NASA has had plenty of reason to remotely celebrate its achievements on Mars lately. After it successfullyflew the Ingenuity autonomous helicopter thereearlier this week, the space agency reports that a device aboard its Perseverance rover managed toconvert air from the red planet into breathable oxygen. HOLY. SHIT. That’s a major accomplishment because it hints that we could someday scale this up to produce enough oxygen for astronauts on Mars — and maybe even have enough to help a rocket take off from there....

NASA’s Perseverance rover to face ‘7 minutes of terror’ before landing on Mars Landing sequence The reason it is hard to land on Mars is that the atmospheric pressure is so low that spacecraft move through it at enormous speeds unless they are slowed down. What’s more, the landing has to be done autonomously, without real-time contact with Earth. The landing sequence for Perseverance is an improved, more accurately targeted version of the “Skycrane” technique, whichsafely landed NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2012....

NASA’s robot is about to land on asteroid Bennu to unlock the secrets of life NASA readies for a meeting between OSIRIS-REx and Bennu — and the asteroid has the building blocks of life. Bennu and me, and spacecraft makes three Bennu belongs to a class of asteroids know as rubble pileasteroids— which, as the name suggests, are loose amalgamations of smaller pieces, rather than one solid body. New findings from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft suggest Bennu is stronger and denser in it’s outer layers than inside, like a creme-filled chocolate egg....

NASA’s robot just landed on Bennu after 2 years — but its mission has only just begun Secrets of the solar system Bennu is a Near Earth Asteroid – it has a one-in-2700chance of colliding with the Earthin about 170 years’ time. It is also believed to be rich in the type of organic compounds that might have seeded the Earth to enable life to arise. Another surprising find that came from the mapping campaign was that Bennu was not only rich in clay minerals, but thatveins of carbonatewere present....

Did you knowNeural is taking the stage this fall? Together with an amazing line-up of experts, we will explore the future of AI during TNW Conference 2021.Secure your ticket now! It seems like everyone is obsessed with Mars these days. Three space missions were sent to the planet last year. More than10 million peopleasked their names to be etched onto a NASA rover currently driving across its terrain. The US and China both aim tosend humans to Marsin the 2030s....