Goddard to Manage Upcoming Mars Mission NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will provide information about the Red Planet's atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.
Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity in August 2006.
The principal investigator for the mission is Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The university will receive $6 million to fund mission planning and technology development during the next year. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will manage the project. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., will build the spacecraft based on designs from
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and
2001 Mars Odyssey missions. The team will begin mission design and implementation in the fall of 2009.
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Goddard's LaunchFest a Great Success
Thousands converged on Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. this past Saturday to celebrate LaunchFest. The predicted rain held off, encouraging approximately 13,000 people to visit the Center.
Beyond food, music, and entertainment on the Mall, the day was filled with exhibits and demonstrations from Goddard’s many current and future missions. Kids of all ages were filled with wonder at the dozens of interactive activities that filled the many buildings open to the public.
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NASA Study Illustrates How Global Peak Oil Could Impact Climate The burning of fossil fuels -- notably coal, oil and gas -- has accounted for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era. Now, NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could keep carbon dioxide below levels that some scientists have called dangerous for climate.
When and how global oil production will peak has been debated, making it difficult to anticipate emissions from the burning of fuel and to precisely estimate its impact on climate. To better understand how emissions might change in the future, Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York considered a wide range of fossil fuel consumption scenarios. The research, published August 5 in the American Geophysical Union's Global Biogeochemical Cycles, shows that the rise in carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels can be kept below harmful levels as long as emissions from coal are phased out globally within the next few decades.
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2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season Kicking Into High Gear For the first time in the 2008 hurricane season, there were four tropical cyclones active in the Atlantic Ocean basin on one day, September 2. September is considered the peak of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, and in the first week of the month, forecasters watched four cyclones.
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