Latest Mars Exploration Rover Stories

[ Watch the Video: President Obama Congratulates Curiosity Team ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online "What you've accomplished embodies the American spirit." This praise came from President Barack Obama in a phone call from Air Force One to the operations team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in which he lauded NASA's "incredibly impressive" mission in landing the Curiosity rover on Mars last week. Obama's call was both congratulatory and lighthearted....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT), Aug. 14, to provide a status update on the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 1:31 a.m. EDT, Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT, Aug. 5). Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama this morning told the flight control team for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, "You made us all proud." (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Obama telephoned the mission control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., to congratulate JPL Director Charles Elachi and the Mars Science Laboratory team operating the rover, which landed on Mars a week ago....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama will congratulate members of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover team at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., at 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT) this morning. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Audio of the call and video of the JPL team's portion of the call will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website. President Obama's call comes a week after...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Was it wreckage from an extraterrestrial spacecraft? Was it a smudge of dirt on the camera lens? Was it a dust devil that just happened to be in the right place at the right time? As it turns out, it was none of the above. The "it" in question was a mysterious smudge that appeared on a photo taken by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity shortly after it landed at Gale Crater early Monday morning. The origin of the smudge in...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online After traveling more than 350 million miles through space en route to the Red Planet, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity landed less than two miles from its target destination when it touched down last Monday, NASA officials have revealed. The $2.6 billion rover, which is currently on a two-year mission in order to determine whether or not the planet's environment could have supported life at some point in the past, missed its...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity landing and the early images captured by the NASA rover have garnered a lot of attention over the past week, but they aren't the only ones gaining fame as a result of the mission. In fact, one of the dozens of scientists awaiting the "seven minutes of terror" at NASA's mission control facility on Sunday night was a 32-year-old flight engineer and Oakland, California native known as Bobak...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will spend its first weekend on Mars transitioning to software better suited for tasks ahead, such as driving and using its strong robotic arm. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The rover's "brain transplant," which will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, will install a new version of software on both of the rover's redundant main computers. This...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA is releasing even more photographs taken by the Curiosity rover during its first week of service on the Red Planet. The rover landed on Mars on Sunday night and NASA has been testing the rover out to see if all of its functions work properly. In one of the latest images released by the space agency, you get a full 360-degree view of what Curiosity gets to see on the alien planet in Gale Crater. The panoramic image is in...

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The first images from Curiosity's color Mast Camera (Mastcam) have been received by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The 130 low-resolution thumbnails, which were received Thursday morning, provide scientists and engineers of NASA's newest Mars rover their first color, horizon-to-horizon glimpse of Gale Crater. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "After a year...