Page 20 - Volatile Evolution News Today

Runaway ions from Mars may prove or disprove the idea that Mars was once much more Earthlike, with a thick atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. There could have even been some sort of life. Whatever is left of the Red Planet’s atmosphere (if you could even call it that) has less than one percent of Earth’s atmospheric density. Phobos is thought to have collected quite a few ions from Mars because it orbits extremely close to the planet. Because it is tidally locked, like our Moon, so...

NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 News provided by Share this article Share this article WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. The delivery, planned for Mare Crisium, a low-lying basin on the Moons near side, will investigate a variety of lunar surface conditions and re...

Could the Surface of Phobos Reveal Secrets of the Martian Past? The Martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet’s atmosphere, new research shows. Many of these charged particles, or ions, of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and argon, have been escaping Mars for billions of years as the planet has been shedding its atmosphere. Some ions, scientists predict, have been smashing into the surface of Phobos and could be preserved in its uppermos...

The UAE’s Hope Probe will be the first of 3 missions to arrive at Mars this month The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars is almost ready for a rendezvous with the red planet. The Emirates Mars Mission, known as the Hope Probe, will go into orbit around Mars on February 9. The mission was one of three that launched to Mars from Earth in July, including NASA’s Perseverance rover and China’s Tianwen-1 mission. Hope will orbit the planet, Tianwen-1 will orbit the planet and land on...