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2013 in science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Morocco in 2011, and report that it is a new type of Mars rock with an unusually high water content.[8][9][10] American researchers state that a gene associated with active personality traits is also linked to
  • Astronomers affiliated with the Kepler space observatory announce the discovery of KOI-172.02, an Earth-like exoplanet candidate which orbits a star similar to the Sun in the habitable zone
  • 13 January – Massachusetts doctors invent a pill-sized medical scanner that can be safely swallowed by patients, allowing the esophagus to be more easily scanned for disease
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  • 17 January – NASA announces that the Kepler space observatory has developed a reaction wheel issue
  • 2 January A study by Caltech astronomers reports that the Milky Way Galaxy contains at least one planet per sta
  • 3 January
  • 8 January
  • 20 January – Scientists prove that quadruple-helix DNA is present in human cells
  • 25 January
  • An international team of scientists develops a functional light-based "tractor beam", which allows individual cells to be selected and moved at will. The invention could have broad applications in medicine and microbiology
  • 30 January – South Korea conducts its first successful orbital launch
  • 6 February
  • Astronomers report that 6% of all dwarf stars – the most common stars in the known universe – may host Earthlike planets
  • Scientists discover live bacteria in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Whillans
  • American scientists finish drilling down to the subglacial Lake Whillans, which is buried around 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) under the Antarctic ice
  • 10 February NASA's Curiosity Mars rover uses its onboard drill to obtain the first deep rock sample ever retrieved from the surface of another plane
  • 15 February A 10-ton meteoroid impacts in Chelyabinsk, Russia, producing a powerful shockwave and injuring over 1,000 people
  • 28 February
  • Astronomers make the first direct observation of a protoplanet forming in a disk of gas and dust around a distant sta
  • A third radiation belt is discovered around the Eart
  • 1 March – Boston Dynamics demonstrates an updated version of its BigDog military robot
  • 3 March – American scientists report that they have cured HIV in an infant by giving the child a course of antiretroviral drugs very early in its life. The previously HIV-positive child has reportedly exhibited no HIV symptoms since its treatment, despite having no further medication for a year
  • researchers replace 75 percent of an injured patient's skull with a precision 3D-printed polymer replacement implant. In future, damaged bones may routinely be replaced with custom-manufactured implants
  • 7 March
  • A study concludes that heart disease was common among ancient mummies
  • 11 March
  • 12 March NASA's Curiosity rover finds evidence that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life after analyzing the first drilled sample of Martian rock, "John Klein" rock at Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater. The rover detected water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, chloromethane and dichloromethane. Related tests found results consistent with the presence of smectite clay minerals
  • 14 March CERN scientists confirm, with a very high degree of certainty, that a new particle identified by the Large Hadron Collider in July 2012 is the long-sought Higgs boson
  • 18 March
  • NASA reports evidence from the Curiosity rover on Mars of mineral hydration, likely hydrated calcium sulfate, in several rock samples, including the broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in the veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock.[177] Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 cm
  • 27 March – A potential new weight loss method is discovered, after a 20% weight reduction was achieved in mice simply by having their gut microbes altered.
  • NASA scientists report that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station
  • 3 April
  • 15 April A functional lab-grown kidney is successfully transplanted into a live rat in Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 18 April – NASA announces the discovery of three new Earthlike exoplanets – Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f, and Kepler-69c – in the habitable zones of their respective host stars, Kepler-62 and Kepler-69. The new exoplanets, which are considered prime candidates for possessing liquid water and thus potentially life, were identified using the Kepler spacecraft
  • 21 April The Antares rocket, a commercial launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, successfully conducts its maiden flight
  • After years of unpowered glide tests, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo hybrid spaceplane successfully conducts its first rocket-powered fligh
  • 29 April
  • 1 May IBM scientists release A Boy and His Atom, the smallest stop-motion animation ever created, made by manipulating individual carbon monoxide molecules with a scanning tunnelling microscope
  • A new study finds that children whose parents suck on their pacifiers have fewer allergies later in life
  • NASA reports that a reaction wheel on the Kepler space observatory may be malfunctioning and may result in the premature termination of the observatory's search for Earth-like
  • 15 May
  • 16 May Water dating back 2.6 billion years, by far the oldest ever found, is discovered in a Canadian mine
  • 27 May Four-hundred-year-old bryophyte specimens left behind by retreating glaciers in Canada are brought back to life in the laboratory
  • 29 May
