Pasadena - Feb 11, 2004 - Cornell principal investigator for the Mars rovers, Steve Squyres, compared their immediate science challenge to the Indian proverb about reconstructing an elephant by touching only a part: 'the leg makes it a tree trunk, the tail makes it a snake, etc.' The outcrop is that elephant. We have tiny pieces of clues.
Pasadena - Feb 11, 2004 - Scientists responsible for Opportunity's Mini-TES (miniature thermal emission spectrometer) have produced the first mineral map ever made from the surface of another planet. It depicts the concentration of hematite present in a small region of the floor of the crater that surrounds the rover.
Pasadena - Feb 11, 2004 - This generation of Mars rovers have begun testing and using the first constellation of satellites that can act as complex communication relays. Numbering three in total the orbiters include the Mars Odyssey, Global Surveyor and Express.
Friedrichshafen - Feb 09, 2004 - EADS Space has been awarded a EUR900k study by ESA to carry out the first definition of a Rover to explore the Martian surface and search for life.
Friedrichshafen - Feb 09, 2004 - EADS Space has been awarded a EUR600k Study by ESA to carry out the first definition of a European Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. The study will benefit from the combined resources of EADS Astrium and EADS Space Transportation.
Pasadena (JPL) Feb 09, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity has examined its first patch of soil in the small crater where the rover landed on Mars and found strikingly spherical pebbles among the mix of particles there. There are features in this soil unlike anything ever seen on Mars before, said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on the two Mars Exploration Rovers.
Pasadena (JPL) Feb 06, 2004 - NASA's Spirit has returned to full health and resumed doing things never attempted on Mars before. Our patient is healed, and we're very excited about that, said Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., mission manager for Spirit.
Pasadena - Jan 29, 2004 - The first impression of the Opportunity landing site in color is the light, exposed area about ten meters from the rover's location inside a crater. The region has by now accumulated a plethora of adjectives and names: bizarre, alien, hummocky, layered, crater-rim, outcrop, stratigraphic slice, tabular, segmented, slabby.
Pasadena - Jan 29, 2004 - The current generation of Mars missions has adopted the theme, Follow the Water, as a quest to understand the complex geological history of a planet that may have had significant reserves once. For that much warmer and wetter Mars, this motto also requires other ingredients for microbial life, including primordial fire in the form of biological temperature ranges.
"Opportunity has now sent us the most striking image yet obtained by the Mars Exploration Rover mission," said Steve Squyres today.
Pasadena - Jan 27, 2004 - On January 14, President George Bush gave a speech at NASA headquarters outlining a new strategic orientation for the American space agency. While some of the initial ideas for implementing the new space policy can and should be substantially improved upon, the policy overall clearly represents a significant and long-overdue step in the right direction for the American space program. The Steering Committee of the Mars Society therefore welcomes the new policy as presented in Presidential Directive entitled A Renewed Spirit of Discovery, and strongly urges Congress to provide the funds requested for the initial steps requested for the program over the next fiscal year.
Pasadena (JPL) Jan 27, 2004 - During the second day on Mars for NASA's Opportunity rover, key science instruments passed health tests and the rover made important steps in communicating directly with Earth.
Woodland Hills - Jan 27, 2004 - The successful landing of two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers this month was supported by a key navigational component produced by Northrop Grumman Corporation's Navigation Systems Division.
Pasadena (JPL) Jan 27, 2004 - Believe it or not, some of the scientists on the Mars Exploration Rover Science team don't really care too much about rocks - or for that matter anything on the surface of Mars. They have higher ambitions. Their passion lies in the skies - the martian skies - and, from the hazy glow of the atmosphere, they pull precious pieces of information.
Pasadena (JPL) Jan 27, 2004 - Busy as she has been with work, JPL's Dr. Joy Crisp, project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, found time a few weeks ago to do a little shopping. The new necklace she bought is a simple string of dark grey beads and wasn't expensive. What makes it significant is that it is made of specular hematite, which for Mars scientists like Crisp may prove to be more special than diamonds.
Pasadena (AFP) Jan 26, 2004 - Thrilled NASA scientists received the first color pictures of the Martian surface from the rover Opportunity on Monday, as engineers worked feverishly to bring its ailing twin Spirit back to health.
