NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope does more than just observe the distant cosmos; it also peeks at the nearby objects in our solar system. In a photo shoot involving Mars, Hubble Space Telescope grabbed 13 separate exposures that appear to have one of Mars’ moons (Phobos) swinging from around the back of the planet as it carries out its typical orbit. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Related: Why does Phobos have that giant crater? All 13 of the exposures have been put together in a time lapse in NASA's new YouTube video below: Phobos is nothing like the Earth’s Moon. Instead, at just 11-16 miles wide, Phobos is tiny and insignificant compared to Mars in the images. The Martian moon was originally discovered alongside Deimos (another moon orbiting the red planet) back in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Phobos completes an orbit in under eight hours, so over the 22-minute course of these exposures taken in May of 2016, it appeared to be moving very quickly. A couple more things worth noting, Phobos is one of the smallest moons in the solar system, and it orbits more closely to its host planet than any other moon in our solar neighborhood does. Researchers believe this combination could spell out a recipe for disaster. It all comes down to how Phobos could eventually be shredded apart by Mars’ gravitational forces. While it may not happen for another 20-70 million years, it could result in Mars gaining planetary rings, similar to those surrounding the larger gas planets further away in our solar system. Phobos has tons of striations across its surface that suggest the moon is going through tidal stresses because of the gravitational unease. These were the first clue of Phobos’ inevitable fate. Related: Where did these crater trails on Phobos' surface come from? While researchers don’t know exactly where Phobos came from, its composition appears to be like that of asteroids. With that in mind, an asteroid belt wanderer may have been snagged by Mars’ gravity at one point or another, resulting in the moon we see today. While it isn’t the first time we've spied Phobos, and it probably won’t be the last, it’s still cool to see these things from Hubble’s perspective. Source: NASA

NASA’s Opportunity Rover is still rolling around on the red planet and being used to the study the surface today, even since its initial landing in 2004. This proud piece of machinery has outlasted its expected life by more than 50 times and continues to roll along as Mars’ oldest rover. The Opportunity mission recently saw a two-year extension, and NASA plans to take full advantage of that. The Opportunity Rover has now been given yet another mission. The rover will now be tasked with taking a ride down a gully that was carved into the surface by flowing liquid (presumably water) a long time ago to get inside of the crater that Opportunity has been studying for the past half-decade, something that NASA says no Matrian rover has ever done before. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona “We are confident this is a fluid-carved gully, and that water was involved,” said Opportunity Principal Investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. “Fluid-carved gullies on Mars have been seen from orbit since the 1970s, but none had been examined up close on the surface before.” “One of the three main objectives of our new mission extension is to investigate this gully. We hope to learn whether the fluid was a debris flow, with lots of rubble lubricated by water, or a flow with mostly water and less other material.” Once inside, Opportunity will begin exploring the innards of the crater to learn more about it. More specifically, it will roam the Western rim of the Endeavor crater. This crater is 14 miles in diameter and was created by an asteroid impact billions of years ago. One of the main objectives there will be to see whether or not the rocks inside the crater resemble those outside. This will let scientists know what kind of asteroid hit Mars long ago. “We may find that the sulfate-rich rocks we've seen outside the crater are not the same inside,” Squyres said. “We believe these sulfate-rich rocks formed from a water-related process, and water flows downhill. The watery environment deep inside the crater may have been different from outside on the plain -- maybe different timing, maybe different chemistry.” Learning as much about the red planet as we can before sending humans there is a major interest. Both NASA and SpaceX want to send mankind to Mars within the next couple of decades. Before then, however, the many rovers on Mars’ surface continue to look for signs of life and study the red planet’s chemistry, and another rover is scheduled to be sent to Mars in 2020 with even higher-tech equipment that can answer even more of our never-ending questions. Source: NASA

NASA this month shared a really cool image of the Earth and the Moon as they appear from Mars, at a distance of around 127 million miles. It’s an angle we really don’t get to see all too often, mostly because we’re usually the ones snapping pictures of other planets. An image of the Earth and the Moon as taken from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona The image was taken with NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on November 20th, and while it’s fuzzy, it’s still clear enough that you can make out Australia on Earth through the hazy clouds. HiRISE had to take two separate images to get both the Earth and the Moon to be visible in the same picture. That’s because the Earth is so much dimmer than the Moon is. Had they used the Moon’s preferred image exposure, the Earth would’ve been too dark, and had they used the Earth’s preferred image exposure, Moon would have been too bright. To answer this problem, they overlaid the two images together to make what’s similar to an HDR (high dynamic range) photograph. That way, it combines the best of both photographs to give us one photograph that’s easier to look at. Both the Earth and the Moon are seen clearly in this image because of it. Because HiRISE takes images in RGB (red, green, blue) color format, these colors aren’t perfect. Nevertheless, they’re pretty close, and you can make out which parts of the world are heavy in vegetation, like Asia, and what parts are icy, like Antarctica. Since we already have great photographs of the Earth and the Moon, and because the Moon is just right above our heads and easy to photograph, you’re probably wondering why NASA even bothered to take a picture of the Earth and the Moon from Mars. Well, there’s an easy answer to that question. It was for calibrating the data on HiRISE. We are already very familiar with the color tones of the Earth and the Moon, so by calibrating the color data HiRISE collects from Mars by using the data we get from here on Earth, we can depict accurate colors for the photographs snapped of Mars. Still, it’s pretty cool to see what Earth looks like from a distance. Source: NASA

Have you ever wondered what the Mars Curiosity Rover might look like from above? Well now you don't have to wait any longer to find out. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently photographed Curiosity with its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera while it was in the midst of scanning and mapping the red planet’s surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona While this happens from time to time, the latest shot is quite dramatic and shows just how insignificantly-small the SUV-sized autonomous explorer is when compared to its surroundings. It appears as the small bluish dot in the center of the following photograph, which reveals terrain associated with Mount Sharp, a place Curiosity has been exploring for the last several years. Related: Curiosity Rover takes a selfie at its drilling site Worthy of note, Curiosity isn’t really blue; this is a false-color image that emphasizes contrast to help us see stark differences in terrain much better. If you were to peer down with your own eyes, you would see a different color scheme. Curiosity is currently exploring the red planet autonomously via intelligent software that picks its own viable targets that may hold important clues into Mars’ checkered past. Related: Curiosity Rover went into safe mode, but NASA got things back under control Once it hones in a target, it’s onboard laser system blasts the rock and then the rover begins a chemical analysis from the resulting airborne dust with its ChemCam geochemical spectrometer instrument. A recent study published in the journal Science Robotics has gone into great detail about the use of Curiosity’s autonomous exploration system, noting that it has been utilized since the initial software update uploaded in 2016. Autonomous exploration is useful for scientists because there are times when the rover ends up in places that are more difficult to send signals to. Autonomy allows the rover to make decisions on its own and then actively report its results back to Earth from time to time. Although it's comforting to see that Curiosity is still kicking today, an even more advanced lander is set to travel to Mars to explore its terrains in just a few more years. Mars 2020 is expected to launch in, you guessed it, 2020, which is probably a good thing since Curiosity is getting old and starting to break down. The primary goal will be to search for signs of life, somethings we’ve already been trying to accomplish, but it will be landing at a very different site that researchers believe has the highest probability of returning useful results; there are currently numerous landing location candidates, as researchers haven’t quite decided where to put it yet. Worthy of note, Mars 2020 will come equipped with the most advanced technology we have today for this sort of exploration research. It should be interesting to see what it finds when the time comes; in the meantime, we’ll just have to rely on good-old Curiosity. Source: NASA, Phys.org

