Spacecraft observations of the landing area for one of NASA’s two Mars rovers now indicate there likely was an enormous sea or lake covering the region in the past, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. Research Associate Brian Hynek of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft now show that the region surrounding the Opportunity rover’s landing site probably had a body of water at least 330,000 square kilometers, or 127,000 square miles. That would make the ancient sea larger in surface area than all the Great Lakes combined, or comparable to Europe’s Baltic Sea.
September 8th, 2004
Mars May Have Had Large Sea Near Nasa Rover Landing Site University of Colorado at Boulder
August 29th, 2004
Plan 1 for Outer Space Washington Post
Brian Cooper may be the slowest driver in the solar system. Floored, his vehicle reaches a sustained velocity of a tenth of a mile per hour. That’s fine with Cooper, who fears getting stuck in the bottom of a crater. On Mars you can’t call a tow truck.
August 26th, 2004
Good Government At Work… On Mars NY Post
On a recent day some of them were behind a laboratory at a pile of sand that resembles the surface of Mars. They were trying to drive a rover, like the two currently on Mars. The JPL scientists were trying to operate one with the kind of mechanical defect
August 24th, 2004
NASA: DOS Glitch Nearly Killed Mars Rover ExtremeTech
A software glitch that paralyzed the Mars “Spirit” rover earlier this year was caused by an unanticipated characteristic of a DOS file system, a NASA scientist said Monday. The flaw, since fixed, was only discovered after days of agonizingly slow tests complicated by the limited “windows” of communication allowed by the rotation of Mars, said Robert Denise, a member of the Flight Software Development Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
August 23rd, 2004
On Mars, no life yet, but many blue screens of death News.com
Did Mars have water? The ground seems to say yes. The presence of a particular type of hematite, a mineral mostly associated with water, along with large, sandy areas, indicates that the red planet once had a supply of the liquid, said Robert Denise, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a member of the flight development software team for the Mars Exploration Rovers program. Denise is attending the Hot Chips conference taking place this week at Stanford University.
August 19th, 2004
Mars hill find hints at wet past
The US space agency’s robotic rover Spirit has found more evidence that water washed and altered the rocks it has been studying on the Red Planet.
The vehicle is examining the geology of an outcrop at Columbia Hills named Clovis, which shows chemical and physical signs of alteration by water. Sprit’s twin, Opportunity, has now completed its transect of rocks in a large crater on the other side of Mars. NASA says both rovers continue to work well as they move into Mars’ winter.
August 18th, 2004
Bedrock in Mars’ Gusev Crater Hints at Watery Past
Now that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the “Columbia Hills,” it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars’ Gusev Crater. Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed successful three-month primary missions on Mars in April and are returning bonus results during extended missions. They remain in good health though beginning to show signs of wear.
August 15th, 2004
Dust Clears, Mars Bright Astrobiology Magazine
One hundred twenty scientists have published their current running tally of results from the Spirit rover. No lakebed evidence has been found yet, but scientists are impressed with the equipment’s diagnostic capabilities so far.
August 11th, 2004
Relays from Mars Show International Interplanetary Networking
One of NASA’s Mars rovers has sent pictures relayed by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter for the first time, demonstrating that the orbiter could serve as a communications link if needed. The link-up was part of a set of interplanetary networking demonstrations paving the way for future Mars missions to rely on these networking capabilities. The American and European agencies planned them as part of continuing efforts to cooperate in space exploration.
August 11th, 2004
Mars: The Nasa Mission Reports, Vol. 2 Apogee Books
This latest volume brings the exploration of Mars up to date. Including the latest results from the amazingly successful Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as well as progress reports from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions. 416 pages with 248 pages of color images INCLUDES DVD-V / DVD-ROM.