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| December 20, 2013 |
 JPL to Test New Supersonic Decelerator Technology Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 19, 2013 - A giant crane will tower above NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., shooting out of a hilly mesa like an oversized erector set, ready to help test components of NASA's Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project. The goal of the challenging technology, led by JPL, is to enable a future mission to Mars or other planetary bodies that uses heavier spacecraft and lands t ... more |  |
 New Views of Mars from Sediment Mineralogy Tucson, AZ (SPX) Dec 17, 2013 - The first detailed examination of clay mineralogy in its original setting on Mars is offering new insights on the planet's past habitability, research led by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist David T. Vaniman has found. The sedimentary rock samples tested were collected by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity at Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater on Mars. The rover's Chemi ... more |  |
Opportunity Communications Remain Slow Due To Odyssey Issues Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 17, 2013 - Opportunity is up on 'Solander Point' at the rim of 'Endeavour Crater.' The rover is maintaining favorable northerly tilts for improved energy production. Mars Odyssey went into safe mode and was unable to provide relay support for Opportunity since Sol 3509 (Dec. 7, 2013). The rover was healthy as of that sol. A Direct-To-Earth (DTE) transmission from Opportunity occurred on Sol 351 ... more |  |
NASA poised to launch Mars atmosphere probe Washington (AFP) Nov 16, 2013 - What happened to the water on Mars? How did the Red Planet's atmosphere become so thin over time? NASA's MAVEN probe is scheduled to launch Monday on a mission to find out. The unmanned spacecraft aims to orbit Mars from a high altitude, studying its atmosphere for clues on how the Sun may have influenced gas to escape from the possibly life-bearing planet billions of years ago. The prob ... more |  |
Ancient fresh water lake on Mars could have sustained life London, UK (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Scientists have found evidence that there was once an ancient lake on Mars that may have been able to support life, in research published in the journal Science. A team of researchers from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover mission, which includes a researcher from Imperial College London, have analysed a set of sedimentary rock outcrops at a site named Yellowknife Bay in Gale ... more |  |
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First Rock Dating Experiment Performed on Mars Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Although researchers have determined the ages of rocks from other planetary bodies, the actual experiments-like analyzing meteorites and moon rocks-have always been done on Earth. Now, for the first time, researchers have successfully determined the age of a Martian rock-with experiments performed on Mars. The work, led by geochemist Ken Farley of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) ... more |  |
The Tough Task of Finding Fossils While Wearing a Spacesuit Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Someday, human explorers might momentously discover fossils on Mars, proving that the Red Planet once supported extraterrestrial life. An interplanetary expedition of this sort will have overcome major obstacles, such as spacecraft design and the rigors of a many-month voyage. Yet a more subtle challenge to this hypothetical mission's success must, too, be addressed: astronauts will have t ... more |  |
NASA Curiosity: First Mars Age Measurement and Human Exploration Help Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 13, 2013 - NASA's Curiosity rover is providing vital insight about Mars' past and current environments that will aid plans for future robotic and human missions. In a little more than a year on the Red Planet, the mobile Mars Science Laboratory has determined the age of a Martian rock, found evidence the planet could have sustained microbial life, taken the first readings of radiation on the surface, and s ... more |  |
SSTL selected for first private Mars mission Guildford, UK (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected to carry out a concept study to develop an interplanetary communications system for Mars One, the privately funded project to establish a human settlement on Mars. Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL said: "SSTL believes that the commercialisation of space exploration is vital in order to bring down costs and schedules an ... more |  |
Mars One Selects Lockheed Martin to Study First Private Unmanned Mission to Mars Denver CO (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Mars One has selected Lockheed Martin to develop a mission concept study for its Mars lander spacecraft. The lander will be based on the successful 2007 NASA Phoenix spacecraft and will be a technology demonstrator. Slated for a 2018 launch, the mission will provide proof of concept for some of the technologies that are important for a permanent human settlement on Mars; the ultimate goal ... more |  |
