Scientists working on NASA’s twin rover mission to Mars said Friday they are settling in for the long haul, as they ready to dispatch the six-wheeled robots on extended treks that could stretch into the late summer.
March 23rd, 2004
NASA Rover Climbs Out of Martian Crater
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity on Monday managed to climb up and out of the crater that it explored for nearly two months, overcoming a slippery slope that left the vehicle spinning its wheels during an earlier attempt. The short drive across the sandy inner rim of Eagle Crater placed the rover outside the shallow depression for the first time since it landed January 24, 2004.
March 16th, 2004
Yellowstone Could Help Find Life on Mars
A study of microscopic organisms that inhabit the park’s hot springs may help NASA researchers in their efforts to find life on Mars.
The organisms, called thermophiles, have lived in the boiling waters of springs in Yellowstone National Park for billions of years.
March 7th, 2004
Mars Rover Fails to Dig Hole in Rock
Scientists planned to run tests on the rover Opportunity after it failed to grind a hole in Martian rock on Sunday, NASA officials said. The rover tried, unsuccessfully, to use one of its many tools to grind away at an outcropping dubbed “Flat Rock,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement on its Web site.
March 7th, 2004
Rovers Roll Toward New Sites on Mars
The Mars rovers moved toward new rocks to drill on Saturday, a day after the Spirit rover found geological evidence that the dusty Red Planet had a wet past. The Opportunity rover prepared for another drilling job as Spirit
March 6th, 2004
Mars critics say billions are ill-spent
NASA’s celebration last week of gritty evidence that Mars once had enough water to support life has spawned more questions: Where’s the water now? When did it disappear? Are there any fossils of living creatures, or even microbes? But prominent scientists outside the space agency are beginning to ask a harder question: Does Mars represent what is out of whack in American science and exploration?
March 5th, 2004
Another Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Water
NASA’s Spirit rover has found evidence of past water activity in a volcanic rock on the other side of Mars from where its twin, Opportunity, discovered signs that ground there had once been drenched.
March 5th, 2004
NASA Rover Photographs Mars Solar Eclipse
The NASA rover Opportunity turned a camera skyward to photograph Mars’ moon Deimos eclipsing the sun and also carried out the most complex movements yet of its robotic arm, Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Thursday.
March 3rd, 2004
Bookies Stop Taking Bets on Life on Mars
The information coming in from the Mars rovers is exciting for NASA, but it’s ending some of the action for bookies in Britain. The bookmaking firm Ladbrokes announced it’s stopped taking bets on the question of whether there was ever life on Mars.
February 26th, 2004
On the issues: Candidates’ views on space
Do you support the plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 in preparation for manned missions to Mars?