Category Archives: Mars

Lets suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on the planet Mars. What would you need to survive?

For starters, heres a short list: Water, food, shelter and oxygen.

Oxygen is in the air we breathe here on Earth. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us.

But oxygen is not the only gas in the Earths atmosphere. Its not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen about 78%.

Now you might be wondering: If theres more nitrogen in the air, why do we breathe oxygen?

Heres how it works: Technically, when you breathe in, you take in everything thats in the atmosphere. But your body uses only the oxygen; you get rid of the rest when you exhale.

The Martian atmosphere is thin its volume is only 1% of the Earths atmosphere. To put it another way, theres 99% less air on Mars than on Earth.

Thats partly because Mars is about half the size of Earth. Its gravity isnt strong enough to keep atmospheric gases from escaping into space.

And the most abundant gas in that thin air is carbon dioxide. For people on Earth, thats a poisonous gas at high concentrations. Fortunately, it makes up far less than 1% of our atmosphere. But on Mars, carbon dioxide is 96% of the air!

Meanwhile, Mars has almost no oxygen; its only one-tenth of one percent of the air, not nearly enough for humans to survive.

If you tried to breathe on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit supplying your oxygen bad idea you would die in an instant. You would suffocate, and because of the low atmospheric pressure, your blood would boil, both at about the same time.

So far, researchers have not found any evidence of life on Mars. But the search is just beginning; our robotic probes have barely scratched the surface.

Without question, Mars is an extreme environment. And its not just the air. Very little liquid water is on the Martian surface. Temperatures are incredibly cold at night, its more than -100 degrees Fahrenheit (-73 degrees Celsius).

But plenty of organisms on Earth survive extreme environments. Life has been found in the Antarctic ice, at the bottom of the ocean and miles below the Earths surface. Many of those places have extremely hot or cold temperatures, almost no water and little to no oxygen.

And even if life no longer exists on Mars, maybe it did billions of years ago, when it had a thicker atmosphere, more oxygen, warmer temperatures and significant amounts of liquid water on the surface.

Thats one of the goals of NASAs Mars Perseverance rover mission to look for signs of ancient Martian life. Thats why Perseverance is searching within the Martian rocks for fossils of organisms that once lived most likely, primitive life, like Martian microbes.

Among the seven instruments on board the Perseverance rover is MOXIE, an incredible device that takes carbon dioxide out of the Martian atmosphere and turns it into oxygen.

If MOXIE works the way that scientists hope it will, future astronauts will not only make their own oxygen; they could use it as a component in the rocket fuel theyll need to fly back to Earth. The more oxygen people are able to make on Mars, the less theyll need to bring from Earth and the easier it becomes for visitors to go there. But even with homegrown oxygen, astronauts will still need a spacesuit.

Right now, NASA is working on the new technologies needed to send humans to Mars. That could happen in the next decade, perhaps sometime during the late 2030s. By then, youll be an adult and maybe one of the first to take a step on Mars.

Phylindia Gant, Ph.D. Student in Geological Sciences, University of Florida and Amy J. Williams, Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Florida

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Could People Breathe The Air On Mars? - IFLScience

Mars solar eclipse captured by NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover captured footage of Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, crossing the face of the sun.

Damien Henderson, Storyful

Michael Flynn graduated college May 9, but he didnt quite finish. There isone more thing hes working on, and its significant.

The Keansburg 22-year-old is studying the atmosphere of Mars and coauthoring a research paper that could impact future exploration of the Red Planet.

Its his final project at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida,, from which he graduated with distinction after attending on a full scholarship through Army ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps).

One of our best students not only in the classroom but also in his work doing research, said Embry-Riddle professor John Hughes, chair of the universitys physics department. To have an undergraduate doing cutting-edge research thats going to get published, its a great thing for the student and something the university can be proud of.

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Thats not all. Later this month Flynn is attending the U.S. Armys "Air and Space Basic Course" at West Point. He is among the first ROTC cadets ever chosen to attend the exclusive two-week event.

Not bad for a kid who grew up curious about the night sky.

Flynn attended high school at Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) on Sandy Hook. There, as at Embry-Riddle, he made the most of his opportunities.

He has a combination of talent and work ethic, and thats a really good combination, Hughes said. Almost every time I walked into the lab, he was in there working.

