The U.S. has launched its next-generation Mars rover in search of potential signs of life on the red planet. NASA’s latest rover, Perseverance , launched at 11:50 GMT Thursday from Cape Canaveral in the southeastern state of Florida. The robotic explorer was propelled into space by an Atlas 5 rocket operated by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between private aerospace companies Boeing and Lockheed. The rocket has separated from the first stage and is being boosted to orbit by the Centaur second stage. @NASAPersevere is now preparing for a second burn that will put it on a trajectory towards Mars. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/MBRqcxMTdw — NASA (@NASA) July 30, 2020 The rover is scheduled to land on Mars in February at the bottom of a 250-meter crater that was a lake some 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists believe the site could hold evidence of possible past microbial life. Scientists have debated for decades whether there was once life on Mars, which was more hospitable to life billions of years ago. Perseverance’s landing on the solar system’s second smallest planet will involve a complex set of maneuvers that NASA engineers call the “seven minutes of terror.” During that period, the rover descends through the atmosphere in extremely hot and high-speed conditions and deploys a set of supersonic parachutes before mini rockets ignite, allowing for a soft landing. The car-sized Perseverance will also deploy a mini helicopter named Ingenuity and test equipment for future human missions to the planet. Thursday’s launch from Earth to Mars is the third in July. China and the United Arab Emirates launched probes earlier in the month. Perseverance is the latest U.S. lander headed to Mars. NASA’s Sojourner landed in 1997 and Spirit and Opportunity have found signs of ancient water formations. NASA also landed Pathfinder , Phoenix and InSight on Earth’s planetary neighbor. The U.S. plans to send astronauts to Mars ...
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SpaceX Gets NASA Contract To Launch Pieces Of Future Moon Space Station
CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami) – SpaceX has received a big contract from NASA to launch two pieces of a future moon space station. The space agency is giving SpaceX more than $330 million for the mission called Gateway. RELATED: ‘It’s Like A Family Here’: Burn Awareness Week Highlights Special Bond Between Patients & Health Care Workers NASA intends to put gateway into orbit around the moon as part of the Artemis program – the federal plan to establish a permanent human presence in deep space. RELATED: Parents Of Murdered Parkland Student Joaquin Oliver Launch 'Shame Cards' In Fight For Gun Reform SpaceX will launch the foundational elements of the Gateway. MORE: FBI Releases Suspect Pictures In SW Miami Dade Chase Bank Robbery SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will carry the components into space no sooner than May of 2024. ...
NASA Rover To Land Thursday On Mars, Collect Space Rocks
PASADENA (CBSLA) – A six-wheeled rover made by NASA is expected to land on Mars this Thursday. The rover, called The Perseverance, will hunt for martian rocks that could contain signs of life. The mission, which costs around $3 billion, will drill into promising rocks, store about a pound of them in titanium tubes, and bring them back to Earth to be analyzed. RELATED: Motorcyclist Suspected Of Street Racing In Custody After Pursuit Ends In Anaheim “One of the key steps that that Perseverance is taking is collecting samples that can be brought back to Earth in the future and then analyzed with all the terrestrial laboratories we have, which should actually provide us a definitive answer to that question,” said Kenneth Farley, a NASA Mars 2020 Project Scientist at CalTech in Pasadena. RELATED: Riverside Deputies Shoot, Kill Joshua Tree Coffee Company Owner Royce Robertson During Confrontation In Indian Wells Scientists want to know what Mars was like billions of years ago when it had rivers, lakes, and oceans where tiny organisms could have flourished. “When we drive up, deploy the arm on the Perseverance rover, you can abrade a little bit of the rock and then we can look with the Sherlock instrument to see whether that rock has organic materials,” said Bethany Ehlmann, a Research Scientist with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. MORE: VIDEO: 11 Taken Into Custody At Illegal Gambling Operation In Santa Ana (© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) ...
NASA Satellite Tracks Carbon Monoxide Spreading From California Wildfires To Great Lakes, Canada
PASADENA (CBSLA) — Carbon monoxide from California’s wildfires is more than 10 times the typical amounts, a NASA satellite has observed. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, aboard the Aqua satellite, captured infrared images of carbon monoxide plumes coming from the 28 major wildfires burning across the state as of Monday. Carbon monoxide concentrations show up as dark red on NASA’s animation, and the plume starts out concentrated over the West Coast, but grows progressively to cover much of the Southwest, stretching all the way to the Great Lakes. RELATED: Motorcyclist Suspected Of Street Racing In Custody After Pursuit Ends In Anaheim Another, larger plume to the north is more widespread, and appears to cover a large swath of North America, including Canada, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes. RELATED: Riverside Deputies Shoot, Kill Joshua Tree Coffee Company Owner Royce Robertson During Confrontation In Indian Wells The growing red and orange areas of the animation indicate regions with extremely high carbon monoxide concentrations of greater than 350 parts per billion by volume, according to NASA. The intense heat of the wildfires is sending the carbon monoxide high into the atmosphere, making it visible to NASA’s satellites, and a jet stream is spreading the carbon monoxide plume eastward across the U.S. Carbon monoxide is a pollutant that can persist in the atmosphere for about a month and can be transported great distances, NASA said, playing a role in both air pollution and climate change. MORE: NASA Rover To Land Thursday On Mars, Collect Space Rocks California’s wildfires are also spewing smoke and ash into the air, and have darkened the skies and made the air very unhealthy for much of the West Coast. ...
NASA: Jetliner Seen Flying Low Over Altadena Was Part Of Study On Fire Smoke, Air Quality
ALTADENA (CBSLA) — A large jetliner spotted flying low over the foothills Monday belonged to NASA and was part of a study on air quality, officials said. The large DC-8, painted white with a blue stripe and the NASA logo on the tail, was spotted flying over Altadena at the height of afternoon rush hour in the San Gabriel Valley, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. RELATED: Motorcyclist Suspected Of Street Racing In Custody After Pursuit Ends In Anaheim Low flying plane over Altadena and Southern California today. It just passed along the foothills a few minutes ago. We have been told the plane belongs to NASA. Plane is a DC-8 with a call sign of NASA817 #LASD #altadena #NASA pic.twitter.com/CBqDR4WW7T — Dan Paige (@LasdDan) July 23, 2019 RELATED: Riverside Deputies Shoot, Kill Joshua Tree Coffee Company Owner Royce Robertson During Confrontation In Indian Wells The plane evidently took off out of Palmdale and flew a 2,359-mile meandering path into Central California and across Nevada. It landed in Boise, Idaho at about 7 p.m. local time. NASA spokeswoman Kate Squires told CBSLA the aircraft was headed to a NASA/NOAA partnership mission dubbed “FIREX-AQ” to study the effects of fire smoke on air quality. “Since the plane was fully loaded with a suite of science instruments that are able to study different aspects of air quality, the CA Air Resources took advantage of the opportunity to have the science team observe the LA Basin and Central Valley as the plane made its way out of the state and on to Boise,” Squires said in a statement. CBSLA’s Jasmine Viel was one of the commuters who saw the plane flying by. MORE: NASA Rover To Land Thursday On Mars, Collect Space Rocks “It was scary, a little bit. You didn’t know if was going to land,” she said. “Everyone kind of stopped in their cars, looking up. It was big and loud.” ...
