Mars News, Science, Technology at MarsDaily.com

September 19, 2019

Deadline closing for names to fly on NASA's next Mars rover

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 19, 2019
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 expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021. The Mars 2020 rover represents the initial leg of humanity's fi ... read more

3D models of Mars to aid ESA Rover in quest for ancient life
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Sep 17, 2019
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 (D ... more

Mars 2020 Spacecraft Comes Full Circle
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 13, 2019
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 c ... more

NASA Research Gives New Insight into How Much Atmosphere Mars Lost
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 06, 2019
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 scient ... more

'Martian CSI' Sheds Light on How Asteroid Impacts Generated Running Water Under Red Planet
Swindon UK (Sputnik) Sep 09, 2019
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 sur ... more

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NASA engineers attach Mars Helicopter to Mars 2020 rover
Washington (UPI) Aug 29, 2019
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. ... more

ESA Chief says discussed ExoMars 2020 launch with Roscosmos
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 30, 2019
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 ... more

NASA's Mars Helicopter Attached to Mars 2020 Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 29, 2019
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 Laborator ... more

NASA Invites Students to Name Next Mars Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 29, 2019
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 ... more

ExoMars rover ready for environment testing
Paris (ESA) Aug 28, 2019
The Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover has completed its construction activities in the UK and will now depart to France for testing under the conditions of the Red Planet's environment. The fina ... more

'Game-Changer' for Cosmic Research: NASA Chief Touts Nuclear Powered Spacecraft
Washington DC (Sputnik) Aug 23, 2019
Earlier this month, NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group said that its portable nuclear powered reactor will be ready to fly to Mars by 2022. Speaking at a National Space Council (N ... more

Scientists Explore Outback as Testbed for Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 27, 2019
This week, scientists from NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 mission joined their counterparts from the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission in an expedition to the Australian Outback, one of the most rem ... more

Atacama Desert microbes may hold clues to life on Mars
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 23, 2019
Microbial life on Mars may potentially be transported across the planet on dust particles carried by wind, according to a study conducted in the Atacama Desert in North Chile, a well-known Mars anal ... more

A step closer to solving the methane mystery on Mars
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Aug 22, 2019
Scientists have taken an important step towards revealing the mysterious source of methane on Mars, by refining estimates of the gas in the planet's atmosphere. The methane puffing from a huge ... more

Roscosmos postpones joint ESA ExoMars mission after failed parachute tests
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 16, 2019
Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said in a statement on Thursday that the launch of the joint Russian-European ExoMars-2020 astrobiology mission, aimed at searching for evidence of life on ... more

NASA's portable trash bin-sized nuclear power module to be ready by 2022

All instruments onboard Rosalind Franklin rover
Paris (ESA) Aug 21, 2019
The full suite of scientific instruments, including cameras that will give us our eyes on Mars, the drill that will retrieve pristine soil samples from below the surface, and the onboard laboratory ... more

Robotic toolkit added to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 16, 2019
The bit carousel - a mechanism that will play a key role in the acquisition, containment and eventual return to Earth of humanity's first samples from another planet - has been incorporated into NAS ... more

Ancient Mars was warm with occasional rain, turning cold
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Aug 20, 2019
Scientists have long known that water was abundant on ancient Mars, but there has been no consensus on whether liquid water was common, or whether it was largely frozen in ice. Was the temperature h ... more

Methane not released by wind on Mars, experts find
Newcastle UK (SPX) Aug 13, 2019
Wind erosion has been ruled out as the primary cause of methane gas release on Mars, Newcastle University academics have shown. Methane can be produced over time through both geological and bi ... more

NASA descends on Icelandic lava field to prepare for Mars
The Lambahraun Lava Field, Islande (AFP) Aug 14, 2019
To prepare for the next mission to Mars in 2020, NASA has taken to the lava fields of Iceland to get its new robotic space explorer ready for the job. ... more

Optometrists verify Mars 2020 rover's perfect vision
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 07, 2019
Equipped with visionary science instruments, the Mars 2020 rover (https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020) underwent an "eye" exam after several cameras were installed on it. The rover contains an armada of ... more

Audit faults NASA for failing to detect schedule delays for moon return
Washington (Sputnik) Sep 19, 2019

NASA's push to return humans to the Moon by 2024 is threatened by a failure to account for schedule delays and cost overruns, the General Accountability Office said in a report on Wednesday. "For example, NASA should enhance contract management and oversight to improve program outcomes," the report said. "NASA's past approach in this area has left it ill-positioned to identify early warnin ... more

+ Are we prepared for a new era of field geology on the moon and beyond?

