Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 27, 2007 - Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached its science team's first destination for the rover inside Victoria Crater, information received from Mars late Tuesday confirms. Opportunity has descended the inner slope of the 800-meter-wide crater (half a mile wide) to a band of relatively bright bedrock exposed partway down.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2007 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is examining several features on Mars that address the role of water at different times in Martian history. Liquid water is essential for life as we know it, and determining the history of water on Mars is vital in understanding whether or not the planet could have supported life in its past. Studying locations where water may have flowed and pooled on the martian surface will also help researchers choose the most interesting and scientifically important landing sites for future Mars missions.
Boston MA (SPX) Sep 26, 2007 - An MIT-led team of planetary scientists has found that the southern pole of Mars contains the largest deposit of frozen water in the inner solar system, outside of Earth. The new results show that water, not carbon dioxide, is the predominant frozen liquid found in the southern polar region of Mars, said Maria Zuber, MIT professor of geophysics.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 24, 2007 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet. Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 100 to 250 meters (328 to 820 feet) puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey's infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles, scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 21, 2007 - The skies continue to clear over the Opportunity site, and the dust is falling from both the sky and the rover. The last week was dedicated to evaluating the payload and assessing dust accumulation on the instruments. Fortunately, the solar array energy has improved to over 350 Watt-hours for the last four sols. This has given the vehicle enough power to support two alpha particle X-ray spectrometer integrations and two Mars Express UHF overflights.
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 20, 2007 - Key components of a new approach to discover life on Mars were successfully launched into space Friday as part of a twelve-day, low-Earth orbit experiment to assess their survivability in the space radiation environment Na prelude to future journeys to Mars. The new approach is based on technology similar to that used in pregnancy test kits.
Pasadean CA (JPL) Sep 19, 2007 - In early June 2007, the Mars Science Laboratory project completed its project-wide Critical Design Review (CDR), which marks the completion of the project's design phase and transition into the build up of flight hardware. A key component of the CDR process was a technical risk, programmatic, and cost review, from which multiple independent cost assessments predicted that this technically challenging $1.7B planetary science rover mission's current content would cause it to exceed its budgeted development costs to launch by approximately $75M.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 19, 2007 - The team operating NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter is returning the healthy spacecraft to usual activities this week after a precautionary status of reduced activity that the orbiter entered on Sept. 14. Odyssey properly put itself into the standby safe mode in response to a root cause that engineers have diagnosed as the same cause as for two previous safe mode entries, in 2005 and 2006.
Tuscon AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2007 - The Phoenix Mars Mission is on its way to the Red Planet after a flawless launch from Cape Canaveral in early August. With landing scheduled for late May 2008, it might seem like there is nothing to do but wait through a long nine months. But The University of Arizona won't be idle during the cruise phase. Mission scientists are diligently preparing for landing and science operations. And the rest of the UA is quite busy, too, with celebration activities planned for every month through landing.
Honolulu HI (SPX) Sep 14, 2007 - Wobbles on Mars cause ice ages that are much more dramatic than those on Earth, says astronomer Norbert Schorghofer of the University of Hawaii. Thanks to our large, stabilizing Moon, Earth's rotation axis is always tilted by about 23 degrees. The tilt of Mars, however, can wobble by as much as 10 degrees from its current 25 degrees. Wobbles cause big changes in the amount of sunlight reaching different parts of Mars, so vast amounts of ice shift between the poles and the rest of the planet every 120,000 years.
Paris, France (ESA) Sep 13, 2007 - These images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express show the mouth of the Tiu Valles channel system on the red planet. The pictures were taken in orbit 3103 on 10 June 2006 with a ground resolution of approximately 16 metres per pixel. The mouth of Tiu Valles is an estuary-like landform. On Earth, an estuary is the tidal mouth of a river valley, or the end that meets the sea and fresh water comes into contact with seawater. In such an area, tidal effects are evident.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 13, 2007 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has entered Victoria Crater for the first time. It radioed home information via a relay by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, reporting its activities for the day. Opportunity drove far enough in -- about four meters (13 feet) -- to get all six wheels past the crater rim. Then it backed uphill for about three meters (10 feet). The driving commands for the day included a precaution for the rover to stop driving if its wheels were slipping more than 40 percent.
Tuscon AZ (SPX) Sep 10, 2007 - A camera flying aboard The University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars Lander took its first picture during cruise and sent it back to Earth on Sept. 6. The lander's Robotic Arm Camera took the photo looking into the Robotic Arm's scoop. Both instruments are encased in a protection biobarrier, to ensure no Earth organisms are carried to Mars.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 08, 2007 - Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe storms nearly killed NASA's Mars exploration rovers, the solar-powered robots are awake and ready to continue their mission. Opportunity's planned descent into the giant Victoria Crater was delayed, but now the rover is preparing to drive into the half-mile diameter crater as early as Sept. 11.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 06, 2007 - Two crucial tools for a successful landing of America's latest mission to Mars, the radar and UHF radio on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, have passed in-flight checkouts. The ultra-high-frequency radio won't be turned on again until landing day, May 25, 2008, when it will relay communications from Phoenix to orbiters already in service around Mars.
Washington DC (VOA) Sep 05, 2007 - Humans could get to Mars in less than 10 years, if they put their minds to it. That is the message of the Mars Society, a group of scientists and space enthusiasts who met recently in Los Angeles. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan spoke with some about their vision for the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.
