Mars News, Science, Technology at MarsDaily.com

August 08, 2019

New finds for Mars rover, seven years after landing

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 07, 2019
NASA's Curiosity rover has come a long way since touching down on Mars seven years ago. It has traveled a total of 13 miles (21 kilometers) and ascended 1,207 feet (368 meters) to its current location. Along the way, Curiosity discovered Mars had the conditions to support microbial life in the ancient past, among other things. And the rover is far from done, having just drilled its 22nd sample from the Martian surface. It has a few more years before its nuclear power system degrades enough to sign ... read 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

MEDLI2 installation on Mars 2020 aeroshell begins
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 05, 2019
Hardware installed onto NASA's Mars 2020 entry vehicle this week will help to increase the safety of future Mars landings. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA's Artemis ... more

World first as kits designed to extract metals from the Moon and Mars blast off for space station tests
London, UK (SPX) Jul 30, 2019
Astronauts will test the devices on board the International Space Station, following the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last night (at 23:01 BST, Thursday 25 July) from NASA's Kenne ... more

Mars 2020 rover does biceps curls
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 30, 2019
The robotic arm on NASA's Mars 2020 rover does not have deltoids, triceps or biceps, but it can still curl heavy weights with the best. In this time-lapse video, taken July 19, 2019, in the clean ro ... more

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Europe prepares for Mars courier
Paris (ESA) Jul 26, 2019
The first round-trip to the Red Planet will see a European orbiter bringing martian samples back to Earth. ESA is opening the door to industry to build the spacecraft that will deliver the precious ... more

Fueling of NASA's Mars 2020 rover power system begins
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 26, 2019
NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, has given the go-ahead to begin fueling the Mars 2020 rover's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generato ... more

Trump pits Apollo 11 astronauts against NASA chief
Washington (AFP) July 19, 2019
President Donald Trump welcomed surviving Apollo 11 crew members Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the White House Friday, using the occasion to tell his space chief he would prefer to go straight to Mars without returning to the Moon. ... more

ExoMars radio science instrument readied for Red Planet
Paris (ESA) Jul 23, 2019
An ambitious instrument for ESA's ExoMars 2020 mission has passed its testing in conditions resembling those on the Red Planet. It will now be transported to Russia for its acceptance review, follow ... more

Red wine compound could help protect astronauts on trip to Mars
Washington (UPI) Jul 18, 2019
Resveratrol, a phenol found in red wine, could be used to protect the muscles of astronauts during extended stays in space, like on a mission to Mars. ... more

Mars 2020 Rover: T-Minus One Year and Counting
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 22, 2019
The launch period for NASA's Mars 2020 rover opens exactly one year from July 17, 2020, and extends through Aug. 5, 2020. The mission will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and ... more

Red wine's resveratrol could help Mars explorers stay strong
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 18, 2019
Mars is about 9 months from Earth with today's tech, NASA reckons. As the new space race hurtles forward, Harvard researchers are asking: how do we make sure the winners can still stand when they re ... more

A material way to make Mars habitable
Boston MA (SPX) Jul 17, 2019
People have long dreamed of re-shaping the Martian climate to make it livable for humans. Carl Sagan was the first outside of the realm of science fiction to propose terraforming. In a 1971 paper, S ... more

Aerogel could be a key building material for Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 17, 2019
Raising crops on Mars is far easier in science fiction than it will be in real life: The Red Planet is an inhospitable world. Among other challenges, subzero temperatures mean water can persist on t ... more

NASA funds demo of 3D-Printed spacecraft parts made, assembled in orbit
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 13, 2019
NASA has awarded a $73.7 million contract to Made In Space, Inc. of Mountain View, California, to demonstrate the ability of a small spacecraft, called Archinaut One, to manufacture and assemble spa ... more

NASA SLS rocket testing ensures astronaut safety, mission success

Sustaining Life on Long-Term Crewed Missions Will Require Planetary Resources
Cleveland OH (SPX) Jul 09, 2019
When astronauts live and work on the Moon, they will need access to life-sustaining oxygen, water and other resources. On the Moon, and eventually Mars, they could collect local resources on the sur ... more

InSight Uncovers the 'Mole' on Mars
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 05, 2019
Behold the "mole": The heat-sensing spike that NASA's InSight lander deployed on the Martian surface is now visible. Last week, the spacecraft's robotic arm successfully removed the support structur ... more

