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Writer Fuel: What Does a Solar Eclipse Look Like on Mars?

Martian solar eclipse - NASA

Fear passed in front of the sun last week, and a NASA rover saw it fly. The Mars moon Phobos, whose name means “Fear” in ancient Greek, was caught on camera by the NASA Perseverance rover on Feb. 8. The potato-shaped moon was visible in front of the sun from Percy’s current perch in Jezero … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Has NASA’s Perseverance Rover Already Unearthed Signs of Past Life on Mars?

NASA'S Perseverance Rover

NASA’s Perseverance rover has found that Mars’ Jezero crater was at one point filled with water, offering a tantalizing hope that it may have already unearthed fossilized life on the planet. The rover, which first touched down on the crater in February 2021 along with its now-retired helicopter companion Ingenuity, made the discovery using ground-penetrating … Read more

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Writer Fuel: NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Grounded for Good

NASA Ingenuity helicopter

After three years of soaring through the ultra-thin skies of Mars, NASA’s autonomous Ingenuity helicopter has finally been grounded for good. While power still flows through the 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) helicopter, recent images revealed that at least one of its rotor blades sustained irreparable damage after its last flight — Ingenuity’s 72nd flight over the … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Curiosity Rover Finds Star Trek Symbol on Mars

Star Trek symbol on Mars - NASA

Did someone leave a communicator badge lying on Mars? NASA’s long-running Curiosity rover mission just spotted a familiar shape to “Star Trek” fans: The iconic delta-shaped emblem that Starfleet officers typically wear on their uniforms. Unfortunately, it would be highly illogical to say that a Starfleet landing party walked near Curiosity’s roving grounds, as the … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Chinese Robo Chemist Could Extract Oxygen From Water on Mars

Mars - deposit photos

Scientists in China have created a robot chemist powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can extract oxygen from Martian water without human supervision. Synthesizing useful resources from local materials on Mars will be essential for humans’ survival on the Red Planet. Extracting oxygen from materials — in a process called oxygen evolution reaction (OER) — is particularly … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Perseverance Loses Its Pet Rock

Perseverance and its pet rock - NASA

After more than a year together on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover and its hitchhiking “pet rock” have finally parted ways. The stone had been lodged in one of the rover’s wheels for more than half of its mission on Mars. Perseverance accidentally picked up the pet rock in its front left wheel on … Read more

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Writer Fuel: How Long Would It Take to Colonize a Planet?

Mars colony - deposit photos

The guy who bought Twitter wants to have a city of a million people on Mars by 2050. That may sound astronomically ambitious considering humans have never set foot on the Martian surface. But is it feasible? How long would it take for humans to colonize another planet? And could it ever be possible for … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Polka-Dot Sand Dunes

Writer Fuel: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Polka-Dot Sand Dunes - NASA

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured stunning images of almost perfectly round sand dunes on the surface of the Red Planet. While sand dunes of all shapes and sizes are common on Mars, circular dunes like these are a rare sight. The dunes appear as slightly asymmetrical splodges in the picture, which was taken … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Teddy Bear on Mars

Teddy Bear Rock on Mars - NASA

Scientists studying the surface of Mars recently found a piece of the rocky planet smiling back at them. In an image shared Jan. 25 by The University of Arizona (opens in new tab) (UA), what appears to be the face of an enormous Martian teddy bear — complete with two beady eyes, a button nose … Read more

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Writer Fuel: A Nuclear Rocket Could Get Us to Mars in 45 Days

Demonstration for the Rocket to Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) spacecraft - DARPA

NASA has revealed plans to create a nuclear-powered rocket that could send astronauts to Mars in just 45 days. The agency, which has partnered with the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design the rocket, announced on Tuesday (Jan. 24) that it could build a working nuclear thermal rocket engine as soon as … Read more