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  • Mars Rover Opportunity Crosses Botany Bay

    Mars Rover Opportunity Crosses Botany Bay

    NASA today provided an update not on Mars rover Curiosity, but its elder rover Opportunity. The rover is part of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, which sent two rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, to Mars in 2004. Opportunity is the only one of the rovers still functioning, after Spirit became stuck in 2009, and stopped responding to communications in 2010.

    Opportunity is now six weeks into and around halfway through a 1.2 mile (22 km) drive from one crater rim to another. The rover had been examining the area around “Cape York” for nearly two years, searching for evidence of a watery past on Mars. It is now in the process of crossing an area called “Botany Bay” to reach its destination, an area named “Solander Point.”

    “The surface that Opportunity is driving across in Botany Bay is polygonally fractured outcrop that is remarkably good for driving,” said Brad Joliff, an Opportunity science team member Washington University. “The plates of outcrop, like a tiled mosaic pavement, have a thin covering of soil, not enough to form the wind-blown ripples we’ve had to deal with during some other long treks. The outcrop plates are light-toned, and the cracks between them are filled with dark, basaltic soil and our old friends the ‘blueberries.’”

    Opportunity recently investigated the “Matijevic Hill” portion of Cape York, examining small, bb-sized spheres that are rich in iron. Researchers have nicknamed the objects “blueberries.”

    Both Cape York and Solander Point are sections on the western rim of the Endeavor Crater. Opportunity will be examining Solander Point throughout the upcoming Martian winter.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Mars Rover Opportunity Found in Standby Mode After Solar Conjunction

    Mars Rover Opportunity Found in Standby Mode After Solar Conjunction

    The rovers on Mars this month were under a command moratorium as Mars passed behind the sun, an event known as solar conjunction. Now that the solar conjunction has ended, researchers have found something amiss with Mars rover Opportunity.

    Mission controllers this week found Opportunity in a standby mode. NASA has stated that it appears the rover “sensed something amiss” during a camera check on April 22 and entered standby. Team members have prepared commands for Opportunity to bring it back to full operative status.

    “Our current suspicion is that Opportunity rebooted its flight software, possibly while the cameras on the mast were imaging the sun,” said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We found the rover in a standby state called automode, in which it maintains power balance and communication schedules, but waits for instructions from the ground. We crafted our solar conjunction plan to be resilient to this kind of rover reset, if it were to occur.”

    Opportunity was one of two rovers that landed on Mars in 2004 as part of the Mars Exploration Rover Project. The other rover, Spirit, became stuck in soft soil in 2009, and ceased communications in 2010.

    The newest rover on Mars, Curiosity, is reported to be fully operational following the solar conjunction. Researchers are planning on sending it commands starting tomorrow.

    (Image courtesy ASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Mars Rover Opportunity Celebrates 9 Years on Mars

    Though the focus of 2012 was the new Curiosity rover, NASA’s Opportunity rover is still exploring the Martian landscape. The rover has now been examining the red planet for nine years.

    This week NASA revealed that Opportunity is currently examining veined rocks on the rim of an ancient crater named “Endeavor.” The rover is examining the area, called “Matijevic Hill,” and has found evidence of a wet environment in Mars’ past, and a less acidic environment than was found earlier in the rover’s mission.

    Opportunity has now driven 35.46 kilometers (22.03 miles) since it landed on Mars in January 2004. The rover’s primary mission was only three months long. It was to drive 600 meters (2,000 feet) and determine whether the area surrounding it had ever been wet. Opportunity has now operated for 36 times longer than what was originally planned. Since that time, researchers have driven the rover to successively larger craters, examining soil exposed from successively older layers of Mars.

    “What’s most important is not how long it has lasted or even how far it has driven, but how much exploration and scientific discovery Opportunity has accomplished,” said John Callas, manager of the Mars Exploration Rover Project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

    Opportunity’s twin, the Spirit rover, also operated past its original mission, though it hasn’t fared as well as Opportunity. In 2009 Spirit became stuck in soft soil, and communications with the rover ceased in 2010.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.)

  • New Mars Rover Set to Launch in 2020

    NASA this week announced that it has plans to send a new robotic science rover to Mars in 2020. The news comes just after the agency revealed the results of a full analysis of Martian soil by Mars rover Curiosity.

    “The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program,” said Charles Bolden, NASA administrator. “With this next mission, we’re ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s.”

