Jack F. Mancilla: Mars

spacetoday.net: X-43A conducts successful test flight

Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:53:58 GMT

Posted: Sun, Mar 28, 2004, 12:22 PM ET (1722 GMT)

This is really fast. There is a small mistake in the article. The booster accelerated the X-34A up to Mach 5, then the X-34A accelerated away from the booster for a total of 11 seconds. ... Let's see, Mach 5 to Mach 7 in 11 seconds. ... Now that was a kick in the pants!

An X-43A, a NASA vehicle designed to test hypersonic technologies, performed a successful test flight Saturday, reaching a speed of Mach 7 during its brief, unmanned flight. The X-43A and its Pegasus-derived booster rocket were deployed from a B-52 off the California coast at about 5:00 pm EST (2200 GMT) Saturday. The booster accelerated the X-43A to Mach 7 at an altitude of nearly 29,000 meters before separating. The X-43A then ignited its air-breathing scramjet engine, using liquid hydrogen as fuel, for a brief ten-second mission, after which the vehicle glided for several minutes before crashing into the Pacific Ocean as planned. The flight was the second for the X-43A program, after the initial flight failed in June 2001 when the booster rocket lost control several seconds into the flight. A third and final X-43A flight is tentatively planned for later this year. However, NASA cancelled a follow-on program, the X-43C, earlier in the month as part of an effort to reorganize its research programs to better fit the needs of the new exploration initiative.

NASA - Hubble's Deep View of the Universe Unveils Earliest Galaxies

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:13:09 GMT

Image Right: An estimated 10,000 galaxies are revealed in humankind's deepest portrait of the visible universe ever. Photo credit: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith(STScI) and The HUDF Team. Astronomers today unveiled the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever taken. A one-million-second long exposure taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) may reveal the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages" shortly after the big bang.

Beagle probe faces its big challenge - BBC NEWS - Science/Nature

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 16:14:05 GMT

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor Never has a spacecraft been built so quickly, on so little money, and been sent on such a long journey fraught with so many dangers. Beagle 2 has been carried to the vicinity of Mars by the Mars Express mothership, and released successfully to go its own way for the final leg of the journey. The easy part is over. Beagle's atmospheric entry, descent and landing on Mars on Christmas Day will be the most worrying six minutes in the history of unmanned space exploration.

Beagle 2 successfully separates from mothership - New Scientist

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:38:51 GMT

14:44 19 December 03 The Beagle 2 Mars lander successfully separated from its mothership at 0831 GMT on Friday, to begin its solo voyage towards a touchdown on Christmas Day. The European Space Agency's Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany received a signal that confirmed the release at 1112 GMT. The success marks a key moment in the ambitious mission. "It's been a tense morning," said David Southwood, ESA's director of science. "But I'm feeling very confident - the mother and baby are both doing well."

British Spacecraft Starts Final Leg of Mars Probe - Yahoo! News

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 13:24:43 GMT

British Spacecraft Starts Final Leg of Mars Probe By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - A British spacecraft the size of an open umbrella began the final leg of its mission to find life on Mars as it successfully broke free on Friday from the mother ship that has carried it 62 million miles from earth. Beagle 2 parted from the Mars Express rocket and set off alone to cover the remaining distance to the Red Planet, where it should parachute down on Christmas morning and start broadcasting a tune by Britpop band Blur.

Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | First supernovae seeded universe with stuff of life

Fri, 19 Sep 2003 14:41:40 GMT

HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER
FOR ASTROPHYSICS NEWS RELEASE
Posted: September 18, 2003

The early universe was a barren wasteland of hydrogen, helium, and a touch of lithium, containing none of the elements necessary for life as we know it. From those primordial gases were born giant stars 200 times as massive as the sun, burning their fuel at such a prodigious rate that they lived for only about 3 million years before exploding.

Mars Rover Liftoff

Sun, 15 Jun 2003 18:04:31 GMT

NASA's 'Spirit' Rises On Its Way To Mars

A NASA robotic geologist named Spirit began its seven-month journey to Mars at 1:58:47 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (10:58:47 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) today when its Delta II launch vehicle thundered aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

The spacecraft, first of a twin pair in NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project, separated successfully from the Delta's third stage about 36 minutes after launch, while over the Indian Ocean. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received a signal from the spacecraft at 2:48 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (11:48 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) via the Canberra, Australia, antenna complex of NASA's Deep Space Network. All systems are operating as expected.

Earth Photographed from Mars in Surprising Detail

Thu, 22 May 2003 21:42:56 GMT

The Earth and Moon
as seen from Mars.

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer

"A spacecraft orbiting Mars has turned its eye homeward to photograph Earth as its never been seen before, capturing a surprisingly detailed image of our blue world suspended in the vast black of space."

