This 360-degree vista was acquired on Aug. 5, 2016, by the Mastcam on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover as the rover neared features called “Murray Buttes” on lower Mount Sharp. The dark, flat-topped mesa seen to the left of the rover’s arm is about 50 feet high and, near the top, about 200 feet wide.
NASA Mars Rover Descends Plateau, Turns Toward Mountain
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has analyzed its 12th drilled sample of Mars. This sample came from mudstone bedrock, which the rover resumed climbing in late May after six months studying other features. Since the previous time Curiosity drilled into this “Murray formation” layer of lower Mount Sharp, the mission has examined active sand dunes along…
Second Cycle of Martian Seasons Completing for Curiosity Rover
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover today completes its second Martian year since landing inside Gale Crater nearly four Earth years ago, which means it has recorded environmental patterns through two full cycles of Martian seasons. The repetition helps distinguish seasonal effects from sporadic events. For example, a large spike in methane in the local atmosphere during…
NASA Satellite Images Uncover Underground Forest Fungi
A NASA-led team of scientists has developed the first-ever method for detecting the presence of different types of underground forest fungi from space, information that may help researchers predict how climate change will alter forest habitats. Hidden beneath every forest is a network of fungi living in mutually beneficial relationships with the trees. Called mycorrhizal fungi,…
Bright Spots and Color Differences Revealed on Ceres
Scientists from NASA’s Dawn mission unveiled new images from the spacecraft’s lowest orbit at Ceres, including highly-anticipated views of Occator Crater, at the 47th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, on Tuesday. Occator Crater, measuring 57 miles (92 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, contains the brightest area on…
A ‘Tail’ of Two Comets
Two comets that will safely fly past Earth later this month may have more in common than their intriguingly similar orbits. They may be twins of a sort. Comet P/2016 BA14 was discovered on Jan. 22, 2016, by the University of Hawaii’s PanSTARRS telescope on Haleakala, on the island of Maui. It was initially thought…
NASA Selects Proposals for Better Solar Tech for Deep Space Missions
NASA’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program has selected four proposals to develop solar array technologies that will aid spacecraft in exploring destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars. One of these proposals is led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. NASA’s future deep space missions will require solar arrays that can operate in high-radiation…
Opportunity Mars Rover Goes Six-Wheeling Up Ridge
NASA’s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is working adeptly in some of the most challenging terrain of the vehicle’s 12 years on Mars, on a slope of about 30 degrees. Researchers are using Opportunity this month to examine rocks that may have been chemically altered by water billions of years ago. The mission’s current targets of…
Mars Landing Pioneer Elected to National Academy of Engineering
Adam Steltzner, a JPL engineer who helped pioneer the breakthrough technique for landing a one-ton rover on Mars, is being honored with admission into the National Academy of Engineering. Steltzner is recognized for development of the Mars Curiosity rover’s entry, descent and landing system and for contributions to control of parachute dynamics. Election to the…
Photo of the Day: Deep Space Atomic Clock
As the saying goes, timing is everything. More so in 21st-century space exploration where navigating spacecraft precisely to far-flung destinations — say, to Mars or even more distant Europa, a moon of Jupiter — is critical. NASA is making great strides to develop the Deep Space Atomic Clock, or DSAC for short. The clock is…
Researchers Test Smartphones for Earthquake Warning
Smartphones and other personal electronic devices could, in regions where they are in widespread use, function as early warning systems for large earthquakes, according to newly reported research. This technology could serve regions of the world that cannot afford higher quality, but more expensive, conventional earthquake early warning systems, or could contribute to those systems.…
Why Comets Are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream
Astronomers tinkering with ice and organics in the lab may have discovered why comets are encased in a hard, outer crust. Using an icebox-like instrument nicknamed Himalaya, the researchers show that fluffy ice on the surface of a comet would crystalize and harden as the comet heads toward the sun and warms up. As the…
Robotic Helicopter to Scout for Mars Rovers
JPL engineers are working on a small helicopter that could ‘scout’ a trail for future Mars rovers, but getting a chopper that could fly in the Martian atmosphere is tricky.
Ion Propulsion & the Dawn Mission
Ion propulsion isn’t something found only in science fiction. JPL engineer Mike Meacham looks at how ion engines are being used to drive NASA’s Dawn spacecraft through the solar system. Dawn is approaching dwarf planet Ceres in the main asteroid belt with arrival expected in March 2015. Previously, Dawn orbited Vesta, the second-largest body in…