    In addition to a new rover, NASA has plans for the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers; the two NASA spacecraft and one European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; next year’s launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter; the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) mission; and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, which also include a rover.

    The plan for another Mars rover is another step toward President Obama’s challenge to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. The new rover will be designed based on the success of NASA’s latest rover, Curiosity. The goal is to keep costs and risks low by using proven landing systems and capabilities that have already been demonstrated. Mission objectives, payload, and science instruments for the 2020 rover will be ironed out by the Science Mission Directorate.

    “The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity.”

    (Image courtesy NASA)

  • Mars Rover Opportunity Completes Walkabout of Matijevic Hill

    NASA announced today that Mars rover Opportunity has completed a reconnaissance circuit around an area named “Matijevic Hill.” Opportunity began its study of the location at the beginning of October. The site is named after Jacob Matijevic, who led the engineering team for Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity and died back in September.

    “If you are a geologist studying a site like this, one of the first things you do is walk the outcrop, and that’s what we’ve done with Opportunity,” said Steve Squyres, the mission’s principal investigator at Cornell University.

    Opportunity drove around 354 meters (1,160 feet) in a counter clockwise circuit around Matijevic Hill, identifying objects of interest for future study. The Hill is located on the western rim of Endeavor Crater, the result of an impact from an object more than 3 billion years ago. Researchers are determining the ages of local outcrops to understand the area’s past environment.

    “We’ve got a list of questions posed by the observations so far,” said Squyres. “We did this walkabout to determine the most efficient use of time to answer the questions. Now we have a good idea what we’re dealing with, and we’re ready to start the detailed work.”

    Of particular interest on Matijevic Hill are “Whitewater Lake” and “Kirkwood.” Whitewater lake is an area of light-toned material scientists believe might contain clay. Kirkwood contains small spheres that are similar to, but markedly different than, iron-rich spheres researchers have nicknamed “blueberries.”

    Opportunity has now driven 35.4 kilometers (22 miles) during its nearly nine years on the Martian surface. It’s twin rover, Spirit, became stuck in soft soil in 2009 and communications were cut off in 2010.

    “Almost nine years into a mission planned to last for three months, Opportunity is fit and ready for driving, robotic-arm operations and communication with Earth,” said Diana Blaney, the mission’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

  • Dust Storm on Mars Now Dissipating

    NASA this week announced that a dust storm on Mars appears to be dissipating, instead of growing into a global storm. The dust storm has been tracked since November 10 using the Mars Color Imager camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

    “During the past week, the regional storm weakened and contracted significantly,” said Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, a NASA contractor that operates space camera systems, including the Mars Color Imager.

    The week before, the storm had grown large enough for NASA to label it a “regional” storm. The changes the storm had on Mars’ global air-pressure patterns were extensive enough that Mars rover Curiosity‘s Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) detected them on the red planet’s surface. The storm also came within 837 miles of Mars rover Opportunity, which saw the atmospheric clarity above it lower slightly.

    In edition to the measurements taken by the Curiosity’s REMS, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mars Climate Sounder has also been detecting the effects of the dust storm on atmospheric temperatures. Researchers hope to be able to use the REMS, which is located near Mars’ equator, and daily orbital observations to help them understand why some Martian dust storms dissipate, while others grow to a global scale. Two dust storms – one in 2001 and one in 2007 – have been observed growing into global hazes.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

  • Mars Rovers Detect Regional Dust Storm Effects

    A recent regional Martian dust storm has grown large enough for both of the functioning NASA Mars rovers, Curiosity and Opportunity, to detect atmospheric changes on opposite sides of the red planet.

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been tracking the storm using its Mars Color Imager since mid-November. The storm came within 837 miles of Opportunity, slightly lowering the atmospheric clarity above it. On the other side of the planet, Curiosity was able to detect atmospheric changes using its Rover Environmental monitoring Station (REMS). Decreased air pressure and a rise in overnight temperature were observed.

    “This is now a regional dust storm,” said Rich Zurek, chief mars scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It has covered a fairly extensive region with its dust haze, and it is in a part of the planet where some regional storms in the past have grown into global dust hazes. For the first time since the Viking missions of the 1970s, we are studying a regional dust storm both from orbit and with a weather station on the surface.”

