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phoenix mars lander
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phoenix mars lander
mars rover
Will Phoenix Mars Rover Disappear Like the Last Mars Polar Lander?
What happened to Polar Lander, the last Mars rover that NASA tried to land in the Martian polar region, where it hopes that the Phoenix rover will touch down on May 25? The mysterious fate of the lander that simply disappeared moments before reaching Mars has been the subject of both scientific and UFO-logy debates. Was it shot down by angry Martians dwelling at the pole? Did it encounter some strange magnetic phenomenon that disabled it? Or did it just malfunction? We may soon find out. More »
the martian confederacy
io9 Talks to Jason McNamara About Martian Outlaws and Pop Culture Gods
In the year 3535, Mars is in pretty bad shape. Its proud past as a vacation spot for the rich and famous long forgotten, stripped of its natural resources, the red planet has become a home for - as Cher would say - gypsies, tramps and thieves who think that our pop culture is their real history. That's the background to forthcoming graphic novel The Martian Confederacy, by Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock, which shows what happens when outlaws have to save the day from corporations trying to clean up the air... for a price. We spoke to writer McNamara about the book, as well as the seductive lure of writing SF.More »
space colonization
US Army Sargeant Volunteers Unit to be First Colonial Marines
Being a member of the US military in Afghanistan takes it's toll after a few years. So last week, Sergeant First Class William Ruth of the Army's 101st Airborne Division proposed an alternative mission for his soldiers: let them be the first humans to colonize another planet. In his letter (below) to an editor at LiveScience, Ruth says his unit's role as advanced scouts and reconnaissance soldiers makes them ideally suited to the rough, lonely life in the cold, barren wastes that await them on Mars, the Moon, or elsewhere. More »
martians
The Ninteenth Century Madman Who Invented Martians
He was the man who launched a thousand imaginary rocketships to Mars — in the nineteenth century, before anybody knew the word "Martian" and War of the Worlds hadn't been written yet. Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian, spent his youth traveling Japan and Korea before having a nervous breakdown and recovering by falling in love with Mars. He built the Lowell Observatory in Arizona just so he could get a better look at the planet, and spent months staring at it every night, taking notes and writing books about how it might be possible that other creatures lived there. A mesmerizing speaker, Lowell gave lectures and readings all over the country, popularizing the idea that the Martian "canals" might be signs of Martian civilization. With the new Phoenix Mars Lander about to plop down on the Red Planet, the Boston Globe's Nancy Zaroulis has published an amazing and timely article about Lowell's life. More »
rant
NASA Mission to a NEO: Bad Idea
Ever since the Columbia disaster, NASA's been hurting for some good press in the crewed spaceflight program. Agency scientists think they have the answer — sending a crewed mission to a Near Earth Object (NEO) once the new Orion spacecraft begins missions in 2015. What are they thinking?! It's hard to imagine a worse approach to fixing a a wing of the agency that has given the public little reason to be interested or confident in its capabilities since the Columbia disaster in 2003. More »
mars colony
Suicide Mission to Mars? Astrobiologists say "No Thanks"
Astrobiologists seem to have trouble putting their money where their mouths are. Generally among the most ardent supporters of planetary exploration, around 2/3 of them got cold feet yesterday at the Astrobiology Science Conference 2008. During a talk entitled "A One-way Mission to Mars," famous cosmologist Paul Davies asked the audience who among them would volunteer for the first journey to to the Red Planet? About 1/3 — mostly women interestingly — raised their hands despite the fact that Davies stressed it "wouldn't be a suicide mission."
martian geography
Using telescopes, astronomers have been mapping the surface of Mars in surprising detail for over 100 years. This map of the entire Martian globe, showing everything from Mare Australe to Mare Boreum, was made in 1890. Now you can check a satellite photo to see how accurate it really was.
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Mars in the Nineteenth Century
Using telescopes, astronomers have been mapping the surface of Mars in surprising detail for over 100 years. This map of the entire Martian globe, showing everything from Mare Australe to Mare Boreum, was made in 1890. Now you can check a satellite photo to see how accurate it really was.
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space porn
In yet another cool image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near Mars, we see these dunes on the planet's surface. This image comes from the Hellespontus region of Mars, where sand from local mesas has been molded into these shapes by high intensity winds. No word yet on whether the famous canals of Mars are actually wormsign. You can learn more about Martian sand dunes here. Photo via AP, HO, and NASA.
