NASA has unveied the brand new Orion space capsule, which is expected to have its first test launch in spring 2014.

Without a heat shield or wiring, and with only welded metal panels to see, NASA's new spacecraft designed to take astronauts out beyond Earth and into the solar system doesn't look like much yet.

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But to NASA, congressional and space industry leaders, the capsule's olive-green pressure shell is an exciting sight to behold. The capsule, NASA's first space-bound Orion crew module, was unveiled today (July 2) to mark its arrival at NASA's Kennedy Space Center here, the site of the spacecraft's planned 2014 launch on an unmanned test flight.

"Isn't this beautiful," Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) told an audience of more than 450 Orion team members looking at the spacecraft behind him. "I know there is a lot of people here who can't wait to get their hands and fingers on this hardware.

"We are really proud of it," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told SPACE.com. "It is going to start looking more like the shape of capsule soon. But to me, it looks like the future."

The Orion capsule, which arrived in Florida from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana last week, now sits inside Kennedy's Operations and Checkout (O&C) building. It is in here, the same high bay where more than 40 years ago NASA readied similarly-shaped capsules for launches to the moon, that Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians will conduct the final preparations to launch this Orion higher and faster than any capsule since the Apollo moon missions.

"The future is here, now," Kennedy Space Center's director Robert Cabana said. "The vehicle we see here today is not a Powerpoint chart. It is a real spacecraft moving toward a test flight in 2014." [Gallery: Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 Capsule]

Cabana said the Orion's unveiling was aptly timed since it came one day after the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Space Center, which has been NASA's home port for manned space launches for decades.

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Orion space capsule: NASA gets ready for 2014 test launch

Budget cuts have forced NASA to drastically scale back its planetary science missions. But the space agency still has hopes for a future mission that will collect samples of Martian soil and bring them to Earth.

Despite NASA's tough budget situation, the 1-ton rover streaking toward an Aug. 5 landing on Mars is unlikely to be the space agency's last big, ambitious Red Planet mission.

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Funding cuts have forced NASA to shelve plans for future multibillion-dollar "flagship" planetary missions beyond the $2.5 billionCuriosity rover, which will investigate Mars' potential to host past or present microbial life after it touches down three weeks from now. For the time being, the space agency is looking for ways to explore the Red Planet on the cheap.

But over the long haul, NASA still has its sights set on a particularly alluring flagship a sample-return effort that would bring pieces ofMarsback to Earth for study.

"The scientific goal and for human exploration as well of a Mars sample-return is still the highest priority in the long term," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, said in April. [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]

President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2013, which was unveiled in February, keeps NASA's overall budget flat, at $17.7 billion.

But the requestcuts NASA's planetary science fundingfrom $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion, with further reductions expected in coming years. The space agency's Mars program gets hit particularly hard, with funding dropping from $587 million this year to $360 million in 2013, then falling to just $189 million in 2015.

As a result, NASA is scaling back and reformulating its Red Planet exploration strategy. The space agency has put together a committee called the Mars Program Planning Group, which is assessing possiblefuture missions to Mars.

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Will Curiosity be NASA's last Mars rover? (+video)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA hired Space Exploration Technologies to launch an ocean monitoring satellite, a key win for the start-up rocket company that also wants to break into the U.S. military's launch business, NASA officials said on Thursday. The $82 million contract covers launch, payload processing and other services for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ...

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NASA hires SpaceX for science satellite launch

NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn has spotted intense blue daytime lightning on the ringed planet. Previously lightning had only been detected on Saturn's night side.

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn has captured an amazing view of lightning in broad daylight on the ringed planet.

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The Cassini orbiter captured the daytime lightning on Saturn as bright blue spots inside a giant storm that raged on the planet last year. NASA unveiled the new Saturn lightning photos Wednesday (July 18), adding that the images came as a big surprise.

"We didn't think we'd see lighting on Saturn's day side only its night side," said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. "The fact that Cassini was able to detect the lightning means that it was very intense."

Cassini spotted the daytime lightning while observing agiant Saturn storm on March 6, 2011. A blue filter on the spacecraft's main camera recorded the lightning flashes, and scientists then exaggerated the blue tint in order to pin down the lightning's location and size, researchers said. [More Photos of Saturn's Monster Storm]

The Saturn lightning in Cassini's new images apparently packs quite a wallop. An analysis of the new images revealed that the energy from the visible lightning flashes alone could have spiked up to 3 billion watts over one second. That makes the daytime Saturn lightning on par with some of the strongest lightning flashes on Earth.

