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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Some events for the 5th anniversary of Spirit and Opportunity's landing on Mars
Tonight at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, Jim Bell and Bill Nye will be celebrating the 5th anniversary of the landing of the rovers; Jim will be showing lots of pretty 3D pictures.
The Santorini panorama
A tip of the hat to Ryan over at Martian Chronicles for posting this lovely version of the Santorini panorama, which Opportunity captured just before Mars dipped too close to the Sun in late November of last year.
Spirit moved!
Hallelujah! For the first time in almost an Earth year, amateur mars mapper Eduardo Tesheiner is able to scratch a tiny little line on his map of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's peregrinations across Gusev Crater.
I am totally hooked on Scott Maxwell's new Mars Exploration Rover blog
Scott Maxwell is one of those many guys (and gals) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who rarely gets his name in the news but who is absolutely indispensable to the success of a space mission. I don't know what his official title is, but whatever it is, it's not as good as the colloquial name given to his position: Rover Driver.
Five Years of Spirit on Mars
On January 3, 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed on Mars, and I was with the science team at JPL when it happened! I can't believe it's been five years since the successful landing.
MSL Launch Delayed by Two Years
As I post this, NASA is holding a press conference in which they are announcing that the Mars Science Laboratory's launch date will be slipped by two years.
MSL Press Conference Tomorrow
At 12 noon EST. I know what the announcement is, but I'm not allowed to tell you! How frustrating is that?!
MSL Press Conference Notes
Mike Griffin started the press conference, and got right down to business announcing the launch delay and indicating that the actuators as well as other technical problems are responsible.
Sample Return Cache on MSL Canceled!
I just heard, via this article at Universe Today, that the sample cache on MSL has been canceled.
Solar conjunction: Holidays for Mars missions, and an Opportunity update
The period of Mars solar conjunction has just begun, which means that a host of scientists and engineers whose day jobs entail interaction with the five active Mars spacecraft are getting a five-week break from the daily grind of operations.
MSL Landing Sites Narrowed to Four
I've known about this for a little while but it was finally made public: The list of MSL landing sites had now been trimmed to four.
High dust levels are making life tough for Spirit
There was a worrying update posted on the JPL website for Spirit today: an early-season dust storm has darkened its skies enough that its solar panels produced only 89 watt-hours of power yesterday, sol 1,725. Neither rover has ever, ever seen power production levels that low, not even during last year's massive dust storm.
Opportunity and Spirit updates: Both are now driving
Another day, another drive: on sols 1,693 and 1,695 the Opportunity rover conducted two more lengthy drives to the south, totaling almost 200 meters. On the other side of the planet, Spirit is FINALLY in motion again.
Opportunity is really hitting the highway
Victoria crater, the site of a Mars year's worth of study, is now far over the horizon, as Opportunity has lately completed a series of very long drives. Opportunity is once again sailing the sand seas of Meridiani Planum.
Why is only half of Mars magnetized?
An article in the September 26 issue of Science neatly explains why only the southern half of Mars is strongly magnetized.
A shift in orbit for Mars Odyssey
Last week, the Mars Odyssey team announced that their mission is being extended another two years. This mission extension will be slightly different from previous mission phases due to a planned change in the spacecraft's orbit.
MSL Still Aiming for Oct 2009
NASA is holding a press conference right now regarding MSL and it sounds like they are going to press on and try to achieve the October 2009 launch date.
Long drives at last for Opportunity (or, getting your kicks on sol 1,666)
It's been way, way, way too long since the view from either rover's cameras has changed very much. So I hope you'll join me in a shout of
Plumbing on Mars: HiRISE Reveals Groundwater Cracks
This image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter, shows cracks in the rocks on Mars that once formed the underground plumbing through which groundwater traveled.
Opportunity's got a long road ahead
Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator Steve Squyres announced on National Public Radio's Science Friday show the next goal for Opportunity, and it's a long, long, long way away: a huge crater about 12 kilometers southeast of its current location, which the team is referring to internally as