Moffet Field (SPX) Jun 07, 2004 - Mars has only a faint atmosphere [less than one percent of terrestrial pressures], yet offers up its history of dust devils as swirling tracks in a remarkable landscape of wind-swept and carved terrain. These tiny twisters tend to appear in the middle afternoon on Mars, when solar heating is maximum and when warm air rises and collides with other pressure fronts to cause circulation.
Sacramento (SPX) Jun 07, 2004 - Next week promises to be a very eventful one in planetary exploration. Not only will Cassini fly within 2000 km of Saturn's enigmatic little captured moon Phoebe - the first time it has really revealed anything to human eyes - but both MER rovers will enter an entirely new phase of their exploration by arriving at destinations once thought impossible for them to reach, increasing our scientific understanding of Mars.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 07, 2004 - A human geologist could productively cover a two-kilometer stretch of ground in perhaps an hour and a half. For a robotic geologist - NASA's Spirit rover - it takes a bit longer, more like a month and a half. Still, it's an impressive journey that will yield important scientific information.
Moscow (UPI) Jun 07, 2004 - A Russian scientist says manned Martian flights could render a male astronaut sterile, shrink his musculature and weaken his bones.
Moffet Field (SPX) Jun 07, 2004 - More than a month into bonus time after a successful primary mission on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover has sighted possibly layered rock in hills just ahead, while twin Opportunity has extended its arm to pockmarked stones on a crater rim to gather clues of a watery past.
Denver CO (SPX) Jun 07, 2004 - The venerable Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, completed its 25,000th orbit around Mars recently and is still going strong.
Pasadena (JPL) Jun 04, 2004 - NASA has decided the potential science value gained by sending Opportunity into a martian impact crater likely outweighs the risk of the intrepid explorer not being able to get back out.
Washington (UPI) Jun 04, 2004 - NASA mission controllers must make some key decisions as the twin Mars exploration rovers sit poised at critical junctures in their operational lives.
Evanston Ill (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - A bowl of blueberries by the thousands, a rock called Lion Stone, dunes of red sand, the shoreline of a salty sea, wind-sculpted volcanic rock -- all of these features of the Martian landscape come to three-dimensional life for faculty and students when they don their 3-D glasses and step into the Visualization Laboratory at Northwestern University.
Pasadena (JPL) Jun 02, 2004 - More than a month into bonus time after a successful primary mission on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover has sighted possibly layered rock in hills just ahead, while twin Opportunity has extended its arm to pockmarked stones on a crater rim to gather clues of a watery past.
Pasadena (JPL) May 31, 2004 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its panoramic camera to take the images that make up this full-resolution mosaic of the Columbia Hills.
Pasadena (JPL) May 30, 2004 - NASA's solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning on Thursday what controllers expect to be frequent use of an overnight deep sleep mode to stretch the robot's power supply.
Pasadena (JPL) May 27, 2004 - NASA's solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning on Thursday what controllers expect to be frequent use of an overnight deep sleep mode to stretch the robot's power supply.
Edmonton (SPX) May 26, 2004 - As if getting to Mars wasn't hard enough, astronauts also have to worry about what to wear when they arrive. Their concerns are not fashion pundits but exposure to micrometeor sandstorms, radiation, and a hyper-cold climate.
Paris (ESA) May 25, 2004 - The Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the Beagle 2 lander, was launched on 2 June last year, arriving in the vicinity of Mars in December. The separation of Beagle 2 from Mars Express occurred on 19 December. The satellite continued its mission with its successful insertion into a Mars orbit on 25 December, the day on which Beagle 2 was due to land.
Paris (ESA) May 25, 2004 - The Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the Beagle 2 lander, was launched on 2 June last year, arriving in the vicinity of Mars in December. The separation of Beagle 2 from Mars Express occurred on 19 December. The satellite continued its mission with its successful insertion into a Mars orbit on 25 December, the day on which Beagle 2 was due to land. London (UPI) May 24, 2004 The public may never be told why Britain's first Martian probe - Beagle 2 - disappeared last Christmas as it was about to land on Mars.