Unlike any previous image of Earth from another planet, clouds and continental features are visible.

Planet Earth is seen as a half-globe. The effect is the same as seeing phases of Venus from Earth. Like Earth's Moon, an inner planet reflects sunlight differently depending on its location in relation to the planet it is viewed from.

NASA Selects Mars Rover Landing Sites

Sun, 13 Apr 2003 15:25:13 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- In the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) landing site sweepstakes, the winners are: Meridiani Planum and Gusev crater.

NASA has concluded that these two touchdown zones on Mars offer the greatest science reward for the soon-to-be launched dual Mars Exploration Rovers.

Each MER robot will examine its landing site for geological evidence of past liquid water activity and past environmental conditions hospitable to life.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Water 'flows' on Mars

Fri, 14 Mar 2003 14:21:33 GMT

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Dark streaks on crater and valley walls may indicate that brackish water currently flows across the surface of Mars. New images and analysis suggest the slopes around the Red Planet's largest extinct volcano, Olympus Mons, contain dark stains caused by brine flowing down hill. The discovery indicates that the substantial underground ice deposits on Mars can sometimes melt and flow across the surface. It is bound to increase speculation that life may exist near to the surface of the planet.

Wired 11.04: Sub-Urban Renewal

Fri, 14 Mar 2003 14:07:20 GMT

Sub-Urban Renewal
Thanks to new tunneling technologies, real estate trends are down. Way down.
By Fred Hapgood
It's the mantra of every silver-tongued real estate agent straining to close a deal: They're not making any more land. But imagine if they were. Suppose acres of new land could be manufactured just like I-beams, bolts of cloth, or toothpaste. And what if this man-made frontier could be rolled out anywhere, even in the heart of the densest metropolis, without displacing anyone? Well, it can. The world's cities may be overcrowded, and the suburbs that surround them may be choked by unchecked sprawl, but there's plenty of undeveloped space. It's right at your feet: underground. There are 100 quadrillion cubic feet of undeveloped metropolitan real estate in this country alone, and that's counting just the first mile down. Think of it this way: If everyone in the entire country moved to Los Angeles, each of us could have 2 million cubic feet to house our stuff. How does that compare with where you live now?

Mars Rover Planners in Time Crunch to Prepare Spacecraft, Select Landing Sites

Mon, 13 Jan 2003 15:29:32 GMT

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Engineers and scientists working on the NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project are in the final stages of readying the twin robots for launch and picking safe and scientifically rewarding landing sites on the red planet.
The road to Mars for the MER program has not been easy. A number of technical challenges -- such as designing, testing and qualifying airbag and parachute systems, in particular -- dogged the project, requiring extra time, money and talent.

Small Times: News about MEMS, Nanotechnology and Microsystems

Fri, 06 Dec 2002 17:36:08 GMT

CRYONICS CONFERENCE BRINGS OUT NANOTECH'S EXTREME OPTIMISTS
By Mark Frauenfelder
Small Times Correspondent
Graphic Designer Robert Freitas
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec. 6, 2002 [~] At Alcor's fifth annual Conference on Extreme Life Extension here recently, two well-known scientists presented their visions for the far-out future of nanotechnology.
Ralph Merkle and Robert Freitas of Zyvex Corp., a nanotechnology and MEMS research and development company in Richardson, Texas, asked the 200 or so conference attendees to imagine a time in the coming decades when doctors will routinely inject billions of nanosized robots into patients' bodies.

Beyond 2000 | Crater Face

Mon, 28 Oct 2002 15:49:44 GMT

Researchers studying two of Earth's biggest craters recently discovered that one was caused by an asteroid, not, as was previously thought, by a comet. The difference may seem arbitrary at first, but it may have important implications for scientists attempting to find evidence of primitive life on Mars. Susan Kieffer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kevin Pope of Geo Eco Arc Research and Doreen Ames of Natural Resources Canada analysed the structure and composition of the 65-million-year-old Chicxulub crater in Mexico and the 1.8 billion-year-old Sudbury crater in Canada.

New Highly Detailed Images

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:40:50 GMT

By Robert Roy Britt
Mars Global Surveyor passed a milestone earlier this month when its 100,000th image was added to NASA's online image gallery for the mission. The total number of photographs is now more than twice the combined quantity supplied by the Viking orbiters in the 1970s.
More interesting is the detail included in the new images. One is said to be among the most detailed views ever provided of the Red Planet. Another reveals new clues about a mysterious "Inca City" on Mars.

