Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2008 - Seasons are about twice as long on Mars as on Earth and are offset relative to Earth because Mars takes about twice as long to complete one orbit around the Sun. At Spirit's location, the fall equinox -- the start of fall, when night and day are equal in length -- arrived Dec. 12, 2007. The winter solstice -- the time of year with the shortest day -- will arrive June 25, 2008.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2008 - A new stereo view of Phobos, the larger and inner of Mars' two tiny moons, has been captured by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took two images of Phobos 10 minutes apart on March 23. Scientists combined the images for a stereo view.
Mpffett Field CA (SPX) Apr 08, 2008 - Mars is preparing for an invasion from Earth. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still traveling across the surface of the Red Planet, but NASA and the European Space Agency are planning to send more missions over the next few years. First up is the Mars Phoenix lander. Launched last year, this mission is due to arrive near the Martian north pole on May 25.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 07, 2008 - It's a good thing there's no speed limit on Mars, because the next parachute to fly to the red planet will deploy faster than you can legally drive on a California freeway! The chute is designed to slow the Mars Science Laboratory as it rockets through the Martian atmosphere at more than twice the speed of sound and places a car-size rover on the surface.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 05, 2008 - Spirit is feeling the strain of juggling activities on Mars in the face of declining power levels as the winter Sun sinks lower on the horizon. After acquiring compositional data from a rock target informally named Wendell Pruitt, Spirit had to wait a few sols (Martian days) to have enough energy to conduct atmospheric studies and move the robotic arm out of the way for a panoramic-camera portrait of a rock target known as Freeman.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 05, 2008 - Opportunity is wrapping up its scientific investigation of the outcrop exposure known as Gilbert_A at the bottom of the alcove known as Duck Bay, the lowest traversable portion of the crater's interior. Duck Bay is a recess in the walls of Victoria Crater.
Chapel Hill NC (SPX) Apr 01, 2008 - Looking for evidence of life on Mars or other planets? Finding cellulose microfibers would be the next best thing to a close encounter, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The cover story for the April issue of the journal Astrobiology, the new research also pushes back the earliest direct evidence of biological material on Earth by about 200 million years.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 28, 2008 - Opportunity has completed scientific studies of the undisturbed surface of a rock target informally named Dorsal in the Gilbert rock layer inside Victoria Crater. Dorsal is a protruding fin of rock created by minerals deposited in cracks that remained in place long after the original rock eroded away because they were more resistant to weathering.
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 - 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.
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.
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.
