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Full Title: "Fresh blow for Mars missions as researchers find long-duration space travel causes crippling back pain that can last for up to four YEARS" The changes in muscle composition are still present up to four years after long-duration spaceflight, according to the new research by Katelyn Burkhart, MS, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues. They write, 'Spaceflight-induced changes in paraspinal muscle morphology may contribute to back pain commonly reported in astronauts.' The researchers analyzed computed tomography (CT) scans of the lumbar (lower) spine in 17 astronauts and cosmonauts who flew missions on the International Space Station. Scans obtained...

While the team found that the bacteria isolated from the ISS did contain different genes than their Earthling counterparts, those genes did not make the bacteria more detrimental to human health. The bacteria are instead simply responding, and perhaps evolving, to survive in a stressful environment. As the conversation about sending travelers to Mars gets more serious, there has been an increasing interest in understanding how microbes behave in enclosed environments. "People will be in little capsules where they cannot open windows, go outside or circulate the air for long periods of time," said Hartmann. "We're genuinely concerned about how...

Before NASA's Mars 2020 mission is ready to launch toward the Red Planet, the agency has to paint the new rover — a task more challenging than it sounds. While a paint job may sound like an insignificant task, both the formulation and the process of painting a spacecraft like this have to be precise. And each spacecraft is unique. In August 2018, engineers working on the rover's chassis (the frame of the spacecraft) started the first step in the painting process: taping. Parts of the rover must never be painted, such as places where electronics boxes will eventually go...

Sending astronauts to Mars would be stupid, says ApolOne of the first astronauts to orbit the Moon said on Wednesday that it's "stupid" to plan human missions to Mars. Bill Anders, who was the lunar module pilot for NASA's Apollo 8 mission, told BBC Radio 5 Live that sending crews to the Red Planet would be "almost ridiculous." The U.S. space agency's goals include sending humans to Mars for exploration and scientific study. "What's the imperative? What's pushing us to go to Mars?" Anders, 85, said, adding: "I don't think the public is that interested." Still, the retired astronaut did...

It is a picture perfect Christmas card image from another planet. The European Space Agency's Mars Express has returned an incredible new series of images showing a giant crater on the red planet. It shows the Korolev crater, a 50 mile (82 km) wide feature in in the northern lowlands of Mars. Just south of a large patch of dune-filled terrain that encircles part of the planet's northern polar cap (known as Olympia Undae), ESA says it is 'an especially well-preserved example of a martian crater.' It is filled not by snow but ice, with its center hosting a mound...

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between 10 to 15 mph (5-7 m/sec) from northwest to southeast. The wind was consistent with the direction of dust devil streaks in the landing area, which were observed from orbit. “Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat. But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves,” said InSight principal investigator Dr. Bruce Banerdt, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.The vibrations...

NASA’s spacecraft that landed on Mars on Monday has beamed back its first clear photo of the desolate Red Planet. “There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home,” NASA tweeted late Monday, hours after its new InSight lander touched down. The image came after the rover had earlier sent back a somewhat blurry photo. The space agency said that in the interim, the spacecraft had opened its solar panels, which allowed it to recharge its batteries for the mission.

A Russian astronomer observed the planets thru a telescope made of ice. Henry describes his observations. Ever wondered what the opinion of equality of the sexes was in 1789? Henry's position is that "Love, and all its delectable concomitants was utterly unknown there [on Venus]; as that passion exists but where equality is found or understood." Interesting?

IMAGES OF THE LAND 24 HOURS PER DAY (translated from Portugese).

The target of Curiosity's curiosity is nicknamed "Little Colonsay" and it looks like a small nugget. The rover's ChemCam captured a close-up view of the object on Monday. "The planning team thinks it might be a meteorite because it is so shiny," writes Curiosity team member Susanne Schwenzer. "But looks can deceive, and proof will only come from the chemistry." uriosity's ChemCam is a suite of instruments that includes a camera, spectographs and a laser that helps NASA analyze the composition of Martian rocks and soil. The rover is scheduled to investigate Little Colonsay with the ChemCam to determine if...