This past semester Flynn was named was Embry-Riddles Outstanding Student in Space Physics, his major. He not only posted the majors highest grade-point average; his collaboration with physics professor Michael Hickey on the Mars project turned more than a few heads.

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Flynn and Hickey are studying the effect the planets ferocious sandstorms have on Martian atmosphere. Theyre looking at the gravity waves generated when the wind blows across four large mountains, including the gargantuan Olympus Mons. At 72,000 feet high two-and-a-half times taller than Mount Everest Olympus Mons is the solar systems biggest mountain.

They are hoping to publish their findings by summers end.

This is important if we want to travel to Mars, if we want to have satellites over Mars, just understanding the complexities of the atmosphere, Flynn explained.

Mapping these patters could help scientists anticipate huge fluctuations in temperature, wind speed and atmospheric density. That willbe vital for any attempt to send humans to Mars.

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Flynn can envision it.

I would say, from what Ive studied, that if you had the right shelter its possible, he said. There are cases of sandstorms with winds at certain locations that can actually become supersonic (above 760 mph) at specific heights. That could be dangerous. But if you had a strong enough shelter, it could be possible.

Before that, though, Flynn has some business closer to home.

Mars InSight just detected the largest Marsquakes ever recorded

Were learning more about the red planet every day.

Buzz60, Buzz60

On May 8, Flynn was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He has a job lined up in the Armys cyber command. Training begins early next year in Georgia. An internship last summer gave him a glimpse of the work.

It was really eye-opening, he said. I cant talk about the specifics of everything I saw, but I was able to do a project that involved satellite communication systems and the different ways we can control satellite systems.

Thats where his heart lies.

Im really interested in satellite physics and satellite communication systems, Flynnsaid.

The ultimate gig? A post with Army Space Operations, which could be crucial tothe nations future defense. He must attain the rank of captain in order to apply, so thats a few years off. For now, hes building a resume and gaining experience. The upcoming course at West Point will add to it all.

I am really excited about this opportunity where I can apply what Ive learned to the Army, and take the knowledge the Army is going to give me and apply that for national defense, Flynn said. I feel like Ive been mostly prepared for it.

As far as Hughes is concerned, you can take the mostly out of that sentiment.

One thing Im quite sure of? the professor said. Hell be successful no matter where he ends up.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shores interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him atjcarino@gannettnj.com.

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Mars atmosphere studied by Keansburg NJ man starting West Point course - Asbury Park Press

On the pre-dawn of Sunday, 29 May, Jupiter and Mars lie just 0.6 degrees (36 arcminutes) apart over the east-southeastern horizon. Over a flat horizon, brilliant Venus can be seen lying over 25 degrees further east of Jupiter and Mars. This is the view from London at about 45 minutes before sunrise (at 4.50am BST). AN graphics by Greg Smye-Rumsby.

Keep the diary free towards the end of May to witness another very close conjunction between two of the major planets in the Solar System. In an echo of Jupiters early morning coming-together with dazzling Venus at the start of May, Jupiter and Mars are separated by just over half a degree before sunrise on 29 May. This time Jupiter is the brighter planet, outshining the red planet Mars by three magnitudes. Both planets lie low in a heavily twilight sky to the east-south-east in the run-up to dawn, so finding an observing spot with an unobstructed horizon is essential to get a good view.

Presently, Jupiter and Mars are located among the stars of south-eastern Pisces, with the red planet, shining at magnitude +0.75 and placed slightly higher in the sky, lying 5.4 degrees south-east (to the right of) of magnitude 2.24 Jupiter. At the beginning of the month, the planetary pair lay over 15 degrees apart.

At the beginning of civil twilight (when the Sun lies six degrees below the horizon) at 4.18am BST from London on the pre-dawn of Friday, May 20, both planets lie around 10 degrees high in the east-south-east. Unfortunately, their altitude progressively worsens towards more northerly parts of the UK; from Edinburgh, both planets lie around just four degrees high.

Before the main event, the Moon muscles in on the show to provide a picturesque if lowly scene for pre-dawn observers and imagers. On the morning of 25 May, a waning 25 per cent-illuminated crescent Moon lies about four degrees south of Jupiter and Mars. At this time they lie around 2.5 apart but by the pre-dawn of 28 May the planets are within a degree of each other, a separation persists for the next two mornings.

