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See the ‘Brain Terrain’ of Mars in New Satellite Images
Recent images captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter reveal large craters in Utopia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System.
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Martian Dust Storm Sends NASA’s InSight Lander Into Safe Mode
The NASA InSight Lander was forced to enter safe mode last Friday as a Martian dust storm swept over its location. The ongoing storm has reduced the amount of sunlight hitting the lander’s solar panels, so mission controllers have reduced its activity to the bare minimum to reduce strain on the batteries.
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Ingenuity Helicopter Had an ‘Anomaly’ on Mars, Just Before the Solar Conjunction
The Ingenuity helicopter will need to wait a couple of weeks for its next flight, as Mars is fully on the far side of the Sun from Earth, disrupting communications with spacecraft stationed there. But all solar conjunctions aside, the helicopter has another issue: It needs to adapt to a changing atmosphere.
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Perseverance’s Missing Mars Rock Sample Appears to Have Crumbled Away
The Perseverance rover may have hit its first major hiccup on Mars, as last week’s attempt at sampling Martian rock turned up a perplexing amount of nothing. Yesterday, mission team members at NASA reported that the rover’s systems functioned perfectly — the problem instead lies with the composition of the Martian surface.