SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: January 2004
home > space
& science news > space & science news: January 2004: 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7
| Opportunity drives on to the
Martian surface |
Jan 31, 2004 |
| NASA to review Hubble decision |
Jan 30, 2004 |
| Concerns voiced over rover rock
data |
Jan 30, 2004 |
| Photo received from recovering
Spirit rover |
Jan 29, 2004 |
| Opportunity gets ready to roll |
Jan 28, 2004 |
| Second Mars rover having problems |
Jan 28, 2004 |
| Mars rocks may be 'sedimentary' |
Jan 27, 2004 |
| Mars rock photo shows 'Holy Grail' |
Jan 27, 2004 |
| Files overloaded Spirit rover |
Jan 27, 2004 |
| Hunt on for
Beagle evidence |
Jan 27, 2004 |
| Parrot's oratory
stuns scientists |
Jan 26, 2004 |
| Opportunity
scores interplanetary hole-in-one |
Jan 26, 2004 |
| Opportunity
lands successfully on Mars |
Jan 25, 2004 |
| Spirit outlook
improving |
Jan 24, 2004 |
| Opportunity
closes on Mars |
Jan 24, 2004 |
| Spirit faces
long repairs |
Jan 23, 2004 |
| Mars seen
in unprecedented detail by Mars Express |
Jan 23, 2004 |
| Mars Express
spots its first water ice |
Jan 23, 2004 |
| Mars rover
"may have landed in mud-like material" |
Jan 22, 2004 |
| Shuttle clouds
station's future |
Jan 22, 2004 |
| Big chill
killed off Neanderthals |
Jan 22, 2004 |
| Rover's stunning
image of lander |
Jan 21, 2004 |
| New-found
Mars meteorite hints at past water |
Jan 21, 2004 |
| Rover returns
data on Mars soil |
Jan 21, 2004 |
| Rocky task
for Mars rover |
Jan 20, 2004 |
| Europe's stunning
Red Planet view |
Jan 19, 2004 |
| Spirit moves
into Martian rock garden |
Jan 19, 2004 |
| First Mars
Express photos |
Jan 18, 2004 |
| Why Hubble
is being dropped |
Jan 17, 2004 |
| Hubble is
first casuality of Bush plan |
Jan 17, 2004 |
| Mars rover
stretches an arm, snaps micro-pictures |
Jan 17, 2004 |
| Hubble obtains
deepest space view |
Jan 16, 2004 |
| 'Hole in the
sky' amazes scientists |
Jan 16, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
rolls onto the surface of Mars |
Jan 15, 2004 |
| Bush outlines
ambitious plan of space exploration |
Jan 14, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
targets unveiled |
Jan 14, 2004 |
| Mars probe
ponders water puzzle |
Jan 13, 2004 |
| Reworked images
give new view of Venus |
Jan 13, 2004 |
| Mars rover
gets first hint of water |
Jan 13, 2004 |
| Full Mars
panorama snap released |
Jan 12, 2004 |
| First supernova
companion star found |
Jan 12, 2004 |
| Space molecules
point to organic origin |
Jan 11, 2004 |
| Bush plan
envisions new launch vehicle |
Jan 11, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
ready to roll |
Jan 10, 2004 |
| Mars could
become new focus for humans in space |
Jan 10, 2004 |
| First double
pulsar discovered |
Jan 10, 2004 |
| Bush proposal
to send man back to Moon, on to Mars |
Jan 9, 2004 |
| Supernova,
sun combo blamed for mass extinction |
Jan 9, 2004 |
| A planet that
heats its star! |
Jan 9, 2004 |
| Extraordinary
mud-like substance close to Spirit rover |
Jan 8, 2004 |
| Rare shark
is second known giant squid predator |
Jan 8, 2004 |
| Space, the
busy frontier: Mars rovers are just the start |
Jan 8, 2004 |
| Giant galaxy
string defies models of how universe evolved |
Jan 7, 2004 |
| Beagle 2 almost
certainly lost |
Jan 7, 2004 |
| Red planet,
blue rocks |
Jan 7, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
sends back color image |
Jan 6, 2004 |
| D-day beckons
for missing Beagle |
Jan 6, 2004 |
| Space station
springs a leak |
Jan 6, 2004 |
| Spain probes
shower of fireballs |
Jan 6, 2004 |
| Suns of all
ages possess comets, maybe planets |
Jan 6, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
sends back color photos; NASA has direct link |
Jan 5, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
lands safely on Mars |
Jan 5, 2004 |
| One-tenth
of stars in Galaxy may support life |
Jan 4, 2004 |
| Spirit rover
begins final approach to Mars |
