NASA announced Wednesday it was creating a new position of senior climate advisor as part of the administration of President Joe Biden's climate science objectives for the agency.

Gavin Schmidt, who currently heads up NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) in New York, will take the role in an acting capacity until a permanent appointment is made.

"This position will provide NASA leadership critical insights and recommendations for the agency's full spectrum of science, technology, and infrastructure programs related to climate," said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk.

NASA might be more known for its space exploration missions, but studying our home planet is also a core part of its mission.

The UPV/EHU's IBeA research group, which includes experts in Raman spectroscopy, is currently analyzing meteorites with the aim of developing non-destructive analytical strategies for upcoming explorations of Mars materials by the Perseverance rover, shortly due to arrive at the red planet. The strategies will also be used to examine materials collected by the Rosalind Franklin rover and returned to Earth following the Mars Sample Return mission, scheduled to commence in 2026.

The IBeA research group from the University of the Basque Country's Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, is participating in NASA's Mars2020 space mission, which is scheduled to touch down on Mars in February this year. Specifically, the group has participated in constructing and verifying the chemical homogeneity of the templates included on the calibration card of the SuperCam instrument mounted on the Perseverance. "We made a set of pads perfectly characterized in accordance the instruments we have here, in order to enable us to verify that the LIBS and Raman spectroscopy measurements taken by the SuperCam are correct," explains Doctor Cristina García-Florentino.

Telescopes have captured meteoroids hitting the Moon and several spacecraft imaged Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 smacking into Jupiter in 1994.

Even as the Perseverance rover approaches Mars, technology on board is paying off on Earth.

A laser-light sensor that can identify bacteria in a wound may sound far-fetched, but it's already becoming a reality, thanks in part to NASA's Mars Exploration Program. The technology is going to Mars for the first time on Perseverance, which will touch down on the Red Planet this month, but it's already detecting trace contaminants in pharmaceutical manufacturing, wastewater treatment, and other important operations on Earth.

Jared Isaacman is not a professional astronaut, but by the end of the year the young billionaire will have shot around the Earth multiple times at the helm of a space mission made up entirely of tourists.

The tech entrepreneur will blast off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, in what will be the first all-civilian mission into Earth's orbit, which he will command and pay for himself.

The mission, named Inspiration4, "is the first step in a world where everybody can go and journey among the stars," Isaacman said with an enormous grin as he explained the project to AFP in front of SpaceX's headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.