Latest Mars exploration Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online According to a report by the Hindustan Times, India is within reach of developing a mission to Mars. The news agency quoted Amitabha Ghosh, an Indian scientist who was a part of the NASA team that picked out the landing site for the space agency's Curiosity mission, for the report. Ghosh told the Hindustan Times that he is optimistic that an Indian mission to Mars will be successful. He pointed out that Indian Space Research...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online The Mars rover Curiosity will ring in the new year drilling into its first rock before moving on to the base of Mount Sharp, where its search for carbon-based molecules begins in earnest, NASA officials told the media on Saturday. First up in 2013, the rover, which spent the holiday measuring the planet's atmosphere, will begin the process of selecting a rock, drilling into it, and then determining what chemicals it is...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA has been using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to reach and excite the public all year, and now they have added a new social media partner: Foursquare. Foursquare, a mobile application, and NASA have teamed up to help the public unlock their scientitific curiosity with a new rover-themed Curiosity Explorer badge. Foursquare is a social media platform that is location based – users check in at different...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the mobile application Foursquare have teamed up to help the public unlock its scientific curiosity with a new rover-themed Curiosity Explorer badge. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Users of the Foursquare social media platform can earn the badge by following NASA and checking in at a NASA visitor center or venue categorized as a science museum or planetarium. Upon earning the badge, users...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Curiosity rover began exploring "Yellowknife Bay" on Mars this week, helping to provide information to researchers about which rock to drill. Researchers will use Curiosity's percussive drill to collect a sample from the interior of a rock, which is another new feat for the Martian rover. After the powdered-rock sample is sieved and portioned by a sample processing mechanism on the rover's arm, it will be analyzed by...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The year 2012 has proved to be a historic one on the space exploration front, with many accomplishments across the board at NASA. During the past year, the space agency landed the most sophisticated rover on Mars, carried out the first commercial mission to the International Space Station, and work has gone underway for NASA's next generation spacecraft and rocket. After surfing through space for nearly nine months, NASA's...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2012, NASA continued to implement America's ambitious space exploration program, landing the most sophisticated rover on the surface of Mars, carrying out the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station and advancing the systems needed to send humans deeper into space. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "NASA achieved historic milestones this year landing the most sophisticated...

[ Watch the Video: Curiosity Rover's Arm Movements for Taking a Self-Portrait ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has released an image that the talented Mars Curiosity rover has taken, featuring itself with a Martian background. The self-portrait was taken with Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which captured dozens of high-resolution images to create the picture. The image shows the rover at "Rocknest," which is the spot in Gale Crater where...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Building on the huge success of the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity mission and its past Spirit and Opportunity missions, NASA is making new plans to send a new rover to the Red Planet in 2020. And if all goes as planned, NASA said it also wants to put astronauts in orbit around Mars by the 2030s, highlighting a call for human space exploration outlined by President Barack Obama. NASA said the cost of a rover mission fits...

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Though it may be hard to remember from time to time, NASA currently has 2 rovers meandering on the surface of Mars. The newest of the 2 rovers, Curiosity, famously landed on the surface of Mars this summer, but Opportunity has been scooting alone on Mars for nearly 9 years now. Today, NASA announced that Opportunity has just completed a walkabout of an area where scientists believe water might have once existed. "If you are a...