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SwRI scientists publish first radiation measurements from the surface of Mars Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - In the first 300 days of the Mars Science Laboratory surface mission, the Curiosity rover cruised around the planet's Gale Crater, collecting soil samples and investigating rock structures while the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector made detailed measurements of the radiation environment on the surface of Mars. "Our measurements provide crucial information for human missions to Mars," ... more |  |
Bid to colonize Mars wins high-profile backing Washington (AFP) Dec 10, 2013 - A Dutch entrepreneur's bold quest to colonize Mars won high-profile support Tuesday from a US aerospace giant, although the timetable for putting humans on the red planet has been pushed back two years. Mars One chief executive Bas Lansdorp said Lockheed Martin would, for $250,000, produce a "mission concept study" for an unmanned Martian lander that would precede the $6 billion manned missi ... more |  |
MRO Reveals A More Dynamic Red Planet Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 11, 2013 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed to scientists slender dark markings - possibly due to salty water - that advance seasonally down slopes surprisingly close to the Martian equator. "The equatorial surface region of Mars has been regarded as dry, free of liquid or frozen water, but we may need to rethink that," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson, princi ... more |  |
Mars One spaceflight project 'can succeed' Moscow (Voice of Russia) Dec 11, 2013 - A permanent human colony may be established on Mars in the nearest future. Under the Mars One spaceflight project first four Martians are expected to land on the Red Planet already in 2023 and stay there forever as the mission is one-way only. Every step of the crew's journey will be documented for a 24/7 TV reality show. The organizers say human settlements on Mars will aid our understand ... more |  |
Opportunity ascending Solander Point at rim of Endeavour Crater Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 10, 2013 - The rover is maintaining favorable northerly tilts for improved energy production. In place for the long Thanksgiving Holiday, Opportunity conducted some in-situ (contact) science at another exposed rock outcrop. On Sol 3502 (Nov. 29, 2013), the rover used the Microscopic Imager (MI) to collect a mosaic of the target named 'Mount Tempest.' That was followed by the placement of the Alpha Pa ... more |  |
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Mars lake may have been friendly to microbes: NASA Washington (AFP) Dec 09, 2013 - A US space agency rover tooling around on the surface of Mars has found remnants of an ancient freshwater lake that may have supported tiny life forms, scientists said Monday. There is no water left in it, but drill tests and a chemical analysis of its fine-grained rocks by the Curiosity robot's science instruments suggest microbial life could have thrived there billions of years ago. Th ... more |  |
Rover results include first age and radiation measurements on Mars Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Dec 9, 2013 - The U.S. space rover Curiosity is providing critical information about Mars' past and present to help plan future missions, NASA officials said. In a little more than a year on Mars, the unmanned mobile science laboratory determined the age of a martian rock, found evidence the planet could have sustained microbial life, took first readings of radiation on the surface, and showed how na ... more |  |
One-way ticket to Mars: space colonists wanted! Moscow (Voice of Russia) Dec 10, 2013 - Bas Lansdorp, the founder of Mars One colony project, believes that in about a decade from now a colony of people from the Earth will appear on Mars. Experts confirm that with the current technologies this is quite possible. Eccentric as Bas Lansdorp's ideas may sound, his speech at a recent International Space Commerce summit gathered a full hall of listeners, mostly entrepreneurs. ... more |  |
 Three NASA space instruments hit a science 'trifecta' Greenbelt, Md. (UPI) Dec 08, 2013 - NASA says three of its space instruments hit the trifecta Wednesday, operating on the same day at the moon, on Mars and en route to Mars. The mass spectrometers built at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., were running three experiments of the same kind at different places in space, the space agency said Friday. All flying on NASA missions, the spectrometers were d ... more |  |
Martian Laser Surpasses 100,000 Zaps Los Alamos NM (SPX) Dec 07, 2013 - The ChemCam laser instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity rover fired its 100,000th shot recently, chronicling its adventures on Mars with a coffee-table-book's worth of spectral data that might rival snapshots gathered during a long and satisfying family vacation here on Earth. ChemCam zaps rocks with a high-powered laser to determine their composition and carries a camera that can survey the Martia ... more |  |
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