The planet-wide dust storm (image on right) has cleared. Here’s an update on humanity’s active missions to the Red Planet.
About to make headlines in next 30 days
:
I’m 30 days away from landing on #Mars. My goal right now is a safe landing but after that, the science begins! Learn more about what I’ll be searching for: https://t.co/cDztPloEqn 🕵 pic.twitter.com/CvlHP8SceQ
— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) October 26, 2018
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Update, November 8, 2018:
Mars InSight Lands on November 26th. Here's where it's going to touch down – Universe Today https://t.co/qbA164JPYG @storybywill @universetoday pic.twitter.com/9frBRlMa77
— Fraser Cain (@fcain) November 8, 2018
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Active spacecraft on or around Mars
Per Wikipedia:
- Mars Odyssey (NASA); also keeps Earth in touch with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers
- Mars Express (ESA)
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA)
- Curiosity rover (NASA); currently has a glitch. Update:
Taking care of business ⚡ After swapping to my Side-A computer last month, I'm back to full operations, including a 60 meter drive and plans to drill later this week. Still troubleshooting my Side-B computer: https://t.co/e2jHXkw76f pic.twitter.com/l6PdU5L89d
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) November 7, 2018
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- Mangalyaan; Mars Orbiter Mission (ISRO)
- MAVEN
In need of a Matt Daimon-style rescue mission
Opportunity rover (NASA).
Remember how H. G. Wells began his novel The War of the Worlds?
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Well, no one in the 19th or early 20th century would have believed that soon we would know what the view of Earth from Mars actually looks like!
Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel transient at all. But my mind is boggled!
Featured image: NASA
Flight To Wonder 
This should be all over the newspapers! Exciting.