About a month after the new year has started on Earth, three spacecraft will pull into the vicinity of Mars. These explorers, which launched in July last year, will be heralds of a busy year of space exploration, launches and astronomical occurrences.
Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that's out of this world.
The United Arab Emirates, China and the United States all launched robotic missions to Mars last summer , seeking shortened voyages during the period every two years when Earth is closest to the red planet. The three spacecraft will join a bustling community of explorers either in orbit or on the planet's surface.
And here's another article:
A Martian Roundtrip: NASA's Perseverance Rover Sample Tubes – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
Marvels of engineering, the rover's sample tubes must be tough enough to safely bring Red Planet samples on the long journey back to Earth in immaculate condition.
About the size and shape of a standard lab test tube, the 43 sample tubes headed to Mars must be lightweight and hardy enough to survive the demands of the round trip, and so clean that future scientists will be confident that what they're analyzing is 100% Mars.
The practice of engineering containers to ferry samples from other worlds goes back to Apollo 11. When Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin returned to Earth with 47.7 pounds (21.8 kilograms) of samples from the Moon's Sea of Tranquility in 1969, they carried them in two triple-sealed, briefcase-size aluminum boxes .
NASA Moves Forward With Campaign to Return Mars Samples to Earth – NASA's Mars Exploration
Mars 2020 Collecting Sample (Artist's Concept): In this illustration, NASA's Mars 2020 rover uses its drill to core a rock sample on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
During this next phase, the program will mature critical technologies and make critical design decisions as well as assess industry partnerships.
NASA has approved the Mars Sample Return (MSR) multi-mission effort to advance to Phase A, preparing to bring the first pristine samples from Mars back to Earth. During this phase, the program will mature critical technologies and make critical design decisions as well as assess industry partnerships.
2021 calendar of events in space: Mars landings, eclipses, launches - Business Insider
In 2021, space exploration is expected to ramp up even further. SpaceX and Boeing plan to fly new astronaut crews, rovers and orbiters are on their way to Mars, and NASA is setting out to punch an asteroid. Hardly a few weeks will go by without a launch, meteor shower, or new findings from a probe somewhere in the solar system.
The Quadrantids can be one of the most remarkable shooting-star displays of the year, since it produces bright fireball meteors. Unlike most meteor showers, which come from comets, the Quadrantids originate from an asteroid called 2003 EH1.
Not to change the topic here:
NASA's First Mars Flyby Set The Stage For Today's Rovers
NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral on November 28, 1964, became the first successful flyby of the red planet, returning the first close up pictures of Mars from space. But what its 21 crude images relayed to an eager team of scientists back on Earth was that Mars was far different than initially imagined.
This was a feat that would not have been possible without NASA's nascent deep space network, now a mainstay of all of the space agency's deep space communications with its planetary probes.
Designing an airplane that can fly on Mars! - Sciworthy
Until recently, no attempt has been made to fly an aircraft in the Martian atmosphere. On Mars, in fact, the air is much thinner than on Earth. This means that the air pressure is less than 1% of Earth's. So, the main source of hesitation for engineers was whether there could be sufficient lift. Now we have the answer.
A study published in June 2020 by Oliviu Şugar-Gabor and Andreea Koreanschi from the University of Salford in the UK analyzed a possible shape for the cross section of a wing (technically called airfoil) that would be suitable for flight at speeds close to the speed of sound (high subsonic) in the Martian atmosphere.
All about Starlink, SpaceX's budding internet-satellite business - Business Insider
"We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more advanced rockets and spaceships," Musk told reporters during a May 2019 teleconference call. "We think this is a key stepping stone on the way towards establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars and a base on the moon."
Insider has dug up documents, received and analyzed closely held information from insiders, spoken to testers and analysts, and more in the name of getting inside an effort that could change how and where millions of people get online, all while powering Musk's Martian dream.
3 Things We've Learned From NASA's Mars InSight – NASA's Mars Exploration Program
InSight Images Clouds on Mars: Clouds drift over the dome-covered seismometer, known as SEIS, belonging to NASA's InSight lander, on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
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NASA's InSight spacecraft touched down Nov. 26, 2018, on Mars to study the planet's deep interior. A little more than one Martian year later, the stationary lander has detected more than 480 quakes and collected the most comprehensive weather data of any surface mission sent to Mars. InSight's probe, which has struggled to dig underground to take the planet's temperature, has made progress , too.
Happening on Twitter
LIVE: How does the @Space_Station serve as a testbed for deep space exploration to the Moon and Mars? In a… https://t.co/8ajDQf6f0M NASA Tue Dec 29 20:00:40 +0000 2020
.@NASA is sending a nuclear power system to the lunar surface by the late 2020s. The demonstration is the next BIG… https://t.co/ClJSLpNSyU GovNuclear (from Washington, DC) Sun Dec 27 20:55:02 +0000 2020
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