  • Russian scientists announce the discovery of mammoth blood and well-preserved muscle tissue from an adult female specimen in Siberia
  • A new treatment to "reset" the immune system of multiple sclerosis patients is reported to reduce their reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent
  • 4 June
  • During the Shenzhou 10 mission, Chinese astronauts deliver the country's first public video broadcast from the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory
  • 20 June
  • China's Shenzhou 10 manned spacecraft returns safely to Earth, having conducted China's longest manned space mission to date
  • 26 June
  • 20 June
  • 20 June
  • 6 July
  • Scientists report that a wide variety of microbial life exists in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Vostok, which has been buried in ice for around 15 million years. Samples of the lake's water obtained by drilling were found to contain traces of DNA from over 3,000 tiny organisms
  • 15 July
  • ASA engineers successfully test a rocket engine with a fully 3D-printed injector
  • 19 July
  • NASA scientists publish the results of a new analysis of the atmosphere of Mars, reporting a lack of methane around the landing site of the Curiosity rover
  • Earth is photographed from the outer solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft releases images of the Earth and Moon taken from the orbit of Saturn
  • 29 July – Astronomers discover the first exoplanet orbiting a brown dwarf, 6,000 light years from Earth
  • exoplanet
  • 7 January
  • Astronomers
  • report that "at least 17 billion" Earth-sized exoplanets are estimated to reside in the Milky Way Galaxy
  • 20 February
  • NASA reports the discovery of Kepler-37b, the smallest exoplanet yet known, around the size of Earth's Moon
  • 10 June
  • Scientists report that the earlier claims of an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a star close to our Solar System, may not be supported by astronomical evidence
  • 25 June – In an unprecedented discovery, astronomers detect three potentially Earthlike exoplanets orbiting a single star in the Gliese 667
  • 11 July For the first time, astronomers determine the true colour of a distant exoplanet. HD 189733 b, a searing-hot gas giant, is said to be a vivid blue colour, most likely due to clouds of silica in its atmosphere
  • NASA announces that the failing Kepler space observatory may never fully recover. New missions are being considered
  • 15 August
  • Phase I clinical trials of SAV001 – the first and only preventative HIV vaccine – have been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients. Antibody production was greatly boosted after vaccination
  • 3 September
  • 12 September NASA announces that Voyager I has officially left the Solar System, having travelled since 1977
  • NASA scientists report the Mars Curiosity rover detected "abundant, easily accessible" water (1.5 to 3 weight percent) in soil samples
  • 26 September
  • In addition, the rover found two principal soil types: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type
  • mafic
  • as associated with hydration of the amorphous phases of the soi
  • perchlorates, the presence of which may make detection of life-related organic molecules difficult, were found at the Curiosity rover landing site
  • earlier at the more polar site of the Phoenix lander) suggesting a "global distribution of these salts
  • Astronomers have created the first cloud map of an exoplanet, Kepler-7b
  • 30 September
  • 8 October The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider"
  • 16 October Russian authorities raise a large fragment, 654 kg (1,440 lb) total weight, of the Chelyabinsk meteor, a Near-Earth asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013, from the bottom of Chebarkul lake.
  • Researchers have shown that a fundamental reason for sleep is to clean the brain of toxins. This is achieved by brain cells shrinking to create gaps between neurons, allowing fluid to wash through
  • 17 October
  • 22 October – Astronomers have discovered the 1,000th known exoplanet
  • 4 November - Astronomers report, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy
  • 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars
  • 5 November – India launches its first Mars probe, Mangalyaan
  • The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has made the first discovery of very high energy neutrinos on Earth which had originated from beyond our Solar System
  • 21 November
  • 1 December – China launches the Chang'e 3 lunar rover mission, with a planned landing on December 16
  • 3 December – The Hubble Space Telescope has found evidence of water in the atmospheres of five distant exoplanets: HD 209458b, XO-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b and WASP-19b
  • 9 December NASA scientists report that the planet Mars had a large freshwater lake (which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life) based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater
  • 12 December NASA announces, based on studies with the Hubble Space Telescope, that water vapor plumes were detected on Europa, moon of Jupiter
  • 14 December – The unmanned Chinese lunar rover Chang'e 3 lands on the Moon, making China the third country to achieve a soft landing there
  • 18 December
  • nomers have spotted what appears to be the first known "exomoon", located 1,800 light years away
  • 20 December – NASA reports that the Curiosity rover has successfully upgraded, for the third time since landing, its software programs and is now operating with version 11. The new software is expected to provide the rover with better robotic arm and autonomous driving abilities. Due to wheel wear, a need to drive more carefully, over the rough terrain the rover is currently traveling on its way to Mount Sharp, was also reported
Mars Base

