After four years of studiosly ignoring what might be the most interesting destinations on its path due to concerns over planetary protection, NASA is consideing letting its Curisoity Rover operating in Mars’ Gale Crater, have a bit more leash. “Pending approval of a mission extension, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover will continue to climb to […]
Wet Mars : Credits: NASA/GSFC The journal Nature Communications has published a paper detailing research into comparatively recent water flow on Mars. Abstract: “Liquid water is currently extremely rare on Mars, but was more abundant during periods of high obliquity in the last few millions of years. This is testified by the widespread occurrence of mid-latitude […]
Curiosity Self Portrait / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Two noteworthy news stories from Mars. First, NASA’s diminutive but never say die rover Opportunity, which initially began its three month primary mission on the Red Planet 11 years ago, has now traveled a cumulative distance of 26.2 miles. Over the course of that journey, the distance of […]
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 […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ A true color image taken on August 15 NASA is looking back at the Curiosity Rover’s path across Mars today. Meanwhile, perhaps stung by publicity from a Senior Panel Review which questioned the scientific return of the mission, the space agency has scheduled a teleconference for 1:00 pm EDT […]
Image Credit: NASA JPL Remember the “7 minutes of terror?” Apparently it has been followed by two years of boredom. A senior level review of NASA space science missions, a routine procedure in which missions are graded for a series of extensions beyond their original mission, was conducted earlier this year, and it came down […]
NASA News Story: An increasing frequency of computer resets on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has prompted the rover team to make plans to reformat the rover’s flash memory. The resets, including a dozen this month, interfere with the rover’s planned science activities, even though recovery from each incident is completed within a day or […]
Two Mars related stories. First, Uwingo, the crowd-sourced Mars funding site started which is attempting to raise $10 million this year to support research grants for Mars exploration has unveiled a new campaign. According to the announcement: “Uwingu presents the first opportunity for a shout-out from the people of Earth to Mars with personal messages […]
Image Credit : NASA Sometimes Mars just seems to be begging us to come stay a while. Composites are all the rage on Earth, and perhaps rightfully so. But one planet further out and making use of what is immediately available and our perspective may change somewhat. Take a look at the NASA news story […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ While the flashy new Curiosity rover is celebrating the completion of its first full Martian year, the much smaller but remarkably resilient Opportunity rover is still going strong in its 10th (Earth) year on Mars. And as JPL reports, perched on the rim of the Endeavour crater and scoured […]
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