Cassini mission scientists said the lightning on Saturn was spotted across a region 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide where it exited the cloud layer. In all, Cassini spotted eight daytime lightning flashes on Saturn, five in one part of the storm and three in an another, they added.

The lightning-spawning storm on Saturn was not a short-lived tempest. The storm wrapped completely around Saturn at its peak and is the longest-lived storm ever seen on the ringed planet. It began in December 2010 and lasted about 200 days, finally sputtering out in late June 2011.

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NASA probe spots bizarre lightning storm on Saturn

18-07-2012 10:01 The Mars chamber is a box--about the size of a refrigerator--that re-creates the temperatures, pressures, and atmosphere of the Martian surface, essentially creating a Mars environment on Earth! Scientists and engineers use this chamber to test experiments on the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite--a fully functioning chemistry lab about the Curiosity Mars rover. By re-creating Mars on Earth and using an exact duplicate of SAM, scientists can "pre-run" experiments on SAM to make sure everything will work properly on the Mars rover. Learn more about the Mars chamber by watching this video! This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Facebook: Or find us on Twitter:

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NASA | The Mars Chamber - Video

NASA has begun nine-days of field tests of new technology for exploring the moon in the Pacific US state of Hawaii.

The so-called analog mission will demonstrate techniques to prospect for lunar ice.

NASA's project manager Bill Larson has told Radio Australia's the testing site near Hilo features lava-covered mountain soil similar to the ancient volcanic plains on the moon.

"We look for an analog location on Earth that can simulate as best we can, the destination that we would go to," he said.

"So in our case we're going to the poles of the moon to search for water ice that we can use to enable exploration missions, and it turns out that the Hawaii volcanoes have a soil, in some places, that is very similar."

One of two main tests is the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE), which Mr says could be the first step in finding usable water on the moon.

"It will go to the poles of the moon, and over a 5-7 day period, it will drive around the square-kilometre of the lunar surface, and map the sub-surface water there," he said.

"And then we'll also take core samples so that we know how far below the surface it is.

"Once we understand where that water is, how it's bound up in the soil, then we can design the next mission to go back and harvest it and utilise that water."

A number of other tests will help develop navigation, communications and sample processing for future missions.

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NASA simulates moon landing in Hawaii

ScienceDaily (July 19, 2012) NASA completed another successful test July 18 of the Orion crew vehicle's parachutes high above the Arizona desert in preparation for the spacecraft's orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing.

A C-17 plane dropped a test version of Orion from an altitude of 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona. This test was the second to use an Orion craft that mimics the full size and shape of the spacecraft.

Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 feet and 20,000 feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which deployed the main landing parachutes. Orion descended about 25 feet per second, well below its maximum designed touchdown speed, when it landed on the desert floor.

"Across the country, NASA and industry are moving forward on the most advanced spacecraft ever designed, conducting drop and splashdown tests, preparing ground systems, designing software and computers and paving the way for the future of exploration," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Today's parachute test in Yuma is an important reminder of the progress being made on Orion and its ultimate mission -- enabling NASA to meet the goal of sending humans to an asteroid and Mars."

Orion parachutes have so-called reefing lines, which when cut by a pyrotechnic device, allow the parachute to open gradually, managing the initial amount of drag and force on the parachute. The main objective of the latest drop test was to determine how the entire system would respond if one of the reefing lines was cut prematurely, causing the three main parachutes to inflate too quickly.

Since 2007, the Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air and ground test program and provided the chutes for NASA's successful pad abort test in 2010. All of the tests build an understanding of the chutes' technical performance for eventual human-rated certification.

In 2014, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Exploration Flight Test-1. The spacecraft will travel 3,600 miles above Earth's surface. This is 15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbit and farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years. The main flight objective is to understand Orion's heat shield performance at speeds generated during a return from deep space.

In 2017, Orion will be launched by NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS will enable new missions of exploration and expand human presence across the solar system.

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NASA completes another successful Orion parachute test

16-07-2012 16:12 The sun emitted a large flare on July 12, 2012, but earlier in the week it gave a demonstration of how gorgeous solar activity can be. This movie shows the sun from late July 8 to early July 10 shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT on July 12 as captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The flare isn't shown here, but the movie shows how the sun is constantly, and complexly, active. The region responsible for the flare, known as Active Region 1520, and sitting in the lower left part of the sun, crackles with giant loops of magnetized solar material that can help scientists understand how magnetic energy in the region creates these giant explosions. On the right side of the sun, the shimmering loops offer us the last vision of Active Region 1515 -- which was also responsible for many solar flares -- as it disappears out of view along with the sun's rotation. The movie represents light in the 171 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength of light that is particularly good at highlighting these magnetic loops. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on facebook: Or find us on Twitter:

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NASA | Before the Flare - Video

The 11-year-old orbiter tasked with monitoring Curiosity's landing has lost the use of one of its three reaction wheels, but NASA says it will be fine.

A veteran NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars is slowly bouncing back from a malfunction suffered last month, but mission managers expect the orbiter to make a full recovery, agency officials said.

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In early June, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter lost the use of one of its three reaction wheels, which help control the probe's attitude and orientation in space without needing to fire thrusters.

When the wheel jammed, Odyssey placed itself into a so-called safe mode, which points the spacecraft toward Earth (rather than its normal downward position facing Mars) to ensure better communications access. Mission controllers then instructed Odyssey to use a spare reaction wheel onboard as they assessed the situation.

On July 11, after performing a maneuver to adjust its orbit, Odyssey again placed itself into a precautionary safe mode. The spacecraft remained in this state for 21 hours before mission managers began recovering normal operations, according to NASA officials.

"It's out of safe mode and they're adding science observations and functions a day at a time, in the process of getting it back to full operations," said Guy Webster, a spokesman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. [Mars Odyssey: Pictures from Longest Mars Mission]

Mission controllers are expecting the 11-year-old orbiter to eventually resume its regular tasks.

"We are on a cautious path to resume Odyssey's science and relay operations soon," Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey project manager at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement last week.

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NASA expects Mars Odyssey orbiter to recover from malfunction

The 11-year-old orbiter tasked with monitoring Curiosity's landing has lost the use of one of its three reaction wheels, but NASA says it will be fine.

A veteran NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars is slowly bouncing back from a malfunction suffered last month, but mission managers expect the orbiter to make a full recovery, agency officials said.

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Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

In early June, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter lost the use of one of its three reaction wheels, which help control the probe's attitude and orientation in space without needing to fire thrusters.

When the wheel jammed, Odyssey placed itself into a so-called safe mode, which points the spacecraft toward Earth (rather than its normal downward position facing Mars) to ensure better communications access. Mission controllers then instructed Odyssey to use a spare reaction wheel onboard as they assessed the situation.

On July 11, after performing a maneuver to adjust its orbit, Odyssey again placed itself into a precautionary safe mode. The spacecraft remained in this state for 21 hours before mission managers began recovering normal operations, according to NASA officials.

"It's out of safe mode and they're adding science observations and functions a day at a time, in the process of getting it back to full operations," said Guy Webster, a spokesman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. [Mars Odyssey: Pictures from Longest Mars Mission]

Mission controllers are expecting the 11-year-old orbiter to eventually resume its regular tasks.

"We are on a cautious path to resume Odyssey's science and relay operations soon," Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey project manager at JPL in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement last week.

Originally posted here:

NASA says Mars Odyssey orbiter will likely recover from glitch (+video)

A veteran NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars is slowly bouncing back from a malfunction suffered last month, but mission managers expect the orbiter to make a full recovery, agency officials said.

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Mars Odyssey Spacecraft Will Recover From Recent Glitch, NASA Says

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on August 6, is the most advanced robot ever sent to another world.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 6, NASA and space enthusiasts across the world will be able to monitor the Mars landing of the most advanced robot ever to be sent to another world.

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Named Curiosity, the robot or rover has been heading toward Mars for nearly eight months. The landing is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. EDT.

Is it crazy? Not so much, said Doug McCuistion, the director of the Mars Exploration Program. Is it risky? Landing on Mars is always risky. Every landing is unique. Every landing is like a first.

At a news conference Monday, NASA scientists said they were looking for evidence that life existed on Mars billions of years ago. This evidence could include indicators of water, sources of energy or sources of carbon all of which are essential to sustain life.

Curiosity was launched into space last Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The rover will go from 13,000 mph to zero in seven minutes, and will land in Gale Crater, which NASA scientists think held water billions of years ago.

In the middle of Gale is Mount Sharp, a mountain thats taller than any in the Lower 48 U.S. states, said John Grotzinger, a NASA scientist whos working on the mission. Curiosity will explore the crater and the mountain, looking for clues of life.

