NASA Scientists Gear Up for Solar Storms at Mars
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/maven-solar-wind-disappearance-mars-magnetosphere-bg.jpg)
Decaying orbits of exoplanets linked to stellar magnetic fields
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/extrasolar-spix-bg.jpg)
UC Irvine study bolsters dark matter existence theory
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/darkmatter-spix-bg.jpg)
PREFIRE mission will analyze polar energy exchanges
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/arctic-prefire-mission-concept-two-cubesats-bg.jpg)
Redefining engineering practices across NASA
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/satellite-tech-spix-bg.jpg)
Rocket Lab schedules dual launches for NASA's climate satellite missions
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/rocket-lab-electron-at-launch-complex-2-wallops-virginia-bg.jpg)
China's rocket engine test sets new thrust record
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/china-130-ton-reusable-liquid-oxygen-kerosene-test-fire-engine-stand-xian-marker-bg.jpg)
ESA advances two Thales Alenia Space AI projects for Fsat-2 orbital tests
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/microsat-spix-bg.jpg)
Galileo satellite constellation expands with two new additions
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/galileo-second-2nd-generation-satellites-marker-bg.jpg)
Saltzman: Space Force still grappling with refueling math
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 20:06Millennium Space lands $414 million contract to build missile-tracking satellites
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 17:08Boeing-built O3b mPOWER satellites begin service
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 16:52Chinese astronauts return to earth after six months in space
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 16:25![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the capsule of Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship carrying astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin touches down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The return capsule of China's Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship landed back on Earth Tuesday with three astronauts who have completed a six-month mission aboard the country's orbiting space station. Credit: Bei He/Xinhua via AP Chinese astronauts return to earth after six months in space](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2024/chinese-astronauts-ret.jpg)
Chinese astronauts return to Earth after 6 months on space station
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 16:25![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the capsule of Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship carrying astronauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin touches down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The return capsule of China's Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship landed back on Earth Tuesday with three astronauts who have completed a six-month mission aboard the country's orbiting space station. Credit: Bei He/Xinhua via AP Chinese astronauts return to earth after six months in space](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2024/chinese-astronauts-ret.jpg)
NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is in trouble—but it's a vital step to sending humans to the red planet
Tuesday, 30 April 2024 16:00![](/plugins/content/jlexcomment/assets/icon.png)
![Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is in trouble—but it's a vital step to sending humans to the red planet](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2024/nasas-mars-sample-retu.jpg)
NASA recently asked the scientific community to help come up with innovative ideas for ways to carry out its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This was in response to a report by an independent board that deemed that its US$11 billion (£8.7 billion) price tag was too expensive and its 2040 timeline too far in the future.
In brief, the ambitious plan was to collect rock samples cached inside containers by NASA's Perseverance rover and deliver them to laboratories on Earth. Perseverance has been exploring Mars' Jezero Crater, thought to have once hosted an ancient lake, since 2021. The mission would deliver the samples by sending a lander that carries a rocket (NASA's Sample Retrieval Lander) down to the surface of Mars.
Perseverance would then deliver the cached rock samples to the lander, with small drone helicopters delivered on the lander as a back up. Perseverance's samples would then be launched into Mars' orbit using the lander's rocket. A spacecraft already in Martian orbit, the Earth Return Orbiter, would then intercept these samples and deliver them to Earth.