The camera team for NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor mission is beginning daily Internet postings of pictures that showcase the rich diversity of martian landscapes. The first “Mars Orbiter Camera Picture of the Day” shows frost-covered sand dunes in the springtime as they begin to defrost.
April 11th, 2003
NASA Rovers Slated to Examine Two Intriguing Sites on Mars
NASA has chosen two scientifically compelling landing sites for twin robotic rovers to explore on the surface of Mars early next year. The two sites are a giant crater that appears to have once held a lake, and a broad outcropping of a mineral that usually forms in the presence of liquid water. Each Mars Exploration Rover will examine its landing site for geological evidence of past liquid water activity and past environmental conditions hospitable to life.
April 4th, 2003
Prolific NASA Orbiter Adds Thousands of Photos to Mars Album
The winds of Mars leave their marks on many of the 11,664 new pictures being posted on the Internet today by the camera team for NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor mission. In one image, the pattern of sand dunes on a patch of southern-hemisphere desert resembles scales on a fish. On a larger scale, full-globe Mars images show wispy water ice clouds shaped by winds as the seasons change. Other new images reveal details of features such as gullies, landslides and seasonal frost.
April 1st, 2003
NASA and Carnegie Mellon University to Test Robot in Chile
A team of NASA and Carnegie Mellon University scientists will travel to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile April 1 to conduct research that will help them develop and deploy a robot and instruments that may someday enable other robots to find life on Mars. The researchers will be using the Atacama, described as one of the most arid regions on Earth, as a martian analog. NASA Ames Research Center is providing the autonomy technology for the research, which is part of NASA
March 15th, 2003
NASA’s Odyssey marks one year in orbit around Mars
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has transformed the way scientists are looking at the red planet. “In just one year, Mars Odyssey has fundamentally changed our understanding of the nature of the materials on and below the surface of Mars,” said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut, Odyssey’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
March 13th, 2003
Athena Student Interns Program
NASA is sending two rovers to Mars this spring and you and your students can be part of the exciting mission from launch through landed operations! The Athena Student Interns Program (ASIP) is designed to give a creative, dedicated group of high school students from across the nation the chance to join the scientists of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission in exploring the Red Planet.
March 13th, 2003
NASA’S Mars Odyssey Changes Views About Red Planet
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has transformed the way scientists are looking at the red planet. “In just one year, Mars Odyssey has fundamentally changed our understanding of the nature of the materials on and below the surface of Mars,” said Dr. Jeffrey Plaut, Odyssey’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
March 6th, 2003
Scientists Say Mars Has a Liquid Iron Core
New information about what is inside Mars shows the red planet has a molten liquid iron core, confirming the interior of the planet has some similarity to Earth and Venus. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., analyzing three years of radio tracking data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, concluded that Mars has not cooled to a completely solid iron core, rather its interior is made up of either a completely liquid iron core or a liquid outer core with a solid inner core. Their results are published in the March 7, 2003 online issue of the journal Science.
February 19th, 2003
Women Working on Mars: Engineering on the Red Planet
Imagine being able to respond to the eternal question of “what do you want to do when you grow up?” with a firm answer that you want to design or build a rover or spacecraft to send to another planet. NASA hopes to spread that kind of enthusiasm to young men and women through an interactive webcast in support of National Engineer’s Week. On Wednesday, February 19, at 6 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Eastern Time), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in conjunction with NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and NASA’s Robotics Education Project, will present “Women Working on Mars: Engineering on the Red Planet.”
February 12th, 2003
NASA Study Shows How Water May Have Flowed on Ancient Mars
NASA scientists have discovered how an intricate martian network of streams, rivers and lakes may have carried water across Mars. Using new three-dimensional data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and a powerful state-of-the-art computer code that ‘models’ overland water flow, scientists visualized the complex flow of martian water.