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Mars Base

NASA - Rover Results at Rocknest - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20121207.html

scibyte74 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 10 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • wrapped up our scientific study of Rocknest, which also means that we’ve completed the checkout and first scientific use of all our instruments on the rover and it truly is working great.
  • used out ChemCam laser and our APXS chemical sensor to do an initial technical analysis of the soil
  • using our Mastcam color cameras
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • MAHLI, our hand lens imager to take close up views of the soil to look at different particle sizes, shapes and colors and how they change with depth
  • analyzed it if our X-ray diffraction instrument that can identify minerals in the soil based on their unique crystal structure
  • a good amount of the material in the soil was not crystalline but that’s not a problem for our other laboratory, SAM.
  • results show a composition that is typical of Mars soils studied at other sites with perhaps some very simple carbon containing molecules and perchlorate salts.
  • haven’t yet seen any complex organic molecules but sand isn’t the best place to look
  • There won’t be any single image or measurement that’ll answer everything.
Mars Base

NASA aims to send another rover to Mars in 2020 - 0 views

phys.org/...2-12-nasa-aims-rover-mars.html

scibyte74 mars

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • announced plans to launch another mega-rover to the red planet in 2020 that will be modeled after
  • Curiosity
  • To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, recycle spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing gear
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times
  • many other details still need to be worked out, including where the rover will land and the types of tools it will carry to the surface
  • the science goals remain fuzzy
  • at the very least should kickstart a campaign to return Martian soil and rocks to Earth
  • a team of experts will debate whether the new rover should have the ability to drill into rocks and store pieces for a future pickup
  • under orders by the White House to send astronauts to circle Mars in the 2030s followed by a landing
  • Curiosity
  • ran over schedule and over budget
  • the engineering hurdles have been fixed and he expected the new rover to cost less than Curiosity
  • One independent estimate put the mission at $1.5 billion, though NASA is working on its own figure
  • Next year, NASA plans to launch an orbiter to study the atmosphere
  • After NASA pulled out of a partnership with the Europeans in 2016 and 2018, it announced plans to fly a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to probe the interior
  • since said it will contribute to the European missions, but in a minor role
Mars Base

GRAIL First Results Provide Most Precise Lunar Gravity Map Yet - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...most-precise-lunar-gravity-map

scibyte74 Grail

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • first science results from NASA’s twin GRAIL lunar orbiters provide incredible detail of the Moon’s interior and the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body, including Earth
  • Ebb and Flow, send radio signals to each other and any changes in distance between the two as they circle the Moon are measured, down to changes as small as
  • 1/ 20,000th the velocity that a snail moves
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • new gravity maps reveals an abundance of features such as tectonic structures, volcanic landforms, basin rings, crater central peaks and numerous simple, bowl-shaped craters
  • the moon’s gravity field is unlike that of any terrestrial planet in our solar system.
  • Ninety-eight percent of local gravity is associated with topography, while 2 percent are other gravitational features
  • You can see bull’s-eyes of the lunar mascons, but otherwise we see a smooth inner surface
  • The only way this could happen is if impacts to the early Moon shattered the inner surface
  • also revealed evidence for ancient volcanic activity under the surface of the Moon and strange linear gravitational anomalies
  • identified a large population of linear gravitational anomalies. We don’t see any expression of them on topography maps, so we infer that these are an ancient internal structures
  • Basin, which forms one of the ‘man on moon’s’ eyes, the gravity maps shows a linear feature crossing the basin while topography maps show no such correlating feature
  • the gravity anomaly formed before the impacts
  • Additional data reveal that the Moon’s inner crust in almost completely pulverized
  • Using GRAIL gravity data, we found the average thickness of the crust is 32-34 kilometers which is about 10 km less than previous studies
  • We found the bulk abundance of aluminum on Moon is nearly the same as that of the Earth
  • consistent with a recent hypothesis that the Moon is derived of materials from the Earth when it was formed during a giant impact event
  • GRAIL finishes the primary science mission in May and are currently working in an extended mission where the spacrafts’ altitude was lowered to just 23 km above the surface
  • During its prime mission, the two GRAIL spacecraft orbited just 55 km above the Moon’s surface
  • hearing results from the new data sets soon
  • the team will lower the GRAIL spacecraft down to just 11 km above the lunar surface.
  • extended mission will end soon, in mid-December, and soon after that, the two spacecraft will be crashed intentionally onto the lunar surface
  • they are still formulating ideas for the impact scenario, and looking at the possibility of aiming the crashes so they are within the field-of-view of instruments on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Base

Love Of Spicy Food Is Built Into Your Personality | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...cy-food-built-your-personality

scibyte74 Personality

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • But the science of spicy food liking and intake
  • shows there’s more to it than just increased tolerance with repeated exposure
  • research dating back at least to the 1980s
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • Personality, researchers say, is also a factor in whether a person enjoys spicy meals and how often he or she eats them
  • desensitization to capsaicin, the plant chemical that gives peppers their burn, is well documented, there’s also evidence that the effect is surprisingly small
  • researchers have previously linked chili liking to thrill seeking, specifically an affinity for amusement park rides and gambling
  • investigators found a relationship between chili liking and sensation seeking when using a more formal measure of personality called Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale
  • In both cases, however, the associations were fairly weak, and neither study looked at intake -- how often a person eats spicy foods, versus how much a person likes spice.
  • used an updated measure of sensation seeking that avoided gender- and age-biased questions
  • Sensation seeking emerged as a much stronger predictor of spicy food liking than in the previous studies
  • it also predicted how often a person ate chili-laden meals
  • personality trait, however, was not associated with high liking of non-spicy foods, which reduced the possibility that thrill seekers are just crazy about food in general
  • frequent chili eaters didn’t feel the burn from the capsaicin sample any less than people who ate peppers less often
  • The study group may not have been large enough to show a desensitization effect
  • lack of evidence for desensitization in the study boosts the argument for personality as an important factor
  • combination of factors influences who goes for the mild wings on Super Bowl Sunday and who reaches for hot
  • childhood exposure and learning all play a critical role in liking for spicy foods
  • also individuals who acquired an entirely [new] set of food preferences as adults once they moved away from home
  • may have been a disconnect between reported frequency of intake and actual dose
  • Ninety-seven male and female participants ranging in age from 18 to 45 filled out a food-liking questionnaire
  • rated the intensity of sensations after sampling six stimuli, including capsaicin mixed in water
Mars Base

