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Pieces of humanity’s first powered aircraft have orbited Earth, ventured to the Moon, and now, they’ve hovered above Mars’ surface.***Mars, the solar system’s fourth planet, is a cold, craggy, two-mooned world named for the Roman God of war, which is fitting considering its rusty red surface gives it a blood-stained hue. Located some 293 million miles from Earth, Mars — with its thin atmosphere, colossal canyons, and towering Olympus Mons volcano — has long mystified humanity. But today, April 19, 2021, a powerful yet petite helicopter briefly hovered above the Red Planet’s surface, taking what could be a paradigm-shifting step...

Explanation: The Perseverance rover's Mastcam-Z captured images to create this mosaic on August 4, 2022. The car-sized robot was continuing its exploration of the fan-shaped delta of a river that, billions of years ago, flowed into Jezero Crater on Mars. Sedimentary rocks preserved in Jezero's delta are considered one of the best places on Mars to search for potential signs of ancient microbial life and sites recently sampled by the rover, dubbed Wildcat Ridge and Skinner Ridge, are at lower left and upper right in the frame. The samples taken from these areas were sealed inside ultra-clean sample tubes, ultimately...

Explanation: After arriving at Jezero Crater on Mars, Perseverance went for a spin on March 4. This sharp image from the car-sized rover's Navcam shows tracks left by its six wheels in the martian soil. In preparation for operations on the surface of the Red Planet, its first drive lasted about 33 minutes. On a short and successful test drive Perseverance moved forward 4 meters, made a 150 degree turn in place, backed up for 2.5 meters, and now occupies a different parking space at its newly christened Octavia E. Butler Landing location. Though the total travel distance of the...

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,...

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...