Red Planet

Lockheed Martin unveils reusable water-powered Mars lander

Australia - Muslimchronicle

A reusable, water-powered Mars lander that will allow humans to explore the Red Planet from an orbiting ‘base camp’ as early as the 2030s was unveiled Friday by US defense giant Lockheed Martin. Governments and private firms are collaborating on projects to send humans to new frontiers, with NASA planning missions next decade into the space between Earth and theRead more

Mars One puts back planned colonisation of Red Planet

The Hague - AFP

A British-Dutch company planning to install a community of humans on Mars admitted on Wednesday that it's project will be delayed by several years. The Mars One consortium said its first manned mission to the Red Planet would now not happen until 2031, having previously targeted 2026. Its first unmanned mission has also been delayed by four years to 2022.Read more

Computer glitch blamed for European Mars lander crash

Paris - Arab Today

A tiny lander that crashed on Mars last month flew into the Red Planet at 540 kilometres (335 miles) per hour instead of gently gliding to a stop, after a computer misjudged its altitude, scientists said. Schiaparelli was on a test-run for a future rover meant to seek out evidence of life, past or present, but it fell silent secondsRead more

Computer glitch blamed for European Mars lander crash

Paris - Arab Today

A tiny lander that crashed on Mars last month flew into the Red Planet at 540 kilometers (335 miles) per hour instead of gently gliding to a stop, after a computer misjudged its altitude, scientists said. Schiaparelli was on a test-run for a future rover meant to seek out evidence of life, past or present, but it fell silent secondsRead more

We don't know if Mars lander 'survived'

Paris - Arab Today

Mission controllers were in the dark Thursday about the fate of a tiny European craft despatched to Mars as a trial run for a rover to follow in a quest for life on the Red Planet. The paddling pool-sized "Schiaparelli" lander was scheduled to touch down at 1448 GMT Wednesday after a scorching, supersonic dash through Mars' thin atmosphere toRead more

ESA: Mars explorer duo on course

Paris - Arab Today

European-Russian spacecraft were on course for Mars Monday after crucial deep-space manoeuvres in preparation for a daring mission to find evidence of life on the Red Planet. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mothership despatched the tiny Mars lander called Schiaparelli Sunday on a three-day trek to the Martian surface in a key phase of the joint ExoMars project. There wereRead more

Beijing unveils 2020 Mars rover concept

Beijing - Arab Today

China has unveiled illustrations of a Mars probe and rover it aims to send to the Red Planet at the end of the decade in a mission that faces “unprecedented” challenges, state media said Wednesday. China, which is pouring billions into its space program and working to catch up with the US and Europe, announced in April it aims toRead more

Mars probe sends first pictures home

Paris - AFP

The Euro-Russian spacecraft ExoMars, launched towards the Red Planet last month, has sent home its first pictures from space and is in "excellent health", the European Space Agency said Thursday. Launched on March 14 on a Russian Proton rocket, the craft is designed to "smell" Mars' atmosphere for gassy evidence that life once existed on Earth's neighbour, or may doRead more