Robotics/Rovers/UAVs Archives

MEDaL-1 Mars Lander Science Definition Team

by Keith CowingJuly 17, 2026July 17, 2026

[ESA] Join the Science Definition Team (SDT) to help define the Exploration Science Payload for a proposed future Mars lander: MEDaL-1. Full announcement

This view looking back up at the outside lip of the 490-foot-tall (150-meter-tall) rim of Jezero Crater was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance on May 15, 2025, the 1,505th day, or sol, of the rover’s mission to Mars. Larger imagery -- NASA

Mars

Mars Perseverance Rover’s Panoramic View of Broom Point

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[NASA] The bright-colored rocks exposed across the slope, running from middle left to middle right of the image, belong to a formation the science team calls the “Broom Point member,” […]

NASA’s Perseverance took this selfie at “Witch Hazel Hill” on Jezero Crater’s rim on May 10, 2025. The small dark hole in the rock in front of the rover is the borehole made when the rover collected the “Bell Island” sample. The small puff of dust left of center and below the horizon line is a dust devil. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS larger image

Mars

Perseverance Rover Provides A Record of Ancient Mars Impacts

by Keith CowingJuly 16, 2026July 16, 2026

[NASA] Old rocks exposed on the rim of Jezero Crater preserve a roughly 4-billion-year-old cosmic “weather report” from the solar system’s most dynamic era.

Suspended by four bungee cords, the Dragonfly structure is positioned inches above the floor during ground vibration tests in one of Johns Hopkins APL’s clean rooms in Laurel, Maryland. These tests give engineers the opportunity to see how vibrations in Dragonfly’s rotors may resonate across the lander’s main body, potentially interfering with other equipment. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Titan

Dragonfly Titan Astrobiology Droid Clears Key Tests

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2026July 10, 2026

The mission reached a major milestone on June 29, when the Dragonfly team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, delivered the nearly 13-foot-long fuselage for […]

Mars

Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Concerns

by Keith CowingJuly 6, 2026July 6, 2026

Editor’s note: The Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) has issued a summary of Acknowledgements, Findings, and Statements of Support/Concern. Full document below.

Mars

Viking In The History And Future Of Astrobiology Programs

by Keith CowingJuly 6, 2026July 6, 2026

Perseverance training its mast on the “Arathusa” rocky outcrop -- NASA More information

Mars

Perseverance Astrobiology Rover – A Selfie While Working

by Keith CowingJuly 3, 2026July 3, 2026

[NASA] NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie on March 11, 2026, the 1,797th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, during the rover’s deepest push west beyond Jezero Crater. […]

Mars

Curiosity Rover Takes a Close Look at Martian Sulfur Crystals

by Keith CowingJuly 1, 2026July 1, 2026

[NASA] These sulfur crystals were found inside a rock after NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover happened to drive over it and crush it on May 30, 2024, the 4,200th Martian day, […]

Mars

ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Astrobiology Mission Heat Shield Enters Integration Phase

by Keith CowingJuly 1, 2026July 1, 2026

[ArianeGroup] Following a successful vibration test campaign designed to validate its mechanical resistance to the stresses of launch and the journey to Mars, the Front Shield for Rosalind Franklin has […]

ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Ocean Robotics Laboratory on June 25

Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ocean Planet Exploration: New University of Rhode Island Ocean Robotics Laboratory

by Keith CowingJune 30, 2026June 30, 2026

[URI] The University of Rhode Island celebrated a major milestone in the $300 million, multi-phase revitalization of the Narragansett Bay Campus with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Ocean […]