Now that the sun is not constantly above the horizon at our landing site we are generating less power every sol,” said Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “When we landed in late May, and through much of our mission, we generated about 3,500 watt-hours every sol [or Martian day]. We are currently at about 2,500 watt-hours, and sinking daily. With the remaining sols we need to scurry to squeeze the last bit of science out of the... Read Full Story
The Mars Global Surveyor was the first successful Mars mission in 2 decades. When it launched on November 7, 1996 it created an intense moment for NASA and the American people since 3 prior missions, USSR’s Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 and the US’s Mars Observer, were failures. Many were excited when the Mars Global Surveyor arrived in Mars on September 12, 1997 but the intensity was still there, for 1 and a half years the Mars Global Surveyor would loop around Mars until it achieves a circular... Read Full Story
Canada.com
Listening In: Lander to Record Mars Sounds Space.com - 30 minutes ago By Andrea Thompson NASA scientists hope to hear what it sounds like on the surface of Mars for the first time when they attempt to switch on the Phoenix Mars Lander's microphone in the next week or two, mission leaders announced on Monday. Mars Theme Song: 'Let It Snow' Washington Post Mars Weather Forecast: Snow New York Times InformationWeek - dBTechno - eFluxMedia - Reuters all 903 news articles... Read Full Story
Viking 1 and 2 is the first ever Mars mission to have a lander successfully reach the surface of Mars. Viking 1 (Orbiter and Lander) launched on August 20, 1975 while Viking 2 launched September 9, 1975. They successfully arrived in Mars on June 19, 1976 (Viking 1) and August 7, 1976 (Viking 2).
The Viking lander 1 positioned itself on Chryse Planitia (the plains of Gold) while viking 2 landed on utopia Planitia. The landers were successful in collecting samples and experimenting on the... Read Full Story
Shown on the picture are soil, taken from the “Snow White” trench, delivered to the wet chemistry laboratory. The wet chemistry lab is used to identify the components of the Martian soil by mixing it with an Aqueous solution from Earth. Scientists have so far determined that the Martian soil is composed of salt and other chemicals like sodium, perchlorate, chloride, magnesium and potassium.
In the coming sols, Phoenix will be delivering soil samples to another instrument called TEGA... Read Full Story
