What s waiting on Mars: related news

The end of the golden age of Mars exploration?

By all accounts it should be the best of times for scientists and other advocates for the exploration of Mars. The planet is under unprecedented study by spacecraft, including three orbiters—NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express—as well as NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, whose 90-day missions have now lasted over four years each. All these spacecraft have returned data that has helped scientists reshape our understanding of the Red Planet, in particular the key issue of water on the planet both in its past and today. Moreover, another spacecraft, Phoenix, is en route to Mars, and will land in the planet’s northern polar regions on Memorial Day weekend. And perhaps the most sophisticated Mars spacecraft ever, the nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is under development for la

Mars Express: Looking Beneath Mars' Surface

To truly know and understand another world, planetary scientists need to look beneath the surface of that planet. This has been done on a small scale by looking inside impact craters, a la Opportunity and Spirit on Mars. But that only provides information for one area on a big planet. To get the global picture of the subsurface, a radar sounder instrument was developed for ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) experiment has now been successfully used for the first time to look beneath Mars’ south polar ice cap, opening up the third dimension for planetary exploration. “We have demonstrated that the polar caps at Mars are mostly water ice, and produced an inventory so now we know exactly how much water there is,� says Roberto Orosei, MARSIS Deputy Principal Investiga

Review: Human Missions to Mars

The study of human missions to Mars has been the subject of books for at least half a century. Dr. Wernher von Braun wrote on the human exploration of Mars in the late 1940s in what is known commonly today as The Mars Project. During the Apollo program, numerous books and monographs were written on the subject as the next logical step in the human exploration of planets in our solar system. Years later, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins wrote Missions to Mars (Grove Press, 1990). And, of course, Robert Zubrin of The Mars Society has written extensively on the subject.

Building an IT Infrastructure Around Mars

bfwebster writes "Space.com has an article talking about the efforts to observe the arrival of the Phoenix lander on Mars this coming May using current Mars orbiters. This community will likely be intrigued to see the ways in which NASA is using existing landers and orbiters to prepare for, and then monitor, that landing. This includes using the landers Spirit and Opportunity to simulate transmissions from Phoenix as a testing procedure in advance of the actual landing; using the Odyssey orbiter as a high-speed data transmission link from Phoenix to Earth during the landing; and using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express orbiter as backup data stores for Phoenix data transmissions during the descent. How long until we get a terabyte solid-state dataserver (running IPv6, natch) in orbit around Mars?"

Phoenix Spacecraft Maneuvers for Mars Landing

Looking towards a May 25 landing for the Phoenix Mars Lander, the navigation team for mission adjusted the flight path for the spacecraft on April 10. "This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars," said Brian Portock, chief of the Phoenix navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission's two prior trajectory maneuvers, made last August and October, put the spacecraft on target to just intersect with Mars. But this recent maneuver put it on course to land at a site called “Green Valley,� a broad, flat valley in Mars north polar region. NASA announced they have "conditionally" approved this site, but a final decision has yet to be made. And why, you ask, hasn’t a final decision been made on a landing site at this late date?

Learning to Breathe Mars Air (Video)

Talk about dedication! Volunteers in Russia are testing the ability of humans to breathe argon-enriched air, as part of a research program that simulates a manned trip to Mars. Researchers want to know if humans can survive breathing air similar to that found on Mars. Of the experiment one Russian scientist said, "Our experiments show that argon combined with the right portion of oxygen is safe for humans. I tested it on myself and I'm OK, and volunteers are also doing fine." Somehow, I'm not convinced about the rationale and safety of this test. This is preliminary research for the Russian Mars 500 project, which will simulate a manned Mars mission next year.

Mars Orbiter Sees Avalanche on Mars

On February 19, 2008, while monitoring the edge of Mars' north polar cap for changes as the spring thaw arrives, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was fortunate to catch several avalanches in the act of spilling down the steep slope at the edge of the cap. The cap is to the left; its steep cliff, running across the center of the image from top to bottom, is approximately 700 meters tall and reaches slopes as steep as 60 degrees. The avalanche kicked up billowing clouds of dust that rise high into the air, casting shadows to their lower left. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona

Mars Was Recently Blanketed By Glaciers

Mars is a dead world, unchanging for billions of years. Right? Maybe not. Researchers from Brown University have found evidence for thick, recurring glaciers on the surface of Mars. This means that the climate on Mars might be much more dynamic than previously believed. Perhaps the climate could change again. And liquid water underneath these glaciers might have given life a refuge over the eons.

Visiting Mars, Again and Again

Mars Life Summary (Apr 07, 2008): There are several new missions set to explore the planet Mars over the next decade. Astrobiology Magazine recently discussed these missions with Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, and Luann Becker, a geochemist who is developing an instrument for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission.

Violent Volcanic Mars

Mars Life Summary (Mar 20, 2008): New data from Mars indicates that the planet has undergone a series of global volcanic upheavals that spewed lava and water onto the surface. New clues about the geological history of Mars may help determine if the planet was once suitable for life.

Mars Salt Deposit Discovery Points To A New Place To Hunt For Life's Ancient Traces

Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera designed and operated at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility have discovered the first evidence for deposits of chloride minerals - salts - in numerous places on Mars. These deposits, say the scientists, show where water was once abundant and may also provide evidence for the existence of former Martian life.

Mars salt deposit discovery points to a new place to hunt for life's ancient traces

Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera designed and operated at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility have discovered the first evidence for deposits of chloride minerals - salts - in numerous places on Mars. These deposits, say the scientists, show where water was once abundant and may also provide evidence for the existence of former Martian life.

