NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that's been orbiting Mars for more than a decade.

Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover.

Blue Origin has launched its huge New Glenn rocket with a pair of NASA spacecraft destined for Mars.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has uncovered rocks in a dry river channel that may hold potential signs of ancient microscopic life.

A 54-pound meteorite from Mars has sold for over $5 million at a New York auction, setting a world record.

The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth has sold for just over $5 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York.

Sotheby's is putting some rare items up for auction, including what it calls the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth.

The latest selfie by NASA's Perseverance rover at Mars has captured an unexpected guest: a Martian dust devil.

A new study suggests Mars may be drenched beneath its surface, with enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks to form a global ocean.

Skies over southern Greece have turned an orange hue as dust clouds blown across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa engulfed the Acropolis and other Athens landmarks.

NASA is seeking a faster, cheaper way to bring rock samples from Mars to Earth.

NASA says its little Mars helicopter has flown its last flight.

The United Arab Emirates has unveiled plans to send a spaceship to explore the galaxy’s main asteroid belt, the latest space project by the oil-rich nation after it launched the successful Hope spacecraft to Mars in 2020.

A new study suggests water on Mars may be more widespread and recent than previously thought.

A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet's surface.

NASA is launching two more mini helicopters to Mars in its effort to return Martian rocks and soil samples to Earth.

With travel to Mars on the horizon, the time has come for space ice cream to step aside and make room for the flavor of a new era of planetary travel: tomato ketchup, the “Marz Edition.”

NASA's newest Mars rover has completed its first sample grab, tucking away the tube of rock for return to Earth.

Japan’s space agency plans to bring soil samples back from the Mars region ahead of the U.S. and Chinese missions now operating on Mars.

Help wanted: NASA is looking for people to spend a year pretending they are isolated on Mars.

A quake-measuring device on Mars is providing the first detailed look at the red planet's interior.

China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the red planet.

NASA's Mars helicopter fizzled on its fourth flight attempt after three successes.

NASA's experimental Mars helicopter has taken flight.

NASA's experimental Mars helicopter has taken flight.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A piece of the Wright brothers’ first airplane is on Mars. NASA’s experimental Martian helicopter holds a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the space agency revealed Tuesday. The helicopter, named Ingenuity, hitched a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, arriving last month. It will mark a "Wright brothers' moment," noted Bobby Braun, director for planetary science at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The swatch made the 300 million-mile journey to Mars with the blessing of the Wright brothers' great-grandniece and great-grandnephew, said park curator Steve Lucht.

This Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 photo provided by NASA shows the Perseverance rover lowered towards the surface of Mars during its powered descent. (NASA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The world got its first close-up look at a Mars landing on Friday, as NASA released a stunning picture of its newest rover being lowered onto the dusty red surface. NASA equipped the spacecraft with a record 25 cameras and two microphones, many of which were turned on during Thursday’s descent. It's the ninth time that NASA has successfully landed on Mars __ and the fifth rover. As it did with 2012's Curiosity rover — still roaming 2,300 miles (3,750 kilometers) away — NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed Perseverance descending beneath its massive parachute.

(NASA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. AdPerseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, every one of them from the U.S. “Are we alone in this sort of vast cosmic desert, just flying through space, or is life much more common? Two older NASA landers are still humming along on Mars: 2012′s Curiosity rover and 2018′s InSight.

This illustration provided by NASA depicts the Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover as it approaches Mars. Perseverance's $3 billion mission is the first leg in a U.S.-European effort to bring Mars samples to Earth in the next decade. Almost 50 years after the first casualty at Mars, NASA is attempting its hardest Martian touchdown yet. The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8-kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta. AdROUND-TRIP TICKETScientists have wanted to get hold of Mars rocks ever since NASA’s Mariners provided the first close pictures a half-century ago.

Emiratis celebrate after the Hope Probe enters Mars orbit as a part of Emirates Mars mission, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. The spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around Mars in a triumph for the Arab worlds first interplanetary mission. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)DUBAI – A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around Mars on Tuesday in a triumph for the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. Amal’s arrival puts the UAE in a league of just five space agencies in history that have pulled off a functioning Mars mission. AdThe success delivers a tremendous boost to the UAE's space ambitions.

