The first parts of the model for early housing on Mars have safely arrived at a remote site in the Arctic Circle, where they will be assembled into a space-age hut to house six faux-astronauts. The parts are a dozen 800-pound (360-kilogram) fiberglass panels that were successfully airdropped last week to the rocky Devon Island in Canada’s northernmost province. They will become the walls and roof of the Mars Arctic Research Station — a combination bunkhouse, laboratory, and home base for the kind of scientific work that astronauts may someday do on Mars.
July 5th, 2000
Riding Laser Beams to Space
Traveling light today? That takes on new meaning given upcoming tests of small laser-propelled craft that zip through the sky on pulses of light. These research flights are setting the stage for future launches of ultra-tiny satellites into low Earth orbit. Ultimately, human-carrying spacecraft may be boosted into space via lasers.
June 29th, 2000
Scientists Urge Caution In Mars Water View
Amid the excitement caused by last week’s announcement that water may have been active on the surface of Mars in the very recent past, top planetary geologists are stressing that the conclusions are still very much speculative. While water could be responsible for the striking gully-like features seen in recent pictures from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, there are other explanations, the scientists said.
June 29th, 2000
Revolutionary Robots Gear Up for Mars
Getting a leg up on Mars requires muscle power. But if you are a robot, using muscle wire will put spring into your step. The University of Arizona is home to a mechanized menagerie of sorts. Need a pick-me-up burst of power on Mars to hop over a rock? How do you refill your fuel tank when the nearest gas pump is millions of miles back on Earth?
June 29th, 2000
Arctic Island a Living Lab for Mars Science
Just days after NASA’s blockbuster announcement that liquid water may flow near the surface of Mars, scientists are rallying around the images — and pondering the possibilities of life on Earth’s neighboring planet. “When I saw those images, I said to myself that I
June 28th, 2000
Mars Express: Europe Takes the Lead
A $200 million European mission just three years from launch may well take the next giant step in the hunt for water on Mars. The European Space Agency
June 26th, 2000
An Interview With Kim Stanley Robinson
The man who can tell you everything about what it takes to terraform Mars is not surprised by the confirmation of water on the Red Planet. In his three “Mars” novels (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars), Kim Stanley Robinson constructed a vision of the Red Planet and humanity’s evolving relationship with it that spans hundreds of years and as many characters. The achievement has been likened to “War and Peace with spaceships”; another comparison might be to a space-age Moby Dick. Robinson spoke to SPACE.com about the discovery of an indispensable requirement for life as we know it, whether native to the Red Planet or imported from Earth.
June 24th, 2000
NASA’s Mars Mantra: Follow the Water
In the immediate weeks, months and years to come NASA will employ a slew of spacecraft to continue to hammer away at the tantalizing possibility of liquid water
June 23rd, 2000
Drilling Technology for Mars Is In The Works
The news of liquid water on Mars may herald a new age of exploration on the Red Planet, but the tools needed to tap this fountain of liquid gold are far from finished. One of the biggest challenges scientists face is the question of what lies beneath the surface of Mars. Because they are just learning about the planet
June 22nd, 2000
Scientists Report Water In Gullies On Mars
Researchers using NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft announced Thursday that they found puzzling signs of water seeping into what appear to be young, freshly-cut gullies and gaps in the Martian surface. The startling discovery of recently-formed, weeping layers of rock and sediment has planetary experts scratching their heads.