Sols 4502-4504: Sneaking Past Devil’s Gate

Written by Michelle Minitti, Planetary Geologist at Framework Earth planning date: Friday, April 4, 2025 We continue to make progress driving up Mount Sharp, each day gaining new perspectives on the spectacular, towering buttes surrounding our path. To get to the next canyon we can ascend, we have to swing around the north end of […]

Connected Learning Ecosystems: Educators Gather to Empower Learners and Themselves

Many educators would agree that despite working and communicating with dozens, even hundreds, of people each year, the role can feel isolating. Learners come and go, leaving educators to question: Was anything retained? Will they take this knowledge home? Will they share it at their after-school activities? How will it ultimately impact their lives and […]

Sols 4500-4501: Bedrock With a Side of Sand

Written by Sharon Wilson Purdy, Planetary Geologist at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Wow, sol 4500. What an impressive number of sols (Martian days) exploring the Red Planet! This delightfully even sol number made me wonder where the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity was at this point […]

From FIRST Robotics to NASA Rockets: Angel Saenz’s Journey to White Sands

Long before joining NASA’s Test and Evaluation Support Team contract in October 2024, Angel Saenz was already an engineer at heart. A STEM education program at his high school helped unlock that passion, setting him on a path that would eventually lead to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The program […]

Gateway’s First Habitation Module Arrives Stateside

From the mountains of Turin to the deserts of Arizona, a core element of Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station, is now one step closer to the Moon. As seen in this April 1, 2025, photo, HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost), Gateway’s first pressurized module and one of its foundational elements, recently arrived in Gilbert, […]