On January 4, 2004, the first of two identical robotic exploratory rovers, NASA’s Spirit, snapped this stunning 360 degree image of its surroundings, moments after setting down on Mars. In the years to follow, both Spirit and its sister Opportunity helped revolutionize our understanding of the Red Planet.
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The day has finally come, space nerds. For just $30, you can have your very own Mars Curiosity Rover Lego kit. It comes with six-wheel suspension for rumbling over Martian soil, a model robotic arm for picking up Martian rocks, and pretty much as much awesome as you can fit in a box.
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NASA’s Curiosity rover has been on Mars for over a year now, and in the time has traversed nearly three miles. While its wheels are made of high-grade aluminum, they’re not strong enough to last forever. NASA announced this week it was taking an extra-long look at the wheels, and boy are they in rough shape.
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To send man to the moon? Pffft, that was one of the great achievement of mankind in the 20th century, but the 21st century – we’re looking farther and farther away. Enter Mars One, a privately-funded company that intends to send humans to colonize the Red Planet by the time 2025 rolls around. Such an undertaking is more or less a one way trip, but it has seen quite an enthusiastic response, with more than 200,000 people signing up already to date. Mars One, however, must have been disappointed with the numbers since they were looking forward to at least 2,000,000 applicants. Still, there is a different plan that is being prepared by Mars One, that is, to launch an unmanned lander to the surface of Mars by the time 2018 rolls around.
This unmanned lander will be working in tandem with a geostationary satellite, where it will be able to provide the public with a live feed from the surface of Mars. It will take several years after that for the colonists to arrive if all goes well, such a live connection would be able to show those of us on earth just how life on Mars would be like. Another reality show that is set to experience high ratings, except that it will be a setting that takes place far, far away from the comforts of our living room.
Mars One Intends To Launch Unmanned Mars Lander In 5 Years’ Time original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Mars has been a playground for NASA’s various robots and missions, and it was back in March that the Curiosity rover found evidence of conditions for habitable life, something that has cropped up in various degrees since then. According to some US researchers, it is possible that rocks containing life could have been blasted, so […]
Mars is a big boy. At 4.5 billion years old, the Red Planet can surely take care of itself by now—but you wouldn’t know it based on the great lengths NASA and friends go to protect it from contamination by Earthly debris. Some astrobiologists think these measures are unnecessary.
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The possibility that Mars was once home to all kinds of life is looking better and better with each new Curiosity discovery. According to newly published research, the rover has stumbled across a site in the Gale Crater that scientists believe might have once been a lake full of life.
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This week the NASA folks behind the Curiosity Mars rover mission have published a set of papers which suggest that they’re closer than ever to finding habitable environments on the planet. These findings are pre-emptive in finding actual organic materials, and show how life could maybe, possibly have existed on Mars at one time. Basically […]
You’ve probably never lent Mars’s northern pole a great deal of thought, but you can explore it in wonderful 3D glory in this ESA video.
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Back in February, Dennis Tito revealed his ambitious plan to send a married couple on a flyby mission to Mars, something he has detailed today to members of Congress in a push to get the US government on board (figuratively speaking). Despite the science fiction-esque sound of it all, Tito says that the project can […]
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