MARS, Pa. Plans for a gas station to be built next to the Mars senior high school and middle school have parents aggravated.

Leaders are considering building either a GetGo or a Sheetz. The Sheetz could be built on one side of Route 228, but some parents told Channel 11 theyre worried about beer being sold so close to a school.

As for the GetGo, it could be built across the street where there are currently soccer fields.

The president of the Mars Area Soccer Club, Aaron Wollerton, said his group cant afford to lose those fields.

This season, the Mars Area Soccer Club has the largest enrollment we ever had in our 35 year history which is tremendous. But theres already a need for additional athletic facilities in our community and all of our youth sports leagues are already cramped. Things are in the works but property around here is expensive and it takes years to develop a playable field, Wollerton said.

Adams Township Manager Gary Peaco said the Board of Supervisors denied the GetGo late last month, but the company could appeal the decision. As for the Sheetz, the board is expected to make a decision on those plans later this month.

Other parents said theyre concerned about a gas station causing traffic issues on Route 228, especially in the morning and afternoon during arrival and dismissal.

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Mars families at odds over plans to build gas station near high school, middle school - WPXI Pittsburgh

Will Bednar will give his older brother, David, this much:

When asked which of the two former Mars pitchers will be the first to reach 100 mph on the radar gun, Will said, Probably him. Hes been closer.

Indeed, David has thrown a 99.6 mph fastball this season as a relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Will said hes topped out at 98 after two seasons and a College World Series championship at Mississippi State.

Then, he added with a smile, Ill beat him to 101.

If thats so, Will Bednar likely will do it for the San Francisco Giants, the team that selected him 14th overall Sunday night in the MLB Draft. Bednar, the seventh pitcher selected, was drafted four hours after David was the winning pitcher in the Pirates 6-5 victory against the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Andy Bednar, the pitchers father and former Mars baseball coach, said David arrived home from New York in time to see his younger brother drafted.

Unbelievable said Andy of having one son earn a major-league victory on the same day the other was drafted in the first round. It all started when (David) was dealt (to the Pirates). Its been one thing after another. Im so glad he got home.

Bednars selection gives the WPIAL a first-round selection in five of the past seven years. West Alleghenys Austin Hendrick went to the Cincinnati Reds in 2020 as the 12th overall choice.

Bednars stock rose when he threw six no-hit innings in the deciding game of this years College World Series and was named its most outstanding player. Three years before that, he was a Trib 10 All-Star selection after leading Mars to the WPIAL Class 5A championship game, where his fastball was clocked at 95 mph.

Wills velocity shouldnt be a surprise. He was hitting 91 mph before his sophomore season at Mars.

Bednar, 21, compiled a 9-1 record and 3.12 ERA for the Bulldogs this season, while striking out 139 batters and allowing only 72 hits in 9213 innings. Hitters managed only a .214 batting average against him.

A 2019 Mars graduate, Bednar never redshirted at Mississippi State while developing his two best pitches an elevated four-seam fastball and a slider. He appeared in four games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but he made them count. In only 1513 innings, he struck out 23 batters, with a 1.76 ERA. Opponents hit him at a mere .161 rate.

This year, in the days after the CWS, Bednar was home in Valencia. He said he was hanging out, for the most part, with my family, and soaking it in.

He also spent some time at PNC Park, where David hangs out these days, but he also fielded many calls from major league scouts.

Chatting about the season, small stuff like that, he said.

But they also asked more pertinent questions.

They ask if I know what it takes to play at the next level and what I think I need to continue to work on, he said.

He had a ready answer.

To be able to keep a level head, I think, is the biggest part through the ups and down of a long professional season, he said.

Playing for his dad provided the type of hurdles that might make a player better.

A lot of people thought because he was my dad, hed be easy on me. But its the exact opposite, Will said. He was a lot harder on me than anyone else. It was good. He definitely pushed me.

He pushed so hard, Andys youngest son soon will become the second member of the family to cash an MLB paycheck.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry by email at jdipaola@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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Giants select Mars' Will Bednar 14th overall in 1st round - TribLIVE

If there were ever a "maverick" among the naked eye planets, that title would certainly go to Mars.

Just nine months ago, Mars came to within 38.8 million miles (62.43 million kilometers) of Earth, the closest it had been to us since August 2003, and it will not be that close again until September 2035. Mars appeared three times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in our sky and even rivaled Jupiter in brilliance. In fact, Mars ranked as the third brightest nighttime object behind the moon and Venus.

But that was then, this is now.

Related: The brightest planets in July's night sky: How to see them (and when)

At this moment in time, Mars is on the other side of the brightness spectrum. On Sunday evening (July 11) look low in the west-northwest sky about 45 minutes after sunset.

You'll be able to use a very conspicuous benchmark in order to make a positive identification, for the first object to attract your attention will certainly be dazzling Venus. After you've found it, look about one degree to its immediate left and you'll see Mars appearing as a yellowish-orange, though by no means outstandingly bright star.

Don't expect the eye-popping object that adorned our skies in the early fall of 2020. Rather, right now Mars is much farther away from us at a distance of 231 million miles (371 million km). So, Mars will appear only about 1.7% as bright as it was nine months ago and a mere 0.5% as bright as Venus.

In fact, by virtue of it currently shining at magnitude +1.8, Mars has dropped in rank to the category of a second-magnitude object; to assure you make a positive sighting I would strongly recommend you use binoculars.

Another object appearing in the general vicinity of the two planets in the fading evening twilight will be the moon. Two days past new phase, it will appear as a hairline arc of light, just 4% illuminated and will be situated about a half-dozen degrees to the right of the two planets. If your clenched fist measures about 10 degrees at arm's length, then the moon and the two planets will be separated by roughly half a fist.

All three objects will remain in the west-northwest sky for about 90 minutes after sunset. Mars in fact is practically midway between two other noteworthy sky objects. At 45 minutes after sunset, the sky might still be too bright to see the moon and Mars readily with the naked eye, so already noted, you'll probably need binoculars. But after another 15 minutes have passed the sky will have darkened sufficiently so that you should readily be able to identify them with your unaided eyes, though they'll all be lower in the sky.

The scene will have changed noticeably the very next evening.

On Monday, July 12, the moon will have widened a bit to 9% illuminated and will have shifted to a spot nearly 7 degrees to the upper left of the two planets. But the positions of the planets have also changed; the distance between them will have been halved with Venus now sitting just about a half degree to the right of Mars.

Venus will continue to grow more prominent albeit rather slowly in the western evening sky through the balance of 2021.