Curiosity Rolls into Intriguing 'Darwin' at 'Waypoint 1′ on Long Trek to Moun... - 1 views

  • NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has just rolled into an intriguing site called ‘Darwin’ at ‘Waypoint 1’
  • the long journey to Mount Sharp
  • was certain to last nearly a year
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  • science team carefully choose a few stopping points for study along the way to help characterize the local terrain
  • Curiosity has arrived at Waypoint 1
  • has now driven nearly 20% of the way towards the base of the giant layered mountain
  • Altogether, the team selected five ‘Waypoints’ to investigate for a few days each
  • stay just a couple of sols at Waypoint 1 and then we hit the road again
  • Waypoint 1’ is an area of intriguing outcrops that was chosen based on high resolution orbital imagery taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • Curiosity will only stay a short time at each of the stops, the measurements collected at each ‘Waypoint’ will provide essential clues to the overall geologic and environmental history
  • scientists goal is to compare the floor of Gale Crater to the sedimentary layers of 3 mile high (5 kilometer high) Mount Sharp
  • Waypoint 1 is just over 1 mile along the approximately 5.3-mile (8.6-kilometer) route from ‘Glenelg’ to the entry point at the base of Mount Sharp
  • Curiosity spent over six months investigating the ‘Yellowknife Bay’ area inside Glenelg before departing on July 4, 2013
  • On Sept. 5, Curiosity set a new one-day distance driving record for the longest drive yet by advancing 464 feet (141.5 meters) on her 13th month
  • As Curiosity neared Waypoint 1 she stopped at a rise called ‘Panorama Point’ on Sept. 7
  • will not conduct any drilling here or at the other waypoints
  • unless there is some truly remarkable discovery
  • If all goes well Curiosity could reach the entry point to Mount Sharp sometime during Spring 2014, at her current driving pace
Mars Base

Curiosity Captures First Ever Asteroid Images from Mars Surface - 0 views

  • surface of the Red Planet during night sky imaging.
  • The Curiosity rover has captured the first images of asteroids even taken by a Human probe from the
  • two asteroids caught in the same night time pointing on the Red Planet. Namely, asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
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  • snapped by Curiosity’s high resolution Mastcam camera earlier this week on Sunday, April 20, 2014
  • whilst she was scanning about during daylight for her next drilling target at “The Kimberley” waypoint she pulled into at the start of this month.
  • Ceres and Vesta appear as streaks since the Mastcam image was taken as a 12 second time exposure.
  • “This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the atmosphere at night in Curiosity’s location on Mars, where water-ice clouds and hazes develop during this season,” said camera team member Mark Lemmon
  • “The two Martian moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky.”
  • Ceres, the largest asteroid, is about 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter. Vesta is the third-largest object in the main belt and measures about 350 miles (563 kilometers) wide.
  • the tinier of Mars’ moons, Deimos, was also caught in that same image.
  • Mars largest moon Phobos as well as massive planets Jupiter and Saturn were also visible that same Martian evening, albeit in a different pointing.
  • The two asteroids and three stars would be visible to someone of normal eyesight standing on Mars.
Mars Base

Curiosity Pulls into Kimberly and Spies Curvy Terrain For Drilling Action - 0 views

