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Currently, the Martian atmosphere is in no way hospitable to Earthlings. It is formed primarily of carbon dioxide and is over 100 times less dense than Earth's atmosphere. It would soon stop breathing completely for any individuals who tried to breathe in it. A modest device, about the size of a suitcase, has been consistently extracting breathable oxygen from the Martian atmosphere on that sandy, arid, alien world. In order to manufacture breathing air for a human expedition to the red planet, it is the first demonstration of the processing of in situ resources for human use on another world. Its name is MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiment), and it is a device that utilizes electrolysis to separate Martian carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. It is mounted inside NASA's Perseverance rover. According to the researchers, MOXIE produced oxygen seven times as much between February 2021, when Perseverance arrived, until the end of 2021. Acco...

Red sprites, or bright red streaks in the sky, are visible in this stunning photograph of the skies over Chile's Atacama Desert obtained close to the La Silla Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Large-scale electrical discharges known as red sprites typically occur high above thunderstorm clouds and are caused by positive lightning strikes between an overlying thundercloud and the earth. The red sprites do, however, occasionally show 50–90 kilometers (31–55 miles) up in the Earth's atmosphere. Folktales about enigmatic red lights in the sky have been circulated for generations, but were typically brushed off by experts. RedSpritesInChile Red sprites, or bright red streaks, may be seen in this image, which was captured from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Even a meteor appears to add to the beauty of this picture. The ESO (Zdenek Bardon) The scientific community allegedly disregarded the instances even when well-regarded pilots or scientists (such as...

In the Jezero Crater of Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is now gathering soil and rock samples that will eventually be sent back to Earth. According to the present plan, the sample tubes will be delivered by the rover to a Mars lander in 2030 so that they may be sent back to Earth. As the NASA Mars Sample Return team stated in late July, two tiny helicopters would be ready to intervene if something goes wrong. The Sample Recovery Helicopters would be the second and third rotorcraft to ever take flight on another planet if that were to happen. Additionally, their presence in the NASA and ESA-led Mars Sample Return mission may herald the start of a new era in Mars exploration, one in which tiny, lightweight helicopters routinely fly around the planet. Just over a year has passed since NASA's Ingenuity helicopter first sailed to the skies of Mars in April 2021, making the announcement of the addition of helicopters to the Mars Sample Return mission exciting. The experimental rotor...