Mars 2020 Rover Gets a Super Instrument
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 03, 2019
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have installed the SuperCam Mast Unit onto the Mars 2020 rover. The instrument's camera, laser and spectrometers can identify t ... more

Artificial gravity breaks free from science fiction
Boulder CO (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
Artificial gravity has long been the stuff of science fiction. Picture the wheel-shaped ships from films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Martian, imaginary craft that generate their own gravity b ... more

Dust storms swirl at the north pole of Mars
Paris (ESA) Jul 08, 2019
ESA's Mars Express has been keeping an eye on local and regional dust storms brewing at the north pole of the Red Planet over the last month, watching as they disperse towards the equator. Loc ... more

Methane vanishing on Mars
Aarhus, Denmark (SPX) Jul 05, 2019
The processes behind the release and consumption of methane on Mars have been discussed since methane was measured for the first time for approx. 15 years ago. Now, an interdisciplinary research gro ... more

Cislunar blueprint to propel space outreach for the next 50 years
West Lafayette IN (SPX) Aug 05, 2019

In its inaugural call to action, Purdue Engineering's Cislunar Initiative took a giant leap forward in advancing humankind's presence in space and the development of the economy in the "cislunar region," the orbital area encompassing the Earth and moon. "The ecosystem of human space exploration has been rapidly expanding," said Mung Chiang, Purdue's John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of ... more

+ First steps in getting Canada to the Moon

+ The Moon and Mercury may have thick ice deposits

+ ISRO Chandrayaan-2 completes 5th orbital manoeuvre

+ Moon 2069: lunar tourism and deep space launches a century on from Apollo?

+ China's micro lunar orbiter crashes into Moon under control

+ Chandrayaan-2 orbit successfully raised for 4th time

+ Study shows that the Moon is older than previously believed

China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites
Beijing (AFP) July 25, 2019

A Chinese startup successfully launched the country's first commercial rocket capable of carrying satellites into orbit Thursday, as the space race between China and the US heats up. Beijing-based Interstellar Glory Space Technology - also known as iSpace - said it launched two satellites into orbit around 1:00 pm Beijing time (0500 GMT) from Jiuquan, a state launch facility in the Gobi de ... more

+ 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

+ Yaogan-33 launch fails in north China, Possible debris recovered in Laos

+ China develops new-generation rockets for upcoming missions

Asteroid's surprise close approach illustrates need for more eyes on the sky
Paris (ESA) Aug 05, 2019

On 25 July, an asteroid the size of a football field flew by Earth, coming within 65 000 km of our planet's surface during its closest approach - about one fifth of the distance to the Moon. The 100 m-wide asteroid dubbed '2019 OK' was detected just days before it passed Earth, although archival records from sky surveys show it had previously been observed but wasn't recognised as a near-E ... more

+ Aquariids peak on Monday starts month of meteor showers

+ What gives meteorites their shape

+ MASCOT Confirms What Scientists Have Long Suspected

+ Speeding up science on near-earth asteroids

+ ESA confirms asteroid will miss Earth in 2019

+ Hayabusa-makes completes second asteroid touchdown to collect samples

+ Japan's Hayabusa2 probe makes 'perfect' touchdown on asteroid

Jupiter's auroras powered by alternating current
Washington (UPI) Jul 11, 2019

New analysis of Juno mission data suggests Jupiter's auroras are powered by alternating current, not direct current. Jupiter, a the largest planet in the solar system, boasts an aurora with a radiant power of 100 terawatts, or 100 billion kilowatts. It's the brightest aurora in the solar system. Like Earth's auroras, Jupiter's light shows are centered around its poles. The aurora ... more

+ Kuiper Belt Binary Orientations Support Streaming Instability Hypothesis

+ Study Shows How Icy Outer Solar System Satellites May Have Formed

+ Astronomers See "Warm" Glow of Uranus's Rings

+ Table salt compound spotted on Europa

+ On Pluto the Winter is approaching, and the atmosphere is vanishing into frost

+ Neptune's moon Triton fosters rare icy union

+ Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field

Yale researcher has a window seat for planning NASA's Dragonfly mission
New Haven CT (SPX) Jul 17, 2019

By 2034, when the Dragonfly drone mission makes landfall on the surface of Titan, Yale's Juan Lora will have spent nearly half his life studying the climatic tendencies of Saturn's icy moon. That's when the real work will begin, he says. Finally, after long years of preparation and modeling, Lora and his colleagues on the scientific end of the NASA Dragonfly mission will begin to get ... more