The International Space Station has recently played host to a rather important space experiment to see how long stays in space affect the human body. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly just returned to Earth yesterday after 340 days in space, which is almost an entire year. The effects on his body will be compared to his twin brother, Mark Kelly, to see how space affects the human body over such a long period of time. Some of the things we know space does to the human body are make us age faster, reduce our bone density, expose us to more radiation, and even cause bloating. All of these effects may be pretty observable on the International Space Station, but it's thought that the effects could be worse on Mars.

In continuing the time-honored tradition of celestial rock collecting, NASA’s Perseverance rover has collected a specimen of Martian rock in the first step of a plan to bring matter from the Red Planet back to Earth. According to a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Perseverance drilled and scooped up a sample of a red rock core on September 1st. While humans have brought back Moon rocks before, this retrieval marks the first time that material from another planet has been acquired for eventual return to Earth. NASA’s newest rover took the first step of the extraterrestrial mission in straightforward fashion. It drilled into a choice stone, scooped up the excavated sample, and stored the specimen in a titanium tube, which was subsequently sealed. The rover repeated this process multiple times throughout Mars’s Jezero Crater. As it continues on further journeys of exploration and experimentation, Perseverance will hold on to these sample tubes until NASA and other coordinating agencies determine the best way to bring the samples back to Earth. There is currently no set method for retrieval. NASA plans to develop and implement a recovery mission alongside the European Space Agency (ESA). This would entail future missions that incorporate rockets to get to and back from Mars along with a fetch rover designed to pick up the samples from Perseverance and send them into space. While managing the intricacies of rocket science, these agencies must also make sure both that the samples do not bring any contaminants with them to Earth and that no Earth contaminants affect the samples before they can be analyzed. If ever there was a herculean task of engineering, this celestial retrieval would qualify. Though time and again, our scientists, engineers, and auxiliary staff have proved their ability to do the improbable. Hopefully, we can look forward to another instance of such improbable overcoming and, with it, the arrival of a new age of space exploration. Source: NASA JPL Banner Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech Article Image Source: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech

The first astronauts who travel to Mars on behalf of NASA in the not-too-distant future will not only need to set up inside of a survivable habitation module, such as one of these ice domes, but they’ll also need to figure out what they’re going to do for food. So far, potatoes seem to be a very viable food source for Martian astronauts, as they appear to thrive in dry and harsh environments and they contain much of the necessary nutrients people need. In fact, Scientific American reports that potatoes, in and of themselves, have around 10% of the daily recommended caloric intake for humans. But can potatoes actually grow on Mars? – This is a question that, until now, we really didn’t know the answer to. Image Credit: Pexels/Pixabay NASA has been working closely with CIP (International Potato Center) scientists to try growing a wide variety of different types of potatoes in Martian conditions. They are using special containment module that can simulate Martian air pressures, temperatures, and light. They’re also using soil from the Pampas de La Joya desert in Southern Peru that they believe mimics the Martian environment as closely as possible. “If the crops can tolerate the extreme conditions that we are exposing them to in our CubeSat, they have a good chance to grow on Mars. We will do several rounds of experiments to find out which potato varieties do best. “We want to know what the minimum conditions are that a potato needs to survive,” says Julio Valdivia-Silva from UTEC. Also read: Scientists deem vegetables grown in Martian soil "safe" to eat The goal is to figure out which potato varieties are most likely to thrive in a Mars-like environment so we know what ones to take with us and try to grow when we go. So far, scientists seem 100% certain that they’ll have a variety of successful potato types that will meet the criteria. So far, it would seem the potatoes the researchers are trying to breed in this unique soil and Martian condition combo have been able to produce tubers, which is a good sign for anyone who’s optimistic about Martian astronauts having potatoes as a part of their diet. The following video shows a potato tuber growing out of the Martian-like soil in a chamber dedicated to Mars-like conditions: Source: CIP via Scientific American

Will humans ever make it to the red planet? It’s a question that has been surfacing more and more lately and space technology advances, and both NASA and SpaceX seem excited about the idea given that it just might be possible. Image Credit: Aynur_zakirov/Pixabay Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has been quite vocal about his goals of putting mankind on Mars within just a few decades, and NASA puts the timeframe a little further out into the future, but we’re still in the middle of building a blueprint that not only ensures the safety of astronauts, but also helps to make Mars a sustainable place to live for long periods of time. To start, it’s worth noting that Mars is really the only target in the Solar System that we might be able to build a second human habitat; other planets in the Solar System lack the right conditions. Mars isn’t quite perfect, but with enough engineering, it could be possible to fabricate our way to the red planet and create an artificial way of life there. Related: Mars has a blue sunset despite being a very red planet Musk recently published his own idea for colonizing Mars in the journal New Space that keeps a positive tone towards the entire venture. While many scientists have already been quick to say that becoming an interplanetary species is impossible, Musk disagrees, and believes that with enough hard work, anything is possible. “I think there are really two fundamental paths, Elon Musk says in his pitch. “History is going to bifurcate along two directions. One path is we stay on Earth forever, and then there will be some eventual extinction event. I do not have an immediate doomsday prophecy, but eventually, history suggests, there will be some doomsday event.” “The alternative is to become a space-bearing civilization and a multi-planetary species, which I hope you would agree is the right way to go,” he continued. The real trouble is that going to Mars isn’t a cheap project, and astronauts that go need to either fork up their own money to go or stay here on Earth. The problem, of course, is that rick folk have better things to do here on Earth than to risk their lives going to another planet, so the less-wealthy that can’t afford to go, but want to, is a problem. Musk says that we have to somehow bring the cost of Martian travel down so that even non-filthy-rich individuals would have the resources to go to Mars and start a new life if they truly wanted to. He wants to bring the cost down from $10 billion per person to closer to $200,000 per person, which would significantly improve the spiel’s reach. Related: SpaceX wants to put people on Mars by around 2025 While bringing the cost down this much is difficult, SpaceX’s reusable rocket technology is pioneering cost-efficient space travel, and this is only the beginning. There is still much more that could be done to reduce costs, whether or not we could actually reach these goals, such as in-space fuel refill stations. Travel is another quandary that needs to be figured out, as we would need a spacecraft that could hold significantly more people than just three or four as we’re accustomed to with the International Space Station. Fortunately, SpaceX is working on a solution for this problem as well. Musk details a new spacecraft could hold up to 100 occupants at a time and would ride on a new type of rocket powered by a Raptor engine with a massive thrust power exceeding a ground-shaking 13,000 tons. Using new materials like carbon fiber instead of those used in the Falcon 9 rocket, this new rocket body could be much more fuel efficient and could last much longer, which is a necessity for a Mars landing. We would also need a way to get those ships back to the Earth after sending them to Mars, and so it’s also imperative that we find a way to produce fuel on the red planet itself so that our used ships don’t just accumulate over there and can return home, potentially even with passengers who might want to venture back to Earth. There are certainly a lot more issues that need to be resolved, like how we might live on the red planet, the health risks that are involved, and most importantly – can we ever come back? On the other hand, these are questions we can only answer once science has had a chance to study the red planet up close and in detail, which is something we’ve only scratched the surface on. Related: Will the first Mars astronauts live in ice dome houses? It should be interesting to see what kinds of answers will be provided once we start taking our first baby steps to another planet. After all, SpaceX is already planning unmanned Dragon landings on Mars in upcoming years that will serve as initial testing platforms for astronauts. Source: The Guardian

