Marsquakes recorded by NASA's InSight mission offer the first direct evidence of key boundaries in the Martian interior, which could help planetary scientists understand how rocky planets are formed, a new study suggests.

The spacecraft landed at Elysium Planitia in November 2018 on a quest to probe the poorly understood interior of Mars. The thickness of the Red Planet crust and the depth of its core, for example, had only been estimated with models before. InSight allows researchers to check their models for the first time.

InSight probes the Martian interior with its seismometer, which rests directly on the ground, overcoming a problem a similar instrument encountered on Viking 2 in the 1970s; that seismometer was high on the spacecraft and swayed in the wind. (Viking 1's seismometer failed before it could take measurements, according to NASA.)

Related: InSight Mars lander snaps dusty selfie on Red Planet (photo)

InSight has measured more than 170 trembles between February and September 2019, marking the first definitive seismic measurements taken on Mars. InSight remains active today and more measurements will be integrated in future studies.

The InSight seismometer measures vibrations from seismic waves, which emanate from the source of disturbances such as marsquakes or meteor strikes. The shape and strength of the waves also allow scientists to estimate the composition of the Red Planet's interior, especially because these waves change slightly as they move through different rock types.

There are some unique challenges, however, associated with having only the single seismometer active on Mars, compared to the networks of such instruments on Earth. "Mars is much less tectonically active, which means it will have far fewer marsquake events compared with Earth," lead author Sizhuang Deng, a geophysics Ph.D. candidate at Rice University in Houston, said in a statement. "Moreover, with only one seismic station on Mars, we cannot employ methods that rely on seismic networks."

The research team examined InSight's seismology data using a technique called ambient noise autocorrelation, which is meant to extract the reflections produced at the boundaries of Martian zones beneath the crust.

The data indicated three main boundaries: between the Martian crust and mantle (at 22 miles or 35 kilometers under the lander), a transition zone between the minerals olivine and wadsleyite (at 690 to 727 miles or 1,110 to 1,170 km down), and the boundary between the mantle and the core (at 945 to 994 miles, or 1,520 km to 1,600 km down).

"The temperature at the olivine-wadsleyite transition is an important key to building thermal models of Mars. From the depth of the transition, we can easily calculate the pressure, and with that, we can derive the temperature," Deng said. The mantle-core boundary, he added, "can provide information about the planet's development from both a chemical and thermal point of view."

A study based on the research was published Aug. 4 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Scientists peer inside Mars to measure layers of Red Planet - Space.com

Mars today is a cold, dry wastelandbut things were likely much different billions of years ago. Since we started launching robotic missions to Mars in the 1970s, scientists have collected evidence that points to a warmer, wetter past for the Red Planet, where the surface was teeming with lakes and oceans that could have been home to life of some kind. Its part of the reason NASA built and launched a new rover thatlaunched last week to look for signs of ancient aliens.

But theres no complete consensus on what Mars really looked like in the past. The argument over the climate of early Mars is an old one going back 40 years, says Anna Grau Galofre of Arizona State University. Shes the lead author of a new studypublished in Nature Geosciencethat upends those dreams of a watery Mars, presenting new findings that suggest the planets ancient landscape looked closer to Antarctica than the tropics. Many of the geological features thought to have been carved out by flowing rivers and waterways replenished by frequent rainfall, the research suggests, may have actually resulted from massive glaciers and ice sheets that melted over time.

The new study focuses on the history of valleys located in the southern highlands of Mars. Past work has pointed at rivers as the origin of the Martian valley networks, says Grau Galofre, but her study identifies for the first time a fraction of systems with characteristics typical of subglacial channels. That is, it was melting ice, not flowing water, that dug out these valleys nearly 3.8 billion years ago.

The research team examined 10,276 individual valleys found in 66 valley networks on Mars, using custom-built algorithms to group them and infer what kind of erosion processes formed them. This was then compared to terrestrial valleys that were shaped by subglacial channels in the Canadian Arctic.

The major difference between networks formed from rivers and ones formed by melted ice is a result of how water flows. Rivers can only carve out valleys if the water is running downhill. But subglacial channels are pressurized, so the melted water is able to flow uphill too. The researchers' models can spot and identify tell-tale signs of water direction and assess what the likely cause was.