The Martian was one of the biggest hits of 2015, and was nominated for tons of year-end awards. But being as it's set in space and in the near future, we thought it best to bring back Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson to help us separate this movie's sins from its wins.

America landed the InSight on Mars yesterday.At Mission Control there were a lot of hugs, high fives and woot-woots upon receiving confirmation (although I’m sure their diversity officer advised against the hugs). Still, it was a far cry from the exuberant flag waving celebration that accompanied Apollo 11’s moon landing in 1969.Flags are currently deemed too nationalistic to be displayed when we accomplish something as a nation that nobody else has, it’s considered taunting. And as I noted yesterday, concerns about America’s “colonization of yet another planet” have already been raised so we’ll be keeping this American achievement low key...

Video courtesy of NASA. NASA’s InSight spacecraft is close to making its historic touchdown on Mars after an epic journey of just over 300 million miles.

InSight in Position for Mars Landing November 26 at 10:30 AM PT Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have completed the final adjustments for landing NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars. Atmospheric entry is expected around 11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) and touchdown, about seven minutes later.

NASA Live: Watch InSight Mars Landing Online NASA's InSight lander is scheduled to touch down on Mars at approximately 3 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 26. NASA TV live coverage of the InSight Mars landing will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. UTC). Follow @NASA and @NASAInSight for #MarsLanding news. See a list or an interactive timeline of landing milestones. News briefings and launch commentary will be streamed on NASA TV, YouTube.com/NASAJPL/live and Ustream.tv/NASAJPL. Monday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m. Eastern: NASA TV live coverage of InSight mission landing on Mars. Live landing commentary runs from 2-3:30 p.m. The Entry, Descent...

NASA's InSight Mars lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet tomorrow afternoon (Nov. 26), and mission team members and agency officials are understandably nervous about the make-or-break moment. … The difficulty for landed missions stems chiefly from the fact that Mars features both a relatively strong gravitational pull and a wispy atmosphere, which is just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth, said Tom Hoffman, InSight project manager at JPL. So, approaching spacecraft get accelerated to high speeds and then have a hard time dissipating enough energy to slow down before landing, he explained during today's...

The InSight (or "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport") lander will push through Mars' thin atmosphere using small rockets, deploy parachutes to slow its fall to the surface, and then use retro rockets to finally stick the landing. It will take about 6 minutes from the time the lander reaches the Martian atmosphere until it touches down on the surface of the Red Planet. (Of course, this is if everything goes according to plan: For example, the lander may face dust storms in the northern hemisphere where it's aiming to land. According to NASA, these autumn Martian...

Credit: NASA/Viking 1 Orbiter Apr 03, 2008Fantastic Phobos Conventional theory states that Phobos has been marred by repeated meteor impacts, but could electricity have played a significant role? Phobos is the largest of the two moons of Mars. Deimos is so small that studying its surface has been problematic for astronomers because it cannot be readily observed from Earth. Only the Viking 2 orbiter captured close up images. Phobos, on the other hand, has been examined by Earth stations and by satellites sent to Mars orbit. In the image above, Stickney crater is visible - a ten kilometer-wide excavation that...

Explanation: Why is the northern half of asteroid Vesta more heavily cratered than the south? No one is yet sure. This unexpected mystery has come to light only in the past few weeks since the robotic Dawn mission became the first spacecraft to orbit the second largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The northern half of Vesta, seen on the upper left of the above image, appears to show some of the densest cratering in the Solar System, while the southern half is unexpectedly smooth. Also unknown is the origin of grooves that circle the asteroid...

Phobos’ grooves, which are visible across most of the moon’s surface, were first glimpsed in the 1970s by NASA’s Mariner and Viking missions.Over the years, there has been no shortage of explanations put forward for how they formed.Some planetary researchers have posited that large impacts on Mars have showered the nearby moon with groove-carving debris. Others think that Mars’ gravity is slowly tearing Phobos apart, and the grooves are signs of structural failure.Still other scientists have made the case that there’s a connection between the grooves and the impact that created a large crater called Stickney.In the 1970s, University of...