After more than a year in a clay-rich region, Curiosity is making a mile-long journey around some deep sand so that it can explore higher up Mount Sharp.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has started a road trip that will continue through the summer across roughly a mile (1.6 kilometers) of terrain. By trip’s end, the rover will be able to ascend to the next section of the 3-mile-tall Martian (5-kilometer-tall) mountain it’s been exploring since 2014, searching for conditions that may have supported ancient microbial life.

Located on the floor of Gale Crater, Mount Sharp is composed of sedimentary layers that built up over time. Each layer helps tell the story about how Mars changed from being more Earth-like — with lakes, streams and a thicker atmosphere — to the nearly-airless, freezing desert it is today.

There are about 33,400 active-duty service members in the Air Force and Space Force, sponsoring more than 55,000 family members enrolled in EFMP.

Kimberly Schuler, the Air Force’s chief for humanitarian, EFMP and expedited transfer reassignments, said in the release that consolidating those components will mean families won’t have to work through a complex process and deal with multiple organizations to get one request answered.

“Your voices were heard,” Schuler said. “Our goal is to improve the customer experience of our airmen and their families during challenging times.”

There are about 33,400 active-duty service members in the Air Force and Space Force, sponsoring more than 55,000 family members enrolled in EFMP.

Kimberly Schuler, the Air Force’s chief for humanitarian, EFMP and expedited transfer reassignments, said in the release that consolidating those components will mean families won’t have to work through a complex process and deal with multiple organizations to get one request answered.

“Your voices were heard,” Schuler said. “Our goal is to improve the customer experience of our airmen and their families during challenging times.”

You’ll have to be up bright and early (or stay up late)

When we think of Earth and its neighboring planets orbiting around our common host star, we picture the center of the Solar System as smack in the middle of the Sun. However, that’s not entirely true, according to new research.

The planets and the Sun actually orbit around a common center of mass. And for the first time, a team of astronomers has pinpointed the center of the entire Solar System down to within 100 meters, the most precise calculation yet.

This concept animation shows just one of many potential concepts for how the first human landing site on Mars might evolve throughout the course of multiple human expeditions to the Red Planet over a decade or more. via @ NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

A new Russian-German space observatory produces the most detailed ever all-sky image seen in X-rays.

When humans leave Earth to explore planets like Mars and other hostile environments in outer space, they’ll need to supply their own breathable oxygen.

But as Michael Gazarik, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, says, “You just can’t bring all the air with you.”