Closest approach, a separation of around 36 arcminutes (0.6 degrees), occurs on the following morning, the pre-dawn of Sunday, 29 May. Jupiter (magnitude 2.3) lies above and slightly to the left of Mars (+0.7) in the east-south-east. By about 4am from London (the beginning of civil twilight) Jupiter has climbed to an altitude of around 12.5 degrees from London (nearly 19 degrees by sunrise).

The scenario is barely worse on the following pre-dawn, Monday, 30 May, when Jupiter and Mars have just over 42 arcminutes of Pisces real estate between them. By the end of May, the pair are separated by 1.3 degrees.

In case the sky is hazy, itll be a good idea to have a pair of binoculars or a portable small telescope on hand. Jupiters disc, around 37 arcseconds in apparent diameter, could be discerned if the seeing is not too destructive, though Mars comparatively tiny 6.3 arcsecond globe will probably be too challenging to resolve telescopically.

During June, Jupiter and Mars gradually move further apart, both on their way to a much-improved morning outlook by mid-summer. In mid-June they lie nearly ten degrees apart.

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Get ready for Jupiter and Mars' close confrontation Astronomy Now - Astronomy Now Online

Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk whose acquisition of Twitter, Inc (NYSE: TWTR) appears to be on thin ice briefly turned his focus back to politics on Thursday.

The U.S., like many countries around the globe, has become more divided over recent years, battling over issues from gun control to abortion rights. Former President Donald Trump appeared to both revel in and amplify the division andPresident Joe Biden has had little effect on any attempt to rectify the matter.

The Political Focus: A party more moderate on all issues than either Reps or Dems would be ideal, Musk said on Twitter. He went on to add, This is what most people in America want, but unfortunately its not realistic.

It is somewhat the case in Canada, where five main political parties vie for control of the federal government every four years. One of Musks followers used that fact to bridge Musks thoughts on the U.S.s two-party system and the South African-borns two-year stint in Canada: Ah, you see youre still a Canadian at heart!, to which Musk replied, Its true haha.

Although Musk is unable to change the political system in the U.S., he plans to tackle what he believes is the divisiveness on Twitter caused by its algorithm, which he says should be open-source in order to remove bias. Musk has historically been an outspoken proponent against "cancel culture,"which he feels is rampant on Twitter and other social media apps, even vying as the future CEO to reinstate Trumps account.

See Also:As Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg See Wealth Evaporate In 2022, Russia's Richest Man Vladimir Potanin Adds $4B

The Pivot To Mars: Musks mini-tweet storm on U.S. politics prompted at least one of his followers to question why the billionaire was choosing to make himself a target for the Democrats by becoming politically active and creating controversy. Musk replied that unless the woke mind virus is stopped, civilization will be destroyed before ever reaching Mars.

Musk, who for years has held ambitions to colonize Mars, also took the time to weigh in on how he would like the political system on the planet to work. I suggest no parties and just direct voting by the people of concise laws that everyone can understand, he said.

2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Elon Musk On American Politics, Laws On Mars And Being Canadian At Heart - Benzinga - Benzinga

NASA's Marsquake-seeking lander is squeezing out as much science as possible amid dwindling power supplies, but it likely only has a few months left for its mission.

The Mars lander InSight is battling a long-term accumulation of dust on its solar panels and is down to one-tenth of its available landing power of 5,000 watt-hours, officials said in a press conference Tuesday (May 17).

"When we landed, it was about an hour 40 minutes or so where you can run [the equivalent of] an electric oven," Kathya Zamora Garcia, InSight deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters. Now, Garcia added, "we could probably run that approximately 10 minutes max."

But exactly when InSight closes off its instruments on Mars for good is a big unknown, as it depends on the weather, the spacecraft's performance and other factors difficult to quantify, JPL's principal investigator Bruce Banerdt told reporters.

"It's exceeded our expectations at just about every turn on Mars, and so it may actually last longer than that," Banerdt said.

Related: NASA's InSight lander detects the biggest quake on Mars yet

InSight touched down on the Red Planet in November 2018 and made unprecedented measurements concerning seismic activity on Mars, following less-than-successful attempts by spacecraft such as Viking. Just weeks ago, InSight's biggest-ever quake on Mars was reported amid 1,300 others it has sensed since coming to Elysium Planitia.

