http://www.marsdaily.com/index.html Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST en-us Life could not exist on the surface of Mars because the planet has been in a "super-drought" lasting 600 million years, British researchers say. Scientists at Imperial College London said they based that assertion on analysis of Martian soil brought back to Earth from the 2008 NASA Phoenix mission. Their three-year analysis suggests the Martian surface has been dry for such a lon]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Space radiation triggered a glitch in the on-board computer system causing the recent crash of Russia's Mars probe, Federal Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said on Tuesday. "Two components of the onboard computer system were spontaneously rebooted and it switched into a standby mode," he said. "The most likely reason [for the glitch] is the impact of heavy charged space particles]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production. While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, "Amb]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Amateur astronomers who on occasion observe Mars through the eyepiece of their telescopes are quite familiar with the region of Syrtis Major; when observing conditions are good, it can be easily identified as a dark spot on Mars. This large volcanic region just north of Mars' equator covers an area of roughly 1300 by 1500 kilometres - about half the size of Europe. The High Resolution Ster]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Russia may repeat the Mars-500 experiment simulating a crewed flight to the Red Planet on the International Space Station (ISS), the head of the Russian Space Federal Agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin said on Thursday "Mars-500 was a very useful thing in terms of studying people's psychology...We are now seriously considering the possibility of repeating this experiment in space," Popovk]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced the cause of the Phobos-Grunt space probe failure on Tuesday: it was a software malfunction in its onboard computer. But doubts still persist. Russia's space industry is currently going through a system-wide crisis which provokes one setback after another. b>Why the Martian program failed br> /b> On Tuesday morning the newspaper Kommersant, qu]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Russia on Tuesday blamed a computer malfunction caused by the impact of cosmic rays for the failure of its Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars, one of a litany of setbacks for its embattled space programme. Announcing the initial results of the investigation into the Mars mission, Russian space agency Roscosmos also revealed the next manned launch to the International Space Station would be delayed]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft travelling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet. On Sunday, a huge coronal mass ejection erupted from the surface of the sun, spewing a cloud of charged particles in our]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production during the winter. Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the target, "Amboy" including an ext]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST NASA has refused to participate in an experiment designed to show if U.S. radars could have had an impact on Russia's troubled Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, the deputy head of the country's space agency, Roscosmos, Anatoly Shylov said on Thursday. "Roscosmos filed an official request to the U.S. side to participate in the investigation, but they refused," Shylov said. The official also sa]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene shows dunes and sand ripples of various shapes and sizes inside an impact crater in the Noachis Terra region of southern Mars. Pattern]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA's enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago. Opportunity reached a multi-year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, in August 2011. At Endeavour's rim, it has gained access to geological deposits from an earlier period of Martian histo]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST Astronauts on a mission to Mars will need much more than freeze-dried ice cream to sustain them, and researchers at Cornell are working to determine the best way to keep them well nourished during their three-year journeys and four-month stays on the Red Planet. To do so, they are seeking volunteers to spend four months in a simulated Mars habitat on the barren lava fields of Hawai'i. ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST NASA's Mars rover Opportunity discovered a mineral vein telling of a warmer, wetter and potentially more conducive to life past for the seemingly cold, dry and desolate Red Planet. The mineral vein, found in the crater Endeavor, is composed of a calcium sulfate called gypsum. Unlike some other forms of calcium sulfates, gypsum retains water in high temperatures after precipitating, in other word]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST ASU's Center for Meteorite Studies has acquired a significant new sample for its collection: a rare Martian meteorite that fell in southern Morocco in July 2011. It is the first Martian fall in about 50 years. Since the observed fall of the famed Ensisheim meteorite in 1492, there have been 1,200 recovered meteorite falls. A "fall" is a meteorite that was witnessed by someone as it f]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 21:40:02 AEST