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Home > News > Tags > rovers
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Scientists at the Arizona State University (ASU) are proud to announce that one of their instruments was able to detect a very special type of rock on the Red Planet. The Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer, or Mini-TES, instrument has been developed at the ASU Mars Space Flight Facility, and it equips both Spiri... |
4 June 2010
02:47 GMT |
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Moving on the surface of Mars is notoriously difficult. Rovers roaming the Red Planet have found out the hard way that speed and maneuverability are limited, as evidenced by the case of the MER robot Spirit. The machine became entrapped in sand in May 2009, and experts were unable to set it free again. Under these ci... |
3 June 2010
06:44 GMT |
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Though it may seem somewhat unlikely, some of the meteorites that fall to Earth are actually pieces of rock from other planets. Several fragments have been found, for example, to originate on the Red Planet, and their analysis is what laid the foundation for studies claiming to have found evidence of fossilized life ... |
24 May 2010
09:24 GMT |
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Experts at the American space agency announce that they have decided on a data for the launch of their newest Martian rover. Dubbed that Mars Express Laboratory (MSL), or Curiosity, the instrument will be about the size of a small car, and will weigh more than a ton. It will employ a revolutionary landing system, and... |
24 May 2010
06:43 GMT |
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Scientists at NASA announce that today will be a momentous occasion for the team of investigators managing the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) program. On May 20, Opportunity will exceed the surface longevity record that the Viking 1 Lander set a long time, after having spent more than 6 years and 116 days on the Red Pl... |
20 May 2010
02:41 GMT |
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Scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, announce that Opportunity snapped a new image of its destination, the Endeavour crater on the surface of Mars. The small explorations robot has been traveling on the surface of the Red Planet for more than six years, and mission managers ... |
3 May 2010
05:55 GMT |
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Using data collected by a NASA spacecraft, experts were finally able to rediscover a long-lost, Soviet-built reflecting device on the surface of the Moon. The exact location of the scientific payload has remained a mystery since September 14, 1971. At that date, the Soviet Union lost contact with its Lunokhod 1 rover... |
27 April 2010
11:02 GMT |
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This Thursday will mark a momentous achievement for the Mars Exploration Rovers on the surface of the Red Planet. The rover Spirit will exceed the duration of the Viking-1 lander mission, marking the first time this is done in more than three decades. Though the robot ceased communications with Mission Control on Mar... |
26 April 2010
08:45 GMT |
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Over the past few years, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission has been battered by various technical difficulties, cost overruns and other hurdles. Engineers have been working diligently and purposefully around these constraints, and currently things are finally looking up for the team. But recently, it has disc... |
31 March 2010
11:08 GMT |
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Astronomers announce today that the NASA rover Opportunity managed to break new records on March 24. More than 74 months after arriving on the Red Planet, the machine finally exceeded the 20-kilometer (12.43-mile) mark, meaning that it traveled further away than any other robotic explorer on Mars. Only a Soviet-built... |
25 March 2010
07:55 GMT |
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The rover Opportunity, while somewhat shadowed by all the attention and coverage its twin Spirit gets, is undoubtedly an impressive scientific instrument. Currently in its seventh year on the Red Planet, it is becoming increasingly intelligent as the seasons pass, as experts managing it continuously try out new techn... |
24 March 2010
04:41 GMT |
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Officials at the American space agency announce that the Martian rover Spirit is currently being chilled to increasingly lower temperatures, as the winter season on the Red Planet approaches the machine's location. The latest communications attempt with it revealed that the robot is still operational, although i... |
20 March 2010
03:46 GMT |
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A Canadian researcher has recently discovered the tracks left behind by a famous Russian lunar rover. The investigator used only maps from one of his own atlases on the Moon, and recent images from the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, to make the finding. The inspiration for the work came from the ... |
17 March 2010
08:03 GMT |
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The NASA rover Spirit has been recently transformed into a stationary science platform. Experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, have over the past months attempted all they could to release the robot, but failed. The machine's predicament is simply too great, and there is currently no way ... |
1 March 2010
06:04 GMT |
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Recently, officials at NASA announced that they would no longer attempt to extract the rover Spirit from Troy, and that they would turn it into a static scientific platform. The robot has been trapped in a loose patch of soil on Mars since April, 2009, and all drives aimed at dislodging it from the area have failed. ... |
12 February 2010
05:41 GMT |
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In spite of promising results during the last drive attempts, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit has now been transformed into a static scientific platform. Experts at NASA announce that they are dropping the rescue effort, which has been ongoing for the past ten months. Last May, the rover got trapped in a patc... |
27 January 2010
02:37 GMT |
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Scientists managing the Spirit rover say that the Martian winter is closing in fast, and that considerable progress in extracting the robot from its predicament has yet to be made. It has been stuck inside a patch of loose soil called Troy since late May, 2009, and all of the tests, drive attempts and simulations con... |