As for Mars, it will continue to be evident as an evening object for another couple of weeks or so, closely passing the bright bluish 1st-magnitude star, Regulus on July 29. But as we move into August, it will become lost in the bright sunset glow and will then go on a hiatus of sorts as it transitions into the morning sky, eventually reappearing in the early morning sky around Thanksgiving to set the stage for its gradual return to prominence during 2022.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York'sHayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy forNatural History magazine, theFarmers' Almanacand other publications. Follow uson Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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Venus and the moon pass a fading Mars in the evening sky this weekend - Space.com

NASAs Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, is proving to be quite the little explorer. The small rotorcraft just completed its ninth flight on the Red Planet, breaking speed and distance records along the way.

Although the United States space agency hasnt shared all the details from the latest flight, the team has confirmed that the plucky little chopper has tackled what the agency says is its most nerve-wracking flight to date.

The tiny helicopter was airborne for a record 166.4 seconds (2 minutes and 46.4 seconds), and flew at speeds of 5m (16 feet) per second, according to mission officials.

Dubbed Ingenuity, the rotorcraft is on a technology demonstration mission, setting out to prove that such a craft could fly in the tenuous Martian atmosphere.

The chopper hitched a ride to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, and ever since landing on the Red Planet on February 18, the craft has gone above and beyond scientists expectations.

NASAs Ingenuity helicopter hovered above the surface of the planet during its second flight on April 22, two months after landing on Mars [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS via AP]In its first few flights, the helicopter essentially flew up and down, hovering in place for a bit before it tried to traverse distances. The increasingly complex series of practice flights served as a demonstration of what off-world rotorcraft can do.

Now, as the craft approaches double digits in terms of flights, its upping the ante by adding in some new tricks.

For its latest expedition on July 5, Ingenuity flew over a patch of rough and interesting terrain in the Seitah region of Mars. This area is of particular interest because its characterised by sandy ripples that could prove treacherous for wheeled vehicles like the Perseverance rover.

The unfriendly terrain in this region was also a cause of concern for the helicopter because it would put Ingenuitys navigation software to the test.

Its safe to say that this was the most nerve-wracking flight since flight one, Havard Fjaer Grip, Ingenuitys chief pilot at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told Al Jazeera.

Thats because Ingenuitys software was made to work over flat surfaces, not the sandy, sloping hills of the Seitah region. Unexpected changes in the terrain could cause problems in finding the landing site because Ingenuitys camera assumes the ground is flat.

The helicopter buzzed around the region, snapping pictures of rock formations and other intriguing targets to help in NASAs search for microbial life. The little chopper flew its longest distance yet 625m (2,051 feet), smashing the previous record of 160m (525 feet) set in June.

Perseverance touched down on Mars on February 18 with one major goal: to collect samples from Mars and scout for signs of life. To that end, officials at NASA selected its landing site, an ancient lake bed, as the best place to look for biosignatures on Mars.

It spent the first 100 sols (Martian days) checking out its systems and making sure that everything was in working order before jumping into the first science campaign, which focuses on studying the Seitah region.

NASAs Perseverance Mars rover took this image overlooking the Seitah region using its navigation camera [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech]According to Vivian Sun, a systems engineer on the Perseverance team at JPL, the Seitah region (and surrounding areas) are home to at least four different types of rock that NASA would like to sample for a future mission to return to Earth.

Rock formations in this section of the crater floor are of particular interest to scientists because they could have developed from ancient lava flows or from sedimentation, which means there was once water there. And the presence of water has the potential for life.

However, some of the terrain there is especially treacherous to the rover, so Perseverance is going to have to rely on its aerial partner, Ingenuity, to do some reconnaissance.

Ingenuity is a very exciting asset to have, Sun told Al Jazeera. We use some of the imagery from the helicopter to scout new locations.

Its very helpful because we can use the imagery to help analyse the rock formations we think are interesting but cannot drive up to, she added.

Ingenuity does not have a suite of scientific instruments like its counterpart, but it does have two different cameras one colour and one black and white that scientists on Earth can use to study and analyse rock formations.

For this ninth flight, Perseverance headed south, stopping at the first of the four interesting rock sites. With the help of Ingenuity, the team was able to land on tricky terrain, snap images of some cool rocks, and plan ahead to the next stop on its tour of the southern crater floor.

NASAs Ingenuity helicopter flew over the Seitah region during its ninth flight on July 5 [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech]The next area of inquiry, dubbed CF-Fr (or crater fractured rock), is especially exciting as the rough rocks indicate that this area was once underwater.

We dont know what stories the rocks here will tell us, but were excited to find out, Sun said.

The rover has also been testing out its built-in autopilot. Equipped with autonomous navigation software, the rover is able to drive itself instead of relying on commands from Earth.

Its going to take Perseverance roughly 200 sols to study and explore the southern region of the Jezero Crater.

Because this area has at least four different types of rocks and evidence of ancient water, the team wants to start collecting its first Martian samples here. To do so, the team will bag up a few practice samples before going in for the real thing.

Once collected, the sample tubes will be stored somewhere on Mars where a future sample return mission will collect them.

By flying over the Seitah region, Ingenuity was able to complete a task in less than three minutes that would have taken months for Perseverance to accomplish.

And that innovation is at the heart of the Ingenuity mission, which is also about demonstrating that powered vehicles can fly on Mars.

That type of technology is invaluable to robotic missions and represents a new era of exploration.

NASA has a successful history of landing rovers on Mars, which started with the Mars Pathfinder mission in the 1990s.

This map of the southern part of Marss Jezero Crater shows the Perseverance rovers path for its first science campaign [File: NASA/JPL-Caltech]That mission, with its Sojourner rover, proved that wheeled vehicles could explore the Martian surface and act as our eyes and ears on the Red Planet. Humans have explored Mars for decades now with the help of these mobile scientists.

But Ingenuity is something new, proving that scientists can send aerial vehicles to help scout new and intriguing targets, as well as traverse places a rover could not.

The plan going forward [for Ingenuity] is to really highlight the benefit of it working with the rover, Jeff Delaune, a robotics technologist on the helicopter team at JPL, told Al Jazeera.

Ingenuity has already completed its main mission, he added. Were going to keep pushing its limits, and anything now is just the cherry on top of the mission.

Perseverance and Ingenuity are never too far apart as the little chopper still needs the rover to communicate with Earth, but its helping guide Perseverance along the way.

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Life on Mars: NASAs Ingenuity helicopter aces ninth fight - Al Jazeera English

NASA's experimental Mars helicopter Ingenuity has now flown nine times on the Red Planet, letting mission engineers test a host of capabilities that could pave the way for more Martian choppers.

