http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The weather conditions on Mars are expected to be favorable when NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory attempts its risky landing on August 6, the US space agency said Saturday. http://phys.org/news263367693.html Space & Earth Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:41:40 EST news263367693 Are we alone? Or was there life on another planet? NASA's $2.5 billion dream machine, the Mars Science Laboratory, aims to take the first steps toward finding out when it nears Mars's surface on Monday. http://phys.org/news263367468.html Space & Earth Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:37:55 EST news263367468 John Grotzinger is leading a march up a mountain near Death Valley, the rocks around him streaked red, brown and purple-gray. http://phys.org/news263217876.html Space & Earth Sat, 04 Aug 2012 08:20:02 EST news263217876 Europe's Mars Express spacecraft will lend its eyes and ears to NASA next week for the so-called "seven minutes of terror" in which the US agency will seek to land a rover on Mars. http://phys.org/news263277600.html Space & Earth Sat, 04 Aug 2012 05:40:08 EST news263277600 NASA said Thursday all was well ahead of its nail-biting mission to Mars, with its most advanced robotic rover poised to hunt for clues about past life and water on Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. http://phys.org/news263188473.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:55:26 EST news263188473 (Phys.org) -- NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will land on Mars on Monday 6 August (AEST). The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, which CSIRO manages on behalf of NASA, will be the main tracking station for the landing. CSIRO's Parkes telescope ("The Dish") will also be receiving signals, as a backup. http://phys.org/news263139585.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:20:16 EST news263139585 NASA chose Gale Crater as a landing site for its Mars Science Laboratory rover because the giant crater probably had conditions that may have once hosted life. The bottom layers near the crater floor "have minerals in them that form in water," says Philip Christensen, Regents' Professor of Geological Sciences in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. http://phys.org/news263119494.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:45:01 EST news263119494 The biggest, baddest space rover ever built for exploring an alien planet is nearing its August 6 landing on Mars, and the US space agency is anxious for success despite huge risks. http://phys.org/news263102346.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:59:29 EST news263102346 Saturn has its famous rings and Jupiter is the granddaddy of the solar system, but no planet has entranced earthlings quite like Mars. http://phys.org/news262971887.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:50:01 EST news262971887 (Phys.org) -- Six days before reaching Mars, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft performed a flight-path adjustment scheduled more than nine months ago. http://phys.org/news262857482.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:10:04 EST news262857482 In a matter of days, a geologist unlike any on Earth will venture into alien territory. It has six legs and one arm. Instead of feet, it rides around on metal wheels as thin as cardboard. Its brain is in its belly, where it also digests and analyzes the remains of Martian rocks. It eats plutonium for breakfast. http://phys.org/news262463102.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:50:01 EST news262463102 (Phys.org) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover. http://phys.org/news262413869.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:45:15 EST news262413869 (Phys.org) -- NASA's most advanced planetary rover is on a precise course for an early August landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work. However, getting the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars will not be easy. http://phys.org/news261714479.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:28:06 EST news261714479 (Phys.org) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter experienced about 21 hours in a reduced-activity precautionary status ending at about 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, July 12. http://phys.org/news261652710.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:18:36 EST news261652710 So far, the scorecard for missions to Mars reads attempts 40, successes 14. Not so good. http://phys.org/news261142125.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:28:53 EST news261142125 Stick a shovel in the ground and scoop. That's about how deep scientists need to go in order to find evidence for ancient life on Mars, if there is any to be found, a new study suggests. That's within reach of Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover expected to land on the Red Planet next month. http://phys.org/news260724215.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:23:43 EST news260724215 (Phys.org) -- One month and a day after celebrating its independence with fireworks exhibitions throughout the country, America will carry its penchant for awe-inspiring aerial pyrotechnic displays to the skies of another world. Some pyrotechnics will be as small as the energy released by a box of matches. One packs the same oomph as a stick of TNT.  Whether they be large or small, on the evening of August 5th (Pacific time), all 76 must work on cue as NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, carried by the Mars Science Laboratory, streaks through the Red Planet's atmosphere on its way to a landing at Gale Crater. http://phys.org/news260511715.html Space & Earth Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:22:16 EST news260511715 (Phys.org) -- A maneuver on Tuesday adjusted the flight path of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft for delivering the rover Curiosity to a landing target beside a Martian mountain. http://phys.org/news260006062.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:54:40 EST news260006062 (Phys.org) -- NASA has narrowed the target for its most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, which will land on the Red Planet in August. The car-sized rover will arrive closer to its ultimate destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope that poses a landing hazard. http://phys.org/news258707746.html Space & Earth Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:16:00 EST news258707746 In August, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will reach the Red Planet and begin its search for habitats that could have supported life. http://phys.org/news256400065.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:01 EST news256400065 (Phys.org) -- Team members of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission took a test rover to Dumont Dunes in California's Mojave Desert this week to improve knowledge of the best way to operate a similar rover, Curiosity, currently flying to Mars for an August landing. http://phys.org/news256204929.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 May 2012 09:02:29 EST news256204929 (PhysOrg.com) -- One particular mountain on Mars, bigger than Colorado's grandest, has been beckoning would-be explorers since it was first sighted from orbit in the 1970s. Scientists have ideas about how it took shape in the middle of ancient Gale Crater and hopes for what evidence it could yield about whether conditions on Mars have favored life. http://phys.org/news252225918.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:45:31 EST news252225918 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, halfway to Mars, adjusted its flight path today for delivery of the one-ton rover Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August. http://phys.org/news252056447.html Space & Earth Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:40:57 EST news252056447 (PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers have found the root cause of a computer reset that occurred two months ago on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and have determined how to correct it. http://phys.org/news248085233.html Space & Earth Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:34:08 EST news248085233 The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft travelling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet. http://phys.org/news246954039.html Space & Earth Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:21:01 EST news246954039 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two spacecraft engineers join a grouping of vehicles providing a comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is JPL's Mars Yard testing area. http://phys.org/news246271891.html Space & Earth Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:51:51 EST news246271891 NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft successfully refined its flight path Wednesday with the biggest maneuver planned for the mission's journey between Earth and Mars. http://phys.org/news245663336.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:00:01 EST news245663336 Beginning Jan. 17, NASA will fly an airborne science laboratory above Canadian snowstorms to tackle a difficult challenge facing the upcoming Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite mission -- measuring snowfall from space. http://phys.org/news245640425.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:27:25 EST news245640425 Firing on all engines, NASA's latest rover to Mars executed a course adjustment Wednesday that put it on track for a landing on the red planet in August. http://phys.org/news245529110.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:10:49 EST news245529110 A NASA spacecraft hurtling toward Mars prepared to fire its thrusters Wednesday to put itself on course for an August landing. http://phys.org/news245486811.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:47:33 EST news245486811