SpaceX is reportedly in the middle of testing a new type of engine rocket that could be utilized for Martian travel. As we know, SpaceX shares a common goal with NASA of putting astronauts on Mars in the next few decades. Image Credit: SpaceX Dubbed the Raptor, these new engines are compact and powerful and should pack enough juice to help out in future missions of putting mankind and supplies on the red planet in our Solar System. Raptor engines will feature methane and liquid oxygen-based fuel sources and should have up to three times the thrust of current engines that are pushing the company’s Falcon 9 rockets into space. With one Raptor engine having approximately the same amount of thrust as one of NASA’s Space Shuttle mission engines, SpaceX’s new engines can be used in an array of up to nine to generate thrust far more powerful than the Space Shuttle engines ever produced. Although SpaceX’s weaker Merlin engines will continue to power the Falcon 9 rocket for space missions, and even the upcoming Falcon Heavy for transportation missions, the newer Raptor engines are expected to power a new class of rocket that will be nicknamed Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). With the BFR and the Raptor engines that get built into it, SpaceX intends to create a spacecraft known as the Mars Colonial Transporter that can be used to transport astronauts and supplies to the red planet from Earth. One of the biggest problems we have in space travel today is limiting our supplies in launches because if we tried to take everything we wanted into space at one time, the rocket wouldn’t have enough power to leave the ground. Because so much thrust can be achieved with a Raptor engine array, space agencies will have what they need to pack all of their supplies and astronauts into the spacecraft and still be able to achieve launch from the ground to get them where they need to go. So far, SpaceX hasn’t been very open about their new Raptor engines, so the details aren’t very public at this point in time. What we do know is that SpaceX is working on them and they are a next-generation engine. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has only mentioned and talked about the Raptor engines a few times in interviews. In other news, SpaceX successfully landed another Falcon 9 rocket over the weekend after completing the primary mission of putting a Japanese telecommunications satellite into space. Source: Ars Technica, SpaceX

Mars has quickly become a place of interest in our solar system. Humankind has already sent a bevy of landers, orbiters, and rovers exploring the planet's surface, but it may finally be time to take the next significant step in planetary research: sample return. Indeed, planetary scientists on Earth are foaming at the mouth for genuine Martian surface samples, and a future NASA mission could realize this plan and push Mars-centric research forward. NASA's Mars 2020 rover will include a state-of-the-art sample collection system, but it will leave any samples it collects on the Martian surface until we're ready to grab them. Then again, when will that be? A good question. NASA has a few ideas encompassing how we might be able to recover these samples, but most are still imaginative at this point. This video goes over some of the multi-stage systems that have been conceptualized.

Because Mars is a big area of interest right now, especially with NASA and SpaceX wanting to send people to the red planet within the next couple of decades, you can bet we’re performing experiments in space to see just how habitable the red planet really is; can it support life? An experiment recently took place on board the International Space Station, which involved attaching a special atmosphere controlled experimentation platform to the outside of the space station, made by the European Space Agency, to simulate the Martian atmosphere. Inside of the experimentation platform, which was called the EXPOSE-E, were samples of fungi and lichens that were collected from rocks in Antarctica from Earth. The goal of the experiment was to see how well these fungi and lichen species could survive in the Martian conditions. The inside of the module had an atmosphere that was 95% carbon dioxide, 1.6% argon, 0.15% oxygen, 2.7% nitrogen, and 370 parts per million of water at a pressure of 1000 pascals. To further simulate the Martian environment, ultraviolet radiation was controlled to simulate radiation from the Sun since Mars has a significantly weaker magnetic field than the Earth does. The fungi and lichens stayed inside of this controlled Martian-like environment for 18 months before scientists decided to look at the results. Interestingly, the fungi and lichens had performed significantly well in the Martian-like environment, despite the doubts the researchers had. The findings are published in the journal Astrobiology. “The most relevant outcome was that more than 60% of the cells of the endolithic communities studied remained intact after ‘exposure to Mars’, or rather, the stability of their cellular DNA was still high,” highlights Rosa de la Torre Noetzel from Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), co-researcher on the project. Although 60% doesn’t seem like a high amount, it is when you consider living for a year and a half in conditions very different from here on Earth, where the air you rely on is significantly different, along with protection from radiation. The new data gives scientists a better understanding of the long-term side effects of the Martian environment on life, and raises more questions as to how the Martian environment may impact other life forms. This type of testing can also be used to invent technologies to help the life forms better survive in these conditions. Source: SINC

When NASA’s Mars 2020 rover finally makes it to Mars, it’ll be tasked with more than just moving around on the red planet’s surface like other rovers before it. The space agency plans to augment the rover’s ground-based exploration with the help of aerial surveys, which will be conducted by way of a miniature helicopter that will hitch a ride with the Mars 2020 rover. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Mars’ atmosphere and climate are much different than what we’re accustomed to here on Earth. NASA approximates that the red planet’s atmosphere is only 1% the density of ours. Furthermore, Mars' temperatures sometimes dip to minus 130º Fahrenheit (-90º Celsius). Given the circumstances, NASA couldn’t just pack any small helicopter into the Mars 2020 package and call it good; instead, doing so necessitates strenuous testing in the lab to ensure that such a flying machine can handle Mars’ adverse environmental conditions. To do this, NASA engineers conducted test flights with an engineering model of their Mars 2020 helicopter inside of a specially-designed vacuum chamber that measures 25 feet (7.62 meters) wide. The chamber then sucked out all the nitrogen, oxygen, and other gasses, and replaced it with carbon dioxide to simulate Mars’ thin atmosphere. But there was another factor that needed to be considered: Mars’ weaker gravitational footprint. "Getting our helicopter into an extremely thin atmosphere is only part of the challenge," elucidated Teddy Tzanetos, one of the test conductors that helped with the Mars helicopter concept validation. "To truly simulate flying on Mars we have to take away two-thirds of Earth's gravity because Mars' gravity is that much weaker." Related: Learn about the advanced technologies that are being packed into the Mars 2020 rover To help simulate the weak gravity, the engineers attached a motorized lanyard to the top of the helicopter to impose a constant tug on the vehicle and work as a gravity offload mechanism. Upon firing everything up for the first time, the helicopter successfully hovered two inches above the ground without interruptions for at least one full minute. "The gravity offload system performed perfectly, just like our helicopter," Tzanetos said. "We only required a 2-inch (5-centimeter) hover to obtain all the data sets needed to confirm that our Mars helicopter flies autonomously as designed in a thin Mars-like atmosphere; there was no need to go higher. It was a heck of a first flight." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Related: NASA's Mars 2020 rover will sport 20/20 vision The testing appeared to go off without a hitch, and this is exciting news because it means that the Mars helicopter concept has been validated and can be used to explore the Martian surface when the Mars 2020 rover arrives at its destination in February 2021. When the helicopter is deployed on Mars, it will spend up to 90 seconds in the air, surveying the rover’s immediate surroundings and acting as a guide to help NASA choose where the rover should go next after each pit stop. Source: NASA

