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mars

NASA's Phoenix Mars lander damaged, down for count

NASA's Phoenix Mars lander, subjected to extreme low temperatures and crippling ice buildups it was never designed to endure, apparently suffered severe damage during the Martian winter that ended any chance of additional science operations, officials said Monday.

Designed to operate for just three months, Phoenix exceeded expectations, beaming back a steady stream of scientific data for five months before waning sunlight and the approaching Martian winter prevented its solar arrays from generating enough power to keep the craft warm and electronically conscious.

Engineers did not believe the lander could survive a northern latitude winter on Mars, but the … Read more

Mars rover on the move, another yet to come

The life of a Mars rover is probably bit like that of Wall-E at the start of the Pixar movie: a lot of lonely treks in dutiful fulfillment of a mission through the remains of a planet's earlier days.

The rovers Spirit and Opportunity may not be Hollywood icons, but they have done NASA proud. And in just the last day or so, Opportunity hit yet another milestone--it now holds the record for the longest active service on the surface of Mars, surpassing the mark of six years, 116 days (in Earth time) set by the Viking 1 lander, … Read more

James Cameron building 3D cam for Mars rover

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is helping NASA develop a high-resolution 3D camera for the next Mars rover, Curiosity, due to launch in 2011.

The director of "Avatar" and other sci-fi flicks believes the public will better understand the mission if the rover has 3D imaging capabilities, according to a CBS News report.

Budget overruns had forced NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to rethink plans to mount a 3D cam on Curiosity, but Cameron apparently convinced NASA administrator Charles Bolden that wasn't a good idea.

Cameron is working with San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems to build the … Read more

Mars500 project gears up for the long haul

Psyched for a long, long trip to Mars but can't stand the wait for someone to actually mount such a mission? The next best thing might well be to lock yourself in an isolation chamber in Moscow.

The European Space Agency is gearing up for exactly that. As part of its Mars500 project, the ESA will be conducting a 520-day earthbound sojourn at Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems starting this summer. At that time, the six participants in the simulated mission will sequester themselves in a mock interplanetary spaceship, with complementary mock Martian lander.

The endurance exercise, originally … Read more

Mars rover gets smarter with age...and software

NASA's rover Opportunity is getting smarter through software.

Celebrating its seventh year investigating the surface of the Red Planet, Opportunity is now able to make its own choices about which rocks it should investigate further and which ones it should leave alone, according to a NASA report on Tuesday.

Thanks to a new software upload, Opportunity's computer can analyze the photos taken with its wide-angle camera and isolate rocks that meet specific criteria. It can then determine whether specific rocks are worthy of close-up shots through its narrow-angle, color-filtered camera.

The new software called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1153: iPad? Yes. Apple named it iPad.

We recorded right after Steve Jobs finished his 90-minute announcement of the Apple iPad, Apple's new tablet computer. It's variably impressive depending on who you are, but will anyone buy it? We discuss. Also, it's over for the Mars rover Spirit. At least the roving part is over, but it's still alive and doing science.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1153

Apple iPad tablet http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10440943-260.html

After three months, only 35 subscriptions for Newsday’s Web site http://www.observer.com/2010/media/after-three-months-only-35-subscriptions-newsdays-web-siteRead more

Mars rover no more, but Spirit lives on

NASA's Mars rover Spirit isn't dead yet, but it has reached its final resting place.

After months of unsuccessful attempts at freeing the rover from a sandtrap, NASA on Tuesday said it has decided to make the best of the situation and instruct it to conduct scientific experiments from its current location.

The rover became trapped last April when one of its wheels broke through a crusty Martian surface and dug into the fine, powdery soil beneath it. After many so-called extraction activities, including wiggling the wheels and rotating them very slowly, NASA scientists have decided to stop … Read more

Mars rover Spirit's days may be numbered

One of NASA's seemingly immortal Mars rovers might soon be at the end of its days.

The Spirit rover had been cruising around the Red Planet, along with its companion, Opportunity, since they both arrived six years ago this month. (Spirit landed on January 3, 2004, while Opportunity landed on January 24 of that year.) Their mission to send back photos and data about the Martian surface was expected to last a mere 90 days. Instead, the two traveling research bots blew away all expectations, continuing their treks year after year.

However, scientists warn that Spirit's most recent … Read more

New proof of life on Mars? Sadly, no

A stunning new image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter creates an optical illusion. The image might look like rows of trees on the Martian surface. But in actuality, they are probably veins of basaltic sand along sand dunes, Candy Hansen, a member of the MRO team, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

This isn't the first time images from the Red Planet have piqued the public's interest. Images released last year appeared to show forests of trees; in 2008, NASA released an image that appeared to be a person sitting on a rock but turned out to be … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1144: What's Google really doing in China?

Due to some Gmail attacks, Google has said it will remove its filters and possibly pull out of China altogether. There's definitely a lot more going on behind the scenes of this than we know, but we try to get to the heart of the matter as the nation of China negotiates with the nation of Google. We also discuss Facebook's requirement that you scan your hard drive to reactivate a hacked account, and we look forward to Martians coming this year. Yay for Martians!

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