Jan 3, 2004 |
| Stardust makes
successful flyby of Comet Wild |
Jan 2, 2004 |
| Bacteria found
in 4,000 feet of rockshint at Mars life |
Jan 1, 2004 |
| Earth's magnetic
field fading |
Jan 1, 2004 |
Opportunity drives on to the Martian surface
(Jan 31, 2004)
The Mars rover Opportunity has rolled off its lander on to the surface
of the Red Planet, a week after arrival. The operation went as planned
with the rover travelling a distance of three metres, a NASA spokesman
said. The mission of Opportunity and its twin Spirit is to explore
the rocks and soil of their landing sites for evidence of past wet
environments. Spirit is returning to working order after communication
problems following its arrival on 3 January. The rovers are on opposite
sides of the planet to each other. Spirit is sitting in Gusev Crater,
which may have once held a lake. Opportunity landed on Meridiani Planum,
a region containing exposed deposits of the mineral haematite, which
usually forms under watery conditions.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA to review Hubble decision
(Jan 30, 2004)
NASA's chief agreed Thursday to review his decision to cancel the
Hubble Space Telescope's final servicing mission and let it deteriorate
and go out of operation. The decision comes after the space agency
was bombarded by pleas to save the craft. Adm. Hal Gehman, chairman
of the board that investigated the Columbia shuttle breakup last year,
will "review the (Hubble) matter and offer his unique perspective,"
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said in a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski,
who released a copy of the letter. O'Keefe had defended his decision
earlier this month to cancel all space shuttle missions to the Hubble,
which has revolutionized the study of astronomy with its striking
images of the universe. He had cited the risk to the astronauts on
a Hubble mission and President Bush's plans to send humans to the
moon, Mars and beyond as the reason for NASA's change of focus.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Concerns voiced over rover rock data
(Jan 30, 2004)
The device used by NASA rovers to study minerals on Mars could return
confusing results, complicating the search for signs of water, an
expert has said. It is claimed the rovers' Moessbauer spectrometers
will not adequately tell between minerals that form in the presence
of water and ones that do not. But a senior NASA scientist has refuted
the claims and says that the device is the best piece of kit for the
job. Details are available in the journal Earth and Planetary Science
Letters. Photo: MER's Mossbauer spectrometer.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Photo received from recovering Spirit rover
(Jan 29, 2004)
Working as space-age surgeons 100 million miles away, ground controllers
are trying to precisely pinpoint the software glitch that halted the
Mars rover Spirit's mission to explore Gusev Crater last Wednesday.
If successful, officials say the robot geologist could be out of recovery
and back at work early next week. In a promising development late
today, Mission Control released the first photograph taken by Spirit
since the rover's computer problems began. It shows the rover's science
arm reaching out to examine a pyramid-shaped rock nicknamed Adirondack.
Read
more. Source: Spaceflight Now |
Opportunity gets ready to roll
(Jan 28, 2004)
The golf cart-sized rover Opportunity, parked in a small Mars crater,
unfolded more instruments and checked out its systems Tuesday as it
prepares to roll off its platform in 10 to 14 days. "We are about
to embark on what arguably could be the coolest geological field trip
in human history," said chief mission scientist Steve Squyres. In
the meantime, the rover sent a high-resolution panorama of a rocky
outcrop on the rim of the crater around it. Some of the striped and
broken slabs of bedrock are believed to be just 20 to 26 feet away.
