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    mars tagged posts

    May | 2015

    NASA Begins Testing Mars Lander in Preparation for Next Mission to Red Planet

    in InSight, NASA | No comments

    Testing is underway on NASA’s next mission on the journey to Mars, a stationary lander scheduled to launch in March 2016.

    The lander is called InSight, an abbreviation for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. It is about the size of a car and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the interior structure of the Red Planet. Examining the planet’s deep interior could reveal clues about how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved.

    The current testing will help ensure InSight can operate in and survive deep space travel and the harsh conditions of the Martian surface. The spacecraft will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and land on Mars about six months later.

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    September | 2014

    NASA Mars Spacecraft Ready for Orbit Insertion

    in MAVEN, NASA | No comments

    NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is nearing its scheduled Sept. 21 insertion into Martian orbit after completing a 10-month interplanetary journey of 442 million miles. Flight Controllers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, will be responsible for the health and safety of the spacecraft throughout the process. The spacecraft’s mission timeline will place the spacecraft in orbit at approximately 9:50 p.m. EDT. “So far, so good with the performance of the spacecraft and payloads on the cruise to Mars,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The team, the flight system, and all ground assets are ready for Mars orbit insertion.”

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    September | 2014

    NASA Investigating the Martian Atmosphere

    in MAVEN, NASA, Video | No comments

    The Martian surface bears ample evidence of flowing water in its youth, from crater lakes and riverbeds to minerals that only form in water. But today Mars is cold and dry, and scientists think that the loss of Mars’ water may have been caused by the loss of its early atmosphere. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volaile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN, will be the first spacecraft devoted to studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere, in an effort to understand how the Martian climate has changed over time.

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    August | 2014

    Sparks Fly as NASA Pushes the Limits of 3-D Printing Technology

    in NASA, Technology | No comments

    NASA has successfully tested the most complex rocket engine parts ever designed by the agency and printed with additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, on a test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA engineers pushed the limits of technology by designing a rocket engine injector –a highly complex part that sends propellant into the engine — with design features that took advantage of 3-D printing. To make the parts, the design was entered into the 3-D printer’s computer. The printer then built each part by layering metal powder and fusing it together with a laser, a process known as selective laser melting.

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    August | 2014

    NASA Completes Key Review of World’s Most Powerful Rocket in Support of Journey to Mars

    in International News, NASA | No comments

    NASA officials Wednesday announced they have completed a rigorous review of the Space Launch System (SLS) — the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars — and approved the program’s progression from formulation to development, something no other exploration class vehicle has achieved since the agency built the space shuttle.

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    October | 2013

    NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter set to launch on Nov. 18

    in International News, NASA, Other | No comments

    Ken Kremer – www.kenkremer.com for  space-site.com – 15 Oct  2013

    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL, USA – MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission) is NASA’s next mission to Mars.   It is scheduled to lift off on Nov. 18, 2013 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on an Atlas V 401 rocket.  The 903 kilogram (2000 pound) probe will arrive at the Red Planet in September 2014 after a 10 month interplanetary voyage.

    It is the first spacecraft from Earth devoted to investigating and understanding the upper atmosphere of Mars. The purpose is determining how and why Mars lost virtually all of its atmosphere billions of years ago and what effect that had on the climate.

    “MAVENS’s goal is determining the composition of the ancient Martian atmosphere and when it was lost, where did all the water ...

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    October | 2013

    Water on Mars

    in Mars One | No comments

    Last month NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity measured a high percentage of water in the surface soil of Mars. As the Mars One astronauts will be settling on Mars indefinitely, the availability of enough water at the location of the settlement is essential. For this reason, the exact location will be primarily based on the water content in the soil.

    Will the astronauts have enough water, food and oxygen?

    Our astronauts will be settling on Mars indefinitely. It’s not feasible to send water, oxygen and food from Earth to the astronauts: they will produce those on Mars.

    Water

    On Mars, water can be extracted from the soil. The Rover will select the location for the settlement primarily based on the water content in the soil. We expect this to be at a latitude of between 40 and 45 degrees North...

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    October | 2013

    ESA’s test rover begins exploring Atacama Desert

    in ESA, International News | No comments

    SAFER rover's first tracks in Atacama Desert

    ESA’s test rover has been fitted with scientific instruments  and made its first tracks in the sands of Chile’s Atacama Desert. Meanwhile, team members have explored the area to select a suitable site for testing, flying a drone to produce an aerial map.

    This week’s Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover, or SAFER, field trial is gaining experience in remotely operating a Mars rover prototype equipped with scientific instruments.

    ESA has assembled an international industrial team for the trial, which takes place in the Mars-like Atacama, one of the driest places on Earth.

    “During the past few days we have been busy preparing for the actual trial,” explains Michel van Winnendael, overseeing the testing for ESA...

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    October | 2013

    Desert trial for ESA Mars rover

    in ESA, International News | No comments

    SAFER field test rover

    Next week will see ESA’s most ambitious planetary rover test yet. Robotic exploration of a Mars-like desert in South America will be overseen from the UK, providing experience for future missions to the Red Planet.

    The rover faces the desolate Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of the closest terrestrial matches for Mars. Among the driest places on Earth, it lacks any vegetation and its red–brown soil and rocks make it look even more like Mars.

    The aim is to build up experience in operating rovers on a planet, which requires a very different way of working from a satellite mission.

    For added pressure on the rover’s remote overseers – based at the Satellite Applications Catapult facility in Harwell, UK, next to ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications – eac...

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    September | 2013

    NASA Curiosity Rover Detects No Methane on Mars

    in Uncategorized | No comments

    Westward View from Curiosity on Sol 347

    Data from NASA’s Curiosity rover has revealed the Martian environment lacks methane. This is a surprise to researchers because previous data reported by U.S. and international scientists indicated positive detections.

    The roving laboratory performed extensive tests to search for traces of Martian methane. Whether the Martian atmosphere contains traces of the gas has been a question of high interest for years because methane could be a potential sign of life, although it also can be produced without biology.

    “This important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars,” said Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist for Mars exploration...

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