spaceplasma:

Topographic map of Mars

A topographic view of Mars can be telling of the many distinguishing characteristics that it possesses. Mars is known to have several significant topographic features such as Olympus Mons, the highest peak in the solar system, and Valles Marineris, a canyon that easily dwarfs the Grand Canyon. The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, MOLA, an instrument used to determine the altitude, was in orbit, attached to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Since its launch in 1996, the instruments on the Mars Global Surveyor, such as MOLA, have been providing scientists with valuable information.

The altitude is determined by MOLA by transmitting a laser pulse toward the surface of Mars. By recording the flight time of the pulse, the distance between the spacecraft and the surface of Mars can be calculated. These range measurements are then used to create the topographic maps. Areas that are red and brown have higher altitudes while areas that are blue and green have lower altitudes.

8bitfuture:

NASA invites you to send a haiku to Mars.

NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere.

The DVD will be in NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November. The DVD is part of the mission’s Going to Mars Campaign coordinated at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku. However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1. An online public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin July 15.

Submit your entry here.

(Source: 8bitfuture)

astronemma:

Mars Rover Opportunity Slips Into Standby Mode, NASA Says

NASA’s long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has gone into a self-imposed standby mode on the Red Planet, the robot’s handlers say.

Mission controllers for Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004, first learned of the issue on Saturday (April 27). On that day, the rover got back in touch after a nearly three-week communication moratorium caused by an unfavorable planetary alignment called a Mars solar conjunction, in which Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun.

The Opportunity rover apparently put itself into standby on April 22 after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission managers said.

Read more: [x]

ikenbot:

“Maybe we’re on Mars because of the magnificent science that can be done there - the gates of the wonder world are opening in our time. Maybe we’re on Mars because we have to be, because there’s a deep nomadic impulse built into us by the evolutionary process, we come after all, from hunter gatherers, and for 99.9% of our tenure on Earth we’ve been wanderers. And, the next place to wander to, is Mars. But whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you.” — Carl

(Source: kenobi-wan-obi)

thenewenlightenmentage:

Charted: Extraterrestrial Driving Records

NASA has just released this cute chart depicting the various distances traveled by wheeled machines on other worlds (click to enlarge).

The comparison was put out in honor of the agency’s Opportunity rover, which has been on Mars since 2004, beating NASA’s previous distance record-holder, the Apollo 17 moon buggy. During its nine years of operations, Opportunity has roved 35.760 kilometers, edging out the Apollo astronaut’s 35.744-kilometer drive.

The champion for driving on another surface still goes to the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 37 kilometers across the moon in 1973. Of course, Opportunity still has the *ahem* opportunity to overtake the international record holder since it’s continuing to rove around the rim of Endeavour crater on Mars. The little robot has been exploring that area since 2011 and has uncovered some of the most unambiguous evidence for water on ancient Mars. Though NASA’s celebrated Curiosity rover has only gone less than one kilometer since landing in August, it has nuclear batteries that could last 14 years at minimum — ample time to beat all competitors.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As a matter of fact I do! I’ll share various images with you below, as well as throw out some basic information concerning Mars’ lovely moons for those who aren’t familiar.

“On Mars, Phobos would be easily visible to the naked eye at night, but would be only about one-third as large as the full Moon appears from Earth. Astronauts staring at Phobos from the surface of Mars would notice its oblong, potato-like shape and that it moves quickly against the background stars. Phobos takes only 7 hours, 39 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That is so fast, relative to the 24-hour-and-39-minute sol on Mars (the length of time it takes for Mars to complete one rotation), that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east. Earth’s moon, by comparison, rises in the east and sets in the west. The smaller martian moon, Deimos, takes 30 hours, 12 minutes to complete one orbit of Mars. That orbital period is longer than a martian sol, and so Deimos rises, like most solar system moons, in the east and sets in the west.” via NASA Mars rover gallery.

The first image below, taken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, shows both Deimos and Phobos, labeled for your convenience, and is titled Two Moons Passing in the Night, which was taken on the night of sol 585 (Aug. 26, 2005). [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

The second image, also taken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, titled Two Moons and the Pleiades from Mars, clearly shows a labeled and unlabeled version displaying  both Phobos and Deimos, again, along with the PLeiades and Aldebaran. This image was taken on the evening of martian day, or sol, 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Next we have Phobos Viewed from Mars. “Spirit acquired the first two images with the panoramic camera on the night of sol 585 (Aug. 26, 2005). The far right image of Phobos, for comparison, was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express, a European Space Agency orbiter. The third image in this sequence was derived from the far right image by making it blurrier for comparison with the panoramic camera images to the left.”[Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Below are two images, very similar, taken by Spirit. The first, The Night Sky on Mars, which is a time-lapse composite, and was captured the evening of Spirit’s martian sol 590 (Aug. 30, 2005). The second below is named The Two Moons of Mars As Seen from Husband Hill. “Spirit took this succession of images at 150-second intervals from a perch atop “Husband Hill” in Gusev Crater on martian day, or sol, 594 (Sept. 4, 2005).” [Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M - view full sized images here.]

