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Comet Hale-Bopp
Top Ten Stories of '96
Life on Mars?

Update -- October 10: Mission controllers briefly regained contact with Mars Pathfinder earlier this week. No data was returned, but the signal allowed controllers to verify the lander was working and was using solar power, not its depleted batteries. Controllers will try to reestablish contact later this week and weekend with Pathfinder.
     Scientists were able to show off their latest findings from Pathfinder in a press conference this week. New images show evidence of wind-blown deposits of dust on the surface, and additional images of rounded rocks and pebbles indicates water once flowed on the surface. An ingenious use of Doppler shifts in the radio signals coming from Pathfinder, combined with data from the Viking landers, appears to show Mars has a core, mantle, and crust like the Earth.

Update -- October 3: The batteries in the Pathfinder lander may have run out, NASA officials said late this week. The spacecraft lost contact with Earth for several days earlier this week but is sending simple signals now, an indication that its battery has run out and has lost track of time. Mission planners at JPL are working out plans to continue the mission using only power from the solar panels on the lander, and hope to have something worked out in the next couple weeks.

Update -- September 26: NASA announced in a press release today that the Sojourner rover had completed its study of an area known as the "Rock Garden" and would now proceed to make a 50-meter (164-feet) journey clockwise around the lander. During this journey the rover will continue to make scientific measurements and also test its hazard-avoidance system.
     The rover will eventually go to the ramp from which it rolled onto the Martian surface in July and make measurements of soil collected on magnets mounted on the ramp. The measurements will provide a better understanding of the composition of the soil which has proven to be far more magnetic than anticipated.
     The lander has completed about 80 percent of its high-resolution color "super pan" image of the Martian terrain, with the rest to be sent back by late October. Both rover and lander continue to do well, despite losing charge in their batteries which has limited nighttime activities.

Last Update: 1997 October 10
Questions/Comments: jeff@astron.mit.edu

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