Paris - Jan 19, 2004 - ESA's Mars Express orbiter flew almost directly over NASA's Spirit rover on at Gusev Crater on January 16 at an altitude of about 300 kilometres. Mars Express uses four instruments to look down, while Spirit looks up.
Boston - Jan 19, 2004 - Students and researchers at MIT are designing a space mission to learn about the effects of Mars-level gravity using pint-sized astronauts. The 15 mouse-trounauts will orbit Earth for five weeks to help researchers learn how Martian gravity -- about one-third that of Earth -- will affect the mammalian body.
Bozeman - Jan 19, 2004 - If you think the Mars rovers are interesting, wait until you see a mini-van clambering over the planet's red rocks and dusty lake beds. The two golf-cart size rovers that are mesmerizing the country now are preparing the way for a 2009 mission to Mars called the Mars Scientific Laboratory, says William Hiscock, head of the physics department and director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium based at Montana State University-Bozeman. The 2009 mission will involve a rover, too, but that vehicle will be the size of a mini-van.
Pasadena - Jan 19, 2004 - With barely a week before reaching Mars, NASA's Opportunity spacecraft adjusted its trajectory, or flight path, today for the first time in four months.
Pasadena - Jan 19, 2004 - Last week as NASA was only just beginning to pivot Spirit around for egress the science exploration and mapping teams were deciding their travel plans beyond the landing zone.
Pasadena - Jan 19, 2004 - With the deployment of the Spirit Rover, a robotic arm built by Alliance Spacesystems is now in action. The robotic arm (formally known as the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) has five rotating joints and an extended length of more than one meter. The arm is mounted to the forward structure of the Spirit rover and was secured during launch, landing, and rover positioning by ASI-designed restraint mechanisms at the arm elbow and the instrument turret at its outboard end.
Pasadena (JPL) Jan 19, 2004 - NASA's Spirit rover reached out with its versatile robotic arm early Friday and examined a patch of fine-grained martian soil with a microscope at the end of the arm. We made our first use of the arm and took the first microscopic image of the surface of another planet, said Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Paris - Jan 19, 2004 - Every day, people around the world tune in weather forecasts to plan their days ahead. Soon ESA will be delivering the same service for Mars, thanks to an ingenious experiment on board Mars Express.
Beijing - Jan 15, 2004 - US Mars rover Spirit landed successfully on the Mars on Jan. 4. It is learned that there are over 300 Chinese scientists in US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). They are getting along well with scientists from various countries and have made great achievements.
Waterloo - Jan 15, 2004 - Three days after successfully landing on Mars, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has successfully begun transmitting high resolution colour images of the red planet. The CCD image sensor chips, designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, were manufactured at DALSA's semiconductor wafer production facility in Bromont, Quebec.
Pasadena - Jan 15, 2004 - Two views of a sundial called the MarsDial can be seen in this image taken on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera. These calibration instruments, positioned on the solar panels of both Spirit and the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, are tools for both scientists and educators.
Pasadena - Jan 15, 2004 - We asked the rover engineers to fit a square peg in a round hole, said the Spirit rover mission manager, Jennifer Trosper of NASA JPL. On a very big day today, the engineering team unfolded that square rover from its triangular landing petal.
Pasadena - Jan 15, 2004 - Scientists have a crush on Mars, and it's hard not to look only for things we want to see, says Mars Exploration Rover scientist, John Grant, from Washington D.C.'s National Air and Space Museum.
Washington (AFP) Jan 15, 2004 - The US spirit robot successfully rolled off its landing platform onto Martian soil for a brief, three meter (10-foot) excursion early Thursday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
Washington (AFP) Jan 14, 2004 - The US Spirit robot will make its first three-meter trek on Mars late Wednesday, as part of its mission to seek out traces of water on the Red Planet, to determine if life once existed there, NASA officials said Wednesday.
Honolulu - Jan 13, 2004 - Everyone interested in Mars exploration should now take a few minutes off from looking at those fine photos of Gusev Lava Flow sent back by the Spirit rover. It is time to fall on our knees, face toward Memphis and give thanks to Elvis that the British Mars lander Beagle 2 has failed. I can't think of any possible event more potentially disastrous for the future of unmanned planetary exploration than the success of this particular mission.