Ingenuity made its ninth flight on Mars on Monday (July 5), when it remained aloft for 166.4 seconds and flew as fast as 16 feet (5 meters) per second, according to a tweet from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which oversees the project.

Before the flight, NASA announced that the little aircraft would attempt new feats on this sortie, including taking a shortcut over rocky terrain unsafe for the helicopter's much larger companion, the Perseverance rover, mission personnel wrote in a July 2 statement.

Related: Watch NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity fly in 3D (video)

The Ingenuity helicopter is a technology demonstration project that trekked to Mars tucked away in Perseverance's belly and arrived on the Red Planet on Feb. 18. The rover deployed the 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper in early April for what was planned to be a five-flight, one-month mission. Ingenuity made history on April 19 when it executed the first powered flight on Mars.

But as Ingenuity aced flight after flight, NASA extended the little helicopter's mission, setting the experimental aircraft to keep pace with Perseverance as the rover begins its geology and astrobiology work, the heart of the mission.

As capable as Perseverance is, however, the rover faces limitations in terms of where it can safely explore, and that's what inspired Ingenuity's newest flight, which comes two weeks after the helicopter's most recent sortie.

"Perseverance is currently at the eastern edge of a scientifically interesting region called 'Stah,' which is characterized by sandy ripples that could be very challenging terrain for wheeled vehicles like the rover," the helicopter's team wrote in the statement outlining plans for the ninth flight.

"Rather than continuing to skip ahead of the rover, however, we will now attempt to do something that only an aerial vehicle at Mars could accomplish take a shortcut straight across a portion of the Stah region and land on a plain to the south. On the way, we plan to take color aerial images of the rocks and ripples that we pass over."

NASA has not yet published the full statistics and image collection from the flight. Data from Ingenuity must pass first to Perseverance, then to one of the fleet of satellites orbiting Mars, then to Earth.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity sails through 9th flight on the Red Planet - Space.com

PORT FOURCHON, La. (KLFY) A salvageteam has raised the bow section of the SEACOR Power to the surface of the water and transported it by barge to a facility in Houma for recycling, according to the Coast Guard.

The bow part was transported Saturday to the Modern American Recycling Services, Inc.facility in Houma, La.

Once the pieces of the ship are cut, they will be brought to a secure sight for inspection, according to a social media page for theGulfcoast Humanitarian efforts.

With the bow section removed, salvage work continues at the site, where crews are conducting a more acoustic survey of the stern and accommodation sections, the Coast Guard announced.

The updated surveys will then be used to complete the rigging configuration to prepare the stern section for removal andonce the stern section is raised, the crews will continue the preparation and removal of the accommodations section, according to CG officials.

Safety remains paramount. The unified commander is closely monitoring the weather and adjusting operations as needed to ensure the safety of salvage crews, a statement from the Coast Guard read.

A temporary flight restriction has been placed around the M.A.R.S., Inc. facility to ensure the safety of salvage crews working at thewreckagesiteand the M.A.R.S., Inc. facility as well as boaters who could place themselves in danger by transiting through an active work site where debris and other underwater obstructions such as anchor wires, mooring ropes and navigational buoys may be present, the Coast Guard announced.

The incident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard.

Questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the NTSB at202-314-6133.

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Coast Guard: SEACOR Power bow section lifted to surface, taken to M.A.R.S. facility - KLFY

THE ROAD FROM RAQQA: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging, by Jordan Ritter Conn. (Ballantine, 272 pp., $18.) In this riveting account of two grown brothers very different journeys out of Syria, Conn pushes beyond simply humanizing, Jessica Goudeau wrote in her review. He portrays the United States, where the elder ends up, as also capable of oppression, and finds the two countries histories to be as interconnected as the brothers own.

ON EARTH WERE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS, by Ocean Vuong. (Penguin, 256 pp., $17.) Structured as a letter from a queer Vietnamese American son to his mother, who cannot read, this experimental, highly poetic novel is, in our reviewer Justin Torress words, brilliant in the way it pays attention not to what our thoughts make us feel, but to what our feelings make us think.

TOKYO UENO STATION, by Yu Miri. Translated by Morgan Giles. (Riverhead, 192 pp., $16.) Narrated by the ghost of a construction worker from Fukushima who spent his last years in a camp of homeless people in Tokyos Ueno Park, Yus glorious modernist novel, as our reviewer, Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, called it, weaves together overheard conversations, loudspeaker announcements and regretful memories of an ill-spent life. Giles received a National Book Award for her translation.

LOVE AND THEFT, by Stan Parish. (Anchor, 272 pp., $16.) A kaleidoscopic set piece worthy of a James Bond movie as directed by Robert Altman is how our reviewer, Adam Sternbergh, described this thrillers opening, in which four motorcyclists attempt a jewel heist at a Las Vegas boutique. He also lauded the artfulness of the books writing.

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New in Paperback: Love and Theft and The Sirens of Mars - The New York Times

Bruno Mars was one of the defining artists of the 2010s, and he vaulted right into the 2020s by joining forces with Anderson Paak to form the supergroup Silk Sonic. They achieved chart-topping success right out of the gate with their first single together, Leave the Door Open. But where does that rank on the list of Marss all-time greatest hits thus far? See how we rank the best Bruno Mars songs below. Do you agree with our number-one pick?

19. Wake Up in the Sky with Gucci Mane and Kodak Black (2018)

18. Please Me with Cardi B (2019)

17. Marry You (2011)

16. Young, Wild, and Free with Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa (2011)

15. Treasure (2013)

14. Runaway Baby (2010)

13. Finesse (2018)

12. Billionaire with Travie McCoy (2010)

11. 24K Magic (2016)

10. It Will Rain (2011)

9. When I Was Your Man (2013)

8. The Lazy Song (2011)

7. Leave the Door Open with Anderson Paak as Silk Sonic (2021)

6. Thats What I Like (2017)

5. Locked Out of Heaven (2012)

4. Grenade (2010)

3. Nothin on You with B.o.B (2009)

2. Just the Way You Are (2010)

1. Uptown Funk with Mark Ronson (2014)

Mars launched his career in the late 2000s as a co-founder of the production team The Smeezingtons, working with artists including Flo Rida, Cee-Lo Green, Lil Wayne, and Adam Lambert, among others. As an artist he topped the Billboard Hot 100 before he even released his own debut single: he hit number-one as a featured artist on 2009s Nothin on You by B.o.B., which preceded his own breakthrough single as a lead artist, 2010s Just the Way You Are. It was such a sudden breakthrough that he earned seven Grammy nominations and one win in 2011 before his debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans was even eligible.

