Many things are taking place:
Ancient Mars May Have Had Rings, Then Moons, Then Rings ... | Discover Magazine
For a long time after their discovery in 1877, scientists assumed Mars' two puny moons — Deimos and Phobos — were captured asteroids. This belief persisted until evidence revealed both moons formed at the same time as the Red Planet itself, and that the smaller one, Deimos, has a mysteriously tilted orbit. However, it wasn't until 2017 that researchers put forth a new idea that could explain why Deimos' orbit is slanted by 2 degrees.
"The fact that Deimos' orbit is not exactly in plane with Mars' equator was considered unimportant," said SETI Institute research scientist and lead author Matija Ćuk in a press release . "But once we had a big new idea and we looked at it with new eyes, Deimos' orbital tilt revealed a big secret."
SpaceX Mars city: Elon Musk confirms he's sticking to ambitious launch date
On Friday, CEO Elon Musk confirmed via Twitter that he's still aiming to launch the first ships to Mars by 2022. These ships will hold cargo designed to support a future manned mission. That mission will come in 2024, the next time when the Earth and Mars are close again.
Musk first outlined this target in a September 2017 presentation, where he described the BFR vehicle that would support this mission. At the time, Musk said the 2022 figure was "not a typo … although it is aspirational." A lot has changed since then – BFR became Starship, a mini-Starship flew, several prototypes exploded – but it seems Musk's determination to reach the red planet in super-fast time has not wavered.
Here's every place we've landed or crashed robots on Mars - CNET
Both NASA and China's space agency hope to launch new rovers for Mars in the coming weeks, and if they make it they'll become the 9th and 10th craft to successfully land on the surface of our planetary neighbor.
To mark the upcoming Martian launch season, which only occurs when the planets are best aligned for the trip every 26 months, the Planetary Society put together the below map of all 17 Mars landing attempts, past and future, up through the planned 2023 landing of a European rover and Russian lander.
Quite a lot has been going on:
NASA InSight Lander News | NASA Mars Research
One instrument, though, has had a difficult time breaking through the surface. The lander's temperature-sensing "mole," as it's known, was designed to take thermal readings just below Mars's surface, but it has struggled to stay inserted in the ground. It keeps pushing out.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is in charge of operating the instrument, has been toiling away at a solution. For months, the DLR team has been pushing down on the thin probe with the back of the lander's scoop. Finally, after spending more than a year of tinkering with the troublesome instrument, DLR has inserted the mole.
NASA InSight lander finally pushes its burrowing 'mole' into Mars - CNET
The InSight team shared a GIF of the process, which involved pushing on the top of the probe with the lander's scoop at the end of its robotic arm. This bit of good news suggests the mole's problem isn't a rock getting in its way, but rather the makeup of the martian soil at InSight's landing spot. The probe simply hasn't been able to get enough friction to progress downward.
The next crucial step is to see if the mole can dig on its own, a process DLR is calling the "free mole" test. If that works, great. If not, the team may try filling the hole with soil or using the edge of the scoop to push on the probe.
To infinity and beyond: How mankind is plotting a route to Mars | Shropshire Star
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Our New Map of Every Mars Landing Attempt, Ever | The Planetary Society
The Planetary Society has a new and improved guide to all the places we've landed—or crashed—on Mars
It’s almost Mars launch season again! Once every 26 months, as Earth runs on its inside track around the Sun, physics favors launches from our planet toward Mars. There are 3 Mars-bound missions that plan to launch in July, and 2 of them hope to land. (The one that won’t land is just named Hope .) NASA will be launching the Perseverance rover , and China its Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover .
Happening on Twitter
Our Mars rover @NASAPersevere is scheduled to launch July 17 at 9:15am ET. Credentials are now open to a limited nu… https://t.co/Hzejarlbue NASA Wed Jun 03 20:06:00 +0000 2020
