Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 18, 2006 - NASA has named John Callas project manager for its Mars Exploration Rovers. Callas, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, previously served as science manager and deputy project manager for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
Houston TX (SPX) Mar 16, 2006 - A planetary scientist said Thursday that some gullies lining the sides of impact craters on Mars may have been caused by dry landslides, not running water.
Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 14, 2006 - A ragged geological scar crosses the belly of Mars. Long enough to reach from New York City to Los Angeles, this great rift in the martian crust is named Valles Marineris, or Mariner Valley. It was discovered in 1972 by the Mariner 9 spacecraft.
Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 13, 2006 - Valles Marineris is the hardest spot on Mars to mosaic, says Chris Edwards of Arizona State University. But what makes this mosaic cool are the super-fine details THEMIS recorded.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2006 - NASA mission controllers pronounced Opportunity healthy in their weekly update Saturday and said the rover was making its way south along traverse paths at the Payson outcrop of the crater named Erebus. The rover team calls the traverse paths half-pipes, after the Olympic event.
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 10, 2006 - Tomorrow, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will reach Mars, having traveled 300 million miles since its launch on August 12, 2005. The next portion of its journey – Mars Orbit Insertion - will be difficult, says Doug McCuistion, NASA Mars Exploration Program Director.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 10, 2006 - NASA controllers confirmed Friday the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had successfully completed its delicate orbital-insertion maneuver and had been nudged by the red planet's gravity into a perfect orbital trajectory. At the end of its 350-million-mile journey - which began last Aug. 12 – controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received the signal at 5:25 p.m. Eastern Time that the MRO had attained a correct attitude to achieve a proper orbit.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 07, 2006 - Mars plays a mean defense. The red warrior has overwhelmed nearly two-thirds of all international spacecraft that have sought its mysteries. For NASA's latest encounter with Earth's testy neighbor, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team will be going into battle armored with discipline, training and experience.
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 7, 2006 - The NOAA Space Environment Center, home to the nation's early warning system for solar storms, is assisting NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission as the satellite approaches its critical orbit insertion phase. The SEC is providing daily briefings to the NASA MRO Mission Operations Assurance Group as well as providing appropriate warnings and alerts of space weather.
Paris, France (SPX) March 6, 2006 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows the eastern scarp of the Olympus Mons volcano on Mars.
Pasadena CA (SPX) March 5, 2006 - New measurements from NASA's Spirit rover show the peak in the Columbia Hills formation of Gusev Crater on Mars called McCool - after astronaut Willie McCool - is about 85 feet (26 meters) taller than its neighbor, Husband, named after mission commander Rick Husband.
St. Louis MO (SPX) Mar 03, 2006 - Two Mars orbiter missions - one from NASA, the other from the European Space Agency (ESA) - will open new vistas in the exploration of Mars through the use of sophisticated ground-penetrating radars, providing international researchers with the first direct clues about the Red Planet's subsurface structure.
Pasadena CA (SPX) March 1, 2006 - NASA's Spirit recorded this view while approaching the northwestern edge of the formation Mars Exploration Rover mission controllers have named Home Plate, a circular plateau-like area of bright, layered outcrop material roughly 80 meters (260 feet) in diameter.
Atacama Desert, Chile (SPX) Feb 28, 2006 - In the March 2006 issue of IEEE Spectrum, staff editor Jean Kumagai reports on what she saw and heard while observing the field team last fall. The researchers come to the Atacama because, more than any other on Earth, it approximates the barren, arid rockiness of Mars. Their robot, dubbed Zoe, is far more sophisticated than the current crop of rovers. For one thing, it can run autonomously, without having a human driver constantly feeding it instructions.
Paris, France (SPX) Feb 27, 2006 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows the Ausonia Mensa massif on Mars. The HRSC obtained the image during orbit 506 with a ground resolution of approximately 37.6 meters (122 feet) per pixel.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 27, 2006 - In a race to collect as much scientific data as possible before the onset of the Martian winter, Spirit climbed to the top of the formation in Gusev Crater called Home Plate and acquired images of the surrounding terrain. Each day, Spirit's instruments log a reduction in solar energy collected as the Sun sinks lower on the planet's northern horizon.
