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NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Stunning Mars Flyby Video

NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Stunning Mars Flyby Video

NASA has released a captivating video showcasing the Psyche spacecraft's flyby of Mars, which occurred in May 2026. The spacecraft, en route to the asteroid Psyche, captured detailed images of the Martian surface, including craters and the south polar ice cap. The flyby served as a gravity assist maneuver to conserve fuel and adjust the spacecraft's trajectory. It also provided an opportunity to test Psyche's scientific instruments, which performed well and delivered valuable data about Mars. The mission is part of a broader effort to study the asteroid Psyche, believed to be a metallic core of a planetesimal.
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NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Stunning Mars Flyby Images En Route to Asteroid

NASA's Psyche Spacecraft Captures Stunning Mars Flyby Images En Route to Asteroid

NASA has released a captivating video showcasing images captured by the Psyche spacecraft during its flyby of Mars in May 2026. The spacecraft, on a mission to study the asteroid Psyche located in the main asteroid belt, used Mars' gravitational pull to adjust its trajectory and conserve fuel. The flyby provided an opportunity to test Psyche's scientific instruments, including a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. These instruments successfully captured detailed views of Mars' surface, including craters and the south polar ice cap, while also measuring the planet's magnetic field and surface composition.
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NASA Langley's Role in Historic Mars Landings Celebrated on 50th Anniversary

NASA Langley's Role in Historic Mars Landings Celebrated on 50th Anniversary

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, played a pivotal role in the successful Viking 1 and 2 landings on Mars, marking the 50th anniversary of these historic events. The Viking project, led by Langley, was the first U.S. mission to land safely on Mars and search for signs of life. Langley's expertise in atmospheric entry aerodynamics, heat shielding, and parachute technology was crucial in developing the systems that enabled the landers to safely reach the Martian surface. The mission set a precedent for future Mars explorations, influencing how NASA approaches planetary exploration today.
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NASA's EARENDIL Project Aims to Overcome Lunar Night Challenges for Astronauts

NASA's EARENDIL Project Aims to Overcome Lunar Night Challenges for Astronauts

NASA is developing a new technology called EARENDIL (Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-space Icy Landscapes) to address the challenges faced by astronauts operating in the extreme cold of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and during the two-week lunar night. The project proposes integrating compact americium-241 (Am-241) radioisotope heat sources into extravehicular activity (EVA) suits. This innovation aims to provide astronauts with continuous, passive warmth, enhancing their safety and mission flexibility. The EARENDIL project is part of a Phase I study that will assess the feasibility of this concept through thermal modeling, health physics assessment, and systems integration analysis. The goal is to ensure that astronauts can maintain operational body temperature without relying on external power or habitat support, thereby extending the range and duration of EVAs in harsh lunar environments.
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Amateur Astronomer Discovers Potential Meteorite Crater in Canada

Amateur Astronomer Discovers Potential Meteorite Crater in Canada

An amateur astronomer, Joël Lapointe, has potentially discovered a meteorite impact crater in Quebec's Côte-Nord region, centered on Lake Marsal. Using Google Maps, Lapointe identified unusual terrain and reported it to Impact Earth, a crowdsourcing platform for crater discoveries. Western planetary geologist Gordon Osinski visited the site in 2025 and provisionally confirmed the crater, naming it Uhackatik with approval from the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit. The crater is estimated to be 390 million years old and approximately 15 miles wide. Osinski's expedition revealed 'shock metamorphic effects' in the rocks, indicative of a meteorite impact. The findings, though not yet peer-reviewed, will be presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Frankfurt, Germany.
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Viking 1's Search for Martian Life Explored

Viking 1's Search for Martian Life Explored

This article explores the experiments conducted by Viking 1 and their implications for our understanding of life beyond Earth. The Lander's Scienti...
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NASA Engineers Uncover Ancient Martian Silica Using Spirit Rover's Failed Wheel

