Feed aggregator

How can fission-powered propulsion help advance deep space exploration, specifically to the outer planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hopes to address as a pair of researchers from India investigated the financial, logistical, and reliability of using fission power for future deep space missions. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and future astronauts develop next-generation technologies as humanity continues to expand its presence in space.

Preparations for the arrival of a visiting crew, the continued study of how humans adapt to microgravity and more highlight the sixth week of Expedition 73 on the International Space Station.

Antares is a red supergiant star located 400 light-years from Earth.

China has revealed the first image from its Tianwen 2 asteroid sample return mission, which is now more than 3 million kilometers (1.9 million miles) from Earth.

"I've had a number of NASA personnel come up and think that the one that was theirs was ours, and they're shocked."

What's happening to this spiral galaxy?

If it's realism you're looking for, the Sega Toys Homestar Classic is the gold standard of star projectors.

You don't have to stay at home to enjoy great games. Game on the go with the best space and sci-fi games on the Nintendo Switch.

SpaceX conducted a static-fire test with one of its Super Heavy boosters today (June 6), part of the prep work for the next test flight of the Starship megarocket.

On Episode 164 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss these concerning times for NASA with Casey Dreier, the Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society.

A historic dust storm hit Chicago last month, and a weather satellite gave us a bird's-eye view of the dramatic event.

Don't miss the 2025 full "Strawberry Moon" when it rises above the southeastern horizon on June 10.

"The first time I spotted it, I thought at first it may have been a rare form of blue aurora but then realised it was moving too quickly."

SpaceX launched the SXM-10 satellite for SiriusXM early Saturday morning (June 7), adding another spacecraft to the company's broadcasting constellation.

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

4 min read

Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a recent DRT (Dust Removal Tool) site, showing off the marks created in the rocks by DRT — a motorized, wire-bristle brush on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm — as well as a whitish vein that was revealed after the dust covering it was removed. Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera mounted on the turret at the end of the robotic arm, which provides close-up views of the minerals, textures, and structures in Martian rocks and the surface layer of rocky debris and dust. Using an onboard process, MAHLI merges two to eight images to make a composite image of the same target acquired at different focus positions, to bring many features into focus in a single image. Curiosity merged this composite on June 4, 2025 — Sol 4560. Or Martian day 4,560 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 12:33:42 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025

We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to find a drill target today after Monday’s analysis determined that there were no good targets in our previous workspace. Happily, today’s workspace was much more cooperative, and we were able to select the target “Altadena” as our next potential drill location. Altadena is a name that we’ve been saving for a special target, as its namesake here on Earth is a neighborhood next to JPL that was devastated by the Eaton Fire earlier this year. We’re about to enter our next mapping quadrangle, which will come with a new set of target names, so the team decided that using Altadena as the name for this drill site was an obvious choice.

The big activity in this plan is the next step in the drilling process. This activity is the “preload test,” which determines if the forces on the drill will be good while drilling, and the drill target won’t unexpectedly move or fracture. If we pass the preload test and find that the rock has the chemistry we’re looking for, we’ll be able to proceed with Altadena as our next drill site. If we don’t, we’ll have to decide whether to bump again or resume driving deeper into this potentially boxwork-bearing region.

Of course, the preload test isn’t the only thing we’re doing today. Coming in, it was looking like our time for other activities would be pretty tight due to power constraints imposed by preparations for drilling and keeping the rover warm during the cold Martian winter. However, we’ve recently implemented some new power-optimizing capabilities, which led to us having much more power today than we expected. This meant that we were able to add a whole additional hour of science time in addition to the hour that we already had scheduled. 

Unsurprisingly, Altadena gets a lot of love in this plan to characterize it before we drill. This includes a ChemCam LIBS activity and a Mastcam observation, as well as some overnight observations by APXS and some MAHLI images. In addition, Mastcam will be observing some exposed stratigraphy at “Dana Point,” a light-toned vein at “Mission Trails” that will also be a ChemCam LIBS target, a few more nearby troughs, and a couple of sandy patches at “Camp Williams” to observe wind-driven sediment transport. Along with the two LIBS, ChemCam will be using its RMI camera to add to the pile of images we have of the Mishe Mokwa butte and the yardang unit off in the distance.

As the lead for the Atmosphere and Environment (ENV) group today, it looked like I was going to have a pretty light workload due to the power constraints preventing any ENV activities other than our usual REMS, RAD, and DAN observations. With the extra hour of science time, I was able to add a handful of new activities, including three Navcam cloud movies, a Navcam line-of-sight observation of dust within Gale Crater, and a Navcam survey to look for any dust devils that may be swirling around the rover. A pretty decent ENV science haul for a plan that started with nothing!