Mars rovers under strain from cuts

Escalating costs from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the next-generation Mars rover due to launch in 2009, have forced NASA to ask current Mars missions to look for savings. This includes the mission running the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, still going strong four years after their initial three-month mission ended.

Living on Mars on Earth

Moon To Mars Summary (Feb 28, 2008): Last week, eight people began a simulated mission to Mars in the desert of Utah. The Earth-based experiment will help researchers understand the logistic, scientific and psychological issues involved in designing a real mission to Mars.

Will Mars be a One-way Trip?

alexj33 writes "Will humans ever really go to Mars? Let's face it, the obstacles are quite daunting. Not only are there numerous, difficult, technical issues to overcome, but the political will and perseverance of any one nation to undertake such an arduous task is huge. However, one former NASA engineer believes a human mission to Mars is quite possible, and such an event would unify the world as never before. But Jim McLane's proposal includes a couple of major caveats: the trip to Mars should be one-way, and have a crew of only one person."

Evidence Of Glaciers On Mars Suggests Recent Climate Activity

Last year, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured high-resolution images of the Red Planet which showed many mesas, valleys, and rock debris which appeared to be (geologically speaking) recent formations. A team of scientists from Brown University analyzed the photographs and found evidence that the terrain was carved by large glaciers much more recently than they thought possible. Climate activity on Mars was thought to have quieted over 3 billion years ago, but these glaciers would have been around within the last 10-100 million years. "The finding could have implications for the life-on-Mars argument by strengthening the case for liquid water. Ice can melt two ways: by temperature or by pressure. As currently understood, the Martian climate is dominated by sublimation, the process by which solid substances are transformed directly to

Triple and Double Craters on Mars

Scientists working with the Mars Odyssey spacecraft say that it's not uncommon for multiple pieces of a meteor to impact Mars close together at the same time. Here, a triple crater was formed simultaneously when three pieces of a meteor struck Mars' surface together. When this happens, the craters that are formed overlap and the force of the impacts results in a linear wall separating the craters that form side-by-side. This image is part of a larger image swath taken by the THEMIS instrument (Thermal Emission Imaging System) on the Odyssey spacecraft. On another part of this larger image, there's also a double crater.

Probe Captures Avalanche on Mars

mdekato writes "MSNBC reports that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an avalanche on Mars' surface as it happened. Very good still images show what must have been an awesome sight. 'The full image reveals features as small as a desk in a strip of terrain 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide and more than 10 times that long, at 84 degrees north latitude. Reddish layers known to be rich in water ice make up the face of a steep slope more than 2,300 feet (700 meters) tall, running the length of the image. Mars' north pole is covered by a cap of ice, and it even snows there. The scientists suspect that more ice than dust probably makes up the material that fell from the upper portion of the scarp.'"

A One-Way, One-Person Mission to Mars

Will humans ever really go to Mars? Let’s face it, the obstacles are quite daunting. Not only are there numerous, difficult, technical issues to overcome, but the political will and perseverance of any one nation to undertake such an arduous task just can’t be counted on. However, one former NASA engineer believes a human mission to Mars is quite doable, and such an event would unify the world as never before. But Jim McLane’s proposal includes a couple of major caveats: the trip to Mars should be one-way, and have a crew of only one person.

Earth and Moon, As Seen From Mars

This picture was released a couple of days ago, but since it's so special, it deserves a post on Universe Today. And besides, everyone secretly likes to look at pictures of themselves. And this is a picture of us: it's the Earth and the moon, as seen from Mars. From the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to be exact, and it was taken by the HiRISE Instrument on board, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. That's the same camera that gave us the images of the avalanche on Mars, so the capabilities of this instrument are quite spectacular. This image was snapped back in October 2007, from a distance of 142 million kilometers, and if you look closely, you can make out a few features on Earth.

NASA announced on Thursday that its Mars Odyssey orbiter has found evidence of salt deposits on Mars.

A handout of the European Space Agency ESA shows a visualisation of Mars, created from spacecraft imagery. (Xinhua/Reuters photo)

Scientists Look at Martian Salt for Ancient Life

eldavojohn writes "Is there life on Mars? Maybe not, but a better question might be whether or not it has ever existed on Mars? Scientists are claiming that the best indication for this will be in newly found evaporated salt deposits on Mars which they can use to check for cellulose. Here on earth, tiny fuzzy fibers have been found in salt dating back almost 250 million years making it the oldest known evidence of life on earth. Jack Griffith, a microbiologist from UNC, is quoted as saying, 'Cellulose was one of the earliest polymers organisms made during their evolution, so it pops out as the most likely thing you'd find on Mars, if you found anything at all. Looking for it in salt deposits is probably a very good way to go.'"

Mars and Venus are surprisingly similar

Mars Express, imaged in an artist's impression above, left Earth on June 2, 2003 and reached Mars 6 months later. ESA/D. Ducros [View Larger Image]

Mars Flows Run Dry

Mars Life Summary (Mar 04, 2008): New research casts doubt on the idea that images of bright spots in Martian gullies indicate recently flowing water on Mars. The spots could have been caused by an avalanche of dry sand and gravel.

Comparing Mars and Venus

Mars Life Summary (Mar 07, 2008): Simultaneous observations of Mars and Venus by two European spacecraft are providing scientists with a unique opportunity for comparative planetology. The study will help scientists understand the past environments of both planets.

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