Showing posts with label Mars. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 February 2025

NASA: the Mars Report: Six Decades of Exploration

View Web Version | February 2025

The Mars Report from NASA — your source from the Red Planet, continuing six decades of unparalleled exploration and scientific discoveries. This newsletter will bring you mission updates, spacecraft news, science findings, unique Mars imagery — and a vision for the humanity-defining possibilities NASA's presence on Mars will unlock.

FEATURED

Planning the First Launch Ever from Another Planet

NASA is on track to return scientifically selected samples from Mars, announcing plans to proceed towards confirmation.

CATCH UP

Keep Track of a Busy Planet

Nine spacecraft explore Mars right now. NASA operates five of them — two surface rovers and three orbiters — and you can track their progress at any time. They talk to each other, and help each other talk to us, relaying their messages and data streams to Earth.

EXPLORE

Weather Report: Ice Avalanches with a Chance of Explosive Geysers

Martian new year brings dramatic changes — exploding jets of gas, windblown dunes, and more. We track it all from afar, with spacecraft like NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

WATCH

MORE ON MARS

Meet the Sample: 'Silver Mountain'

Perseverance rumbled out of Jezero Crater to explore the uncharted rim, discovering a fresh vantage point — and a very unusual rock. Meet the rover's 26th Martian sample, "Silver Mountain."

VIEW THE COLLECTION

Another Record: Going the Distance

Ingenuity, the plucky helicopter grounded by a broken rotor, managed one more distance record — 1.8 miles for its last communication with the Perseverance rover on Nov. 26, the farthest communication between two vehicles on the surface of Mars.

ALL ABOUT INGENUITY

Did You Know? Up a Dusty Trail

As of January 2025, Perseverance has rolled 20.35 miles (32.76 kilometers) to collect 26 samples of rock and regolith as well as one air sample.

DRIVE ON WITH PERSEVERANCE

IMAGE OF THE DAY

Olympus Mons

Mars' Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times higher than Mount Everest, was featured in a recent "Celebrity Jeopardy" question.

VIEW IMAGE

DOWNLOADS

Free posters. Collect them all.

MAVEN 10th Anniversary

Spirit and Opportunity 20th Anniversary

Curiosity 10th Anniversary

ROVER MISSION UPDATES

Get the latest details, direct from mission team members.

Perseverance Blog

READ THE BLOG

Curiosity Blog

READ THE BLOG

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Explore Mars

Facebook: @NASAPersevere, @MarsCuriosity, @NASAMars

X: @NASAPersevere, @MarsCuriosity, @NASAMars

Monday, 18 November 2024

Catching the Worm

I took this shot on holiday in Hornsea as the tide was fading on the beach.

I added some darkness for effect.

The little flat topped sand-worm mound reminded me of this snap of Olympus Mons on Mars taken by Mars Express I think (Wikipedia).

Jeepers, let's hope there's no ginormous Dune-like sand-worm beneath it just as we plan to visit the red planet!

The biggest mountain in the solar system and it's so close to us!

Tuesday, 11 June 2024

FROST ON MARS!

Just watching the news that morning frost has been seen on the mountains of Mars!

Polar ice was known about but equatorial frost wasn't.

How incredibly cool is that!

One hundred and fifty thousand tons of ice every sunrise at the top of the highest peaks in the solar system!

mars express/ news bank

If you had all of Gerry Anderson's vehicles, including Project SWORD and chuck in SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut too, which ones would you use to a. get to Mars and b. mine that ice at the top of giant mountains?

Is there a better toy space fleet you could send? Explorer12? Starcom! Multimac?

Current spacecraft will take 8 months to get there. How fast could you be?

Thoughts, plans, drawings and photos welcomed!