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Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency funded for development this year.

When NASA engineers want to test a concept for exploring the Red Planet, they have to find ways to create Mars-like conditions here on Earth. Then they test, tinker, and repeat. 

That’s why a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took three research drones to California’s Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert earlier this year. They needed barren, featureless desert dunes to hone navigation software. Called Extended Robust Aerial Autonomy, the work is just one of 25 projects funded by the agency’s Mars Exploration Program this past year to push the limits of future technologies. Similar dunes on Mars confused the navigation algorithm of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during several of its last flights, including its 72nd and final flight on the Red Planet.

“Ingenuity was designed to fly over well-textured terrain, estimating its motion by looking at visual features on the ground. But eventually it had to cross over blander areas where this became hard,” said Roland Brockers, a JPL researcher and drone pilot. “We want future vehicles to be more versatile and not have to worry about flying over challenging areas like these sand dunes.”

Whether it’s new navigation software, slope-scaling robotic scouts, or long-distance gliders, the technology being developed by the Mars Exploration Program envisions a future where robots can explore all on their own — or even help astronauts do their work.

NASA scientists and engineers have been going to Death Valley National Park since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing for the first Mars landings with the twin Viking spacecraft. Rubbly volcanic boulders on barren slopes earned one area the name Mars Hill, where much of this research has taken place. Almost half a century later, JPL engineers tested the Perseverance rover’s precision landing system by flying a component of it in a piloted helicopter over the park. 

For the drone testing, engineers traveled to the park’s Mars Hill and Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes in late April and early September. The JPL team received only the third-ever license to fly research drones in Death Valley. Temperatures reached as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius); gathered beneath a pop-up canopy, team members tracked the progress of their drones on a laptop. 

The test campaign has already resulted in useful findings, including how different camera filters help the drones track the ground and how new algorithms can guide them to safely land in cluttered terrain like Mars Hill’s. 

“It’s incredibly exciting to see scientists using Death Valley as a proving ground for space exploration,” said Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “It’s a powerful reminder that the park is protected not just for its scenic beauty or recreational opportunities, but as a living laboratory that actively helps us understand desert environments and worlds beyond our own.”

For additional testing during the three-day excursion, the team ventured to the Mojave Desert’s Dumont Dunes. The site of mobility system tests for NASA’s Curiosity rover in 2012, the rippled dunes there offered a variation of the featureless terrain used to test the flight software in Death Valley.

“Field tests give you a much more comprehensive perspective than solely looking at computer models and limited satellite images,” said JPL’s Nathan Williams, a geologist on the team who previously helped operate Ingenuity. “Scientifically interesting features aren’t always located in the most benign places, so we want to be prepared to explore even more challenging terrains than Ingenuity did.”

The California desert isn’t the only field site where Mars technology has been tested this year. In August, researchers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ventured to New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, another desert location that has hosted NASA testing for decades. 

They were there with a doglike robot called LASSIE-M (Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments for Mars). Motors in the robot’s legs measure physical properties of the surface that, when combined with other data, lets LASSIE-M shift gait as it encounters terrain that is softer, looser, or crustier — variations often indicative of scientifically interesting changes. 

The team’s goal is to develop a robot that can scale rocky or sandy terrain — both of which can be hazardous to a rover — as it scouts ahead of humans and robots alike, using instruments to seek out new science.

Another Mars Exploration Program concept funded this past year is an autonomous robot that trades the compactness of the Ingenuity helicopter for the range that comes with wings. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has been developing the Mars Electric Reusable Flyer (MERF), which looks like a single wing with twin propellers that allow it to lift off vertically and hover in the air. (A fuselage and tail would be too heavy for this design.) While the flyer skims the sky at high speeds, instruments on its belly can map the surface.

At its full size, the MERF unfolds to be about as long as a small school bus. Langley engineers have been testing a half-scale prototype, sending it soaring across a field on the Virgina campus to study the design’s aerodynamics and the robot’s lightweight materials, which are critical to flying in Mars’ thin atmosphere.

With other projects focused on new forms of power generation, drills and sampling equipment, and cutting-edge autonomous software, there are many new ways for NASA to explore Mars in the future.