14 January 2010
10:38 GMT |
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Recent observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), in orbit around the Red Planet, reveal new insight into Terra Meridiani, or Sinus Meridiani. The albedo feature stretches from East to West, just beneath the equator, and was given its name by French astronomer Camille Flammarion, as far back as the late 1... |
4 January 2010
03:41 GMT |
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On June 10, 2003, a Delta II rocket carrying the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover (MER) took off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It managed to successfully land on the Red Planet on January 4, 2004, at 04:35 Ground UTC, which was roughly six years ago. Its mission was to survey its destination for... |
4 January 2010
01:42 GMT |
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Two days after the last test drive of Spirit's wheels on Mars, on December 16, experts at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announce that they can now confirm the rover's thought-defunct right-front wheel moved on its own. Originally believed to have permanently malfunctioned, it has not been in use ... |
18 December 2009
06:23 GMT |
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One of the biggest problems the rover Spirit had to deal with since two years after it arrived on Mars was the fact that it could no longer use its front-right wheel. The equipment had sustained damage, and this forced the robot to drive backwards for the last three years. In late May, it got stuck in Troy, the patch... |
16 December 2009
09:50 GMT |
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Following a new series of test drives of the Martian rover Spirit, scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who manage the MER mission, say that the robot's rear right wheel is still jammed, and that the machine is in serious danger of being left with just four operational wheels of its original s... |
11 December 2009
14:01 GMT |
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When the Martian rover Spirit got stuck at its current location, a patch of loose soil called Troy, everyone at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which controls the MER mission, sighed in disappointment. The next six months were spent looking at ways of setting the robot free. When they were finally devised, engine... |
3 December 2009
06:41 GMT |
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While its twin Spirit is currently struggling to get out of Troy, the sandy trap that has been keeping it hostage since late April, Opportunity is having a field day studying a rock known as Marquette Island. On Sol 2070 (Nov. 19), the explorations robot used its rock abrasion tool's wire brush to investigate th... |
26 November 2009
10:36 GMT |
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On Sol 2092 (Saturday, November 21), the Spirit rover received a new set of commands to drive, as experts were trying to move ahead with the plan of extricating it from its trap. The robot drove into a patch of loose soil called Troy in late April, and the powder-like dust did not allow for it to move since. Only rec... |
24 November 2009
09:08 GMT |
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For the first time in more than six months, the rover Spirit took a tiny step towards freeing itself from the grasp of the loose patch of soil known as Troy. The powder-like sand was covered by a thin crust, which gave way as the robot was climbing a 12-degree slope, which led to a formation known as Home Plate. Engi... |
21 November 2009
03:40 GMT |
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Following Tuesday's attempt at moving the jammed rover Spirit, engineers and mission planners at the American space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have decided to upload a new set of commands into the robot's onboard computer earlier today. The machine has been stuck in a patch of loose soil ... |
19 November 2009
03:24 GMT |
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As most of you know, the rover Spirit has been stuck on the surface of Mars since May 6, when it drove straight into a patch of loose soil known as Troy. All efforts to free the robot resulted at the time in failure, so the scientists took to the lab, in an attempt to discover what the best course of action might be.... |
18 November 2009
02:58 GMT |
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Stuck on the surface of the Red Planet for more than six month, the rover Spirit was finally going to begin its complex and long-lasting extrication procedure, scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced. They said that the first commands to the resilient robot had been sent late last night or would be... |
17 November 2009
02:28 GMT |
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After recently making the rover “stretch” for the first time in six months, experts and engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, are currently making the last preparations for beginning their attempts at extricating Spirit from its predicament. The robot has been tra... |
13 November 2009
02:14 GMT |
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The battered exploration rover Spirit, which has been stuck in a patch of loose soil on Mars for the better part of the last six months, has recently wiggled its wheels for the first time. The move is the first since the robot became embedded in Troy, and represents the beginning of efforts to extricate the rover, wh... |
11 November 2009
06:03 GMT |
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A new “letter of intent” was recently signed in Washington DC, for the first time ever binding the Mars programs of the American space agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) together. With this step completed, engineers can move to creating joint missions that could bring about a new understand... |
9 November 2009
03:42 GMT |
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Since May 6, the rover Spirit has been trapped on the surface of the Red Planet in a patch of loose soil known as Troy. The exploration robot, which has been driving backwards on only five wheels for the last three years, was climbing a 12-degree slope when its wheels got buried in the sand up to their hubcaps. After... |
6 November 2009
05:50 GMT |
