Could finding life on Mars be a biological show-stopper, a discovery that would slow down or even halt plans to send humans there? The issue of life on Mars serves as a double-edged sword, where scientific passion and ethics cuts both ways.
March 27th, 2000
NASA Begins Clean Up of ‘Mars Mess’
NASA is bracing itself for the release Tuesday, March 28 of an in-depth review of the space agency’s troubled Mars exploration program. The report, according to NASA insiders as well as industry officials, paints a bleak picture of program mismanagement, lack of proper technical oversight of government and industry teams and inadequate testing of spacecraft hardware that led to last year’s failure of multiple Mars probes.
March 26th, 2000
Source of Earth’s Hum Revealed, Space Symphony Possible
In recent years scientists have used seismographs to sort out subsurface sound waves from earthquakes. But what causes the hum, which researchers call the background-free oscillation, has been a mystery. Because Mars and Venus are also solid bodies with atmospheres they are probably humming too, creating a miniature symphony in space.
March 22nd, 2000
NASA Denies Validity of News Reports On MPL Failure
NASA officials are categorically denying the accuracy of media reports that have been swirling since Tuesday night, which say that NASA knew in advance that the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) was doomed, but kept it secret.
March 21st, 2000
Future ‘Martians’ Could Live in Caves
A handful of proponents say caves created long ago by cooling lava would be the cheapest, largest and most protective places to expand human outposts on Mars.
March 16th, 2000
JPL Won’t Skimp on Mars ’01
On the heels of a NASA report that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), by limiting its engagement, was unable to provide oversight that might have prevented the demise of the Mars Climate Orbiter, a top JPL official pledged that things will be different next time.
March 15th, 2000
Search for Life Takes Two Women to the Depths
Imagine a world of green slime, red goo and dripping, bacteria-rich mineral formations known fondly as “snottites.” You are entering a little patch of underground heaven — a subsurface step on the road to learning whether Mars is a locale for past or present life.
March 14th, 2000
What The Devil? NASA Captures Dust Swirls On Film
Images taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have revealed new evidence of a fiendish martian phenomenon: dust devils.
March 14th, 2000
Courtney Love Going to ‘Mars’?
Rumor has it that grunge diva Courtney Love is up for a starring role in the upcoming science fiction film, Ghosts of Mars.