Like NASA, the European Space Agency is trying their best to study Mars. They had hoped to use the ExoMars mission, which was launched in March, to learn more about the red planet and search for the existence of life. The spacecraft, a Trace Gas Orbiter, which was launched earlier in the year made it to the red planet successfully on Wednesday and performed a rocket burn to get safely into the orbit of Mars, however something went wrong with the Schiaparelli lander that was ejected from it. Image Credit: ESA The lander was shunted into the Martian atmosphere this week and then an automated six-minute descent control booster rocket system burned and a parachute system was deployed to help stabilize the fall and get the lander to the Martian surface safely. Unfortunately, about 50 seconds before the lander was projected to reach the surface, the ESA reportedly lost contact with the lander, signifying that the rockets probably stopped burning a little too early and this may have caused a crash landing. It goes without saying from this evidence that the ESA was unsuccessful at landing on the red planet safely enough to stay fully intact. The ESA says it’s still possible that we could reestablish a connection sometime in the next three to ten days as there’s still a battery power source on the lander, however things aren’t looking too hot right now with the current state of things. The ExoMars mission is a two-stage mission and the Schiaparelli lander was only the first part. The second will be landing the all-new Mars 2020 lander in collaboration with NASA on the Martian surface in the year 2020, as the name suggests. The ESA says this mission has taught them valuable lessons about landing on Mars, citing the fact that missions like these aren’t easy. "From the engineering standpoint, it’s what we want from a test, and we have extremely valuable data to work with," said David Parker, ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration, in a statement. Let’s just hope a similar issue doesn’t happen when the more advanced Mars 2020 rover gets there… Source: ESA via The Verge

Space agencies typically send missions to Mars once every several years, depending on the need for scientific exploration and the technological capabilities at that specific point in time. But while we’ve sent missions to Mars before, the year 2020 will see a plethora of different Mars-centric missions, and many are wondering: why so many Mars missions this year? The answer lies with the convenience of the planetary alignment with the Sun. More specifically, mid-2020 provides a unique opportunity to launch spacecraft to Mars because of a convenient rocket fuel-savings technique that is often referred to as the Hohmann Transfer Orbit. This occurs when Mars’ elliptical orbit around the Sun would intercept a spacecraft launched from Earth in less than a year after launching. As you might come to expect, Earth’s orbit around the Sun is somewhat elliptical too, and this means that there are periods when Earth and Mars are closer or further away from one another. Space agencies take advantage of the timeframes when the two worlds are closest together to send missions to Mars, as it saves money and takes substantially less time. The Hohmann Transfer Orbit only presents itself once every few years, and it just so happens that several space agencies have been holding onto Mars-centric missions for just the right time to launch, and 2020 is the soonest launch opportunity. In addition to NASA’s Perseverance rover (formerly Mars 2020), The European Space Agency plans to launch its ExoMars mission around the same timeframe. In addition, the United Arab Emirates is planning to launch its Hope Mars Mission for July 2020, and China is planning to launch its Huoxing-1 Mission for Mars in the same month. Future missions will likely follow, but not until the next Hohmann Transfer Orbit opportunity.

It was only a few days ago that NASA made a major announcement revealing the existence of flowing water on some parts of the red planet of Mars, fourth in line from the Sun in our solar system. The news was big, because we’ve been searching for water for eons in the hope that it would provide the greatest chances of signs for the existence of life. Earth life heavily relies on water, so we assume that life elsewhere might too. Although it may be a flawed way of thinking, being that any life elsewhere would rely on its own resources local to that world rather than mimic Earthly life exactly, it’s still a start. So the next question that comes to mind is: When will NASA start poking around in the areas of the Martian planet where flowing liquid water has been discovered? And the simple answer to that is: It’s complicated. NASA can’t just carelessly launch a probe and start sending it into the direction of water on the Martian planet. It’s very important that if this were to be done, the probe was sterilized in such a way that should there be any forms of life on Mars, Earthly life, such as bacteria and other microorganisms, would not interfere with the Martian environment and potentially destroy any evidence of life on Mars. This is where things become tricky. Because although we can eliminate at least 99.9% of germs, there is no 100% guarantee that we can sterilize a probe well enough that it wouldn’t offer a threat to such an environment on Mars. So who makes these silly rules, and why don’t we just figure out once and for all whether or not any life exists on Mars? – A committee known as COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) has the authority to designate special areas in our solar system where agencies like NASA or even the ESA would have to abide by rules to protect any potential life in outer space that could be harmed by our intervention. Being that flowing water is currently our greatest understanding of the formation of life on Earth, in addition to other conditions, COSPAR will very likely impede on any explorations to Mars’ flowing water regions to prevent us from hindering the Martian environment. These rules make it very difficult to actually figure out anything useful. With these rules keeping scientists from visiting these worlds and getting up closer to take samples and monitor activity, it’ll continue to remain a question with no concrete answers. The only way to get solid answers, is to actually get out there and explore the regions up close, which will require advancements in sterilization technology, or relaxed rules, whichever one comes first. Despite the hurdles, NASA is working on future rovers and technology that will include instruments capable of detecting life. These will hopefully be the best chances yet at discovering something useful, and they'll be compliant with COSPAR's rules. Source: The Verge

