
Copernical Team
Life of a pure Martian design

America has sent five rovers to Mars -- when will humans follow?

NASA's Perseverance Rover Sends Sneak Peek of Mars Landing

NASA's Perseverance rover beams back spectacular new images

Northrop Grumman ready for next ISS supply run

NASA, Boeing update Starliner orbital flight test date

America has sent five rovers to Mars—when will humans follow?

With its impeccable landing on Thursday, NASA's Perseverance became the fifth rover to reach Mars—so when can we finally expect the long-held goal of a crewed expedition to materialize?
NASA's current Artemis program is billed as a "Moon to Mars" mission, and acting administrator Steve Jurczyk has reiterated his aspiration of "the mid-to-end of the 2030s" for American boots on the Red Planet.
But while the trip is technologically almost within grasp, experts say it's probably still decades out because of funding uncertainties.
Mars landing team 'awestruck' by photo of descending rover

The world got its first close-up look at a Mars landing on Friday, as NASA released a stunning picture of its newest rover being lowered onto the dusty red surface.
The photo was released less than 24 hours after the Perseverance rover successfully touched down near an ancient river delta, where it will search for signs of ancient life and set aside the most promising rock samples for return to Earth in a decade.
NASA equipped the spacecraft with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which were turned on during Thursday's descent.
The rover is shown in extraordinary detail just 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) off the ground, being lowered by cables attached to an overhead sky crane, the red dust kicked up by rocket engines.
Space Force sounds like a joke thanks to pop culture—that could be a problem for an important military branch

The U.S. Space Force has a serious role to play in the modern world. Its stated mission is to train and equip personnel to defend U.S. interests in space. Given the increasing military and economic importance of space, the USSF is likely to grow in importance.
But a quick internet search shows that for most people, the Space Force is more a meme than a military branch. It has been the subject of jokes on "Saturday Night Live," and Netflix was working on a comedy show before the service was officially formed.
'Perseverance will get you anywhere': After 300-million-mile journey, NASA's Mars rover shares Twitter updates

"I'm safe on Mars" isn't a tweet you see every day.
It's the update provided by the Twitter account for NASA's Perseverance rover (@NASAPersevere) after it successfully landed Thursday on the Red Planet. The tweet went out to a rapidly-growing audience of more than 1.2 million followers, with promises of more to come in the future.
The tweet, which gathered more than 480,000 likes as of Thursday night, punctuated a 300-million-mile voyage and coincided with the rover's 3:55 p.m. EST landing. "Perseverance will get you anywhere," indeed.