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Why NASA Is Trying to Crash Land on Mars

October 21, 2022
Like a car’s crumple zone, the experimental SHIELD lander is designed to absorb a hard impact. NASA has successfully touched down on Mars nine times, relying on cutting-edge parachutes, massive airbags, and jetpacks to set spacecraft safely on the surface. Now engineers are testing whether or not the easiest way to get to the Martian surface is to crash. Rather than slow a spacecraft’s…
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Reaches Long-Awaited Salty Region

October 20, 2022
The rover has arrived at a special region believed to have formed as Mars’ climate was drying. After journeying this summer through a narrow, sand-lined pass, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recently arrived in the “sulfate-bearing unit,” a long-sought region of…
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NASA Telescope Takes 12-Year Time-Lapse Movie of Entire Sky

October 19, 2022
Pictures of the sky can show us cosmic wonders; movies can bring them to life. Movies from NASA’s NEOWISE space telescope are revealing motion and change across the sky. Every six months, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, spacecraft completes one trip halfway around the Sun, taking images in all directions. Stitched together, those images form an…
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NASA’s Mars Mission Shields Up for Tests

October 13, 2022
Protecting Mars Sample Return spacecraft from micrometeorites requires high-caliber work. Micrometeorites are a potential hazard for any space mission, including NASA’s Mars Sample Return. The tiny rocks can travel up to 50 miles per second. At these…
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Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space, NASA’s Webb Finds

October 12, 2022
. Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space, NASA’s Webb Finds A new image shows at least 17 dust rings created by a rare type of star and its companion locked in a celestial dance. A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over…
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NASA’s S-MODE Field Campaign Deploys to the Pacific Ocean

October 12, 2022
The mission’s fleet of ship, aircraft, and marine robotics will study ocean eddies and other elusive features near the surface that have a big influence on climate. When the research vessel Bold Horizon sailed from Newport, Oregon, in early October, it joined a small…
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NASA’s InSight Waits Out Dust Storm

October 8, 2022
. NASA’s InSight Waits Out Dust Storm InSight’s team is taking steps to help the solar-powered lander continue operating for as long as possible. NASA’s InSight mission, which is expected to end in the near future, saw a recent drop in power generated by its solar panels as a continent-size dust storm swirls over Mars’ southern hemisphere. First…
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