NASA Engineers Uncover Ancient Martian Silica Using Spirit Rover's Failed Wheel

NASA's Spirit rover, which landed on Mars in January 2004, experienced a failure in its right-front wheel in March 2006. Engineers adapted by driving the rover backwards, using the immobile wheel as an excavation tool. This led to the accidental discovery of bright silica deposits near the volcanic plateau called Home Plate in Gusev Crater. The silica, identified as opaline, suggests ancient hydrothermal activity, possibly from hot springs or steam vents. The discovery required extensive follow-up analysis using various instruments, confirming the presence of silica concentrations up to 90% in some areas.
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NASA Develops Quantum Wind Lidar for Enhanced Planetary and Earth Science Missions

NASA Develops Quantum Wind Lidar for Enhanced Planetary and Earth Science Missions

NASA is advancing a new concept for wind measurement using Quantum Wind Lidar technology, which employs compact photonic integrated chips (PICs) for space-based missions. This innovative approach utilizes phase-squeezed light sources and quantum interference phenomena to create a miniaturized, high-performance lidar receiver. The technology aims to provide precise high-altitude wind profiling of the Martian atmosphere, surpassing current ground-based methods. The project aligns with NASA's objectives in the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey and the Earth Science Decadal Survey, with applications extending to Mars atmospheric modeling, dust storm prediction, and climate monitoring on Earth.
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From Orbit to Landing: The Innovations Behind Viking 1

From Orbit to Landing: The Innovations Behind Viking 1

The Viking 1 mission marked a significant milestone in space exploration as the first successful Mars lander. Launched by NASA in 1975, Viking 1 wa...
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NASA's SSERVI Forum 2026 Focuses on Lunar and Asteroid Exploration

NASA's SSERVI Forum 2026 Focuses on Lunar and Asteroid Exploration

The NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is hosting the 2026 Exploration Science Forum at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. This annual event, running for three days, brings together experts from the planetary science and human exploration communities to discuss recent research, mission results, and future exploration opportunities. The forum features invited talks, contributed presentations, and interactive poster sessions, with a focus on the Moon, Near-Earth Asteroids, and the Moons of Mars. Virtual participants can access the sessions online, allowing for broader engagement with the scientific community.
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NASA's EARENDIL Project Aims to Enhance Lunar Exploration with Radioisotope Technology

NASA's EARENDIL Project Aims to Enhance Lunar Exploration with Radioisotope Technology

NASA is exploring the EARENDIL project, which proposes the integration of americium-241 radioisotope heat sources into astronaut extravehicular activity (EVA) suits. This initiative aims to provide continuous warmth to astronauts operating in the extreme cold of the lunar surface's permanently shadowed regions and during the two-week lunar night. The project addresses the thermal constraints that limit mission flexibility and endanger astronaut safety. By incorporating radioisotope thermal systems directly into spacesuits, EARENDIL seeks to extend the operational range and duration of EVAs, enhancing crew safety and reducing reliance on heavy battery systems. This Phase I study will evaluate the technical and safety feasibility of the concept, focusing on heating requirements, mission dose rates, and compatibility with existing EVA suit architectures.
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NASA's Viking Mission: Reevaluation of Life Detection on Mars

NASA's Viking Mission: Reevaluation of Life Detection on Mars

Fifty years after NASA's Viking 1 mission landed on Mars, chemist Steven Benner suggests that the mission may have overlooked evidence of extant life. Benner argues that the Viking mission's experiments, which initially reported no definitive signs of life, might have been misinterpreted. He claims that the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) used in the mission detected organic materials in Martian soil, but these were dismissed as contaminants. Benner's hypothesis is that the presence of perchlorates in the Martian soil, which destroy organic materials when heated, could have led to false negatives in the experiments. This reevaluation challenges the long-standing belief that Viking found no life on Mars and suggests that microbial life could exist, potentially indicating that life is common on rocky planets.