Watch the video below to hear how the team plans the route for Curiosity.Source: Mars Daily, NASA JPL, YouTube

Over the weekend, NASA received some of the first radio signals from a pair of deep space-bound CubeSats that are collectively known as MarCO. Amusingly, the radio signals echoed the word “Polo!” back to engineers on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In an official statement, NASA elucidates how engineers received the first radio signal at 3:15 P.M. Eastern time on Saturday, while the second arrived a little later at roughly 4:58 P.M. Eastern time. “Both MarCO-A and B say ‘Polo!’ It's a sign that the little sats are alive and well,” said MarCO mission chief engineer Andy Klesh from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Related: GTOSat promises to let NASA study Earth's radiation belts in unprecedented detail NASA’s MarCO mission hasn’t been in space for very long. In fact, the two CubeSats hitched a ride with the space agency's InSight mission to Mars, which blasted off from a launch pad at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday. It may seem like an insignificant radio signal to hear from a spacecraft at first, but it was actually rather vital because it reassured NASA that the CubeSats’ communication equipment is operating correctly. The MarCO CubeSats are following InSight to Mars. During the trip, they’ll endure cosmic radiation and other harsh outer space conditions so that NASA can determine whether CubeSat technology is an ideal platform for future deep space exploration. If everything goes well, then MarCO will capture valuable information about InSight’s deployment at Mars so that NASA can analyze and learn from the results. Of course, there’s always the chance that MarCO won’t survive the trip. "We're nervous but excited," added MarCO project manager Joel Krajewski of JPL. "A lot of work went into designing and testing these components so that they could survive the trip to Mars and relay data during InSight's landing. But our broader goal is to learn more about how to adapt CubeSat technologies for future deep-space missions." It should be interesting to see how the MarCO mission pans out, especially since InSight will arrive at Mars no later than November of this year. It won’t be long now… Source: NASA

When you look at Mars today, you probably have a hard time believing that the planet ever had any traces of water oceans like the Earth has. On the other hand, scientists do believe that the red plant had vast oceans spanning the Northern hemisphere well over 3 billion years ago, before it became the desolate wasteland it is today. Image Credit: SciNews/YouTube Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters Planets, a study points out the evidence on Mars’ surface to explain powerful tsunamis that once swept through an ocean that spanned the Northern hemisphere. It goes on to suggest that the tsunamis were generated by large impacts, and even goes as far as to tay which one would have caused the tsunami. The large Lomonsov crater, which is approximately 90 miles wide, is perhaps the most viable candidate for being the source of the massive tsunami reported in this study; experts say it could have been up to 330 feet tall. The tsunami would have created such powerful torrential forces that they carried sediment kicked up from the impact from one part of the planet to another; a process is known as deposition. Because of this, scientists were able to trace thumbprint sediments that are unique to one part of the planet and match it to other parts where it was dispersed from this activity. This was made possible thanks to the current models we have of Mars, which include detailed terrestrial analyses that have been validated. The researchers also used models to predict the behavior of the tsunami, which included hypothesizing what caused it and how tall it was at the time. Image Credit: Journal of Geophysical Research Letters Planets "The possibility that a large ocean once occupied the Martian northern plains is one of the most important and controversial hypotheses to have originated from the exploration of Mars," the researchers note. "We mapped lobate deposits, which appear and are potential tsunami deposits associated with the existence of a former ocean. We identified the most probable crater sources of the proposed tsunami deposits from a numerical modeling." Perhaps some of the most solidifying evidence for the tsunami is the fact that the sediment appears to have been pushed uphill. The only way this would have been possible is if there was a vast ocean and the high-rising tsunami currents were able to push the sediment far from their source, where they would later settle. While there has been evidence for tsunamis before, this is reportedly the first time that they’ve been linked to a particular impact crater. This breakthrough discovery could help us continue to unfold the unexplained history of Mars. Source: BBC

One of the things you'll hear from NASA all the time is how they're falling behind on deadlines because there's a limited budget and so much to get done. With that in mind, can you imagine how things might change if only NASA had more money to put towards research and development? NASA, like SpaceX, wants to colonize Mars, but our current technology isn't quite there yet. We will need to develop new life support systems, new transportation systems, and new habitation modules to make all this possible. In the meantime, NASA is also attempting to launch the world's most powerful space telescope and develop an entirely new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) that will be powerful enough to take humans into deep space. In comparison to the United States military, NASA receives so little funding that the money flow effectively bottlenecks the progress of discovery and innovation. If given just a little bit more, perhaps we could accomplish some of our biggest goals in years, rather than decades.

Humans haven’t stepped foot on the Moon since 1972, but NASA’s Artemis Moon Program aims to break that streak by putting the first woman and person of color on its surface within the next few years. The pioneering astronaut’s destination is Shackleton Crater, which is located near the south pole of the Moon and is believed to contain frozen water ice within its permanently shadowed depths. NASA is working in collaboration with both international and commercial partners to launch the Artemis astronauts aboard the much-anticipated Space Launch System and utilize the future Gateway orbiting outpost to usher in a riveting new chapter in space exploration meant to test new technologies and resources that will take humans to Mars and beyond.

