A new image from the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft shows how beautiful, and desolate, Mars can appear. It also highlights some of the natural process that shape the planet's surface.
The image is of the northern polar region, and it features bright patches of ice, deep dark troughs, and evidence of storms and strong winds.
Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars' seasons most closely resemble Earth's, although the Martian year is about twice as long as Earth's. The north pole goes through many changes throughout the seasons. The region is covered in layers of ice that experience subtle shifts in both their composition and extent.
Not to change the topic here:
NASA Curiosity rover takes closer look at 'strange trough' on Mars - CNET
"In the images from orbit, it looks like someone drew a thick straight line with a dark felt marker on the southeastern side of the butte," Curiosity team member Melissa Rice , a planetary geologist at Western Washington University, wrote in a mission update this week titled A Strange Trough on Western Butte.
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The rover has been tasked with capturing more images of the area for scientists to study. "We don't know what created this feature, or why it happens to be right here," Rice wrote, "so it's worth stopping for a closer look."
Elon Musk drops details for SpaceX Mars mega-colony - CNET
Musk doesn't just want to launch a few intrepid souls to Mars, he wants to send a whole new nation. He tossed out a goal of building 100 Starships per year to send about 100,000 people from Earth to Mars every time the planets' orbits line up favorably.
Building 100 Starships/year gets to 1000 in 10 years or 100 megatons/year or maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync
The distance between Earth and Mars gets reasonably close roughly every 26 months. Musk's vision involves loading 1,000 Starships into orbit and then sending them off over the course of a month around prime time for a minimal commute. Travelers would still be looking at spending months on board before reaching the Red Planet.
NASA's Mars habitats could be made from a surprising material: fungi - CNET
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has funded research into the viability of myco-architecture processes that could harness fungi to grow habitats for the moon and Mars.
The concept focuses on the mycelia part of a fungus. "These tiny threads build complex structures with extreme precision, networking out into larger structures like mushrooms," NASA said in a statement on Tuesday . The agency posted a video describing the habitat idea and showing off some concept art.
Check out this next:
A Mars sample-return mission is coming. Scientists want the public to know what to expect. | Space
The first pristine pieces of Mars won't be coming down to Earth for at least another decade, but the time to start preparing society for the epic arrival is now, scientists say.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will work together to get those samples here. The current plan , which is not yet official, envisions two key launches in 2026. These will send ESA's Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) and NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) mission toward the Red Planet.
Europe's space agency has Mars and the sun in its sights for 2020 | News | Al Jazeera
"[It]is important at the beginning of a year to think about that it's not just another year. It's a very special year," Woerner said. "Everybody is talking about climate change as the predominant challenge. Yes, it is predominant, but we have also other challenges."
Woerner also said that in addition to continuing to study the environment on Earth, ESA aims to take a leading role in tackling space junk - mostly dead satellites and rocket parts that litter orbits around Earth.
The Key to Future Mars Exploration? Precision Landing | Space | Air & Space Magazine
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There’s a neon green ring on the image too: That’s the ellipse encompassing all the spots their rover might land. Most of the ring lies in the lakebed, but because Mars landing is still not an exact science, it also includes more treacherous terrain, like the rocky delta and a bit of the crater rim, as much as a kilometer high.
Tracing a finger on the computer screen, Stack Morgan maps her desired path. Ideally, they’ll land in the flats and drive uphill, so scientists can “read the rocks” from oldest to youngest. It’s like reading a book, she says: Skipping to the end might be satisfying, but context is what makes it most exciting.
Mars, already largely desert, is losing water quicker than expected, study says - CNN
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