  • NASA’s Curiosity rover has just pulled into
  • terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that’s suitable for contact science and drilling action
  • The robot’s arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots
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  • the mast mounted ChemCam laser and high resolution cameras to determine the best spot for drilling and sampling.
  • the art robot is conducting contact science with the cameras and spectrometers on the terminus of the 7 foot long robotic arm
  • The team commanded Curiosity to clean out the arms CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in anticipation of boring into the Martian outcrops and delivering
  • samples of cored Martian rocks to the SAM and CheMin miniaturized chemistry labs
  • Scientists directed Curiosity on a pinpoint drive to Kimberly after their interest was piqued by orbital images taken
  • NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • see three terrain types exposed and a relatively dust-free surface
  • The missions science focus has shifted to “search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon,”
  • To date Curiosity’s odometer stands at 6.2 kilometers
  • has somewhat over another 4 kilometers to go to reach the base of Mount Sharp
  • may arrive at the lower reaches of Mount Sharp sometime in mid 2014, but must first pass through a potentially treacherous dune field
Mars Base

Wow! Curiosity Rover Captures 2 Mars Moons Together In Stunning NASA Video | Space.com - 0 views

  • Earth's moon
  • A spectacular new video from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the Red Planet's two tiny moons eclipsing each other
  • Curiosity snapped 41 images of the Mars moons in the night sky on Aug. 1, with rover scientists then stitching them together to make the final 30-second video
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  • the first time a view of the two Martian satellites — called Phobos and Deimos — eclipsing each other has been captured from the vantage point of the planet's surface
  • researchers are studying the images to refine their knowledge of the orbits of Phobos and Deimos
  • ultimate goal is to improve orbit knowledge enough that we can improve the measurement of the tides Phobos raises on the Martian solid surface
  • Phobos' orbit is taking it closer to the surface of Mars very slowly
  • Deimos may gradually be getting farther and farther away from the planet
  • Phobos is just 14 miles (22 kilometers) wide on average, while Deimos is even smaller
  • But Curiosity was able to spot both of them because they orbit
  • 3,700 miles (6,000 km) in Phobos' case and 12,470 miles (20,070 km) for Deimos
  • Earth's moon
  • a diameter of about 2,160 miles (3,475 km)
  • farther away — its average distance is 239,000 miles (384,600 km)
  • Phobos appears half as big in the sky to Curiosity as Earth's moon does to human skywatchers
  • Earth's moon
Mars Base

Leave the Driving to Autonav | NASA - 0 views

  • For the past year, Curiosity has been driving on Mars following instructions from human rover planners
  • new capability that’s coming on line
  • that will let Curiosity drive herself on Mars
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  • called “Autonomous navigation
  • Humans are still
  • going to tell her where to go.  Curiosity is going to decide how to get there
  • Curiosity takes pictures from the navigation cameras, with the hazard cameras, and it’s able to combine that information, put it all together to define a safe way to get to where we ask her to go
  • The drive lasted about 10 meters
  • she turned her camera this way and that to look at what’s ahead of her.
  • She actually curved a little bit to the right to avoid some of the small rocks that were directly in front of her.
  • the actual speed that Curiosity
  • only about 2 inches per second
  • Another part of the autonomous navigation capability is using visual odometry
  • Visual odometry uses images from the mast cameras to look at the terrain before and after a small drive step.
  • Curosity will see a few hundred features and see how they move across the step
  • by tracking those features she can know exactly how far she moved, whether she slipped or twisted a little bit during the drive
Mars Base

Curiosity says 'Goodbye Kimberley' after Parting Laser Blasts and Seeking New Adventure... - 0 views

  • NASA’s rover Curiosity said ‘Goodbye Kimberley’ having fulfilled her objectives of drilling into a cold red sandstone slab
  • sampling the
  • grey colored interior and pelting the fresh bore hole with a pinpoint series of parting laser blasts
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  • Since then, the 1 ton robot carefully scrutinized the resulting 2.6 inches (6.5 centimeters) deep bore hole
  • the mound of dark grey colored drill tailings piled around for an up close examination of the texture and composition with the MAHLI camera and spectrometers
  • successfully delivered pulverized and sieved samples to the pair of onboard miniaturized chemistry labs
  • Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin)
  • Sample Analysis at Mars instrument (SAM)
  • for chemical and compositional analysis.
  • rover’s
  • decided that one drill campaign into Kimberley was enough.
  • So the rover will not be drilling into any other rock targets here
  • it may be a very long time before the next drilling
  • the guiding team of scientists and engineers wants
  • arrive at the foothills of Mount Sharp as soon as possible.
  • further analysis of the ‘Windjana’ sample along the way
  • there’s plenty of leftover sample material stored in the CHIMRA sample processing mechanism to allow future delivery of samples when the rover periodically pauses during driving.
  • Windjama lies some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) southwest of Yellowknife Bay
  • still has about another 4 kilometers to go to reach the foothills of Mount Sharp sometime later this year
Mars Base

