Latest Mars exploration Stories

HAMPTON, Va., Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two pieces of important NASA hardware from this region, full-scale models of NASA's Orion spacecraft and Mars Curiosity Rover, are going to be included in the 57(th) Inaugural Parade, Jan. 21, in Washington. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Transported from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., the Orion model has been used to imitate various water landing scenarios for the nation's...

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory The NASA mission that had the nation holding its breath as it tested an ingenious but never-before-used landing technique, and continues to amaze with new discoveries about Mars has been selected as the 2013 recipient of the Space Foundation's John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using the rover Curiosity to investigate whether the study area within Gale Crater has offered environmental...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Curiosity rover is making its way towards a flat rock with pale veins that could provide more insight into the history of Mars. Once the rover rolls up to the rock in the coming days, NASA engineers plan on drilling it for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Curiosity sits inside Mars' Gale Crater, investigating whether the planet ever had conditions to host microbial life. The rover landed on the Red Planet...

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red Planet. If the rock meets rover engineers' approval when Curiosity rolls up to it in coming days, it will become the first to be drilled for a sample during the Mars Science Laboratory mission. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The size of a car, Curiosity is inside Mars' Gale...

NASA will host a media teleconference at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) Tuesday, Jan. 15, to provide an update about the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater. The Mars Science Laboratory Project and its Curiosity rover are five months into a two-year prime mission to investigate whether conditions may have been favorable for microbial life. For teleconference dial-in information, reporters must send their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Elena Mejia at...

John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In the 1960s the nation was unified under an ambitious vision, one that would culminate with the first humans setting foot on the Moon. It was believed that it was only a matter of time until man proceeded to the Martian surface. Yet, more than 40 years later, we have not managed to again leave low Earth orbit. But a new dream has emerged, and it is more accessible than any previous space mission. While NASA astronauts...

Students will interact with astronomers at AAS meeting in Long Beach today. LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds of Southern California middle- and high-school students will enjoy an out-of-this-world experience today when they drop in on the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting now under way at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. At 11:30 a.m. PST they'll hear from NASA flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, known...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity used its brush to clear away dust from part of a flat rock on Monday, marking the first time that the rover had used that particular tool, officials at the US space agency have announced. The Dust Removal Tool, which NASA officials describe as “a motorized, wire-bristle brush designed to prepare selected rock surfaces for enhanced inspection by the rover's science instruments,” is one...

NASA Mission status report After imaging during the holidays, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity resumed driving Jan. 3 and pulled within arm's reach of a sinuous rock feature called "Snake River." Snake River is a thin curving line of darker rock cutting through flatter rocks and jutting above sand. Curiosity's science team plans to get a closer look at it before proceeding to other nearby rocks. "It's one piece of the puzzle," said the mission's project scientist, John Grotzinger of...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Stanford University researchers, working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and MIT, have designed a new robotic platform that could be used to explore the moons of Mars. The platform consists of a mother spacecraft and anywhere from one to several spiky, spherical rovers that can be deployed on the surface of a moon, such as Phobos, where they can hop, roll and tumble their way across rugged terrain. Each rover, dubbed...