Copernical Team
Mars rover mission could drive research for decades to come
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 Was there ever life on Mars? NASA's Perseverance rover wants to find out
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 In tit-for-tat move, Russia denies visa to NASA envoy
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 NASA Mars rover Perseverance hits 'bullseye' for Thursday landing
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 NASA rover attempting most difficult Martian touchdown yet
Spacecraft aiming to land on Mars have skipped past the planet, burned up on entry, smashed into the surface, and made it down amid a fierce dust storm only to spit out a single fuzzy gray picture before dying.
Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet.
The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8-kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta.
Russian cargo ship docks at International Space Station
Mars Relay Network connects Earth to NASA's robotic explorers
NASA's next Mars rover is ready for the most precise landing yet
What to expect when the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover arrives at the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021:
With about 2.4 million miles (3.9 million kilometers) left to travel in space, NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is days away from attempting to land the agency's fifth rover on the Red Planet.
Life as we do not know it: Astrobiology and the Mars 2020 mission
Life as we know it has never been found anywhere in our solar system or universe, other than on Earth. But that does not necessarily mean it is not out there.
The Mars 2020 mission is the first NASA mission with an explicit astrobiology component. Planned to be executed in multiple parts over decades, Mars 2020 and related missions aim to be the first to return samples of another planet for the purpose of examining them for signs of life.
But what do scientists hope to find? How will they know if or when they have found it? What does it mean for life on Earth if something is found, and what does it mean if it is not?
This is what happens to spacecraft when they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere
When one of the Russian Progress resupply ships undocks from the International Space Station, timing is everything. The Progress needs to fire its engines at just the right time to instigate the deorbit burn in order for the ship to enter the atmosphere at just the right place so that its destructive re-entry occurs over the Pacific Ocean. That way, any potential surviving bits and pieces that might reach Earth will hit far away from any land masses—which are home to people, buildings, and other things we don't want to get bonked.
Last week, the timing for the Progress MS-15 cargo ship was just right, so that the astronauts/cosmonauts on board the ISS could see the ship as it broke apart and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared the view on social media.
"Farewell, Progress 76P MS-15! #Russian cargo spacecraft undocked from #ISS, and successfully burned up," Noguchi tweeted, sharing a photo of the Progress' fiery demise.
Farewell, Progress 76P MS-15! #Russian cargo spacecraft undocked from #ISS, and successfully burned up. #ロシア プログレス宇宙船、役目を終えて大気圏突入時の夜空に燃え尽きる瞬間を見事に捉えました！#はやぶさ 思い出すと泣けます。。。 pic.twitter.com/2OLMrlmAKO
— NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口 聡－（のぐち そういち） (@Astro_Soichi) February 9, 2021
