If just getting to Mars is difficult, and most would agree it is, try finding a good parking spot once you arrive. More than 100 NASA engineers and scientists from around the country spent three years searching before settling on landing sites for Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some sites were too rocky; some too dusty. Others were too steep, too windy or too cold. Engineers considered several sites too risky for landing, with lots of “bad” rocks that could damage the rovers on impact.
December 19th, 2003
Panel finds little consensus about space priorities
Experts from government, the aerospace industry and academia admitted Thursday that little consensus exists on a new focus for the nation’s exploration of space. The group, meeting in Washington amid speculation that President Bush soon may announce a bold new initiative for the U.S. space program, debated a return to the moon, a mission to Mars or less costly investments in new technologies. “For the first time in (NASA’s) history there is no new human spaceflight mission in the pipeline,” said Paul Spudis, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and one of the nation’s most forceful advocates for resuming lunar explorations. “There is nothing beyond the international space station at the moment.”
December 16th, 2003
In Siberian skies she saw spirit, opportunity
Two robotic spacecraft nearing Mars were built and paid for by NASA grownups, but it was a 10-year-old girl born in a Siberian orphanage who dreamed up their inspirational names, “Spirit” and “Opportunity.” The centerpieces of an $820 million mission to explore the rugged Martian terrain, the two golf-cart-sized robotic rovers are on course to attempt landings late on Jan. 3 and Jan. 24. Now a fourth-grader in Scottsdale, Ariz., Sofi Collis submitted the winning entry in an essay contest sponsored by NASA, the Danish toy company Lego, and the Planetary Society. She beat out nearly 10,000 elementary, middle and high school contestants, who attempted to suggest names and provide an explanation in no more than 50 words.
December 7th, 2003
Moon or Mars? Space visionaries hopeful of bold new space policy
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 — or whether any plan actually makes liftoff — remains to be seen. For space buffs, just to get a defined mission would be cause for hope. “Put it this way: I think we have to continue to move forward and, at least with the discussion that’s going on, that’s good,” said Everett Gibson, a NASA scientist who studied moon rocks from the Apollo astronauts and the Mars meteorite that may hold evidence of past life on the red planet.
December 4th, 2003
Bush said to be undecided on space policy
President Bush has not decided on his vision for the future of human spaceflight, the White House said Thursday, shooting down reports that an announcement was imminent on plans to return to the moon and send explorers to Mars. “It would be premature to get into any speculation about our space policy,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at his daily briefing. “It has been, and continues to be, under review. There are no plans for any policy announcements in the immediate future, and that would include any upcoming speeches.”
December 3rd, 2003
Physician pursued space career after seeing flier
When Lee Morin was a child, he didn’t dream of being an astronaut. He never gave it a thought until he was a Navy physician completing his residency and saw a flier advertising how to apply to the space program. In 1996, haunted by the flier, he decided to give it a try to avoid any possible regrets. Soon after applying at NASA, Morin was invited for an interview. Six months later, he was reporting to duty in Houston.
November 19th, 2003
NASA outlines moon, Mars missions
Efforts to resume shuttle missions next year are just the first step in an emerging strategy by NASA that includes human missions to the moon and Mars, agency officials told aerospace professionals Tuesday. The strategy includes efforts to finish assembly of the U.S.-led international space station using the shuttle fleet and development of a four-passenger orbital space plane, space nuclear power and propulsion devices, and a large, expendable cargo rocket.
June 8th, 2003
Storms postpone Mars rover launch until Monday
Storms today forced NASA to delay launching a rocket holding the first of a pair of rovers destined for Mars with a mission to search for evidence of water on Earth’s neighbor. The launch aboard a Boeing Delta II from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was rescheduled for Monday afternoon.
February 13th, 2003
Water ice on Mars’ poles, but not a drop to drink
Mars’ north and south poles are loaded with frozen water trapped under a crust of “dry ice” — frozen carbon dioxide — but this is not necessarily good news for any earthly visitor looking for a drink, scientists reported today. Apparent indications of surface water, including features that look like channels and river valleys, suggest the Red Planet might once have been warm and wet enough to sustain liquid water, and therefore to allow for the possibility of Earth-type life. But new findings reported in the current edition of the journal Science show that while there may be lots of water ice, there is nowhere near enough carbon dioxide to ever warm the planet up enough to make the water drinkable.
October 17th, 2002
Advantages of settling moon, Mars debated
Like a pair of heavyweight fighters, two passionate advocates for human space travel squared off at the World Space Congress on Thursday to debate the merits for settling the moon versus settling Mars. The moon won in a close contest. But the sparring before 130 aerospace engineers and scientists meant little. Neither the moon, just three days’ travel from the Earth, nor Mars, six months away, is on NASA’s or any other space agency’s official celestial road map at the moment.