While several unanswered questions regarding Mars remain today, we could uncover many answers that we seek by studying the red planet’s moons: Deimos and Phobos. As of today, humankind has very little understanding of how Mars’ moons came into existence. On the other hand, an upcoming JAXA-led mission dubbed Mars Moons eXploration (MMX) is bringing international scientists together with one goal in mind. Image Credit: JAXA/NASA MMX is both study both Deimos and Phobos with its onboard instruments, but it could also return some of the first samples of Phobos to Earth for scientific analysis. Helping to push the mission along, a formal announcement from NASA reveals that the United States-based space agency selected one of seven instruments that will travel into space with the probe when it launches in 2024. NASA calls the selected instrument "MEGANE," which stands for “eyeglasses” in Japanese (a fitting term given the spacecraft’s origin and purpose). MEGANE, which is coming together under NASA's Discovery Progam, will be a neutron and gamma-ray spectrograph intended to help space scientists snag a more detailed look at Phobos’ elemental composition. Several theories exist concerning how Mars’ moons formed, but hopes are high that MEGANE could help us set our theories aside and legitimately answer the question, once and for all. “With MMX, we hope to understand the origin of the moons of Mars,” said Masaki Fujimoto of JAXA’s Institute of Space and Aeronautical Sciences. “They may have formed as the result of a large impact on Mars, or they may be captured asteroids of a sort that may have brought a great deal of water to both Mars and Earth.” Related: Will Mars one day have rings just like Jupiter? If the MEGANE announcement wasn’t exciting enough, then hold onto your chairs. MMX could also return some of the first physical samples of Phobos to Earth by 2029. While we’ve brought rocks back from our own Moon before, this would be a first with one of Mars’ moons. It should be interesting to see how the MMX mission will pan out, especially given the times. Learning as much about Mars and its moons as possible could prove critical as NASA and SpaceX inch closer to sending some of the first human explorers there in coming decades. Source: NASA

Single-celled microbes that live beneath the floor of the ocean have provided insight into how scientists might be able to find life on Mars. Scientists examined solid volcanic rocks for many years, finally finding a way to reveal the marine bacteria in tiny cracks in the rock. These cracks are thought to host a dense community of bacteria, just as the human gut does; they may contain as many as ten billion bacterial cells in a cubic centimeter. The seafloor itself, by contrast, contains about 100 cells in a cubic centimeter. The work has been reported in Communications Biology. "I am now almost over-expecting that I can find life on Mars. If not, it must be that life relies on some other process that Mars does not have, like plate tectonics," said the first author of the study, Associate Professor Yohey Suzuki from the University of Tokyo. "I thought it was a dream, seeing such rich microbial life in rocks." Lava is ejected from undersea volcanoes at about 1,200 degrees Celsius, and eventually becomes solid rock, cracking the process. The width of these minuscule cracks is often under one millimeter, and over time, they fill with clay minerals and bacteria, which multiply there. "These cracks are a very friendly place for life. Clay minerals are like a magic material on Earth; if you can find clay minerals, you can almost always find microbes living in them," explained Suzuki. "Honestly, it was a very unexpected discovery. I was very lucky, because I almost gave up," said Suzuki. Samples were collected from three locations in late 2010 during a sea voyage from Tahiti to Auckland, New Zealand. A 5.7 kilometer tube was used to reach the ocean floor and drill 125 meters through mud and then rock, and a sample was then gathered. The three samples had different ages, either 13.5, 22.5, or 104 million years old, depending on where they were taken. They were sterilized to prevent surface contamination. It took several years for Suzuki to find a way to analyze only the bacteria in the cracks; he did so by embedding them in epoxy and slicing off layers. These were then stained and viewed under a microscope. The bacterial DNA could be seen in tunnels in the rock, which contains life-sustaining minerals. A genomic analysis of the bacterial DNA revealed several species. The bacteria in the different samples were not the same but were similar species. The researchers suggested that the cracks concentrate the minerals in the clay, enabling dense bacterial growth. They also hypothesized that the minerals in these cracks is similar to what would be found now on Mars. "Minerals are like a fingerprint for what conditions were present when the clay formed. Neutral to slightly alkaline levels, low temperature, moderate salinity, iron-rich environment, basalt rock -- all of these conditions are shared between the deep ocean and the surface of Mars," said Suzuki. Suzuki and collaborators are now working with NASA to study martian rocks that were collected by rovers. "This discovery of life where no one expected it in solid rock below the seafloor may be changing the game for the search for life in space," said Suzuki. Watch a video about the work above, and click on settings (bottom right) to turn on auto-translated closed captions. Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via University of Tokyo, Communications Biology

