Mars News & Features

NASA’s Perseverance Fords an Ancient River to Reach Science Target

5 min read

Originally thought of as little more than a route clear of rover-slowing boulders, Neretva Vallis has provided a bounty of geologic options for the science team.    After detouring through a dune field to avoid wheel-rattling boulders, NASA’s Perseverance Mars…

Article3 days ago

NASA Watches Mars Light Up During Epic Solar Storm

6 min read

In addition to producing auroras, a recent extreme storm provided more detail on how much radiation future astronauts could encounter on the Red Planet. Mars scientists have been anticipating epic solar storms ever since the Sun entered a period of…

Article6 days ago

NASA to Measure Moonquakes With Help From InSight Mars Mission

6 min read

The technology behind the two seismometers that make up NASA’s Farside Seismic Suite was used to detect more than a thousand Red Planet quakes. The most sensitive instrument ever built to measure quakes and meteor strikes on other worlds is…

Article3 weeks ago

Clare Luckey: Shaping the Future of Mars Missions and Inspiring the Artemis Generation 

5 min read

As a member of the Mars Architecture Team, Clare Luckey is one of the people at the forefront of designing the first crewed mission to the Red Planet. Her current work involves helping to develop the vision for the initial…

Article3 weeks ago

NASA, European Space Agency Unite to Land Europe’s Rover on Mars

2 min read

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) announced Thursday they signed an agreement to expand NASA’s work on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, an ESA-led mission launching in 2028 that will search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.…

News Release

NASA Technology Grants to Advance Moon to Mars Space Exploration

2 min read

NASA has awarded nearly $1.5 million to academic, non-profit, and business organizations to advance state-of-the-art technology that will play a key role in the agency’s return to the Moon under Artemis, as well as future missions to Mars. Twenty-four projects…

News Release

NASA Selects Commercial Service Studies to Enable Mars Robotic Science

4 min read

Nine companies have been selected to conduct early-stage studies of concepts for commercial services to support lower-cost, higher-frequency missions to the Red Planet. NASA has identified nine U.S. companies to perform a total of 12 concept studies of how commercial…

Article2 months ago

NASA Scientists Gear Up for Solar Storms at Mars

6 min read

The Sun will be at peak activity this year, providing a rare opportunity to study how solar storms and radiation could affect future astronauts on the Red Planet. In the months ahead, two of NASA’s Mars spacecraft will have an…

Article2 months ago
Water-ice (blue) and dust (red) in the atmosphere of Mars above the cratered Martian surface as viewed from orbit by the THEMIS camera (false-color composite image).

Major Martian Milestones

1 min read

There’s good news from NASA’s Cloudspotting on Mars project! That’s the project that invites you to help identify exotic clouds high in the Martian atmosphere. Congratulations to the Cloudspotting on Mars team and all the volunteers who have helped spot Martian clouds!

Article2 months ago
A landscape scene looks out on a mostly flat surface with pools of liquid. in the middle A mountain range in the distance runs across the top of the image, punctuated by a daylight blue sky.

Why is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas

5 min read

The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover — that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale Crater — has scientists scratching their heads. Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing…

Article2 months ago