From there Mars sustained a rare level of commercial and industry success. He has won Grammys for Album of the Year twice (for his own 24K Magic and as a producer on Adeles 25) as well as Record of the Year twice (Uptown Funk and 24K Magic). He earned an additional Album of the Year nomination for Doo-Wops and extra Record of the Year bids for Nothin on You, Grenade, and Locked Out of Heaven, plus another one as a producer a Cee-Los F*ck You.

Several of his singles have been certified diamond for achieving more than 10 million units in sales and streams: Just the Way You Are, Grenade, When I Was Your Man, Uptown Funk, and Thats What I Like. All that while embracing his musical roots, throwing it back to classic eras of R&B and delivering live performances reminiscent of James Brown, Prince, and Michael Jackson. That blend of modern style with classic influences may be why the recording academy has showered him with awards. So which of the above songs is your favorite, and what songs do you love that didnt make our list?

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Bruno Mars songs, ranked: Leave the door open for these 19 greatest hits - Gold Derby

LE MARS, Iowa (KTIV) - It's Crazy Days in Le Mars, Iowa this weekend.

Crazy Days officially started Friday, but the big day is July 10. That is when all vendors will have stands out on the sidewalk and even on the street.

A few shops already have partially set up their stands outside. Many shops are slashing their prices, and people will be hitting the town to take advantage of some great deals.

Crazy Days will happen rain or shine, although if it rains the event could move to a different location.

"Some possibilities would be to rent another building and have the vendors move indoors to a little event center right off downtown if it does rain, but we are doing it rain or shine all day Saturday," said Jill Mescher committee member and owner of Sugar and Spice Boutique.

Food vendors will also be available all day Saturday in the downtown area.

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Crazy Days taking place this weekend in Le Mars, IA - KTIV

For many British expats, the expectation that relatives can be easily reached by plane has long been a common assumption.

Freedom to travel was assumed when globetrotting emigrants pursued new lives overseas, enticed by improved career prospects and living standards. But COVID-19 has upturned this preconception for good.

Here, three seasoned expatriates* located worldwide share the stories of their pandemic experiences.

Jo, a data analyst in the banking sector, has lived in Brussels, Belgium for 16 years. Though it's usually little more than an hour to fly from between the Belgian capital and London - and less than three hours by train - the pandemic has left Jo feeling isolated.

"Living in Belgium has never seemed far from the UK you could just jump on a train or plane," she says, "but since the pandemic, I realise I may as well live on Mars.

She reports that the pandemic initially hit the densely populated country hard. People are now generally fed up and obeying the rules less," explains Jo.

In April 2020, Belgium had the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world. Restrictions currently vary, although mask mandates eased in June 2021. Nevertheless, face coverings are still required on public transport and indoors. Additionally, there are some requirements in busy areas such as some shopping streets or outside schools.

The vaccination program was initially slow in Belgium, but vaccines are now available to everyone over the age of 18.

Jo states that now fully vaccinated, she feels hopeful that life will soon return at least partially to normal. Having adapted to a new regime, she says she would love to work at home more regularly in the future.

In the early days, however, Jo says she missed being able to go to a caf for a coffee.

It has been difficult being away from our families. We have elderly parents, so that has been worrying. With friends, we have been in contact by Zoom. We did plan to go back to the UK, but then the second wave blocked this.

So fed up with the situation in the UK, Jo has decided that it will be more straightforward to arrange for her family to visit her in Belgium.

The UK quarantine rules plus two tests make it difficult to visit. There are also fewer flights, so the price is a lot higher.

Sarah, a graphic designer for the Australian government, emigrated 15 years ago and currently resides in Canberra. She feels fortunate to have had limited local restrictions until now.

Still, she says that in the beginning, we didnt go anywhere, only to the shops to get groceries, working from home and driving rather than taking public transport.

Australia reacted rapidly once the virus became established. The country closed its borders and brought in strict quarantine laws. State borders were closed.

Sarah says she misses going to live events, feeling relaxed in a crowd, travelling, not having to scan an app, and not having to worry that we may get trapped across a border.

Like Jo, she feels distanced from friends and family overseas.

It has been hard watching the harsher realities of the pandemic on friends and family in the UK," she explains. It has been quite heartbreaking to see friends and family and be unable to meet and hug when times have been hard.

The vaccine program in Australia has been sluggish. Nevertheless, over 40s have recently become eligible, alongside other priority groups.

Sarah remains optimistic though. I am hopeful that with the vaccines, we will feel a bit more confident to travel again, she adds.

Nevertheless, she does not have any immediate plans to return to the UK, remaining cautious.

It feels like there are waves of infection ebbing and flowing, and the thought of a crowded airport and plane is not enticing.

John is an IT general manager living in Seattle, US - where he's resided for ten years. He voices his astonishment that, despite being one of the more advanced economies, the US has seen such death tolls from COVID-19.

He attributes it to poor political leadership under the previous administration. However, he also surmises that the US has a strong culture of individual liberty, which dislikes draconian measures.

Washington State has taken a prudent approach, although John comments that these regulations are far less onerous and prescriptive than in many European countries.

Now open to all over 12s, the vaccination program in the USA has been met with reluctance and suspicion by some groups. As a result, officials are offering incentives such as lotteries to encourage people to receive their free vaccines.

For John, working at home since the beginning has had pros and cons: It has cut down on commute and travel time but has increased fatigue from excessive concentration on video calls.

He has enjoyed more quality family time but misses international travel for work and leisure, in addition to dining out and attending concerts.

Regarding being separated from UK relatives, John says the main issue has been the inability for our children to see their grandparents for over a year. I want to travel internationally as soon as possible once vaccinated.

John commented on the recent UK ruling, which takes effect on Monday 19th July.

The new rule allows travellers who have been fully vaccinated in the UK to travel to amber-listed destinations without quarantining on return. Yet, the legislation currently does not apply to British citizens visiting the UK who have been double-vaccinated abroad.

Its inconsistent with the policy for UK residents," says John, "and it makes no sense because the vaccine is the same. It also means I still cant see my family in England.

Despite having their lives transformed by the fallout of the pandemic, all three expatriates appear to have adapted their working and home lives successfully. Eager to travel again, each has remained sanguine that this will again be achievable.

*Some names have been changed to protect the identity of interviewees.

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Meet the British expats stuck abroad: 'I may as well live on Mars' - Euronews

Ingenuity Flight Six Navcam Image: This sequence of images taken on May 22, 2021, by the navigation camera aboard NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter shows the last 29 seconds of the rotorcrafts sixth flight. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download video

The mission picked up the 2021 John L. Jack Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration for its history-making achievements.