The researchers found that 22 of the valley networks seemed to have been carved out by subglacial meltwater, 14 by river water, and the rest formed through other erosion processes. If the authors are correct, it would suggest that Mars was primarily cold early in its history, says Jay Dickson, a planetary scientist at Caltech who was not involved with the study.Some climate modelshave come to the same conclusion, he says, counter to the prevailing image of ancient Mars as a planet covered in oceans and lakes.

The new findings dont mean Mars was one giant ball of ice in the past, however. Joe Levy, a geologist at Colgate University who wasnt involved with the study, thinks the glacier research is thought provoking, but does point out it struggles to pin down a single process that is responsible for forming each valley.

That smeariness in the data could be because there isnt a single process that resulted in the carving of each Martian valley, he says. When youve got a few billion years to work with, its very possible that each valley experienced everything from glacial erosion to lava flows to surging floods under silver skies. Each of those processes changes the shape of the valley network, and leaves a series of overprinted features behind.

Thankfully, a cool Mars doesnt spell bad news for the possibility of ancient Martian life. The subglacial environment could have provided a stable settingwith readily available water, a temperature without large oscillations, and protection from solar energetic particles and radiation without need for a magnetic field, says Grau Galofre.

We already know life can survive cold environments like this, as evidenced by the organisms that live under Antarcticas ice sheet in a place like Lake Vostok. The same may have been possible on Mars, even in these subglacial channels.

Dickson thinks the new findings will prompt researchers to look at other parts of Mars to compare. Mars has hundreds of very large dried-up lakes that date from this era and hosted large volumes of meltwater from these valley networks, he says.

This includes the landing site for the NASA Perseverance rover arriving next February at the Jezero Crater, and that mission could possibly make some room to look for this sort of evidence.

It's an exciting challenge for the entire Mars science community, says Dickson.

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Mars may not have been the warm, wet planet we thought it was - MIT Technology Review

Yesterday I woke up at 3 a.m. with a terrifying thought: What if COVID-19 is a sign that H.G. Wells got it backwards?

What if its not true that viruseswill save us (spoiler alert!)by killing the Martian invaders, as Wells wrote in War of the Worlds? What if viruses are being used by the Martians to weaken us in preparation for an invasion? How would we know?

By going to look, thats how. And fortunately, Earthlings are sending two new probes and a new orbiter to the Red Planet right now, including a NASA rover that, with any luck, will be partly controlled by some New Hampshire folks.

Weve all been very anxious, waiting to hear. Its very competitive should happen any time now, said Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernandez, a planetary geologist post-doc at Dartmouth College who has submitted an application to be part of the science team that will decide where the Perseverance rover will go and what it will do after it lands on Mars next February.

Dr. Marisa Palucis, an assistant professor at Dartmouth, is also on the waiting list. She has experience with the feeling: she been part of the science team for the Curiosity rover on Mars. She was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when NASAs Curiosity rover landed and recalls it with the wistfulness that accompanies many pre-pandemic memories: That was one of the top 10 days of my life.

Controlling a car-sized piece of mobile scientific equipment from at least 34 million miles away is a non-trivial task, whether youre looking for signs of imminent interplanetary assault or water levels a million years ago. Palucis described the process.

Every morning you get up and the rover has sent images from day before. You look at it and decide, Oh,this outcrop is really really interesting! Then the science team gets together and decides. It makes a science plan drive to this rock, sample chemistry, take pictures then they work the engineering team to put together the plan, which is beamed back to the rover, Palucis said.

COVID-19 will complicate the process for Perseverance because the science team cant get together in one room and work together on Mars time, in which each day is 24 hours long. Theyll brainstorm via video-conference, which as weve all learned is not the same thing as doing it over a shared box of Dunkin Munchkins, but even so, hopes are high for what will be discovered when Perseverance starts racing across Mars at its top speed of one-tenth of a mile per hour.

For scientists, the rovers biggest advantage is location. It will land at an alluvial fan, a delta of sediment deposited millennia ago by large amount of moving liquid of some kind.

Curiosity also landed near such a deposit but drove away from the alluvial fan, said Palucis. Perseverance is going to be driving up it.

Were going to be able to see from the sediment, layering of the sediment, how much water deposited and when ground-truthing satellite images, she said.

