Latest news with #RosalindFranklin
India Today
21-07-2025
- Science
- India Today
Giant parachute responsible for landing 310-kg rover on Mars tested
A European-designed parachute system, the most complex ever built for a Mars mission, has successfully completed a critical high-altitude drop test on Earth, confirming its readiness to land the 310-kg Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover on the Martian test, conducted on July 7, 2025, at the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, simulated Martian conditions by releasing a mock descent module from a helium balloon at 29 kilometers above Earth, roughly three times the cruising altitude of commercial capsule entered a free fall, accelerating to near-supersonic speeds before triggering a two-stage parachute deployment identical to what will be used on Mars. The Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover. (Photo: ESA) 'This is the largest parachute ever designed for a Mars landing, and we've now confirmed it works,' said Luca Ferracina, system engineer for ESA's ExoMars Entry, Descent, and Landing Module. 'We've taken one big step closer to delivering the Rosalind Franklin rover safely to the Red Planet.'Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult. Within just six minutes, spacecraft must slow from 21,000 km/h to a complete stop on the ExoMars system uses a thermal shield, followed by two main parachutes, each extracted by its own pilot chute, and retro-rockets that fire just 20 seconds before first parachute, 15 meters wide, slows the vehicle through supersonic speeds. The second, an immense 35-meter canopy, the largest ever destined for another planet, ensures a soft chutes are built from lightweight materials and pack into compact 'doughnut' bags, with folding taking three days to ensure perfect deployment. Graphic: ESA Originally qualified for flight in 2021, the parachute assembly was stored when the ExoMars mission was suspended due to the war in Ukraine. The Swedish test was designed to validate its performance after prolonged and high-speed video from the test will now be analyzed by UK company Vorticity, which leads parachute design and testing."This test confirms our parachute system is mission-ready," said Vorticity engineer John Underwood. "And it's poised to help Europe land safely on Mars for the first time."ExoMars is aiming for launch later this decade, carrying Europe's best hope for detecting signs of past Martian life.- EndsTrending Reel
Times
26-06-2025
- Science
- Times
Telescope reminds us of the debt we owe Vera Rubin
Vera C Rubin's work did much to demystify the heavens NSF-DOE VERA C RUBIN OBSERVATORY/AP T he American astronomer Vera C Rubin, who died in 2016, was certainly given enormous recognition and credit for her work in her lifetime. Her stellar career led to medals, prizes and awards all over the world. She did not, however, receive the Nobel prize for physics for her pioneering study of galaxy rotation rates in the 1960s and 1970s, work subsequently accepted as strong evidence for the existence of dark matter. Dark matter and dark energy are now thought to comprise 95 per cent of the mass-energy content of the universe. Rubin had to battle prejudice against women in science for many decades. If she did miss out on a Nobel because of her gender, she would not be alone. The shabby failure to fully credit Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the double helix breakthrough is well known. Lisa Meitner, 'the mother of the atomic bomb', was even more ruthlessly snubbed, while her partner in nuclear fission research, Otto Hahn, bagged a Nobel. The brilliance of Marietta Blau, Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Chien-Shiung Wu was also overlooked by Stockholm, while many of their male collaborators were laureated. In Rubin's own field, the great Edwin Hubble, whose work drew on that of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, acknowledged the huge debt he owed her. Just as Hubble gave his name to a revolutionary telescope, so too did Rubin, when the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile was renamed the Vera C Rubin Observatory in her honour. The first images from this huge yet agile device were published this week, capturing 2,000 undetected asteroids within ten hours. Over the next decade, the southern night sky will be continuously mapped and supernova explosions from billions of years ago will be traced. If our solar system does have a mysterious Planet Nine, Rubin will find it. Perhaps somewhere in those heavens she did so much to demystify, Vera Rubin is having the last laugh.
