Finding water on Mars could burst open the floodgates to a new era of exploration on the planet, fueling the drive for eventual human colonies. Futurists and far-thinkers say that if water is found to exist in sizable quantities, it someday could lead to everything from fuel farms and filling stations for rockets to shower stalls for astronauts.
June 21st, 2000
Mars Discovery May Speed NASA, European Plans
The prospect that NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor has detected signs of water at a specific site on the Red Planet is likely to spark debate as to whether or not to send a robotic craft on location to look for life.
June 21st, 2000
Mars: Where the Water Is
The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft has found evidence that water has seeped out of the walls of martian craters in the recent geologic past, a process that possibly continues today. One Mars specialist, who did not wish to be identified, said that if true, the findings would “cause big problems” for planetary geologists.
June 20th, 2000
NASA to Announce Evidence of Water On Mars
NASA will announce next week that its Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has turned up evidence of water on the Red Planet
June 7th, 2000
Animal-Like Robots Could Explore Planets
If the visionaries of today have their way tomorrow, NASA planners in the future could unleash an odd-looking menagerie of robots to explore planets and space in ways that humans never will. Researchers envision things like 3-foot- (1-meter-) long dragonfly-like robots to buzz high above Mars, mechanical eels and seahorses to swim deep beneath the ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa or “self-transforming” plastic explorers that can morph themselves into different shapes.
June 6th, 2000
Rare Rocks: New Lunar and Martian Meteorites Found
In the world of rocks that have fallen to Earth from space, meteorites from Mars and our moon are scarcer than hen
June 2nd, 2000
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Brings Mars Closer to Earth
Ever wanted to rove across Mars in the year 2130? Now you can at the National Air and Space Museum, which has added four, eight-person flight simulators to put passengers behind aircraft controls in a Navy jet and in the seat of a martian rover.
May 30th, 2000
Space Activists Demand Better Space Program
America’s space program is going no place fast. As shuttle astronauts fiddle with pieces of a megabillion-dollar International Space Station built for six, exactly where the U.S. space enterprise is taking the ground-bound, tax-paying public-at-large remains unknown. Seeing red is Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society, based near Denver, Colorado. Not only is the planet Mars an ideal spot for a new branch of civilization, Zubrin said, a human mission to that neighboring world speaks to what the human venture in space is about.
May 25th, 2000
Russians Advance Personal Hygiene In Space
It’s not exactly Elizabeth Arden, but researchers at a Russian institute are working on health and beauty aids — ways to help space travelers shampoo, shower and exfoliate.