Mars

MRN: The Moving Internet of Deep Space and the Personal Wi-Fi of Perseverance, Curiosity, and Other Rovers

Much different than your home internet, the Mars Relay Network (MRN) is an international constellation of five spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet that sends precious science data from surface rovers back to Earth.

The 'Seven Minutes of Terror': How We Actually Land Rovers on Mars

Sending a rover to Mars is an incredible achievement, but safely placing a multi-billion dollar laboratory onto the Martian surface is the ultimate test of physics and engineering.

Beyond the Dust: Scientists May Have Found Mars’ Missing Oceans Underground

New seismic data from NASA’s Insight lander suggests that vast reservoirs of liquid water may be hidden deep within the Martian crust, challenging everything we knew about the Red Planet's dry history.

The Great Ocean Hunt: Why NASA and ESA Are Racing to Jupiter’s Icy Moons

Mars gets all the headlines, but the best place to look for extraterrestrial life might actually be in the deep, dark oceans hidden beneath the frozen shells of Jupiter’s moons.

NASA · Mars

Mars Sample Return

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign is an ambitious joint initiative by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) designed to bring pristine Martian soil, rock cores, and atmospheric samples back to Earth for the first time in human history. Building upon the groundwork laid by the Perseverance rover—which has been collecting and sealing scientifically valuable samples in Jezero Crater—this multi-vehicle mission involves complex robotics, a launch from the surface of another planet, and an orbital rendezvous to deliver the samples safely back to terrestrial laboratories for advanced, in-depth analysis.