Mars Week 2001, a three-day conference about the exploration of Mars, will be held at the MIT campus in Cambridge on October 26-28. Mars Week is an annual conference discussing the engineering, scientific, political and social aspects of Mars exploration. Topics will include present and future missions, including the prospects for the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. The event will kick off with the arrival of NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft at Mars on Tuesday, October 23. The MIT chapter of the Mars Society will monitor the spacecraft’s entry into Mars orbit from the MIT campus. This will provide an informal start to the Mars Week 2001 program.
October 11th, 2001
Hubble Tracks Perfect Martian Storm
A pair of eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft — the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Hubble Space Telescope — are giving amazed astronomers scientists a ringside seat to the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades. The Martian dust storm, larger by far than any seen on Earth, has raised a cloud of dust that has engulfed the entire planet for the past three months. As the Sun warms the airborne dust the upper atmospheric temperature has been raised by about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This abrupt onset of global warming in Mars’ thin atmosphere is happening at the same time as the planet’s surface has chilled precipitously under the constant dust shroud.
October 9th, 2001
JPL Names Chief Engineer for Mars Exploration Program
Charles Whetsel has been named chief engineer of the Mars Program, a position he has held in an acting capacity since February. As chief engineer, Whetsel will lead the technical development of all current and future Mars missions. Along with other members of the Mars Program staff, he will identify promising mission architectures and technologies, while resolving technical issues affecting multiple projects within the existing Mars Program. He will also lead the Mars Program Systems Engineering Team, comprised of senior engineers from across NASA and other key international space agencies participating in the cooperative exploration of Mars.
October 6th, 2001
Mars Apple Earth and Sky
In the cold and dry Antarctic tundra, exposed seal carcasses can remain intact for a thousand years. Learn an apple’s chance to be preserved on the surface of the cold, dry planet Mars — on today’s Earth and Sky.
September 30th, 2001
LEGO’s Mars exhibit ends tour today at KSC Visitor Complex Florida Today
The parking lot of Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor’s Complex has been turned into the red planet this weekend to celebrate the final stop of LEGO’s Life on Mars Encounter. The walk-through trailer houses an interactive, hands-on exhibit built with more than a 250,000 LEGOs. Green aliens, Mars rovers and LEGO planets are accompanied by educational signs that give little tidbits about Mars. The exhibit was designed to encourage kids to learn more about space, and to build their interest in Mars exploration, said Stephen Meixner, tour manager. Michelle Salyer, spokeswoman for Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex said the Life on Mars exhibit also includes a baby and preschool area for small children.
September 25th, 2001
Exploring Mars: Mars Mission Risks
Imagine planning for a long sailing voyage. Your survival depends upon the sturdiness of your craft, planning and skill. Stowed onboard must be all the provisions, tools and hardware you’ll need. Your knowledge and judgment about how to navigate through wind, weather and waves will be crucial to staying afloat. You’ve learned from the successes and misfortunes of previous voyages. You won’t make the same mistakes, but you know you may encounter some new challenges. When something breaks, you will need to be able to work around it. Beneath the surface may lurk something unexpected. Within the bowels of your sailing craft, there may be a weakness or a flaw that won’t make itself known until later. And it may get you in the end. Vigilant, wary, you’re ready for the best and prepared for the worst, for the things you don’t know will happen. In a way, space engineers say, that’s a little of what it’s like to work on a mission to Mars.
August 2nd, 2001
Newly Found Channels on Mars Billed as Largest Ever
A system of gigantic ancient valleys — some as much as 125 miles (200 kilometers) wide — has been spotted partly buried under eons of volcanic lava, ash and wind-blown dust on Mars. Observations made using a laser altimeter on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft reveal what may be large flood channels near a volcano called Arsia Mons. The features are in Mars’ western hemisphere, south of Amazonis Planitia, an area thought to have once been a vast ocean. The study adds to plenty of evidence collected in recent years, most of it by the Mars Global Surveyor, that the Red Planet was once warm and wet.
July 27th, 2001
Space-Buff Volunteers Wanted as Solar System Ambassadors
Want to guide others on an armchair adventure to the moons of Jupiter and the surface of Mars? NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is inviting applications from space enthusiasts nationwide for the Solar System Ambassador program. The program brings together motivated volunteers from across the nation with top space scientists and engineers to help tell the public about exciting solar system discoveries and future explorations. Applications for year 2002 ambassadors will be accepted during the month of September 2001. Final selections will be announced in December.
July 18th, 2001
INSIDE JPL: Technologists, Their Toys and Troubled Times
Too many rules, staff cuts and radically altered goals put NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a course destined for failure, while a brain drain has robbed the lab of decades of wisdom. Employee pride and morale is wounded. But there are signs of hope. Over the next four Wednesdays, SPACE.com takes you inside JPL to see what’s right, what’s wrong and what’s changing.
July 18th, 2001
Tales of the RAT Man: A History and Future of Mars Rovers
A shiny six-wheeled robot lumbers through reddish sand, cautiously studying the rocky, dusty landscape with stereo eyes. Boulders are everywhere, each a potential storehouse of information or an obstacle to be avoided. A hidden ravine could spell a quick end.