Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 06, 2009 - Loose soil piled against the northern edge of a low plateau called Home Plate has blocked NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit from taking the shortest route toward its southward destinations for the upcoming Martian summer and following winter.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 05, 2009 - The team operating NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter plans a procedure next week to address a long-known, potential vulnerability of accumulated memory corruption.
Houston TX (SPX) Mar 05, 2009 - The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest, but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about whether the Red Planet ever had - or still supports - life.
Providence RI (SPX) Mar 03, 2009 - Planetary geologists at Brown University have found a gully fan system on Mars that formed about 1.25 million years ago. The fan offers compelling evidence that it was formed by melt water that originated in nearby snow and ice deposits and may stand as the most recent period when water flowed on the planet.
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 02, 2009 - ESA has announced the European prime and backup crewmembers for the 105-day Mars500 study. From 31 March 2009, two Europeans are set to join four Russian crewmembers on a simulated human mission to Mars.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Feb 27, 2009 - The Phoenix Mars Lander ended its mission last November, but scientists are still pondering the data. One intriguing discovery was a nightly cycle in which water vapor in the atmosphere collapsed into the martian soil. One researcher thinks this may hint of dew-like films that could have supported life in a previous martian climate.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 27, 2009 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter unexpectedly rebooted its computer Monday morning, Feb. 23, and put itself into a limited-activity mode that is an automated safety response.
Paris (AFP) Feb 26, 2009 - The European Space Agency (ESA) on Friday named a Frenchman and a German who will join four Russians in an innovative 105-day isolation experiment to test whether humans can one day fly to Mars.
Flagstaff AZ (SPX) Feb 26, 2009 - Unique fractures in lavas on ancient Mars suggest water occasionally flooded portions of the planet's surface. The fractures, known as columnar joints, are the first that have been observed on a planet other than Earth.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Feb 24, 2009 - The Space Foundation has awarded its 2009 John L. Jack Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander team in recognition of the technical developments that led to one of the most startling and meaningful discoveries of the new millennium, the Space Foundation has announced.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 23, 2009 - This near-infrared image from the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft was taken near the point of closest approach to Mars on Feb. 17, 2009, during Dawn's gravity assist flyby.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 17, 2009 - The Dawn spacecraft, which began its journey to the asteroid belt in 2007, is now nearing Mars, and scientists at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute (PSI) are preparing to use the encounter to tune up Dawn's GraND instrument.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 16, 2009 - Launched in September of 2007, and propelled by any one of a trio of hyper-efficient ion engines, NASA's Dawn spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars last summer. At that time, the asteroid belt (where Dawn's two targets, asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres reside), had never been closer.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 14, 2009 - A small but important uptick in electrical output from the solar panels on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit this month indicates a beneficial Martian wind has blown away some of the dust that has accumulated on the panels.
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Feb 12, 2009 - Martian wind guests have removed some dust from the U.S. space agency's Mars rover Spirit, increasing its electrical output, NASA says.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 11, 2009 - Communication problems during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday led to the postponement of a drive planned for sol 1791 (Jan. 15, 2009) to sol 1793 (Jan. 17, 2009). Once the drive began, however, Spirit was able to go ahead with characterization of a rock target known as Stapledon.
