Space and Technology
NASA's twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were each built to last 90 days. Kept alive by Martian winds that cleaned their solar panels,...
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NASA's twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were each built to last 90 days. Kept alive by Martian winds that cleaned their solar panels,...
In October 2016 Europe's Schiaparelli probe had nearly landed on Mars — surviving entry, parachute, and radar — when a sensor was overwhelmed for...
On November 27, 1971, the Soviet Mars 2 became the first human-made object ever to reach the surface of Mars. It got there the...
Voyager 2 is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history. Launched in 1977, it visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before sailing on...
When the Soviet Union sent two probes plunging into the atmosphere of Venus in December 1978, they carried an instrument named "Groza," the Russian...
The Space Shuttle is remembered as an engineering marvel, but this analysis argues it was also one of NASA's costliest strategic mistakes. Sold as...
Exploring Venus is extremely challenging. A landing probe or lander must withstand crushing pressure, with atmospheric pressure roughly 90 times Earth’s, equivalent to being...
On March 1, 1982, a Soviet probe named Venera 13 settled onto the surface of Venus and did something no spacecraft had done before:...
In November 1988 the Soviet Union flew its own space shuttle. Buran reached orbit, circled the Earth twice, and landed itself completely on autopilot,...
NASA's path back to Mars in the 1990s was also its strangest. Instead of firing thrusters to set the spacecraft down gently, engineers wrapped...