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Q/A: International Partnerships are Getting Perseverance to Mars, Here's How
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By NASA
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Texas A&M/Cornell NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars 20 years ago. In this image, the bluish glow in the sky above the Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the panoramic camera’s infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination, the redness of the sky farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of the Martian sky.
Read more about this photo.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Texas A&M/Cornell
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By NASA
This article is for students grades 5-8.
The International Space Station is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live. The space station is also a unique science laboratory. Several nations worked together to build and use the space station. The space station is made of parts that were assembled in space by astronauts. It orbits Earth at an average altitude of approximately 250 miles. It travels at 17,500 mph. This means it orbits Earth every 90 minutes. NASA is using the space station to learn more about living and working in space. These lessons will make it possible to send humans farther into space than ever before.
How Old Is the Space Station?
The first piece of the International Space Station was launched in November 1998. A Russian rocket launched the Russian Zarya (zar EE uh) control module. About two weeks later, the space shuttle Endeavour met Zarya in orbit. The space shuttle was carrying the U.S. Unity node. The crew attached the Unity node to Zarya.
More pieces were added over the next two years before the station was ready for people to live there. The first crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000. People have lived on the space station ever since. More pieces have been added over time. NASA and its partners from around the world completed construction of the space station in 2011.
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Words to Know
Airlock: an air-tight chamber that can be pressurized and depressurized to allow access between spaces with different air pressure.
Microgravity: a condition, especially in space orbit, where the force of gravity is so weak that weightlessness occurs.
Module: an individual, self-contained segment of a spacecraft that is designed to perform a particular task.
Truss: a structural frame based on the strong structural shape of the triangle; functions as a beam to support and connect various components.
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How Big Is the Space Station?
The space station has the volume of a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window. It is able to support a crew of seven people, plus visitors. On Earth, the space station would weigh almost one million pounds. Measured from the edges of its solar arrays, the station covers the area of a football field including the end zones. It includes laboratory modules from the United States, Russia, Japan, and Europe.
What Are the Parts of the Space Station?
In addition to the laboratories where astronauts conduct science research, the space station has many other parts. The first Russian modules included basic systems needed for the space station to function. They also provided living areas for crew members. Modules called “nodes” connect parts of the station to each other.
Stretching out to the sides of the space station are the solar arrays. These arrays collect energy from the sun to provide electrical power. The arrays are connected to the station with a long truss. On the truss are radiators that control the space station’s temperature.
Robotic arms are mounted outside the space station. The robot arms were used to help build the space station. Those arms also can move astronauts around when they go on spacewalks outside. Other arms operate science experiments.
Astronauts can go on spacewalks through airlocks that open to the outside. Docking ports allow other spacecraft to connect to the space station. New crews and visitors arrive through the ports. Astronauts fly to the space station on SpaceX Dragon and Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Robotic spacecraft use the docking ports to deliver supplies
Why Is the Space Station Important?
The space station has made it possible for people to have an ongoing presence in space. Human beings have been living in space every day since the first crew arrived. The space station’s laboratories allow crew members to do research that could not be done anywhere else. This scientific research benefits people on Earth. Space research is even used in everyday life. The results are products called “spinoffs.” Scientists also study what happens to the body when people live in microgravity for a long time. NASA and its partners have learned how to keep a spacecraft working well. All of these lessons will be important for future space exploration.
NASA currently is working on a plan to explore other worlds. The space station is one of the first steps. NASA will use lessons learned on the space station to prepare for human missions that reach farther into space than ever before.
Career Corner
Are you interested in a career that is related to living and working in space? Many different types of jobs make the space station a success. Here are a few examples:
Astronaut: These explorers come from a wide variety of backgrounds including military service, the medical field, science research, and engineering design. Astronauts must have skills in leadership, teamwork, and communications. They spend two years training before they are eligible to be assigned to spaceflight missions.
Microgravity Plant Scientist: These scientists study ways to grow plants in the microgravity environment of space. Growing plants on future space missions could provide food and oxygen. Plant scientists design experiments to be conducted by astronauts on the space station. These test new techniques for maximizing plant growth.
Fitness Trainer: Spending months on the space station takes a toll on astronauts’ bodies. Fitness trainers work with astronauts before, during, and after their space station missions to help keep them strong and healthy. This includes creating workout plans for while they’re living and working in space.
More About the International Space Station
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
One of the navigation cameras on NASA’s Perseverance captured the rover’s tracks coming from an area called “Witch Hazel Hill,” on May 13, 2025, the 1,503rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists expect the new area of interest on the lower slope of Jezero Crater’s rim to offer up some of the oldest rocks on the Red Planet.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is exploring a new region of interest the team is calling “Krokodillen” that may contain some of the oldest rocks on Mars. The area has been on the Perseverance science team’s wish list because it marks an important boundary between the oldest rocks of Jezero Crater’s rim and those of the plains beyond the crater.
