NASA’s Mars Odyssey team has released another significant installment of science data for the public and science community to review and analyze. “The three instrument suites onboard Odyssey continue to produce excellent data,” said Jeffrey Plaut, Project Scientist for the mission.
September 16th, 2003
China To Launch First Astronauts After National Day
China is set to send its yuhangyuan (“astronaut”) into space in October with the liftoff to occur by the middle of the month, Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong reports.
September 16th, 2003
First Chinese manned space flight within three months: official
China is making final preparations for its first manned space flight and the launch of the Shenzou V craft could come anytime in the next three months, a senior space official said Tuesday. But Sun Laiyan, Vice Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), declined to reveal the exact launch date or confirm reports it would occur in mid-October.
September 10th, 2003
Bill to Restore Vision for NASA’s Human Spaceflight Program
After today’s House Science Committee hearing on returning the Space Shuttle to flight, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson re-introduced his Space Exploration Act. The goals established by the Space Exploration Act of 2003 are sequenced in terms of increasing difficulty and complexity. Achieving the earlier goals will provide the capabilities needed for humans to explore other parts of the inner solar system while supporting the nation’s scientific objectives.
September 8th, 2003
Alien Infection
When diseases like SARS, Mad Cow Disease and Monkeypox cross the species barrier and infect humans, they dominate news headlines. Just imagine, then, the reaction if potentially infectious pathogens were found in rock samples from Mars. As we look toward exploring other worlds, and perhaps even bringing samples back to Earth for testing, astrobiologists have to wonder: could alien pathogens cross the “planet” barrier and wreak havoc on our world?
September 3rd, 2003
Mars was coloured by meteorites
Laboratory evidence is challenging theories that Mars’ ruddy surface came from a past when the planet was awash with water, New Scientist says. Defenders of this hypothesis say Mars’ reddish dust came from iron in rocks that over billions of years dissolved into the planet’s oceans, lakes and rivers. But US scientist Albert Yen of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has assailed this idea, noting a strange discrepancy between Mars’ dusty topsoil and its rocks.
September 3rd, 2003
NMSU Astronomer Analyzes Mars Rover Landing Sites
As telescopes around the world focus on Mars because of its historic nearness to Earth, two NASA spacecraft are hurtling toward the Red Planet to look for evidence that it might once have been wet enough to sustain life. New Mexico State University planetary scientist Jim Murphy is among the scientists working to ascertain the safety of the landing sites for the two Mars Exploration Rovers that are scheduled to land in January 2004.
August 30th, 2003
Indian president ‘inspired’ by Mars from his New Delhi palace
Indian President Abdul Kalam gazed at Mars from his New Delhi palace as the red planet reached its closest point to Earth in 60,000 years and felt “inspired,” his office said Saturday. The 71 year-old Indian head of state “is convinced that Mars will become a sought-after planet for human exploration for wealth and habitat in a few decades,” the statement said.
August 28th, 2003
Distant neighbor Mars edges closer, captures attention and imaginations
On Wednesday, at precisely 9:51 and 14 seconds GMT, the Earth and Mars narrowed the distance between them to its smallest in 59,618 years: a mere 34.647 million miles (55.758 million kilometers). Star-gazers around the world — better equipped optically but probably no less dazzled than the Neanderthals of the time of the last close-encounter — looked skyward as the red planet’s orbit swung into stride with the Earth’s.
August 27th, 2003
Rendezvous with Mars: world gazes at planet “that still makes men dream”
Astronomers, professional and amateur, started gazing at Mars Wednesday hoping for a good look at the Red Planet as it moves closer to Earth than at any time since Stone Age Neanderthals roamed the world.