Sniffing for puffs of radioactive radon gas could be the easiest way to find water lurking metres beneath the Martian soil. We already know there should be plenty of water on Mars. Probes have found water vapour in the Martian atmosphere and ice on the surface at the poles. And NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft recently detected traces of hydrogen, almost certainly bound up in ice near the surface.
July 7th, 2003
Fifth delay puts pressure on Mars rover launch New Scientist
Time is running out for NASA’s second Mars rover to launch after a battery problem caused the mission to be delayed for a fifth time on Sunday. A malfunction with a battery cell in the flight termination system aboard the Delta II rocket carrying the rover caused Sunday’s launch to be scrapped. The battery will now be replaced and launch has been rescheduled to either 0235GMT or 0318GMT on Tuesday.
June 30th, 2003
Rocket repairs delay second Mars rover New Scientist
The launch of NASA’s second Martian rover has been delayed until at least Wednesday to allow further repairs to the upgraded Delta II rocket that will carry it into space. The rocket was originally scheduled to blast off on Saturday but take-off was halted when a boat strayed into the waters below the launch path. A second launch attempt was abandoned on Sunday morning because of strong winds at Cape Canaveral.
June 24th, 2003
Memory error interrupts Mars Express testing New Scientist
An anomaly with a key computer memory unit aboard Europe’s Mars Express, currently speeding towards the red planet, has interrupted remote testing of the spacecraft, the European Space Agency revealed on Tuesday.
June 20th, 2003
Unexpected message delays Beagle 2 boot-up New Scientist
First contact with the UK’s Beagle 2 Mars lander, which set off for the Red Planet on 2 June, has been delayed by a week. The postponement is required to allow engineers time to decipher an unexpected message from an instrument on Beagle’s mother ship, Mars Express.
June 18th, 2003
Mars lander Beagle 2 to boot up New Scientist
Britain’s Mars lander Beagle 2, currently speeding towards the Red Planet, will be activated on Friday for the first time since its launch. “This will tell us whether we survived launch,” says Jim Clemmet, engineering manager for Beagle 2 at prime contractors Astrium. “It is also one of the few occasions [during the voyage] when we’ll be able to check that it’s healthy.”
April 11th, 2003
Russia plans simulated trip to Mars New Scientist
The Russian laboratory dedicated to space medicine has said it will confine and isolate six cosmonauts for 17 months to test the ability of a crew to survive a return trip to Mars. Dmitry Malashenkov of the Institute of Biological and Medical Problems in Moscow (IBMP) says the chosen participants will have to cope as if on a real trip to the red planet: “If a crew member falls ill, the other members will have to provide aid on their own.” If outside help is needed, “it would be considered defeat, as if that person had died.”
March 26th, 2003
Water could replace spacecraft heat shield tiles New Scientist
Space scientists looking for new ways to cool spacecraft on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere are turning to one of the world’s oldest coolants: water. Existing heat-shield technology leaves a lot to be desired. In the 1960s Apollo rockets used a heat shield that burnt off slowly – but this is no good for reusable spacecraft like NASA’s fleet of space shuttles. And the silica tiles the shuttle uses are fragile and prone to damage.
March 24th, 2003
Bio-battery runs on shots of vodka New Scientist
An enzyme-catalysed battery has been created that could one day run cell phones and laptop computers on shots of vodka. The key to the device is a new polymer that protects the fragile enzymes used to break down the ethanol fuel, scientists told the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans on Monday. Enzyme-based batteries have the potential to be cheaper than fuel cells that rely on expensive platinum or ruthenium catalysts. “It sounds great,” says Bob Hockaday, founder of the company Energy Related Devices and designer of a methanol-powered battery. “Enzymes are inexpensive and catalytically very active.”
March 18th, 2003
Faulty component delays Mars Express launch New Scientist
A faulty component has set back the launch date for Europe’s first ever solo mission to Mars, but project scientists say the delay could in fact be advantageous. The Mars Express spacecraft was scheduled to launch on 23 May from the Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The repair now means the spacecraft is unlikely to take off before 6 June. The launch window extends until 23 June.