Blacksburg VA (SPX) Oct 20, 2006 - Based on the lovely green rock, olivine, also known as the gemstone, peridot, a Virginia Tech graduate student has created a mineral lifetime diagram that provides the a clue to when and for how long there might have been water on Mars.
Baltimore MD (SPX) Oct 20, 2006 - A class of especially hardy microbes that live in some of the harshest Earthly environments could flourish on cold Mars and other chilly planets, according to a research team of astronomers and microbiologists.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 18, 2006 - Phoenix Mars Mission Principal Investigator Peter Smith will unveil a full-scale Mars lander this Friday at a VIP celebration at the Phoenix Mars Mission Science Operations Center in Tucson. University of Arizona engineers will use the mock lander on its Mars-looking platform to test instruments and commands. Scientists will practice operations in the PIT (Payload Interoperability Testbed), where the lander resides, before performing them for real on Mars.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - The classic technique for assessing the history of a rocky planet's geology is to count craters. On average, areas with longer exposure to space have had more impacts, and therefore more craters. By counting craters, scientists have broken the geologic history of Mars into three eras: Noachian (warm and wet), Hesperian (volcanic), and the present-day Amazonian (cold and dry). Following Earthly practice, each era is named for the location where the characteristic terrain was first identified.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 17, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and perched at the tip of the promontory Cape Verde, 3.1 meters (10.2 feet) from the edge of a sharp drop off on the rim of Victoria Crater. Soon after arriving at Victoria Crater's Duck Bay last week, Opportunity was sent on its way to Cape Verde. Six sols, four drives and 127.61 meters (419 feet) later, Opportunity arrived at the rock target Fogo near the tip of Cape Verde.
Paris, France (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - For a number of decades now, astronomers have wondered about water on Mars. Thanks to ESA's Mars Express, much of the speculation has been replaced with facts. Launched on 2 June 2003, Mars Express has changed the way we think of Mars. Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, planetary scientists have changed their perception of water on Mars several times, passing from the picture of a dry planet to that of a warmer and wetter one.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - During its first week of observations from low orbit, NASA's newest Mars spacecraft is already revealing new clues about both recent and ancient environments on the red planet. Scientists hope the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will answer questions about the history and distribution of Mars' water by combining data from the orbiter's high-resolution camera, imaging spectrometer, context camera, ground-penetrating radar, atmospheric sounder, global color camera, radio and accelerometers.
Spirit is healthy and continues to make progress on a winter science campaign of experiments.
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2006 - In two new papers published in Mars, The International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration (The Mars Journal), Donald Rapp reviews the current state of our understanding of life support and radiation safety for human missions to Mars.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 10, 2006 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reached the rim of Victoria Crater on Sept. 27, 2006, during the 951st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work in the Meridian Planum region of Mars. Opportunity drove 9.28 kilometers (5.77 miles) in the explorations that took it from Eagle Crater, where it landed in January 2004, eastward to Endurance Crater, which it investigated for about half of 2004, then southward to Victoria.
College Station TX (SPX) Oct 06, 2006 - Long periods of total darkness and poor soil needn't stop an avid gardener - at least not one who's willing to go out of this world to grow plants. Lush lettuce is growing by galactic measure in cylinders designed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers to mimic conditions on the moon and Mars.
Pasanea CA (JPL) Oct 06, 2006 - NASA's long-lived robotic rover Opportunity is beginning to explore layered rocks in cliffs ringing the massive Victoria crater on Mars. While Opportunity spent its first week at the crater, NASA's newest eye in the Martian sky photographed the rover and its surroundings from above. The level of detail in the photo from the high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help guide the rover's exploration of Victoria.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2006 - NASA officials will be available Tuesday, Oct. 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. EDT to exchange information and receive public comments about the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mars Science Laboratory mission. The meeting will be at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Congressional 'A' Conference Room, 400 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington.
Cornell NY (SPX) Oct 03, 2006 - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has rolled up to the rim of Victoria crater after a 21-month trek across the vast expanse known as Meridiani Planum. And 250 million miles away on Earth, the view -- according to astronomer, geologist and mission principal investigator Steve Squyres -- is just breathtaking ... the most spectacular thing we've seen.
Laurel MD (SPX) Oct 02, 2006 - The most powerful mineral-mapper ever sent to Mars has opened its protective cover and is about to begin its search for hints of past water on the red planet. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is one of six science instruments aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 02, 2006 - On Mars, over the next few weeks, two robotic explorers will reach 1000 sols a piece. At a real cost that's now under $350,000 a day, the 2004 Mars Rovers have been an engineering and scientific triumph beyond all expectation. And crowning the success of the missions has been the arrival of Opportunity at the rim of Victoria Crater, and the awakening of Spirit from it's long sebatical during the Martian winter.
