The latest efforts to contact a British-led mission to Mars from its orbiting mother ship failed Wednesday, compounding fears that the Beagle 2 probe crashed during a Christmas Day touchdown. Gloom surrounding the first all-European mission to Mars contrasts with the joy at NASA, whose robotic explorer Spirit safely landed on the Red Planet during the weekend and has transmitted high-definition pictures in the last few days.
January 7th, 2004
The Mars rover has developed some minor problems that will probably delay the start of its trek across the rust-colored landscape to prospect rocks and soil, scientists said Wednesday. NASA officials previously said the exploration could begin as soon as Monday, but revised that timetable because of minor
January 4th, 2004
NASA rover sends snapshots from Mars
The first of two rovers landed safely on Mars Saturday night and sent back screenfuls of black-and-white images from Gusev Crater, marking a successful start to NASA’s first exploration of the Red Planet’s surface in more than six years. Controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., whooped, clapped and hugged each other shortly before 9 p.m. PT (midnight ET) when they heard that a carrier tone was received from the Spirit rover. That signal, relayed by NASA’s orbiting Mars Global Surveyor, confirmed that the spacecraft had landed intact and right side up.
January 4th, 2004
NASA rover lands safely on Mars
NASA mission managers said the first of twin Mars rovers streaked down safely to a “bull’s-eye” landing in Gusev Crater on Saturday night. Minutes after its scheduled landing, a carrier signal confirmed that the Spirit spacecraft had landed intact and right side up. Saturday’s landing marks the beginning of NASA’s first exploration of the Martian surface since 1997’s wildly successful Mars Pathfinder mission
December 30th, 2003
Putting Mars on the Web
When the Mars Pathfinder probe and its Sojourner rover landed on the Red Planet in 1997, NASA was overwhelmed by 17.3 million Web visits during the first month of the mission. Next month, two NASA rovers are scheduled to hit Mars, and the Web traffic is sure to be even heavier. But this time around, the space agency is benefiting from what’s been learned about managing Internet data in the past six and a half years.
December 26th, 2003
Hunt for Europe’s Mars lander fails again
A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars failed on Friday to pick up a signal that would confirm the survival of the European Mars lander Beagle 2, a British agency said. The Beagle, designed to search for signs of life on Mars, is believed to have landed shortly before 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, but three efforts to pick up its signal have now failed.
December 22nd, 2003
Assault on Mars nears its climax
The prospect of life on Mars has charged the public imagination for more than a century, ever since astronomers first spied what they thought were canals dug to irrigate the planet
December 21st, 2003
Mars spacecraft repositioned for orbit
European space controllers said they repositioned the Mars Express spacecraft Saturday, steering it away from its collision course with the Red Planet and moving it toward Martian orbit on Christmas. The crucial maneuver comes a day after the Mars Express successfully separated from the unmanned Beagle 2 surface probe, sending the lander on its trajectory toward Mars.
December 12th, 2003
Gene map reveals uranium-gobbling microbe
A bacterium that can remove uranium contamination from groundwater may also be able to generate electricity, U.S. researchers said Thursday. Scientists who deciphered the gene map of Geobacter sulfurreducens say it has more than 100 genes that should enable it to make chemical changes in metals that would generate electricity.
December 9th, 2003
Nuclear probe to watch Jovian moons
NASA plans to dispatch a hulking nuclear-powered spacecraft to determine whether three of Jupiter