As NASA scientists struggled to revive their ailing Mars rover, they also began to prepare for the landing of its twin, which was scheduled to touch down on the other side of the Red Planet late Saturday night. Spirit, the first of the $820 million twin rovers sent to Mars to determine if it was once a wetter world capable of sustaining life, began to malfunction on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after landing on the planet’s Gusev Crater.
January 19th, 2004
Ex-Astronaut to Lead Moon-Mars Commission
The man chosen to lead the way to the moon and Mars is a one-time astronaut trainee and former Defense Department hotshot who is almost giddy about outer space travel. “It’s going to be fun,” Pete Aldridge said in an interview. “My goodness, the president says this is what we’re going to do.”
January 15th, 2004
NASA’s Rover Rolls Onto Mars Surface
The Spirit rover successfully rolled onto Mars early Thursday, placing its six wheels on solid martian ground for the first time since the robot bounced down on the Red Planet nearly two weeks ago.
January 11th, 2004
Officials: Bush Space Plan Not Too Costly
Space-exploration proposals that President Bush is preparing to put into his next budget will not undermine his administration’s goal of cutting the federal deficit in half within five years, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Sunday.
January 11th, 2004
Rover to Take Extra Day to Roll Onto Mars
NASA scientists said Sunday they had decided to keep the Spirit rover on its lander for an extra day, putting off its rollout onto the martian landscape until at least late Wednesday.
January 10th, 2004
Mars Rover Ready to Begin Explorations
NASA’s Spirit rover has fully unfolded itself and stretched up to its full 4-foot, 9-inch height, making it ready to drive off the lander that delivered it to Mars, the space agency said Saturday. The rover could reach the martian surface as early as Wednesday morning.
January 10th, 2004
Cost of Bush Space Initiative Unclear
The cost of a new space initiative to return American astronauts to the moon and then on to Mars would depend on when the nation decided to go and how ambitious the missions turned out to be. President Bush is expected next week to announce a program to establish a permanent human colony on the moon and then, a decade or so later, to send humans to Mars.
January 9th, 2004
Moon, Mars Proposals Stir Excitement
The prospect of sending astronauts back to the moon and maybe on to Mars is stirring a mix of excitement and skepticism. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Nadine Barlow, a Mars expert at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. “We’ve heard these things before and they never pan out,” she said Friday.
January 9th, 2004
Moon-Mars Effort Will Be New Effort
If NASA returns astronauts to the moon and then takes aim at Mars, the agency will have to go back to the drawing board to get the job done. The rockets, equipment and engineers that put American footprints on lunar soil have long been lost, junked or retired.
December 4th, 2003
Visionaries Hope NASA Plan Includes Mars
After decades of watching astronauts circle Earth, space visionaries finally have reason for optimism: NASA and other agencies are working with the White House on a bold, new course of exploration. Whether the destination is the moon or Mars