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander touched down on the Martian surface less than three months ago, and it has already realized a plethora of essential milestones. The deployment of the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument for marsquake detection was one, and the placement of a complementary heat shield to protect it from the elements was another. On the other hand, the InSight mission is comprised of many analytical instruments; not just a seismometer. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech As some might recall, it was just shortly after InSight made its landing that NASA received signals from it that could only be described as the sound of Martian wind. While some of that information came by way of InSight’s SEIS instrument, the bulk came from InSight’s integrated air pressure sensor, which is just one of the mission’s supplementary devices encompassed by the Auxiliary Payload Subsystem (APSS). Related: Everything InSight has accomplished thus far since landing on Mars InSight’s APSS sensor suite is responsible for reporting Martian weather conditions to NASA such that scientists can filter “sources of noise” that would otherwise sully vital information recorded by InSight’s other instruments. For example, wind can generate vibrations that can throw off seismometer-centric marsquake detections, and changes in surface temperature can throw off readings apprehended by InSight’s heat flow probe. Although meteorology wasn’t the primary purpose of the InSight lander’s APSS sensor suite, that hasn’t stopped NASA from going above and beyond initial intentions to make the mission more fun for everyone. Starting Tuesday, avid NASA fans can visit a new web page on the space agency’s website to see a daily weather report encompassing Mars’ weather conditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mars is a chilly place. APSS reported a high of 2° Fahrenheit on Sunday, February 17th, with an average temperature of -78° and a low of -138°. The data also shows that wind gusts peaked at 37.8 miles per hour, with an average speed of 12 miles per hour and a minimum speed of 1.1 miles per hour. The data records go as far back as Monday, February 11th. "It gives you the sense of visiting an alien place. Mars has familiar atmospheric phenomena that are still quite different than those on Earth," explained InSight weather science lead, Don Banfield. "APSS will help us filter out environmental noise in the seismic data and know when we're seeing a marsquake and when we aren't. By operating continuously, we'll also see a more detailed view of the weather than most surface missions, which usually collect data only intermittently throughout a sol." Related: NASA officially terminates the Opportunity mission Following extraplanetary weather conditions might not be everybody’s forte, but it’s still neat to see NASA publishing this information for the general public to see rather than keeping everything to themselves. Source: NASA, Mars Weather

Dust storms aren’t particularly pleasant, but you should consider yourself lucky if you ever get to experience one. Planetary scientists have long believed that Earth and Mars were the only planetary bodies in our stellar neighborhood where dust storms could occur, but new evidence captured by NASA’s retired Cassini mission suggests otherwise. Image Credit: IPGP/Labex UnivEarthS/University Paris Diderot – C. Epitalon & S. Rodriguez As it would seem, researchers have discovered evidence for dust storms on Saturn’s moon Titan for the first time, making Titan the third-known planetary body in our solar system capable of exhibiting this kind of behavior. The findings appear this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Titan is a very active moon," explained study lead author Sebastien Rodriguez from the Université Paris Diderot in France. "We already know that about its geology and exotic hydrocarbon cycle. Now we can add another analogy with Earth and Mars: the active dust cycle, in which organic dust can be raised from large dune fields around Titan's equator." Related: This ice cloud on Titan theoretically shouldn't even exist Titan has long captivated astronomers’ interest because of how consistent it is with the habitable characteristics we often search for when probing for life elsewhere in the solar system. It is the only moon in the solar system with a rich Earth-like atmosphere, it supports seasonal weather changes, and it’s the only other known body besides Earth where vast liquid oceans are thought to reside on the surface. Titan’s oceans aren’t liquid water like Earth’s, however; scientists instead believe they’re comprised of chilly liquid methane. Nevertheless, it’s always possible that they could support life, and that’s what makes Titan so fascinating. But now that we know Titan exhibits dust storms just like Earth and Mars, we’re one step closer to validating the moon’s similarities with terrestrial planets like our own. Still, that’s not saying much, as we have yet to explore the alien world in person. The researchers originally wrote the dusty structures off as methane clouds, but upon analyzing their chemical signatures more closely with Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, it became evident that this wasn’t the case. They also discerned the vastness of the dust storms, and how they existed in the moon’s atmosphere rather than directly on the surface; this indicates that Titan generates some hefty windspeeds. "From what we know about cloud formation on Titan, we can say that such methane clouds in this area and in this time of the year are not physically possible," Rodriguez added. "The convective methane clouds that can develop in this area and during this period of time would contain huge droplets and must be at a very high altitude -- much higher than the 6 miles that modeling tells us the new features are located." Related: Could humans survive on Titan? While interesting indeed, researchers still have a long way to go if we’re to understand these dust storms and what they mean for Titan. It should be interesting to see what future studies reveal about this mysterious world. Source: NASA, Nature Geoscience

In a recent study published in Materials Today Bio, an international team of researchers led by the University of California, Irvine (UCI) analyzed how microbes could help future Moon and Mars astronauts in the construction of settlements on those respective celestial bodies. This study holds the potential to use microorganisms in civil engineering projects in extreme environments, such as 3D printing or additive manufacturing. The researchers came up with this study after being intrigued by the biological processes of cyanobacteria in Chile’s Atacama Desert, specifically pertaining to the way the microorganism acquires nutrients from rocks. Using high-resolution electron microscopy and advanced spectroscopic imaging methods, the researchers were able to examine how microorganisms changed naturally occurring minerals and nanoceramics, the latter of which is synthetically made. The researchers became particularly interested in the biofilms that cyanobacteria produce, which break apart magnetic iron oxide within gypsum rocks. The findings could allow a new path towards biomimetic mining methods. "Through a biological process that has evolved over millions of years, these tiny miners excavate rocks, extracting the minerals that are essential to the physiological functions, such as photosynthesis, that enable their survival," said Dr. David Kisailus, a UCI professor of materials science and engineering, and a co-author on the study. "Could humans use a similar biochemical approach to obtain and manipulate the minerals that we find valuable? This project has led us down that pathway." Dr. Kisailus went as far as saying such biological processes could be used to create engineered material right away in sub-convenient locations. "I call it 'lunar forming' instead of terraforming," Kisailus said. "If you want to build something on the moon, instead of going through the expense of having people do it, we could have robotic systems 3D-print media and then have the microbes reconfigure it into something of value. This could be done without endangering human lives." Sources: Materials Today Bio As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

