This Week at NASA: Landing on Mars and More

On June 25, NASA announced that the first Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars will take place Oct. 27-30, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
The agency hopes to collect proposals at the conference about which areas on Mars have the best scientific and physical characteristics for humans to safely land, live and work on the Red Planet. Once identified, the potential “exploration zones” could be further imaged by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey spacecraft, to create better resolution maps for mission planning. Also, Mars Odyssey: 60,000 orbits, Martian New Year in Mars, PA, Mars Day on the Hill, Wiseman and Wilmore appearances, Engine tests continue, Micro-g NExT.