Mars mission seeks to answer question of life on red planet

A European and Russian spacecraft has set off for Mars this morning on a mission aimed at determining one of science's great unanswered questions - whether or not there is life on the red planet.

Study Describes Ancient Deltas, Lakes on Mars

Recent studies of the history of water on Mars indicate that the planet has a much wetter past than previously thought.

Evidence of flowing liquid water on Mars (NASA)

Liquid water has been observed on the planet Mars, the US space agency NASA said Monday.

Missing spacecraft discovered on Mars 11 years later

Britain's "Beagle 2" spacecraft, once dubbed "a heroic failure" by the nation's Astronomer Royal, was re-branded "a great success" on Friday for being found on Mars 11 years after it was originally launched in 2003.

Eco Geo Flash News - (December 2014 -b)

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NASA is ready to launch the most ambitious test flight in decades as its unmanned capsule Orion is all set for a two-orbit, 4.5-hour trip. With favorable weather forecast, NASA hopes the test flight will bring it one step closer to a Mars journey...

The mission plans to reach an altitude of 3,600 miles from Earth, the farthest space mission since the Apollo 17 trip to the moon in 1972.

The capsule is scheduled to be launched using a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex...................Orion’s first flight

(December 2014 -a)

India makes history with first spaceship to orbit Mars

India triumphed in its first interplanetary mission, placing a satellite into orbit around Mars on Wednesday morning and catapulting the country into an elite club of deep-space explorers.
Scientists broke into wild cheers as the orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered into its designated place around the red planet.
The success of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.

NASA spacecraft seeks answers to lost water in Mars. (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution/MAVEN)

A NASA spacecraft designed to investigate how Mars lost its water is expected to put itself into orbit around the Red Planet today after a 10-month journey....

After traveling 711 million km from Earth, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, probe faces a do-or-die burn of its six braking rockets beginning.
If successful, the thruster burns will trim enough speed for MAVEN to be captured by Mars' gravity and fall into a looping orbit.

Scientists Warn NASA on Ethics of Space Travel

The US space agency NASA plans to send humans to an asteroid and Mars, eventually. But a group of prominent U.S. scientists says right now, any deep space mission will be too dangerous, based on NASA's minimum safety requirements. And engineering capabilities and understanding of the effects of long-term cosmic radiation exposure will not advance sufficiently within the next five years to change that assessment.
After a study of long-duration space travel, sponsored by NASA, the panel of scientists from the National Academy of Sciences says the space agency should consider ethics while designing standards for future long missions.

China Loses First Lunar Rover

MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – China officially announced the loss of its maiden lunar rover Wednesday due to technical problems.

“China's first lunar rover, Yutu, could not be restored to full function on Monday as expected,” the state-owned China News Service said.
In December, the 140-kilogram lunar rover, whose name translates as Jade Rabbit, made the first soft landing of any probe on the moon in nearly four decades.

NASA rover discovers lake on Mars

Curiosity rover that was launched by NASA came up with another discovery. A lake on Mars with water that seems like drinkable was found and it might even be suitable for simple forms of life.
It was known before that Mars was a planet more like Earth once before and it didn’t look like a desert as it looks right now. Rover found the evidence to that, holes full of water that perhaps is what is left out of the lake after millions of years.

NASA to Look at Climate Change - On Mars

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The U.S. space agency, NASA, expects to launch its next mission to Mars on Monday, sending an orbiter to look at the red planet's upper atmosphere.

Scientists hope that MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, can help them better understand what happened to cause Earth's neighbor to lose its surface water and its atmosphere to thin. The causes of the dramatic climate changes on Mars over billions of years - from warm with liquid water on its surface to today's cold and barren desert world - have not previously been studied.