Mars
NASA making renewed efforts to contact Mars rover Opportunity
NASA is making a new, and perhaps final, attempt to restore contact with the Mars rover Opportunity, which has not communicated with the Earth for more than six months.
InSight successfully lands on Mars
NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully landed on Mars Nov. 26, completing a journey of nearly 500 million kilometers and starting a mission to study the planet’s interior.
NASA selects landing site for Mars 2020 rover
NASA has chosen a Martian crater that once hosted a lake and river delta as the landing site for a mission that will collect samples for eventual return to Earth.
Mars mission advocates see benefits in NASA’s lunar exploration plans
With NASA committed to a human return to the moon, Mars exploration advocates say those lunar missions can be useful to achieve their long-term goals, if designed properly.
Foust Forward | The moon bounces back
For all the enthusiasm about lunar exploration, and announcements made during the conference, there were far fewer specific details about just how to achieve those goals.
NASA roadmap report provides few new details on human exploration plans
A long-overdue exploration roadmap report released by NASA Sept. 24 offers an overview of the agency’s plans to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, but few new details about how to carry out those plans.
Foust Forward | Waking up NASA’s Mars exploration program
Mars exploration advocates have been waiting and hoping as well, concerned about a potential hibernation of NASA’s overall Mars exploration program.
Mars and the moon: not an either/or proposition
The moon may be a much-needed pit stop for a very long journey to Mars.
Senators seek focus on Mars in NASA’s exploration plans
Senators preparing a new NASA authorization bill want to ensure that the agency’s long-term focus remains human missions to Mars even as it plans flights to the moon.
China claims progress in new landing technology for crewed spacecraft, Mars landings
China is claiming progress on a number of reentry and landing technologies for human spaceflight and Mars missions, underlining apparently significant plans for deep space exploration.
Mars rover Opportunity weathering major dust storm
Despite conditions that have deprived the Opportunity Mars rover of solar power, NASA officials said June 13 that they expected the long-lived spacecraft to survive an intense ongoing dust storm.
Foust Forward | What do we want? Mars! When do we want it? Uhhh…
Few in Congress are bigger proponents of sending humans to Mars than Ed Perlmutter, and he has the bumper sticker to prove it.
Bridenstine emphasizes support for moon and Mars exploration
A day after telling one audience that the U.S. was returning to the moon, new NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine reassured another that Mars remained a goal for the agency as well.