+ NASA Funds CubeSat Pathfinder Mission to Unique Lunar Orbit

+ India locates missing Moon lander

+ Ttiny satellites that will pave the way to Luna

+ China's lunar rover travels over 284 meters on moon's far side

+ India to launch another Lunar probe to in early 2020s with Japan

+ NASA Goddard Creates CGI Moon Kit as a Form of Visual Storytelling

China's KZ-1A rocket launches two satellites
Jiuquan, China (XNA) Sep 02, 2019

Two satellites for technological experiments were sent into space by a Kuaizhou-1A, or KZ-1A, carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday. The rocket blasted off at 7:41 a.m. and sent the two satellites into their planned orbit. Kuaizhou-1A, meaning speedy vessel, is a low-cost solid-fuel carrier rocket with high reliability and a short prep ... more

+ China's newly launched communication satellite suffers abnormality

+ China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites

+ Chinese scientists say goodbye to Tiangong-2

+ China's space lab Tiangong 2 destroyed in controlled fall to earth

+ From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges

+ China plans to deploy almost 200 AU-controlled satellites into orbit

+ Luokung and Land Space to develop control system for space and ground assets

Gemini observatory captures multicolor image of first-ever interstellar comet
Hilo HI (SPX) Sep 16, 2019

The first-ever comet from beyond our Solar System has been successfully imaged by the Gemini Observatory in multiple colors. The image of the newly discovered object, denoted C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), was obtained on the night of 9-10 September using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii's Maunakea. "This image was possible because of Gemini's ability to r ... more

+ AIDA collaboration highlights case for planetary defense

+ Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor

+ Two Asteroids to Safely Fly by Earth

+ A burst of asteroid activity in Europe

+ Tsunami Followed Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact

+ Europe and US teaming up for asteroid deflection

+ OSIRIS-REx's final four sample site candidates in 3D

Huge Volcano on Jupiter's Moon Io Erupts on Regular Schedule
Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2019

Volcanic eruptions are difficult to predict, but observations have shown the largest and most powerful volcano on Io, a large moon of Jupiter, has been erupting on a relatively regular schedule. The volcano Loki is expected to erupt in mid-September 2019, according to a poster by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Julie Rathbun presented this week. "Loki is the largest and ... more

+ Stony-iron meteoroid caused August impact flash at Jupiter

+ Storms on Jupiter are disturbing the planet's colorful belts

+ ALMA shows what's inside Jupiter's storms

+ Young Jupiter was smacked head-on by massive newborn planet

+ Mission to Jupiter's icy moon confirmed

+ Giant Impact Disrupted Jupiter's Core

+ Young Jupiter Was Smacked Head-On by Massive Newborn Planet

'Snow-Cannon' Enceladus shines up Saturn's super-reflective moons
Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Sep 19, 2019

Radar observations of Saturn's moons, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys, show that Enceladus is acting as a 'snow-cannon,' coating itself and its neighbours with fresh water-ice particles to make them dazzlingly reflective. The extreme radar brightness also points to the presence of 'boomerang' structures beneath the surface that boost the moons' efficiency in returning the microwave signals to the sp ... more

+ Age-old debate on Saturn's rings reignited

+ Saturn's Rings Shine in New Hubble Portrait

+ Nitrogen explosions created craters on Saturn moon Titan

+ Methane-filled lakes on Saturn's moon Titan are explosion craters

+ New models suggest Titan lakes are explosion craters

+ A brief astronomical history of Saturn's amazing rings

+ Yale researcher has a window seat for planning NASA's Dragonfly mission

Clemson physicists lead rocket missions to further explore the wonders of Earth's atmosphere
Clemson SC (SPX) Sep 12, 2019

Clemson University physicists will conduct a pair of three-year rocket missions funded by NASA Heliophysics designed to deepen our understanding of the visible and invisible mechanisms that modulate energy into Earth's atmosphere. Stephen Kaeppler is the principal investigator on a project titled "INCAA," which will study how energy is transferred and dissipated during colorful active auro ... more

