A new public exhibit, including a full-scale mock-up of the highest resolution camera ever sent into orbit, is nearing completion in the operations center of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment mission to Mars. The real 120-pound HiRISE camera, streaking toward Mars since its Aug. 12 launch from Cape Canaveral, is expected to reach the red planet in March, said Lorretta McKibben, public outreach coordinator for HiRISE, housed in the Sonett Space Sciences Building at the University of Arizona.

With today’s launch of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars – or CRISM – joins the set of high-tech detectives seeking traces of water on the red planet. Built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., CRISM is the first visible-infrared spectrometer to fly on a NASA Mars mission. Its primary job: look for the residue of minerals that form in the presence of water, the “fingerprints” left by evaporated hot springs, thermal vents, lakes or ponds on Mars when water could have existed on the surface.

NASA’s latest robotic mission to further unlock the mysteries of the red planet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), successfully blasted off Friday, a day after a software glitch had scrubbed its initial launch. The MRO was carried into space on an Atlas V rocket and is now on a nearly seven-month journey to Mars. "Surveying for the deepest insights into the mysterious evolution of Mars!" NASA commentator George Diller said after liftoff. The launch came just three days after space shuttle Discovery completed its mission.

NASA postponed the launch of a spacecraft to Mars on Thursday after a glitch popped up in the computer software used for monitoring the fueling of the rocket used for liftoff. The problem with sensors and software that measure the amount of fuel being loaded into the rocket appeared with just minutes left until liftoff. The launch was rescheduled for Friday morning, three days after the shuttle Discovery returned to Earth.

A year and a half after twin robot rovers thrilled space fans with their hijinks on Mars, NASA is heading there again. But Tuesday, the agency announced Wednesday's scheduled blast off was postponed one day so that equipment used to guide the vehicle during liftoff can be checked out by the manufacturer. The fourth Mars orbiter is set to launch on an Atlas V rocket Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will carry some of the most sophisticated science instruments ever sent into space, including the largest telescopic camera sent to another planet.

WELSH scientists are playing a vital role in Nasa's 17th mission to Mars next month. They are hoping it will be a case of third-time-lucky for one of the instruments onboard - the Mars Climate Sounder. Two previous attempts to put this instrument into orbit around Mars have been besieged by troubles, but a team of infra red instrumentation specialists from Cardiff University, led by Professor Peter Ade and Dr Darren Hayton of the School of Physics and Astronomy, believe that this time the instrument, designed and assembled by Nasa JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena, California, will get there.

NASA's next mission to Mars will examine the red planet in unprecedented detail from low orbit and provide more data about the intriguing planet than all previous missions combined. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its launch vehicle are nearing final stages of preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for a launch opportunity that begins Aug. 10, 2005. The spacecraft will examine Martian features ranging from the top of the atmosphere to underground layering. Researchers will use it to study the history and distribution of Martian water. It will also support future Mars missions by characterizing landing sites and providing a high-data-rate communications relay.

Engineer Kevin McNeill compares the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to his two children, who recently left home for college. "You're hopeful everything you've done in 18 years of raising that child has prepared him for life on his own," McNeill said Wednesday, hours before he and his colleagues boxed the school-bus-size craft for shipping. On Friday, McNeill and the rest of his Lockheed Martin team will send their $500 million baby to Florida. NASA is expected to launch the craft Aug. 10, 2005.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin mark another significant milestone in the Mars space exploration program as .Lockheed Martin delivered the vehicle that will launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to Mars. The Atlas V, designated AV-007, arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., where the launch team will now begin preparations for the August 10, 2005 liftoff.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one giant spacecraft, built to take unprecedented photos of the red planet. Engineers are in test time mode here at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, builder of the spacecraft, as the countdown ticks down for the probe’s summer launch. Teams of technicians now swarm around the spacecraft as it enters the final four months of system and environmental tests. The checklist calls for the Mars-bound craft to be "out the door" of the aerospace company in April and en route to Florida. Brimming with science instruments -- rooted to a potent chassis of electronic, propulsion, and mechanical gear -- MRO will be the largest spacecraft to orbit the red planet. Science gleaned from this mission is expected to dramatically expand our knowledge of Mars.

Even as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers complete a year of successful operation on Mars, the next major step in Mars Exploration is taking shape with preparation of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for launch in just seven months. The orbiter is undergoing environmental tests in facilities at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, Colo., where its Atlas V launch vehicle is also being prepared. Developments are on schedule for a launch window that begins on Aug. 10, 2005.

