| June 26, 2008 |  |
MarsDaily Advertising Kit |
| Previous Issues | Jun 25 | Jun 24 | Jun 23 | Jun 20 | Jun 19 |
Game of two halves: Scientists solve Martian riddle
Paris (AFP) June 25, 2008For nearly 30 years, space scientists have wrestled with one of the greatest enigmas in the Solar System: why does Mars have two faces? Pictures sent back by the US Viking landers in the late 1970s unveiled Mars's northern hemisphere as an enormous lowland basin, where -- or so it was suspected -- a mighty ocean may have raged. But Mars's southern hemisphere is abruptly, bizarrely ... more Laser Fluorescence Could Find Life On Mars 
Corvallis OR (SPX) Jun 25, 2008A team of scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom has developed a technique using ultraviolet light to identify organic matter in soils that they say could be used to document the existence of life on Mars. The researchers' proposed instrumentation could operate on any Mars lander or rover, they say, such as the current Phoenix mission or NASA's Mars Science Laboratory ... more Phoenix Shake And Bake 
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 24, 2008The Phoenix mission landed in the martian northern plains on May 25. Since then, the lander's robotic arm has scooped up soil and delivered it to the science instruments for testing. The hope is that Phoenix will discover organic molecules in the red soil - if it does, that improves the odds that life could exist on Mars. Phoenix already has found evidence for water ice beneath the top lay ... more Phoenix lander confirms presence of ice on Mars 
Washington (AFP) June 20, 2008Scientists rejoiced Friday after the Phoenix Mars lander confirmed their long-held belief that ice is hiding under the surface in the Red Planet's northern region. The lander's robotic arm started digging trenches into Martian soil after touching down near the planet's north pole on May 25, revealing a white substance that scientists had said could be either salt or ice. Phoenix flexed ... more Frozen Water Confirmed On Mars 
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 23, 2008Scientists relishing confirmation of water ice near the surface beside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead. "It is with great pride and a lot of joy that I announce that we have found proof that this hard bright material is really water ice and not some other substance," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of ... more |
mars-phoenix
 spacetravel  mars-phoenix |
Washington (AFP) Jun 20, 2008An information glitch aboard the Mars Phoenix lander has caused the loss of some non-essential images of the Red Planet and delayed the probe's work by 24 hours, NASA said Thursday. "The spacecraft is healthy and fully commandable, but we are proceeding cautiously until we understand the root cause of this event," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion ... more Space Radar To Improve Mining Safety 
Noordwijk, Netherlands (SPX) Jun 20, 2008Advanced ground penetration radar, originally developed to investigate the soil structure on the Moon and other planets on ESA planetary missions, is now being used in Canadian mines to spot hidden cracks and weaknesses in mine roofs. Using space technology developed for ESA for the special ground penetration radar GINGER (Guidance and Into-the-Ground Exploration Radar) that will be ... more Opportunity Is Busting Loose And Going For It On Mars 
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 19, 2008Opportunity finally escaped the Martian sand and backed up onto solid rock inside "Victoria Crater." Driving backward on Martian day, or sol, 1557 (June 10, 2008), the rover successfully moved the last of its six wheels up over a rocky ledge. The successful maneuver freed Opportunity to follow another route that will bring the rover closer to the cliff known as "Cape Verde." From there ... more NASA Mars Lander To Dig As Team Probes Flash Memory 
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 19, 2008NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission generated an unusually high volume of spacecraft housekeeping data on Tuesday causing the loss of some non-critical science data. Phoenix engineers are analyzing why this anomaly occurred. The science team is planning spacecraft activities for Thursday that will not rely on Phoenix storing science data overnight but will make use of multiple communication relays ... more |
mars-phoenix
 mars-phoenix  mars-phoenix  |
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 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 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 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
|
spacetravel
 mars-phoenix  radiation  |
|
| Previous Issues | Jun 25 | Jun 24 | Jun 23 | Jun 20 | Jun 19 |
| 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 |
