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Perseverance Pays Off: Rock Sample Collected on Mars

Rover had to drive to a second location to get a good sample

(Newser) - NASA’s newest Mars rover has successfully collected its first rock sample for return to Earth, after last month’s attempt came up empty. The Perseverance rover's chief engineer, Adam Steltzner, called it a perfect core sample, per the AP . "I’ve never been more happy to see...

NASA Says Soft Rock Caused Mars Sample Fiasco

And it's not talking about Air Supply

(Newser) - NASA is blaming unusually soft rock for last week’s sampling fiasco on Mars. The Perseverance rover came up empty after attempting to collect its first core sample on the red planet for eventual return to Earth. Data beamed back last Friday showed that the rover drilled to the proper...

NASA Puzzled by Rover's Failure to Collect Martian Rock

Perseverance's hardware was working, but sample tube was empty

(Newser) - The Perseverance Mars rover's first effort to collect a rock sample was not a success—but NASA scientists plan to persevere. The rover, which landed in the Jezero crater in February, attempted to collect a core sample and seal it in a titanium tube but the mission team was...

China's Mars Rover Sends Back Proof of Landing

First 2 pics show Zhurong is successfully communicating from Utopia Planitia

(Newser) - China has become only the second nation after the United States to successfully put a craft on Mars and operate it for a significant amount of time, reports the BBC . Its Zhurong rover touched down on the red planet over the weekend, and now we have the first photos as...

Mars Rover Fans Get Special Easter Surprise

2 new 'Easter eggs' revealed, including spacecraft's unique ID number and 2 tiny 'tattoos'

(Newser) - The Perseverance rover took its first spin on Mars last month, to the delight of all its fans back on Earth, but NASA had even more excitement to offer over the holiday weekend. Per CBS News , the space agency chose Easter Sunday to reveal additional "Easter eggs"—jokes,...

Part of the Wright Brothers' 1st Airplane Is on Mars

The helicopter Ingenuity features a postage-size piece of muslin

(Newser) - A piece of the Wright brothers' first airplane is on Mars. NASA’s experimental Martian helicopter holds a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the space agency revealed Tuesday. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, hitched a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, arriving last month....

Perseverance Takes First Spin on Mars

Rover travels 21 feet in a test drive

(Newser) - There's no chance of rain, so it might be a good time to wash Perseverance. Mission controllers took the rover out for a 33-minute test drive Thursday, covering 21 feet of the dusty surface of Mars, NASA reports. They liked the way it handled. "The rover’s six-wheel...

In NASA's Mars Parachute, a Coded Message

Internet sleuths uncover 'dare mighty things'

(Newser) - NASA slipped a hidden message into last week's Mars landing —the phrase "dare mighty things" encoded in a red-and-white parachute. The Telegraph reports that Internet sleuths deciphered the message, and NASA's chief engineer for the Perseverance project confirmed they got right. "It looks like the...

NASA Releases First-Ever Martian Audio, Video

They're the 'closest you can get to landing on Mars without putting on a pressure suit'

(Newser) - A big Red Planet first from NASA: The agency has released the first-ever video of a Mars landing and the first audio sent back from the planet. The high-definition video was recorded by videos on the entry capsule and the Perseverance rover itself during its successful landing Thursday. "The...

Here Are the First Images From NASA's Perseverance Rover

The black and white images show the surface of Mars

(Newser) - NASA's Perseverance, the biggest and most advanced rover the agency has ever sent, landed on Mars Thursday to cries of jubilation from ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Minutes later, the rover sent back its first two images from the red planet,...

The &#39;7 Minutes of Terror&#39; Are Nearly Upon Us
The '7 Minutes of Terror'
Are Nearly Upon Us
the rundown

The '7 Minutes of Terror' Are Nearly Upon Us

Mars rover Perseverance will attempt to land on the red planet this afternoon

(Newser) - NASA is bracing itself for "seven minutes of terror" Thursday afternoon. Its Perseverance rover is set to touchdown on Mars around 3:55pm ET, but that it'll do so in one piece is no sure thing. Perseverance will essentially have that short period to go from traveling in...

NASA Just Launched Its Biggest-Ever Mars Rover

Perseverance will seek signs of ancient life

(Newser) - The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built—a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills, and lasers—blasted off Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. NASA’s Perseverance rode...

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