Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 28, 2008 - Spirit has reached its final position for the coming Martian winter and has no plans to move before the next Martian spring. During the next few months, the rover will increasingly go into a hibernate mode as the sun continues to dim.
Woodland Hills CA (SPX) Mar 27, 2008 - Wataire International is pleased to advise that we have received an initial review that our water-from-air units performed very well during the recent four-month mission at the Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS). It is the first time that a simulated Mars mission has ever been conducted for such a long duration.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 25, 2008 - Scarcely a pinball wizard on Earth could tilt the machine nearly 30 degrees without ending play, yet engineers tilted NASA's Spirit rover 29.9 degrees and completed the robotic equivalent of a one-armed toe-touch to test its stability. The rover remained in play, racking up scientific data points after remaining perfectly balanced even while pressing the ground with the Mossbauer spectrometer at the end of its robotic arm.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 25, 2008 - Opportunity completed the first leg of a two-part drive toward an area of scientific interest known as Gilbert that involved moving backward in order to continue the drive without running into some unexpectedly deep soil to the rover's right. En route, Opportunity spent two Martian days acquiring compositional data from a rock exposure dubbed Lyell-Exeter, measured argon gas in the Martian atmosphere, and conducted remote-sensing activities.
Washington (AFP) March 20, 2008 - US scientists have discovered salt deposits on the surface of Mars, indicating that water was once plenty and pointing sites that could provide evidence of past life, a study said Thursday.
Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 20, 2008 - Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera designed and operated at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility have discovered the first evidence for deposits of chloride minerals - salts - in numerous places on Mars. These deposits, say the scientists, show where water was once abundant and may also provide evidence for the existence of former Martian life.
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 16, 2008 - A new analysis of impact cratering data from Mars reveals that the planet has undergone a series of global volcanic upheavals. These violent episodes spewed lava and water onto the surface, sculpting the landscape that ESA's Mars Express looks down on today.
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 14, 2008 - Little noticed by the general public, February 23rd was a special day in space exploration. For the first time in history, an all-woman team of scientists and engineers guided a major NASA mission-the Mars Exploration Rovers. We were in control of Spirit's activities for the day, explains Barbara Cohen of the Marshall Space Flight Center who headed up the science team. It was a milestone in mission planning to be able to staff the uplink team with all women.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 07, 2008 - Scientists studying images from The University of Arizona-led High Resolution Imaging Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have discovered never-before-seen impact megabreccia and a possibly once-habitable ancient lake on Mars at a place called Holden crater.
Paris, France (ESA) Mar 06, 2008 - Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space. The simultaneous observations by Mars Express and Venus Express give scientists the data they need to investigate the evolution of the two planets' atmospheres.
by Jean-Louis Santini - Washington DC (AFP) Jun 27, 2008 Martian dirt is apparently good enough for asparagus to grow in, NASA scientists said Thursday, as they announced the results of a soil analysis collected by the US Phoenix Mars lander.
Marshalltown IA (SPX) Mar 06, 2008 - Mechdyne has announced that it has installed an immersive CAVE display system as the focal point of the new Fossett Laboratory for Virtual Planetary Exploration at Washington University St. Louis (WUSTL). As a teaching and research facility of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the Laboratory will provide 3D imaging capability for visualization of data collected by national and international space exploration programs.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 05, 2008 - Spirit has achieved a northerly tilt of 29.9 degrees! As a result, based on power projections, Spirit has a fighting chance of surviving another winter on Mars, if the weather and environment cooperate.
Tuscon AZ (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - Liquid water has not been found on the Martian surface within the last decade after all, according to new research. The finding casts doubt on the 2006 report that the bright spots in some Martian gullies indicate that liquid water flowed down those gullies sometime since 1999. It rules out pure liquid water, said lead author Jon D. Pelletier of The University of Arizona in Tucson.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. It is one of approximately 2,400 HiRISE images being released today.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Mar 04, 2008 - I admit I never actually wrote this goal into my grant, UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry Richard Mathies told me, as one of his graduate students injected a drop of Zinfandel into Mathies's organic analyzer. But it is an important demonstration that the detector actually works.
