Members of NASA's Perseverance rover team, in collaboration with the Navajo Nation, have been naming features of scientific interest with words in the Navajo language.
The NASA rover traversed some 21 feet of terrain this week, in its first test drive since landing on the red planet. It also captured photos of its touchdown site and the wheel tracks it left behind.
Following a 300 million-mile voyage through space and a dangerous drop to the surface, Perseverance will be put through its paces before getting to a search for ancient Martian life.
Perseverance, set to land on the Red Planet on Thursday, is carrying the most sophisticated robotic biology lab ever launched and a drone meant to make the first-ever powered flight on another world.
Another six-wheeled rover is about to land on Mars. NASA Perseverance's mission is headed to Jezero Crater, which once may have been a lake. It's carrying two new items: a microphone and a helicopter.
China's space agency, fresh off a successful sample-return mission to the moon, says the ambitious Tianwen-1 rover mission it launched in July had reached the Red Planet.
NASA is sending a 6-wheeled rover to Mars to look for signs of microbial life stored in the rocks at Jezero crater. The rover is also the first step in returning samples of Martian rock to Earth
Space scientists on Earth have improvised a tool on the Mars rover to help them figure out how a giant mountain on the Red Planet came to be. Their surprising conclusion: It's likely windswept sand.
There's a new probe nearing Mars. After Monday's tricky landing, NASA's InSight spacecraft is to deploy a sensitive seismometer and temperature probe to let scientists explore the planet's interior.
Alex Longo hopes to be the first person to walk on Mars. In the meantime, the Raleigh, N.C., sophomore has suggested a landing site for the next rover mission. His pick is one of four finalists.