+ SMU's 'Titans in a jar' could answer key questions ahead of NASA's space exploration

+ The mission of a lifetime: a drone on Titan in 2034

+ Dragonfly Mission to Study Titan for Origins, Signs of Life

+ NASA's Dragonfly Will Fly Around Titan Looking for Origins, Signs of Life

+ "Bathtub rings" around Titan's lakes might be made of alien crystals

+ Cassini reveals new sculpting in Saturn rings

+ Researchers find ice feature on Saturn's giant moon

Earth's last magnetic field reversal took far longer than once thought
Madison WI (SPX) Aug 08, 2019

Earth's magnetic field seems steady and true - reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently careening toward Siberia, which recently forced the Global Positioning System that underlies modern navigation to update its software sooner than expected to account for the shift. And every several ... more

+ NASA's Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor Goes to Work Aboard the International Space Station

+ NASA targets coastal ecosystems with new space sensor

+ CryoSat conquers ice on Arctic lakes

+ Roscosmos postpones launch of second Arctic weather satellite

+ Airbus selects exactEarth as AIS Partner for new maritime applications platform

+ China shares satellite data with India to help millions in flood-hit regions

+ Satellite-connected tags set to boost marine conservation

Two weeks of science and beyond on ISS
Paris (ESA) Aug 07, 2019

Over two weeks have flown by since ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano was launched to the International Space Station for his second six-month stay in orbit. His arrival, alongside NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Roscosmos Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov, boosted the Station's population to six and the crew has been busy ever since - performing a wide range of science in space. With the sta ... more

+ Dark matter may be older than the big bang, study suggests

+ Orion Service Module completes critical propulsion test

+ As iPhone sales sputter, Apple moves toward reinvention, again

+ Study identifies way to enhance the sustainability of manufactured soils

+ Flight by Light: Mission accomplished for LightSail 2

+ Russian Progress MS-12 Cargo Spacecraft Docks International Space Station

+ Japan's space agency develops new filter to recycle urine

Dead planets can 'broadcast' for up to a billion years
Coventry UK (SPX) Aug 08, 2019

Astronomers are planning to hunt for cores of exoplanets around white dwarf stars by 'tuning in' to the radio waves that they emit. In new research led by the University of Warwick, scientists have determined the best candidate white dwarfs to start their search, based upon their likelihood of hosting surviving planetary cores and the strength of the radio signal that we can 'tune in' to. ... more

+ Hordes of Earth's toughest creatures may now be living on Moon

+ Potentially habitable planet found in new solar system

+ Pre-life building blocks spontaneously align in evolutionary experiment

+ Shining starlight on the search for life

+ Distant "heavy metal" gas planet is shaped like a football

+ A chemical clue to how life started on Earth

+ Heavy metal gases observed streaming from football-shaped exoplanet

S.Korea tests drone delivery in remote regions
Seoul (AFP) July 31, 2019

Seoul began testing delivery by drone in the country's remote regions Wednesday, with the hope of improving residents' quality of life, the government said. The project, jointly launched by the interior and safety ministry and Korea Post, among other government agencies, aims to establish a "public drone delivery system" to serve the country's dispersed population. A test operation on We ... more

+ DLR conducts flight tests for gyrocopter drones

+ General Atomics to build parts, equipment for MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone

+ State Dept. approves $950M drone support services sale to South Korea

+ Automating complex design of universal controller for hybrid drones

+ US may have downed two Iranian drones last week: general

+ U.S. Defense Department considers buying Israeli-made drones

+ C-Astral participates in demonstrations to help Europe set rules for drone deliveries

Magnetic plasma pulses excited by UK-size swirls in the solar atmosphere
Sheffield UK (SPX) Aug 07, 2019

An international team of scientists led by the University of Sheffield have discovered previously undetected observational evidence of frequent energetic wave pulses the size of the UK, transporting energy from the solar surface to the higher solar atmosphere. Magnetic plasma waves and pulses have been widely suggested as one of the key mechanisms which could answer the long-standing quest ... more

+ Researchers recreate the sun's solar wind and plasma "burps" on Earth

+ Airbus brings a SMILE to ESA

+ 'Terminators' on the sun trigger plasma tsunamis and the start of new solar cycles