+ First Earth observation satellite with AI ready for launch

+ Suomi NPP tracks fire and smoke from two continents

+ German HALO research aircraft to investigate ozone hole, Amazon fires and gravity waves

+ Sudden warming over Antarctica to prolong Australia drought

+ Do animals control earth's oxygen level

+ Cutting edge UK led satellite will help to identify natural resources from space

+ Lightning 'superbolts' form over oceans from November to February

Russia to give cosmonauts guns to fend off animals on landing
Moscow (AFP) Sept 18, 2019

Russia is testing a gun that returning cosmonauts could use to fend off wild animals when landing in remote areas, the head of the Russian space agency said Wednesday. Cosmonauts have been unarmed for more than a decade but Roscosmos agency head Dmitry Rogozin said it was time to bring back weapons as manned launches move to the Russian Far East. "It's possible that landings will also be ... more

+ Orion Test Article on the Move

+ Innovative model created for NASA to predict vitamin levels in spaceflight food

+ Roscosmos finds causes of hole in Soyuz MS-09, but won't disclose them

+ A new journey into Earth for space exploration

+ Space Station science: learning from Luca

+ Brad Pitt talks weightlessness and calluses on phone call to ISS

+ Russia mulls equipping cutting-edge cosmonaut emergency survival kit with firearm

First Water Detected on Planet in the Habitable Zone
Garching, Germany (SPX) Sep 12, 2019

With data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, water vapour has been detected in the atmosphere of a super-Earth within the habitable zone by University College London (UCL) researchers in a world first. K2-18b, which is eight times the mass of Earth, is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the solar system, or exoplanet, known to have both water and temperatures that could support l ... more

+ The rare molecule weighing in on the birth of planets

+ Research redefines lower limit for planet size habitability

+ Researchers mix RNA and DNA to study how life's process began billions of years ago

+ First water detected on potentially 'habitable' planet

+ Water detected on an exoplanet located in its star's habitable zone

+ How to Spin a Disk Around Young Protostars

+ Potassium Detected in an Exoplanet Atmosphere

Lockheed, Raytheon launch Javelin missiles from unmanned vehicle
Washington (UPI) Sep 10, 2019

A team of defense contractors has remotely launched Javelin missiles from an unmanned vehicle. The Javelin Joint Venture team, a partnership of Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin, fired the Javelin missiles from a Kongsberg remote launcher mounted on a Titan unmanned ground vehicle in a test fire at the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center in Alabama. "Javelin offers true fire-and-fo ... more

+ Iran unveils new reconnaissance and attack drone

+ Iraq paramilitary force says Israel behind latest drone attack

+ Hughes partners with startup to extend LTE Coverage using helicopters and UAVs

+ Drone buzzes above vineyard helping Luxembourg winegrower

+ Skyfront Perimeter Drone Performs The First Beyond-Line-of-Sight Flight under FAA Part 107

+ AFRL conducts first flight of robopilot unmanned air platform

+ Teams test swarm autonomy in second major OFFSET field experiment

Sandia experiments at temperature of sun offer solutions to solar model problems
Albuquerque NM (SPX) Sep 12, 2019

Experimenting at 2.2 million degrees Celsius, physicists at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have found that an astronomical model - used for 40 years to predict the sun's behavior as well as the life and death of stars - underestimates the energy blockage caused by free-floating iron atoms, a major player in those processes. The blockage effect, called opacity, is an element's natu ... more

+ It's not aurora, it's STEVE

+ NASA Selects Proposals to Advance Understanding of Space Weather

+ Streaks in Aurora Found to Map Features in Earth's Radiation Environment

+ Proposals selected for small satellites to study interplanetary space

+ NASA's MMS finds first interplanetary shock

+ Parker Solar Probe completes 2 orbits of Sun

+ Magnetic plasma pulses excited by UK-size swirls in the solar atmosphere

Aerojet Rocketdyne Scores Big Contracts on US ICBM, Hypersonic Missile Programs
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2019

Aerojet Rocketdyne has scored parts of several big contracts in the burgeoning US missile program, including developing a hypersonic missile and the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the next generation of nuclear ballistic missiles. In the race to build the next generation of ground-based missile systems, Aerojet Rocketdyne is poised to profit bigtime from the bevy of contracts bei ... more

