Latest Rover Stories

The NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and the Curiosity rover are now less than 100 days away from landing on the surface of the Red Planet, officials at the US space agency announced on Friday. The one-ton Curiosity and the craft ferrying it to Mars reached the T-minus 100 day mark at 10:31pm PDT on Friday, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California said over the weekend. At that time, it was approximately 119 million miles from its destination, travelling...

PITTSBURGH, April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Astrobotic Technology today announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration. "Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," said David Gump, president. "The lunar path is near...

NASA's Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), established to assist the agency in developing a new strategy for the exploration of the Red Planet, has begun analyzing options for future robotic missions and enlisting the assistance of scientists and engineers worldwide. NASA is reformulating the Mars Exploration Program to be responsive to high-priority science goals and the President's challenge of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. "We're moving quickly to develop options for future...

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), established to assist the agency in developing a new strategy for the exploration of the Red Planet, has begun analyzing options for future robotic missions and enlisting the assistance of scientists and engineers worldwide. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA is reformulating the Mars Exploration Program to be responsive to high-priority science goals and...

NEW YORK, April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- At a press conference hosted by Bridgestone Corporation and the New York International Auto Show, the Range Rover Evoque was declared the 2012 World Car Design of the Year. Gerry McGovern, Land Rover Design Director and Chief Creative Officer, who led the design team said: "We are honored that the Range Rover Evoque has been named 2012 World Car Design of the Year. This prestigious accolade recognizes the overwhelmingly positive response we've...

NEW YORK, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) opened its presence at the New York International Automobile Show (4 - 15 April) with a press conference confirming record global monthly retail sales; the announcement of an all-new Jaguar sports car and Land Rover marking 25 years of operations in the United States. Speaking at the show, JLR CEO, Dr. Ralf Speth confirmed that global retails in March were the highest monthly total ever for both JLR and the Land...

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, halfway to Mars, adjusted its flight path today for delivery of the one-ton rover Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August. Tests completed aboard Curiosity last week confirmed the health of science instruments the mission will use to learn whether an area holding an extensive record of Martian environmental history has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life. In the second of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers during...

BIRMINGHAM, England, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MG Motor UK today announced that it had appointed GMAC UK plc, a subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., as its preferred wholesale financing provider for dealerships. This expands on the existing preferred retail financing relationship between the two companies established last year. Guy Jones, Sales and Marketing Director of MG Motor UK, said: "We chose GMAC as our preferred provider for wholesale and retail financing following a...

Wolfgang Fink of the University of Arizona department of electrical and computer engineering has developed an autonomous robotic lake lander that could be used to explore this planet and others. Fink unveiled the lake lander, named Tucson Explorer II, or TEX II, in a paper titled "Robotic Lake Lander Test Bed for Autonomous Surface and Subsurface Exploration of Titan Lakes," which he presented March 8 at an aerospace conference organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics...

The Obama administration’s upcoming budget for NASA plans to cut $300 million out of the agency’s planetary science program, which could keep any planetary explorations, including Mars missions, grounded. If the budget proposal is adopted by Congress, it would most likely shelve NASA’s ability to participate in two upcoming Mars missions to be carried out in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). But even before any cuts have been unveiled, lawmakers are vowing to fight...