Rivera-Hernandez, who also studies such deposits on Earth, know what that means. Mud is really good at preserving biosignatures, evidence of past life. This is one of the best places to be hunting for past signs of life on Mars, she said. The instruments on the rover were picked specifically to look for past signs of life. That includes chemical analysis for organic molecules and cameras for very close-up pictures looking for texture that we commonly attribute to microbial life on earth.

But even if Perseverance doesnt find multi-cellular fossils, analysis of the dirt and silt and rocks left by flowing water can tell us how likely it was that past life existed.

If there was a river for 10,000 years, thats not enough time to evolve life. If you had an ocean for a billion years thats a different matter, said Palucis.

The Chinese are also sending a rover to Mars in their Tianwen-1 mission, which just launched. Theyre being a little tight-lipped about what exactly its going to do, but both Dartmouth researchers didnt sound too worried. More data is always a good thing to scientists.

Its quite possible that next spring there will be three different rovers doing science on the surface of the planet, if Curiosity continues to set endurance records. There will also be more Mars orbiters than I can count, including one just launched by the United Arab Emirates of all places, taking pictures and recording data.

This is amazing, considering that a century ago we still thought the planet had canals from a failed civilization. On the other hand, its also just a drop in a very large bucket.

If when we first startedto study the geology of Earth wed only had four geologists wed have only known so little, pointed out Palucis.

If you want more geek in your week, subscribe to David Brooks free weekly newsletterat GraniteGeek.org.You can also listen to him talk about his stories on the GraniteGeek podcast, granitegeek.concordmonitor.com/podcast, or talk with Chris Ryan on WKXLradio at soundcloud.com/wkxl/

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Even a story about going to Mars can't avoid COVID-19 - Concord Monitor

China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft captured a stunning view of the Earth and moon before making its first trajectory correction maneuver on the long journey to Mars.

The mission consists of an orbiter, entry vehicle and rover. The spacecraft will begin orbiting the Red Planet in February 2021, and then prepare for the rover's landing attempt, which is expected in April or May.

Tianwen-1 launched on July 23 on a Long March 5 rocket and completed the final burn to send it on a trajectory to Mars 36 minutes later. On July 27, while the spacecraft was about 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) away from Earth, an optical navigation sensor imaged the crescent-shaped Earth and the smaller, more distant moon.

Related: NASA asteroid camera spots China's Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft speeding away from Earth

The black-and-white image reveals a few apparent features of Earth, against the stark background of an otherwise vast, black ocean.

At 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on August 1, Tianwen-1 fired its engine for 20 seconds to optimize the spacecraft's trajectory. When the maneuver occured, Tianwen-1 was roughly 1,860,000 miles (3 million km) away from Earth after 230 hours of flight.

The burn was a vital test of the vehicle's propulsion system, which it will rely on to correct its trajectory and slow the spacecraft to allow it to enter Mars orbit.

The spacecraft will make four or five such adjustments before reaching Mars, Geng Yan, an official with the China National Space Administration, told Chinese media. The second such correction will be made before October.

Tianwen-1 is in good condition, communicating well with the ground, according to the update from the China Lunar Exploration Project.

The orbiter carries high- and medium-resolution cameras designed for studying and mapping Mars. The image of the Earth and moon, however, was taken by an optical navigation sensor that is normally pointing toward Mars.

In the days following launch, a NASA asteroid camera picked up the spacecraft moving against the star field.

Other Chinese spacecraft have imaged the Earth and moon together previously. Chang'e-5 T1, an experimental mission launched in 2014 to test lunar sample-return technologies, took a stunning image of the far side of the moon and a distant Earth.

The Queqiao relay satellite for the Chang'e-4 lunar far-side mission has also imaged the pair from the second Earth-moon Lagrange point beyond the moon, as did the Longjiang-2 microsatellite that launched with Queqiao. Fengyun-4A, a weather satellite in geostationary orbit, has also captured the pair in a single shot.

Tianwen-1, as well as the United Arab Emirates' Hope mission and NASA's Perseverance rover, are now all en route to Mars and will arrive in February.

