nasa mars exploration program
- Emanuel A. “Emil” Skrabek, a Baltimore-born spacecraft engineer who co-invented a thermoelectric material that powered the Mars Curiosity Rover and other space probes, died of progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson’s disease at his home in Lutherville on March 14, his family said. He was 85.
- The alleged Mars rover's final gasp, 'My battery is low and it's getting dark,' may be mostly fiction but wouldn't it be great if some alternative facts could get a pass?
- In 1776, Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. Four of its signers represented Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone and Charles
- While many Americans may not be concerned with how their DirecTV or XM satellite radio makes it to their home or car, this is the daily burden of engineers and technicians at Saft, a company in Cockeysville that develops some of the nation's most high-tech batteries for use in communications satellites, weather balloons, rocket ships, military Humvees and tanks and even Formula One race cars
- In 1793 Lucretia Mott, one of the founders of the American women's rights movement, was born Lucretia Coffin in Nantucket, Mass.
- The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory will be playing a role in Lucy and Psyche, missions to explore the solar system and better understand how it formed.
- On the Fourth of July — Independence Day — there will be fireworks at Jupiter as the latest unmanned spacecraft from Earth arrives.
- In March, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft achieved its 10th anniversary in orbit around the red planet. With six other active missions from three nations currently either on the planet's surface or orbiting it, I thought now would be a good time to review the current state of Mars exploration, and developing plans for future manned missions.
- Scientists scouring the Red Planet using NASA'S Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter say they've found direct evidence of saltwater flowing on the surface today.
- A satellite that has been speeding toward Mars for the past 10 months slammed on the brakes last night, gliding into the red planet's gravity field to spend a year studying its atmosphere – and collect evidence it might once have supported life.
- State officials announced a partnership with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Monday that aims to attract and grow companies that can help support space missions or adapt NASA technology for other commercial purposes.
- A rocket streaked through the sky Tuesday night in Maryland and for hundreds of miles across the eastern U.S. as NASA launched a mission from the Delmarva peninsula.
- Comet ISON is sweeping past Mars more closely than it will ever get to Earth on Tuesday, providing an observing opportunity that could show whether the comet will be visible in our night sky later this year.
- UMD receives software grant worth $750 million from a division of Siemens Corp. — the largest donation of its kind for both the electrical engineering giant and the state's flagship school.
- Comet ISON is expected to pass about 40 million miles from Earth in December and could glow on the early morning and evening horizons if it survives a pass by the sun.
- Robert S. Kraemer, former director of Planetary Exploration at NASA who was also an expert in rocket engines, died Tuesday at Brightview Assisted-Living in Catonsville from complications of a fall. He was 84.
- Unusual proteins within microbes allow the organisms to survive in cold and salty conditions in Antarctica, and could in theory help support life on Mars as well, according to NASA-funded study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
- NASA's Curiosity rover found conditions on Mars were once conducive to life; how many other places in the universe may be home to living things?