NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched on April 7, 2001, and entered the orbit of Mars on October 24, 2001. During its active 23-year mission, it has changed the way we see the Red Planet but will reach an unprecedented milestone in three days as it reaches 100,000 orbits around Mars. Therefore, it’s only fitting that Mars Odyssey captured an incredible image of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, on March 11, 2024. What makes this image unique is it was taken from a sideways view which also captured some Martian atmospheric layers, which scientists can examine further, including the clouds and dust that comprise the Martian atmosphere. Single image of Olympus Mons on Mars, the tallest volcano in the solar system, obtained by NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter on March 11, 2024. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University) “Normally we see Olympus Mons in narrow strips from above, but by turning the spacecraft toward the horizon we can see in a single image how large it looms over the landscape,” said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut, who is a Mars Odyssey Project Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Not only is the image spectacular, it also provides us with unique science data.” Along with its 23 years of service and 100,000 orbits around the Red Planet, Mars Odyssey has returned 17.1 terabits of data to Earth, 1.4 million images, 1.33 terabits of data from Mars surface missions, and provided relay support for six Mars missions, all according to a NASA infographic. While orbiting spacecraft are typically designed to take to-down images of a planetary surface, the spacecraft thrusters can be used to point at different angles and capture a myriad of images. In this case, Odyssey captured a sideways view of Olympus Mons, but can also spin completely around the image Mars’ two moon, Phobos and Deimos, if needed. During its 23 years of service, Odyssey has made some incredible scientific discoveries, including the presence of water ice just beneath the Martian surface on several occasions. However, given the amount of fuel remaining on the long-tenured spacecraft, Odyssey is currently scheduled to be decommissioned in the last quarter of 2025. What new images will Mars Odyssey obtain from Mars during its remaining time in orbit? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: NASA, Wikipedia, NASA (1) Featued Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Deep space missions, such as those to the Moon and Mars, are in our future. NASA, SpaceX, and other top-tier entities in the business of space exploration are pouring millions, if not billions of dollars into this endeavor with the hope of expanding our footprint to another world besides Earth; but several challenges remain. Perhaps the most important of all is developing a series of habitats that can support human life on another planet. At first glance, it looks as if 3D printing could extend an olive branch in this department since it promises cheap and effective on-site habitat-building. Moreover, cylindrical habitat-printing machines are in the works, and they’re using various types of materials to protect against harmful space radiation and fluctuating temperatures. In the case of AI SpaceFactory, a team of ambitious individuals who wanted to create a powerful proof of concept, this meant designing something out of thermoplastics since this wouldn’t necessitate the use of water (a valuable resource if on another planet). They then deployed their 3D printer in front of a team of judges and demonstrated its strength and feasibility as a potential habitat-building platform. All in all, it seems like egg-shaped habitats are the way to go for otherworldly missions because they can hold back the pressure of a pressurized life support system most efficiently while still providing the shelter and living space that astronauts would need.

In a collaborative study slated to be published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters this September, planetary scientists from Rice University, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and the California Institute of Technology might have solved a years-long conundrum pertaining to a rare mineral called tridymite that was found by NASA’s Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, Mars in 2016. The original 2016 finding that led to this most recent study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This original finding was intriguing since the tridymite in question was found residing in lacustrine (fluvial) mudstone. It is extremely rare on Earth and analogous with volcanic activity. "The discovery of tridymite in a mudstone in Gale Crater is one of the most surprising observations that the Curiosity rover has made in 10 years of exploring Mars," said Rice University’s Kirsten Siebach, who is a co-author on the most recent study. "Tridymite is usually associated with quartz-forming, explosive, evolved volcanic systems on Earth, but we found it in the bottom of an ancient lake on Mars, where most of the volcanoes are very primitive." The researchers proposed the tridymite was part of ashfall resulting from an explosive volcanic event on ancient Mars and fell on Gale Crater when it was still a lake. For the study, the research team compared data from every reported discovery of tridymite on Earth to models of Mars volcanism as well as sedimentary evidence from the now-dry lake in Gale Crater. Their findings indicated that Martian magma within a chamber beneath the volcano sat for longer than usual, leading to it partially cooling in the process called fractional crystallization that concentrated silicon. When the volcano finally erupted, it sprayed the ash containing the silicon in the form of tridymite into the then-watery Gale Crater lake and surrounding rivers. Over time, the water broke down the ash into their respective minerals, eventually to be found by NASA’s Curiosity rover billions of years later. "It's actually a straightforward evolution of other volcanic rocks we found in the crater," Siebach said. "We argue that because we only saw this mineral once, and it was highly concentrated in a single layer, the volcano probably erupted at the same time the lake was there. Although the specific sample we analyzed was not exclusively volcanic ash, it was ash that had been weathered and sorted by water." If the scenario played out how the research team says, this means explosive volcanism was occurring on Mars more than 3 billion years ago, during a time when Mars was transitioning from the much wetter world to the bone-dry world we’re exploring today. "There's ample evidence of basaltic volcanic eruptions on Mars, but this is a more evolved chemistry," Siebach said. "This work suggests that Mars may have a more complex and intriguing volcanic history than we would have imagined before Curiosity." Sources: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

