| June 17, 2008 |  |
MarsDaily Advertising Kit |
| Previous Issues | Jun 16 | Jun 14 | Jun 13 | Jun 12 | Jun 11 |
Mars Phoenix lander offers up first secrets
Washington (AFP) June 13, 2008About three weeks after it landed on Mars, the Phoenix lander has collected particles that offer a snapshot of millions of years of life on the Red Planet, the team behind the probe said Friday. NASA's 420-million-dollar lander has also possibly located ice and is in the process of providing a 360-degree view from its landing site in the Martian polar region, with rocks and hills fading into ... more Stripped of planet status, Pluto saves face 
Paris (AFP) June 12, 2008Two years after Pluto was struck from the planetary A-list and downgraded to "dwarf-planet" status, the ninth rock from the Sun regained some dignity Thursday by lending its name to a new category of celestial bodies. In a revised taxonomy of the mainly lifeless objects circling the Sun, those fulfilling all the criteria of planets except one - the ability to "clear the neighborhood" around ... more After whole lotta shakin', Mars probe ready to bake 
Washington (AFP) June 11, 2008Scientists were all smiles Wednesday after samples of Martian arctic soil finally dropped into the Phoenix lander's oven instrument, putting the search for signs of past life on Mars back on track. The probe's robotic arm had dumped arctic dirt into one of its eight Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) last Friday, but only a few particles from the clumpy soil in Mars's far north made it ... more NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Delivers Soil Sample To Microscope 
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 13, 2008NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil Wednesday onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft's robotic microscope station, images received early Thursday confirmed. "It looks like a light dusting and that's just what we wanted. The Robotic Arm team did a great job," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He is the lead scientist for th ... more NASA Completes Review Milestone For Ares I First Stage 
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 13, 2008NASA has completed the preliminary design review for the first stage of the Ares I rocket -- giving overall approval for the agency's technical design approach. This review brings NASA one step closer to developing a new mode of space transportation for astronauts to explore the moon, Mars and beyond. "We have been working a very aggressive plan for over two years and making great progress ... more |
mars-phoenix
 radiation  mars-exomars  |
Washington (AFP) June 10, 2008Clumpy soil on Mars has further hampered the Phoenix lander's attempts to obtain samples for analysis by the spacecraft's test instruments, mission experts said. "Virtually none of the material made it down into the oven" after the probe dug up new soil clumps from the Martian permafrost with its robotic arm, William Boynton, an investigator for Phoenix's thermal and evolved gas analyzer ... more NASA Lander Will Sprinkle Martian Soil For Microscope To View
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 11, 2008The team operating NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander plans to instruct the spacecraft in the next few days to use its Robotic Arm to sprinkle a spoonful of Martian soil onto a wheel that will rotate the sample into place for viewing by the spacecraft's Optical Microscope. Meanwhile, commands for Phoenix's activities today are to continue a set of atmosphere observations begun during the Martian ... more Aerojet Ships Propulsion System For Mars Science Laboratory Mission 
Sacramento CA (SPX) Jun 11, 2008Aerojet has shipped the rocket engines destined for use on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). When MSL is launched in the fall of 2009 aboard the Atlas V, Aerojet will provide propulsion for every phase of the mission. The Atlas V will be configured with four Aerojet solid motors to provide an additional one million pounds of thrust to the launch vehicle. The Centaur upper stage will us ... more Making Sense Of Mars Methane 
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 10, 2008In a quest to understand the source of methane detected in the atmosphere of Mars, NASA scientists are looking at methane bubbling from the ground at an outdoor salt factory on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. By measuring carbon isotopes in the Mexican methane, these scientists hope to help unravel the mystery of the martian methane. In particular, they want to know whether or not the martian met ... more |
mars-phoenix
 mars-phoenix  mars-phoenix  |
Washington (AFP) June 6, 2008Presumptive Republican White House nominee John McCain said Thursday he would like to see a manned mission to Mars as part of a "better set of priorities" for NASA that would better engage the public. At a townhall event in Florida, the Arizona senator was asked about funding for the US space agency's shuttle program, which is due to end in 2010. He said he "would be willing to spend ... more Phoenix Mars Lander Checking Soil Properties
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 08, 2008The arm of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander released a handful of clumpy Martian soil onto a screened opening of a laboratory instrument on the spacecraft Friday, but the instrument did not confirm that any of the sample passed through the screen. Engineers and scientists on the Phoenix team assembled at the University of Arizona are determining the best approach to get some of that material ... more Phoenix Captures Highest Resolution Images Ever From Surface Of Mars 
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 06, 2008A microscope on NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has taken images of dust and sand particles with the greatest resolution ever returned from another planet. The mission's Optical Microscope observed particles that had fallen onto an exposed surface, revealing grains as small as one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. "We have images showing the diversity of mineralogy on Mars at a scale th ... more Simulations Predicted Mars Lander Would Hit Subsurface 
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Jun 06, 2008University of Michigan simulations correctly predicted that the pulsed jets of the Mars Phoenix lander would strip the soil to the subsurface ice or rock as the craft touched down. Photos of the area beneath the craft on Friday revealed a hard surface that scientists say may be ice. It could also be rock, and researchers won't know until the Phoenix can dig into the dirt. But it's clear th ... more
|
rocketscience
 mars-phoenix mars-life  |
|
| Previous Issues | Jun 16 | Jun 14 | Jun 13 | Jun 12 | Jun 11 |
| The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy statement |
