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...million. Stardust is part of the space agency's "fast and cheap" Discovery series (Mars Pathfinder with its robot rover was another). Like Pathfinder (and unlike the instrument-packed billion-dollar probes of the 1970s and '80s), Stardust is as stripped down as it can be. The 848-lb. spacecraft carries just solar panels, a camera, a radio, a spectrometer to analyze sunlight bouncing off the comet, a few sensors and the all-important sample-collecting system...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Close Encounter with a Comet | 2/8/1999 | See Source »

...Wright brothers flight. Symbolism aside, an unprecedented amount of Martian data will be collected. "We are entering a new phase," says TIME science writer Jeffrey Kluger, who notes that the last Pathfinder mission was the first in which the surface exploration of Mars was carried out by a moving spacecraft. The plane mission takes "such mobile exploration to a new level," says Kluger. "It will allow the close study of much more land area and surface features...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: For NASA, It's Fly Me to the Planet Mars | 2/2/1999 | See Source »

What a difference a little rocket fuel makes. Nozomi, an unmanned Japanese spacecraft on a mission to Mars since its launch last July, was supposed to reach the Red Planet's orbit this October. But an unforeseen adjustment in the craft's direction has used up more fuel than was projected, and Nozomi will be a little late -- four years, to be exact...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Japan's Lazy Bird to Mars | 1/12/1999 | See Source »

...whole, NASA has always treated Mars with respect. American spacecraft have flown by, orbited and even landed on the Red Planet. What they've never done is wound it. If scientists ever hope to understand Mars fully, however, they are going to have to puncture the dry Martian rind to sample the planetary pulp below. Next week NASA will launch a ship that will begin that process...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Digging Mars | 12/14/1998 | See Source »

...upcoming mission is a two-spacecraft extravaganza. The first ship--set to fly Dec. 10--is the workmanlike Mars Climate Orbiter. Arriving in September 1999, the spacecraft will enter an orbit of the planet that traces a path over the Martian poles, allowing it to study the local atmosphere. Its orbit will position it perfectly to act as a relay satellite for any later ship that may land on the surface. That's a good thing, since three weeks or so after the orbiter leaves Earth, NASA will launch another spacecraft, the more ambitious Mars Polar Lander...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Digging Mars | 12/14/1998 | See Source »

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