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Enormously detailed photo of Kasei Valles from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/19 02:36 CDT | 7 comments
ESA celebrated the tenth anniversary of Mars Express' launch with a several-day science meeting during which they issued lots of press releases and numerous spectacular photos. My favorite of them all is this enormous image of Kasei Valles on Mars.
Exploring Ten Years' Worth of Mars Express Data
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/06/13 01:09 CDT | 3 comments
Mars Express has been in flight for a decade, more than enough time to send home some amazing finds.
Pretty pictures: Curiosity working late
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/07 11:47 CDT | 2 comments
Just some cool photos of Curiosity lighting up the Cumberland drill hole after sunset for a little nighttime science work.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Departs Cape York, Breaks Apollo Record
Sols 3295 - 3325
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2013/06/05 09:22 CDT | 1 comments
It was a merry and mighty month of May for the Mars Exploration Rover mission: Opportunity finished a blockbuster study of Matijevic Hill finding the best evidence yet for an ancient, potentially habitable environment, and then embarked on its first real road trip in two years. The robot field geologist had barely gotten underway on its journey when it surpassed the Apollo 17 lunar rover distance record to become the most traveled NASA vehicle on another planetary body.
Curiosity update, sol 295: "Hitting the road" to Mount Sharp
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/05 04:54 CDT | 3 comments
There was a Curiosity telephone conference this morning to make an exciting announcement: they're (almost) done at Glenelg and are preparing for the drive south to Mount Sharp. Allow me an editorial comment: finally!
Posted by Jim Bell on 2013/06/03 03:53 CDT | 6 comments
I'm absolutely floored when I stop to think that our beautiful blue ocean is only one of perhaps a half dozen or more oceans on other worlds in our solar system, and only one of probably millions (or more) oceans on other Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Oceans abound!
Finding faces and animals on Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/30 10:05 CDT | 7 comments
This week's "lizard" or "rat" on Mars is just the latest of a never-ending stream of so-called discoveries of animate and inanimate objects in images returned from the Red Planet. I challenge you readers to find more such objects in one Curiosity panorama.
The Shores of the Kraken Sea: Great Place Names in the Solar System
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/28 08:59 CDT | 9 comments
Nothing reflects the romance of deep space exploration more than the evocative names of places on the planets and moons.
Mars Exploration Rovers Special Update: Opportunity's Findings at Endeavour, So Far
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2013/05/25 03:03 CDT | 2 comments
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity left Cape York on May 14th and embarked on a 2-kilometer journey south along the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is heading now to Solander Point, where it will spend the coming Martian winter.
Posted by Larry Crumpler on 2013/05/24 11:27 CDT
Opportunity finally started driving south from its location on the outcrop where it had been since solar conjunction.
Opportunity and Curiosity updates: Rolling and drilling and a little wear on the wheels
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/20 11:27 CDT | 3 comments
For most of April, while Mars scuttled behind the Sun as seen from Earth, both Mars rovers were pretty inactive. Now that conjunction has ended, both are doing what rovers should be doing: roving and exploring. As of sol 3312 Opportunity had moved more than 300 meters southward toward Solander Point, while on her sol 279 Curiosity drilled at a second site, Cumberland.
Many More Colors than Red: Exploring Mars with Spectroscopy
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/20 01:31 CDT | 6 comments
Mars gives up its secrets through the unseen colors of its rocks.
Posted by Larry Crumpler on 2013/05/17 11:27 CDT
Opportunity has finally completed the detailed survey of the outcrops on the Cape York segment of the rim of the 22-km diameter Endeavour crater.
Planetary Society Hangout: A Day in the Life of the Opportunity Rover with Emily Dean
Thursday, May 9, at noon PDT/1900h UTC
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/05/09 02:20 CDT | 1 comments
Thursday, May 9th, at noon PDT/3pm EDT/1900h UTC, we are joined by Emily Dean, who works on the camera team for the Opportunity rover on Mars.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Emerges from Solar Conjunction to Wrap-Up Work on Matijevic Hill
Sols 3266 - 3295
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2013/05/02 03:15 CDT | 1 comments
As the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team waited out solar conjunction, Opportunity spent most of April atop the western rim of Endeavour Crater, conducting a chemical analysis of an ancient waterborne vein on Matijevic Hill. It was by the book until the last week of the month when the robot field geologist suffered an electronic "hiccup" known as a warm re-boot, and went into auto mode, a kind of safe mode when something doesn't go right.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/04/21 03:07 CDT | 6 comments
Mars and Earth share a truly striking family resemblance, but there's no mistaking which one is home.
A walk among the mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/19 02:17 CDT | 4 comments
Enjoy some pretty pictures of some bizarre terrain on Mars: the mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae.
Tides of light and ice: Water and rock made from snowmelt on Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/17 01:29 CDT | 4 comments
A recently published paper proposes that much of the sedimentary rock on Mars formed during rare, brief periods of very slight wetness under melting snow.
Russia's Mars 3 lander maybe found by Russian amateurs
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/12 01:22 CDT | 4 comments
Виталий Егоров (Vitaliy Egorov) is a Russian space enthusiast who enlisted help of fellow enthusiasts to search for -- and maybe find -- the Russian Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface. Here he explains how he did it.
Blast from the Past: Spirit's tracks at the "End of the Rainbow"
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/09 09:05 CDT | 3 comments
Doug Ellison shared this lovely panorama via Twitter over the weekend. It's from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, taken back in 2004. The drunken path in the foreground is a visual record of just how exciting it was for Spirit to have finally made it to the Columbia Hills, and to rocks that were not fragments of basalt.
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