NASA engineers have been racing against the clock to finish building the Perseverance rover in time for the opportunistic launch window that opens up this Summer. If successful, the American space agency can take advantage of something known as the Hohmann Transfer Orbit, which saves both fuel and time when sending spacecraft to Mars from Earth. Just a couple of weeks ago, engineers finished mounting critical sampling equipment on the rover’s chassis, including the Adaptive Caching Assembly and the Bit Carousel, which will empower the rover to gather and analyze surface samples on Mars. Fast-forward to now, and Perseverance currently resides further down the assembly line. Just this past week, the rover was fitted with its wheels and air brake (parachute) system. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech If you’ve been paying any attention to the slew of news updates released by NASA lately, then you might’ve noticed that previous postings showed Perseverance with wheels already attached to the chassis. As it turns out, these weren’t the rover’s official space-worthy wheels; rather, as NASA puts it, these were a set of “flight spares” that wouldn’t make the cut for a trip to Mars. Related: Perseverance is the new name for the Mars 2020 rover The rover’s new wheels will be the very ones that ship with the package to Mars when it blasts off from a launch pad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station via a United Launch Alliance-made Atlas V 541 rocket this Summer. Perhaps more importantly, they’re distinct from the ones currently being used by NASA’s Curiosity rover: Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In a statement, NASA explains that the wheels are still made from aluminum like Curiosity’s wheels are currently, and that the spokes are made of durable titanium. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that the tread pattern is different. Internal testing shows that these lightly curved tread patterns hold up better to getting battered all day long by sharp rocks than Curiosity’s tread pattern did. As you might come to expect from an agency as meticulous as NASA, there are some interesting stats to be shared about Perseverance’s parachute system as well. The parachute itself weighs approximately 194 pounds and has been stitched out of durable materials like nylon, Technora, and Kevlar fibers. But perhaps more interesting is the fact that these materials have been packed so tightly into a container that the end product is “as dense as oak wood.” With as much ingenuity and innovation that has went into making the Perseverance rover, it will be seriously interesting to witness the types of scientific discoveries it will make when it arrives at Mars in February 2021. Perseverance is truly the most advanced rover ever sent to another world. Source: NASA

Using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), NASA has, for the first time, been able to observe the cumulative growth of large Martian “spiders” over the course of three Martian years, each of which last 1.9 Earth years. The latest findings appear in the journal Icarus. Although we’ve seen similar structures to these, many of which were much larger, on the red planet before and understand pretty well how they’re formed, NASA has never really had the opportunity to see their growth over time, making this a significant observation. Image Credit: NASA We understand many of these smaller formations may have the ability to grow into larger spider-like formations over extended periods of time thanks to the effects of thawing carbon dioxide (dry ice, which occurs naturally on Mars unlike on Earth) on the red planet during the Winter season. This process may take up to 1,000 Martian years. After the ice melts, it produces a carbon dioxide gas, which erodes the ground around it as it escapes to the surface. It escapes through cracks, which occur from the build-up of pressure. This very same pressure is responsible for launching particles into the air, which are then replaced by new particles that give it this dark appearance. There are numerous exhibits of these “spiders” all over the Southern pole region of Mars, but they don’t seem to form anywhere else on the red planet. They are large enough to be picked up by satellite imagery, ranging from tens to hundreds of yards in size. They’re referred to as “spiders” because of their unique shape; at the center of each is what appears to be a globular body, and then spanning from the center in omnidirectional formations are branches that look like spider legs. According to the research, these formations only appear in the sand dunes of the South, which suggests that the sand dunes, in addition to the climate, play a role in their unique formation. "We have seen for the first time these smaller features that survive and extend from year to year, and this is how the larger spiders get started," said Ganna Portyankina of the University of Colorado, Boulder and the lead author of the Icarus study. "These are in sand-dune areas, so we don't know whether they will keep getting bigger or will disappear under moving sand." Sand dunes are made up of loose sand, and they likely play a role in the create and destroy process of these spider-like structures. They have the right conditions to form them, but because of their looseness, sand that gets blown over the structures can easily cover them up. The North pole and the South pole each have their fair share of loose sandy dunes, but the North reportedly has looser sand, which isn’t optimal for making these structures. The South pole has loose sand also, but because it’s a little more structurally sound, it prevents nearby sand from simply re-filling the cracks when they’re formed. If it weren’t for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, observations such as these would not be possible. If we’re ever going to colonize Mars, we will have to do our best to better understand how the red planet works, and every discovery we make helps us get closer to unlocking the secret behind Mars. Source: NASA