“The last five months have been a geologic whirlwind,” said Ken Farley, deputy project scientist for Perseverance from Caltech in Pasadena. “As successful as our exploration of “Witch Hazel Hill” has been, our investigation of Krokodillen promises to be just as compelling.”
Named by Perseverance mission scientists after a mountain ridge on the island of Prins Karls Forland, Norway, Krokodillen (which means “the crocodile” in Norwegian) is a 73-acre (about 30-hectare) plateau of rocky outcrops located downslope to the west and south of Witch Hazel Hill.
A quick earlier investigation into the region revealed the presence of clays in this ancient bedrock. Because clays require liquid water to form, they provide important clues about the environment and habitability of early Mars. The detection of clays elsewhere within the Krokodillen region would reinforce the idea that abundant liquid water was present sometime in the distant past, likely before Jezero Crater was formed by the impact of an asteroid. Clay minerals are also known on Earth for preserving organic compounds, the building blocks of life.
“If we find a potential biosignature here, it would most likely be from an entirely different and much earlier epoch of Mars evolution than the one we found last year in the crater with ‘Cheyava Falls,’” said Farley, referring to a rock sampled in July 2024 with chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by life long ago. “The Krokodillen rocks formed before Jezero Crater was created, during Mars’ earliest geologic period, the Noachian, and are among the oldest rocks on Mars
Data collected from NASA’s Mars orbiters suggest that the outer edges of Krokodillen may also have areas rich in olivine and carbonate. While olivine forms from magma, carbonate minerals on Earth typically form during a reaction in liquid water between rock and dissolved carbon dioxide. Carbonate minerals on Earth are known to be excellent preservers of fossilized ancient microbial life and recorders of ancient climate.
The rover, which celebrated its 1,500th day of surface operations on May 9, is currently analyzing a rocky outcrop in Krokodillen called “Copper Cove” that may contain Noachian rocks.
Ranking Mars Rocks
The rover’s arrival at Krokodillen comes with a new sampling strategy for the nuclear-powered rover that allows for leaving some cored samples unsealed in case the mission finds a more scientifically compelling geologic feature down the road.
To date, Perseverance has collected and sealed two regolith (crushed rock and dust) samples, three witness tubes, and one atmospheric sample. It has also collected 26 rock cores and sealed 25 of them. The rover’s one unsealed sample is its most recent, a rock core taken on April 28 that the team named “Bell Island,” which contains small round stones called spherules. If at some point the science team decides a new sample should take its place, the rover could be commanded to remove the tube from its bin in storage and dump the previous sample.
“We have been exploring Mars for over four years, and every single filled sample tube we have on board has its own unique and compelling story to tell,” said Perseverance acting project scientist Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “There are seven empty sample tubes remaining and a lot of open road in front of us, so we’re going to keep a few tubes — including the one containing the Bell Island core — unsealed for now. This strategy allows us maximum flexibility as we continue our collection of diverse and compelling rock samples.”
Before the mission adopted its new strategy, the engineering sample team assessed whether leaving a tube unsealed could diminish the quality of a sample. The answer was no.
“The environment inside the rover met very strict standards for cleanliness when the rover was built. The tube is also oriented in such a way within its individual storage bin that the likelihood of extraneous material entering the tube during future activities, including sampling and drives, is very low,” said Stack Morgan.
In addition, the team assessed whether remnants of a sample that was dumped could “contaminate” a later sample. “Although there is a chance that any material remaining in the tube from the previous sample could come in contact with the outside of a new sample,” said Stack Morgan, “it is a very minor concern — and a worthwhile exchange for the opportunity to collect the best and most compelling samples when we find them.”
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DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 19, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Astronaut Anne McClain is pictured on May 1, 2025, near one of the International Space Station’s main solar arrays.Credit: NASA NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi will answer prerecorded questions submitted by middle and high school students from New York and Ohio. Both groups will hear from the astronauts aboard the International Space Station in two separate events.
The first event at 10:20 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 20, includes students from Long Beach Middle School in Lido Beach, New York. Media interested in covering the event at Long Beach Middle School must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. Monday, May 19, to Christi Tursi at: ctursi@lbeach.org or 516-771-3960.
The second event at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, May 23, is with students from Vermilion High School in Vermilion, Ohio. Media interested in covering the event at Vermilion High School must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, May 22, to Jennifer Bengele at: jbengele@vermilionschools.org or 440-479-7783.
Watch both 20-minute Earth-to-space calls live on NASA STEM YouTube Channel.
Long Beach Middle School will host the event for students in grades 6 through 8. The school aims to provide both the students and community with an experience that bridge gaps in space sciences with teaching and learning in classrooms.
Vermilion High School will host the event for students in grades 9 through 12, to help increase student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career pathways.
