If the failure last year of two NASA Mars probes proves anything, it’s that Mars exploration will be best-conducted in the hands of human explorers, says Robert Zubrin, president of the International Mars Society and author of “Entering Space,” and “The Case for Mars.”
February 25th, 2000
Russia Prods Europe To Further Test Reentry Technology
While experts are still evaluating an innovative inflatable reentry shield, the IRDT, which successfully returned from orbit this month, its Russian manufacturer has already proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA), a project co-sponsor, a second flight of the device.
February 24th, 2000
NASA Considers Mars Polar Lander Repeat for ’02
Just months after losing a $165-million lander at Mars, NASA is now considering sending a near duplicate spacecraft to the red planet in 2002.
February 23rd, 2000
Mars Weather: It’s Stranger Than You Thought
Signs of martian snowfall, avalanches, “dust devils” and evidence for ancient oceans from the Mars Global Surveyor are profoundly changing how scientists perceive the Red Planet. It’s a far cry from the dry and dead world imagined by previous generations.
February 23rd, 2000
Writing the Red Planet: Ted Tally Talks M2M
Ted Tally has earned a reputation in Hollywood for developing strong characters within genre conventions. He won an Oscar in 1992 for his adapted screenplay of The Silence of the Lambs. Most recently, he was brought on to rewrite the script to Mission to Mars in an effort to enrich the characters, saving the film from becoming yet another piece of sci-fi twaddle “about hardware and science.”
February 21st, 2000
Fossilized Bacteria Found in Ancient Meteorite
Russian scientists claim to have discovered fossils of primitive extraterrestrial organisms in a meteorite thought to be a leftover from the formation of the solar system.
February 18th, 2000
Mars Polar Lander’s Demise May Never Be Known, Flight Director Says
Less than one month before a NASA review board is scheduled to report on the failure of Mars Polar Lander, a mission team member cautioned that the cause of the lander
February 18th, 2000
‘Marie Curie’ Dumped from Mars ’01 Mission
If a lander spacecraft is sent to Mars in 2001, it will not carry a mini-rover like the Sojourner that so thrilled the public on the Mars Pathfinder mission in July 1997.
February 18th, 2000
Sneak Peak: The Look of Mission to Mars
For the upcoming film Mission to Mars, veteran production designer Ed Verreaux led the team responsible for the look of all the space equipment. Verreaux, whose design credits include Contact and Raiders of the Lost Ark, is no stranger to difficult assignments, but designing for the future provided its own special set of challenges.
February 15th, 2000
Polar Lander
New analysis suggests that two faint signals thought to be from the Mars Polar Lander were likely terrestrial in origin, a Stanford University scientist said Tuesday. A 150-foot (46-meter) radio antenna at the Northern California university picked up the weak signals on December 18 and January 4, reviving hopes at the time that the errant Polar Lander remained alive. The $165 million spacecraft vanished December 3 after plunging into the martian atmosphere at the start of what was to have been a 90-day mission.