HoustonChronicle.com - Group maps course for journey to Mars

Mon, 14 Oct 2002 05:48:40 GMT

A far-reaching space exploration initiative, previewed on Sunday by an international aerospace organization, would launch humans to Mars by 2050. Still in development, the proposal from the Paris-based International Academy of Astronautics seeks to rekindle the legacy of NASA's Apollo lunar missions by initiating the migration of human explorers throughout the solar system.

canberra.yourguide

Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:35:47 GMT

Canberra will be the first place on Earth to receive images from the surface of Mars when NASA lands its most ambitious project to date on the red planet in 2004.
The Tidbinbilla southern hemisphere Deep Space Network Station will play a key role in tracking and communicating with the space craft and the robotic rovers during launch and once they land on the planet's surface.
The NASA team leading the Mars Exploration Rover Project arrived in Canberra yesterday to meet colleagues at Tidbinbilla and work on coordinating the launch and landing.
"It's really exciting for us and just as exciting for them," project manager Peter Theisinger said.

HoustonChronicle.com - Q&A: British-born visionary Arthur C. Clarke

Thu, 10 Oct 2002 16:48:23 GMT

British-born visionary Arthur C. Clarke's writings inspired satellite communications and influenced President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961, decision to send American explorers to the moon. But his 1968 cinematic collaboration with the late Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, over-optimistically predicted an aggressive human expansion into space.
Recently, the 84-year-old writer spoke by satellite from his home in Sri Lanka to an audience at Rice University, where policy-makers, astronauts and academics gathered to mark the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's Sept. 12, 1962, speech at Rice on the importance of NASA's Apollo lunar expeditions.

NASA Adds To Mars Global Surveyor Photo Album

Wed, 09 Oct 2002 18:41:51 GMT

NASA Adds To Mars Global Surveyor Photo Album
The picture from a crater at 39.0°S, 166.1°W, is one of the highest-resolution images obtained from Mars. Its resolution is 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel--objects the size of school buses can be resolved in the full size image. The gullies in these craters originate at a specific layer and may have formed by release of groundwater to the martian surface in geologically recent times. NASA/JPL/MSSS image Los Angeles - Oct 09, 2002

New Mars Eagle Has Flown, And Landed, in Oregon Test

Mon, 23 Sep 2002 20:13:17 GMT

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
space.com
High above the Oregon coast yesterday, a futuristic class of Mars exploration technology took wing.
The MarsFlyer -- a one-half scale prototype of a NASA craft that one day may zip across Martian skies -- made the first in a series of shakeout sojourns. The craft is dubbed the Eagle.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Trouble for British Mars lander

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 17:11:13 GMT

Trouble for British Mars lander
Beagle 2: Will it be ready to fly?
By Helen Briggs
BBC News Online science reporter
A race is on to finish building a British spacecraft in time for the first European mission to Mars.
Engineers are working extra hours on Beagle 2, amid concern the project is running over budget and behind schedule.

An Inside Look at the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Project

Wed, 18 Sep 2002 16:02:30 GMT

An Inside Look at the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Project
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
BOULDER, COLORADO -- Yes, it's true. Mars needs women -- as well as men -- to carry out the first landmark expedition to the red planet. But before humans set boot on the far-off world, what's really mandatory are a few good mice.
That's the position of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Project, a student-led private initiative to study the effects of Martian gravity on mammals.

What Lowell Really Saw When He Watched Venus

Tue, 10 Sep 2002 06:09:18 GMT

What Lowell Really Saw When He Watched Venus
By LEON JAROFF
While an observatory in Arizona bears his name, Percival Lowell is best known for his obsession with Mars and his conviction that intelligent life had once existed on the planet.
That notion was not finally put to rest until 1972, when close-up pictures from the Mariner 9 spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, revealed a desolate landscape with no evidence of any artificial structures.

CNN.com - Europe begins building Mars lander - August 6, 2002

Wed, 07 Aug 2002 15:33:32 GMT

By Richard Stenger
(CNN) -- Taking a leap forward in the study of Mars, European engineers began construction on the Beagle 2, a lander slated to hit the red planet in 2003.
The robot craft will probe rocks, dig into the soil and sniff the air, checking for organic matter and other life-related chemical compounds like atmospheric methane.

United Press International: DARPA to fund all-terrain robot race

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 02:04:14 GMT

DARPA to fund all-terrain robot race By Scott R. Burnell UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 8/2/2002 1:15 PM View printer-friendly version ANAHEIM, Calif., Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is putting up $1 million to see if robotics experts can create a machine capable of traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas without human intervention, agency officials said Friday. The "Grand Challenge," currently planned for sometime in 2004, will require self-contained robots to deal with roads and rugged terrain. The core concept of the race takes human operators completely out of the loop, said DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker. "If they need to refuel, they'll have to do it autonomously," Walker told United Press International. "That sort of ability would be very useful on the battlefield."