The mission allowed scientists to precisely place limits on the thickness of the crust and the size of the core, Banerdt said, which he characterized as a crowning achievement of the mission.

"We just had a really fuzzy picture of what was going on inside Mars [before], and I think InSight's real contribution is now we can actually draw a quantitatively precise picture of the inside," he said.

But like many other solar-powered craft on Mars, InSight's limiting factor was dust choking off sunlight, which is the main source of power for the mission. NASA has been warning for months that the InSight Mars lander would likely to fail by mid-year 2022, even after granting InSight an extension for its continued science value.

Due to weight and power concerns, the lander did not carry a supplemental system to clean off dust, such as motors or brushes. Engineers did manage to remove a bit from a solar panel in 2021 after drizzling sand on the lander and letting the wind blow it across the panel to clear some dust. But absent a great gust of wind from a nearby dust devil, InSight was left battling sandy accumulation.

To preserve power as best as possible, the mission will be tasked this spring to put its arm in a "retirement pose", in an inverted V-shaped position to take views of the seismometer once it is no longer commanded to move from Earth. The seismometer will run at least intermittently for a while longer, but it and other instruments should be turned off by late summer.

Banerdt emphasized, however, that the science team will remain busy for at least another six months on immediate mission tasks, even after InSight completes its data collection. "We're getting final data products, like our final Mars quake catalog and our final Mars models," he said.

The team will upload their last tranches of data to a publicly available archive that strives to have science information available within three months of collection, Banerdt said. This information will remain available essentially forever, adding to the catalog of retired space mission data that could be revisited for future investigations.

The archive will not only be useful for future Mars missions, but others that may be using seismic investigations or that assess interiors of rocky worlds. Banerdt, who said he has been working to get a seismometer on the Red Planet for most of his career, suggested Venus might be a natural next location (assuming said instrument could survive the intense heat).

Officials also cited the Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon Titan as a beneficiary of InSight research, as the landing craft will carry a seismometer. That life-hunting mission should launch in 2027, if all goes to plan.

InSight exceeded its major mission goals despite facing issues with its "mole" heat-seeking probe, that was supposed to tunnel deep into the regolith to look at any heat trickling from the Martian interior.

In January 2021, NASA gave up numerous valiant attempts to get the German Aerospace Center (DLR)-built mole working, amid an extension review board warning that the mission was already running low on power. The problem came down to InSight encountering much sandier soil than found on the Red Planet before, which the mole wasn't designed to tackle (despite best efforts).

The mole ultimately only got a few inches beneath the surface, rather than the 10 feet (3 meters) its design called for, but Banerdt said the instrument was always seen as complementary (and not fully essential) to the mandate of Insight to assess Martian interior activity.

"Seismology tells us what the building blocks of the planet are today, and the [mole] was going to tell us something about the dynamics of it," Banerdt said. What was lost, he said, was being able to put some constraints on temperatures in the core, although some suggestions can come from the seismology.

Banerdt acknowledged that his next birthday, which coincides with InSight's mission selection date on Aug. 20, 2012, may be quite different in 2022 if the lander falls quiet by then. "This mission is really near and dear to my heart," he said.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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NASA's Mars lander InSight has only a few months to live on the Red Planet - Space.com

A big Mars discussion is coming to Washington, D.C. starting Tuesday (May 17).

The three-day event, hosted by Explore Mars, features panel discussions and speakers from across the space industry, as well as NASA and international entities.

The conference has listed its schedule of events and all speakers. The event will be hosted at George Washington University and you can register for various attendance options on EventBrite. You can also catch a livestream.

Related: A brief history of Mars missions

The event is taking place after a notable year for space tourism and private space exploration efforts, including flights by Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and Axiom Space that brought several non-professionals into space that were not agency astronauts, although a few of them had related experience in piloting or similar fields.

NASA is also aiming to send its first round-the-moon mission for the Artemis program, an uncrewed effort called Artemis 1. The mission has been delayed from an early springtime launch due to issues in getting the Space Launch System rocket ready for flight, but the agency is still hoping for 2022.

Assuming funding and technology go to plan, the agency will follow this up with crewed missions in 2024 (around the moon) and 2025 (to the surface of the moon). NASA frames Artemis cislunar (moon-Earth) exploration as a proving ground to get ready for Mars exploration, as they both involve rocky worlds at some distance from Earth.

