Mars

In its third consecutive successful Martian flight on April 25, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter travelled the farthest on Mars, that too at a higher speed. The rotorcraft surpassed its test-flight speed, which it registered on Earth, and covered 50 metres at a speed of two metres per second in its 80-second-long journey. Making first flight on Mars on April 19, Ingenuity will be preparing for a fourth flight soon.

Following a successful helicopter flight, NASA's perseverance rover carrying Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) has extracted 10 minutes of breathable air on Mars i.e., five grams of oxygen. MOXIE extracted oxygen atoms from CO2 molecules and its capacity is 10 grams of oxygen per hour. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate’s associate administrator Jim Reuter vowed to create rocket propellant and breathable air… read-more

Celebrating 20 years of Mars Odyssey orbiter, NASA has released an image showing blue and golden dunes on Mars' northern polar caps. Covering 30km area, the photograph's colors are generated by surface temperatures i.e blue for cold and yellowish-orange for warm. The picture was, reportedly, captured from Dec 2002 to Nov 2004 following Odyssey's launch in 2001. Notably, Mars Odyssey orbiter, a robotic spacecraft is the longest-working… read-more

The red planet has baffled scientists yet again as a rainbow-like phenomenon was recently spotted by NASA's Perseverance rover. Several debaters on Reddit have speculated it to be either an ‘icebow’ or 'dustbow,' resulting from light's scattering off dust particles. However, claiming 'Definitely not a rainbow' NASA experts says the artifact could possibly be ‘lens flare’ caused by the lights entering the camera lens and randomly dispersing.… read-more

The China National Space Administration informed that the Tianwen-I spacecraft had been established in the temporary parking orbit of Mars before its descent onto the surface. Reportedly, the spacecraft will now remain in the orbit for next three months intending to map the Martian surface and landing site. China's spacecraft is the third to reach Mars this month and will be the second nation after the US to land a rover, if successful.