Tag Archives: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Hunting for biosignatures in volcanic rocks

[Editor’s note: From a paper by Magnus Ivarsson, Therese Sallstedt, and Diana-Thean Carlsson recently published in Frontiers in Earth Science.] Morphological Biosignatures in Volcanic Rocks – Applications for Life Detection on Mars The exploration of Mars is largely based on comparisons with … Continue reading

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Mars 2020 is coming together

An engineer inspects the completed spacecraft that will carry NASA’s next Mars rover to the Red Planet, prior to a test in the Space Simulator Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. From the top down, and suspended … Continue reading

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Latest weather at Gale Crater and Elysium Planitia

Daily Elysium charts and data (temperature, wind speed, atmospheric pressure) here.

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Latest weather at Gale Crater and Elysium Planitia

Daily Elysium charts and data (temperature, wind speed, atmospheric pressure) here.

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InSight’s dusty selfie

This is NASA InSight’s second full selfie on Mars. Since taking its first selfie, the lander has removed its heat probe and seismometer from its deck, placing them on the Martian surface; a thin coating of dust now covers the … Continue reading

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Mars 2020 can now phone home

Mars 2020 engineers and technicians prepare the high-gain antenna for installation on the rover’s equipment deck. The antenna is articulated so it can point itself directly at Earth to uplink or downlink data. The image was taken on April 19, … Continue reading

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Latest weather at Gale Crater and Elysium Planitia

Daily Elysium charts and data (temperature, wind speed, atmospheric pressure) here.

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InSight: Sunrise and sunset on Mars

NASA’s InSight lander captured a series of sunrise and sunset images. A camera on the spacecraft’s robotic arm snapped the photos on April 24 and 25, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In local Mars time, the … Continue reading

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Mars 2020 wired for sound

Engineers and technicians working on NASA’s Mars 2020 mission prepare spacecraft components for acoustic testing in the Environmental Test Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The spacecraft is being tested in the same configuration it will be … Continue reading

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InSight: First likely marsquake detected

NASA’s Mars InSight lander has measured and recorded for the first time ever a likely “marsquake.” The faint seismic signal, detected by the lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, was recorded on April 6, the lander’s 128th Martian … Continue reading

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