SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: January 2004
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& science news > space & science news: January 2004: 1
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Hunt on for Beagle evidence
(Jan 27, 2004)
The commission of inquiry looking into the loss of the UK-built Beagle
2 lander will be hoping for one piece of evidence above all else in
its investigation: a picture of the stricken probe on the surface
of Mars. If it can get an image of an intact "pocket watch" robot
on the Red Planet, this would significantly reduce the list of possible
factors that could have blighted the mission. "You can ask what happened
to the airbags? What happened to the parachute? What happened to the
computer?" said Beagle 2 lead scientist Professor Colin Pillinger.
"But if you have a picture of what is on the surface of Mars, it would
allow us to dismiss a great chunk of this and say 'forget it, look
at something else'."
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
(Jan 26, 2004)
The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate
with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African
grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs
of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is
confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot
cope – just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities,
which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife
Magazine. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users
of human language in the animal world.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Opportunity scores interplanteray hole-in-one
(Jan 26, 2004)
The Mars rover Opportunity is sending fresh data, including new photographs
taken on the vehicle's parachute trip to the planet's surface, to
mission control. Enthusiastic scientists told reporters that the rover,
which touched down in a small crater on the red planet, was in "excellent
condition" and that its landing site was unique. "What we have done
here is landed in a geological unit fundamentally different than anywhere
else on Mars," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal
investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin
rover, Spirit. Squyres said the terrain is darker than at any previous
Mars landing site and has the first accessible bedrock outcropping
ever seen on the red planet. The bedrock layers should yield valuable
information, he said. Image: bedrock imaged by Opportunity.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Opportunity rover lands successfully on
Mars
(Jan 25, 2004)
Opportunity, the second of two Nasa rovers, has successfully landed
on the Martian surface where it will search for signs of water on
the planet. The new rover touched down at 0505 GMT, halfway around
the red planet from where Spirit rover landed on 4 January. Opportunity
landed on a smooth, flat plain, in the highest altitude landing ever
attempted by NASA. Opportunity sent images back of its landing site
showing an unfamiliar, largely featureless landscape except for a
conspicuous outcrop of bedrock nearby. "This is a beautiful, alien
place. A world unlike any we've seen before," said Professor Steve
Squyres, principal payload investigator.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Spirit outlook improves
(Jan 24, 2004)
NASA scientists got control of the ailing Mars Spirit rover by putting
it in "cripple mode," they said on Saturday as the second spacecraft,
Opportunity, closed in on the Red Planet for an on-time landing hours
away. The mission control team said it expected to be able to get
good scientific work out of Spirit, which suffered a communications
breakdown on Wednesday, less than a week after successfully rolling
off its landing platform to begin searching for signs of life-supporting
water.
Source: Reuters |
Opportunity closes on Mars
(Jan 24, 2004)
Early Jan. 25, at about 12:05 a.m. EST, NASA's second Mars Exploration
Rover – Opportunity – will arrive on Mars. It's headed
for a region known as Meridiani Planum, halfway around the planet
from where its sister robot, the Spirit rover now resides. What Opportunity
might find at that landing site could be the geological mother lode
at Mars that scientists seek - a type of mineral that cries out: "Water
was here!" This site may well have been a suitable environment for
microbial life. As was the case three weeks ago, engineers are again
faced with risk, worry, and high anxiety in getting another robot
successfully down on Mars. One thing for sure: It doesn't get any
easier the second time around. The control team was beginning to rule
out the worst case scenarios for the three-month mission, Mars Exploration
Rover Project Manager Pete Theisinger told reporters at Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, the mission's command center.
Read
more. Source: space.com |
Spirit faces long repairs
(Jan 23, 2004)
The US space agency says it may take days, even weeks, to get its
Martian rover Spirit back into action. The probe had short contacts
with Earth on Friday, sending some engineering data that mission staff
can now use to try to diagnose and fix its problems. Spirit has not
worked properly since Wednesday, when a command was sent for it to
test an instrument motor. NASA has now formed an "anomaly team" which
will attempt to work through ideas to get the rover back to health.
"I think we should expect that we will not be restoring functionality
for a significant amount of time," said Mars Exploration Rover project
manager Pete Theisinger.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mars seen in unprecedented detail by Mars
Express
(Jan 23, 2004)
The European Space Agency has released the early results from its
Mars Express probe now orbiting the Red Planet. The data include a
batch of remarkable pictures taken at very high resolution. The images
show what appear to be sediments left in the bottoms of river-cut
valleys, and details as fine as dust blowing over the rims of craters.
"This is no ordinary spacecraft," said David Southwood, Esa's head
of science. "This is only the beginning. There is more to come in
the next two years." Mars Express image: The summit caldera of the
volcano Albor Tholus. The 3-km depth of the caldera is almost equal
to the the height of the volcano. A bright dust fall seems to flow
from the plateau into the caldera.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mars Express spots its first water ice
(Jan 23, 2004)
The European orbiter Mars Express detected ice at the Red Planet's
south pole, mission officials at Darmstadt, Germany, said Friday.
NASA's Mars Odyssey, also an orbiter, confirmed water ice at the north
pole, along with dry ice – frozen carbon dioxide – in
2002. It picked up signs of hydrogen at the south pole, the first
indication that water ice might be found there. Mars Express confirmed
Odyssey's suspicions about the south pole. "We have already identified
water vapor in the atmosphere," scientist Vittorio Formisano said.
"We have identified water ice on the soil on the south polar caps."
Photo: Martian south polar ice cap taken by Viking orbiter.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Mars rover "may have landed in mud-like
material"
(Jan 22, 2004)
Pictures from NASA's roving Mars buggy have astonished scientists
by indicating that it may have landed in mud. Strange marks near the
Spirit rover’s landing site suggest that against all the odds there
be might liquid water on or just beneath the surface of Mars. The
water would have to be very salty to avoid freezing or evaporating
in the harsh Martian conditions. If the scientists' suspicions are
confirmed it would be the clearest sign yet that lakes and oceans
once existed on Mars, and greatly increase the chances of life. The
presence of water in the Martian soil could even mean that the Viking
Mars landers really did detect life on the planet in 1976.
Read
more. Source: Scotsman/PA |
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