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    Ingenuity has flown on Mars; what’s next in NASA’s Perseverance mission?

    Now that NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has completed its first test flight on the red planet, members of the agency’s Southern California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory will prepare for the next stages of their mission.

    Following Monday’s historic event, the solar-powered rotorcraft will attempt up to four more flights during a period of fewer than 30 days. 

    NASA INGENUITY MARS HELICOPTER MAKES HISTORY WITH FIRST POWERED, CONTROLLED FLIGHT ON ANOTHER PLANET

    Over the next three Martian days — also known as sols — the helicopter’s team will receive and analyze data and imagery from the first flight and devise a plan for the second experimental test, which is scheduled for no sooner than April 22. 

    “If the helicopter survives the second flight test, the Ingenuity team will consider how best to expand the flight profile,” NASA said in a Monday release.

    Ingenuity will conduct up to five flights, assuming NASA continues to successfully clear potential hurdles, each with chances to record additional data for future use.

    The Associated Press reported on Monday that the ambitious endeavor could lead the way to a fleet of Martian drones as well as assist helicopter navigation on Earth 

    Perseverance’s Navcam View of Ingenuity’s First Flight
    (NASA)

    After Ingenuity is done, the Perseverance rover will resume its focus on surface operations. 

    Before Ingenuity’s flight, Perseverance drove to its Overlook site, where it documented the feat using its Mastcam-Z and Navcam imagers.

    NASA’s Perseverance Twitter account also wrote that it had been imaging some of the local rocks at the lookout point ahead of Ingenuity’s liftoff.

    Perseverance will still be used to communicate with the now fully autonomous Ingenuity throughout the process.

    As NASA notes in its press releases, a primary objective for “Percy’s” mission on Mars is astrobiology research that includes the search for ancient microbial life. 

    ​​NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (3.9 meters) from the rover. This image was taken by the WASTON camera on the rover’s robotic arm on April 6, 2021, the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
    (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

    As the rover characterizes Martian geology, it will collect and cache rock and sediment — drilling core samples into rock targets of interest to the scientists.

    In March, NASA announced that Perseverance’s SuperCam instrument had selected two rock targets, “Yeehgo” and “Máaz,” for study. 

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    In cooperation with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect the cached samples — stored in tubes and placed on a storage rack before set in the same area on Mars’ surface — and return them to Earth for analysis.

    The rover may cache over 30 selected rock and “soil” samples before its task is complete.

    NASA gets first weather report from Mars rover landing site

    Engineers at NASA have received the first weather report from Mars’ Jezero Crater, where the agency’s Perseverance rover landed in February.

    The rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system has sent back data on atmospheric conditions that will be used to inform future endeavors.

    NASA EMPLOYEES REPORTEDLY ASKED TO VOLUNTEER TO WORK WITH UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN

    As measurements were received, the rover’s team determined that the surface temperature on the red planet was just below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit when MEDA’s system began recording on Feb. 19, a day after landing. 

    That temperature plummeted to minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit within a half-hour, according to a Tuesday release.

    In addition, the MEDA radiation and dust sensor showed that the crater was experiencing a clearer atmosphere than the Martian Gale Crater around 2,300 miles away.

    They compared the reading using reports from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed inside the Gale Crater in November 2011.

    The MEDA pressure sensors also noted that the pressure on Mar was within a predictable range of 718 Pascals.

    While NASA has a relative understanding of the Mars climate, also receiving data from the InSight lander’s Temperature and Win senors (TWINS), predicting dust storms and dust lifting will help aid future exploration.

    Over the course of the next year, MEDA will provide NASA will readings of solar radiation intensity, cloud formations and winds, dust cycles, and heat fluxes and temperature cycles.

    MEDA, which contains environmental sensors, wakes itself up every hour to record more — independently of Perseverance’s operations. 

    It is able to record the temperature at three atmospheric heights and also records the radiation budget near the surface.

    “We’re very excited to see MEDA working well,” Manuel de la Torre Juárez, deputy principal investigator for MEDA at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said a statement.