News Media Contacts

Andrew GoodJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-393-2433andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Alise Fisher / Alana JohnsonNASA Headquarters, Washington202-617-4977 / 202-672-4780alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

2025-131

NASA is marking America’s 250th year with a bold new symbol of the nation’s relentless drive to explore.
The America 250 emblem is now on the twin solid rocket boosters of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for Artemis II — the powerhouse that will launch a crew of four around the Moon next year. Unveiled Tuesday, the design echoes the America 250 Commission’s Spirit of Innovation theme, honoring a country that has never stopped pushing the horizon forward.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians spent recent weeks carefully applying the emblem on the rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building — the same place where rockets for Apollo once stood. Engineers are running final tests on SLS and the Orion spacecraft as preparations intensify for Artemis II.
The roughly 10-day Artemis II journey around the Moon will mark a defining moment in this new era of American exploration — paving the way for U.S. crews to land on the lunar surface and ultimately push onward to Mars.
America’s spirit of discovery is alive, and Artemis is carrying it to the Moon and beyond.
Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

On Nov. 2, 2025, NASA honored 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station. What began as a fragile framework of modules has evolved into a springboard for international cooperation, advanced scientific research and technology demonstrations, the development of a low Earth orbit economy, and NASA’s next great leaps in exploration, including crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. This legacy of achievement in global human endeavors began with the first crew’s arrival to the space station on Nov. 2, 2000. Expedition 1 crew members NASA astronaut William M. Shepherd and Russian Aviation and Space Agency, now Roscosmos, cosmonauts Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan two days prior. After a successful docking, the crew transferred aboard the station and began bringing it to life. Their primary tasks during their four-month mission included installing and activating the life support and communications systems and working with three visiting space shuttle crews to continue the station’s assembly. The trio returned to Earth in March 2001 aboard space shuttle Discovery, after having turned the station over to the Expedition 2 crew. 

Assembly and maintenance of the International Space Station would not be possible without the skilled work of crew members performing intricate tasks, in bulky spacesuits, in the harsh environment of space. In addition to station upkeep, spacewalks provide a platform for testing and improving spacesuits and tools – critical information for future exploration of the Moon and Mars. Other spacewalks have included operations for scientific research. In Jan. 2025, for example, crew members collected samples for an investigation examining whether microorganisms have exited through station vents and can survive in space, to better inform spacecraft design that helps prevent human contamination of Mars and other destinations. 
More than 270 spacewalks dedicated to the space station have been accomplished in the last quarter century. Several made station and human spaceflight history: 

May 1999: NASA astronaut Tamara Jernigan became the first woman to complete a spacewalk at the space station, in support of its construction. 

September 2000: Also during space station assembly, NASA astronaut Edward T. “Ed” Lu and Roscosmos cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko conducted the first U.S.-Russian spacewalk. 

March 10, 2001: NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms set the record for longest spacewalk in U.S. history, at 8 hours and 56 minutes. 

First spacewalks by international partners included: 

April 2001 – Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield 

July 2005 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi 

Aug. 2006 – European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter 

Feb. 26, 2004: NASA astronaut Mike Foale and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Y. Kaleri complete the first spacewalk with no one inside the station.  

Oct. 18, 2019: The first all-female spacewalk in history, conducted by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. 

The International Space Station welcomed its first commercial crew members on May 31, 2020, when former NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley joined Expedition 63 Commander and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the orbiting laboratory.  
Behnken and Hurley lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida the day before on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight – the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011.  
The duo quickly integrated with the rest of the crew and participated in a number of scientific experiments, spacewalks, and public engagement events during their 62 days aboard station. Overall, the pair spent 64 days in orbit, completed 1,024 orbits around Earth, and contributed more than 100 hours of time to supporting the orbiting laboratory’s investigations before splashing down on Aug. 2.  
Successful completion of the Demo-2 mission paved the way for regular SpaceX flights carrying astronauts to and from the space station. With another certified crew transportation system in place, the International Space Station Program added research time and increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s testbed for exploration, including preparations for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. 

On Sept. 27, 2023, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth after spending 371 days aboard the International Space Station—the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. His mission surpassed the previous record of 355 days, set by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, and provided scientists with an unprecedented look at how the human body adapts to more than a year in microgravity. 
Rubio’s record-setting mission supported six human research studies, including investigations into diet, exercise, and overall physiology and psychology. He was the first astronaut to test whether limited workout equipment could still maintain health and fitness, an important consideration for future spacecraft with tighter living quarters. He also contributed biological samples, surveys, and tests for NASA’s Spaceflight Standard Measures, a study that collects health data from astronauts to better understand how the body adapts to space—knowledge that helps prepare crews for the Artemis campaign to the Moon and future trips to Mars. 
Alongside his fellow crew members, Rubio participated in dozens of investigations and technology demonstrations, from growing tomato plants with hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to materials science experiments that advance spacecraft design. 
Long-duration missions help inform future spaceflight and lay the groundwork for the next era of human exploration.  

