Millions of miles from Earth lies a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. You know this planet as Mars…but it hasn’t always been this way. There’s evidence that the Red Planet was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago. Could it also have supported... Read More
The Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter have launched successfully and are on their way to Mars! They will land in February of 2021.
NASA's next Mars rover has a name – Perseverance. Like every exploration mission before, our rover is going to face challenges, and it’s going to make amazing discoveries.
The time at hand is hard. We have already surmounted many obstacles on our way to Red Planet, but as humans we will not give... Read More
Help NASA explore Mars from home! By participating in the “AI4Mars” challenge you will teach future Mars rovers how to identify different terrain types, like sand, rock, and soil.
Vaneeza Rupani was chosen by NASA from the finalists for the agency's "Name the Rover" contest for the Mars 2020 mission, Ingenuity is an apt description for the history-making spacecraft, which launches with NASA's Perseverance rover this summer. Here, we ask Rupani what it's like to be part of a... Read More
NASA’s next Mars rover has a new name: Perseverance. After sorting through more than 28,000 submissions from K-12 students from every U.S. state and territory, one name was chosen. Alexander Mather, a 13-year-old student from Virginia who submitted the winning name, explains why he chose... Read More
NASA has chosen a name for its next Mars rover: Perseverance. The name was announced today by Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington during a celebration at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. Zurbuchen was on... Read More
The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration for the Mars 2020 rover mission, intended to show the feasibility and utility of using helicopters for Mars exploration. This technology may enable future missions to perform reconnaissance or independent science, and to access terrain not reachable... Read More
NASA invites U.S. students to submit essays to name NASA's next Mars rover. Kindergarten through 12th grade students have until Nov. 1, 2019 to submit their name.
Following National Academy of Sciences recommendations, advice from the NASA Advisory Council, and subsequent unanimous agreement from NASA’s science leadership, the agency has established an independent Planetary Protection Review Board to review established guidelines for planetary protection and... Read More
Solar System, Mars, Planets of Our Solar System
July's night skies feature Mars opposition on the 27th, when Mars, Earth, and the Sun all line up, and Mars' closest approach to Earth since 2003 on the 31st. That means great Mars viewing, though the planet-wide Martian dust storm will make seeing details more difficult.
We’ve always referred to Mars as the red planet because of its surface color. But what’s below that dusty crust? NASA's InSight mission is determined to find out.
This is a story more than 4.5 billion years in the making. We’ve always referred to Mars as the red planet because of its surface color. But what’s below that dusty crust? We don’t know.
NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is on a 300-million-mile trip to Mars to study for the first time what lies deep beneath the surface of the Red Planet. InSight launched at 7:05 a.m. EDT (4:05 am PDT) Saturday from... Read More