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A new scenario seeking to explain how Mars’ putative oceans came and went over the last 4 billion years implies that the oceans formed several hundred million years earlier and were not as deep as once thought. The early ocean known as Arabia (left, blue) would have looked like this when it formed 4 billion years ago on Mars, while the Deuteronilus ocean, about 3.6 billion years old, had a smaller shoreline. Both coexisted with the massive volcanic province Tharsis, located on the unseen side of the planet, which may have helped support the existence of liquid water. The water...

Last month Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos State Corporation, began work on a contingency plan that would reshape its future in space exploration. The country could shift its human spaceflight cooperation from the U.S. to China, sources within Roscosmos told Popular Mechanics. One possible scenario includes Roscosmos exiting the International Space Station program early. If adopted, the new strategy would mark a historic moment for the Russian space program, which has cooperated with the U.S. for nearly three decades. In 1993, not long after the breakup of the USSR.

NASA to decide soon whether flying drone will launch with Mars 2020 rover March 15, 2018 Stephen Clark Artist’s illustration of the Mars helicopter drone that could travel to the red planet as soon as 2020. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Testing of a lightweight robotic helicopter designed to fly in the alien atmosphere of Mars has produced encouraging results in recent months, and NASA officials expect to decide soon whether the aerial drone will accompany the agency’s next rover to the red planet set for liftoff in 2020.Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have worked on the helicopter design for several years,...

NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon. According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array of missions to the lunar surface. And scientists foresee a host of uses for the station. By making use of a suite of instruments housed on or inside the structure itself, or free-flying nearby, scientists could make Earth and solar observations. They could also carry out astrophysics and fundamental physics experiments. ......

Pres. Trump at CA Marine base: "Very soon we're going to Mars. You wouldn't have been going to Mars if my opponent won." https://t.co/7t9dGZXwSH pic.twitter.com/a3Cw5OIsue — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 13, 2018 President Trump told troops in California on Tuesday that the U.S. would be going to Mars in the very near future. "Very soon we're going to Mars. You wouldn't be going to Mars if my opponent won, that I can tell you. You wouldn't even be thinking about it," Trump said. Trump signed a directive in December aiming to send Americans to the moon, and eventually Mars....

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk told an audience at South by Southwest that his timeline for sending a space vehicle to Mars could mark its first milestone early next year. The privately-funded venture, announced in September 2017, aims to send a cargo mission to the Red Planet by 2022. SpaceX's ultimate objective is to plant the seeds to put a human colony on Mars. Musk held a surprise question and answer session at the annual technology and culture festival in Austin, Texas on Sunday. The billionaire told attendees that "we are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and...

Cool image time! In continuing my exploration of this month’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) image release, I found two interesting images of small craters, one as part of that image release, the other found completely by accident...The map on the right, taken from the MRO HiRISE archive page, shows the locations of these two images...Both are located in the lava plains that surround the giant volcano Pavonis Mons, the central volcano of the three volcanoes to the east of Olympus Mons.

...there's been no concrete evidence of life ever having existed on the Red Planet -- that is, if you believe the official version of things. Barry DiGregorio, a researcher with the University of Buckingham, doesn't buy it, and he says he's already discovered clues to Mars' past in the form of fossilized alien tracks. Now, he's trying to get others on board with his theory and blow the top off of an alleged NASA cover-up in the process. DiGregorio... believes previously-released NASA imagery from the planet offers clear evidence of Martian tracks. He believes photos showing small indentations in rock...

Curiosity bored a hole about 0.5 inches (1.3 centimeters) deep into a target rock on Monday (Feb. 26), during the trial run of a new, jury-rigged drilling technique, NASA officials said. The car-size rover's drill — a key tool at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm that allows it to snag pristine samples from the interiors of ancient rocks — has been out of commission since late 2016... More than seven months after a malfunction sidelined the rock-boring drill aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, mission team members are still trying to find a solution, or a work-around. On Dec. 1,...