    Each year on Mars lasts around two Earth years, and the dust-storm season began a few weeks ago, coinciding with the start of spring in the southern hemisphere. Regional dust storms, like the one measured last week, expanded to global hazes in 2001 and 2007, but such large storms have not been detected since.

    “One thing we want to learn is why do some Martian dust storms get to this size and stop growing, while others this size keep growing and go global,” said Zurek.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

  • Mars Rover Opportunity to Thoroughly Examine Matijevic Hill

    While Mars rover Curiosity might be getting all the attention these days, Mars rover Opportunity is still active during it’s ninth year on Mars. Starting this week, Opportunity will spend weeks or months investigating the unique geological feature of a site NASA has named “Matijevic Hill.”

    The Opportunity rover will be investigating the hill’s small spherical objects that are similar to the iron-rich spheres researchers have nicknamed “blueberries.” The spheres on Matijevic Hill have a different composition than the blueberries, which were found at Opportunity’s landing site and are believed to have been formed by mineral-laden water inside rocks.

    “Right now we have multiple working hypotheses, and each hypothesis makes certain predictions about things like what the spherules are made of and how they are distributed,” said Steve Squyres, Opportunity’s principal investigator. “Our job as we explore Matijevic Hill in the months ahead will be to make the observations that will let us test all the hypotheses carefully, and find the one that best fits the observations.”

    The Matijevic Hill site is named after Jacob Matijevic, who led the engineering teams for he Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity. When he passed away last month, Matijevic was chief engineer for surface operations systems for NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity. The Curiosity team also honored Matijevic with a feature on Mars, naming a rock Curiosity stopped to examine after him.

  • Mars Rover Gives Us an Amazingly Detailed View of an Alien World

    Newsflash: I’m never going to Mars. As much as it pains me to say it, I’ll probably never set foot on the planet. Instead, I have to live vicariously through motion pictures, computer games — “Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders” will always be my Mars-related PC game of choice — and high-definition panoramic images such as the one you see above. Although I may never see this alien landscape for myself, I’ll be able to see as much of the planet as humanly possibly courtesy of the various Mars rovers. Here’s hoping nothing goes wrong up there. If it does, I’ll be devastated. End shamelessly geeky whining here.

    Opportunity, the small robotic explorer currently trekking across the surface of Mars, was ordered to take a nap between December 21st, 2011 through May 8th, 2012. The Martian winters can be particularly tough for fragile electronic adventurers such as Opportunity, so those in charge of its well-being decided it was time for the little guy to take a break for a few months. After all, rolling three years from one crater to another has got to wear a robot out.

    During its scheduled hibernation, the rover decided to take a few pictures of the landscape around it. 817 photographs, to be exact. Once these images made their way back to Earth, scientists worked around the clock to piece them together into the nifty image you see above. It may not be the same was setting foot on the planet and having a look at the terrain for yourself, but it’s easily the next best thing. In my opinion, anyway.

    “The view provides … a spectacularly detailed view of the largest impact crater that we’ve driven to yet,” explained planetary scientist Jim Bell of Arizona State University. He isn’t kidding, either. Although the image embedded above is pretty nifty, you really need to see this thing in high definition. If you have a state-of-the-art monitor capable of delivering a true HD experience, this thing might blow your mind. Assuming, of course, that’s you’ve ever dreamt of Mars.

  • Astounding Mars Image Finds Wall-E?

    Astounding Mars Image Finds Wall-E?

    NASA has had the rover “Opportunity” on the surface of Mars for a long time now. Every now and then it takes these fantastic streaming photos of the mars lanscape. Warning, do not stare into the photo, you will get sucked in and lost! This photo that the ‘Opportunity‘ took is facing eastward across the Endeavour Crater that spans 14 miles (22 kilometres) in diameter.

    The photo is funny because it seems to depict the little character form the Pixar film Wall-E. It does look as though NASA is starting to learn that if it immediately comes out and refutes things or puts out a statement about weird things, people shut up and no conspiracies start. Here is the sattement released by NASA:

    “The rover used the panoramic camera (Pancam) between about 4.30 and 5.00PM. local Mars time to record images taken through different filters and combined into this mosaic view. Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity’s work on Mars (9 March, 2012). At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour’s western rim. In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location.”

    So no crazy fake cartoon robots found on Mars today! Maybe tomorrow NASA can refute the existence of unicorns on Mars.