
Copernical Team
Saturn's High-Altitude Winds Generate Extraordinary Aurorae, Study Finds

Sols 3381-3382: Whence We Came

NASA awards contract for first rocket to launch from another planet

How Mars lost its oceans

NASA Prepares to Join Two Major Parts for Artemis II Core Stage

Gilmour Space, SENER Aeroespacial to develop Autonomous Flight Termination System for Eris rocket

Predicting the efficiency of oxygen-evolving electrolysis on the Moon and Mars

How easy is it to turn water into oxygen on Mars

Asteroid sharing Earth's orbit discovered - could it help future space missions?

Riding a laser to Mars

Could a laser send a spacecraft to Mars? That's a proposed mission from a group at McGill University, designed to meet a solicitation from NASA. The laser, a 10-meter wide array on Earth, would heat hydrogen plasma in a chamber behind the spacecraft, producing thrust from hydrogen gas and sending it to Mars in only 45 days. There, it would aerobrake in Mars' atmosphere, shuttling supplies to human colonists or, someday perhaps, even humans themselves.
In 2018, NASA challenged engineers to design a mission to Mars that would deliver a payload of at least 1,000 kilograms in no more than 45 days, as well as longer trips deep into, and out of, the solar system. The short delivery time is motivated by a desire to ferry shipments and, someday, astronauts to Mars while minimizing their exposure to the damaging effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar storms.