We've all heard about plans for exploring and possibly even colonizing Mars. To do that we'll have to land a lot of hardware there: habitats, vehicles, supplies. But if you're landing something the size of a building, or a large truck on the surface of Mars, how do you get it down safely? NASA is testing a new saucer-shaped vehicle that will help them do just that.The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) test vehicle - which NASA has dubbed the "flying saucer" is an inflatable heat shield and atmospheric brake. They are essentially a system of inflatable concentric rings designed to fit around the rim of an entry vehicle. They are designed to inflate as a craft enters the atmosphere of its target planet. Once inflated, they will increase the surface area of the vehicle and thereby increase atmospheric drag, slowing down the vehicle. Most heat shields up to this point have been rigid. NASA officials hope this new inflatable system will vastly increase the size and weight of the payloads the agency can land safely on Mars. The "sky crane" system that help get the Curiosity lander safely down on Mars used in August 2012 is capable of handling about 1 metric ton. But a manned mission to Mars will require elements that are more in the range of 10 to 20 metric tons.Last Tuesday NASA engineers put the LDSD through initial testing in preparation for flight testing this June. They subjected the "Flying Saucer" to a "spin table" test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Engineers were looking for any wobbles caused by any less than perfect distribution of mass throughout the 7,000-lb. (3,175 kilogram) 15-foot (4.6 meter)-wide vehicle. Any wobbles the team found were corrected by attaching small weights at the appropriate spots around the craft's rim. Sound familiar? Well, "This is like spinning your automobile tire, and putting weights on it to make sure that it spins perfectly," says JPL's LDSD Chief Engineer Rob Manning.Another part of the LDSD project is the development of a 100-foot (31 m) -wide supersonic parachute. This will be the biggest chute of its kind ever made. Just for comparison, when NASA's Mars Curiosity rover was landing, it used a 51-foot (15.5 m) -wide parachute. This is the sort of parachute that will be needed for the much bigger, much heavier loads NASA intents to put down on the red planet during a manned mission.The next step for the LDSD vehicle will be shipment to Hawaii, for its second round of flight testing at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai. This second round of testing is scheduled to take place between June 2 and June 12, weather permitting. The first round of flight testing for the "flying saucer" took place last June at the same Hawaii facility. During that round of testing the vehicle was carried by a huge balloon up to an altitude of 23 miles (37 kilometers), which is a good analog for the thin Martian atmosphere. There the craft was dropped and its onboard rocket motor boosted it to Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound) and an altitude of 34 miles (55 km). Aside from ripping its parachute, the craft performed perfectly. The ripped parachute was exactly the kind of data the test was looking for, and allowed NASA specialists to re-engineer the parachute out of much stronger material.(Source: Space.com)

When astronauts visit the International Space Station or the Moon, they're only a few days away from home in an emergency. But ambitious plans to send humans to Mars means that astronauts could be up to eight months away at any given time. One of the most complicated issues encompassing long-term space travel involves emergency medical care. Given the vast distance, astronauts can't just return to Earth for surgery or treatment, and it's NASA's responsibility to ensure that astronauts have everything they need before leaving Earth. Experts in the field are actively trying to develop versatile surgical tools that take up less space in an attempt to make them more space-friendly. After all, spacecraft have limited room to work with. Furthermore, medical teams are working closely with NASA to learn how to perform surgical procedures in near-zero gravity environments. Although we're still a long way from colonizing Mars or any other planetary body in our solar system, it's never too early to prepare for the unknown. In doing so, we can ensure the safety of every astronaut that endures long-term space travel in the name of science. As a bonus, developments conceived from this or related research also have the potential to improve healthcare for patients right here on Earth.

Much of the world is getting fired up about sending astronauts to explore extraplanetary bodies such as Mars or the Moon, but there's one thing to keep in mind: two radiation belts, known as the Van Allen belts, surround our planet. The Van Allen belts are comprised of a proton-infested inner belt and an electron-infested outer belt. They pose potentially-lethal health risks to deep space astronauts because long-term exposure to the high-energy radiation can damage DNA. NASA gets around this problem by shielding spacecraft with radiation-resistant armor, but while it keeps most of the radiation out, small amounts still seep through. To protect astronauts even further, NASA ensures that no spacecraft lingers within the radiation belts for too long as to reduce exposure. Astronauts will need to pass through the Van Allen belts if they ever return to the Moon or explore Mars, but it appears as if NASA has thought things through. This means astronauts shouldn't experience radiation poisoning from traveling through the Van Allen belts when the time comes.

NASA wants to learn more about Mars' unique qualities, and the space agency's InSight mission aims to be a step in the right direction. The hardware for the mission just arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this week, and it won't be long now before it sits atop an Atlas V rocket for launch. Engineers are already preparing it for the next stages before launch. InSight will land on the Martian surface and probe the red planet's internal activity for clues about how the world formed. It has been carefully built to collect a variety of datasets, like tectonic activity, internal temperature, and orbital wobble, just to name a few. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, InSight will become the first planetary spacecraft launched from this particular facility and is slated to blast off sometime between May 5th and June 8th. At this point in time, we have no idea what we might learn from InSight, and that's the whole reason it's going to Mars. If we're lucky, we might learn a thing or two about the planet's physical features and whether it's capable of supporting life.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been physically exploring the surface of Mars since 2012, but as it rolls along, it sends surface data back to scientists on Earth for analysis. But what does that mean? The word “analysis” comes up a lot in science, but it’s rare that we ever get to see how it translates to scientific study in the real world. In this particular case, scientists analyze the Martian surface as it’s sent back by Curiosity with virtual reality hardware and software – namely the Microsoft HoloLens. The software the scientists are using in this video is called OnSight, and it enables them to walk around in a three-dimensional, virtual reality realm built upon a visual database collected by the Curiosity rover throughout its journey across the Martian surface. With it, scientists can grab a closer look at objects and study with their colleagues from around the world. NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover will sport this technology too, enabling scientist to continue their work as they know it.

People typically think of a 'moon' as a natural secondary object orbiting a planet that orbits a host star. For example, Earth orbits the Sun, but the Moon orbits the Earth. Likewise, Mars orbits the Sun, and two moons, Deimos and Phobos, orbit Mars. As we search the outer reaches of our solar system, we're finding higher concentrations of moons orbiting other planets. Jupiter, for example, has 67 confirmed moons, while Saturn has 62. These figures are pushing the limits, and there's still no telling how much more are hiding in the dark. Moreover, many moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn barely measure 1 kilometer across. With seemingly no lower limit in the definition of what we call a "moon," almost any small space rock orbiting a planet could be considered one. This gray area has experts thinking: perhaps we need a more detailed way of defining what a moon is. There's no telling how space experts might categorize moons in the future, but a stricter definition could help us better differentiate between the plethora of objects residing in our solar system.