The search for life on other planets is an age old quest. Astronomers, scientists, astronauts and regular backyard stargazers are always looking skyward for clues to where in the universe other forms of life might be. Neil Armstrong's moon landing and NASA's subsequent missions there ruled out the presence of "moon men" or any other creatures, but still we search. So where to look next?Today's efforts center mostly on Mars. Mars is where it's at in the exploration to find other forms of life beyond our own planet. So what's the latest? The Curiosity rover is there, rolling over the red ground taking samples and sending back images. Currently the rover is closely examining an area called Gale Crater. Gale Crater has at its center a three mile high mountain, with many layers that serve as proof of the areas geological history. Scientists are fairly certain the area once contained water and methane, both of which are necessary components for life. Those two elements are not enough however, they need a catalyst in order for life to develop. A recently published paper by NASA Planetary Scientist Laurie Barge details the possibility of rust as that catalyst, but not just any rust. The mineral iron will rust when exposed to oxygen and turn an orange red, as it does on the surface of the planet. But another form of rust, one that could possibly nurture life, could exist just below the surface of the red planet. This rust is green, because it isn't oxidized and if found, could tell scientists much about the possibility of life on Mars.Green rust is uncommon on Earth but was discovered in 2012 in Matano Lake in Indonesia, unique for its lack of oxygen. Some theories say that green rust might have been instrumental in the beginnings of life on Earth and therefore the same could hold true on Mars.The surface of Mars is also low in oxygen so iron present on the surface would not immediately break down, but rather develop a green rust, setting in motion a chain of events where life could develop. In statement at the American Geophysical Union's Joint Assembly meeting Barge explained, "From an environmental science perspective, green rust can absorb and concentrate nutrients, and can also accept and donate electrons for life." Future missions to Mars, one from NASA and one from the European Space Agency, will have the ability to drill into the planet's surface to look for this unoxidized green rust. Barge told the scientists at the Joint Assembly that more study is needed before these missions launch to better understand how green rust acts as a pre-cursor to life on any planet. An article on Space.com quoted Barge as saying, "There's a theory proposed by Michael Russell at JPL that green rust could have acted as a proto-enzyme to convert energy currencies on early Earth. Green rust is especially interesting in this regard because it is a double layered hydroxide that can sandwich all sorts of interesting components relevant to life in between these layers." Check out the video below for more information on green rust.

When we think of large mountains or volcanoes, we often think of Mount Everest, which holds the distinction as being the tallest mountain above sea level on Earth, measuring almost 5.5 miles (8.85 km) high. Since Mount Everest isn’t a volcano, that distinction belongs to Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, measuring 75 miles (120 km) wide and 5.6 miles (9 km) high. It is through the wonders of geology that we get to marvel at these mammoth-sized objects here on Earth. But it’s also through the wonders of space exploration that we’re able to discover Earth isn’t the only planet with geologic marvels to witness. Our very own solar system bestows some of the most awe-inspiring geologic wonders we’ve ever seen, and this includes Olympus Mons on Mars, which is a shield volcano and holds the distinction of being the tallest planetary mountain and one of the largest volcanoes in the solar system. Olympus Mons dwarfs all of Earth’s mountains and volcanoes by large margins, measuring 435 miles (700 km) wide and 14 miles (22 km) high. For comparison, that’s about two and a half times as tall as Mount Everest, and it’s so tall that it sticks out of the Martian atmosphere. It can fit snugly inside the State of Arizona, and its caldera is approximately the size of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Scientists postulate that Olympus Mons’ size is owed to not only Mars’ very active past volcanism, but primarily due to its weaker gravity, which is one-third that of Earth’s. This reduced gravity allows lava flows to travel farther, which leads to Olympus Mons being as wide and flat as it is. Also, unlike Earth, the plate tectonics on Mars aren’t nearly as active, meaning hotspots beneath the crust remain stationary instead of moving over long periods of time, with an example being the Hawaiian Islands. Given its lack of impact craters, scientists also postulate that Olympus Mons is relatively young at approximately 25 million years old. However, older volcanism occurring at Olympus Mons could have been buried with more recent lava flows. While no rovers or landers have visited Olympus Mons, it has been imaged extensively from orbiting satellites and even Earth, with the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli having observed Mars and its surface features in the 19th century. Will future astronauts ever climb Olympus Mons, and what will these up-close explorations further teach us about this massive volcano? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! Sources: National Geographic, Statista, Britannica, Lowell Observatory, NASA, USRA, Space.com As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Six scientists spent 365 days in a geodesic dome set in a Mars-like environment 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) above sea level. The simulated habitat was located on the slopes of Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii. The group included a French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans – a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist. NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii and is the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia. The experiment, called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (Hi-Seas), was designed to test crew cohesion and performance in isolation, simulated on Mauna Loa because the area’s high elevation means there is almost no plant growth. It forms an important part of any real mission to Mars as journeys to the red planet will take upwards of six months, before any surface missions even begin, and astronauts will have to spend long periods of time together in a claustrophobic space, reports CNN. ‘‘Hi-Seas is an example of international collaborative research hosted and run by the University of Hawaii. So it’s really exciting to be able to welcome the crew back to earth and back to Hawaii after a year on Mars,’’ Kim Binsted, principal investigator for Hi-Seas. Scientists were only allowed to go outside if wearing spacesuits, and managed limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts in an extremely space space. The dome is only 36 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall. "The UH research going on up here is just super vital when it comes to picking crews, figuring out how people are going to actually work on different kinds of missions, and sort of the human factors element of space travel, colonization, whatever it is you are actually looking at," Tristan Bassingthwaighte, who served as the crew's architect, said in a statement. The mission was pivotal for research concerning the surface environment of “Mars.” Christiane Heinicke, a crew member from Germany, said the scientists were able to find their own water in a dry climate. “Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry. It would work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars from this little greenhouse construct,” she said. According to Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, the simulation was a success. ‘‘I can give you my personal impression, which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic. I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome,’’ Verseux said. Binsted said the researchers were looking forward to jumping into the ocean and eating fresh produce and other foods that were not available in the dome. Despite the fuss going on in the media surrounding the success of the simulation, another side exists in the story. Native Hawaiins are worried about the use of Mauna Loa for such exploration. Watch the following video to see why. Sources: CNN, The Guardian, The Boston Globe

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has been hard at work on the Red Planet since 2012 teaching us more and more about this mysterious and awe-inspiring world, specifically pertaining to its ancient past and when it might have had life. Most recently, the pioneering rover reached Gediz Vallis Ridge, which rests at the bottom of Mount Sharp, on its fourth attempt due to steep slopes and knife-edged “gator-backed” rocks. The reason why NASA has been so eager to traverse this ridge is due to a debris flow that scientists hypothesize is an excellent record of a time when Mars was much warmer and wetter than it is today. A 360-degree panorama taken by NASA’s Curiosity while investigating Gediz Vallis Ridge (right side of image), which is comprised of a debris flow fan that scientists hypothesize formed billions of years ago on Mars. After three previous attempts, the rover finally traversed the ridge on its fourth try. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) “After three years, we finally found a spot where Mars allowed Curiosity to safely access the steep ridge,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, who is a NASA JPL project scientist for the Curiosity rover. “It’s a thrill to be able to reach out and touch rocks that were transported from places high up on Mount Sharp that we’ll never be able to visit with Curiosity.” During its 11-day trek at the ridge, scientists back at NASA JPL were busy commanding Curiosity to snap as many photos as possible, along with examining the dark rocks that comprised the debris flow that originated from atop Mount Sharp several billion years ago. These images included a mosaic comprised of 136 images that provide a breathtaking 360-degree view of Curiosity’s immediate surroundings. The debris flow that Curiosity is investigating is also known as a debris flow fan or alluvial fan, which is when debris flowing downhill spreads out into a fan-like structure. While such structures are common on both Earth and Mars, researchers are continuing to learn about their formation processes on both planets. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like to witness these events,” said Dr. William Dietrich, who is a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley, and a Curiosity mission team member who has helped lead the ridge’s investigation by Curiosity. “Huge rocks were ripped out of the mountain high above, rushed downhill, and spread out into a fan below. The results of this campaign will push us to better explain such events not just on Mars, but even on Earth, where they are a natural hazard.” February 2023 video from NASA JPL Scientists will continue to examine the recent data for some time while they simultaneously chart a new path for Curiosity’s next scientific challenge: the channel that resides above the ridge that was responsible for creating the debris flow billions of years ago. What new discoveries will Curiosity make about the history of 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: NASA, Wikipedia, Wikipedia (1)

