Early Mars (>3 Ga) underwent aqueous alteration as evidenced by fluvial/lacustrine morphologies and the recent discovery of widespread hydrous clays. Despite compelling evidence for diverse and localized aqueous environments, the possibility for sustained liquid water globally on the martian surface and over geological timescales is still highly debated. Instead, a durably cold and dry Mars sce...

Introduction: Measurements of the martian atmosphere have experienced rapid growth during the past decade. As on Earth, remote sensing from orbit offers the advantage of nearly continuous, global coverage and a host of instruments have been employed for this purpose, including cameras [the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and the Mars Color Imager (MARCI)] and infrared sounders [the Thermal Emission S...

It is often stated that Mars and Earth had similar environmental conditions early in their history and that life might therefore have originated on Mars as well as on Earth. However, the atmospheric conditions required to produce and sustain a warm, wet climate on early Mars remain uncertain. State-of-the-art greenhouse models predict global mean surface temperatures early in Mars' history that...

Place-naming processes for the features on other planetary bodies are controlled by the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Working Group on Planetary Nomenclature. This article examines the development of the nomenclature of the surroundings of the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), located in Utah, USA, a simulation facility for future Mars stations. The development of t...

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, containing the Curiosity rover, was launched to Mars on 26 November 2011, and for most of the 253-day, 560-million-kilometer cruise to Mars, the Radiation Assessment Detector made detailed measurements of the energetic particle radiation environment inside the spacecraft. These data provide insights into the radiation hazards that would be associated with...

Observations of seasonal variations of neutron flux from the high-energy neutron detector (HEND) on Mars Odyssey combined with direct measurements of the thickness of condensed carbon dioxide by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on Mars Global Surveyor show a latitudinal dependence of northern winter deposition of carbon dioxide. The observations are also consistent with a shallow substra...

Whole disk brightness ratios for Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are reported at 5.7, 9.5, 16.4, and 22.5 cm. Using models for the brightness temperature of Mars, the whole disk brightness temperatures for Jupiter and Saturn are also given for the four frequencies. Subject headings: balloons — cosmic microwave background — infrared: solar system — planets and satellites: individual (Jupiter, Mars, Sa...

Introduction: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is expected to launch in August 2005, arrive at Mars in March 2006, and begin the primary science phase in November 2006. MRO will carry a suite of remote-sensing instruments and is designed to routinely point off-nadir to precisely target locations on Mars for high-resolution observations. The mission will have a much higher data return than ...

INTRODUCTION Liver failure is associated with reduced synthesis of clotting factors, consumptive coagulopathy, and platelet dysfunction. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of liver support using a molecular adsorbent recirculating system (MARS) on the coagulation system in patients at high risk of bleeding. METHODS We studied 61 MARS treatments in 33 patients with acute liver fa...

A Celestial Navigation System (CNS) is a feasible and economical autonomous navigation system for deep-space probes. Ephemeris errors have a great influence on the performance of CNSs during the Mars approach phase, but there are few research studies on this problem. In this paper, the analysis shows that the ephemeris error of Mars is slowly-varying, while the ephemeris error of Phobos and Dei...