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On its way to Mars, Chinese spacecraft spots Earth and moon, aces steering maneuver - Space.com

NASA's Perseverance Mars roverlaunchedfrom Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 30 July, carrying a host of cutting-edge technology including high-definition video equipment and thefirst interplanetary helicopter.

Many of the tools are designed as experimental steps toward human exploration of the red planet. Crucially, Perseverance is equipped with a device called theMars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE: an attempt to produce oxygen on a planet where it makes up less than 0.2 percent of the atmosphere.

Oxygen is a cumbersome payload on space missions. It takes up a lot of room, and it's very unlikely that astronauts could bring enough of it to Mars for humans to breathe there, let alone to fuel spaceships for the long journey home.

That's the problem MOXIE is looking to solve. The car-battery-sized robot is a roughly 1 percent scale model of the device scientists hope to one day send to Mars, perhaps in the 2030s.

Like a tree, MOXIE works by taking in carbon dioxide, though it's designed specifically for the thin Martian atmosphere. It then electrochemically splits the molecules into oxygen and carbon monoxide, and combines the oxygen molecules into O2.

It analyses the O2 for purity, shooting for about 99.6 percent O2. Then it releases both the breathable oxygen and the carbon monoxide back into the planet's atmosphere. Future scaled-up devices, however, would store the oxygen produced in tanks for eventual use by humans and rockets.

A breakdown of the components inside the MOXIE oxygen generator. (NASA/Wikimedia Commons)

The toxicity of the carbon monoxide produced isn't a worry, according to Michael Hecht, a principal investigator for MOXIE. The gas reenters the Martian atmosphere but won't alter it very much.

"If you release the carbon monoxide into the Mars atmosphere, eventually it will combine with a very small amount of residual oxygen that's there and turn back into carbon dioxide," Hechtpreviously told Business Insider.

For that reason, the carbon monoxide also wouldn't hinder a potential biosphere on Mars a closed, engineered environment where Earthly life could thrive.

Because MOXIE is a small proof-of-concept experiment, it won't produce much oxygen if all goes well, it should be producing about10 grams per hour, which is roughly the amount of oxygen in 1.2 cubic feet of Earth air. For context, humans need about 19 cubic feet of air per day.

MOXIE will test its capabilities by producing oxygen in one-hour increments intermittently throughout the duration of Perseverance's mission, according to NASA. The device should start working soon after the rover lands on 18 February 2021.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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NASA's Rover Is Taking a Tree-Like Device That Converts CO2 Into Oxygen to Mars - ScienceAlert

Its been awhile since I posted a video, I will start working on a new one soon, in the meantime, heres a look at what we can see in our night sky during August.

Heres a photo of the Mars and the Moon Saturday night.

That little speck at the top of the picture is Mars. With the clear skies we are having for the first half of the week ahead, it should be east to go out and stargaze.

After sunset, Saturn and Jupiter will be in the southeast sky. By midnight, Mars will rise in the sky, if you want to see 4 planets at once, then you will want to look at around 3 AM when Venus rises in the eastern sky.

Remember, later this year in December, Saturn and Jupiter will meet in our night sky. From our vantage point orbiting the sun, it will appear that these planets will collide! So over the next couple of months take note on where they are in relation to each other.

Happy Viewing!Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson

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Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon in our August Sky - WAVY.com

As deep space missions and Mars colonies continue to shift from science fiction to potential near-future reality, its not surprising to see Hollywood think about different types of stories to tell about space exploration. Away, a new series from Netflix premiering on September 4, looks like that kind of story.

The show stars Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, and is created by the people behind Parenthood and Friday Night Lights. Its a show about an astronaut mission to Mars but its clearly also about the family drama and tensions that arise, both for those in space on a multi-year mission and for the families they left back home on Earth.

The show also looks to feature The Good Wifes Josh Charles in a key supporting role, which is awesome because hes fantastic. Given the level of talent, the pedigree of the showrunners and the space setting, this looks like a fantastic recipe for a great new show. The first season will be available to stream on September 4 on Netflix.

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Watch the trailer for Netflixs new family space drama about a mission to Mars - TechCrunch

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, caught the waning moon, Mars, and a flock of whistling ducks at dawn on August 9, 2020. He wrote, the waning gibbous moon and Mars were close together high in the northern dawn sky. Several pictures of the pair were taken as daylight approached between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Just before it became too light for Mars to remain visible, a flock of whistling ducks passed by in bow and arrow formation! Thank you, Peter!