Dunes of Mars
In yet another cool image from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter near Mars, we see these dunes on the planet's surface. This image comes from the Hellespontus region of Mars, where sand from local mesas has been molded into these shapes by high intensity winds. No word yet on whether the famous canals of Mars are actually wormsign. You can learn more about Martian sand dunes here. Photo via AP, HO, and NASA.
space colonization
NASA scientists have been arguing for years that Martian moons Phobos and Deimos may be the best place to in the solar system for humans to colonize. Some would argue even better than our own Moon. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera snapped two awesome color shots of what might be humanity's next home during a flyby on March 23rd. Why do NASA geeks think the Martian moons might be the best real estate investment of the 21st century?
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Earthlings' Next Home: Phobos?
NASA scientists have been arguing for years that Martian moons Phobos and Deimos may be the best place to in the solar system for humans to colonize. Some would argue even better than our own Moon. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera snapped two awesome color shots of what might be humanity's next home during a flyby on March 23rd. Why do NASA geeks think the Martian moons might be the best real estate investment of the 21st century?
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april fools jokes
Please Help Us Send Google To Mars
If only today's announcement from Google and Virgin were true. Supposedly Google and Virgin Inc. are teaming up to create Virgle, a scheme to settle Mars by about 2015, possibly because Mars is the last place Google can keep its server farms the right temperature. In this video, Google founders Sergey and Larry ask you to send in your Youtube videos explaining why you should be one of the first Mars settlers. More »
triviagasm
The Triumphant Journeys of Martian Robots
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 »
chart
Meet the First Realistic Martian Woman
What would we have to do to our bodies if we wanted to live on Mars? io9 consulted scientists, our imaginations, and a designer, and came up with the most realistic-possible portrait of a Martian colonist who might truly exist on the Red Planet in 100 years. She's really tall, doesn't have to wear a bra, and has some pretty awesome photosynthesis and water-reclaiming implants in her exosuit. It's time to meet the first Martian woman. Click through for full frontal. More »
retro futurism
Cocktails in Space on "Your Trip to Mars," 1952
Movies about the red planet may be currently on the wane, but back in 1952, Mars still fascinated the general public. In August of that year, Major Alexander P. de Seversky imagined "Your Trip to Mars" for readers of Pageant magazine. "The date, while still somewhat hypothetical, is certainly well before the year 2000 A.D.," opined Seversky. He envisioned a "cigar-shaped vessel" powered by the "direct thrust" of an atomic-powered engine, traveling at a cruising speed of 1,660,000 miles an hour that would whisk sightseers to Mars in just 41 hours—and getting there was half the fun. Take a luxury cruise to outer space after the jump.More »
space porn
Here's the most violent event ever observed on Mars, tons of rock, dust and ice plummeting down a 700-meter cliff at 15 meters per second. It's one of four avalanches the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars orbiter observed on the north polar scarps of Mars. The white material at the top of the cliff is carbon-dioxide ice, and it's possible spring sunshine caused the ice to expand and break, sending loose dust and ice hurtling down the slope. Another possible explanation: A Marsquake. Click through for the full set of images.
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An Avalanche On Mars
Here's the most violent event ever observed on Mars, tons of rock, dust and ice plummeting down a 700-meter cliff at 15 meters per second. It's one of four avalanches the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars orbiter observed on the north polar scarps of Mars. The white material at the top of the cliff is carbon-dioxide ice, and it's possible spring sunshine caused the ice to expand and break, sending loose dust and ice hurtling down the slope. Another possible explanation: A Marsquake. Click through for the full set of images.
More »
space porn
Unusual fan-shaped features cut into the Martian surface were caused by sulfuric acid "water" exploding from underground and sweeping across the surface of the planet. Yesterday a team of European and US scientists announced this finding, which is based on satellite data from a European Space Agency satellite in orbit around the Red Planet. Want to see the gullies dug by the sulfuric acid up close?
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Sulfuric Acid Floods Created Martian "Grand Canyon"
Unusual fan-shaped features cut into the Martian surface were caused by sulfuric acid "water" exploding from underground and sweeping across the surface of the planet. Yesterday a team of European and US scientists announced this finding, which is based on satellite data from a European Space Agency satellite in orbit around the Red Planet. Want to see the gullies dug by the sulfuric acid up close?
More »
mission to mars
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.
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Looking for Life on Mars with the Next Generation Rover
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 »
space porn
