Nasa's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), currently en route to the Red Planet, has had its course corrected to put it on target for an August landing. Read more
An engine firing on Jan. 11 will be the biggest manoeuvre that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft will perform on its flight between Earth and Mars. The action will use a choreographed sequence of firings of eight thruster engines during a period of about 175 minutes beginning at 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST or 2300 Universal Time). It will redirect the spacecraft more precisely toward Mars to land at Gale Crater. The trajectory resulting from the mission's Nov. 26, 2011, launch intentionally misses Mars to prevent the upper stage of the launch vehicle from hitting the planet. That upper stage was not cleaned the way the spacecraft itself was to protect Mars from Earth's microbes. Read more
NASA's car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet. Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources. Read more
NASA's Curiosity rover, on route to its destination since it launched on November 26, had a mishap in its cleaning phase, and as such some of its drill bits weren't sterilised properly, after a final ultra-cleanliness step wasn't ensured, thus deviating from the planetary protection plans scripted for the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Read more
University of Leicester team set to be among first people to view images from surface of Mars
The University of Leicester is to play a key role in NASA's $2.5 billion mission to Mars. Dr John Bridges of the University's Space Research Centre, leads a team from the University of Leicester, the Open University and CNES France which have been accepted as participating scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, which lands in August 2012. John Bridges will be among the first people to study images returned after landing, to determine the conditions associated with the presence of water. The Leicester-led team will focus on determining the conditions associated with the presence of water in past epochs at the landing site. Read more
At 10:02 yesterday ( 15:02 GMT), the space rover Curiosity became the 39th exploratory mission to Mars. Nasa's latest venture left Cape Canaveral, in Florida, with the most ambitious task yet - to find out whether Mars is, or ever has been, suitable for life. There's a lot more that they hope to find out, but how much do you know about the Red Planet? Read more
NASA Launches Most Capable and Robust Rover to Mars
NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST). Read more
Nasa has launched the most capable machine ever built to land on Mars. The one-tonne rover, tucked inside a capsule, left Florida on an Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 local time (15:02 GMT). Nicknamed Curiosity, the rover will take eight and a half months to cross the vast distance to its destination. Read more