Professor Mark Sims on the discovery that Beagle 2 made it to the surface

NASA is adding a small helicopter to the agency’s Mars 2020 rover that will become the first heavier-than-air vehicle to fly on another planet. The technology demonstrator features twin counter-rotating blades.

Mars lies highest in the sky to the south soon after sunset at the beginning of July for observers in the UK, so you should not waste any opportunities to view the Red Planet while it is close and still relatively large in size. Tharsis, the great Martian volcanic plateau that is home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system, is turned toward Earth in the first week of the month.

NASA has not heard from the Opportunity Mars rover since it fell silent 10 June as a global dust storm blanketed the red planet, but engineers are hopeful the long-lived robot will wake up soon as the storm abates.