On 27 August 2003, Mars is less than 56 million kilometres away — approaching closer to our planet than it has done in over 60,000 years. About the same time as this closest approach, Mars Express passes the halfway mark of its journey, in terms of distance along its trajectory. On 1 September 2003, as it hurtles through space at 10,800 kilometres per hour, the spacecraft will have covered over 242 million kilometres, half of the total of 485 million kilometres needed to arrive at Mars. Note that the distance travelled is not the same as the distance between the Earth and Mars.
August 26th, 2003
New Findings Could Dash Hopes For Past Oceans On Mars
After a decades-long quest, scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have at last found critical evidence the spacecraft’s infrared spectrometer instrument was built to search for: the presence of water-related carbonate minerals on the surface of Mars. However, the discovery also potentially contradicts what scientists had hoped to prove: the past existence of large bodies of liquid water on Mars, such as oceans. How this discovery relates to the possibility of ephemeral lakes on Mars is not known at this time.
August 22nd, 2003
Telescope sales boom in Japan as Mars closes in
As Mars drifts its closest to Earth for 60,000 years, Japanese amateur astronomers are snapping up telescopes, globes of the Red Planet and some are even heading to Arizona to watch the spectacle. On August 27, Mars — the fourth planet from the Sun — will shine red and orange and as bright as Jupiter, the giant of our solar system.
August 20th, 2003
Hubble To Snap Mars In Best Bi Annual Photo Op In 60,000 Years
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will make observations of the planet Mars on Aug. 26-27, when Earth and Mars will be closer together than they have been in the last 60,000 years. As soon as Hubble’s high-resolution images of the Red Planet are received at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and are digitally processed by the Mars observing team, they will be released to the public and news media via the Internet.
August 1st, 2003
New Species Of Organism Found In Mars-Like Environment
They thrive without oxygen, growing in salty, alkaline conditions, and may offer insights into what kinds of life might survive on Mars. They’re a new species of organism, isolated by scientists at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama.
July 23rd, 2003
China on schedule to launch first manned spacecraft in October
China is on schedule to launch its first manned spacecraft in October, becoming only the third nation to send a human into orbit, officials involved in the program said Wednesday. “The current plan is that Shenzhou V will be launched in October but it is very hard to say the exact date,” an official at the China Rocket Research Institute told AFP. “Many factors will affect the decision.”
July 19th, 2003
Opportunity Resets Course To Mars
NASA’s Opportunity spacecraft made its first trajectory correction maneuver today, a scheduled operation to fine-tune its Mars-bound trajectory, or flight path. The spacecraft and its twin, Spirit, in NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover project are carrying field-geology robots for arrival at Mars in January.
July 18th, 2003
Mars Rovers Using Air Force Lab Developed Batteries
As the Mars exploration rovers “Spirit” and “Opportunity” race toward the Red Planet, part of the Air Force Research Laboratory is soaring with them. The two rovers, expected to touch down and explore opposite sides of Mars in early 2004, are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries researched and developed by experts at the laboratory’s propulsion directorate. Spirit and Opportunity will act as robot geologists while on the surface of Mars.
July 16th, 2003
Sixth International Mars Conference Set To Meet
Next year, if all goes well, NASA’s two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, along with the British rover Beagle 2, will begin streaming back reams of data about the Red Planet, much to the delight of Mars researchers everywhere. That data won’t be available in time for scientists attending the Sixth International Conference on Mars at the California Institute of Technology, July 20-25, but small matter. Data from two earlier orbiter missions, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), launched in 1996, and the Odyssey, launched in 2001, will give those attending the conference an opportunity to review and debate some of the key questions and controversies that have matured as a result of this flood of information.
July 8th, 2003
Berkeley To Explore The Elements Needed To Support Martian Life
Could life once have existed on planets other than Earth, perhaps on Mars? A team of researchers led by the University of California, Berkeley, has joined the quest to find the answer. The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) announced this week that UC Berkeley is one of 12 institutions that will receive funding to study the origin, evolution and future of life in the universe. The institute is awarding the UC Berkeley-led team $1.23 million for the first year of a five-year grant to study the biosphere of Mars, both ancient and recent.