China’s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth’s orbit. The U.S. rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown similar to the Curiosity rover’s grand Martian entrance in 2012. Smashed Russian and European spacecraft litter the Martian landscape, meanwhile, along with NASA’s failed Mars Polar Lander from 1999. It even kept the European and Russian space agencies' joint Mars mission grounded until the next launch window in 2022. AdPerseverance's deputy project manager Matt Wallace, who’s working his fifth Mars rover mission, said the pandemic won’t dampen the mood come landing day.

On Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, NASA declared the craft dead after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. (NASA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. But the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter) device that is part of NASA's InSight lander couldn’t gain enough friction in the red dirt. On Tuesday, the high was 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 degrees Celsius) and the low was minus 56 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 49 degrees Celsius) at Mars' Elysium Planitia, an equatorial plain. It will be joined by NASA's newest rover, Perseverance, which will attempt a touchdown on Feb. 18.

The European and Russian space agencies skipped the 2020 Mars launch window, their life-sniffing Mars rover grounded until 2022 because of technical issues and COVID-19 restrictions. Three weeks later, SpaceX launched its biggest cargo shipment yet to the space station for NASA. If the repairs work and the capsule finally reaches the space station, the first Starliner astronauts could be flying by summer. The actor was in talks with NASA this year about filming a movie at the space station. “Whatever else can be said about the four years of the Trump administration, they have been positive for the U.S. civilian space program,” noted John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.

Sheikh Mohammed made the announcement Tuesday on Twitter that his country plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024. Already, an Emirati space probe is hurtling through space on its way to Mars while last year it sent its first astronaut to the International Space Station. Sheikh Mohammed said the rover would be named “Rashid,” the same name of his late father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Sheikh Rashid was one of the original founding rulers of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. ___Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath Mars’ South Pole alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of tiny, swimming Martian life. Italian scientists reported their findings Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. These ponds appear to be of various sizes and are separate from the main lake. The surface temperature at the South Pole is an estimated minus 172 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 113 degrees Celsius), and gets gradually warmer with depth. These bodies of water are potentially interesting biologically and "future missions to Mars should target this region," the researchers wrote.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will launch to Mars arrives at Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The rocket scheduled to launch on Thursday will land on Mars in February 2021 and the Mars 2020 rover, named Perseverance, will study Martian geology. (AP Photo/John Raoux)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The summers third and final mission to Mars featuring NASA's most elaborate life-hunting rover is on the verge of liftoff. The rover Perseverance will follow Chinas rover-orbiter combo and a United Arab Emirates orbiter, both launched last week. First things first, though: Good flying weather is forecast for United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

This illustration made available by NASA depicts the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on the red planet's surface near the Perseverance rover, left. Set to rocket away this week from Florida, Perseverance is NASA's brawniest and brainiest Martian rover yet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. With eight successful Mars landings, NASA is upping the ante with its newest rover. The spacecraft Perseverance set for liftoff this week is NASAs biggest and brainiest Martian rover yet. CURIOSITY:The six-wheeled, car-sized Perseverance is a copycat of NASAs Curiosity rover, prowling Mars since 2012, but with more upgrades and bulk.

BEIJING China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet on Thursday in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet. And the U.S. is aiming to launch Perseverance, its most sophisticated Mars rover ever, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, next week. Chinas tandem spacecraft with both an orbiter and a rover will take seven months to reach Mars, like the others. The UAE spacecraft Amal, or Hope, which will orbit Mars but not land, is the Arab worlds first interplanetary mission. NASA's Perseverance rover is up next.

Mahmood al-Nasser, left, and Mohammad Nasser al-Emadi, center, test the Emirates Mars Mission probe's "flat sat" at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday, June 25, 2020. The spacecraft, named Amal, which is Arabic for Hope, is an orbiter scheduled to launch from Japan in July 2020, on what will be the Arab worlds first interplanetary mission. It is scheduled to arrive at Mars in 2021, the year the UAE marks the 50th anniversary of its founding. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)TOKYO The liftoff of a United Arab Emirates' Mars orbiter, postponed due to bad weather at the launch site in southern Japan, is now set for Monday. A successful Hope mission would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space.

TOKYO The launch of a United Arab Emirates Mars orbiter, already delayed two days, has been postponed further due to bad weather at the Japanese launch site. The launch, initially scheduled for Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, had already been postponed until Friday. It was delayed further on Wednesday to an unspecified date, said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the provider of the H-IIA rocket. The UAE mission team said on Twitter that the launch would occur later in July. Hope is to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.

