Latest Mars Stories
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...
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FLW announced today that Mars Chocolate North America has extended their sponsorship throughout the upcoming 2013 season with the world's largest tournament-fishing organization. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Mars Chocolate North America brands that will continue to be featured by FLW include M&M'S® and SNICKERS®, as well as the addition of the TWIX® brand to the stable of Mars anglers. The brands will be...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Mars has been a planet of interest for as long as humans have been going into space. And space scientists for nearly as long have dreamed of one day being able to walk on the surface of the Martian world. And still, others have dreamed of being able to colonize the planet. However, in its current state, it would be a very inhospitable environment for humans. But what if the Red Planet was a hospitable world? What if there were...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA-funded researchers analyzing a small meteorite that may be the first discovered from the Martian surface or crust have found it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) This new class of meteorite was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed "Black Beauty," it weighs...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers have identified a new class of Martian meteorite that they believe originated from Mars' crust. The team wrote in Thursday's issue of Science Express that this new meteorite contains more water than any other Martian meteorite ever found. The sample is the only one found that dates back to 2.1 billion years ago, which is an early era on Mars known as the Amazonian. The meteorite, known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034,...
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...
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...
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...
