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NASA rover finds conditions once suited to life on Mars

March 12, 2013 14:01
An analysis of a Mars rock sample by the Curiosity rover has unveiled minerals, including hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, that are the building blocks of life, NASA said Tuesday. "A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "From what we know now, the answer is yes." The six-wheeled robot, with 10 scientific instruments on board, is the most sophisticated ever sent to another planet.

Private Dragon cargo ship arrives at Int'l Space Station with supplies

March 3, 2013 22:17
Washington, Mar 3 (EFE).- The unmanned Dragon space cargo capsule owned by a private firm docked with the International Space Station on Sunday carrying about 550 kilograms (1,210 pounds) of experiments and supplies for the astronauts there, after overcoming a problem with its thrusters that forced ground controllers to delay its arrival by a day. NASA said that the capsule, owned by the U.S. firm SpaceX, was captured by the ISS's robotic arm at 1031 GMT and later docked with the station's Harmony module at 1356 GMT.

NASA fixing computer glitch on Mars Curiosity rover

March 2, 2013 17:00
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been temporarily put into "safe mode," as scientists monitoring from Earth try to fix a computer glitch, the US space agency said. Scientists switched to a backup computer Thursday so that they could troubleshoot the problem, said to be linked to a glitch in the original computer's flash memory. "We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations," said Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates Curiosity.

Asteroid brushes past Earth hours after meteorite blast

February 26, 2013 11:20
Washington, Feb 15 (EFE).- Asteroid 2012 DA14 came within 27,000 kilometers (17,200) of Earth at 1924 GMT Friday, just hours after nearly 1,000 people were injured when a meteorite exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains. The asteroid hurtled past at 28,100 kph (17,460 mph), according to NASA, which said the blast in Russia had nothing to do with DA14. No object the size of DA14, weighing roughly 140,000 tons, has ever come so close to Earth in the more than 50 years NASA has been tracking asteroids.

Reuters Science News Summary

February 22, 2013 17:16
Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Mini planet found far beyond Earth's solar system CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday. The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

Reuters Science News Summary

February 22, 2013 09:16
Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Mini planet found far beyond Earth's solar system CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday. The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

Reuters Science News Summary

February 22, 2013 02:16
Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Mini planet found far beyond Earth's solar system CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday. The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

Reuters Science News Summary

February 21, 2013 17:16
Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Mini planet found far beyond Earth's solar system CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - Astronomers have found a mini planet beyond our solar system that is the smallest of more than 800 extra-solar planets discovered, scientists said on Wednesday. The planet, known as Kepler-37b, is one of three circling a yellow star similar to the sun that is located in the constellation Lyra, about 210 light years away. One light year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

India plans mission to Mars in 2013

February 21, 2013 07:46
India said on Thursday it will send a $70 million space mission to Mars this year to study the red planet's atmosphere. The unmanned Mars orbiter mission, to be launched in October by the Indian Space Research Organisation, will undertake a 300-day journey to the planet to collect data about its climate and geology. "The space programme epitomises India's scientific achievements and benefits the country in a number of areas," President Pranab Mukherjee told lawmakers in a speech opening a new session of parliament in New Delhi.

Rover finds gray rock beneath Red Planet's surface

February 20, 2013 19:00
So much for Mars being "The Red Planet." NASA said Wednesday that its Curiosity rover has scooped up a sample from the interior of a Martian rock and found that the powdery soil just beneath the planet's rust-colored exterior is actually a light gray color. "Something that the science team is really excited about, is the fact that the tailings from our drill operation aren't the typical rusty orange-red that we associate with just about everything on Mars," said Joel Hurowitz, sampling system scientist for Curiosity.
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