News Archive / Tagged: Mars Exploration Rover

• Our SpaceFlight Heritage: The light and the dark – 9/11’s space connections

  Jason RhianSeptember 10th, 2015

  It was one of the most horrific attacks in U.S. history – highlighting both the worst and best humanity has to offer. It is remembered, simply, as “9/11”. In the end, the attacks served to create feelings of incredible pain and anguish – and, in some cases, serve as the inspiration toward brighter days.

• Our SpaceFlight Heritage: Launching Opportunity

  Gregory CecilJuly 7th, 2015

  Twelve years ago, on July 7, 2003, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (MER-B ) launched aboard a Delta II Heavy rocket. Lifting off from launch pad SLC-17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Opportunity began its six-month journey to Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

• Our Spaceflight Heritage: Remembering Spirit

  Gregory CecilJune 10th, 2015

  On June 10, 2003, the Mars rover Spirit (Mars Exploration Rover A (MER-A)) launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Space Launch Complex 17A (SLC-17A) aboard a Delta II rocket bound for Mars. Spirit was the first of two twin rovers, the other being Opportunity which followed 3 weeks later. Both rovers, built by […]

• Curiosity marks two years of excavating the Martian surface with Mojave 2 sample

  Josh TallisFebruary 9th, 2015

  This week marks two years since humanity first tapped into the Martian bedrock. Well, not a person per-se. NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity was the instrument of this historic excavation, and two years later the mini Cooper-sized robotic geologist continues digging into the Red Planet’s history. NASA highlighted the progress that the rover has made toward furthering our understanding toward […]

• Keep calm and rove on: Opportunity struggles with flash memory problems

  Tomasz NowakowskiDecember 24th, 2014

  NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, also known as “Oppy”, is continuing its traverse southward on the western rim of Endeavour Crater despite computer resets and “amnesia” that have occurred after reformatting the rover’s flash memory. The problems have forced the controllers to switch the robot to a working mode that avoids use of the flash […]

• Our Spaceflight Heritage: celebrating an independent Spirit

  Heather SmithJune 10th, 2014

  On this day in 2003, Spirit, the first of NASA’s two Mars Exploration Rovers was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 17 in Florida aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The rovers were built to understand if Mars was or can be a habitable world. The scientific goals of Spirit and Opportunity […]

• Insider Interview: Mars Exploration Rover’s Jim Rice PhD talks 10 years on the Red Planet

  Jason RhianApril 13th, 2014

  As NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity passes the one decade mark on the Red Planet, Dr. James Rice, a scientist working with the rovers looked back on 10 years of achievements and a future filled with possibilities. Rice detailed how the robot has survived adversity, persevered – and astonished.

• Opportunity: If there is life on Mars, it’s not throwing rocks

  Josh TallisFebruary 17th, 2014

  Neil deGrasse Tyson is fond of teasing Mars rover operators that if there were intelligent life on Mars they could very well be riding around on top of the rovers and we’d never know it. For the past few weeks that teasing gained traction in the public consciousness after the sudden appearance of a rock in the Mars Exploration […]

• MER Opportunity, designed for 90 days, celebrates 10 years exploring Mars

  James TuttenJanuary 27th, 2014

  The Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, continues its mission of exploration, far past its given warrantee as it makes new scientific discoveries, 10 years after its mission on the Red Planet began. Its most recent findings involve the confirmation of a more milder environment on ancient Mars found in older rock samples that contain higher levels […]

• An open letter to Dennis Tito…

  SpaceFlight InsiderDecember 1st, 2013

  Dear Sir, After a delay, I finally watched your plea that you made to the US House of Representatives Sub Committee on Science, Space and Technology to fully fund your Inspiration Mars Foundation’s 501 day flight for two people, male and female,  to circumnavigate the planet Mars and return to Earth in the 2017-2018 time […]