Boulder and Denver aerospace companies joined forces this month when the most powerful Mars camera ever built was installed on NASA's $500 million Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The orbiter is under construction at Lockheed Martin Space System's Waterton Canyon facility southwest of Denver. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder.

The camera that will take thousands of the sharpest, most detailed pictures of Mars ever produced from an orbiting spacecraft was delivered today for installation on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will be launched on Aug. 10, 2005, carrying a payload of six science instruments and a communications relay package to boost the ongoing exploration of the red planet.

Five spacecraft are circling Mars and creeping across its ruddy surface, looking for traces of long-gone waters and signs that the cold, arid planet may once have been hospitable to life. The robotic martian invasion - three orbiters and two six-wheeled rovers - has already uncovered strong evidence that water once flowed on Mars and is now locked in subsurface ice. But big questions about water on Mars remain. When did it flow? How long did it last? How much was there? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Perhaps the most tantalizing question: Were there long-lived watery environments where microbial life could have gained a foothold?

The next spacecraft destined for Mars is rapidly coming together here on Earth -- an interplanetary probe that carries the most powerful instruments ever sent to the red planet. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO for short, is being readied for sendoff next year. The huge spacecraft carries a suite of instruments, including a camera system able to provide ultra-close-up images of Mars' surface, and a sounder to probe for water that might linger subsurface on the planet.

Two free public programs in Pasadena this week will introduce NASA's next Mars mission, a multipurpose orbiter under assembly for launch next August. NASA is equipping the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to advance our understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions, and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions.

With one very busy year remaining before launch, the team preparing NASA's next mission to Mars has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft's versatile payload. Possible launch dates from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter begin Aug. 10, 2005. The spacecraft will reach Mars seven months later to study the surface, subsurface and atmosphere with the most powerful instrument suite ever flown to the red planet. "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a quantum leap in our spacecraft and instrument capabilities at Mars," said James Graf, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Weighing 2,180 kilograms [4,806 pounds] at launch, the spacecraft will be the largest ever to orbit Mars.

When it enters its final path around the red planet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be closer to the martian surface than any other orbiter has ever gone. This closeness will enable the orbiter to get more detailed images than ever before from above the planet's surface, and its sophisticated suite of science instruments will reveal much more about Mars and its water history. It will also become the first link in a communications bridge back to Earth, an "interplanetary internet" that can be used by numerous international spacecraft in coming years.

Winning the largest single grant in UA history for a 2007 mission to Mars against stiff competition sounds easy when compared with safely landing the $300 million spacecraft on the surface of the Red Planet. A soft touchdown for the spacecraft dubbed the Phoenix mission was the main topic at the first formal meeting of mission scientists held this week, said William Boynton, UA cosmochemist and co-principal investigator for the mission.

Save a lot of room in your Mars picture book. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a you-haven't-seen-anything-yet spacecraft. Set for liftoff in August 2005, the MRO will scrutinize the red planet like no previous orbiter and become the cornerstone of a futuristic interplanetary Internet. Tipping the scales at over two tons, this interplanetary probe is geared to relay back images and science measurements using the widest dish antenna and highest power level ever operated at Mars. As the "inspector general" in the Mars brigade from Earth, MRO is expected to yield unmatched close-up observations of Martian features. Its suite of high-resolution instruments will also assist in pinpointing sites of high science payoff for future landers, plus help ascertain touchdown hazards for robotic vehicles as well as future human expeditionary crews.

As Earth pulls away from Mars after last month's close approach, NASA is developing a spacecraft that will take advantage of the next close encounter in 2005. That spacecraft will make a more comprehensive inspection of our planetary neighbor than any previous mission.

As Earth pulls away from Mars after last month's close approach, NASA is developing a spacecraft that will take advantage of the next close encounter in 2005. That spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, will make a more comprehensive inspection of our planetary neighbor than any previous mission.

The University of Arizona and Planetary Laboratory's Phoenix design has won the bid for NASA 2007 Scout Mission to Mars, netting them a staggering 325 million dollar funding grant. The Phoenix Mission, which will carry equipment designed by UA researchers Peter Smith and William Boynton, will put a lander on the icy northern plains of Mars. The lander's robotic arm will excavate a trench and retrieve samples for geological and chemical analysis.

