MarsOrbiter
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Mars Express orbiter snaps stunning image of Korolev crater
The European Space Agency has released a gorgeous composite image of Mars' Korolev crater, an 82-kilometer-wide crater situated in the planet's northern lowlands. The ESA's Mars Express orbiter snapped pictures of the crater over the course of five orbits, and five "strips" were combined to make this stunning image. The Korolev crater is filled with 1.8-kilometer-thick ice year round, which is believed to be maintained by an occurrence known as a "cold trap." The air moving across the crater's ice cools down, sinks and then acts as a sort of shield over the ice, keeping it cold and frozen all year long.
NASA picks three potential drill sites for Mars 2020
When the Mars 2020 rover reaches the red planet, it will quickly begin drilling for samples from its surface. NASA hasn't picked the exact drill site yet, but it has narrowed its choices down to three during a workshop with scientists in Monrovia, California. The group consulted images and data sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter before voting for easily accessible locations they believe could have supported life. Jezero crater, which got the most votes, was once an ancient lake comparable to Lake Tahoe. It was connected to a large river that fed it water and sediments, making it an ideal site for the rover's search for signs of life.
There may be water on Mars, but not much
Remember those weird dark streaks that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found last September? These recurring slope lineae (RSL), as they're called, were originally thought to contain liquid water. On Mars, liquid water would obviously be a huge deal because it means both potential source of life and potential resource. Well, it turns out that there isn't nearly as much water in those RSLs as astronomers had hoped and certainly none that's potable. What's more, new analysis has estimated that the amount of liquid surface water on Mars cannot exceed that of Earth's driest deserts.
The Big Picture: Mars' fractured surface underneath the dunes
The dune images Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends back to Earth helps NASA study erosion, wind, weather and movement of materials on the red planet. But this image taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on July 30th shows the fractured surface underneath sand dunes more prominently. According to the agency, the textured ground could be bedrock that has cracks all over due to extreme temperature changes. Or, it could be a sedimentary layer that developed fractured after it dried up. Either way, NASA can use this photo (among the others that HiRISE took) to take a closer look at the planet's surface.
Scientists find signs of liquid water on the surface of Mars
Liquid water isn't just a thing of the past for Mars -- NASA just revealed that it's also present on the planet's surface today, the New York Times reports. Scientists have detected evidence of hydrated salts on the surface of Mars, which are produced by liquid water. That leads to the conclusion that liquid water is far more prevalent on Mars than we ever thought. Alfred S. McEwan, a University of Arizona professor of planetary geology, made the discovery along with other scientists after going over images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Back in 2011, they found dark streaks (dubbed "recurrent slope linae," or R.S.L.s) alongside canyons, slopes and craters on Mars, which lengthened and disappeared seasonally. Scientists figured water might have been involved with R.S.L.'s initially, but it wasn't confirmed until they pointed a spectrometer on the Martian surface and discovered the hydrated salts.
Mars Orbiter gets ready for InSight Lander's touchdown
NASA's InSight Lander won't be reaching the red planet until 2016, but the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is already preparing for its welcome party. In order to make sure that it's at the right place to be able to receive radio transmissions from InSight during the landing process, the MRO is firing six intermediate-sized thrusters (it has one set of bigger and another set of smaller ones) for 77 seconds today, July 29th. Those thrusters are capable of producing five pounds of thrust each, and firing them will adjust the spracecraft's orbit timing from crossing the equator every 3PM local solar time to 2:30PM. The last time the MRO performed a maneuver of this magnitude was in 2006, and the next instances are scheduled to happen in 2016 and 2017 to return it to its original orbit timing.
NASA's solar-powered Juno mission heads to Jupiter today, Orbiter finds water on Mars? (video)
NASA's Juno mission has been beset by delays for a while now, but the solar-powered excursion is finally scheduled to take off for Jupiter today, in the hopes of making history. Throughout the course of its five-year journey, the "armored tank" spacecraft will be powered exclusively by a trio of solar panels, each measuring nine feet wide and 30 feet long. Close to Earth, these panels will be able to generate 14 kilowatts of electricity, but as Juno ventures deeper into space, they'll crank out only 400 watts. Power, however, shouldn't be an issue, as NASA has outfitted the craft with energy efficient onboard computers, and has drawn out a route that will maximize its exposure to the sun. Juno should arrive at Jupiter by 2016 and, if all goes to plan, will ultimately travel farther than any solar-powered craft ever has. The agency expects their creation to set the record in April 2017, when it should be about 507 million miles away from the sun, eclipsing the 492 million mile mark likely to be set by Russia's sun-juiced Rosetta craft, in 2012. Meanwhile, closer to home, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just delivered new imagery of the Red Planet's mountains, providing perhaps the strongest evidence that water still flows there. The images reveal long, finger-like tendrils that extend down steep slopes, including the rims of craters. They appear during the summer and fade away once winter arrives, suggesting the presence of a volatile material. Researchers failed to identify water above ground, but speculate that briny water may be flowing underground. Launch past the break to see the images, in all their eight seconds of glory.
