NASA announced today that Mars Program Director, G. Scott Hubbard, has decided to leave that position following a successful year leading the agency’s robotic exploration program. Orlando Figueroa, currently the Deputy Chief Engineer for Systems Engineering at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, was appointed to replace Hubbard as Acting Director, starting May 6. “Scott Hubbard was given ‘mission impossible’ and turned it into ‘mission accomplished,'” said Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science at NASA Headquarters. “When we were hit with the back-to-back loss of two Mars missions, I knew we had to get the best person on the job. Scott did a top-to-bottom reorganization of the program, and earlier this month we had the first launch in the new program, the 2001 Mars Odyssey.”
Contracts awarded for initial Mars sample return studies
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has awarded four industry team contracts to conduct initial studies of specific implementation scenarios for a first Mars sample return mission that might be launched as early as 2011. The contracts are valued at $1 million each and are to be performed over a six-month period. These studies will formulate a broad suite of potential solutions to robotically acquiring rock and soil samples from Mars. NASA will select the best solutions for further development.
2001 Mars Odyssey Launch Information
Current launch status with links to information on viewing the launch, launch window details, launch events summaries, and even a launch simulation. Links are also provided to news sites that may have live Internet launch coverage.
2001 Mars Odyssey Scheduled for launch April 7
The launch of NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey is scheduled for Saturday, April 7, at 11:02 a.m. EDT. Liftoff will occur aboard a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle from Pad A at Space Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. A second launch opportunity exists thirty minutes later at 11:32 a.m., if necessary. Should launch be delayed by 24 hours, the two launch times available on Sunday are 10:29 a.m. and 11:29 a.m. EDT. The planetary launch window extends through April 27.
Balloons: the new aerial explorers
In the continuous quest to find cost-effective methods to explore the planets, NASA engineers have risen to the occasion by developing a variety of new balloon methods inspired by centuries-old, solar-heated hot-air balloons, as well as by conventional helium light-gas balloons. For NASA, balloons are of considerable interest as a means of lowering spacecraft to a planet’s surface, delivering instruments to various altitudes and performing aerial photography and other forms of remote-sensing science. Balloons can also potentially conduct explorations faster and cover greater distances than conventional ground-based planetary explorers.
Go To Mars At Stennishere’s Astro Camp Saturday
The next space mission at StenniSphere’s Astro Camp Saturday will be “Mission to Mars” on March 17. A few spaces still remain for children ages 9-12.
Live Interview Opportunity with Mars Expert
The new evidence that magnetite crystals in the martian meteorite ALH84001 are of biological origin raises the possibility that life may have once existed on Mars. Papers presenting these results were published Feb. 27 in a special Astrobiology issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Finding evidence of life on Mars is one of the central focuses of NASA
Case For Life On Mars Withstands Criticism, Gains Scientific Support
Researchers who stunned the world in 1996 with the announcement that a Martian meteorite contained evidence of ancient life on the red planet have released new evidence that strengthens their original hypothesis and allays many of the criticisms leveled at the first paper. In this latest paper, published in the scientific journal Precambrian Research Feb. 17, two additional Martian meteorites were examined – Nakhla and Shergotty, 1.3 billion and 165 to 175 million years old, respectively. Both younger meteorites showed the same evidence of microfossils and other remnants of early life as the original meteorite, the 4.5-billion-year-old ALH84001. “If the features observed in the two younger Martian meteorites are confirmed to have a biogenic origin, life may have existed on Mars from 3.9 billion years ago to as recently as 165 to 175 million years ago,” said Everett K. Gibson, a geochemist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and the senior author on the paper.
Volpe appointed manager of Mars subsurface technology
Richard Volpe, former manager of robotic autonomy architecture at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has been named manager of JPL’s Mars Regional Mobility and Subsurface Access Technology office. In this new role, Volpe will oversee and coordinate the technology and development for next-generation Mars surface and subsurface exploration. This will include overseeing demonstrations of future mission concepts.