Mars News - MarsDaily,com brings you the news of Mars - rovers, landers, orbiters. http://www.marsdaily.com/index.html Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:02 GMT Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:02 GMT en-us I have always known what the phrase "Per Aspera Ad Astra" meant, and in my work in the Aerospace arena, I have come to appreciate its significance. And so, any film that would attempt a title as such has to live up to my expectations and Ad Astra the movie does. Actor Brad Pitt and the cast masterfully demonstrate what a near-future voyage to the Moon, Mars and outer solar system mig]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:02 GMT Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced his nation's intention to join the United States' Moon to Mars exploration approach, including NASA's Artemis lunar program. The announcement took place at a ceremony Saturday at NASA Headquarters in Washington during which NASA Deputy Administrator, Jim Morhard, and Head of the Australian Space Agency, Megan Clark, signed a joint stat]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT US President Donald Trump on Friday praised the US space program's efforts to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 as "tremendous," yet outlined that the ultimate goal is Mars. "We're going to Mars," Trump told reporters after a White House meeting with Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, marking Mars as a more exciting target than the moon. "We're stopping at the moon. The m]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT In June 2019 the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) captured a number of global images of Mars. The view shown in the main image stretches from the North Pole to the heavily cratered highlands around the Martian equator and far into the southern hemisphere. HRSC, which is on board the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft, was developed by the German Aerospace Center. It has been]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Dust devils, small dusty whirlwinds, have been studied for decades. But, says Brian Jackson, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Boise State University, the ability of dust devils to lift dust into the atmosphere remains murky. "When we compare theoretical predictions of how much dust a devil should lift to how much it does lift, the numbers just don't add up," says Jackson. ]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT It's the final boarding call for you to stow your name on NASA's Mars 2020 rover before it launches to the Red Planet. The Sept. 30 deadline for NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign gives the mission enough time to stencil the submitted names - over 9.4 million so far - on a chip that will be affixed to the Mars 2020 rover. This rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020 and ex]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT On Earth, plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into carbohydrates and oxygen - food for them and oxygen for us to breathe. There aren't plants on Mars, but there is a lot of CO2. Technology that takes abundant resources, like CO2 found on the Red Planet, and turns them into useful supplies for human explorers could be key to long-term missions on Mars. Phase 2 of NASA's CO2 Conversion Chall]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Scientists at TU Dortmund University have generated high-accuracy 3D models of terrain within the landing ellipse of the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin. The Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) have a resolution of about 25 cm per pixel and will help scientists to understand the geography and geological characteristics of the region and to plan the path of the rover around the site. ]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Engineers took NASA's Mars 2020 for a spin on Aug. 29, 2019. The 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) Martian vehicle was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise at about 1 revolution per minute on what is called a spin table in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The engineers were looking for the rover's center of gravity, or t]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT A key tracer used to estimate how much atmosphere Mars lost can change depending on the time of day and the surface temperature on the Red Planet, according to new observations by NASA-funded scientists. Previous measurements of this tracer - isotopes of oxygen - have disagreed significantly. An accurate measurement of this tracer is important to estimate how much atmosphere Mars once had before]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Volcanic Martian meteorites known as "nakhlites owe their name to El Nakhla in Egypt, where they first landed on Earth in 1911. Although they hold traces of impact of liquid water on the Martian surface the process which generated the fluids has been a mystery. A recent study entailing modern analysis of Martian meteorites has revealed stunning new details about how asteroid impacts facili]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT NASA engineers have installed the miniature helicopter on the space agency's Mars 2020 rover. The Mars Helicopter, nicknamed Scout, will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet. Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Bridenstine detailed the agency's plans for exploring Mars through the air. "For the first time, we are going to fly a helicopter on another world with the Mar]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT The 2020 mission of the ExoMars programme is expected to deliver a European rover and a Russian surface platform to the surface of Mars. The rover is expected to spend one year exploring the surface of the Red Planet. The European Space Agency's Director General Jan Woerner said he had spoken to Russia's Roscosmos during MAKS-2019 to ensure all issues on the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars-202]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Engineers attached NASA's Mars Helicopter, which will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover in the High Bay 1 clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The twin-rotor, solar-powered helicopter was connected, along with the Mars Helicopter Delivery System, to a plate on the rover's belly that includes a cover to shield]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT Red rover, red rover, send a name for Mars 2020 right over! NASA is recruiting help from students nationwide to find a name for its next Mars rover mission. Starting Tuesday, K-12 students in U.S. public, private and home schools can enter the Mars 2020 Name the Rover essay contest. One grand prize winner will name the rover and be invited to see the spacecraft launch in July 2020 from Cap]]> Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:50:03 GMT