First developed in the 1960s, nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) rockets had undergone extensive tests. Despite many successful firings, no NTP rockets took flight before the space race ended. But now they are set to make a comeback. In its pursuit of missions that will take us to Mars and beyond, NASA has been exploring fast and efficient rocket concepts to travel around our solar system. NTP rockets emerged as an ideal candidate. Unlike hydrogen fuel-combusting chemical rockets, NTP rockets use nuclear fission reactions to heat up liquid hydrogen and turn it into gas (plasma). When the plasma is ejected through a rocket nozzle, the rocket gains thrust. Compared traditional chemical rockets, NTP rockets provide more powerful propulsion and require a smaller amount of fuel for the same distance. NASA estimated that an NTP rocket can cut the traveling time to Mars from six months to four. Source: Curious Droid via Youtube

In an array of studies, one published in Science Advances and two published in Science, a large international team of researchers discuss how the recent findings of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at Jezero Crater indicate rocks of volcanic origin rather than sedimentary origin. These findings are profound since Jezero Crater was once home to a very large lake, so scientists anticipated finding primarily sedimentary rocks which would be indicative of once-flowing liquid water. Also, while Mars has long been known to be red in color, these volcanic rocks exhibit more of a green tint, which is often seen on the beaches of Hawaii. "We started to realize that these layered igneous rocks we were seeing look different from the igneous rocks we have these days on Earth," said Dr. Roger Wiens, who is a Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, and is lead author of the Science Advances paper while co-author on both studies in Science. "They're very like igneous rocks on Earth early in its existence." While volcanic rocks on Earth are both weathered and beaten from tectonic activity and billions of years of wind erosion, the volcanic rocks on Mars are purer and more untouched, despite them being 4 billion years old. This makes them far easier to examine and study. This allows researchers to gain a much better understanding of rocks on Mars, to include their history and evolution, which could ultimately lead to a better understanding of how life might have risen on the Red Planet while comparing that with early life on the Earth. "One of the reasons we don't have a great understanding of where and when life first evolved on Earth is because those rocks are mostly gone, so it's really hard to reconstruct what ancient environments on Earth were like," said Dr. Briony Horgan, who is an Associate Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, and a co-author on all three studies. "The rocks Perseverance is roving over in Jezero have more or less just been sitting at the surface for billions of years, waiting for us to come look at them. That's one of the reasons that Mars is an important laboratory for understanding the early solar system." Sources: Science Advances, Science (1), Science (2) As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Much like an automobile, NASA’s Martian rovers receive a paint job before they’re delivered to Mars; but that’s about where the similarities end. Unlike your car, a Martian rover needs a precise paint job comprised of specially-formulated paint that can survive in deep space and on the harsh environment endured on the red planet. It would be an understatement to say that a Martian rover’s paint job is more durable than that of what you’d find on your car. If you look closely at the Curiosity rover’s selfie pictures, you’ll see shiny white paint underneath its dusty overlay. That paint is designed to avoid chipping and behave like a protective barrier that prevents moisture from accumulating beneath it. NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 rover will receive the same white paint job because it’s ideal for reflecting sunlight and reducing temperatures. Precisely-cut pieces of masking tape are placed on the rover’s chassis before paint application to ensure that only the necessary components are painted. NASA then scuffs the bare aluminum body to make paint adhesion easier. After a trained technician applies the paint evenly, the chassis enters a vacuum oven where the paint bakes at around 230 degrees Fahrenheit for three days straight. This baking process helps to cure the paint and ensure that nothing penetrates it – not even Mars’ drastic temperature changes or rough, dusty weather.

Despite the fact that NASA one day wants to have an occupied research facility on Mars for astronauts to temporarily settle on as they conduct experiments and learn more about our solar system, the European Space Agency is working on a completely separate project to have astronauts occupying a research base on the Moon by the 2030’s. Such a lunar ‘village’ would allow astronauts to conduct experiments and learn more about the Moon without having to return to Earth so soon. The structure of such a base would most likely be 3D-printed, just like a facility on Mars would be, which means that supplies to build such a base would be easier to fit on board a rocket to send there with some engineers. Obviously, NASA is aiming for the stars with their plans to send astronauts to Mars, but the Moon is so much closer to the Earth, that it would work as a great initial testing ground to see how long-term life on a distant spatial body would fare for humans. After all, it takes 6 months at the minimum to get from Earth to Mars, which isn’t exactly a short trip, making emergencies a lot more critical. The European Space Agency has shared a new video on YouTube that goes over some of the details about such a base, which ca be viewed below: This kind of village would allow humans to take advantage of the Moon for its resources. On the moon, there are traces of water ice, metals, and minerals that could help sustain such a project. Moreover, demonstrating the capability of mankind to extend our reach to the Moon may one day sustain tourism or mineral importation to Earth. The long-term goal of the European Space Agency is to open a new door in space travel, and to use the Moon to further grow the human footprint in our solar system. Obviously, this is speaking from pure interpretation, but the short-term goal is to expand on research conducted on the Apollo missions and allow human scientists, rather than robots, to conduct intelligent tests and research. Source: ESA/YouTube

