Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 12, 2006 - Closing in on two-and-a-half years of operations in the hostile Martian environment and suffering from a stuck right-front wheel, NASA's Spirit rover nevertheless remains otherwise healthy and continues to make progress on the rover's winter science experiments.
London, England (AFP) Jun 12, 2006 - British scientists on Monday took the wraps off a prototype craft to search for signs of life on Mars, hailing it the smartest piece of equipment ever designed for exploration of the red planet.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 12, 2006 - NASA's Opportunity rover remains healthy, and the mission team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory has successfully extracted the rover from the Martian dune they have called Jammerbugt. The rover first backed into the dune on Martian day, or sol, 830 (May 24) to increase its northerly tilt.
Plainview NY (SPX) Jun 12, 2006 - Aeroflex Incorporated announced Friday that its Motion Control Division has been awarded a contract for Mars Science Laboratory high-torque actuators from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. In addition, Aeroflex has been awarded a contract for a series of gearheads for the MSL low- and medium-torque actuators.
Paris, France (SPX) Jun 12, 2006 - Apollinaris Patera is an ancient shield volcano measuring approximately 180 by 280 kilometers at its base and rising to a maximum of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) above the surrounding terrain. Shield volcanoes are large volcanic structures with gently sloping flanks.
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 07, 2006 - Steven Squyres said NASA mission controllers should be able to free Opportunity from its current state of being stuck in the Martian sand on the Meridiani Planum and get it back on its way to Victoria Crater very soon.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 06, 2006 - Since arriving at the rover's current location April 10, on its 807th sol, or Martian day, of exploration, Spirit's knowledge of its attitude relative to the Sun has drifted.
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 05, 2006 - NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has selected Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. to deliver an Atlas V rocket for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which aims to land a large rover on the red planet in the fall of 2009.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 05, 2006 - Opportunity is less than 1 kilometer (just over half a mile) from reaching Victoria Crater - its destination for several months. During the last planned drive on May 28, on sol, or Martin day, 833, the rover became embedded in a soft dune. As designed, mission controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory stopped the drive by a slip check.
Pasadena CA (SPX) May 31, 2006 - Opportunity's wheels dug into loose soil during a drive on sol 833 (May 29, 2006). The drive was planned for about 24 meters (79 feet) but resulted in only 1.5 meters (5 feet) of forward progress. The flight team directed Opportunity on sol 834 to take images for studying the situation and planning a way to drive out of the loose material.
Laurel MD (SPX) May 30, 2006 - Space scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Md., got a first-hand look at what happens to Earth's atmosphere when the sun was abruptly turned off during the March 29, 2006, total solar eclipse.
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 30, 2006 - Spirit continued to collect images for the 360-degree panorama, now under construction, of the rover's Winter Haven on Mars. Rover planners anticipated that by the end of the Memorial Day weekend, Spirit would complete 15 of the 27 columns for the final product.
Laurel MD (SPX) May 30, 2006 - Despite differences in the chemical compositions and densities of Earth's and Mars' atmospheres, we now have a definitive example showing that both planets' atmospheres react similarly to varying levels of solar energy impacting them during the sun's 25-day rotation, says Elsayed Talaat, a space scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.
Pasadena CA (SPX) May 26, 2006 - Opportunity Status for sol 818-824 Opportunity is healthy and continuing to make its way toward Victoria Crater. Opportunity made 108 meters (354 feet) of progress in two sols of driving and was approximately 1,000 meters (just over half a mile) from Victoria Crater at the end of Sol 823.
Paris, France (SPX) May 23, 2006 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express, shows Pavonis Mons, the central volcano of the three shield volcanoes that comprise Tharsis Montes.
Pasadena CA (SPX) May 21, 2006 - Spirit is healthy and making progress on a winter science campaign of experiments in Gusev Crater on Mars. Spirit has completed the first phase of a layer-by-layer soil study by collecting a mosaic of images with the microscopic imager and analyzing composition of undisturbed soil with the Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers.