When we come into planning on Friday, we’ll hopefully have passed the preload test and will be able to turn Altadena into our 43rd drill hole in the coming sols, before we continue driving up the slopes of Mount Sharp.

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Jun 06, 2025

Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More

2 min read Searching for Ancient Rocks in the ‘Forlandet’ Flats

Article


3 hours ago

3 min read Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site

Article


2 days ago

2 min read Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work

Article


3 days ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

Curiosity Navigation

• Curiosity Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

4 min read

Sols 4561-4562: Prepping to Drill at Altadena NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a recent DRT (Dust Removal Tool) site, showing off the marks created in the rocks by DRT — a motorized, wire-bristle brush on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm — as well as a whitish vein that was revealed after the dust covering it was removed. Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera mounted on the turret at the end of the robotic arm, which provides close-up views of the minerals, textures, and structures in Martian rocks and the surface layer of rocky debris and dust. Using an onboard process, MAHLI merges two to eight images to make a composite image of the same target acquired at different focus positions, to bring many features into focus in a single image. Curiosity merged this composite on June 4, 2025 — Sol 4560. Or Martian day 4,560 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 12:33:42 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University

Earth planning date: Wednesday, June 4, 2025

We are continuing to look for a suitable location to collect a drilled sample in this area. As you may recall from Monday’s plan, we performed a short “bump” of just under 4 meters (about 13 feet) hoping to find a drill target today after Monday’s analysis determined that there were no good targets in our previous workspace. Happily, today’s workspace was much more cooperative, and we were able to select the target “Altadena” as our next potential drill location. Altadena is a name that we’ve been saving for a special target, as its namesake here on Earth is a neighborhood next to JPL that was devastated by the Eaton Fire earlier this year. We’re about to enter our next mapping quadrangle, which will come with a new set of target names, so the team decided that using Altadena as the name for this drill site was an obvious choice.

The big activity in this plan is the next step in the drilling process. This activity is the “preload test,” which determines if the forces on the drill will be good while drilling, and the drill target won’t unexpectedly move or fracture. If we pass the preload test and find that the rock has the chemistry we’re looking for, we’ll be able to proceed with Altadena as our next drill site. If we don’t, we’ll have to decide whether to bump again or resume driving deeper into this potentially boxwork-bearing region.

Of course, the preload test isn’t the only thing we’re doing today. Coming in, it was looking like our time for other activities would be pretty tight due to power constraints imposed by preparations for drilling and keeping the rover warm during the cold Martian winter. However, we’ve recently implemented some new power-optimizing capabilities, which led to us having much more power today than we expected. This meant that we were able to add a whole additional hour of science time in addition to the hour that we already had scheduled. 

Unsurprisingly, Altadena gets a lot of love in this plan to characterize it before we drill. This includes a ChemCam LIBS activity and a Mastcam observation, as well as some overnight observations by APXS and some MAHLI images. In addition, Mastcam will be observing some exposed stratigraphy at “Dana Point,” a light-toned vein at “Mission Trails” that will also be a ChemCam LIBS target, a few more nearby troughs, and a couple of sandy patches at “Camp Williams” to observe wind-driven sediment transport. Along with the two LIBS, ChemCam will be using its RMI camera to add to the pile of images we have of the Mishe Mokwa butte and the yardang unit off in the distance.

As the lead for the Atmosphere and Environment (ENV) group today, it looked like I was going to have a pretty light workload due to the power constraints preventing any ENV activities other than our usual REMS, RAD, and DAN observations. With the extra hour of science time, I was able to add a handful of new activities, including three Navcam cloud movies, a Navcam line-of-sight observation of dust within Gale Crater, and a Navcam survey to look for any dust devils that may be swirling around the rover. A pretty decent ENV science haul for a plan that started with nothing!

When we come into planning on Friday, we’ll hopefully have passed the preload test and will be able to turn Altadena into our 43rd drill hole in the coming sols, before we continue driving up the slopes of Mount Sharp.

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Jun 06, 2025

Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More

2 min read Searching for Ancient Rocks in the ‘Forlandet’ Flats

Article


3 hours ago

3 min read Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site

Article


2 days ago

2 min read Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work

Article


3 days ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

2 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Systems Engineer Daniel Eng serves his second year as a judge for the Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California, in 2019. NASA/Lauren Hughes

As a child in the 1960s, Daniel Eng spent his weekends in New York City’s garment district in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, clipping loose threads off finished clothing. He worked alongside his mother, a seamstress, and his father, a steam press operator, where he developed an eye for detail and a passion for learning. Now, he applies these capabilities at NASA, where he works as an engineer for the Air Mobility Pathfinders project.

