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While sunsets on Mars are uniquely moody, <keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="69295" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="curiosity" source="Orion">Curiosity</keyword> rover has captured a stunning image of a martian sunset, featuring light rays that illuminated a bank of clouds as the sun set over the horizon. These 'sun rays' are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for 'twilight'. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. Curiosity, which was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, on February 2 captured the scene during the rover's newest twilight cloud survey, which builds on its 2021 observations of noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds. While most Martian clouds hover no more than 37 miles (60 kilometres) above the ground and are composed of water ice, the clouds in the latest images appear to be at a higher altitude, where it's especially cold. That suggests these clouds are made of carbon dioxide ice or dry ice. On Earth, clouds provide scientists with complex but crucial information for understanding the weather. By looking at when and where clouds form, scientists can learn more about the Martian atmosphere's composition and temperatures, and the winds within it. The 2021 cloud survey included more imaging by Curiosity's black-and-white navigation cameras, providing a detailed look at a cloud's structure as it moves. But the recent survey, which began in January and will wrap up in mid-March, relies more often on the rover's colour Mast Camera, or Mastcam, which helps scientists see how cloud particles grow over time. In addition to the image of sun rays, Curiosity captured a set of colourful clouds shaped like a feather on Jan. 27. When illuminated by sunlight, certain types of clouds can create a rainbowlike display called iridescence. "Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud's particle sizes are identical to their neighbours in each part of the cloud," said <keyword id="5761402" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="mark-lemmon" source="Orion">Mark Lemmon</keyword>, an atmospheric scientist with the <keyword id="2552836" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="space-science-institute" source="Orion">Space Science Institute</keyword> in Boulder, Colorado. "By looking at colour transitions, we're seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time." Curiosity captured both the sun rays and iridescent clouds as panoramas, each of which was stitched together from 28 images sent to Earth. The images have been processed to emphasize the highlights. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/imdb-shares-top-rated-indian-films-nominated-for-oscars/slidelist/98470341.cms">Two-decade-old Lagaan outscores RRR amongst Oscar-nominated Indian movies on IMDb</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/evs-will-increase-indias-dependence-on-china-for-raw-materials-battery-production-gtri-report/articleshow/98470819.cms">EVs will increase India's dependence on China for raw materials, battery production: GTRI report</a>

NASA's Curiosity rover captures first 'Sun Rays' on Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA's</a> Curiosity rover on Mars snapped the first clear photo of rays of sunlight <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-curiosity-rover-photographs-rare-iridescent-mars-clouds-2021-6">illuminating Martian clouds</a>.</li><li>The sun rays beamed through a bank of Mars clouds that NASA says could be made of dry ice.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-discover-mars-climate-history-2021-4">NASA's Curiosity rover</a> snapped the first clear picture of sun rays on Mars, which looks like a ghostly white-tinged sunset.The rover took the ethereal photo on February 2, as the sun set behind a group of twilight clouds. These clouds hang at an unusually high altitude, which suggests they are probably made of carbon dioxide ice — also known as dry ice. NASA <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9358/nasas-curiosity-views-first-sun-rays-on-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> the eerie image on Monday.The sun's rays shine through the alien clouds, illuminating them with muted hues of green and pink.Curiosity also captured a feather-shaped iridescent cloud hanging over Mars that appears to glow pink, green, and blue, in the image below.<div type="image" title="image of iridescent feather-shaped cloud over Mars" height="1163" width="1550" msid="98484947" hostid="261" sizebytes="15732"></div>"Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud's particle sizes are identical to their neighbors in each part of the cloud," atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon said in the <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9358/nasas-curiosity-views-first-sun-rays-on-mars/">release</a>. "By looking at color transitions, we're seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time."Both brilliant pictures were assembled from a series of 28 images that the rover sent back to Earth, and they were edited to "emphasize the highlights," according to NASA.The sunset portraits expand on a survey the Curiosity rover conducted in 2021, where it watched pearly, shining twilight clouds pass overhead. <div type="image" title="curiosity rover spots iridescent mother of pearl clouds on mars" height="285" width="1041" msid="98484949" hostid="261" sizebytes="10218"></div>The new survey relies more on Curiosity's color camera. The observations began in January and run until mid-March, so Curiosity should be sending NASA scientists lots of new information about these spectacular clouds.<div type="image" title="curiosity rover spots twilight clouds on mars" height="600" width="1041" msid="98484951" hostid="261" sizebytes="6862"></div>Clouds are rare on Mars, since there isn't much water in the planet's atmosphere. Martian air has just 1% the density of Earth's atmosphere. When clouds do appear, it's mostly around the Martian equator during the coldest part of its year, when the planet's orbit takes it furthest from the sun.

