AI poses a variety of ethical conundrums, but the NASA teams working on Mars rovers exemplify an ethic of care and human-robot teamwork that could act as a blueprint for AI’s future.
A panorama stitched together from about 100 individual Curiosity images. The ‘door’ is circled, and is tiny and hard to see at this scale.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
We should not be surprised that some of the innumerable rocks on Mars have weird shapes, because many have been sand-blasted by wind erosion for billions of years.
As commercial spaceflight companies lower the cost of reaching space, nations can launch more missions. But while astronauts are great for whipping up enthusiasm, is a manned mission worth the cost?
Once people get there, Mars will be contaminated with Earth life.
NASA/Pat Rawlings, SAIC
NASA’s InSight Mars lander touches down Nov. 26, part of a careful robotic approach to exploring the red planet. But human exploration of Mars will inevitably introduce Earth life. Are you OK with that?
Following NASA’s latest discovery of organic matter on the red planet, new findings in a salt lake in California could point to where to look for alien life.
Olympus Mons, biggest volcano in the Solar System.
Justin Cowart
This week, NASA has discovered great similarities between the Earth and Mars and Pluto. But when it comes to the potential for life, Mars is an increasingly hot favourite.
This digital false-colour image shows the dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on the planet. The streaks are roughly the length of a football field.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona