Pasadena (JPL) Apr 30, 2002 - NASA and JPL are sending RATS to Mars to work as field geologists. A RAT is not quite a furry little friend, but rather a high-tech robot with diamond teeth, called a Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT).
Brisbane - Sept. 19, 2001 - An experiment conducted at Pioneer Astronautics for the Mars Society has demonstrated that the Coriolis forces that mice will be exposed to during the Translife Mission will not be excessive.
The vibrating eyes of jumping spiders have inspired a new breed of vision sensors that could give the next generation of Mars rovers sharper eyesight, say researchers in California.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 5, 2006 - This view combines frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the rover's 652nd through 663rd Martian days, or sols (Nov. 23 to Dec. 5, 2005), at the edge of Erebus Crater.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 5, 2006 - The most recent self-portrait of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the solar panels still gleaming in the martian sunlight and carrying only a thin veneer of dust two years after the rover landed and began exploring the red planet.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 5, 2006 - Two Earth years ago, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit touched down in Gusev Crater. The rover marked its first Mars-year (687 Earth days) anniversary in November 2005. On Nov. 2, 2005, shortly before Spirit's Martian anniversary, the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor acquired an image covering approximately 3 kilometers by 3 kilometers (1.9 miles by 1.9 miles) centered on the rover's location in the Columbia Hills.
Paris, France (ESA) Jan 04, 2006 - A few weeks before leaving for the Antarctic Concordia Station, the Italian-French crew that will spend over one year in one of the harshest, isolated environments on Earth, attended two days of preparatory training at ESA's Headquarters in Paris, France. During their stay at the research station the crew will participate in a number of ESA experiments - the outcome of which will help prepare for long-term missions to Mars.
Washington (AFP) Jan 2, 2006 - Nearly two years after landing on the Red Planet, NASA exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue to send back amazing images and information about Mars in a mission long outpacing expectations.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 28, 2005 - This week Spirit drove to an outcrop area informally named Algonquin. On sol 685, Spirit successfully drove for 15 meters (49 feet) and prepared for a series of robotic-arm activities planned for sol 687 to 690 at Algonquin. Plans are to proceed downhill to Comanche after that.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 27, 2005 - This week the Opportunity Instrument Arm Anomaly Team continued investigating the safety of different arm positions. The intent is to determine the safest position to leave the arm while the vehicle drives to new locations.
Tempe AZ (SPX) Dec 23, 2005 - Geologic features at the Opportunity landing site on Mars were formed not by a lake that evaporated but by constant strikes from meteorites, say two Arizona State University geologists.
Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 23, 2005 - A region of Mars that some planetary scientists believe was once a shallow lakebed and likely habitable for life may not have been so wet after all, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
London (AFP) Dec 20, 2005 - Two years after it disappeared, the British boffins behind the Beagle 2 mission to plant an unmanned robot laboratory on the surface of Mars have come up with a strong hypothesis to explain its fate.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 16, 2005 - Opportunity successfully deployed its robotic arm on sol 671 (Dec. 13, 2005) and used it to position the microscopic imager. The cause of a shoulder-joint motor stall during an attempt to deploy the arm on sol 654 appears to be a broken wire in the motor windings.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 15, 2005 - In late November 2005 while descending Husband Hill, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took the most detailed panorama so far of the Inner Basin, the rover's next target destination.
Berkeley CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2005 - A University of California, Berkeley, study of methane-producing bacteria frozen at the bottom of Greenland's two-mile thick ice sheet could help guide scientists searching for similar bacterial life on Mars.