The team behind NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has been named the 2021 winner of the John L. Jack Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration from the Space Foundation.

The foundations goal is Advocating for Innovation. Bettering Life on Earth. The annual award recognizes extraordinary accomplishments by a company, space agency, or consortium of organizations in the realm of space exploration and discovery. It honors the memory of astronaut John L. Jack Swigert, Jr., the command module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission. During Apollo 13s April 1970 voyage to the Moon, an oxygen tank ruptured, placing the crew in peril. It was a time of high drama and high anxiety as people around the globe watched NASA work against the clock and against the odds to return the crew safely to Earth.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California faced many challenges on their way to achieving humankinds first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The helicopters first test flight was full of unknowns. The Red Planet has an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% the pressure at the surface compared to our planet while also being home to significant gravity one-third that of Earth. On April 19, 2021, Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds before descending again, becoming the first ever rotorcraft to fly on another planet.

Since then, the Mars Helicopter has flown a total of seven times, transitioning from being a technology demonstration to an operations demonstration intended to explore how aerial scouting and other functions could benefit future explorations of Mars and other worlds.

The Space Foundation award will be presented Aug. 23 during the opening ceremony of the 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

Recent Swigert Award winners include the InSight-Mars Cube One joint project teams, the Dawn mission, and the Cassini mission.

News Media Contact

DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-393-9011agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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NASA's Ingenuity Mission Honored by the Space Foundation NASA's Mars Exploration Program - NASA Mars Exploration

Human reproduction will be possible on Mars because sperm can survive there for up to 200 years, astudysuggests.

The findings were part of a six-year experiment in which scientists kept mouse sperm on the International Space Station and exposed it to radiation.

As The Daily Mail reports, researchers had believed radiation in space would destroy human DNA and make breeding impossible. Cancer caused by the radiation was another concern.

But after six years, scientists found that the mouse sperm stored on the space station was still healthy.

They also exposed it to X-rays on Earth and discovered it did not affect fertility.

One of the study's authors, Professor Sayaka Wakayama, of Japan's University of Yamanashi, told The Daily Mail: "Many genetically normal offspring were obtained. These discoveries are essential for mankind to progress into the space age."

"When the time comes to migrate to other planets, we will need to maintain the diversity of genetic resources, not only for humans but also for pets and domestic animals," he added.

Mars exploration has ramped up this year, as NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter continue to look for signs of life on the planet.

Ingenuity, which is carried inside Perseverance's belly, recently completed its seventh flight on Mars. As reported by Insider's Kate Duffy, Perseverance is due to travel three miles across Mars over the next few months.

The rover's trip will help NASA understand the geology of Jezero Crater, the agency said in a statement.

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Mars: Humans able to reproduce on planet, sperm can survive for 200 years - Business Insider

CHICAGO - Geophysical sciences professor Edwin Kite pores over a steady stream of data and images originating from U.S. and Chinese rovers and crafts simultaneously exploring Mars.

"I am interested in solar system and exoplanet habitability, Kite explained to VOA from his University of Chicago laboratory. His field of study has traditionally been accomplished using telescopes and analyzing meteors in addition to the few moon rocks returned to Earth by U.S. astronauts who landed there in the 1960s and 70s.

But todays on-the-ground missions exploring Mars are helping him and his colleagues obtain a more direct and complete understanding of the red planet.

You can quickly go through a loop of making a discovery, forming a hypothesis based on that discovery and sending a new spacecraft to test it, Kite told VOA. Weve only scratched the surface of what there is to discover. We dont know which countrys investigation is going to stumble over something that unlocks the next stage of exploration. The more countries doing that exploration, the better, for everyone.

Testifying remotely at a recent U.S. congressional hearing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and former U.S. senator from Florida, signaled alarm at the recent success of the Chinese space program, which he said wasnt confined to Mars exploration.

They want to send three big landers to the south pole of the moon. And thats where the water is, he said. And we are still a year or two away from a much smaller lander going there.

Artemis program

Nelson is urging lawmakers to support NASAs Artemis program, which plans to return humans including the first woman to the moon, with Mars as an eventual destination.

Nelson said China is on a similar path.

I think thats adding a new element as to whether or not we want to get serious and get a lot of activity going on landing humans back on the surface of the moon, he said.

China is gaining rapidly on the U.S., and the Europeans are also in this space race, said Rocky Kolb, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago who believes a new space race could be mutually beneficial. Competition brings out the best in everyone. It pushes people, and theres a lot to explore in space.

Kolb would like to see the U.S. and Chinese space programs collaborate as well as compete.

I think it would be great in the future if the U.S. could cooperate with China in the same way that now we cooperate with the European Space Agency," he said. "It adds a lot to the table. Theres a lot of talent in China that we could make use of and a lot of resources in China, and they have a lot of money to explore space. And I think this is something that mankind should do together.

But both Kite and Kolb acknowledged there was a limit to how much cooperation could realistically occur between the United States and China.

The technology involved in the peaceful exploration of space can also be transported to military uses, Kolb told VOA.

Different ways to cooperate

Kite said that while there are legal and political barriers that prevent NASA and the Chinese space agency from working together, those dont apply to non-NASA-funded work by academic institutions such as his own.

For now, Kite, Kolb and the global scientific community continue to examine tantalizing data and images relayed from Mars that could yield clues about the origin of life on Earth. Kolb noted that human curiosity and the thirst for knowledge transcend national borders.

Mars is a big planet and there are many places to explore and many unanswered questions," he said. "Every rover is doing something different, and the total of what we learn is important. There is only one Mars. It doesnt belong to the U.S. and it doesnt belong to China."

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Chinese Rover on Mars Ushers In New Space Race - Voice of America

Mars operates under its purpose statement, The world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. In 2020, the companys bold ambitions were put to the test as the world was faced with an unprecedented level of uncertainty and change.

At the onset, Mars prioritized keeping its global employees, who it calls associates, safe and healthy both physically and mentally across its offices, factories, veterinary hospitals and clinics/labs, retail and field sales. The multinational consumer goods company leaned into its purpose to navigate the crisis and embraced technology to enable connections while ensuring safety, Angela Mangiapane, president of Mars Global Services, told TriplePundit.

Mars, a family-owned company, has long operated as a principles-led business, first codifying its Five Principles which include mutual benefit for all stakeholders in the early 1980s.