A 2018 study published in Science presented how radar data from the Mars Express spacecraft showed evidence that a lake of liquid water existed beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. However, a recent study published in Science Advances by a team of researchers from Cornell University presents new evidence that could contrast those previous findings. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the subsurface environment on Mars and the geologic processes that form them. For the new study, the researchers used computer simulations to demonstrate that the reflections previously detected by Mars Express could be explained by ice layers caked with dust that the radar initially interpreted to be liquid water. The researchers note the reason for the misinterpretation could be from the distances between these dusty layers of water ice was closer than the radar instrument’s resolution capabilities, along with interference between the layers, as well. “This is the first time we have a hypothesis that explains the entire population of observations below the ice cap, without having to introduce anything unique or odd,” said Dr. Daniel Lalich, who is a Research Associate in the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science and lead author of the study. “This result where we get bright reflections scattered all over the place is exactly what you would expect from thin-layer interference in the radar.” While Mars is incapable of having liquid water on its surface due to its thin atmosphere, which is a fraction of the Earth’s, the potential for liquid water beneath the surface poses questions for where we could search for life on the Red Planet. What new discoveries beneath the polar caps of Mars will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Science, Science Advances, EurekAlert! Featured Image: Mars with its north and south polar ice caps taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft in February 2007. (Credit: ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

NASA’s MAVEN mission, launched on November 18th, 2013, has been orbiting Mars and investigating the planet’s features for more than half a decade. In that time, a special sensor called the Neutral Gas Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) has been hanging low beneath the spacecraft and measuring wind currents in some of the highest reaches of the red planet’s atmosphere. Thanks to MAVEN’s NGIMS, scientists accrued enough data to create a global map of Mars’ wind currents, and they did so at such a surprisingly high altitude. In doing so, these same scientists found intriguing correlations between Mars’ wind currents and surface features, including but not limited to high-rising mountains and volcanoes. As the scientists put it, Mars’ winds are forced to move over and around these rough surface features, which creates a staggered wind flow. These effects are observable into Mars’ upper atmospheric layers, and it’s not until a specific point high in the air that the planet’s gravity overpowers these winds that these staggering currents begin to flatten out and alter their force. NASA touts these findings as some of the most detailed in the solar system, apart from Earth’s of course, and for that reason, we’re closer than ever to understanding Mars and how it compares to our own planet. Related: Can we terraform Mars?

Just this week, NASA announced a significant milestone regarding the space agency’s InSight mission. The spacecraft, which launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base back in May, officially passed the halfway mark to Mars on August 6th. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA says that the InSight spacecraft has traveled more than 172 million miles through space and performed two trajectory correction maneuvers as of August 20th. It now has just 129 million miles to go before it reaches its destination and attempts a landing in Mars’ Elysium Planitia region to begin scientific operations. As InSight closes in on its target, NASA engineers are spending their remaining time wisely by remotely testing the spacecraft’s onboard instruments and cameras. One of the most recent remote hardware tests confirmed that all of InSight’s onboard instruments are in good health and working correctly. The remote hardware test involved capturing test readings from the spacecraft’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) and its Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE). Engineers also connected to the spacecraft’s camera to take a selfie of its internal components. You can see the resulting photograph below: Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech As you might expect, conducting these remote hardware tests requires the use of the spacecraft’s onboard radio. Given that NASA was able to communicate with the InSight spacecraft and download its selfie, we’d be inclined to say that the radio equipment is working well too. "We did our final performance checks on July 19, which were successful," said Bruce Banerdt, principal investigator of InSight from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We have been using the spacecraft's radio since launch day, and our conversations with InSight have been very cordial, so we are good to go with RISE as well." Related: Mars' dust storm is clearing up, sparking hope for reviving NASA's Opportunity rover With everything working correctly and the InSight spacecraft well on its way to Mars, we can safely assume that it will land on Mars on November 26th as expected. Furthermore, InSight will investigate Mars’ sub-surface seismic activity, internal planetary temperature, and orbital wobble characteristics once it situates after landing. InSight won’t be taking any more selfies during its trip; in fact, NASA won’t use the camera again until the spacecraft officially reaches Mars. There, it will snap several pictures of the planet’s surface and beam them back to scientists on Earth for analysis. In what appears to be good news for NASA and the InSight team, it looks like it won’t be long before we get to learn more about our red planetary neighbor. Source: NASA

The Perseverance rover has captured footage of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter while it was completing its thirteen flight on Mars on September 4, 2021. During this mission, the helicopter explored varied terrain and took images from different angles of a geological feature in the Jezero Crater known as Séítah. Perseverance is equipped with a camera that shot video of the 160.5-second flight and took closeup footage of the takeoff and landing. This data will tell researchers more about dust plumes that the helicopter generates. The initial ascent of the helicopter creates a plume of dust, and the craft reaches and altitude of eight meters (26 feet) before maneuvering into position to take images. Ingenuity moves sideways, then offscreen, before returning and landing near where it took off. "We took off from the crater floor and flew over an elevated ridgeline before dipping into Séítah," said Ingenuity Chief Pilot Håvard Grip of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Since the helicopter's navigation filter prefers flat terrain, we programmed in a waypoint near the ridgeline, where the helicopter slows down and hovers for a moment. Our flight simulations indicated that this little breather would help the helicopter keep track of its heading in spite of the significant terrain variations. It does the same on the way back. It's awesome to actually get to see this occur, and it reinforces the accuracy of our modeling and our understanding of how to best operate Ingenuity." Ingenuity went dark in October because Mars and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun, and no communications could be sent from here to there. After work resumed, Flight 15 was completed, and Ingenuity will soon be taking its sixteenth flight. Sources: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

