Latest Mars Exploration Rover Stories

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing, NASA has announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020. This announcement affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meets our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "The Obama administration is committed to...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The latest work assignment for NASA's long-lived Mars rover Opportunity is a further examination of an area where the robot just completed a walkabout. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "If you are a geologist studying a site like this, one of the first things you do is walk the outcrop, and that's what we've done with Opportunity," said Steve Squyres, the mission's principal investigator at Cornell...

PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity's arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Detection of the substances...

[ Video 1 ] | Video 2 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has finally opened up its tightly sealed lips and said that its Curiosity rover has found evidence of simple organic compounds on Mars. NASA announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco today that its Mars Curiosity rover has completed its first analysis of Martian soil, finding a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. The space agency said its Curiosity rover has found...

[WATCH VIDEO: Curiosity Headed To Mars] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Monday (Nov 26) marked the one year anniversary since Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft was launched carrying NASA’s next-generation Mars Curiosity rover. After more than 7 months on a journey to the Red Planet, Curiosity touched down on August 6, 2012 in what has been referred to as “seven minutes of terror.” In the 16 weeks since its landing in the Gale Crater on Mars,...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's Mars Express has relayed scientific data from NASA's Curiosity rover for the first time. The data from Curiosity included detailed images of "Rocknest 3" taken by the rover's ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager camera. ChemCam consists of the camera along with a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer, which fires a laser at targets and analyzes the chemical composition of vaporized material. Curiosity...

NASA/JPL Report A Martian dust storm that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been tracking since last week has also produced atmospheric changes detectable by rovers on Mars. Using the orbiter's Mars Color Imager, Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, began observing the storm on Nov. 10, and subsequently reported it to the team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The storm came no closer than about 837 miles (1,347 kilometers) from Opportunity,...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NPR reported on Tuesday that NASA has some exciting news about a discovery with its Curiosity rover that could be "one for the history books." According to NPR's Joe Palca, NASA is keeping its lips sealed on a Mars discovery until everything is verified. After visiting with John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, Palca found out that the data coming down from Curiosity now "is gonna be one for the history...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online It may not be in the company of little Martians, but NASA's Curiosity is determined to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with, or without, the company of extra-terrestrials. For its Thanksgiving festivities, the rover plans to use its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to examine possible routes and targets to the east. NASA said its priority is to choose a rock for the first use of the rover's hammering drill, which will collect samples of...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online New research published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters shows that water once existed on Mars that was sufficiently warm enough to support life. University of Leicester and The Open University researchers determined that water temperatures on Mars ranged from 122 degrees Fahrenheit to 302 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists found that microbes can live in water with similar temperatures on earth in the volcanic...