Tag Archives: Mars

MNA Science & Technology Desk: NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover that went into hibernation last June after a massive dust storm blocked sunlight from reaching its solar panels to generate power, might have “died”, fear scientists. Opportunity’s last communication with Earth was received 10 June, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover’s location on the western rim of Perseverance Valley, eventually blocking out so much sunlight that the rover could no longer charge its batteries. Although the storm eventually abated and the skies over Perseverance cleared, the 15-year-old rover has not communicated with Earth since then. “I haven’t ...

MNA Science Desk: Using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft, scientists have spotted what they said on Wednesday appears to be a sizable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, a body of water they called a possible habitat for microbial life. The reservoir they detected — roughly 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, shaped like a rounded triangle and located about a mile (1.5 km) beneath the ice surface — represents the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars. The researchers said it could take years to verify whether something is ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: NASA said its Mars 2020 mission will have more “eyes” than any rover before it – a grand total of 23, to create sweeping panoramas, reveal obstacles, study the atmosphere and assist science instruments. They will provide dramatic views during the rover’s descent to Mars and be the first to capture images of a parachute as it opens on another planet. There will even be a camera inside the rover’s body, which will study samples as they are stored and left on the surface for collection by a future mission, NASA said on Tuesday. When ...

MNA Technology Desk: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a US space agency, has picked up six US companies to develop ground prototypes and ideas for deep space habitats for Mars. Habitation structures deliver a safe place for humans to live as scientists move beyond Earth on the journey to Mars. NASA and industry associates will enlarge commercial development of space in low-Earth orbit while also improving deep space survey competences to support more extensive human spaceflight missions through the public-private partnerships enabled by the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2). “NASA is on an ambitious expansion of ...