In the greater Jacksonville are you can watch the lunar occultation of Mars begin at 10:02 pm January 13.

NASA’s Insight Mars lander is nearing the end of its life, and its death will partially be attributed to the weather.

China has landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time in the latest step forward for its ambitious space program.

The landing is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort to explore the Red Planet. (2021 NASA)This is the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSThis shows the rim of Jezero Crater as seen in the first 360-degree panorama taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover (Feb. 24, 2021). AdNASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Rover Down-Look Camera. The Perseverance Mars rover landed on Mars Feb. 18, 2021.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After hurtling through space for the better part of six months, NASA’s rover Perseverance will finally make a historic landing on Mars. Perseverance also is carrying a technology experiment – the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter – that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. “If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Marc Etkind. “But as NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance has an extraordinary engineering pedigree and mission team.”AdA key science objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. Anyone who missed the chance to send their name on Perseverance can sign up to send their name on a future Mars mission by clicking here.

An aerial photograph shows the village of Jezero, Bosnia, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. It will be a historic day for the 1,000 villagers, who hope that the landing of the Perseverance rover in a crater on Mars will also bring them some earthly rewards. It will be a historic day for the 1,000 villagers, who hope that the planned landing of the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero crater will also bring them some earthly rewards. The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact patch in the crater that is filled with cliffs, pits, sand dunes and fields of rocks. It seems that hardly anyone has anything bad to say about NASA’s mission to scour the dried-out Jezero crater for evidence of life.

This animation depicts the Terrain-Relative Navigation technique incorporated into entry, descent, and landing for the Mars 2020 rover. “For Mars 2020, LVS will use the position information to figure out where the rover is relative to safe spots between those hazards. Ad“We have what we call the trifecta of testing,” explained JPL’s Swati Mohan, guidance, navigation, and control operations lead for Mars 2020. She’ll be at Mission Control for the landing, monitoring the health of the system every step of the way. The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

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.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) collects atmospheric measurements that will provide a regular weather report from Jezero Crater on Mars. While it may be some time before we know whether life exists there, we will be able to check the weather soon using a new weather station called the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, or MEDA. Dust dominates Mars’ weather the way that water dominates Earth’s weather. Perseverance rover mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. AdThe page doesn’t update as quickly as your backyard weather station and the temperature is missing but, a space weather fan can make the most of it while waiting for the new weather station on Perseverance.

Mars will appear brighter than at any other point during the year on Oct. 13, when it will be closest to Earth. “So, a little over every two years, Mars and Earth are closest together in their orbits and, thus, Mars is at its brightest in our nighttime sky. (© 2012 Michael Orso)Blue moon on HalloweenFor the first time since 2001, trick-or-treaters will get the chance to experience a Halloween full moon. A blue moon, by the most popular definition, according to Gross, is when two full moons appear in a single month. “We will have full moons on Oct. 1 and 31, so that means that we’ll have a blue moon on Halloween,” Gross said.

Get ready this month to see some rare sights in the nighttime sky. Look for the glowing orange spot in the eastern sky around sunset before it swings westward through the night. Finally, Halloween will be extra scary as a full moon shines overhead for a second time this month. A double full moon in one month is called a Blue Moon. While the Blue Moon won’t actually change colors, trick-or-treaters may get a little extra scare out of the rare event.

MARS - NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is still traversing the Red Planet on its own, searching for evidence of past life there. On the most recent leg of its solo mission, the rover captured images of a somewhat eerie vista. NASA scientists have tasked the Curiosity with exploring it to search for signs of past life. The Curiosity is a sophisticated machine that was built to explore and probe Mars by itself after NASA lost contact with the Opportunity rover during a Martian dust storm. Curiosity has been NASA's interstellar detective since its debut on Mars in 2012.

What would a home on Mars look like? The answers to some of these questions are beautifully imagined in a new exhibition, "Moving to Mars," at London's(CNN) - What would a home on Mars look like? The answers to some of these questions are beautifully imagined in a new exhibition, "Moving to Mars," at London's Design Museum. Curator Eleanor Watson said the designs on show were response to questions about future Mars missions. Astonauts will need space suits, such as the NDX-1, one of the very first designed for Mars, by two University of North Dakota engineers, Gary L. Harris and Dr de Leon.

It has drilled into rocks and soil and taken photos of odd features so that scientists can learn more about Mars and itsLONDON - We may have already discovered the essence of life on Mars 40 years ago, according to a former NASA scientist. "NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life," said Levin in his article. "NASA has already announced that its 2020 Mars lander will not contain a life-detection test," Levin wrote in the Scientific American article. He proposed that the LR experiment be repeated on Mars, with certain amendments, and then have its data studied by a panel of experts. "Such an objective jury might conclude, as I did, that the Viking LR did find life," he wrote.

