NASA awards CU-Boulder $3.3 million for concept study for mission to Venus

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 29, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

NASA has awarded the University of Colorado at Boulder $3.3 million for a detailed, one-year concept study for a lander mission to Venus to study the history of its surface, climate and atmosphere and to predict ...

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Resumes Observations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are receiving new science data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter after the spacecraft's six science instruments resumed observations today.

Pioneering images of both martian moons (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (17) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, the martian moons Phobos and Deimos have been caught on camera together. ESA's Mars Express orbiter took these pioneering images last month. Apart from their ‘wow’ ...

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 09, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been taken out of the precautionary 'safe mode' it had been in since August.

Mars Odyssey Orbiter Puts Itself Into Safe Standby

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 01, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Saturday, Nov. 28, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey's ...

Gullies and Flow Features on Crater Wall

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 26, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sample of the variety and complexity of processes that may occur ...

Mars Reconnaissance Orbite Team Plans Uplink of Protective Files

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 25, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.

Second Planned Extrication Drive is Straight Ahead Again

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Because the first extrication drive for Spirit, on Sol 2088 (Nov. 17), stopped as soon as it began due to an exceeded tilt limit, the plan for an extrication drive on Sol 2090 (Nov. 19) wil ...

Distal Rampart of Crater in Chryse Planitia

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 13, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Impact craters on Mars are kind of neat. Many of them look very different than impact craters seen on Earth's moon or Mercury. Fresh lunar and Mercurian craters have ejecta blankets that look ...

A Tale of Planetary Woe (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (11) | 5

Once upon a time — roughly four billion years ago — Mars was warm and wet, much like Earth. Liquid water flowed on the Martian surface in long rivers that emptied into shallow seas. A thick atmosphere blanketed ...

Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard ...

Spacesuits with artificial intelligence may look for life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 04, 2009 | 5 / 5 (7) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronauts may in future be wearing spacesuits equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital eyes, turning them into what the researchers call cyborg astrobiologists.

Channels from Mars Hale Crater

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 28, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (7) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) ...

Robot Armada Might Scale New Worlds

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 28, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (11) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes.

Migrating Microbes

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 15, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

With every spacecraft that leaves Earth, millions of microbes hitch a ride into space. As astrobiologists search for life in other worlds, preventing forward and back contamination remains a key priority.