MILESTONES-1

01-Apr-2005
One Step Closer to Launch: Rocket Delivery

Lockheed Martin just delivered the Atlas V rocket to Cape Canaveral! The rocket went through a series of tests to ensure it's ready to send Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to the red planet. Lift-off was expected on August 10, 2005.


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Life on Mars

Could Life Survive on Mars?

Credit: Viking Project, NASA

Is there life on Mars? Although no unambiguous evidence for indigenous life on Mars has ever been found, a more speculative question -- could some life forms survive on Mars -- has taken on a new twist. Two planetary scientists recently speculated that were extremophile microbes to involve a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and water (H2O), these microbes might well be able survive the thin, cold, dry atmosphere on Mars. Life that involves hydrogen peroxide does exist here on Earth, they note, and such life would be better able to absorb water on Mars. They also claim that such life would be consistent with the ambiguous results coming out from the life-detecting experiments aboard the old Viking Landers. Although such speculation is not definitive, debating possibilities for life on Mars has again proven to be fun and a magnet for media attention. Pictured above, the Viking Lander 2 captured an unusual image of the Martian surface in 1979 sporting a thin layer of seasonal water ice.

TO MARS

HAI EVERYBODY,


Here, I am trying to explore Mars.


I request all your esteemed support and inspiration.


Thank you


and


WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR


2007 December 25

Mars and Orion Over Monument Valley

Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com)

Explanation: Welcome to The World At Night. Sharing the night sky seen around the world, this view from Monument Valley, USA includes a picturesque foreground of famous buttes. Buttes are composed of hard volcanic rock left behind after water eroded away the surrounding soft rock. The two buttes on the image left are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte is on the right. Recorded just last week, planet Mars is at the left of the skyscape, a glowing beacon of orange that is the brightest object in the frame. To the right of Mars lies the constellation of Orion. Betelgeuse is the reddish star near the center and the Belt of Orion and the Orion Nebula are farther right. Finally, the bright blue star Rigel appears above Merrick Butte in this stunning view of The World At Night.