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Chinese scientists disagree that India was the first country in history to land on the South Pole of the Moon. Moreover, according to them, the Chandrayaan-3 mission did not even conquer the circumpolar region. Here's What We Know In mid-summer 2023, a GSLV Mk III rocket sent the Pragyan rover with the Vikram landing module to the Moon as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. A few weeks later, the lunar rover landed on our planet's natural satellite. One of the heads of the Chinese lunar programme Ouyang Ziyuan believes that technically Chandrayaan-3 is not the conquest of neither the South...

China Mars Rover Zhu Rong successfully lands on Mars after “9 minutes of terror” - NASA’s name for the interval when engineers on earth have no control or oversight of the rover because of radio signal delay. This means the rover must land without human intervention. Launched into orbit in the summer of 2020, the spacecraft circled Mars before attempting a landing.An American Rover, the Perseverance, landed on Mars a few months earlier and is still active raising competition between China and the US on Earth and in Space. Zhu Ring’s next mission is to collect and analyze data on...

NASA's Curiosity rover has a knack for snapping eye-opening pictures of the Gale Crater on Mars. There was the (actually very small) "doorway" recently and then a facelike cliff last year. The latest "wow, look at that" image to come to my attention shows two delicate, gravity-defying formations reaching upward from the dusty Martian surface. The SETI Institute -- a research organization focused on searching for life in the universe -- highlighted the image in a tweet last week, calling it a "cool rock." SETI offered a possible explanation for the fantastical shapes: "The spikes are most likely the cemented...

The Yutu-2 rover is on a roll. It's been exploring the far side of the moon since early 2019, as part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander mission. It now has its eyes set on a strange-looking cube-shaped object it spotted in the distance. Yutu-2's view of the cube is fuzzy and far-off, so the object's true nature should become clearer as the rover gets closer. The most likely explanation is a boulder. This part of the moon is pockmarked with impact craters, which can feature quite a bit of chunky debris. The Chang'e-4 mission represents the first surface exploration of...

A researcher from The University of Western Ontario has helped solve a 37-year old space mystery using lunar images released yesterday by NASA and maps from his own atlas of the moon. Phil Stooke, a professor cross appointed to Western's Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Geography, published a major reference book on lunar exploration in 2007 entitled, "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration." Yesterday, images and data from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were posted. The LRO, scheduled for a one year exploration mission about 31 miles above the lunar surface, will produce a comprehensive map, search for resources...

In 2023, NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land near the western edge of the Nobile Crater at the Moon’s South Pole to map and explore the region’s surface and subsurface for water and other resources. Part of Artemis, VIPER will launch on a SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket for delivery to the Moon by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The Moon’s South Pole is one of the coldest areas in our solar system. No prior missions to the Moon’s surface have explored it – scientists have thus far only studied the region using remote...

A light-colored "paver stone" like the ones seen in this mosaic will be the likely target for first sampling by the Perseverance rover. The image was taken on July 8, 2021 in the "Cratered Floor Fractured Rough" geologic unit at Jezero Crater. NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater called the "Cratered Floor Fractured Rough." This important mission milestone is expected to begin within...

Ever wondered how Mars rovers take a selfie? Color video from NASA's Perseverance shows how the rover captured the historic April 6, 2021, image of itself beside the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. As a bonus, the rover's entry, descent, and landing microphone captured the sound of the arm's motors whirring during the process. Selfies allow engineers to check wear and tear on the rover. But they also inspire a new generation of space enthusiasts: Many rover team members can cite a favorite image that sparked their interest in NASA. "I got into this because I saw a picture from Sojourner, NASA's...

Around 10:40 a.m. Saturday Beijing time, China’s first Mars rover officially drove down its landing platform ramp and began roaming the Red Planet, China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. CNSA release another photograph (here’s the first) of the rover, called Zhurong, which touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a large plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, last Saturday. Landing on the Red Planet is dangerous – CNSA said last week it was “nine minutes of terror” as the lander descended toward the planet’s surface at a high rate of speed, and the thin atmosphere didn’t have...

