A new analysis of Martian soil data led by University of California, Berkeley, geoscientists suggests that there was once enough water in the planet’s atmosphere for a light drizzle or dew to hit the ground, leaving tell-tale signs of its interaction with the planet’s surface. The study’s conclusion breaks from the more dominant view that the liquid water that once existed during the red planet’s infancy came mainly in the form of upwelling groundwater rather than rain. To come up with their conclusions, the UC Berkeley-led researchers used published measurements of soil from Mars that were taken by various NASA missions: Viking 1, Viking 2, Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity. These five missions provided information on soil from widely distant sites surveyed between 1976 and 2006.
MGS Finds Viking Lander 2 and Mars Polar Lander (Maybe) Malin Space Science Systems
One of the more interesting and appealing activities of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) observational objectives identified in the original 1985 Mars Observer proposal was to image landers on the martian surface. The scientific goal of this objective is to place the landers into their geologic context, which in turn helps the science community to better understand the results from the landers. In addition to this, the MOC team believed that it would be “really neat” to see the landers sitting on the surface. In previous releases, we have shown images of Viking Lander 1, Mars Pathfinder, and the two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. To this group of landers we can now add with certainty Viking Lander 2 (VL-2), the location of which has been uncertain by many kilometers for nearly 30 years. We also believe that we have found a candidate for the location of the Mars Polar Lander, which failed without a trace on 3 December 1999.
Spherix Viking Scientist Who First Claimed Life on Mars Welcomes Deluge of Support
Spherix Incorporated (Nasdaq: SPEX – News) — One of the persons most relishing the news out of last week’s ESA Mars Conference in the Netherlands that 75 percent of the attending scientists now believe that Mars may have had life, and 25 percent saying that Mars may currently have life, is Dr. Gilbert V. Levin. Now working as Executive Officer for Science of Spherix Incorporated, the firm he founded in 1967, Levin was Experimenter on the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment aboard NASA’s 1976 Viking Mission seeking life on Mars.
Aerojet Tests Engine Design for New Mars Rover
Aerojet, a GenCorp Inc. (NYSE: GY) company, recently test-fired a Viking flight spare rocket engine assembly in order to help design a new engine which will deliver the next rover to the surface of Mars in 2009. The rocket engine used in the test was originally built, tested and delivered in 1973 for the Viking program. The engine was put into storage after the successful landing of the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft on Mars in 1976. “Aerojet hardware has flown on every U.S. mission to Mars,” said Aerojet President Michael Martin. “We are extremely proud that the hot fire testing of the Viking Lander rocket engine assembly further proved Aerojet’s heritage capabilities in design, manufacture, test and production of propulsion systems. Our role in the Mars Science Laboratory mission will bring our work full-circle.”
Researchers Build Mars Simulator To Put Interplanetary Greenhouses To The Test University of Florida
Ray Bucklin can remember when “Mars jars” were sprouting up in laboratories around the country. In the years after the Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars, many scientists spent their spare time building bottle-like devices that replicated the thin air or the surface of the Red Planet
Life on Mars Likely, Scientist Claims
Those twin robots hard at work on Mars have transmitted teasing views that reinforce the prospect that microbial life may exist on the red planet. Results from NASA
UFO streaks through Martian sky
The US Spirit rover on Mars has seen a UFO streak across the Red Planet sky.
Astronomers say it could be the first meteor seen from the surface of another world, or a redundant orbiting spacecraft sent to Mars 30 years ago.