When you stop to ponder about putting humankind on Mars, two the biggest names in the space industry that come to mind are NASA and SpaceX. Both have expressed detailed plans of their own for initializing human presence on the red planet within the next few decades. Despite all the enthusiasm, are we prepared to tackle such a task? That’s a question that doesn’t just cross our minds, but also that of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk; and now it’s showing. SpaceX appears to be scrapping some older plans to rethink how humans will visit Mars. Originally, the plan was to utilize a Red Dragon capsule. While it's an impressive proof of concept for a lander-based interplanetary transportation system, it just isn’t an ideal travel platform for larger space crews to perform extended missions to Mars. Image Credit: SpaceX/Twitter "The reason we decided not to pursue that heavily is that it would've taken a tremendous amount of effort to qualify that for safety, particularly for crew transport," Musk said at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference that took place in Washington this past week. “There was a time that I thought the Dragon approach to landing on Mars, where you’ve got a base heat shield and side-mounted thrusters, would be the right way to land on Mars,” he continued. "Now I'm pretty confident that is not the right way and that there’s a far better approach." Related: Here's how SpaceX originally planned to put people on Mars Instead, SpaceX will need to design something larger and more suitable for space crews. It will still need to follow stringent safety standards to ensure human visitors arrive at Mars safely. “Plan is to do powered landings on Mars for sure, but with a vastly bigger ship,” Musk said in response to a Tweet about ditching Dragon propulsive landings. These changes don't mean that a visit to Mars is completely off the table forever, but we will see delays in achieving a manned Martian landing as new technologies are developed. Although no one likes delays, they give SpaceX more time to tackle research and development and to get things right the first time. As of right now, no one knows what such a 'vastly bigger ship' might look like or the differing capabilities it will have compared to the Red Dragon capsule. SpaceX will continue to focus its efforts on reusable Falcon 9 rocket launches and landings all while perfecting the Falcon Heavy rocket, which will enable the commercial space company to send heavier satellites into orbit around the Earth. SpaceX may revisit the Mars idea in the future when the technology and resources align with the goals, but today just isn't that day. Source: Popular Science

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has captured some pretty amazing images of the Martian surface during its time on the Red Planet. However, it finally got bored looking at dirt and rocks and decided to point its gaze upward to capture an amazing video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, passing in front of our parent star. To be clear, Percy didn’t do this on its own, as its human controllers back on Earth instructed the mighty rover to catch this eclipse to study how Phobos’ orbit is changing over time. It is a partial eclipse due to the moon’s size. These observations can help scientists better understand the moon’s orbit and how its gravity pulls on the Martian surface, ultimately shaping the Red Planet’s crust and mantle. Captured with Perseverance’s next-generation Mastcam-Z camera on April 2, the 397th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, the eclipse lasted a little over 40 seconds – much shorter than a typical solar eclipse involving Earth’s Moon. (Phobos is about 157 times smaller than Earth’s Moon. Mars’ other moon, Deimos, is even smaller.) “I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this amazing,” said Rachel Howson of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, one of the Mastcam-Z team members who operates the camera. Howson noted that although Perseverance first sends lower-resolution thumbnails that offer a glimpse of the images to come, she was stunned by the full-resolution versions: “It feels like a birthday or holiday when they arrive. You know what’s coming, but there is still an element of surprise when you get to see the final product.” Much like our own Moon, the gravity of Phobos induces small tidal forces on the interior of Mars, slightly deforming the rock in the planet’s mantle and crust. Also like our own Moon, these tidal forces are slowly changing the orbit of Phobos over time. The one difference is while our Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, Phobos is actually getting closer to Mars, destined to crash into the Red Planet tens of millions of years from now. As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: The Verge, NASA Science, NASA Solar System

Two indisputable facts are apparent when it comes to space exploration: 1) We are sending humans to Mars, whether it’s this decade or by the 2040s, it’s going to happen. 2) Those brave human pioneers will have to spend longer on Mars than it took to get there. Why is this second fact even more important than the first? For starters, Earth and Mars both must be in just the right positions in order to launch from Earth and arrive at Mars within six months. This is where it gets tricky since that alignment only happens once every two Earth years. Hence why we don’t launch our fancy expensive robots to Mars just on a whim, plus sending humans to Mars is far riskier and more expensive. Now because this alignment only happens once every two years, this means when the astronauts get to Mars, they’re going to have to wait two years before they can make the return trip home. So, account for six months each way, that’s three years away from Earth, and two of those years are on the surface of an inhospitable planet that’s beyond constantly blasted by deadly cosmic radiation. Survival is of the utmost importance since we won’t be able to send a rapid response team when we want. This survival will depend on having the right tools and equipment to ensure maximum risk management. The most important aspect of crew survival will be energy, and while NASA is currently looking into building nuclear reactors for future Moon and Mars mission, a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences compares nuclear and solar power options for a six-person extended mission to Mars involving a 480-day stay on the planet's surface before returning to Earth. The study found that for settlement sites over nearly half the Martian surface, solar is comparable or better than nuclear, considering the weight of the solar panels and their efficiency -- if some daytime energy is used to produce hydrogen gas for use in fuel cells to power the colony at night or during sandstorms. "Photovoltaic energy generation coupled to certain energy storage configurations in molecular hydrogen outperforms nuclear fusion reactors over 50% of the planet's surface, mainly within those regions around the equatorial band, which is in fairly sharp contrast to what has been proposed over and over again in the literature, which is that it will be nuclear power," said UC Berkeley bioengineering doctoral student Aaron Berliner, one of two first authors of the paper. The study gives a new perspective on Mars colonization and provides a road map for deciding which other technologies to deploy when planning manned missions to other planets or moons. Sending humans to Mars is a risky endeavor and having the right tools and equipment at their disposal will be of the utmost importance to ensure their survival. Which energy method will be best suited for a future crewed Mars mission? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: NASA, Universe Today, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Humankind made history when it landed on the Moon during the Apollo missions, but the next major hurdle is putting astronauts on Mars to explore the red planet's surface in person. Exploring Mars isn't a new idea; it's been on NASA's radar for decades. Unfortunately, official plans never materialized because of budget constraints and objective deviations that took place every time a new president would take office in the United States. With each new president came new visions that shifted the space agency's focus, and these changes regularly impacted NASA's ability to meet and complete essential objectives that would make projects like Martian exploration possible. Similar problems exist today, hence why NASA hasn't sent humankind to Mars just yet. Technological capabilities aren't the limiting factor of NASA's space exploration potential, but rather the political priorities at any given time. Given the circumstances, there's a strong possibility that NASA won't be the first to set foot on Mars. Commercial space companies or competing government space agencies could very well earn that title before NASA ever gets the chance to.

