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Mars Base

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

www.space.com/riosity-mission-extension.html

scibyte74 Curiosity MRO

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Curiosity's mission was originally planned to last two years. It has now been extended indefinitely.
  • Curiosity
  • radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG),
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • 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

Soviet Lander Spotted by Mars Orbiter - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...emains-spotted-by-mars-orbiter

scibyte90 MarsSovietLander MRO

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • On May 28, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the Mars 3 mission which
  • consisted of an orbiter and lander destined for the Red Planet. Just over six months later on December 2, 1971, Mars 3 arrived at Mars
  • The Mars 3 descent module separated from the orbiter and several hours later entered the Martian atmosphere, descending to the surface via a series of parachutes and retrorockets
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Once safely on the surface, the Mars 3 lander opened its four petal-shaped covers to release the 4.5-kg PROP-M rover contained inside… and after 20 seconds of transmission, fell silent
  • Due to unknown causes, the Mars 3 lander was never heard from or seen again
  • The set of images
  • shows what might be hardware from the 1971 Soviet Mars 3 lander, seen in a pair of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
  • Russian citizen enthusiasts found four features in a five-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander. A follow-up image by the orbiter from last month shows the same features
  • the largest Russian Internet community about Curiosity.
  • subscribers did the preliminary search for Mars 3 via crowdsourcing
  • modeled what Mars 3 hardware pieces should look like in a HiRISE image, and the group carefully searched the many small features in this large image, finding what appear to be viable candidates
  • Each candidate has a size and shape consistent with the expected hardware, and they are arranged on the surface as expected from the entry, descent and landing sequence
  • The predicted Mars 3 landing site was at latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east, in Ptolemaeus Crater
  • HiRISE acquired a large image at this location in November 2007, and promising candidates for the hardware from Mars 3 were found on Dec. 31, 2012
  • The candidate parachute is the most distinctive feature
  • an especially bright spot for this region, about 8.2 yards (7.5 meters) in diameter
  • The parachute would have a diameter of 12 yards (11 meters) if fully spread out over the surface
  • this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out
Mars Base

Opportunity rover Spied atop Martian Mountain Ridge from Orbit - Views from Above and B... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...bit-views-from-above-and-below

scibyte121 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 20 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • NASA’s renowned Mars rover Opportunity has been spied
  • y from above and below
  • orbital view above – just released
  • ...25 more annotations...
  • The highly detailed image was freshly taken on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day 2014) by the telescopic High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • orbital image shows not only rover Opportunity at her location today, but
  • some of the wheel tracks created
  • as she climbed from the plains below up to near the peak of Solander Poin
  • The scene is narrowly focused on a spot barely one-quarter mile (400 meters) wide.
  • Endeavour is an impact scar created billions of years ago.
  • that infamous ‘jelly doughnut’ rock was actually the impetus for this new imaging campaign by NASA’s MRO Martian ‘Spysat.’
  • shiny 1.5 inches wide (4 centimeters)
  • , the science team decided to enlist the unparalleled capabilities of the HiRISE camera and imaging team in pursuit of answers.
  • To help solve the mystery
  • ‘Pinnacle Island’ had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a set of before/after pictures taken by Opportunity’s cameras on Jan, 8, 2014 (Sol 3540)
  • exact same spot had been vacant of debris in photos taken barely 4 days earlier.
  • the HiRISE research team was called in to plan a new high resolution observation of the ‘Murray Ridge’ area and gather clues about the rocky riddle
  • The purpose was to “check the remote possibility that a fresh impact by an object from space might have
  • thrown this rock to its new location
  • no fresh crater impacting site was found in the new image
  • the mystery was solved at last by the rover team after Opportunity drove a short distance away from the ‘jelly doughnut’ rock
  • snapped some ‘look back’ photographs to document the ‘mysterious scene’ for further scrutiny.
  • Opportunity unknowingly ‘created’ the mystery herself when she drove over a larger rock, crushing and breaking it apart with the force from the wheels and her hefty 400 pound (185 kg) mass.
  • “Once we moved Opportunity a short distance, after inspecting Pinnacle Island, we could see directly uphill an overturned rock that has the same unusual appearance,”
  • Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson
  • Feb 19, marks Opportunity’s 3582nd Sol or Martian Day roving Mars. She is healthy with plenty of power.
  • snapped over 188,800
  • images
  • Her total odometry stands at over 24.07 miles (38.73 kilometers) since touchdown on Jan. 24, 2004
Mars Base

