Tucson AZ (SPX) Apr 27, 2006 - The next spacecraft scheduled for a mission to the red planet, the Phoenix Mars Lander, is beginning a new phase of development in preparation for its launch in August 2007, project officials said Wednesday.
Paris, France (SPX) Apr 25, 2006 - ESA's Mars Express orbiter captured this image with its High Resolution Stereo Camera that shows the Nanedi Valles valley system, a steep-sided feature that may have been formed in part by free-flowing water.
A Dutch company said it plans to unveil a lab-on-a-chip system Monday intended to analyze rocky Martian soil for signs of life on a future ESA mission to the red planet.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 23, 2006 - After some anxious days earlier this month, when mission controllers worried about Spirit's prospects for continued operations through the Martian winter, they have now pronounced the rover hobbled but healthy.
Providence RI (SPX) Apr 21, 2006 - Mars started out relatively wet and temperate, underwent a major climate shift, and evolved into a cold, dry place strewn with acidic rock - less than ideal conditions for supporting life.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 20, 2006 - Controllers have placed the Opportunity rover in a restricted mission-planning mode this week due to the downlink coming too late in the Earth day to allow planning of a drive for the next Martian day, or sol.
Hauppauge NY (SPX) Apr 18, 2006 - Aeroflex's Motion Control Division has announced thatthe Aeroflex provided Solar Array and High-Gain Antenna actuators and controllers aboard the MRO spacecraft (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) performed perfectly during the recently completed Mars orbit insertion burn.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 17, 2006 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully tested two more important components of its instrument payload as it adjusts its orbit around the red planet before it begins its scientific mission later this year.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 17, 2006 - The remarkable luck of NASA's Mars rover mission continues as the ailing Spirit rover reached a safe site to weather the Martian winter. Meanwhile, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is making fast progress toward a destination of its own, the agency said in a statement late Wednesday.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 13, 2006 - New images from NASA's Spirit rover show coarse-grained layers from around the edge of a low plateau called Home Plate inside Gusev Crater on Mars. One possible origin for the material it fell to the ground after being thrown aloft by an explosion such as a volcanic eruption or meteorite impact.
Paris, France (SPX) Apr 11, 2006 - Mars Express captured this image showing the Galle Crater, a feature 230 kilometers (143 miles) wide located on the eastern rim of the red planet's Argyre Planitia impact basin.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2006 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned its first color image of the planet's surface via its onboard High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2006 - NASA's Spirit rover has run into more trouble: On the way to the north-facing slopes on the peak called McCool in the Columbia Hills - and between outcrops called Oberth and Korolev, Spirit encountered an impassable, sandy area, which threatened to bog down the hobbled craft before it could reach a more sunny location from which to ride out the approaching Martian winter.
Davis CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2006 - Cracks and fins in the sand in an American desert look very similar to features seen on Mars and may indicate the recent presence of water at the surface, according to a new study by researcher Greg Chavdarian and Dawn Sumner, associate professor of geology at UC Davis.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2006 - Mars Rover controllers report that Opportunity remains healthy and is continuing to drive toward Victoria Crater. The rover covered a distance totaling about 170 meters (558 feet) during the week, and has been sending back images containing lots of ripples sprinkled with a dash of outcrops.
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 05, 2006 - Mars rover mission controllers announced Tuesday what had been suspecting for several days: Spirit has permanently lost its right-front wheel. The disclosure came exactly two years and three months after the rover landed in a formation called Gusev Crater, near the Martian equator - long after its planned 90-day mission had expired.