Astronauts Could Survive Mars Radiation, Curiosity Rover Finds | Space.com - 0 views

  • Radiation levels at the Martian surface appear to be roughly similar to those experienced by astronauts in low-Earth orbit
  • add more support
  • that astronauts can indeed function on the Red Planet for limited stretches of time.
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  • findings demonstrate that Mars' atmosphere, though just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth, does provide a significant amount of shielding
  • lacks a magnetic field, which gives our planet another layer of protection.)
  • Radiation at the Martian surface is about half as high as the levels Curiosity experienced during its nine-month cruise through deep space
  • findings are preliminary, as Curiosity is just three months into a planned two-year prime mission
  • team have not yet put hard numbers on the Martian radiation levels
  • hoping to release that at the
  • American Geophysical Union's huge conference in San Francisco
  • from Dec. 3-7. "
  • One key to understanding the big picture will be documenting the effects of big solar storms, which can blast huge clouds of charged particles into space
  • Curiosity flew through one such cloud on its way to Mars but has yet to experience one on the surface
Mars Base

Mars Rover Curiosity Gets Mission Extension | Space.com - 0 views

  • Curiosity's mission was originally planned to last two years. It has now been extended indefinitely.
  • Curiosity
  • radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG),
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  • should be able to continue converting the heat of plutonium-238's radioactive decay into electricity for a long time
  • think it has 55 years of positive power margin
  • NASA will also keep its other Mars assets going as long as possible
  • include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Opportunity rover
  • applies to NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter as well
  • doesn't expect the spacecraft to still be viable in 2021
  • launched in 2001 and has been showing some signs of age
  • particularly important for the 2020 rover mission to have functioning orbiters at Mars to help relay communications back and forth to Earth
Mars Base

No Huge Discovery by Mars Rover Curiosity Yet | Space.com - 0 views

  • Contrary to rampant speculation, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has not made an earth-shaking find
  • many people assumed that Curiosity had detected organic compounds in the Martian soil.
  • that's not the case, officials said.
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  • At this point in the mission, the instruments on the rover have not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics
  • The news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil,
  • While no huge news is apparently in the offing on Monday, NASA has high hopes for Curiosity and its mission.
Mars Base

Mars Rover Curiosity Has First Big Malfunction - 0 views

  • hoped Curiosity would resume science work in about a week.
  • similar problems were caused by high-energy solar and cosmic ray strikes
  • On other space missions
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  • Curiosity has protections against such high-energy disruptions, but the problem was compounded by what appears to have been the location of the strike—in the directory, or "table of contents," of the computer's memory
  • appears to have caused the computer to get stuck in an endless loop.
  • previous rovers experienced many so-called "anomalies" during the early part of their treks
  • Even if the rover is fully operational again in a week, the amount of science it can perform is limited.
  • the sun comes between Mars and the Earth in early April, partially blocking the path for radio commands for an entire month
  • The Curiosity team had planned to send back science data from Mars during that period—called "solar conjunction"—but had decided not to send up any commands.
Mars Base