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    “MEDA’s reports will provide a better picture of the environment near the surface. Data from MEDA and other instrument experiments will reveal more pieces of the puzzles on Mars and help prepare for human exploration. We hope that its data will help make our designs stronger and our missions safer,” he added.

    In the coming days, NASA will use MEDA to determine the best atmospheric flight conditions for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

    Ingenuity is scheduled to lift off no sooner than April 11 after surviving the first of its frigid Mars nights.

    Mysterious rumblings from inside of Mars detected by NASA lander

    Scientists at NASA have reported an exciting detection by its Insight lander on Mars – mysterious rumblings coming from the interior of the planet.

    The researchers believe the seismic events may be caused by a sudden release of energy from the planet’s interior, but the nature of that release remains unknown and puzzling.

    Intriguingly, the new rumblings are believed to have originated in a location on Mars called Cerberus Fossae, where two other previous candidate events are believed to have originated.

    Although these rumblings have sometimes been called “Marsquakes” the planet is not believed to have a similarly active tectonic system like Earth’s that causes earthquakes.

    (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    And curiously, the previous seismic events detected by the space agency’s InSight lander – which arrived on the planet’s surface in 2018 – occurred almost a full Martian year ago, or two Earth years, during the Martian northern summer.

    SPACEX ROCKET DEBRIS LANDS ON WASHINGTON STATE HOMEOWNER’S PROPERTY

    Scientists had predicted this season would offer the lander its best opportunity to listen for quakes because the winds on the planet would become calmer.

    InSight’s seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), is so sensitive that it has to be covered by a dome-shaped shield to block it from wind and prevent it from freezing when in use.

    Despite that, the wind can still cause enough vibration to mask the seismic signals it is looking for, and so the NASA team has begun to trying to insulate the sensitive cable.

    NASA RESEARCHERS DISCOVER FIRST X-RAYS FROM URANUS

    To do this the team deployed the scoop on the end of InSight’s robotic arm to shimmy soil on top of the dome-shaped shield, allowing it to trickle down onto the cable.

    The intention is to allow the soil to get as close to the shield as possible without interfering with its seal with the ground.

    Burying the seismic tether itself is one of the goals of the next phase of the mission, which NASA recently extended by two years to December 2022.

    SEE IT: NASA’S CURIOSITY ROVER TAKES MARS SELFIE

    But despite the interruption that the wind is causing to InSight’s seismometer, it isn’t giving much of a hand to the lander’s solar panels which remain covered with dust.

    Power is now running low as Mars moves away from the sun, although energy levels are expected to pick up against after July when the planet begins to approach the sun again.

    Until then, the team is going to turn off InSight’s instruments one by one so it can hibernate, waking only periodically to check its own health and sent a message back to Earth.

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    NASA said the team hopes to keep the seismometer on for another month or two before it has to be turned off.

    To read more of Sky News, click here.

    Ingenuity Mars helicopter deploys to Martian surface, readies for flight

    NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Ingenuity Mars helicopter is readying for a historic mission.

    NASA PREVIEWS FIRST MARS HELICOPTER FLIGHTS: EVERY STEP TAKEN IS ‘UNCHARTED TERRITORY’

    On Monday, JPL released images of the vehicle as it began to carefully unfurl from inside of the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover that landed on the red planet in February. 

    “Swing low, sweet helicopter…@NASAPersevere is slowly and carefully deploying the #MarsHelicopter, Ingenuity,” the team tweeted. “The tech demo is currently unfolding from its stowed position and readying to safely touch down on the Martian surface.”

    On Tuesday, JPL said they were in the “home stretch” as Ingenuity began its descent. 

    “We’re in the home stretch. The #MarsHelicopter has lowered all four legs and is in position to touch down on the Martian surface,” they wrote. “Once it’s fully ready, @NASAPersevere will release it gently to the surface.”

    Last week, NASA announced that JPL would be targeting no earlier than April 8 for the first-ever attempt at power and controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. 

