LEIA Stories
Low clouds trace the branching valleys of the Appalachian Plateau and the Cumberland River, then burn off by afternoon.
By Remington Free, Operations Systems Engineer, NASA-JPL Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 30, 2026 Today’s plan covered 3 sols, 5060, 5061, and 5062, as we take a few recharging sols before getting back to our normal drilling activities. As you…
Written by Susanne P. Schwenzer, Professor of Planetary Mineralogy at The Open University, UK Earth planning date: Friday, Oct. 23, 2026 As regular readers of this blog will know, we returned to the area where we found disc shaped inclusions…
Written by Roger C. Wiens, SuperCam Principal Investigator for NASA’s Perseverance rover at Purdue University Nov. 4, 2026 Exploration on Mars turns up the unexpected. Perseverance is equipped with a fantastic set of instruments for studying the rock record of…
Written by Tasha Coelho, Mastcam-Z Student Collaborator at Arizona State University Nov. 1, 2026 Perseverance’s most recent abrasion “Pumbe” bears a striking resemblance to an earlier abrasion, “Badger Peak.” That’s no coincidence. As previously reported, that rock had a hardness…
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered what is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star. A new study, published Monday in the latest issue of The Astrophysical Journal, details the discovery of a previously hidden companion object…
Mid-power (3-7 kW) Hall effect thruster systems have been identified by government and industry stakeholders as critical capabilities for satellite, defense, and exploration missions. Given the need for this capability, NASA is launching the Advanced Mid-Power Electric Rocket (AMPERE) Challenge.…
Thousands gathered over several days in early November to experience MAX POWER – NASA’s first exhibition of America’s superiority in space, aeronautics, and technology on and around the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The multi-day, family-friendly event honored the…
NASA’s two ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft have each successfully completed a powered Earth flyby, using Earth’s gravity in combination with a sustained engine burn to slingshot themselves toward Mars. With these successful maneuvers complete, the…
After 378 days without windows, the sounds of the outside world, or real-time calls with family and friends, four research volunteers stepped out of NASA’s Mars Dune Alpha habitat on Oct. 31, completing the agency’s second yearlong Mars surface simulation. …