Craig Covault and AJS Rayl

Recent Actions

• Posted CuriousMars: Opportunity's First Project Manager Hails Longevity to SpaceRef

  The NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning its 10th year roving Mars, completing nine years of "shocking" performance and historic discoveries that began with a bouncing airbag roll into tiny Eagle crater on Jan. 24, 2004....

• Posted CuriousMars: Curiosity to Drill into 'Whole Different World' to SpaceRef

  As the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) science team completes final assessments of the mission's first drilling target in the bedrock at Yellowknife Bay, Curiosity is roving through "a whole different world," uncovering evidence for rocks saturated with water and other...

• Posted CuriousMars: Curiosity's Critical Rock Drilling Target Selected as Opportunity Achieves Major Science Goal to SpaceRef

  After weeks of searching, the Mars rover Curiosity's science and engineering teams have selected a fine-grained slab of Martian rock as the candidate target for the first rock drilling on Mars, a significant first in planetary exploration....

• Posted CuriousMars: 2013 to Debut U. S. and Indian Mars Atmospheric Orbiters while Challenging China In Asian Space Race to SpaceRef

  Mars will be thrust into international politics during 2013 as India builds toward the planned October launch of its first Mars mission, an orbiter to study the Martian atmosphere and challenge China in a surging Asian space race....

• Posted CuriousMars: Curiosity Begins Rock Triage to Avoid Dangers of "Martian Honey" to SpaceRef

  The first use the rover Curiosity's drill to obtain subsurface samples from inside a rock on Mars will be delayed until mid to late January to reduce risk to the rover during its first drilling operations....

• Posted CuriousMars: Opportunity Hunts for Clay Minerals on Matijevic Hill to SpaceRef

  The Mars rover Curiosity has been commanding headlines with its every move from its historic, breathtaking landing last August to its first major discovery of an ancient stream bed formed by fast flowing water. In recent week's rumors, speculation, and...

• Posted CuriousMars: Martian Science Detectives Aid Curiosity and Opportunity to SpaceRef

  Mysteries on opposite sides of Mars are drawing the Curiosity and Opportunity rover science teams closer together in a search for habitable environments that could have supported Martian life early in the planet's history....