Kicksat: Crowd-funded, DIY spacecraft to float into low-Earth orbit - 0 views

phys.org/...-diy-spacecraft-low-earth.html

scibyte74 crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • It'll look like hundreds of postage stamps fluttering toward Earth—each an independent satellite transmitting a signal unique to the person who helped send it to space
  • Sprites are the size of a cracker but are outfitted with solar cells, a radio transceiver and a microcontroller (
  • launching unit, is a CubeSat
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Using Kickstarter
  • raised nearly $75,000 as more than 300 people sponsored a sprite that will transmit an identifying signal, such as the initials of the donor
  • In 2013, about 250 sprites will be sent into space
  • One person, who donated $10,000, Manchester added, will get to "push the big red button" on the day of the launch.
  • NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA) program, which provides a free launch (normally $300,000) for university space research
  • KickSat will hitch a ride in September 2013 (subject to change) from Cape Canaveral on CRS-3, the third SpaceX Falcon 9 flight destined for the International Space Station
  • A large part of the project is helping people track their own satellites with a simple software radio interface
  • From a research standpoint, Manchester is interested in the dynamics and behavior of the satellites, and plans to test how to track their positions and determine their orbits
  • KickSat is set to launch more than 200 of these tiny satellites, nicknamed "sprites," into low-Earth orbit
Mars Base

Opportunity Rover Glimpses Conditions Suitable for Life - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...s-conditions-suitable-for-life

scibyte74

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • first glimpse ever at conditions on ancient Mars that clearly show us a chemistry that would have been suitable for life.”
  • both the MER rovers have found evidence of past water on Mars, all indications are that it would have been very acidic
  • “battery-acid kind of numbers making it very challenging for life
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Newly found clays that are sprinkled with two different kinds of previously unseen features point to a different type of water “that you could drink,”
  • Orbital data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  • originally led the MER team to Endeavour Crater, the huge crater where Opportunity is now traversing around the rim.
Mars Base

Mars Rover Opportunity Exploring Possibly Habitable Ancient Environment | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ortunity-endeavour-crater.html

scibyte74 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Opportunity rover,
  • is currenlty studying clay deposits on the rim of the Red Planet's Endeavour Crater.
  • clays imply that the area was exposed to relatively neutral — as opposed to harshly acidic or basic — water long ago,
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • clearly show us a chemistry that would've been suitable for life at the Opportunity site
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft spotted them from orbit, leading the rover team to point the golf-cart-size robot toward its current location, which is known as Matijevic Hill.
  • From orbit, we have seen the unambiguous infrared spectral signature of clays along the rim of Endeavour Crater
  • Opportunity has already circumnavigated Matijevic Hill
  • ikely stay at Matijevic Hill for a while, trying to understand how the clays were laid down billions of years ago
  • Opportunity is still going strong. It has some age-related issues, such as an arthritic arm, but the rover remains in good health
  • Part of the work will involve investigating mysterious tiny spherules Opportunity has discovered embedded in the clay matrix
  • initially thought the BB-size gray spheres were similar to the iron-rich "blueberries"
  • initial analyses have shown that's not the case, leading Squyres to dub them "newberries."
  • The team isn't sure exactly what the newberries are, or how they formed
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

Mmmmm? Scientists Make Bread Last 60 Days | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...rves-sandwich-parts-two-months

scibyte73 FoodPreservation

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Using microwave technology, one company says it can make bread last for two months, thus cutting down on food waste
  • spinoff company claims it can preserve at least some of our food for longer, by zapping it with microwaves
  • Nuked bread can last up to 60 days, according to the company
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The equipment, which looks like a CT scanner for food, was originally developed to kill organisms like multi-resistant staph bacteria and salmonella
  • developers realized it also kills bread mold in about a 10-second zap. It works much like a home microwave, but the waves are produced in various frequencies, which allows for uniform heating
  • technology could also preserve fresh food like poultry, produce and more
Mars Base

Voyager 1 encounters new region in deep space, NASA says - 0 views

phys.org/...ounters-region-deep-space.html

scibyte73 Voyager1

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region
  • that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space
  • Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • infers this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed
  • data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012
  • We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before—about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock—but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space
  • The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space."
Mars Base

Curiosity rover: No big surprise in first soil test - 0 views

phys.org/...-curiosity-rover-big-soil.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • identified the oxygen and chlorine compound perchlorate
  • chemical previously found in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix Lander
  • other chemicals heated in SAM formed chlorinated methane compounds
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • one-carbon organics that were detected by the instrument
  • chlorine is of Martian origin, but it is possible the carbon may be of Earth origin
Mars Base

NASA - Curiosity Roves Again - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20121129.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • After several weeks of being stationary at the Rocknest site we began driving again on Sol 100
  • stone on the mission as we reached about a half a kilometer of total driving distance on the surface of Mars
  • going to be moving to the East to a place called Point Lake
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • looking for a target to perform our first ever drill on Mars
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