Mars mission

19 Stories

After a Year, Crew Steps Out of Simulated Mars Environment

NASA watched volunteers' efforts to deal with limited resources, isolation

(Newser) - The crew of a NASA mission to Mars has emerged from its craft after a yearlong voyage that never left Earth. The four volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months inside NASA's first simulated Mars environment at Johnson Space Center in Houston, coming out of the artificial alien...

That's a Wrap for NASA's 4-Pound Mars Helicopter

Rotor blade damage permanently grounds Ingenuity

(Newser) - NASA's little Mars helicopter has flown its last flight. The space agency announced Thursday that the 4-pound chopper named Ingenuity can no longer fly because of rotor blade damage. While it remains upright and in contact with flight controllers, its $85 million mission is officially over, officials said. Originally...

NASA Crew Has Begun Simulated Mars Trip
Crew Simulates
Stress of Mars Trip
Jan 31, 2022 7:00 PM CST

Crew Simulates Stress of Mars Trip

Four volunteers are sealed in a structure at Johnson Space Center

(Newser) - A NASA crew has begun a 45-day trip to Mars, all in a habitat on the ground at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. A volunteer crew of four launched the simulated journey Friday, CNN reports, in an effort to learn about the effects of isolation and confinement during missions....

Think You Can Build a Nuclear Power Plant On the Moon?

If so, NASA would like to hear from you

(Newser) - NASA wants there to be a nuclear power plant on the moon, and it needs your help. The goal is to build a fission reactor within 10 years, and the plan is to get someone else to get it started, the AP reports. In a statement , Battelle Energy Alliance and...

'Flawless': Spacecraft Hits Martian Target
InSight Shares
First Photos of Mars
Nov 27, 2018 9:55 AM CST

InSight Shares First Photos of Mars

It could be months before we get more data

(Newser) - By space standards, it was a bull's-eye. Minutes after touching down on Mars on Monday, NASA's InSight spacecraft sent back a snapshot of its new digs, a dust-speckled image that looked like a work of art to scientists, revealing a mostly smooth and sandy terrain around the spacecraft...

Elon Musk: 70% Odds I'm Going to Mars

Says Red Planet is dangerous, not an escape hatch for the rich

(Newser) - Elon Musk thinks the odds are pretty good that he'll get to to climb aboard a SpaceX rocket and take it to Mars in his lifetime—about 70% in his favor, he tells Axios . "I'm talking about moving there," he says, though he doesn't exactly...

This Is Not a Bullet Hole. This Is Mars

Orbiter spots deep pit at Red Planet's south pole

(Newser) - Mars is the solar system's equivalent of a pock-marked teenager, with a surface dotted by countless craters and pits left by meteors, floods, and volcanoes. But there's one newly discovered pit that scientists just can't make sense of, reports Science Alert . It's a massive hole—believed...

Scientists Finish Year on 'Mars'
Scientists Finish Year on 'Mars'
Aug 28, 2016 3:13 PM CDT

Scientists Finish Year on 'Mars'

6 emerge from dome in Hawaii

(Newser) - Six scientists have completed a yearlong Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in a dome on a Mauna Loa mountain in near isolation and could go outside only while wearing spacesuits. On Sunday, the simulation ended, and the scientists emerged, the AP reports. Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the...

There's a New Player on the Mars Scene

India's MOM probe succeeds at cost of just $72M

(Newser) - A proud day for India and its MOM: After a tense countdown early today, scientists in a Bangalore command center rejoiced as the country's Mars Orbiter Mission succeeded in putting a spacecraft in orbit around the red planet. The "Mangalyaan"—Hindi for "Mars craft"—probe...

Latest Entry in Race to Mars: India

Country could be 4th to get to red planet

(Newser) - It may soon get a little more crowded around Mars: India has successfully launched a spacecraft headed for the red planet, putting the country a 300-day journey away from being the fourth space agency to get there, the BBC reports. The Mars Orbiter Mission took off from a base on...

Mars Couple's Radiation Shield: Their Own Feces

It'll line the walls, alongside food, water

(Newser) - When you're on a budget-conscious mission to Mars, you can't waste anything—including your own, well, waste. The lucky couple tapped for Inspiration Mars' private voyage to the red planet will be tasked with lining the walls of their vessel with their own poop to shield themselves from...

Rover's Mars Find: Carbon or Contamination?

Nothing definitive yet, scientists say

(Newser) - Don't get too excited about life on Mars just yet: Though NASA's Curiosity rover did find a simple carbon compound on the planet, the team has yet to determine whether the compound actually came from Mars or was transported there on Curiosity itself. And the scoop of soil...

NASA's Goal: Man Near Mars in 21 Years

NASA wants to put humans in orbit around Mars by 2033

(Newser) - NASA wants to put humans into Mars' orbit by 2033, with the goal of having astronauts return to Earth with a canister of Mars rocks that would have been collected earlier and put into orbit. The goal was unveiled this week by an internal NASA study group working on the...

If Obama Budget Passes, It's Bye-Bye Mars

Budget cuts could eliminate much of Mars program from NASA's plans

(Newser) - For 20 years, NASA has basically been obsessed with Mars. This summer, NASA's most high-tech rover will land near the Martian equator. And 2016 and 2018 missions have already been planned, with the intention of bringing home rocks from the red planet. But those two future excursions may not...

Crew Emerges From 520-Day Mars 'Flight'

Mission 'lands' without ever leaving planet

(Newser) - They’re free—and they don’t appear to have gone crazy. The crew of Russia’s simulated Mars mission has landed, by which we mean, been released from the narrow confines of the “spaceship” they’ve been trapped in for 520 days . The six men, ages 27 to...

Astronauts Break Record for Longest 'Space' Mission

...without actually leaving the planet

(Newser) - A crew of cosmonauts has broken the record for longest space mission, having spent 438 days in a 12-foot-wide capsule. But they'll also break another record when their mission is up—the record for shortest distance traveled on a space mission—because they've never actually left Moscow in...

US, EU May Launch Single Mars Rover

NASA, ESA discuss combining missions

(Newser) - American and European space agencies trying to reconcile their Mars ambitions with their budgets are stepping up cooperation. NASA and ESA had planned to send two rovers to Mars for a tandem mission in 2018, but they're now considering combining functions and sending a single rover. America's Max-C rover is...

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

 NASA Plans to Send 
 Men to Mars, Leave 
 Them There 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 27, 2010 5:00 PM CDT

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

Hundred Year Spaceship could hit other planets, too

(Newser) - NASA is hatching an audacious plan to send astronauts into space to colonize Mars and other planets—and never return. The project, known as the Hundred Year Starship, has already received more than $1.5 million in funding, the Daily Mail reports, though that’s a small fraction of what...

'Virtual Mars' Crew Locked in 'Spaceship' for 18 Months

Russia launches simulated mission in study

(Newser) - A multinational crew of cosmonauts will be embarking on a 520-day mission to nowhere today. The all-male crew—three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian, and a Chinese man—are taking part in a Mars mission simulation at a Moscow medical center locked in capsules, the BBC reports. The experiment aims...

19 Stories