New research published in the journal Science Advances attempts to model the risk of cancer that astronauts will incur from exposure to galactic cosmic radiation. While that may sound like something straight out of a science fiction novel, research from a team led by researchers at Colorado State University suggests that the risk is real. Entitled, "Genomic mapping in outbred mice reveals overlap in genetic susceptibility for HZE ion- and gamma-ray-induced tumors," the study used a NASA model to test health risks. The model is part of the research that NASA is doing in order to prepare for a human mission to Mar in the 2030s. Yet, the results from this study show that the levels of radiation exposure that astronauts would receive on such a mission put them at over a 3% risk of dying from cancer, therefore exceeding what is considered acceptable. "The radiation type we're most concerned about are HZE ions or heavy ions," commented Michael Weil, senior author of the study and a professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at CSU. "When you're in space, there is nothing to deflect this type of radiation. Some of these heavy ions will punch through a spacecraft hull, so when you send astronauts into space, you're exposing them to these types of radiation." The radiation Weil is talking about comes from the sun and from supernovas and though its broader effects are widely unknown, we know it can damage molecules, cells and tissues, potentially causing cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders. The obvious concern is that astronauts on a mission to Mars would be exposed to this kind of radiation continuously over three years. Weil and first author Dr. Elijah Edmondson, a veterinary pathologist and researcher based at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Maryland, conducted the study on genetically diverse mice. After exposing the mice to varying levels of radiation, they observed that the heavy ions caused tumors, but no unique kinds of cancer. They also saw that female mice were more susceptible to tumors caused by radiation. The researchers plan to continue their investigations in other capacities in order to learn more about the potential risks for astronauts bound for Mars. Sources: Science Advances, Science Daily

So, we want to send people to Mars someday. It will be dangerous. There will be numerous challenges and hazards: radiation, a poisons atmosphere, the fact that we may have to bring almost everything we will need to survive there with us. NASA scientists are working on a slew of technologies to protect astronauts from most of the threats and challenges they'll face both on the journeys to and from Mars and on the surface. But what about the astronauts themselves? How will they faire psychologically, and how will they get along with each other and work together when they are confined to fairly small living spaces and their spacesuits? NASA has just finished a program to test these elements called HI-SEAS (the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation). The idea of this program was to subject a select group of people to a simulated Martian habitat, both inside and out. For eight months this group lived and worked in this environment that consisted of a dome, a solar array, and the slope of a volcano with almost no life on it. The only way the participants could leave the dome was in a simulated space suit. The only things they could eat or drink were supplies they brought with them when they entered the dome. The group left their dome for the first time in eight months without space suits on Saturday. "When we first walked out the door," says Jocelyn Dunn, a 27 year-old doctoral candidate at Purdue University and a participant in the study, "it was scary not to have a suit on. We've been pretending for so long." And it was a pretty good simulation: At 8,000 feet on the side of a volcano when the team looked out the dome's portholes, all they could see was lava fields and mountains. There was almost no plant life. To simulate the fact that it will take radio messages seven minutes to get between Mars and Earth, due to the extreme distance, the team could only communicate with the outside world using email.But this wasn't just some kind of space-themed hazing. The Data gathered by tracking the emotions and performance of the study's participants in this isolated environment could prove invaluable to ground crews during future manned space missions when they need to discern if a crew member is becoming depressed or if the team of astronauts is having problem with their group dynamics. "Astronauts are very stoic people," says University of Hawaii professor Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the study, "very level-headed, and there's a certain hesitancy to report problems. So this is a way for people on the ground to detect cohesion-related problems before they become a real issue.""When you're having a good day its fine," Dunn reports. "It's fun. You have friends around to share in the enjoyment of a good day. But if you have a bad day, it's really tough to be in a confined environment. You can't get out and go for a walk ... it's constantly witnessed by everyone."(Sources: phys.org, NASA)

While the batteries on NASA’s InSight lander officially ran out of juice in December 2022, scientists are still pouring over the droves of radio science data sent back to Earth from the brave robotic explorer. Now, scientists have successfully used that data to not only ascertain key characteristics of Mars’ atmosphere, mantle, and core, but they’ve also produced some of the most accurate measurements of the Red Planet’s rotation. The results were recently published in the journal Nature and hold the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of our nearest planetary neighbor, and one of the most intriguing planetary bodies in the solar system. Selfie from NASA’s InSight lander taken on April 24, 2022, the 1,211th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Accumulating dust on the lander’s solar panels caused its batteries to slowly lose power, resulting in the lander going dark in December 2022. However, data obtained from InSight’s instruments is still being analyzed, including this most recent study regarding the core and wobble of Mars. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Using data obtained from InSight’s Rotation Interior Structure Experiment (RISE), scientists were not only able to calculate that Mars’ rotation is accelerating, but the total length of one Martian day, known as a Sol, is decreasing by a fraction of a millisecond per year. However, questions remain as to the cause of the rotational acceleration, with several hypotheses currently being suggested, including rising landmasses after recently being unburied from ice, and the latter of which is presently accumulating at the planet’s polar caps. “It’s really cool to be able to get this latest measurement – and so precisely,” said Dr. Bruce Banerdt, who is InSight’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a co-author on the study. “I’ve been involved in efforts to get a geophysical station like InSight onto Mars for a long time, and results like this make all those decades of work worth it.” The reason this ice accumulation/rising landmass process is occurring is due to Mars’ unstable axial tilt, which wobbles uncontrollably over the course of hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Unlike Earth, whose axis currently sits at 23.4 degrees and slightly wobbles like a spinning top between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees due to the gravitational stability from our Moon, Mars lacks such stability despite it having two moons, as both are smaller than ours. While the axial tilt of Mars is currently at 25.1 degrees, it has a much larger range than Earth, going as low as 15 degrees ad reaching as high as 45 degrees. These extreme tilt variations result in extreme climate variation all over the planet, which leads to ice shifting from the poles to the equator then back to the poles. Currently, ice is receding to the poles as its axial tilt increases, which causes landmasses to rise and ice accumulation at the poles. Using data from RISE, the researchers determined the liquid core of Mars is not only sloshing, but that it has a radius of approximately 1,140 miles (1,835 kilometers). It is also because of this sloshing that the researchers were able to accurately measure the wobble of Mars, also called its nutation. Combining this data with previous seismic data obtained by InSight, the team pull a more estimated measurement of the radius of Mars’ core at between 1,112 miles and 1,150 miles (1,790 and 1,850 kilometers). For context, this is less than half the estimated radius of Earth’s core, which currently stands at 2,165 miles (3,485 kilometers). The radius for the entire Red Planet is currently estimated at 2,106 miles (3,390 kilometers), with Earth’s at 3,959 miles (6,371 kilometers), or just greater than half the size of Earth. Along with providing estimations about the core radius of Mars, details of the core’s shape can also be ascertained from these measurements, as well. “RISE’s data indicate the core’s shape cannot be explained by its rotation alone,” said Dr. Attilio Rivoldini, who is a planetary scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, and a co-author on the study. “That shape requires regions of slightly higher or lower density buried deep within the mantle.” The data from InSight will keep scientists busy for the next several years, but this study served as a curtain call for InSight principal investigator, Dr. Banerdt, who retired on August 1 after serving an astounding 46 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. What new discoveries about Mars and its core will scientists unveil using data from InSight 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: NASA, Nature, NASA (1), NASA (2), NASA (3), NASA JPL, National Geographic