    Setting the helicopter loose on the ground at its carefully selected flight zone ‒ just north of Perseverance’s landing site in Jezero Crater ‒ is just one of the many steps to reach this unprecedented milestone.

    In a news conference, the Ingenuity team explained that after the Mars Helicopter Delivery System rotated and released the helicopter, Perseverance then has 25 hours to move away to a “rover observation location” and Ingenuity must survive the frigid Mars night on its own. 

    The autonomous 4-pound rotorcraft is charged by solar panels and has just a month-long window to complete up to five test flights.

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    Perseverance will receive and relay flight instructions to the helicopter during the tests. 

    Here’s what it sounds like to go off-roading on Mars

    The Perseverance Mars rover is the most out of this world SUV.

    (NASA)

    The scientific vehicle has nearly the same weight and footrpint as a World War 2-era Jeep and is capable of some serious rock crawling.

    Crawling being a very literal term in this case, as the six-wheel vehicle has a maximum speed of .01 mph.

    Each of those wheels is equipped with an electric motor, however, and the four on the corners can all steer. The vehicle is also capable of negotiating a 45-degree grade in any direction, but its controllers back on earth limit it to 30 degrees in the instructions they send it that take 5 to 20 minutes to arrive.

    MORE OFF-ROADING FROM FOX NEWS AUTOS

    The six identical wheels are 20.7-inches in diameter and constructed of aluminum hubs and skins that are connected by flexible titanium spokes.

    (NASA)

    A highly articulated suspension allows the wheels to ride over rocks as tall as they are, and now we know what the metal cleats that form their treads sound like as they’re clawing at the sand and rocks.

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    Perseverance is equipped with a microphone that was primarily for capturing the sounds of its descent to the planet’s surface and has now been used to record a 90-foot cruise it recently took across the Jazero Crater.

    NASA posted a 16-minute clip and a shorter highlight reel of the noise, which includes pops, scrapes and a scratching sound that may be some sort of electronic interference.

    “If I heard these sounds driving my car, I’d pull over and call for a tow,” Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020’s EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem said. “But if you take a minute to consider what you’re hearing and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense.”

    Maybe next time they’ll step it up and send a GoPro video camera, but it will be a while before anyone has the kind of fun actually driving on an extraterrestrial body that the Apollo astronauts did in the Moon rover, in which the late Capt. Eugene Cernan reached a record speed of 11.2 mph.

    What the Perseverance Mars rover has accomplished so far

    It has been almost a month since the Perseverance Mars rover successfully landed on the red planet to the cheers of scientists and onlookers millions of miles away.

    The rover has been kept busy since touching down in the northeastern Jezero Crater and has run multiple tests in preparation for its next missions, unfurling its mechanical arm and observing its new home. 

    NASA TO CONDUCT SECOND ROCKET TEST FOR ARTEMIS MOON MISSIONS

    Perseverance, or “Percy,” is tasked with searching for traces of ancient microbial life in addition to collecting and caching samples for later return to Earth.

    That trip is slated for no earlier than 2031 after Percy gathers around 30 tubes of Martian rock and sediment.

    On March 13, the rover dropped its “belly pan,” or the protective covering that protects its sampling system.

    In addition, the rover has been harboring a stowaway for its second mission: the first-ever Mars helicopter aptly named Ingenuity — to be tested in June.

    While one of the next steps for Percy and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers is to drive from the newly-named “Octavia E. Butler Landing” site to a place to test Ingenuity, the rover has been able to accomplish a lot. 

    With advanced, high-definition imaging from its SuperCam and audio recording capability, all-new images and sounds have been beamed back to Earth to the wonderment of scientists and civilians alike. 

    The SuperCam is a rock-vaporizing instrument that is mounted on the “head” of the rover’s mast and will play an active role in selecting which rocks are worthy of examination.

    In a joint news conference with France’s Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) updating the public on their progress, NASA released audio of wind and the rover’s laser hitting Máaz, one of its first rock targets, in addition to some of its first SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) readings. 