"The beauty of it is, we can go there," Squyres said. "We can drive
to this rock." Along with the high-resolution black-and-white photograph
of the outcrop, the scientists displayed Opportunity's first 3-D panorama
of the rock outcrop.
The scientists hope that the rock outcrop, estimated to be about a
foot high, can bring them closer to determining if Mars was once a
wet planet and perhaps sustained life. Or if what seem to be sedimentary
rocks are actually volcanic in origin. "I think it's fair to say if
it is volcanic, then all bets are off with regard to liquid water,"
said paleobiologist Andrew Knoll. "We simply wouldn't need liquid
water to form the layering in that case. "If it's sedimentary, then
you need liquid water," he said. "I doubt these are windborne deposits."
Images: (upper right) Layered bedrock near Opportunity; (lower left)
Imprints left by Opportunity's airbags.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Second Mars rover having problems
(Jan 28, 2004)
As NASA scientists pored over striking new photos from Mars revealing
finely layered formations of ancient bedrock, engineers labored on
Tuesday to diagnose problems with two robotic rovers on opposite sides
of the red planet. Besides a serious malfunction that has idled the
first rover, Spirit, since last Wednesday, mission controllers at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said they are now contending with
a power drain on Spirit's newly arrived twin, Opportunity. Mission
manager Jim Erickson told reporters said the power loss appeared to
be from one of the craft's heating units that keeps turning itself
on and running overnight without receiving commands from NASA to do
so. Photo: NASA's Jim Erickson points to the location of a heater
on a model of the rover Opportunity.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Mars rocks may be 'sedimentary'
(Jan 27, 2004)
NASA scientists have discovered what might be the most compelling
evidence yet of rocks formed in water on Mars. The Opportunity rover
has sent back pictures of rock slabs that appear to contain thin layers,
say researchers. On Earth, this feature is suggestive of sedimentary
rocks that are the product of material deposited by water or wind.
The layers are as thin as a centimetre in places which indicates they
are unlikely to be old lava flows, but Nasa cautioned further analysis
was needed. Mission scientist Dr Andrew Knoll said that if the rocks
were in fact sedimentary and not volcanic, they were probably formed
by water and not by wind-borne sediments.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mars rock photo shows 'Holy Grail'
(Jan 27, 2004)
While NASA's Spirit rover is in rehab, its twin, Opportunity, is sitting
near rock formations on the other side of Mars that could be a "Holy
Grail" for geologists, mission scientists said Monday. Opportunity,
on its third day on Mars, sent the Earth-bound mission managers an
8,000-by-3,000-pixel, 180-degree image of the area in front of it
– an image that could be zoomed in tight enough to identify
individual grains of the dust covering the surface. "This is like
a Holy Grail for geologists to be able to see these incredible rocks,"
said Jim Bell, the team's leading camera specialist. "There's a lot
more coming, and we couldn't be happier, more thrilled, with what
we're seeing at this incredible landing site."
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Files overloaded Spirit rover
(Jan 27, 2004)
NASA scientists say hundreds of computer files that have accumulated
on the Mars rover Spirit may be the cause of problems that have crippled
it. These "cruise files" will now be deleted from the second Mars
rover Opportunity before it rolls on to Mars to begin its science
mission. The Spirit rover suffered a major malfunction on Thursday
22 January causing a loss of contact with Earth. Opportunity landed
on Sunday and is apparently in excellent health. Surface development
manager for Spirit, Jennifer Trosper, said the problem involved two
types of memory used by Spirit: Ram and flash.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
1 | 2 | 3
| 4 | 5
| 6 | 7
BACK TO TOP
|
You
are here:
Home
> Space & Science news
> January 2004:
1 | 2 | 3
| 4 | 5
| 6 | 7
Other news sections
Latest science news
Archeo news
Eco news
Health news
Living world news
Paleo news
Strange news
Tech news
Also on this site:
Encyclopedia of Science
Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy
and Sustainable Living
News archive
Bookshop
Contact
|