After making the first-ever powered flight on another world, NASA's Mars 2020 mission has managed another key first that could pave the way for future astronauts by making breathable oxygen out of the wispy Martian air. NASA announced that an instrument aboard the rover had successfully extracted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on Mars and then electrochemically split oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules. The Martian atmosphere is about 95% carbon dioxide. The remainder is mostly nitrogen and argon. The feat, announced Wednesday, is considered vital to any long-term stay for humans on Mars, as bringing an ample supply of...

Nasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. Mission managers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed. The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly...

Perseverance has successfully landed Mars, picture and video have already been received..... Really incredible...

Posted on February 17, 2021February 17, 2021 by Evan GoughNASA’s Perseverance Rover: The Most Ambitious Space Mission Ever?When it comes to Mars exploration, NASA has more success than any other agency. This week, they’ll attempt to land another sophisticated rover on the Martian surface to continue the search for evidence of ancient life. The Mars Perseverance rover will land on Mars on Thursday, February 18th, and it’s bringing some very ambitious technologies with it.Whatever your opinion of the USA is, you have to acknowledge NASA’s position as the world’s premier space exploration agency. That’s no slight against the ESA or...

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has been attached to the top of the rocket that will send it toward the Red Planet this summer. Encased in the nose cone that will protect it during launch, the rover and the rest of the Mars 2020 spacecraft – the aeroshell, cruise stage, and descent stage – were affixed to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster on Tuesday, July 7, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Central Florida. The process began when a 60-ton hoist on the roof of the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 lifted the nose cone,...

Perseverance's descent stage was also fueled up last weekend, just before the helicopter integration, NASA officials said. The descent stage is the rocket-powered sky crane that will lower Perseverance onto the Martian dirt via cables in February 2021. Gassing up the crane was no trivial task; the craft's four tanks hold a total of 884 lbs. (401 kilograms) of hydrazine propellant, agency officials said. "The last hundred days before any Mars launch is chock-full of significant milestones," David Gruel, the Mars 2020 assembly, test and launch operations manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a...

Curiosity Mars Rover Snaps 1.8 Billion Pixel Panorama This panorama showcases Glen Torridon a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring. The panorama was taken between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 2019, when the Curiosity team was out for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since it would be sitting still with few other tasks to do while it waited for the team to return, the rover had a rare chance to image its surroundings several days in a row without moving. For more about the mission, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/msl

When Pennsylvania-based aerospace company Astrobotic launches its lander to the Moon within the next couple of years, a four-wheeled robot no bigger than a toaster will be along for the ride. The robotic rover, built by Carnegie Mellon University, will help test just how small rovers can get and still survive on the Moon’s surface.Last week, NASA awarded Astrobotic a contract of $79.5 million to carry up to 14 NASA-sponsored payloads on its lander, named Peregrine. Along with those, the lander will carry another 14 from other commercial companies, research organizations, and space agencies. That’s a total of 28 payloads...

The Mars 2020 rover is set to land in Jezero Crater, which scientists estimate was once filled with water. Photo by NASA/MRO ================================================================= May 28 (UPI) -- A new photo captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and shared online this week features the landing site for the space agency's Mars 2020 mission. The Mars 2020 rover, scheduled to launch next year, is expected to land in the Jezero Crater, located in a region of Mars known as the Syrtis Major quadrangle. The crater is thought to have once been filled with water, and its watery history is visible in the...

NASA's next Mars mission is slowly coming together in a "clean room" in California. Technicians at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory assembled the capsule that will keep the Mars 2020 rover secure for its wild ride to the Red Planet's surface. After leaving Earth next summer, Mars 2020 will spend about seven months flying towards the Red Planet before a spectacular entry at its destination, including a repeat of the famous "7 minutes of terror" sequence that brought NASA's Curiosity rover to the planet's surface in 2012. (The Mars 2020 rover and Curiosity have similar body frames, although they carry...

"Our results support the idea that methane release on Mars might be characterized by small, transient geological events," researcher Frank Daerden said. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe measured methane in the Martian atmosphere a day after NASA's Curiosity rover detected the gas in Gale Crater. Photo by ESA ============================================================= April 2 (UPI) -- Some 15 years ago, a European probe measured traces of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Now, NASA's Curiosity rover and the European Space Agency's Mars Express have confirmed the gas' presence in the air above Gale Crater. "The presence of methane could enhance habitability and...