It was just over a year ago that SpaceX lofted Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla Roadster with the ‘Starman’ dummy passenger into outer space on the maiden flight of the commercial space company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, but will we ever see this space-bound electric supercar again? And if so, when? Astronomers began crunching numbers to answer this question shortly after Starman launched, but as you might come to expect, it’s never wise to count your chickens before they hatch. Like most things, the Starman-centric data was apt to change, and that it did. According to some of the latest calculations, Starman will fly within 4.5 million miles of Mars by 2020; sadly, Mars-based telescopes aren’t powerful enough to spy on Starman at this distance. Another Mars-esque flyby will transpire within 1.5 million miles by 2035, and while current Mars-based telescopes won’t be able to see Starman from that distance, it’s hoped that we’ll have more advanced observatories nested on the red planet’s surface by then. As for Earth… astronomers have calculated that Starman’s next close approach with its home planet will happen in 2047 within 3 million miles. This is close enough for telescopes on Earth to observe and measure the object in space. But is it possible to return Starman to Earth? The idea of capturing satellites and bringing them back to Earth isn’t unheard of, but it would be particularly challenging to do this with Starman since he’s floating somewhere outside of Earth’s orbit. It’s somewhat unlikely that Starman will be brought back to Earth in the near future, but perhaps technological advances in the distant future could make this possible.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that NASA’s Mars 2020 rover got renamed to the Perseverance rover, and with a launch opportunity rapidly approaching in the next few months, NASA engineers are working to ensure that the six-wheeled Martian exploration vehicle will be ready before the limited window of opportunity for launch comes and passes. Image Credit: NASA Currently residing at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the incomplete Perseverance rover is beginning to take shape. In the past couple of weeks, assembly teams at the facility installed two vital components that will help the rover perform its primary exploration duties when it finally arrives at Mars, including the Adaptive Caching Assembly and the Bit Carousel. These components are precisely what they sound like, with the Adaptive Caching Assembly being an autonomous laboratory existing inside of Perseverance’s ‘belly’ that will handle and analyze all the surface samples that the rover collects. The Bit Carousel, on the other hand, is a rotating carousel that houses all nine of Perseverance’s bits for drilling into the Martian surface during sample collection. "With the addition of the Adaptive Caching Assembly and Bit Carousel, the heart of our sample collection system is now on board the rover," explained Matt Wallace, the mission’s deputy project manager. To complete Perseverance’s sample collection system, engineers will soon integrate specialized sample tubes that will be used to contain the Martian surface samples. These sample tubes will be fetchable in the event that scientists ever fancy returning them to Earth for an even closer in-person analysis. "Our final but most crucial elements to install will be the sample tubes that will contain the first samples that will be brought from another planet back to Earth for analysis," Wallace continued. "We will keep these pristine until we integrate them in a couple of months." Related: The Perseverance rover has carried its full weight on its wheels for the first time Assembly of the Perseverance rover is set to continue through the next several months, COVID-19 restrictions permitting. With a little luck, NASA will complete assembly before the deadline required to utilize the Hohmann Transfer Orbit, an opportunistic moment in which Earth and Mars transpire in similar positions whilst orbiting the Sun. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these circumstances save time and reduce fuel costs for Martian missions, among other things. It should be interesting to see how this race against time pans out, especially given the state of workplaces at this difficult time. Source: NASA

The International Space Station is useful, but NASA won't be using it for space research forever. Instead, NASA aims to put human explorers in potentially more rewarding environments in the not-so-distant future. One of the latest ideas to be tossed about is a collaboration between Russia and the United States to build the first Moon-based orbiting space lab. It would be a lot like the International Space Station, but it would orbit the Moon instead of the Earth. Because of its placement around the Earth's natural satellite, it would make it easier for astronauts to deploy technology on the Lunar surface and propel our footprint further into space than it already is. Moreover, it could help us prepare for deep space missions, like those of Mars. While there are potentially endless scientific benefits to having a Moon-orbiting space lab, that's not to say everyone's onboard with the idea. As you might know already, NASA has plans to put humankind on Mars within just a few more decades, but work on a Lunar project could stall those programs and push them farther into the future. As it would seem, there are both pros and cons to the idea. Nevertheless, any decision could help improve our understanding of space and make it more accessible for generations to come. It should be interesting to see where NASA goes with the idea and how it will transform our future initiatives.

