NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity will back its way out of a crater it has spent four months exploring after reaching terrain that appears too treacherous to tread. Sitting at an incline inside “Endurance Crater” in Meridiani Planum, Opportunity has apparently reached in impasse. To the rover’s right, slopes are too steep to pass, while on the left the terrain appears to contain sandy patches where Opportunity could bog down.
November 12th, 2004
Mars Gullies Likely Formed By Underground Aquifers
The revelation in 2000 that gully features have been spotted on Mars sparked numerous ideas as to how the geological features were formed. A study team is analyzing images of gullies captured by the Mars Global Surveyor
October 15th, 2004
Mars Reconsidered: New Data Raises Fresh Questions
here is mounting evidence of the role of water in Mars
October 14th, 2004
Burt Rutan: Building ‘Tomorrowland’ One Launch at a Time
Nobody can claim that Burt Rutan, the innovative aerospace designer, doesn
October 13th, 2004
Red Planet Bound: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The next spacecraft destined for Mars is rapidly coming together here on Earth — an interplanetary probe that carries the most powerful instruments ever sent to the red planet.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO for short, is being readied for sendoff next year. The huge spacecraft carries a suite of instruments, including a camera system able to provide ultra-close-up images of Mars’ surface, and a sounder to probe for water that might linger subsurface on the planet.
October 12th, 2004
A Sleepy Science: Will Humans Hibernate Their Way Through Space?
In the future, bedtime for astronauts may be more than a few evening hours of regular shuteye. It may help them reach other planets, though admittedly they would have to sleep for quite a long time.
European researchers, however, are on the case, conducting hibernation experiments that will hopefully help them understand whether humans could ever sleep through the multiple years it would take for a spaceflight to the outer planets or beyond.
October 11th, 2004
Marsquakes: Red Planet May Still Rumble
Mars used to be a mover and a shaker. Scientists don’t know if it still entertains seismic activity, however. No mission has ever been equipped to properly measure any rattling that might still occur. Now a study comparing images of intriguing pits on Mars to similar features on Earth suggests the red planet indeed still rumbles. “It’s likely that there may be marsquakes today, but seismic monitoring will be required to know for sure,” said study leader David Ferrill of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “Until then, it’s just scientific speculation.”
October 11th, 2004
Russia Plans 500-Day Mock Mars Mission
Russian space researchers will lock six men in a metal tube for more than year in an effort to mimic the stresses and challenges of a manned mission to Mars. The 500 Days experiment, under development by the Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, will isolate human volunteers in a mock space station module for — as its namesake suggests — a complete 500 days to study how a long mission to Mars might affect its human crew. “Obviously, we’re very interested in the results,” NASA spokeswoman Dolores Beasley said of the long-duration study during a telephone interview. “It is a high priority for us.”
October 6th, 2004
Spirit Rover Disabled by Steering Problem
A steering problem disabled the Mars Rover Spirit Oct. 1, NASA officials said yesterday. The robot has not moved since.
While a fix of some sort is expected, Spirit could proceed with a greater chance of causing other problems.
The robot’s right-front and left-rear wheels “did not operate as commanded” on the first day of the month, the space agency said in a statement. Engineers are investigating possible causes and remedies, which might include disabling the brakes on the two wheels so the craft can proceed with its mission in a hampered fashion.