The space station is one of the most ambitious international collaborations ever attempted. It brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch and flight operations, training, engineering, and development facilities, communications networks, and the international scientific research community for the benefit of all humanity.  
An international partnership of space agencies operates the elements of the orbiting laboratory: NASA, Roscosmos, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Each partner takes primary responsibility for managing and running the station hardware it provides, as well as on-Earth construction, launch support, mission operations, communications, and research and technology facilities that support the station. 
At least 290 individuals representing 26 countries, and the five international partners have visited the orbiting laboratory during its 25 years of continuous human presence. Some of those visitors flew to the station on private astronaut missions. These missions contribute to scientific, outreach, and commercial activities. They also help demonstrate the demand for future commercial space stations and are an important component of NASA’s strategy for enabling a robust and competitive commercial economy in low Earth orbit. 
The results of the international partnership created through the space station and its accomplishments exemplifies how countries can work together to overcome complex challenges and achieve collaborative goals. 

This article is for students grades 5-8.Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a type of technology that helps machines and computers have “thinking” abilities similar to humans. Devices using AI can learn words and concepts, recognize objects, see patterns, or make predictions. They can also be taught how to work autonomously. AI is often used to help people understand and solve problems more quickly than they could on their own.
AI includes:

Machine learning: This type of AI looks at large amounts of data and learns how to make fast and accurate predictions based on that data. 
Deep learning: This type helps computers operate much like the human brain. It uses several layers of “thought” to recognize patterns and learn new information. Deep learning is a type of machine learning. 
Generative AI: A human can use generative AI to create text, videos, images, and more. It is based on deep learning.

NASA has found uses for AI in many of its missions and programs.
For missions to the Moon, AI can use satellite imagery to create detailed 3D maps of dark craters. This data could help scientists plan missions, spot hazards, and even identify where future crews might find water ice. On Mars, the Perseverance rover uses AI to drive itself autonomously. It takes pictures of the ground, sees obstacles, and chooses the safest path.
AI also helps NASA search for planets outside our solar system. For example, AI has helped citizen scientists find over 10,000 pairs of binary stars. These pairs orbit each other and block each other’s light. This information could help scientists search for new planets and learn more about how stars form.
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Words to Know
Autonomous: acting or operating independently, without external control. An autonomous technology can perform duties without human intervention.
Citizen scientist: a member of the public, often a volunteer, who collects data that can be used by scientists. When members of the public participate in research in this way, it’s called citizen science.
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NASA also uses AI to support its work on Earth.  The agency uses AI to aid disaster relief efforts during and after natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. For example, AI can count tarps on roofs in satellite images to measure damage after a storm. NASA is also supporting flight controllers and pilots by using AI to plan better flight routes, making air travel safer and more efficient. 
AI is helping NASA explore space, protect people, and make amazing discoveries!

“AI is a great field for people who like solving problems, building things, or asking questions about how the world works. People use AI to help doctors understand diseases, to teach robots how to explore space,  and to help communities prepare for things like floods or wildfires. If you like using technology to help people and discover new things, AI could be a great career for you!” – Krista Kinnard, NASA’s Deputy Chief AI Officer

NASA roles that may involve AI include:  Astronauts: Astronauts on the International Space Station can use an AI “digital assistant” to get medical recommendations. This is helpful when communication with Earth is interrupted. It could also be useful on future missions to distant destinations like Mars.Engineers: Engineers can use AI to help them generate designs for things like new spacecraft.Astronomers: AI helps astronomers analyze satellite and deep space telescope data to find stars and exoplanets.Meteorologists: Weather experts can use machine learning to make climate projections.Programmers: Programmers can use AI to update code used in older missions, bringing it up to modern standards.IT professionals: AI can enable IT experts to understand outages across NASA, allowing them to get programs back up and running faster.Program managers: Program managers can use AI to plan and model NASA missions.

