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The Mars Report
January 31, 2018
Opportunity Rover
NASA's longest running rover
celebrated 14 years
on Mars this month.
Since 2004, it has traveled
over 28 miles (45 km)
and sent back more than
224,000 images.
Now it's exploring
Perseverance Valley,
a channel likely
carved by fluid.
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Mars orbiters have observed
channels from a distance
since 1971.
Opportunity is the
first Mars mission
to explore a channel up close.
Curiosity Rover
Curiosity continues trekking
higher on Mt. Sharp,
reaching "Vera Rubin Ridge."
From the ridge Curiosity sent
back this panoramic view.
It spans more than
30 miles (48 km)
and shows the route the rover
has taken since 2012
past buttes, dunes
and other features.
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The orbiter's powerful
HiRISE camera
revealed thick ice sheets.
Exposed in the faces
of eroding slopes,
the deposits extend
hundreds of feet deep
providing layers of
recorded history
and possible targets for
future human exploration.
"Astronauts could essentially
just go there with a bucket and
a shovel and get all the water
they need," said one researcher.
Coming soon:
InSight
Launching in May 2018, InSight
will be the first mission
to study Mars'
interior structure.
InSight carries a seismometer
and could detect Marsquakes
for the first time.
InSight will also use a heat
probe that will
burrow up to 16 feet (5m)
to measure Mars' interior
temperature.
Lockheed Martin Space
is completing tests
on the spacecraft
before it ships
to Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
InSight will be the first
interplanetary mission
to launch from the West Coast.
For more information on
all our Mars missions:
https://mars.nasa.gov
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute
of Technology