I see it as an extraordinary opportunity to get a bearing on our own existence on Earth, Grotzinger said. Ascending Mount Sharp, were going to go through the major eras in the history of Mars that give us the basis for comparison to our own planet.

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NASA hopes Mars rover landing will be 'grand and profound'

HOUSTON (AP) Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1960s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the early years of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.

Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

The menu must sustain a group of six to eight astronauts, keep them healthy and happy and also offer a broad array of food. That's no simple feat considering it will likely take six months to get to the Red Planet, astronauts will have to stay there 18 months and then it will take another six months to return to Earth. Imagine having to shop for a family's three-year supply of groceries all at once and having enough meals planned in advance for that length of time.

"Mars is different just because it's so far away," said Maya Cooper, senior research scientist with Lockheed Martin who is leading the efforts to build the menu. "We don't have the option to send a vehicle every six months and send more food as we do for International Space Station."

Astronauts who travel to the space station have a wide variety of food available to them, some 100 or so different options, in fact. But it is all pre-prepared and freeze-dried with a shelf life of at least two years. And while astronauts make up a panel that tastes the food and gives it a final OK on Earth before it blasts off, the lack of gravity means smell and taste is impaired. So the food is bland.

On Mars though, there is a little gravity, allowing NASA to consider significant changes to the current space menu. That's where Cooper's team comes in. Travel to Mars opens the possibility that astronauts can do things like chop vegetables and do a little cooking of their own. Even though pressure levels are different than on Earth, scientists think it will be possible to boil water with a pressure cooker, too.

One option Cooper and her staff in the Johnson Space Center in Houston are considering is having the astronauts care for a "Martian greenhouse." They would have a variety of fruits and vegetables from carrots to bell peppers in a hydroponic solution, meaning they would be planted in mineral-laced water instead of soil. The astronauts would care for their garden and then use those ingredients, combined with others, such as nuts and spices brought from Earth, to prepare their meals.

"That menu is favorable because it allows the astronauts to actually have live plants that are growing, you have optimum nutrient delivery with fresh fruits and vegetables, and it actually allows them to have freedom of choice when they're actually cooking the menus because the food isn't already pre-prepared into a particular recipe," Cooper said.

The top priority is to ensure that the astronauts get the proper amount of nutrients, calories and minerals to maintain their physical health and performance for the life of the mission, Cooper said.

The menu must also ensure the psychological health of the astronauts, Cooper explained, noting studies have shown that eating certain foods such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes or turkey on Thanksgiving improve people's mood and give them satisfaction. That "link to home" will be key for astronauts on the Mars mission, and there are currently two academic studies looking further into the connection between mood and food. Lacking certain vitamins or minerals can also harm the brain, she said.

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NASA builds menu for planned Mars mission in 2030s

Much has been made of NASA's seeming retreat from space in the wake of the retirement of the space shuttle program. But while NASA has, at least for now, stopped sending people into space, it remains heavily invested in exploring our solar system remotely, and now it wants to get the public involved.

In conjunction with its current Mars Rover Curiosity mission, NASA has released a game for the Xbox 360 called Mars Rover Landing.

The game allows users to test their skill by trying to land the 1-ton Curiosity robotic rover on the surface of Mars using Microsoft's Kinect motion interface. Danielle Dallas Roosa, the granddaughter of astronaut Stuart Roosa, demonstrated the game in action (video below) earlier this week.

"Technology is making it possible for the public to participate in exploration as they never have before," Michelle Viotti, manager for the Mars Public Engagement Program at NASA, said in a statement. "Because Mars exploration is fundamentally a shared human endeavor, we want everyone around the globe to have the most immersive experience possible."

To further illustrate the precision needed to accomplish a successful Mars rover landing, NASA has also released a stunning video detailing what it calls "Seven Minutes of Terror." If you haven't been excited about robotic rover missions before, this presentation will likely change that sentiment.

In addition to the game, NASA has also released a 3D interactive experience using the Unity game engine, allowing users to explore Mars based on actual maps of its surface. NASA also has a mobile app called Be A Martian, which offers Mars rover mission news, images and behind-the-scenes video, available for Android and iOSdevices.

"We hope that through partnering on the Mars Rover experience, we spark interest and excitement among the next generation of scientists and technologists," said Walid Abu-Habda, corporate vice president of Developer & Platform Evangelism at Microsoft.

The Mars Rover Landing game is a free download currently available in the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and in Kinect Central.

Earlier this month, NASA released a panoramic image of Mars comprised of more than 800 photos taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Curiosity are scheduled to arrive on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012 after a 352-million-mile journey.