Now, Curiosity has found sediments containing sulfate salt in the crater, which suggest it once held salty lakes. The new detection of sulfate salts came from sedimentary rocks dated to between 3.3 and 3.7 billion years ago. Gale Crater was created by an ancient impact, then filled in with sediment layers over time. Mount Sharp, the mountain at its center, was created by wind erosion of the hardened sediment layers. The sulfate salts represent a different finding from Curiosity's evidence of freshwater lakes in the foundation of Mount Sharp back in 2015.

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.

(CNN) - Mars is full of subtle sounds and thanks to NASA's InSight mission, we're finally able to hear them. InSight landed on Mars in November 2018 and placed the seismometer on the Martian surface in February. "You're imagining what's really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape." The InSight researchers call them "dinks and donks" -- the expansion and contraction of parts inside the seismometer, possibly due to heat loss. The suite of geophysical instruments on InSight sounds like a doctor's bag, giving Mars its first "checkup" since the planet formed.

NASA has invited the public to submit their names to travel aboard the Mars 2020 rover. More than two million names alone have been submitted from Turkey, followed by 1.7 million from India and 1.4 million from the US. The Mars 2020 rover is about the size of a small car and weighs 2,300 pounds. Before it was dubbed Curiosity, the previously deployed rover was known as the Mars Science Laboratory. NASA has launched a nationwide "Name the Rover" contest that gives K-12 students in US schools a chance to name the 2020 rover.

But if scientists discover there was once life -- or there is life -- on the Red Planet, will the public be able to handle such an extraterrestrial concept? The agency's Mars 2020 rover, set to launch next summer, will be the first to collect samples of Martian material to send back to Earth. The Mars 2020 rover, along with the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover, will drill into the Martian crust. The surface of the Red Planet is believed to be radioactive, so if there is life on Mars, it likely lives below ground. Mars 2020 will test oxygen production on the planet and monitor Martian weather to evaluate how potential human colonies could fare on Mars.

(CNN) - Elon Musk founded SpaceX 17 years ago with a single goal in mind, to put people on Mars. For years, his ideas for a rocket and spaceship capable of transporting people to Mars were purely theoretical. Musk has said he wants a spaceship to make its first uncrewed trek to Mars in 2022, carrying cargo. That's why the space industry and its fandom are anxious to hear from Musk, SpaceX's CEO and lead designer, on Saturday. The Interplanetary Transport SystemMusk gave his first in-depth presentation about Mars travel in September 2016 at an international space conference in Mexico.

Here's an artist's conception of the Phoenix Mars Lander on the Red Planet (photo Illustration by NASA/JPL via Getty Images). TripAdvisor is offering the vacation of a lifetime, and its called Experience Life On Mars. The first step toward establishing a human colony on Mars is to replicate living conditions on the Red Planet, the site says. With this aim in mind, we have created a scientific space station deep in the caves of Cantabria. Once youre in, youd be given the necessities for survival, but youd be testing out what human life would be like on Mars.

PASADENA, Calif. - Before humans make it to Mars, NASA will send a helicopter to scope out the terrain. Engineers attached a helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover ahead of its launch next summer. And if it flies successfully, it'll be the first aircraft to fly on another planet, NASA said. The solar-powered Mars Helicopter will be safely stowed underneath the rover until it lands at the Jezero Crater, where scientists believe water once flowed. The craft will detach from the rover and explore Mars from the air while the rover collects samples on the ground, NASA said.

A working prototype of the ExoMars rover at the Airbus Defense Space facility on Feb. 7, 2019, in Stevenage, England. (CNN) - What's the first stop for a rover destined to search for signs of life on the Red Planet? Europe's first planetary rover, dubbed "Rosalind Franklin," has now been built and taken its next step towards space travel. The rover has a clear mission: to find out if there is life on Mars. Mars' surface is believed to be very radioactive, meaning life is unlikely to be found on the surface.

The Rolling Stones have received just about every earthly honor in their legendary career, and now they are making rock history on Mars. (CNN) - The Rolling Stones have received just about every earthly honor in their legendary career, and now they are making rock history on Mars. The stadium is about three miles from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the Mars InSight mission. "NASA has given us something we've always dreamed of, our own rock on Mars," singer Mick Jagger told the crowd. "So while the name Rolling Stones Rock is informal, it will appear on working maps of the Red Planet," the NASA statement said.

Now a high-tech camera could solve the age-old question: is there -- or has there ever been -- life on Mars? But the "scientific cameras" have now been installed, which will help the mission determine whether there is any capacity for life on the Martian surface. The Panoramic Camera (PanCam) will be the only UK-made instrument on the rover, according to Airbus. Mars' surface is also believed to be very radioactive. Even if the rover and PanCam can't reveal life on Mars, the UCL team can't wait to reach the planet.

Exercise has become an important part of providing that force for astronauts on the International Space Station. Over time, astronauts staying for six months on the International Space Station can experience the weakening and loss of bone and atrophying muscles. Exercise was developed as a countermeasure to reduce the amount of bone mass and muscle loss. Once they arrive on the Red Planet, astronauts will be dealing with much less gravity than what they're used to: about 40% of Earth's gravity. So, we hypothesized that a moderate daily dose would help mitigate muscle deconditioning in a Mars gravity analogue, too."