Tag: Mars

Canada refuses to be part of invasion of Mars

You know, I’m probably more philosophically inclined toward the Conservatives than the Liberals, and I’ve been on board with many of the policy decisions the Stephen Harper government has implemented, and at least willing to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding others, but… Are you people nuts? What are you thinking? I’m with …

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The Viking landers may have found life on Mars…

…but weren’t sensitive enough to detect it. Turns out the Viking instruments can’t even detect life on Earth!

Dust devils

You see them mostly on hot, dry days, weaving along the edges of fallow fields: tall, snaking columns of whirling dust. They’re dust devils, and they’re coming under increasing study: not so much because of their effects on Earth but because they’ve also been seen on Mars, where they may threaten future landers. Even on …

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The Mars land rush

If you’re looking for an unpopulated spot to vacation in this winter, Mars isn’t it. In interplanetary terms, the Mars neighborhood is going to be rather crowded, as spacecraft from Europe and the United States descend on it in a kind of Martian land rush. It’s not a coincidence: the orbital mechanics involved have produced …

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Drilling on Mars

You hear a lot about space technology being adapted for use on Earth–many of the high-tech marvels in fields as diverse as meteorology and medicine wouldn’t exist if not for the space program–but the Canadian Space Agency is doing the opposite: adapting Earth technology for use in space. The CSA has taken the first steps …

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Mars in the Arctic

A unique construction project finally overcame delays and disaster last week to take shape in the Arctic. It looks more or less like an oil tank, but in fact it’s a model of the kind of habitat humans may one day live in when they visit Mars. The two-story fiberglass structure is the brainchild of …

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Missions to Mars

Thursday, September 23, 1999, wasn’t a good day for NASA. At 5:01 a.m. EDT, the Mars Climate Orbiter, a $125 million (U.S) space probe intended to observe Martian weather for two years, fired its engines to enter orbit around Mars and dove behind the planet. It never reappeared. After several hours of study, NASA announced …

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