Science Space Solar System Mars NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps 100,000th image A high school student suggested the steep sand dunes of Syrtis Major for the milestone image. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) officially went into service above the Red Planet in November 2006. The spacecraft has since spent nearly 20 years circling Earth's closest neighbor, studying its geology and identifying icy evidence of a once watery world . After already sending back more than 450 terabits of data over the course of its ongoing mission, the orbiter recently passed a major milestone: its 100,000th image of the Martian surface.

Humans have left more than 15,000 pounds of trash on Mars in the last 50 years and not a single person has ever stepped foot on the red planet. Cagri Kilic, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at West Virginia University, analyzed the mass of all rovers and orbiters sent to Mars and subtracted the weight of what is currently in operation, resulting in 15,694 pounds of debris. The trash includes discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft and those that crashed on the surface - specifically the Soviet Union's Mars orbiter 2 that made a crash landing in 1971. Not only are humans already polluting another planet, but scientists fear the debris could contaminate samples being collected by NASA's Perseverance rover that is currently searching for ancient life on Mars. A scientist calculates there is 15,694 pounds of trash on Mars. Most of it stems from discarded hardware like this thermal blanket that protected NASA's Perseverance survive its descent through the hellish atmosphere Much of the garbage is inevitable, as many of the parts have to be discarded in order to protect craft as it soars through the Red Planet's hellish atmosphere - including NASA's Perseverance that endured the seven minutes of hell when it landed in February 2021.

It turns out Earth is not the only planet humans are contaminating. A new image snapped by NASA's Perseverance rover captures the sad reality of how we are already littering Mars with rubbish. Engineers discovered a discarded thermal blanket which they said was used to protect the car-sized vehicle from extreme temperatures it experienced during landing. 'It's a surprise finding this here,' they said, as Perseverance's descent took place just over a mile away from where the debris was found. The team added: 'Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind?' It is not the first time a bit of wreckage has been spotted on the Red Planet this year.

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From the Mars Ingenuity helicopter's first powered flight on another world to the launch of the James Webb telescope that will peer into the earliest epoch of the Universe, 2021 was a huge year for humanity's space endeavors. Beyond the science milestones, billionaires battled to reach the final frontier first, an all-civilian crew went into orbit, and Star Trek's William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own. Star Trek's William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own Photo: AFP / Patrick T. FALLON NASA's Perseverance Rover survived its "seven minutes of terror," a time when the craft relies on its automated systems for descent and landing, to touch down flawlessly on Mars' Jezero Crater in February. Since then, the car-sized robot has been taking photos and drilling for samples for its mission: determining whether the Red Planet might have hosted ancient microbial life forms. A rock sample return mission is planned for sometime in the 2030s.

From the Mars Ingenuity helicopter's first powered flight on another world to the launch of the James Webb telescope that will peer into the earliest epoch of the Universe, 2021 was a huge year for humanity's space endeavors. Beyond the science milestones, billionaires battled to reach the final frontier first, an all-civilian crew went into orbit, and Star Trek's William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own. Star Trek's William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own Photo: AFP / Patrick T. FALLON NASA's Perseverance Rover survived its "seven minutes of terror," a time when the craft relies on its automated systems for descent and landing, to touch down flawlessly on Mars' Jezero Crater in February. Since then, the car-sized robot has been taking photos and drilling for samples for its mission: determining whether the Red Planet might have hosted ancient microbial life forms. A rock sample return mission is planned for sometime in the 2030s.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is going to attempt a sixth flight on Mars next week, reaching speeds of up to nine miles per hour and flying for over two minutes. This will be the first flight as part of the'operations demonstration phase' that includes helping the Perseverance rover in its mission to find ancient signs of life. Ingenuity will scout multiple surface features from the air during its short flight, before landing in a different airfield to the one it takes off from for the first time. It will head up 33 feet into the Martian sky and then fly 492ft southwest at about nine miles per hour, taking photographs of rocks and dunes on the ground. In this new phase, data and images from the flight will be returned to Earth in the days following the flight, rather than in the following hours as with earlier trips. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter is going to attempt a sixth flight on Mars next week, reaching speeds of up to nine miles per hour and flying for over two minutes This will be the first flight as part of the'operations demonstration phase' that includes helping the Perseverance rover in its mission to find ancient signs of life Ingenuity was designed as a technology demonstrator rather than carrying any of its own science experiments or equipment.

NASA's Perseverance rover has switched from photographing the Ingenuity helicopter's test flights, to searching for signs of long gone Martian life. The US space agency confirmed that the SUV-sized rover has started to test the ancient lakebed in the Jezero crater by focusing its science instruments on rocks. A camera called WATSON on the end of the rover's robotic arm has taken detailed shots of the rocks, with extra data coming from a pair of zoomable cameras. The Perseverance team tweeted: 'The time has come: I'm switching from on-scene photographer to science investigator. Did this ancient lakebed ever have life? The tools I brought will help begin the hunt.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has achieved yet another first after capturing the sounds of another spacecraft hovering on the red planet. Using the microphone on its rock-zapping SuperCam instrument, the six-wheeled robot listened to the sounds of the Ingenuity helicopter on April 30 and recorded the whirring of its fast-spinning rotors. This marked the first time a spacecraft has recorded audio of another probe on a world beyond Earth. This was the chopper's fourth flight since Perseverance and Ingenuity landed together on Feb. 18 on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater, NASA said in a statement. A video recently released by NASA combined the footage from Perseverance's Mastcam-Z imager of the solar-powered helicopter with the recorded audio, allowing scientists to know how the robot is performing just by tuning in to the sound it makes.

NASA's Perseverance rover captured this image of the Ingenuity helicopter during its fourth flight The Ingenuity helicopter has flown on Mars once again. During its fourth flight on 30 April, the drone flew further and faster than ever before – and it is far from finished, as NASA also announced a month-long extension to its mission. Ingenuity achieved all of the main goals of its mission in its first three flights, so the aim of the fourth flight was to push beyond that slightly. The fourth flight lasted nearly two minutes, during which the helicopter flew 266 metres and reached a top speed of 13 kilometres per hour. The mission was planned to include only five flights before the Perseverance rover drove away and began its own primary missions of searching for signs of ancient life and collecting samples to be returned to Earth.