As the Spirit and Opportunity rovers continue their extended studies of Mars, NASA’s Mars program appears headed for change. The shift will be driven by a variety of factors including technical and budget issues, as well as a “rebalancing” of science objectives. NASA has been engaged since last year in what the agency calls a road-mapping effort to flesh out the details of a Mars master plan that would lead to an expeditionary crew landing on that remote world.
May 19th, 2005
New Photos are First of Spacecraft Orbiting Mars
A NASA spacecraft circling Mars has spied, for the first time, two of its fellow probes orbiting the red planet. Red planet veteran Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) successfully photographed NASA
May 15th, 2005
Mystery of Mars’ Mixed Up Poles Solved
Scientists have long wondered why Mars’ southern polar cap is offset from its geographical south pole. Now they’ve solved the mystery. Two different localized climates are to blame, and they can in turn be blamed on two impact craters. Weather generated by the two regional climates creates conditions that cause the southern polar ice to freeze out into a cap whose center lies about 93 miles (150 kilometers) from the actual south pole. “Mars’ permanent south polar cap is offset from its geographic south pole, which was a mystery going back to the first telescopic observations of Mars,” says Anthony Colaprete, a space scientist from NASA Ames Research Center. “We found that the offset is a result of two martian regional climates, which are on either side of the south pole.”
May 11th, 2005
Micromachines to Produce Propellant and Air on Mars
Two teams of researchers are hoping their tiny devices will mean big leaps for future Mars-bound humans, allowing them to carry powerful computers and generate life support materials from the planet
May 11th, 2005
The Magnetic Personality of Ancient Mars
A new study of old rocks on Earth could force a revision of theories about Mars. The results suggest ancient Mars might have been more magnetic than thought, challenging basic assumptions about the evolution of the red planet. Unlike modern Earth, Mars has almost no magnetic field today. Evidence has suggested Mars didn’t have a very strong magnetic field early on, either.
May 9th, 2005
Mars Express Probe Suffers Radar Deployment Snag
A European probe circling Mars has hit a snag in the deployment of a water-seeking radar instrument, prompting mission controllers to delay the experiment while engineers investigate the problem. Flight controllers for the European Space Agency
May 9th, 2005
Mars Rover: Digging Out Of Tough Terrain
When the Opportunity rover landed on Mars last year, scientists were thrilled that it made a cosmic
May 5th, 2005
Mars Telecommunications Orbiter: Interplanetary Broadband
Lockheed Martin Space Systems is expected to land a $500 million contract to build the Mars Telecommunication Orbiter, said Roger Gibbs, MTO project manager at JPL in Pasadena, California. The MTO is intended by NASA to pioneer the use of lasers in planet-to-planet communication; the intended launch date will be sometime in 2009. The Mars Telecommunication Orbiter will be the first interplanetary spacecraft whose main mission is to provide communications services to other missions. It will orbit Mars at a higher altitude than most orbiters, about 2,800 miles above the Martian surface. This will provide an enhanced line of site to Earth. The spacecraft will communicate with Earth via two radio bands and a new optical communications terminal, which will demonstrate the use of a near-infrared laser beam for interplanetary communications.
May 2nd, 2005
Search on Again for Mars Polar Lander
The search is back on for a spacecraft that disappeared during a landing attempt nearly six years ago. And there are hints that the probe might have been found. Mars Polar Lander was headed for a touchdown near the planet