Tag: Red Planet

Washington: NASA has pinpointed the exact landing location of its newly launched InSight lander, using a powerful camera onboard another of the agency’s spacecraft, hovering around the Red Planet. On November 26, InSight landed within a 130 km ellipse at Elysium Planitia on Mars. However, there was no way to determine exactly where it touched […]

Washington: Though NASA’s InSight landed safely on the surface of Mars, but the spacecraft sits about 4 degrees tilted, the US space agency said. Early last week, InSight touched down on a lava plain named Elysium Planitia on the Red Planet. The vehicle sits tilted slightly in a shallow dust-and sand-filled impact crater known as […]

Paris: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express has imaged a part of the Martian landscape, a region at the boundary of the northern and southern hemisphere which is rocky and fragmented, that once formed the Red Planet’s flood plains. The region, a furrowed, rock-filled escarpment known as Nili Fossae sits at the boundary of […]

Washington: NASA’s InSight spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on November 26, scientists monitoring the health and trajectory of the lander have said. InSight will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 19,800 kilometres per hour (kph) and slow down to eight kph — about […]

Washington: NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft released a selfie image of the spacecraft at Mars, celebrating its four years in orbit studying the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet. MAVEN’S selfie image looks at ultraviolet wavelengths of sunlight reflected off of components of the spacecraft. The image was obtained with the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument that […]

Washington: NASA is on the look out for a partner to conduct a contest among students to name the agency’s next rover to the Red Planet — the Mars 2020 mission — in the 2019 academic year. The Mars 2020 rover mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars, including key questions about the potential for […]

Washington: NASA has launched a public competition that asks people to find solutions to turn carbon dioxide into molecules that would help astronauts endure the harsh atmosphere on the Red Planet. Called the “CO2 Conversion Challenge”, the competition asks public to discover ways to develop novel synthesis technologies that use carbon dioxide as the sole […]

New York: Think how it would be if we can enjoy a chilled beer on Mars? A US brewing company Anheuser-Busch plans make “Budweiser” the first brand of beer on the Red Planet. Budweiser is upholding its commitment, announced earlier this year at an event “South by Southwest” that “it would create a beer suitable […]

Washington: NASA will soon start testing a key energy source that will “empower” human crews on the Mars surface, energising habitats and running on-the-spot processing equipment to transform the Red Planet resources into oxygen, water and fuel. Testing of the Kilopower project is due to start in November and go through early next year, with […]

Washington: While it’s true that space radiation is one of the biggest challenges for a human journey to Mars, NASA said it is developing technologies and countermeasures to ensure a safe and successful journey to the red planet. “Some people think that radiation will keep NASA from sending people to Mars, but that’s not the […]

Washington: The Trump administration will direct NASA to land humans on the Moon and establish presence on the lunar surface before sending astronauts to the Red Planet and beyond, US Vice President Mike Pence has said. Pence made the administration’s intentions known in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, as well as a speech he gave […]

Washington: NASA has unveiled an “out of this world” futuristic Mars rover concept vehicle to inspire young people to want to learn more about its plans to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s. While this exact rover is not expected to operate on Mars, one or more of its elements could make […]

Washington: NASA’s InSight lander has deployed its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone that will allow scientists to peer into the Martian interior by studying ground motion — also known as marsquakes, the US space agency said. New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its […]

Washington: Using a step-wise approach, NASA could land astronauts on the Red Planet by the end of the 2030s in an efficient and cost-effective way, new research says. Before astronauts attempt to land on the dusty Martian surface, they must first be prepared to touch down on one of Mars’ two tiny moons-Phobos or Deimos […]

New York: Mars’ rivers flowed intensely and may have persisted as recently as one billion years ago, reveals a survey that found that the red planet’s rivers were wider than those on Earth today. The study by scientists at the University of Chicago catalogued these rivers and found that significant river runoff persisted on Mars […]