Was Mars Ever Habitable? Curiosity's SAM Instrument Seeks the Answer

After its amazing landing, which felt like it was straight out of a science fiction novel, NASA’s Curiosity rover is now safely on Mars and already at work. “Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's ‘habitability.’”^[1] To do this, Curiosity is equipped with an on-board laboratory that includes instruments ranging from spectrometers and radiation detectors to environmental and atmospheric sensors. Here’s what I learned from my visit to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center last week:

Gale Crater, Curiosity’s landing site, is the ideal place to search for evidence of organic compounds on Mars, many of which are the chemical building blocks of life on Earth. Similar to the Grand Canyon (though three times as high!), Gale Crater has exposed layers of rock that NASA hopes will reveal if there ever was life on Mars. Starting at the base of the crater, where the oldest sediments from the planet’s early years can be found, Curiosity will begin roving the area, performing experiments on the crater’s rock layers with its on-board lab.

NASA's Legacy and Future: Personal Reflections by NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr.

The following was written by HowStuffWorks' Hillary Ossip:

If you have even a smidgen of love to spare for space exploration, you will understand why I was shaking in my boots with excitement last week, sitting mere feet away from Senator John Glenn and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as they addressed a packed theater at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. for the ninth annual John H. Glenn Lecture. Both former astronauts, Bolden and Glenn spoke not just to the legacy of NASA, but also to the agency's future.

In Glenn's opening remarks, he noted the almost unbelievable progression of innovation from the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon just 66 years later. Glenn explained that when he began to fly in 1942, there was no concept of spaceflight beyond Flash Gordon comics. The fact that just 20 years later he was in space, making history in 1962 as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth exemplifies the rate at which new technologies were being developed. With this in mind, Senator Glenn introduced Bolden and his many accomplishments as a marine, an astronaut, a public figure, and a fellow human being.

Going Nose-to-Nose with Space Shuttle Discovery and Astronauts

Most days you will find us at our desks at Discovery Headquarters. But last Thursday my co-author and fellow Curiosity.com producer Jen Hughes and I had the chance to go out in the field to see history being made at the "Welcome Discovery" event at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA! After the Discovery shuttle's jaw-dropping flyover above the D.C. area on Tuesday (strapped on the back of a 747 no less!), we were beyond excited to get up close with the shuttle and astronauts who flew in it.

By way of introduction, we are part of Discovery's Curiosity.com team, where we interview leading experts from various disciplines to answer life's biggest questions such as "Are we alone in the universe?" Among our experts are several NASA astronauts and Smithsonian folks, including two of the event's keynote speakers: Wayne Clough (Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution) and Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator and former Discovery commander). Needless to say, seeing the Discovery shuttle pass-off from NASA to the Smithsonian was nothing short of exhilarating, particularly with our experts playing such a significant role. Not to mention, we're Discovery...the shuttle is Discovery ...it's like it was meant to be.