Tag: red planet

Cheers as Mars InSight spacecraft lands on Red Planet

by Laurent Banguet / with Kerry SHERIDAN in Tampa Agence France Presse PASADENA, United States (AFP) — Cheers and applause erupted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday as a $993 million unmanned lander, called InSight, touched down on the Red Planet and managed to send back its first picture. The high-drama landing of the waist-high spacecraft capped a nearly seven year journey, from spacecraft design, to launch to eventual touchdown, marking the eighth successful […]

Red planet and ‘blood moon’ pair up to dazzle skygazers

by Mariette le Roux and Pascale Mollard Agence France-Presse The longest “blood moon” eclipse this century will coincide with Mars’ closest approach in 15 years to offer skygazers a thrilling astronomical double bill on Friday, astronomers say. For about half the world, the moon will be partly or fully in Earth’s shadow from 1714 to 2328 GMT — six hours and 14 minutes in all. The period of complete eclipse — known as “totality”, when […]

In desert of Oman, a gateway to life on Mars

by Alison Tahmizian Meuse Agence France-Presse DHOFAR, Oman (AFP) — In sunglasses and jumpsuits, a crew of European test astronauts is laying the groundwork for a Mars simulation in the barren expanse of the Omani desert, a terrestrial mission intended to pave the way to the red planet. The “analog astronauts” of the Austrian Space Forum — a volunteer-based collective — have arrived in Oman to begin preparations for a four-week simulation mission due to […]

SpaceX’s Musk unveils plan to reach Mars by 2022

by Glenda Kwek Agence France-Presse ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) — Futurist and inventor Elon Musk unveiled ambitious plans Friday to send cargo ships to Mars in five years and use rockets to carry people between Earth’s major cities in under half-an-hour. The founder of SpaceX said a planned interplanetary transport system, codenamed BFR (Big Fucking Rocket), would be downsized so it could carry out a range of tasks that would then pay for future Mars missions. […]

Lockheed Martin unveils reusable water-powered Mars lander

ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) — A reusable, water-powered Mars lander that will allow humans to explore the Red Planet from an orbiting ‘base camp’ as early as the 2030s was unveiled Friday by US defence giant Lockheed Martin. Governments and private firms are collaborating on projects to send humans to new frontiers, with NASA planning missions next decade into the space between Earth and the Moon to prepare for trips to Mars. Lockheed Martin has been […]