Ghostly photos from NASA's Curiosity rover reveal beautiful, rare clouds and the first sun rays ever spotted on Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mars just scored another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-discovers-potential-alien-life-evidence-biosignature-perseverance-rover-mars-2024-7">point in favor of alien life</a>.</li><li>Scientists discovered signs of an ocean's worth of liquid water miles below Mars' surface.</li></ul>Mars is looking more and more like a place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA to find the first signs of alien life</a>.Scientists discovered evidence of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/groundwater-pumping-causes-earth-rotational-pole-to-shift-study-finds-2023-7">reservoir of liquid water</a> seven to 13 miles below the Martian surface, lingering in the pores of the planet's crust.They believe there's enough to cover the entire planet with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-death-star-moon-mimas-may-have-a-secret-ocean-2022-1">an ocean</a> about one mile deep.The water, if it exists, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">too deep to access</a> in the foreseeable future. Still, it's another promising sign that Mars could one day yield the most disruptive discovery in human history — that of life beyond Earth.The discovery, announced Monday, comes just weeks after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">NASA's Perseverance rover</a> drilled a rock sample on Mars that could contain evidence of microbial life from a bygone era.<div type="image" title="gritty yellow ring with speckled solid rock sample inside" height="1400" width="1471" msid="112479167" hostid="261" sizebytes="125234"></div>Ancient remnants of long-extinct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien life</a> are all NASA can hope for on the parched Martian surface. But any sizeable source of liquid water, like these potential underground reservoirs, is a place to check for active microbial life — even though water 10 miles underground would never see the light of day."It's certainly true on Earth — deep, deep mines host life, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">the bottom of the ocean hosts life</a>. We haven't found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life," Michael Manga, a co-author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/12/scientists-find-oceans-of-water-on-mars-its-just-too-deep-to-tap/">said</a> in a press release.<h2 id="aaa09a5d-96fd-42cc-8177-e2c4153862f8">Marsquakes helped NASA find water clues</h2>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-detects-big-mars-quakes-2021-9">NASA put a seismometer on Mars</a>, aboard its InSight lander, the goal was to peer into the planet's interior.<div type="image" title="mars brown planet with blue-black and white splotches in the black of space" height="1920" width="1920" msid="112479165" hostid="261" sizebytes="112220"></div>Though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-mission-ending-dust-power-crisis-2022-12">the InSight mission ended</a> in 2022, scientists are still sifting through all the data it collected in hopes of learning something new about Mars's depths.InSight's seismometer instrument <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measured Marsquake activity</a>, mapping seismic waves. As those waves move through the Martian interior, their timing and the direction they travel are influenced by the material they're traveling through deep underground.So, by measuring the waves, the scientists of the new study can tell what's underneath the planet's surface. It's similar to how the waves of an X-ray or CAT scan can reveal what's inside a human body.Manga and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to determine that a deep layer of fractured igneous rock, saturated with water, best explains InSight's data. Their findings were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121">published</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.<div type="image" title="illustration of a column cutout of mars planetary interior beneath the insight lander with a deep layer of cracked rock with water in the cracks" height="825" width="1000" msid="112479161" hostid="261" sizebytes="95798"></div><h2 id="a0164bcd-c556-4a64-a741-6c029fdf4ce2">A clue in a Mars mystery</h2>In addition to being downright fascinating and potentially overturning humanity's conception of Mars as a lifeless, dry red rock, the new findings may help solve one of the planet's greatest mysteries: where all the water went.Mars's surface was once lush with water. Heck, the Perseverance rover is exploring a basin that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">used to be a giant lake and river delta</a>.But the planet didn't have a strong magnetic field, like Earth's, to help it hold onto its atmosphere. As a result, the sun's radiation wore away what little protective layer of atmospheric gases existed, and the planet dried up.By about 3 billion years ago, all the water was gone. Some of it is still frozen in Mars's ice caps. Perhaps some simply vaporized in the harsh space environment. But scientists haven't really figured out where it all went.The new findings suggest some of the water seeped deep into the planet's crust.