Next we have some wonderful images [via the Daily Mail] of Deimos and Phobos traveling in front of the sun to create a partial solar eclipse, viewed from Mars, taken by Curiosity. The first shows Deimos and it’s small stature in comparison with our star. The second shows Phobos beginning to eclipse the Sun, as it makes it’s path across the Martian sky. 

I’ll leave you with a sped-up GIF of another eclipse, caused by Phobos, observed by Opportunity on  the afternoon of the rover’s 3,078th Martian day, or sol (Sept. 20, 2012). [via NASA]

You can view a video of Phobos eclipsing the sun on November 9, 2010 here, as captured by Opportunity. You can view more rover-captured images of both moons here, and here. I hope this answered your question sufficiently, and gives you a good place to start when looking for images of these moons taken from the Martian surface. Enjoy!

NASA Curiosity Rover Team Selects Second Drilling Target on Mars

[Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona & Phys.org]

“The team operating NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days. 

This second drilling target, called “Cumberland,” lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) west of the rock where Curiosity’s drill first touched Martian stone in February. Curiosity took the first rock sample ever collected on Mars from that rock, called “John Klein.” The rover found evidence of an ancient environment favorable for microbial life. Both rocks are flat, with pale veins and a bumpy surface. They are embedded in a layer of rock on the floor of a shallow depression called “Yellowknife Bay.” 

This second drilling is intended to confirm results from the first drilling, which indicated the chemistry of the first powdered sample from John Klein was much less oxidizing than that of a soil sample the rover scooped up before it began drilling. 

“We know there is some cross-contamination from the previous sample each time,” said Dawn Sumner, a long-term planner for Curiosity’s science team at the University of California at Davis. “For the Cumberland sample, we expect to have most of that cross-contamination come from a similar rock, rather than from very different soil.” 

Although Cumberland and John Klein are very similar, Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps. The bumps are concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago. Analysis of a sample containing more material from these concretions could provide information about the variability within the rock layer that includes both John Klein and Cumberland. 

Mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., recently finished upgrading Curiosity’s operating software following a four-week break. The rover continued monitoring the Martian atmosphere during the break, but the team did not send any new commands because Mars and the sun were positioned in such a way the sun could have blocked or corrupted commands sent from Earth. 

Curiosity is about nine months into a two-year prime mission since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. After the second rock drilling in Yellowknife Bay and a few other investigations nearby, the rover will drive toward the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometers) layered mountain inside the crater. ”

breakingnews:

Scientists work on fusion rocket for Mars

NBC News: Researchers at the University of Washington say they’ve built all the pieces for a fusion-powered rocket system that could get a crew to Mars in 30 days. 

“If we can pull off a fusion demonstration in a year, with hundreds of thousands of dollars … there might be a better, cheaper, faster path to using fusion in other applications,” John Slough, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, told NBC News. …

Timetables for the advent of fusion energy applications have repeatedly shifted to the right, reviving the old joke that the dawn of the fusion age will always be 30 years away.

Photo: An artist’s conception shows a spacecraft powered by a fusion-driven rocket. (UW / MSNW)

electricspacekoolaid:

New Robot Memes on Tumblr - Shaming Robots

A new Tumblr site has arisen to call out the robots who have made mistakes. Called “Shaming Robots” it started innocently with an image posted of the engineering model of the Curiosity rover blaming the engineering Opportunity rover for messing up JPL’s Mars Yard. Submit your own if you have a robot you’d like to shame. You can also follow on Twitter at the hashtag #robotshaming.

This Week in Science - April 22 - 28, 2013:

• Bone marrow stem cells here.
• Olympic torch spacewalk here.
• Dutch reality show for Mars volunteers here.
• Small fairyfly here.
• Theory of gravity test here.
• Maya civilization origins discovery here.
• Earth’s center here.
• Sea-surface temperatures here.
• Synthetic skin here.
• Iron clumps in bird ears here.
• Students discovered comet here.
• Illegal drug breathalyzer here.

(Source: thescienceofreality)

atomstargazer:

Issaouane Erg, Algeria

The Issaouane Erg (sand sea) is located in eastern Algeria between the Tinrhert Plateau to the north and the Fadnoun Plateau to the south. Ergs are vast areas of moving sand with little to no vegetation cover. Considered to be part of the Sahara Desert, the Issaouane Erg covers an area of approximately 38,000 km2. These complex dunes form the active southwestern border of the sand sea.

The most common landforms in the image are star dunes and barchan (or crescent) dunes. Small linear dunes appear at top left. Star dunes are formed when sand is transported from variable wind directions, whereas barchan dunes form in a single dominant wind regime. The superimposition of two dune types suggests that wind regimes have changed through time. The active nature of this portion of the Erg is well illustrated by this image—smaller dunes form and migrate along the flanks of the larger dunes and sand ridges. Occasional precipitation fills basins formed by the dunes; as the water evaporates, salt deposits are left behind which appear as bluish-white areas.

