Liquid fresh water can't exist for long on the frigid Martian surface; the stuff quickly freezes or boils away into the planet's thin atmosphere . But brines — supersalty water — have much lower freezing points and can persist in liquid form on the Red Planet for longer stretches.
Scientists have seen possible evidence of such liquid brines over the years in the form of dark streaks on warm Red Planet slopes imaged by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. ( Not everyone is convinced that liquid water is involved in the formation of these " recurring slope lineae ," however.)
Quite a lot has been going on:
Image: Sculpted by nature on Mars
Such a phenomenon is at play in this image from Mars Express, which shows part of Tempe Fossae, a series of faults that cuts across the region of Tempe Terra in Mars' northern highlands.
Upon first glance, it is difficult to tell if ground is rising up, sinking down, or a mix of both. The landscape here is scratched, scored, and wrinkled: ridges slice across the frame, interspersed with the odd impact crater, and the entire region is full of cliffs and chasms.
Mind-blowing photo series of Mars surface published by Nasa – revealing stunning alien landscapes
Snapped by a Nasa probe orbiting the Red Planet, the pictures show some of the breathtaking scenery of Earth's mysterious neighbour.
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In one photo, cascading sedimentary rock is pictured in stunning orange and blue at the Meridiani Planum region, near the Martian equator.
In another, a topographical heat map of the planet's surface reveals the many hills and craters that dot its barren landscape.
One snap even shows Curiosity - Nasa's $2billion rover that has roamed the planet since 2012 - trundling across Martian soil on one of its missions.
Your salad, grown on Mars, may soon be a reality - world news - Hindustan Times
New insights released on Friday show that plant seeds taken to Mars on the International Space Station (ISS) and spent six months there grow only slightly slower when back on Earth, raising the prospect of growing food on the red planet.
Two kg of rocket seeds were on board the ISS with British European Space Agency astronaut, Tim Peake, as part of his Principia mission. They absorbed up to 100 times more radiation than on Earth and were subjected to intense vibrations from the stresses and strains of space travel.
Other things to check out:
NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Scientists Train in the Nevada Desert – NASA's Mars Exploration
Rather than bringing a car-sized rover, the seven field team members stood in for it. Wielding cameras and portable spectrometers during simulated operations spread out over a two-week period, they received instructions from the scientists located elsewhere, just as the rover will after it lands on Feb. 18, 2021.
Like all Mars rovers, Perseverance will be run by a distributed team of scientists and engineers — some located in the operations center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which leads the new mission, and some located at research institutions around the world. They will discuss where to go, which samples to study, and — for the first time — which rocks to collect in metal tubes for eventual return to Earth for deeper study.
Sols 2763-2764: Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is Getting Ready – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
There was a hiccup with the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument in Monday’s plan preventing it from running the “preconditioning” steps to get ready for sample analysis, but after studying the issue the SAM team says that everything looks ok. So, we’re planning to try again with SAM preconditioning on the afternoon of sol 2763, so that we can go ahead with a SAM analysis of the "Glasgow" drill sample over the weekend.
These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.
NASA starts packing Mars rover Perseverance ahead of July launch | Space
NASA continues to gear up for the launch of its next Mars rover, which is now just over two months away.
Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have begun stacking the Perseverance Mars rover and its associated hardware in the right configuration for liftoff, which will occur during a three-week window that opens on July 17.
The stacking process began on April 23, NASA officials said. On that day, the car-size rover was integrated with its "sky crane" descent stage, which will lower Perseverance to the Martian surface on cables. (This sci-fi-seeming strategy already has one successful touchdown under its belt — the landing of Perseverance's predecessor, the Mars rover Curiosity , in August 2012.)
NASA's bold Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, could open the skies on other worlds - CNET
CNET science editor Jackson Ryan breaks down how the high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration could change the way we learn about worlds beyond our own.
NASA hopes Ingenuity will become the first example of powered flight on another planet. It won't be easy considering how different conditions on Mars are from Earth.
Perseverance and its chopper buddy are prepared to launch as early as July for a scheduled Mars arrival in February 2021. Does Mars have friendly skies? Hopefully, we'll find out next year.
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