Moffett Field - Jan. 8, 2001 - Mars may once have been a very wet place. A host of clues remain from an earlier era, billions of years ago, hinting that the Red Planet was host to great rivers, lakes and perhaps even an ocean. But some of the clues are contradictory -- they don't all fit together in a coherent whole. Little wonder, then, that the fate of water on Mars is such a hotly debated topic.
Pasadena - Sol 6-A, 2004 - Although it will be several more days, perhaps as much as a week, before Spirit engineers certify that the rover is ready to leave the safety of its landing platform and go exploring, scientists have already begun to make a list of places they'd like to visit. A cluster of distant hills to the east are high on their list.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 9, 2006 - This image (shown) from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the best examples yet seen in Meridiani Planum outcrop rocks of well-preserved, fine-scale layering and what geologists call cross-lamination.
Fayetteville - Dec. 12, 2000 - University of Arkansas School of Architecture researchers and students, in cooperation with NASA, have developed concepts for long-term habitation of Mars in response to the Mars Reference Mission, developed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Pasadena - Sept. 20, 2001 - If there is life on Mars, our robotic probes may have brought it there. In 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent two Viking landers to the red planet. They set down on the surface and searched the soil for signs of life. The results were inconclusive. But, what if the spacecraft and others like them brought tiny forms of Earth life to Mars? Could it have survived there? If so, what does this mean for the future exploration of Mars?
Paris (ESA) Dec 19, 2003 - Any football or rugby fan knows that when a player kicks the ball, there is no longer anything they can do to influence its path. The player must trust to their own skill for the ball to reach its intended destination.
for NASA Science News - It's been nearly 25 years since NASA sent biological experiments to Mars. Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, thinks it's time to try again.
Rolla - Nov. 3, 2000 - In the wake of last month's announcement that scientists have found what they believe to be a living microbe that pre-dates Tyrannosaurus rex, Dr. Melanie Mormile is keeping one eye on salt crystals that contain ancient earth-bound bacteria and another on Mars.
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 - Nov. 6, 2000 - Australia could one day become a player in the international effort to send people to Mars, with the recent announcement of a grant to Mars Society Australia for design and construction of the Human Operations Prototype (HOP) as part of Project Marsupial.
Pasadena (JPL) Mar 25, 2002 - Just one of the many problems in landing on another planet, after it's been determined where to land and the method to get there, is landing safely. For JPL, a safe landing is the name of the game, as engineers work to prepare two rovers for the journey to Mars.
Greenbelt - Jan. 17, 2001 - NASA's Mars Global Surveyor will complete its primary mapping mission of Mars on January 31, 2001 after a mapping mission that lasted one full Mars year (687 days). During this time MGS was able to globally map the planet while monitoring seasonal changes.
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.
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 - 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.
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.