It's strange to think that a man who went to the moon and wants to colonize Mars could be delayed by some snow.But Buzz Aldrin did get stuck in snow - or the traffic it caused, anyway - and was about 30 minutes late to his talk on "unified space vision" in the University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium Tuesday evening. But the second person to step foot on the moon is allowed to be a little late, and the Apollo 11 mission footage set to dramatic music that was playing for the crowd was a reminder of that. It was about the best introduction anyone can get ... not to mention a good way prepare the crowd for his proposal.Aldrin was in Boulder to talk about doing the impossible. He used the "impossible" word again and again, explaining how he, his fellow astronauts, NASA and the United States had done the impossible by putting mankind on the moon, and how he believed it was vital that we again "do the impossible" and colonize Mars."Apollo could never have been done without the efforts of many, many people working together toward a shared goal ... I believe that a future leader could have the vision, the determination and the courage to do it again, only this time, to go beyond the moon," he said.That all sounds vague and grandiose, but Aldrin's "unified space vision" is very real, very technical, and not at all vague. Unfortunately, the Macky soundsystem was less than crisp and Aldrin turned away from the podium to face his slideshow while explaining the more technical points. Fortunately, buzzaldrin.com decently sums up his ideas, even outlining the possible added bonus of saving the Earth:"A prototype XM (Exploration Module) could be based on NASA's canceled space station Habitation Module. It could be launched as early as 2014 and attached to the space station for a long-duration shakedown test. Extended flights around the moon with second-generation XMs would serve as dry runs for its first real mission in 2018: a one-year flight culminating in a 30,000 mph flyby of the comet 46P/Wirtanen.In 2019 and 2020, the asteroid 2001 GP2 will come within 10 million miles of Earth, in position for a month-long rendezvous with the XM. In 2021, the mission would be a manned approach to 99942 Apophis, the asteroid that will just miss the Earth in 2029 and has a tiny chance of hitting man's home in 2036. If a 2036 impact looms, the 2029 mission could be used to divert the 820-foot-wide rock.The last step toward Mars, around 2025, would be a landing on the planet's 17-mile-wide moon, Phobos, which orbits less than 4,000 miles above Mars. A Phobos base would be the perfect perch from which to monitor and control the robots that will build the infrastructure on the Martian surface, in preparation for the first human visitors."In this way, Aldrin said, we could establish a permanent presence on Mars by 2040. He set a deadline for a president to make that commitment: July 20, 2019.But why? That's the big question, as people volunteer to die on the red planet. Aldrin pointed out that a great deal of scientific and technological advancement comes from exploration beyond our atmosphere, including developments in areas that affects our everyday lives, such as cell phones, computers and GPS.Aldrin remarked that a photo of the Curiosity rover on the Martian surface "doesn't look hospitable" and that, even decades from now, the lifespan of a human on Mars would only reach about 85 years, but that anyone living on Mars will be "too busy" to care about that shortened lifespan. And when a little girl asked him if it was scary, looking out into space, he said, "I wasn't scared. You won't be scared."And that's why, at the age of 85, Aldrin is tirelessly promoting missions to Mars. He created the Share Space Foundation to encourage curiosity in kids and emphasize education in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Aldrin is also calling for a nonprofit that would study past and current space policy and inform the public, called the United Strategic Space Enterprise, or (and here he paused for effect) the USS Enterprise.A big part of this, beyond science, is about space exploration as a way to unify humanity. It's about American leadership "inspiring the world by doing what no other nation is capable or willing to do," he said, and the likely fact that the first people on Mars will be an international crew.And, of course, it's about doing the impossible."Apollo was the story of people at their best, working together for a common goal," Aldrin said. "We can do these kinds of things again. I know. I'm living proof that it can be done."Source: Denver Post/Ashley Dean

Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system formed from a cloud of gas and dust called a solar nebula that swirled around, eventually collapsing under its own gravity into a rapidly rotating disk, with the Sun at the center. Over time, the planets formed in this rotating disk, along with the moons that orbit them. Four terrestrial planets formed closer to the Sun while the gas giants formed in the outer parts of the disk. During this planetary formation process, it has long been hypothesized that planets collect volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and noble gases from the solar nebula that eventually dissolve into the magma ocean and then de-gas back into the atmosphere. Later, meteorites known as chondritic meteorites crash into the planet delivering more volatile elements. However, a new study might contradict this longstanding hypothesis of planetary formation, and it comes from a meteorite that crashed into earth over 200 years ago. In a recent study published in Science, researchers at the University of California, Davis are contradicting the longstanding hypothesis of planetary formation after studying the Chassigny meteorite, which fell to Earth in north-eastern France in 1815. Chassigny is rare and unusual because it is thought to represent the interior of the planet. A basic assumption about planet formation is that planets first collect these volatiles from the nebula around a young star, said Sandrine Péron, a postdoctoral scholar working with Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis. The researchers could deduce the origin of elements in the rock by making extremely careful measurements of minute quantities of krypton isotopes in samples of the meteorite using a new method set up at the UC Davis Noble Gas Laboratory. "Because of their low abundance, krypton isotopes are challenging to measure," Péron said. To the researcher's surpise, the krypton isotopes in the meteorite correspond to those from chondritic meteorites and not the solar nebula. This means that meteorites were delivering volatile elements to the forming planet much earlier than previously thought, and in the presence of the nebula, thus reversing conventional thinking of the planetary formation process. "The Martian interior composition for krypton is nearly purely chondritic, but the atmosphere is solar," Péron said. "It's very distinct." The results show that Mars' atmosphere cannot have formed purely by outgassing from the mantle, as that would have given it a chondritic composition. Instead, the planet must have gained its atmosphere from the solar nebula after the magma ocean cooled, in order to prevent substantial mixing between interior chondritic gases and atmospheric solar gases. The new results suggest that Mars' planetary growth was finished before the solar nebula was dissipated by the Sun's radiation. However, this same irradiation should also have blown off the nebular atmosphere on Mars, suggesting that atmospheric krypton must have somehow been preserved, meaning it's possibly trapped underground or in polar ice caps. "However, that would require Mars to have been cold in the immediate aftermath of its accretion," Mukhopadhyay said. "While our study clearly points to the chondritic gases in the Martian interior, it also raises some interesting questions about the origin and composition of Mars' early atmosphere." Péron and Mukhopadhyay hope their study will stimulate further work on the topic. As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: American Museum of Natural History, Science

