NASA’s plucky Ingenuity helicopter set a new flight altitude record on Mars on Saturday.
In a mission lasting 52 seconds, the 4-pound, 19-inch-tall machine reached a height of 46 feet over the martian surface while traveling a distance of 49 feet.
Whi…
Stargazers in the northern hemisphere are in for a treat this week as Mars has reached its closest point to Earth, giving the best view of the red planet until the 2030s. Mars made its closest approach to Earth on the night of November 30 to December 1…
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter recently completed a “short but significant” flight lasting a mere 18 seconds — 13 seconds shorter than its debut flight on the red planet in April 2021.
Despite the brief nature of the flight, the success of the short …
With plans for the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission forming, NASA is getting ready to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth. But first, the Perseverance rover needs to collect and store samples from across the Jezero crater, ready for them to be colle…
When a rover is exploring the surface of Mars, it doesn’t send data straight back to Earth. That’s for two reasons: Firstly, it would require a large, powerful antenna which would be cumbersome and expensive to add, and secondly, because of the rotatio…
NASA’s InSight Mars lander reached the red planet four years ago and has worked well beyond the two years originally set for the mission. But in the coming weeks or perhaps months, the lander will make its final communications with Earth before falling…
One of the biggest meteor strikes ever witnessed in the solar system has been recorded by two different Mars missions. The impact caused seismic waves to shake the planet and is helping scientists to understand more about the Martian interior.
The stri…
The NASA Perseverance rover isn’t only exploring Mars for the scientific discoveries it can make now — it’s also paving the way for future missions which intend to bring samples back from Mars to Earth for the first time. This complicated plan involves…
When it comes to hunting for evidence of ancient life on Mars, some key features that scientists want to explore are areas with high levels of sulfate minerals. These salts form in the presence of water, so even though Mars is dry today, finding these …
To get machines onto Mars, NASA has been deploying various landing methods that over the years have included air bags, parachutes, and jetpacks.
Indeed, spectacular high-definition footage captured last year showed how the space agency deployed parachu…
While NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover tends to get all the attention these days, an incoming Amblin Entertainment and Amazon Studios documentary gives us a chance to celebrate two other Mars rovers that paved the way for the current Perseverance mission…
NASA’s InSight mission is dying a slow death. The lander, which is located in the Elysium Planitia area of Mars, has been gradually collecting more and more dust which has been blocking its solar panels. As the dust builds up, the amount of power the p…
Nearly a decade after its launch in 2013, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission has run out of fuel and will cease operations. The mission, which was the first Mars mission by an Asian country, demonstrated a different approach to planetary science by being bui…
The Mars helicopter Ingenuity has made it through a difficult winter and is back to flying, recently completing its 33rd flight since it landed on Mars along with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. The helicopter has been making gradually further…
The prospect of sending humans to Mars has taken a big leap forward after researchers confirmed that an experiment on the red planet has been able to produce oxygen “in a variety of atmospheric conditions.”
With Mars’ atmosphere comprising almost entir…