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NASA Releases Mars Rover Game for Xbox 360

HOUSTON Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.

Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

The menu must sustain a group of six to eight astronauts, keep them healthy and happy and also offer a broad array of food. That's no simple feat considering it will likely take six months to get to the Red Planet, astronauts will have to stay there 18 months and then it will take another six months to return to Earth. Imagine having to shop for a family's three-year supply of groceries all at once and having enough meals planned in advance for that length of time.

"Mars is different just because it's so far away," said Maya Cooper, senior research scientist with Lockheed Martin who is leading the efforts to build the menu. "We don't have the option to send a vehicle every six months and send more food as we do for International Space Station."

Astronauts who travel to the space station have a wide variety of food available to them, some 100 or so different options, in fact. But it is all pre-prepared and freeze-dried with a shelf life of at least two years. And while astronauts make up a panel that tastes the food and gives it a final OK on Earth before it blasts off, the lack of gravity means smell and taste is impaired. So the food is bland.

On Mars though, there is a little gravity, allowing NASA to consider significant changes to the current space menu. That's where Cooper's team comes in. Travel to Mars opens the possibility that astronauts can do things like chop vegetables and do a little cooking of their own. Even though pressure levels are different than on Earth, scientists think it will be possible to boil water with a pressure cooker too.

One option Cooper and her staff are considering is having the astronauts care for a "Martian greenhouse." They would have a variety of fruits and vegetables from carrots to bell peppers in a hydroponic solution, meaning they would be planted in mineral-laced water instead of soil. The astronauts would care for their garden and then use those ingredients, combined with others, such as nuts and spices brought from Earth, to prepare their meals.

"That menu is favorable because it allows the astronauts to actually have live plants that are growing, you have optimum nutrient delivery with fresh fruits and vegetables, and it actually allows them to have freedom of choice when they're actually cooking the menus because the food isn't already pre-prepared into a particular recipe," Cooper said.

The top priority is to ensure that the astronauts get the proper amount of nutrients, calories and minerals to maintain their physical health and performance for the life of the mission, Cooper said.

The menu must also ensure the psychological health of the astronauts, Cooper explained, noting studies have shown that eating certain foods such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes or turkey on Thanksgiving improve people's mood and give them satisfaction. That "link to home" will be key to astronauts on the Mars mission, and there are currently two academic studies looking further into the connection between mood and food. Lacking certain vitamins or minerals can also harm the brain, she said.

Continue reading here:

NASA builds menu for 2030s mission to Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover is due to touch down on the Martian surface on August 5, but a malfunction in another NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars will mean we'll all have to wait longer to find out if the landing is successful.

NASA is just 20 days away from landing a car-size rover on Mars, but mission managers might have to wait a little longer than anticipated to learn whether the challenging touchdown succeeds or not.

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NASA's 1-ton Curiosity rover, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is slated to land on the Martian surface on the night of Aug. 5 to investigate whether the planet is, or ever was, capable of harboringpast or present microbial life. But first, the rover will have to survive a harrowing journey through the Red Planet's atmosphere a process that has been nicknamed the "seven minutes of terror."

"[T]he Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA robotic mission ever attempted in the history ofexploration of Mars, or any of our robot exploration," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a news briefing today (July 16) at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "This is risky business."

And a glitch in an aging Mars orbiter may compromise Earth's communications with Curiosity slightly, forcing the mission team to wait a few more agonizing minutes to learn the fate of their $2.5 billion rover. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]

Since Curiosity is too large for an airbag-assisted landing, NASA is using a complex and unprecedented sky crane system to safely lower the rover onto the surface of the Red Planet. This sequence of events called entry, descent and landing (EDL) will last approximately seven minutes.

"Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission," said Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the spacecraft."

As Curiositystreaks through the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft must slow itself from roughly 13,200 mph (about 21,250 kilometers per hour) to zero in only seven minutes. The rocket-powered sky crane, which acts similar to a backpack with three nylon cords attached, will help to control the rover's descent.

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Will NASA's Mars rover land safely? Glitch could delay news. (+video)

NASA's Curiosity rover is due to touch down on the Martian surface on August 5, but a malfunction in another NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars will mean we'll all have to wait longer to find out if the landing is successful.

NASA is just 20 days away from landing a car-size rover on Mars, but mission managers might have to wait a little longer than anticipated to learn whether the challenging touchdown succeeds or not.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

NASA's 1-ton Curiosity rover, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is slated to land on the Martian surface on the night of Aug. 5 to investigate whether the planet is, or ever was, capable of harboringpast or present microbial life. But first, the rover will have to survive a harrowing journey through the Red Planet's atmosphere a process that has been nicknamed the "seven minutes of terror."

