Latest Mars Stories
Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Mars colonization has been a topic of discussion for decades. Especially since man landed on the moon in 1969, people from a variety of professional backgrounds – including astronauts, sci-fi writers, entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, video gamers, academics and journalists – have pondered the possibility of colonizing Mars. But just how far in the future is the first Mars colony? One particularly promising example of a...
Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Earth has one moon, and it is considerably larger than Pluto. In fact, the relative size of Earth’s moon is quite massive compared to the moons of other planets. We have a fascination with our moon on many levels. But what if Earth had two moons as Mars does? According to NASA, unlike Earth’s moon, Mars moons are two of the smallest in the entire solar system. Mars moons also have proper names: Phobos and Deimos. Their...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory A day after NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drilled the first sample-collection hole into a rock on Mars, the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument shot laser pulses into the fresh rock powder that the drilling generated. This scene shows a line of pits left by laser hits on the drill tailings. The view is a mosaic of images taken by the remote micro-imager in ChemCam, with color information from Curiosity's Mast Camera. The drilled hole, at...
PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA Television will provide commentary starting at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) on Friday, Feb. 15, during the close, but safe, flyby of a small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14. NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. This flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close. (Logo:...
Rayshell Clapper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Did you know now anyone with Google Earth access – either via smartphone app or the website – can now check out Mars as well? That’s right: Google Earth has gone interplanetary. It now has an even better Google Earth Mars option. According to Daily Mail Online, users can view the planet’s surface in greater detail than ever before because of the high resolution images from NASA that are now being used by Google. These...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new poll indicates Americans are very confident in the ability of the United States to send man to Mars within the next 20 years. Explore Mars, a non-profit corporation, and Phillips & Company, a global communications firm, carried out a poll to determine where people stand on going to Mars. After the polling, it was discovered 71 percent of Americans are confident humans will be visiting the Red Planet by 2033. Also, the...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory On Mars, as on Earth, sometimes things can take on an unusual appearance. A case in point is a shiny-looking rock seen in a recent image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Some casual observers might see a resemblance to a car door handle, hood ornament or some other type of metallic object. To Ronald Sletten of the University of Washington, Seattle, a collaborator on Curiosity's science team, the object is an interesting study in how wind and the natural...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online If you’ve ever had an inquisitive child ask you how far Mars is from Earth and you were unsure how to answer then, you are not alone. On their individual courses around our Sun, Mars and Earth follow an elliptical orbit. Imagine two race cars traveling on two different tracks at differing speeds. This analogy helps you visualize how sometimes these two planets are close together while at other times they are, quite literally, on...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Curiosity rover has become the first robot ever to drill into bedrock and collect a sample on Mars, using a drill located at the end of its mechanical arm to bore a hole into fine-grained sediment, then collecting material from the interior for future analysis, the US space agency announced on Friday. According to NASA officials, Curiosity drilled a hole that is approximately 0.63 inch wide and 2.5 inches deep in a rock...
PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep...
Latest Mars Reference Libraries
Hematite (AE) or haematite (BE) is the mineral form of Iron (III) oxide, (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. The ore sometimes contains slight amounts of titanium. When shaped into ornaments, it is often called black diamond. Hematite is a very common mineral, coloured black to steel or silver-gray, brown to reddish brown, or red. It is mined as the main ore of iron. Varieties include Bloodstone, Iron Rose, Kidney Ore, Martite, Paint Ore, Specularite (Specular Hematite), Rainbow Hematite...
Terraforming -- Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") is the process of modifying a planet, moon or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature or ecology. The term was first used in a science fiction novel, 'Seetee Shock' (1940?) by Jack Williamson, but the actual concept is older than that. An example in fiction is 'First and Last Men' by Olaf Stapledon in which Venus is modified, after a long and destructive war with the original inhabitants, who naturally object to the...
Extraterrestrial Life -- Extraterrestrial life is life beyond planet Earth (apart from humans travelling in space, and living organisms they bring along or send). There are many questions about extraterrestrial life, including: -- Does it exist? -- Where? -- What kind? -- Could there be non-carbon based life forms, e.g. life forms based on other elements like silicon (See Carbon chauvinism)? -- How does life differ depending on the type of structure (unicellular life,...
Drake Equation -- The Drake equation (also known as the Green Bank equation) is a famous result in the speculative fields of xenobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This equation was devised by Dr. Frank Drake in the 1960s in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy with which we might come in contact. The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors which determine the number...
Olympus Mons -- Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain in the solar system, at 25 km. Located on Mars, and officially called by its Latin name Olympus Mons. It is named for the mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is an apparently extinct shield volcano, the result of highly fluid magma flowing out of volcanic vents over a long period of time, and is much wider than it is tall; the average slope of Olympus Mons' flanks is very gradual. The Hawaiian islands are an example of similar shield...
![Opportunity Heads Toward Next Destination, \](/media/gallery/mars-exploration-rover-opportunity/thumbs/thumbs_pia16931_opportunity_map_may_2013.jpg "Opportunity Heads Toward Next Destination, \")
![Rock Target \](/media/gallery/mars-exploration-rover-opportunity/thumbs/thumbs_pia16930_sol3262b_p2579_l257f.jpg "Rock Target \")