The possibility that life once existed on Mars is an idea that has captivated planetary scientists for decades. But new findings uncovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover appear to reinforce these ideas and have been published in the journal Science. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS In a statement released by NASA over the weekend, the space agency reports stumbling upon potential evidence of ancient organic material inside of 3 billion-year-old rocks that were excavated and analyzed by Curiosity’s onboard drill and laboratory. While performing the analysis, Curiosity purportedly identified peculiar amounts of various organic compounds, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, to name a few. Notably, these compounds can exist on other planets without the help of biological processes, so it’s not enough evidence to validate whether life existed on the Martian surface or not. But if that small detail wasn’t attention-grabbing in and of itself, then perhaps the next tidbit is. Curiosity also confirmed what appear to be seasonal shifts in the amount of atmospheric methane on Mars. Again, this could be related to non-biological mechanisms, but it raises some eyebrows for sure. The source of these rather substantial findings remains unconfirmed. “With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. Related: NASA tried Curiosity's new drilling technique, and it worked flawlessly “Curiosity has not determined the source of the organic molecules,” added Jen Eigenbrode of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is a lead author of one of the Science papers. “Whether it holds a record of ancient life, was food for life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in Martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes.” Related: Curiosity's wheels are beginning to break down As you can probably imagine, planetary scientists are excited about these new findings and can’t wait to explore Mars some more. Fortunately, Curiosity still has a long ride to go before the mission ends, and the Mars 2020 rover will be deployed to pick up where it leaves off in the foreseeable future. Understanding Mars and the secrets contained there have implications for understanding the planet’s history and future colonization attempts. It should be interesting to see what future studies bring as researchers continue probing our planetary neighbor for answers. Source: NASA

The Little Helicopter That Could, also known as NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, has unfortunately ended its mission of exploring the surface of Mars after a historic 72 flights since its first flight in April 2021. The decision to end the mission came after teams discovered that at least one rotor blade was damaged enough to where it could no longer perform aerial duties. Despite this, Ingenuity remains standing upright and communicating with Earth continues, as well. “The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best – make the impossible, possible. Through missions like Ingenuity, NASA is paving the way for future flight in our solar system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and beyond.” Launched onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on July 30, 2020, and landing in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to perform a powered flight on another world on April 19, 2021. Ingenuity was originally built for a 30-day mission where it would conduct five experimental flights to demonstrate that powered flight could be achieved on another planetary body other than Earth. With a total of 72 flights under its belt, Ingenuity has far exceeded expectations in terms of its original goals and objectives. This includes a horizontal flight distance of 2,315 feet (705 meters), which was accomplished just last month on December 20, 2023. Enhanced-color image of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter taken on Aug. 2, 2023, by the Perseverance Mars rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University/Malin Space Science Systems) Missions like Ingenuity will undoubtedly pave the way for future powered flights on other worlds, including the upcoming NASA Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which will feature a quadcopter that will “hop” around Titan’s surface searching for potential signs of life. To this, we salute Ingenuity for its tireless dedication and contributions to science as we continue to learn more about the universe! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: NASA, NASA (1), NASA (2), NASA (3), Wikipedia, NPR, NASA (4), NASA (5)

Planetary rings are found around various planets in our Solar System, but for the most part, it’s limited to gassy planets in the outer Solar System, such as Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus. On the other hand, a new study published in the journal Icarus by a couple of researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India have suggested evidence for Mars, a terrestrial (rocky) planet, slowly developing its own rings. Image Credit: Tushar Mittal/Celestia Development Team So how can this be? It turns out that in addition to all the space rocks that are getting shredded up when wandering too close to the planet, Mars’ moon Phobos is slowly drifting closer and closer to Mars because of the gravitational tug being imposed on it. This activity is slowly tearing the moon apart, leaving behind a cloud of debris and dust that continues to orbit Mars. Evidence for the cloud, which exists between 93-190 miles above the surface, was originally discovered when the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) satellite arrived at the planet four years ago, but MAVEN really wasn’t designed to analyze the dust in detail, so it isn’t a very good tool for examining the dust cloud to learn more about its contents and origin. On the other hand, the India-based researchers believe at least 0.6% of the dust cloud around Mars came from the red planet’s moons because of the way they are drifting towards the red planet very slowly. They also estimate that perhaps between 20-70 million years from now, the continued degradation of the moon will eventually shatter it into pieces, adding to the rings. Not all researchers are onboard with the theory that Mars has (or will develop) rings; in fact, many suggest that because MAVEN isn’t designed for observing rings that perhaps these estimates and findings are all wrong. One such critic is Laila Anderssen from the University of Colorado Boulder: “To really say anything definitive about the dust, you really need to have a dedicated dust detector,” Anderssen says. “We still haven’t seen a good indication that there is significant material in the vicinity of the moons. So I think it’s a long shot, but one should never say never.” Since a dedicated dust-observing probe has never actually made it to Mars successfully, there is definitely a lot of curiosity surrounding these dust clouds that are circling the red planet. There isn’t a whole lot of evidence that they’re coming from the planet’s moons, but even so, there isn’t very much information about where the dust came from otherwise either. Without a doubt, there is an interesting mystery here that needs to be solved, so perhaps a future mission to observe the dust up close and in higher detail and then to compare that data to the red planet’s moon composition could reveal the answers we’re looking for. Source: New Scientist