About a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mars embarked on what it calls a digital transformation, with the aim of gathering timely and more relevant data about customer and associate experiences. This digital transformation was critical in helping Mars implement purpose-driven adaptations to support its associate wellbeing and care for the people and pets of its global communities.

These two factors a focus on purpose and a turn toward technology proved invaluable as the company looked to pivot in the early months of the pandemic, Mangiapane said.Mars has always been and will continue to be a purpose-driven, principles-led business. These two factors have helped guide our ongoing digital journey, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated things, she told us. Large organizations tend to be more risk averse. The pandemic gave us the sense of, we have to act now its sink or swim, which led us to prioritize pace over perfection.

Mars has more than 130,000 associates in 80 countries worldwide. Like all companies, the organization needed to implement changes throughout the business to ensure everyone who could work remotely was able to do so, while ensuring frontline workers were protected. That included a suite of enhanced benefits, chief among them a global pay protection policy, increased sick pay, and support for child and family care.

But as the initial response phase passed, the company wanted to do more to help associates stay connected, safe and well, Mangiapane said. Thanks to the efforts of our essential and frontline workers, we were able to sustain our business and provide our consumers, customers, clients and pets with the products and services they need and love. We really established that COVID-19 wasnt going to define who we were. We were still going to make sure that we defined who we were which is, first and foremost, Mars associates, she told us.

As questions arose, including how to manage day-to-day workflows, onboard new hires remotely or maintain mentoring programs from afar, leadership looked to its associates for the answers.

COVID-19 challenged our core limiting beliefs, Mangiapane said. It empowered associates to ask: What can we do? By teaming up, they were able to come up with solutions.

One of those solutions was the implementation of accessible digital health tools, which helped their associates better connect people to resources including the global expansion of the companys Associate Assistance Program (AAP).

Teams met for virtual workshops to learn new skills for working remotely while avoiding burnout, and they moved to different ways of working, including through Meet Smarter, a proprietary Mars tool that shortens default meeting times to provide five- to 10-minute breaks each hour. At a company-sponsored no-code hackathon, more than 1,000 associates (many with no coding or tech experience) teamed up to develop apps including mentoring and conference room booking with a focus on upskilling.

We don't want to limit digital: You dont need to know how to code or be a computer scientist in order to use these tools, Mangiapane said. You could say, Ill only take people who already have the skills to work on digital, but then youre limiting the potential of the wonderful associates you already have.

Known for producing everything from candy to cat food, Mars is the parent company to a host of brands across its Mars Petcare, Mars Wrigley and Mars Food business segments from iconic brands like M&MS and Skittles to pet food labels like Iams and Pedigree and food favorites such as Bens Original. When it comes down to it, these are products that make people happy, so beyond their own workflows, associates also looked to create new ways to brighten peoples days in a dark and difficult time, Mangiapane said.

Ethel M Chocolates offered virtual tastings so families could meet over something sweet even when they couldnt be together physically, and M&MS launched 3D remote tours of its fantastical retail stores in Disney Springs and the Mall of America to bring that forever-young feeling into customers living rooms. We wanted to help customers keep that social connection even if they couldnt be physically together. We just wanted to find ways to make people smile, Mangiapane said.

Meanwhile, Mars Petcare looked to follow through on its purpose to create a better world for pets.

It's really humbling to see the focus on purpose that Petcare had during the pandemic, Mangiapane told us. It wasn't about maintaining our numbers. It was very much about how to take care of our pets. They were at the center of everything we did, and we wanted to understand what pet parents were going through.

In the Petcare business, the company worked with digital professionals and human health experts to help pet owners navigate the unknowns of the pandemic, while strengthening the human animal bond amidst the pandemic. Mars Petcare conducted science-based research to better understand the impact of COVID on pets, helped connect new pet parents with adoptable pets, and ensured food and treats were supplied in retail stores worldwide. On top of this, veterinary professionals around the world working for Mars offered curbside pick-up and drop-off and pioneered telehealth vet visits. The Iams brand even created the worlds first nose-scanning app, called NOSEiD, which can identify lost dogs by their nose prints and reunite them with their families. (Surprisingly, nose prints are to dogs what fingerprints are to humans each one is unique. Who knew?)

(Video: Mars brand Pedigree's Dogs on Zoom campaign helped shelter dogs get adopted even when in-person meetings weren't possible.)

Mars is not the only company to embrace technology amidst the pandemic recent research indicates that companies accelerated digitization by three to four years on average in 2020, and many of those changes could be here to stay. But Mars approach to leveraging the power of purpose with the connection of technology makes this a case study worthy of attention.

If you follow your North Star, you cant go wrong, Mangiapane said, and then everything else becomes an enabler for that.

This article series is sponsored by Marsand produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image and videocourtesy of Mars

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How Mars Used Technology to Center Purpose During the Pandemic - Triple Pundit

A few years ago, Boca Chica, Texas, was a forgettable little village at the point where the United States, Mexico and the ocean all meet. Now, its home to the worlds only private spaceport and the most ambitious project of maybe the most ambitious private company on the planet.

At its Boca Chica test site, Elon Musks SpaceX builds, launches and tries to land prototypes of its Starship, the vessel that the company hopes will transport people to the moon and to Mars and that could get you from New York to Shanghai in 40 minutes. If Musks ambitions are realized, Boca Chica wont be an unknown beach spot outside Brownsville for much longer. Itll be the gateway to Mars.

That could transform the area. At present, its hard to find statistics that flatter Brownsville. In the ZIP code that includes SpaceXs launch site, 36% of residents live below the federal poverty line, compared with 10.5% nationally. Median household income is $30,100, half the national figure, and 43% of residents didnt finish high school.

Early signs suggest, however, that SpaceX is making an impact. The company says it employs 3,000 people at the South Texas site, and hotels in South Padre, a few miles to the north, now do a steady trade in space tourism. Musk recently announced plans to donate $20 million to the areas schools and $10 million to downtown revitalization in Brownsville. Local leaders hope Brownsville will become Americas third space city, after Houston and Cape Canaveral, and perhaps one day overtake them in importance.

SpaceX is ramping up operations. The firm has bought two former oil rigs, which it will convert into offshore launch pads in Brownsvilles port, and it plans to drill for natural gas next door to the Boca Chica launch pad to create its own supply of rocket fuel and power. The launch site is expanding rapidly, and the company intends to turn Boca Chica into a 21st-century spaceport and develop SpaceXs first resort from inception to development. The company has a steady revenue source, and it plans to use that money to maintain its lead on the rest of the field. As SpaceX achieves breakthroughs at its Boca Chica site, its hard to see how the effects wont be felt in the local economy.

