Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 30, 2004 - While Opportunity is hard at work inside Endurance Crater, engineers at JPL are busy testing engineering models in the Lab's simulated martian environment. A tilt platform is being used to determine Opportunity's ability to climb back up over the curb below its current location.
Paris (ESA) Jun 28, 2004 - The deployment of the MARSIS antenna on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has been delayed until later this year.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 28, 2004 - On challenging slopes that NASA's Mars rovers began exploring this month, both Spirit and Opportunity have found new surprises for the folks back home.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 23, 2004 - Terraforming was once solely the province of science fiction. In the 1930's, Olaf Stapledon wrote of the use of electrolyzing a global sea on Venus in order to prepare it for human habitation in Last and First Men.
Paris (ESA) Jun 23, 2004 - On 2 May 2004, the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft obtained images from the central area of the Mars canyon called Valles Marineris.
Moffet Field (SPX) Jun 22, 2004 - To terraform a planet is to change its environment, making it livable for humans and other Earth-based life forms. Most life on Earth could not survive on Mars today. Even the hardiest bacteria would soon shrivel and die from the high radiation exposure, extreme cold, or other martian hazard. If humans want to maintain a long-term presence on Mars, building cities and establishing civilizations, terraforming would be one way to make that possible.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Donna Shirley: If we want to do something massive, like terraform Mars or even go to Mars with a lot of people, is it going to have to be an international endeavor? If so, how do you do that? Is it going to be all U.S., is it going to be like the Star Trek universe, where it's all humanity? What's that going to look like?
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Donna Shirley: Let's say that we've decided to go to Mars, we're going to terraform Mars, we're going to terraform it so people can live on it. What kind of people are going to go to Mars? Greg, you had people going to Mars (in your book). Could you talk about them?
Moffet Field CA - Jun 21, 2004 - Less than two weeks after Spirit landed on Mars, rover engineers and scientists were already planning Spirit's itinerary on the surface. Go To That Crater And Turn Right read the headline of a January 13 press release. Needless to say, generically referring to features as that crater, this rock, or these hills could quickly become confusing.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Q: One of the main criticisms of astrobiology as a science is that our sample size is one - life on Earth. So, I've been hearing you guys talk about the merits of Mars, if it has life, and well if it doesn't we might as well bulldoze the thing. But Mars is our only negative control, so maybe there's some merit in a lifeless Mars. I'm wondering what you guys think about that.
Salt Lake City UT - Jun 17, 2004 - Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed blueberries were discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover, University of Utah geologists studied similar rocks in Utah's national parks and predicted such stones would be found on the Red Planet.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 17, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 3 of this 7-part series, David Grinspoon says we have an ethical imperative to bring a dead planet to life.
Some of the first things the scientists noticed about the Columbia geology were small round nodules that looked very similar to the hematite "blueberries" previously found on Mars.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 16, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 1 of this 7-part series, Christopher McKay advocates making Mars habitable for Martians.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 16, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 2 of this 7-part series, John Rummel predicts that in our search for life on Mars, we probably won't find cows.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 16, 2004 - NASA's Mars rovers are delighting scientists with their extra credit assignments. Both rovers successfully completed their primary three-month missions in April.
