NASA’s next spacecraft to visit Mars has changed course to zero in on its red planet landing site.
The Phoenix Mars Lander fired its thrusters for 35 seconds Thursday to fine-tune its heading for a planned May 25 landing near the Martian north pole.
“This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars,” said Brian Portock, chief of NASA’s Phoenix navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement.
Phoenix’s targeted drop zone is an area that mission scientists have dubbed “Green Valley.” The region is a broad, flat valley where mission planners plan to land Phoenix somewhere within a 62-mile by 12-mile (100-km by 20-km) ellipse.
April 13th, 2008
Lander Zeroes in On Martian North Pole
March 9th, 2008
Once-Habitable Lake Found on Mars
A lake that might once have been habitable may have filled a crater for a long time on early Mars, new spacecraft images reveal.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the images that suggest the debris-strewn Holden Crater once held a calm body of water that could have harbored life. There is so far no convincing evidence life does or ever did exist on Mars, however.
The crater debris includes a mix of broken boulders and smaller particles called megabreccia.
March 4th, 2008
Avalanche Photographed on Mars
NASA spacecraft has taken the first-ever image of an avalanche in action near Mars’ north pole.
The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. The image, released today, shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
The camera was tracking seasonal changes on Mars when it inadvertently caught the avalanche on film.
HiRISE mission scientist Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona was the first person to notice the avalanche when sifting through images.
January 31st, 2008
Space Rock Misses Mars, Barely
An asteroid once thought to be on a collision course with Mars passed the Red Planet today without incident.
Astronomers first estimated that asteroid 2007 WD5 had as high as a 3.6 percent chance of striking the planet. Newer observations kept lowering the odds for the 164-foot space rock until Jan. 9, when NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) program office effectively ruled out chances of an impact.
“Mars sees these kinds of near-miss encounters every ten or twenty years, but the impact rate for asteroids this size is about once in a thousand years,” said Steve Chesley, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.
January 25th, 2008
Female Figure on Mars Just a Rock
The idea that there may be life on Mars has been around for centuries, but the theory got a dubious boost from recently released photos of the surface of Mars (taken by the NASA robot Spirit) apparently showing a human-like figure. Several Internet sites have glommed onto the image and suggested the figure could be alive.
But what is it? Just a rock, astronomers say
January 16th, 2008
Curious Clouds Seen at Mars
With its thin atmosphere and scant moisture, Mars is often largely cloud-free. But new observations reveal clouds of dry ice thick enough to cast significant shadows on the red planet.
Dust storms are known to shroud vast swaths of Mars. Clouds have been photographed from the ground before, too.
The new research finds that carbon dioxide, the main component of martian air, freezes into clouds so dense they dim the sun by about 40 percent. Frozen carbon dioxide is commonly called dry ice here on Earth.
December 21st, 2007
Full Moon Meets Mars
If skies are clear in your area on Sunday night, Dec. 23, you’ll be able to partake in a rather unusual sight as the full moon appears to glide very closely above the planet Mars.
Mars, which made its closest approach to the Earth on Dec. 18, will be only hours from a Christmas Eve opposition with the sun and is now shining prominently with a bright yellow-orange glow.
And if you’re favorably positioned in certain parts of the Pacific Northwest, western Canada, or Alaska, you’ll actually see the moon occult (hide) Mars for a short time as the pair sits low above the east-northeast horizon.
December 21st, 2007
Fire and Brimstone Helped Form Mars Oceans
The longstanding mystery of how oceans once formed on Mars could be solved by fire and brimstone.
Specifically, researchers now suggest that ancient volcanoes could have released brimstone — now more commonly known as sulfur — that warmed up the red planet enough for liquid water oceans in the early days of Mars. These findings might also shed insight on the young Earth, including the origins of life, scientists added.
December 21st, 2007
Conflict Delays NASA’s Mars Scout Launch to 2013
Launch of the next Mars Scout mission will be delayed by two years to 2013 due to an undisclosed conflict of interest with one of two finalists, Doug McCuistion, NASA’s Mars Exploration program director, said in a Dec. 21 teleconference with reporters.
Upon discovering the conflict, the evaluation panel was disbanded, and an entirely new panel has been formed, McCuistion said. New proposals for the next Mars Scout mission will be due in August, and the selection will occur in December 2008, he said
December 14th, 2007
See Mars Now: Red Planet Shines Bright
Mars will be closer to Earth this month than any time until the year 2016.
The red planet is now the brightest “star” in the evening sky and is already above the horizon as evening twilight fades away. But give it at least two more hours – until about 8 p.m. – for it to climb above the poor atmospheric seeing that’s near the horizon. By then, this brilliant yellow-orange world will be at an altitude of around 30 degrees as seen from mid-northern latitudes.