+ Details of Solar Science Mission Revealed at UK Astronomy Meeting

+ Citizen scientists discover cyclical pattern of complexity in solar storms

+ UK-led solar science mission to use cubesats

+ Research details response of sagebrush to 2017 solar eclipse

Paragon Space Development Corporation CELSIUS Technology NASA Tipping Point Contract Award
Tucson AZ (SPX) Aug 05, 2019

Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon) and partner Thin Red Line Aerospace (TRLA), are now under contract to mature their Cryogenic Encapsulating Launch Shroud and Insulated Upper Stage (CELSIUS) Technology through a NASA Tipping Point Award. NASA's Tipping Point Awards focus on technology collaborations with commercial space companies that leverage emerging markets and capabilities to ... more

+ In-Space selects Orbex for Scottish launch in 2022

+ SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying Israel's AMOS-17 satellite

+ Orbex and Innovative Space Logistics sign European Space Launch Agreement

+ Lockheed awarded $405.7M contract for Army's hypersonic missile

+ Pentagon working on 9 separate hypersonic missile projects to take on Russia, China

+ Little SLS launches in low speed wind tunnel

+ Lease option agreed for Space Hub Sutherland

New voyage to the universe from DESHIMA
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 07, 2019

Researchers in Japan and the Netherlands jointly developed an originative radio receiver DESHIMA (Deep Spectroscopic High-redshift Mapper) and successfully obtained the first spectra and images with it. Combining the ability to detect a wide frequency range of cosmic radio waves and to disperse them into different frequencies, DESHIMA demonstrated its unique power to efficiently measure the dist ... more

+ Scientists resolve the nature of powerful cosmic objects

+ 'Heart' of LUX-ZEPLIN Dark Matter Detector assembled

+ ALMA Identifies dark ancestors of massive elliptical galaxies

+ Mechanism for gamma-ray bursts from space is decoded

+ Dutch Japanese Instrument Measures 49 Shades of Far-Infared

+ Anaemic star carries the mark of its ancient ancestor

+ Critical deployment of NASA Webb's Secondary Mirror a success

Fastest eclipsing binary, a valuable target for gravitational wave studies
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 26, 2019

Observations made with a new instrument developed for use at the 2.1-meter (84-inch) telescope at the National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory have led to the discovery of the fastest eclipsing white dwarf binary yet known. Clocking in with an orbital period of only 6.91 minutes, the rapidly orbiting stars are expected to be one of the strongest sources of gravitational ... more

+ 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

+ UCLA students touch space with a microgravity experiment

+ LIGO and Virgo Detect Neutron Star Smash-Ups

Where in the universe can you find a black hole nursery?
Birmingham UK (SPX) Aug 08, 2019

Gravitational wave researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new model that could help astronomers track down the origin of heavy black hole systems in the Universe. Black holes are formed following the collapse of stars and possibly supernova explosions. These colossally dense objects are measured in terms of solar masses (Mo) - the mass of our sun. Typically, sta ... more

+ ALMA dives into Black Hole's 'Sphere of Influence'

+ Einstein's general relativity theory is questioned but still stands for now, team reports

+ Scientists reproduce the dynamics behind astrophysical shocks

+ A peek at the birth of the universe

+ Multiple laser beamlets show better electron and ion acceleration

+ Physicists find first possible 3D quantum spin liquid

+ New Measurement of Cosmic Expansion Rate Is "Stuck in the Middle"

Roach-inspired robot nearly as fast as real thing, unsquashable
Washington (UPI) Jul 31, 2019

If you see the latest robot from the University of California, Berkeley scurrying across your kitchen floor, don't bother trying to step on it. The novel roach-like robot, described this week in the journal Science Robotics, can't be squashed. The new robot, developed by engineers at Cal, can run nearly as fast as a cockroach and as is even harder to kill. If one were to stomp on the li ... more

+ A computer that understands how you feel

+ In the shoes of a robot: The future approaches

+ Kitchen disruption: better food through artificial intelligence

+ Get up and go bots getting closer, study says

+ Russia's Humanoid Robot FEDOR Renamed to Skybot Ahead of Its First Space Mission

+ A squeaky clean: friendly robots spruce up Singapore

+ Robot-ants that can jump, communicate with each other and work together

China launches first private rocket capable of carrying satellites
Beijing (AFP) July 25, 2019

+ 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

+ Yaogan-33 launch fails in north China, Possible debris recovered in Laos

+ China develops new-generation rockets for upcoming missions

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