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Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena, believe that we are on the verge of a new paradigm shift in space exploration, one that could see the replacement of single robotic explorers on or around a planet or moon with a fleet of instruments, all of them in constant communication wi... |
28 October 2009
06:29 GMT |
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Since May 6, the Mars rover Spirit has been trapped in Troy, a patch of loosely bound soil on the surface of the Red Planet. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, who manage the robot, say that, over the past few months, a number of drive tests has been conducted with two test rov... |
20 October 2009
02:57 GMT |
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The last nine weeks have been very eventful for the Martian rover Opportunity, which has spent the first six of them looking at Block Island, a large meteorite it found on the surface of the Red Planet. After it looked at it from most possible angles – in a bid to provide its mission controllers with enough dat... |
13 October 2009
03:44 GMT |
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The European Space Agency's (ESA) flagship mission to the Red Planet, the ExoMars rover, has been delayed to 2018, after delegates from EU members states agreed to the proposition the space agency made. The 2016 launch window, for which ExoMars was originally planned, would be taken up by an orbiter and a small,... |
12 October 2009
09:38 GMT |
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In the Arizona desert, NASA recently showcased its latest lunar rover, a vehicle known as the Lunar Electric Rover (LER). Running entirely on electricity provided by batteries and fuel cells, the new instrument has a closed cockpit, which means that astronauts will no longer have to wear their bulky spacesuits, as th... |
17 September 2009
10:20 GMT |
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As the months go by, it becomes painfully obvious to all those involved with getting Spirit out of its predicament that it isn't going to be an easy task. Though they knew from day one that it was going to be very difficult to remove the rover from the loose patch of Martian soil called Troy, engineers at NASA&#... |
15 September 2009
02:34 GMT |
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The Martian rover Spirit remains blocked in its sandy patch of soil on the surface of the Red Planet, as an incoming dust storm continues to significantly reduce the amount of electricity the exploration robot is receiving. The average amount of sunlight Spirit was getting has now been blocked and, as a response, mis... |
27 August 2009
01:25 GMT |
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As we announced yesterday, NASA conducted today its first flight test for the new Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, a spacecraft that was specifically designed to protect carrying vehicles from the rigor of a harsh atmospheric reentry. The success of the current test will determine whether or not it wi... |
18 August 2009
08:00 GMT |
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Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, announced yesterday that the test rover at the facility would undergo a full week of test trials starting next Monday, as the team attempts to discover the best possible methods of getting Spirit unstuck. The Martian rover is stuck in a patch ... |
14 August 2009
09:49 GMT |
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According to mission managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, the powerful NASA-operated Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was finally pulled off of the backup computer it was forced to relay on last week. Its main systems exhibited a bizarre error, which sent the spacecraft in safe m... |
12 August 2009
02:36 GMT |
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In its trek on the surface of Mars, the rover Opportunity has recently come across an ancient meteor, made almost entirely out of metal, according to investigators at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California. The peculiar formation is currently helping planetary scientists gain a deeper insight in... |
11 August 2009
20:01 GMT |
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While shifting through the data beamed back by the rover Opportunity from the surface of the Red Planet, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, discovered a dark, oddly shaped rock sitting right in the path of the rover. According to preliminary analysis reports, it may be that th... |
4 August 2009
01:38 GMT |
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In the specially designed sandbox at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, Mars Exploration Rovers engineers are looking at all possible rover movement options, in order to determine the most appropriate sequence of getting Spirit out of Troy. Yesterday, the experts analyzed if modifying the s... |
22 July 2009
16:41 GMT |
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With the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) component Spirit stuck in Martian soil since May 6th, a team of engineers at the NASA-operated Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, which also doubles as the control crew for the rover and its twin, Opportunity, is currently engaged in a valiant effort to simulate... |
8 July 2009
06:25 GMT |
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With NASA's Spirit rover stuck in loose Martian soil since May 6th, its mission control team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, is working around the clock to recreate the exact conditions on the Red Planet inside a test sandbox, using an exact replica of the MER rover. Because engineers ... |
27 June 2009
04:12 GMT |
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The Spirit Martian rover is rising up to its name, NASA has announced recently. Despite being stuck up to its hubcaps in loose soil, the robot continues to do relevant science, taking pictures of its surroundings, and also of Troy, the patch of Earth that trapped it on May 6th. While engineers at the Jet Propulsion L... |
26 June 2009
04:22 GMT |
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The European rover of the ExoMars mission, scheduled for launch in 2016, is one of the largest robotic exploration vehicles ever created, and also among the most complex ones. However, because of soaring costs associated with the mission, the manager decided to drop one of the planned instruments from the program, so... |
16 June 2009
19:41 GMT |
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