    The historic recordings were released on March 10 and now each have more than 900,000 plays on the NASA SoundCloud page.

    Just a few days earlier, NASA announced that Percy had performed its first drive on the Martian planet’s surface covering 21.3 feet.

    By surveilling the terrain, scientists have determined that several of the rocks they’ve spotted are chemically similar to volcanic rocks and that wind and water have eroded them.

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    Geologists told the scientific journal Nature that the wind patterns appeared to have blasted the rocks primarily from the northwest and that darker colored rocks that could have been weathered by water might have tumbled in the ancient river delta that once flowed through the crater and its lake.

    Although much of Mars’ astrobiological history still remains unknown, Percy has been able to give researchers a closer look — providing crucial data for future missions. 

    NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars

    NASA has unveiled the first pictures from its fifth Mars rover, Perseverance, after a successful landing on the red planet’s Jezero crater at approximately 3:55 p.m. Thursday.

    “This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said in a press release. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration.”

    Perseverance, the most technologically advanced robot NASA has sent to date, traveled 293 million miles to reach Mars over the course of more than six months after launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Station on July 30. It will remain on Mars for nearly two years, searching for signs of ancient life and exploring the planet’s surface.

    The mission will help prepare the agency for future human exploration on Mars in the 2030s.

    ‘BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE EXIST’ ON MARS, FORMER NASA ADMINISTRATOR CONFIRMS

    The $2.7 billion rover, built in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is about 10 feet long, 9 feet wide, seven feet tall and about 2,260 pounds, roughly 278 pounds heavier than its predecessor, Curiosity.

    Perserverance is designed to drive an average of 650 feet per Martian day and features seven scientific instruments, a robotic arm that reaches about seven feet long, a rock drill. It is nuclear powered, using a plutonium generator provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. 

    The scientific instruments on the rover include a camera designed to take high-definition video, panoramic color and 3D images of the Martian surface and features in the atmosphere with a zoom lens to magnify distant targets, a group of sensors to measure weather and monitor dust on the planet’s surface, a system that will be used to produce oxygen from the Martian carbon-dioxide atmosphere, an x-ray and camera system that can measure the chemical makeup of rocks and analyze features as small as a grain of salt, a ground-penetrating radar system to analyze geologic features under Mars’ surface, a group of cameras, spectrometers, and a laser to search for organics and minerals as well as take clse up images of rock grains and surface textures, and a camera to identify the chemical composition of rocks and soils, including their atomic and molecular makeup.

    In addition, the rover carries a commemorative plate to honor COVID-19 healthcare workers and has the names of 10.9 million people stenciled into three of its silicon chips with the words “Explore as one” written in Morse code.

    WHITE HOUSE VOICES SUPPORT FOR MOON EXPLORATION BY 2024, AFTER CONCERNS BIDEN WOULD NIX ARTEMIS PROGRAM

    Perseverance’s landing involved the “seven minutes of terror,” a fiery atmospheric entry in a protective capsule which involved a parachute-assisted descent. The “seven minutes of terror” is referred to by NASA engineers as the time it takes to enter the Martian atmosphere and descend to the surface. 

    The spacecraft is guided solely by pre-programmed controls in its onboard computer, due to a roughly 11 minute signal delay between Earth and Mars. 

    Perseverance entered into the atmosphere at about 12,100 miles per hour in a protective capsule. The spacecraft then deployed a parachute to begin slowing down before removing its protective capsule and heat shield. The rover’s landing mechanism then fired eight rocket thrusters to slow down from about 170 miles per hour to about two miles per hour and guide it to a proper landing spot before using a sky crane to lower onto Mars’ surface.

    Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars, where NASA believes a body of water about the size of Lake Tahoe used to flow. The Perseverance science team believes this ancient river delta and lake deposits could have collected and preserved organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life.

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    Perseverance is also carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

    Ingenuinity will be deployed in a few months from underneath the rover in a flat area. Perseverance will then drive about 330 feet away to capture the flight attempt with its cameras. Once Ingenuity’s test flights are complete, the rover’s search for evidence of ancient microbial life will begin. 

    Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with the European Space Agency, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect the cached samples recovered from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

    NASA’s Perseverance rover is ready to land on Mars

    NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is set to land on the red planet on Thursday. 

    Perseverance is the agency’s fifth rover on Mars, and engineers managing the mission at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California wrote in a Tuesday news release that the rover was on track to descend at Mars’ Jezero Crater at approximately 3:55 p.m. EST.

    WHITE HOUSE VOICES SUPPORT FOR MOON EXPLORATION BY 2024, AFTER CONCERNS BIDEN WOULD NIX ARTEMIS PROGRAM

    Scientists picked the 28-mile-wide crater after a five-year study of more than 60 potential sites, as they believe the crater was once flooded with water and home to an ancient river delta more than 3.5 billion years ago.

    Landing on Mars is risky and around half of all previous Mars landing attempts have succeeded. Jezero Crater’s topography — which also includes cliffs, sand dunes and boulder fields — only increases the difficulty of the mission.

    CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2020/07/30: An Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover launches from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Mars 2020 mission plans to land the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet in February 2021 where it will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

    This time, however, the Perseverance team is reportedly “employing new technologies” in order to be able to target the rover’s landing site with more accuracy.

    That said, there is plenty of room for error — especially during what is known as the “seven minutes of terror.” 

    The spacecraft that is flying Perseverance will separate from its entry capsule, enter the planet’s atmosphere traveling at around 12,100 mph, deploy its parachute at supersonic speed, detach the bottom of the entry capsule enabling the use of radar and Terrain-Relative Navigation, separate the back half of the capsule and deploy the rover’s “jetpack,” and touchdown using the sky crane maneuver at human walking speed. 

    It’s a dance with precise steps, but a multitude of factors can impact the timing of the landing, including the conditions of the atmosphere and the complexity of deep-space communications — though Perseverance can land without communications with Earth.

    Once on Mars, the rover will photograph its new home — sending images back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — and ultimately attempt to document proof of ancient microbial life on Mars. 

    NASA TEST FOR ‘MOST POWERFUL ROCKET IN THE WORLD’ HAS COMPONENT FAILURE

    The mission carries more cameras than any interplanetary mission in history, with 19 on the rover and four on other parts of the spacecraft.

    This will also be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth.

    Perseverance is also ferrying a helicopter named Ingenuity: the first aircraft to attempt powered, controlled flight on another planet.

    As the most advanced rover to date, Perseverance was named with a purpose, and to the right of the middle wheel is a plaque that commemorates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and pays tribute to health care workers around the globe.

    To watch the landing and listen to commentary from experts, viewers can tune in to NASA TV at 2:15 p.m. ET.

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    “This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk told Fox News.

    “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the red planet in the 2030s,” he said.

    NASA’s Perseverance rover preparing to land on Mars

    The countdown has begun as NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance prepares to land on the red planet. 

    Perseverance will be the agency’s fifth rover to land on Mars, and engineers managing the mission at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said that the rover was on track to descend at Mars’ Jezero Crater at approximately 3:55 p.m. ET on Thursday. 

    WHITE HOUSE VOICES SUPPORT FOR MOON EXPLORATION BY 2024, AFTER CONCERNS BIDEN WOULD NIX ARTEMIS PROGRAM

    Scientists picked the 28-mile-wide crater after a five-year study of more than 60 potential sites, as they believe the crater was once flooded with water and home to an ancient river delta more than 3.5 billion years ago.

    Landing on Mars is risky and around half of all previous Mars landing attempts have succeeded. Jezero Crater’s topography — which also includes cliffs, sand dunes and boulder fields — only increases the difficulty of the mission.

    This time, however, the Perseverance team is reportedly “employing new technologies” in order to be able to target the rover’s landing site with more accuracy.

    That said, there is plenty of room for error — especially during what is known as the “seven minutes of terror.” 