Another point for life on Mars: Signs of liquid water discovered under the planet's surface

<keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="69295" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="curiosity" source="Orion">curiosity</keyword> rover recently snapped a close-up image of a tiny, flower-like mineral deposit on the surface of <keyword id="47638" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mars" source="Orion">Mars</keyword>. The one <keyword id="9320602" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="centimetre" source="Orion">centimetre</keyword> wide, beautiful branching rock that looks a bit like a coral or a sponge, was likely formed when water still covered the Red Planet, Live Science reported. Curiosity took the image of the mineral flower, that bears resemblance to a living organism, but is not alive, on February 25 near Aeolis Mons, also known as <keyword id="1173872" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mount-sharp" source="Orion">Mount Sharp</keyword> - situated at the heart of the 154 kilometres Gale crater on the Red Planet. According to NASA, the mineral flower was imaged using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. It was created by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. "The flower-like rock, which has been named the Blackthorn Salt, is a diagenetic feature, or one made from minerals that precipitated from ancient water that had previously been mixed with Martian rock," Abigail Fraeman, a planetary scientist and deputy project scientist for the Curiosity rover, was quoted as saying to Live Science. Diagenetic features found on Mars are similar in size but can have either a branched shape, also known as dendritic form, like the Blackthorn Salt, or be more rounded or even spherical, like other rocks in the same photo, she added. Since its arrival on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has discovered several other diagenetic features including flower-like deposits from the Pahrump Hills area in 2015 and other diagenetic features from the Murray formation in 2019. Continuing to document new diagenetic features like the Blackthorn Salt is important because it could help researchers figure out when liquid water disappeared from Mars. "We can learn more about the complex and long-lived history of water at Mount Sharp," Fraeman said. This could reveal more information about how long the environment could have been potentially habitable to life, she added.