Metro
18-06-2025
- Science
- Metro
Expert gives verdict on 'wrinkled mushroom' spotted on Mars
UFO hunters are excited after spotting a 'mushroom' on the dusty surface of Mars. The image was taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover in 2013, but the freak 'fungi' on the surface of the Red Planet remained unnoticed… until now. Scott Waring shared a photo of the 'mushroom' on his website, which regularly finds things such as a secret door or a baby bear on Mars, earlier this week, saying: 'I'm not sure how or why NASA could overlook such a thing.' He claimed: 'The top is round, uneven and wrinkled… same as the ones in my front yard. This one has clearly pushed up out of the Mars dirt. 'Did you know that mushroom spores can live in the harsh environment of space and may have travelled to Mars this way?' But while it's true that mushroom spores are hardy, and have even survived over a year in outer space conditions on the International Space Station, this particular rock is not an alien species of portobello. Astrobiologist Dr Louisa Preston, head of planetary science at UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told Metro: 'Given the environmental extremes on the surface of Mars such as high sterilising radiation, low atmospheric pressure and below freezing temperatures, this is not a mushroom. 'These conditions are too extreme for the most hardiest life forms we have found on the Earth to survive, let alone mushrooms. 'If life does exist on Mars, it is more likely to be found below ground, where it would be shielded from the harsh environment at the surface. 'The image is simply a mixture of cool-looking rocks, quite possibly rounded concretions or eroded pebbles, and a great camera angle, that has captured a bigger rock sitting on or simply located above a smaller rock.' She added that while we can learn a lot about Mars from sending rovers out there, it is still very tricky to take and transmit images of another planet. 'The surrounding geological context, shadows, angle of the rover in relation to the rocks, and where the Sun is, all affect the types of images we get and importantly how we interpret them,' she said. More Trending 'In this case it is clever camera work and some interesting rocks lying next to each other, not mushrooms.' If you're disappointed that the 'mushroom' is not a mushroom, take heart that there's still hope to find other life on Mars. Biomarkers are more likely to have been conserved beneath the surface, where they haven't been blasted with space radiation. The Rosalind Franklin rover will head to Mars in 2028, designed to drill up to two metres beneath the planet's surface hunting for evidence of past — or maybe even present — life. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Why did Donald Trump and Elon Musk fall out? Feud explained MORE: Trump accuses Musk of 'going crazy' after Epstein files 'bomb' in public feud MORE: Scientists have a new way to find aliens – and they could be closer than we think
The National
11-05-2025
- Science
- The National
Mars rover technology tested out in Scottish Highlands
A team from the University of St Andrews has been testing equipment in Lower Diabaig in Torridon, where there are rocks that are billions of years old and similar to those found on Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning to send a robotic rover to Mars to study its geology and look for fossils and minerals, the BBC reports. So far, the trials in Torridon have considered the type of cameras which should be used as the rover's "eyes", as well as tests on equipment that can detect ancient biology preserved in the rock. READ MORE: Update as huge wildfire continues to burn in West Lothian amid 'extreme warning' The robot is named after London-born scientist Rosalind Franklin, who died in 1958. ESA said the missions would tackle the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. The project, known as the ExoMars programme, is made up of two missions. The First, called Trace Gas Orbiter, was launched in 2016. The second mission has a target launch of 2028 and aims to land the rover on Mars. Many geological areas and features on Mars have been named by Nasa after places on Earth, including in Scotland. Some of the names taken from Scotland include Torridon, Holyrood, Siccar Point, Muck, Wick and Sandwick. Dr Claire Cousins, from the University of St Andrews, said the rare geology around Lower Diabaig was "ideal" for testing the rover. READ MORE: I visited Donald Trump's ancestral homeland. This is what I learned about him She told BBC Scotland's Landward programme: "The rocks haven't metamorphosed right, they haven't been cooked and squeezed and crushed under mountain belts. "They have been beautifully preserved – a slice of time. "We don't know yet if there was ever life on Mars, but these are the kinds of rocks that are going to preserve it."
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Mars rover technology tested out on West Highland rocks
Technology which will be used in the search for evidence of life on Mars has been tested in the Scottish European Space Agency (ESA) plans to send a robotic rover to the Red Planet to study its geology - and look for fossils and minerals.A University of St Andrews team has been testing equipment in Lower Diabaig, in Torridon, where there are rocks that are billions of years old and similar to those found on trials have included of cameras of the type to be used as the rover's "eyes", and kit that can detect ancient biology preserved in the rock. The ExoMars programme comprises two first, called Trace Gas Orbiter, was launched in 2016 while the second has a target launch of 2028, and aims to land the rover on the robot is named after London-born scientist Rosalind Franklin, who died in said the missions would tackle the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. Dr Claire Cousins of the University of St Andrews said mission technology needed rigorous testing on Earth to make sure it would work on the red said the rare geology around Lower Diabaig was "ideal" as a told BBC Scotland's Landward programme: "The rocks haven't metamorphosed right, they haven't been cooked and squeezed and crushed under mountain belts."They have been beautifully preserved - a slice of time."The rocks include billion-year-old mudstone and other rocks which are stacked one on top of the other in Cousins said: "These are perfect for showing us there was once liquid water - a habitable environment for life."Also, these rocks are very good at capturing evidence of that ancient past biology. It's sandwiched between the rocks."She added: "We don't know yet if there was ever life on Mars, but these are the kinds of rocks that are going to preserve it." Seven years ago a Nasa Mars rover, Curiosity, explored a part of the planet named after geological areas and features have been named by Nasa after places on of the names were taken from Scotland and, as well as Torridon, there is a Siccar Point, Muck, Wick, Sandwick and Holyrood on chose the name Torridon due to the Torridonian Supergroup, a geological formation in the north-west Highlands that contains some of the oldest evidence of life of any rocks in the 2012, Glenelg held a celebration in honour of a location on Mars being named after the small Highland community.
