NASA's latest car-sized, six-wheeled Mars rover, currently dubbed the 2020 Rover, is in the final stages of testing before launching to the red desert planet.
On Thursday, NASA released footage showing researchers transferring the rover into a vacuum testing chamber at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. There, NASA subjected the rover to a simulation of Mars' frigid atmospheric conditions to ensure the rover's antennas, ground-penetrating radar, cameras, and equipment work under such extreme, extraterrestrial environs.
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News | Screening Soon: 'The Pathfinders' Trains Lens on Mars
The era NASA called "Faster, Better, Cheaper" started with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory agreeing to land something on Mars - cheaply - and to do it in a radically different way. The documentary film "The Pathfinders" tells the story of how a small group of JPLers rose to the challenge, ignoring warnings that attempting to land a spacecraft on Mars with airbags wouldn't likely be a career-enhancing move.
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Caltech's Beckman Auditorium in Pasadena will host the documentary's screening on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. It is the first of four documentaries about JPL missions to the Red Planet preceding the much-anticipated launch of the Mars 2020 rover next summer.
See Mars's Eerie Horizon in New Images From Curiosity Rover | Smart News |
NASA’s Curiosity rover recently captured some beautiful new photographs of the vacant Martian environment, including a haunting new view of the Martian horizon from its vantage point in the Gale Crater.
The shot captured on November 1 is one of the many photos posted to NASA’s public feed of images from the rover. Some of the photographs are more eye-catching than others, like a striking rock formation or a shot of Curiosity’s own shadow , while others show close-ups of rocks and sediment.
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For Astronauts on Mars, the Veggie of the Day May Be Asparagus | Space
WASHINGTON — Take it or leaf it: Mars won't offer the sort of veggie options on display at your neighborhood supermarket.
"In fact, in this particular area the soils are more alkaline so this would be OK for growing asparagus and beans and not potatoes ," NASA chief scientist Jim Green said during a presentation held here last week as part of the International Astronautical Congress of soil studied by NASA's Curiosity rover. "If I had to eat asparagus for three years, I think I'd just take my helmet off and walk outside," he added.
Elon Musk says building the first sustainable city on Mars will take 1,000 Starships and 20 years
Addressing a question about comments he made earlier this week at the U.S. Air Force startup pitch day event in California, Musk said that his stated launch cost of only around $2 million per Starship flight are essentially required, should the final goal be to set up a “self-sustaining city on Mars.
Musk addressed more near-term potential for Starship as well, including how much payload capacity Starship will provide for Earth orbital transportation. Starship’s design is intended to maximize re-use, and in fact Musk noted that ideally it can fly up to three times per day.
Can We Genetically Engineer Humans to Survive Missions to Mars? | Space
Mason led one of the 10 teams of researchers NASA chose to study twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly . After launching in 2015, Scott Kelly spent almost a year aboard the International Space Station while his twin brother, Mark Kelly, stayed back on Earth.
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Geneticist Chris Mason discusses the genetic effects of spaceflight at the 8th Human Genetics in NYC Conference on Oct. 29, 2019.
By comparing how they biologically reacted to their vastly different environments during that time, scientists aimed to learn more about how long-duration missions affects the human body. Mason and the dozens of other researchers who worked to assess the genetic effects of spaceflight uncovered a wealth of data that has so far revealed many new findings about how space affects the human body.
Mars: How long does it take to get to red planet? | The Independent
This is what you need to know about the distance to Mars, and why we have not yet reached the red planet.
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According to the space agency, we can now expect humans to land on Mars within the next two decades.
Reaching the planet will be a feat on its own, as Mars is between 34-250 million miles away from Earth, depending on the planetary rotation around the sun.
Unmanned spacecraft travelling to Mars have taken anywhere from 128 days to 333 days to reach the red planet.
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