SpaceX is another good-news story for the Texas economy. Migration from California to Texas has entered warp speed in the last year or so because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Austin topped the list of cities that Americans moved to in 2020. According to census data, 687,000 Californians moved to the Lone Star State in the decade before the pandemic. Some of the most storied names in California tech, including Oracle and Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, have also moved their headquarters to Texas.

Commenting on what he called the tidal wave of businesses heading to Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said, Cost of business means a lot. No income tax means a lot, but also the freedom to operate without the heavy hand of regulation means a lot.

Perhaps the most high-profile California transplant? Elon Musk, who announced his move late last year.

Texas pull factors are nothing new. It has had lower taxes, fewer rules, cheaper housing and other enticements for quite some time. What has changed is a progressive creep in California policymaking that treats free enterprise with ever more suspicion and, for all the West Coasts supposed emphasis on open-mindedness, fosters an increasingly intolerant intellectual and cultural climate. The California-versus-Texas debate is emblematic of the limitlessly ambitious, genuinely transformative form of innovation that these days feels a lot more Texan than Californian.

In The Decadent Society, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat ties the concept behind his books title, which he defines as a kind of cultural, economic and political stagnation that has plagued America for a generation, to a lack of extraterrestrial ambition. Where space once inspired awe, most Americans have, for decades, been decidedly indifferent toward the final frontier. Perhaps the progress being made by SpaceX, as well as the renewed interest in space travel more generally, is a sign that this is about to change.

Peter Thiel, a tech maverick like Musk, once famously complained that we wanted flying cars; instead we got 140 characters. But late in 2020, he told Forbes that COVID-19 was a giant watershed moment and that the pandemic year should be thought of as the first year of the 21st century. This is the year in which the new economy is actually replacing the old economy. Could it be that the 2010s were an underwhelming prelude to a roaring 2020s, built on real-world technological innovation?

If Thiel is right and an era of dynamism is just around the corner, men like Musk and companies like SpaceX will likely be at the heart of it. And, just as important, places like Brownsville, unlikely corners of the country with less to lose than Silicon Valley, could be the sites of a technological and industrial revolution.

Oliver Wiseman is an editor at The Critic. This piece was adapted for The Dallas Morning News from an essay that originally ran at City Journal.

Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor and you just might get published.

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A tiny Texas town might be the gateway to Mars - The Dallas Morning News

Cutouts of additional furry friends will also appear at the track on Sunday, sitting in Buschs pit box where they will act as his honorary pit crew.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Kyle Busch, 2X NASCAR Cup Series Champion, is heading to Nashville with a new car design that features seven adoptable dogs from the Charlotte and Nashville area.

According to a news release, cutouts of additional furry friends will also appear at the track on Sunday, sitting in Buschs pit box where they will act as his honorary pit crew, barking instructions at the driver.

As part of a collaboration, Mars Petcare's Better Cities for Pets program and Pedigree Foundation will host adoption events in Nashville and Charlotte during the race weekend and cover all adoption fees at participating shelters for any pets that find loving homes from June 18-20.

To drive awareness for the events, Kyle Busch will visit the Humane Society of Charlotte to meet some adoptable pets before heading to Nashville for the NASCAR Cup Series race.

"I'm a huge dog lover, so having Pedigree Foundation choose to feature shelter pets that are in need of homes on our No.18 Camry this weekend is really cool," Kyle Busch said. "This week I'll be meeting some of the dogs firsthand in Charlotte and have some special friends up on our pit box too. With the Better Cities for Pets program and Pedigree Foundation covering adoption fees in Charlotte and Nashville this weekend, our hope is that these pets are welcomed into the loving homes they deserve."

Participating shelters include Williamson County Animal Center and Nashville Humane Association in Nashville and the Humane Society ofCharlotte in Charlotte, home of NASCAR HQ.

"We're delighted to be working alongside NASCAR, Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch who support our goal of ending pet homelessness," said Kimberly Spina, President of Pedigree Foundation. "To celebrate the return of the NASCAR Cup Series to Nashville, we're thrilled to host adoption events with partner shelters in our hometown of Nashville and NASCAR's hometown of Charlotte, in an effort to make a real difference in both communities and give more pets the chance at loving homes."

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Kyle Busch's car will be wrapped in photos of adoptable dogs in Charlotte for Sunday's race - WCNC.com

As part of the collaboration, Mars Petcare's BETTER CITIES FOR PETS Program and PEDIGREE Foundation will host adoption events in Nashville and Charlotte during the race weekend and cover all adoption fees at participating shelters for any pets that find loving homes from June 18-20. To drive awareness for the events, Kyle Busch will visit the Humane Society of Charlotte to meet some adoptable pets before heading to Nashville for the NASCAR Cup Series race. Busch will also raise awareness for the need for pet adoptions by "hosting" life-size cutouts of adoptable dogs from local shelter partners on top of his pit box, acting as his honorary pit crew during Sunday's race.

"I'm a huge dog lover, so having PEDIGREE Foundation choose to feature shelter pets that are in need of homes on our No.18 Camry this weekend is really cool," said Kyle Busch. "This week I'll be meeting some of the dogs firsthand in Charlotte and have some special friends up on our pit box too. With the BETTER CITIES FOR PETS Program and PEDIGREE Foundation covering adoption fees in Charlotte and Nashville this weekend, our hope is that these pets are welcomed into the loving homes they deserve."

Participating shelters include Williamson County Animal Centerand Nashville Humane Associationin Nashville and the Humane Society of Charlottein Charlotte, home of NASCAR HQ. Courtesy of Mars Petcare and PEDIGREE Foundation, each adopter will receive a starter kit for their new furry family member that includes food from PEDIGREE, CESAR and IAMS brands, treats from DENTASTIX and TEMPTATIONS brands, as well as coupons and swag from BANFIELD Pet Hospital, VCA Animal Hospitals, WISDOM PANEL test kits, PEDIGREE Foundation and the BETTER CITIES FOR PETS Program.

"We're delighted to be working alongside NASCAR, Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch who support our goal of ending pet homelessness," said Kimberly Spina, President of PEDIGREE Foundation. "To celebrate the return of the NASCAR Cup Series to Nashville, we're thrilled to host adoption events with partner shelters in our hometown of Nashville and NASCAR's hometown of Charlotte, in an effort to make a real difference in both communities and give more pets the chance at loving homes."

The adoption events will follow local market COVID-19 guidelines. For more information about PEDIGREE Foundation and its mission to end pet homelessness, please visit http://www.pedigreefoundation.org

About the PEDIGREEBrandThe PEDIGREE Brand is the number one brand of dog food and treats in the world, feeding more dogs than any other brand. The PEDIGREE Brand offers a wide variety of products and formats for dogs at every life stage. The PEDIGREE Brand is built on an unwavering love for all dogs and a commitment to dog adoption. For more information, please visitwww.Pedigree.com.