How many impacts occurs on the Red Planet per year? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of international researchers used seismic activity from marsquakes to determine the annual meteorite impact rate on the Red Planet. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand planetary surface processes, specifically pertaining to determining ages, as impact craters are often used to estimate relative ages of planetary surfaces. For the study, the researchers analyzed seismic data signals collected by the now-retired InSight lander which the researchers note they identified due to their unusual nature compared to marsquake data the lander had collected during its mission. In the end, the researchers found that between 280 to 360 basketball-sized meteorites impact the surface of Mars annually, resulting in craters more than 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. Three separate impact craters whose impacts were detected by NASA’s InSight lander and later imaged by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) “By using seismic data to better understand how often meteorites hit Mars and how these impacts change its surface, we can start piecing together a timeline of the red planet’s geological history and evolution,” said Dr. Natalia Wojcicka, who is a Research Associate at Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering and a co-author on the study. “You could think of it as a sort of ‘cosmic clock’ to help us date Martian surfaces, and maybe, further down the line, other planets in the Solar System.” As noted, impact craters are often used to estimate the relative ages—estimated dates—of planetary surfaces, which contrasts with measuring absolute ages—actual dates—that are strictly determined by measuring decay of radioactive isotopes. This method is often referred to as “crater counting” and is used to determine relative ages of surface both on Mars and the Moon, as well. Going forward, the team also recently published another study using atmospheric data obtained by InSight to also examine annual impact rates. The conclusions from both studies matched, which reinforces the notion that outside data can be used to estimate annual impact rates on Mars. What new discoveries will researchers make about impacts on Mars in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Nature Astronomy, EurekAlert!

From data captured by NASA's InSight Mars Lander, researchers in Switzerland have found that Mars behaves differently to the Earth during a solar eclipse. They say that the findings may help scientists determine the planet's interior. Mars has two moons. The larger of the two, known as Phobos, is also much closer to the planet's surface than the moon is to Earth. This means that, rather than taking 27 days to make a full orbit of the planet, like our moon, Phobos is able to swing around Mars three times every Martian day- lasting one Earth day and 37 minutes. The increased orbiting means that solar eclipses are much more frequent occurrences on the red planet than on Earth. While Phobos regularly passes in front of the sun- on most Martian days- it never completely covers it. Due to its high speed, the resulting partial eclipses tend to be brief- not lasting more than 30 seconds. Nevertheless, the InSight lander has managed to record what happens during these brief encounters. During Phobos eclipses, the lander's seismometer (an instrument that records motions in the ground to predict earthquake activity) was recorded to tilt ever so slightly towards one side- something not recorded on Earth before. And it seems that this reading is no false-positive- having been recorded on three separate occasions. What could explain this unusual reading? For now, the scientists are unsure what exactly may have brought it on. Nevertheless, they hypothesize that the reading may have come from a slight drop in surface temperature, as recorded by an infrared radiometer, followed by a period of around 90 seconds when the ground heated back up to its temperature prior to the eclipse. This, they say, may have caused the seismometer to tilt ever so slightly to one side. Sources: Science Alert, ETH Zurich

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is expected to launch sometime next year, so you’d be right to assume that NASA is making strides in manufacturing its next-generation rover and its accompanying landing gear in preparation for the big day. In this video, NASA’s Jennifer Trosper gives us an inside look at the progress that’s being made on the Mars 2020 rover. While the rover doesn’t look like much as of right now, Trosper says it’ll be completed sometime in the next several months. Other critical components, such as the cruise stage, the descent stage, the air shell, and the heat shield, are also being worked on. Each of which is vital for safely delivering the Mars 2020 rover to its destination on the red planet’s surface. NASA’s Opportunity mission officially came to an end earlier this month, which means Mars 2020 will soon join NASA’s Curiosity rover. There, it will explore Mars’ history, habitability, and terrain in exciting new ways that are certain to modernize our understanding of our planetary neighbor. With everything coming together so quickly, it’s just a matter of time before we get to see this exploring machine embark on its primary purpose.