Curiosity rover images tiny 'mineral flower' on Mars

Scientists at NASA's <keyword id="12756716" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Perseverance-Mars-rover-mission" source="Orion">Perseverance Mars rover mission</keyword> have discovered that rocks in the <keyword id="4183780" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="jezero" source="Orion">Jezero</keyword> Crater on the Red Planet have interacted with water multiple times over the eons and that some contain organic molecules. The team discovered the organic compounds on the 45 kilometres Jezero, which hosted a big lake and a river delta in the ancient past, using the <keyword id="10842370" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="SHERLOC" source="Orion">SHERLOC</keyword> (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument. They found carbon-containing molecules not only in the interiors of abraded rocks that SHERLOC analysed, but also in the dust on non-abraded rock. However, in a statement the scientist said finding of organics "is not a confirmation that life once existed in Jezero and left telltale signs (biosignatures). There are both biological and non-biological mechanisms that create organics". Curiosity rover has also discovered organics at its landing site within Gale Crater. At the same time, the preservation of organics inside ancient rocks -- regardless of origin -- at both Gale and Jezero Craters does hint that potential biosignatures (signs of life, whether past or present) could be preserved, too, the scientists said. "This is a question that may not be solved until the samples are returned to Earth, but the preservation of organics is very exciting," said Luther Beegle, SHERLOC principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in the statement. "When these samples are returned to Earth, they will be a source of scientific inquiry and discovery for many years," Beegle added. The findings were presented at the recently-held American Geophysical Union fall science meeting in New Orleans. <keyword id="30862" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="perseverance" source="Orion">Perseverance</keyword> has been collecting Martian rock samples in search of ancient microscopic life. Of Perseverance's 43 sample tubes, six have been sealed to date -- four with rock cores, one with Martian atmosphere, and one that contained "witness" material to observe any contamination the rover might have brought from Earth. Mars Sample Return seeks to bring select tubes back to Earth, where generations of scientists will be able to study them with powerful lab equipment far too large to send to Mars. Meanwhile, the scientists also discovered that the Jezero Crater on the Red Planet where the six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February has organic is likely formed from red-hot magma. Using PIXL instrument, short for <keyword id="12756717" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="planetary-instrument-for-x-ray-lithochemistry" source="Orion">Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry</keyword>, scientists had a "good look at the abraded patch of a rock from the area nicknamed 'South Seitah'". The "texture indicates the rock formed when crystals grew and settled in a slowly cooling magma -- for example a thick lava flow, lava lake, or magma chamber", said Ken Farley, Perseverance Project Scientist from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, in the statement. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/constant-fii-selling-since-october-bleeds-indian-markets/articleshow/88339477.cms">Constant FII selling since October bleeds Indian markets; IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, ONGC top losers</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/netflix-vs-disney-plus-hotstar-plans-compared/articleshow/88339217.cms">Netflix vs Disney+ Hotstar: Subscription plans compared</a>

NASA's Perseverance rover discovers organic chemicals on Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's <keyword id="12055530" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mars" source="Orion">Mars</keyword> Reconnaissance Orbiter caught a view of Perseverance rolling across the Jezero Crater.</li><li>The rover was traveling along some of the oldest accessible pieces of rock in the crater.</li></ul>In a recent satellite photograph, NASA's <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/">Perseverance</a> rover can be spotted rolling along Mars' Jezero Crater in search of the next ancient boulder.The rover, which made landfall after its precise <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-landing-nasa-perseverance-rover-touches-down-in-jezero-crater-2021-2">plunge</a> in February, trekked through the dirt to conduct its next series of drillings in its mission to explore the red planet for signs of ancient microbial life.Perseverance - nicknamed "Percy" - is exploring a region known as South Séítah, which comes from a Navajo phrase meaning "amidst the sand." The Séítah area contains some of the deepest and perhaps oldest accessible geologic units in the Jezero Crater, according to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/perseverances-first-road-trip">NASA</a>.But Percy is familiar with the terrain. In September - after a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-mars-sample-mysteriously-missing-2021-8">failed first attempt</a> - the rover completed its first successful drilling operation near South Séítah at a large boulder nicknamed Rochette. NASA hopes to one day return the core rock samples to Earth. While Percy and its trailing helicopter, Ingenuity, appear to be alone on Mars, the rover has company from above. With the help of its <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/mission/instruments/hirise/">High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment</a> camera, the <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a> - which recently celebrated its 15th year in orbit - surveys the planet in search of signs of water. On the side, the orbiter will snap photos of its rover coworkers in motion. Earlier this year, the spacecraft captured the<a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/"> Curiosity</a> rover<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-spotted-climbing-mont-mercou-2021-5"> trekking up</a> Mont Mercou, which is part of a hilly region at the base of Mount Sharp - an area observed only from a distance since the rover landed nearby in 2012. While NASA's spacecraft are business as usual around the red planet, the rovers and NASA's remaining fleet are harder to reach. As Earth and Mars move to the opposite sides of the sun - an alignment that occurs every two years - communication can become more difficult, <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9051/nasas-mars-fleet-lies-low-with-sun-between-earth-and-red-planet/">according to NASA</a>. Between October 2 and 14, NASA's <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> mission controllers plan to turn off some instruments, while others will continue sending data to Earth - even though the incoming information could be lost. In the meantime, after sending two weeks' worth of instructions, some engineers have no choice but to wait until the conjunction ends. "Like parents who raise youngsters to be responsible and let them go on a short vacation with their friends, they've done all they can to ensure the voyagers will be healthy and safe," NASA <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/solar-conjunction/">wrote</a>.

