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Scientists resume use of Curiosity rover’s drill and internal lab instruments
Using new drilling techniques after a stalled electrical motor halted sampling operations on Mars, the Curiosity rover has delivered rock powder to one of its onboard lab instruments for analysis for the first time since 2016, officials said Monday.
NOAA’s new GOES-17 weather satellite has degraded vision at night
Engineers are studying a malfunction with the main imaging instrument on NOAA's GOES-17 weather satellite, launched March 1, that could limit the observatory's ability to monitor storms, winds and other weather phenomena at night, officials said Wednesday.
First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
Two CubeSats developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon.
Water plumes on Europa detected by Galileo spacecraft
A review of data captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft as it orbited Jupiter in the 1990s indicates it likely flew through a plume of water vapor spewing from cracks in the surface of the moon Europa, providing independent evidence water is being released from a vast sub-surface ocean beneath its frozen crust, scientists said Monday.
VideoHelicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet
A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA's Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday.
Q&A with Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL (members only)
Mimi Aung leads a cadre of engineers developing the Mars Helicopter, an aerial drone set to fly to the Red Planet with the Mars 2020 rover.
VideoRocketcam replay of InSight’s launch to Mars
United Launch Alliance has released a replay of the May 5 liftoff of NASA's InSight mission to Mars aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, as viewed by aft- and forward-facing cameras on the two-stage launch vehicle.
Photos: Shrouded in fog, Atlas 5 takes flight from Vandenberg
A layer of fog intruding on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California kept nearby observers from seeing any sign of Saturday's predawn launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a robotic NASA probe to Mars. The only images of the Atlas 5's fiery takeoff came from remote cameras placed at the launch pad, or from distant viewing points away from the poor visibility.
After foggy departure, it’s clear sailing to Mars for InSight lander
Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California's Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA's InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet.
Video: InSight blasts off through the fog
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Saturday from California with the InSight spacecraft heading for Mars.