Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 24, 2004 - Spirit continued work over the past nine sols at a rock called Clovis. The rover used its rock abrasion tool, microscopic imager, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, and Moessbauer spectrometer to probe deeper into the history of this rock.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 23, 2004 - Hang-gliding pilots will tell you that in late afternoon, good flying is found when hopping across the horizon from one rising thermal to another. These hotspots act like visual transponders to navigate towards good air.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 23, 2004 - Now that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the Columbia Hills, it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater.
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 20, 2004 - Opportunity is healthy and continuing to investigate a rock outcrop dubbed Axel Heiberg on the southern slope of Endurance Crater. The rover's solar energy input has risen above 610 watt-hours the last few sols, which is more than it has experienced since about sol 100. The additional power may be the result of less hazy skies.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Aug 19, 2004 - Now that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the Columbia Hills, it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater.
St. Louis (SPX) Aug 17, 2004 - Boeing has won a $1.5 million, three-year NASA Mars Technology Development contract to develop guidance parachute technology for future Mars missions. The contract award, which will be managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, supports NASA's Mars Exploration Program, an initiative to utilize cost effective innovations for precision entry, descent and landing.
Paris (ESA) Aug 17, 2004 - These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show the Dao Valles and Niger Valles, a system of outflow channels on Mars.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Aug 16, 2004 - The eyes aboard the Mars rover Spirit are delivering ground truth. After more than six months of examining the photographic and spectral data from the rover, Mars mission scientists confirm that the albedo - which is the percentage of sunlight reflected on the red planet's dusty surface - indicates important variations in mineral and dust composition.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 13, 2004 - Opportunity continues its voyage farther into Endurance Crater with a near-term drive goal of a rock outcrop dubbed Axel Heiberg, and a possible later destination at the foot of Burns Cliff on the south side of the crater.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 13, 2004 - NASA is planning to add a strong dose of artificial intelligence (AI) to planetary rovers to make them much more self-reliant, capable of making basic decisions during a mission.
Paris (ESA) Aug 12, 2004 - This perspective view, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, shows the complex caldera of Olympus Mons on Mars, the highest volcano in our Solar System.
College Station TX (SPX) Aug 11, 2004 - Suspected large lakebeds that once were scattered on the planet Mars have not yet been found, say the research team that operated the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Their work appears in the current issue of Science magazine.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 11, 2004 - Sol 188 was devoted to finishing an examination of a target patch called Tuktoyuktuk where the rover's rock abrasion tool had ground the surface coating off of a rock called Inuvik. Opportunity then drove partly up-slope and partly cross-slope as both a mobility test and the start of a traverse to the next target. It slipped down-slope about as much as expected, a good result.
Paris (ESA) Aug 11, 2004 - ESA's Mars Express has relayed pictures from one of NASA's Mars rovers for the first time, as part of a set of interplanetary networking demonstrations. The demonstrations pave the way for future Mars missions to draw on joint interplanetary networking capabilities. ESA and NASA planned these demonstrations as part of continuing efforts to co-operate in space exploration.
Paris (ESA) Aug 10, 2004 - These images from ESA's Mars Express show the western flank of the shield volcano Olympus Mons in the Tharsis region of the western Martian hemisphere.
Pasadena (JPL) Aug 10, 2004 - With one very busy year remaining before launch, the team preparing NASA's next mission to Mars has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft's versatile payload. Possible launch dates from Cape Canaveral, Fla., for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter begin Aug. 10, 2005. The spacecraft will reach Mars seven months later to study the surface, subsurface and atmosphere with the most powerful instrument suite ever flown to the red planet.