We should all know by now that NASA has an interest in putting people on the Moon to settle there permanently some time in the next few decades. The United States-based space agency already revealed that they have the desire to do so earlier this year, and that they would be focusing a lot of modern research on learning about deep space travel and habitation. NASA still has a lot to learn, and there are a lot of unanswered questions about what kind of habitat astronauts would live in while on Mars, and what it would take to survive the long journey. Astronauts will need a living space larger than just that of what a small rocket can carry. Even the International Space Station, which is actually quite large, had to be assembled in space from multiple rocket launches, and it’s expected that such a Martian habitat would be no different because those inhabiting the Martian habitat would need enough space to actually live in. Since there are so many unanswered questions on this front, NASA is being told by Congress to start figuring things out in an Omnibus spending bill that was passed just this month. Congress wants NASA to use at least $55 million to develop a prototype for a portable Martian habitation module by 2018 that could be placed on the Martian surface and then lived in by astronauts. Even though it would require a lot of money to build this, it would still just be a prototype, and it wouldn’t be the finished product that NASA wants to launch some time in the next few decades. Nonetheless, it will help the space agency to prepare some ideas for the future in the mean time and help get this mission moving. There are some challenges that have to be met to get a prototype built, and one of the most important is that the space agency doesn’t even know what something of this scale would even look like just yet. Moreover, it has to be lightweight enough to carry on a rocket (or rockets) and needs to still be protective enough for humans to live inside of in a non-Earthly environment. There’s no better time than sooner to start getting ducks in a row before those next few decades where NASA will want to actually move forward with this endeavor inch closer to reality. Source: Congress via Space News

Earlier in the month, NASA revealed publicly the agency’s plans to try and send humans into deep space missions where they would be able to permanently settle on other planets. The plans specifically detailed Mars as a location of interest, and NASA wants it to happen within the next few decades. Getting everything approved by the government is the big deal-breaker. NASA will have to acquire sufficient funding to make it happen, and there are a lot of permits and safety expectations that need to be met before NASA can even think about putting people on another planet to live. Fortunately, NASA has announced this week that it’s one step closer to making everything happen. The agency’s space launch system (SLS) rocket, the most powerful rocket ever made, has passed critical design review (CDR) that took place in July of this year, and NASA says that the components of the rocket are already in the midst of being manufactured. “We’ve nailed down the design of SLS, we’ve successfully completed the first round of testing of the rocket’s engines and boosters, and all the major components for the first flight are now in production,” said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Division. “There have been challenges, and there will be more ahead, but this review gives us confidence that we are on the right track for the first flight of SLS and using it to extend permanent human presence into deep space.” This is a particularly big step in the right direction for NASA because this is the first time in more than 40 years that a NASA-branded “human-rated” rocket has made it through CDR. The new rocket will be built in three configurations, one after another, and will be used for taking astronauts out of Earth’s orbit and into deep space. The first Block 1 configuration will offer 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability, while the second Block 1B will offer 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity, and the final Block 2 will offer 130-metric-ton (143-ton) lift capacity. “This is a major step in the design and readiness of SLS,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager. “Our team has worked extremely hard, and we are moving forward with building this rocket. We are qualifying hardware, building structural test articles, and making real progress.” NASA would first like to use the rocket to send astronauts to the Moon once again by around 2020, and this should provide NASA with the necessary benchmarks and information it needs to calculate the plans for going to Mars. NASA will start with the first configuration, and will continue to upgrade it as future missions require. There are still more certifications that have to take place before the rocket is ready. Those include a design certification in 2017 after the manufacturing and assembly of the rocket is complete, then in 2018, a flight-readiness certification will take place to ensure that the rocket is safe and free from life-threating flaws. Although we won’t be out of the Earth’s orbit still for quite a while, this is a huge step forward in the realm of space exploration that will help set in stone the plans to send astronauts to another planet. Source: NASA

What little kid hasn't dreamed of being an astronaut? Well, now someone's dream is going to come true. NASA announced they will be recruiting another class of astronauts and applications are open. Currently there are 47 active astronauts in the space program, but with the push to go to Mars, more are going to be needed. The last class of astronauts was selected in 2013 so it's definitely time to find some new blood. More human spacecraft are being produced than ever before and will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Missions will include those in deep space, the International Space Station and yes, onward to Mars. Get those applications in!

While we know a lot about the inside of the Earth, we can't really say the same about Mars. NASA hopes to change that with its InSight mission, which will carefully probe Mars' inner layers to learn more about what's happening beneath the surface. The InSight lander will investigate three significant factors concerning the red planet, including seismic activity, inner-layer temperature, and orbital wobble. Seismic activity will help us learn whether Mars is tectonically-active like Earth. The temperature will give us clues about how much heat is flowing from the planet's core. And lastly, the orbital wobble will teach us more about the planet's orbital rhythm. We still have several more weeks to go before InSight launches from the Californian coast, but it won't be long after the probe arrives at Mars before it unveils some of the planet's hidden secrets.

