Memory Glitch onboard Spirit Rover

A memory glitch on board the Spirit rover caused it to not move as planned as well as lose data that it had been storing. What caused the glitch was that the rover went into "cripple mode" in which it avoids using its original flash drive and instead uses random memory to store commands and photos. 

Mars Spirit Rover Stuck

In late May of this year, the Mars rover, Spirit, got stuck in a soft spot of  ferric sulfate salt. Five of the six wheels on Spirit are now stuck in a few inches of this ferric sulfate salt. What is particularly bad news is the fact that the soil that the rover is stuck in has little cohesion which means that it is very difficult for the Spirit's wheels to get any sort of traction. 

Mars Research Laboratory

Next fall, NASA is planning to launch its $1.8 billion Mars Research Laboratory. This new generation spacecraft is going to be the largest spacecraft to go to Mars, measuring abut the size of an SUV. It is said that the Mars Research laboratory is going to be able to hold 5 times as much equipment as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Accompanying this spacecraft will be foot-wide glass balls that will be able to travel up to 62 miles, take pictures of the martian landscape and take soil samples. The "ball rovers" will be stored in boxes for the trip to Mars. Once they land a spring will push them out onto the surface of Mars and xenon gas will inflate the balls. The rovers will be powered by solar panels. 

Space Shuttle Delayed

On June 17th, the space shuttle Endeavor, which was headed to the International Space Station was delayed as a result of a leak in the hydrogen gas lines. Endeavor was headed to the International Space Station with components of Japan's Kibo Lab on board, Japan's contribution to the International Space Station. The Kibo Lab was Japan's first contribution to the space station after 20 years of developing.

Water on the Moon?

Two probes have been sent to the moon to explore the craters in the moon's southern hemisphere, in search of frozen water deep in the moon's craters. If water is found, it would be able to be converted to fuel for spacecraft making the moon a good stopping point for space missions beyond the moon. Rocks from the moon have shown that it's bone dry suggesting that any water on the moon has come from comet impacts which have been evaporated from the suns light. Radar scans of the moon's southern hemisphere indicate that there might be frozen water. 

Possible Oceans on one of Saturn's Moons

Scientists have found its strongest evidence to date that there are oceans underneath the icy surface of Saturn's moon, Enceladus. This discovery and any discoveries of micro-organisms on Enceladus could give scientists an insight into the origins of life in our universe. The saltwater is coming from jets in its southern hemisphere shooting water into the oceans and thousands of miles into space. NASA scientists also added that the water would be less salty than the oceans on Earth and almost close to freezing.

Mars Orbiter Back in Commission

After several weeks, the $720 million spacecraft called Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has awaken from its "precautionary stand-by" and has resumed taking photographs of the red planet. The orbiter has experienced 6 glitches in its software, which has the ability to take pictures of Mars and relay them back to Earth, with the most recent one coming in February of this year. NASA scientists have tied the most recent glitch to cosmic rays being blasted through space and short-circuiting the photography and transmitting software.