Cool image time! Yesterday the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team released 460 images taken by the spacecraft’s high resolution camera, HiRISE, as part of their normal and routine image release program. As I am want to do, I like to scan through these new images to see if there is anything interesting hidden there that will show up eventually in a press release...Sometimes however I find images that might never get a press release but probably deserve it....

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to grab Mars like President Donald Trump reportedly grabbed — well, you know. That’s according to Marcie Bianco, editorial and communications manager at Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

Share The twin Viking spacecraft landed on Mars in 1976. They were cleaned to a level required to explore habitable regions. NASA NASA planetary protection officer suggests loosening limits on exploring Mars for life By Paul VoosenFeb. 22, 2018 , 5:25 PM Is there life on the surface of Mars? The clock is ticking on scientists’ window to solve that long-standing question before astronauts—and the microbes that live on them—contaminate the planet. Today, at a meeting in Washington, D.C., of NASA’s planetary science advisory committee, the agency’s new planetary protection officer raised the possibility of opening up a few of...

We think you can, Opportunity. An artist's impression of the Opportunity rover on Mars. NASA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NASA’s Opportunity rover is the longest surviving rover on Mars. On Saturday, February 17, it experienced its 5,000th dawn on a distant planet. It was only scheduled to see 90. But Opportunity's long journey started much earlier, at the height of the space race. With gratitude towards Watty Piper and his beloved Little Engine, we start our story in the early 1960s. NASA is working on multiple fronts, pushing humans toward the Moon for the first time, but also struggling to reach Mars and...

The successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon powerful new rocket Tuesday ... was a tremendous step toward reasserting American leadership in space. The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket launched in the U.S. since the Apollo missions – and the most powerful commercial rocket ever made. It can carry nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 pounds) into orbit. This is more than double the payload of the next-biggest rocket currently in operation. For perspective, SpaceX says this is, “a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage, and fuel.” SpaceX owner Elon Musk also said the rocket system...

"When the Curiosity Rover was launched onto its nine-month-long journey to the planet Mars on Nov. 26, 2011, the rover carried as one of its many scientific packages a calibration target; a 1909 Lincoln cent. The cent is mounted near the bottom of the target, with its obverse facing outward."

"...some HiRISE images taken in 2017 and early 2018 show slight blurring not seen earlier in the mission. The cause is under investigation. The percentage of full-resolution images with blurring peaked at 70 percent last October, at about the time when Mars was at the point in its orbit farthest from the Sun. The percentage has since declined to less than 20 percent. Even before the first blurred images were seen, observations with HiRISE commonly used a technique that covers more ground area at half the resolution. This still provides higher resolution than any other camera orbiting Mars — about...

“As we once again lead in space exploration, we will continue to make the investments and presence in space to ensure the safety and security of the American people,” Pence said. “Space is vital to our national security. I saw it firsthand when I visited Schriever Air Force Base just a few weeks ago. And I can assure you, under President Donald Trump, American security will be as dominant in the heavens as we are here on Earth.” “We will beat back any disadvantage that our lack of attention has placed and America will once again lead in space,” Pence...

Curiosity remains on Vera Rubin Ridge, though it has begun moving toward the point where it will move down off the ridge. Opportunity remains in Perseverance Valley, though it has finally taken the north fork down.

Elon Musk is the world’s greatest showman. His Tesla Roadster and a dummy astronaut blasts off on a super-giant rocket called Falcon Heavy, headed for Mars orbit with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” blaring on the car radio. The astronaut is dubbed “Starman”, after another Bowie song. The words “Don’t Panic!” are on the dashboard. Musk said that it took his team over three years to develop the space suit, because it not only had to be functional, it had to “look good”. To Musk, the spectacle is as important as the accomplishment. He understands that to be truly successful, you...

Apart from not yet knowing whether the core booster stuck its landing on the drone ship, the rest of the launch went perfectly!