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The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured glowing cosmic dust heated by very young massive stars in unprecedented detail in this image of the Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2) molecular cloud released on Sept. 24, 2025.
Sgr B2 is the most massive, and active star-forming region in our galaxy, located only a few hundred light years from our central supermassive black hole. While Sgr B2 has only 10% of the galactic center’s gas, it produces 50% of its stars. Astronomers want to figure out why it is so much more active than the rest of the galactic center.
MIRI has both a camera and a spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. MIRI’s view reveals colorful stars punctuated occasionally by bright clouds of gas and dust. Further research into these stars will reveal details of their masses and ages, which will help astronomers better understand the process of star formation in this dense, active galactic center region.
Image credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam Ginsburg (University of Florida), Nazar Budaiev (University of Florida), Taehwa Yoo (University of Florida); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

For more than 25 years, Mark Elder has helped make human spaceflight safe and possible. As the International Space Station EVA hardware manager in the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Office within the EVA and Human Surface Mobility Program, he leads the team responsible for the spacesuits, tools, and logistics that keep astronauts protected during spacewalks—and ensures NASA is ready for the next era of Artemis exploration. His team is programmatically responsible for the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or EMU, spacesuit. That means every bolt, bearing, and battery astronauts rely on outside the International Space Station ultimately falls under their watch. He also oversees the EVA Space Operations Contract, which provides engineering and technical support to keep spacesuit systems flight ready. 
Elder’s work directly supports every EVA, or spacewalk, conducted at the station. His team coordinates with astronauts, engineers, and the Mission Control Center in Houston to make sure the suits and tools operate reliably in the most unforgiving environment imaginable. Their work helps ensure every EVA is conducted safely and successfully. 
Elder’s passion for NASA began at an early age. 
“When I was little, my parents gave me a book called ‘The Astronauts,’” he said. “It had drawings of a reusable spacecraft—the space shuttle—and I fell in love with it. From then on, I told everyone I was going to work at NASA.” 
That dream took off at age 16, when he attended Space Academy in Huntsville, Alabama. “That cemented my dream of someday working at NASA, and it taught me a little bit more about the different roles within the agency,” he said. 
While attending Case Western Reserve University as a mechanical engineering student, he learned about a new NASA program that allowed college students to design and build an experiment and then come to Johnson Space Center for a week to fly with their experiment on the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. “I jumped on the chance to be part of the team,” he said. “The experience further cemented my dream of working at NASA one day—Johnson in particular.” 
After graduation, Elder worked with Pratt & Whitney on jet engines. While the experience was invaluable, he knew his heart belonged in human spaceflight. “I learned that one of Pratt’s fellow companies under the United Technologies umbrella was Hamilton Sundstrand, which was the prime contractor for the spacesuit,” he said. “I jumped at the chance to transfer, and my career at NASA finally began.” 
Elder spent his first three years at Johnson performing tool-to-tool fit checks on spacewalking equipment, giving him hands-on experience with nearly every tool that he would eventually become responsible for as a hardware manager. 

His early years coincided with the shuttle return-to-flight era, when he worked on reinforced carbon-carbon panel repairs and thermal protection systems. Those experiences built his technical foundation and prepared him for the leadership roles to come. 
Over time, Elder took on increasingly complex assignments, eventually leading the team that developed the EVA Long Life Battery—the first human-rated lithium battery used in space. His team created a rigorous test plan to certify the battery for human spaceflight at a time when lithium batteries were under scrutiny for safety concerns. 
“Finally signing the certification paperwork was satisfying, but watching an EVA powered by the batteries provided a great sense of pride,” he said. 
This innovation set the stage for future generations of even safer, higher-capacity batteries that power today’s spacewalking operations and will eventually support lunar surface activities. 
Looking back, Elder said some of his greatest lessons came from learning how to lead with purpose. “The great thing about NASA is the highly motivated and dedicated workforce,” he said. “When I first became a team lead, I thought success meant making quick decisions and moving fast. I learned that leadership is really about listening. Strong teams are built on trust and open communication.” 
Another defining lesson, he said, has been learning to assume positive intent. “In a place like NASA, everyone is deeply passionate about what they do,” he said. “It’s easy to misinterpret a disagreement as opposition, but when you remember that everyone is working toward the same goal, the conversation changes. You focus on solving problems, not winning arguments.” 
That mindset has guided Elder through some of NASA’s most complex programs and helped him build lasting partnerships across the agency. 

