Relativity Space Plans Private Mars Orbiter with NASA Scientific Instruments for 2028 Launch
📰 Original title: La sonda marciana de Relativity Space
🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅
#astronomy #marsexploration #relativityspace #nasainstruments
Relativity Space Plans Private Mars Orbiter with NASA Scientific Instruments for 2028 Launch
📰 Original title: La sonda marciana de Relativity Space
🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅
#astronomy #marsexploration #relativityspace #nasainstruments
Relativity Space, a U.S. aerospace company best known for developing the Terran R launch vehicle scheduled for debut around 2027, has announced an unexpected plan to send a Mars orbiter in 2028. The company, which has recently stabilized financially following acquisition by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is positioning this mission as the first in a broader series of scientific spacecraft developed in collaboration with philanthropic organizations. The planned Mars orbiter does not yet have an official name, but its scientific payload will be provided by NASA. The mission includes a radar instrument designed to measure the thickness and properties of subsurface ice deposits on Mars, as well as a suite of atmospheric instruments known as Aeolus, supplied by NASA’s Ames Research Center. Aeolus is intended to study Martian winds and their role in transporting dust, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other atmospheric gases. It will combine a wide-field camera, a radiometer to measure surface-emitted radiation, and several spectrometers aimed at observing the planet’s limb to derive wind profiles. The Aeolus instrument concept has historical roots in a previously proposed standalone mission that would have flown as a secondary payload alongside the canceled NeMO (Next Mars Orbiter). That earlier design included instruments such as the SuRSeP radiometer, TLS infrared limb sounder, and SHS spectrometers. The current configuration is expected to be similar but adapted for integration into Relativity Space’s platform. The inclusion of a radar system for ice mapping suggests possible heritage from NASA’s International Mars Ice Mapper (I-MIM) concept, although international collaboration for that mission remains uncertain due to shifting priorities, including cost overruns and the effective cancellation of the Mars Sample Return program. These developments have impacted several planned planetary missions, leaving projects like I-MIM in limbo. Relativity Space has not released detailed technical specifications for the orbiter, but it is expected to launch using the Terran R rocket. The announcement highlights growing interest in privately led deep space missions supported by NASA instruments, signaling a potential shift in how Mars exploration missions are developed and funded.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this view of a rock nicknamed “Atacama” on May 6, 2026, the 4,877th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rock had gotten stuck to the drill on the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm on April 25.
L’Administration nationale de l’espace de Chine a annoncé vendredi 24 avril les résultats de sa sélection de coopération internationale pour Tianwen-3, la première mission chinoise de retour d’échantillons martiens.
L’Administration nationale de l’espace de Chine a annoncé vendredi 24 avril les résultats de sa sélection de coopération internationale pour Tianwen-3, la première mission chinoise de retour d’échantillons martiens.
Nach Jahren sorgfältiger Laborarbeit steht fest: NASA’s Rover Curiosity hat in einer 2020 entnommenen Gesteinsprobe aus dem Gebiet „Mary Anning 3“ die bislang reichhaltigste Sammlung organischer Mo…
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4668-4674: Winding Our Way Along NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the ridge in front of it, which it was scheduled to drive down the weekend of Sept. 27-28, 2025. To either side of the ridge are two hollows, nicknamed “Laguna Escondida” (left) and “Laguna Socompa” (right). Curiosity used its Left Navigation Camera to capture the image on Sept. 26, 2025 — Sol 4671, or Martian day 4,671 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 12:54:44 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 26, 2025 We are continuing through the boxwork region, taking a twisty-turny path along the ridges (many of which are conveniently Curiosity-sized). One thing we’re keeping an eye out for is our next drill location in one of the hollows. Our most recent drive put us right in the middle of two such hollows, which we’ve named “Laguna Escondida,” and “Laguna Socompa.” As we’re keeping an eye out for a good spot to drill though, we’re still using our normal suite of instruments to continue our investigation of the boxwork structures. This week, we’ve had six contact science targets along the tops of the ridges, which have given MAHLI and APXS plenty to do. ChemCam and Mastcam have also been keeping busy, with several LIBS measurements from ChemCam and mosaics from both, of targets near and far. We’re not only interested in imaging the hollows to scope out our next drill site but also in continuing to investigate the structure of the ridges, and look further afield at the more distant boxwork structures and buttes around us. On Monday, I was on shift as the science theme lead for the environmental science theme group (ENV). We’re coming up to the end of the cloudy season in just over a week. As a result, we’ve been making the most of the clouds while they’re still here with our suite of cloud movies — the shorter