The U.S., China and the United Arab Emirates are sending spacecraft to Mars in quick succession beginning this week. (MBRSC via AP)TOKYO The liftoff of the United Arab Emirates' Mars orbiter was postponed until Friday due to bad weather at the Japanese launch site. The launch was scheduled for Wednesday from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, but the UAE mission team announced the rescheduled date on Twitter. A successful Hope mission would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space. Emirates Mars Mission Project Director Omran Sharaf, who joined Mondays briefing from Dubai, said the mission will provide a complete view of the Martian atmosphere during different seasons for the first time.

Three countries the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates are sending unmanned spacecraft to the red planet in quick succession beginning in July 2020. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Mars is about to be invaded by planet Earth big time. Each spacecraft will travel more than 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) before reaching Mars next February. Only the U.S. has successfully put a spacecraft on Mars, doing it eight times, beginning with the twin Vikings in 1976. The United Arab Emirates and China are looking to join the elite club.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA has delayed the launch of its newest Mars rover yet again to the end of July at the earliest this time for a rocket issue. Rocket maker United Launch Alliance needs extra time to deal with a liquid oxygen sensor line that showed questionable readings during a recent practice countdown, officials said Tuesday. The United Arab Emirates and China, meanwhile, still are pressing ahead with launches this month or next of Mars spacecraft. Russia and the European Space Agency had to bow out, delaying their Mars rover until 2022 because of delayed spacecraft testing and travel limitations due to the coronavirus pandemic. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education.

Like Earth, Mars goes through its seasons; over the course of a year, the air pressure changes. That means of the volume of air on Mars being assessed, one billionth of the volume of air is methane. This isn't the first time methane has been detected on Mars by Curiosity. "We're beginning to see this tantalizing correlation between methane and oxygen for a good part of the Mars year," Atreya said. The origin of the methane or oxygen won't be evident because the rover doesn't have any instruments that can trace or determine the source.

Now, the geologist and professor is studying an extensive landslide on Mars, almost 250 miles wide, that formed about 400 million years ago. Schmitt and fellow NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan were the last men to walk on the moon with the Apollo 17 mission. "Flow initiation and mechanisms on the Moon may be very different from Mars; however, comparisons often help geologists to understand comparable features." In the case of the Martian landslide, they believed that a rapid landslide may have occurred due to layers of unstable and fragmented rock beneath the surface. "The impact redistribution of materials in the lunar environment has modified features that ultimately may be found to resemble those documented in the Martian landslide study," Schmitt said.

NASA's stationary InSight lander is spending two years on Mars learning everything it can about the deep interior of the Red Planet. But it's also providing us with cool details like a daily Martian weather report and, now, a glimpse of what(CNN) - Since landing on Mars in November 2018, NASA's InSight mission has been taking selfies, providing daily Martian weather reports, detecting quakes on Mars and hearing strange sounds. But its heat probe experiment is struggling to burrow beneath the surface of the Red Planet. The suite of geophysical instruments on InSight sounds like a doctor's bag, giving Mars its first "checkup" since the planet formed. But "the mole," or the self-hammering heat probe, has only dug roughly 14 inches into the surface since February 28.

Future Mars rovers like NASA's 2020 rover and the European Space Agency's ExoMars missions will search the red planet in the coming years for signs of past life. But ancient Mars may have been habitable for microbial life because it supported water. Researchers investigated how microbial life can be transported in the Atacama Desert and found that it could be easily carried on dust particles by wind. In a study released earlier this year, researchers used a rover to drill for samples of bacteria below the surface in the Atacama Desert. They compared the rover's samples with those that they took from the desert manually.

The team, with specialties in chemistry and engineering, have been tasked with measuring the size and electrical charge of dust on Mars, according to a BYU press release. The detail may not seem very important, but a lack of thorough understanding of the planet's dust could make human missions to Mars by NASA very dangerous. "Dust on Mars is important to the weather patterns on Mars," Aaron Hawkins, professor and chair of the BYU Engineering department, told KSL.com. They are creating a mass spectrometer with printed circuit boards specialized to determine the charge, mass and velocity of Martian dust particles. "This work is being funded by NASA and it's part of a program where we propose to build instruments that they would use for actual missions," Hawkins said.