Today, Elder’s work extends beyond the orbiting laboratory. As NASA prepares for Artemis missions to the Moon, his team’s experience maintaining and improving the EMU informs the design of next-generation exploration suits. 
“The foundation we’ve built on the space station is critical for the future,” he said. “Every tool we’ve refined, every system we’ve upgraded—it all feeds into how we’ll operate on the lunar surface and eventually on Mars.” 
Elder believes that the key to future success lies in perseverance. He advises the next generation to never stop dreaming. “My path wasn’t direct, and it would have been easy for me to give up,” he said. “But dreams have a way of guiding you if you don’t let go of them.” 
When he’s not supporting those missions, Elder’s creativity takes shape in his workshop. “In my spare time, I love woodworking,” he said. “Building something useful from a pile of rough-sawn boards helps calm me and gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I love being able to build furniture for my family,” he added, after recently finishing a desk for his youngest son. 
The same patience and precision he brings to woodworking defines his approach to exploration—steady progress, careful craftmanship, and attention to detail. “As NASA goes to the Moon and Mars, there will be challenges,” Elder said. “As long as we keep dreaming, we will see the next generation walking on the Moon and heading to Mars.” 

In some ways, Benin City is like dozens of other fast-growing cities in Nigeria. Buoyed by burgeoning industrial and agricultural sectors, the city’s population rose by 1.7 million people over the past four decades as its footprint on the West African landscape expanded several times over.

Amid bustling new networks of roads, residential neighborhoods, markets, and workshops, lie signs of a much earlier era, when the city was the seat of a powerful pre-colonial kingdom. Remnants of ancient earthworks, thought to be among the longest in the world, can even be seen in images of the city captured from space.

Benin Iya (sometimes called the Benin Earthworks, the Walls of Benin, and the Benin Moat) is a vast, cellular network of interlocking earthen walls, ramparts, and ditches that radiate outward from a central moat at the heart of the city. Built in sections over hundreds of years between the 7th and 14th centuries, the system was key to marking defensive, political, and economic boundaries and played an important role in maintaining order and stability in the Kingdom of Benin.

The OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 captured this image of the remains of earthworks on January 11, 2025. The features appear as dark green lines that trace arcing patterns in a densely settled area near the airport on the west bank of the Ikpoba River. Trees and vegetation growing in the moats give the features a dark green color.

Most of the earthworks consisted of relatively narrow and shallow linear ramparts and ditches that spread widely across the landscape. Many sections have been destroyed or are too small or too obscured by modern development to be easily detected by satellites or astronauts in orbit. However, some inner sections that run through the modern Oredo, Egor, and Ikpoba-Okha areas of the city had true walls and moats and are among the most visible in Landsat imagery.

Archaeological research indicates that the earthworks spanned more than 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) and enclosed roughly 6,500 square kilometers (2,500 square miles)—an area as large as the U.S. state of Delaware. Such length means the features hold the Guinness World Record for being the “longest earthworks of the pre-mechanical era.” By some measures, the features were together significantly longer than the Great Wall of China.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

Guinness World Records Longest earthworks of the pre-mechanical era. Accessed November 25, 2025.

The Met (2025, May 31) Benin City Earthworks and Urban Planning, Nigeria. Accessed November 25, 2025.

MOWAA The Benin Iya Survey. Accessed November 25, 2025.

MOWAA Benin City’s Moat (Iya) System. Accessed November 25, 2025.

Onwuanyi, N. et al. (2021) The Benin City Moat System: Functional Space or Urban Void? African Journal of Environmental Research, 3(1), 21-39.

Schepers, C. et al. (2025) Current Condition of the Iya in Benin City, the Gates and Future Preservation Strategies. African Archaeological Review, 42, 519-537.

UNESCO (1995) Benin Iya / Sungbo’s Eredo. Accessed November 25, 2025.

World Monuments Fund (2025) Benin City Earthworks. Accessed November 25, 2025.

Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed tiger stripes near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in this image released on Feb. 23, 2010. A study published in October 2025 analyzed data from NASA’s Cassini mission and found evidence of previously undetected organic compounds in a plume of ice particles like the ones seen here. The ice particles were ejected from the ocean that lies under Enceladus’ frozen shell. Researchers spotted not only molecules they’ve found before but also new ones that lay a potential path to chemical or biochemical activity.
Learn more about what they discovered.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute