Washington - Jun 24, 2002 - Geologists at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum have discovered a large former lake in the highlands of Mars that would cover an area the size of Texas and New Mexico combined, and which overflowed to carve one of that planet's largest valleys. The findings will appear in the June 21 issue of the journal Science.
Los Angeles - Jun 20, 2002 - Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, thinks he knows what it takes to explore Mars. And the Agency believes him. Landis' proposal, Study of Solar Energy and Dust Accumulation on the Rovers, was one of 28 scientific studies of Mars recently selected by NASA for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission.
San Antonio -- June 19, 2002 - In late 2001, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) launched a major, two-year initiative to broaden its base of expertise in support of the NASA Mars program.
Pasadena - Jun 05, 2002 - NASA has selected 28 scientists for participation in the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission, including four from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission consists of two separate, though identical, rovers scheduled for launch in mid-2003 and arrival at separate destinations on Mars in early 2004.
Swindon - Jun 05, 2002 - Scientists at the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre are recreating the hostile environment found on Mars in their laboratory, with a device known as the Martian Environment Simulator (MES).
Pasadena - June 4, 2002 - Flight controllers for NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft completed the last major technical milestone today in support of the science mission by unfurling the boom that holds the gamma ray spectrometer sensor head instrument.
London - Jun 03, 2002 - The Wellcome Trust biomedical research charity has agreed to help finance the mass spectrometer which is central to Beagle 2 and is being pioneered by the group at the Open University led by Beagle 2 Lead Scientist Professor Colin Pillinger.
Los Alamos - Jun 03, 2002 - Researchers with the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory have determined that Mars has enough water to sustain human exploratory missions.
London - Jun 03, 2002 - Researchers at Imperial College London have just begun a 5-year project to design and build tiny earthquake measuring devices to go to Mars on the 2007 NetLander mission.
Los Angeles - May 21, 2002 - Generac Power Systems has donated a high quality power system to support the work of the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS). The donated unit, which will serve as the MDRS' primary source of electrical power, is a 20 kilowatt generator set. This mobile unit is trailer mounted, and is powered by a 1.5 Liter liquid- cooled four cylinder engine that is fueled by LP gas.
Tucson - May 21, 2002 - Scientists from several nations begin an unprecedented 3-and-1/2-week pilot field experiment on the Santa Cruz flats near Eloy, Ariz., today, May 20, to discover how dust devils may affect atmospheres on Earth and on Mars.
Pasadena - May 9, 2002 - A view of the red planet almost completely enveloped in dust storms is one of 15,251 newly released images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. These images bring the total number of snapshots taken by the spacecraft to more than 93,000.
Pasadena (JPL) May 3, 2002 - As an automobile ages, it usually requires more trips to a mechanic. Spacecraft are designed for a primary mission; when all is going well, the mission is often extended to obtain more data for other research objectives.
Moscow - Apr 30, 2002 - Space expeditions will fly to the Mars in fifteen years if all prerequisites are successfully met. For the future interplanetary expedition Moscow scientists have developed an efficient system to protect the crew from space radiation during the long-term travel to the Mars and back.
The fabrication of the European Mars Analog Research Station (EuroMARS) has begun in earnest.
Pasadena (JPL) Apr 30, 2002 - Weather reports from Mars, global mapping, inspection of potential landing sites, more data about the red planet than from all previous missions - no problem for the hardworking Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
