? Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been busily preparing their Perseverance Mars Rover for its landing on the Red Planet, scheduled to take place in 100 days. Now well over halfway on its journey of more than 292 million miles, teams at JPL are already working to leave nothing to chance during the complicated landing sequence, JPL said in a written statement. Upon ... More »
After nearly eight months of Voyager 2 flying through the cold depths of interstellar space on its own, scientists have sent commands to the spacecraft as they neared completion of upgrades and repairs to the lone 230-foot-wide radio antenna on Earth capable of delivering messages to the distant probe. Voyager 2 is only the second manmade object to exit the Solar System, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labo... More »
Having traveled more than 146 million miles since its launch in late-July, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, carrying the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-built Mars Perseverance rover, crossed the halfway point to the Red Planet on Tuesday afternoon, JPL announced. The next generation of robotic Mars explorers is slated to touch down at Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18 after slamming into the planet’s atmosphere ... More »
NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Perseverance rover to the Red Planet has sent back data for the first time since its launch nearly three months ago, from a distance of well over a million miles, according to JPL. An array of sensors used to measure the heating of the spacecraft as it plummets through the Martian atmosphere were powered up and tested on Oct. 8, JPL ... More »
Always looking for ways to leverage new technologies to improve their spacecraft, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have included 11 3D-printed metal parts on their Perseverance rover, set to touch down on Mars in February, according to JPL. The burgeoning manufacturing technology presents new opportunities for space probe designers, although the application of the technique for out-of... More »
When the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-built Mars Perseverance Mars rover lands on the Red Planet in February, it will not only roam the surface in search of signs of ancient life but also peer underground with a first-of-its kind ground penetrating radar system, according to JPL. The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment, or RIMFAX, will be the first ground-penetrating radar to be deployed on ... More »
As the NASA Mars 2020 mission rockets toward the Red Planet to deposit the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-built Perseverance Mars Rover, its Earthbound twin is gearing up for a less-glamorous, but still important, role in the mission. The Vehicle System Test Bed, or VSTB, has been dubbed OPTIMISM, according to JPL. ? It’s “a full-scale engineering version of the Mars-bound rover,” the institution said ... More »
As NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft continues on its journey to Mars, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena Monday explained how the rover’s laser retroreflectors could be used to learn more about the Red Planet. Managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech, the Mars 2020 Perseverance — which launched July 30 and is scheduled to land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021 — is one of a few Mar... More »
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has a challenging road ahead: After having to make it through the harrowing entry, descent, and landing phase of the mission on Feb. 18, it will begin searching for traces of microscopic life from billions of years back. That’s why it’s packing PIXL, a precision X-ray device powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Short for Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithoc... More »
A group of young golf enthusiasts from Pasadena had their second digital meeting with fellow golf lovers in South Korea over the weekend, as First Tee golf organization chapters on both sides of the planet continue forging a relationship based on the love of the game, representatives said. Despite being nearly 6,000 miles away and, separated by a 16-hour time difference, members of First Tee – Gre... More »