France's space agency announced on Wednesday it would pull out of major missions to explore Mars and to peer into the phenomena of deep space after it notched up a cash shortfall of 90 million euros (99 million dollars) last year. As part of the cuts, the CNES would scrap French participation in Netlander, in which a US-European consortium plans to send four landers to Mars in 2007 to map its terrain and weather system.

Earthquakes great and small happen virtually every day on our planet. Even our moon experiences quakes. But do any of our planetary neighbors, like Mars, get shaken? Scientists don't know, but they will soon find out. Since the 1960s, researchers have sent numerous spacecraft to explore Mars. These probes, such as the Mariner series, brought back images of craters and relics of ancient volcanoes on the Red Planet's surface. But no one was sure what was happening inside Mars. Underground, it might well be seething with activity. Now, Thomas Pike of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London is designing an instrument to check for "marsquakes."

NASA's Kennedy Space Center has chosen International Launch Services (ILS) to launch the latest in its series of missions to Mars. ILS is scheduled to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on an Atlas III launch vehicle in August 2005 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The Atlas is one of three families of rockets offered by ILS, which is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and two Russian companies, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and RSC Energia of Moscow. ILS was formed to market and manage the missions for the Atlas and the Russian Proton and Angara vehicles. Both the Atlas rocket and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are being built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. of Denver. The Atlas II and III series boast a perfect record of 100 percent mission success in 60 consecutive launches.

Researchers at Imperial College London have just begun a 5-year project to design and build tiny earthquake measuring devices to go to Mars on the 2007 NetLander mission. Unlike the instruments on next year's European Mars Express/Beagle II mission, the Marsquake sensors will be the first to look deep inside the planet. The internal structure of Mars is a key to understanding some fundamental questions about the planet including whether life ever existed there. The sensors are capable of detecting liquid water reservoirs hidden below the surface, where life could possibly survive on Mars today. The recent discovery by the Mars Odyssey orbiter of large amounts of ice at the poles opens up the possibility of liquid water existing in the warmer conditions underground near the Martian equator. Dr. Tom Pike is designing the heart of the sensor, a two-centimeter square of silicon. "We're micromachining a near-perfect spring and weight from a single piece of silicon. We'll be able to detect the weight shuddering in response to a Marsquake from anywhere on the planet," he said.

British scientists started building tiny 'Marsquake' sensors on Thursday that will be able to detect underground water supplies and could help in the search for life on the red planet. The 2007 NetLander mission will land four sets of instruments near the Martian equator to examine the planet's weather and geological structure. The quake sensors will be the first to look deep inside the planet, the team responsible for their construction said. "We will look at how the vibrations from Marsquakes travel through the planet and work out what is going on deep inside," said Imperial College London researcher Dr. Tom Pike. "If these vibrations hit liquid water under the landing sites, we should see a distinctive signature," he added. "That is when the search for life on Mars will move underground."

The Canadian Space Agency is angling for a chance to fly to Mars with a groundbreaking U.S. mission in 2007, and is using work on an innovative planetary landing system to try to impress NASA scientists. Canada's contribution could also include robotic mining equipment designed to delve below the Martian surface for the first time and dig up a wealth of information on the mysterious red planet. If the agency's role gets a green light from NASA and budget chiefs in Ottawa, it will probably cost Canada in the hundreds of millions of dollars, an agency official said yesterday. "Mars is one of those subjects that really catches people's interest and it could be a tremendous education and outreach opportunity ... especially for young people," said Alain Berinstain, the organization's Mars lead.

NASA today announced the selection of 10 scientific investigations as part of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. The 2005 mission will carry six primary instruments that will greatly enhance the search for evidence of water, take images of objects about the size of a beach ball, and search for future landing sites on the martian surface. The investigations selected include two principal investigator instrument investigations and eight facility team leader or member investigations.

With the selection of Lockheed Martin to build the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), NASA is one step nearer to getting a closer look at the Red Planet, but according to the project's program manager, Kevin McNeill, the spacecraft's builders face a wide variety of technical challenges. Lockheed Martin was given the green light Wednesday to construct the MRO, to be launched in August 2005. The craft is to return the highest resolution images of the Martian surface ever taken by Mars-circling orbiters. Objects as small as the size of beach balls will be resolved through the lens of the orbiter's camera system, said Jim Graf, the MRO project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. JPL will manage the mission that will operate for five-and-a-half years.

