mars

Spaced out: Obama to cut funding for Mars program

Mars enthusiasts hoping the United States will soon be exploring the Red Planet will likely get some bad news next week.

According to The Washington Post, President Obama's next budget will slash funding for Mars and Jupiter rovers by as much as 20 percent. The budget is expected to be unveiled on Monday.

The Post reported that the Obama Administration has briefed scientists on its proposed budget, which would slash funding for NASA's Mars program from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion annually. And further cuts are proposed over the following four years.

The cuts are likely … Read more

Surgery on Mars: Headset could let astronauts wield scalpel

What do you do if you're an injured astronaut and your doctor absolutely refuses to make Mars calls?

Well, the European Space Agency is trying to address that question. The ESA is testing a wearable augmented-reality device that might one day enable astronauts who aren't doctors to perform surgery on ailing colleagues.

Astronauts haven't whipped out the scalpels just yet--the device is currently being tested as a tool for ultrasound examinations that let users look patients over and diagnose a medical condition. But the agency said in a recent post to its Web site that "in principle [it] could guide other procedures."

In a nutshell, the device--the Computer Assisted Medical Diagnosis and Surgery System, or Camdass--works as follows. While moving an ultrasound probe along the patient, the user wears a headset that displays a 3D image of healthy tissue along with the ultrasound images of the patient.

The device, according to the ESA, "precisely [combines] computer-generated graphics with the wearer's view." Hence, differences--and problems--can be spotted.… Read more

$2.5 billion Mars rover departs Earth, heads for Red Planet

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--A towering Atlas 5 rocket flashed to life and vaulted into space Saturday, putting on a spectacular weekend sky show as it boosted NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory rover on an eight-and-a-half-month, 352-million-mile voyage to the Red Planet.

Equipped with a nuclear power pack, a robot arm, and a suite of sophisticated instruments, the mobile laboratory, dubbed Curiosity in a student naming contest, is expected to spend at least two years looking for organic compounds and signs of past or present habitability in the layered terrain at the heart of a 100-mile-wide crater.… Read more

Mars rover: The next generation

Make way for Curiosity, a car-size Mars rover that will pick up where Spirit and Opportunity left off. It launches this month, and will arrive on the Red Planet next summer.

$2.5 billion Mars rover departs Earth, heads for red planet After a flawless launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, NASA's costly Mars Science Laboratory rover is safely on the way to Mars for a bold mission to study the habitability of the red planet. (Posted in Space Shot by William Harwood) November 26, 2011 3:17 a.m. PT

Ambitious Mars Science Lab rover set for Saturday launch … Read more

Ambitious Mars Science Lab rover set for Saturday launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory rover, the most complex and scientifically powerful robotic spacecraft ever built to explore the surface of another world, is poised for launch Saturday on a high-stakes mission to look for organic compounds and signs of past or present habitability.

If all goes well, the nuclear-powered rover will reach the red planet next August, slamming into the thin martian atmosphere at some 13,200 mph for a nail-biting descent to the floor of a 100-mile-wide crater dominated by a towering 3-mile-high central peak stacked with rocky layers of martian … Read more

Nuclear 'space battery' bests solar in Curiosity Mars mission

If you're going to Mars with an SUV-size robot, you'll need a really good energy supply.

The Mars Science Laboratory, called Curiosity, scheduled for launch on Saturday will be powered by a nuclear device, rather than solar panels. Designers hope the nuclear generator will make the mobile robot more productive as it conducts science experiments in the search for conditions to support life.

Once it arrives on Mars, the robot will be heated and powered electrically from a ceramic form of plutonium dioxide. The nuclear decay from that block, which is covered in multiple protective layers, generates heat … Read more

Mars travelers return! Well, kinda

It was touch and go for some time.

Would the hatch open? Would little green beings with strange tartan skirts emerge? Would they demand to see William Shatner?

No, I have not received a supply of newly harvested experimental tobacco. I am merely celebrating the safe return of the Mars500 probe from, well, Moscow.

That sentence does make sense. Well, shortly it will.

You see, many might have missed that on June 3 last year, six very hardy souls committed themselves fully to being sent to Mars, without leaving Russian soil.

Mars500 was an experiment in endurance, isolation, and insanity-prevention.… Read more

Mars micro-rover Kapvik may tether to larger vehicles

Engineers at Carleton University in Canada have demonstrated a small-scale rover that could be used as a risk-assessment tool in explorations of the surface of Mars and the moon.

The Kapvik micro-rover is inspired by design concepts seen in NASA's Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity rovers. It has six wheels, weighs less than 66 pounds, and could be deployed by larger unmanned rovers to scout out specific areas.

One problem that has dogged Martian rovers is getting stuck in sand or other topographic features. The Kapvik, named for an Inuktitut term for "wolverine," has a tethering system for winching it up hills. … Read more

Bump hits 50 million downloads

Bump, the iOS and Android application that allows people to quickly share contact information by bumping smartphones together, has been downloaded 50 million times, its developer said today.

But while the contact information sharing feature of Bump is the most well-known, its 10 million active users--who, its developer said, have made the app the seventh most popular free iOS app of all time--have access to a group of other features as well. And Bump Technologies today released a set of numbers about how the application has been used.

One thing that users can do with the app is share songs … Read more

Hey America, NASA's taking us to Mars!

NASA is opting to go big instead of staying at home. The space agency today unveiled its new "Space Launch System," a meaty deep-space rocket that looks something like Saturn V on steroids.

NASA's official statement describes the SLS as "an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide... a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and opening up new discoveries."

Translation: Mars, baby!

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars." … Read more