EarthSkys yearly crowd-funding campaign is in progress. In 2020, we are donating 8.5% to No Kids Hungry. Please donate to help us keep going, and help feed a kid!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Helio de Carvalho Vital wrote from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that he captured the occultation of Mars by the moon an event in which the moon temporarily covered Mars on August 9, 2020. He wrote, A Nikon CoolPix P900 camera on a tripod was the only equipment I used The photo shows the planet approaching the moon`s lighted limb some seconds before ingress. At that moment, relative to Mars, the moon was 224 times closer and about 7 thousand times brighter. Thank you, Helio!

April Singer in northern New Mexico caught the moon and Mars Saturday night around midnight, when the pair had just risen and was low in the eastern sky. Thanks, April!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dennis Chabot in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, captured this image of Mars early Sunday morning, August 9, 2020. At that time, the moon and red planet were high in the dawn sky, not far from the famous tip of the V in the constellation Pisces the Fish. Dennis wrote: Fiery Mars above the moon this morning just before the fog rolled in to fill the skies with gray. Thank you, Dennis!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu in Visina, Dambovita, Romania, captured this telescopic image of Mars on August 5, 2020. The white dot on the planet is its icy pole. Thank you, Aurelian!

Bottom line: Photos from the EarthSky community showing the August 2020 waning gibbous moon near the red planet Mars.

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See it! This weekends moon and Mars - EarthSky

Channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (left) are superimposed with channels in Mars Maumee Valles region (right) Credit: Cal-Tech CTX mosaic/ MAXAR/Esri/ UBC.

For the last 40 years, since the valleys of Mars were firstdiscovered, the assumption has been that precipitation and surface water runofffueled rivers that once flowed on Mars, eroding the landscape and forming allof these valleys. But there are dozens of valley networks on Mars and thousandsof valley systems, and they look very different from each other. If you look atEarth from a satellite, you see a lot of valleys as well: some of them made by rivers, some made byglaciers, some made by other processes, and each type has a distinctive shape. Marsis similar, in that its valleys look very different from each other, suggestingthat different processes acted to carve them.

According to new research led by Anna Grau Galofre at the University of Brithish Columbia, a large number of the valley networks scarring Mars surface, especially in the southern highlands, were carved by water melting beneath glacial ice, not solely by free-flowing rivers as previously thought. The similarity between many martian valleys and the subglacial channels on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic motivated the authors to conduct their comparative study. They analyzed more than 10,000 martian valleys using a novel algorithm to infer the underlying erosion processes acting to form these valleys. Results of this analysis provide strong evidence for extensive subglacial erosion driven by channelized meltwater drainage beneath an ancient ice sheet on Mars. These findings help explain how the valleys could have formed 3.8 billion years ago on a planet that is further away from the Sun than Earth, during a time when the Sun was less intense. Climate modeling suggests that Mars ancient climate was much cooler during the time of valley network formation. Interestingly, these environments could also provide better survival conditions for possible ancient life on Mars. A sheet of ice would lend more protection and stability to underlying liquid water, as well as provide shelter from solar radiation. READ MORE

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Subglacial Runoff Helped Carve the Valley Networks on Early Mars - Planetary News

Earth, the Moon and Mars come into alignment this weekend.

So far this summer has been all about super-bright Jupiter and, just 8 away, ringed planet Saturn, which have been dominating the southwestern night sky after dark.

This weekend its the turn of Mars, as the waning Moon passes close to the red planet. Three spacecraft are on their way to Mars right now, and its also a great time to admire it.

Mars is now creeping towards opposition in October, the point in its orbit when its closest to Earth, so as big and bright as it gets. Its already getting visibly bigger and brighter with every passing night.

Mars is rising earlier each evening, and this weekend is now in the sky before midnight, with a 65% illuminated waning gibbous Moon in tow.

Stargazers call this eventwhen two celestial bodies appear to pass close to each othera conjunction.

Look to the east around midnight on Saturday going into Sunday and youll easily find a waning gibbous Moon.

Only those in North America will see the closest conjunction, at around 4:00 a.m. EDT on the morning of Sunday, August 9.

