Mars

At the Center for Space Control in Beijing, there was big jubilation when China made a successful landing on Mars early on Saturday.

The landing has taken place blindly for them down to the surface of the planet. The rover is programmed to make the landing on its own.

NASA on Feb. 22 released the first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface.

The footage was so good, and the images so breathtaking, that members of the rover team said they felt like they were riding along.

After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.

The stakes, and anxiety, are sky high.

China will launch a new space satellite in orbit in the second half of April. The machine will be named "Wuhan" in honor of Chinese citizens fighting the coronavirus epidemic, People reported. The launch will be carried out using a Kuizhou-1A solid propellant rocket.

Humanity is building powerful rockets like the SpaceX BFR and NASA Space Launch System that can take a payload far away from Earth. However, making the return trip means you have to lug a lot more fuel with you. Efforts to send humans to Mars in the coming decades would be helped if we could make fuel on the red planet.

Scientists have long known high levels of radiation exists on Mars. But could it be so high that humans won’t be able to handle when we get there?

Going to Mars may be more dangerous than we thought. The major problem is high-energy space radiation. Scientists know that cosmic rays can damage DNA. They had just overlooked how bad it could get.

Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System. It has surface temperatures of about 460 degrees Celsius (860 degrees Fahrenheit) coupled with a carbon dioxide-rich air that has an atmospheric pressure about 90 times that of Earth’s.

Mars announced it has recalled a selected group of its chocolate bars sold in Turkey and more than 50 other countries in a written statement on Feb. 25, after a piece of plastic was found in one snack made in its Dutch factory. 

The U.S.-based company said three different types of chocolate bars will be recalled in a limited number in the Turkish market as "a precautionary step." 

Chocolate giant Mars on Feb. 23 ordered a massive recall of Mars and Snickers bars from 55 countries after a piece of plastic found in one bar was traced back to its Dutch factory.

A British-built space probe that disappeared without trace more than a decade ago has been spotted on the surface of Mars, the UK Space Agency said on Jan. 16.
      
The Beagle 2 lander was found partially deployed with one of its parachutes still attached in images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).