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars snapped a photo of the Perseverance rover in the crater below

<ul><li><keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s Perseverance <keyword id="718236" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars-rover" source="Orion">Mars rover</keyword> has now collected two rock samples, giving scientists insight into <keyword id="47638" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="Orion">Mars</keyword>' history.</li><li>The first sample named "<keyword id="12077316" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Montdenier" source="Orion">Montdenier</keyword>" was collected on September 6, and a second, "Montagnac", from the same rock on September 8, the <keyword id="106731" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="US-space-agency" source="Orion">US space agency</keyword> said in a statement.</li><li>The rock that provided the mission's first core samples is basaltic in composition and may be the product of lava flows. The team also found salts within these rocks.</li></ul>NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has now collected two rock samples, giving scientists insight into Mars' history. The first sample named "Montdenier" was collected on September 6, and a second, "Montagnac", from the same rock on September 8, the US space agency said in a statement. Analysis of the rocks from which the Montdenier and <keyword id="12077317" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Montagnac-samples" source="Orion">Montagnac samples</keyword> were taken show signs that they were in contact with water for a long period of time, boosting the case for ancient life on the Red Planet. aceIt looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment. It's a big deal that the water was there for a long time," said Ken Farley of Caltech, project scientist for the mission, which is led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. The rock that provided the mission's first core samples is basaltic in composition and may be the product of lava flows. The team also found salts within these rocks. These salts may have formed when groundwater flowed through and altered the original minerals in the rock, or more likely when liquid water evaporated, leaving the salts. The salt minerals in these first two rock cores may also have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water. If present, they could serve as microscopic time capsules, offering clues about the ancient climate and habitability of Mars. According to the team, the level of alteration seen in the rock that provided the core samples -- as well as in the rock the team targeted on their first sample-acquisition attempt -- suggests that groundwater was present for a long time. This groundwater could have been related to the lake that was once in Jezero, or it could have traveled through the rocks long after the lake had dried up. Though scientists still can't say whether any of the water that altered these rocks was present for tens of thousands or for millions of years, they feel more certain that it was there for long enough to make the area more welcoming to microscopic life in the past, the team explained. Perseverance's next likely sample site is just 656 feet (200 meters) away in "South Seitah". a series of ridges covered by sand dunes, boulders, and rock shards that Farley likens to "broken dinner plates". The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/instagram-favourites-will-allow-users-to-prioritise-accounts-in-their-feed/articleshow/86134629.cms">Instagram 'Favourites' will allow users to prioritise accounts in their feed</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/motorcycle-engine-vibrations-can-degrade-iphone-camera-performance/articleshow/86134711.cms">Motorcycle engine vibrations can 'degrade' iPhone camera performance</a>

NASA Perseverance's rock sample to give insight into Mars' history

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> is searching for signs of ancient life on <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword>.</li><li>The $2.7 billion Perseverance rover landed in February 2021, and will bring back Martian soil to Earth over three missions.</li><li>The total cost of the project could reach over $9 billion.</li></ul>

