That NASA intends to collect a sample from Mars and return it to Earth is well known — they’ve said so many times. But how would they go about scooping up soil from the surface of a distant planet and getting it back here? With a plan that sounds straight out of sci-fi.
Described by the project’s lead scientist in a virtual meeting reported by Nature , NASA and the European Space Agency’s proposed Mars sample retrieval program is perhaps the most ambitious interplanetary mission ever devised. (I’ve asked NASA for more details and will update this post if I hear back.)
Not to change the topic here:
Trailblazing Mars helicopter attached to Perseverance rover for July launch - India Gone Viral
The Mars Helicopter, visible in lower center of the image, was attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover at Kennedy Space Center on April 6, 2020. The helicopter will be deployed onto the Martian surface about two-and-a-half months after Perseverance lands.
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Perseverance’s descent stage was also fueled up last weekend, just before the helicopter integration, NASA officials said.
The descent stage is the rocket-powered sky crane that will lower Perseverance onto the Martian dirt via cables in February 2021. Gassing up the crane was no trivial task; the craft’s four tanks hold a total of 884 lbs. (401 kilograms) of hydrazine propellant, agency officials said.
NASA Spots "Dragon" in Stunning Mars Orbiter Image
NASA spotted a "dragon" in an image taken by the University of Arizona's HiRISE camera, attached to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Orbiter has been sending back invaluable information about the Red Planet's surface since it first reached Martian orbit back in 2006.
"We rotated this image of light-toned blocky material in southwestern Melas Chasma because from this perspective, it resembles a fabled Chinese dragon," reads a Saturday tweet by HiRISE's official Twitter account.
The Man Who Wanted to Fly on Mars – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
Mars Helicopter's chief engineer Bob Balaram and the Mars Helicopter on a test stand. The technology demonstration will ride aboard NASA's Perseverance rover to the Red Planet. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Mars Helicopter is riding to the Red Planet this summer with NASA's Perseverance rover. The helicopter's chief engineer, Bob Balaram, shares the saga of how it came into being.
Even before this interviewer can finish the question, "Did anyone ever tell you this was a crazy idea?" Bob Balaram jumps in: "Everyone. All the time."
In case you are keeping track:
Alien on Mars shock: ET enthusiast believes he has found UFO base on Mars | Weird | News |
Mr Waring believes the base leads to an underground lair where aliens reside, while nearby is an extraterrestrial craft.
The UFO enthusiast wrote on his blog ET Database: "I believe the photo was taken in 1999 and shows a huge rectangular structure with a large opening in it.
"The opening seems to go below the ground, which leads me to think there is an underground alien base here, or at least there was once long ago.
Wake Up on Mars Trailer: Dea Gjinovci’s Film Explores Immigrant Trauma | IndieWire
“Wake Up on Mars” is the feature debut of Swiss/Albanian director Gjinovci, who broke out of the 2019 Sundance Talent Forum and Film Independent fellowship. She said she drew inspiration for the film from a 2017 New Yorker article, “ The Trauma of Facing Deportation ,” about the effects of resignation syndrome on migrant children in Sweden.
Watch the trailer for “Wake Up on Mars” below, and stay tuned for details on how to watch the film digitally via the Tribeca Film Festival.
French scientist leverages lockdown as dry run for Mars mission | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al
French space scientists are using the COVID-19 lockdown as a dry run for what it will be like to be cooped up inside a spacecraft on a mission to Mars.
The guinea pigs in the experiment are 60 students who are confined to their dormitory rooms in the southern city of Toulouse - not far removed from the kind of conditions they might experience on a long space mission.
When the French government imposed movement restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, space researcher Stephanie Lizy-Destrez decided to make the most of a bad situation, and signed up the student volunteers.
Mars mission in danger? Astronauts' brains EXPAND in micro-gravity | Science | News |
However, in space, blood begins to pool in the optic nerve along with a surplus of fluid that expands the actual volume of an astronaut's brain.
Scientists from the University of Texas performed 10 MRI brain scans on astronauts before and after they spend time onboard the International Space Station.
The team found that long exposure to micro-gravity caused expansions in their brains and cerebrospinal fluid — the clear liquid that acts as a buffer for the brain.
Happening on Twitter
These are the highest-resolution views ever captured of the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona. This data from a… https://t.co/MoiNbA9WkT NASASun (from NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, MD) Fri Apr 17 15:41:39 +0000 2020
Simply enter your birth month and day https://t.co/yrKg3Uski8 designtaxi (from Everywhere) Sat Apr 18 19:45:05 +0000 2020
NASA reveals huge drop in air pollution over East Coast https://t.co/mkPfxMlctt https://t.co/T7psRrpRtz nypost (from New York, NY) Mon Apr 13 14:50:30 +0000 2020
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