Opportunity Scaling Solander Mountain Searching for Science and Sun - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-searching-for-science-and-sun

scibyte105 opportunity SpacecraftUpdae

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Opportunity rover has begun
  • the ascent of Solander Point, the first mountain she will ever climb, after roving the Red Planet for nearly a decade
  • l Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • recently succeeded in collecting “really interesting” new high resolution survey scans of Solander Point
  • The new MRO data are crucial for targeting the rover’s driving in coming months.
  • Solander Point is an eroded ridge located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater where Opportunity is currently located
  • it will take some time to review and interpret the bountiful new spectral data and decide on a course of action
  • Expect that analysis to take a “couple of weeks”
  • The new CRISM survey from Mars orbit will vastly improve the spectral resolution – from 18 meters per pixel down to 5 meters per pixel
  • Another important point about ‘Solander Point’ is that it also offers northerly tilted slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity’s upcoming 6th Martian winter
  • winter’s last six full months
  • The rover recently investigated an outcrop target called ‘Poverty Bush’.
  • deployed her 3 foot long (1 meter) robotic arm and collected photos with the Microscopic Imager (MI)
  • collected several days of spectral measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
  • There are several geologic units that are overlapping
  • Opportunity is sitting on the contact
  • the east side of the contact are rocks maybe a billion years older than those on the west side of the contact
  • So far
  • has snapped over 184,500
  • images
  • total odometry stands at over 23.82 miles (38.34 kilometers) since touchdown on Jan. 24, 2004
Mars Base

Mars orbiter images may show 1971 Soviet lander - 0 views

phys.org/...iter-images-soviet-lander.html

scibyte90 MarsSovietLander MRO

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Russian citizen
  • found four features in a five-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Soviet Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander
  • follow-up image by the orbiter from last month shows the same features
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the first spacecraft to survive a Mars landing long enough to transmit anything
  • Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation
Mars Base

Curiosity's Descent - YouTube - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

scibyte57 Curiosity media

shared by Mars Base on 07 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 07 Aug 12
     
    Over 1500 hundred more low and high resolution MARDI images (1600 x 1200 pixels) will be sent back over the next few weeks to make a full frame animation and will provide the most complete and dramatic imagery of a planetary landing in the history of exploration
  • Mars Base on 07 Aug 12
     
    team has been able to determine Curiosity's location to "within" about 1 meter says Malin, by matching the MARDI and MRO HiRISE images as well as the Hazcam images
Mars Base

"Nailed It!" HiRISE Captures Incredible Image of Curiosity's Descent to Mars - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-of-curiositys-descent-to-mars

scibyte57 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 07 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen said before the landing that they expected only a 60% chance of success
  • MRO was 340 km away from Curiosity when the image was taken, and that is line of sight distance, said Malkovich. “HiRISE has taken over 120 pictures of Gale Crater in preparation for MSL’s mission, but I think this is the coolest one,” she said.
  • more details and image products will be available and we will post them as soon as they are available
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • the HiRISE team already has plans to take images of Curiosity sitting on the surface of Mars later this week that will be of higher resolution than the descent image.
Mars Base

Mars Snowflakes Are as Tiny as Red Blood Cells | Mars Weather | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-snowflakes-tiny-snow.html

scibyte52 mars

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Snowflakes on Mars are smaller than their Earth counterparts, having roughly the same diameter as a human red blood cell, a new study reports.
  • analyzed observations made by two Mars-orbiting spacecraft to calculate the size of snowflakes
  • composed of carbon dioxide rather than water
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • team looked at temperature and pressure profiles taken by MRO to determine where and when conditions would allow carbon dioxide snow particles to form
  • analyzed measurements from MGS' laser altimeter, which gauged the topography of Mars by timing how long laser pulses took to bounce back from the planet's surface
  • Occasionally, the laser beam returned faster than anticipated, after ricocheting off cloud particles in the Martian atmosphere.
  • analyzing how much light these clouds reflected, the researchers were able to calculate the density of carbon dioxide in each one.
  • figured out the total mass of snow particles hovering above Mars' poles by examining earlier measurements of tiny, seasonal shifts in the planet's gravitational field.
  • put all of this information together to calculate the number and size of individual snow particles in the polar clouds at various times
  • found that particle size differed from pole to pole, with flakes in the north measuring between 8 to 22 microns and those in the south just 4 to 13 microns.
  • about comparable to the width of a human red blood cell, the researches said.
Mars Base

New Gully Appears On Mars, But It's Likely Not Due To Water - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ut-its-likely-not-due-to-water

scibyte124 MRO

shared by Mars Base on 20 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a new channel in the southern hemisphere region of Terra Siernum that appeared between November 2010 and May 2013.
  • this particular feature is likely not due to that liquid
  • Gully or ravine landforms are common on Mars, particularly in the southern highlands
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • This pair of images shows that material flowing down from an alcove at the head of a gully broke out of an older route and eroded a new channel
  • It’s unclear in what season the activity occurred because the observations took place more than a Martian year apart
  • These ravines tend to happen in the southern highlands and other mid-latitude regions on Mars
  • this type of activity generally occurs in winter, at temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide, rather than water, is likely to play the key role
Mars Base

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

www.universetoday.com/...-1-on-long-trek-to-mount-sharp

scibyte102 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 15 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • 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

Mars Orbiter Spies Lackluster Comet ISON : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...met-ison-closing-in-131002.htm

scibyte105 CometISON ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have released their first observations of the incoming Comet ISON
  • the comet appears to be at the low end of the range of brightness predictions
  • as it falls deeper and deeper into the sun’s gravitational well, ISON will likely brighten
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • addition of gas and dust should cause the comet’s coma to increase in size.
Mars Base

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

www.universetoday.com/...vy-terrain-for-drilling-action

scibyte124 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 23 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • 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
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