NASA will pay most of the $9 billion cost of bringing Martian dirt back to Earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="9569864" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="perseverance-mars-rover">Perseverance Mars rover</keyword> is set to travel three miles to search for signs of life.</li><li>Perseverance will explore a crater and pick up rock samples to be studied on Earth, NASA said.</li><li>Since landing in February, the rover has taken photos and helped with the helicopter <keyword id="2459491" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ingenuity">Ingenuity</keyword>'s test flights.</li></ul>NASA's Perseverance rover is going on a road trip across <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword> to search for signs of life.Since NASA's rover landed on the Red Planet on February 18, it's taken <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-nasa-perseverance-rover-captures-more-striking-shots-of-mars-2021-5">photos</a> of the surface of Mars and supported the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-ingenuity-helicopter-landed-in-a-new-spot-on-mars-2021-6">helicopter Ingenuity's</a> flight tests. Now, Perseverance is starting its first scientific mission.Perseverance is set to explore the Jezero Crater and cover a 1.5 square-mile patch of the Martian surface over the next few months, Jennifer Trosper, Perseverance project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8963/nasas-perseverance-rover-begins-its-first-science-campaign-on-mars/">statement</a> on Wednesday."We are putting the rover's commissioning phase as well as the landing site in our rearview mirror and hitting the road," she said.<div type="image" title="annotated image of Mars' Jezero Crater depicts the route NASA’s Perseverance rover will take during its first science campaign" height="1402" width="2121" msid="83430325" hostid="261"></div>"It is from this location that the first samples from another planet will be collected for return to Earth by a future mission," Trosper added.Perseverance will help NASA understand the geology of the crater and explore the area for signs of ancient microscopic life, the agency said in the statement."This area was under at least 100 meters [328 feet] of water 3.8 billion years ago," Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist and co-lead of Perseverance's <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> mission, said. "We don't know what stories the rocks and layered outcrops will tell us, but we're excited to get started." He said his team has noted "potential obstructions" that Perseverance could come across, including sand dunes.In its road trip, Perseverance will also measure and test the area in preparation for further exploration by humans and robots, NASA added.Perseverance, which is NASA's fifth <keyword id="718236" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars-rover">Mars rover</keyword>, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in July and traveled almost 300 million miles with Ingenuity strapped to its belly to reach the Red Planet.

NASA's Perseverance rover is making a 3-mile road trip across Mars to search for signs of life, dodging sand dunes as it goes

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A device on NASA's Perseverance Rover converted Mars' thin air into oxygen.</li><li>The pilot project produced enough oxygen for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours. </li></ul>NASA has a way to produce oxygen out of the air on Mars, and it could be a huge step toward building crewed bases on the Red Planet. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moxie-robot-nasa-mars-rover-turns-co2-into-oxygen-2020-7">Creating oxygen</a> from the Martian air is no easy feat.Mars' atmosphere consists of mostly carbon dioxide (95%) and nitrogen (3%). It only has traces of oxygen, meaning it's impossible to breathe on Mars, let alone explore it. That's where the microwave-sized device named the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-perseverance-rover-experiment-reliably-making-oxygen-on-mars-2022-8">Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment</a>, aka MOXIE, comes in. MOXIE hitched a ride to Mars on NASA's Perseverance Rover in 2021 and has been hard at work ever since.<div type="image" title="An above shot of a rover landing on a brown surface." height="1536" width="2048" msid="103482128" hostid="261"></div>Over the last 2.5 years, it created 122 grams of oxygen — enough to keep a small dog alive for 10 hours, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-oxygen-generating-experiment-moxie-completes-mars-mission?utm_source=iContact&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=nasajpl&amp;utm_content=moxie20230906">NASA</a> said in a statement Wednesday.That may sound like a lot of time and effort for such a small amount, but MOXIE is just a pilot.Now that scientists know the technology works, they can begin scaling it up to hopefully one day produce enough oxygen for humans to breathe and for fuel to power the rocket back from Mars, NASA said."By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we've come one step closer to a future in which astronauts 'live off the land' on the Red Planet," Trudy Kortes, the director of technology demonstrations for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA, said in the statement.<h2>MOXIE performed twice as well as expected</h2>The small device was even more successful than researchers had hoped.<div type="image" title="A cube-shaped device being lowered." height="720" width="960" msid="103482129" hostid="261"></div>In June, scientists pushed MOXIE's limits. At maximum production level, it generated 12 grams of oxygen an hour — twice as much as expected — at 98% purity or better, according to NASA.It was a risky experiment that could've damaged MOXIE but ultimately proved the technology's impressive capabilities."We rolled the dice a little bit," Michael Hecht, MOXIE's principal investigator, told <a href="https://www.space.com/mars-perseverance-rover-oxygen-experiment-moxie-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Space.com</a> in June. "It was 'hold your breath and see what happens.'"<h2>How MOXIE makes oxygen on Mars</h2>MOXIE works by separating a single oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide in Mars' thin atmosphere.Scientists can use the MOXIE pilot project to inform the next phase of the technology: building out a larger, more developed system that would include an oxygen generator along with a method for liquefying and storing the oxygen it produces, NASA said. "Developing technologies that let us use resources on the moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars," Pam Melroy, the deputy administrator at NASA, said in the statement.

