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.  

Martian Leprechauns?

Conspiracy theorists have hypothesized that the Air Force and US Government is hiding alien bodies on Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor as wells as several Mars Rovers have taken pictures showing figures on the surface of Mars that seem to resemble aliens. The Mars Global Surveyor released images, which show a human face or a "hockey mask" carved into the Cydonia plains on Mars. After further investigation NASA concluded that the life-like images were actually windblown rocks on the surface.

New Study Shows Definitive Shorelines on Mars

A team of scientists at CU-Boulder has found the first "definitive" evidence that there are shorelines on Mars indicating that there was once a deep ocean or lake on the surface. A statement released by CU-Boulder says the lake was approximately 80 miles long and 1,500 feet deep. This is of significant importance because on Earth, lakes empty out into deltas where organic material and life is deposited. This discovery opens the doors for NASA and the possibility of life on Mars.

Mars Science Lab Delayed Two Years

NASA's plan to send a science laboratory to Mars has been delayed two years as a result of technical problems and overrun costs. Originally, Mars' science lab was supposed to launch in the fall of 2009. The science lab is a nuclear-powered rover designed to travel long distances and is equipped with a wide range of experimental instruments. Originally the science lab was going to cost $1.6 billion but is now going to cost $2.1 billion. NASA's budget for the year is approximately $15 billion. 

Methane on Mars

Scientists recently discovered methane in Mars' atmosphere, which leads scientists to believe that life may actually be present on Mars. This is of particular interest to scientists because on Earth, methane is released when organisms digest any nutrients consumed. The discovery was made by NASA's Infrared telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Earth's End Might be Near

A new computer simulation indicates that there is a very slight possibility that some of our solar system's planets orbits might vary enough to cause a catastrophic impact with Earth. There is a 1% change that Mercury's orbit might be elongated to the point where its orbit around the Sun might cross that of Venus' orbit in which case Mercury would be sling-shot out of the solar system or possibly collide with Earth. However, this event wouldn't take place for a couple billion years meaning there is no chance that we would experience such an event. In a less likely scenario, there could be a total destabilization of  the inner solar system leading to a possible collision between Mars, Venus, or Mercury with Earth. 

Nearby Star Ready to Explode

A star, 600 light-years away, which is relatively close in terms of space terms, is ready to explode. The star, Betelgeuse, a star in the constellation, Orion, has shrunk by 15% in the past decade and a half, leading scientists to believe that the star is gearing up to explode into a supernova. Betelgeuse is a red giant, which typically have very short (a few million years max.) and very violent life-span. A red giant dies out as a result of the star burning up all of its hydrogen fuel, resorting to helium and other elements to power the huge stars. 

European Space Agency and NASA Team up for a Mission to Mars

A developing story indicates that the European Space Agency and NASA have been communicating recently about a possible joint mission to Mars. The preliminary launch date is 2016 with a goal of landing a rover on Mars to send back valuable data to the two agencies. This surprised the cosmic world because NASA typically had a "do it yourself" attitude in which they didn't cooperate with any other space agencies in any space endeavors only allowing different agencies to add onto the rover to send back data. With this mission, the two agencies will split the cost in order to allow a possible launch during these dire economic times. NASA space sciences chief Ed Weiler said that he believed a joint mission was the best option during these tough economic times as long as "We [USA] can lose a little bit of our ego and nationalism." The only thing holding NASA back is who is to pay for the rocket to send the rovers into space as well as the fact that the European Space Agency has not successfully landed a rover on Mars. Ultimately NASA would like to be able to send a rover to Mars to collect martian rocks and send them back to Earth to be analyzed, which would cost an estimated $5 billion, making a joint mission the most economically friendly solution. 

Mircobes on Mars

A recent study by Andrew C. Schueger, a microbiologists at the University of Florida, have found that some microbes are able to withstand the cold temperatures of Siberia but may not be able to survive under Martian conditions. They have found that UV light has proved very devastating for microbes that are resistant to the cold. This find will help NASA trace any sort of life on Mars as well as aid them in developing methods to keep mircobes found on Earth from contaminating Mars which could be detrimental when trying to search for life on Mars. However, the research done by Schueger has found that UV light can easily penetrate many Martian surfaces, which would limit the amount of contamination that may occur if some of Earth's microbes happened to make it to the red planet.