NASA has selected Lockheed Martin Astronautics to design and build the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at its south Jefferson County facility. The highly complex orbiter, which will measure Martian landscape features as small as 8 to 12 inches across, is twice the mass and will return 12 times the amount of data as the Mars Global Surveyor, now in orbit. The Global Surveyor, which also was built by Lockheed, has returned more than 101,000 images in its four years of mapping the Martian surface in 1-meter detail. Lockheed's $145 million contract for the 2005 orbiter will cover development through operations. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is Lockheed's partner in the mission.

NASA selected today the builder of a Mars orbiter equipped to snap super-close-up pictures of the red planet’s enigmatic surface. Lockheed Martin has been green-lighted to construct the spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), to be launched in August 2005. The craft is to return the highest resolution images of the Martian surface ever taken by Mars-circling orbiter. Objects as small as the size of beach balls will be resolved through the lens of the orbiter’s camera system, said Jim Graf, the MRO project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. JPL will manage the mission that will operate for five-and-a-half years.

Cairo has given the go-ahead for French-based scientists to use the Egyptian desert to test sophisticated water-seeking probes before blasting them into space in the race to find water on Mars. "After laboratory work, we now want to study the performance of our prototypes on terrain which matches the surface of Mars as closely as possible," said Egyptian astronomer Essam Heggy, involved in the project. The Netlander system, composed of four land-penetrating radars, will be put to the test in the Western Desert near Siwa in February 2002, ahead of plans to send it to Mars in 2007 on board an Ariane-5 rocket.

Putting a zoom lens on the Red Planet is the camera-toting task for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Slated for Earth departure in August 2005, the Mars-circling MRO will snap super-detailed portraits of the Martian landscape. MRO's powerful imaging system can help identify safe and scientifically rewarding landing sites for future robotic craft, as well as human expeditions. Reconnaissance imagery from the orbiter will be a factor of five over what the current Mars Global Surveyor camera cranks out, says the mission's Project Scientist Richard Zurek.

Participants at the 3rd Canadian Space Exploration Workshop (CSEW) had the happy task on Saturday of putting together a wish list of scientific objectives for a Canadian program of Mars exploration. On Friday night, Canadian Space Agency Executive Vice President Marc Garneau had surprised the space sciences community by announcing his intention to see Canada become a major player in the international Mars research scene. Calling on researchers to be bold and to 'think big,' Garneau made his announcements on the 40th anniversary of US President John F. Kennedy's famous 'put a man on the moon' speech. The announcement also came with the promise of funding that will be "an order of magnitude greater" than what exists currently, putting the budget in the hundreds of millions range.

Participants at the 3rd Canadian Space Exploration Workshop (CSEW), being held in Montreal this weekend, were among the first to hear that Canada wants to go to Mars. In a pre-banquet speech on Saturday night, former astronaut Dr. Marc Garneau, now serving as Executive Vice-President for the Canadian Space Agency announced that the CSA would be expanding its space exploration efforts over the next several years, with Mars research being a major focus. The announcement came on the 40th anniversary of President Kennedy's stirring and oft-quoted call for an American presence on the moon.

What could be a story out of an old science fiction magazine is instead a combination of three highly advanced modern sciences — biotechnology, genetics and space exploration — in an attempt to set the stage for a colony of humans on Mars. At the University of Florida, a team of scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars by emitting a fluorescent glow. If all goes as planned, 10 varieties of the plant could be on their way to the red planet as part of a $300 million mission scheduled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 2007.

In what reads like a story from a 1950s science fiction magazine, a team of University of Florida scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars in a most unworldly way: by emitting an eerie, fluorescent glow. If all goes as planned, 10 varieties of the plant could be on their way to the Red Planet as part of a $300 million mission scheduled for 2007. The plant experiment, which is funded by $290,000 from NASA's Human Exploration and Development in Space program, may be a first step toward making Mars habitable for humans, said Rob Ferl, assistant director of the Biotechnology Program at UF.

James Graf of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been named manager of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. As project manager, Graf will oversee all aspects of the development and operations of the mission, proposed for launch in August 2005. The mission will conduct remote sensing of the planet's surface to identify evidence of past or present water and will help identify safe and scientifically exciting landing sites for future robotic and perhaps someday human missions. The Reconnaissance Orbiter will also establish a telecommunications link for future missions.