Mars Archives

June 28, 2023June 28, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

The Mars Sample Return Mission is Starting to Look Expensive

We say it all the time here at UT – getting to space is hard. It’s even more hard to do new and interesting things in space. And when projects get hard, that usually means they cost more money. That is certainly the case for one of the most anticipated missions on NASA’s current docket – the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. And it’s not looking like it’s going to get any easier anytime soon.

June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 by Matt Williams

Mars Lacks a Planet-Wide Magnetosphere, but it Does Have Pockets of Magnetism

Mars has magnetized rocks in its crust that create localized, patchy magnetic fields (left). In the illustration at right, we see how those fields extend into space above the rocks. At their tops, auroras can form. Credit: NASA

The Zhurong rover has operated on the surface of Mars for over a year since it deployed on May 22nd, 2021. Before the rover suspended operations on May 20th, 2022, due to the onset of winter and the approach of seasonal sandstorms, Zhurong managed to traverse a total distance of 1.921 km (1.194 mi). During the first kilometer of this trek, the rover obtained vital data on Mars’ extremely weak magnetic fields. According to a new study by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), these readings indicate that the magnetic field is extremely weak beneath the rover’s landing site.

June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 by Matt Williams

Germany is Building a Tiny Rover That Will Roam the Surface of Phobos

Artist's impression of the IDEFIX rover on Phobos, with the MMX spacecraft in the background. Credit: DLR

At this very moment, eleven robotic missions are operating in orbit or on the surface of Mars, more than at any point during the past sixty years. These include the many orbiters surveying the Red Planet from orbit, the handful of landers and rovers, and one helicopter (Ingenuity) studying the surface. In the coming years, many more are expected, reflecting the growing number of nations participating in the exploration process. Once there, they will join in the ongoing search for clues about the planet’s formation, evolution, and possible evidence that life once existed there.

However, there’s also the mystery concerning the origin of Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two satellites. While scientists have long suspected that these two moons began as asteroids kicked from the Main Belt that were captured by Mars’ gravity, there is no scientific consensus on this point. This is the purpose of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission currently under development by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which will explore both moons with the help of a Phobos rover provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French National Center of Space Studies (CNES).

June 24, 2023June 24, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

Extending Earth's Internet to Mars With Orbital Data Servers

How an interplanetary internet might work. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

You’ve done it. After years of effort and training, sacrifice, and pain, you become an astronaut and have finally set foot on Mars. Time to post your triumph on TikTok for that sweet social media cred. If only you can get a signal.

June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Missed the Mars Livestream? Here's the Video

An animation created from images that were sent to Earth, beamed directly from the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board ESA’s long-lived Mars Express mission, during a special livestream of data from Mars to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the mission. Credit: ESA.

When a mission to Mars reaches 20 years of service, that’s definitely reason to celebrate. ESA’s Mars Express celebrated by airing the first-ever livestream of images, sent directly from the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board the spacecraft. For an hour, it sent back images from the Red Planet in as close to real-time as the speed of light would allow.

The animated gif, above, was created from all the images that came down during that hour, roughly 50 seconds apart from each other. There’s a short break in the middle of the animation because of an unexpected rainstorm at ESA’s ground station in Cebreros, Spain, where telemetry wasn’t able to be received.

June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

SLS Could Launch a Sample Return Mission to Phobos and Deimos

The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this image of Phobos and the Stickney crater in 2008. The grooves are clearly visible in the image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA’s next colossal rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), recently had its first successful flight back in November after years of development. Much of that development was done by aerospace contractors like Northrop Grumman and Boeing, so it is a good bet that engineers at those companies want the SLS to be seen as a success. One measure of its success will be how many missions it manages to help launch successfully – the more missions, the better. To help plan out some of those missions, a pair of Boeing engineers wrote a paper describing an outline of a sample return mission to Phobos and Deimos. And, of course, it would be launched by the SLS.

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA's Mars Helicopter Went Silent for Six Agonizing Days

The Ingenuity helicopter photographed by the Perseverance rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has exceeded everyone’s expectations, recently completing its 51st flight when it was supposed to fly just a few times as a demonstration mission. But flights 50 and 51 almost didn’t happen.

In a recent blog post, Travis Brown, Chief Engineer for Ingenuity shared how the team lost contact with the tiny rotorcraft for six excruciating days.

May 26, 2023May 28, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

China’s Rover Found Evidence of an Ancient Ocean on Mars

Elevation map of the northern hemisphere of Mars with the red star denoting the landing site of the Zhurong rover, which is ~282 kilometers (~175 miles) north of a previously proposed shoreline of the ancient Deuteronilus ocean. The different colored lines represent proposed shorelines from past studies. (Credit: ©Science China Press)

In a recent study published in National Science Review, a team of researchers led by the China University of Geosciences discuss direct evidence of an ancient ocean and its shoreline that existed in the northern hemisphere of Mars during the Hesperian Period, or more than 3 billion years ago. This finding is based on data collected by the China National Space Agency’s (CNSA) Zhurong rover in the Vastitas Borealis Formation (VBF), which lies within southern Utopia Planitia on Mars.

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023 by Evan Gough

ESA Has a Playground for Mars Rovers to Learn how to Explore the Red Planet

A downward view of ESA’s rock-strewn recreation of the Red Planet, designed to put prototype planetary rovers through their paces. Image Credit: ESA-Remedia

NASA makes successful rover missions seem mundane. Spirit and Opportunity were wildly successful, and Curiosity and Perseverance would both be considered successes even if they stopped working today. But complex missions don’t succeed without rigorous testing.

The ESA takes that lesson to heart, and when it comes to their Mars rover, they’ve built a ‘rover playground’ to test it in.

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 by Evan Gough

Researchers Are Building a Simulated Moon/Mars Research Station Deep Underground

These images show the first laboratory in the Bio-SPHERE project. The medical lab is located 1 km under the surface, near one of the UK's deepest mine sites. Image Credit: Dr. Alexandra Iordachescu/University of Birmingham.

In the early days of spaceflight, just getting a satellite into Earth’s orbit was an accomplishment. In our era, landing rovers on other planets and bringing samples home from asteroids is the cutting edge. But the next frontier is rapidly approaching, when astronauts will stay for long periods of time on the Moon and hopefully Mars.

But before we can send people to those dangerous environments, the Artemis partner space agencies have to know how to keep them safe. An important part of that is simulating the conditions on the Moon and Mars.