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NASA's Opportunity rover has been sending images of Mars back to Earth since 2004. Now, computer scientist Mark Powell, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has developed a free app for iPhone and Android that wires these photos directly to your phone. More »
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A few weeks ago, NASA scientists announced they'd discovered something completely new on the surface of the Red Planet. Now they know what it is —and they're calling it the most powerful evidence for liquid water on Mars ever encountered by the Opportunity Rover. More »
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For decades, humanity has been launching missions to Mars, in hopes of making sense of the enigma that is our solar system's most Earth-like planet. And as with all good mysteries, many of our investigations have simply led to more questions. More »
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NASA may be ramping up for the launch of its next Mars rover mission later this month, but the Agency's Opportunity rover — which has been chugging around the Martian landscape for close to eight years, now — refuses to recede into obsolescence. You're looking at a close-up of the Martian surface, recently shot by Opportunity's onboard cam, that reveals a line of light-colored rocks known to NASA astronomers as "Homestake" or "The Vein." And they say it's like nothing they've ever seen. More »
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NASA's robotic Mars Rover Opportunity has been trekking around the surface of Mars for close to eight years now, over 30 times longer than its planned mission duration. While on Mars, the hardy Opportunity moves at a pretty leisurely pace. It took this Energizer-bunny of a rover just short of three years to span the thirteen miles separating Victoria crater from the massive Endeavour crater. But you can experience the trip in less than three minutes. More »
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Yes, it's proof of intelligence life on Mars - the only problem is that it's just some of our old crap. Specifically, it's the heat shield jettisoned by the Opportunity rover when it landed on Mars a few years back. More »
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The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter looks down at the Mars Opportunity Rover as it ventures perilously near a crater. Via Cosmic Log. Image Nasa/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona. More »
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Sad news for the Mars Science Lab (MSL) mega-rover, big sister to the little rovers who've been roaming Mars for the past few years. The robot was supposed to launch next year, and start exploring Mars with a lot more scientific equipment (including a laser) than the current rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. It would have arrived just in the nick of time, since no one is sure if Spirit and Opportunity will last another Martian winter. But now word has come down that the MSL launch won't happen until 2011. More »
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Since 1960 we've been attempting to explore the red planet, and along the way there have been countless failures and lost spacecraft that attest to just how hard it is to fly those 35 million miles from here to there. However, there have also been success stories, like the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit, who have both overcome mechanical problems, braved dust storms, and sent back enormous amounts of data. Today, after being threatened with a shutdown due to budget cuts, the Martian rovers got a reprieve. They'll be rolling along for many months to come. To celebrate, check out our list of Martian robots and landers who have already served their robotic duty as our slaves, erm we mean allies, on the red planet. More »
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Definitely one of the coolest symposia at AAAS was the one this afternoon devoted to the Martian rovers — past, present, and future. On the panel were NASA's Richard Cook, who helped design Spirit and Opportunity as well as the next Martian rover; Steven Squyres, a Cornell geologist who has been working with Spirit and Opportunity to get as many geological samples as he can while the rovers survive; and Andrew Knoll, a Harvard planetologist who has studied the evidence for Martian water extensively (including whether it could support life as we know it). I've got highlights from the panel below, plus a giant gallery of pictures of a life-sized model of the new rover, the Mars Science Lab Rover (MSL), which will be blasting off late next year and landing on the red planet in 2010. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=357202&view=rss&microfeed=true Mars rover Opportunity is soldiering bravely onward, despite a crippling injury. Reports of a broken rock grinder and troubles with the infrared spectrometer make it sound like the machine is blinded and helpless while scientists try and work out a fix. More »
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