Paris (AFP) Feb 21, 2007 - What's the biggest hurdle to setting up a colony on the Moon or getting mankind to Mars and beyond? Aliens? Asteroids? Money? Try: humans themselves. Experts poring over plans to return to the Moon by 2018 and later stride to Mars believe the greatest-ever gamble in the history of space may ultimately depend on keeping the mind and body sound.
San Francisco CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2007 - Hunting for traces of life on Mars calls for two radically different strategies, says Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer. Of the two, he says, with today's exploration technology we can most easily look for evidence for past life, preserved as fossil biosignatures in old rocks. Farmer is a professor of geological sciences in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, where he heads the astrobiology program.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 20, 2007 - Rover drivers have now refined their techniques for maneuvering on only five wheels. All of Spirit's drives during the past week ended within centimeters (inches) of the targeted endpoint. Spirit is healthy and has arrived at the rock outcrop known as Bellingshausen on the way back to Home Plate.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 16, 2007 - A spacecraft recently arrived at Mars has provided new evidence that fluids, likely including water, once flowed widely through underlying bedrock in a canyon that is part of the great Martian rift valley. The new color images from the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show an equatorial landscape of hills composed of dozens of alternating layers of dark- and light-toned rocks, and crossed by dark sand dunes.
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 15, 2007 - Growing evidence of water on Mars adds weight to the theory that life once existed and could still exist beneath its surface, said a group of scientists meeting in San Francisco. We have abundant evidence that early Mars was water rich, Houston, Texas, Lunar and Planetary Institute astronomer Stephen Clifford told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 2007 - Until recently, NASA's two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, could figure only one or two steps ahead in planning a path and driving on their own. New software uploaded to the rovers onboard computers now enables them to look ahead and plan a path to a spot 50 meters (164 feet) away, evading obstacles along the way.
Paris, France (ESA) Feb 13, 2007 - Scientists using data from the HRSC experiment onboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft have produced the first 'hiker's maps' of Mars. Giving detailed height contours and names of geological features in the Iani Chaos region, the maps could become a standard reference for future Martian research. The maps are known as topographic maps because they use contour lines to show the heights of the landscape.
Paris, France (SPX) Feb 13, 2007 - Thales's space laser programme has achieved a new milestone with the successful completion of shock-resistance tests at over 2,000 g in all three axes. Designed to operate for two years on Mars after a 10-month voyage through space, the Thales laser has already demonstrated impressive performance, including energy delivery of 30 mJ per pulse across a temperature range of -30 to +30oC and the ability to withstand extremely hostile radiation and dust environments.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 2007 - Opportunity has completed a remote sensing campaign at Cape Desire and is on the move to the next promontory, called Cabo Corrientes. Opportunity's odometer rolled past 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) during the 50.51-meter (166 feet) drive on sol 1080. By contrast, the NASA Level 1 requirements for the mission called for achieving at least 600 meters (1,969 feet) with one rover, and the mission design requirement was for 1,000 meters (3,281 feet).
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 12, 2007 - Spring is in the thin, Martian atmosphere once again as NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit scans the local terrain for dust devils expected this time of year. The rover remains healthy and has completed remote sensing studies of a soil target known as Tyrone, conducted from a distance of about 10 meters (33 feet) away. Tyrone has bright soil upturned in wheel tracks.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 09, 2007 - Since April of 2006, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has been sojourning in a place called Winter Haven, where the robotic geologist spent several months parked on a north-facing slope in order to keep its solar panels pointed toward the sun.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 09, 2007 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft this month is set to surpass the record for the most science data returned by any Mars spacecraft. While continuing to produce data at record levels, engineers are examining why two instruments are intermittently not performing entirely as planned. All other spacecraft instruments are operating well and continue to return science data.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 08, 2007 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity extended its cumulative Martian driving record to more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) by crossing 50.51 meters (165.7 feet) of flat ground during the 1,080th Martian day since arriving on Mars. This view shows the surroundings at the completion of the day's drive. It is a mosaic of frames taken by Opportunity's navigation camera.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2007 - More than 30 years ago, when NASA's two Viking landers looked for signs of life on Mars, the results were ambiguous. Although no strong evidence has since emerged for life on Mars, the planet now seems considerably more hospitable than it once did - especially since the announcement last December that liquid water had flowed on its surface within the last few years.
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 06, 2007 - Exactly three years ago today, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the Mars Express probe captured its first image data of our neighbouring planet. After more than 3800 orbits of Mars, the camera has imaged an area larger than North and South America with a resolution of between ten and twenty metres per pixel, in colour and in 3D. The camera experiment onboard the European Space Agency's (ESA) first planetary probe is being managed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The Freie Universit Berlin (FUB) is playing the leading scientific role in the HRSC.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 05, 2007 - Opportunity spent the last week moving around the end of Cape Desire to three different imaging locations, each about 2 to 3 meters (6.6 to 9.8 feet) apart. Right now, Opportunity is driving about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) to the final position to finish collecting long-baseline stereo images in the direction of Cabo Corrientes (to the east) and Cabo Anonimo (to the west).
