By Paul Scott Anderson, on November 25th, 2019
Color-coded image of Jezero Crater and the landing site of Mars 2020 (in the ellipse). The delta is on the western side of the crater. Darker colors are lower elevation and lighter colors are higher. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
For the past few decades, rovers and landers on Mars have focused on finding out whether […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on October 31st, 2019
Image from InSight showing the “mole” heat probe (the tube on the left) after it jumped about halfway back out of the hole it made while digging. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Update – Nov. 1, 2019: NASA InSight just tweeted that the mole appears to be stable and more images are being taken to try […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on September 27th, 2019
Artist’s conception of the InSight lander as seen from above. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars is usually thought of as pretty much a dead world, geologically-speaking. But NASA’s InSight lander is finding that may not be exactly true. Some early results from InSight’s investigations of the planet’s interior have shown evidence for an oddly pulsating […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on August 24th, 2019
Artist’s concept of Europa Clipper during a flyby of Europa. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s next mission back to Jupiter’s moon Europa just took another big step towards reality. The next phase of Europa Clipper has been confirmed, giving the go-ahead for the mission to proceed to final design, construction and testing.
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on July 29th, 2019
TESS has already discovered nearly 1,000 exoplanet candidates and 24 confirmed exoplanets so far, in its first year. Image Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA’s TESS mission (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has now completed the first year of its search for exoplanets and has already racked up some great discoveries, it was announced on […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on July 25th, 2019
The Mars 2020 rover under construction. The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) will be inserted into the rear end of the rover between the panels with gold tubing, called heat exchangers. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s new Mars 2020 rover is now only about a year away from the start of its mission, and another […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on June 27th, 2019
Illustration of Dragonfly approaching a site on Titan to take samples. Image Credit: NASA/JHU-APL
It was a much-anticipated announcement, but the winner of NASA’s next New Frontiers mission selection is… Dragonfly! This ambitious mission will be the first return to Saturn’s moon Titan since Cassini/Huygens, and this drone-like rotorcraft will fly to various location […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on February 13th, 2019
Opportunity casts its shadow in this image from sol 180 (July 26, 2004), taken by the rover’s front hazard-avoidance camera, on the edge of Endurance Crater. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It’s been a long 15 years, but the inevitable has finally happened: the Opportunity rover’s days of exploring Mars are over. The sad news was […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on November 19th, 2018
Enhanced color image of a portion of Jezero Crater, the landing site chosen for the Mars 2020 mission. The mineral-rich river delta is in the center of the image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University
And the winner is… Jezero Crater! NASA has chosen this location as the landing site on Mars for its next […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on July 8th, 2018
Artist’s conception of the Kepler Space Telescope in space. Fuel is now running very low and the spacecraft has downlinked its latest science data to Earth. Image Credit: NASA/AP
The end is nigh – that appears to be the case at least for NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope which is now running very low […]
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