Pasadena - Jun 30, 2003 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is revealing new details about the intriguing, dynamic character of the frozen layers now known to dominate the high northern latitudes of Mars. The implications have a bearing on science strategies for future missions in the search of habitats.
Woodland Hills - Jun 27, 2003 - NASA will depend once again on key navigational aids produced by Northrop Grumman when it launches its Mars Exploration Rovers and spacecraft planned for later this month. The mission will attempt to determine whether water once existed on the planet.
Paris - Jun 25, 2003 - The instruments on board ESA's mission to Mars, Mars Express, are in the process of being tested to verify that they have survived the launch successfully and will work properly. One of these tests on the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, has been postponed to the first week of July 2003.
Pasadena - Jun 25, 2003 - Images from the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor capture a faint yet distinct glimpse of the elusive Phobos, the larger and innermost of Mars' two moons. The moon, which usually rises in the west and moves rapidly across the sky to set in the east twice a day, is shown setting over Mars' afternoon horizon.
Pasadena - Jun 22, 2003 - NASA's Spirit spacecraft, the first of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, performed its first trajectory correction maneuver Friday. Following commands from the Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., the spacecraft first performed a calibration and check of its eight thrusters, then fired the thrusters to fine-tune its flight path toward Mars.
Huntsville - Jun 22, 2003 - Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter in August. The red planet is already an appealing target for sky watchers. Count slowly: one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand.... You just got about 30 km closer to the planet Mars.
Berlin - Jun 20, 2003 - This year's Mars hunt should soon have a new participant: After five involuntarily idle years in space, the Japanese craft Nozomi will try an Earth swing-by this week when it passed Earth as close as 11,000 kilometers July 19 (at 14.43 GMT), and by using the Earth's gravity, was set on a new trajectory towards the red planet where it should arrive around New Year.
Pasadena - Jun 18, 2003 - The 2003 crew for the Flashline Mars Arctic Station has been chosen. The Mars Society announces that the upcoming four-week rotation at FMARS is the longest to date. At the site on Devon Island, the members of Crew 8 will simulate a long-term research mission to the planet Mars, studying the region around the Houghton Crater and living at the analog space station there.
Pasadena - Jun 09, 2003 - On Monday, June 9th, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project kicks off by launching the first of two unique robotic geologists. The identical rolling rovers see sharper images, can explore farther and examine rocks better than anything that's ever landed on Mars. Each rover can explore up to half a kilometer (just under one-third of a mile) away from their respective touchdown locations.
Temple - Jun 09, 2003 - The first overview analysis of a year's worth of high-resolution infrared data gathered by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is opening Mars to a new kind of detailed geological analysis and revealing a dynamic planet that has experienced dramatic environmental change.
Pasadena - Jun 02, 2003 - When Chris Voorhees thinks about wheels, he doesn't imagine the rubber hitting the road, but aluminum crawling across the surface of Mars. In fact, he has already seen some of his handiwork making its way across the red planet. One of the first jobs Voorhees was handed as an intern was stamping out over 1,000 stainless steel cleats for the Sojourner rover on NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission.
Moffett Field - May 29, 2003 - A pair of German scientists have examined Martian dune images and found what appears to resemble terrestrial mudflows. On Earth, particularly in alpine and arctic regions, such a debris trail is left behind when fine-grained soil mixes with liquid water from intense rainfall or sudden melting of surface ice.
Paris - May 27, 2003 - For centuries, mankind has wondered whether alien life exists on another planet in our solar system. One of the most promising places to discover signs of life beyond Earth is the planet Mars, and scientists around the globe are clamouring for an opportunity to participate in ExoMars, an exobiology mission which is being planned as part of ESA's pioneering Aurora Programme.
Cape Canaveral - May 26, 2003 - What do NASA's soon-to-be-launched Mars Exploration Rover (MER-1 and MER-2) spacecraft have in common with the Viking and Voyager spacecraft launched decades ago? Besides being interplanetary explorers, they will be among the most biologically clean spacecraft ever launched from Cape Canaveral.
Mountain View - May 22, 2003 - The Mars Institute today announced that its MARS-1 Humvee rover has reached Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic after successfully crossing the Wellington Channel, a 23 mile (37 km) stretch of treacherous sea ice separating Cornwallis Island from Devon Island at 75¿N.
Paris - May 22, 2003 - On 2 June 2003, the first European mission to Mars will be launched. It will also be the first European mission to any planet. Mars Express has been designed to perform the most thorough exploration ever of the Red Planet.
