Scientific American has an interesting article regarding a different approach to configuring a Mars transfer orbit, one which trades the minimal time and energy for a typical Hohmann transfer orbit for an alternate approach which takes longer but requires even less energy: “The premise of a ballistic capture: Instead of shooting for the location Mars […]
Candor Chasma in Mars’ Valles Marineris/ Image Credit USGS The US Geological survey has just completed the most extensive geological map of Mars to date. Based on data collected by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the new map offers details equivalent to that which the survey produces for users on Earth. Based […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS NASA held a teleconference on Tuesday to discuss the latest results from the Curiosity rover’s journey up the slopes of Mount Sharp in Mars’s Gale Crater. The findings, outlined in the NASA news story below, are quite significant. Mars was apparently warmer and wetter for much longer than many had thought, and […]
A Martian meteorite which crashed into the Moroccan Desert in 2011 has yielded tantalizing clues which strongly suggest that it harbored organic material while still on Mars. Named “Tissint” after a town near to where it was discovered following a a fiery nighttime descent, there is no doubt that the meteorite came from Mars, and […]
First drill at Mount Sharp / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS An interesting NASA News Story on the coordination of work between the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in orbit above the Red Planet and the Curiosity Rover on the ground below. Looking quite a bit down the road, one can see an emerging model of how a notional […]
Siding Spring Imaged By MRO’s HiRISE Camera. Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech The Siding Spring comet which gave Mars a close shave on Sunday was a bit smaller than many had predicted. NASA Story on Siding Spring Image From MRO’s HiRISE camera: These images were taken of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter […]
Mars advocates may not agree on how to get to Mars, or even whether or not to come back, but one thing apparently everyone shares in common is an affinity for Mars simulations. Today marks the first day of an eight month long Mars habitat simulation study being held in conjunction with the University of […]
Original NASA Caption: Three views of an escaping atmosphere, obtained by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. By observing all of the products of water and carbon dioxide breakdown, MAVEN’s remote sensing team can characterize the processes that drive atmospheric loss on Mars. Image Credit: University of Colorado/NASA NASA News Release RELEASE 14-285 NASA Mission Provides Its […]
Image Credit: NASA Note: Another NASA story/promotion with a somewhat misleading headline. While NASA is preparing to launch a partially completed Orion spacecraft on a Delta Heavy in order to test the heat shield, and has two flights aboard SLS in development, there is absolutely no concrete plan, and more importantly no budget, to send […]
Not so “bleak.” Image Credit: Mars One Last week at the International Astronautical Congress, a team of graduate students from MIT presented a paper entitled, “An Independent Assessment Of the Technical Feasibility Of The Mars One Mission Plan.” This week, space media began reporting on the study with headlines such as this: “MIT Analysis Paints […]
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