Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 17, 2005 - NASA has suspended use of one of the mineral-identifying tools on the Opportunity Mars rover while experts troubleshoot a problem with getting data from the instrument, the robot's miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
Pasadena CA (JPL) (SPX) Mar 16, 2005 - Opportunity took some time away from driving and explored a little crater it approached last week. Once the rover is done with the crater, plans call for continuing toward a larger crater, Vostok.
Paris (AFP) Mar 16, 2005 - Claims that life, or the potential for it, exists on Mars were boosted last Wednesday when scientists declared they saw the remains of a frozen sea on the planet's surface and speculated the ice may hold preserved organisms.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 15, 2005 - Spirit is in good health and is successfully using a new version of flight software. After completing an investigation of a rock dubbed Watchtower, Spirit is returning to a soil area of interest informally labeled Paso Robles.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 15, 2005 - At the recent European Space Agency's Mars Express conference, scientists announced they had found a frozen sea on the martian equator. John Murray, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the Open University in the UK, is lead author on the paper to be published in the journal Nature. Astrobiology Magazine editor Leslie Mullen sat down with Murray to discuss the new finding.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 15, 2005 - Mars is often enveloped by planet-wide dust storms - their biting winds choke the air and scour the arid surface. Tornado-like dust devils dance across the planet so frequently that their numerous tracks crisscross each other, tracing convoluted designs in the red soil.
Washington (UPI) March 09, 2005 - Many Americans have questioned repeatedly the usefulness of the International Space Station, but it stands as NASA's only gateway at the moment to the rest of the solar system. Without the station - or something comparable - it will be difficult if not impossible for U.S. engineers and scientists to do the research necessary to make interplanetary travel possible.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 09, 2005 - After a busy week of driving with new mobility software, Opportunity continues to be in excellent health. The rover has traveled 450 meters (just over a quarter of a mile) in 6 sols.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2005 - Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at the Ames Research Center, has long been investigating the coldest and driest places on Earth. These harsh environments - and the ability of life to adapt there - could point the way to finding life on Mars.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 08, 2005 - Spirit's focus on sols 408 through 412 was the spectacular panorama from Larry's Lookout. After completing that 4-sol effort, Spirit rolled to a nearby rock target called Watchtower and began examining it with tools on the robotic arm.
Los Angeles (SPX) Mar 03, 2005 - In 1999 I sent SpaceDaily, and other media, information from a 1998 informal study I did of some Mars Global Surveyor images of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The first image I found was suggestive of an icy cracked terrain similar in appearance to images returned of the surface of Europa.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 03, 2005 - On three consecutive days, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity accomplished unprecedented feats of martian motion, covering more total ground in that period than either Opportunity or its twin, Spirit, did in their first 70 days on Mars.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 02, 2005 - Spirit has spent the last 70 sols climbing up the Columbia Hills to reach Larry's Lookout, a point on Cumberland Ridge.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 01, 2005 - The first week of May, the Mars Express spacecraft will unfurl its radar antenna. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding - or MARSIS - will have many tasks, but one of the most important will be the search for liquid water.
Paris (ESA) Feb 28, 2005 - These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, were released at the First Mars Express Science Conference this week. They show the areas of focused research - water, ice, glaciers and volcanism.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 28, 2005 - Spirit is getting new software for increased brainpower, but the rover is not using it quite yet.
