NASA’s next Mars rover will land in less than 100 days

The life-hunting Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which launched on July 30, is scheduled to land inside Jezero Crater on the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2021. Source: https://www.livescience.com/mars-rover-perseverance-100-days-landing.html

NASA’s Perseverance rover is midway to Mars

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission has logged a lot of flight miles since being lofted skyward on July 30—146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) to be exact. Turns out that is exactly the same distance it has to go before the spacecraft hits the Red Planet’s atmosphere like a 11,900 mph (19,000 kph) freight train on Feb. 18, 2021. Source:…

Ancient microbial life used arsenic to thrive in a world without oxygen

Today, most life on Earth is supported by oxygen. But ancient microbial mats existed for a billion years before oxygen was present in the atmosphere. So what did life use instead? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/ancient-microbial-life-arsenic…

Perseverance Rover will peer beneath Mars’ surface

After touching down on the Red Planet Feb. 18, 2021, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will scour Jezero Crater to help us understand its geologic history and search for signs of past microbial life. But the six-wheeled robot won’t be looking just at the surface of Mars: The rover will peer deep below it with a ground-penetrating radar called RIMFAX. Source:…

NASA’s new Mars rover will use X-rays to hunt fossils

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has a challenging road ahead: After having to make it through the harrowing entry, descent, and landing phase of the mission on Feb. 18, 2021, it will begin searching for traces of microscopic life from billions of years back. That’s why it’s packing PIXL, a precision X-ray device powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-nasa-mars-rover-x-rays-fossils.html…

Follow the Perseverance rover in real time on its way to Mars

Keep track of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance is right now, on its journey through space towards its February 18, 2021 landing on Mars. This web app shows you where spacecraft is right now. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/follow-perseverance-rover-real-time-mars-journey-app…

Follow NASA’s Perseverance rover in real time on its way to Mars

The last time we saw NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission was on July 30, 2020, as it disappeared into the black of deep space on a trajectory for Mars. But with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, you can follow in real time as humanity’s most sophisticated rover—and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter traveling with it—treks millions of miles over the…

Six things to know about NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter

When NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida later this summer, an innovative experiment will ride along: the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. Ingenuity may weigh only about 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms), but it has some outsize ambitions. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-nasa-ingenuity-mars-helicopter.html…