Getting to Mars is hard. Really hard. Really, really hard. It’s so unbelievably hard, it takes years—often decades—for a mission to Mars to go from a concept to hardware, and then you have to launch and successfully get there. These missions aren’t just jobs at stake, but potentially someone’s entire career. As of 2021, of the 48 missions sent to the red planet, there has been only a 43.8% success rate, with four additional partially successful missions. These failures have included mishaps such as failing to reach Earth orbit, lost en route to Mars, lost upon arriving at Mars, and missing Mars entirely. For those spacecrafts that successfully arrive at Mars, it requires 24-hour surveillance from ground crews on Earth to monitor the spacecraft while it uses what’s called aerobraking to ensure it successfully enters orbit. This procedure requires a lot of fuel from the spacecraft, time, and ultimately, money, while the spacecraft itself performs very elliptical orbits to slow itself down enough to enter orbit. To help conserve the aforementioned issues regarding aerobraking, a recent study published in the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics proposes an autonomous method that will utilize computer algorithms to steer the spacecraft’s solar panels, ultimately assisting in the aerobraking technique. "If we can rotate the solar panels, we can control how much drag is generated and we can actually steer during the atmospheric passes to control heating and energy depletion," said Dr. Zach Putnam, who’s an Aerospace Engineering Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "This means we can fly much closer to operational constraints, and aerobrake much faster." Guisy Falcone, lead author of the study and Professor Putnam’s PhD student, used the spacecraft’s ability to rotate its solar panels and calculated how they could be used to better optimize and ultimately control the drag of the spacecraft during the aerobraking procedure. While this study is focused on automating just one pass through the atmosphere, Professor Putnam said this process would be repeated may times during a complete aerobraking campaign. If ultimately successful, this new automated aerobraking procedure has implications for reducing cost and mission risk on larger scales. "The trip out to Mars takes somewhere between six to nine months. We can't really change that, but we think we can shorten the time it takes to aerobrake to a low-altitude orbit," Professor Putnam said. "And the propellant onboard we save can be used to do other things like keep the spacecraft alive longer." Sources: NASA Science; Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

NASA is still planning to launch its Mars 2020 rover next Summer, with an official launch window slated for some time in July. But before the American space agency can move forward with attaching its ambitious Mars-exploring mission to the top of a rocket, it must ensure that the integrated payload fits together correctly. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The term NASA uses to describe this process is ‘stacking,’ and it is customary for space agency personnel to partake in this practice for missions of this scale. The term is particularly fitting because engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are sandwiching parts together like Legos to make sure all the holes line up and that the dimensions are within specifications. "One of our main jobs is to make sure the rover and all the hardware that is required to get the rover from here on Earth to the surface of Mars fits inside the payload fairing of an Atlas V rocket, which gives us about 15 feet of width to work with," elucidated David Gruel, the ATLO manager for the Mars 2020 mission at JPL. Related: Anomaly during Crew Dragon testing could delay SpaceX's first crewed flight for NASA In a statement, NASA explains that the stacking process begins by placing the rocket-powered descent stage over the surrogate Mars 2020 rover and then covering the result with a back shell via crane. Afterward, the team installs the parachute nose cone, the cruise stage, and then the heat shield, all in that order. Integrating everything into one piece is tedious work, and because of the sheer size of what the team is working with, at least a dozen NASA engineers and technicians work together to ensure everything goes smoothly. In addition to calling on the help of a crane, the team uses the Spacecraft Assembly Rotation Fixture to physically rotate the entire project and access those ‘hard to reach’ places. "Stacking is an important milestone in mission development, because as good as our computer models are, we still need to put it together to show that the bolt holes line up and everything fits together," Gruel added. "It is a great feeling for the entire project when we see the stack sitting there waiting to go for the next part of its journey, which will eventually lead to a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral in July of next year." Related: Why does the James Webb Space Telescope keep getting delayed? As you might have noticed, we said ‘surrogate’ Mars 2020 rover, and that’s because the real one is still being built and enduring testing. The surrogate acts as a placeholder, as its dimensions are identical to that of the true rover. Obviously, NASA will integrate the true Mars 2020 rover into the stack after completing it ahead of the launch. In the meantime, NASA plans to test the stack by subjecting it to cryogenic and vibration testing, much like what it will experience when being rocketed into space and when traveling to Mars. This testing will ensure that everything holds together and that none of the bolts come loose from the vibrations. It’d be an understatement to say that the Mars 2020 rover mission is coming together; in fact, it’s nearly ready for launch. We only wish we could say the same about the James Webb Space Telescope… Source: NASA

The Mars 2020 mission will be one the most extensive searches for life on the red planet yet. It will be equipped with better sensors and more useful equipment that even Curiosity would get jealous of (if machines could get jealous). Image Credit: NASA As a result, experts are getting pretty hyped up about where they should land the Mars 2020 rover. While there are several possible points of interest, the Northeastern Syrtis Major region is getting a lot of attention from scholars because it’s high in mineral deposit count and because there’s a lot of history at the location. If any parts of Mars were indeed ever habitable, perhaps the Northeastern Syrtis Major region has some clues. After all, the location is home to both a volcano and a very old impact crater, each of which have the potential to offer some very interesting clues about Mars’ puzzling history. A new map of the Martian surface that was shared in the journal Icarus just last month details the region very closely, revealing parts of the area that are worth checking out. Image Credit: Michael S. Bramble/Icarus During times when the volcano would have exploded, it sent minerals from the deeper layers of Mars spewing to the surface. This will provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about what’s beneath the Martian surface since it’ll be too hard to dig into the surface, and the impact crater may reveal more about the rock that slammed into Mars in the distant past. Collecting and examining mineral samples will be an important process in determining whether or not life could have or ever did exist on the red planet, because we can compare it to the mineral makeup of Earth and what makes our planet so special for the existence of life. Importantly, the existence of several different kinds of clay at this region is really intriguing scientists, because for clay to exist, you need to have had water at some point. Clay rarely forms without the existence of water, and because scientists believe there’s evidence for flowing water on Mars, they have little doubt that water helped form the clay. Investigating the clay and the areas where water is believed to have flowed at some point are critical if we’re to find any traces of life. Not only can the clay help us understand important chemical makeup qualities of the planet, but clay is also great at preserving things that may have existed there at an earlier date. Related: Mars' Curosity rover takes a selfie after drilling at Buckskin Because the Mars 2020 mission is scheduled to launch some time in 2020, there isn’t much time left to decide where we’re going to land. On the other hand, the new details surrounding the Northeastern Syrtis Major region make it a hotspot of interest, so it’ll surely be considered. Source: California Academy of Sciences, Wired

