China’s Tianwen-1 blasts off.
STR/EPA
If China succeeds, it will be the first country ever to visit and land on Mars on its first try.
Three missions – from the UAE, China and the US – will arrive at Mars in Feburary.
Limbitech via Shutterstock
Transcript for Episode 1 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, including stories on Mars and Belarus.
The Perseverance Rover’s first image sent back to NASA from Mars shows the surface of the Jezero crater.
NASA/JPL
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission has arrived and landed the Perseverance Rover on the red planet. The rover’s goal is to collect rock and soil samples to be brought back to Earth in the future.
Nasa’s Perseverance.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The space laws designed to protect planets and moons from contamination.
An artist’s illustration of the aeroshell containing NASA’s Perseverance rover guiding itself towards the surface of Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Plus what protesters in Belarus want to happen next. Episode 1 of The Conversation’s new weekly podcast.
All eyes on Mars.
Kevin Gill/Flickr
India has already managed what China has not.
Nasa’s Space Launch System.
Nasa
SpaceX is due to test fly its Starship in the coming days.
NASA’s James Webb telescope mirror undergoing cryogenic testing.
Ball Aerospace/Flickr
India may land on the Moon this coming year, while Nasa will launch its new, powerful rocket farther into space than any other human rated spacecraft.
NASA
We’ve already sent probes to land on Mars. The challenge now is to get people there and bring them home again.
Starship prototype test fight.
SpaceX/EPA
Starship’s groundbreaking design will help it land safely on Mars one day.
Scientists have discovered that the gray mouse lemur has the ability to hibernate.
(Shutterstock)
Gray mouse lemurs are more closely related to humans than mice. They also have the ability to hibernate, and researchers are hoping to learn how to transfer that ability to humans.
Artist’s concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars.
NASA
It is becoming increasingly clear that there is plenty of brine on Mars.
Mars 2020 Perseverance space mission launches from Kennedy Space Center.
CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EE
With a new president in the White House and NASA’s chief administrator resigning we can expect changes to space policy.
ESA / DLR / FU Berlin
Three newly discovered bodies of liquid water deep beneath the south polar ice cap on Mars have planetary scientists intrigued.
There seems to be a network of underground bodies of liquid water at Mars’ south pole.
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
New findings boost chances of finding life on Mars, but there are better candidates in the solar system.
Purple microbial mats offer clues to how ancient life functioned.
Pieter Visscher
How ancient microbes survived in a world without oxygen has been a mystery. Scientists discovered a living microbial mat that uses arsenic instead of oxygen for photosynthesis and respiration.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover takes a selfie on Mars in June, 2018.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The clouds of Venus may harbour alien life. But where else?
Illustration of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Perseverance rover onboard Mars
2020 is our best bet for finding life on the red planet.
The Perseverance Rover (Mars 2020) installed within the upper stage of the United Launch Alliance rocket that will send it to Mars from Florida this week.
Australian scientists have been working on NASA’s latest Mars mission for years.
In a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., engineers observed the first driving test for the Mars rover, Perseverance. Perseverance will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize Mars’ climate and geology, and collect samples for a future return to Earth.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
This summer, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is taking the next giant leap in our search for signs of life beyond Earth.