Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
Mars expert Roger Wiens and his team, including the rover Perseverance, discovered fascinating rocks incorporating kaolinite and spinel on Mars’ surface that form in warm, wet environments — but the origin of the rocks remains a mystery. On Earth, these minerals form where there is intense rainfall and a warm climate or in hydrothermal systems such as hot springs. These minerals are what’s left behind when rock has been in flowing water for eons. Over time, the warm water leaches away all the elements except those that are really insoluble, leaving behind what researchers found on Mars. What especially excites the scientists is that it typically forms in environments that are warm, wet and hospitable to some forms of microbial life.
We officially used GPS on the Moon!
— NASA Space Communications and Navigation (@NASASCaN) March 4, 2025
The LuGRE payload on #BlueGhost acquired & tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals on the Moon! These results suggest that GPS signals could be used by future exploration missions – like @NASAArtemis.https://t.co/3w3J6QgCTK pic.twitter.com/nnsKwGARCT
(Credit: X/@NASASCaN)
NASA and the Italian Space Agency made history on March 3 when the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) became the first technology demonstration to acquire and track Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface. The LuGRE payload’s success in lunar orbit and on the surface indicates that signals from the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) can be received and tracked at the Moon. These results mean NASA’s Artemis missions, or other exploration missions, could benefit from these signals to accurately and autonomously determine their position, velocity, and time. This represents a steppingstone to advanced navigation systems and services for the Moon and Mars.
Soon, @NASA's @SpaceX #Crew10 mission will launch from @NASAKennedy.
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 5, 2025
Tune in for the upcoming crew arrival, prelaunch, and launch activities: https://t.co/msZFpNwwkJ
Liftoff is targeted for 7:48pm ET March 12 from Launch Complex 39A. pic.twitter.com/y9EsremhFY
(Credit: X/@Commercial_Crew)
During NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station, which is scheduled to launch in March, select members of the four-person crew will participate in exercise and medical research aimed at keeping astronauts fit on future long-duration missions. One set of experiments, called CIPHER (Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research), will help researchers understand how multiple systems within the human body adjust to varying mission durations. Such research drives NASA’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
In the last few years, Antarctic sea ice has been behaving erratically. Sea ice cover has been much more variable than it used to be, with anomalies lasting much longer than previously documented. Most concerning for scientists is that sea ice cover has been remarkably low in recent years. A new study shows that the extreme lows are highly unlikely to have happened in the last century. The latest satellite data also confirmed that there is currently less total sea ice on the planet than ever previously recorded.