Mars exploration is also accelerating, with several countries having sent new missions to the Red Planet in 2021. The NASA set among these, the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter, have proven that flight is possible on Mars and are now jointly engaged in exploring a potentially life-rich river delta ahead of returning the samples to Earth in joint American-European mission.

"We are entering the golden age of space exploration," Chris Carberry, Explore Mars CEO, said in a statement about the summit. "H2M 2022 will not only examine how humans will return to the surface of the moon by the mid-2020s and then travel to Mars by the mid-2030s, but will also consider the extraordinary opportunities and innovations expected to materialize over the next decade."

In Explore Mars' words, here are some of the big topics that will be covered in this year's series of events.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace. Follow uson Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.

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Watch the Humans to Mars Summit 2022 live online - Space.com

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Could people breathe on Mars? Jack J., age 7, Alexandria, Virginia

Lets suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on the planet Mars. What would you need to survive?

For starters, heres a short list: Water, food, shelter and oxygen.

Oxygen is in the air we breathe here on Earth. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us.

But oxygen is not the only gas in the Earths atmosphere. Its not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen about 78%.

Now you might be wondering: If theres more nitrogen in the air, why do we breathe oxygen?

Heres how it works: Technically, when you breathe in, you take in everything thats in the atmosphere. But your body uses only the oxygen; you get rid of the rest when you exhale.

The Martian atmosphere is thin its volume is only 1% of the Earths atmosphere. To put it another way, theres 99% less air on Mars than on Earth.

Thats partly because Mars is about half the size of Earth. Its gravity isnt strong enough to keep atmospheric gases from escaping into space.

And the most abundant gas in that thin air is carbon dioxide. For people on Earth, thats a poisonous gas at high concentrations. Fortunately, it makes up far less than 1% of our atmosphere. But on Mars, carbon dioxide is 96% of the air!

Meanwhile, Mars has almost no oxygen; its only one-tenth of one percent of the air, not nearly enough for humans to survive.

If you tried to breathe on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit supplying your oxygen bad idea you would die in an instant. You would suffocate, and because of the low atmospheric pressure, your blood would boil, both at about the same time.

So far, researchers have not found any evidence of life on Mars. But the search is just beginning; our robotic probes have barely scratched the surface.

Without question, Mars is an extreme environment. And its not just the air. Very little liquid water is on the Martian surface. Temperatures are incredibly cold at night, its more than -100 degrees Fahrenheit (-73 degrees Celsius).

But plenty of organisms on Earth survive extreme environments. Life has been found in the Antarctic ice, at the bottom of the ocean and miles below the Earths surface. Many of those places have extremely hot or cold temperatures, almost no water and little to no oxygen.

And even if life no longer exists on Mars, maybe it did billions of years ago, when it had a thicker atmosphere, more oxygen, warmer temperatures and significant amounts of liquid water on the surface.

Thats one of the goals of NASAs Mars Perseverance rover mission to look for signs of ancient Martian life. Thats why Perseverance is searching within the Martian rocks for fossils of organisms that once lived most likely, primitive life, like Martian microbes.

Among the seven instruments on board the Perseverance rover is MOXIE, an incredible device that takes carbon dioxide out of the Martian atmosphere and turns it into oxygen.

If MOXIE works the way that scientists hope it will, future astronauts will not only make their own oxygen; they could use it as a component in the rocket fuel theyll need to fly back to Earth. The more oxygen people are able to make on Mars, the less theyll need to bring from Earth and the easier it becomes for visitors to go there. But even with homegrown oxygen, astronauts will still need a spacesuit.

Right now, NASA is working on the new technologies needed to send humans to Mars. That could happen in the next decade, perhaps sometime during the late 2030s. By then, youll be an adult and maybe one of the first to take a step on Mars.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question youd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit adults, let us know what youre wondering, too. We wont be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

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Could people breathe the air on Mars? - The Conversation

This illustration shows NASA's InSight lander with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA is ending a year-long effort to keep its $813 million InSight lander alive on Mars.

InSight has been running on diminished power since layers of dust settled on its solar panels and stuck there. Today, it produces just one-tenth of the daily energy it generated at the start of the mission. In 2018, its battery charge was enough to run an electric oven for an hour and 40 minutes. Today, it could only run such an oven for 10 minutes, according to mission manager Kathya Zamora Garcia.