Mars, the red planet after Earth in our solar system, has been getting a lot of attention lately. Whether it’s the fact that space exploration revealed flowing water on the planet’s surface, or the fact that NASA wants to send astronauts to Mars to settle there permanently, the planet is getting more attention today than it ever has mostly because science makes the curious mind wonder. The European Space Agency is also interested in sampling more of Mars’ environment in search of life. The ESA is now working on another rover that is expected to be put on Mars in 2018 that will drill into the red planet’s surface in order to get samples which can be analyzed for signs of life. This will be called the ExoMars program. The driving factor behind drilling is the face that Mars’ weak atmosphere hardly protects the planet’s surface from solar radiation and other hazards from space. Fortunately for Earthlings, Earth has a strong protective atmosphere and magnetic field that prevents these harmful things from battering life and hindering its existence. Since the surface of Mars is always being bombarded by hazardous things, the thought is that any traces of life would be buried deep beneath the planet’s surface, where any signs of life would be protected from solar radiation and other hazards that would be detrimental to its existence. The drill will be designed to penetrate the planet’s surface at a maximum distance of two meters, giving scientists a relatively useful amount of sampling to analyze. It’s the first time that an all-in-one rover solely for use on Mars will be able to trek around the planet’s surface and drill two meters deep for clues. The ESA already has some places in mind of where it would like to begin the search. Among many of the locations are those were scientists believe there was some form of flowing water at some point, such as Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Aram Dorsum. The goal will be to grab as many sedimentary samples as possible, test them, and beam the scientific data back to scientists here on Earth. Getting the spacecraft with the rover on board to Mars will take approximately nine months after the lift-off from Earth. Since Mars is orbiting the Sun at its own speed, as well as at a different distance than the Earth does, it isn’t always close to the Earth, and this is the reason it takes so long to get back and forth. NASA already has multiple rovers on the red planet’s surface, including the Curiosity Rover that you may have heard a lot about. They trek the surface in search of signs for life; snapping images, sampling soil, and even performing tests. The rovers are solar-powered, allowing them to continually re-charge via the Sun. Source: ESA (1), (2)

The Curiosity rover has been studying the Martian surface since 2012, and it has since enabled planetary scientists to learn a lot about the unique properties of the red planet. This video, shared by NASA, showcases a beautiful panoramic image that Curiosity took from Gale Crater. The video not only points out various aspects of the crater and its surroundings but also underscores where Curiosity began and how it arrived at its current destination. Many of the mountains off in the distance rise one full mile above the Curiosity Rover's current elevation. Some of the hills residing beyond said mountains range from up to 50 miles away. Curiosity still has a lot more exploring to do, but in due time, NASA will send the Mars 2020 rover to the red planet to pick up where Curiosity left off.

After a planet-wide dust storm enveloped Mars, NASA’s solar-powered Opportunity rover was forced to enter sleep mode to conserve energy until the storm passed. At this point in time, there’s no indication regarding when the storm might let up. On the other side of the planet, NASA’s nuclear-powered Curiosity rover continues to explore the surface and works with a bevy of Mars-orbiting satellites to keep the space agency updated with details concerning the dust storm’s status. Citing NASA, these types of dust storms take place once every 6-8 Earth years, but they aren’t well understood. The space agency hopes that by studying it, we’ll learn more about these storms and be prepared for them when we send the first human explorers to the red planet for scientific exploration.

A recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets examines the 39th drilling sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars from a rock named "Sequoia", which comes shortly after the pioneering robot passed its 4,000th sol, or Martian day, exploring the Red Planet. This sample was found to contain starkeyite, which is a magnesium sulfate mineral analogous to extremely dry climates such as Mars and holds the potential to help researchers better understand the climate of the Red Planet, specifically pertaining to how it got so dry. Image of the drill hole made by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover collect a sample on Oct. 17, 2023, the 3,980th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) “The types of sulfate and carbonate minerals that Curiosity’s instruments have identified in the last year help us understand what Mars was like so long ago. We’ve been anticipating these results for decades, and now Sequoia will tell us even more,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, who is a project scientist on the Curiosity mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL) and one of almost three dozen co-authors on the study. The researchers hypothesize that starkeyite first formed as sulfate minerals as the salty water of the Red Planet slowly evaporated billions of years ago, and as Mars got drier and drier, these sulfates eventually altered into starkeyite. The discovery of starkeyite within drilling samples could provide clues as to how Mars became the cold and dry world we see today, which was much different billions of years ago. While scientists have yet to find signs of active life on the Red Planet, the goal of the Curiosity rover is to ascertain whether ancient Mars had the conditions to support microbial life. To accomplish this, Curiosity has been slowly climbing Mount Sharp, whose 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall and whose geologic layers offer various snapshots into Mars’ climate history. For now, NASA engineers are sending Curiosity some instructions to follow as Mars is slated to go behind the Sun for a few weeks, and the Sun’s plasma could interfere with radio communications between Earth and the rover. What new discoveries will researchers make about ancient Mars in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, NASA, Mindat.org, NASA JPL, Wikipedia, Wikipedia (1)