Mars was once a planet with oceans of water. So what happened to all of it? Researchers used a tool called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) to learn more. The NASA instrument revealed that when water vapor forms near the Martian surface, it gets sent high up into the atmosphere, where it reaches charged particles called ions that destroy it, and the remnants are lost to space. The findings have been reported in Science. This phenomenon is one of several that have led to the loss of an ocean full of water from Mars over the course of billions of years. Mars even continues to lose what little water it still has in this way, as water vapor sublimates from the polar ice caps during the planet’s warmer periods, noted the researchers. "We were all surprised to find water so high in the atmosphere," said Shane W. Stone, a doctoral student in planetary science at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "The measurements we used could have only come from MAVEN as it soars through the atmosphere of Mars, high above the planet's surface." In this work, the researchers used data collected by a mass spectrometer on MAVEN, which enabled them to separate and identify different ions from the Martian atmosphere. The team observed as water ions were lost from a site that is closest to the sun during the Martian summer, about 93 miles above the surface of Mars over a two year period. The warm temperatures and high winds that also occur at this time and place encourage the water vapor to get swept into the atmosphere. Ions there break the water molecules down into oxygen and hydrogen, which can then escape the atmosphere and go into space. It was once thought that water vapor on Mars behaved as it does on Earth and stays close to the surface. "Everything that makes it up to the higher part of the atmosphere is destroyed, on Mars or on Earth," Stone said, "because this is the part of the atmosphere that is exposed to the full force of the Sun." In June 2018, there was a strong dust storm on Mars that is thought to have caused the loss of as much water in 45 days as would’ve normally been lost over a year. "We have shown that dust storms interrupt the water cycle on Mars and push water molecules higher in the atmosphere, where chemical reactions can release their hydrogen atoms, which are then lost to space," said Paul Mahaffy, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard and principal investigator of MAVEN's Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS). While previous work has shown that dust storms on Mars push water vapor high into the atmosphere, researchers did not know it would reach the top, where water molecules can be broken down ten times faster than they are at lower heights. "What's unique about this discovery is that it provides us with a new pathway that we didn't think existed for water to escape the Martian environment," said Mehdi Benna, a Goddard planetary scientist and co-investigator of MAVEN's NGIMS instrument. "It will fundamentally change our estimates of how fast water is escaping today and how fast it escaped in the past." Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via NASA Goddard Institute, Science

NASA just released the first images and spectra of Mars taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The data was collected on September 5, 2022 and provides an unprecedented look at Mars given the infrared sensitivity of JWST. This data also complements data being collected by orbiters, rovers, and other telescopes. JWST can image the entire disk of Mars at one time and has the capability to capture images and spectra with the resolution that is needed to study short-term phenomena such as dust storms, weather patterns, seasonal changes, as well as processes that occur at different times in just a single observation (e.g., daytime, sunset, and nighttime). However, there are some challenges when it comes to observing Mars. Mars is so close, so it is extremely bright. JWST is built to observe extremely faint sources of light, so its instruments are very sensitive. The bright infrared light from Mars is blinding to JWST, and would cause its detectors to saturate. Therefore, astronomers need to use special observing techniques to observe Mars. To account for the brightness, the exposure times for the images must be extremely short. The analysis of the data required some special techniques as well. The first images of Mars were captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) at both 2.1 microns and 4.3 microns. The images below show regions of the planet’s eastern hemisphere; the two images from JWST are included on the right and a surface reference map from NASA and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) is included on the left, with overlays of the NIRCam instrument fields of view, corresponding to the images. The 2.1 micron image is dominated by reflected sunlight, and reveals surface details similar to the visible light image on the left. The 4.3 micron image shows thermal emission – or light that is given off by the planet as it loses heat – and is related to the temperature of the surface and the atmosphere. The brightest region is therefore where the Sun is almost directly overhead, since it is the warmest. However, temperature is not the only factor that affects the amount of light detected at this wavelength. We can also see how light is being absorbed by carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere, the impact of which is most obvious when looking towards Hellas Basin. The first near-infrared spectrum of Mars captured by JWST was taken with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). The spectrum below represents all the light from the planet as a whole. The spectrum itself is dominated by reflected sunlight at wavelengths shorter than 3 microns and thermal emission at longer wavelengths. Analysis of the features of the spectrum give astronomers information about the surface and atmosphere of the planet. The spectrum shows evidence of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water in the atmosphere of Mars. Information about the abundance of these molecules can be gleaned from the spectrum. In the future, astronomers will use data from JWST to explore regional differences across Mars, and will search for trace molecular species in the atmosphere, such as methane and hydrogen chloride. Source: The European Space Agency

In a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a pair of researchers examined topographic maps via Mars orbital images to determine that a large ancient ocean once existed in the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet billions of years ago in a region known as Aeolis Dorsa. This study holds the potential to help us better understand the evolution of Mars over time and was conducted using stereo-pair elevation models from the Context Camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. "What immediately comes to mind as one the most significant points here is that the existence of an ocean of this size means a higher potential for life," said Dr. Benjamin Cardenas, who is an assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State, and lead author of the study. "It also tells us about the ancient climate and its evolution. Based on these findings, we know there had to have been a period when it was warm enough and the atmosphere was thick enough to support this much liquid water at one time." For the study, the researchers used topographic data to illuminate a 3.5-billion-year-old, 900-meter-thick shoreline spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. What made this shoreline stand out was the large accumulation of sedimentary deposits, which only occur where water is/was present. "The big, novel thing that we did in this paper was think about Mars in terms of its stratigraphy and its sedimentary record," said Dr. Cardenas. "On Earth, we chart the history of waterways by looking at sediment that is deposited over time. We call that stratigraphy, the idea that water transports sediment and you can measure the changes on Earth by understanding the way that sediment piles up. That's what we've done here -- but it's Mars." There are multiple studies either already published or about to be published that examine Earth analogs of sedimentary deposits, along with up close deposits on Mars observed by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Sources: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