For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lay the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars, inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos of astronauts aboard the space station at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
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Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
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Last Updated May 16, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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By NASA
6 min read
NASA Observes First Visible-light Auroras at Mars
On March 15, 2024, near the peak of the current solar cycle, the Sun produced a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive explosion of gas and magnetic energy that carries with it large amounts of solar energetic particles. This solar activity led to stunning auroras across the solar system, including at Mars, where NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover made history by detecting them for the first time from the surface of another planet.
The first visible-light image of green aurora on Mars (left), taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. On the right is a comparison image of the night sky of Mars without aurora but featuring the Martian moon Deimos. The moonlit Martian night sky, lit up mostly by Mars’ nearer and larger moon Phobos (outside the frame) has a reddish-brown hue due to the dust in the atmosphere, so when green auroral light is added, the sky takes on a green-yellow tone, as seen in the left image. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI “This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars’ surface.” said Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway and lead author of the Science Advances study, which reported the detection.
Picking the right aurora
On Earth, auroras form when solar particles interact with the global magnetic field, funneling them to the poles where they collide with atmospheric gases and emit light. The most common color, green, is caused by excited oxygen atoms emitting light at a wavelength of 557.7 nanometers. For years, scientists have theorized that green light auroras could also exist on Mars but suggested they would be much fainter and harder to capture than the green auroras we see on Earth.
Due to the Red Planet’s lack of a global magnetic field, Mars has different types of auroras than those we have on Earth. One of these is solar energetic particle (SEP) auroras, which NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission discovered in 2014. These occur when super-energetic particles from the Sun hit the Martian atmosphere, causing a reaction that makes the atmosphere glow across the whole night sky.
While MAVEN had observed SEP auroras in ultraviolet light from orbit, this phenomenon had never been observed in visible light from the ground. Since SEPs typically occur during solar storms, which increase during solar maximum, Knutsen and her team set their sights on capturing visible images and spectra of SEP aurora from Mars’ surface at the peak of the Sun’s current solar cycle.
Coordinating the picture-perfect moment
Through modeling, Knutsen and her team determined the optimal angle for the Perseverance rover’s SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera to successfully observe the SEP aurora in visible light. With this observation strategy in place, it all came down to the timing and understanding of CMEs.
“The trick was to pick a good CME, one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars’ atmosphere,” said Knutsen.
That is where the teams at NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office and the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), both located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, came in. The M2M team provides real-time analysis of solar eruptions to the CCMC for initiating simulations of CMEs to determine if they might impact current NASA missions. When the simulations suggest potential impacts, the team sends out an alert.
At the University of California, Berkeley, space physicist Christina Lee received an alert from the M2M office about the March 15, 2024, CME. Lee, a member of the MAVEN mission team who serves as the space weather lead, determined there was a notable solar storm heading toward the Red Planet,which could arrive in a few days. She immediately issued the Mars Space Weather Alert Notification to currently operating Mars missions.
“This allows the science teams of Perseverance and MAVEN to anticipate impacts of interplanetary CMEs and the associated SEPs,” said Lee.
“When we saw the strength of this one,” Knutsen said, “we estimated it could trigger aurora bright enough for our instruments to detect.”
A few days later, the CME impacted Mars, providing a lightshow for the rover to capture, showing the aurora to be nearly uniform across the sky at an emission wavelength of exactly 557.7 nm. To confirm the presence of SEPs during the aurora observation, the team looked to MAVEN’s SEP instrument, which was additionally corroborated by data from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Mars Express mission. Data from both missions confirmed that the rover team had managed to successfully catch a glimpse of the phenomenon in the very narrow time window available.
“This was a fantastic example of cross-mission coordination. We all worked together quickly to facilitate this observation and are thrilled to have finally gotten a sneak peek of what astronauts will be able to see there some day,” said Shannon Curry, MAVEN principal investigator and research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder).
The future of aurora on Mars
By coordinating the Perseverance observations with measurements from MAVEN’s SEP instrument, the teams could help each other determine that the observed 557.7 nm emission came from solar energetic particles. Since this is the same emission line as the green aurora on Earth, it is likely that future Martian astronauts would be able to see this type of aurora.
“Perseverance’s observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that’s complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters,” said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “A better understanding of auroras and the conditions around Mars that lead to their formation are especially important as we prepare to send human explorers there safely.”
On September 21, 2014, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. The mission has produced a wealth of data about how Mars’ atmosphere responds to the Sun and solar wind NASA/JPL-Caltech More About Perseverance and MAVEN
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio and NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
The MAVEN mission, also part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio, is led by LASP at CU Boulder. It’s managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and was built and operated by Lockheed Martin Space, with navigation and network support from NASA’s JPL.
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By Willow Reed
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder
Media Contact:
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated May 14, 2025 Related Terms
Mars Goddard Space Flight Center MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) View the full article
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