“I often wonder whether the NASA worm magnet that someone left on my refrigerator in college, which I kept all these years, may have something to do with me ending up at NASA,” Eng said.

His route to NASA was not straightforward. Eng dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He earned a GED certificate while on active duty and after his service earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

After college, Eng worked as a researcher investigating laser communications for the U.S. Navy, work which launched his career in aerospace. He then held jobs at several global corporations before landing at NASA.

NASA systems engineer, Daniel Eng, right, talks with student participants at the 2019 Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California.NASA/Lauren Hughes

“Looking back now, the Navy was ‘my launching point’ into the aerospace industry,” Eng said. “In more than four decades, I held various positions rising through the ranks ranging from circuit card design to systems analyst to production support to project and program management for advanced technology systems on a multitude of military and commercial aircraft projects.”

Today, he uses virtual models to plan and develop flight test requirements for piloted and automated aircraft, which will help guide future air taxi operations in cities.

“Engineers can virtually test computer models of designs, concepts, and operations before they are in place or even built, providing a safe and cost-effective way to verify the processes work the way they should,” Eng said.

He tells his grandkids to stay curious and ask a lot of questions so they can learn as much as possible.

“Be courteous, humble, kind, and respectful of people, and always remind yourself that you are just one human being among many ‘Earthlings,’” Eng said. “Teamwork is a very important aspect of success because rarely, if ever, does one person succeed on their own without help from others.”

Share

Details Last Updated Jun 10, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactLaura Mitchelllaura.a.mitchell@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms

• Armstrong Flight Research Center
• Air Mobility Pathfinders project
• People of Armstrong
• People of NASA

Explore More 4 min read Paul Morris: Filming the Final Frontier Article 1 day ago 6 min read NASA Tests New Ways to Stick the Landing in Challenging Terrain Article 2 weeks ago 2 min read NASA Videographer Wins Top Award for Capturing Human Side of Science Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Humans in Space

Climate Change

Solar System

2 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA Systems Engineer Daniel Eng serves his second year as a judge for the Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California, in 2019. NASA/Lauren Hughes

As a child in the 1960s, Daniel Eng spent his weekends in New York City’s garment district in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, clipping loose threads off finished clothing. He worked alongside his mother, a seamstress, and his father, a steam press operator, where he developed an eye for detail and a passion for learning. Now, he applies these capabilities at NASA, where he works as an engineer for the Air Mobility Pathfinders project.

“I often wonder whether the NASA worm magnet that someone left on my refrigerator in college, which I kept all these years, may have something to do with me ending up at NASA,” Eng said.

His route to NASA was not straightforward. Eng dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He earned a GED certificate while on active duty and after his service earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

After college, Eng worked as a researcher investigating laser communications for the U.S. Navy, work which launched his career in aerospace. He then held jobs at several global corporations before landing at NASA.

NASA systems engineer, Daniel Eng, right, talks with student participants at the 2019 Aerospace Valley Robotics Competition at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy in Palmdale, California.NASA/Lauren Hughes

“Looking back now, the Navy was ‘my launching point’ into the aerospace industry,” Eng said. “In more than four decades, I held various positions rising through the ranks ranging from circuit card design to systems analyst to production support to project and program management for advanced technology systems on a multitude of military and commercial aircraft projects.”

Today, he uses virtual models to plan and develop flight test requirements for piloted and automated aircraft, which will help guide future air taxi operations in cities.

“Engineers can virtually test computer models of designs, concepts, and operations before they are in place or even built, providing a safe and cost-effective way to verify the processes work the way they should,” Eng said.

He tells his grandkids to stay curious and ask a lot of questions so they can learn as much as possible.

“Be courteous, humble, kind, and respectful of people, and always remind yourself that you are just one human being among many ‘Earthlings,’” Eng said. “Teamwork is a very important aspect of success because rarely, if ever, does one person succeed on their own without help from others.”