NASA previously approved funding to run InSight through December 2022, but agency officials said in a press conference on Tuesday that they expect power levels to run so low by late summer that the lander will permanently end its science operations.

"Based on our current energy level, I'm going to approximate mid-July, maybe early July," Zamora Garcia said in the briefing. She emphasized that the timeline is unclear and depends on weather.

A solar array on the InSight lander in December 2018 (left) and June 2021 (right).NASA/JPL-Caltech

Since it landed on Mars in 2018, InSight's seismometer has detected more than 1,300 Mars quakes and several thousand dust devils. The seismic waves from those quakes revealed that the Martian crust is drier and more broken up from asteroid impacts than scientists thought more like the moon than like Earth and has at least two sublayers. The lander also revealed that Mars has a large liquid core.

"We've been able to map out the inside of Mars for the very first time in history," Bruce Banerdt, who leads the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the press briefing on Tuesday.

Scientists will likely continue analyzing InSight's data for years to come. Since a planet's full history is encoded in its interior layers, the findings will help researchers revisit their models of how rocky planets form, and ultimately, inform the study of worlds that could host life beyond our solar system.

Story continues

"This mission is really near and dear to my heart," Banerdt said, adding, "I've been trying to get a seismometer on Mars for most of my career."

Though InSight achieved its goal of studying Mars's deep internal structure, its last year of research on the planet has been routinely interrupted by shutdowns to conserve power.

InSight's solar panels produced roughly 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day after the spacecraft touched down in November 2018. But by spring 2022, they were producing about 500 watt-hours each day.NASA/JPL-Caltech

The lander's home in an open plain called Elysium Planitia turned out to be less windy than scientists expected, which allowed the thick accumulation of dust to build up on its solar panels. There's still a chance that a gust of wind could clean the panels and save the spacecraft, but mission leaders aren't holding out hope.

Dust is a common pest for Mars robots. The same year that InSight landed on Mars, the Opportunity rover's battery drained during a dust storm. It never powered back up. Earlier this month, NASA temporarily lost contact with its four-pound Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, as winter brought power-draining cold and increased the concentration of dust in the atmosphere.

InSight's death will be more gradual than Opportunity's. It begins in just a few weeks, when mission managers plan to move its robotic arm into "retirement pose," Zamora Garcia said. Then they'll shut off the science instruments one by one, finally saying goodbye to the seismometer in late summer.

After that, they think InSight will keep producing enough power to beam them a status update every day or so, along with the occasional photo from Mars. By the end of the year, they expect to completely lose the lander.

InSight's engineering team has spent most of the lander's mission troubleshooting.

InSight's solar arrays are deployed for a test at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, on April 30, 2015.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin

One of the lander's prize scientific instruments was a pile-driver called "the mole," which was designed to burrow into the Martian crust and take the planet's temperature. The mole immediately ran into a problem: The ground in Elysium Planitia was much tougher than NASA scientists expected. Instead of flowing around the mole's outer hull, providing friction for it to keep hammering deeper, the dirt stayed firm. The mole was supposed to dig 10 feet, but it got stuck just two or three centimeters below the surface.

NASA's team tried to solve the issue for two years, beaming new software to InSight to teach its robotic arm maneuvers to assist the mole, and anxiously waiting for photos that might show progress. Instead, the mole popped out of its hole.

InSight's robotic arm next to its "mole" heat probe, after the probe backed out of its hole, on October 26, 2019.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Eventually, the InSight team ran out of options. At the same time, the lander was running low on power. There wasn't much energy to spare on experimental burrowing attempts. They made the tough decision to abandon their mole.

"That was probably the biggest disappointment of the mission," Banerdt said.

After that, NASA's engineers could only buy time for their lander. The team first tried instructing InSight to shake the solar panels, but that didn't remove the dust.

InSight took this "selfie," a mosaic made up of 14 images taken on March 15 and April 11, 2019, using a camera on the lander's robotic arm.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Then they instructed the robot to scoop up dirt and slowly trickle it next to the solar panels. The thinking was that some of the large grains of sand would get caught in the wind, bounce off the solar panels, and take some stubborn dust with them.

It worked a little. The first attempt added about 30 watt-hours to daily energy production. The team conducted six of these dirt-trickling operations, which generated enough power to keep running the seismometer regularly.