A device on NASA's Perseverance rover generated enough oxygen on Mars for a small dog to breathe for 10 hours. Astronauts could be next.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> said it received a positive first status update from its <keyword id="2459491" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="ingenuity">Ingenuity</keyword> <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword> Helicopter. </li><li>Simi liar flying robots "might be part of future robotic and human missions to Mars," NASA said.</li><li>When Ingenuity takes off, it'll be an event like the Wright brothers flying on Earth, NASA said.</li></ul>Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said they'd heard back from the tiny Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, paving the way for its first-of-a-kind flight on the <keyword id="6385434" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="red-planet">Red Planet</keyword>. The helicopter's first status report arrived as expected, said Tim Canham, operations lead for the project, in <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-helicopter-reports-in">a statement on Friday</a>. It said Ingenuity's batteries were charging as expected and its base station was operating as designed."Both appear to be working great. With this positive report, we will move forward with tomorrow's charge of the helicopter's batteries," Canham said. The helicopter, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-landing-nasa-perseverance-rover-touches-down-in-jezero-crater-2021-2">landed on Mars</a> aboard the Perseverance rover on Thursday, weighs about four pounds, with a fuselage roughly the size of a tissue box, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/6-things-to-know-about-nasa-s-mars-helicopter-on-its-way-to-mars">NASA</a>. When Ingenuity takes off on Mars in the coming days or weeks, it will be an event akin to the Wright brothers' Flyer taking off on Earth, NASA said in <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/ingenuity/landing/">press materials</a> about the helicopter. "If successful, these technologies could enable other advanced robotic flying vehicles that might be part of future robotic and human missions to Mars," NASA said.Ingenuity will have to make it through a few steps before its flight.First, its batteries will be charged, NASA said. The rover will supply enough charge to get them to about 35% of their total. Once the helicopter is dropped on the Martian surface, it will rely on its own solar panel for power, the agency added. <div type="image" title="mars rover perseverance helicoper ingenuity" height="1483" width="2636" msid="81140066" hostid="261"></div>Then, the helicopter will need to "survive" the planet's harsh atmosphere."If Ingenuity survives its first bone-chilling Martian nights - where temperatures dip as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius) - the team will proceed with the first flight of an aircraft on another world," NASA said in a statement on Friday. Ingenuity's first flight, if successful, will achieve about 90% of NASA's goals for the helicopter.The craft doesn't yet have a scheduled take-off day, but will have an approximately 30-Martian-day window, according to NASA. That's about 31 Earth days. "Just about every milestone from here through the end of our flight demonstration program will be a first, and each has to succeed for us to go on to the next," said MiMi Aung, project manager.Aung added: "We'll enjoy this good news for the moment, but then we have to get back to work."

NASA says its Ingenuity Mars helicopter sent a positive status update. As it prepares for the flight, the agency is thinking about future crewed flights to the Red Planet.

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