NASA - Curiosity Rover Hits Paydirt - 0 views

  • This week the Curiosity science team released its initial findings from its first ever drilled sample on Mars
  • Curiosity obtained her first drill sample and passed that sample on to her onboard analytical lab instruments, called CheMin and SAM
  • These powerful instruments tell us about what minerals are present in these rocks and whether they contain the ingredients necessary to sustain life as we know it.
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  • When we combine what we have learned from our remote sensing and contact science instruments with the data that's coming in from CheMin and SAM, we get a picture of an ancient watery environment, which would have been habitable had life been present in it.
  • the information that we're getting from the CheMin instrument, tells us that the minerals that are present in this lakebed sedimentary rock at John Klein are very different from just about anything we've ever analyzed before on Mars
  • they tell us that the John Klein rock was deposited in a fresh water environment
  • This is an important contrast with other sedimentary environments that we've visited on Mars, like the Meridiani Planum landing site where the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, has been operating since 2004.
  • At that site, the sedimentary rocks record evidence of an environment that was only wet on a very intermittent basis, and when it was, the waters that were there were highly acidic, very salty, and not favorable for the survival of organic compounds.
  • direct contrast to the fresh water environment we're seeing here at the John Klein Site
  • The SAM instrument is telling us that these rocks contained all of the ingredients necessary for a habitable environment
  • We found carbon, sulfur and oxygen, all present and a number of other elements in states that life could have taken advantage of.
  • these few tablespoons of powder from a Martian rock have provided the Curiosity science team with an exciting new dataset
Mars Base

Curiosity Demonstrates New Capability to Scan 360 Degrees for Life Giving Water - and i... - 0 views

  • The science team guiding NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover have demonstrated a new capability that significantly enhances the robots capability to scan her surroundings for signs of life giving water
  • from a distance
  • the rover appears to have found that evidence for water at the Gale Crater landing site is also more widespread than prior indications.
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  • Mastcam cameras
  • can now also be used as a mineral-detecting and hydration-detecting tool to search 360 degrees around every spot she explores for the ingredients required for habitability and precursors to life
  • Some iron-bearing rocks and minerals can be detected and mapped using the Mastcam’s near-infrared filters
  • scientists used the filter wheels on the Mastcam cameras to run an experiment by taking measurements in different wavelength’s
  • a rock target called ‘Knorr’ in the Yellowknife Bay area were Curiosity is now exploring
  • Researchers found that near-infrared wavelengths on Mastcam can be used as a new analytical technique to detect the presence of some but not all types of hydrated minerals
  • The first use of the Mastcam 34 mm camera to find water was at the rock target called “Knorr.”
  • see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area
  • These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix
  • Mastcam thus serves as an early detective for water without having to drive up to every spot of interest, saving precious time and effort
  • But Mastcam has some limits
  • It is not sensitive to the hydrated phyllosilicates found in the drilling sample at John Klein
  • Mastcam can use the hydration mapping technique to look for targets related to water that correspond to hydrated minerals
  • Yellowknife Bay basin possesses a significant amount of phyllosilicate clay minerals; indicating an environment where Martian microbes could once have thrived in the distant past.
Mars Base

LEGO to Roll Out Mars Rover Curiosity as Toy Model | Space.com - 0 views

  • The Denmark-based LEGO Group chose a fan-built model of the car-size rover to be the next release in its CUUSOO line of building brick toys.
  • Pakbaz designed the model to feature many of the details of the real Mars rover, including its "rocker-bogie" wheel suspension that enables Curiosity to navigate the Martian surface
  • He separately built a model of the rover's "sky crane" descent stage, which lowered Curiosity down into the crater, although whether that component will make it into the final product is not yet known
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  • The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover will be the fifth model in the LEGO CUUSOO line and the second to feature a space theme
  • In March 2012, LEGO released a model of Japan's Hayabusa asteroid-sampling probe as designed and suggested by LEGO fan Daisuke Okubo
Mars Base

Curiosity Hammers into Mars Rock in Historic Feat - 0 views

  • Image caption: Curiosity tool turret located at end of robotic arm is positioned with drill bit
  • on Jan 31, 2013
  • The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) was also placed in contact with the ground to determine the chemical composition of the rock drill test site and possible calcium sulfate vein and investigate its hydration state.
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  • Image caption: Close-up view of Curiosity drill bit penetrating John Klein outcrop
  • Curiosity can drill to a depth of about 2 inches (5 cm) into rocks
  • Ultimately a powdered and sieved sample about half an aspirin tablet in size will be delivered to the SAM and CheMin analytical labs on the rover deck.
Mars Base