If you ever listen to the radio and experience a phenomenon in which the broadcast sounds garbled or as if another radio station is attempting to play over yours, then you’ve likely experienced something called a Sporadic-E Layer. In a nutshell, this is a concentration of plasma residing in Earth’s ionosphere that behaves much like a mirror for radio transmissions that occur between them and the ground. Studying Sporadic-E Layers on Earth is a challenge because they transpire at altitudes where the air is much too thin to fly an aircraft, and conversely, much too thick to orbit a spacecraft. That said, the rather troublesome circumstances have compelled NASA to study the phenomenon on another planet where the ionosphere isn’t as thick, and this makes Mars a great target for such observations. With the help of an instrument called Static on NASA’s MAVEN Martian orbiter, the American space agency is able to study Sporadic-E Layer activity in the red planet’s ionosphere. Static has been specially designed to measure plasma escaping from Mars’ ionosphere, and because the air there is so much thinner, MAVEN is able to orbit without the risk of deorbiting as a similar spacecraft would here on Earth. While studying these atmospheric plasma occurrences on Mars, scientists took notice that they were somewhat predictable, if not permanent. This behavior contrasts greatly to that of Earth, where plasma occurrences are sporadic and seemingly unpredictable. Given just how little we know about ionospheric plasma, MAVEN promises to unlock secrets that we only could have imagined studying here on Earth. Isn’t science grand? Related: What exactly happened to Mars' atmosphere?

NASA's Perseverance rover has found a strange, green rock on the surface of Mars that is having its science team' trade hypotheses' to understand its origin and composition. The Perseverance rover landed on the Martian surface on February 18, 2021, to search for rock samples that may contain signs of life- either as fossilized remains or organic carbon compounds that are crucial for life to develop. The rock currently under scrutiny is greenish with small holes on its surface and measures at around 6 inches or 15cm in length. NASA is now using the rover's laser, known as 'SuperCam' to gather more information about the rock's composition. On March 10, 2021, NASA said that "Variations in the intensity of the [laser's] zapping sounds will provide information on the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness or the presence of weathering coatings." Information on the rock's composition will also tell scientists whether it formed where it currently is or if it was transported from elsewhere. If the rock didn't form where it has been found, the researchers say that water may have carried it over from elsewhere or that it may be a meteorite. Perseverance is the main component of NASA's $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission. At the size of a car, it began searching for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet in Mars's Jezero Crater, which used to house a deep lake and river delta. After analyzing various rocks in this crater, the rover will cache the most promising samples for return to Earth later this decade. The SuperCam laser first fired on Mars on March 2, at a target called 'Maaz', named after the Navajo word for Mars. The Perseverance team then informally named that region of Jezero 'the Canyon de Chelly', after a national monument on Navajo land in northeastern Arizona. The Navajo Nation is now working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to name various features on the Martian surface. Sources: Space.com, LabRoots, CNET, NASA

Mars looks like a dull and desolate wasteland at first glance, but it becomes a lot more enjoyable when you stop and appreciate all the small details that have been etched into the red planet’s surface over the years. Among those are space rock impact sites, which can tell a story about what Mars has been through. Mars is particularly prone to space rock impacts because the planet’s atmosphere isn’t as thick as Earth’s. Many space rocks (even some of the smallest) have no trouble touching down on the Martian surface, and when they do, they leave significant evidence behind them. Peering through the lens of NASA’s HiRISE camera, planetary scientists can obtain high-resolution images of many of those sites and achieve a greater understanding of precisely what happens when a space rock slams into the Martian surface. In many of these images, the craters are still pristine, which presents clues into the crater’s age. Other craters exhibit evidence of lava flow sites, water flow sites, surrounding ejections, and sedimentary layering, among other things.

Trying to determine if Mars once had more Earth-like conditions in its ancient past is what scientists have been trying to determine for the last several decades. Now, a recent study published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets could bring us one step closer to answering this elusive question as a team of international researchers investigated elevated levels of manganese-rich sandstones within Gale Crater on Mars using the NASA Curiosity rover’s ChemCam instrument. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand past, Earth-like conditions on the Red Planet and the processes that allowed it to happen. The reason manganese is vital to finding past life on Mars is because it has been found to occur on Earth in ancient sedimentary rocks that have been exposed to long-term watery environments. Ferromanganese, which is an alloy of manganese and iron, has been found on ocean floors and produced by marine microorganisms and other chemical processes. Therefore, finding higher than normal levels of manganese on Mars could indicate that life once existed there long ago. “It is difficult for manganese oxide to form on the surface of Mars, so we didn’t expect to find it in such high concentrations in a shoreline deposit,” said Dr. Patrick Gasda, who is a scientist in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space Science and Applications group and lead author of the study. “On Earth, these types of deposits happen all the time because of the high oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life, and from microbes that help catalyze those manganese oxidation reactions.” Image of ancient bedrocks obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover in Mars’ Gale Crater. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) Using the ChemCam instrument onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover, the researchers determined that the manganese found in these sediments could have increased in number due to groundwater moving downward through the Martian regolith, also known as percolation. Additionally, the researchers present several hypotheses pertaining to how the manganese became oxidized enough to increase their numbers but are unable to provide definitive explanations due to the lack of ancient Mars knowledge. What new discoveries will researchers make about manganese and its connection to ancient water on Mars in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: JGR: Planets, ScienceDaily, United States Geological Survey, Los Alamos National Laboratory