    The spacecraft that is flying Perseverance will separate from its entry capsule, enter the planet’s atmosphere traveling at around 12,100 mph, deploy its parachute at supersonic speed, detach the bottom of the entry capsule enabling the use of radar and Terrain-Relative Navigation, separate the back half of the capsule and deploy the rover’s “jetpack,” and touchdown using the sky crane maneuver at human walking speed. 

    It’s a dance with precise steps, but a multitude of factors can impact the timing of the landing, including the conditions of the atmosphere and the complexity of deep-space communications — though Perseverance can land without communications with Earth.

    Once on Mars, the rover will photograph its new home — sending images back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — and ultimately attempt to document proof of ancient microbial life on Mars. 

    NASA TEST FOR ‘MOST POWERFUL ROCKET IN THE WORLD’ HAS COMPONENT FAILURE

    The mission carries more cameras than any interplanetary mission in history, with 19 on the rover and four on other parts of the spacecraft.

    This will also be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth.

    Perseverance is also ferrying a helicopter named Ingenuity: the first aircraft to attempt powered, controlled flight on another planet.

    As the most advanced rover to date, Perseverance was named with a purpose, and to the right of the middle wheel is a plaque that commemorates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and pays tribute to health care workers around the globe.

    To watch the landing and listen to commentary from experts, viewers can tune in to NASA TV at 2:15 p.m. ET.

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    “This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally – when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk told Fox News.

    “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration. The mission itself personifies the human ideal of persevering toward the future and will help us prepare for human exploration of the red planet in the 2030s,” he said.

    NASA is extending Mars and Jupiter missions, citing notable success

    Citing discoveries that have “produced exceptional science,” NASA has decided to add several years to two of its planetary science missions: the Jupiter Juno mission and the Mars InSight lander.

    After a lengthy review process, which can be found here, the space agency concluded that both missions have “increased our understanding of our solar system, as well as spurred new sets of diverse questions.”

    “The Senior Review has validated that these two planetary science missions are likely to continue to bring new discoveries, and produce new questions about our solar system,” said Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science division, in a statement.

    “I thank the members of the Senior Review panel for their comprehensive analysis and thank the mission teams as well, who will now continue to provide exciting opportunities to refine our understanding of the dynamic science of Jupiter and Mars.”

    Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    ‘CREATURES’ IN JUPITER’S CLOUDS? NASA’S JUNO SPACECRAFT CAPTURES IMAGES THAT STUN THE INTERNET

    Juno has made a number of discoveries about Jupiter, including capturing remarkable, never-before-seen images, as well as a “snow-white” oval storm.

    The Juno mission launched in 2011 and was scheduled to stop functioning in July 2021, but will now continue until September 2025 or the end of its life, whichever comes first. Not only will Juno continue to observe the gas giant, but it will also look at the planet’s rings and its moons, including “close flybys” of Ganymede, Europa, and Io. 

    Europa, the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System, is home to an ocean that “could be habitable,” researchers have said previously. In August 2019, NASA confirmed it would send a mission to Europa to further explore the celestial body.

    At a cost of $828 million, the InSight lander became the space agency’s first probe to reach the Red Planet in six years, following the August 2012 landing of the Curiosity Rover.

    NASA HAS A ‘MOLE’ PROBLEM ON MARS

    This illustration shows NASA’s InSight spacecraft with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    The InSight lander mission will be extended at least through December 2022. It will continue its work gathering seismic and weather data, as well conducting research using its heat probe.

    The InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission, which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has provided scientists with a wealth of stunning images and discoveries since landing safely on the Red Planet in November 2018 after “seven minutes of terror.”

    The lander had originally been scheduled to blast off in March 2016, but NASA suspended its launch preparations when a vacuum leak was found in the craft’s prime science instrument.

    In April 2019, the InSight lander recorded the first-ever “Mars quake.”

    In September 2019, the InSight lander detected bizarre bursts of magnetic pulses on Mars that raised “interesting questions.”

    NASA’s long-term goal is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

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