Washington (AFP) Dec 4, 2008 - US space agency NASA delayed a landmark mission to Mars by 26 months on Thursday, adding another 400 million dollars to the already over-budget project to see if the red planet can support life, officials said.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2008 - After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 02, 2008 - Spirit's condition has improved during the past week, though skies remain fairly dusty after the recent Martian dust storm. Since sol 1730 (Nov. 14, 2008), solar-array energy has averaged 169 watt-hours (100 watt-hours is the amount of energy needed to light a 100-watt bulb for 1 hour). The latest measurement of atmospheric darkness caused by dust, known as Tau, is 0.858. The dust factor, representing the portion of sunlight penetrating the coating of dust on the solar panels, is 0.2912.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 02, 2008 - Opportunity is getting ready for solar conjunction, the time when the Sun is in the line of sight between Earth and Mars. During this two-week period, from Nov. 30, 2008 to Dec. 13, 2008, the mission team will not send new commands to the rover. The science team plans to position Opportunity on a rock outcrop, possibly near a cobble the rover can study with the Moessbauer spectrometer, during this time interval.
Hong Kong (SPX) Dec 01, 2008 - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is working closely with the well-established Russian Space Agency in designing a state-of-the-art space tool which will be carried onboard a Russian spacecraft for the Red Planet in the 2009 Sino-Russian Space Mission - the first strategic interplanetary collaboration between China and Russia.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 27, 2008 - Mars scientists will present dramatic images and key findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at a free evening program in Pasadena on Thursday, Dec. 4, celebrating completion of the mission's first two-year science phase.
Tempe AZ (SPX) Nov 27, 2008 - Mars has slipped far enough behind the sun today that signals from Mars-orbiting spacecraft are effectively blocked until mid-December. This solar conjunction happens every two years.
Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 25, 2008 - Researchers have found new evidence that the atmosphere of Mars is being stripped away by solar wind. It's not a gently continuous erosion, but rather a ripping process in which chunks of Martian air detach themselves from the planet and tumble into deep space.
Paris, France (SPX) Nov 24, 2008 - Scientists using ESA's Mars Express have produced the first crude map of aurorae on Mars. These displays of ultraviolet light appear to be located close to the residual magnetic fields generated by Mars's crustal rocks. They highlight a number of mysteries about the way Mars interacts with electrically charged particles originating from the Sun.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled to launch in fall 2009, will follow the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Lander to help determine if Mars is habitable for life.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 21, 2008 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet.
Washington (AFP) Nov 20, 2008 - NASA scientists have discovered enormous underground reservoirs of frozen water on Mars, away from its polar caps, in the latest sign that life might be sustainable on the Red planet.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 20, 2008 - Four intriguing places on Mars have risen to the final round as NASA selects a landing site for its next Mars mission, the Mars Science Laboratory.
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 19, 2008 - NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover. NASA, in cooperation with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures' movie WALL-E from Pixar Animation Studios, will conduct a naming contest for its car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover that is scheduled for launch in 2009.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2008 - Mars is good at keeping its secrets. As a case in point, consider the discovery by NASA's Phoenix lander of carbonates in the planet's northern polar plains. The goal of the Phoenix mission was to understand the historic role of water in the frozen martian north, and to assess the region's habitability.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Nov 18, 2008 - An international team of scientists who analyzed data from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer onboard NASA's Mars Odyssey reports new evidence for the controversial idea that oceans once covered about a third of ancient Mars.
