This website was created by Arizona State University to provide current information about Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) and details about infrared spectroscopy. Students and educators can learn about the instrument's capabilities to collect mineralogy and thermophysical data on the terrain of Mars. Scientists can view the first mineral map gathered from the Mini-TES aboard the Mars...

The thermal emission spectrometer (TES) is a scientific instrument created at Arizona State University to provide detailed looks at the composition of Mars. The website features ASU's spectral library of Earth's minerals and rocks which can be used for comparison with those obtained from Mars and for interpretation of remote sensing data of Earth. Researchers can learn about the many projects...

Arizona State University (ASU) Mars education program is a planetary imaging facility created to accommodate research for fifth grade through post doctoral students along with the professional scientific community. Users can download a variety of manuals containing step-by-step explanations of projects created to help students learn about the scientific process, the topographic features of Mars,...

Aurora Flight Sciences most recently made headlines with a test of its MarsFlyer, a prototype aircraft that, in its final version, will be used by NASA to gather information about the Red Planet's atmosphere. The company's Web site has information about this and many other specialized aircraft, as well as a video from the tail of the MarsFlyer as it was dropped from 100,000 feet. Specific...

Europe reclaims a stake in Mars exploration! The European Space Agency has launched this informative site in conjunction with the Mars Express mission which lifted off on June 3, 2003. Before the live Webcast of the craft arrival in December, 2003, visitors to this well organized site can track the progress of the spacecraft. You can also learn a lot about early attempts to explore mars and...

The National Imagery and Mapping Agency, a US Military organization that scrutinizes surveillance imagery, has discovered what might be the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) in an image of the Martian south pole from the NASA Mars Global Surveyor. NASA's MPL was due to land near the Martian south pole in December 1999,, but mission controllers lost contact with it during its descent. This news story from...

This Review Panel Report represents the work of a review team contracted by NASA to analyze its programs and practices. Released this week, the report discusses findings relating to the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter on September 23, 1999. The report also summarizes lessons learned from the mishap, gives an overview of NASA project management, identifies common themes related to recent...

Scheduled for launch in 2003, two NASA rovers will set out to explore Mars and determine whether water ever existed on the planet. This is the home page of the Mars rovers, and it has a great deal of information about the specifications and technology of the missions. Detailed descriptions of the scientific instruments equipped on each rover are provided. Color diagrams show the main components of...

The public can now view the amazing, newly collected images of Mars thanks to this Mars Exploration Rover Mission website. The first images, made available on January 4, 2004, are black and white pictorials of the rover on the surface of Mars. On January 6, 2004, this website provided users with the first color images of Mars. Alongside each image, the NASA team has provided users with...

As part of NASA's Mars Exploration Web site, the Videos gallery page contains dozens of related movies. Visitors can see an animated video of the Rover mission to Mars, the Mars Exploration Rover in action, the deployment of Odyssey's Gamma Ray Spectrometer Instrument, an engineering test of landing a rover on the ground, a futuristic look at how life could be like on Mars, a Mars astronomy...