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

After a final attempt to restore contact with the Opportunity Mars rover, NASA managers declared the spacecraft lost, bringing a 15-year mission to an end.

NASA is tweaking operating procedures to prolong the life of its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, reducing the demand on its batteries and switching to star trackers instead of aging gyroscopes to determine the spacecraft’s orientation.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has detected a wide range of organic compounds on the red planet along with signs of seasonal variations in background methane levels, a possible indicator of biological activity.