About PEDIGREE FoundationWe believe every dog deserves a loving, forever home. PEDIGREE Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to help end pet homelessness. Nearly 3.5 million dogs end up in shelters and rescues every year, and nearly half never find a home. The foundation was established in 2008 by Mars Petcare, maker of PEDIGREE food for dogs, to help increase dog adoption rates. We've awarded more than 5,700 grants and over $9 million to U.S. shelters and rescues that help dogs in need. At PEDIGREE Foundation, we're working toward a day when all dogs are safe, secure, cared for, fed well and loved. See how you can help at PedigreeFoundation.org.

About Mars PetcarePart of Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love, the 85,000 Associates across 50+ countries in Mars Petcareare dedicated to one purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS. With 85 years of experience, our portfolio of almost 50 brands serves the health and nutrition needs of the world's pets including brands PEDIGREE, WHISKAS, ROYAL CANIN,NUTRO, GREENIES, SHEBA, CESAR, IAMS and EUKANUBA as well as the WALTHAM Petcare Science Institutewhich has advanced research in the nutrition and health of pets for over 50 years. Mars Petcare is also a leading veterinary health provider through an international network of over 2,000 pet hospitals and diagnostic services including BANFIELD, BLUEPEARL,VCA, Linnaeus, AniCuraand Antech. We're also active in innovation and technology for pets, with WISDOM PANEL genetic health screening and DNA testing for dogs, the WHISTLE GPS dog tracker, and LEAP VENTURE STUDIOaccelerator and COMPANION FUND programs that drive innovation and disruption in the pet care industry. As a family businessand guided by our principles, we are privileged with the flexibility to fight for what we believe in and we choose to fight for our Purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS.

SOURCE Mars Petcare

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Mars Petcare And PEDIGREE Foundation Partner With Kyle Busch To Help Shelter Pets Find Loving Homes - PRNewswire

Theres some exciting news for all space nerds out there! The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently released a 360-degree panorama of Mars captured by its Perseverance rovers Mastcam-Z stereo imaging system. NASA has also released a 360-degree video of the red planet.

SEE ALSO: Earth Resembles Mars In This Stunning Shot Captured By French Astronaut From ISS

The panorama images and the videos released by NASA are super cool as they let you have a look around the red planet as you desire. You can also zoom in to a particular spot on the image if you want to observe it more clearly. In the case of the video, you can use the arrows in the top left or click and drag your cursor or mouse, to move the view up/down and right/left. Exciting, right?

NASA states that Perseverance captured this 360-degree view at Van Zyl Overlook, where the rover was parked for 13 days as the Ingenuity helicopter performed its first flights. Talking about the details of the image, the 2.4-billion-pixel panorama is made up of 992 individual right-eye Mastcam-Z images combined together. The images were taken between April 15 and 26, 2021, or the 53rd and 64th Martian days, or sols, of the mission. Check it out:

SEE ALSO: See Pic: NASA Perseverance Rover Spots Funny-Looking Rocks On The Red Planet!

NASA further explains that a few small patches of near-field sand were covered by parts of Perseverance when the right-eye Mastcam-Z images were taken. To fill these gaps, images of the same sandy patches captured by Mastcam-Z left-eye camera were used. Moreover, imaging coverage of the sky has been digitally smoothed and expanded to match the actual sky color observed as the panorama was being acquired on Mars. Click here to view the panorama images.

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Take A Look Around Mars With This 360-Degree Video Captured By NASAs Perseverance Rover - Mashable India

President Biden privately warned Boris Johnson not to allow disputes over Brexit to undermine the Northern Ireland peace process, the White House has disclosed.

The American president has yet to comment publicly on what he said to Johnson when the two men met for the first time on Thursday.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told American reporters that Biden had held a candid discussion with the prime minister about Northern Ireland during the course of the G7 summit in Cornwall.

Raab: EU "offensive" for not treating Northern Ireland as part of the UK

All Im going to say: they did discuss this issue. They had a candid discussion of it in private, Sullivan said. The president naturally, and with deep sincerity, encouraged the prime minister to protect the Good Friday agreement and the progress made under

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Northern Ireland row mars final day of G7 summit - The Times

Astrobiology is a relatively new field of study, where scientists from a variety of disciplines (astronomy, biology, geology, physics, etc.) work together to understand the potential for life to exist beyond Earth. However, the exploration of Mars has been intertwined with NASAs search for life from the beginning. The twin Viking landers of 1976 were NASAs first life detection mission, and although the results from the experiments failed to detect life in the Martian regolith, and resulted in a long period with fewer Mars missions, it was not the end of the fascination that the Astrobiology science community had for the red planet.

The field of Astrobiology saw a resurgence due to the controversy surrounding the possible fossil life in the ALH84001 meteorite, and from the outsized public response to this announcement, and subsequent interest from Congress and the White House, NASAs Astrobiology Program (https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ )and one of its major programs, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (https://nai.nasa.gov/ ) were formed.

Also at this time, NASAs Mars Exploration Program began to investigate Mars with an increasing focus on missions to the Red Planet. The Pathfinder mission and Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) were sent to Mars to Follow the Water, recognizing that liquid water is necessary for life to exist on Earth. After establishing that Mars once had significant amount of water on its surface, the Mars Science Laboratory (which includes the Curiosity rover) was sent to Mars to determine whether Mars had the right ingredients in the rocks to host life, signaling a shift to the next theme of Explore Habitability. MEP is now developing the Mars 2020 rover mission (https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/ ) to determine whether life may have left telltale signatures in the rocks on Marss surface, a further shift to the current science theme Seek the Signs of Life.

Finding fossils preserved from early Mars might tell us that life once flourished on this planet. We can search for evidence of cells preserved in rocks, or at a much smaller scale: compounds called biosignatures are molecular fossils, specific compounds that give some indication of the organisms that created them. However, over hundreds of millions of years these molecular fossils on Mars are subject to being destroyed or transformed to the point where they may no longer be recognized as biosignatures. Future missions must either find surface regions where erosion from wind-blown sand has recently exposed very ancient material, or alternately samples must be obtained from a shielded region beneath the surface. This latter approach is being taken by the ExoMars rover (http://exploration.esa.int/mars/48088-mission-overview/ ) under development where drilled samples taken from a depth of up to 2 meters will be analyzed.

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NASAs Mars Exploration Program