NASA’s upcoming Mars 2020 mission involves much more than just another land-based rover – it will also pioneer the very first powered flight on another planet besides Earth. The lucky air vehicle will be a tiny and lightweight autonomous helicopter-like drone that will buzz around in Mars’ atmosphere as it photographs the world beneath it. But it’s not as easy as it sounds… Mars’ atmosphere is incredibly thin, and so there’s less air there than there is here on Earth. With that in mind, the Mars 2020 air vehicle will need to spin its rotors between 2,300-2,900 RPM, or approximately five times that of a traditional helicopter here on Earth, to move enough air to stay in flight. While the air situation is a bit of a disadvantage for the Mars 2020 air vehicle, one thing it has going for it is that Mars has approximately 30% less gravitational influence than the Earth, which should make the aircraft lighter. The smaller weight footprint, paired with the faster rotor speed, should allow the vehicle to perform its job. You’ll notice that we call this the first ‘powered’ flight on another planet, and that’s because the Soviet Union performed an ‘unpowered’ flight with a pair of helium balloon spacecraft on Venus in 1985. Given the circumstances, there’s a lot of new technology going into this mission, and it’s certain to help us learn more about the red planet as we prepare to send the first human explorers in the next few decades.

In pushing the boundaries of space exploration and potentially colonization, we've heard extensively about Mars. But have you ever wondered why Venus, the planet often called Earth's twin, is never mentioned? Although nearly identical to Earth in size and composition, Venus has proven to be extremely harsh and inhospitable. A trip to Venus will only take about 100 days. But once there, you'll find a planet filled with poisonous sulfur dioxide constantly sweeping in 220-mph winds. Temperatures reach upwards of 800 degrees Fahrenheit; that's hot enough to melt lead. If you think night will bring some reprieve, think again - a single day can last over 116 Earth days. So, unlike the Roman goddess Venus love, the planet Venus is not so loving towards human visitation. Watch the video to learn more about why this planet is not on NASA's list of planets to send astronauts.

NASA's upcoming Mars InSight mission will explore the inner workings of Mars to give us a better understanding of what makes the red planet tick. InSight is set to launch from the West Coast of the United States in May, but before that happens, engineers are running some final tests to determine the best way to deploy the lander's myriad of probing tools. Inside of this controlled laboratory at JPL, NASA engineers simulate the Martian environment to see how InSight's equipment will perform when it eventually reaches the real Martian surface. Here, they can perfect deployment techniques and ensure reliability over the life of the machine as it sits on the red planet's surface. It's a 360º video, so you'll be able to pan around and explore the laboratory for yourself as the narrator explains what's happening.

It was a beautiful balloon that launched into the skies over Hawaii recently, carrying the LDSD, a flying saucer-like craft that NASA hopes to use as a Mars lander. Once the balloon carried the spacecraft high enough, onboard rockets kicked in so that it could rise further, stopping just shy of outer space. NASA had hoped to test the craft's landing parachute, designed to slow it down when or if the LDSD reached Mars. The disappointment could be heard in the groans and muttering of the engineers in the mission control room on the ground when the chute did not open as designed. The LDSD was the brought down into the Pacific Ocean. NASA officials have said they will try again next year, after examining the parachute failure and making necessary improvements.

2020 was expected to play host to a plethora of Martian missions, including the United States’ Mars 2020 rover, which was recently renamed to the Perseverance rover, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars mission, and China’s Huoxing-1 Mission for Mars. Unfortunately, one of the aforementioned missions won’t be meeting its planned deadline. We’re speaking of course about the ExoMars rover, a mission that is currently being built amid a joint collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency known as Roscosmos in an effort to learn more about the neighboring planet Mars and its potential habitability and/or its history of habitability. Image Credit: AirBus/ESA The ExoMars rover missions was initially planned to launch in July 2020, but a synopsis of the current to-do list revealed that this wouldn’t be possible. In an official public statement shared by the European Space Agency just this past week, we learn that additional time is needed to thoroughly test all the working components of the ExoMars rover before it will be ready to tackle Mars’ harsh environment. "We have made a difficult but well-weighed decision to postpone the launch to 2022," Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin explained in the statement. "It is driven primarily by the need to maximize the robustness of all ExoMars systems as well as force majeure circumstances related to exacerbation of the epidemiological situation in Europe which left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries. I am confident that the steps that we and our European colleagues are taking to ensure mission success will be justified and will unquestionably bring solely positive results for the mission implementation." Related: Just how much do you think you know about Mars? As it would seem, the postponement pushes the ExoMars rover launch all the way out to August-October 2022. The two-year wait is because of a special window of opportunity involving the placement of both Earth and Mars in their respective orbits around the Sun known as the Hohmann Transfer Orbit. In this instance, Earth and Mars are somewhat close to one another in their orbits, permitting cost and fuel savings upon payload deliverance. The primary drive behind the delayed launch is to avoid taking any chances and to ensure that the ExoMars mission delivers tangible results with as few mishaps as possible. "We want to make ourselves 100% sure of a successful mission. We cannot allow ourselves any margin of error. More verification activities will ensure a safe trip and the best scientific results on Mars,” added Jan Wörner, the European Space Agency’s Director General. Related: Will aerogel become a key component in helping us colonize Mars? It should be interesting to see if the ExoMars mission will be ready by the new planned launch date or if it will follow a similar path of endless delays as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope currently has. Only time will tell, of course. Source: ESA

