November 2017
Roving the red planet
... sulphate veins. A 360-degree view, known as the ‘McMurdo’ panorama, from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The full significance of the presence of these veins, both at the rim of Endeavour crater and...
January 2017
Elon Musk and Mars - looking for a snowball effect
... is on the painstaking and unglamorous growth of a broadly based, sustainable space economy, one which can then take Mars exploration and settlement in its stride. The disadvantage with this approach, of course, is the relatively long timescale, and...
10 October 2015
NASA releases plan for Mars exploration
... Red Planet. NASA has published a new report, describing the next steps it has in view for further Mars exploration. Coming at the time of announcements that water may have existed for millions of years on the planet, “NASA...
December 2014
MAVEN and the evolution of Mars
... constituents like carbon dioxide. Endeavour Crater, with Pillinger Point in the foreground, as viewed in false colour by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity The story of how Earth ended up with its nitrogen- and oxygen-rich current atmosphere...
March 2015
Chasing comets together: the Vega project in the USSR and beyond
... obtained by the Phobos spacecraft, most of the researchers at ISS spoke out in support of further Mars exploration. A lot of effort was invested in developing a Mars rover that would be able to cover long distances. Our laboratory, together with the...
July 2018
The rise of interplanetary CubeSats
... of panoramic cameras on the surface of Mars. The mission set the stage for the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity, Mars Phoenix, the Mars Science Laboratory and the upcoming Mars 2020 rovers. Mother-daughter architectures using...