Mars Rover to Test Rock-Zapping Laser, 1st Drive Set | Space.com - 0 views

  • Scientists plan to blast a Martian rock called N165 with Curiosity's laser
  • The 3-inch-wide (7.6 centimeters) stone sits just 9 feet (2.7 meters) from Curiosity, well within ChemCam's 25-foot (7.6 m) range
  • didn't pick it for its science value
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  • sort of a target practice
  • Curiosity won't go straight to Mount Sharp
  • it will head first for Glenelg
  • captures much of the geological diversity of Gale Crater's floor
  • Researchers will likely keep checking out Curiosity and its instruments for another few weeks
  • the trip to Glenelg could take up to two months, depending upon how much science the team wants to do
  • team will probably keep Curiosity at Glenelg for about a month
  • The rover will use its drill for the first time at the site, boring more deeply into Martian rock than any robot has before
Mars Base

Quick and Curious Facts About the Mars Science Laboratory Mission - 0 views

  • Quick and Curious Facts About the Mars Science Laboratory Mission
  • Curiosity rover will land on Mars at 05:31 UTC on Aug. 6 (10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 and 1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6
  • Earth-received time
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  • (13.8 minutes) for radio signal to reach Earth from Mars
  • landing will be at about 3 p.m. local time at the Mars landing site.
  • How long does it take for the rover to get to Mars’ surface after it reaches the outer atmosphere?
  • How big is the parachute?
  • How big are the spacecraft and the rover?
  • How does the rover get its power for roving?
  • What are the science instruments on board Curiosity?
  • How many cameras are on Curiosity?
  • When did Curiosity launch?
  • How far is Mars away from Earth?
  • How fast can Curiosity rove?
  • Where is Curiosity’s landing site?
  • What will the weather be like at Gale Crater?
  • How many possible landing sites did scientists considered before deciding on Gale Crater?
  • How long is the primary mission?
  • How much does this mission cost?
Mars Base

Curiosity Rover pauses mid-drive and captures Spectacular Martian Mountain Snapshot - 0 views

  • The six wheeled rover paused during the planned Feb. 19 drive of 328 feet (100 meters) to capture the imagery.
  • on Feb. 20 (Sol 549), she also completed her second 100 meter drive in reverse.
  • occasionally commanding Curiosity to drive backwards in a newly tested bid to minimize serious damage to the six 20 inch diameter wheels
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  • Curiosity is well on the way to her next near term goal, which is a science waypoint, named Kimberly (formerly called KMS-9), which lies about half a mile ahead.
Mars Base

Mars Rover Curiosity Proves Some Earth Meteorites are Martian | Space.com - 0 views

  • New data collected by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has pinned down the exact ratio of two forms of the inert gas argon in the Martian atmosphere
  • help confirm the origins of some meteorites
  • could also help researchers understand how and when Mars lost most of its atmosphere
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  • By understanding exactly how much of the lighter isotope argon-36 is present in the Martian atmosphere and comparing it to the heavier isotope, argon-38, scientists were able to confirm what the composition of a Martian meteorite on Earth should be
  • Curiosity found that the argon ratio for Mars is 4.2. The lighter form of argon has escaped more readily than the heavier isotope
  • Before this new study, scientists had placed the argon ratio somewhere between 3.6 and 4.5 by analyzing gas trapped inside Martian meteors on Earth
  • Argon is the clearest signature of atmospheric loss because it's chemically inert and does not interact
  • Curiosity is unable to directly investigate how much atmosphere Mars is losing, NASA's next Mars mission is designed to do just that
  • The MAVEN spacecraft (the name is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) will launch toward the Red Planet in November
Mars Base

Trekking Mars - Curiosity Roves Outside Landing Ellipse! - 0 views

  • Curiosity
  • just drove outside her landing ellipse
  • The six wheeled rover marked a major milestone on Sol 672, June 27, 2014, by traversing beyond her targeted landing ellipse
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  • After traversing 82 meters the rover stopped because it determined that it was slipping too much
  • Coincidentally, the rover stopped right on the landing ellipse, a major mission milestone
  • mission scientist Ken Herkenhoff
  • rover automatically stopped when it encountered soft sand and sensed that it wasn’t making enough progress
  • Curiosity still has about another 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) to go to reach the entry way at a gap in the dunes at the foothills of Mount Sharp sometime later this year
  • To date, Curiosity’s odometer totals over 5.1 miles (8.4 kilometers) since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. She has taken over 162,000 images
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