In many science fiction films over the past few decades that deal with humans on Mars, such as “Red Planet”, “Mission To Mars”, and the soon to be released “The Martian”, dust storms on Mars are always a pivotal and horrifying plot elements. On the screen, we see them destroying vehicles, antenna arrays, even whole buildings. Certainly, from Earth, these storms look scary. Small ones occur often, and sometimes they grow to engulf the entire planet. But according to scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the makers of these science fiction films aren’t getting the science quite right. "Every year there are some moderately big dust storms that pop up on Mars,” says Michael Smith, a planetary scientist at Goddard, “and they cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks at a time. Once every three Mars years (about 5 ½ Earth years), on average, normal storms grow into planet-encircling dust storms, and we usually call those 'global dust storms' to distinguish them.” But when it comes to the idea that these storms could lift vehicles up in the air and destroy buildings, not to mention scrapping a mission and stranding an astronaut on Mars, as happens in “The Martain”, there are a couple of factors that film makers aren’t taking into account. One is wind speed. Even at their highest, wind speeds during Martian dust storms top out at around 60 miles per hour. That’s certainly a stiff breeze, but it’s not enough to destroy equipment. Even here on Earth, 60 miles an hour is less than half the speed of some hurricane-force winds. Another factor is wind on Mars and Wind on Earth are two totally different phenomena. Why? As William Farrell, no, not the actor, this William Farrell is a plasma physicist who studies atmospheric breakdown in Mars dust storms at Goddard, explains, "The key difference between Earth and Mars is that Mars' atmospheric pressure is a lot less. So things get blown, but it's not with the same intensity.” As is so often the case, the real science here is a bit more complex that the science that’s portrayed in science fiction. Martian dust storms do present a real threat to exploration of Mars, but it’s not from the dust sand-blasting its way through a space suit or from the wind tossing a habitat in the air. The big problem is the Martian dust itself. It’s not like dust here on Earth that would just get blown away by a light breeze. Martian dust particles are small and slightly electrostatic, so whatever they get on they stick to. "If you've seen pictures of Curiosity after driving,” Smith says, “it's just filthy. The dust coats everything and it's gritty; it gets into mechanical things that move, like gears.” Not to mention the fact that when solar panels are coated with this dust they produce much less electricity. If they’re coated with enough dust they don’t produce any electricity at all. Source: Phys.org

Come March 14th, 2016, Europe’s European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos will be working together launching their ExoMars mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ExoMars mission will involve sending a probe to Mars, where it will then hope to better understand the red planet’s chances of supporting life, as well as the geological conditions on the planet. Aboard the spacecraft is a special lander called Schiaparelli that will drop down to the planet of Mars and collect data, similarly to NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is currently sending selfies back to Earth every so often with a dramatic red backdrop that is Mars’ surface in addition to performing regular tests of the red planet. Moreover, this valuable information will help space agencies understand the feasibility of one day putting mankind on the red planet, which is ultimately a goal of NASA’s to complete in the next few decades. The ExoMars mission will involve looking for methane, a gas naturally produced by many forms of life. Although it can also be produced by other means, it’s typically a good indicator of life, hence its priority in the mission. In addition to searching for methane, the probe will even snap pictures and look for any abnormalities. This type of data should start reaching Earth by 2017. After this week’s launch, the probe will have a long journey to travel before it actually makes it to the red planet. Because Mars is so far away, the probe won’t make it to Mars until around October 19th of this year. It’s an important mission for the ESA and Roscomos because NASA has been the top dog in Martian exploration for years, and neighboring space agencies have some catching up to do. Source: New Scientist

On Monday, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos collaborated to launch the ExoMars mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which will help Europe and Russia to learn more about the unique qualities of the red planet. As the ESA noted in a press release just after the successful launch this week, this is the first of two missions that Europe and Russia will be collaborating on, and it will take seven months for the ExoMars mission to actually reach Mars due to the distance between Earth and Mars. ExoMars will be focusing on some unanswered questions that are important to better understand before any deep space travel missions with live astronauts could be carried out. Such things it will be focusing on are taking atmospheric samples and studying the possibility of existence of biological or geological activity. On board the rocket that launched earlier this week was a special orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter that will orbit the red planet to study its conditions, as well as a lander known as Schiaparelli. The orbiter is now on its way to Mars, carrying the Schiaparelli lander, and has its solar fins extended to collect energy from the Sun during its journey. It is expected to arrive on the 16th of October, where it will drop the lander onto the red planet three days later so it can do its thing. It should only take about six minutes for the lander to touch ground. The Trace Gas Orbiter will be looking for Methane, as well as any other gasses that could signify a biological footprint on Mars. Earth has tons of methane in its atmosphere because of all the life our planet supports, so it’s a good sign to look for. With another mission for Mars in the works, we might just be ever-so-closer to sending mankind to the red planet to live there permanently inside of 3D-printed habitation. Source: ESA

NASA Scientists have, for the first time in four decades, successfully identified atomic oxygen in the atmosphere of the red planet using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The last time any traces of atomic oxygen were sampled in the Martian atmosphere was in the 1970’s and it seemed to have gone missing ever since. The oxygen molecules found in the top layers of the red planet’s atmosphere present new questions and answers that we may have for the red planet, and also may provide clues about the red planet’s formation in our solar system and its history. In terms of history, we understand that Mars may have had a thick atmosphere just like that of the Earth at one point, but after so much solar radiation stripping it away from a below-par magnetic field to protect it, Mars has a very bare atmosphere now. Unlike the Earth, which has an abundance of oxygen and other gasses that make up the air we breathe, the existence of atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere isn't the same. This discovery doesn’t mean that humans could walk on the surface of the red planet and just start breathing like they do here on Earth. The atmospheric composition on Mars is still very different, and Mars’ atmosphere is nearly nonexistent from a nearly dead magnetic field that no longer protects the red planet from harmful radiation from the Sun. Oxygen molecules there are few and far in between, as made evident from its nearly 40-year hide-and-go-seek. With this information, NASA hopes to better understand the past of the planet’s atmosphere, which may provide clues as to why the planet is so dry and desolate today. It may also help answer the question of, ‘is or was there ever life on Mars?’ Source: NASA via Business Insider

