Posted on by Mark Thompson

How Did Mars Become Uninhabitable?

Mars today bear signs of once having had abundant water, with features resembling valleys and deltas, and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water. This artist’s concept shows how the Red Planet could have appeared billions of years ago. Credit: NASA/The Lunar and Planetary Institute

Mars has captured our imagination for centuries. Ever since the invention of the telescope our imagination has often drifted toward the possibility of life on Mars. Exploration of the red planet has often revealed that Mars once had plenty of water on its surface but it’s no longer there. Now NASA’s Curiosity rover has found deposits of carbon-rich minerals that could give us a much needed clue.  

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Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Mars Science Helicopter Could be an Airborne Geologist on Mars

A model of NASA’s Mars Science Helicopter concept. Credit: NASA.

After over 70 successful flights, a broken rotor ended the remarkable and groundbreaking Ingenuity helicopter mission on Mars. Now, NASA is considering how a larger, more capable helicopter could be an airborne geologist on the Red Planet. For the past several years scientists and engineers have been working on the concept, proposing a six-rotor hexacopter that would be about the size of the Perseverance rover.

Called the Mars Science Helicopter (MSH), it would not only serve as an aerial scout for a future rover, but more importantly, it could also carry up to 5 kg (11 lbs) of science instruments aloft in the thin Martian atmosphere and land in terrain that a rover can’t reach.

A new paper presented at the March 2024 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference outlines the geology work that such a helicopter could accomplish.

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