Here on earth, carbon dioxide is a pollutant and a greenhouse gas. But thanks to a new engine technology, for colonists on Mars, CO2 could be an easily accessible, native energy source.The new engine being developed by researchers at Northumbria University in England uses disks of dry ice (solid CO2) and something called the Leidenfrost effect. What is the Leidenfrost Effect? If you've ever flicked drops of water on a skillet to see if it's ready for frying and noticed that the droplets seem to defy gravity as they skitter across the hot surface, you've seen the Leidenfrost effect. When the water droplets come into close proximity with a surface that is much hotter than the water's boiling point, a bubble of water vapor forms between the skillet and the droplets, causing them to levitate.Dr. Gary Wells, co-author of a paper on the Northumbrian team's new motor, explains how their device takes advantage of this same effect using disks of dry ice: "... the high-pressure vapour layer creates freely rotating rotors whose energy is converted into power without the need of a bearing, thus conferring the new engine with low-friction properties." The lower a device's friction, negligible in the case of a levitating disk of dry ice, the higher its efficiency.Why might this be important for Martian colonists? Though dry ice does not occur naturally here on Earth, large regions of Mars are much colder, well below carbon dioxide's freezing point. With Mars' mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere, dry ice there is both naturally occurring, (meaning it would not have to be shipped to Mars from Earth), and in huge supply. Dr. Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar, another co-author of the paper on the Northumbrian team's research, explains: "Carbon dioxide plays a similar role on Mars as water does on Earth. It is a widely available resource which undergoes cyclic phase changes under the natural Martian temperature variations." Mars' north pole, which has a diameter of about 620 miles, seasonally develops a layer of dry ice that is about three feet thick. On Mars' south pole, which is about 220 miles across, there is a permanent layer of dry ice layer that is over 26 feet thick. With a system of Leidenfrost-based generators, these polar dry-ice deposits could become the Martian equivalent of Earth's Middle-east oil fields. "Perhaps future power stations on Mars will exploit such a resource to harvest energy as dry blocks evaporate," Dr. Ledesma-Aguilaror postulates, "to channel the chemical energy extracted from other carbon-based sources, such as methane gas." "One thing is certain," Ledesma-Aguilaror concludes, "our future on other planets depends on our ability to adapt our knowledge to the constraints imposed by strange worlds, and to devise creative ways to exploit natural resources that do not naturally occur here on Earth." Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-breakthrough-energy-harvesting-power-life.html

It is understood that Mars was probably once a water hole with tons of rivers and streams of running water, but after its atmosphere thinned out and its magnetic field weakened, there wasn’t much protection anymore to keep the Sun’s wrath from eventually drying the planet out. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona On the other hand, despite the times when Mars was probably a wet place, astronomers are now stumped to find evidence that there was running liquid water on the planet much later than originally thought possible. In fact, it was there perhaps up to 1 billion years following the mass dry out of the planet. Scientists came to this conclusion after studying data collected by the Context Camera and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Of course, just to keep things consistent, they also used data collected by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. The researchers’ findings are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Planets. With all of this technology at their disposal, and tons of data to look at, they had found traces of valleys that likely allowed flowing water to travel, as well as evidence of over-flowing. "We discovered valleys that carried water into lake basins," said Sharon Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. "Several lake basins filled and overflowed, indicating there was a considerable amount of water on the landscape during this time." "One of the lakes in this region was comparable in volume to Lake Tahoe," Wilson continued. "This particular Martian lake was fed by an inlet valley on its southern edge and overflowed along its northern margin, carrying water downstream into a very large, water-filled basin we nicknamed 'Heart Lake.'" Making the discovery even more awe-inspiring, the team also found that some of the bodies of water may have even dwarfed some of North America’s Great Lakes in size. Up to 670 cubic miles of water may have existed inside of Mars’ Heart Lake at one point in the red planet’s history. This kind of stuff is important to wrap our minds around because it offers a viewing window into Mars’ past that could help us understand how the planet went from being almost as wet as Earth to becoming a very arid place. Water is one of the essential building-blocks of life, and as a result, it's one of the first things we look for when we're searching for other life forms in our Solar System. Source: NASA

The European and Russian space agencies launched the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter back in 2016, and after a long journey and a slew of minor adjustments to get the spacecraft where it needed to be, it now seems that it’s almost ready to commence scientific operations. Image Credit: ESA “This is a major milestone for our ExoMars program and a fantastic achievement for Europe,” said Pia Mitschdoerfer, the Trace Gas Orbiter mission manager. “We have reached this orbit for the first time through aerobraking and with the heaviest orbiter ever sent to the Red Planet, ready to start searching for signs of life from orbit.” Related: NASA's getting excited about its upcoming InSight mission Mission engineers exploited a technique called ‘aerobreaking,’ in which the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter slowed its initial trajectory and eased its way into the proper orbital path around Mars. This technique involves the use of the spacecraft’s solar wings to produce drag as it enters the planet’s upper-atmosphere for orbital insertion. In its current position, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter tracks a near-circular path about 400 km above Mars’ surface and completes a full orbit once every two hours. “We will start our science mission in just a couple of weeks and are extremely excited about what the first measurements will reveal,” added Håkan Svedhem, the Trace Gas Orbiter’s project scientist. “We have the sensitivity to detect rare gases in minute proportions, with the potential to discover if Mars is still active today – biologically or geologically speaking.” Related: Two potential landing sites for the ExoMars 2020 rover After some initial equipment calibration and software configuration, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will begin sampling Mars’ upper atmosphere so that scientists can study its unique chemical composition. Of particular interest are gasses that suggest potential biological or geological activity, such as methane. There probably won’t be vast quantities of the stuff, but the Trace Gas Orbiter has incredibly sensitive equipment that can detect even the smallest amounts. That said, it has the potential to advance our understanding of Mars and whether it may have been habitable at one time. Without a doubt, it’ll be interesting to see what scientists learn after the ExoMars mission begins collecting information. Source: ESA

Just last month, the European Space Agency attempted to land the Schiaparelli lander on the Martian surface from the Trace Gas Orbiter, which is already orbiting the red planet days prior. Although the Trace Gas Orbiter made it there safely, Schiaparelli didn’t land on the red planet as smoothly as expected. Instead, the rockets that were supposed to help it land softly on the red planet’s surface stopped burning too soon and the lander made a crash landing. A few days after the event, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reportedly snapped black and white photographs of the crash site. A little black speck could be made out on the surface of Mars that wasn’t there prior to the event. Now, scientists are able to get a closer look. Thanks to new color photographs taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona; Business Insider The photographs show some interesting things, such as how the spent parachute reportedly shifted positions, highlighting how the red planet has winds, the same effect that was observed when the Curiosity rover landed on the Martian surface in 2012. Three individual debris spots are observed as a result of the failed Schiaparelli mission, including: 1) the crash site for the lander itself, 2) the spot where the parachute and rear heat shield landed, and 3) the area where the front heat shield touched down. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona The image of the front heat shield is in black and white, unlike the others. Because investigations are ongoing, more images and explanations into the events that occurred are expected to surface in the near future. The space agency still wants to know more about why the problem occurred and what can be done to improve landing efforts in the future. Importantly, the Schiaparelli mission was only part one of a two-part mission. The next deals with putting another rover on the red planet by 2020, which will be called the Mars 2020 rover. It will be the most advanced Martian rover to date, helping scientists in their search for extraterrestrial life and learning more about the red planet’s conditions so that we can be prepared for eventually sending astronauts there to live. We absolutely don’t want to see this tragedy happen again when the Mars 2020 rover makes it to the red planet. Source: Business Insider