The Moon will be close to Mars on Saturday night through Sunday morning.

You could even try to catch the Moon at moonrisethe most beautiful time to observe our satelliteby consulting this Moon calculator to get times for your exact location.

In doing so youll also witness a Mars-rise.

Just 0.8 north of the Moon will be Mars, shining at magnitude -1.3. Thats significantly brighter than any stars, so Mars will be obvious.

The conjunction of two of the night skys top sights isnt that rare, but there are few more pleasing celestial sights to unaided naked eyes than a big Moon passing a bright, red planet.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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Mars And The Moon Will Align This Weekend. Heres When And Where You Can See Them Rise Together - Forbes

On July 30, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover blasted off for its months-long journey to Earths rust-colored neighbor. On a mission to seek out microbial life on Mars, the rover is armed to the teeth with scientific instruments that can analyze the planets ancient climate and geology.

Cornell researchers were involved in the research, development and calibration of two of these instruments specifically designed to find traces of life on Mars: Mastcam-Z, and a subsurface radar called RIMFAX.

Experts are fairly certain that life does not currently exist on the planet. However, Megan Barrington, a Ph.D. student in the earth and atmospheric sciences department, said that the Jezero Crater landing site could have potentially harbored life within the past several billion years.

The crater, which once hosted an ancient lake filled with water, has specific key features that support this hypothesis, such as highly preserved clay deposits that could store signatures of past life. Perseverance will seek out these signatures once it lands on Feb. 18, 2021.

Barrington, a fieldwork scientist, documentarian and camera technician for experiments relating to Mastcam-Z, described the instrument as the eyes of the rover. The camera is extremely important for the mission, as it provides panoramic color images of the landing site and more intricate data on geology and mineral composition. Barrington further explained that the instruments zoom capabilities make it the first of its kind to land on Mars.

Cornellians from the astronomy and earth and atmospheric sciences departments were responsible for calibrating the Mastcam-Z cameras a feat in and of itself.

Mastcam-Z, our instrument, required a lot of technical calibration for us to know exactly what well be looking at when an image comes back to us from the surface of Mars, Barrington said. In order to calibrate these cameras, weve spent multiple weeks of many 12 to 14 hour days, with teams the size of several hundred people, to quantify all of the parameters of our camera.

One essential aspect of calibration was the positioning of the cameras filters. Mastcam-Z can perceive wavelengths between 400 and 1000 nm on the electromagnetic spectrum, with each filter allowing in a smaller range of wavelengths, according to Barrington.

Calibration allows for the cameras to accurately and precisely determine the chemical composition of rocks in the Jezero Crater by collecting data on the distinct spectrum of wavelengths associated with the minerals of each rock.

The calibration of Mastcam-Z had to take place in a clean room, an environment free of biological contaminants to protect the delicate instrumentation during the camera experiments.

Barrington said she was thrilled to be a part of this clean room calibration process.

Knowing that you get to be so close to this instrument that is going to change the geologic knowledge of Mars thats amazing to me, Barrington said. So that was a real treat, and its something that most members of the team dont get to do.

Barrington also participated in pre-landing training missions, which involved traveling to sites on Earth that have a mineralogy and geologic history similar to Jezero Crater. During these mock missions, Barrington and hundreds of other science team members from universities across the nation conducted experimentation using instruments that behaved like those of the actual rover.

One of these instruments Barrington worked with was the Mastcam-Z Analog Spectral Imager, developed by Cornell astronomy graduate student Christian Tate.

[Ive been] learning about the strengths and weaknesses of our cameraand any potential issues we might run into on the way so that we can fully understand what to expect when we start to use Mastcam-Z at Jezero Crater, Barrington said. No one wants to be surprised by anything on the first day that we land we want to know as much ahead of time as possible.

Besides Mastcam-Z, a substantial team of scientists scattered across the globe worked on another one of Perseverances instruments called RIMFAX, or Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment. One of these scientists is Cornell principal researcher Michael Mellon.

Mellon said that this radar directs radio waves downward into the subsurface of Mars and captures reflections of the radio waves as they bounce off of the underground layers back toward the surface.

These reflections can occur every time the radio wave encounters a transition in the subsurface layers, such as a change in density between soil and rock, or a change in material between rock minerals and water ice.

