The search for life beyond Earth
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 15:48
Mars may now be considered a barren, icy desert but did Earth's nearest neighbour once harbour life?
It is a question that has preoccupied scientists for centuries and fired up sci-fi imaginings.
After seven months in space, NASA's Perseverance rover is due to land on Mars on Thursday, in search of clues.
Why Mars?
Other planets or moons, could also harbour forms of life, so why pick Mars?
NASA says Mars is not just one of the more accessible places in the solar system and a potential future destination for humans, but exploring the planet could also help to answer "origin and evolution of life questions".
"Mars is unique across the entire solar system in that it is a terrestrial planet with an atmosphere and climate, its geology is known to be very diverse and complex (like Earth), and it appears that the climate of Mars has changed over its history (like Earth)," it adds on its Mars programme website.
China assembling rocket to launch first space station module
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 14:02
HELSINKI — The Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket to launch China’s first space station module is soon to be assembled at Wenchang for launch in April.
Juno just saw a spacerock crash into Jupiter
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 13:29
Timing is extraordinarily important in many aspects of astronomy. If an astronomer or their instrument is looking the wrong way at the wrong time, they could miss something spectacular. Alternatively, there are moments when our instruments capture something unexpected in regions of space that we were searching for something else. That is exactly what happened recently when a team of scientists, led by Rohini Giles at the Southwest Research Institute, saw an image of what is likely a meteor impacting Jupiter's atmosphere.
The team collects data from the UVS, one of the instruments on Juno, NASA's mission tasked with studying the largest solar system planet up close. UVS is Juno's ultraviolet spectrograph, which collects data in the ultraviolet spectra from 68-210 nm. Its primary mission is to study Jupiter's atmosphere and watch for its breathtaking auroras.
Recently, when reviewing a batch of images that came in from the sensor, one of Dr. Giles' colleagues noticed a huge spike in brightness in an area outside of the normal auroral zone. As with much other science, this discovery started with someone finding interesting data when they didn't expect to see it.
Helicopter and other technology demos hitch a ride on Mars 2020
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 12:54
WASHINGTON — While the primary focus of the Mars 2020 mission will be the search for evidence of past Martian life, the rover mission carries several other payloads that could support future robotic and human missions to the red planet.
The multi-decade challenge of Mars Sample Return
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 12:42
This month the Martian invasion fleet arrives — the fleet of terrestrial spacecraft invading Mars, that is.
On Feb. 9, Hope, the United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars, entered orbit around the planet to study its atmosphere.
Report calls for revamped cost-conscious vision for Mars exploration
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 12:38
With NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover ready to begin its multiyear mission to collect rocks and soil for future retrieval, planetary scientists are concerned other Mars research goals could suffer during the decade-long wait for those samples to complete their three-legged relay back to Earth.
Starliner test flight slips to early April
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 11:35
WASHINGTON — A second uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle will be delayed by a little more than a week to replace hardware damaged during processing of the spacecraft.
In statements issued Feb.
Image:
Flying fire watch 
NASA Mars rover Perseverance hits 'bullseye' for Thursday landing
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
NASA's new Mars rover, Perseverance, traveled through space to the precise location needed to land successfully Thursday at its intended crater on the Red Planet, agency controllers said.
Landing is planned at around 3:55 p.m. EST in Jezero Crater, which is an ancient lakebed the size of California's Lake Tahoe, on the planet's northern hemisphere.
"We are right where we want to In tit-for-tat move, Russia denies visa to NASA envoy
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
Moscow on Wednesday said it had refused a visa for a new representative in Russia for the US space agency NASA, accusing Washington of blocking Russian visa applications to the United States.
"It was a retaliatory measure," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
Citing sources in the space sector, RIA Novosti reported that Russia in Ja Was there ever life on Mars? NASA's Perseverance rover wants to find out
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
Seven months in space, a mission that was decades in the making and cost billions of dollars, all to answer the question: was there ever life on Mars?
NASA's Perseverance rover prepares for touchdown on the Red Planet Thursday to search for telltale signs of microbes that might have existed there billions of years ago, when conditions were warmer and wetter than they are today.
Over the Mars rover mission could drive research for decades to come
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
After NASA attempts Thursday to land the biggest, heaviest vehicle sent to Mars yet - no small feat - scientists have planned an ambitious mission for exploration of the Red Planet's surface and collection of samples to be sent home.
The Perseverance rover will start by landing in an area filled with danger, chosen specifically for the potential of what can be discovered there.
"The '7 minutes of terror': Perserverance rover's nail-biting landing phase
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
Seven months after blast-off, NASA's Mars 2020 mission will have to negotiate its shortest and most intense phase on Thursday: the "seven minutes of terror" it takes to slam the brakes and land the Perseverance rover on a narrow target on the planet's surface.
Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) begins when the spacecraft carrying Perseverance strikes the Martian atmosphere at nearly 12,500 mi Searching for life in NASA's Perseverance Mars samples
Wednesday, 17 February 2021 09:43
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will be the agency's ninth mission to land on the Red Planet. Along with characterizing the planet's geology and climate, and paving the way for human exploration beyond the Moon, the rover is focused on astrobiology, or the study of life throughout the universe. Perseverance is tasked with searching for telltale signs that microbial life may have lived on Mar