"[T]he Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA robotic mission ever attempted in the history ofexploration of Mars, or any of our robot exploration," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a news briefing today (July 16) at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "This is risky business."

And a glitch in an aging Mars orbiter may compromise Earth's communications with Curiosity slightly, forcing the mission team to wait a few more agonizing minutes to learn the fate of their $2.5 billion rover. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]

Since Curiosity is too large for an airbag-assisted landing, NASA is using a complex and unprecedented sky crane system to safely lower the rover onto the surface of the Red Planet. This sequence of events called entry, descent and landing (EDL) will last approximately seven minutes.

"Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission," said Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the spacecraft."

As Curiositystreaks through the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft must slow itself from roughly 13,200 mph (about 21,250 kilometers per hour) to zero in only seven minutes. The rocket-powered sky crane, which acts similar to a backpack with three nylon cords attached, will help to control the rover's descent.

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Will NASA's Mars rover land safely? Glitch could delay news.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 6, NASA and space enthusiasts across the world will be able to monitor the Mars landing of the most advanced robot ever to be sent to another world.

Named Curiosity, the robot - or "rover" - has been heading toward Mars for nearly eight months. The landing is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. EDT.

"Is it crazy? Not so much," said Doug McCuistion, the director of the Mars Exploration Program. "Is it risky? Landing on Mars is always risky. ... Every landing is unique. Every landing is like a first."

At a news conference Monday, NASA scientists said they were looking for evidence that life existed on Mars billions of years ago. This evidence could include indicators of water, sources of energy or sources of carbon - all of which are essential to sustain life.

Curiosity was launched into space last Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The rover will go from 13,000 mph to zero in seven minutes, and will land in Gale Crater, which NASA scientists think held water billions of years ago.

In the middle of Gale is Mount Sharp, a mountain that's taller than any in the Lower 48 U.S. states, said John Grotzinger, a NASA scientist who's working on the mission. Curiosity will explore the crater and the mountain, looking for clues of life.

"I see it as an extraordinary opportunity to get a bearing on our own existence on Earth," Grotzinger said. "Ascending Mount Sharp, we're going to go through the major eras in the ... history of Mars that give us the basis for comparison to our own planet."

Grotzinger is aware that a lot is riding on the mission, given NASA's shifting budget priorities.

"I think we all feel this incredible sense of pressure on MSL to do something grand and profound," he said, referring to the Mars Science Laboratory division of NASA. "I think it's going to be thrilling."

The precision of the landing is a significant improvement from previous Mars missions, said Pete Theisinger, a project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Helped by better communications technology, scientists will be able to land Curiosity within a very small range, on top of the most valuable scientific resource in the crater.

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NASA Aims for Mars Rover Landing in Early August

WASHINGTON: NASA's Curiosity rover is on target to arrive on Mars on August 6 for a two-year mission to find out whether microbial life once existed on the Red Planet, the US space agency said Monday.

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NASA's Mars rover two weeks from landing

Three weeks before the Mars Curiosity rover is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet, NASA had unveiled a new video game that takes players through the spacecraft's 'seven minutes of terror.'

NASA revealed a new video game today (July 16), one that celebrates the Aug. 5 landing of its huge Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.

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The game, called "Mars Rover Landing," is produced in collaboration with Microsoft and plays on the Xbox 360 system using the Kinect motion sensor. It's available free of charge in the Xbox Live Marketplace and Kinect Central, officials said.

"Mars Rover Landing" allows players to take control of Curiosity's spacecraft as it streaks through the Red Planet's atmosphere on a harrowing journey that mission engineers have dubbed "seven minutes of terror."

At the end, a rocket-powered sky crane lowers the rover to the Martian surface on cables, then flies off to crash-land intentionally a safe distance away.

"Families can get a taste of the daring that's involved in this, just landing this mission on the surface," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, told reporters today. "It's going to be very similar to the way the team actually is going to do that." [The Best (And Worst) Mars Landings in History]

The game is an outreach vehicle, McCuistion added, an attempt to raise awareness of Curiosity's mission and NASA's planetary exploration endeavors in a more general sense.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission. It blasted off in late November and is on schedule to touch down at Mars' Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5.

Link:

NASA's free video game for Xbox Live: 'Mars Rover Landing'