London (AFP) May 23, 2004 - Severe organisational failures lie behind the loss of Beagle 2, the UK-lead space probe to Mars which vanished shortly before it landed on the Red Planet late last year, an official inquiry reported Monday.
Pasadena (JPL) May 18, 2004 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has begun sampling rocks blasted out from a stadium-sized impact crater the rover is circling, and the very first one may extend our understanding about the region's wet past.
Moffett Field - May 17, 2004 - Skating delicately around the rim of Endurance Crater, the Mars' Opportunity rover has traversed approximately 13 meters (about 43 feet) farther south along the eastern rim. On sol 104, the rover approached Lion Stone, a rock at the crater's edge that stands about 10 centimeters tall (about 4 inches) and is about 30 centimeters long (12 inches). This brought Opportunity's total mission odometry to greater than half a mile, or 1,054 meters (3,458 feet)!
Washington - May 13, 2004 - I am a strong advocate for robotic exploration of Mars. I am also an advocate for the human exploration of Mars, but in the future, after this robotic exploration has fulfilled certain requirements. Let me just talk a little about human exploration and why I think it is inevitable that we will ultimately go to Mars.
Paris (ESA) May 12, 2004 - The overall operational performance of all spacecraft subsystems is good. Following difficulties encountered with the Solid State Mass Memory (SSMM) in the March-April timeframe, the upload of a new Solid State Mass Memory software version took place successfully in mid-April. No science operations were possible during the few days dedicated to this operation.
Pasadena - May 12, 2004 - Opportunity awoke on sol 102 from its first deep sleep. This set of activities was initiated to conserve the energy that is being used by the instrument arm's stuck-on heater switch.
Paris (ESA) May 11, 2004 - These images were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express of the Acheron Fossae region, an area of intensive tectonic (continental 'plate') activity in the past.
Pasadena - May 06, 2004 - Scientists and engineers celebrated when they saw the first pictures NASA's Opportunity sent from the rim of a stadium- sized crater that the rover reached after a six-week trek across martian flatlands.
Pasadena - May 06, 2004 - Spirit is now less than 1,600 meters away from the base of the Columbia Hills after three long sols of driving. Its odometer now reads currently reads over 1,660 meters (1.03 miles) and counting.
Houston TX (SPX) May 06, 2004 - The scientific debate over whether a meteorite contains evidence of past life on Mars continues to intensify, with colleagues of the team that announced the possibility in 1996 revealing new findings that may cast doubt on some of that earlier work.
Pasadena (SPX) May 05, 2004 - According to a daily briefing note made available to SpaceDaily.com NASA's Mars Exploration Rover A - Spirit - is having communication problems. The current information available suggests the problems are not overly critical and can probably be fixed. However the root cause of the problem remains unknown.
Pasadena (JPL) May 04, 2004 - After a 50-meter (164-foot) drive on sol 94, which ended at 10:10 p.m. April 29 PDT, and the final approach of 17 meters (56 feet) on sol 95, which ended at 10:49 p.m. April 30 PDT, Opportunity arrived on the western rim of Endurance Crater and began surveying the spectacular new view.
Moffett Field (SPX) May 04, 2004 - From 200 million miles away on Mars, the European Beagle 2 lander was intended to send back a faint 5-watt signal. To acquire that miniscule signal could be compared to picking up a cellphone call if broadcast from Mars to Earth. That phone call was intended to as a Christmas greeting to scientists listening in after Beagle 2's expected December 25th touchdown.
Paris (ESA) Apr 30, 2004 - The MARSIS team has advised ESA to delay the deployment of the MARSIS radar instrument on board Mars Express, scheduled for this week.
Pasadena (JPL) Apr 29, 2004 - Both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers have completed their originally planned mission and are tackling extra-credit assignments.
Washington - Apr 28, 2004 - The surface environment of Mars may not always have been so hostile to life. Early in the planet's history, the average temperature almost certainly was warmer and the atmosphere more dense, and liquid water may have existed at the surface.
