Analysis of a meteorite found in the Sahara Desert reveals the existence of water on Mars 4.4 billion years ago, scientists report. The mineral composition of Martian meteorite NWA 7533, found in 2012, reveals chemical signatures of oxidation – which would have occurred as water formed. The 84 gram meteorite, […]
Mars Exploration Rovers
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Artwork: Rover Nasa’s Perseverance rover, due to launch to Mars this summer, will search an ancient crater lake for signs of past life. But if biology ever emerged on the Red Planet, how will scientists recognise it? Here, mission scientist Ken Williford explains what they’re looking for. Today, Mars is […]
The next NASA rover headed to Mars, up to now blandly referred to as Mars 2020, has been named Perseverance. That was the winning moniker selected in NASA’s “Name the Rover” essay contest, which began last summer. Volunteer judges sifted through 28,000 entries from children ranging from kindergartners to high […]
Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers, will become Blue Origin’s chief scientist. (Cornell University via YouTube) Just months after closing out the 15-year-long Opportunity rover mission on Mars, Cornell University astronomer Steve Squyres is taking advantage of a new opportunity: the post of chief […]
WASHINGTON — NASA announced June 27 it will send a spacecraft to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, to fly across its surface to study how life there, and on the early Earth, could have developed. The agency said it selected Dragonfly as the next mission in its New Frontiers […]
NASA’s Opportunity rover was confirmed dead this week after the Mars robot was lost to a planet-sized dust storm in June last year. As NASA bid farewell to the rover, which outlived its planned mission 60-times, heartfelt tributes flooded in from around the world. The news of Opportunity’s death triggered […]
The Mars Opportunity rover has now been abandoned after its power cut out on the surface of the Red Planet. A massive dust storm encircling Mars blighted the planet’s atmosphere and prevented Opportunity from collecting the solar energy it needed to keep running. After more than 1,000 attempts to reestablish […]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Opportunity, a remarkably durable NASA rover designed to roll along the surface of Mars for three months, has stopped communicating with Earth after 15 years of service, officials said on Wednesday, ending a mission that astounded the U.S. space agency. Engineers lost contact with the solar-powered […]