Sydney - June 12, 2001 - A possible mechanism for transfer of life between planets is via rocks ejected by major asteroid or comet impacts. The term transpermia was coined by Oliver Morton to describe the transfer of lifeforms by this method and to distinguish it from the more general concept of panspermia.
Paris - Jun 11, 2001 - Phobos, the tiny innermost moon of Mars, is to come under unprecedented scrutiny after Europe's mission to Mars goes into orbit around the Red Planet late in 2003. Mars Express is due to pass within 3000 km of the 22 km diameter moon a few hundred times during its two-year nominal mission lifetime.
Los Angeles - June 6, 2001 - Newly formed Pendragon Pictures is gearing up to produce a new rendition of the H.G. Wells classic War Of The Worlds. Described as a non-campy, live action production, the latest version will be directed by Timothy Hines and produced by Susan Goforth.
Reykjavik, Iceland (SPX) June 5, 2001 - New remarkable MOC images captured over a deeply incised valley system on the northeast Pavonis Mons flank show how erosion has nearly destroyed the pattern of young impact craters. Comparable age for an undisturbed impact crater pattern at Arisa Mons is 40-100 million years (Hartmann et al., 1999). After this erosion event a few scattered impact craters have formed. It is concluded that a major fluvial erosive event took place within valley floor on the northeast Pavonis Mons flank.
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Tucson - June 4, 2001 - A University of Arizona-led international team of 20 space scientists and engineers this week are conducting an ambitious field test of equipment to study dust devils swirling over the Santa Cruz flats near Eloy, Ariz.
Pasadena - June 4, 2001 - Daily global maps, created with images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, provide a moving picture of Martian weather during 1999-2000 similar to the familiar satellite weather maps we see of Earth.
Middleport - May 31, 2001 - The Space Studies Board of the National Research Council released its new report concerning the Mars Sample Return project entitled The Quarantine And Certification Of Martian Samples.
Washington - May 29, 2001 - Work on a quarantine facility must begin soon if it is to be ready in time for spacecraft returning to Earth with martian rocks and soil in tow, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council.
Fayetteville - May 23, 2001 - University of Arkansas researchers have moved one step closer to growing microorganisms under Mars-like conditions by suspending them in water containing dissolved matter from Mars soil simulant.
Guelph - May 18, 2001 - Life on Mars is one step closer to reality following the opening of a Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility at the University of Guelph that will seek to better understand how to sustainlife in deep space.
Washington (AFP) May 9, 2001 - A human space explorer will be able to set foot on Mars no later than the year 2020 and visit other planets of the Solar system in the following decades, the head of the US space agency announced Wednesday.
Gainesville - May 8, 2001 - In what reads like a story from a 1950s science fiction magazine, a team of University of Florida scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars in a most unworldly way: by emitting an eerie, fluorescent glow.
Moscow - May 1, 2001 - People are the most vulnerable chain in long-term space expedition. How numerous should a crew be? What are the principles of a crew selection? What should be made to protect people during a flight and on some other planet?
Cameron Park - May 1, 2001 - The 32nd Annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference -- held in Houston from March 12 through 16 -- like all the LPSCs before it, was a major scientific powwow at which scientists from the world over presented hundreds of papers and posters on the geology, meteorology and chemistry of the other worlds and objects in our Solar System, from giant planets down to meteorites.
Cameron Park - May 1, 2001 - In short, this year's LPSC papers on Mars make it abundantly clear that a new paradigm has become extremely important in understanding the strange and puzzling history of Mars: the idea that the planet's geology has been radically affected by the fact that -- unlike Earth -- it's cold enough for great amounts of carbon dioxide to get into its subsurface.
