Apollo astronauts dream of trip to Mars

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Supporters of the theory that NASA faked the Apollo moon landings have the tide turned against them, as a lunar orbiter has spied spacecraft and astronaut tracks on the Moon left behind almost 40 years ago. Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean set foot on the moon in November 1969, just a few months after Apollo 11 made history as the first manned moon mission.

September 2nd, 2009 PANAJI - In a considerable downer for space conspiracy theorists, Chandrayaan-1's terrain-mapper camera has recorded images of the landing site of US spaceship Apollo 15 and tracks of its lunar rovers that were used by astronauts to travel on moon's surface nearly four decades ago, a scientist said Wednesday. Prakash Chauhan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the images captured by the hyper-spectral camera on board Chandrayaan-1 debunked conspiracy theories that have claimed that the Apollo 15, the fourth US mission to land on the moon was a hoax.

August 12th, 2009 LONDON - A committee appointed by the White House to review NASA's aims has put forward the idea to send astronauts on progressively longer space trips to asteroids, in order to prepare them for a landing on Mars. According to a report in New Scientist, committee member Edward Crawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that the first mission would fly by the moon.

July 21st, 2009 Obama meets astronauts; no promise of moon or MarsWASHINGTON — The same question that could have been asked 40 years ago moments after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon is still being asked today: Now what? On the 40th anniversary of man's first moon landing, the Apollo 11 crew met with President Barack Obama, who used the opportunity to talk about inspiration and science and math education. He didn't talk about going anywhere in space, not the moon or Mars.

July 21st, 2009 New NASA boss: Astronauts on Mars in his lifetimeWASHINGTON — NASA's new boss said Tuesday he will be "incredibly disappointed" if people aren't on Mars — or venturing somewhere beyond it — in his lifetime. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., who's 62, said his ultimate goal isn't just Mars — it's anywhere far from Earth.

July 20th, 2009 Google offers 'guided tour' of the moonNEW YORK — Google Inc. is offering a more wide-ranging view of the Moon, 40 years after humans first landed there.

July 20th, 2009 Apollo 11 astronauts look beyond moon, toward MarsWASHINGTON — The astronauts who first landed on the moon aren't dwelling on their small lunar steps. Instead, two of them on Sunday urged mankind to take a giant leap to Mars.

July 20th, 2009 Obama honors first men to land on moonWASHINGTON — Hailing the Apollo 11 astronauts as "three genuine American heroes," President Barack Obama said Monday that exploration spurs ingenuity and inspires students in math and science. In an Oval Office ceremony commemorating the day 40 years ago when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took man's first steps on the moon, Obama compared their accomplishment to his goal of the United States having the highest college graduation rates in the world by 2020.

July 20th, 2009 LONDON - Captain Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, says that it's time of the U.S. to forget about going back, and to join forces with the international community to focus on a mission to Mars instead.

July 20th, 2009 Apollo 11 crew: Moon less interesting than MarsWASHINGTON — The first astronauts to walk on the moon want President Barack Obama to aim for a new destination: Mars. On Monday, the Apollo 11 crewmen, fresh from a Washington lecture Sunday in which two of them expressed concerns about NASA getting bogged down on the moon, are meeting with Obama at the White House.

July 19th, 2009 Aldrin: NASA should work to put people on MarsWASHINGTON — Former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin says NASA should set its sights on a bigger target in the future: Mars. Aldrin made the comments on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his landing on the moon on the Apollo 11 mission.

July 19th, 2009 Where were you when Apollo 11 landed? Not born yetWASHINGTON — Most Americans have never known a world where man hasn't been to the moon. It used to be a given that people knew where they were when man first walked on the moon on July 20, 1969, watching the black-and-white images on television.

July 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - There are still many secrets waiting to be gleaned from moon rocks collected by Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic moonwalk 40 years ago. Randy L Korotev, research professor in the department of earth and planetary sciences Washington University-St Louis (WUSTL), has studied lunar samples and their chemical compositions since he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin.

July 17th, 2009 Apollo 11 lunar navigation chart sells for $218KNEW YORK — A navigational chart used by Apollo 11 astronauts became the unexpected star of an auction on Thursday marking the 40th anniversary of man's first lunar landing. The circular lunar surface chart, which is 9 inches in diameter and consists of two sheets of plastic, sold for a stellar $218,000, according to Bonhams New York.

July 17th, 2009 New NASA photos show Apollo leftovers on the moonWASHINGTON — New NASA photos of the moon show the leftovers from man's exploration 40 years ago. For the first time, photos from space pinpoint equipment left behind from Apollo landings, and even the well-worn tracks made by astronauts on the moon surface.