The human journey to the beginning of space and time will get a detailed view of Mars using the Mast Camera on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, once Curiosity lands on the surface of Mars, sometime around August 2012, according to the latest estimates by NASA. Space travel is by necessity extremely well planned and every detail must be worked out to a set time table if the Curiosity is to accomplish its mission. All aspects of the mission parameters must be analysed and reanalysed to ensure eve...

Scientists using the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to look beneath Mar's north polar ice cap and get an idea of the lay of the ground think they know how Chasma Boreale and the much discussed series of spiral troughs were formed. The formation of Chasma Boreale and enigmatic spiral troughs have been talked about for four decades by space scientists and am...