Post by CMF Newsman on Feb 27, 2012 13:15:50 GMT -5
NASA is making a cosmic U-turn on the road to Mars.
For the past two decades, the U.S. space agency has been practically obsessed with Mars. It has hardly missed an opportunity about every two years to fling robotic spacecraft at the red planet.
This summer, the most high-tech rover ever, Curiosity, will land near the Martian equator in search of the chemical building blocks of life. The more scientists study Mars, the closer they get to answering whether microbial life once existed there, a clue to the ultimate question: Are we alone?
Presidents have long talked about sending astronauts to Mars. Two years ago, President Barack Obama stood in Kennedy Space Center and said it was more of a priority than going to the moon and wanted astronauts there by the mid-2030s.
Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/27/scientists-see-red-on-nasa-cuts-mars-missions/#ixzz1nbhubJce
For the past two decades, the U.S. space agency has been practically obsessed with Mars. It has hardly missed an opportunity about every two years to fling robotic spacecraft at the red planet.
This summer, the most high-tech rover ever, Curiosity, will land near the Martian equator in search of the chemical building blocks of life. The more scientists study Mars, the closer they get to answering whether microbial life once existed there, a clue to the ultimate question: Are we alone?
Presidents have long talked about sending astronauts to Mars. Two years ago, President Barack Obama stood in Kennedy Space Center and said it was more of a priority than going to the moon and wanted astronauts there by the mid-2030s.
Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/27/scientists-see-red-on-nasa-cuts-mars-missions/#ixzz1nbhubJce