[NASA]. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover reached the pinnacle — so far — of its 14-year-old mission on Aug. 26, 2026, when it marked an elevation gain of 1 kilometer in […]
Mars
Posted inMars
Thermal Anomaly Discovered Below Mars’s South Pole
[Caltech]. Based on gravitational measurements that give clues to the Red Planet’s interior structure, Mars’s interior southern hemisphere is around 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the northern half […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments
Cultivation Of Halophilic Archaea In Shallow Subsurface Martian Conditions Has Implications For Extant Life On Mars
[biorxiv.org] The present-day martian surface is generally considered inhospitable to life because of low atmospheric pressure, intense surface radiation, global desiccation, and oxidizing chemistry which has been increasing since the […]
Posted inPlanetary Protection & Biosafety
NASA Establishes Mars Forward Operational Risk and Contamination Evaluation (M-FORCE) Tiger Team to Shape Mars Planetary Protection Protocols
[NASA OSMA]. NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA), in partnership with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), is seeking applicants for a newly established external Tiger Team named Mars Forward […]
Posted inMars
Miraflores Butte On Mars
[NASA] NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed “Miraflores,” estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, with its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 11, 2026, […]
Posted inPanspermia
Natural Lithopanspermia to Earth: Transport, Shielding, and Survival Limits for Solar-System and Extrasolar Donor Classes
[physics.gen-ph] Natural panspermia is a transport-and-establishment hypothesis, not a theory of abiogenesis. The Earth-specific question is whether any nonterrestrial donor remains competitive with terrestrial origin once launch, planetary-system escape, transit, […]
Posted inMissions & Hardware
NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Cooperative Agreement Notice (NNH26ZDA016C) Final Text And Due Dates
[NASA] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate (HSMD) have released the final text of the fifth Solar System Exploration Research […]
Posted inRobotics/Rovers/UAVs
Robotic Lava Tube Mapping And Multimodal Data Collection Using Quadruped And LiDAR
[Frontiers in Robotics and AI]. As part of TU Delft Rhizome 2.0 and Moonshot projects, focusing on the development of extraterrestrial habitats in lava tubes, the robotic mapping of an […]
Posted inMars
Gullies At The Start Of Martian Spring
HiRISE regularly takes repeat images of gullies to look for changes. This site is one of the most frequent monitoring sites, with more than 70 images to date. It is […]
Posted inMars
Quasi-diurnal Kelvin Wave Observed in the Atmosphere of Mars by the Pressure Sensor on the InSight Lander
[astro-ph.EP]. During the initiation phase of Martian dust storms, a spectral signature of a zonal wavenumber 1 normal mode Kelvin wave (K1) has been observed in several surface pressure records.