Sacramento CA (SPX) Dec 06, 2004 - Aerojet recently test-fired a Viking flight spare rocket engine assembly in order to help design a new engine which will deliver the next rover to the surface of Mars in 2009.
San Mateo CA (SPX) Dec 06, 2004 - Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools has launched a contest designed to challenge the skills of master software builders and software architects to solve a Mars Rescue Mission, a hypothetical manned spacecraft that has crashed on Mars.
Ithaca NY (SPX) Dec 03, 2004 - Scientists have long been tantalized by the question of whether life once existed on Mars. Although present conditions on the planet would seem to be inhospitable to life, the data sent back over the past 10 months by NASA's two exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, showed a world that might once have been warmer and wetter - perhaps friendly enough to support microbial organisms
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 03, 2004 - The most dramatic findings so far from NASA's twin Mars rovers - telltale evidence for a wet and possibly habitable environment in the arid planet's past - passed rigorous scientific scrutiny for publication in a major research journal.
Moffett Filed CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2004 - The rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring the surface of Mars for nearly a year. Among their many discoveries, the rovers have found evidence that liquid water probably once existed on the surface of the red planet.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 02, 2004 - Cloud watching has been one duty of NASA's Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover within the red planet's Meridiani Planum region. The robot is now wrapping up its exploration of Burns Cliff inside the stadium-sized Endurance Crater.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 25, 2004 - As the rovers try to survive the dead of martian winter, what do readers want to know about their first nine-months on the red planet? Questions and answers range from how long the rovers may last to what it's like to live four months on martian time.
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 25, 2004 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows Crater Hale in the Argyre basin of the southern hemisphere of Mars.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 25, 2004 - Opportunity has now reached the furthest point east in its travels inside Endurance Crater. Rover drivers have determined that there is no safe path beyond the current position.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 23, 2004 - What can the Mars rovers do after reaching Endurance Crater and the Columbia Hills. Principal investigator Steve Squyres talked with Astrobiology Magazine what's next: Can Opportunity drive five more kilometers to Victoria Crater, while being commanded by dedicated graduate students? He introduces two tiny vehicles to a big planet where the work is never done.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 19, 2004 - Spirit remains in excellent health and has survived more than 300 martian days on the red planet. With the Sun still relatively low on the horizon in the early spring season on Mars, rover drivers are forced to seek driving routes that keep the rover and its solar panels tilted northward for energy reasons.
Paris (ESA) Nov 18, 2004 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows the detailed structure of Coprates Catena, a southern part of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 17, 2004 - While the current generation of Mars missions seek out the planet's water history, another line of evidence is also required for life: heat. Active surface volcanoes may not currently exist on Mars, but the red planet has a colorful volcanic past and some enormous lava tubes that may bring polar ice to a liquid bubble.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Nov 16, 2004 - Since the earliest planetary landers, much attention has been paid to the biological implications of returning extraterrestrial samples back to Earth. The moon rocks led to the creation of NASA's Planetary Protection Office to oversee any possible cross-contamination issues. But less attention has been paid to the mineralogical implications of sample returns: what happens if the rocks themselves change during their trip to Earth?
Paris, France (ESA) Nov 12, 2004 - This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, are among Europe's highest-resolution pictures so far of the Martian moon Phobos.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 12, 2004 - Operators of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity have determined that a proposed route eastward out of Endurance Crater is not passable, so the rover will backtrack to leave the crater by a southward route, perhaps by retracing its entry path.
