Australian scientists who modeled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the Red Planet was habitable said that “large regions” could sustain life. Charley Lineweaver’s team, from the Australian National University, compared models of temperature and pressure conditions on Earth with those on Mars to estimate how much of the distant planet was livable for Earth-like organisms. While just one percent of Earth’s volume — from core to upper atmosphere — was occupied by life, Lineweaver said their world-first modeling showed three percent of Mars was habitable, though most of it was...

Russia could become a full partner in a planned U.S.-European Mars exploration project, a European Space Agency (ESA) spokesman has said. The Space News International website quoted Franco Bonacina as saying on Thursday that senior NASA, ESA and Russian space agency Roscosmos officials have agreed to continue talks on the issue. The project that ESA calls ExoMars is facing difficulties due to a lack of financing from NASA. Bonacina said on Thursday that ESA Science Director Alvaro Gimenez Canete hosted Charles J. Gay, NASA Associate Administrator, and deputy Roscosmos head Anatoly Shilov at ESA headquarters on Wednesday. The meeting “ended...

New images from Mars Express show the Phlegra Montes mountain range, in a region where radar probing indicates large volumes of water ice are hiding below. This could be a source of water for future astronauts. Phlegra Montes is a range of gently curving mountains and ridges on Mars. It extends from the northeastern portion of the Elysium volcanic province to the northern lowlands, spanning latitudes from roughly 30°N to 50°N. The mountains themselves are probably not volcanic in origin, but have been raised by ancient tectonic forces that squeezed different regions of the surface together. New images from the high-resolution stereo camera...

As part of an effort to improve communication with the Russian Space Agency’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, modifications are being made to a 15-meter dish antenna at Maspalomas station. Located in the Canary Islands off the Atlantic coast of North Africa, the station provides tracking, telemetry, and other functions in support of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) of the European Space Agency (ESA). Last week, ESA succeeded in communicating with Phobos-Grunt on two successive days after a feedhorn antenna was added to an antenna near Perth, Australia similar to the facility in Maspalomas. Although this enabled the downloading of...

Russian specialists have deciphered telemetry data received from a wayward Mars probe, but have yet to find out the cause of its erratic behavior, a space industry source said on Thursday. “Some data” on the spacecraft’s condition were obtained, but it was not yet clear how “functional” it was, the source said.Earlier in the day, a Russian space station in Kazakhstan’s Baikonur received a signal from the Phobos-Grunt, which has been stuck at a low-Earth orbit since after its launch. The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said attempts to get in contact with the spacecraft would continue until it enters “the thicker layers of the...

The astronomical window for the Phobos-Grunt’s mission to Mars has just about closed, believe space industry sources. The probe could still fly by the red planet, but the expedition to land on and then return to Earth from the Martian moon Phobos is a failure. The window is closed, next chance – 2014 Soon the opportunity for the Phobos probe to reach Mars will be lost. For almost two weeks no discernable feedback has been obtained from the spacecraft or for that matter any positive developments in restoring control. Technically the Phobos probe can be classified as “alive” (since, judging by observations, it stays in...

Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars at dozens of locations and shifting up to several yards. These observations reveal the planet’s sandy surface is more dynamic than previously thought. “Mars either has more gusts of wind than we knew about before, or the winds are capable of transporting more sand,” said Nathan Bridges, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and lead author of a paper on the finding published online in the journal Geology. “We used to think of the sand on...

NASA’s most advanced mobile robotic laboratory, which will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, is in final preparations for a launch from Florida’s Space Coast at 10:25 a.m. EST (7:25 a.m. PST) on Nov. 25. The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet. The rover is now sitting atop an Atlas V rocket awaiting liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. “Preparations are on track for launching at our first opportunity,” said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion...