Tag: Mars
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NASA’s MAVEN completes assembly ahead of mission to Mars
Lockheed Martin engineers have completed the assembly of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, ahead of shipping to the Kennedy Space Center in August. MAVEN is scheduled to launch towards Mars in November – where it will study the Martian upper atmosphere. NASA MAVEN: MAVEN is a robotic exploration mission to understand the…
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Curiosity will help humans reach Mars
As NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) continues to impress during its mission on the Red Planet – marked by another milestone via the use of its drill for the first time – NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld believes Curiosity is providing vital information ahead of potential crewed missions to Mars.…
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Boeing outlines technology for crewed Mars missions
With a focus on building the archetypal missions for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket, the U.S.-based Boeing Corporation has outlined their view of what technologies can be used to accomplish humankind’s goal of visiting crews to the Martian system – missions Boeing believes are possible through the combination of the SLS rocket’s lift capability,…
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Year in Review (Part I) – Mars exploration dominates a year of redefinition
The year 2012 was a year like none other for NASA, one dominated not by human spaceflight activities but by redefinition. That redefinition saw the prominent rise of unmanned planetary exploration both for NASA and the general public. And nothing was as meaningful or as widely watched in 2012 for NASA as what happened on…
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NASA announce another Mars Rover mission to the Red Planet in 2020
NASA’s associate administrator for science, John Grunsfeld, has announced NASA’s forward path for robotic exploration of Mars, including the confirmation of a new Rover, to be launched in 2020. With human exploration still 20+ years away, the interim program of robotic pathfinders will aim to build on the successes already achieved by Curiosity. The Path…
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NASA interest in 2024 Mars Sample Return Mission using SLS and Orion
The Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) have added meat to the bones of a proposal that would result in the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion and a Mars spacecraft making up the key elements of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. With large support already communicated to lawmakers, the notional mission aims to utilize a secondary…
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Dear Curiosity – In the event of Martian contact, please call the President
President Obama phoned the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team on Monday, congratulating them on their amazing Entry, Landing and Descent (EDL) efforts that resulted in NASA’s Curiosity rover landing safely on the surface of Mars. He also joked that if Curiosity makes contact with Martians, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team should inform him right…
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Curiosity makes HISTORIC landing at Gale Crater on Mars
History was made at 1:31am EDT (05:31 UTC) Monday on the fourth planet in this solar system as NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity descended to a picture-perfect rocket-guided and -slowed descent to a gentle, wheels-first, sky crane touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet. NASA is 14 for 20 in their attempted missions…
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NASA ESD set key Orion requirement based on Lunar missions
NASA’s new spaceship, the Orion crew capsule, will be able to actively host a crew for 21 days, a requirement designed to cover all exploration missions, but mainly those outlined in the Lunar sorties Design Reference Missions (DRM) – missions that will see the crew spend more time in Orion, compared to long duration missions…
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SpaceX Dragon advancing the Launch Abort System to new heights
SpaceX are continuing to make progress with their NASA commercial crew contract, with the latest milestone involving the firing of their SuperDraco thruster engine, an integrated element of the Dragon which will be used as its Launch Abort System (LAS). However, these engines are hoping to gain additional roles, including the ability to land Dragon…