InSight captures a sunrise, sunset, and clouds on Mars

NASA’s Mars InSight lander captured a series of sunrise, sunset, and cloud images. On April 24 and 25, 2019 (the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft’s robotic arm captured sunrise and sunsets. Another camera, called Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck captured drifting clouds …

Opportunity Rover’s Parting Shot Was a Beautiful Mars Panorama

Before going silent due to a huge dust storm on June 10, 2018, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity documented an amazing 360-degree panorama from multiple images taken at what would become its final resting spot in Perseverance Valley. The Mars rover collected these images over the course of 29 days.

What happens to old spacecraft?

Since the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, we launched thousands of spacecraft into Earth orbit and beyond. A fraction of them are still functioning, but what happened to the vast majority of them? “The Curious Droid” published another informative video titled “What happens to old spacecraft?”

Driving Distances on Mars and the Moon [Out-of-This-World-Records]

This chart, prepared by NASA illustrates comparisons among the driving distances by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the planetary bodies other than Earth (as of February 13, 2019, only the Moon and Mars). Opportunity rover, which declared dead after record-breaking 15-years on the Martian surface also holds the off-Earth roving distance record after …

Opportunity Rover’s first and last images from the Martian surface

The first and the last images of NASA’s Opportunity rover from the Martian surface. The first photo (on the left) was acquired on Sol 1 (at approximately 14:58:27 Mars local solar time on January 25, 2004). The last photo (on the right) was taken on Sol 5111 (on June 10, 2018 ), before the rover …