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Visiting Mars on the Way to the Outer Solar System
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By NASA
NASA/Christopher LC Clark The parachute of the Enhancing Parachutes by Instrumenting the Canopy, or EPIC, test experiment deploys following an air launch from an Alta X drone on June 4, 2025, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. NASA researchers are developing technology to make supersonic parachutes safer and more reliable for delivering instruments and payloads to Mars.
The flight tests were a first step toward filling gaps in computer models to improve supersonic parachutes. This work could also open the door to future partnerships, including with the aerospace and auto racing industries.
Image Credit: NASA/Christopher LC Clark
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By NASA
NASA A Titan-Centaur rocket carrying the Viking 1 spacecraft launches from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 20, 1975. Viking 1 touched down on the red planet on July 20, 1976, becoming the first truly successful landing on Mars. Viking 1 was the first of a pair of complex deep space probes that were designed to reach Mars and to collect evidence on the possibility on life on Mars.
NASA’s exploration of Mars continues, with rovers exploring the planet’s surface and spacecraft studying from orbit. The agency’s Artemis missions will also lay the groundwork for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Learn more about Viking 1 and see the first photo it took upon landing.
Image credit: NASA
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By NASA
National Institute of Aerospace NASA is calling on the next generation of collegiate innovators to imagine bold new concepts l pushing the boundaries of human exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond through the agency’s 2026 NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition.
The RASC-AL challenge fuels innovation for aerospace systems concepts, analogs, and technology prototyping by bridging gaps through university engagement with NASA and industry. The competition is seeking U.S.-based undergraduate and graduate-level teams and their faculty advisors to develop new concepts to improve our ability to operate on the Moon and Mars. This year’s themes range from developing systems and technologies to support exploration of the lunar surface, to enhancing humanity’s ability to operate and return data from the surface of Mars.
“This competition is a unique opportunity for university students to play a role in the future of space innovation,” said Dan Mazanek, assistant branch head of NASA’s Exploration Space Mission Analysis Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia. “The RASC-AL challenge fuels creativity and empowers students to explore what’s possible. We’re excited for another year of RASC-AL and fresh ideas coming our way.”
Interested and eligible teams are invited to propose groundbreaking solutions and systems approaches that redefine how humans live and explore in deep space with relation to one of the following themes:
Communications, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Architectures for Mars Surface Operations Lunar Surface Power and Power Management and Distribution Architectures Lunar Sample Return Concept Lunar Technology Demonstrations Leveraging Common Infrastructure Teams should express their intent to participate by submitting a non-binding notice of intent by Monday Oct. 13. Teams who submit a notice will be invited to a question-and-answer session with NASA subject matter experts on Monday Oct. 27.
The proposals, due Monday Feb. 23, 2026, are required to be seven-to-nine pages with an accompanying two-to-three-minute video. Proposals should demonstrate innovative solutions with original engineering and analysis in response to one of the four 2026 RASC-AL themes. Each team’s response should address novel and robust technologies, capabilities, and operational models that support expanding human’s ability to thrive beyond Earth.
Based on review of the team proposal and video submissions, in March, up to 14 teams will be selected to advance to the final phase of the competition – writing a technical paper, creating a technical poster, and presenting their concepts to a panel of NASA and industry experts in a competitive design review at the 2026 RASC-AL Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida, beginning Monday June 1, 2026.
“The RASC-AL challenge enables students to think like NASA engineers—and in doing so, they often become the engineers who will carry NASA forward,” said Dr. Christopher Jones, RASC-AL program sponsor and Chief Technologist for the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley. “The concepts they develop for this year’s competition will help inform our future strategies.”
Each finalist team will receive a $7,000 stipend to facilitate their full participation in the 2026 RASC-AL competition, and the top two overall winning teams will each be awarded an additional $7,000 cash prize as well as an invitation to attend and present their concept at an aerospace conference later in 2026.
The 2026 NASA RASC-AL competition is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA. The RASC-AL competition is sponsored by the agency’s Strategy and Architecture Office in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), and the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in STMD, manages the challenge.
For more information about the RASC-AL competition, including eligibility and submission guidelines, visit: https://rascal.nianet.org/.
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By European Space Agency
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.
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