SPACEThe car-size robotic rover tag as the "Curiosity" of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA has recently captured a 'crab-like' image on the red planet's surface.
It seems the University of Alabama is now known for more than just their championships in athletics, as a group of engineering and computer science students are adding even more academic trophies in a national robotics competition held by NASA.
NASA has begun testing its latest Mars Lander, called InSight, that is set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and land on Mars approximately six months later. Once on the surface, the mission is scheduled to last approximately two Earth years, or 720 Earth days and is expected to begin delivering data in October 2016.
The team in charge of the Curiosity rover recently had to find a new route to some interesting rocks that they wanted to study because the original path proved too difficult for the rover to safely traverse.
Scientists have wondered for over 50 years if Mars contained and was emitting Methane. Now, a spike in methane has scientists puzzled. Did the spike come from the Red Planet or was it simply caused by the rovers scouring the planet?
NASA's Curiosity Rover has been on the move heading towards some interesting rocks for further study. However, its chosen path proved to be too difficult for it to traverse due to the slippery slopes of the Martian mountain. However, scientists in charge of the mission were able to find a new path to the rocks that proved much safer and easier for the rover.
The moons of Mars weren’t discovered until after many of the moons around other planets had already been found. In the late 1800s astronomer Asaph Hall finally found the two moons of the Red Planet that he named Phobos and Deimos.
The European Space Agency has found what it believes to be a supervolcano on the surface of Mars that could be the Red Planet's equivalent of Yellowstone. The massive crater has been measured to be 40 kilometers by 30 kilometers and drops as low as 1,750 meters.
While Mars is no Earth, many scientists believe that there could still could be life on the surface of the Red Planet just waiting for us to discover, despite the differences between the two planets. So why do scientists believe there could still be life on Mars?
A truly innovative new idea could one day allow us to attach small robotic probes to hand gliders and land them in potentially intricate and difficult to reach locations on the surface of Mars.
Does the Earth need a flag? Right now, maybe not, at least not until we have actually land on another planet such as Mars or meet an alien civilization for the first time. But that doesn’t mean that designing one is pointless, and a new project has proven exactly that.
Traveling to Mars and beyond will be one of the top subjects that are discussed at a five-day international space development conference held in Toronto this week.
NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are hoping that additive construction innovators will design a deep space exploration habitat and then fabricate it in a new competition worth US $1.1 million for each of two winners. Phase One registration opened at the Bay Area Maker Faire on Saturday, and the second stage begins September 27.
While much attention has been paid to Martian exploration in recent years, there remains a dedicated cadre of scientists focused on Earth's twin, Venus. And in a recent press release from Northrup Grumman, plans for a new vehicle were unveiled that just might provide a bird's eye view of this hot and hostile planet.
Humans have always fantasized about "little green men" on Mars, and now scientists have created a new way to search for traces of alien life on the Red Planet.
As scientists around the world work feverishly to meet the 2030 deadline for sending humans to Mars, one of their most critical issues - oxygen production - may be solved by two very basic organisms: bacteria and algae.
NASA is already in the planning stages for a future trip to Mars, and one of the hurdles they must jump is how humans will breath on the Red Planet. However, instead of carrying huge oxygen tanks, future human missions may actually utilize methods to actually produce the life giving gas on the planet itself.
Assuming that NASA receives the funding necessary and makes the technological advances that are needed in space travel, the first humans could land on Phobos, one of the moon's of Mars, by 2033 and on the surface of the Red Planet by 2039, according NASA.
Space may be vast and so large it is often beyond our true comprehension, but our neck of the woods is getting very crowded. Around Earth, there are thousands of satellites both active and inactive often requiring precise control to ensure there are no collisions. While Mars isn't exactly LAX, there are now five different active satellites orbiting it. To prevent any accidental and unfortunate collisions, NASA is now working on a new traffic management system for the Red Planet.
Forget the cards and flowers. If you want to be truly original this Mother's Day, the space-funding company Uwingu will let you purchase a name, in honor of dear old Mom, for one of the 600,000 craters on the Martian surface.
Mars is seen as the next frontier for humans. Ever since astronauts first walked on the Moon in 1969, scientists and space enthusiasts alike have dreamed of one day exploring the Red Planet. While we work on new rockets to get us to Mars, scientists are already hard at work thinking about how to build a sustainable colony on Mars. What do we need to survive? That’s the question NASA is asking the public in its latest competition.