MARS - SKY NIGHTLY

Sep 20, 2012 (JPL)

This mosaic from the Mast Camera on NASA's Curiosity rover shows a close-up view looking toward the "Glenelg" area, where three different terrain types come tog...

Mars rover to launch first rock study

Sep 19, 2012 (AFP)

NASA's Curiosity Rover will study its first martial rock Friday, more than a month after landing on the Red Planet, mission officials said. Mars Science Laborat...

Opportunity Begins Examining Clay Minerals

Sep 18, 2012 (JPL)

Opportunity has begun the in-situ (contact) science campaign at a putative location of clay minerals at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Cr...

Squyres Warns Congress of Threats to Mars Program

Sep 17, 2012 (SPX)

Prof. Steve Squyres '78 Ph.D. '81, astronomy, told a Senate committee on Wednesday that U.S. space exploration programs risk significant delays and setbacks bec...

NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery

Sep 17, 2012 (JPL)

NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian surface that is puzzling researchers. Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Oppo...

India to launch Mars mission in 2013: official

Sep 17, 2012 (AFP)

India plans to launch a space probe that will orbit Mars in November 2013, a senior official from the country's space research establishment said on Monday. "We...

Mars Rover Spectrometer Finishes Calibration-Target Reading

Sep 14, 2012 (JPL)

On Sol 35 of its mission on Mars (Sept. 10, 2012) Curiosity continued activities for characterizing its arm and the tools on the arm. The Alpha Particle X-Ray S...

Mars Rover Curiosity Arm Tests Nearly Complete

Sep 14, 2012 (JPL)

NASA's Mars Curiosity team has almost finished robotic arm tests in preparation for the rover to touch and examine its first Martian rock. Tests with the 7-foot...

Aging Mars rover discovers geological mystery

Sep 14, 2012 (AFP)

NASA's Opportunity rover, older brother to the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars last month, has made a new discovery that geologists find both puzzling and e...

Next Mars Mission Enters Final Phase Before Launch

Sep 13, 2012 (SPX)

NASA's Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission has passed a critical milestone, Key Decision Point-D or KDP-D. The project is officially authoriz...

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity's Arm Wields Camera Well

Sep 13, 2012 (JPL)

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity stepped through activities on Sept. 7, 8 and 9 designed to check and characterize precision movements by the rover's robotic arm and...

Mars rover Curiosity working 'flawlessly': NASA

Sep 12, 2012 (AFP)

NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars more than a month ago, appears to be working "flawlessly" as it prepares to continue its two-year exploration of th...

NASA Observations Point to 'Dry Ice' Snowfall on Mars

Sep 12, 2012 (JPL)

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data have given scientists the clearest evidence yet of carbon-dioxide snowfalls on Mars. This reveals the only known example...

Lockheed Martin Begins Final Assembly of NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft

Sep 12, 2012 (SPX)

Lockheed Martin has begun the assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase for NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. MAVEN is s...

India: From Ferrying Rockets on Cycles to Eyeing Mars

Sep 10, 2012 (IANS)

From the days of having a church as control room, the bishop's house as office, a bicycle as ferry, naked eyes to track the smoke plume at Thumba in Kerala, con...

Early Mars may not have been hospitable after all: study

Sep 09, 2012 (AFP)

Instead of a warm, wet and possibly life-bearing planet as some scientists contend, early Mars may have been a hostile and volatile place with frequent volcanic...

Indian PM defends spending on space exploration

Sep 09, 2012 (AFP)

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday defended spending millions of dollars on space exploration despite many people in the country living in grinding ...

Northrop Grumman Aids Navigation of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover

Sep 07, 2012 (SPX)

Northrop Grumman supplied the navigation and pointing aid for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which recently began a historic two-year exploration of Mars. Northro...

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Arm-Work Phase

Sep 07, 2012 (JPL)

After driving more than a football field's length since landing, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days preparing for full use of the tools on its...

Hadley Crater - closing in on the Martian interior

Sep 07, 2012 (SPX)

Hadley Crater on Mars has been subject to several impacts by large asteroids in the course of its history. The 'craters within a crater' formed in this way give...