Astronaut photograph ISS010-E-13539 was acquired January 16, 2005 with a Kodak 760C digital camera with an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Instrument: ISS - Digital Camera

Credit: NASA

discoverynews:

Why a Mars Comet Impact Would be Awesome

...the aftermath of a cometary collision would be a scientific smorgasbord. If we ever needed to be “pushed” to send a manned mission to the surface of Mars, I can think of no better time than in the years after a massive comet strike.

electricspacekoolaid:

Wow! Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Primitive Life 

It’s official: Primitive life could have lived on ancient Mars, NASA says.

A sample of Mars drilled from a rock by NASA’s Curiosity rover and then studied by onboard instruments “shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes,” NASA officials announced today (March 12) in a statement and press conference.

The discovery comes just seven months after Curiosity landed onMars to spend at least two years determining if the planet could ever have hosted primitive life. To be clear, the new find is not evidence that Martian life has ever actually existed; Curiosity carries no life-detection instruments among its scientific gear.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.”

Curiosity drilled into a rock on Feb. 8, boring 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into an outcrop called John Klein using its arm-mounted hammering drill — deeper than any robot had ever dug into the Red Planet before.  

Two weeks later, the rover transferred the resulting gray powder sample into two onboard instruments called Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM.

CheMin and SAM identified some of the key chemical ingredients for life in this dust, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, researchers said. Intriguingly, the mix also suggested a possible energy source for indigenous Martian life, if any ever existed in the area.

“The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for micro-organisms,” Paul Mahaffy, SAM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

ikenbot:

Private Plan to Send Humans to Mars in 2018 Might Not Be So Crazy

Side Note: A few days ago I highlighted an article from WiredScience that delved into the idea, and even serious plans of humans undergoing a 501 day trip to Mars in the year 2018 and I recall many of you thought it was downright madness, a near impossibility due to our technological restraints. But is it really that crazy of an idea at this point in space exploration’s progression considering what has already been achieved? While the mission doesn’t necessarily send humans into Mars but close to its orbit much the same way astronauts like Chris Hadfield navigate close to Earth’s orbit in the International Space Station, it still provides a trove of data and experience much needed in our later attempts to actually try and colonize Mars. This follow up explains the mission a little more and gets into its possibility and chances of success.

This bold undertaking is planned by the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a non-profit company founded by millionaire and space tourist Dennis Tito that was officially unveiled on Feb. 27 after early details leaked. Though the spacecraft would not land humans on Mars or even put them in orbit, it would bring people within a few hundred kilometers of the Martian surface — roughly the same distance between the International Space Station and Earth — and represent a major milestone in human spaceflight. If successful, the mission would go down in history as the first time a private company accomplished something government agencies were unable to do in space.

The mission is extremely ambitious, well beyond anything previously accomplished by the private sector and it faces plenty of obstacles. The company has an aggressive schedule to keep if it wants to hit its 2018 mark and needs to make sure the necessary technology is developed and well-tested. Despite its deep-pocketed backer, the mission has nowhere near the funding it needs to launch and will require raising greater sums than have ever been done for a private space endeavor. Its designers also need to figure out exactly how to keep the crew healthy, both physically and psychologically, for the 501-day duration of the flight as they face dangers from radiation, bone and muscle loss, fatigue, and depression. Mission designers will have to ensure they can get the crew safely to the ground when the capsule returns to Earth at a screaming 30,000 mph.

Yet despite these hurdles, of all the bold announcements from private spaceflight companies in recent years, this one seems the most achievable.

“The reason this entire thing is possible is because it’s actually a very simple mission,” said Jane Poynter, president of the Paragon Space Development Corporation, which makes life-support systems and has partnered with Inspiration Mars. “We’re not trying to land, we’re going to fly by and we’re using extant technologies that NASA and the space industry have been developing for years.”

Inspiration Mars isn’t looking to sell a product in an unknown market, like the asteroid-mining Planetary Resources or the national-moon-ferrying Golden Spike Company, and doesn’t have incredibly aspirational aims, like the planet-colonizing Mars One. It hopes to undertake a straightforward mission that could spur innovation, inspire young scientists and engineers, and move human spaceflight forward.

“You have to have a reasonable degree of skepticism and realism,” said Taber MacCallum, who co-founded Paragon with Poynter (and is also her husband). “We might run into some insurmountable obstacle 18 months in. But with proper engineering, support, and a good mess of luck, we could see this done.”

Now all they have to do is actually fly to Mars.

Head on over to the article for more details!

(via kenobi-wan-obi)

This Week in Science - March 18 - 24, 2013:

• Trend in water presence here.
• People can taste rainbow here.
• Cellular level video here.
• Kiddo wasp here.
• Youngest stars ever seen here.
• Sperm works best in winter here.
• Gene sniffing mice here.
• Planck’s recent findings here. 
• Comet killed dinosaurs here.
• Pre-dinosaur mass extinction here.
• Possible fifth force of nature here.
• Endangered frog bred in captivity here.

(Source: thescienceofreality)