At one point, the idea of colonizing another planet was merely science fiction. But as technology evolves and space agency initiatives become bolder, one might be inclined to say anything is possible. In fact, both NASA and SpaceX have rather openly tossed around the idea of sending astronauts to Mars to initiate a space colony on another planet besides Earth. One thing to note right off the bat is that colonizing another planet won’t be easy. Life evolved on Earth because of our planet’s habitability, which can be largely attributed to its robust atmosphere and ideal chemistry. Other planets, including Mars, lack complex life because they simply aren’t habitable or chemically-feasible. For this reason, astronauts would depend on spacesuits and life support systems to survive on the red planet (or anywhere else for that matter). This may not seem like that big of a deal, but there are several ways that a spacesuit could potentially fail. Whether the cooling system stops doing its part or the spacesuit itself depressurizes, the astronaut inside could potentially be placed in serious life-threatening danger if any of these critical systems stopped working as designed. So with that in mind, have you ever wondered what would happen to an astronaut on another planet without their spacesuit? Realistically, detailed circumstances would depend heavily on the planet that said astronaut visits, but the end result would be the same: death by asphyxiation. Apart from suffocating, a person would potentially experience other life-threatening scenarios depending on the planet. For example, residing on Mercury’s surface would mean dealing with two extremes – either the very hot side facing the Sun or the very cold side facing away from the Sun. In one case, a person would be cooked to death, while in the other, they would freeze to death. Similar dangers exist on other worlds, including Venus, which is so hot that a person would effectively be vaporized, and Mars, where atmospheric pressures are so low that you wouldn’t be able to breathe. Mars is perhaps one of the most habitable potentials for sending astronauts to, however, as the temperatures and chemistry aren’t too different from Earth’s. On the other hand, it just isn’t the same, and astronauts would still necessitate spacesuits to survive. Other planets in our solar system are just too unrealistic to consider. They’re either too far away or comprised of nothing but gas. Fortunately, no one is thinking of sending humans to any of those planets any time soon, and it’s a good thing that space agencies are actively working on space suit and life support technologies for more realistic targets such as Mars. Related: Should we colonize the Moon instead of Mars?

With only a few decades to come before NASA wants to start putting humankind on Mars to study it in person, the space agency is doing everything it can to prepare for the significant milestone. A bevy of related experiments are happening right here on Earth, many of which take place in simulated harsh Martian environments. Among said operations, Six Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) crew members recently emerged from a geodesic dome in the middle of Mauna Loa, Hawaii after eight months of isolation. The experiment was meant to simulate what they might experience if confined to a real Martian science outpost. Image Credit: University of Hawaii via AP NASA notes how the trials help humanity learn more about how isolation during long-term space missions can impact a person’s psychology and thinking. Laura Lark, the crew’s IT specialist, explains: "There are certainly human factors to be figured out, that's part of what HI-SEAS is for, but I think that overcoming those challenges is just a matter of effort. We are absolutely capable of it," she said. Related: NASA begins experimenting with simulated Martian soil for plant growth All the crew members zipped up inside of the dome ate either canned or freeze-dried food throughout their eight-month stay, much like International Space Station astronauts do. Moreover, they couldn’t leave to explore outside without first putting on ‘space suits.’ Citing Business Insider, NASA made the experience so realistic for the HI-SEAS crew members that they even had 20-minute delays imposed on their communication lines; this is the amount of time it would take for communication signals to get from Mars to Earth. Throughout the entire experiment, the crew members performed a plethora of activities to measure their response to the environment. From the results, NASA could determine their behavior amongst one another, their stress levels, and their moods, among other things. Perhaps one of the most important things NASA took note of is the inevitability of conflict that occurs when a group of unlike people are forced to live with one another for extended periods of time. Learning how to mitigate conflicts and move on from any that do occur are important aspects of these psychology experiments. The crew members are seen exiting the geodesic dome here: It’s not the first time NASA and HI-SEAS worked together to simulate a long-term Martian space mission, and it will likely happen again, but each passing experiment delves into new aspects of human psychology and provides valuable data about where we can improve. Because Mars is so far away, sending rescue crews when something goes awry isn’t feasible. It’s important that we get things right the first time by ensuring that people are up for the challenge and having ways to deal with problems efficiently. Source: Business Insider

In a recent study published in Science Advances, a team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discuss how MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiment) onboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been successfully producing oxygen from the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-heavy atmosphere since the rover touched down in Jezero Crater in February 2021. Given this is the first time ISRU has been demonstrated on Mars, this study is a crucial step in sending humans to the Red Planet, someday. The study discusses how by the end of 2021, MOXIE successfully created oxygen during seven experiments under a myriad of conditions, to include differing atmospheric conditions, such as night and day and different Martian seasons, as well. Each of the seven experiments met its goal of creating six grams (0.01 pounds) of oxygen per hour, or equivalent to the hourly rate of a modest tree on Earth. The researchers hope an upscaled version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission, with the goal of producing oxygen equivalent to several hundred trees. That much oxygen will allow for both sustaining a human presence once they arrive, along with producing rocket fuel for the return trip home. "We have learned a tremendous amount that will inform future systems at a larger scale," says Dr. Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT's Haystack Observatory. As stated, MOXIE is the first successful demonstration of ISRU on Mars, which is the process of cultivating resources at the source for use rather than transporting them all the way from Earth. "This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission," says MOXIE deputy principal investigator Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor of the practice in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "It's historic in that sense." Sources: Science Advances As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!