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Mars Base

NASA's LDSD 'Flying Saucer' Test--Update - Mars Science Laboratory - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte134 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • NASA's flying saucer-shaped test vehicle is ready
  • for its first engineering shakeout flight.
  • The Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) will gather data about landing heavy payloads on Mars and other planetary surfaces
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • As NASA plans increasingly ambitious robotic missions to Mars, laying the groundwork for even more complex human science expeditions to come, accommodating extended stays for explorers on the Martian surface will require larger and heavier spacecraft
  • use a helium balloon -- that, when fully inflated, would fit snugly into Pasadena's Rose Bowl
  • to lift our vehicle to 120,000 feet
  • A fraction of a second after dropping from the balloon, and a few feet below it, four small rocket
  • stabilize the saucer.
  • A half second later, a
  • solid-fueled rocket engine will
  • sending the test vehicle to the edge of the stratosphere
  • "Our goal is to get to an altitude and velocity which simulates the kind of environment one of our vehicles would encounter when it would fly in the Martian atmosphere," said Ian Clark, principal investigator of the LDSD project at JPL
  • to fly the two supersonic decelerator technologies that will be thoroughly tested during two LDSD flight tests next year.
  • The SIAD-R, essentially an inflatable doughnut that increases the vehicle's size and, as a result, its drag
  • . It will quickly slow the vehicle
  • where the
  • the largest supersonic parachute ever flown, first hits the supersonic flow
Mars Base

July 20 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on July 20th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...7_20.htm

scibyte136 LookingBackJul

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Mars landing
  • In 1976, America's "Viking I Lander" spacecraft, launched 20 Aug 1975, made its successful, first-ever landing on Mars at Chryse Planitia, and began transmitting pictures. Later, a robot arm that could scoop up samples of material and deposit them into on-board experiments, investigated the hint of life on Mars. Both weathered top soil and deeper soil samples were tested. The image shows Chryse Planitia looking NW over the Viking 1 Lander. An antenna is at upper right. The wide, low plain is covered with large rocks, loose sand and dust. The image was taken on 30 August 1976, a little over a month after landing. Pictures from the mission included views of the Mars surface taken from the Viking 1 Orbiter from space.
Mars Base

Inside The New Dragon Spacecraft | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...inside-new-dragon-spacecraft

scibyte133 SpaceX

shared by Mars Base on 31 May 14 - No Cached
  • the previous version of the Dragon capsule was flightworthy enough to deliver supplies, its life support system wasn’t reliable for human passengers
  • Dragon V2, on the other hand, will be able to carry seven astronauts for seven days.
  • When the capsule reaches the ISS, it will dock with the station autonomously. Unlike its predecessor, it won’t need the ISS’s robotic arm to reach out and grab it
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • To land back on Earth, version one slowed its speed with parachutes before splashing into the ocean
  • This is now a backup technique for the new capsule
  • V2 can use its engines to land propulsively
  • “You’ll be able to land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
  • The Dragon V2’s landing ability will make it quickly reusable
  • According to Ars Technica, NASA pays Russia about $71 million per astronaut for trips to the ISS. Musk thinks he can drop that number to $20 million or less.
Mars Base

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

www.universetoday.com/...d-seeking-new-adventures-ahead

scibyte132 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 22 May 14 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • 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

Lake on Saturn's Largest Moon May Have Waves - Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...-s-largest-moon-may-have-waves

scibyte134 titan

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • meras on NASA's spacecraft Cassini recently saw what appear to be waves on one of Titan's largest methane lakes
  • a signal scientists have long searched for but never found
  • If confirmed, the discovery would mark the first time waves have been seen outside Earth.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • team found patterns in the sunlight reflecting off a northern lake called Punga Mare that they interpret as two-centimeter-high waves
  • There
  • may be a mudflat instead of a deep lake, and a shallow film of liquid on top may be the cause of the unique light signature
  • If life on Titan exists,
  • the best place to look
  • is in large bodies of liquid—the kind that form waves
  • Waves on Titan
  • would confirm that the lakes actually are deep reservoirs of methane and ethane,
  • True liquid bodies would also make a robotic spacecraft mission to explore Titan's habitability more feasible
  • By 2017 scientists should know for certain whether what they are seeing is indeed caused by waves
  • Cassini has been observing the moon during its northern winter, when weak winds are at work
  • As spring
  • over the next few years, bringing stronger winds to kick up seas, the probe should capture more definitive evidence of waves if they exist
Mars Base

Images - Mars Science Laboratory - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...images

scibyte131 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 18 May 14 - No Cached
  • NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on its robotic arm to illuminate and record this nighttime view of the sandstone rock target "Windjana."
  • The rover had previously drilled a hole to collect sample material from the interior of the rock and then zapped a series of target points inside the hole with the laser of the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument
  • The hole is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • That instrument provides information about the target's composition by analysis of the sparks of plasma generated by the energy of the laser beam striking the target
  • This view combines eight separate MAHLI exposures, taken at different focus settings to show the entire scene in focus
  • The exposures were taken after dark on the 628th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (May 13, 2014)
  • MAHLI includes light-emitting diodes as well as a color camera.
  • Using the instrument's own lighting yields an image of the hole's interior with less shadowing than would be seen in a sunlit image
  • The camera's inspection of the interior of the hole provides documentation about what the drill bit passed through as it penetrated the rock -- for example, to see if it cut through any mineral veins or visible layering
Mars Base

Opportunity Peers Out from 'Pillinger Point' - Honoring British Beagle 2 Mars Scientist... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ist-where-ancient-water-flowed

scibyte135 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 17 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Opportunity rover has reached a long sought after region of aluminum-rich clay mineral outcrops at a new Endeavour crater ridge now “named ‘Pillinger Point’ after Colin Pillinger the Principal Investigator for the [British] Beagle 2 Mars lander”
  • ‘Pillinger Point’ – where ancient water once flowed billions of year ago.
  • The Beagle 2 lander was built to search for signs of life on Mars
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • new photo mosaic above captured by Opportunity peering out from ‘Pillinger Point’ ridge on June 5, 2014 (Sol 3684) and showing a panoramic view around the eroded mountain ridge and into vast Endeavour crater
  • crater spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter
  • For the past several months, the six wheeled robot has been trekking southwards from Solander towards the exposures of aluminum-rich clays
  • The rover mission scientists ultimate goal is travel even further south to ‘Cape Tribulation’ which holds a motherlode of the ‘phyllosilicate’ clay minerals
  • “The idea is to characterize the outcrops as we go and then once we reach the valley travel quickly to Cape Tribulation and the smectite valley, which is still ~2 km to the south of the present rover location,” Arvidson
  • Prof. Ray Arvidson, Deputy Principal Investigator for the rover
  • June 16, marks Opportunity’s 3696th Sol or Martian Day
  • snapped over 193,400
  • images
  • odometry stands at over 24.51 miles (39.44 kilometers) since touchdown on Jan. 24, 2004
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