Share

Details Last Updated Jun 10, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactLaura Mitchelllaura.a.mitchell@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms

• Armstrong Flight Research Center
• Air Mobility Pathfinders project
• People of Armstrong
• People of NASA

Explore More 4 min read Paul Morris: Filming the Final Frontier Article 1 day ago 6 min read NASA Tests New Ways to Stick the Landing in Challenging Terrain Article 2 weeks ago 2 min read NASA Videographer Wins Top Award for Capturing Human Side of Science Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Humans in Space

Climate Change

Solar System

Explore This Section

• Perseverance Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

2 min read

Searching for Ancient Rocks in the ‘Forlandet’ Flats NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the “Fallbreen” workspace using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover’s mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on May 22, 2025 (Sol 1512, or Martian day 1,512 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 14:39:01. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Henry Manelski, Ph.D. student at Purdue University

This week Perseverance continued its gradual descent into the relatively flat terrain outside of Jezero Crater. In this area, the science team expects to find rocks that could be among the oldest ever observed by the Perseverance rover — and perhaps any rover to have explored the surface of Mars — presenting a unique opportunity to understand Mars’ ancient past. Perseverance is now parked at “Fallbreen,” a light-toned bedrock exposure that the science team hopes to compare to the nearby olivine-bearing outcrop at “Copper Cove.” This could be a glimpse of the geologic unit rich in olivine and carbonate that stretches hundreds of kilometers to the west of Jezero Crater. Gaining insight into how these rocks formed could have profound implications for our constantly evolving knowledge of this region’s history. Perseverance’s recent traverses marked another notable transition. After rolling past Copper Cove, Perseverance entered the “Forlandet” quadrangle, a 1.2-square-kilometer (about 0.46 square mile, or 297-acre) area along the edge of the crater that the science team named after Forlandet National Park on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Discovered in the late 16th century by Dutch explorers, this icy set of islands captured the imagination of a generation of sailors searching for the Northwest Passage. While Perseverance is in the Forlandet quad, landforms and rock targets will be named informally after sites in and around this national park on Earth. As the rover navigates through its own narrow passes in the spirit of discovery, driving around sand dunes and breezing past buttes, we hope it channels the perseverance of the explorers who once gave these rocks their names.

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Jun 06, 2025

Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site

Article


2 days ago

2 min read Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work

Article


3 days ago

2 min read Sols 4554–4555: Let’s Try That One Again…

Article


1 week ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…

Explore This Section

• Perseverance Home
• Science
• News and Features
• Multimedia
• Mars Missions
• Mars Home

2 min read

Searching for Ancient Rocks in the ‘Forlandet’ Flats NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the “Fallbreen” workspace using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover’s mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on May 22, 2025 (Sol 1512, or Martian day 1,512 of the Mars 2020 mission) at the local mean solar time of 14:39:01. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Written by Henry Manelski, Ph.D. student at Purdue University

This week Perseverance continued its gradual descent into the relatively flat terrain outside of Jezero Crater. In this area, the science team expects to find rocks that could be among the oldest ever observed by the Perseverance rover — and perhaps any rover to have explored the surface of Mars — presenting a unique opportunity to understand Mars’ ancient past. Perseverance is now parked at “Fallbreen,” a light-toned bedrock exposure that the science team hopes to compare to the nearby olivine-bearing outcrop at “Copper Cove.” This could be a glimpse of the geologic unit rich in olivine and carbonate that stretches hundreds of kilometers to the west of Jezero Crater. Gaining insight into how these rocks formed could have profound implications for our constantly evolving knowledge of this region’s history. Perseverance’s recent traverses marked another notable transition. After rolling past Copper Cove, Perseverance entered the “Forlandet” quadrangle, a 1.2-square-kilometer (about 0.46 square mile, or 297-acre) area along the edge of the crater that the science team named after Forlandet National Park on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Discovered in the late 16th century by Dutch explorers, this icy set of islands captured the imagination of a generation of sailors searching for the Northwest Passage. While Perseverance is in the Forlandet quad, landforms and rock targets will be named informally after sites in and around this national park on Earth. As the rover navigates through its own narrow passes in the spirit of discovery, driving around sand dunes and breezing past buttes, we hope it channels the perseverance of the explorers who once gave these rocks their names.

Share

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  

Details

Last Updated

Jun 06, 2025

Related Terms

• Blogs

Explore More

3 min read Sols 4559-4560: Drill Campaign — Searching for a Boxwork Bedrock Drill Site

Article


2 days ago

2 min read Sols 4556-4558: It’s All in a Day’s (box)Work

Article


3 days ago

2 min read Sols 4554–4555: Let’s Try That One Again…

Article


1 week ago

Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…

All Mars Resources

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…

Rover Basics

Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…

Mars Exploration: Science Goals

The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…