Back in June, Mars became enveloped by a planet-wide dust storm. The dust from the storm blocked so much sunlight that NASA felt compelled to put its solar-powered Opportunity rover into a low-power state. The space agency hasn’t heard from Opportunity since. But in a recently-released public statement, NASA reveals how the Martian dust storm appears to be subsiding. The news reignites hope that the space agency will reestablish contact with the Opportunity rover soon, following several weeks of silence. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Opportunity’s silence can be attributed to its low battery levels. Airborne dust prevents sunlight from reaching the Martian surface; hence Opportunity’s batteries aren’t staying charged. But as the airborne dust settles back to the surface, the dust cloud becomes thinner, and this increases the amount of sunlight Opportunity can access. NASA uses a measurement called “tau” to reference the amount of sunlight that reaches Opportunity. On a typical Martian day without any dust storms, the tau sits at approximately 0.5. When the dust storm kicked off in June, the tau skyrocketed to 10.8. According to NASA, Opportunity requires a tau of 2.0 or lower to receive a charge from the Sun, and the current tau is hovering around 2.5. Related: NASA's Curiosity rover snaps an excellent panoramic image It could be a while longer before Mars’ tau levels reach the desired value, but NASA engineers are monitoring the situation around the clock with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in an attempt to grasp a more realistic timeframe. Upon giving Opportunity ample time to recharge, NASA will try using the Deep Space Network to communicate with the rover. At first, NASA expects to hear back with some general rover health updates after a delay. Later, NASA will perform hardware tests to ensure that the rover is in good working condition and to discern whether it will return to normal operations. But “good working condition” doesn’t necessarily translate to “good as new.” NASA suggests that because Opportunity has been dormant and drained of its energy for so long, its batteries may not perform as they did before the dust storm. That said, the much-anticipated reconnection could be bittersweet. Even if things don't return to normal for Opportunity, NASA can still rely on its nuclear-powered Curiosity rover and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover for future red planet exploration. Related: The Curiosity rover's wheels are beginning to break NASA will keep us all apprised on the matter as new details surface, so be sure to stay tuned for updates. Source: NASA

Our solar system is only one out of hundreds of stellar systems residing in the Milky Way galaxy. It’s comprised of the Sun and eight known planets, half of which are Terrestrial (sporting solid, Earth-like properties), while the other half are Jovian (sporting massive, Jupiter-like properties). Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars make up the solar system’s four Terrestrial planets, and among those, Earth is the only one known to support life. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is the smallest and hottest planet in the solar system. Venus, Earth, and Mars are each similar in size, give or take, with Venus being the hottest of the three and Mars being the coldest. It’s believed that Mars may have supported life up to 3.7 billion years ago. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune make up the solar system’s four Jovian planets – among those, Jupiter and Saturn are considered gas giants and comprised predominantly of hydrogen and helium, while Uranus and Neptune are considered ice giants and comprised of rock, ice, water, methane, and ammonia, among other things. Captivatingly, only members of the Jovian planetary family are known to sport planetary rings. Separating the Terrestrial and Jovian planets is the infamous asteroid belt, which contains space dust and rocks ranging from microscopic to the size of Texas, and it’s thought that these space rocks are too heavily disturbed by Jupiter’s gravitational influence to coalesce and form planets. Similarly, another belt orbits the Jovian planets, and it’s called the Kuiper Belt. Few spacecraft have ventured this far out in our solar system, with NASA’s New Horizons mission being one of the most recent. Well beyond the Kuiper Belt is the Oort Cloud, a large collection of icy debris at the edge of our solar system. It’s here that the Sun’s light and gravitational influence end, and for that reason, it’s believed that the boundaries of the Oort Cloud should also be also be considered the boundaries of our solar system. It’s possible that more planets exist between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, but astronomers have yet to pinpoint such a world.

As we inch closer to the launch date of the ExoMars 2020 rover, experts from the European Space Agency (ESA) are now considering just where we should try to land it to get the best search results. Image Credit: ESA A region on the red planet called Mawrth Vallis isn’t out of the cards, as it may be rich in clues that could answer the question of whether or not any life forms ever did (or still do) exist on Mars. Because of previous exposure to water, it’s believed that the terrain here is like clay. It may be a suitable region of study because of the characteristics of clay and how it traps minerals and tells a story about the planet’s checkered past. Also read: NASA confirms evidence of flowing water on Mars Fortunately, the ExoMars 2020 rover will come equipped with a number of tools to perform the observations, including a drill that can penetrate up to 6.5 feet below the surface to pull up any special details that might be hidden from plain sight. Those involved with choosing the initial destination for the ExoMars 2020 rover think that Mawrth Vallis will provide a glimpse into the window of what the planet was like 4 billion years ago, as clay is very good at retaining things for long periods of time, as the Earth has taught us. In addition to Mawrth Vallis, another location on Mars is being considered for the landing site called Oxia Planum, which is also a clay-rich region. Deciding on where to send the rover initially will ultimately depend on the terrain of the area. We can’t send the ExoMars 2020 rover into a rough terrain with lots of slopes and pitfalls, because this could harm it before it has a chance to conduct any useful science. Instead, we need to find a location with plenty of open, flat land. While both regions are being considered, we won’t know for sure which is a better search site until further detailed analysis. A decision between which of the two landing sites we’ll pick is expected to be announced at least one year before the expected launch in 2020, so there’s still some time to mull things over. In any case, the ExoMars 2020 rover will be far more advanced than other rovers put on Mars before it, and will offer a lot of new potential into the ongoing search for traces of life in our Solar System besides Earth. A recently-released rendering of the rover shows just how different it will look from current rovers searching the red planet at this point in time: Source: Space.com

