NASA's InSight Mars Lander Set To Launch

If all goes according to plan the InSight Mars Lander will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on May 5th at 7:10 EDT. The lander's instruments include a seismometer to try to detect Marsquakes and a self-hammering probe that will monitor the flow of heat from the planet's interior.

Five Things to Know About NASA's InSight Mission to Mars | Smart News | Smithsonian

 

How exciting, another couple billion dollars to go look at some rocks and stick a thermometer in the ground

 

NASA is sending its first autonomous helicopter to Mars in 2020
Engadget Kris Holt, Engadget
May 11, 2018

NASA is sending its first autonomous helicopter to Mars in 2020

excerpt:

"The next vehicle NASA is sending to Mars nestles somewhere between a rover and a satellite, at least in terms of altitude. The agency is bundling an autonomous helicopter with the Mars 2020 rover to test airborne vehicles on the red planet.

The drone weighs 1.8 kilograms (just under four pounds) and the dual, counter-rotating blades will spin at around 3,000 rpm, roughly 10 times the rate of a regular helicopter. That high blade rotation is important to get the helicopter airborne because of the low atmospheric density on Mars -- when the drone's on the ground, it'll already be at an Earth-equivalent altitude of 100,000 feet. NASA also packed in a heating mechanism to help the drone survive the frigid Mars nights."

 

Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars

R. Orosei1,*, S. E. Lauro2, E. Pettinelli2, A. Cicchetti3, M. Coradini4, B. Cosciotti2, F. Di Paolo1, E. Flamini4, E. Mattei2, M. Pajola5, F. Soldovieri6, M. Cartacci3, F. Cassenti7, A. Frigeri3, S. Giuppi3, R. Martufi7, A. Masdea8, G. Mitri9, C. Nenna10, R. Noschese3, M. Restano11, R. Seu7
Science 25 Jul 2018:
eaar7268
DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7268


free pdf

Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars

 

All my life they led us to believe there was no water on Mars. Now they're telling us there's water on Mars. They'll tell us anything.

 

I don't think "they" did anything except publish their findings and current understandings. Any decent scientist knows that discovery is an ongoing process. It's everyone else who is desperate for concrete answers and the media who condenses everything in order to provide those answers.

 

25 Cool Facts About Water On Mars
Posted by Alex Salamanca
Updated on January 19, 2016

25 Cool Facts About Water On Mars

excerpt:

"The search for water on Mars has been a long and arduous journey, but a very rewarding and fulfilling one. Less than 50 years ago, scientists could only speculate about the presence of water on the Red Planet. These days, scientists have found multiple pieces of evidence that water firstly – did exist on Mars – and secondly – still does exist. The discovery of the polar ice caps was one of the first confirmations of water on the planet, albeit in frozen form. Fast-forward a few years and scientists found evidence of more frozen water below the surface (closer to the equator) and even flowing salty water on the planet’s surface. (Also, excitingly, scientists believe there are channels on Mars where water ten times greater than the average discharge of the Amazon River, the largest on Earth, was discharged.) The search for water on Mars is a worthwhile endeavor, largely because where there’s water, life has the possibility to exist. In search of that, the year 2020 will see a new NASA rover take off from Earth to look for evidence of life formerly existing on the planet. For these and other exciting facts about H20 on Mars, strap on your spacesuit because here are 25 Facts About Water on Mars."