According to Mellon, RIMFAX will send out pulses of radio waves for every four inches the rover moves as the Perseverance traverses the terrain of Jezero Crater.

The instrument will also measure the time interval between the initial pulse of radio waves and the returned reflection, which can help scientists determine the stratigraphy at the landing site a two-dimensional profile of rock layers beneath the surface.

Were going to be able to probe into those sediments [of Jezero Crater] and look for those layered structures in the subsurface, and so we can kind of help paint a picture of what the geologic history of the area was, Mellon said.

Understanding the geologic history of Mars is crucial to determining whether the planet was habitable for early life a question scientists have been trying to answer for decades.

The history of the climate, the history of geology and the potential for life are all tied together. Its often cited that theres a common theme between them, which is water, Mellon said. Water leaves a signature on the geologic record, and water is intimately tied to the climate and water is the necessary ingredient for life.

Mellon specifically researched the structure of soil on Mars, as well as the relationship between the geologic history of water ice and climate. Mellons research helped define important questions, such as how deep the radar should penetrate and what it should be looking for, informing the engineering requirements of the instrument.

Because of this, RIMFAX will be able to make useful measurements of subsurface structures that could indicate the presence of ice in the past, along with other key parameters.

In preparation for Perseverances landing, both Mellon and Barrington will be training for, practicing and refining the procedures involved in the post-landing operation of their respective instruments. This will require the collaboration of the entire science teams behind each instrument, allowing for smoother coordination once operation of the rover actually begins in six months.

Despite the long road ahead of her, Barrington said it was a gratifying experience to work on Perseverance.

Its been a total dream experience, Barrington said. Coming here and participating in the project for Mastcam Z and the Mars 2020 [mission] has been so very exciting and fulfilling, and Ive never been prouder of the work that I do.

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The Red Planet Gets a Little Redder: Cornellians Work on Instruments for Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Every once in a while, we find an idea that maybe didnt get enough praise at the time it arose, or purely and simply, it has sparked a whole new genre of vehicles that we just aren't able to manifest yet. I feel this may be the case with the Peugeot XRC.

Now personally, I'm just an adult sized kid, so when I first saw the XRC my eyes lit up. Now, I didnt go fully bonkers, but parts of my childhood did flash before my eyes. It first reminded me of a sci-fi F1 car, or simply the way I saw F1 cars on TV. The next childhood scene that I witnessed was me playing with my old RC cars.

This later vision would prove to be much closer to the truth behind the design than I may have imagined at the time. Upon researching this concept, I found out that the original design for the XRC was made exactly with the idea of an adult-sized RC car. The design of the XRC is one destined for desert rallies and off-road terrain. It sure as hell looks like it, no doubt about that.

The design is a futuristic speed demon. I could very well see this in the next Mars movie. You know, the one about racing on different planets. Seriously just have a look again in the gallery. Notice the huge knobs on the front and back tires. Where have you seen a similar design? On Mars rovers. And it makes sense that all terrain wheels would look something like rover wheels - they're made to tackle unknown and unexpected terrains.

The body is reminiscent of F1 cars. The front dips low, real low, and the only real rise in the frame is caused by the driver pod. Speaking of driver pods, this design only allows one driver at a time. Once the windshield breaks the low body design, it continues to the back, offering a very aerodynamic look that really pulls the eyes in. The sides of the XRC run low and along the driver pod front the front all the way to the back.

That axel leads to two arms that hold the double-wide wheels in place. The rear tires are also twice as wide as the front tires and about 1/6 larger. This further lifts the vehicles rear and pushes the nose of the car into the ground. At the front two shorter arms are designed directly into the chassis and seem to eliminate the suspension, or we simply cannot see the same suspension set-up as on the back. If thats true, then the suspension for the front should be built right into the arms.

The driving and steering mechanism for the Peugeot seems to be one based on a static wheel upon which the tires rotate, much like a magnetic propulsion system, or like the drivetrain on the Nawa Racer.

The cockpit of the XRC opens forward to allow the driver to step in all futuristic like. OOO, I just can't wait to see a movie with these things.

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Mars Racer XRC Branded Peugeot - I Bet Matt Damon Wished He had One in Mars - autoevolution