New Mars Forums

you mean 1 out of 155 are non Gas-giants Cindy

There might be many more if you chck the web, 55 Cancri was called to have a new class of planets dubbed Super Earth to be discovered and are about the mass of Uranus or Neptune and may be rocky terrestrial worlds with thick atmospheres,  a planet orbiting mu Arae with a mass of approximately 14 times that of the Earth and a microlensing event in 96 of a quasar led to a speculation that a 3 Earth mass planet is possibly in the unknown lensing galaxy, between Earth and the quasar, some other newly found planets are small like 15 Earth masses such as the Gliese 436 system. There are pulsar planets, which aren't really extra solar systems as pulsars are unlikely to have what astronomers are looking for in their planet quest but Pulsar 1257-plus12 is thought to have an object about the size of an big asteroid or large comet orbiting it....
http://vo.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/encyclo/ … pulsar.php
our detection methods are getting better all the time

some want to chop this mission down like the  plans like Prometheus, Mars Science Lander were significantly cut or delayed, Voyager might be gone and Geotail, FAST are in trouble

they are trying to chop it down a bit, $1 billion cost overrun, may need to be scaled down, Northrop Grumman says construction to cost $309 million more than expected and new NASA accounting rules add another $100 million
JWST might not go anwhere

will this add more fuel to the save-Hubble plan ?

a link here

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/f … 8/5724/935

:hm:

wow that's amazing stuff :up:

must be some of the best photos I've seen yet     

thank you for the update

:band:

Pity the MARSIS will be delayed    why is it delayed now  ?

what a fantastic view of the Moon from Cassini

great picture Cindy

too bad we haven't been updated on the Titan data from the Cassini-Huygens Lander

Poor Japan and the Japanese also had a dreadfulcrash and the toll climbs to 103 according to Daily Telegraph Australia , seems the Government made a stupid response much like it did during the Kobe Quake disaster

According to space dot com the NASDA or JAXA is in trouble because of the big cuts and stagnant economy, "If the present rates of decline continue, the space program will collapse," said Keiji Tachikawa, a former private sector executive who assumed leadership of the space agency, known as JAXA, four months ago. "We are almost in a crisis situation."

some more info and pictures

Enceladus stereo views
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 2133_1.jpg

Dione and Tethys
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalo … g/PIA06629

Epimetheus
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/dr … 2030_1.jpg

Janus
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/dr … 2024_1.jpg

Enceladus up-close
http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 2114_1.jpg

some more on CassiniHuygens

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … 2300_1.jpg

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 … 160348.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 … 003701.htm

haven't seen them all yet

There also are pdfs from the Mars Express Conference
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=36537
Mars Express Conference Presentations

Here's some more
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOBUV797E_in … dex_0.html
European space scientists have strongly recommended a mission equipped with a Rover

great pictures of Medusa  Fossae   

There seems to be a huge bulk of data available to the public, data you can enter an archive link near the top left but must register before retrieving datasets, http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?proje … roject=PSA they seem to be huge, GigaBites of Megbytes of Gigas of data  :hm:

as posted by Michael Bloxham
NASA has come out with some plans on Moon first

Quote
The Moon and Mars have a lot in common

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ml?2132005

see also the U today story
Science@NASA Article

Here is a bit more on it
quote
"The Moon is a natural first step," explains Philip Metzger, a physicist at NASA Kennedy Space Center. "It's nearby. We can practice living, working and doing science there before taking longer and riskier trips to Mars."

The Moon and Mars have a lot in common. The Moon has only one-sixth Earth's gravity; Mars has one-third. The Moon has no atmosphere; the Martian atmosphere is highly rarefied. The Moon can get very cold, as low as -240o C in shadows; Mars varies between -20o and -100o C.
Even more important, both planets are covered with silt-fine dust, called "regolith." The Moon's regolith was created by the ceaseless bombardment of micrometeorites, cosmic rays and particles of solar wind breaking down rocks for billions of years. Martian regolith resulted from the impacts of more massive meteorites and even asteroids, plus ages of daily erosion from water and wind. There are places on both worlds where the regolith is 10+ meters deep.

Operating mechanical equipment in the presence of so much dust is a formidable challenge. Just last month, Metzger co-chaired a meeting on the topic: "Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration," held at the Kennedy Space Center. Participants grappled with issues ranging from basic transportation ("What kind of tires does a Mars buggy need?") to mining ("How deep can you dig before the hole collapses?") to dust storms--both natural and artificial ("How much dust will a landing rocket kick up?").

Answering these questions on Earth isn't easy. Moondust and Mars dust is so ... alien.
Try this: Run your finger across the screen of your computer. You'll get a little residue of dust clinging to your fingertip. It's soft and fuzzy--that's Earth dust.
Lunar dust is different: "It's almost like fragments of glass or coral--odd shapes that are very sharp and interlocking," says Metzger
"Even after short moon walks, Apollo 17 astronauts found dust particles had jammed the shoulder joints of their spacesuits," says Masami Nakagawa, associate professor in the mining engineering department of the Colorado School of Mines. "Moondust penetrated into seals, causing the spacesuits to leak some air pressure."

In sunlit areas, adds Nakagawa, fine dust levitated above the Apollo astronauts' knees and even above their heads, because individual particles were electrostatically charged by the Sun's ultraviolet light. Such dust particles, when tracked into the astronauts' habitat where they would become airborne, irritated their eyes and lungs. "It's a potentially serious problem."

Dust is also ubiquitous on Mars, although Mars dust is probably not as sharp as moondust. Weathering smooths the edges. Nevertheless, Martian duststorms whip these particles 50 m/s (100+ mph), scouring and wearing every exposed surface. As the rovers Spirit and Opportunity have revealed, Mars dust (like moondust) is probably electrically charged. It clings to solar panels, blocks sunlight and reduces the amount of power that can be generated for a surface mission.
For these reasons, NASA is funding Nakagawa's Project Dust, a four-year study dedicated to finding ways of mitigating the effects of dust on robotic and human exploration, ranging from designs of air filters to thin-film coatings that repel dust from spacesuits and machinery.

see the NASA website

Since Saturday, 19 March, the study entitled Women International Space Simulation for Exploration (WISE) has been fully under way.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMAXJRMD6E_in … dex_0.html

ESA has created an information website on WISE at: http://spaceflight.esa.int/wise]http:// … a.int/wise