Latest Malin Space Science Systems Stories

Planetary scientists have uncovered telltale signs of water on Mars "” frozen and liquid "” in the earliest period of the Red Planet's history. A new claim, made public this month, is that a deep ocean covered some of the northern latitudes.But the evidence for water grows much more scant after the Noachian era, which ended 3.5 billion years ago. Now Brown University planetary geologists have documented running water that sprang from glaciers throughout the Martian middle latitudes as...

It was ten years ago that NASA announced the discovery of photographs revealing gullies on the surface of Mars, something that suggested water might still be flowing on the surface of the planet.   The breakthrough was followed by years of additional discoveries that pointed to the presence of water on the red planet.But a decade later, there is still no conclusive proof that such water exists.  However, the search for evidence, along with the many revelations that have emerged along...

The king of 3D, "Avatar" director James Cameron, is helping NASA build a high-resolution camera that will bring 3D technology to the next-generation Mars rover. The rover, named Curiosity, was scaled back in 2007 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to not include a camera such as the one being built now, due to over-budgeting of the program and being behind schedule for the 2011 launch. But Cameron fought hard for inclusion of the 3D camera during a meeting in January with NASA administrator...

Malin Space Science Systems Inc., San Diego, has delivered the two cameras for the Mast Camera instrument that will be the science-imaging workhorse of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, to be launched next year. The instrument, called Mastcam, has been tested and is ready for installation onto the rover, named Curiosity, which is being built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.The two component cameras have different fixed focal lengths: 34 millimeters and 100 millimeters...

Flowing lava can carve or build paths very much like the riverbeds and canyons etched by water, and this probably explains at least one of the meandering channels on the surface of Mars. These results were presented on March 4, 2010 at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by Jacob Bleacher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Whether channels on Mars were formed by water or by lava has been debated for years, and the outcome is thought to influence the likelihood...

Near the center of a Martian crater about the size of Connecticut, hundreds of exposed rock layers form a mound as tall as the Rockies and reveal a record of major environmental changes on Mars billions of years ago.The history told by this tall parfait of layers inside Gale Crater matches what has been proposed in recent years as the dominant planet-wide pattern for early Mars, according to a new report by geologists using instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."Looking at...

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will host a media teleconference at noon PDT on Thursday, Sept. 24, to discuss new research results from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The findings will be reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science. NASA will stream audio from the teleconference online.The teleconference participants are:- Ken Edgett, team member, Context Camera, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego- Shane Byrne, team member, High Resolution Imaging...

U.S. scientists say data from the Phoenix Mars Lander suggests parts of Mars resemble Earth, including landscape, history of water and weather conditions.Professor Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University has been involved with Mars missions for years and he says NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander -- which touched down in May 2008 -- keeps revealing secrets about the planet.Phoenix landed in a place that has access to Martian ice, which is exciting by itself, Lemmon said. Phoenix was designed to...

Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports.On April 21, Mars will be at the closest point to the sun in the planet's 23-month, elliptical orbit. One month later, the planet's equinox will mark the start of summer in Mars' southern hemisphere. This atmospheric-warming combination makes the coming weeks the most likely time of the Martian year for dust storms severe enough...