suprahorizon and zenith movies, which we use to look at clouds’ properties directly overhead and just over the horizon; a survey to see how the brightness of the sky and clouds change with direction, which consists of nine cloud movies all around the rover; and the cloud altitude observation, which uses shadows cast by clouds to, as its name suggests, infer the height of the clouds. Once the cloudy season is over the number of water-ice clouds we see above Gale crater decreases dramatically, so we shelve the two longer observations for another year and just use the zenith and suprahorizon movies to monitor cloud activity. The end of the cloudy season does bring about the start of the dusty season though, where more dust gets lifted into the atmosphere and the lovely view of the crater rim that we’ve been enjoying gets a bit hazier. We monitor this with our regular line-of-sight and tau observations. We also tend to see more dust-lifting activity, like dust devils, which we keep an eye on with 360-degree surveys and dedicated movies. With the ever-changing atmosphere, there’s always something for ENV to do. Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team? Visit Mission Updates Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments? Visit the Science Instruments page NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Share Details Last Updated Sep 29, 2025 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4661-4667: Peaking Into the Hollows Article 6 days ago 1 min read The Ancient Mars Variety Show Article 1 week ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4655-4660: Boxworks With a View Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4668-4674: Winding Our Way Along NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of the ridge in front of it, which it was scheduled to drive down the weekend of Sept. 27-28, 2025. To either side of the ridge are two hollows, nicknamed “Laguna Escondida” (left) and “Laguna Socompa” (right). Curiosity used its Left Navigation Camera to capture the image on Sept. 26, 2025 — Sol 4671, or Martian day 4,671 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 12:54:44 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 26, 2025 We are continuing through the boxwork region, taking a twisty-turny path along the ridges (many of which are conveniently Curiosity-sized). One thing we’re keeping an eye out for is our next drill location in one of the hollows. Our most recent drive put us right in the middle of two such hollows, which we’ve named “Laguna Escondida,” and “Laguna Socompa.” As we’re keeping an eye out for a good spot to drill though, we’re still using our normal suite of instruments to continue our investigation of the boxwork structures. This week, we’ve had six contact science targets along the tops of the ridges, which have given MAHLI and APXS plenty to do. ChemCam and Mastcam have also been keeping busy, with several LIBS measurements from ChemCam and mosaics from both, of targets near and far. We’re not only interested in imaging the hollows to scope out our next drill site but also in continuing to investigate the structure of the ridges, and look further afield at the more distant boxwork structures and buttes around us. On Monday, I was on shift as the science theme lead for the environmental science theme group (ENV). We’re coming up to the end of the cloudy season in just over a week. As a result, we’ve been making the most of the clouds while they’re still here with our suite of cloud movies — the shorter suprahorizon and zenith movies, which we use to look at clouds’ properties directly overhead and just over the horizon; a survey to see how the brightness of the sky and clouds change with direction, which consists of nine cloud movies all around the rover; and the cloud altitude observation, which uses shadows cast by clouds to, as its name suggests, infer the height of the clouds. Once the cloudy season is over the number of water-ice clouds we see above Gale crater decreases dramatically, so we shelve the two longer observations for another year and just use the zenith and suprahorizon movies to monitor cloud activity. The end of the cloudy season does bring about the start of the dusty season though, where more dust gets lifted into the atmosphere and the lovely view of the crater rim that we’ve been enjoying gets a bit hazier. We monitor this with our regular line-of-sight and tau observations. We also tend to see more dust-lifting activity, like dust devils, which we keep an eye on with 360-degree surveys and dedicated movies. With the ever-changing atmosphere, there’s always something for ENV to do. Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team? Visit Mission Updates Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments? Visit the Science Instruments page NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity at the base of Mount Sharp NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Share Details Last Updated Sep 29, 2025 Related Terms Blogs Explore More 5 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4661-4667: Peaking Into the Hollows Article 6 days ago 1 min read The Ancient Mars Variety Show Article 1 week ago 3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4655-4660: Boxworks With a View Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited… All Mars Resources Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,… Rover Basics Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a… Mars Exploration: Science Goals The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
KillBait News
KillBait
Orbital Radar
Jim Carey
AlcorNews
AlcorNews
ForensicAI_X
purescience_news