An artist illustration of the InSight lander, with its "mole" heat probe burrowed in the Martian crust.NASA/JPL-Caltech

A few months after losing its mole, in 2021, InSight engineers began hibernating the lander for the winter. NASA slowly shut down the lander's science instruments to conserve its energy through the cold months, when Mars swung far from the sun, diminishing InSight's power supply even further.

At the time, Banerdt told NASA's Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group that the lander's mission was likely to end soon after the onset of the following Martian winter, in April 2022.

InSight's seismometer sits on the Martian surface, as photographed by the lander.NASA/JPL-Caltech

InSight resumed its science operations long enough to detect its biggest quakes yet three temblors reaching 4.2 magnitude and then an even bigger 5-magnitude quake on May 4.

"This quake is really going to be a treasure trove of scientific information when we get our teeth into it," Banerdt said.

Just three days later, on May 7, InSight's power supply fell below a level that triggers its safety mode, suspending non-essential functions, including science activities, for the second time this year.

Banerdt's team will spend the next few months conserving the lander's power and collecting as much data as possible.

"Before InSight, the interior of Mars was kind of just a big question mark," Banerdt said, adding, "Now we can actually draw a quantitatively precise picture of the inside of Mars."

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Mars dust is forcing NASA to say goodbye to its quake-hunting InSight lander early - Yahoo! Voices

The commercial showcases the past but also promotes whats ahead, as Nike hopes for another half-century of sportswear dominance. The video casts Lee playing chess outside against a young woman. He recounts all the great sports moments hes seen in the last few decades, such as the rise of Kobe Bryant, soccer greats Mia Hamm, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, and the records of runner Steve Prefontaine.

There aint nothing I aint seen, Lee says as Blackmon. His opponent retorts, "Okay old school, but with due respect, the past was great and all but the futures on deck. She talks up current athletes such as Naomi Osaka, Chloe Kim and Ja Morant. You aint seen nothing yet, she says before winning the chess match.

Lee directed the film. The original Blackmon campaign, Spike and Mike, starred Lee opposite Michael Jordan andwas credited with helping to move the needle with Black representation in advertising.

Both works were created with Wieden+Kennedy, Nikes longtime creative agency partner. Experts said the original campaign resonated with mainstream audiences but was also unapologetically Black. That work paved the way for Nike to pursue other historic campaigns such as its Colin Kaepernick Dream Crazy push four years ago. Kaepernick does not appear in the new spot.

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Nike resurrects Spike Lee's Mars Blackmon in 50th anniversary campaign - AdAge.com

Joel Kinnaman in For All MankindPhoto: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has finally released a trailer for the third season of For All Mankind, one of its most thrilling (and highly underrated) dramas. The space race has clearly intensified in the ten years between seasons two and three of the alternate-reality sci-fi series. The show jumps to the 90s when the U.S. and Russia have set sights on the Red Planet.

With an established moonbase on the lunar surface, it makes sense that the next step is to conquer Mars and gain an upper hand on its resources. The closing shot of the second season finale teed this up nicely. As seen in the trailer, NASA astronaut Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) tells her team, We have a historic opportunity, the first mission to Mars. But its not just the two countries vying to succeed here, its also private equitysurprise, surprise. Season three introduces Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), a charismatic visionary who wants to invest in the space race. He believes private citizens should also have a stake.

Elsewhere in the trailer, the astronauts already land on Mars and face struggles there, including a serious lack of water. Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) continues to fight for his crew, Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour) is running for Senate, Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) is still leading NASAbut is she unknowingly a KGB operative?and her mentee, Aleida (Coral Pea) sits by her side. As expected, the VFX is incredible, featuring gorgeous shots of the cosmos.

Created by Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, and Matt Wolpert, the For All Mankind has a cast that includes Krys Marshall, Shantel VanSanten, Cynthy Wu, and Casey Johnson. The first season, set in the 70s, focused on NASA trying to catch up with Russian cosmonauts who first landed on the moon. The 80s-set season two largely takes place on the moon as both countries battle it out, ending in an explosive, heartbreaking finale.

The third season ofFor All Mankind will consist of 10 episodes. It will premiere on June 10 on Apple TV+, with each new episode airing weekly.

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For All Mankind's third season trailer teases an exciting space race to Mars - The A.V. Club