1:21 pm UTC Apr. 10, 2021
A Black science fiction author who believed she could write better stories than those in B-grade movies, and a former NASA senior director who gazed at the stars while growing up in a remote part of Africa have been honored with Mars Perseverance sites named after them.
The names of
Jakob van Zyl, a brilliant engineer and manager who helped send spacecraft across the solar system, are now part of the Perseverance rover’s mission. Their names now designate where the rover landed and where it will watch the Ingenuity helicopter fly. There s a tradition for Mars rover teams to name their landing sites after someone they want to commemorate, says Kathryn Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist of the Mars 2020 rover mission.
Updated: February 19, 2021 12:53 PM IST
NASA is offering an immersive 360-degree view of the successful landing of its Perseverance rover on Mars from inside Mission Control. The rover landed on the ‘Red Planet’ at 3:55 PM EST on Thursday and those interested can watch the Mission Control live via a 360-degree video, which can be accessed on the official NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube page. Also Read - NASA Perseverance Mars rover uses 1998 iMac processor with just one upgrade
“Watch an epic journey unfold on Thursday, Feb. 18 as our Perseverance rover lands on Mars. Watch here for a 360-degree engineer’s-eye-view from inside Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with picture-in-picture commentary,” the description of the video read. Also Read - NASA astronauts complete seven hour spacewalk to prep ISS for new solar panels
On Thursday, February 18, for the first time in nearly a decade, a rover will be landing on Mars. The most recent rover to touch down on the Red Planet was
We’ve learned a great deal about Mars in recent years. It’s not the alien-populated planet it was once believed to be, but it’s definitely not the dull, meaningless planet some portray it as. Mars is, in many ways, very much like Earth. Just like Earth, Mars hosted vast amounts of water (something we’ve also learned recently) but unlike Earth, it no longer has a rich atmosphere, its water is only preserved in pockets, and it is (at least for the most part) lifeless.
However, it seems like the more we learn about Mars, the more questions arise. For every tantalizing answer, three more burning questions arise. Thankfully, more missions are en-route to Mars, including China’s Tianwen-1, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe, and NASA’s Perseverance rover, which could help solve some of these mysteries. For now, here are some Mars facts we’ve recently learned.
NASA InSight Mars Digger Bites the Dust After Two Years on Red Planet
NASA called it quits after InSight failed to gain friction in order to dig into the Mars soil. By Associated Press | Updated: 15 January 2021 11:03 IST
Photo Credit: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter
In the artist s concept of InSight lander on Mars, layers of the planet s subsurface can be seen below
Highlights Astronauts one day may need to dig into Mars
Mole s design was based on Martian soil examined by previous spacecraft
NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature.