Latest Mars Science Laboratory Stories

NASA will participate in the inauguration of President Obama with several events, including an open house, a star party and a NASA Social; exhibits on the National Mall and at NASA Headquarters; and with two floats and marchers in the inaugural parade. During the events Jan. 18 - 21, members of the public will have an opportunity to meet and mingle with several astronauts and members of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory team responsible for the Curiosity rover, which is five months into a...

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...

FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology Researchers at the Centre of Astrobiology have identified microorganisms that live inside salt deposits in the acidic and ferrous environment of the Tinto River in Huelva, Spain. The extreme conditions of these microniches appear to be similar to those of the salt deposits on Mars and Jupiter's moon, Europa. This possibility should be borne in mind on missions operating in these places, such as Curiosity. The high doses of radiation,...

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...

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...