That is not a typo. NASA has been hard at work developing the technology for the next mission to Mars. Part of that are the modules that will be part of the rover. An autonomous helicopter would be able to take pictures never seen before, and reach areas that the rover on the ground, would take far longer to reach, and might not even be accessible.
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NASA's Mars 2020 rover has passed it's first and only driving test - at snail speed. Interested in more space news? Check out this week's top ten space photos.
This article was originally reported on Universe Today.
Though downgraded to dwarf planet status, Pluto has been on the comeback trail of late. Many issues arose with the reclassification in 2006, including that only 424 of the 9000 members of the international organization in charge of making such decisions voted. In addition, immediately after the resolution, hundreds of planetary scientists petitioned against the changed classification. The problem began when the body changed the definition of what constitutes a planet, and due to Pluto lacking several of these features, it was demoted.
A recent mission to Pluto by NASA called New Horizons, recently gave us our closest and clearest look of Pluto and the surrounding planetary bodies in its area and orbit.
The Boeing Starliner capsule, which is planning to transport people to and from the International Space Station in the near future, successfully completed an abort mission - although one of it's three parachutes failed to deploy. At the time, few photos or videos were taken of the capsule's short flight. New video footage has just emerged, and we've made some sweet GIFs so you can view it's journey in GIF form. If you want to know more about the Boeing Starliner capsule, read our comprehensive article about it. Otherwise, enjoy the GIFs!
Space is an interesting place, but it can be hard to wrap your head around some of those out-of-this-world concepts. So what better way to learn facts about space than with GIFs? Here are six interesting and educational GIFs made from videos by Dr James O'Donoghue, a planetary scientist based at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Enjoy learning, space cadets. Want to learn more? Check out this article about how the new Mac Pro isn't good at grating cheese.
Amazing what a mere collection of water and ice and a few rocks can turn into. Saturn's rings are one of the most incredible sights in the night sky, and in space overall. Though their make up is unremarkable, since the 1970s when the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft visited the system and gave us our first close-up look.
What's more amazing is that unlike many other celestial bodies in our universe, that we need to physically reach in order to get a clear picture of, Saturn is close enough that we can get images like those below.
Extra extra read all about it. Europa, one of Jupiter's and the solar system's most iconic celestial bodies, has been examined by NASA scientists, and the results are pretty astounding. Though in recent times Mars and exploration of the "Red Planet" has taken the spotlight and held it in the public eye. But Europa is trying to change all that.