+ Baikonur Cosmodrome Getting Ready for Last Launch of Russian Rocket With Ukrainian Parts

+ China to launch Third Long March 5 by year end

+ Roscosmos to Build Cheap Soyuz-2M Rocket for Commercial Satellites Launch Service

+ Engine Section for NASA's SLS Rocket Moved for Final Integration

+ Fire forces Japan to cancel rocket launch to ISS

+ New salt-based propellant proven compatible in dual-mode rocket engines

+ NASA prepares for green run testing, practices lifting SLS Core Stage

Deep dive for dark matter may aid all of data science
Houston TX (SPX) Sep 19, 2019

A Rice University scientist and his colleagues are booting their search for dark matter into a study they hope will enhance all of data science. Rice astroparticle physicist Christopher Tunnell and his team have received a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to reimagine data science techniques and help push data-intensive physical sciences past the tipping point to discover ... more

+ From primordial black holes new clues to dark matter

+ VISTA unveils a new image of the Large Magellanic Cloud

+ New observations help explain the dimming of Tabby's Star

+ WVU astronomers help detect the most massive neutron star ever measured

+ Most massive neutron star ever detected, almost too massive to exist

+ The stellar nurseries of distant galaxies

+ NASA's WFIRST Will Help Uncover the Universe's Fate

UN offers use of ESA's hypergravity centrifuge to researchers worldwide
Noordwijk, Netherlands (SPX) Sep 06, 2019

Imagine being able to increase the force of gravity simply by turning a dial. A United Nations fellowship is offering this opportunity to researchers all over the world, through access to ESA's hypergravity-generating Large Diameter Centrifuge. Manipulate gravity and a lot of other factors shift too: bubbles in liquid alter their behaviour, convection currents accelerate and metal alloys f ... more

+ A key piece to understanding how quantum gravity affects low-energy physics

+ Fastest eclipsing binary, a valuable target for gravitational wave studies

+ Chameleon Theory Could Change How We Think About Gravity

+ Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction

+ Researchers find quantum gravity has no symmetry

+ Development of a displacement sensor to measure gravity of smallest source mass ever

+ Gravitational waves leave a detectable mark, physicists say

High value for Hubble Constant from two gravitational lenses
Garching, Germany (SPX) Sep 16, 2019

The expansion rate of the universe today is described by the so-called Hubble constant, and different techniques have come to inconsistent results about how fast our universe actually does expand. An international team led by the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) has now used two gravitational lenses as new tools to calibrate the distances to hundreds of observed supernovae and t ... more

+ Milestones on the way to the nuclear clock

+ 'Ringing' black hole validates Einstein's general relativity 10 years ahead of schedule

+ KATRIN cuts the mass estimate for the elusive neutrino in half

+ Unexpected periodic flares may shed light on black hole accretion

+ First 'Overtones' Heard in the Ringing of a Black Hole

+ Black hole at the center of our galaxy appears to be getting hungrier

+ Scientists Discover Black Hole Has Three Hot Meals a Day

At NY Fashion Week, robotic dresses take on a life of their own
New York (AFP) Sept 11, 2019

Fashion and technology have often gone hand in hand, improving supply chains and bringing the world's runways to the masses, but at this week's shows in New York, robotic designs took center stage. The dresses were conceived with the help of a kit designed by Anina Trepte, a former model and founder of the 360Fashion Network, who wants designers to integrate technology into their work even i ... more

+ Russia terminates robot Fedor after space odyssey

+ 'Sense of urgency', as top tech players seek AI ethical rules

+ Psychosensory electronic skin technology for future AI and humanoid development

+ Russian robot 'Fedor' leaves ISS

+ Russian Humanoid Robot Fedor Announces Full Implementation of Flight Test Program

+ CIMON back on Earth after 14 months on the ISS

+ NASA Robots Compete Underground in DARPA Challenge

China's KZ-1A rocket launches two satellites
Jiuquan, China (XNA) Sep 02, 2019

+ China's newly launched communication satellite suffers abnormality

+ China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites

+ Chinese scientists say goodbye to Tiangong-2

+ China's space lab Tiangong 2 destroyed in controlled fall to earth

+ From Moon to Mars, Chinese space engineers rise to new challenges

+ China plans to deploy almost 200 AU-controlled satellites into orbit

+ Luokung and Land Space to develop control system for space and ground assets

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