| April 20, 2009 |  |
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Spirit Suffers Memory Gaps and Unexplained Resets
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 20, 2009Spirit failed to wake up for three planned events. The rover eventually woke up from an expiring alarm clock timer 27 hours later. Then, an unexpected reset of the rover occurred on Sol 1874 (April 11, 2009). A second reset occurred on Sol 1875 (April 12, 2009). It was also discovered that the rover did not record any data in flash memory on sols 1874 and 1876 (April 11 and April 13, 2009) ... more Early Martian Environment And Water Drive Search For Life Forms 
New Rochelle (SPX) Apr 17, 2009Solar energy and winds, collisions with asteroids and comets, and changing magnetic fields have all altered the environment of Mars, a planet that may have been able to support life during its history, as documented in a special collection of papers published in the current issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Compiled by Helmut Lammer, PhD, Se ... more Mars Science Laboratory Parachute Qualification Testing 
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Apr 17, 2009The parachute for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory passed flight-qualification testing in March and April 2009 inside the world's largest wind tunnel, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. In this image, an engineer is dwarfed by the parachute, the largest ever built to fly on an extraterrestrial flight. It is designed to survive deployment at Mach 2.2 in the Martian atmosphere ... more US scientists plan greenhouses on the Moon 
Tucson, Arizona (AFP) April 15, 2009Astronauts' meals have come a long way from the freeze-dried powders and semi-liquid pastes of decades ago: now US scientists want to grow vegetables in mini-greenhouses on the Moon. Although space fare has steadily improved over time, a team of scientists says the best is yet to come. They look forward to when residents of future lunar or even Martian outposts can dine on luxuries such ... more Mars Spacecraft Teams On Alert For Dust-Storm Season 
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 16, 2009Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports. On April 21, Mars will be at the closest point to the sun in the planet's 23-month, elliptical orbit. One month later, the planet's equinox will mark the start of summer in Mars' southern hemisphere. This atmospheric-warming ... more |
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Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 04, 2009Spirit is making good progress around Home Plate to the west. After getting clear of troublesome rocks, Spirit drove 13.8 meters (45.3 feet) on Sol 1854 (March 21, 2009). The next drive, on Sol 1856 (March 23, 2009) , achieved a new distance record for five-wheel driving. Spirit drove 25.82 meters (84.7 feet), beating the old record by about a meter. Spirit completed another drive of ... more Opportunity Brushing and Examining an Outcrop 
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 04, 2009Opportunity remains positioned on an exposed rock outcrop, continuing an "in situ" (contact) science campaign with the robotic arm (IDD). On Sol 1832 (March 20, 2009), the first part of a rock abrasion tool (RAT) brushing activity was performed. Using a new work-around for the failed RAT Z-encoder, the RAT successfully performed a seek-scan to locate the rock surface. On the next sol ... more Russian-European Crew Starts Mars Mission 
Moscow, Russia (ESA) Apr 02, 2009Earlier today, a crew of six, including two ESA-selected participants and four Russians, embarked on a simulated mission to Mars. Although they will not leave the confines of a dedicated isolation facility in Moscow for 105 days, their mission will help prepare for a real human mission to Mars in the future. At 12:00 CEST (14:00 local time), once all six crewmembers had entered the special ... more Bright Soil Churned By Spirit's Sol 1861 Drive 
Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 02, 2009NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove 22.7 meters (74 feet) toward the southwest on the 1,861st Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's mission on Mars (March 28, 2009). After the drive, the rover took this image with its front hazard-avoidance camera, looking back at the tracks from the drive. As usual since losing the use of its right-front wheel in 2006, Spirit drove backwards. The ... more |
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Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 27, 2009Did you ever wish you could stroll through the caldera of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system? Study the rock formations in Valles Marineris, a martian canyon as wide as the United States? Or retrace the tracks of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers? Then you'll want to check out Google Mars. Tucked away inside the recently released Google Earth 5.0, Google Mars is the i ... more HiRISE Sees Signs Of An Unearthly Spring 
Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 27, 2009Tempe AZ (SPX) Mar 27, 2009 The High Resolution Imaging Experiment, or HiRISE, run from The University of Arizona, is seeing signs of spring on Mars. The signs are absolutely martian and unearthly. The HiRISE team has released new high-resolution images of terrain at Mars' south polar region taken last month by their camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. "Spring on Mars ... more Mars Rovers Powering On After 5 years 
Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 27, 2009In January 2004, NASA landed two identical robotic rovers named Spirit and Opportunity on the surface of Mars. The twins were primed for a brief 3-month mission to tell us a story of water and possibly life itself in the planet's past. More than five years later, the dynamic duo are still roving the Red Planet, engaged in a saga of overachievement that has transformed Mars exploration. ... more Opportunity At Outcrop - Endeavour In Sight - Sol 1824-1831 
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 26, 2009Opportunity has positioned itself at an exposed rock outcrop and is in the middle of an "in situ" (contact) science campaign with the robotic arm (IDD). Because of the project team's desire to rest the right-front wheel actuator and to limit driving while an earlier drive sequence error is remedied, Opportunity took advantage of the nearby rock outcrop. This fits with the strategic science ... more
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