"In the News" Archives:

Jets Bursting From Martian Ice Cap!

“Jets of carbon dioxide gas erupting from the ice cap as it warms in the spring carry dark sand and dust high aloft. The dark material falls back to the surface, creating dark patches on the ice cap which have long puzzled scientists.” or, are the dust a product of atmospheric circulation patterns? See for yourself.
Read the research article at Nature.com suggesting that there are CO₂jets on Mars
Read the research article at Nature.com suggesting that there is a different process at work
Read More at NASA.gov
Read More at THEMIS.ASU.edu
Read More at Space.com
Read More here at Mars-Ice.org

June 19, 2006

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Aerobraking Progresses

“The orbits are getting shorter and shorter. We've finished about 80 of them so far, but we have about 400 more to go, and the pace really quickens toward the end,” said Dan Johnston, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Supplementing the daily attentions of navigators, engineers and scientists, the orbiter has begun using unprecedented onboard smarts to schedule some of its own attitude maneuvers during each orbit. Read more

May 10, 2006

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Continues Aerobraking

NASA's latest orbiter to visit the Red Planet is well into its main phase of aerobraking. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has cut about 10 hours off of its initial orbit by strategically dipping in and out of Mars' thin atmosphere." Read more

March 11, 2006

MRO has arrived and is in orbit!
"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission manager Jim Graf raises his arms in celebration of the orbiter's successful entry into orbit around Mars. Behind him is Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Dr. Charles Elachi, giving the "thumbs up."
With a crucially timed firing of its main engines today, NASA's new mission to Mars successfully put itself into orbit around the red planet." Read more

November 18, 2005

"Mars-Bound NASA Craft Tweaks Course, Passes Halfway Point
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully fired six engines for about 20 seconds today to adjust its flight path in advance of its March 10, 2006, arrival at the red planet.
Since its Aug. 12 launch, the multipurpose spacecraft has covered about 60 percent of the distance for its trip from Earth to Mars. It will fly about 40-million kilometers (25-million miles) farther before it enters orbit around Mars. It will spend half a year gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit, then begin its science phase. During that phase, it will return more data about Mars than all previous missions combined. The spacecraft has already set a record transmission rate for an interplanetary mission, successfully returning data at 6 megabits per second, fast enough to fill a CD-ROM every 16 minutes. " Read more

October 20, 2005

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Is Already Breaking Records
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter set the record for interplanetary missions, sending back the most data in a single day.
An unprecedented amount of data - the equivalent of 13 CDs - was returned by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission in a single day! NASA's latest mission to Mars sent 75 gigabits of data back to Earth from millions of miles away, including beautiful pictures of the Moon. " Read more

August 30, 2005

"NASA's Mars Orbiter Makes Successful Course Correction
The spacecraft fired all six main thrusters for 15 seconds on Saturday, Aug. 27. The engine burn followed a 30-second burn of six smaller thrusters, which settled propellant in the craft's fuel tank for smoother flow. The spacecraft's orientation was adjusted prior to the burns to point the engines in the proper direction for the maneuver. The spacecraft returned to the regular cruise-phase attitude after the trajectory adjustment." Read more

August 12, 2005

"MRO is on Its Way to the Red Planet
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) successfully lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla at 7:43:00 a.m EDT on Aug 12. The spacecraft launched from Space Launch Complex 41 aboard NASA's first Atlas V rocket. The MRO is healthy and performing as designed, presently communicating with ground stations and unfurling its solar arrays." Read more

May 12, 2005

"Scientists think they have an answer to the long-standing mystery of why the permanent icecap on Mars' South Pole is offset from the pole itself. Simply put, it's colder and stormier in that hemisphere.

But that is only part of the equation, they say, and new understanding about Mars' climate and its polar regions may suggest clues to finding water in the planet's equatorial zone - where it would be easier to land a spacecraft - and opening the door to future exploration." Read more at the Corvallis Gazette-Times or read the journal article at LPI: Read the Article [PDF]