Word: marse
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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The first encouraging sign that NASA means business is the sensible hardware it's envisioning for the lunar portion of the moon-Mars program. The new vehicles are based on proven--if souped up--Apollo technology, with an orbiter that looks a lot like the old Apollo command module and...
Still, space officials insist they're wise to their own worst tendencies. "We will go as we can afford to pay," says deputy administrator Shana Dale. "Our charge is to build a program that is sustainable." One indication that NASA takes this seriously is that the equipment being developed for...
The allure of that second destination got a big boost with last week's discovery of fresh signs of water on Mars. It was made by the Mars Global Surveyor, a spacecraft that has been in Martian orbit since 1997 and finally winked out only last month. Before it did...
If water was indeed the cause of the tracks, the likeliest source would be aquifers just below the surface. But while this conjures images of warm, amniotic pools cooking up all manner of biology, Michael Malin, chief scientist of the study, urges caution. Acids mixing with water can lower its...
Even that makes Mars a far more fertile place than it once seemed, and for many space scientists, that's a good enough reason to go. Lack of funding or political will may yet scuttle the entire audacious moon-Mars enterprise. But for now at least, it appears that a...