Instruments tailored to co llect data during the descent of NASA's next rover through the Red Planet's atmosphere have been checked in flight.
On Oct. 8, 2020, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place, team members of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission waited for a reply from the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) suite onboard the spacecraft, which is currently en route to the Red Planet.
MEDLI2 is a collection of sensors that will measure aerothermal environments and thermal protection system material performance during the atmospheric entry phase of the Mars 2020 mission.
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NASA's Perseverance Rover Bringing 3D-Printed Metal Parts to Mars | NASA
Mars to shine bright during October 'opposition'
For most of October, Mars will be brighter in the night sky than anything else in its vicinity, offering people a clear view of the red planet. Mars is also days away from reaching "opposition," a celestial alignment in which Earth, Mars and the sun form a straight line in space, with Earth in the middle.
Mars will be at opposition Oct. 13. On that day, Mars will rise as the sun sets, reach its peak in the night sky at midnight, and then set as the sun rises again. If it's a clear night, skywatchers can expect the red planet to outshine anything else in its region of the sky.
ISRO finds that Mars is losing its atmosphere faster than Earth, and planet-encircling dust
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Capturing Heat-Driven Atmospheric Tides on Mars - Eos
On Mars, heat from the Sun drives daily changes in temperature, wind, and pressure in the atmosphere. Known as atmospheric tides, these regular patterns play a major role in shaping the planet's weather.
Atmospheric tides exist on Earth as well, but they have a much greater influence in Mars's thin atmosphere . The details and drivers of atmospheric tides on Mars have remained unclear, however. Now Forbes et al . present new spacecraft data and model simulations that deepen our understanding of tidal patterns in the middle and upper atmosphere of Mars.
Surviving Mars missions will take planning and lots of innovation | Science News for Students
It will also be a long trip. "The moon was like a camping trip when you think about going to Mars," says Erik Antonsen. He's an emergency medicine physician and aerospace engineer. He works at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"The reality is, when we do the first missions to Mars, there's a high likelihood that somebody may die," Antonsen says. "If someone goes out and they get an abrasion on their eyeball and it's not responding to whatever [is] on the vehicle, they're coming back one-eyed Jack."
Sols 2919-2920: Penultimate Plan – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
We are in the homestretch of our time at the “Mary Anning” and “Groken” drill sites, and today’s plan checks off some of the final important boxes to complete our analyses here before we head back uphill. With sample delivered to SAM, we will clear the remaining sample out of the drill and have a look at the discarded sample with MAHLI and APXS.
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.
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