One of the major reasons why Mars is such a popular object to study in our Solar System is because scientists believe that it may have looked much different millions of years ago. There exists evidence that Mars may have once been similar to Earth, with oceans, lakes, and rivers galore. How then did Mars become this barren, dry wasteland? Global warming and climate change. If scientists can understand how the climate of Mars evolved and changed, then maybe they can prevent a similar future on Earth. Scientists led by a team at the University of Houston are studying the traces of climate change that occurred on Mars long ago to help other scientists understand climate issues on Earth. The team presented a global picture of the climate of Mars in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Making use of observations from Martian satellites, landers, and rovers (e.g., NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, Curiosity Rover, and InSight), the team estimated the emitted energy of Mars as a function of season. They found that the radiant energy budget – the measure of solar energy a planet takes in from the Sun and then releases as heat – is imbalanced, and varies diurnally and seasonally. The radiant energy budget is a fundamental metric of a planet and could play an important role in understanding the climate and atmosphere of Mars. Current climate models assume that Mars’ radiant energy is balanced between seasons, meaning that any conclusions derived from these models are incorrect. The team found a strong energy imbalance – more energy is being absorbed by the planet than is being produced by the planet – of approximately 15.3% between seasons. This is much larger than the energy imbalance of other worlds (e.g., Earth – 0.4% or Titan – 2.9%). Our home, the Earth, has an almost circular orbit around the Sun, which means the Earth is almost exactly the same distance from the Sun at all times of the year. Unlike Earth, Mars has an extremely elliptical orbit, and also unlike Earth, Mars does not have much of an atmosphere. These two factors make Mars susceptible to extreme temperature variations. The “seasons” of Mars occur when it is closer and further from the Sun – meaning the reasons for the “seasons” on Mars are much different than the reasons for seasons on Earth. When Mars gets closer to the Sun, it absorbs extreme amounts of heat – or energy – from the Sun, and when Mars gets further from the Sun in its orbit, it absorbs less heat. The times when Mars is closer to the Sun also happens to be when global dust storms occur on its surface. The team believes that the seasonal energy imbalances are the driving forces behind these global dust storms. During a global dust storm in 2001, the global-average emitted power decreased by 22% during the daytime, and increased 29% during the nighttime. Perhaps the energy went into generating the global dust storms that plague Mars! These results, in combination with numerical global climate models, could help to improve our current understanding of the Martian climate and atmosphere. Additionally, understanding the driving forces behind Martian dust storms could help climate scientists understand what causes severe storms – a sign of climate change – on Earth. So, perhaps lessons from the history and evolution of the climate of Mars can help us solve our own climate troubles on Earth. Sources: University of Houston, Universities Space Research Association

NASA apparently had some technical difficulties with the Mars Curiosity Rover over the 4th of July weekend. The debacle all began on July 2nd. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS While the rover was supposed to be doing its thing and crawling around our solar system’s red planet, it was instead experiencing a software glitch that put the rover into a type of ‘precautionary safe mode,’ which meant that it was operating as it should have been. This isn’t the first time this has happened; the space agency notes that this has happened another three times in the past, all occurring in the year 2013. It hasn’t happened again, until now. NASA is reportedly just now getting back in touch with Curiosity. The rover is currently communicating with engineers once again, but it’s still not operating at peak performance just yet. While there is no known absolute cause for the computer glitch so far, some preliminary data that NASA pulled from the rover suggests that a mismatch between the camera software and data processing software may be to blame. Engineers are currently still downloading and processing diagnostic information during the communication, and hope to soon have Curiosity rolling on all wheels again. Although the rover itself is built like a tank, it uses software to process the information it receives, and then that information gets beamed back to Earth for us to observe. Software can, of course, have bugs in it, as it’s made by imperfect humans. The Mars Curiosity Rover is one of the projects that NASA recently requested an extension to. Starting this October, Curiosity will continue to roam Mars for an additional two years past its original expiration date so that NASA can learn more about the planet. Learning as much about Mars as possible is important if we are ever to get mankind to step foot on Martian soil, a goal that NASA and SpaceX both share a common goal on. It’s hoped to come true within just a few more decades. Source: NASA via Gizmodo

One of the trickiest parts of sending astronauts to the Moon or Mars in the long-term is figuring out how and where they'll live. Both environments are hostile because cosmic radiation constantly bombards them, so protection of some kind is crucial to ensure their safety. While some have suggested building ice dome habitats to shield inhabitants from cosmic radiation, another approach could be to utilize naturally-occurring underground cave-like conduits that once channeled molten rock during volcanic activity, known as lava tubes. Image Credit: ESA/L. Ricci The thick, rocky walls of these lava tubes would guard astronauts against cosmic radiation on the surface, and scientists also think they could be large enough to support an entire town’s worth of people. Lava tubes exist on our planet too, so scientists don't have to go to other worlds to study them. On the other hand, lava tubes might be much larger on the Moon and Mars because of the differences in gravity. “The comparison of terrestrial, lunar and Martian examples shows that, as you might expect, gravity has a big effect on the size of lava tubes,” said Dr. Riccardo Pozzobon from the University of Padova. “On Earth, they can be up to thirty meters across. In the lower gravity environment of Mars, we see evidence for lava tubes that are 250 meters in width. On the moon, these tunnels could be a kilometer or more across and many hundreds of kilometers in length." Related: What happened to Mars' atmosphere? Locating lava tubes on the Moon or Mars can be tricky business with current methods. Planetary scientists often discover them after they’ve already collapsed, but a fallen lava tube system would be worthless to astronauts. Instead, we need to find structurally-sound lava tube systems if they’re to be of any use to us, and the only way to do that is to probe the ground. Ground-penetrating radar systems mounted onboard orbiting satellites could help; they would enable scientists to map underground lava tube systems and learn more about their composition and size. Both are important factors to consider if we ever want to conclude whether lava tubes could make viable habitats for human explorers. “These results have important implications for habitability and human exploration of the moon but also for the search of extraterrestrial life on Mars,” Pozzobon continued. “Lava tubes are environments shielded from cosmic radiation and protected from micrometeorites flux, potentially providing safe habitats for future human missions. They are also, potentially, large enough for quite significant human settlements – you could fit most of the historic city center of Riga into a lunar lava tube.” Related: Here's why Mars is dry and lifeless today As it would seem, lava tubes may prove useful in keeping interplanetary explorers safe from cosmic radiation. On the other hand, they're still going to need life support and resource-gathering systems to survive the extended mission. Figuring out how to integrate everything seamlessly remains the greatest challenge of all. Given all the possibilities and speculation, it should be interesting to see just how space agencies will move forward with sending astronauts to other words. After all, SpaceX seems confident that we’ll be able to do it by 2024. Source: Phys.org