NASA's Curiosity Rover has been exploring the lands of Mars for over two-and-a-half years. Also known as the Red Planet,' Mars is the fourth planet from the sun in our solar system right behind our very own planet Earth. During a normal sunny day here on Earth, we typically see a beautiful blue sky when the skies are clear. If you were to step outside on Mars at the same time of the day in the same conditions, you would see an orange sky that much resembles the red' color of the planet from outer space.Interestingly, when the Sun begins to set in the evening, both Earth and Mars appear to trade shoes. When the Sun begins to set on Earth, we develop Mars-like sky qualities that are orange in color, and as it would appear from recent images taken by NASA, when the Sun begins to set on Mars, the Red Planet starts to develop Earth-like sky qualities that are blue in color.The images sent over by NASA's Curiosity Rover after a day of watching the skies on April 15th, 2015 show the beautiful blue hue given off by a Martian sunset:Not only does the Sun itself give off a blue light in the picture, the entire surrounding atmosphere around the Sun also gives off blue hues when struck by the Sun's light.So what causes this to happen? - As NASA's Mark Lemmon explains, the composition of the atmosphere on Mars is different from that of the atmosphere here on Earth in that Mars has dust in the atmosphere that reacts with the incoming sunlight to produce a blue effect on the sky."The colors come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently. When the blue light scatters off the dust, it stays closer to the direction of the sun than light of other colors does. The rest of the sky is yellow to orange, as yellow and red light scatter all over the sky instead of being absorbed or staying close to the sun."NASA does note that the images were taken in between some heavy dust storms, which helped increase the amount of dust in the skies at the particular time of the sky-watching event and amplified the effects of the blue sunset. Nonetheless, it's a surprising outcome for a planet that has been labeled the "Red Planet."Written by Anthony Bouchard

Planetary scientists have a lot of questions about Mars, and it may not be long before they get a chance to answer them. One of the most pressing of those questions is: what was Mars like during the early days of our solar system? It can be tough to know for sure, but certain aspects of the red planet’s surface tell stories about its past, and NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could become the ideal observatory for investigating said aspects. Image Credit: NASA A statement issued by NASA this week underscores how the JWST will include Mars in its Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) project. This means that planetary scientists will get a chance to study Mars with the JWST from May to September in 2020. So what will the JWST be looking for? Project leader Heidi Hammel has the scoop: “Webb will return extremely interesting measurements of chemistry in the Martian atmosphere,” she explained. “And most importantly, these Mars data will be immediately available to the planetary community to enable them to plan even more detailed Mars observations with Webb in future cycles.” There’s no telling what the JWST might find in its initial observations, but we do know that the Martian surface contains evidence of a watery past. While such flowing waterways don’t still exist today, these atmospheric observations could potentially tell us more about what happened to all that water, and how these changes impacted the Martian environment over time. “With Webb, we can obtain a real and accurate measurement of the ratio of H2O to HDO across Mars, permitting us to determine how much water was truly lost. We also can determine how water is exchanged between polar ice, the atmosphere, and the soil,” added Geronimo Villaneuva from NASA’s Goddard Space Center. Despite several delays to date, NASA’s JWST is nearing an official Spring 2019 launch. Much of its assembly and testing have already taken place, but there are still a few additional odds and ends to complete before it’s space-worthy. Without a doubt, it should be interesting to see what the James Webb Space Telescope can tell us about Mars, but the real excitement comes from what it might find when it begins peering deep into outer space. Source: NASA

You may have heard recently that NASA has been planning a mission to land on an asteroid, capture a bolder, and put it in orbit abound the Moon called the Asteroid Redirect Mission. This may have left you wondering, Is this really the best next mission for NASA? It may have left you feeling... less than inspired. Well, it turns out you're not alone. Last Friday, at the end of its most recent meeting, the NASA Advisory Council officially adopted a finding that the Asteroid Redirect Mission should be dropped, and that NASA should, instead use its new solar electric propulsion system for a mission that orbits Mars. The council said that the mission could still possibly include a sample capture, but why not capture a sample from one of Mars' moons, Phobos or Deimos?Referring to solar electric propulsion, Steve Squyres, chairman of the advisory committee said, "if this technology is designed to go to Mars and back, let's send it to Mars and back." Squyers wasn't the only one on the council with this view. Their position was unanimous.Here's some of the text from the council's recommendation:"High-performance solar electric propulsion (SEP) will likely be an important part of an architecture to send humans to Mars. NASA's current plan is to demonstrate a large SEP stage by using it to maneuver a bolder that has been lifted from the surface of a small asteroid, and to move the boulder to cis-lunar space. Maneuvering a large test mass is not necessary to provide a valid in-space test of a new SEP stage. We therefore find that a SEP mission will contribute more directly to the goal of sending humans to Mars if the mission is focused entirely on development and validation of the SEP stage. We also find that other possible motivations for acquiring an maneuvering a boulder (e.g., asteroid science, planetary defense) do not have value commensurate with the probable cost.Instead of relocating a boulder from an asteroid, we suggest that a more important and exciting first use of this new SEP stage would be a round trip mission to Mars, flying it to Mars orbit and then back to the Earth-Moon system and into a distant retrograde lunar orbit." There are a number of significant advantages of SEP over chemical rockets. First, it is about the tenth of the cost of a chemical rocket that could do the same job. Second, the energy source for SEP is the Sun, so as long as your craft is within the solar system, the fuel source is unlimited. Third, you don't have to haul all of that fuel into orbit with you. SEP is a slower propulsion method than chemical rockets, but as long as the mission is unmanned, capturing a boulder from one of Mars' moons or sending a cargo ship to Mars in advance of a manned mission, for example, this wouldn't really be a problem.In order to change course and pursue a different mission may take some doing for NASA. There's a lot of political commitment that would have to be re-tracked. There's a whole mission that has already been set in motion. But, if, as the council points out, our goal is to go to Mars, it does seem as though pursuing a mission to Mars, as opposed to a mission to an asteroid is the straightest course. (Source: NASA)