NASA
January 4th, 2005
NASA Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmapping Committee Meeting Today
The NASA Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committee will be meeting 4-6 January 2005 at NASA JPL. The agenda for the meeting is as follows:
* Mars science: What we know today.
* Science planning for exploring Mars.
* Overview of robotic science missions.
* Challenges of Mars robotic and human exploration.
* Human mission studies, options, and technology needs.
* Key issues to be studied.
Member Listing
November 25th, 2004
Future Robots May “Hop” Across Mars Universe Today
NASA’s Spirit Rover has just completed a long hard slog across difficult Martian terrain to reach the Columbia hills. The short journey of just a couple of kilometres has taken Spirit months. Imagine if it could thoroughly analyze an area and then just pick up and fly somewhere new? NASA is considering a proposal from Pioneer Astronautics, which envisions a vehicle that could land on Mars, refuel with local materials, and then fly hundreds of kilometres to explore; repeating this process over and over again – the Martian Gashopper Aircraft.
November 25th, 2004
Russia Plans Mars Moon Mission Red Nova
Russia’s space program is unlikely to launch a planetary mission before 2009 because of cash shortages, a top scientist told AFP. The unmanned mission will aim to land on Phobos, a moon orbiting Mars, and a mission to the Earth’s Moon is unlikely in the near future, said Eric Galimov, planetologist and director of the V.I. Vernandsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
November 11th, 2004
Mars answers spur questions Rocky Mountain News
Five spacecraft are circling Mars and creeping across its ruddy surface, looking for traces of long-gone waters and signs that the cold, arid planet may once have been hospitable to life. The robotic martian invasion – three orbiters and two six-wheeled rovers – has already uncovered strong evidence that water once flowed on Mars and is now locked in subsurface ice. But big questions about water on Mars remain. When did it flow? How long did it last? How much was there? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Perhaps the most tantalizing question: Were there long-lived watery environments where microbial life could have gained a foothold?
November 3rd, 2004
Scientists lift veil on Beagle 3
The team behind the Beagle 2 mission to Mars has unveiled its design for the successor to the British spacecraft. At a London meeting, Colin Pillinger, lead scientist on the previous venture, outlined plans for putting a new robotic lab on the Red Planet. Scientists hope to launch two landing craft from an orbiter that could fly in 2009 as part of Europe’s Aurora programme of space exploration.
October 1st, 2004
UK aims to be major space player
The UK is almost certainly going back to Mars and is set to become a major player in Europe’s efforts to explore the Solar System.
Science minister Lord Sainsbury says the country will pay the