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?
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Pasadena (JPL) Jun 11, 2004 - During sols 148 through 151, Spirit advanced significantly closer to the Columbia Hills and now sits only 220 meters (722 feet) from its first target at the base, a location informally named Spur B.
Paris (ESA) Jun 10, 2004 - This images of fluvial surface features at Mangala Valles on Mars were obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft.
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Jun 09, 2004 - By summer 2005, researchers in the Fluids Research Laboratory at Virginia Tech will be able to look for evidence of water on Mars by examining submicroscopic bubbles in martian meteorites, determine whether fluids and silicate melts trapped in volcanic rock can help predict future eruptions, and locate buried mineral deposits using data from surface rocks.
Pasadene (JPL) Jun 09, 2004 - NASA's Mars Opportunity rover began its latest adventure today inside the martian crater informally called Endurance. Opportunity will roll in with all six wheels, then back out to the rim to check traction by looking at its own track marks.
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 08, 2004 - Imagine having a modern biology lab on another planet. Then imagine putting that lab on a tiny silicon chip. That portable concept - when applied to detecting the building blocks of life, amino acids - is being investigated for future Mars missions.
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.
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.
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.