In a recent study published in Nature Astronomy, a pair of researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have both identified and confirmed the existence of a large core at the center of Mars after designing a new method to scan the interiors of planets within our solar system. This study holds the potential to help us better understand planetary formation and evolution. "Our research presents an innovative method using a single instrument to scan the interior of any planet in a way that's never been done before," said Dr. Hrvoje Tkal i , who is a professor in the Research School of Earth Sciences at ANU, and the co-author on the study. The novel scanning method functions in the same way as an ultra-sound scan that generates images of a patient’s body. The advantage is this method requires only one seismometer to be present on the surface of a planetary body to conduct the scan, in this case they used the seismometer on NASA’s InSight lander on Mars. Better understanding Mars’ core could help scientists better understand what happened to the Red Planet’s magnetic field. "Modelling suggests that the Martian core is liquid and while it is made up of mostly iron and nickel, it could also contain traces of lighter elements such as hydrogen and sulphur. These elements can alter the ability of the core to transport heat," said Dr. Sheng Wang, who is also from ANU, and the lead author of the study. "A magnetic field is important because it shields us from cosmic radiation, which is why life on Earth is possible." Using InSight’s seismometer, the researchers were able to use marsquakes to examine the interior of Mars, much in the same way that earthquakes are used to study the interior of the Earth. "Although there are many studies on planetary cores, the images we have of planetary interiors are still very blurry,” said Dr. Wang. “But with new instruments and methods like ours we'll be able to get sharper images which will help us answer questions such as how big the cores are and whether they take a solid or liquid form. Our method could even be used to analyze the Jupiter moons and the outer solar system planets that are solid." Sources: Nature Astronomy As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The Earth may look like a cool, pretty green and blue ball with white cloudy swirls atop it all from the view of outer space, but on the inside, about 6,300 kilometers deep, it’s a hellish ball of molten liquid iron that feeds tectonic activity and volcanoes all around the world. The Earth’s core has been difficult for scientists to investigate, mostly because it’s never been examined up close. It’s deep inside the planet’s crust, several times deeper than mankind has ever dug or drilled down into the Earth before. Because of this, scientists have never really been able to accurately put an age on the Earth’s molten iron core. The core of the planet is comprised of an inner core and an outer core. The inner core is static and never moves, but the outer core is dynamic and is always moving. Being that metal is moving on metal, a magnetic field is generated deep inside of our planet, and this is the magnetic field that we understand today to protect us from harmful space radiation; it’s also the same magnetic field that powers our compasses by generating a north and south pole. By studying the magnetic fields, scientists believe that they can accurately put an age on the core of the planet, which has now been estimated to be anywhere between 1 to 1.5 billion years old. The lead of the study, and palaeomagnetism expert, Dr Andy Biggin of the University of Liverpool, compares the Earth’s core to Mars’ core. The study’s findings have been published in Nature. The theoretical model which best fits our data indicates that the core is losing heat more slowly than at any point in the last 4.5 billion years and that this flow of energy should keep the Earth's magnetic field going for another billion years or more. This contrasts sharply with Mars which had a strong magnetic field early in its history which then appears to have died after half a billion years. Earth continues to generate this magnetic field thanks to the continuation of flowing metals surrounding the solid core. Earth’s core still flows strong, encouraging scientists to believe that the Earth will continue to provide its life the protection it needs from solar radiation for at least another billion years (or more) to come. Mars, one of our similar neighboring planets, on the other hand, has a very weak magnetic field because its core is no longer flowing enough produce enough energy to create a powerful magnetic field. This is one of the reasons why people wouldn’t be able to easily live on Mars. Source: University of Liverpool

So we're going to Mars, at some point. Well, once we get there we're going to need habitats, as in housing that's air tight and well insulted. And if it could be meteorite and radiation proof too, that would be great. Okay, so we'll just send a bunch of sacks of dry concrete and a few hundred thousand gallons of water up into orbit to put on a ship to go to - wait a minute. That stuff's all really, really heavy, and at the current rate of $10,000 a pound to send things into orbit, that, well, let's see, carry the two, well, that could pretty much bankrupt NASA right there. So, what to do? Astronauts gotta have houses, right? Well, you know that cool 3D printing technology that people have been doing all sorts of absurd stuff with, like, you know, printing plastic guns, and models of the Millennium Falcon? Well, it turns out 3D might have a far more useful job it could do. NASA, along with an organization called the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes are holding a competition to see if someone can come up with a 3D printed habitat to be used for space exploration on the surface of, say Mars, or maybe on the moon or a moon of Saturn or Jupiter. The prize for the winner of the contest is 2.25 million dollars.So what would a 3D printer use to make this habitat, well no one's interested in hefting giant printer cartridges filled with tons of cement inside them into orbit and then landing them on Mars, so people are looking toward materials that might already be on Mars, like say, martian sand, or maybe parts of spaceships that, once used to get folks down to the surface were just going to be junk littering the martian surface. Contestants are looking at ways to process these materials, feed them into an industrial 3D printer and have it create a martian building.There will be two phases to the competition. The first phase will focus just on contestants' ability to use the unique possibilities of 3D printing to create unique pieces of architecture. The top 30 submissions will compete for a prize of $50,000.The second phase of the competition will focus more specifically on space and will have two levels. Level 1 will focus on participants' abilities to develop the fabrication techniques necessary for habitat construction on other planetary bodies, and how to use materials that are already there (wherever there might happen to be). Level 2 will focus on the actual 3D printed habitats themselves. Each of these levels will award 1.1 million dollars to the winner.(Sources: phys.org, Wikipedia)